Deck of the Month: August 2011: Marcus, Marc and the Funky Bunch

This month's deck is the tournament winning deck "Marcus, Marc and the Funky Bunch" played by Robert Scythe. Essentially the deck is Lasombra Presence Vote deck, what gives the deck it's special twist is its defense based on Faerie Wards.
With the help of Marconius special ability (paying one less for Mytherceria cards), Faerie Wards can be played in bulk (10 copies in the deck) and is a terrific defense, especially against bleed and rush combat decks. The rather large number of discipline master cards are in the deck for two reasons, for one to allow Marconius to play Faerie Wards against any vampire at the table, and secondly to profit from political actions like Ancient Influence and Reins of Power.
The deck has a rather slow setup with no Information Highway, Zillah's Valley, etc. and only 2 Govern the Unaligned. Ousting power is also not massive, with only 6 damaging political actions and only 2 bleed actions and 1 bleed modifier. So the deck has to bid its time for the right spot when and where to launch its offensive.

Deck Name: Fire In The Blood: Marcus, Marc and the Funky Bunch
Author: Robert Scythe
Description:
Fire In The Blood
San Jose, CA USA
August 13th, 2011
2r+F
20 players

This is my Faerie Guardian deck with a couple of changes. I put in a Lilith's Blessing for one of the Master Discipline cards (not Presence, of course) and replaced a Wake with an Eternal Vigilance nicking an idea from John Bell's more defensive Faerie Wards wall deck. I didn't mean to play this deck again in a tournament but I hadn't taken it apart and it felt right to play at the time. I did forget to put in the 2 Perfect Paragons that absolutely belong in it, luckily they didn't cost me the game.

Crypt (Capacity min=9 max=10 avg=9.5; 12 cards)
==================================================
3x Ambrosio Luis Monçada, Plenipotentiary 10 aus for DOM OBT POT PRE Lasombra:2
2x Francisco Domingo de Polonia 9 pro DOM OBT POT PRE Lasombra:2
4x Marconius 9 pot DOM MYT OBT Kiasyd:2
3x Marcus Vitel 10 DOM FOR OBF OBT PRE Ventrue:3

Library (74 cards)
=====================
Master (18 cards)
1x Animalism
1x Celerity
1x Fortitude
1x Giant's Blood
1x Lilith's Blessing
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Papillon
2x Presence
1x Serpentis
1x Ventrue Headquarters
5x Villein
2x Wider View

Action (5 cards)
1x Clan Impersonation
1x Eternal Vigilance
1x Far Mastery
2x Govern the Unaligned

Political Action (12 cards)
1x Ancient Influence
2x Banishment
4x Kine Resources Contested
1x Parity Shift
1x Political Stranglehold
2x Reinforcements
1x Reins of Power

Equipment (2 cards)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Zaire River Ferry

Ally (1 cards)
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Action Modifier (16 cards)
1x Blanket of Night
1x Iron Glare
3x Shadow Play
4x Shroud of Absence
2x Shroud of Night
1x Stone Travel
4x Voter Captivation

Reaction (20 cards)
2x Deflection
10x Faerie Wards
2x Obedience
2x On the Qui Vive
4x Wake with Evening's Freshness