Not sure about this. It seems like a cunning idea that may work, but could be too fragile. I'm particularly concerned with the various ratios of cards. Thoughts most appreciated!
Deck Name:Tempting Infernal Familiar
Author:
Description:
Put infernal familiar on own vamps
Play Temptation
When borrowed, transfer the IF via Heidelberg
Use the IF to play any cards desired
Main options:
Play DOM bleed cards (ie Govern & conditioning), at stealth or Daring the Dawn
Play more Temptations on other vamps, using stealth or Daring the Dawn.
Can also use the Trujah trick of Domain + Weather control with the stolen minions
Currently no defence, all offence. May need to drop some offence to boost defence - idea being to survive until endgame & play a few Temptations on minions w Infernal Familiar onto them. Then surge at the end w Govern bleeds
Crypt (Capacity min=2 max=8 avg=6; 12 cards)
===============================================
1x Ahmose Chambers 3 obf ser Follower of Set:5
1x Belle Equitone 2 ser Follower of Set:4
1x Black Lotus 5 aus obf ser DOM Follower of Set:4
2x Halim Bey 6 obf tha DOM SER Follower of Set:4
2x Paul Cordwood 8 obf pre AUS DOM THA !Tremere:4
1x Preston Varrick 7 aus nec DOM OBF THA Tremere:4
1x Sahira Siraj 4 obf ser tha Follower of Set:4
1x Seren Sukardi 7 pre OBF SER THA Follower of Set:4
2x Uta Kovacs 8 ser AUS DOM THA !Tremere:4
Library (90 cards)
=====================
Master (14 cards)
1x Blood Doll
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
4x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Vessel
4x Villein
Action (21 cards)
2x Form of Corruption
9x Govern the Unaligned
1x Rutor's Hand
9x Temptation
Equipment (1 cards)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
Retainer (9 cards)
9x Infernal Familiar
Action Modifier (29 cards)
2x Cloak the Gathering
1x Conditioning
2x Daring the Dawn
5x Domain of Evernight
2x Forced March
6x Forgotten Labyrinth
4x Freak Drive
5x Mirror Walk
2x Veil the Legions
Reaction (5 cards)
5x Deflection
Combat (6 cards)
1x Rego Motus
5x Weather Control
Combo (5 cards)
5x Form of the Serpent
Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Jan 30, 2012 14:19:43)
How do you intend to oust?
[/color]Bleed the bad boy on my left till he's dry. Preferably with Dominate. Preferably with someone else's minion.
How do you intend to keep from being ousted?
Steal minions w Temptation & screw with them. Bit of bounce & bloat tech.
What do you want your ready region to look like (ie, how many guys are you planning on getting out)?
Maybe 3 minions. Eldest w DOM out first to start the Govern-chain
What do you want your average turn to look like?
Early Game: Govern down, play Infernal Familiar on self or Temptation on others.
Mid to Late Game: Take minions as Temptations mature, drain them, then use them to either bleed (with Dom) or play more Temptations - both either at stealth or Daring the Dawn, or use Domain of the Evernight w Weather Control to bin the minion & a blocker.
What's your metagame like? How do your opponents play?
Highly varied, with most archetypes making regular appearances
What problems have you observed with the deck in play?
Not played. Combat defence is almost non-existent. Vote defence is limited to screwing their minions w Temptations (fairly lame). Serious & consistent intercept would also prove tricky.
Technically none of the FoS's are critical, as the (!)Trem's can play the Temptations from the Infernal Familiar. However the FoS's were placed in there to gain access to Obfuscate & to allow the rapid deployment of the first few Temptations.
Ahmose is rather limited in what he can do but at least has obf & is <4 cap so could emerge quickly from a Governing down action.
However Carna does have a v handy caption, and the +1 intercept is always a great partial defence. The ability to fry the IF could be nice if i happen to get stuck w them for some reason or if i'm desperate to regain 2 blood.
I wz keen to try to keep some of the lower capacity vamps, but Carna could be a good addition, i guess. Maybe it would be better to drop either Preston or Uta, & keep the slightly crap low-cap Fos?
I don't know if this strategy is worth pursuing considering that Treaty of Laibach exists. Sure, you get access to fortitude, celerity, and temporis, but do they do anything that different than THA, SER and in/out of clan obf?
Treaty of Laibach
Unique master. Requires both Follower of Set and Tremere.
Put this card in play. Each Follower of Set is considered to have a level of Thaumaturgy equal to his or her level of Serpentis. Each Tremere is considered to have a level of Serpentis equal to his or her level of Thaumaturgy.
Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
brandonsantacruz.blogspot.com/
Played on Sunday - replaced a Forced March w Force of Will (proved to be awesome)
Table was roughly tier 2 decks: Me -> Ventrue high-cap vote -> Giovanni (w moderate combat) -> Toreador guns/(moderate)intercept.
I swept, but this had much to do w the success of the Govern-chain (& later +3 bleeds) + low(ish)-intercept environment; plus grand prey & pred coincidently were on 5 & 1 pool respectively by the time i got to them, and the Giovanni's had no minions (i think).
Temptations helped greatly vs pred but not much vs prey (high caps); but did produce my first VP by taking prey's Lucinde w no blood (he assumed it was safe) & playing a Force of Will + Daring the Dawn after she hunted (so burned after bleeding for 3:woohoo: ). I think only 3 Temptations were deployed all game (from 3 attempts).
Infernal Familiars had no input. The minions w them (Seren & Halim) were binned by the time i got the first Tempted minion. Most cards that may hv been handy to use w IF (eg: Domain) were not drawn or the crypt already allowed those cards to be played [eg: everyone had Obf & Thau]. Halim was rescued, but it was too late to transfer the IF
Also the only 1 of my minions that needed an IF (Paul) never got it, nor did Seren get a chance to bleed w a Govern before he got binned. So it indicated the IF's are not necessarily benefiting my minions' abilities, but would solely enable the stolen minions to play various cards. I assumed the IFs would play a dual role, but even for this single role they seem best as there is no other tech that would allow the range of cards i wish to deploy.
The Heidelberg also got stolen half-way thru , after only 1 use (v v disappointing - but got a gun off this first Tempted minion)
My crypt was Paul Cordwood, Seren, Halim, Sahira - the first 3 were a v v good combo - The mix of DOM/OBF/SER/THAU worked v well. Paul's caption proved handy, even if just the "threat" of +1 stealth/intercept boost (tho being frequently tapped was annoying). Paul needed Ser (he never got an IF). Sahira was handy (or could b Black Lotus [see below])
Seren enabled his first action (Temptation on pred's 7-cap) to pass w +5 stealth via OBF - kinda lucky to draw 1 of 2 OBF minions plus the only stealth cards for most of the game. Probably add another 1-2 Seren's.
Maybe drop Belle as she can only play 2 cards & none of the Obf stealth. Could possibly drop Ahmose also, but at least he can play the free Obf cards. Also concerned w concentrating the crypt too much.
I could be tempted to reduce the crypt to Paul, Seren, Halim, plus a few Sahira & Black lotus.
Had trouble using Deflection as the Dom minions were normally tapped - may need some Wakes.
Slightly too many Form of the Serpents, so probably drop 1 & add maybe another Obf stealth.
Weather control was surprisingly effective in the endgame, tho generally as strikeback while my minion went down. Never drew Domain to combine w it.
Generally the basic Temptation strategy is reasonably effective by itself. I think the IF strategy should still be effective at enabling tricky stuff & potentially a few big bleeds in the endgame from stolen minions. I would probably drop 2-3 IFs tho as i started to jam on them after the first 2 went down.
Opium Den may be worth including (thanks for this point, Steve H!)
Any comments/suggestions??