I think it would be good to have a reference list of the very best tournament decks, like so many other games have, so that players can more easily check what they should expect and what's probably a good deck to play.
What I would consider as criteria for a T1 archetype would be,
1, what the really good players consider good (they wouldn't be good if they didn't know what's good)
2, consistent major tournament success in recent years (small tournaments have a small selection decks quite probably not including the strongest possible)
3, reasoning and argumentation (of course we want to think for ourselves)
Criteria, of course, is up to discussion as well, I'm just starting this topic, perhaps somebody else has better insight on what should be considered. Also some archetypes haven't been around so long that we can't really see if they do consistently at tournaments or not. No reason not to discuss them, though.
Also feel free to include other tiers if you so like.
And I wish to only include archetypes, not decklists such as there's a lot of room for tweaking in this game.
So! These are some of the deck archetypes I consider T1 in no particular order. Note that I have not played any of these but KS bleed. Also note that I'm not a major tournament regular.
Toreador multi A, it's very consistent in what it does and I don't think it's really hard countered by a lot of things due to ability to pass unblocked actions. Recursion helps make it adaptable, and the good political actions and even Anneke's special give it a good ability to influence the entire table.
The Girls deck, also a consistent performer what with the stability MMP offers. I think it's somewhat similar to the Toreador archetype so I'm not saying much about it.
Kindred Spirits decks, aggressive, quickly damaging decks that unlike most SB decks have the option to attack anybody on the table if need be, and that's why I consider it the best SB archetype.
Weenie Auspex, probably the strongest wall deck. Very hard to oust. Good ability to mess with the table.
!Ventrue grinder, another very reliable deck that has a good amount of defensive ability, not a whole lot of bad match-ups and a great lunge with dominate.
In the same fashion, I consider the pretty similar Tremere toolbox deck very solid, and it too seems to be a very popular choice these days. Magic of the Smith some of the best equipment in the game, AUS DOM defense, solid minions and Dominate offense with added Mirror Walk stealth.
So. Discuss!
Well, the main problem is that your list include extremely broad category. * will find * for example have at least 10 differents flavor, and I have seen AAA both being political deck or wallish deck.
As of I, having never seen a weenie auspex, nor a successfull kindred spirit deck, I suppose I would be way over my head to post actual archetypes
> Demnogonis wrote:
> 2, consistent major tournament success in recent years (small tournaments have a small selection decks quite probably not including the strongest possible)
>
I wouldn´t post this as a requirement. There are Tier-1 decks that don´t match this criteria, because of player preference and card availability. There aren´t that many major tournaments and even less finalists.
Teflon Weenie Dominate
(Weenies with any level of dominate, GtU, Tribute to the Master, Flick... bloats harder than you'd expect and basically unbleedable)
Powerbleed mostly the Obt-DOM varieties (which includes Kiasyd and Lasombra)
AAA is a very solid stable deck.
Sha-Ennu + Will'o'Wisp Powerbleed... vulnerable to basically two things: Archon Investigation, Card Cancel (DI, DI2)
Cel-Sticks/Guns. It will leave a smoking crater of the table when it works fairly well and worse when its working brilliantly.
Weenie Animalism (see Cel-Sticks)
"The Vignes Deck"
Early Group Nos Princes (the key here is usually Nikolaus Vermeulen, but if you go G1 you get to multi-act, but G3 has the skills and useful cardtexts)
Retired Baron of Sydney, Australia, 418
Legacy of Pander: if not handled on turn 1 or 2, can easily score GW. Especially on table where a new player doesn't know the deck.
Palla Embrace / Week of Nightmare: breed deck with a high acceleration power. Vulnerable to Ancilla Empowerment and the (relatively) new Scourge of Enochians
Prince of Paris, France
Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director
also tupdogs, nana buruku-deep song yawnfest, Neo-Lawfirms, basically anything with MPA, ashurs, villeins and golcondas,
Also : Sha-Ennu + Will'o'Wisp Powerbleed... vulnerable to basically two things: Archon Investigation, Card Cancel (DI, DI2)
never seen that one win anything ever. Could be meta thing
Here's all you need to know about Tier 1:
Villein + Lilith's Blessing
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
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> KevinM wrote:
> Here's all you need to know about Tier 1:
>
> Villein + Lilith's Blessing
>
And Golconda.
Repeat.
-Una freakshow
-Shambling+sudario and a liquidation module.
-War Ghoul turbo or piper
-Arika decks (votes+stealth+bleed+bloath)
-Rock cat and tupdogs, or tupdogs+nephandus
-Imbued decks, anyway you like it: powers heavy, gehenna heavy
Ok, maybe I'm a little obsessed with ally type decks...
This page is what you need.
extrala.blogspot.com/p/deck-archetypes-overview.html
Most strong archetypes are here. And awesomely explained.
Also, Cause and Effect in the episodes they speak about certain tier One's.
Temptation F.S. Rant
Fame Agg poke
DOM stealth/bleed
PRE stealth/bleed, vote
Lily Prelude
Reckless Ag
Mind Rape Heidelberg
But you're right that's about it.