Reasonably Priced Decks: Toreador antitribu

The following deck based on the Toreador antitribu clan is the fourth deck in the Reasonably Priced Decks series, which I have outlined in a previous blog post.

The deck is a basic bleed and vote deck based on the Toreador antitribu clan. Contrary to the previously posted decks this deck contains some vampires with a higher capacity, mostly to gain access to some permanent titles. The Toreador antitribu profits from a number of very strong clan cards, mostly notably Palla Grande, Foundation Exhibit and Art Scam. Unfortunately all of the aforementioned cards are rare cards .. but nonetheless the resulting deck (with only one of those rares) is still rather reliable and sturdy.

Deck Name: Reasonably Priced Deck: Toreador antitribu v2
Author: extrala
Description: The fourth in the Reasonably Priced Deck series, designed for beginners.

Crypt (Capacity min=2 max=9 avg=6; 12 cards)
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1x Dominique Santo Paulo 6 pot pre AUS CEL !Toreador:4
1x Guillermo Arsuaga 6 aus for CEL PRE !Toreador:4
1x Isouda de Blaise 7 aus CEL OBF PRE !Toreador:4
1x Jonathan Gursel 3 aus pre !Toreador:4
1x Justine Chen, Innocent 2 pre !Toreador:4
2x Klaus Konrecht 8 for pot AUS CEL PRE !Toreador:4
2x Loonar 4 cel PRE !Toreador:4
2x Malabranca 9 obf AUS CEL PRE PRO !Toreador:4
1x Redbone McCray 6 cel pro AUS PRE !Toreador:4

Library (60 cards)
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Master (13 cards)
1x Black Forest Base
3x Blood Doll
1x Failsafe
1x Fetish Club Hunting Ground
3x Minion Tap
1x Palla Grande
1x Perfectionist
2x Zillah's Valley

Action (8 cards)
2x Enchant Kindred
6x Public Trust

Political Action (7 cards)
2x Conservative Agitation
4x Kine Resources Contested
1x Political Stranglehold

Ally (2 cards)
2x Procurer

Action Modifier (5 cards)
2x Aire of Elation
3x Bewitching Oration

Reaction (10 cards)
3x Telepathic Counter
3x Telepathic Misdirection
4x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Combat (6 cards)
2x Majesty
2x Staredown
2x Unholy Penance

Combo (9 cards)
6x Resist Earth's Grasp
3x Scalpel Tongue

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (May 9, 2012 21:42:47)

Offense: The offense of the deck is two-fold. On one hand, there's the presence-based bleed actions, most prominently Public Trust (with an added potential pool gain). On the other hand, there's the vote angle supported by the titles of Malabranca and Klaus Konrecht, as well as Presence based action modifiers (Bewitching Oration & Scalpel Tongue). Another aspect of the deck is the use of a few cards to move vampires faster to the ready region (using Zillah's Valley) and at the same time to regain some of invested pool (using Minion Taps). That, in conjunction with cards like Public Trust and Enchant Kindred should you give the ability to bring out more vampires than your prey does, in order to eventually overwhelm him.

Defense: The deck has some defense in all of the game's three area: bleed, vote, combat. Bleed defense is Auspex-based bleed reduction and redirection. Combat defense are the "Strike: Combat Ends" using Presence, and finally vote defense comes along in the form of the titles and Scalpel Tongue.

Crypt: The crypt is not really optimal. Only the two highest capacity vampires have all three clans disciplines at superior. Other clans (groups) often have vampires of capacity 6 (or 7) with the same set of clan disciplines. So when choosing vampires, you should be careful, which ones actually want to move to the ready region. You need one vampire for bouncing/reducing bleed, and that one should be the one with superior Auspex. This is, of course the one, that will rarely act, but stay untapped. Then you need vampires for taking actions, preferably those with superior Presence, since this is the main discipline of the deck. Superior Presence is not so much needed for the bleed actions, but for the full effect when taking political actions. Finally, superior Celerity is not a must, since there are few cards requiring Celerity, although the +1 stealth provided by Resist Earth's Grasp can become quite handy. The typically ready region in the beginning should be comprised of one of the titled vampires, one mid-cap either with superior Presence or Auspex and then one small cap with Presence.

Typical Turn:

• Play Minion Tap for 3 or more blood on one of the vampires with higher capacity.
• Bleed or vote with at least two of your minions, to make at least one of your bleeds successful. This is especially useful with Isouda de Blaise, which you can untap by burning the edge in your discard phase. Don't waste your bleed cards unless your prey is tapped out or you have a Resist Earth's Grasp at hand (for stealth).
• Stay untapped with one minion to be able to play Telepathic Counter/Misdirection or Scalpel Tongue when your predator (or prey) is acting against you.
• Use your influence phase to move another vampire to the ready region or buy a new vampire from the crypt.
  

Strengths: The versatility for being able to both bleed and vote is great. Also some of the cards can be used both offensively and defensively, which gives the ability to react as the situation dictates. Very good examples are Resist Earth's Grasp (use as stealth for offense and use as combat for defense) and Unholy Penance (combat defense, but at the same time either your prey wastes an action for removing or you have a +1 bleed against another player (hopefully your prey)).

Weaknesses: Probably the lack of stealth is the most serious weakness. Even a single vampire with +1 intercept or an intercept location like KRCG Newsradio in play can prevent you from taking useful actions. So you need to be aware which actions your prey and predator might want to block, and for which you might save the extra stealth from Resist the Earth's Grasp.
Also blood management on the vampires can be a problem, since a lot of the cards cost blood and it's very tempting to move too much pool from a vampire back to your pool using Minion Tap. To address this problem, there are beside the Fetish Club Hunting Ground, two Procurer's in the deck which can provide the necessary blood in the long run.

Asking Price: About 4.50 EUR.

Possible Extensions: The deck is easily extendable, the question is in which direction. If you choose the bleed angle, some more bleed actions or modifiers are expedient as well as one or two additional Palla Grande. Also some of the Staredowns could be Majesty to be able untap after being blocked and doing some other actions (or defensively enabling you to block twice with the same vampire).

• 2x Palla Grande
• 2x Zillah's Valley
• 4x Majesty (replacing 2x Staredown)
• 1x Unholy Penance
• 2x Aire of Elation
• 2x Enchant Kindred
• 1x Telephatic Counter
• 1x Telepathic Misdirection
• 6x On the Qui Vive (replacing 4x Wake with Evenings Freshness)

If you go for the vote angle, dropping the Palla Grande might be an idea, while adding some Foundations Exhibit for easier passing votes, even without the titled vampires or vote modifiers. Beside these also some more vote cards are necessary like Neonate Breach or Domain Challenge. At the same time some of the bleed actions could be dropped.

• 4x Majesty (replacing 2x Staredown)
• 2x Zillah's Valley
• 3x Foundation Exhibit (replacing 1x Palla Grande)
• 2x Neonate Breach (replacing 2x Public Trust )
• 1x Kine Resources Contested
• 1x Domain Challenge
• 3x Voter Captivation
  
• 1x Telephatic Counter
• 1x Telepathic Misdirection
• 6x On the Qui Vive (replacing 4x Wake with Evenings Freshness)

Anytime soon will present the next installment of the series, it'll be (hopefully) a deck based on the Ventrue antitribu clan.