Looking for feedback on Tremere Black Hand deck

Deck Name: Tremere Black (Hand) Ops
Author: Prince Mercury
Description:
Built from 2 different Tremere Antitribu precon decks, some printed off VEKN official expansion cards as well various cards from a few Sword of Caine boosters. This is an attempt to create an effective bleed deck that can fight with brutal Thaumaturgic efficiency, but only when it wants to.

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=4 max=8 avg=6.5)
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1x Ash Harrison 7 cel dom AUS THA !Tremere:5
2x Carmen 5 aus dom THA !Tremere:5
1x Frondator 5 dom tha AUS !Tremere:4
2x Gerald FitzGerald 7 AUS DOM THA !Tremere:5
1x Janine 4 aus dom tha !Tremere:4
1x Johannes Worringen 6 dom AUS THA !Tremere:5
2x Paul Cordwood 8 obf pre AUS DOM THA !Tremere:4
2x Uta Kovacs 8 ser AUS DOM THA !Tremere:4

Library (80 cards)
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Master (11)
1x Blind Spot
2x Blood Doll
1x Cadet
1x Dominate
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
1x Infernal Pact
1x Rötschreck
1x Shakar
1x Thaumaturgy
1x University Hunting Ground

Action (12)
2x Biothaumaturgic Experiment
5x Govern the Unaligned
2x Recure of the Homeland
1x Rutor's Hand
2x Tattoo Signal

Equipment (1)
1x Guarded Rubrics

Action Modifier (11)
4x Bonding
2x Seduction
1x Sleeping Mind, The
4x Threats

Reaction (22)
3x Deflection
3x Enhanced Senses
2x Fast Reaction
2x Forced Awakening
2x On the Qui Vive
2x Precognition
5x Spirit's Touch
3x Truth in Ink

Combat (23)
6x Apportation
2x Blood Fury
2x Burst of Sunlight
1x Drain Essence
2x Eldritch Glimmer
7x Theft of Vitae
3x Walk of Flame

Created with Secret Library v0.9.4c. (Nov 15, 2015 00:24:38)


So here it is. My first attempt in VtES (or any CCG for that matter) to create my own deck. The basic goal here is to hit heavy with bleed every now and then hoping to force my prey into combat where I can make them regret blocking. I like giving my prey the choice between being bled for 4-5 or facing a barrage of theft of vitae and walks of flame. Defensively I have tons intercept, redirects and Truth in Ink for soaking. I in a combat deck such as this I feel it is prudent to not always block my predator (hence the truth in ink and deflection) as there are some decks in my club that excel in combat against Tremere. Tzimisce and and Celerity decks have a particular advantage as Tzimisce can torpor me at long or short range on the first round and celerity is the only discipline (that I know of) that can dodge theft of vitae and still strike me. So I will generally save TII and Deflection for the few opponents that I really don't want to fight. Other than those two I usually attempt to block everything my predator does.

Typically I want to get all 4 vampires out of my uncontrolled region as I usually bring out a Gerald, Paul or Uta first and they Govern the Unaligned as much as possible to bring out my 6, 5 and 4 cap vampires. By usually turn 3 or 4 I have a good spread of vampires out and will spend a turn gearing up, playing rutors hand, tatoo signal bio-thau and guarded rubrics as available. On any given turn after that I will attempt to bleed at least twice and will usally use tatoo signal or rutor's to make sure I have two kindred on defense before counting on reaction untaps.

I've had a decent amount of success with this deck, won a few games and those I've lost I came second. The only major problems I've had so far are being basically unable to sway votes and being the prey of heavy bleeders. One player in my club plays Malkavians who stealth harder than I intercept and bleed for 5 regularly. Actually forcing them to fight me is a challenge.

Anyway, those are my thoughts and results so far, I guess I'd just like some feedback as overall I think this is pretty solid but I'm always willing to have someone point out the faults. One last thing, I know the crypt is not optimal but it's what I have and I am looking to change it, so suggestions would be cool.

As you said it: pretty solid deck.
And there a easy wasy to enhance it with easy-to-get cards.

First of all, you want some cards that read "Enter combat with a minion" (to get rid of stealthy Malkavians for example).
3-4 x Haven Uncovered and/or 3-4 x Bum's Rush will help you a lot.

There is a Graverobbing in one of the starters, you might want to include it.
Sleeping Mind is suboptimal, maybe drop it. Conditioning instead of Threats for stronger bleed supply.

You have 2 more Forced Awakening in your starters. Use them, you usually want to be able to react more often.

Cards you could drop/replace (in addtion): Drain Essence, Eldritch Glimmer, Fast Reaction, Blind Spot, Golconda, the skill cards and Infernat Pact.


As for the crypt, keep in mind that you could "invite" up to 2 or 3 Camarilla Tremere to your troops. Not every of your vampires has to be Sabbat or even Black Hand.

Happy ousting!

It's funny that you mention grave robbing as I just pulled it from the deck recently as I had it in there but found it to be a little hard to actually use. Especially if the end goal is forcing them to block and fight me, as you said I could just use bum's rush. As you suggested I might drop some of the Masters for reactions, but I have too much fun with fast reaction. Typically I block with one vampire and strike with theft, combat usually ends, I play fast reaction to go into combat again and play another theft, press with fast reaction and then either walk of flame or some other nasty thing, it may not be the most efficient but once players know I am capable of such things they tend to intercept me less. (It's also really fun). But yeah I will definitely squeeze in some bum's rush or rumbles. As soon as the club does a group order for more cards I will be acquiring some conditionings.