Deck of the Month: April 2009: Team Africa

This month's deck is the tournament winning deck "Team Africa" played by Ira Fay. The deck concept is not entirely new, you might also want to check Jay Kristoff's Team Laibon deck (unfortunately I could never find Mark Peterson's original design), but still I consider the deck something out of the ordinary when played on tournaments.

When looking at the deck, it looks as if there are many problems when playing it, e.g. lack of inherent votes, lack of considerable stealth, etc. But when actually playing it, it becomes more apparent how resilient and powerful the deck is. At its core the deck is a Weenie Politics deck, that gains vote by playing the different "Kholo" action modifiers pretty fast, trying to gain a considerable vote power early in the game. But even if politics fail, the deck can resort to swarm bleed. But read Ira's comment on his deck yourself.

Alacrity #1, Eudemonia
March 28, 2009
Berkeley, CA
12 Players

Ira Fay's Tournament Winning Deck

Deck Name: Team Africa
Author: Ira Fay
Description: Try to build up without looking like a huge threat, which is tricky. Decrypt even while you have unique vampires in the uncontrolled region, especially if you don't have Lumumba or all 4 clans yet. Cross-table oust if necessary to stablize the table. Use the Abombwe's on 4-caps, so you can get them up to 5 for Ancestor Spirit, or a bigger voter cap. Voter cap with Lumumba, since that's the only vamp with PRE (if you get out 6 vamps, you have a ~76% chance of getting Lumumba.)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 4 average: 3.41667
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2x Lumumba 4 PRE ani Guruhi:4
1x Urenna Bunu 4 ani pot pre Guruhi:4
1x Hasani 4 ABO for Akunanse:4
1x Dolie 3 abo ani Akunanse:4
1x Meno Ngari 2 abo Akunanse:4
1x Idrissa 4 CEL aus Osebo:4
1x Kamaria 3 aus pot Osebo:4
1x Misrak 2 pot Osebo:4
1x Kenyatta 4 cel for pre Ishtarri:4
1x Zhara 4 ani for pre Ishtarri:3
1x Panya, The Wicked 3 cel pre Ishtarri:4

Library: (65)
Master: (17)
5x Abombwe
4x Tribute to the Master
1x Ancestor Spirit
1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Information Highway
1x Mbare Market, Harare
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Sunset Strip, Hollywood
1x WMRH Talk Radio
1x Wash

Action: (7)
4x The Embrace
2x Mozambique Allure
1x Entrancement

Equipment: (3)
1x Camera Phone
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Kduva's Mask

Political Action: (10)
5x Kine Resources Contested
2x Autarkis Persecution
1x Conservative Agitation
1x Disputed Territory
1x The Secret Must Be Kept

Ally: (1)
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)

Retainer: (2)
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Mr. Winthrop

Action Modifier: (7)
3x Excellent Thirst
2x Predator's Mastery
2x Voter Captivation

Action Modifier/Combat: (2)
2x Predator's Transformation

Action Modifier/Reaction: (4)
1x Akunanse Kholo
1x Guruhi Kholo
1x Ishtarri Kholo
1x Osebo Kholo

Combat: (6)
6x Dodge

Reaction: (6)
4x Terra Incognita
2x On the Qui Vive