Legbiter's Christmas Cracker
[A non-Tzimisce Viscissitude deck]
This deck is probably my most successful ever, and its construction was a
complete accident. I was rebuilding the decks i normally use for casual
play with Lady Legbiter to make them a bit more menacing, and when I had
finished i found i had a whole load of vis cards left over, and an equally
large number of vampires who all had vis/VIS but hadn't fitted into decks.
I've had a fair bit of experience playing with a Tzimisce deck so i knew
how good vis can be, not so much the combat but the dual-purpose cards
like changeling and Plasmic Form. So I just threw together what i had
and out came the following deck, more or less - the version i print here
evolved a bit through playtesting.
CRYPT [12]
2 x Blaise 7 Gangrel antitribu Sabbat +1 Hand damage obf vis ANI CEL
3 x Christine Boscacci 2 Pander Sabbat Christine gets -1 intercept
against any minion attempting to bleed vis dom
Dominique 7 Ventrue antitribu Sabbat As a D action, Dominique may put a
vandal counter on a location. If a location has a number of
vandal counterson it equal to its cost [or 1 vandal counter
if it has no cost], burn it. ani vis dom FOR AUS
2 x Hugo 4 Brujah antitribu Sabbat -1 intercept v Lasombra and Tzimisces
pre vis POT
Matteus, Flesh Sculptor 10 Toreador antitribu Sabbat Priscus; may burn anadditional
blood to play an action that requires a Cardinal or Archbishop.
May burn 1 blood to get +1 intercept against a cardinal or archbishop
attempting a political action. VIS PRE CEL AUS
Olivia 5 Nosferatu antitribu SabbatBishopvis OBF POT
2 x Rex, The Necronomist 3 Pander Sabbat Combat cards cost Rex an additional
blood to play. vis pro pot
LIBRARY [90]
MASTERS [19]
Animalism
Ascendance x 3
The Barrens
Blood Doll x 2
Celerity
Dominate
Elder Library
Misdirection
Obfuscate
Pentex Loves You!
Potence
Presence
The Rack
Short-term Investment
Sudden Reversal
Vicissitude
MINION [71]
ACTIONS [9]
Govern the Unaligned x 4
Legal manipulations x 2
Media Influence
Social Charm x 2
ACTION MODIFIERS [13]
Bonding x 2
Changeling x 3
Cloak the Gathering x 2
Conditioning x 3
Faceless Night
Lost in Crowds x 2
ACTION MODIFIER OR COMBAT [3]
Plasmic Form x 3
COMBAT [28]
Blood of Acid
Blur x 3
Body Arsenal x 2
Fire in the Blood
Flash
Fleshcraft x 4
Horrid Form
Mighty Grapple x 3
Preternatural Evasion
Pushing the Limit
Reform Body x 2
Sacrament of Carnage
Thrown Gate x 2
Undead Strength x 5
EQUIPMENT [3]
Aaron's Feeding razor
Hand of Conrad
Leather Jacket
REACTIONS [12]
Cat's Guidance x 3
Deflection x 4
Forced Awakening
Guard Dogs
Rat's Warning
Wake with Evening's Freshness x 2
RETAINERS [3]
JS Simmons, Esq.
Mr Winthrop
Tasha Morgan
Despite its unpromising genesis this deck really works, largely because it
has a lot of good cards from a range of different disciplines that come
together in unfamiliar combos. In that respect it is similar to the 5-colour
Black or Green decks that have been winning the major Magic tournaments
recently. Its basic stock-in-trade is presence- and dominate-based bleed
[with dom and vis bleed- modifiers] and bleed-bounce. It is short oni
ntercept and voting, but not completely without resources in those
departments ... and it is surprisingly good at combat. However, the main
thing about this deck is that it is always up to something, and there is a
really pleasurable feel of flexibility about it. People playing against it
have a hard time guessing the design principle [because it doesn't really
have one], so it has a genuine surprise factor. Furthermore, it looks to me
as though the off-clan vampires with vis may all be rather powerful .... it
hink the designers may have felt that vis was a kind of sucky discipline
[which in my experience it is, as regards combat, unless you have Meshenka
and Dragos] and so they stuck it almost as an afterthought onto vampire cards
that they felt were marginally underpowered.