Hack this Vampire!

Hey All,

Been watching the thread about Sabbat vampires which got me thinking about neglected vampires. We all know there are many large (9+ cap) vampires which never ever see play. For the most part these are untitled vampires lacking a certain je ne sais quoi.

So, as an exercise to pick the brains of players who know what they want, I have chosen 6 relatively recent vampires which, in my experience see little play, yet in my opinion should see much more.

If you could hack them (and no, they will not be hacked), what would you do to truly make them playable?

Thanks for your input.

Jeff

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Name: Gracetius
[KoT:V]
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Brujah
Group: 5
Capacity: 10
Discipline: ANI CEL POT PRE QUI
Camarilla: While you have the Edge, Gracetius may play reaction cards and attempt to block as if untapped. +1 strength.

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Name: Harold Zettler, Pentex Director
[Third:PM]
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Malkavian antitribu
Group: 4
Capacity: 9
Discipline: vic AUS DEM OBF POT
Sabbat: Giovanni get +1 bleed when bleeding you. +1 stealth.

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Name: Christopher Houghton
[Anarchs:U2]
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Toreador
Group: 3
Capacity: 10
Discipline: pot AUS CEL DOM PRE PRO
Camarilla: Once each combat, Christopher may burn 1 blood before range is determined to strike with first strike that round. During your untap, choose a ready minion. Until your next untap, he gets +2 intercept when attempting to block that minion.

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Name: Count Vladimir Rustovitch
[Third:PTz]
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Tzimisce
Group: 4
Capacity: 9
Discipline: dom pot pro ANI AUS VIC
Sabbat: When you draw to replace a combat card Vladimir plays, you may draw an additional card (discard afterward). He gets +1 strength in combat with a werewolf. Flight [FLIGHT].

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Name: Gotsdam, The Tired Warrior
[KoT:PV2]
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 4
Capacity: 9
Discipline: ani AUS DOM FOR PRE
Camarilla: Gotsdam may end combat as a strike that costs 1 blood. He treats aggravated damage as normal damage in combat. He is immune to frenzy cards.

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Name: Kamiri wa Itherero
[LoB:PA2]
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Akunanse
Group: 4
Capacity: 10
Discipline: pot qui ABO ANI FOR OBF
Laibon: Younger vampires must burn 1 blood to attempt to block Kamiri. If an ally blocks Kamiri and combat occurs, burn the ally at the end of the action.

Name: Kamiri wa Itherero
[EK:U]
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Akunanse
Level: Advanced
Group: 4
Capacity: 10
Discipline: pot qui ABO ANI FOR OBF
Laibon: Kamiri can inflict 2 unpreventable damage on a minion as a action.
[MERGED] Once each action, Kamiri may burn 1 blood to give an acting Laibon +1 stealth.

Gracetius
I'd like him to have AUS instead of ANI, but having ANI isn't bad. The disciplines don't quite lend themselve to any particular out-of-clan buddies and I think that's the biggest issue. ANI & PRO and you could mix in some Gangrels. QUI & OBF and you could easily mix in Assamites. AUS and you can easily blend in Toreadors or Osebo. As it stands, he just doesn't 'blend'. I'd choose so you could add him into Cesewayo or Osebo Wall. (You could even trade out the QUI & ANI to get AUS and FOR so he'd merge fairly well with Harbringers or Salubri/!Salubris)

Harold Zettler
+1 stealth on a Malk is generally as useful as teats on a bull. As a Pentex Director I'd expect him to be titled.

Christopher Houghton
The baby who knows WAAAAY too much. Homonculus + Sniper Rifle + Bowl of Convergeance + Taste of Vitae. Seriously good wall. I think he doesn't see play because people don't think of Big Cap Toreadors without first knocking on the doors of AAA.

Vladimir Rustovich
Vlad needs another superior, not 3 inferiors. Any of those 3 at Superior would be good, would be GREAT. It would be also cool if there were more options for Flight cards, but you can easily get some crazy multi-acting from As the Crow plus some unexpected combat using Flight cards. It might also be good if there was a VIC card that gave flight *goes away to write down that idea*.

Gotsdam
Gotsdam makes a good part of a Wall deck. He's also team up nicely with Sals, !Sals, Harbringers, Nagraja...
If you wanted to stick to Ventrue only, he matches well with Alan Soveriegn, Gracis, Illyana Ravidovich, Elena Gutierrez would be an interesting crypt not too expensive, moderate amounts of .

Kamiri
I'd love to trade for Magaji. Not really for the title, but mostly for the access to NSftM. As an alternative, or some other way (without resorting to Villein or Minion Slap).

I have seen Harold played quite a lot, really. There is lot of POT in the !malks so he fits in there quite well.

Vlad also has some potential in that there is quite a bit of potence in group 3-4 tzimisce, but yeah I agree that if he would have superior dominate instead of that rather useless protean he would be a lot better.

Chris is again suffering from the problem of being 10 cap without title or multiacting, and while with DOM PRO he is still decent, there are just simply better vampires for that.

Gracetius is just terrible... he has fairly lame special that wont see much use until your in 1on1 stage, and that quietus is pretty much useless since he can get everything better from his other discplines, if it would be FOR instead he would be lot more interesting.

Kamiri has potentially nice special, but he is just too big really for tapping to do 2 damage to someone. 10 cap with no title, no bounce discplines, no discplines that would allow him notable forward momentum...

Theres a TWD with Cristopher Houghton:

Deck Name: The Houghton Legacy
Created By:
Description:

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 21, Max: 40, Avg: 7,33)

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2 Caitlin ANI aus dom PRO6 Gangrel Antitribu
1 Chandler Hungerford PRO 3 Gangrel
4 Christopher Houghton pot AUS CEL DOM PRE PRO10 Toreador
3 Iliana DOM FOR PRO tha7 Gangrel
2 Lisette Vizquel DOM POT pro 6 Lasombra

Library: (90 cards)

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Master (17 cards)
3 Blood Doll
2 Direct Intervention
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
2 Giant`s Blood
1 Metro Underground
3 Perfectionist
1 Secure Haven
3 Vessel

Action (12 cards)
1 Entrancement
1 Far Mastery
10 Govern the Unaligned

Action Modifier (19 cards)
1 Approximation of Loyalty
4 Bonding
5 Conditioning
9 Earth Control

Reaction (20 cards)
8 Deflection
5 Eagle`s Sight
7 Wake with Evening`s Freshness

Combat (17 cards)
4 Aura Reading
8 Earth Meld
5 Form of Mist

Combo (5 cards)
2 Murmur of the False Will
3 Rapid Change

Here´s an easy trick with Gracetius.

1. Get enkil cog
2. Bleed with enkil cog just before your predators turn
3. Block

Have tried to build it, but never played it.

Gracetius : i guess he is hopeless. Too big, no multiact, no bounce, and does nothing that others do not do better.

Harold Zetter i have seen, mainly is malk s/b decks, his innate stealth helps a lot, and can use the call to summon others. Not oh-my-god-awesome but decent.

Christopher Houghton : i have seen a nasty powerbleed deck with him, using DOM and PRO. He had 2 Aching beauties, and enkil cog, and homunculus. And the pain went something like this : Bleed with govern, block? Yes- burn two pool, sup. Form of mist.. Still block, no? then conditioning. Block-yes. Earth meld to block predator, than use enkil cog again. Also, he used DOM to influence others. Not world shattering, but quite unpleasant.

Vladimir Rustovich : it is not that he is bad, but rather the fact that group 2 tzimitze have much better vampires than group 4, and therefore he sees less play.

Gothsdam is very good. He is a natural add-on to the famous "stickman" deck, where he can govern others down, and be ultimate blocker to the things that normal stickmen can't handle. If you search him on TWDA, you will see a couple of stickmen variants that have him as a star. Those are more wallish, less aggressive variants, though.

Kamiri, though great in idea, lacks the POT to do his work, and that is where he fails.