Deck of the Month: January 2010: The Rats in Sheep's Clothing

This month's deck is the tournament winning deck "The Rats in Sheep's Clothing" played by Roger Carhult. The deck is an Animalism bleed deck based on the new card from Ebony Kingdom "Tunnel Runner", but instead of diversifying the crypt with a number of different Akunanse it uses "Aisata Swanou" as its star vampire and introduces Vicissitude as support discipline.

I have long pondered what the deck of the month should be for this month, because in January the decks I have seen were mostly incarnations of decks well known like Weenie Animalism combat or Malkavian '94 bleed. And when looking at this deck I always thought, that while is deck is quite interesting, it lacks any proper defense or bloat to be real competitive. But in the end .. it won a tournament, doesn't it.

Nordlicht
Göteborg, Sweden
January 9, 2010
12 players

Deck: The Rats in Sheep's Clothing
Author: Roger Carhult

Comments from the author:

I only own 6 Deep Song, that's why Taunt the Caged Beast. Although it's not too bad when a Tunnel Runner can use it as well, or for multirush purposes. I think another Ossian would make the deck more effective, I only had him in one game but then he totally owned the table for me. I should also probably take out the Channel 10 and possibly have Giant's Blood instead or another Jake (whom I never saw during any of my rounds). Possibly I should take out another Aisata and add one more copy of Stick or Walker Grimes. A Well-Marked should have been included too but I forgot to. I'd out a Malleable Visage in exchange for one.
The deck doesn't have any pool gain at all, so the idea is to take the edge and hold it for a bit, and reduce all ally costs with Tshwane and Charisma.
You only need 2 Tunnelers and an Impundulu and Ossian plus 2 vampires. Card cycling is handled through Aisata's special ability which works pretty well. Rush backwards in the beginning to ease the early pressure and possibly use Pentex too. Inconnu Tutelage is great since you always have some uncontrolled vampires for spare.

Crypt (12 vampires) Capacity min: 1 max: 7 average: 5.33333
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8x Aisata Swanou 7 ANI FOR VIC abo Akunanse:5
2x Stick 3 ANI !Nosferatu:4
2x Walker Grimes 1 ani Caitiff:5

Library (90 cards)
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Action (9)
1x Army of Rats
6x Deep Song
1x Taunt the Caged Beast
1x Wise Spider

Action Modifier (12)
4x Changeling
6x Freak Drive
2x Malleable Visage

Ally (8)
1x Impundulu
1x Ossian
6x Tunnel Runner

Combat (30)
11x Aid from Bats
5x Carrion Crows
2x Chiropteran Marauder
1x Target Hand
6x Target Vitals
5x Taste of Vitae

Event (5)
1x FBI Special Affairs Division
1x Inconnu Tutelage
1x Narrow Minds
2x Unmasking, The

Master (13)
1x Channel 10
3x Charisma
2x Direct Intervention
1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Mapatano Utando
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Powerbase: Tshwane
1x WMRH Talk Radio

Reaction (13)
3x Cats' Guidance
4x Guard Dogs
3x Instinctive Reaction
3x On the Qui Vive