Shalmaths wally toolbox

This deck was heavily inspired by the following decks on secret library:
www.secretlibrary.info/index.php?deck=view&id=2390
www.secretlibrary.info/index.php?deck=view&id=2655

However since I'm missing some of the cards in those decks (most notable Enkil cog) I can't really get this to work exactly how I'd like it to... Also, this is my first attempt ever at some sort of wall-deck.


How do you intend to oust?
Smiling jack and driving my prey insane with high intercept and blocking stuff

How do you intend to keep from being ousted?
High amount of intercept and Shalmath tooled up with an assault rifle

What do you want your ready region to look like (ie, how many guys are you planning on getting out)?
Shalmath and 2 more random vampires with auspex that can use anima gathering on Shamlath.

What do you want your average turn to look like?
Boost Shalmath, use Shalmaths built-in research action to find any card that I feel that I really need, untap Shalmath to multi-act.

What's your metagame like? How do your opponents play?
Generally mostly new players. Lots of combat and stealth-bleed, not very uncommon at all to end up at a table where no one plays politics. Not that much intercept.

What problems have you observed with the deck in play?
Pool, this deck is -very expensive- when it comes to pool. Smiling jack might just kill me instead of my prey.

I've considered finding lower cost auspex vampires, but I can't seem to find any more in the correct groups in my collection. I've considered running more copies of Veejay, but I'd like to have at least 2 different auspex vampires in my starting crypt if possible, even though the wider views helps with that somewhat.

The deck is very master-heavy, although 14 of 20 is trifles so they cycle pretty easily. I really like the shalmath-development part of this deck, I can often quite easily find the cards I need and draw them if I need to.

However, without reliable pool gain its hard to keep this deck going without commiting suicide (villein is good, but it's scary to play it on shalmath when there's a lot of combat around, I really don't want him to go to torpor). I'm considering adding Secure Haven to protect him some more from "uncontrolled" combat.

Any ideas of how to improve this?

Iteration 1 of the deck (hidden in spoiler)


Iteration 2 of the deck

Crypt (Capacity min=3 max=10 avg=5.5; 12 cards)
==================================================
2x Gwen Brand 3 aus chi Ravnos:5
1x Johann Matheson 4 ani aus chi Ravnos:5
4x Shalmath 10 POT PRE TEM True Brujah:6
2x Sukainah 3 aus qui Assamite:5
1x Tarrence Moore 4 aus dom tha Tremere:5
2x Veejay Vinod 3 AUS Nagaraja:6

Library (81 cards)
=====================
Master (22 cards)
1x Archon Investigation
5x Development
1x Direct Intervention
1x Giant's Blood
1x Guardian Angel
1x Loner
2x Madness Network
2x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
5x Villein
1x Wash
2x Wider View

Action (14 cards)
6x Anima Gathering
2x Clan Impersonation
2x Entrancement
4x Kiss of Lachesis

Equipment (10 cards)
1x Assault Rifle
1x Flak Jacket
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
1x Palatial Estate
1x Pier 13, Port of Baltimore
2x Sargon Fragment, The
1x Sniper Rifle
1x Sport Bike

Ally (2 cards)
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
1x Ossian

Retainer (1 cards)
1x Mr. Winthrop

Action Modifier (9 cards)
3x Domain of Evernight
1x Momentary Delay
5x Pocket Out of Time

Reaction (10 cards)
2x Internal Recursion
1x Lost in Translation
5x On the Qui Vive
2x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (13 cards)
3x Majesty
6x Outside the Hourglass
4x Taste of Vitae

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Apr 30, 2011 15:56:04)

Some questions:

What's your backup ousting plan? With a single copy of Smiling Jack, a single Sudden or a block fails will hose you completely.

Why the Vaticinations?

Given that it looks like only Shalmath will be blocking, why the 3 guns? Given Shalmath's special, I would think you can get away with 2, and maybe add a Kiss of Lachesis or two in case a gun is eaten by Canine Hordes.

No space for Enchant Kindred for a bit of bloat and/or crypt acceleration?


I would also replace the 5 caps with the group 5 3 and 4 caps with aus from KoT (Kalila, Tyler McGill, etc.), but if you don't have them, you don't have them.

drnlmza wrote:

Some questions:

What's your backup ousting plan? With a single copy of Smiling Jack, a single Sudden or a block fails will hose you completely.

That's...a good point. I figured that I'd be able to recurse Jack with Clio's kiss, but that card says non-master, non-uniuqe now when I'm re-reading it so that plan is dead. I should probably remove the 2x Clio's kiss and add at least one more Jack then, maybe two.

Why the Vaticinations?

Mainly because I think it's good enough to be of use in any deck with Trujahs. It has a burn option, +3 stealth per default and allows me to have a look at what everyone around the table has on hand and get rid of at least one annoying card from someone (preferably my predator or prey). Maybe running 5 is a bit over the top though.

Given that it looks like only Shalmath will be blocking, why the 3 guns? Given Shalmath's special, I would think you can get away with 2, and maybe add a Kiss of Lachesis or two in case a gun is eaten by Canine Hordes.

Yea, the plan is that Shalmath is the main blocker. I want to have both the assault rifle and the sniper rifle for different situations, but I guess that I don't really have much use for the magnum... I could probably remove that and add a kiss of lachesis or two.

No space for Enchant Kindred for a bit of bloat and/or crypt acceleration?

I ruled that out at first because I didn't really consider that I'd bleed a lot with this deck, and the main vampire that I want to get out is Shalmath and he can't really get accelerated with Enchant Kindred. However, I guess I could always use enchant kindred and then transfer the blood to my pool if I felt that I didn't have much use for another auspex vampire. I'll think about it a bit.

I would also replace the 5 caps with the group 5 3 and 4 caps with aus from KoT (Kalila, Tyler McGill, etc.), but if you don't have them, you don't have them.

[/quote]

Yea, I really wanted to use Kalila and Tyler, but I don't have any copies of those so not really an option sadly... Too bad Shalmath had to be group 6.

wastaz wrote:

This deck was heavily inspired by the following decks on secret library:
www.secretlibrary.info/index.php?deck=view&id=2390
www.secretlibrary.info/index.php?deck=view&id=2655

However since I'm missing some of the cards in those decks (most notable Enkil cog) I can't really get this to work exactly how I'd like it to... Also, this is my first attempt ever at some sort of wall-deck.


How do you intend to oust?
Smiling jack and driving my prey insane with high intercept and blocking stuff

How do you intend to keep from being ousted?
High amount of intercept and Shalmath tooled up with an assault rifle

What do you want your ready region to look like (ie, how many guys are you planning on getting out)?
Shalmath and 2 more random vampires with auspex that can use anima gathering on Shamlath.

What do you want your average turn to look like?
Boost Shalmath, use Shalmaths built-in research action to find any card that I feel that I really need, untap Shalmath to multi-act.

What's your metagame like? How do your opponents play?
Generally mostly new players. Lots of combat and stealth-bleed, not very uncommon at all to end up at a table where no one plays politics. Not that much intercept.

What problems have you observed with the deck in play?
Pool, this deck is -very expensive- when it comes to pool. Smiling jack might just kill me instead of my prey.

I've considered finding lower cost auspex vampires, but I can't seem to find any more in the correct groups in my collection. I've considered running more copies of Veejay, but I'd like to have at least 2 different auspex vampires in my starting crypt if possible, even though the wider views helps with that somewhat.

The deck is very master-heavy, although 14 of 20 is trifles so they cycle pretty easily. I really like the shalmath-development part of this deck, I can often quite easily find the cards I need and draw them if I need to.

However, without reliable pool gain its hard to keep this deck going without commiting suicide (villein is good, but it's scary to play it on shalmath when there's a lot of combat around, I really don't want him to go to torpor). I'm considering adding Secure Haven to protect him some more from "uncontrolled" combat.

Any ideas of how to improve this?

Sukainah should be Andre Leroux.

Clio's Kiss is horrible, use Sargon Fragment instead.

You can't afford the Assault Rifle without Kiss of Lachesis.

Ivory Bow needs to be in here, for contesting if nothing else.

Flak Jacket should be Kevlar.

Procurer is probably better than Palatial Estate. Have some chump recruit it so Shalmath doesn't have to invest his precious blood in it.

I'm guessing you don't have access to Hourglass of the Mind and The Path of the Scorched Heart? Because if you do they should definitely go in.

Ideally this deck should have Summon Histories and Ponticulus to take care of Seduction/scary combat. If you don't have Summons you should at least include Carlton.

Eluding should be a Wake or Qui Vive. You will occasionally want to block scary rushers with an Anima Gathering weenie. I would also have at least 5 Wake effects here. Completely relying on Shalmath's untaps makes you too predictable.

If you're going to pay for the 5-caps over 3-caps you should have more Telepathic Misdirections.

Regarding the Cog: I have a Shalmath-deck that uses 2x Clan Impersonation and 4x Madness Network instead of Cogs. It has performed remarkably well in casual games. Once Shalmath is tooled up with intercept, a gun and Eye of Hazimel dropping a Madness Network usually marks the end of the game.

Suoli wrote:

Sukainah should be Andre Leroux.

Sadly the only other 3-caps I have from group 5/6 don't have aus. I did dig through my collection and found some 4-caps with aus though that I replaced the 5-caps with (and added another sukinah, even though you suggested taking her out, she's a 3-cap after all). This sadly leaves me short of superior auspex, but they can still gather anima for shalmath!

Clio's Kiss is horrible, use Sargon Fragment instead.

Great idea! I'd totally forgotten about the effect that card had apart from giving superior necromancy.

You can't afford the Assault Rifle without Kiss of Lachesis.

True, and with the sargon fragment I feel much more safe in discarding it and equipping it from the ash heap.

Ivory Bow needs to be in here, for contesting if nothing else.

Alright. Won't argue with you there.

Flak Jacket should be Kevlar.

Can't find one in my collection :/

Procurer is probably better than Palatial Estate. Have some chump recruit it so Shalmath doesn't have to invest his precious blood in it.

I'm not sure that I agree with you here. Procurer has to take an action (that could be blocked) to give a blood. The palatial estate gives one automatically. The procurer can give blood to any vampire, but I'm probably not going to want to give anyone other than Shalmath blood unless everything is going really bad. I'll do some playtesting and keep it in mind and see if switching in procurer seems good

I'm guessing you don't have access to Hourglass of the Mind and The Path of the Scorched Heart? Because if you do they should definitely go in.

Ideally this deck should have Summon Histories and Ponticulus to take care of Seduction/scary combat. If you don't have Summons you should at least include Carlton.

Sadly you guess right. And no carltons either. Damn those things are expensive on ebay!

Eluding should be a Wake or Qui Vive. You will occasionally want to block scary rushers with an Anima Gathering weenie. I would also have at least 5 Wake effects here. Completely relying on Shalmath's untaps makes you too predictable.

If you're going to pay for the 5-caps over 3-caps you should have more Telepathic Misdirections.

Yea, I've made it 5 qui vive's instead, and since I went down to 4-caps I don't think adding more telepathic misdirections is a good idea for now.

Regarding the Cog: I have a Shalmath-deck that uses 2x Clan Impersonation and 4x Madness Network instead of Cogs. It has performed remarkably well in casual games. Once Shalmath is tooled up with intercept, a gun and Eye of Hazimel dropping a Madness Network usually marks the end of the game.

I totally love this idea. This is the kind of tricks that really makes my day I will certainly try this. I've removed my vaticinations (since shalmath will suddenly turn malkavian) and added 2 clan impersonations and 2 madness networks and I'll see how it works. Thanks for the tip!

Also, could you maybe post your shalmath deck? It would be interesting to see how you are using him, even causually.


I've updated my decklist below.

Deck Name:
Author:
Description:


Crypt (Capacity min=3 max=10 avg=5.5; 12 cards)
==================================================
2x Gwen Brand 3 aus chi Ravnos:5
1x Johann Matheson 4 ani aus chi Ravnos:5
4x Shalmath 10 POT PRE TEM True Brujah:6
2x Sukainah 3 aus qui Assamite:5
1x Tarrence Moore 4 aus dom tha Tremere:5
2x Veejay Vinod 3 AUS Nagaraja:6

Library (81 cards)
=====================
Master (22 cards)
1x Archon Investigation
5x Development
1x Direct Intervention
1x Giant's Blood
1x Guardian Angel
1x Loner
2x Madness Network
2x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
5x Villein
1x Wash
2x Wider View

Action (14 cards)
6x Anima Gathering
2x Clan Impersonation
2x Entrancement
4x Kiss of Lachesis

Equipment (10 cards)
1x Assault Rifle
1x Flak Jacket
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
1x Palatial Estate
1x Pier 13, Port of Baltimore
2x Sargon Fragment, The
1x Sniper Rifle
1x Sport Bike

Ally (2 cards)
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
1x Ossian

Retainer (1 cards)
1x Mr. Winthrop

Action Modifier (9 cards)
3x Domain of Evernight
1x Momentary Delay
5x Pocket Out of Time

Reaction (10 cards)
2x Internal Recursion
1x Lost in Translation
5x On the Qui Vive
2x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (13 cards)
3x Majesty
6x Outside the Hourglass
4x Taste of Vitae

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Apr 30, 2011 15:56:04)

wastaz wrote:

Procurer is probably better than Palatial Estate. Have some chump recruit it so Shalmath doesn't have to invest his precious blood in it.

I'm not sure that I agree with you here. Procurer has to take an action (that could be blocked) to give a blood. The palatial estate gives one automatically. The procurer can give blood to any vampire, but I'm probably not going to want to give anyone other than Shalmath blood unless everything is going really bad. I'll do some playtesting and keep it in mind and see if switching in procurer seems good

Well, sure, the action is blockable but it's at 2 stealth and you have Shalmath waiting to inflict who knows what horrors. As long as Shalmath hasn't used his actions yet people tend to place very low priority on blocking Procurer.

The problem with Palatial Estate is that it takes 4 turns for it to be better than a cardless hunt action.

I totally love this idea. This is the kind of tricks that really makes my day I will certainly try this. I've removed my vaticinations (since shalmath will suddenly turn malkavian) and added 2 clan impersonations and 2 madness networks and I'll see how it works. Thanks for the tip!

Also, could you maybe post your shalmath deck? It would be interesting to see how you are using him, even causually.

No problem.

My version is geared for a relatively high intercept environment. Ohoyo is there to cover Ponticulus' weak spot. Heroic Might is a permanent block deterrent that's acquired at 3 stealth, eat your heart out Neighbor John. Getting a Perfectionist on Shalmath is essential to pay for Summons. After Madness Network it gives up to 5 blood per round.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 10 average: 5.91667

---

5x Shalmath 10 POT PRE TEM True Bruj:6
2x Veejay Vinod 3 AUS Nagaraja:6
1x Keller Thiel 4 aus dem Malkavian:5
1x Tyler McGill 4 AUS pre Toreador:5
1x Andre LeRoux 3 aus Toreador:5
1x Kalila 3 aus obf Malkavian:5
1x Donald Cargill 1 aus Caitiff:5


Library [90 cards]

---

Action [17]
4x Anima Gathering
2x Clan Impersonation
1x Entrancement
1x Heart of the City
1x Heroic Might
1x Hourglass of the Mind
1x Kiss of Lachesis
6x Summon History

Action Modifier [22]
6x Domain of Evernight
8x Pocket Out of Time
4x Recurring Contemplation
4x Tangle Atropos' Hand

Ally [5]
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Ohoyo Hopoksia (Bastet)
1x Ponticulus
1x Procurer
1x Remnant of the Endless Storm

Combat [6]
1x Majesty
5x Outside the Hourglass

Equipment [9]
1x Assault Rifle
1x Eye of Hazimel
1x Ivory Bow
1x Leather Jacket
1x Light Intensifying Goggles
1x Phased Motion Detector
1x Sargon Fragment, The
1x Sniper Rifle
1x Sport Bike

Master [20]
1x Barrens, The
5x Development
1x KRCG News Radio
4x Madness Network
1x Marrakesh Codex, The
3x Perfectionist
4x Vessel
1x WMRH Talk Radio

Reaction [10]
3x Forced Awakening
2x Lost in Translation
2x On the Qui Vive
3x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Retainer [1]
1x Mr. Winthrop