Hello!
So yeah, this is once again the deck I've shown here a couple of times, but now most likely in it's final form. I used the Carneval in Burton a couple of weeks ago, and I was positively surprised by how well it did. Two first rounds ended in timeout, but both of the times I was one turn away from a clean oust. The third game was weird in many ways, and eventually I was ousted rather late in the game by dominate weenie/midcaps, due to a miscalculation, as in stupidity.
Ousting?
Bleeds of 2. Plenty of.
Defence?
Unmasking and radios. The wakes and loads of minions help.
Combat?
Defensive, as can be seen, but you should always have a couple of tricks in your sleeve. Non-discipline presses and groaning corpses can take even dedicated combat off guard.
Poolgain?
Dolls, Vessels, Off Kilters and massive bloodgain. Perfectionists, hats and procurers are a must.
Why don't you duplicate Charisma and Unmasking, and add Nitzectus?
'Cause I don't own more.
It's a wee bit of a mishmash of stuff, but basically stealth bleeds with allies, and toolboxes rest of the time. I'm used to having three vampires out, and plenty of allies. Tupdogs really help managing the crypt, and work as wonderful zombie material. I don't have to litter my library with stuff I NEED to discard to make things work - that's annoying beyond comprehension. I want to actually use all the cards I have.
But yeah, only 1 VP, but very close to getting ousts. The Samedi were really going strong, but the setup takes a lot of time. When playing in a talkative table, the 2 hours timelimit is not sometimes enough, and my mistake in the tournament was trying to be friendly. Instead I should've just bashed my turns away, and asked for others to talk less, play more. I might've been in the finals.
So yeah, I'm concidering the concept pretty much finished. Maybe I could try the G4-5 next to see if they do the same thing better...
Deck Name: Groaning Carneval
Author:
Description:
They come in various forms: Groaning, Shambling, Reanimated... What they have in common, is that they're all corpses. They don't need a soul to be useful.
Crypt (Capacity min=1 max=9 avg=5.75; 12 cards)
==================================================
3x Baron, The 9 dom FOR NEC OBF THN Samedi:2
2x George Frederick 6 nec obf FOR THN Samedi:2
2x Jorge De La Muerte, The Agent 7 cel for nec OBF THN Samedi:2
1x Lithrac 5 for thn OBF Samedi:2
1x Reg Driscoll 8 aus pre for OBF THN Samedi:2
3x Tupdog 1 POT VIS Gargoyle:3
Library (90 cards)
=====================
Master (18 cards)
3x Blood Doll
1x Charisma
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
2x Houngan
2x Perfectionist
1x Secure Haven
1x Sudden Reversal
1x Two Wrongs
2x Vessel
1x WMRH Talk Radio
1x Wall Street Night, Financial Newspaper
1x Wash
Event (1 cards)
1x Unmasking, The
Action (7 cards)
1x Blithe Acceptance
1x Haunt
4x Off Kilter
1x Restoration
Equipment (1 cards)
1x Camera Phone
Ally (14 cards)
2x Procurer
7x Reanimated Corpse
5x Shambling Hordes
Action Modifier (19 cards)
5x Cloak the Gathering
1x Faceless Night
5x Freak Drive
2x Lost in Crowds
3x Under My Skin
3x Veil the Legions
Reaction (9 cards)
2x Deflection
5x On the Qui Vive
2x Wake with Evening's Freshness
Combat (19 cards)
1x Compress
2x Groaning Corpse
2x Haymaker
2x Indomitability
1x Pulled Fangs
1x Rolling with the Punches
1x Skin of Steel
4x Soak
3x Trap
2x Withering
Combo (2 cards)
2x Swallowed by the Night
Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (May 22, 2011 21:32:45)
"Oh, to the Hades with the manners! He's a complete bastard, and calling him that insults bastards everywhere!"
-Nalia De-Arnise
garourimgazette.wordpress.com/
www.vekn.net/forum-guidelines
> Kraus wrote:
> Why don't you duplicate Charisma and Unmasking, and add Nitzectus?
> 'Cause I don't own more.
>
If you have the feeling you depend on these cards and don't own more just keep the deck smaller. In a 75er or smaller you will see them faster.
Baron of Frankfurt
This deck seems way too unfocused to me. You have all these combat cards your allies cannot play, that aren't just for surviving but some fairly weak/expensive offensive cards. I think you would do much better focusing the deck a bit more, and using group 4-5 crypt that actually has plenty of NEC, that way the only combat cards you need for your vampires are spiritual interventions, let the allies do the fighting.
> Joscha wrote:
>
> > Kraus wrote:
> > Why don't you duplicate Charisma and Unmasking, and add Nitzectus?
> > 'Cause I don't own more.
> >
> If you have the feeling you depend on these cards and don't own more just keep the deck smaller. In a 75er or smaller you will see them faster.
>
This is an option I could imagine doing. I don't see Charisma in particular that important here, however. It's just a tool. Unmasking might be more crucial, but the radios should help with that. In any case, just the 'low' number of allies could call for a deck of 80 or 85.
> This deck seems way too unfocused to me. You have all these combat cards your allies cannot play, that aren't just for surviving but some fairly weak/expensive offensive cards. I think you would do much better focusing the deck a bit more, and using group 4-5 crypt that actually has plenty of NEC, that way the only combat cards you need for your vampires are spiritual interventions, let the allies do the fighting.
>
Unfocused? I bleed with stealth and recruit allies. Some of my allies fight, as in shambling hordes, to hurl off weenie bleeders and villeined voters.
I can't see how my combat cards are expensive. The only card that actually costs me blood is Compress. The others are free - Skin of Steel costs a blood, but prevents damage at the same time. Equals as profit. Also, there are only five combat cards that require Thanatosis. All of the others most of my allies can play, reanimated corpses knowing inferior Fortitude.
I agree, however, that G4-5 might work a bit better with allies. However, I don't own Spiritual Interventions, and they are not easy to come by - also, my allies cannot fight without cards. Presses are always useful, and in a tight spot even my vampires can use traps and haymakers, and they combo well with groaning corpses. Easy to discard too, if need be. In the tournament I think one of the reasons the dominate weenie was holding his horses was that in the first combat I played trap and groaning corpse, and he was very cautious of my combat from there on. Confusion is one of the greatest tools in VTES, in my opinion.
I don't exactly understand what you mean by more focus. Or is it just the wide variety of cards I have only a single or two copies of that distract you? What should be the focus you're talking about?
When dropping down to 80 cards indominabilities and wakes with evening's freshness might be the first ones to go. Some of the duplicate masters might be okay to get rid of too. It might be a fun idea to make it a bit more compact.
"Oh, to the Hades with the manners! He's a complete bastard, and calling him that insults bastards everywhere!"
-Nalia De-Arnise
garourimgazette.wordpress.com/
www.vekn.net/forum-guidelines
> Kraus wrote:
> Why don't you duplicate Charisma and Unmasking, and add Nitzectus?
> 'Cause I don't own more.
>
And you don't need them. Perfectionist just does the job.
Prince of Paris, France
Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director
Thank you, Ankha. I included that because previously I was told more than once, that I "should add 2-3 Charisma, and the Heart should be included in every deck". This I don't agree with. Perfectionist indeed does the job well enough.
Thanks, Klaital, for your deck. It has some things I usually see in ally decks, which I don't really understand, though. Let's look at some differences we have:
Your poolgain comes from Cemeteries instead of Blood Dolls and Vessels. This is a valid option for sure, just different.
You have more allies, Mylan and Carlton being the main differences. They are indeed good additions, but I did not include them because I don't have Carlton and Mylan is in another deck. It would work well here, however.
Your combat includes walking sticks, which I cannot understand exactly. It won't help your zombies for more than one strike, and corpses can use it twice. I think extra presses from, say, Haymaker would help your zombies more, even though you do have Mob Connections.
Why do you have 5 procurers if you're not going to use blood dolls and vessels?
The differences here are basically the number of allies. I have 3 more combat cards, and only one card more that reanimated corpses cannot use. The difference is that my combat module is a bit more offensive. I would actually want to see both of these decks on the same table, because to me they seem pretty equal, even though they do the same things differently.
In my hometown rare Thanatosis combat cards are not easy to trade. It might be a location thing. And in ebay they're just way too expensive, when some fortitude can kinda do the same thing.
"Oh, to the Hades with the manners! He's a complete bastard, and calling him that insults bastards everywhere!"
-Nalia De-Arnise
garourimgazette.wordpress.com/
www.vekn.net/forum-guidelines
Walking sticks rock for Ossian, you don't use it for shamblers first strike, you use it to keep the shamblers damage useful when its at lower health. H4 is generally plenty enough. Haymaker is not terribly good for shambler because it gives the opponent first strike, so it makes your shambler to generally hit less, unless you prevent their strike. Shamblers and reanimated corpses are very expensive, procurers help to pay for those costs. Also usually I find it more common that shamblers get outmanuevered than anything else, which is why I think Fake Out is the best combat card to support them with, and you can also use it for your vampires to stay alive against some nasty guy rushing them.
Putrescent Servitude is incredibly powerful. If nothing else -- and it does a LOT else -- it steals Carlton. One should go into every deck that can play it.
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*
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