All Sonja Blue All the Time

Deck Name : All Sonja All the Time Author : David Anderson Description : I hear Villein + Lilith's Blessing is good. I should do that every turn. Bleeding for 5 is pretty good too, especially when vampires can't block it, and you don't care much about your vampire being burned by Archon Investigation. Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 5 average: 5 12 Sonja Blue 5-cap Ventrue Library [81 Cards] Master [29, 10 trifles] 10x Diamond Thunderbolt, The 2x Information Highway 3x Lilith's Blessing 4x Parthenon, The 10x Villein Action [14] 2x Entrancement 2x Force of Will 10x Public Trust Political Action [4] 4x Rumors of Gehenna Action Modifier [34] 10x Aire of Elation 2x Command 10x Daring the Dawn 10x Freak Drive 2x Recurring Contemplation Diamond Thunderbolt when you predator tries to take Sonja. Tap Parthenon, Villein Sonja to 0, Lilith's Blessing to 3 blood. Public Trust 1b + Aire of Elation 1b + inf Daring the Dawn + Freak Drive 1b = 0 blood and 2 agg damage to burn Sonja, and 1 blood on the uncontrolled Sonja. Transfer 4 to bring out Sonja, gaining 4 pool. So, each turn gains 5 (villein) -4 (transfers to Sonja) + 4 (Sonja bonus) = +5 pool gained and a 5 bleed unblockable by vamps. Some optional actions to cause chaos: Sonja special + Freak Drive + 5 bleed to burn. Rumors of Gehenna/Entrancement + Freak Drive + 5 bleed to burn. If she's stuck tapped, hope for Force of Will for 5 bleed to burn. If your predator successfully steals Sonja, transfer another one out to burn his, and yours is contested until your untap phase. Over the course of 6 turns, this deck can potentially bleed for 4 * 5 = 20 pool, gaining 15 pool. Over the course of 12 turns, this deck can potentially bleed for 7 * 5 = 35 pool, gaining 30 pool. How do you intend to oust? Bleeds for 5 that vampires can't block most turns. How do you intend to keep from being ousted? Gaining 5 pool per turn that Sonja gets transferred out and Villeined. What do you want your ready region to look like (ie, how many guys are you planning on getting out)? Just Sonja Blue. What do you want your average turn to look like? Diamond Thunderbolt when you predator tries to take Sonja. Tap Parthenon, Villein Sonja to 0, Lilith's Blessing to 3 blood. Public Trust 1b + Aire of Elation 1b + inf Daring the Dawn + Freak Drive 1b = 0 blood and 2 agg damage to burn Sonja, and 1 blood on the uncontrolled Sonja. Transfer 4 to bring out Sonja, gaining 4 pool. What's your metagame like? How do your opponents play? Recently a lot of big vamps, very few Imbued, a couple ally decks. I'm usually the only one playing ridiculous huge bleed decks. Everyone else is a good bit more defensive. What problems have you observed with the deck in play? Haven't played yet. Pentex Subversion totally wrecks the deck. An ally or two able to reliably block (+1 intercept) will make life difficult. After the first 4 turns, stall a bit paying 1 to see 1.

> Miasmat wrote: > What problems have you observed with the deck in play? > Haven't played yet. > Pentex Subversion totally wrecks the deck. > An ally or two able to reliably block (+1 intercept) will make life difficult. > After the first 4 turns, stall a bit paying 1 to see 1. > Perhaps force of personality can prevent ally blockers.

First of all, this looks exciting. > An ally or two able to reliably block (+1 intercept) will make life difficult. > Replace something like 6 Freak Drives and all Commands/Contemplations with Force of Personalities. It's a way to burn blood, gets around allies, protects Sonja from combat and is highly cyclable. For a slightly more permanent solution, there's always Waiting Game. The Thunderbolts and unique masters will eventually jam your hand. If the master phase is too busy, I might try Distractions instead of Barrens and Dreams. The superior can be used to tap Deflectors and flows nicely into a Force of Will bleed. If you get to play this, I'd like to hear how it works out.

Force of Personality looks perfect. I was a bit worried about getting rushed and left to languish in torpor, without anyone being nice enough to steal her. Yeah, I avoided Barrens/Dreams because I really have to have 2 master phase actions to go to Diamond Thunderbolt and Villein + Lilith's Blessing. Distraction seems like a good fit.

> Miasmat wrote: > I was a bit worried about getting rushed and left to languish in torpor, without anyone being nice enough to steal her. > Antediluvian Awakening can fix this moment. Nice deck. NC Belarus

What if your prey bounces?

> What if your prey bounces? > Then his grand-prey dies.

> Miasmat wrote: > Force of Personality looks perfect. I was a bit worried about getting rushed and left to languish in torpor, without anyone being nice enough to steal her. > That doesn't matter. You can self-contest vampires (since you don't actually contest them, just fill them up during the influence phase and then let the game take over from there), and since Sonja's contestation is goofy, the outcome will be the same as if someone had taken her.

Since bleeds can be deflected, why not the old Reckless Agitation + Awe + Daring the Dawn trick? I have found that to be fun. Also, with the 3 cards in hand I've been to quote Sweeny Todd "At last, my hand is complete!" Oh well, 4 the win.

I think the ousting power is too low.

> Brum wrote: > Since bleeds can be deflected, why not the old Reckless Agitation + Awe + Daring the Dawn trick? > I have found that to be fun. > > Also, with the 3 cards in hand I've been to quote Sweeny Todd "At last, my hand is complete!" > > Oh well, 4 the win. > Sonja is 5, which leaves only 3 blood for Awe. 8 votes in favor isn't always going to be good enough. But more importantly, Public Trust puts 1 pool on the next Sonja, who comes out immediately with 4 transfers.

> Dorrinal wrote: > Sonja is 5, which leaves only 3 blood for Awe. 8 votes in favor isn't always going to be good enough. > True, but then she can remove some titles. This decks needs 1 Antediluvian Awakening. If they put Sonja in torpor, it's game over. And you should be able to handle the pool loss.

> Pascal wrote: > > > Dorrinal wrote: > > Sonja is 5, which leaves only 3 blood for Awe. 8 votes in favor isn't always going to be good enough. > > > True, but then she can remove some titles. > Indeed. Card text. B)

> Pascal wrote: > If they put Sonja in torpor, it's game over. > Why? Last time I checked all the rulings (which, admiteddly, was a while ago), the in-play copy of Sonja burns when the incoming copy shows up.

I'm going to check that, but I'm pretty sure that, since you can't self-contest, the incoming copy would burn rather than creating a self-contest. EDIT: Checked. [LSJ 20101015] . "[when you would self-contest] the incoming copy is burned" When someone else controls Sonja and you bring her out, their copy is removed from the game for contest issues (and so is yours), but theirs has their cardtext apply (she leaves play), whereas yours doesn't. So theirs won't come back. And yours will.

> Pascal wrote: > When someone else controls Sonja and you bring her out, their copy is removed from the game for contest issues (and so is yours), but theirs has their cardtext apply (she leaves play), whereas yours doesn't. So theirs won't come back. And yours will. > Sorry, but doesn't LSJ say the exact opposite? LSJ: "If you're asking if both copies of Sonja are removed from the game by their special text, as in the case of two-Methuselah contesting, the answer is no: the original copy is never contested in cases of self- contesting (Sonja or otherwise). So the original copy stays." Kevin M., Prince of Las Vegas "Know your enemy and know yourself; in one-thousand battles you shall never be in peril." -- Sun Tzu, *The Art of War* "Contentment...Complacency...Catastrophe!" -- Joseph Chevalier Please visit VTESville daily! vtesville.myminicity.com/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/129744447064017

Not quite. Let me rephrase, maybe that'll be clearer: In the case you control Sonja Blue, and you influence out another Sonja blue (which is the case considered above by Kushiel and me): since you can't self-contest, the incoming copy is burned. That's the ruling I linked to: > > So you may put five counters on the uncontrolled Sonja, who will then > attempt to self-contest, with the result that the incoming copy is > burned (as per the rules on self-contesting [4.1]) > Now, if you're considering the case where someone else than you controls Sonja Blue, and you influence out your copy of her, then both cards enter contest , but since their copy was in play, her cardtext removes her from the game for good. Your copy, however, hasn't entered play yet, and is faced down, contesting.( Rulings ).

Wow, that is really goofy. Makes sense in the context of the rules on self-contesting, though. Thanks for clearing that up.

So, I played this twice on Saturday to mixed success, both times at 4-player tables. I added 6 Force of Personality, 1 Lilith's Blessing and 2 Distraction, removed the 2 Command, 2 Recurring Contemplation, 2 Freak Drives and 1 Information Highway. I found that people tried to take here about 2-3 times per game. Once your predator is around 10 pool, they seem to get sheepish about squandering 1 pool to try to take her. If they DO take her, and you transfer out another one, yours is still contested during your prey's discard phase, and your predator doesn't have the chance to take her. Even with 10/83 being Diamond Thunderbolt, I frequently found myself stalling to bring Sonja out in the first few turns of the game until I could draw one. However, I knew I'd have to pay-1-to-see-1 later in the game, so it wasn't so bad. I went second in both games, so I put 1 blood on each of 2 uncontrolled Sonjas. This meant, if my predator did steal her, I was ready to bring out a new copy and contest immediately. I'd say I had no minions in my ready region about half the game. Both games, I had a pretty mild predator who spent quite a few turns to build-up. If I'd been sitting in front of any power bleed, I'd be dead, most likely. The deck has pretty excellent pool gain. Around turn 8 of game 2, I had 37 pool. Game 1, when I had a more aggressive predator (a +1 bleeder and a KRC or 2 per turn), my descent to 0 took quite a bit longer than expected. In game 2, even though I had over 30 pool when it got down to 2 players, I still lost when Sonja went to torpor, and I slowly got bled out. I forgot to add an Antediluvian Awakening or 2 in. Having 1 minion that will burn anyway means a rush deck prey seems to ignore you. I think it my predator and prey wanted to work together to oust me, the rush prey should have torpored Sonja, then the predator promised not to steal her while slowly ousting me through my lack of defense. I removed 1 title in each game, but being unable to stealth that action at all is frustrating, since I can't Daring the Dawn it unless I know I'll burn, which means I have to be at 2 blood when I start the action. Overall, I think it's amusing to play with a single vampire that burns frequently. Pascal was right, the ousting power is kinda weak. I think I should add a 2nd vampire for rescuing, and more reliable constant bleed.

Vulnerability might be a bit better than Antediluvian Awakening. If I am in a situation where I can sacrifice Lucian, the Perfect to win the game, I'll do it, even if I only have Stick supporting.