Harbingers Laibon Bleed

+2 Maabara

Jeff wrote:

+2 Maabara

Seconded! The card is too good!

Can I suggest you modify your deck in a reply, instead of editing your original deck list? Someone starting the thread from the beginning won't be able to follow the discussion very well.

KoKo wrote:

The Board:

About the crypt. Babalawo has all three in-clan disciplines at superior and I do not plan on having more than 2-3 minions in play at a time so Bablawo with Mina or Solomon and maybe a 4-cap is what I really want to see on the board.

This is not a good plan. You should plan on at least four minions. Besides Laibonosity, the main advantage of 3/4 HoS is midcappiness. Missing disciplines really isn't that big of a deal when you have enough minions in play to balance offense/defense. Zygodat is perfectly serviceable.

KoKo wrote:

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 7 average: 5.9

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4x Babalawo Alafin 7 AUS FOR NEC ani Harbinger:4
2x Mina Grotius 6 FOR NEC cel Harbinger:3
2x Solomon Batanea 5 AUS FOR nec Harbinger:4
2x Nicomedes 5 aus for nec vic Harbinger:4
1x Maldavis 4 AUS for pre Caitiff:3
1x Prejudice 4 aus dom nec Nagaraja:4

Neighbor John is the better Maldavis.

KoKo wrote:

Combat [6]
6x Spiritual Intervention

Problem with relying on this for combat is that you aren't remotely threatening to anyone nor do you have any staying power whatsoever against combat. Now, my group 3/4 HoS efforts aren't significantly more threatening, though I did have an answer for a Hardestadt deck with Zip Gun, which also gives some defense against Shamblers, War Ghouls, random close range combat. While a faster deck may not have to worry much about combat, I don't see this deck moving fast enough to get combat decks before they get you.

KoKo wrote:

Master [11]
3x Ancestor Spirit
2x Blood Doll
1x Coven, The
2x Jake Washington (Hunter)
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Perfectionist

Masters are way too precious to play so few. For contrast, here's what I ran the last time I played 3/4 HoS:

Master (16 cards)
1 Anarch Troublemaker
1 Archon Investigation
1 Barrens, The
5 Blood Doll
1 Direct Intervention
1 Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1 Mbare Market, Harare
1 Pentex Subversion
2 Perfectionist
1 Powerbase: Tshwane
1 Wash

I would, of course, make some changes. Lilith's Blessing would go in as a recovery tool as the game grinds on. Sudden over Wash these days if I played either. A second Archon would have been huge in the finals of the tournament I played this in, but that's metagame dependent. Probably couldn't squeeze in Dreams. I do like your use of Jake as an additional blood source, though Lilith's is so good.

Heidelberg is essential. Note that I don't play Ancestor Spirit at all. It can't be Heidelberged, it can only target some of my crypt, all it does is give +1 bleed, and it takes up a master slot for something I can do with non-masters.

KoKo wrote:

Reaction [13]
6x Eyes of Argus
3x My Enemy's Enemy
4x Telepathic Misdirection

More forward bounce and more wakes. The answer to how you get bleeds through with little stealth is that you follow the trail opened up by your predator's bounced bleeds. More wakes means you can take more actions and not die.

Dorrinal wrote:

Jeff wrote:

+2 Maabara

Seconded! The card is too good!

Can I suggest you modify your deck in a reply, instead of editing your original deck list? Someone starting the thread from the beginning won't be able to follow the discussion very well.

"Too good" by being so bad that nobody bothers to burn it. I should just play it figuring no one will care and, therefore, I'll somehow manage to get use out of it. But, then, I could play The Erciyes Fragments, The Rack, Fragment of the Book of Nod, even Smiling Jack and have a similar experience.

It is harder to follow changes to posts.

Trochomancy works just dandy if you put in Slaughterhouses and use Zygodat. That boy is built for a Trochomancy Deck. In response, I should put up my Trochomancy Bleeder just to highlight the point. It's basically G3-4 HoS + Sennadurek. It grinds down preys by milling them slowly, reducing bleeds and blocking non-bleed actions. You'd be surprised just how effective Zygodat + 1-2 Slaughterhouses can be to mill down your prey. If you see an Anthelios, then you know that your first choices for removed cards with Trochomancy is every last Master card. It's even better when you hit those nice generally useful cards that many decks can rely upon (Voter Caps, Minion Taps/Villeins, Wakes, Intercept, Flick...).

Maabara is actually very good and a good reason to keep down your Master Cards (since it chews up MPAs to put the card on your library) but it will also protect cards from others' possibly ashheap interference (since you can tap it to move ashheap cards out). Most people don't bother with going after it (for some reason) and also they tend not to do that when you have a gun or two, a little fortitude and things like Abbot and light intercept on top. I've been able to keep drawing reduce or wakes (e.g. Eyes of Argus) time after time with Maabara.

A few thoughts on the suggestions. Maabara. It's expensive as Hell! It takes a MPA and, especially, if I start running 16 masters like some have suggested, will end up clogging my hand with Masters that will never see play. This is also why I don't run more than 10-12 Masters EVER. The average game rarely last beyond twelve turns and the last thing I want to do is clog on cards that I won't be able to play anyway. I would consider it in low Master count decks but I have better things to do here, specifically, keeping blood on my vamps so that they can play the expensive cards the make the deck work (Freak, Revelations, Stealth).

About Trochomancy. Still not convinced. Ancestor's Insight gives +1 bleed instead of +2 but can double as bleed reduction. Other than requiring a Laibon, it does not require a specific vamp or any precious Masters for it to do so. Trochomancy is one of those cards, IMHO that need a deck built around them to use properly. This isn't it and there are available alternatives.

Also note that this will not be a 90-card deck so the ratios, such as in the defense module, for example, have been scaled accordingly. I have decent experience playing 70 card libraries and some of these modules, such as Master/reaction, are tuned in a way that they don't hinder card flow.

Having said that I will consider Zygodat. But with mid-caps, I still don't see myself paying for more than 3 minions and 18-19 pool worth of minions (three) is rather expensive.