Lasombra mid-cap bleed/vote

Greetings Methuselahs,

I'm looking for suggestions on a bleed/vote mid-cap Lasombra deck. Apart from general comments, I'd be especially interested in your opinions on:

a) How to reduce the deck to and below 80 cards.

b) What to do with the small combat module. Remove it completely? Replace with combat ends?

c) How to increase survivability in the early game, especially in terms of voting.

I'm mostly worried about two things regarding this deck. The first is combat rush, that is an obvious issue. The second is early political survival. If I am unlucky and none of the bishops, the priscus, or the lone cardinal are available from the start, I might be lacking the first votes necessary to push through the crusades and benedictions. I included three copies of Power Structure and hope the couple of Embraces and Tobias Smith's ability might help, but I am not convinced. Perhaps more Embraces? I'd like to keep the crypt as low as possible.


1. How do you intend to oust?

Depending on the table situation a mix of stealth bleeding (Governs) and voting (KRCs).

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

Redirect bleeds with Deflections, rely on own voting power for defense against politics and also bloat through Governs (if not spent on bleeing), Black Forest Base and occassional Boon. Some minimal intercept based on Abbot, Under Siege and Eyes of the Night. Combat rush might pose a big problem.

3. What do you want your ready region to look like (ie, how many guys are you planning on getting out)?

Two mid-caps (5-6) and one of the bigger guys (7 or 10) or three mid-caps at first, then if possible influence out another mid-cap. Potentially supplement with Embraces.



Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 10 average: 6.00

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2x Tobias Smith 7 DOM OBT PRE pot Lasombra:3
1x Bruce de Guy 10 AUS DOM FOR OBT Cardinal !Ventrue:4
1x Omme Enberbenight 7 MYT OBT cel dom Priscus Kiasyd:4
1x Black Wallace 6 DOM POT obt tha Lasombra:4
1x Isanwayen 6 DOM MYT OBT Kiasyd:4
1x Virginie, Prodigy 6 DOM POT obt Bishop Lasombra:4
1x Andrew Emory 5 OBT aus dom pot Bishop Lasombra:4
1x Dame Hollerton 5 DOM OBT myt Kiasyd:4
1x Dr. Julius Sutphen 5 POT dom obt Bishop Lasombra:3
1x Ermenegildo, The R 5 DOM OBT pot Lasombra:4
1x Lucy Markowitz 3 dom obt Lasombra:4

Library [85 cards]

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Action [14]
1x Abbot
10x Govern the Unaligned
2x The Embrace
1x Under Siege

Action Modifier [18]
1x Blanket of Night
1x Private Audience
8x Shadow Play
4x Shroud of Absence
4x Shroud of Night

Combat [8]
6x Arms of the Abyss
2x Disarm

Equipment [2]
1x Chalice of Kinship
1x Zaire River Ferry

Master [10]
2x Black Forest Base
1x Dominate
2x Elysian Fields
1x Obtenebration
1x Perfectionist
3x Power Structure

Political Action [16]
2x Cardinal Benediction
2x Consanguineous Boon
1x Crusade: Barcelona
1x Crusade: Berlin
1x Crusade: Mexico City
1x Investiture
8x Kine Resources Contested

Reaction [17]
8x Deflection
2x Eyes of the Night
7x On the Qui Vive

Thanks for any comments!

Heechee wrote:

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 10 average: 6.00

---

2x Tobias Smith 7 DOM OBT PRE pot Lasombra:3
1x Bruce de Guy 10 AUS DOM FOR OBT Cardinal !Ventrue:4
1x Omme Enberbenight 7 MYT OBT cel dom Priscus Kiasyd:4
1x Black Wallace 6 DOM POT obt tha Lasombra:4
1x Isanwayen 6 DOM MYT OBT Kiasyd:4
1x Virginie, Prodigy 6 DOM POT obt Bishop Lasombra:4
1x Andrew Emory 5 OBT aus dom pot Bishop Lasombra:4
1x Dame Hollerton 5 DOM OBT myt Kiasyd:4
1x Dr. Julius Sutphen 5 POT dom obt Bishop Lasombra:3
1x Ermenegildo, The R 5 DOM OBT pot Lasombra:4
1x Lucy Markowitz 3 dom obt Lasombra:4

Library [85 77 cards]

---

Action [14 9 ]
1x Abbot
10 9x Govern the Unaligned
2x The Embrace
1x Under Siege

Action Modifier [18 22 ]
1x Blanket of Night
1 3x Private Audience
3x Hall of Hades Court
8 4x Shadow Play
4x Shroud of Absence
4x Shroud of Night
2x Stone Travel (you have 3 Kiasyd, take advantage)
2x Tenebrous Form

Combat [8 4 ]
6x Arms of the Abyss
2x Disarm
4x Oubliette

Equipment [2 1 ]
1x Chalice of Kinship
1x Zaire River Ferry

Master [10 12 ]
2 1x Black Forest Base
1x Dominate
2 1x Elysian Fields
1x Creepshow Casino (if you're really concerned about stealth)
1x Obtenebration
1 2x Perfectionist
3 1x Power Structure
1x Powerbase: Madrid
4x Blood Doll
1x Political Hunting Ground

Political Action [16 15 ]
2x Cardinal Benediction (You really need the skill cards to make these work, timing is risky, so cut.)
2x Consanguineous Boon (Since you're not breed-boon, these may not pay off that well, especially with the mixed crypt.)
1x Crusade: Barcelona
1x Crusade: Berlin
1x Crusade: Mexico City
3x Crusade: cities of your choice
1x Investiture (This requires Cardinal/Regent, you have 1 and only tenuous ways to get another, which we should remove anyway. This goes too.)
8 7x Kine Resources Contested
2x Domain Challenge

Reaction [17 13 ]
8 4x Deflection
3x Redirection (you're going to be tapped anyway and have enough DOM)
2x Eyes of the Night
7 6x On the Qui Vive

Event [1]
1x Scourge of the Enochians

First, you aren't going to block anything. You can already defend against bleeds with bounce and you're either going to have vote lock or enough votes for negative vote control. What's left to block? Rushes? You don't want to be in combat. That frees up 4 card slots.

The Embraces are ehh. You're not a breed-boon deck, so unless you get them at the beginning of the game, you'll want something else to come into your hand every time you see one. So, put something better in instead.

You need to get extra votes fast, but you do have some titles. So, Powerbase: Madrid is a good double for Power Structure. The Private Audience and Hall of Hades Court help get the titles in place. There was too much setup for the Cardinal Benediction and Investiture votes. Go with the standard crusades.

I added Blood Dolls for early game bloat and late-game minion survival. Another Perfectionist and a HG to help with blood cost. This is also why I switch to Stone Travel and Redirection, in hopes to mitigate some blood loss. You might want to consider even more Redirection than what I added, depending on how much blood you need. The Coven is also a good choice, you don't really care about your opponents' vampires' blood.

Combat package is all defense, S:CE. You could forego that completely if you just want to trade hands every time.

I got the deck down to 77 cards and feel that it's less tenuous than it was before.

I'm not sold on Bruce de Guy for this deck. He's awesome, but so big. I'd rather double up on the Priscus and swap a Tobias for Dr Julia ADV.

I would definitely go for Shadow Body instead of Oubliette in decks that are not even pseudo combatty.

Also, thanks - now I really want to build a Black Hand Anarch midcap Obtenebration bleed+vote deck!

I never asked for this!

Almost every action this deck intends to take cannot be continued with Shadow Body. Since the cost is the same, the occasional damage from Oubliette is more important.

kschaefer wrote:

Almost every action this deck intends to take cannot be continued with Shadow Body. Since the cost is the same, the occasional damage from Oubliette is more important.

Ugh, sorry, I forgot that it can't be used in political actions either...

My bad!

Kraus wrote:

I never asked for this!

on topic:
I agree with suggestions above.

Your combat package should focus on surviving rushes from combat decks since you never want to block anything, so either combat ends or shadow strikes. (because mere combat ends will get destroyed against potence-combat with immortal grapples. Same goes for arms of the abyss)

I would add maybe something more to get blood to your minions, since lot of your cards cost blood (stealth, combat ends, deflections, zaire river ferry etc). That coven might be an option.

Maybe 1 information highway which helps speed up the first rounds and bloats better with governs.