The Groaning Carneval - as seen in Burton

Hello!

So yeah, this is once again the deck I've shown here a couple of times, but now most likely in it's final form. I used the Carneval in Burton a couple of weeks ago, and I was positively surprised by how well it did. Two first rounds ended in timeout, but both of the times I was one turn away from a clean oust. The third game was weird in many ways, and eventually I was ousted rather late in the game by dominate weenie/midcaps, due to a miscalculation, as in stupidity.

Ousting?
Bleeds of 2. Plenty of.

Defence?
Unmasking and radios. The wakes and loads of minions help.

Combat?
Defensive, as can be seen, but you should always have a couple of tricks in your sleeve. Non-discipline presses and groaning corpses can take even dedicated combat off guard.

Poolgain?
Dolls, Vessels, Off Kilters and massive bloodgain. Perfectionists, hats and procurers are a must.

Why don't you duplicate Charisma and Unmasking, and add Nitzectus?
'Cause I don't own more.


It's a wee bit of a mishmash of stuff, but basically stealth bleeds with allies, and toolboxes rest of the time. I'm used to having three vampires out, and plenty of allies. Tupdogs really help managing the crypt, and work as wonderful zombie material. I don't have to litter my library with stuff I NEED to discard to make things work - that's annoying beyond comprehension. I want to actually use all the cards I have.

But yeah, only 1 VP, but very close to getting ousts. The Samedi were really going strong, but the setup takes a lot of time. When playing in a talkative table, the 2 hours timelimit is not sometimes enough, and my mistake in the tournament was trying to be friendly. Instead I should've just bashed my turns away, and asked for others to talk less, play more. I might've been in the finals.

So yeah, I'm concidering the concept pretty much finished. Maybe I could try the G4-5 next to see if they do the same thing better...




Deck Name: Groaning Carneval
Author:
Description:
They come in various forms: Groaning, Shambling, Reanimated... What they have in common, is that they're all corpses. They don't need a soul to be useful.

Crypt (Capacity min=1 max=9 avg=5.75; 12 cards)
==================================================
3x Baron, The 9 dom FOR NEC OBF THN Samedi:2
2x George Frederick 6 nec obf FOR THN Samedi:2
2x Jorge De La Muerte, The Agent 7 cel for nec OBF THN Samedi:2
1x Lithrac 5 for thn OBF Samedi:2
1x Reg Driscoll 8 aus pre for OBF THN Samedi:2
3x Tupdog 1 POT VIS Gargoyle:3

Library (90 cards)
=====================
Master (18 cards)
3x Blood Doll
1x Charisma
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
2x Houngan
2x Perfectionist
1x Secure Haven
1x Sudden Reversal
1x Two Wrongs
2x Vessel
1x WMRH Talk Radio
1x Wall Street Night, Financial Newspaper
1x Wash

Event (1 cards)
1x Unmasking, The

Action (7 cards)
1x Blithe Acceptance
1x Haunt
4x Off Kilter
1x Restoration

Equipment (1 cards)
1x Camera Phone

Ally (14 cards)
2x Procurer
7x Reanimated Corpse
5x Shambling Hordes

Action Modifier (19 cards)
5x Cloak the Gathering
1x Faceless Night
5x Freak Drive
2x Lost in Crowds
3x Under My Skin
3x Veil the Legions

Reaction (9 cards)
2x Deflection
5x On the Qui Vive
2x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Combat (19 cards)
1x Compress
2x Groaning Corpse
2x Haymaker
2x Indomitability
1x Pulled Fangs
1x Rolling with the Punches
1x Skin of Steel
4x Soak
3x Trap
2x Withering

Combo (2 cards)
2x Swallowed by the Night

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (May 22, 2011 21:32:45)

Kraus wrote:

Why don't you duplicate Charisma and Unmasking, and add Nitzectus?
'Cause I don't own more.

If you have the feeling you depend on these cards and don't own more just keep the deck smaller. In a 75er or smaller you will see them faster.

This deck seems way too unfocused to me. You have all these combat cards your allies cannot play, that aren't just for surviving but some fairly weak/expensive offensive cards. I think you would do much better focusing the deck a bit more, and using group 4-5 crypt that actually has plenty of NEC, that way the only combat cards you need for your vampires are spiritual interventions, let the allies do the fighting.

Joscha wrote:

Kraus wrote:

Why don't you duplicate Charisma and Unmasking, and add Nitzectus?
'Cause I don't own more.

If you have the feeling you depend on these cards and don't own more just keep the deck smaller. In a 75er or smaller you will see them faster.

This is an option I could imagine doing. I don't see Charisma in particular that important here, however. It's just a tool. Unmasking might be more crucial, but the radios should help with that. In any case, just the 'low' number of allies could call for a deck of 80 or 85.

This deck seems way too unfocused to me. You have all these combat cards your allies cannot play, that aren't just for surviving but some fairly weak/expensive offensive cards. I think you would do much better focusing the deck a bit more, and using group 4-5 crypt that actually has plenty of NEC, that way the only combat cards you need for your vampires are spiritual interventions, let the allies do the fighting.

Unfocused? I bleed with stealth and recruit allies. Some of my allies fight, as in shambling hordes, to hurl off weenie bleeders and villeined voters.

I can't see how my combat cards are expensive. The only card that actually costs me blood is Compress. The others are free - Skin of Steel costs a blood, but prevents damage at the same time. Equals as profit. Also, there are only five combat cards that require Thanatosis. All of the others most of my allies can play, reanimated corpses knowing inferior Fortitude.

I agree, however, that G4-5 might work a bit better with allies. However, I don't own Spiritual Interventions, and they are not easy to come by - also, my allies cannot fight without cards. Presses are always useful, and in a tight spot even my vampires can use traps and haymakers, and they combo well with groaning corpses. Easy to discard too, if need be. In the tournament I think one of the reasons the dominate weenie was holding his horses was that in the first combat I played trap and groaning corpse, and he was very cautious of my combat from there on. Confusion is one of the greatest tools in VTES, in my opinion.

I don't exactly understand what you mean by more focus. Or is it just the wide variety of cards I have only a single or two copies of that distract you? What should be the focus you're talking about?



When dropping down to 80 cards indominabilities and wakes with evening's freshness might be the first ones to go. Some of the duplicate masters might be okay to get rid of too. It might be a fun idea to make it a bit more compact.

Well like you seem to be focusing on allies, but you don't actually have that many of them, especially with reanimated corpses being rather temporary anyway. Also if you don't have spiritual interventions, then Dust to Dust is almost as good, even better against some decks (like IG happy ones), and even has good synergy with your groaning corpses if you really want to use them. Dust to Dust is also fairly easy to trade from people, as while it is rare, it is a thanatosis card so most likely anyone who has some is more than happy to trade them to you.

Here is my samedi ally deck as an example. I am not claiming mine is perfect or anything, just giving an example of what I mean with focused.

Crypt:
3x Abebe
2x Macoute
1x Tanginé
3x Baroque
3x Morlock

Library: 90

Master: 14
2x Charisma
5x Coroner's Contact
1x Fortschritt Library
1x Giant's Blood
1x Houngan
1x Kaymakli Nightmares
1x Mob Connections
2x Perfectionist

Action: 8
8x Little Mountain Cemetery

Action Modifier: 21
3x Call of the Hungry Dead
9x Freak Drive
9x Under My Skin

Ally: 26
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
1x Ossian
5x Procurer
10x Reanimated Corpse
8x Shambling Hordes

Combat: 16
6x Fake Out
4x Spiritual Intervention
6x Weighted Walking Stick

Event: 2
1x FBI Special Affairs Division
1x The Unmasking

Reaction: 3
3x On the Qui Vive