Blessing of the Malk 94

Preface:
I posted this deck on my blog and I think that it will get much more interest on the VEKN forum than an external site. Why does that matter? Is it an ego thing that I want people to see what I do? Maybe to some extent. I primarily see the choice to put my deck ideas on this site as a way to keep the conversation going. I want this game to succeed, so being visible is crucial. Not many people have time to check the VTES blogs for things they care about. If people check any one site, it should be this one. To that end, I think I'll be moving a most of my online VTES activity here. Maybe I will post the same thing here and my blog just to have a better catalog of my activities. This is just where my ideas have evolved to right now.

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I have been bandying about the idea that what you need in terms of ousting power is the ability to reduce your prey's pool by 15 within two turns. If you can pull this off within one turn, great. In either case, it will require pool damage capacity (i.e. bleed, vote, Fame, Entice, etc) and some degree of delivery (stealth, block fails, tapping, unblockable actions, etc). I will add to this list another factor I will call "degree of control." This is how well you can control your prey's pool gain, ability to untap, combat, etc. Not only might you want to control your prey, but the whole table is fair game. If you bleed your prey to one right before your predator destroys your last ready minion, you have served him a nice second course, but not won anything. For this reason things like intercept, Sudden Reversal, Direct Intervention, strike: combat ends (or scary combat), and table screw cards (i.e. Recalled to the Founder) can be helpful.

Malk 94 is the classic full-throttle ousting deck. It stealths past opponents and can consistently deliver bleeds for 5. Within three actions, you can reach the goal from above. What if they bounce? What if you bleed reduce or manage to block? Now it will take multiple turns. For Malk 94 that can mean the whole table ganging up on you before you can collect your second vp. How do you surmount those odds? Cheat, of course!

I've been looking at Blessing of the Name as a "turn extender" card, something that gives you extra actions (or at least untaps) before your next turn..

You might be saying to yourself "but there are no group 2 !Salubri with dominate or even obfuscate, how can I justify putting this in the deck?"

First, don't pay for !Salubri, it is just a bad idea. Govern at DOM is your friend. Second, don't rely on them, they are flaky. Finally, pimp them out for your utility actions (rescue, recruit, chump block). That's what they are good at.

Deck Name: Blessing of the Malk 94
Author: Brandon Haas
Description: The ultimate turn is if you can play Madness Network (or have it in play) and then bleed for a bunch, then follow it up with Blessing of the Name and bleed on your prey's turn. It is possible to oust multiple players in one turn this way, even more so than Malk 94 can normally do with the same number of vampires. It is combo-ish, but it never has to actually "go off" to play your dirty, bleedy game.

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=2 max=7 avg=5)
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1x Didi Meyers 5 aus cel obf DOM Malkavian:1
1x Doris McMillon 2 val !Salubri:2
2x Gilbert Duane 7 AUS DOM OBF Malkavian:1
2x Kervos, The Lieutenant 3 aus val !Salubri:2
2x Mariel, Lady Thunder 7 aus tha DOM OBF Malkavian:1
1x Ozmo 6 dom obf AUS Malkavian:1
1x Roland Bishop 4 aus dom obf Malkavian:1
1x Thomas Steed, The Angry 4 ani aus val !Salubri:2
1x Zebulon 5 aus dom pro OBF Malkavian:1

Library (90 cards)
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Master (18)
1x Barrens, The
2x Coven, The (blood will be in short supply)
1x Dark Influences (don't let someone else play DI2 first)
2x Dreams of the Sphinx (to the card cycle, baby!)
1x Giant's Blood
1x Golconda: Inner Peace (a little insurance of bleed damage, also see Wash)
1x Information Highway
1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
4x Madness Network
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Storage Annex (store a Madness Network or a Blessing for a rainy day)
2x Wash

Action (19)
3x Blessing of the Name
2x Far Mastery (steal your allies back, or steal others')
14x Govern the Unaligned

Ally (3)
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Muddled Vampire Hunter
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Action Modifier (27)
5x Cloak the Gathering
8x Conditioning
1x Elder Impersonation
2x Faceless Night
6x Into Thin Air (better vs allies than Lost in Crowds, but not redrawing may hurt here)
1x Seduction
2x Spying Mission
2x Veil the Legions

Reaction (18)
8x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics
1x Eyes of Argus (a wake or an unexpected block, take your pick)
5x On the Qui Vive
2x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Combat (4)
4x Dodge (allies can use this card, too)

Combo (1)
1x Swallowed by the Night

Created with Secret Library v0.9.4b. (Nov 23, 2013 18:05:21)

First, i gave up on skimming blogs, and it would be optimal if someone in an official vekn position would create an articles column to have like, a blog entry a week from different people. It would be neat.
Ok, i love malks and madness netwrok decks. My facorites have been anarch aus malks, Lutzs kin vs world, Anatole wall, brandywine protean, lord fiana protean, and Roxanne wall. But this is one ive never considered.
Mostly because i never liked blessing of the name in non swarm !salubri decks thus forgot it targeted any 2 minions, and, as could be assumed, i play a buttload of other madness network variants.

But this looks cool. Assuming typically gilbert and mariel are who you double use. Quite awesome.

Few thngs:
Lic is probably better than ItA here. The replacement is huge, and also it costs a blood to use the other benefit.
Using command of the beast and maybe leverage could be helpful for speed. Govern+leverage+commandobeast+conditioning=8. Then you get the edge again and maybe do it next turn too. It screws up peoples defensive math, so its solid for this aggro of a deck.

Um, whys mylan here? Just a bleeder? Nobodys non cam and big enough to untap. He can untap lord fiana

If hes just a bleeder, he too can screw up the math with leverage.

This deck is quite interesting, and im not just saying that because tournaments are easier if people play my madness network for me

ReverendRevolver wrote:

Um, whys mylan here? Just a bleeder? Nobodys non cam and big enough to untap. He can untap lord fiana

If hes just a bleeder, he too can screw up the math with leverage.

I think I had originally thought about including some Computer Hacking in this deck to conserve blood and give allies a little bleed. Computer Hacking is almost as good as Govern at dom and free, so it has it's uses. He can also block and dodge the Muddled Vampire Hunter.

ReverendRevolver wrote:

This deck is quite interesting, and im not just saying that because tournaments are easier if people play my madness network for me

Thanks!