The starter deck mashup project

both of them, and I intended to bleed steadily with this deck, so both Tier of Souls would also be included. As mentioned above, there are quite a few blood intensive cards in the deck, so both Restoration would be a welcome addition.

ACTION MODIFIERS ~
For the same reason I ditched Force of Will, I didn't want Dawn Operation (4), so they all were cut. Horrific Countenance (2) and Kiss of Ra (2) (whilst good surprise cards) cost too much blood. So they were cut. Uncontrollable Rage (2) is both bad and blood intensive, so it was also cut. I took all remaining Action Modifiers for some good stealth in Earth Control (6) and a little bit of Multi-Action in Freak Drive (2).

REACTIONS ~
With no proper wake in the preconstructed deck (only untap vs bleed), I included all the Cats' Guidance (6) as both intercept and pseudo wake, allowing my guys to untap after a successful block. Maneuvers would be more important in my mind than presses, so I included Guard Dogs (5) over the Rat's Warning which were all cut. For a bit of extra intercept, I included some Elder Intervention (2), even though it was only useable against bleed it would no doubt come in handy - and could be played by anyone with the blood to spare.

COMBAT ~
I wanted both offensive and defensive combat in the deck, and protean is one of the best toolboxy disciplines. I took Earth Meld (4) Form of Mist (4) for a total of 8 Strike: Combat Ends cards. Superior Mettle (4) and Unflinching Persistence (4) would give me access to some good damage prevention as well as maneuvers from the latter. Carrion Crows (4) and Aid from Bats (4) had good synergy for both offense and defense. Finally Claws of the Dead (6) got the nod over the other aggravated hand damage cards, as the maneuver option at superior is preferable to having Agg hand damage for the entire combat that Bone Spur could generate.

This mean that Canine Horde (4), Bone Spur (6), Drawing out the Beast (4), Flesh of Marble (2), Form of Mist (2), Form of the Ghost (4), Scorpion Sting (4), Skin of Night (4) all were left out. Of these, Canine Horde and Flesh of Marble were the hardest to cut as they are (at least in smallish numbers) very useful.

RETAINERS ~
As good as the Dog Pack (2) is, with 1 life it is fairly vulnerable, and at 2 pool it is very expensive. I couldn't justify them in the deck considering that I would be light on for adequate pool defence and gain. I needed some intercept to go with my Reactions to allow the Cats' Guidance to be used as the pseudo untap rather than intercept, so all of the Raven Spy (4) made it into the deck. Owl Companion can be useful, and it doesn't cost any blood, but only 1 of these would be needed.

EQUIPMENT ~
To go with the Tier of Souls, I wanted both Laptops (2) to give me a bit of bleed potential. It wouldn't be much, but would allow for steady pressure applied on my prey.

Camarilla Edition Preconstructed Ventrue x2 Mashup

I wanted to create a deck that was able to be relatively aggressive. To this end, I was after smallish vampires, tapping effects and some decent bleed potential with a bit of vote thrown in.

CRYPT ~
I needed to have presence on all the vampires in the crypt, with dominate as a close second. I also wanted to keep the vampires relatively small. I decided not to go with any of the titled vampires, they were all either too large or didn't have a proper discipline spread for the Ventrue (such as Nakova). I therefore chose to go with 2 each of the remaining vampires, giving me a small-ish crypt that should be able to get out a decent number of minions in a short time.

MASTERS ~
For pool gain and blood management I selected both Blood Dolls (2) and for extra pool gain to recoup from a vampire I also took both Minion Taps (2). I wanted the ability to force my prey to have little to no defence, so both Misdirection (2) would be invaluable, and as I wanted to call some votes but had no titles I included both Ventrue Directorate Assembly (2) to give each ready Ventrue an additional vote. Finally 1 of the Hunting Grounds for some blood gain back onto the vampires.

Not considered were The Barrens (2) as I was going to have a small deck and didn't want to be discarding more than I had to. Effective Management (2) as I didn't feel that with a small crypt it would offer too much more improvement and would take up valuable master card slots. Information Highway (2), as 2 of them wouldn't really cut it. Rumor Mill (2), I don't want to be blocking anything and getting into combat and Short-Term Investment (4), as it provides very limited pool gain and uses up valuable Master Phase Actions.

ACTIONS ~
I wanted 2 main types of actions for this deck - bleed and tap. I chose Govern the Unaligned (4) for both bleed and crypt acceleration, Scouting Mission (2) for the same, Social Charm (2) for bleed and pool gain at superior and Dominate Kine (1) for bleed and the ability to steal a location. Mind Numb (4) were selected to tap defenders of my prey or dangerous vampires of my predator with an advantage that it is a +1 stealth action at PRE. I also selected Restoration (2) to gain blood back on my minions, as there were a few cards that would be blood intensive, and it works well with Minion Tap.

ACTION MODIFIERS ~
Furthering the bleed focus of the deck, Bonding (4) would allow for a bit of stealth on the bleed action as well as increasing the bleed by 1. Seduction (4) would get me past lone blockers or when combined with Bonding could get me past a couple. Bewitching Oration (2) and Bribes (2) were included for a bit of vote push that when coupled with the Ventrue Directorate Assembly should give enough push to get past light to moderate vote lock. Freak Drive (4) would allow for my larger vampires to multi-act, such as Mind Numb, untap, bleed.

Kiss of Ra (2) and Voter Captivation (2) were not included as Kiss would be too costly with my smaller vampires, and only a few of them could play it, and I couldn't be guaranteed of passing votes by large numbers for Voter Captivation to be worthwhile.

REACTIONS ~
No princes or justicars in the deck meant that there was no place for Second Tradition: Domain (4). Also, cards to cause pool loss when other players call votes are cornercase at best, so they were all ditched Elder Kindred Network (2) and Political Backlash (2). This just left Wake with Evening's Freshness (3) and Redirection (5) would provide a little bit of bleed defense.

COMBAT ~
With all the vampires having presence, Majesty (6) would be all the combat cards in the deck.

POLITICAL ACTIONS ~
Immediately, there are some votes that can be discounted because they are no longer legal, Protect Thine Own (2) and Kindred Restructure (2). For the rest of the votes, Peace Treaty (2) is cornercase, and never really sees play. Domain Challenge (4) could also potentially hurt this deck more than others and Banishment (2) favours larger vampires. Camarilla Exemplary (4) is an underrated card, but isn't backed up with any other blood denial so would also be cut. Disputed Territory (2) is also only useful against locations in play, and without them is a dead card, so that would be cut.

This left Consanguineous Boon (4) and Conservative Agitation (2) to be put into the deck. The Boon's would potentially keep the deck high on pool, whilst the Agitations would be able to generate some ousting tech at stealth.

All over, this deck is designed to be played relatively aggressively. Of course, depending upon the table state, it should hold back, and that is where many of the actions or votes can be used to gain pool, to sit and wait for a chance to lunge.