Maureen and Heralds

Description: Use Maureen to get Heralds of Topheth at reduced cost. Rush, bleed and deflect to victory. I would not have won, but it seems everyone else decided to also go for "fun" decks over "good" decks. This deck is a little at odds with my play style in that I normally like to give my prey enough rope to hang himself with. When I get a couple Heralds out, I really can't afford to sit around waiting for the game to develop to my liking, but I still tend to try to play that way anyway. I think I got lucky in that my predators in the first two rounds and the final simply weren't able to do a lot to me. Six copies of Maureen and I didn't draw her in my opening crypt in the finals! I played six copies because I only expected to get out two vampires due to the high cost of maintaining Heralds. Never got out Assad or Black Lotus, but Catherine, Robin and Cristos did an admirable job bouncing bleeds and bleeding. I normally build 90 card decks just because I like to play a lot of cards. This one probably could've gone down to 70 without any problems. I never came close to decking myself at 78 cards. Obviously, I didn't build this one at 90 because I wanted to draw the Heralds reliably. I went for Legals over Conditionings because the Heralds can play them. I don't think I ever had them play these as they were too busy rushing. Contagion was key in round 1 for weakening the table to the point where I could win with limited bleed power. No superior obf in the crypt so I got blocked a few times. Fortunately, I didn't face any heavy intercept except in round 2 when my predator had Jaroslav with a Sport Bike and two intercept locations. Lucky for me he couldn't draw enough Wakes to stop me from getting out Heralds and also defend against his predator. Didn't get much use out of Carlton or the Mystic, but they're good in theory. The Heralds were great, even against the heavy combat other decks were playing. The fact that they regenerate and can always hit for 3 (plus play Conflagration!) meant I could wear down the opposition. When one died, I'd just have Maureen get another. It's not the initial cost that is prohibitive, it's the infernal tax. Grapples were only important in round 1 when I preyed on a Majesty deck. Otherwise, all the decks I faced were pretty dedicated to dealing out pain rather than avoiding it. The Conflagrations were very good, especially since Maureen can play them too. I might've added Disarms, but didn't really need them. Hitting for 3 or 5 per combat is usually sufficient. Saved me in round 1 when my prey called an Ancilla Empowerment. If I hadn't won that game, I wouldn't have had my choice of seat in the finals. I had considered adding Dragonbound, but decided against it because of how defenseless my vampires are in this deck. After the way Josh's Dragonbound worked for me in the finals, I might reconsider that. I had luck with Giant's Blood, getting mine first most of the time. Jake helped a lot as a free blocker (with Unmasking!). I don't think I ever ate him. Fames gave me the table in round 2. Ruins was played once, but I didn't get any use out of it. Mob Connections goes well with Heralds, but I put a little too much effort into defending it in round 3 and lost a Heralds to Lazverinus' mighty strike. I was expecting heavy stealth bleed, so I jammed 10 Deflections into a 78 card deck. Instead I found heavy combat and so these weren't actually that much use. Still, at the rate this deck hemmorages pool, bouncing bleeds of 1 is even worthwhile.