Defense Vs Fatty Vampire Bloat?

There was some discussion at the tournaments in Berkeley about how most of the decks showing up recently in the TWDA are large vampire decks that feature a lot of bloat, making them very hard to kill. This may have kicked off with the Girls decks before Anthelios was banned and just never ended due to the introduction of Villein. I have a few questions about this:

1) Is it true that large vampire decks are more prominent now than they were a few years ago?

2) What are some good ways to compete against these decks?

3) How do you compete against large vampire decks in a way that isn't too costly in terms of opportunity cost?

I'll start by rattling off a few of the more obvious deckbuilding decisions one could make:

Pentex Subversion
Pros:
-good if facing a star vampire
-useful if playing a blocky or heavy bleed deck to force actions through or stop minions from acting
-can contest others' Pentexes

Con:
-Often contested
-Costs 2 pool and master slot

Sudden Reversal
Pro:
-Free
-Stops a variety of large vampire cards (Giant's Blood, Villein, Parthenon, and tricky stuff)

Con:
-Does not contribute to a positive strategy for your deck
-Costs a MPA
-Does not help after masters have already been played.

Direct Intervention
Pro:
-Versatile (e.g. stops stealth cards, nasty actions, freak drives, grapples, etc) so good vs a variety of decks

Con:
-Costs a MPA
-Costs one pool
-Does not help after nasty cards are in play

I got out of VtES around when Villein became popular. My last Origins was a Lilith's Blessing-Villein nightmare (especially since I owned neither).

Having just started playing again less than two years ago, it seems to me that there is still a trend toward larger vampires. Villein's low opportunity cost seems to make these decks much less fragile than they used to be.

Not sure, I have any answers, but I am seeing the same trend.

This is actually all as per design. A few years ago, the only deckis you saw on the tourney scene were weenie swarm decks, and fattie decks had zero chance of taking them out. So now the pendulum has swung a bit the other way.
How to crush fatty bloat? Aggro combat, matey. no vamps, no bloat

i tuck a banishment in my votedecks for dissuading someone draining too much off their bigbois

might not be the most optimal thing, but i find the table is usually supportive

Brainwash?
To be effective you need to pack quite a few which is often really not feasible. Not too great a card anyways...

Sensory Deprivation is always good.


Although I came close to winning a tournament with my sole vampire (fattess called Stani) being Sensory Deprivated for the most of the game. Pretty darn hard to play when you always needed to have an untap in your hand... But for most vamps the game grinds to halt with Sensory Dep.