Second Seraph

Adonai wrote:

I am his metagame.
He played the deck as my prey.
There was no reason to believe that he wasn't playing with 'red' stealth, we are very familiar with the Bannister style of Assamites here.

Ah, okay. That makes more sense.

Pretty awesome head-fake that nobody tried to block him even after he'd gotten halfway through his deck and there were practically no combat cards in his ash heap, but that's the power of psychology.

Haze wrote:

I modified this deck as I suggested above, and tried it out in a casual game. I think it did pretty well and was fun to play. It's roughly similar to a !Gangrel flurry-of-action deck I've been playing for the past year, but I think this is MUCH stronger thanks to the pool defense and Assamite clan cards.

results:
got one VP as the table crumbled. It was heads-up against a G1-2 prince deck that bloated a lot. We both had over 20 pool at one point, but I was slowly wittling him down while he could barely make a dent in my armor. Timed out the turn before I would score the oust. Never saw the Tattoo Signals, they were both on the very bottom of the deck! If I had drawn them, I could Darby-Dance my laptops around and bleed him out much faster. We tied for 1.5 VP each.

possible improvements:
another permanent intercept. one sport bike should do.
1-2 Leather Jackets for the Darby Dancing phase.
more Art of Memory! I only had one copy in my collection to work with.
Sabbat Priest is one of my favorite cards in a multi-acting deck, so one or two would be nice.
swap out a 44 Magnum for a more dangerous weapon. maybe Flamethrower or Improvised Flamethrower?

Deck Name: Second Seraph, the Second
Created By:
Description:

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 26, Max: 36, Avg: 7.66)

---

3 Djuhah aus cel pre OBF QUI7 Assamite
3 Izhim abd Azrael pot CEL OBF QUI THA9 Assamite
2 Joe `Boot` Hill for obf CEL QUI7 Assamite
2 Nizzam al-Latif dem ANI CEL OBF QUI9 Assamite
2 Reza Fatir obf pro CEL QUI6 Assamite

Library: (90 cards)

---

Master (16 cards)
2 Alamut
1 Black Forest Base
2 Blood Doll
2 Information Highway
1 Khabar: Community, The
1 Market Square
1 Underworld Hunting Ground
4 Villein
1 Wider View
1 Yoruba Shrine

Action (17 cards)
1 Black Hand Ritual
6 Flurry of Action
4 Haqim`s Law: Leadership
4 Reunion Kamut
2 Tattoo Signal

Action Modifier (13 cards)
1 Art of Memory, The
5 Faceless Night
5 Lost in Crowds
2 Seraph`s Second

Political Action (6 cards)
2 Banishment
2 Cardinal Benediction
2 Kine Resources Contested

Reaction (17 cards)
6 Black Sunrise
2 Confusion of the Eye
2 Delaying Tactics
4 Nest of Eagles
3 Truth in Ink

Combat (6 cards)
2 Blur
4 Disguised Weapon

Ally (2 cards)
1 Ghouls of Plaza Moreria, The
1 Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Retainer (3 cards)
1 J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1 Mr. Winthrop
1 Tasha Morgan

Equipment (8 cards)
4 .44 Magnum
1 Ivory Bow
2 Laptop Computer
1 Reliquary: Shango Remains

Combo (2 cards)
2 Blood Awakening

You are being quite toolboxy. I never managed to make something so toolboxy to work with Assamites, but, your mileage may vary

Anyway, i would suggest adding more Tattoo signals (4 would be good in a 90 card deck, in my experience, and are much easier to find than seraph seconds). I would drop Black hand ritual (never saw much point in it, except if your meta has a lot of gehenas), and Ghouls.

A copy or two of loss is a must in every assamite deck, as it provides both bleed boost, and destroys nasty equipments which make your day worse (like bowl, ivory bow, heart of cheating).

Abbot is useful, nearly free action (since you untap after), and will help your blocking angle. You may also consider Ministry.

A couple of Swallowed by the night (which doubles as needed stealth), and 1-2 taste of death will up your fight performance by a lot. If nothing , people will be more careful around you when your first card to discard is taste of death.B)

I would take out Khabar: Community and put in Heartblood of the clan. You cannot swarm-bleed for the win, but with all the actions that you have after putting 2 tattoo signals into play, , Heaartblood can easily give you a new vampire in 2-3 turns, or just keep you bloating against aggressive predator.

In every deck that multiact this much, perfectionist is a must. It will help offset those villeins that you play.

Also, i would go with 4 Izhim, he is a star!

Hope i gave you some ideas. I LOVE this group of Assamites with black hand tech, they are very versatile and flexible, and perform surprisingly well. Experiment, have fun, and don't forget to write here about your successes!

Kushiel wrote:

Pretty awesome head-fake that nobody tried to block him even after he'd gotten halfway through his deck and there were practically no combat cards in his ash heap, but that's the power of psychology.

early in the game it usually seems hasty to block a 9-cap assamite bleeding for 1, before you know what their deck does. if they're playing stealth, you'll cycle their hand into better bleeds. and that's not worth the risk that they want to spit agg damage into your face (unless you can handle that)
later in the game I had the guns and ivory bow set up, and I had a good position of choosing which combats to get into or avoid. let's not fight the gangrel antitribu who earlier nearly burned the seraph with lots of agg damage, but let's do fight the princes who are running out of s:ce cards. I had lots of defense cards so I could afford to be patient at that point.

Haze wrote:

early in the game it usually seems hasty to block a 9-cap assamite bleeding for 1, before you know what their deck does.

Well...there's a good chance I probably would try to block, assuming I was playing something with some intercept, simply because I wouldn't expect anyone to be trying to fight with large Assamites (other than Thetmes), since that's such a classic formula for nutpunching and I tend to assume that the people around me know what they're doing. But I can see your and Jeff's point here, and my assumption certainly doesn't always play out to my benefit.

Haze wrote:

if they're playing stealth, you'll cycle their hand into better bleeds. and that's not worth the risk that they want to spit agg damage into your face (unless you can handle that)
later in the game I had the guns and ivory bow set up, and I had a good position of choosing which combats to get into or avoid. let's not fight the gangrel antitribu who earlier nearly burned the seraph with lots of agg damage, but let's do fight the princes who are running out of s:ce cards. I had lots of defense cards so I could afford to be patient at that point.

Right on. The amount of stealth still feels on the light side for a 90-card deck, and I think running Swallowed by the Night and Spying Mission would dovetail nicely with the pretty sweet amount of toolboxiness you've got going here. Thanks for explaining how it played out in actual practice. This thread has certainly got me thinking about trying out these guys, especially since the Assamite/BH blood denial deck I've currently got built tends to flounder miserably.

Kushiel wrote:

I probably would try to block, assuming I was playing something with some intercept, simply because I wouldn't expect anyone to be trying to fight with large Assamites (other than Thetmes)

Oh, I promise you, if you ever come to Serbia, you will see me playing very, very nasty combat with large Assamites who are not Thetmes B) .

The first block is usually the last block your vampire made