a winning deck

Shambling into the Void

Nosferatu Hosting Loughman's Birthday · Heath (OH), USA

December 5th 2021 · won by Karl Schaefer

consult the event report

score
2GW8+3
format
2R+F
souls at table
13
twda id
9953
marginalia

Description: I was hoping to play the new Ministry today, but with so many others planning to do the same, I played this instead. This deck is first and foremost a Shambling Horde deck, getting a 4-life Horde for 1 blood after Angelique's special and a Perfectionist is rather great. The Legionnaires and AUS weenies help provide mass for horde bleeding. A solid defense with The Unmasking and bounce helps keeps you in the game even at low pool. The worst decks for you are voters that are cross-table or that have a lot of stealth that can routinely get by your intercept. There were no such decks for me today. I had a lucky two opening rounds. I was able to sit mostly unmolested and slowly build as my predators were under threat. This enabled me to get two sweeps and enter the finals in first place. Finals seating: Kurt Kopp, new Anarch Gangrel wall: 0VP -> Me: 3VP -> Brad Cashdollar, Platnum Protocol bleed: 0VP -> John Mathys, V5 Malks: 2VP -> Mark Loughmn, Banu Haqim vote/combat: 0VP I decided to sit as far away from the bleed cannons as possible. They were stacked, so Brad was going to help John with bounced bleeds. My opening hand was 3 Legionnaires and my opening crypt had no Angelique. I did have an Information Highway, so managed America and Hecate on turns one and two. I had The Unmaksing in play even before I recruited my first Legionnaire. This was useful as I was able to prevent Double Deuce from entering play. It cost me a Legionnaire, but Target Vitals left the vamp empty, making it a good target for Mark's Judgment: Camarilla Segregation on the following turn. I was able to stealth a second Legionnaire into play. Mark managed two actions, playing the aforementioned Judgment and calling Anathema on one of John's Malks. Before Mark was ousted, Kurt, seeing his future, burned John's hunting ground with Rewilding. After Mark was ousted, John had 4 vampires in play and the Anathema was at 4 blood. I offered to rush that vampire with my lone Horde to prevent Kurt from doing so. Losing a vampire was a bad deal, but having his prey gain 6 pool for it would have been worse. In the end John relented. I was 6 pool to the better and John had yet another person hampering his game. After throwing in a few bleeds for 1, Brad takes his turn. Brad fires off bleeds of 7, 5, and 4. All of them are bounced. Kurt manages to survive and John is able to land his bleeds. Kurt risks another vampire, really he had so few options at this point. I push hard on Brad, failing to oust. Most of my 1 bleeds are bounced and my Horde rush was stymied by Earth Meld. Brad tried to get through John. There is more bounce. Kurt has to start torporizing Brad's vampire just to draw cards, hoping for more wake. Kurt is ousted by John. I get Brad down to 2 pool. He has one vampire left. I'm now John's prey. I bounce a bleed of 5 at 2 stealth to Brad to gain my first VP. John sends two more vampires while I'm locked. I use Funeral Wake to bring up two Hordes and try to block both bleeds. I catch the second one, sending the vampire to torpor. At the start of my turn, John has two remaining ready vampires with one blood each. After two Horde rushes, he has no ready vampires. With 6 ready bleeders and John at 10 pool, he concedes. I recently shrank this deck from 80 to 76 to 72. Smaller is better

the crypt

Vampires

13
  1. 5Angeliqueauspex — superiorfortitude — superiornecromancy — superiorserpentis — superiorthaumaturgy — superior
  2. 2Hecateauspex — superiorfortitude — superiornecromancy — superior
  3. 2La Viuda Blancafortitude — inferiorobfuscate — inferiorauspex — superiornecromancy — superior
  4. 1America Johnsonvicissitude — inferiorauspex — superior
  5. 1Pearlobfuscate — inferiorauspex — superior
  6. 1Tyler McGillpresence — inferiorauspex — superior
  7. 1Veejay Vinodauspex — superior
the library

Cards

72

Master

14
  1. 1Barrens, The
  2. 2Blood Doll
  3. 1Direct Intervention
  4. 4Dreams of the Sphinx
  5. 1Fame
  6. 1Information Highway
  7. 1Mob Connections
  8. 2Perfectionist
  9. 1Wider View

Ally

21
  1. 1Carlton Van Wyk
  2. 7Emerald Legionnaire
  3. 1Mylan Horseed
  4. 12Shambling Hordes

Equipment

1
  1. 1Heart of Nizchetus

Action Modifier

6
  1. 4Call of the Hungry Dead
  2. 2Trochomancy

Action Modifier/Combat

3
  1. 3Breath of Thanatos

Action Modifier/Reaction

4
  1. 4Spectral Divination

Reaction

14
  1. 3Eyes of Argus
  2. 2Funeral Wake
  3. 3My Enemy's Enemy
  4. 3On the Qui Vive
  5. 3Telepathic Misdirection

Combat

5
  1. 2Fake Out
  2. 2Target Vitals
  3. 1Trap

Event

4
  1. 1Dragonbound
  2. 1FBI Special Affairs Division
  3. 2Unmasking, The