a winning deck

Howling Anarchs

TempleConcordance · Providence (RI), USA

February 1st 2008 · won by Matthew Morgan

score
format
2R+F
souls at table
12
twda id
2k8TempleConcordance
marginalia

Description: Continuing in my quest to with a tournament with every clan alphabetically, I had to put together an Ahrimanes deck. I hadn't ever played them much and generally felt like they were a decent clan, but Howler always goes to torpor, so that's a pretty major liability. I asked for some advice on the #vtes irc chat and eventually jhattara gave me the idea of playing your traditional blocking felines with some Anarch Revolts to speed the table up. Great idea! Still not having much experience with Ahrmanes, I basically copied David Quinonero's famous deck and shoehorned some Anarch Revolts. It turned out pretty well, if a little slow. I won my first round by the skin of my teeth and had to settle for a 2-2 split in the 2nd as my prey sort of ran away with the table. The deck was ideal for the more deliberately-played final and I won with 2.5VP. I decided to throw a couple small guys in, but in general they weren't super helpful. The deck is basically Howler with maybe The Siamese or Cynthia filling in if Howler is unwilling or unable to perform her duties. Not free and doesn't provide a press. Can we get some errata? The one time I tried to play this it was Suddened. The Anarch Revolts and Fame were responsible for both my game wins. I think I nailed a couple Blood Dolls with Vessels, but I mostly included them over Blood Dolls because I was worried about master hand jam. Didn't need Aranthebes because of a lack of weenie predators. I mostly played the Enchant Kindreds at inferior, so they might've been better bleed cards (Legal, Social, Entrancement?). 4x Nose of the Hound was pretty nice. Okay, so I actually got my firsts ousts in the games I won by bleeding for 2 at 1 stealth, but I like to think the Anarch Revolts and Fame are what got me there. These were pretty good for keeping things up close and personal with Flash Harrison. Never when I needed it. Sigh. Same with the Guardian Angel. This was mostly only good for backousting Jesse when he wouldn't let Howler out of a Pentex. I nearly lost the first game because I just couldn't draw any untap or intercept and my prey was getting away with murder for it. It's weird because this looks like plenty to me. The Murders are pretty good here in that they make up for the fact that the support crew have inferior Animalism (not too scary on its own) and let Howler save on blood by doing a good amount of damage from long range. Pretty light combat package, especially since 8 of those cards don't actually do anything to hurt the opponent or protect my minion. The deck obviously relies heavily on Howler's natural abilities and whatever permanents it can put together. Some Leapfrog or Majesty or something might've been good, but I didn't feel like there was room for it and it was more important to be able to hurt opposing minions.

the crypt

Vampires

12
  1. 4Howlerobfuscate — inferioranimalism — superiorpresence — superiorspiritus — superior
  2. 2Siamese, Theanimalism — inferiorprotean — inferiorpresence — superiorspiritus — superior
  3. 1Cynthia Ingoldanimalism — inferiorfortitude — inferiorpresence — inferiorspiritus — superior
  4. 1Nettie Haleanimalism — inferiorcelerity — inferiorpresence — inferiorprotean — inferiorspiritus — inferior
  5. 1Bobby Lemonprotean — inferioranimalism — superior
  6. 1Juanita Santiagoanimalism — inferiorpresence — inferiorspiritus — inferior
  7. 1Danianimalism — inferior
  8. 1Gillian Kraderanimalism — inferiordementation — inferior
the library

Cards

90

Master

19
  1. 1Anarch Free Press, The
  2. 4Anarch Revolt
  3. 1Animalism
  4. 2Direct Intervention
  5. 1Fame
  6. 1Giant's Blood
  7. 1Guardian Angel
  8. 1Rack, The
  9. 1Seattle Committee
  10. 1Smiling Jack, The Anarch
  11. 5Vessel

Action

11
  1. 1Aranthebes, The Immortal
  2. 6Enchant Kindred
  3. 4Nose of the Hound

Equipment

1
  1. 1Flak Jacket

Retainer

11
  1. 6Murder of Crows
  2. 1Owl Companion
  3. 4Raven Spy

Action Modifier/Combat

5
  1. 5Swiftness of the Stag

Reaction

22
  1. 4Cats' Guidance
  2. 4Falcon's Eye
  3. 3On the Qui Vive
  4. 3Sense the Savage Way
  5. 8Speak with Spirits

Combat

20
  1. 5Aid from Bats
  2. 2Canine Horde
  3. 3Carrion Crows
  4. 8Pack Alpha
  5. 2Taste of Vitae

Event

1
  1. 1Dragonbound