Deck Archetypes: War Ghoul

Another classic in VtES among the tournament winning decks is the Tzimisce "War Ghoul" deck. As the named suggests it based on the Tzimisce "War Ghoul" ally, the sturdiest ally in the game with 5 life, 4 damage and the ability to prevent one damage each round. This deck archetype has a long history in the tournament scene and a pretty successful one too.

How to win with them
The "War Ghoul" deck is basicially a rush combat deck using the "War Ghoul" ally as rushing minion instead of vampires like "Beast". The means to oust his prey are putting down your prey's minions first, then bleeding him out with "Changeling" or bleed-enhancing retainers like "Tasha Morgan".

The early aim of the deck is to bring out "War Ghouls" as fast as possible, and spend a lesser amount of pool to bring out only two, maybe three vampires early in the game. The best scenario is a turn-2-"War Ghoul" where "Horatio" sacrifices a "Jake Washington" to bring out the first "War Ghoul". The crypt is comprised of a number of weenie to mid-cap group 2 vampires notably "Horatio", "Lolita Houston", "Caliban" and "Corine Marcon", since they have a great cost-capacity efficiency (in that group).

The key question/issue is how to get the "War Ghouls" out without being blocked in the first place. There are two ways of achieving this, either by using permanents like "Unlicensed Taxicab" or "Creepshow Casino" or by using "Vicissitude" stealth cards like "Plasmic Form" and/or "Changeling".

The "War Ghouls" should then attack your predator's minion first, to make sure he's no real threat for you. After that you'll have change your focus on your prey. Beat up your prey's minions and then use your Vampires to bleed +2 either with the bleed retainers or cards like "Changeling" to oust you prey.

The "War Ghoul's" combat strategy is easy (and obvious), lay down a "Trap", hope your opponents doesn't play "Strike: Combat Ends" and then beat the hell out them. Variations of the theme include the use of a "Hawg" to press into round 2 of the combat, where a lone "Repo Man" fetches these vehicles from the library before. Sometimes the deck also packs "Memories of Mortality" to make combat against other combat monsters easier or to bypass obnoxious blockers on the way to real target.

Beside these above mentioned allies the deck also often features "Vagabond Mystic" to heal wounded "War Ghouls" as well as number of bleed retainers like "J. S. Simmons, Esq." or "Tasha Morgan". Of course all of these allies or retainers can be used as fodder for the "War Ghouls" if necessary.

Bleed defense
The deck has two ways of defending against bleeds. The first is to use the permanent +1 intercept from the "Unmasking" to block, although the "traditional" War Ghoul deck isn't an intercept combat deck, but a rush combat deck. The second way is a usually small number of bleed bounce cards based on the "Auspex" discipline.

Eventually the intercept defense is too weak and the amount of bounce cards too small, so the "War Ghouls" have to rush the minions of "Stealth & Bleed" deck and even more so those of "Power Bleed" decks early in the game, even to effect that it has to oust it effectively after all of your predator's minion are in torpor.

Vote defense
There is virtually no vote defense in this deck archetype, since the small cap vampires the deck features have no titles. The deck usally has a small number of "Delaying Tactics" to prevent the worst effects of votes, but again the main line of defense is to rush the voting vampires, being those from prey or predator.

Combat defense
The "War Ghouls" make up both the decks combat offense and defense. They are - as the other allies - immune to "Rötschreck", "Disarm", etc., can withstand some hitback, deal a whole lot of damage and can rush any vampire at the table.

How to win against them
One way of avoiding the "War Ghouls" in the first place is to prevent either the recruitment the allies/retainers, who are later fodder for the "War Ghouls", or the recruitment of a "War Ghouls" itself.

The first one is usually problematic since "Jake Washington" is a master card, and you need a "Wash" or "Sudden Reversal" to cancel it. When the fodder retainer/allies or the War Ghouls are recruited, you can try to block that, but you will need 2 to 3 intercept for blocking that because your opponent will use "Changeling" and/or "Plasmic Form" during the action. But most somewhat serious intercept decks should be able to block the "War Ghoul" recruitment.

Another way of dealing with the "War Ghouls" is to simply steal them from your opponent using "Far Mastery", "Entrancement", "Lure of the Serpent", etc. When trying to take control of anothers player's "War Ghoul" make sure you do it with a tapped one, otherwise the opposing player may just use the "War Ghoul's" special ability by tapping him and burning any one location on the table.

Combat-wise "Celerity Gun" decks are the Nemesis of the "War Ghoul" deck. The can out-maneuver the "War Ghoul" and kill it in a single turn using a ".44 Magnum" and a "Blur", these being staple cards in a "Celerity Gun" deck.

If you play a combat deck other than a Cel Gun deck, try attack the soft targets first, e.g. the vampires. The vampires main defense is either to use the "Chiropteran Marauder" standalone, or a maneuver plus "Breath of the Dragon". In desperate moments your opponent will use the "Breath of the Dragon" also at close range, even at the cost of losing one of his Tzimisce vampire.

There are number of ways to deal with "War Ghoul" deck, but a whole lot of decks can't. Those who cannot deal with the "War Ghouls" directly have two options. The first option is to strike a deal "You don't harm me, I don't harm you" with them. This of course only works if you are the predator of the "War Ghoul" deck. The second option is to try to outrun the "War Ghoul", e.g. you can try to out-bleed your opponent faster than he can beat up your vampires, or to delay him by playing "Majesties" in combat and then backoust him using "Kine Resource Contested" or similar votes. But be prepared, the "War Ghoul" deck needs not that much of time for its setup.

Key Cards

• "War Ghoul" -- what to say about this that hasn't been said above ...
  
• "Jake Washington" -- the easiest way of getting an ally/retainer to sacrifice for the "War Ghoul".
  
• "Charisma" -- as in other Ally decks this is a must to reduce the cost of the allies.
  
• "Horatio" -- fun that this a a key card/vampire, but it is the fastest way of getting out a "War Ghoul".
  
• "Trap" -- the main combat card for this deck archetype.

Notable Examples & Variations

• "Classic" Warghoul -- described in detail above, often not a full 90-card deck, but only 60 or 70 cards large.
  
  • THE Warghoule deck by Stephane Lavrout
    
  • Jake Washington eats the world by Erik Torstensson
    
  • Wild Thing War Ghoul by Hugh Angseesing
    
  • War Ghouls by Ruben Vidana Ramos
    
• "EconoGhoul" -- developed by Ben Peal it uses the "Burn Card" option mechanism to effectivly reduce the size of library and thus being able to play a "War Ghoul" deck with quite a low number of those.
  
• EconoGhoul by Ben Peal
  
• "War Ghoul Summoning" -- this variant has a splash of "Presence". It uses "The Rose" and the "Summoning" to fetch allies it needs from the library.
  
• "War Ghouls in the dark" -- uses the G3/G4 vampires with "Obfuscate" to make the recruitment of the vampires more reliable.
  
  • What Ghoul? by Cameron Roberts / Ginés Quiñonero
    

Decklist

Welsh ECQ 23/09/2006 [TWD]
15 Players
3 rounds and a final
The Rhyddings Pub
Brynmill Avenue
Brynmill, Swansea SA2 0BT
Wales
United Kingdom

Deck: Wild Thing War Ghoul
By Hugh Angseesing

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity average: 3.92
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3x Lolita Houston 4 VIC aus Tzimisce:2
3x Horatio 2 vic Tzimisce:2
1x Caliban 6 ANI AUS VIC Tzimisce:2
1x Corine Marcón 6 AUS VIC ani Tzimisce:2
1x Devin Bisley 5 ANI AUS vic Tzimisce:2
1x Elizabeth Westcott 5 AUS ani cel vic Tzimisce:3
1x Rose, The 5 PRE VIC aus Tzimisce:3
1x Piotr Andreikov 2 aus Tzimisce:3

Library [76 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action Modifier [7]
7x Changeling

Action Modifier/Combat [8]
8x Plasmic Form

Ally [15]
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Gregory Winter
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
1x Repo Man
2x Vagabond Mystic
9x War Ghoul

Combat [8]
1x Dead-End Alley
2x Fake Out
5x Trap

Equipment [5]
2x Hawg
3x Unlicensed Taxicab

Event [2]
1x Dragonbound
1x Unmasking, The

Master [13]
3x Blood Doll
1x Charisma
1x Direct Intervention
1x Fame
5x Jake Washington (Hunter)
2x Memories of Mortality

Reaction [13]
2x Delaying Tactics
6x Telepathic Misdirection
5x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Retainer [5]
1x Ghoul Escort
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
2x Mr. Winthrop
1x Tasha Morgan