Assamite Celerity-gun deck

I need help with this one:

Deck Name: Anarchy needs guns, punish the villeinious.
Created By: Joscha Düll
Description: Assamites going anarch, cel-gun.

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 4, Max: 23, Avg: 3,41)
1 Abd al-Rashid CEL obf QUI 5 Assamite
5 Anarch Convert none 1 Caitiff
2 Jalal Sayad CEL pot QUI 6 Assamite lesser Psyche! for 1 blood
2 Parmenides CEL qui 4 Assamite +1 str., prone to Villein
1 Yusuf aus CEL obf qui 5 Assamite
1 Zahir CEL OBF qui tha 6 Assamite


(I rate group 2 above group 4/5 because of more minions with CEL. The other crypt (needing discipline master cards) would be:
1 Evan Rogers cel qui 3 Assamite
1 Janni cel for obf qui 5 Assamite
1 Michael diCarlo CEL obf qui 5 Assamite
1 Rodrigo pot pre qui CEL 5 Brujah Antitribu
1 Layla bint-Nadr CEL OBF qui 5 Assamite
1 Reza Fatir obf pro CEL QUI 6 Assamite )


Library: (78 cards)

Master (14 cards)
1 Anarch Revolt (could be a Club Illusion, but that costs 1 pool and too much blood).
1 Barrens, The (could be a Dreams of the Sphinx, but in my playgroup we have big contesting issue. One player just plays DotS to let it lay around)
1 Blood Turnip (lesser Taste of Vitae, good card)
2 Fame (oust mechanism, but dangerous because of own low pool)
1 Flames of Insurrection (golden, but often gets voted away)
1 Path of Blood, The (added because of blood cost of Steely Tenacity)
1 Tension in the Ranks (must)
2 Twilight Camp (depends on Pascal's ruling about compability with WoKR)
4 Villein (think is better than Blood Dolls because of trifleness)

Action (6 cards)
1 Fee Stake: Seattle (prayerish with Open War, but when it works out ->BAM, kept card count low to lighten the deck)
1 Loss (vs. Secure Haven, Assault Rifle, Heart of Nizch., just +bleed)
1 Open War
3 Web of Knives Recruit (could be one less, but you need minions to oust)

Action Modifier (8 cards)
8 CrimethInc. (rush with one, rush with another, untap first, bleed)

Combat (33 cards)
4 Blur
7 Concealed Weapon
1 Fast Hands (Ivory Bow, urgh, see below)
9 Psyche!
4 Pursuit
2 Side Strike (vs. bad strikes like Breath of the Dragon or the like)
6 Taste of Vitae

Equipment (8 cards)
7 .44 Magnum
1 Ivory Bow (mainly for contesting reasons, IB is the death of this deck)

Event (1 cards)
1 Dragonbound

Combo (8 cards)
8 Steely Tenacity (heart of the deck, dies without, that's the reason for so many of them).


1. How do you intend to oust?
Rushing and torporizing, bleed afterwards, Fame, Tension, Dragonbound, the simple combo. With all the villeined minions it doesn't take much damage to send them to torpor. You only need to damage for four often.
2. How do you intend to keep from being ousted?
Rushing, torporizing, but backwards.
3. What do you want your ready region to look like (ie, how many guys are you planning on getting out)?
Three Anarchs with guns, hopefully one Web of Knives Recruit.
4. What do you want your average turn to look like?
Rush with one, rush with another, untap the first to bleed, block, bringing a WoKR in play or to rush again via Open War.
5. What's your metagame like? How do your opponents play?
I plan for tournament play with combat light-environments.
6. What problems have you observed with the deck in play?
I have blood- and poolissues. I'm pretty low on pool. My minions cost 5-6 plus 1 (Anarch Convert) plus 2 (.44 Magnum). I can't villein them more than max. 3, because the cost of the rushcard. Without a Taste of Vitae I often become stuck. Making pool damage besides bleeding is tough. Fame threatens your own low pool, Anarch Revolt is cool but gets voted away. Loss isn't a good option because of inferior qui on many minions and card flow reasons. Club Illusion sucks my minions dry.

So who is experienced in building and playing cel-gun and can give me hints on optimizing this deck?

I think you would be better off with group 4 and using lots of diversions which is just as good at basic cel as most other stuff is at superior, and also gives you prevent to deal with nasty strikes. Antara, Janni, and Joe all have fortitude, and you can add some fortitude masters to give it to others also, or play some non-assamite cel/for guys. Also you don't really need -that- many steely tenacity since you can just reuse the first one over and over again, I would remove at least half of them. Also side strikes should be sideslips, you will about always use the manuever from the gun anyway, and are usually acting, so strike: dodge isn't that useful while prevent instead is, saves you from that ivory bow too.

Overall, if you are going to bother going anarch, you might as well use some more anarch stuff, right now about only notable anarch thing in the deck is Steely Tenacity which is just a generic rush, and CrimethInc which is fairly decent.

Regarding Steely Tenacity: Yes, eight are many. but as soon as you have no rush it is game over. Or your first ST is DIed or, even worse, DI2ed. Then you sit there with your red cards and don't get into combat. Rather have lots and find fast enough the one that carries you through the game.

Regarding inf. cel.: I like the idea of Diversions and Fortitude. Alas inf. cel is no weapon against those pesky Strike: Combat Ends. Losing to them would be a real pain. Although I might be able to generate enough rushes to be able to outrun the S:CE-deck. That could be an alternative. I like Steely Tenacity though, as the use of this rush saves me a lot of rushcards. A 'normal' rushdeck plays about 16+ Bum's rush. So playing only half should give me advantages.
A problem will be that Antara and Joe both have too high capacities. I find 6 too high already (+Anarch Convert +Magnum).

16 rushes? Heh those guys must jam to them all the time, I play 12 rushes in my !Brujah deck and still have to sometimes discard them.

S:CE should be no problem for you as you don't lose any cards when they s:ce, your gun is still there and you can use the same steely to rush again.

get some Haqim's Law Leadership! soooo good.

I think blood dolls or vessels would be a better pick than Villeins. a steady pool stream, and you can push blood back when needed.

would you consider an Anarch Free Press? every action you block means another combat for you. and if they're too stealthy to block, you can still use it to refill blood faster. not a high priority card, but it's very versatile.

Rather than using Steely Tenacity as the stock rush, I've used it more as a stable end-game grinder card when you're set up with a gun and blood turnip in play.

I agree Villein is generally > Blood doll, but that depends on your metagame. We've had quite a number of Shattering Crescendo and blood attrition decks where I play, making Villein risky.

Market square and Anarch free press gives better stability vs vote/majesty predators. Combos nicely with Powerbase LA.

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 4, Max: 24, Avg: 3,66)

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4 Anarch Convert none 1 Caitiff
1 Evan Rogers cel qui 3 Assamite
3 Janni cel for obf qui5 Assamite
2 Joe `Boot` Hill CEL for obf QUI7 Assamite
1 Michael diCarlo CEL obf qui 5 Assamite
1 T.J. cel for 3 Gangrel

Library: (85 cards)

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Master (16 cards)
1 Agent of Power
1 Anarch Free Press, The
3 Blood Doll
1 Blood Turnip
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
2 Fame
1 Market Square
1 Obtenebration
1 Perfectionist
1 Powerbase: Los Angeles
1 Tension in the Ranks
1 Wider View

Action (7 cards)
3 Ambush
1 Bum`s Rush
3 Harass

Action Modifier (8 cards)
6 Forced March
2 Smoke and Mirrors

Reaction (3 cards)
1 Foul Blood
2 Delaying tactics

Combat (40 cards)
3 Disguised Weapon
6 Diversion
5 Flash
2 Groundfighting
5 Hell-for-Leather
4 Target Vitals
2 Taste of Death
8 Taste of Vitae
4 Weighted Walking Stick
1 Baal`s Bloody Talons

Ally (1 cards)
1 Deviki Prasanta

Retainer (1 cards)
1 Crypt's Sons

Equipment (7 cards)
4 .44 Magnum
1 Heart of Nizchetus
1 Ivory Bow
1 Codex of the edenic groundskeeper

Combo (2 cards)
2 Steely Tenacity