Weenie !Salubri will burn you !!!

finbury wrote:

I like the way it looks. Your combat seems cohesive.

I would:
- ditch blessing
- add Abbot - it helps you protect your paths too
- add Freak Drive
- reduce Brother count and add a pair of Camera Phones. (Most of the time they'll be equivalent, except the phone is cheaper and less fragile.)
- add another Hungry Coyote - your combat is spendy, even with the paths.
- add a few more bounce cards and reduce the Hide the Heart count.

I would worry about not having a melee weapon when needed. That takes a lot of teeth out of your combat, and makes Sword a dead card. Some Weighted Walking Sticks to even things out would help.

Meat Hook doesn't help here either. The last thing you want is to Sword up a Meat Hook and have someone burn it with first strike - and Death Seeker doesn't help you prevent that. I'd consider replacements, perhaps Brass Knuckles or Gas-Powered Chainsaw.

You also don't do that well against combat permanents. A single .44 pretty much trumps all the combat you have. Not sure quite what to do about that one without spending many card slots on Unflinchings and Fake Outs - though more copies of Sense Death would help.

Well, i tried to make combat cohesive and easy. Is it perfect, not by a mile, but we are talking group 2 !Salubri, you know, where NOBODY has all the clan disciplines at superior

Blessing of the name would probably be the first to go, though i may keep one or two for surprise value

Abbots are probably slotting in, they are too good not to. I disagree about freak drive. Not able to reliably play it, as only one vamp has superior FOR, and i have only one copy of that vampire (dela eden)

I disagree about Brother vs camera. Every single one of those little 2-caps can torporize a vampire, something a camera phone cannot do. Also, they are cheap diablerie tool, if ever i am unable to burn a vampire in combat. That are all things that camera phone cannot do. That said, a phone or two definitely needs going in...

I have only one hungry coyote

Also, i feel the bounce is sufficient. See, i expect to have only one vampire with AUS in my ready region, so more bounce could put a strain on that. With 4 flicks, and 8 reduces which easily cycle, i feel i am quite decent. Of course, more testing is needed.

Yes, not having a weapon sucks, but such is life. Maybe a stick or two to balance things out, but no more. Also, i disagree on meathook completely. If i am facing a POT minion, is last worry is meathook, and if he breaks it, so what, he did not break my vamp . And it is free, provides a press, and gives me a press to fight the FOR decks, and opportunity to give more damage to some vamps that i do not want to burn. Has great synergy with armor of caine's fury. I think it's drawback is negligent for what it gives in a deck like this...

One magnum, i can live against, with sense death and armor, i can live through the first round and try to get to close in second. Of course , dedicated CEL combat will blow holes in me like a swiss cheese, but it will happen to more-less any deck... I stated in the start, it is not perfect, but i think it is fun and has potential. The deathseeker and hide the heart is what gave this clan a whole another dimension, i feel

This is the version i will try next week. After much thinking, i decided to kick out Blessing of the name altogether for some camera phones, abbots, and additional path. I slightly reworked my combat, and added one more rush. I will inform you guys how it performed

Here's what i will try :

Crypt : 12

3x Adonai
1x Dela Eden
2x Wolf Valentine
2x Kervos, the Lieutenant
2x Thomas Steed, The Angry
2x Doris McMillon

Library : 90 cards

Master : 16, 2 trifle

1x Code of Samiel
1x Hungry Coyote, The
4x Tribute to the master
4x Blooding by the Code
4x Path of Retribution, The
2x Wider View

Action : 15
2x Camera phone
2x Abbot
6x Sense Death
5x Brother in Arms

Equipment : 8

6x Garrote
2x Meat Hook

Combat : 31

5x Concealed weapon
6x Armor of Caine's Fury
9x Sword of the Righteous
2x Vengeance of Samiel
7x Death Seeker
2x Ritual of the bitter rose

Reaction : 17

4x On the Qui Vive
2x Wake with Evening's Freshness
4x Telepathic misdirection
8x Hide the Heart

Combo : 2

2x Burning Touch

Finally, i got to test the deck!!! I hate when RL gets in the way of gaming... .
Anyway, managed 2 games with it, and in a highly competitive pre-warsaw environment, it did splendidly, imho. My first game i have gotten a game win with 4 vp's, i will describe that. In my second game i got a terrible crypt draw (Dela Eden and 3 Adonai's), starting hand without a weapon full of red, and i died quickly to dominate bleed, so there is really nothing to say.

Anyway, first game was like this :

Me (!Salubri) > Toreador politics/bleed g3/4 > Lucian the perfect powerbled > Tremere powerbleed feat Gerald Windham > Ventrue Lawfirm

It started good for me, as i have in my region Adonai, Wolf Valentine, Thomas Steed and Doris.
Also good hand, with path, concealed weapon, garrote, sword, deathseeker, wake and hide the heart.
I go 4th, and start influencing Adonai, seeing that nobody pulled out a vamp first turn. Second turn, i am leased to see that everybody apart from Lucian the perfect is playing camarilla, therefore making Adonai's text gold. I bleed a little, pull out Thomas Steed, and pass. Tremere is having difficulties early on as he is brainwashed twice by Lucian player. My Ventrue predator governs down for some time, and my Toreador prey ignores me and builds up.
Then, Toreador calls parity shift into Lucian, taking 5 pool from him, then bleeds with aire of elation for 4, and Lucian is suddenly in a bad position. He then decided to go forward, plays revelations, to kill bounce of tremere, and bleeds for gazzilion. His oust attempt fails, as Tremere manages to block Black lotus's bleed that would kill him. Then Gerald goes powerfully forward, plays revelations into my Ventrue predator (then nicely set up with 3 princes), and discards deflection. Then he stealths past his second tradition with the aid of mirror walk and monastery for a bleed of 6. Most importantly, he told me that Ventrue has no combat cards in hand.
Seeing that devil has taken it's toll, i play tribute to the master for 5 pool, and make a deal with my ventrue predator that i will not go backward and burn his 2 vampires (because i know he has 0 combat in hand), if he does not remove me more than 3 pool in his next turn. Reluctantly, he has to agree, and i pour my aggression to the toreador. Adonai burns Epikasta (canceled majesty with deathseeker), and with sense death, Wolf valentine burns Michael Luther who jumped in the way. Sadly, last toreador remains, and ousts Lucian, but now he has only one vamp, and 13 pool. Gerald bleeds again, for 6, ventrue bounces to me, i bounce to toreador, who does not have wake, and takes 6. It took them by surprise, as i only played hide the heart 'til then.
Ventrue stays true to the deal, and only calls KRC 3-1 (3 in me 1 in tremere), and exchanges some cards. I oust toreador on 7 pool with bleeds.

Then, i survive Ventrue bleeds thank to hide the heart, Thomas steed finds me another garrote, and Adonai chokes Gerald Windham to death, cancelling rego motus on the way.
Tremere dies to weenie bleeds, and ventrue are simply too low on pool and blood to do anything. He has an awesome last turn, though, where he removes 14 pool from me, but not enough to oust me (if he had drawn his last foreshadowing destruction, i would have died, but he didn't). He finishes tapped out, i bleed him out. GW 4vp me.

Really good thing is that i have gotten an early path, and nobody bothered to remove it. I think that i would have been drained of blood quickly if if was not so. Also, Code of Samiel was gold, as it left my VAL guys untapped after burning people to play hide the heart. My game would have been much more difficult if it weren't that. Sadly, i did not get to play ritual of the bitter rose