The starter deck mashup project

Let's Get Started - !Malk Blackhand x2 Mash.

I had decided that the mash was to be an almost pure stealth bleed deck. So only cards that would facilitate that strategy would end up in the deck with a few minor exceptions. The makeup of the Preconstructed deck is essentially a bleed/vote/block deck with blood denial, leaving much of the precon strategy not relevant to my final outcome.

Crypt:
Bleeding wouldn't require titles, and is a strategy that younger vampires can do just as well, or better, since 2 minions bleeding is better than 1.

With the bigger vampires that I was going to be using, DEM / OBF was mandatory, so all the 6 and 7 caps that I chose would have to be superior in those 2 disciplines. Korah would give some vote defense being a Prisucs so was the largest vampire I aimed for. All the vampires below Korah would see use in the deck, but Boy Toy and Roger, not having all the 3 disciplines would be a single copy each. Roger especially as he doesn't have dementation.

Library - What could instantly go:
It was easy to discount the vote tech, since I wasn't going to be attempting to call any votes. This saw me ditch all of the Political Actions (20), Powerbase: Madrid (2), the Guru Archtypes (2) and the Telepathic Vote Counting (2). Also, as I was going to be attempting bleed as my main action, the Forgotten Labyrinth's (4) would be useless for stealth most of the time.

The Black Hand tech that was available was relatively slim, Circumspect Revelation (2), and Dominions (4) being the sum of tech useable by Black Hand, so these could go, as could the Blooding's (4) to allow me to make a vampire Black Hand. Up to 4 actions to allow me to play 6 other cards would be poor card efficiency.

As the deck was going to be heavily focused on bleed, the blood denial of the Hauntings (6) was going to be a dead action, and all of them would be removed as i'd rather bleed then Haunt.

Library - What would go in:
For pool gain/blood management, I chosed to use all 4 Blood Dolls, and 1 of the Hunting Grounds. For amusement value as well as the potential to aid a cross table ally or go for a lunge, I included a single Malkavian Game.

As I wanted to bleed, I would need bleed cards + stealth. All 10 of the Kindred Spirits and 8 of the Eyes of Chaos would make it into the deck for a hefty and punchy bleed package. Lost in Crowds + Facless Night has great synergy, and with Cloak, OBF minions can help stealth up obf minions. 6 of each seemed about right, and both Random Patterns and Deny for a bit of extra stealth and combo capability.

For a bit of defense, I wanted a small intercept package. I would probably be keeping one of the dem / AUS vampires untapped at the end of my turn, as they don't get the best bang for buck value out of the bleed cards, so I would only need a few wakes. I wanted the ability to stack all the intercept cards together if they fell that way in my hand, for the potential to play upto 6 intercept on a single action - but this was unlikely. 2 Enhanced Senses and 1 each of the other pure intercept cards would stack with the 2 Random Patterns already selected and 3 Telepathic Misdirections.

It was intended that this deck wouldn't get into combat whilst acting, only when other decks were acting, so as a bit of combat defense, 2 coma would be a nice surprise. To protect against rush (most of which occurs at 0 stealth), I added 2 Escaped Mental Patients. These would also serve me well in allowing the deck to interact outside of the "bleeding phase".

This came out at 60 cards, a good number and the deck should flow nicely, though it will run the risk of running out of cards.

!Tre Blackhand x2 Mash.

I had decided that the mash was to be an intercept / combat deck with light to moderate bleed. This is good, as that is essentially what the makeup of the Preconstructed deck is with a few other tricks and gimmicks thrown in for added spice.

Crypt:
The deck could quite happily work with smaller guys, with THA / AUS being the important disciplines. Kij, as a Priscus could offer a bit of vote defense, and thus she would be the largest vampire in the crypt. Ian's special is esoteric at best, and offers nothing for the deck so he'd be out. Terrel Harding would have been good to have 2 of since he had both THA and AUS at super, but I went with an extra copy of Bryan Van Duesen (another 7 cap) as the +1 bleed was too enticing.


Library - What could instantly go:
I wasn't interested in the Cryptic Missions (10), as my crypt was too large for this to be a worthwhile action. These could easily go, as could the Meat Hooks (4). I wasn't particularly interested in trying to equip them or use them on the hope of getting to a second round of combat for a Walk of Flame. In the same way, I'm not interested in rushing with this deck, so the Harass (8) could easily be discounted as well.

The Stealth Ritus (4), whilst useful, wouldn't be used in the deck, instead I'd rely on Seduction or Bonding for tealth on bleed. So they could easily be dropped.

Eldritch Glimmer is a bad card, full stop. So all of them (4) would be instantly removed from the deck.

Library - What would go in:
For pool gain/blood management, I chosed to use all 4 Blood Dolls, and 1 of the Hunting Grounds. For synergy with some of the combat cards (namely Burst of Sunlight), I included 2 of the Rotschreck to instantly knock an opponent into torpor. 1 of the Infernal Pact's would give me the ability to have a bit of flexibility with my crypt, getting someone a good discipline as the game state dictated was necessary.

As I wanted to bleed for oust, I would need bleed cards, and thus 6 of the Scouting Mission, 2 Slaughtering the Herd and 4 Bonding would be put in the deck, giving a bit of punch when it came to attacking my prey's pool. The Scouting Mission's could also be used to accelerate the crypt, allowing me to get out a small army.

For a the main angle of the deck, I wanted a solid intercept package. Intercept decks live or die on the amount of wake they can generate, so 8 Forced Awakening's would go into the deck. 6 Deflections would be a useful amount of bleed redirection to stop me from having to spam intercept on bleed, and I could use them to assist in the ousting of my prey. That left the intercept and in a 75 card deck (the size I was aiming for), 13 intercept cards would be about right. Enhanced Senses, being +2 intercept at super would get the nod as the card to get 5, and both other intercept cards would get 4.

The combat module would be relatively straight forward. Maneuver, theft, with a few surprise aggravated damage cards to synergise with the Rotschreck. Aura Reading would allow me to determine what my opponent was intending, or cycle through my deck letting me get to what was important, but I didn't want to waste too many cards, so 2 of them would be all that was required.

Lastly, I included both Succubus. People tend to be wary of them since they've got permanent aggravated hand damage, another synergy with Rotschreck. And their bleeds tend to go unblocked. They would also provide useful protection against most (0 stealth rush).

So a 75 card deck, that if played right shouldn't run out of cards. The concept would be to scout down, to bring out more minions as you bleed steadily forward and protect your pool, with a lunge for ousting.

!Nos Blackhand x2 Mash.

With this Mash, I wanted to create a combat intercept deck with light stealth. Clearly, with the preconstructed deck the way it was, combat had to be a focus. Unfortunately, it was ranged combat not melee.

Crypt:
The preconstructed deck suffered from a distinct lack of useful smaller vampires. Of the 4 vampires with capacity 5 or less, 3 of them had a non-clan discipline instead of all 3 in-clan for the !Nosferatu. This made them far less useful than they should have been and forced the crypt to be larger than I would otherwise have wanted. Beast, with his inbuilt rush and +1 strength would be the main vampire, unfortunately I could only include 2 of him. Teresita's intercept v Camarilla could be useful and Cailean's special is very powerful. Christanius' special of +1 hand size is also incredibly useful, to the point that even with lesser potence, he is far more useful than a second Calebos (who with +1 strength is good, but as an 8 cap is too big). Yong-Sun was too big to include with Cailean - the deck can only support 10 cap and her special is too corner case, even with her votes). Kendric + Cailean would give some vote defense if required.

Library - What could instantly go:
I wasn't interested the ally contingent of the deck, and the Thuggee's required Black Hand vampires. I wasn't going to include any Black Hand tech, even though Shakar is strong, as only Teresita starts off as Black Hand and 4 Bloodings is not enough to make the other vampires Black Hand. It is poor card efficiency. So immediately Blooding (4), Marijava Thugee (4), Courier (2) and Shakar (4) could all be ditched.

War Party is good, but with only Cailean (2) and Kendric able to use it, I opted out. Ambush is also good, but I would have plenty of other actions that I would want to take, so other than Beast, blocking and being blocked would get me into combat. All of them (10) would be left out.

Library - What would go in:
For pool gain/blood management, I chosed to use all 4 Blood Dolls, and 1 of the Hunting Grounds. Nosferatu Kingdom is a powerful card, both for pool gain as well as crypt acceleration. With the large crypt that I was forced to use, I wanted to play both of them.

For synergy with the amount of combat cards I would be playing, and as an added punch for ousting, I included a single copy of Fame. Without a viable method of beating Strike: Combat Ends, I felt that anymore than that would be wasted.

The combat package would have to be long range, as that was where the vast majority of strikes lay. I included 10 long range strikes, Thrown Gate (4) and Thrown Sewer Lid (6), as well as all the copies of Carrion Crows (6) which is gold. As the combat package was going to be long range combat, I included all the Behind You! (4) so that I could maneuver to play the strikes. All the Increased Strength and Taste of Vitae to make the blows hit harder and to refill the vampires were added. Drawing out the Beast would stop opponents with equipment (such as guns), and Mighty Grapple was the only potence hand strike available and it also doubles as a press.

The stealth package for the most part would also double as extra maneuvers in combat, so all the Swallowed by the Night (8) would be supplemented with Faceless Night (2).

To defend, all the Raven Spies (6) were added with a lone Owl Companion. The Owl is useful to determine what the opponent has, but the Raven's are more likely to keep your pool topped up and therefore keep you alive. Cats' Guidance would have to double as a wake, since only Guard Dogs were available and would only be useable against bleed. 1 Pack Tactics would be included for a little bit of extra intercept on a bleed.

Laptops (2) would be the order of the day for ousting tech. As this deck would need to bleed out its prey(s). Without any real defense, the Leather Jackets (2) would be invaluable to keep the large capacity vampires out of torpor from hitback.

All up, the deck will play slowly, getting the occassional piece of equipment or retainer, and performing a bleed or rush. Waiting to try and take out the enemy vampires and then chip away at their pool.

!Tre Blackhand x2 Mash.

I wanted to mash together a toolbox deck, a bit of bleed, combat, intercept and vote with a bit of bloat.

Crypt:
The biggest problem with the Preconstructed deck is that the entire combat package relied upon Celerity. Thus, the best vampire in the crypt would be a bunny in a fight, as Jost Werner doesn't have celerity. Still I had to include 1 of him. Greta Kircher's special is excellent. Miller would give the deck some teeth, whilst Jessica was the cheapest vampire with all 3 in-clan disciplines at superior. I only played both copies of the basic version of Jessica however, so as not to dilute the crypt too much.

Library - What could instantly go:
With only Miller (2) and Venere (1) in the crypt that could benefit from Zillah's Valley (4), all of them could go.

Dread Gaze (4) and Treachery (2) are weak, so all could go.

Wooden Stake (6) requires more than what the combat package can deliver to be effective, needing 2 damage to work, all of them could be left out. As could the Templar (10), with the blocking potential and the lack of stealth, this deck would get into plenty of combat anyway, and the combat package would be light at best.

Library - What would go in:
No Blood Doll's was disappointing, so for pool gain, Short Term Investment would have to be the Master Card of choice. 3 of them would give a return of 6 pool from 9 Master Phase actions. Not great, but better than nothing. For the number of MPA that would be required I didn't use all 4. For blood management, a single Hunting Ground was included, and for bleed punch, both Pala Grande would be used.

The voting angle would be used as another bloat engine. Consanguineous Boon (5) and a Crusade: Miami (1) would be the votes in the deck. To push the votes through, Bewitching Oration (5) would be the main focus. Only 1 Under the Skin would be played, as it requires to be played on a younger vampire, and most vampires with titles are going to be the same age or older than my biggest vampires.

For further bloat, Art Scam (2) would be included and would be a great action for the weenies or Jost to take. All the available Legal Manipulations (4) would also allow for some pool gain with a successful bleed at PRE. Patronage (1) and Zillah's Tears (4) would allow for a bit of multi-act, and Revelations (1) is very strong both at inferior or superior.

Telepathic Misdirection (6) and Telepathic Counter (5), especially when coupled with Greta's special would mean that I could be very well protected against a bleed deck, whilst some intercept from Quicken Sight would allow me to block some unwanted actions. Including a high number of Wake with Evening's Freshness (6) was important so that I could act quite a bit and still be able to defend. The Zillah's Tears can also be used in lieu of wake, to untap in another methuselahs' turn so that I can misdirect or counter a bleed or try to intercept.

The combat module is very simple. Concealed Weapon a Poker, Dodge and Blur. Not brutal, but relatively efficient. Miller in particular has the potential to cause 9 points of damage in a round which could put most opposing minions out of action.

The lack of maneuvers in the deck is not great, so against a ranged opponent, avoiding combat would be preferred. Sit and bloat before dropping a Palla Grande and bleeding heavily at the opportune time.