Arms Race - Fast AK-47 toolup with Alastor

Deck Name: Arms Race
Author: 2wayspeaker
Description:
A Ventrue & Brujah coalition to get the defense spending going.

Ideal position: 1st

T1 (30)
Influence Victor

T2 (22)
Bring out Victor Pelletier & pay for a justicar title. -8

T3 (17)
Use Alastor and Bewitching Oration to equip AK-47 for 2 pool. -2
Influence out a low cap. -3
Protect with 2nd Tradition.

T4 (14)
Make the low cap a Prince.
Call Parity shift/Anathema. +0(5)
Influence out a low cap. -3
Protect with 2nd Tradition.

T5 (17)
Make the low cap a Prince.
Equip the first with Alastor through Victor. -2
Call Anathema/Parity with the first. +5(0)
Protect with 2nd Tradition.

T6 onwards.
Start rushing the anathemas for pool gain and crippling of the predator/prey.
Bring out more princes to equip if pool allows.
Start bleeding once they are sufficiently crippled (Lost their high cap to anathema and need to influence a second.)
If a bleed gets past the +2 intercept kill them with Archon.

Presence Master and compatible Praxis seizures counter Scourge of the enochians.
If you have too many AK-47 in hand, equip with Heart of Nizchetus to put them at the bottom of the library. Alastor only works on library cards.

Counters:
Ranged aggravated.
Deep stealth.
Heavy bleeds in turn 2 and 3.


Crypt (Capacity min=1 max=5 avg=3.58; 12 cards)
==================================================
1x Dirk 1 pre Caitiff:4
1x Dr. Solomon Grey 2 dom pre Caitiff:5
1x Garret 3 pot pre Brujah:4
1x Honest Abe 2 pre Brujah:5
1x Jack Tredegar 2 pre Ventrue:5
1x Reginald Moore 4 PRE Brujah:4
1x Robin Withers 4 dom obf pre Ventrue:4
5x Victor Pelletier 5 cel dom for PRE Ventrue:4

Library (60 cards)
=====================
Master (12 cards)
2x Archon Investigation
1x Barrens, The
1x Fragment of the Book of Nod
2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Misdirection
4x Presence
1x Ventrue Headquarters

Political Action (23 cards)
8x Alastor
4x Anathema
4x Parity Shift
1x Praxis Seizure: Amsterdam
1x Praxis Seizure: Barcelona
1x Praxis Seizure: Berlin
1x Praxis Seizure: Brussels
1x Praxis Seizure: Cairo
1x Praxis Seizure: Geneva
1x Praxis Seizure: Rome

Equipment (6 cards)
5x AK-47
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Action Modifier (9 cards)
7x Bewitching Oration
2x Voter Captivation

Reaction (10 cards)
10x Second Tradition: Domain

1) How do you intend to oust?
I intend to oust by being well protected and staying alive long.
Destroying my preys vampires so they are forced to spill influence on new vampires and bleed when they have none.
Or being allowed to let bleeds through because they are scared to lose their vampire.

2) How do you intend to keep from being ousted?
Anthema, Parity shift and voter captivation.
Huge threats are aggravated damage and a quick heavy weenee bleeder.

3) What do you want your ready region to look like (ie, how many guys are you planning on getting out)?
I will open with victor, add 2 low caps.
My ready region will be 3 vampires with AK-47 able to use second tradition for +2 intercept.

4) What do you want your average turn to look like?
Play Anathema/Parity Shift, Rush twice with AK-47 to win the Anathema pool and destroy opposition.

5) What's your metagame like? How do your opponents play?
No clue, I've played 5 games in total, always different decks.

6) What problems have you observed with the deck in play?
I haven't played this deck yet, it's a train of thought.
Though I assembled the cards list based on the intended turn of use.
My expected way to play this deck as discribed above has an above 80% chance of happening every action (based on hypergeom and cycle probability)

7) Why did you decide to use your particular crypt and library size? Using more than 12 crypt cards is unusual. I also think most decks can be trimmed to 80-, if not 60-card libraries.
Crypt is selected for auspex low cap camarilla.
My crypt/library is 60 and card quantities are designed for the turn they are meant to be played, excess will be discarded with Deal with the Devil or Barrens once I choke up in (at that point) useless cards.

Being blocked could be a problem for you. If you are OK with that risk, just be fast. The deck needs a couple taste of vitae to refill victor. Drop the presence skill cards and use a couple of perfect paragon instead of some bewitching oration. It would be good to use enough brujah to use brujah justicar. This will let you have multiple vamps who can play alastor.

Being blocked could be a problem for you. If you are OK with that risk, just be fast.

I will always get Victor out in turn 2.
Currently I calculate 89% for my turn 3 working as planned (with the new revision). So Turn 3 I can "always" play alastor.
So worst case I'm last, my prey brings out a 5 cap and my predator something below 8, both auspex blockers. Is this common? Do you think I should protect against this?

The deck needs a couple taste of vitae to refill victor. Drop the presence skill cards and use a couple of perfect paragon instead of some bewitching oration. It would be good to use enough brujah to use brujah justicar. This will let you have multiple vamps who can play alastor.

Done, It's a good trade, less moving parts for one blood.
I spent the space on 1 The barrens (improve odds) 2 Taste of vitae 1 Brujah Justicar (for emergency recovery)
I changed 3 Bewitching oration to 3 Perfect Paragon.
Dirk is gone for Paul, totaling 4 Brujah.

Arms Race Rev 2

Crypt (Capacity min=2 max=5 avg=3.83; 12 cards)
==================================================
1x Dr. Solomon Grey 2 dom pre Caitiff:5
1x Garret 3 pot pre Brujah:4
1x Honest Abe 2 pre Brujah:5
1x Jack Tredegar 2 pre Ventrue:5
1x Paul Calderone 4 cel pot pre Brujah:5
1x Reginald Moore 4 PRE Brujah:4
1x Robin Withers 4 dom obf pre Ventrue:4
5x Victor Pelletier 5 cel dom for PRE Ventrue:4

Library (60 cards)
=====================
Master (9 cards)
2x Archon Investigation
2x Barrens, The
1x Fragment of the Book of Nod
2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Misdirection
1x Ventrue Headquarters

Political Action (24 cards)
8x Alastor
4x Anathema
1x Brujah Justicar
4x Parity Shift
1x Praxis Seizure: Amsterdam
1x Praxis Seizure: Barcelona
1x Praxis Seizure: Berlin
1x Praxis Seizure: Brussels
1x Praxis Seizure: Cairo
1x Praxis Seizure: Geneva
1x Praxis Seizure: Rome

Equipment (6 cards)
5x AK-47
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Action Modifier (9 cards)
4x Bewitching Oration
3x Perfect Paragon
2x Voter Captivation

Reaction (10 cards)
10x Second Tradition: Domain

Combat (2 cards)
2x Taste of Vitae

PS: ARDB doesnt import from secretlibrary.
I export to .edb, and I try to import with ARDB, then the program crashes.
When I restart it, my title/name/text is inside the deck but none of my cards are. Is this normal?

Pps: maybe I could benefit from a single Kindred Segregation to immediatly ohko ally and imbued, thoughts?

2wayspeaker wrote:

Pps: maybe I could benefit from a single Kindred Segregation to immediatly ohko ally and imbued, thoughts?

Kindred Segregation isn't as good as Entrancement, which seconds as a bleed card. Kindred Segregation also doesn't work against imbued because they don't have a "recruit cost."

Regarding being blocked early, it is fairly easy to generate 1 intercept. There isn't much to be done about it, just be fast. You could run stealth (i.e. Creepshow Casino, Alacrity) or Pentex Subversion. Misdirection can work, too. Pentex is just a good card to have, plus you can defend it with second tradition.

I'm not a fan of those stealth opions, so I guess I'll risk it.

I like the pentex but don't know what to drop.
Maybe a heidelberg but I do not want to drop the 2nd Heidelberg, because they are there for contestation to prevent getting B*ttr*ped through a steal.

IMO pentex is a must, not less than 2 copies. Your entire game plan is based on getting alastor out and all you have is one stealth from political action. +1 intercept is VERY common, you don't need to come across auspex, it can be animalism, second tradition or just carlton van wyk which you can see on almost every table. I saw Victor + alastor deck in action a number of times and it often died because its actions were blocked.