The Sharks - !Brujah

The only thing I would change in this deck : try to make the crypt all sabbat, and triple Miguel santo domingo. He can enchant kindred every other vampire, and his special is very valuable in the end game to finish off your prey.

I have a very good experience with Miguel in a small blood brothers deck, which consisted in only combat and no bleed boost except Miguel's special (he was tooled up with a palatial estate and a blood doll to make things better).

Something like:
3x Miguel Santo Domingo
2x Sela
1x Rigby, Crusade Vanguard
1x Wah Chun-Yuen
1x Agatha
1x Hugo
1x Jimmy Dunn
1x Jacob Bragg
1x Frederick the Weak

Dorrinal wrote:

Something like:
...
1x Agatha
1x Jimmy Dunn
1x Jacob Bragg
1x Frederick the Weak

I'm interested mostly in these vampires, who can only play Pot or Pre. And Agatha and Frederick also lack Celerity, for the few splashes you have of that. I'd be tempted to swap Frederick or Agatha for someone more versatile, like Evangeline.

Also, assuming you're mostly staying with the free Presence actions and reasonable blood gain from Taste, I'd probably toss in a copy of Pentex Loves You. It's much more annoying - and possibly unnecessary - if you're already shelling out blood for Legal Manipulations or Public Trust, which some people have suggested.

Pentex Loves You could be a wonderful addition, but it's expensive. Definitely worth thinking about. I have considered removing one or both copies of Blur for Disarm, cutting down on the celerity cards. The intended effect is roughly the same: surprise, you're in torpor now!

In my playing experience, having 1 or 2 minions without is not a bad thing. Most of the Enchant Kindreds are spent at superior every game. The other minions are more likely to use the Bum's Rushes or be token blockers so all they need to do is be able to beat people up. That said, Evangeline keeps coming in and out of the deck as I tweak the crypt. She's always got a place as crypt filler.

Hey Dorrinal,

I read all of the posts, lets see if I can do a little bit of Deck Clinic for ya, particularly since we talked so much about it, it was one of my first tournament decks years ago, and I had to go against this monstrosity.

Background: Dorrinal's crypt is different then mine, but the original set up (forget what exactly) had a large number of spanish named vampires. Hence... The Sharks. My deck focused on Miguel special so it was about making sure Miguel always was filled with blood. ... I like Dorrinal's better.

Analysis:
1 - Your deck is based on the Enchant Chain... and that's fine. Every turn Miguel is enchanting down and the rest are doing their own thing. That is a gain 2 pool action and acceleration. You actually don't want to put crazy bleed in there, you want your prey to play the game, thus making it easier for you on your next prey. Not using resources to bleed with exception of Miguel blood is strong. And if you draw the enchants later, well... then go to town on the bleed train. It's always good to have options.

2 - Vampires - the crypt is okay... although the comment about being more Sabbat is true. My deck had bigger vampires but for your theme consider:
Mitchell, The Headhunter - instead of Arnold Simpson. Personally, I would actually use Evangline but pool is precious for a combat deck, could mean an extra minion.
Rigby, Crusade Vanguard - instead of Marlena. Yes is is true that you have pot instead of POT, but CEL PRE for a 5 cap is quite good. And is Brujah Anti. Again, my personal preference would be Jimmy Dunn, but I'm focusing on your enchant chain and Brujah Anti.
Sir Ralph Hamilton - I would actually ditch him. He can be enchanted down only by Miguel and doesn't fit your theme. Options are Julian Sanders, Amelia, or as we discussed, good ole Beast for the permament rush. Or you can just ditch him for a 3rd copy of Miguel, in my opinion.
Not sure why you doubled on Hugo.

3 - The master package is pretty good. You can't really go past 15 (no matter how much you want to). Options. Instead of Blood dolls, consider Villein or Tribute. Will talk about pool below. If you bring Miguel up to 3 then a Wider View is okay. Yawp Court is very strong, I would just add it to make it an even 15 masters.
Oh, since your bleed is strong already, you may want to consider Carver's meat packing instead of Tension. Stops some of that cross table rescue = chump blocker.

4 - Combat - there are so many ways to do combat I'm not going to really get into it. The only thing I will say is that you should always have more Immortal grapples then sign posts. And you should really consider spliting between Slams and Earthshocks.

5- Options: Giant's blood? Suddens for that pesky villein? But to be honest, its the voter cap that you want to stop. I would have some Delaying tactics and Yawp court. An interesting option is Gregory Winter. Can keep a minion in hunt lock and can burn minions. Another one that is strong is hunt denial. Strained Vitae supply, Restricted Vitae and Hunger Moon. Frontal Assault is another option but I don't know if you have the card slot.


Strategies:
Its a strong deck. All I can suggest is some plays that might improve your game.
- Dominate predator: I'm not sure about the exact ratio, but in general you should keep your pool above 12 and he should never have more then 2 dominate minions. NEVER. Rush the untapped guy always. He's just going to deflect and lunge... cause that is what they do.
- Vote deck: If they are the only votes on the table that's bad. But if there is some cross table votes, rush and diablrize is always an option.
- General: Bleed first with little guy. Get edge. Enchant down second. Rush third. But I think you already do this.



Okay analysis over! Remember, none of it is wrong dude. Just different. Try switching 10 cards each 1-2 games and see what you like.

Adam Hulse

Thanks for the analysis, Adam. You're not the first to suggest Delaying Tactics or Yawp Court. Would I be better served with DI, to handle other pesky cards like opposing Taste of Vitae? If you recall, canceling Kiss of Lachesis or Unleash Hell's Fury could have won me final games.