Scobax Wall

Deck Name : Scobax v3.2
Author : MSummers
Description : Noob never die, never oust deck.

1. How do you intend to oust?

Smiling Jack is the intended method, with Fame as supplementary damage as well as having the built-in bleed potential from the Hordes.

2. How do you intend to keep from being ousted?

Multiple uses of Scobax at superior Striga to prevent any forward motion from predator.
Scobax
Type: Reaction
Requires: Striga / Presence

 Reduce a bleed against you by 1.

[str] The acting minion gets -1 stealth. [str] is not a Discipline.

[STR] As [str] above, and the action ends immediately (unsuccessfully) unless the acting minion burns 1 blood or life.



3. What do you want your ready region to look like?

Count on 4 Hordes, 5 if I am feeling comfortable.



4. What do you want your average turn to look like?

Play a Striga trifle, another Master card and go straight to discard.



5. What's your metagame like? How do your opponents play?

I only get to play at tri annual conventions with the LA group for the most part, this means there are top tier decks like girls and weenie animalism, stealth bleeders, but overall, I would say there is more combat than not, and everyone has at least a little intercept if not more.



6. What problems have you observed with the deck in play?

-This is the third version of this deck, and the biggest problem was the lack of ousting power.

-I can usually get close to a single oust, but the deck has never taken a VP.

-Deck also has never been ousted.

-When 75 cards, the deck ran out of cards, and does still at 90, albiet usually at the two hour mark.

-There is a point usually around midgame where I start to get hand jam on Master Cards, despite being able to drop

3 a turn. (Trifle, Master, Discard) Three Parthenons were added as well as the Dreams and the Fragment to assist

with card flow.

-Despite having the allies, I've never actually used them. The previous incarnations of the deck included an Impundulu/Gregory Winters/Young Bloods to assist with the blood loss of other vampires, as well as a Neighborhood Watch Commander to (in theory) hit them after their action fails. In games I never find the risk of losing a Horde worth the action to recruit an ally, so they are usually discarded, and the one Masca (2 Stealth) was added.

-The Anthelios is new, with the idea to give the Striga masters worth after I have all I need and specifically for the Path of Evil Revelations recursion, but Anthelios also makes me worried about pool recursion cards for my prey being able to reuse them.





Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 3 average: 3



12x Horde, The     3  dai obf pre   Baali:6





Library [90 cards]



Action Modifier [1]

1x Masca



Ally [2]

1x Ossian

1x Veneficti (Mage)



Event [1]

1x Anthelios, The Red Star



Master [34]

1x Dreams of the Sphinx

2x Fame

1x Fragment of the Book of Nod

2x Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter

3x Parthenon, The

1x Path of Evil Revelations

1x Pentex(TM) Subversion

1x Powerbase: Chicago

1x Powerbase: Montreal

3x Smiling Jack, The Anarch

18x Striga



Reaction [52]

52x Scobax

Maybe for the first time, i do not know what to say to make a deck better, or even, workable to some extent. It has zero forward momentum, if somebody contests Smiling jack with you cannot possibly win.
Also, a player with Pappilon or a random giant's blood can ruin your day quickly.

A couple of months ago, i played a game with Ben Peal in which he used a similar concept to yours : He played weenie !Salubri with 50ish Hide the heart. His masters were, apart from the regular wall stuff, lots of suddens and washes (as he explained, to counter evil bloodgaining masters which refill vampires after you have spent 5-6 reactions to empty out). He used camera phones, sticks and eye of unforgiving heaven with some light prevent to go forward with his 4-5 !Salubri. The deck didn't really fare well, but had decent success, mostly at pissing off entire table .

But, you, being infernal, do not have the commodity to tap out to bleed for one, or even equip camera phone. You pose not a single threat in combat (unlike !Salubri, who can give a good whack to a bloodless minions), and you have no bounce or intercept to handle powerful actions that DO go through.

Maybe simply adding unnamed would help? He can equip homunculus to keep him untapped for scobax, he can constantly bleed, equip enkil cog, maybe Blithe acceptance. Also, he provides combat relevance with his in-built aggro damage, and has excellent synergy with Masca?
Plus, he can make all your hordes free with tend the flock?
Just a thought?

Stuff in a bunch of Gehenna, since you aren't playing disciplines

Pendargon wrote:

Maybe for the first time, i do not know what to say to make a deck better, or even, workable to some extent. It has zero forward momentum, if somebody contests Smiling jack with you cannot possibly win.
Also, a player with Pappilon or a random giant's blood can ruin your day quickly.

A couple of months ago, i played a game with Ben Peal in which he used a similar concept to yours : He played weenie !Salubri with 50ish Hide the heart. His masters were, apart from the regular wall stuff, lots of suddens and washes (as he explained, to counter evil bloodgaining masters which refill vampires after you have spent 5-6 reactions to empty out). He used camera phones, sticks and eye of unforgiving heaven with some light prevent to go forward with his 4-5 !Salubri. The deck didn't really fare well, but had decent success, mostly at pissing off entire table .

But, you, being infernal, do not have the commodity to tap out to bleed for one, or even equip camera phone. You pose not a single threat in combat (unlike !Salubri, who can give a good whack to a bloodless minions), and you have no bounce or intercept to handle powerful actions that DO go through.

Maybe simply adding unnamed would help? He can equip homunculus to keep him untapped for scobax, he can constantly bleed, equip enkil cog, maybe Blithe acceptance. Also, he provides combat relevance with his in-built aggro damage, and has excellent synergy with Masca?
Plus, he can make all your hordes free with tend the flock?
Just a thought?

Thanks for your reply!

-More Path of Evil Revelations to be able to take actions? With the hordes built in bleed ability, only one needs to bleed successfully.

-Jack Contest would be terrible, but no more than a star vampire getting contested.

-Hunting grounds are really too slow to keep up with Scobax as you can use multiple on an action.

-Is hands against a minion with no blood not a combat threat?
Also Ossian rushing Famous Vampires or blocking a Vampire with low blood count.

-Scobax gives negative stealth to the action, so a horde can block pretty much anything when an action is at negative 4 stealth. Most powerful actions don't get through.

The only real problem is a big fatty that gets it's first action through because I can only play an average of 4 Scobax, and cannot deplete it's blood in one go. The second action is usually fine. Not many people want to bring their 10 cap down 4 blood plus whatever blood their action costs to complete it.

-I like that you mentioned the unnamed. Trying every possible angle I can think of to get this to work I looked at that vampire too. While it slows down the deck considerably, it does add a little more forward momentum, albeit not much. The biggest additions with that was the pool gain with it's bleed and the mentioned Tend the Flocks.

This version was essentially stripped to the engine to get opinions.

Demnogonis wrote:

Stuff in a bunch of Gehenna, since you aren't playing disciplines

Taking out what?

Dr. Marisa Fletcher CDC, Restricted Vitae, Slow Withering and the Rising were all candidates, but half of those hurt hand size and Marisa Fletcher is a Milicent Smith with less control.

Well, but cross-table politics can hurt you plenty. Also, Smiling jack contest is far more likely than a star vampire contest, especially if there is a real wall somewhere on the table.

Rack, pappilon and giant's blood all make your day pain, as they deplete your scobax fast, and make you jam with masters.

Also, i feel you may be vulnerable on the start, until you hordes get quasiedisciplines.
Also, hordes bleed boost is not relevant, i feel, as each +1 bleed is paid with +1 pool, since you are infernal, and even then, it might get bounced, since you are hardly going to do it every turn. It is always better to bleed 4 times for 1, than one time for 4 tapping all 4 minions (or, at least, that is my view of things)

I would add:

2 or 3 Neighbourhood Watch Commanders (remember, these can do damage when anyone fails any action against anyone, and Scobax can help make sure that happens)
1 Society of Leopold
1 Hunger Moon (may not be necessary but might be fun)
1 Antedeluvian Awakening (in case Plan A i.e. Jack fails)
1 Veil of Darkness and/or Slow Withering
1 Vampiric Disease

Not sure what needs to come out to get those in.