At the core this is a classical Stanislava Vote-n-Bleed deck, being a new and inexperienced player I understand that most of my struggles with this deck are from piloting it incorrectly, yet I want to ask for advice how to improve it, or maybe how to become better with it.
I always try to bring Stanislava first and later Genevieve or Xaviar. But Xaviar usually looks almost useless as he can bleed only for 1 and can't redirect.
Most of the time I have to use my first Villein on Stanislava, that leaves her on low blood, and Freak Drive or Stealth almost always cost blood. I usually struggle against wall decks, as I can't constantly pay for the stealth or just simply have enough of it.
Deck feels very strong against most combat decks as it has a lot of S:CE cards and couple of dodges.
My thoughts on this deck (please correct me if I wrong):
Crypt: I like Genevieve as her 4 votes and dominate could be very helpful in the game but sometimes she feels weird, as I don't have FD or Sense the Savage Way so I can't act with her in order to use Deflection later.
Master Module: Archon Investigation is a meta call. I'm not sure what to do with crypt acceleration as I bring Stanislava on turn 4 more often than not.
Actions: I feel like 3xAbactor are useless, and while Mind Rape is good card I believe I could trim it to make a deck thin.
Political Actions: Ideally this deck should play 2 politics per turn, but it usually can't...
Reactions: I feel like 5x Deflections + 2x Murmur of false Will is not enough.
Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=9 max=11 avg=10.)
==================
5x Stanislava Gangrel:2
3x Genevieve Gangrel antitribu:2
2x Xaviar (ADV) Gangrel:3
1x Hartmut Stover Gangrel antitribu:3
1x Ingrid Rossler Gangrel:2
Library: 86 cards
Master (21 cards)
==================
1x Ennoia's Theater
1x Giant's Blood
1x Information Highway
1x Archon Investigation
1x Backways
6x Villein
7x Zillah's Valley
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Ecoterrorists
Action (11 cards)
==================
5x Govern the Unaligned
1x Mind Rape
2x Scouting Mission
3x Abactor
Action Modifier (19 cards)
==================
1x Enkil Cog
4x Forced March
4x Freak Drive
4x Instantaneous Transformation
2x Conditioning
4x Earth Control
Action Modifier/Combat (2 cards)
==================
2x Rapid Change
Action Modifier/Reaction (2 cards)
==================
2x Murmur of the False Will
Political Action (12 cards)
==================
1x Ancient Influence
1x Ancilla Empowerment
6x Kine Resources Contested
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Reins of Power
2x Banishment
Combat (11 cards)
==================
6x Form of Mist
5x Earth Meld
Reaction (8 cards)
==================
3x Sense the Savage Way
5x Deflection
amaranth.vtes.co.nz/#deck/cafdcfaa-5d9e-43bd-80f6-2117ebaf335f
> Legion wrote:
> At the core this is a classical Stanislava Vote-n-Bleed deck, being a new and inexperienced player I understand that most of my struggles with this deck are from piloting it incorrectly, yet I want to ask for advice how to improve it, or maybe how to become better with it.
> I always try to bring Stanislava first and later Genevieve or Xaviar. But Xaviar usually looks almost useless as he can bleed only for 1 and can't redirect.
>
That is a good strategy though: Stanislava can play Govern the Unaligned at superior to bring out Genevieve and Xaviar quicker and cheaper.
Xaviar is nice when you need more votes to have the vote lock, plus he can vote and unlock for free which is great.
> Legion wrote:
> Most of the time I have to use my first Villein on Stanislava, that leaves her on low blood, and Freak Drive or Stealth almost always cost blood. I usually struggle against wall decks, as I can't constantly pay for the stealth or just simply have enough of it.
>
You must adapt the quantity you drain off Stanislava to the situation. If you predator isn't very aggressive, you can Villein the next vampire, or Villein Stanislava for 3, leaving with 8 which is more than enough in the early game.
> Legion wrote:
> Deck feels very strong against most combat decks as it has a lot of S:CE cards and couple of dodges.
>
Sure, and Form of Mist is a great card to get through blockers.
> Legion wrote:
> My thoughts on this deck (please correct me if I wrong):
> Crypt: I like Genevieve as her 4 votes and dominate could be very helpful in the game but sometimes she feels weird, as I don't have FD or Sense the Savage Way so I can't act with her in order to use Deflection later.
>
Yes, that is her drawback (plus inferior dominate).
> Legion wrote:
> Master Module: Archon Investigation is a meta call. I'm not sure what to do with crypt acceleration as I bring Stanislava on turn 4 more often than not.
>
Crypt acceleration is great for the 2nd and 3rd vampire you should bring out too.
> Legion wrote:
> Actions: I feel like 3xAbactor are useless, and while Mind Rape is good card I believe I could trim it to make a deck thin.
>
Indeed, though blood management becomes a issue in the late game. Mind Rape costs a lot, keeping an Abactor or two is not a bad idea.
> Legion wrote:
> Political Actions: Ideally this deck should play 2 politics per turn, but it usually can't...
>
Do not focus too much on that kind of goal. The deck can call 2 votes in a turn, but it should be when you lunge to kill your prey. Otherwise, a bleed for 3 by Stanislava and a vote are fine.
> Legion wrote:
> Reactions: I feel like 5x Deflections + 2x Murmur of false Will is not enough.
>
It depends on your playstyle. I'm not found of Murmur as it doesn't work sometimes (say when your predator also plays an Inner Circle). But a total of 7 Deflection is enough most of time if you cycle cards well, but if your meta or playstyle requires more, do as it pleases you.
> Legion wrote:
> Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=9 max=11 avg=10.)
> ==================
> 5x Stanislava Gangrel:2
> 3x Genevieve Gangrel antitribu:2
> 2x Xaviar (ADV) Gangrel:3
> 1x Hartmut Stover Gangrel antitribu:3
> 1x Ingrid Rossler Gangrel:2
>
> Library: 86 cards
>
> Master (21 cards)
> ==================
> 1x Ennoia's Theater
> 1x Giant's Blood
> 1x Information Highway
> 1x Archon Investigation
> 1x Backways
> 6x Villein
> 7x Zillah's Valley
> 2x Dreams of the Sphinx
> 1x Ecoterrorists
>
I usually double Info Highway since it's free, removing one Zillah's Valley.
> Legion wrote:
> Action (11 cards)
> ==================
> 5x Govern the Unaligned
> 1x Mind Rape
> 2x Scouting Mission
> 3x Abactor
>
I get that you want to play GtU, unlock, then Scouting Mission, but Scouting is not a great cards. I'd rather change them for 2 more Governs.
> Legion wrote:
> Action Modifier (19 cards)
> ==================
> 1x Enkil Cog
> 4x Forced March
> 4x Freak Drive
> 4x Instantaneous Transformation
> 2x Conditioning
> 4x Earth Control
>
> Action Modifier/Combat (2 cards)
> ==================
> 2x Rapid Change
>
> Action Modifier/Reaction (2 cards)
> ==================
> 2x Murmur of the False Will
>
2 Deflection instead of Murmur, unless you like its versatility.
> Legion wrote:
> Political Action (12 cards)
> ==================
> 1x Ancient Influence
> 1x Ancilla Empowerment
> 6x Kine Resources Contested
> 1x Political Stranglehold
> 1x Reins of Power
> 2x Banishment
>
These days, I always play 2 Ancilla, 2 Anarchist, and 2 Domain Challenge. You can remove some Kine Resources. I do that because there are lot of swarm decks out there, and it really allows to lunge to oust your prey (even if you have to oust someone else at the same time, it's not necessarily a bad thing).
Prince of Paris, France
Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director
Hi Ankha, thank you for your input, this is much appreciated, your thoughts really help me to get a different look on this deck.
I'm going to try all your advices.
I have a couple of questions, and I'd be very grateful if you find a time to answer them.
* In our meta we usually have at least one Intercept deck, do you see a place for Seduction in this deck?
* At the moment the swarm decks are underrepresented in our meta, but if expect the opposite... How should I change the Political Module and why to fit 2 Ancilla, 2 Anarchist, and 2 Domain Challenge into it?
-1 Banishement, -3 KRC, +1 Ancilla,+2 Anarchist, +2 Domain Challenge
***********************
1x Ancient Influence 1x Ancient Influence
1x Ancilla Empowerment 2x Ancilla Empowerment
6x Kine Resources Contested ---> 3x Kine Resources Contested
1x Political Stranglehold 1x Political Stranglehold
1x Reins of Power 1x Reins of Power
2x Banishment 1x Banishment
*********************** 2x Domain Challenge
2x Anarchist Uprising
I am not a specialist of this particular deck but here are my 2 cents about your questions :
Seduction is a good card but only usefull if the wall deck is able to block with only 1 vampire. In a lot of situations, form of mist is better. And for having seen Ankha play this deck quite often, I know he loves to have a couple copies of horrific countenance. If is quite expensive (4 bloods !) but it is not pro active so you can play it after your prey played his defensive cards (wake/intercept) and it makes the action unblockable so no other minion can attempt to block your killing reins of power ^^
And for the vote module, I would reduce the number of KRC because a lot of the time, doing 3 damage with a 9-10 cap vampire is not so good and even if your playgroup is not plagued with swarm decks, I would recommend at least 1 ancilla + 1 anarchist and no fewer than 2 banishments.