Deck Archetypes: Breed & Boon

In the VtES tournament scene you currently see a lot of "Breed & Boon" decks. When researching for this article on Lasombra's TWD archive there were alone for 2006 and 2007 more than a dozen decks based on this strategy. The basic strategy is to have a large number of minions. which are calling "Consanguineous Boons" to bloat, and finally to "swarm bleed".

How to win with them
Your first objective is to create quite a number of small vampires, whether they are called "3rd Tradition: Progeny" and "Embraces" or "Tumnimos" and "Waters of Duat" depending on your actual deck. After a while you start to bloat by playing "Consanguineous Boons". After this these decks are nearly unstoppable due to the large amount of pool they control; often exceeding the starting pool of 30. The key to these decks is the way how they push the vote through. Usually this done by the vampire's title, but more efficient is the use of cards which stack votes or multiply votes with the number of vampires of the same clan the player controls. e.g. "Foundation Exhibit" or "Alamut".

Direct defense against bleed decks is always almost non-existent, the deck relies on the ability to bloat faster than a bleed deck is able to remove the pool. Combat defense is also usually quite light or non-existent, often consisting only on number of discipline-less cards like "Dodge". Vote defense is usally quite strong, since the cards used for pushing votes through can often be used also in defense against opponent's political actions.

How to win against them
This deck is hard to counter, if not stopped right from the start. After a while it can chump block most rush attempts with newly created weenies, it has created such a large pool size that bleed or vote decks have difficulties to remove that pool.

Best suited against a "Breed & Boon" deck is an intercept combat deck, since it can effectively block the breed actions early in the game, and the bloating actions in the late game. Also quite good are power bleed decks since their able to bleed for large amounts of pool in a short time frame.

If possible, you have to remove the key cards that enable the vote multiplication, i.e. "Foundation Exhibit" or an "Arson" against " Alamut". Killer cards against these decks are cards that affect large number of minions, e.g. "Dragonbound" or "Perpetual Care" for combat decks, or "Anarchist Uprising" or "Ancilla Empowerment".

Key Cards
Basicially these decks need three kinds of cards as their back bone, the "Con. Boon, a card to create new vampires of the same clan and one card which gives an additional vote for each vampire of that clan.

• "Consanguineous Boon" -- the key card for this whole archetype; able to generate up to 20 pool per turn.
• "Embrace" / "3rd Tradition: Progeny" / "Creation Rites" -- these actions create a new clan member, for which the vote multiplier (see cards below) applies.
• "Power Structure" -- gives all "Lasombra" an additional vote.
• "Foundation Exhibit" -- gives all non-titled "Toreador antitribu" an additional vote.
• "Unexpected Coalition" -- gives all "Brujah antitribu" an additional vote.
• "Legacy of Pander" -- gives all "Pander" an additional vote.
• "Alamut" -- gives all "Assamites" an additional vote.
• "Eldest are Kholo" -- gives all "Laibon Ravnos" an additional vote.
• "Bastille Opera House" / "Conductor" -- gives additional votes to "Daughters of Cacophony".
  

Notable Examples & Variations
The variation of this deck archetype is quite immense, it covers quite a number of clans, all four sects and different ways of creating additional weenie vampires:

• Camarilla princes, especially with Nosferatu or Malkavian Royalty based on "3rd Tradition: Progeny"; these decks usually rely on the built-in votes of their Princes and Justicars.
  
• Cloaka Company by Daniel Carretero Ferres.
  
• Lasombra, based on "Creation Rites" and "Power Structure"
  
• Lasombra Creation Boon by Ben Peal.
  
• Toreador antitribu, based on "Embraces", "Foundation Exhibit" and "Palla Grande"
  
• Roaches '07 by David Magri da Silva.
  
• Black Hand Arts v1.0 by Erol Oenguen.
  
• Nosferatu antitribu & Pander, based on "Unacceptable Appearance" and/or "Legacy of Pander"
  
• Unacceptable Boon by Ben Peal
  
• Assamite Recruits, based on Amaravarti's special ability, "Web of Knives Recruit" and Alamut
  
• Army of Allah by Florian Prosper.
  
• Team Amarvati by Ben Peal.
  
• Ravnos, based on Tumnimos, "The Eldest are Kholo" and "Week of Nightmare"
  
• LaiBoon Carnival by Marc Desaulniers.
  
• Tsunda - Return of the King by Anthony Coleman.
• Daughters of Cacophony, based on "Embraces", "Bastille Opera House" and/or "Conductor"
  
• Angelore by Ben Peal.
  

The newest addition to this happy family of decks is the Black Hand variant meshed with the Toreador antitribu's "Palla Grande". The really "bad" thing is when the "Watchtower: The Wolves Feed" hits the table. Not only they are bleeding you +1 (due to the "Palla Grande"), but also at +1 stealth!!

Example Decklist

French Championship 2007
Caves de Saint-Sabin, Paris, France
September 30th, 2007
72 players
3R + F

Deck name : Army of Allah
Author : Florian Prosper aka Blondin, 2007 French Champion
Description :

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 11, Max: 31, Avg: 5,16)
----------------------------------------------
1 Basir qui 1 Assamite
2 Ali Kar obf qui 3 Assamite
2 Kamau Jafari obf QUI 4 Assamite
1 Janni cel for obf qui 5 Assamite
1 Michael diCarlo obf qui CEL 5 Assamite
1 Vardar Vardarian cel pre OBF QUI 6 Assamite
1 Olugbenga ani cel OBF QUI 7 Assamite
3 Amaravati ani chi DOM OBF QUI 8 Assamite

Library: (70 cards)
-------------------
Master (15 cards)
4 Alamut
2 Archon Investigation
2 Blood Doll
1 Coven, The
2 Khabar: Community, The
2 Pentex Subversion
1 Underworld Hunting Ground
1 Yoruba Shrine

Action (20 cards)
12 Embrace, The
2 Psychic Veil
6 Web of Knives Recruit

Action Modifier (15 cards)
3 Cloak the Gathering
1 Cryptic Rider
3 Faceless Night
3 Lost in Crowds
2 Spying Mission
3 Veil the Legions

Political Action (14 cards)
8 Consanguineous Boon
2 Conservative Agitation
4 Kine Resources Contested

Reaction (3 cards)
3 Delaying Tactics

Event (1 cards)
1 Uncoiling, The

Combo (2 cards)
2 Swallowed by the Night