Hopefully, for the next few months I’ll be able to do one of these every month. This months 6 pt Strategy will focus on an all-Tzimisce strategy. Future months will hopefully also display a strategy for a single clan, 6 cards that work together to form a masterpiece.
GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE:
This deck was originally constructed by Joe Churchhill on "March 2001." After trying it out I added the modifacations to it that I have written about in this article. To check out the original deck or comment to the original creator, go here: http://www.warghoul.com/storage/decks/bloodcontrol.shtml
Weather Control
Type: Combat
Discipline: Thaumaturgy
Text:
“Only usable before range is determined on the first round.
Basic Level: Both combatants and each of their retainers take 1 damage before range is determined each round. This damage cannot be prevented. A vampire can play only 1 Weather Control each combat.
Superior Level: As above, but the amount of damage inflicted increases by 1 each round.”
Blood Form
Type: Combat
Discipline: Vicissitude
Text:
“Basic Level: Strike: combat ends, only usable when in combat with an ally.
Superior Level: Play before range is chosen. This vampire is immune to non-aggravated damage for the current round. This vampire cannot strike this round. This vampire gets an optional press, usable only to end combat.”
[[Writer’s Comment]]: Ok, so at this point, as long as you’ve got a minion with but Superior Vicissitude and Superior Thaumaturgy, you can basically win any combat with that minion, PERIOD. There are two weaknesses so far. First, if your opponent has a card that will END the combat, or if some how they can do aggravated damage at rates faster than your cumulative Weather damage, then this combo will not win the combat for you. Additionally, you’ll need a LOT of Bloodforms in your deck, since you’ll need a different one each round of combat. I’m thinking like 25-50% of the Library should be Bloodform. Keep in mind, the Weather Control text only limits the number of them you can play per combat in the BASIC level. At superior level, you can drop as many of those as you like, and the damage is cumulative. To make it even better, the damage you deal with this is unpreventable, so Fortitude based cards will not save your opponent's minions-- in fact, your own minion IS taking the damage from Weather Control, but is then immune to the damage...
Drawing Out the Beast:
Type: Combat
Discipline: Animalism
Text:
”Only usable before range is determined on the first round. Basic Level: During this combat, opposing vampire gets +1 strength, but he or she cannot use maneuvers to maneuver to long range, cannot use presses to end combat, and cannot use equipment. A vampire may play only one Drawing Out the Beast each combat. Superior Level: As above, and the opposing vampire takes 1 damage during the press step each round. This damage cannot be prevented.”
[[Writer’s Comment]]: Now our combat portion of the combo is complete, as this card can be played at the very beginning to force the enemy minion to stay in combat for the duration, which means until they die.
Bums Rush
Type: Action
Text:
“Do not replace until the end of this action.
(D) Enter combat with a minion controlled by another Methuselah. Acting minion gets an optional maneuver only usable during this combat.”
[[Writer’s Comment]]: Now it’s all crystallized. This card actually is necessary, as without it your opponent can simply keep choosing not to intercept your minions, making the combat combo useless. Now that you’ve added this to the mix, you can just pick one minion of theirs per turn to selectively kill. Worst case scenario, they get another of their minions to intercept this directed action… Which just means that you’re killing a different minion, but that minion is still dying, so who cares?
Recruitment:
Type: Master
Pool Cost: 2
Text:
“Search your crypt for a vampire. Show it to all players and place it face down in your uncontrolled region. Reshuffle your crypt afterwards.”
[[Writer’s Comment]]: This card is there only so that you can ensure that you get the right Minion, the one that has both Vicissitude and Thaumaturgy at superior levels. Which brings us to…
Sascha Vykos, The Angel of Caine:
Type: Minion
Clan: Tzimisce
Capacity: 8
Title: Priscus
Disciplines: ani, dom, AUS, THA, VIC
[[for those not familiar with this format, lowercase means basic level, and capitalized means superior levels]].
Ability:“When a vampire opposing Sascha in combat goes to torpor, you may choose to increase your hand size by 2 for the remainder of the turn. This ability can be used only once per turn.”
[[Writers’ Comment]]: Boom! This is the card that brings it all together. It’s a powerful minion with both Vicissitude and Thaumaturgy at Superior levels, able to drop the combo at any time, as well as Basic Dominate (which I'll discuss further down.)
ONE ALTERNATIVE CARD:
Sorry, I know this is supposed to be 6 cards, but there’s one more card that either needs to be included as a 7th card, or which can Replace either the Bum’s Rush or Recruitment or Drawing Out the Beast. I would personally recommend using it as a 7th card… Of course, it’s perfectly fine to just leave it out entirely. The above 6 cards will do fine on their own, but this one is nice to have around too.
Theft of Vitae:
Type: Combat
Discipline: Thaumaturgy
Text:
“Basic Level: Strike: Ranged: steal 1 blood.
Superior Level: Strike: Ranged: steal 2 blood.
[[Writer’s Comment]]: Add this to the mix, and not only does Sascha kill any vampire in existence, but also gains blood for it. Nice… You could also use this next one, though I recommend the Theft for the sake of dependability.
Taste of Vitae:
Type: Combat
Text:“Only usable at the end of a round of combat. Not usable by a vampire going into torpor. This vampire gains an amount of blood equal to the amount lost by the opposing vampire to damage during this round of combat. A vampire can play only 1 Taste of Vitae each round.”
[[Writer’s Comment]]: This is basically the same thing, but doesn’t require Thaumaturgy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t steal the blood like Theft does. And it requires that you do some damage, so it is only usable when you’ve got the Weather Control booming out, otherwise you’ll only gain 1 blood per round, and will likely be taking much more than that, since their deck will probably have actual damage booster cards like the Potence cards.
THE REST OF THE DECK:
This deck has one very SERIOUS flaw… It relies entirely on Sascha Vykos. Seriously, if you don’t get that one out… you’re TOAST. It really doesn’t matter what minions you get out, if they’re not THAT one, it’s all for nothing. The Recruitment helps with that. However, it is still a good idea to have between 2 and 4 of this minion in your Crypt. So what about the rest of the Crypt? I have some suggestions, but they aren’t that stellar.
Violet Tremain is a 6-cap Tzimisce with basic Vicissitude, Thaumaturgy, and Dominate. Her special ability can lower the capacity of minions she fights, but only if she does hand damage (so not usable with the combo until after the second combat round…)
Virstania, The Great Mother is a 7-cap Tremere Antitribu with basic Vicissitude and superior Thaumaturgy, and basic dominate.
Lolita Houston is a 4-cap Tzimisce with superior Vicissitude but no Thaumaturgy. [[so this minion could block and then take no damage as a way of stalling until you get Vykos out]].
Ana Rita Montana is a 5-cap Tzimisce with superior Vicissitude and basic dominate.
In other words, you need enough Recruitments in your Library to be able to make SURE that you get Sascha out soon.
Now, additionally, two other Master cards can help this situation out, but it requires significant investment.
Vicissitude is a Master phase action which increases the capacity of a vampire by 1 and gives them a level of Vicissitude (so it turns 0 to basic, and basic to superior). Having some of these in your deck would allow you to turn your basic vic minions into greater powerhouses. OR if you had some Tremere Antitribu in there and started giving them vicissitude, then…
Thaumaturgy works the same as Vicissitude, but for the discipline Thaumaturgy, allowing you to turn your Tzimisce minions into whompers or to make your Tremere Antitribu small-minions into whomper-minions.
However, it is important to note that the more of these cards you have in the deck, the less often you’ll be drawing the Weather Control + Bloodform combo…
The other MAJOR FLAW in this deck is that it can block NOTHING unless you start putting in lots and lots of Auspex and Animalism intercept cards. But if you do that you’ll draw the needed combat combo even LESS often. So it needs a better way to stop your opponent, one that can be done with much fewer cards from your library.
Deflection is a reaction card that requires the discipline Dominate at basic level or superior. That’s why I mentioned the dominates up there, and why Sascha is so darn perfect! Deflection is played by one of your minions when you are being bled, and changes the target of the Bleed action. So put 8 of these in a deck and you’ll never actually have to block, you’ll just ensure that your Predator always hits your Prey for you. This DOES require an untapped vampire, with basic dominate… So that makes it all the more important that you’ve got some smaller minions around with that ability.
Along with that weakness, this deck can do nothing against political decks. It has very few titles, no political cards, and no intercept cards you can use to block their political attempts. BUT—remember that Bums Rush allows you to target which minions you take out… So all you have to do is be selective and kill all their titled vampires first if they’re going political.
The final comment I’d like to leave for doing this is that it costs a lot of Pool to get things going. Sascha is an 8-cap vampire. Vicissitude and Thaumaturgy both cost you 1 Pool every time you play them… Therefore, it may be good to put in some cards like—
Blood Doll is a Master Phase card, which lets you steal one blood from the minion you put it on per turn. Put this on Sascha, and you’ll be able to take blood, and then have Sascha steal MORE blood from your opponent’s minions when it drops the Theft of Vitae.
Essentially then, this deck will simply Diablerize your opponent’s entire deck VERY quickly, but only after it’s got its set-up established. I love the fact that this deck will basically make it so that every time your opponent spends any resources, they’ll lose them the next turn and give them to you. Beware of Political decks, however.
NEXT TIME::
Nosferatu Antitribu POLITICAL deck…
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