Harbinger Tap and Bleed help?

I see that you are in Lodi, not terribly far away from the bay area. There are people who simi-regularly meet on Wednesdays in Berkeley at a game store called Eudemonia. You may be able to convince them to part with some common cards, or to buy some from them. There are occasional tournaments and if there was much interest I imagine people might meet on a weekend to play.

Here is their Facebook group: Powerbase Berkeley: a Vtes playgroup

The best bang for your buck is always to buy a collection from a retiring player, probably not on Ebay (shipping, not being able to see what is in the collection, little accountability if they cherry picked all the rares).

Deck Name: HoS Tap and bleed v2
Author: Jakob Haley
Description:

Let's try this again. Here's the bare bones of what I think the deck NEEDS to run.
I've modified the crypt to be easy player frinedly, and have completly taken the dominate angle out.
Camera phones and Trochomancy along with more spiritual divinations have also been added.
Is Antideluvian Awakening worth it to put a "clock" on the game?
I have no NEC Strike combat ends. Any work arounds other than Elysium?
Thanks for the input fellas.

Note: I play against a Malk bleed, a Gangrel combat and a toreador guns/aching beauty deck, so you know what my meta is like.

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=6 max=7 avg=6.666667)
==================
4x Egothha 7 obf AUS FOR NEC Harbinger of Skulls:2
4x Gisela Harden, The Winnower 7 aus dem FOR NEC Harbinger of Skulls:2
4x Agaitas, The Scholar of Antiquities6 for AUS NEC Harbinger of Skulls:2

Master (26 cards)
==================
2x Elysium: The Arboretum
1x Fragment of the Book of Nod
2x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Giant's Blood
2x KRCG News Radio
2x Legendary Vampire
1x Maabara
1x Archon Investigation
5x Misdirection
1x Necromancy
1x Rack, The
1x Barrens, The
6x Blood Doll

Action (15 cards)
==================
2x Force of Will
1x Pulse of the Canaille
4x Rapid Healing
2x Restoration
2x Whispers from the Dead
4x Computer Hacking

Action Modifier (18 cards)
==================
3x Freak Drive
10x Trochomancy
3x Call of the Hungry Dead
2x Day Operation

Action Modifier/Reaction (7 cards)
==================
7x Spectral Divination

Combat (7 cards)
==================
2x Hidden Strength
5x Rolling with the Punches

Equipment (6 cards)
==================
4x Camera Phone
2x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers

Reaction (8 cards)
==================
4x Telepathic Misdirection
4x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Yeah, I'm in Lodi. I don't make it to the bay much because of work, so I'm trying to get my little grassroots group going.
I'd love to go to some tournaments though.

xXLazarusXx wrote:

Master (26 cards)
==================
2x Elysium: The Arboretum
1x Fragment of the Book of Nod
2x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Giant's Blood
2x KRCG News Radio
2x Legendary Vampire
1x Maabara
1x Archon Investigation
5x Misdirection
1x Necromancy
1x Rack, The
1x Barrens, The
6x Blood Doll

26 is a horrifying number of master cards to have in a 90 card deck that doesn't have any trifles or Parthenons etc. Less than 20 would be preferable.

Regarding:

2x Elysium: The Arboretum

And

I have no NEC Strike combat ends. Any work arounds other than Elysium?

Elysium: The Arboretum is not a workaround for you. Its text changed many, many years ago so that the combat ending element of it says:

(Plus the burn action.)

You're not playing Camarilla vampires, and even if you were it's very difficult to justify including it because you don't know that the combat deck(s) you're facing will be using Camarilla vampires - or even vampires, with things like War Ghoul or Shambling Hordes.

Which also makes me wonder about:

5x Misdirection

Are you aware that Misdirection costs 1 pool and taps 1 minion? (Not X and X.)

1x Necromancy

Why is this in the deck? Your crypt is:

4x Egothha 7 obf AUS FOR NEC Harbinger of Skulls:2
4x Gisela Harden, The Winnower 7 aus dem FOR NEC Harbinger of Skulls:2
4x Agaitas, The Scholar of Antiquities6 for AUS NEC Harbinger of Skulls:2

So they all have NEC.

1x Fragment of the Book of Nod
1x Maabara
1x Rack, The

All three have significant burn/steal actions, and you're not playing very block-y Harbingers. (You could be, but you're not.) So be live to the possibility that you may be playing them, just for a weenie combat deck or a deck with a bunch of Obfuscate to foil you. You probably don't want to be spending actions stealing The Rack back, given you can have (at most) three minions out.

xXLazarusXx wrote:

2x Force of Will
1x Pulse of the Canaille
...
4x Computer Hacking
...
4x Camera Phone
2x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers

Taking these together, this is a potentially somewhat awkward package. Pulse of the Canaille is extremely expensive. Computer Hacking, Camera Phone and Codex conflict somewhat with each other - each generates its own action, they don't stack.

I would consider swapping out at least two permanent cards for two bleed retainers - JS Simmons and Tasha Morgan - because those can stack, and are free, and don't have huge drawbacks (like Codex does). Pulse would probably be my first target. That might change if you see a lot of gun combat in your environment, or other ranged combat, and people are likely to take potshots at the retainers from range.

I would also think hard about Force of Will. Given you can only have at most three vampires out, you may find yourself in a risky situation where you send one of your vampires to torpor and then try to rescue it - providing a very tempting target for an opponent to try and block, and you may not have a backup vampire. There is a time and a place for Force of Will, but with such a limited crypt, I would caution against it.

xXLazarusXx wrote:

10x Trochomancy

10 is quite a lot of Trochomancies. Particularly early in the game, you may find that you have a slow prey, or a prey playing a lot of permanents (e.g. an Imbued prey). Finding 7 or 14 cards (i.e. two Trochomancies) in your prey's ash heap may be quite tricky.

This isn't necessarily "don't play them", but do think carefully about card flow - yours, and your prey's.

Thanks for your input.

I'll start at the top.
I intend to cut down my number of masters, I'm just posting drafts as I build/change the cards

Elysium has to go then, but you didn't really suggest anything to give me the combat ends mechanic with Sabbat vampires. Anything you can suggest to fill that would be great.
Also, I didn't mean to include the "necromancy " discipline card.
There's a limitation on this deck that Im using the group 2 harbingers. It's one of the first things addressed in the rest of the post.
Which block oriented harbingers were you referencing? No matter the group I'll take a look at them.
I have the other 2 (unre and Maria) group 2 vampires, but they are costly. I'll probably end up with one copy of both in the crypt.

Was going to cut the computer hacking for J.S. and Tasha, your right about the stacking.

I know misdirection is not x for x. So, what other options are we going to get the tap part of tap and bleed? I've got 2 trouble makers and jar the soul, anything else?

I've cut it down to one of the codex and no pulse, but Trochomancy is the bread and butter of this deck, though I think 6 might do it.. How would you suggest I "mill" more to make this more effective? (Other than slaughterhouses)
Do you think this deck needs more intercept generation? I know harbingers make a good wall deck.