Sargon Wastes a Minute of Our Time

I've been playing VTES for a couple years now, and I was pleased last week because I finally managed to build a "creative" deck that felt competitive. It won a 4p, running out of cards in the process (!), and I've been iterating on it since then. I didn't expect to see another Inside Dirt deck win a tournament at the same time, but figured if the card is being taken seriously now, I could try posting my own deck here.

Deck Name: Sargon Wastes a Minute of Our Time
Author:  NoSoup4you
Description:

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=1 max=5 avg=3.875)
==================
1x Anarch Convert                1 -none-                   Caitiff:ANY
1x Josef                         4 ani obf obt              Nosferatu antitribu:2
1x Olivia                        5 vic OBF POT              Nosferatu antitribu:2
4x Sargon                        5 cel dai obf pre          Baali:2
2x Shannon Price, the Whisperer  3 ani obf                  Nosferatu antitribu:2
1x Tock                          4 obf pot pre              Nosferatu antitribu:3
1x Agatha                        4 obf POT                  Nosferatu antitribu:2
1x Cicatriz                      5 ani obf pot              Nosferatu antitribu:2

Library: 77 cards

Master (22 cards)
==================
1x Information Highway
5x Maleficia
2x Archon Investigation
1x Nosferatu Kingdom
3x Obfuscate
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Ruins of Charizel
1x Shanty Town Hunting Ground
2x Wider View
2x Blood Doll
1x Coven, The
2x Dreams of the Sphinx

Action (32 cards)
==================
6x Epiphany
1x Go Anarch
12x Inside Dirt
10x Barrenness
1x Unleash Hell's Fury
1x Clan Impersonation
1x Contagion

Action Modifier (17 cards)
==================
9x Forgotten Labyrinth
8x Lost in Crowds

Ally (1 cards)
==================
1x Veneficti

Equipment (5 cards)
==================
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Kaymakli Fragment
2x Leather Jacket
1x Sargon Fragment, The

This has a couple minor refinements from the version I played at our last meeting here, but the actions and modifiers remain the same. The thing I've waffled on the most is the blood and pool gain.

How do you intend to oust?

Inside Dirt two or three times per turn.

How do you intend to keep from being ousted?

Going forward fast, Barrenness and/or Inside Dirt backwards. Noncommital defense overall, just hoping to burn a vampire or two and block with Sargon once in awhile.

What do you want your ready region to look like?

Sargon and three !nos.

What do you want your average turn to look like?

Two or three Sargon actions, two or three Inside Dirts.

What's your metagame like? How do your opponents play?

Every deck type shows up, but not a lot of the top ones - no one plays Malk 94, MMPA, speed Legionnaires etc, either out of boredom or politeness. There are some weird pet decks that get played a lot, like Horsehoes+Touch of Pain or Zizi Bauble.

What problems have you observed with the deck in play?

It ran out of cards quickly, so I'm trying Sargon Fragment as a bit of recursion. Blood could get low with all the Forgotten Labyrinth, but inferior obf necessitates running them I think. Rush combat is a bit worrying. The group 2 crypt is really bad for obfuscate weenies.

I've also built a midcap version:

Deck Name: Sargon Midcap
Author:  
Description:

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=1 max=6 avg=4.571429)
==================
1x Anarch Convert                1 -none-                   Caitiff:ANY
1x Ingram Frizer                 6 ani pot AUS OBF          Nosferatu antitribu:3
2x Olivia                        5 vic OBF POT              Nosferatu antitribu:2
1x Ox, Viceroy of the Hollows    6 ANI OBF POT              Nosferatu antitribu:2
4x Sargon                        5 cel dai obf pre          Baali:2
1x Shannon Price, the Whisperer  3 ani obf                  Nosferatu antitribu:2
2x Christanius Lionel, The Mad Chronicler6 pot ANI OBF              Nosferatu antitribu:2

Library: 77 cards

Master (22 cards)
==================
1x Information Highway
5x Maleficia
2x Archon Investigation
1x Nosferatu Kingdom
2x Perfectionist
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Ruins of Charizel
1x Shanty Town Hunting Ground
4x Villein
2x Wider View
2x Dreams of the Sphinx

Action (32 cards)
==================
6x Epiphany
1x Go Anarch
12x Inside Dirt
10x Barrenness
1x Unleash Hell's Fury
1x Clan Impersonation
1x Contagion

Action Modifier (14 cards)
==================
7x Forgotten Labyrinth
7x Lost in Crowds

Action Modifier/Combat (4 cards)
==================
4x Swallowed by the Night

Ally (1 cards)
==================
1x Veneficti

Equipment (4 cards)
==================
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Kaymakli Fragment
1x Leather Jacket
1x Sargon Fragment, The

This might be better, but I haven't played it yet. You free up master slots and get something to do in combat, in exchange for a slow start.

I'm mainly wondering whether to pursue it with the oversized weenies or the midcaps. Also thinking about including 2-4 Evil Eye, though it's easy to start going down a bad path with all the things that "could" be in here.

I'm guessing the Night Moves version is going to be better than this deck, but I find Sargon's bullshit actions funny.

You have a lot of Masters, Some of which you may not care about at various points in the game. You also have Sargon as a star. Consider Path of the Void for him. He's never going to bleed, won't be affected by the Path's drawback and might even be able to shed extra Masters in the unlock phase. The perma-stealth would be useful and occasionally hitting an empty vampire for 1 damage could be good.

You think Charizel is redundant? I don't know if it will push people out of archon range or goad them into it.

It costs nothing and might gain you a few pool. IMO it's a neat inclusion - I wouldn't worry too much about AI. Also, it's a good counter against Inside Dirt decks ;- )

NoSoup4you wrote:

You think Charizel is redundant? I don't know if it will push people out of archon range or goad them into it.

 

Generally I consider path of evil revelations to be superior to Charizel, but if you only have one infernal vampire the issue is not as clear. I would suggest try games with both.

At any rate, I recommend running some vessels. They may allow you to unlock your infernal star when you are at 1 pool. (and if you had other infernals and path, all the others too). A great many games have been decided by making the winning play at 1 pool.