Deck Archetypes: Speed Shamblers

The "Speed Shamblers" deck archetype has had considerable success in the past few years in the VtES tournament scene. Olivier Perez is the foremost player using it, his tournament score card is quite impressive with tournament wins in the German and French ECQ 2006 and runner-up during the French Nationals 2007. The deck archetype is basically a Rush combat deck with the "Shambling Hordes" as its main weapon. The "speed" factor is due to the small deck size of 60 to 70 cards, and the recursion/tutoring technique from the "Liquidation" and "Sudario Refraction".

How to win with them
At first you need to keep a low profile, and convince everybody that you only need the "Shamblers" to defend yourself and you low-/midcap vampires ("This is Bob. Bob is never going to attack you!" or "This is not a powerbleed deck! Look at my puny vampires!"). Surprisingly this works more often than you might think, especially with more inexperienced players.

First priority is to bring out 2 to 3 "Shambling Hordes". It's somewhat easier for the "Shamblers" player to bring them into play than the somewhat comparable "War Ghouls". Instead of having a retainer or an ally in play, the only requirement (besides "Necromancy") is one of them in the ash heap instead. For assistance you'll mainly use "Call of the Hungry Dead". Against a dedicated block deck this won't help much though.

After some "Shamblers" have been recruited, you'll need usually need to attack your predator; either to elimiate him as a threat, or to threaten him into submission. After that you can turn your eye onto your prey. Start eliminate vampires that can block easily or bounce your bleed actions. The deck usually packs only few "Conditionings", but they can be recycled - like everything else - by using the "Sudario Refraction". When the defense of your prey is down, you can use these to oust your prey more quickly.

There are several nifty techniques/tricks in this deck:

• The main engine which makes the deck so powerful is the combination of "Liquadation" and "Sudario Refraction". The "Liquidation" generates three pool and puts seven cards from your library to your ash heap. This seven (additional) cards in the ash heap allow to a more effective search for particular cards using the "Sudario Refraction".
• The combination of "Unmasking" and "FBI Special Affairs Division" makes a good defensive package. If the "Shamblers" are successfully blocking, and the acting vampire actually manages to burn the "Shamblers, he takes an additional two damage from the "FBI".
• You'll gonna need "Acquired Ventrue Assets" to refill the costly "Shambling Hordes". Take notice that the "Assets" are not unique, so multiple copies of the card can be in play.

Bleed defense
Bleed defense is a number of the traditional "Deflection". You won't see much "Redirection" or the new "Murmur of the False Will" since the deck's crypt is somewhat smallish and only relatively few vampires have superior "Dominate". If bled heavily the deck will try to regain played "Deflections" by playing "Sudario Refraction".

Vote defense
The deck uses "Delaying Tactics", as the name of the card suggests, just to delay the votes of political deck. Afterwards, if threatened seriously the Giovanni player will send the "Shamblers" to rush the offending/voting vampires, if necessary also cross-table.

Combat defense
The deck works well against almost any form of close combat decks, but has problems against ranged combat, e.g. "Celerity Gun" or "Animalism" combat decks which use "Aid from Bats" and "Carrion Crows". With the ban against "Memories of Mortality" the "Speed Shamblers" deck will have more trouble against close combat decks, since it can no longer effectively elimate the damage of the combat vampires from the equation, and will have to act more cautiously against these type of decks.

How to win against them
The "Speed Shamblers" deck is far from invincible, though even if harrased it is often still the strongest deck at the table, since it is needs little setup, and can replace lost resource often quite easily. Here are some tips on how beat it:

• Play "Wash" or "Sudden Reversal" on the "Parthenon" or the "Memories of Mortality".
  
• Block the "Sudario Refraction"; remember you will usually need two minions with +1 intercept each to block. If you are a wall deck, block the Giovanni early and block them often. This is their Achilles heal: lack of stealth and other ways of bringing their actions through other than "Call of the Hungry Wolf".
  
• Play "Sniper Rifle" or other long range weapons. Even two or three in a deck are enough if you can manage to wake often enough to block attacking shamblers. Good news is that you do not need stealth for block the brainless.
  
• If you are a Rush deck, rush them first; the "Shamblers" if you can put them down, the Giovanni if you can get past the Shambler blockers.
  
• If you are play a political deck, pack some "Approximation of Loyalty". The Giovanni playing the "Delaying Tactics"" are usually mid-caps or weenies.
  
• Talk to your crosstable buddy and your prey to get rid of the "Memories of Mortality". Profit from the bad image the "Speed Shamblers" have.
  
• And most importantly: Don't get initimidated by the threats the Giovanni player is making, and do not let them built up!
  

Key Cards

• "Shambling Hordes" - the Meat and Brain of the deck, chumps to kill key vampires, block weenies, etc. Get them early, get lots of them.
  
• "Liquidation" -- provides both pool gain and the ability to fetch the cards the "Shamblers" player needs right now by Sudario Refraction.
  
• "Parthenon" -- "Speed Shamblers" is often play with less than 90 cards, but still a high count of Master cards (20+), so the Parthenon is essential.
  
• "Acquired Ventrue Assets" -- the card to quickly refill the Giovanni to get the next shambler; better than a hunting ground since you can use more than one a single Giovanni at once.
  
• "Sudario Refraction" - to gain/recycle those cards currently needed that may have been milled away by a Liquidation earlier.
  
• "Unmasking" & "FBI Special Affairs Division" - the Unmasking for the obvious intercept, the FBI for punishing especially other combat decks if they dare to attack one the Giovanni.

Notable Examples & Variations

• "I Love the Dead" by John Ivar Sandvik.
  
• "The Black Parade" by Jason Ryan.
  
• "SpeedShambling" by Olivier Perez.
  
• "Hordes of Liquidators" by Marc Desaulniers.

Decklist

ECQ Paris 2006
Continental Qualifier
Paris, France
23 September 2006
Players: 47
3 round + final

Deck Name : SpeedShambling
Author : Miriadel - Olivier Perez
Description : Tournament Winning Deck

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity average: 4.42
------------------------------------------------------------
2x Andrea Giovanni 7 DOM NEC pot vic Giovanni:2
2x Rudolfo Giovanni 3 NEC Giovanni:2
1x Rafaele Giovanni 6 NEC cel obf Giovanni:2
1x Isabel Giovanni 5 DOM NEC pot Giovanni:2
1x Le Dinh Tho 5 NEC aus dom Nagaraja:2
1x Francesca Giovanni 4 dom nec pot Giovanni:2
1x Gloria Giovanni 4 DOM nec Giovanni:2
1x Cristofero Giovann 3 nec pot Giovanni:2
1x Lia Milliner 3 dom nec Giovanni:3
1x Mario Giovanni 3 nec pot Giovanni:2

Library [80 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [7]
2x Graverobbing
5x Sudario Refraction

Action Modifier [8]
6x Call of the Hungry Dead
2x Conditioning

Ally [21]
1x Felix Fix
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Leonardo, Mortician
17x Shambling Hordes

Combat [2]
2x Trap

Equipment [4]
4x Unlicensed Taxicab

Event [5]
1x Anthelios, The Red Star
1x FBI Special Affairs Division
3x Unmasking, The

Master [31]
4x Acquired Ventrue Assets
1x Charisma
3x Direct Intervention
2x Fame
1x Fortschritt Library
1x Giant's Blood
6x Liquidation
3x Memories of Mortality
5x Parthenon, The
3x Path of Bone, The
1x Pentex Subversion
1x Powerbase: Cape Verde

Reaction [3]
3x Delaying Tactics