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The idea is to appear non-threatening, shut down power-setup decks early, have staying power, and slowly build for the swarm bleed. The non-threatening part is fairly easy to see; the deck has no power combos nor dangerous-looking vampires whatsoever, and all of the anarch revolts have been phased out. The absence of oft-repeating cards becomes apparent to seasoned opponents fairly quickly, allowing for surprise while at the same time appearing non-relentless and thus not scary. Shutting down cheesy power-setups is something in which I take great delight, especially in tournaments, and nothing is better for that than to bring out a first-turn vamp with intercept and combat capability. This aspect of the deck was particularly useful in this tournament, allowing me to stop Adam from getting his allies out (in a deck that's frightfully powerful when it gets going) and keeping me from getting rolled over by a Presence-weenie bleed deck, which, I've heard, had dealt 14 pool damage in a previous round before its prey ever got out a vamp. As for staying power, most of the vampires are small enough that the deck's pool gain can almost keep pace with the cost of its minions past the first few -- plus, it's an intercept deck, with blockers to spare. What gives the deck its teeth (other than swarm potential) is that in combat, the Auspex weenies almost always deal a little more damage than is expected. Weighted walking sticks, lucky blows and pulled fangs may seem newbie-ish, but how often do you anticipate Franciscus to deal four damage in a single round? That surprise factor is what motivated this version of the deck, along with a cost-benefit theory: if your vampires are dealing out more damage than their capacity, you're probably winning.