Deck Archetypes: Tupdog

The "Tupdog" deck archetype has emerged after the "Legacy of Blood" expansion - containing the namesake of this archetype, the non-unique Gargoyle "Tupdog" - was released in late 2005. Since that time this deck archetype has won numerous tournaments including the Brazilian and Norwegian championships 2007. The deck is a rush combat deck /w some added bleed capabilities based on the "Tupdog" vampire. It is quite a unique deck type, since "Tupdog" vampires burn after a round of their existence, and new "Tupdogs" need to be influenced out every turn to keep the deck's main engine going.

How to win with them
The Tupdog is quite a unique vampire type. It can just act for a turn, but has several distinctive features:

• they are non-unique vampires, i.e. you can have multiple "Tupdogs" in play.
  
• they are burned at the end of the next minion phase. So they have one turn to act, and may block one (or more) time(s). On the other hand for every "Tupdog" burned this way, another vampire is moved from your crypt to your ready region.
  
• they are "Tremere antitribu" slaves, i.e. they act freely (especially take directed actions only if you control a ready "Tremere antitribu".
  
• they have both superior "Visceratika" and superior "Potence", which is quite powerful for 1 cap vampire, and "Visceratika" cards costs the "Tupdog" one less blood to play.
  
• the "Tupdog" has a built-in Rush ability, so cards for attacking other minions (e.g. "Frontal Assault", "Bums Rush", "Haven Uncovered", etc.) are usually not needed.
  

The "Tupdog" crypt engine works like this:

• Influence out one or more "Tupdogs" in your influence phase.
• Between your turns you may or may not decide to block with the "Tupdogs". If you decide that you are blocking and the "Tupdog" loses a blood while blocking, then he is forced to hunt and cannot attack/bleed at all during your next minion. So your decision to block, immediately can decide whether the "Tupdog" can do anything useful for the rest of his lifetime (i.e. your next minion phase) or not.
• In your turn you should careful consider what to your to do with your "Tupdogs", since this is the only turn they can act. Leaving them untapped for blocking is obviously a waste of time. The only reason for not acting is that you have neither a ready "Tremere antitribu" (so they can't take any directed actions) nor you have any reasonable undirected action (other than hunting) your "Tupdogs" can take.
  
• At the end of your minion phase all of your "Tupdogs" are burned, but as a result for each "Tupdog" burned another vampire is moved from your crypt to your uncontrolled region. This saves you valuable transfers, and usually you should be able to move the same number of "Tupdogs" to your controlled region as you controlled in your minion phase.

It is debatable what the "correct" ratio of "Tupdogs" and "Tremere antitribu" in your crypt is. While some players prefer a rather high ratio of 4:1 or even 5:1 ("Tupdogs" to "Tremere antitribu"), while others go as low as 2:1 or 3:2. The two different motives are: "how reliable is my supply of "Tupdogs" during mid- and endgame" vs. "how reliable I want to have an Tremere antitribu in my starting crypt". What helps with the first goal is adding additional transfers via "Information Highway" or extra moves from the crypt to the uncontrolled region via "Effective Management" or similar cards. What helps with the second goal is including "Recruitment" into your deck (2 to 4 copies should do the work) since this lets you extract a "Tremere antitribu" right way into your uncontrolled region.

Personally I would recommend a ratio of 4:1 with a crypt size of 16 (with 12 "Tupdogs" and 4 "Tremere antitribu". This only gives you the chance of 48% in your opening crypt, but with a "Tupdog" or two burned this chance increases dramatically to get one in the next one or two extra vampires from your crypt.

Another nice feature is that a vampire with superior "Dominate" (like "Keith Moody") can use "Govern the Unaligned" to first put a blood on a "Tupdog". Then you can transfer back two blood and still the "Tupdog" moves to the controlled region in the influence phase.

The rush ability needs, of course, some solid combat foundation which allows the "Tupdogs" to torporize or maybe even sometimes burn an opposing vampire or ally. The basic combat package consists of using "Raking Talons" for making the "Tupdog's" hand damage aggravated and then using "Immortal Grapple" to ensure that the opposing minion cannot dodge or use "Strike: Combat Ends". Everything is else is decoration, or let's say, dependent of the combat opposition you are facing. The nice thing is that you do not need to think about a tight combat defense for the "Tupdogs". The worst thing that could happen is that your "Tupdog" is burned in combat. But this only deprives you of an additional vampire moved from you crypt to your uncontrolled region. Useful additions of combat cards are "Roll" (maneuver), "Crawling Chamber" (maneuver/press/additional damage), "Torn Signpost" (add. damage), "Earthshock" (Ranged strike). Other cards one can think about including are "Skin of Chameleon" which can give +2 stealth to a "Tupdogs" rush action, making sure you can enter combat with the minion you would like to battle and not some chump blocker. Remember that the "Skin of Chameleon" does not cost the Tupdog, since he pays one less blood for "Visceratika" cards

Another feature of the deck is the ability of using graverobbing since the deck has the ability to both torporize opposing vampires (with the "Tupdogs") and later "Graverobbing" them.

Slave: Some minions are identified as slaves to a specified clan. A slave cannot take a directed action if his controller doesn't control a ready member of the specified clan. Also, if a member of the specified clan controlled by the same Methuselah is blocked, the controller can tap the slave to cancel the combat and to untap the acting vampire and have the slave enter combat with the blocking minion instead. (from the VtES rule book).

The "Tupdogs" are subject to the "Slave" rules, i.e. they cannot take directed actions unless (in their case) a "Tremere antitribu" is present in the ready region. On the other hand if a "Tremere antitribu" is blocked you can use the "Tupdogs" to enter combat instead, and the "Tremere antitribu" is even untapped alongside. The slave blocking rule should be used before the Tupdogs are acting, in order to deter other minions from blocking. It can also be a viable solution of circumventing a "Secure Haven". The opposing vampire with a "Secure Haven" will think twice about blocking a "Tremere antitribu" while you have an untapped "Tupdog" ready to start combat with him.

The deck usually has two ways of ousting. The first is to use cards the same cards as any rush combat deck would use, like "Fame" and "Dragonbound", in order to directly profit from the "Tupdog's" combat capabilities. Using "Tension in the Ranks" is obviously a bad idea, since you would burn a pool each time a ready "Tupdog" is burned or goes to Torpor. Note that "Tension in the Ranks" never lets you pay twice for the same "Tupdog", since you do not burn a pool for torporized "Tupdog" (that is burned at the end of your minion phase, for example).

The second way of ousting your prey is by bleeding. So the "Tupdog's" goal is to remove any blocking or bouncing vampires, before the Tremere antitribu start to bleed and try to oust your prey. Since you want remove any obstacles before bleeding relatively few bleed cards (actions or modifiers) are included in the deck.

The deck is not as easy to play as it looks like, since there a couple of obstacles to master:

• The new Tupdogs cost pool each time you bring new "Tupdogs". So either you need a way to recoup the lost pool.
  
• Eventually you are running out of crypt and/or you're stuck with "Tremere antitribu in your controlled region. Both situations makes your deck vulnerable (the former more so than the later scenario), since alone the "Tremere antitribu" in this deck are quite weak without the "Tupdog" support.
• The deck has a bad reputation. Your deck is the aggressor at the table very early on, and your predator (naturally), your prey and even your cross-table "allies" may gang up on you. So should try to consider keeping a low profile at the beginning of the game, maybe spending your transfers for moving vampires from your crypt to your controlled region, and bringing out the "Tremere antitribu" first. I have seen preys of a "Tupdog" deck refusing to move any vampires to their ready region, since they claimed "that it doesn't make any sense" to do so.

Bleed/Vote defense
As any other deck with weenie/small cap vampires w/ access to "Dominate" the deck relies on "Deflection" for bleed defense and "Delaying Tactics". The deck is also capable of using "Yawp Court" to prevent unpleasant votes to happen, using an untapped "Tupdog" to enter combat with the vote calling vampire. With the combat package described above the "Tupdog" should be able to torporize the opposing vampire with some certainty. For overly aggressive predators you should always consider backrushing your predator's minion. At the start of the game it would be good to start with a backrush in order to intimidate your predator enough, so that he thinks twice about attacking your pool hard.

Combat defense
Despite the fact the "Tupdogs" are quite fearsome, the deck still need some sort of combat defense, not for the "Tupdogs", but for the "Tremere antitribu" support cast. Remember, if you do not have a ready "Tremere antitribu" left, the "Tupdogs" cannot perform any directed actions.
As "active" combat defense you should use some "Mirror Walks" (at superior "Thaumaturgy") to prevent combat even if blocked. As passive combat defense two copies of "Secure Haven" should provide enough cover against minions rushing your key "Tremere antitribu". A good idea is also to include some light combat defense, especially cards that require "Visceratika" and support the "Tupdog's actions in some way, and provide a combat defense effect at the outferior version of the cards. Examples for this are "Crawling Chamber" or "Rockheart".

How to win against them
Being the prey of a "Tupdog" deck is obviously no fun, since he can torporize your minions quite easily, unless you play a dedicated combat or get out an early "Secure Haven". First of all you need to coordinate bringing out new vampires with your grand-predator. Otherwise the "Tupdogs" will down first the vampires on one side, and then on the other side. Also you need to encourage and support your predator, so that the puts at least some pressure on the "Tupdogs".

The most obvious rule is to remove the "Tremere antitribu" from the ready region. Without a ready "Tremere antitribu" the "Tupdogs" can only take undidrected actions, which takes away their main rush/offensive capability. This can be achieved by blocking the "Tremere antitribu" or rushing them directly. Also "Banishment" works well since the "Tremere antitribu" used in the deck are usually in the weenie to mid-cap range.

Convince your prey that you're a good meatshield against the "Tupdogs", and make an alliance with your grandpredator/-prey to oust the aggressor. Help each other by rescuing your own vampires or that by your grand predator. Nothing is more frustrating for the deck than the outlook of beating up the same minions over and over again.

As a predator of the "Tupdog" you need to convince the other players at the table that your prey is the table threat (always a good thing), but in this case you can to capitalize heavily on the aggressive nature and bad reputation of the "Tupdog" deck.

Also you need to put pressure on the "Tupdog" decks pool. The less pool he has the less "Tupdogs" he can put into play. Also try to remove your opponents decks pool gainining capability, e.g. removing the vampire with the two "Blood Dolls" which hunts for two blood every turn with the help of "Hungry Coyote".

Good cards against this deck archetype are "Tension in the Ranks", since it is this deck's nature to burn its own vampires. This can backfire if your combat capabilities are trumped by the "Tupdog's" abilities, so this can be a very difficult decision dependening on situation at the table. "Secure Haven" can be used to preserve the integrity of a key vampire of yours. Unfortunately the "Tupdog" deck has also a "Secure Haven" included, with the consequence that it is quite likely, that a contest will take place during which the "Tupdogs" then can attack your. The real killer cards against "Tupdogs" is "Gran Madre di Dio", since the card removes the single blood that a "Tupdog" and forces him to hunt the next turn, making him effectively useless.

Key Cards

• "Tupdog" -- Need them. 'Nuff said.
  
• "Immortal Grapple" / "Raking Talons" -- the basic combat package of the deck.
  
• "Graverobbing" -- steal vampires you have torporized.
  
• "Conditioning" -- main bleed card for the "Tremere antitribu".
  

Notable Examples & Variations

• "Top Dog" by Martin Tremblay -- basic variant (see decklist below).
  
• "The Hand of Tupdog" by Boris Zaretsky -- less focused, more toolboxy variant.
  
• "Unnatural Disaster" by Christoffer Arvidsson -- basic variant w/ "Unnatural Disaster" as exotic extra for removing "Secure Haven" or "Gran Madre di Dio, Italy".
  
• "Wings and Shovels" by Marc Desaulniers -- stripped down version with "Govern the Unaligned" and "Graverobbing" as the only non-Master/non-Combat cards.
  
• "Tupdog" by Hugo S. Skarsten Larsen -- more leaned towards Gargoyles in general w/ add. Gargoyle vampires in the Crypt and "Create Gargoyle".
  
• "Tupdog" by Eduardo Kazan -- large number of "Tupdogs", but without "Graverobbing".
  
• "Me pareció ver un lindo gatito" by Miguel del Valle -- "Mata Hari" w/ "Tupdog" w/ "Rock Cat" variant; very unusual deck design.

Sample Decklist

Grand Temple of Set
Sherbrooke (Quebec) Canada
October 7th, 2006
13 players

Winning Deck
Deck Name: Top Dog
Created By: 15MTV (Martin Tremblay)
Description:

Crypt: (24 cards, Min: 4, Max: 14, Avg: 1.58)
---------------------------------------------
18 Tupdog POT VIS 1 Gargoyle
1 Saiz aus dom 3 Tremere Antitribu
2 Ember Wright aus dom 3 Tremere Antitribu
1 Keith Moody DOM DOM 3 Tremere Antitribu
1 Janine aus dom tha 4 Tremere Antitribu
1 Mosfair cel dom tha 4 Tremere Antitribu

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (13 cards)
4 Blood Doll
1 Direct Intervention
2 Effective Management
2 Fame
1 Heidelberg Castle, Germany
2 Information Highway
1 Secure Haven

Action (8 cards)
1 Aranthebes, The Immortal
7 Graverobbing

Action Modifier (8 cards)
8 Conditioning

Combat (57 cards)
6 Crawling Chamber
13 Immortal Grapple
2 Pounce
13 Raking Talons
4 Rockheart
3 Roll
4 Stonestrength
2 Swoop
10 Torn Signpost

Ally (1 cards)
1 Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)

Retainer (2 cards)
1 J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1 Tasha Morgan

Equipment (1 cards)
1 Hand of Conrad