Toreador Deck Advice

Hi all,

Trying my hand at making a Toreador Bleed / Vote deck and I'm struggling a bit. I've looked at some online resources and can see that Toreador Grand Ball and Aching Beauty are rarely used in the same deck. Is it generally bad to include both?

I have made an initial attempt at a deck which I'd love to get some feedback on. If anyone has time to look, I've added the deck here: vtesdecks.com/deck/user-lankweird-6ccf902bea334957bf70622409046f9c

Many thanks in advance.

Yes, it's generally bad to include both. Toreador Grand Ball prevents blocking and Aching Beauty punishes blocking via pool loss. If you're preventing blocking, spending the 2 pool to punish people who do block isn't worthwhile (cause no one's blocking).

Thanks a million for the feedback. Will look to remove one of them in that case.

For getting the extra mileage out of those Aching Beauties (and you can have several on one vampire, but it is rather costly) I suggest you use Torrent combat card at superior to "Strike: combat ends. If this vampire was blocked while performing an action, the action continues as if unblocked."

Thanks for spending the time to respond. I didn’t have many aching beauty’s, so I opted to focus on TGB instead. Still not very happy with it, but will see how I fair with it next week.

TGB (Toreador Grand Ball) usually give better results, in terms on VPs and game wins, than Aching Beauty.

Your deck list is pretty ok, here are some points.

I really like Montecalme in the crypt, shares dominate with Rafael de Corazón and Epikasta, and has a ton of votes with his title, plus a nice ability.

A deck with Rafael de Corazón usually plays cards that speed up getting out big vampires (Zillah's Valley, Information Highway, Dreams of the Sphynx) and then recover the pool spent on them (Villein). Then, you focus on politics with TGB, and you almost never bleed.

4 Secure Haven are a lot, because it's unique. 1-2 are probably enough. If you fear combat, well, you are more or so covered with Charismatic Aura and Majesty.

You have many actions, you probably could remove some, but it's hard to choose. If you decide to include Montecalme, Parity Shift is a great card that he and Epikasta can play, and adds to recover the pool cost of the vampires. Banishment is the card that wins you the game with a few, quick blows. 3-4 should be the number.

The modifiers are not suited for this type of deck (unblockable political actions), because the goal is to not be blocked. Of course, you can leave those cards until you get more. But Change of Target, Crocodile's Tongue,and the obfuscate cards are meant for another type of deck. Voter Captivation are key. If you can get an Awe or two, they combo nicely.

In the reactions package, only Spirit's Touch is a strange card. You shouldn't be trying to intercept (you defend by winning pool on politics, and redirecting bleeds). Otherwise, you will enter combat and tap your vampires. I would add a few more Deflections/Telepathic Misdirections. If you like, you can add Obedience against bleeds or enter combat actions at zero stealth.