Adventure Time with Blanche and Ian

So, inspired by this topic from some time ago, I made this deck, around Blanche Hill and !Tremeres, with some additional support crew.

This is my first time making a deck that features either Salubri or Obeah and is to be played in two days' time. You might notice that there are several sub-themes I tried to cram into a single deck (like Ponticulus/Chainsaw/Muaziz angle), as well as some cards I might not be able to use ever (like Journal) and that is the main reason for the deck's huge size.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 8 average: 6.66667
3x Ian Forestal (8) Tremere antitribu (group 2)
3x Blanche Hill (6) Salubri (group 2)
2x Ladislas Toth, The Torch (7) archbishop Tremere antitribu (group 3)
2x Muaziz, Archon of Ulugh Beg (7) Tremere (group 2)
1x Eugenio Estevez (6) Tremere (group 3)
1x Maldavis (4) Caitiff (group 3)

Muaziz is there for an eventuality that Chainsaw/Heidelberg combo is successful and my prey just keeps his vamp in torpor. Also, THA+for is scarce.

Library [90 cards]

Action [19]
6x Magic of the Smith
2x Precognizant Mobility
3x Renewed Vigor
8x Spirit Marionette

Action Modifier [15]
8x Freak Drive
4x Mirror Walk
3x Repulsion

Action Modifier / Reaction [3]
3x Gift of Sleep

This is nice, since Ian too can use it for stealth even without OBE.

Action Modifier/Combat [2]
2x Penitent Resilience

Ally [2]
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
1x Ponticulus

Mylan is here to both potentially untap Spirit Marionette targets and can untap Ian. Ponticulus is here only for Chainsaw 'combo'.

Combat [8]
4x Anesthetic Touch
2x Armor of Vitality
2x Skin of Rock

Equipment [6]
1x Aaron's Feeding Razor
1x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers
1x Journal of Hrorsh
1x Ruins of Ceoris
1x Talbot's Chainsaw
1x Veneficorum Artum Sanguis

Codex is for punishment, should my opponents keep their minions tapped. Journal just looks interesting.

Event [1]
1x NRA PAC

Master [18]
3x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
3x Infernal Pact
2x Perfectionist
1x Spontaneous Power
1x Sunset Strip, Hollywood
6x Vessel
2x Wider View

Vessel is here over Blood Doll purely as a meta choice. The rest of the masters are self-explanatory - my goal is to have at least two vamps with OBE as soon as possible.

Reaction [16]
4x Eyes of Argus
2x My Enemy's Enemy
4x On the Qui Vive
6x Telepathic Misdirection

So, comments or suggestions, especially on trimming some fat and/or adding some ousting power?

Kiddo wrote:

So, comments or suggestions, especially on trimming some fat and/or adding some ousting power?

Ponticulus and Chainsaw on Ian will cost 19 to 20 pool to set up. After such an investment, there is a significant risk of getting stuck with a bunch of masters and equipment that you really can't afford to play. Blanche would, of course, be out of the question as well.

Without doing the math, the chances of drawing Ian in your first 4 crypt cards is somewhere in the 70-80% range and the odds of having both Ian and Blanche is something like 49-64% (anyone have a link to that wonderful online draw probability simulator?).

Spirit Marionette is bad without Heidelberg and not always that useful even with it. I'm not going to estimate the chances of successfully playing Spirit Marionette but with 8 cards that require one of 3 cards to work, it seems like a lot of card slots for a prayer mechanic.

For a deck like this, I would start by looking at what basic components I can combine without making a mathematically impossible deck. Those components should be strong enough that, if the deck is consistent, they should win on their own, or at least work in a way that is fun for you. Any extra fluff comes at the cost of compromising your deck's core themes, so you should be really, really confident about the deck before adding unnecessary stuff like Precognizant Mobility, Journal or Aaron's Feeding Razor.

Suoli wrote:

Ponticulus and Chainsaw on Ian will cost 19 to 20 pool to set up. After such an investment, there is a significant risk of getting stuck with a bunch of masters and equipment that you really can't afford to play. Blanche would, of course, be out of the question as well.

Actually, you are quite correct, i haven't even taken in the consideration that I do want at least 13-14 pool of vampires in the game before I start thinking about bringing any Tremere in.

Suoli wrote:

Without doing the math, the chances of drawing Ian in your first 4 crypt cards is somewhere in the 70-80% range and the odds of having both Ian and Blanche is something like 49-64% (anyone have a link to that wonderful online draw probability simulator?).

Technically, there are 2 Wider Views, so they increase the chance. Even without those, I need any of the four masters (Sponaneous Power, Infernal Pact) to get OBE even without Blanche...

But I'll listen to your advice partially and add another Wider View and swap some Tremeres for !Tremeres

Here's another attempt, this time without Ponticulus/Chainsaw/Tremere angle and with less cards:

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 8 average: 6.41667
3x Ian Forestal (8) Tremere antitribu (group 2)
3x Blanche Hill (6) Salubri (group 2)
2x Ladislas Toth, The Torch (7) archbishop Tremere antitribu (group 3)
1x Muaziz, Archon of Ulugh Beg (7) Tremere (group 2)
1x Eugenio Estevez (6) Tremere (group 3)
1x Maldavis (4) Caitiff (group 3)
1x Richard Tauber, Ayelea's Puppet (4) Tremere antitribu (group 2)


Library [80 cards]

Action [17]
6x Magic of the Smith
3x Renewed Vigor
8x Spirit Marionette

Action Modifier [13]
8x Freak Drive
2x Mirror Walk
3x Repulsion

Action Modifier / Reaction [4]
4x Gift of Sleep

Ally [1]
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Combat [8]
4x Anesthetic Touch
2x Armor of Vitality
2x Skin of Rock

Equipment [6]
1x Aaron's Feeding Razor
1x Camera Phone
1x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers
1x Journal of Hrorsh
1x Ruins of Ceoris
1x Veneficorum Artum Sanguis

Event [1]
1x NRA PAC

Master [18]
3x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
3x Infernal Pact
2x Perfectionist
1x Spontaneous Power
6x Vessel
3x Wider View

Reaction [12]
4x Eyes of Argus
2x On the Qui Vive
6x Telepathic Misdirection

I'm gonna test this one and see what works and what is lacking...if needed, perhaps I'll increase the ammount of Infernal Pacts and/or add another Ladislas, probably to displace Eugenio...

little pool recovery, and long setup time to do..... not much.

Salubri can do a lot of cool tricks, and it's tempting at first to use all of them at once, but none of them are "win the game" powerful. it's better to specialize in one trick, and only as support to your main strategy.

so I'm not quite sure what the main strategy is. maybe torporize/burn some vampires? Tremere can do that just fine without talbot's chainsaw. bleed? Tremere can do that too without spirit marionette. the chainsaw and marionette sure do help, but you don't want to depend entirely on them.


edit: well the chainsaw tech got removed while i was writing this. but my main point still stands -- obeah doesn't win games, it makes a game-winning-strategy win harder.

Haze wrote:

so I'm not quite sure what the main strategy is.

Seems to be threaten with Marionette, punish with Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers. Not a bad plan.

If that's the idea, I would drop the non-essential equipment, try to get at least 6 Governs in and consider either some Revelations and/or Monocle of Clarity to play around wakes and Archon Investigation.

Guys, I reworked this deck a bit more, mainly dropping most of AUS and replacing it with DOM, since most vamps have it already and it gives me much more ousting power. Also, now there are only Salubri and !Tremeres in the crypt.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 8 average: 6.58333
3x Ian Forestal (8) Tremere antitribu (group 2)
3x Ladislas Toth, The Torch (7) archbishop Tremere antitribu (group 3)
3x Blanche Hill (6) Salubri (group 2)
1x Bryan Van Duesen (7) Tremere antitribu (group 2)
1x Reverend Blackwood (6) bishop Tremere antitribu (group 2)
1x Brooke (3) Tremere antitribu (group 2)


Library [84 cards]

Action [18]
6x Magic of the Smith
2x Renewed Vigor
2x Revelations
8x Spirit Marionette

Action Modifier [19]
2x Bonding
2x Conditioning
2x Foreshadowing Destruction
8x Freak Drive
2x Mirror Walk
3x Repulsion

Action Modifier / Reaction [3]
3x Gift of Sleep

Reverend can use it even without OBE.

Combat [8]
4x Anesthetic Touch
2x Armor of Vitality
2x Skin of Rock

Perhaps I should swap Skin of Rocks for either more AoVitality or Rego Motuses...

Equipment [6]
1x Aaron's Feeding Razor
1x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers
1x Journal of Hrorsh
1x Ruins of Ceoris
1x Seal of Veddartha
1x Veneficorum Artum Sanguis

Event [1]
1x NRA PAC

Master [17]
2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
3x Infernal Pact
2x Perfectionist
1x Spontaneous Power
6x Vessel
3x Wider View

I'm still on the fence about Wider View/Heidelberg ratios, will be smarter after a few games...

Reaction [12]
4x Deflection
6x On the Qui Vive
2x Redirection

So, no Governs, but in addition to 8 Marionettes that can be used as bleed actions, now I have 2 bleed equipments and 6 bleed modifiers. Also, every non-Salubri vamp can now be a recipient of Infernal Pact, and one non-essential vamp has built-in +1 bleed.

Would you say this is an improvement?