Ancilla Empowerment: Newark TWD

Ancilla Empowerment
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/8886
Newark, OH
May 20, 2018
15 Players, 2R + F
1 GW 4 VP + 3 VP in finals.

Deck Name: Dream a Little Dream
Author: Karl Schaefer
Description: A Sabbat variant of my 'Vitel and Friends' deck.

This deck was played in an environment that almost never sees Ashur Tablets. The goal is to have a complete set of Ashur Tablets by the mid-game, but the second set (each coming with less than 3 cards left in my library) proved key to each game win that I earned. My intent was mostly to recycle Dreams of the Sphinx, Dream World, and stealth, which happened for the first set. The second sets were all stealth as the environment had more intercept than I expected.

Sunset Strip, Hollywood was key to my Blood Doll farming in game two, but all my Dolls were Vesseled away in the finals. I managed to have vote lock or with Powerbase: Madrid enough votes to pass my Con Boons whenever I wanted them. In the finals I had 14 minions. With the plus-bleed from Dream World, I managed to get Procurers in on the bleed action, too, which is one reason I use them over other tech.

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=2 max=9 avg=4.25)
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3x Alicia Barrows 9 AUS DEM OBF POT PRE Malkavian antitribu:4
2x Stavros 7 dem AUS OBF PRE Malkavian antitribu:4
1x General Perfidio Dios 5 dem obf AUS Malkavian antitribu:3
2x Fabrizia Contreraz 4 dem pot Malkavian antitribu:4
1x Blister 3 obf pot Nosferatu antitribu:4
1x Bloodfeud 2 obf Malkavian antitribu:4
1x Old Neddacka 2 obf Nosferatu antitribu:4
1x Denette Stensen 2 obf Gangrel antitribu:4

Library: 75 cards

Master (23 cards)
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1x Hungry Coyote, The
5x Obfuscate
6x Ashur Tablets
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Madrid
1x Sunset Strip, Hollywood
5x Blood Doll
3x Dreams of the Sphinx

Action (10 cards)
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7x Creation Rites
3x Dream World

Action Modifier (16 cards)
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2x Elder Impersonation
2x Faceless Night
2x Lost in Crowds
2x Spying Mission
3x Veil the Legions
3x Cloak the Gathering
2x Domain of Evernight

Action Modifier/Combat (2 cards)
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2x Swallowed by the Night

Action Modifier/Reaction (2 cards)
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2x Gift of Sleep

Political Action (3 cards)
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3x Consanguineous Boon

Ally (7 cards)
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1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
6x Procurer

Reaction (12 cards)
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3x Eyes of Argus
2x My Enemy's Enemy
3x On the Qui Vive
4x Telepathic Misdirection

Sybil's Tongue seems to be a perfect card for this deck. Did you consider it?
Though you won without it, but it just can make the difference.

I looked at all the !Malkavian stuff when I put this together, but I was concerned that tutoring a Dream World or Veil the Legions would cost me an action that I needed to go forward and would just mean I was setting myself up for next turn. In practice it might have been useful. There were a few turns in the finals where I was hunting (a lot). Some to fill up some Blood Dolls before they finally got Vesseled away, some to give my minions some breathing room because the intercept was high and I needed to sacrifice some pieces, but also to have them do something when I didn't want to go forward because I wasn't ready to. Sibyl's might have let me jump on my prey faster and not hunt so much.

I think removing a Procurer in favor or Sibyl's or another Dream World is a good idea, but this is a deck for patient play with large lunges.

My old Procurer deck used Vessels over Blood Dolls because:

1) Trifle meant I could get more of them into play, and didn't need to worry about them being destroyed by other players' Vessels
2) Killing other players' Blood Dolls is useful for a deck that usually lounges and then lunges, like this one
3) That deck used Jeremy Talbot, who essentially has a free hunting ground for himself if he's got a Vessel (this won't apply if you want to keep the crypt all Sabbat)

Not sure if your deck needs any improvement, but thought I'd suggest replacing some/all of your Blood Dolls with Vessels for the above reasons, as well as to avoid a repeat of what happened during your final table.