With the VTES UK Nationals fast approaching, I travelled to Cambridge on Sunday to meet David and Manuel for some much-needed practice. At this point, I need every game I can get. If I am going to walk into a national tournament, I would at least like to pretend that my deck has been properly tested beforehand. As it turned out, this particular session was extremely useful because it helped me decide the fate of a deck I had been quietly experimenting with for some time.
You see, I love political decks. I enjoyed playing my Ventrue Princes, and Path of Power scratches that same wonderful itch of manipulating the table while pretending everything is happening through perfectly legitimate democratic processes. This time, however, I wanted something different. During previous tournaments I managed to acquire a few copies of Juliet Parr, so naturally I started wondering whether I could build a deck around her. Let the Malkavians enter politics. What could possibly go wrong?
On paper, everything looked beautiful. Titles would give me votes. Obfuscate would provide enough stealth to push political actions through. Dominate offered a fallback plan of good old-fashioned stealth bleed if democracy failed, while also providing Deflections for defence. It looked like a wonderfully flexible package: politics when politics worked, bleeding when politics didn't, and enough stealth to ensure that everyone had to sit there and listen to my proposals. There was just one small problem with the plan. And the lesson was painful.
David arrived with a Ventrue antitribu deck using Group 5 and 6 vampires following the Path of Cathari, while Manuel brought two combat-focused decks featuring Assamites. Since there were only three of us, we agreed on a simple format: the first Methuselah to oust another player would win. We randomised the seating and ended up with David (Ventrue antitribu) > Manuel (Assamites) > Myself (Malkavian vote/bleed).
This game may have been the quickest VTES game I have ever played.
Around turn four, Manuel equipped Antara with an Assault Rifle. This was apparently the moment diplomacy officially ended. Antara rushed David's vampires, then turned her attention towards mine, and within a single turn three vampires had been sent to torpor through additional strikes, presses and the inevitable Freak Drives. It was less a combat turn and more a workplace restructuring where the entire department was escorted from the building. With both his predator and prey thoroughly disabled, Manuel finished me off within another couple of turns. The whole game lasted roughly thirty minutes.
My beautiful political machine had encountered its first policy disagreement, and the disagreement had an Assault Rifle.
Fortunately, being annihilated so efficiently left us with plenty of time for another game. Manuel switched to his other combat deck, this time featuring Al-Ashrad. I had encountered him before and remembered the experience with approximately the same fondness one remembers stepping barefoot on Lego. The seating remained unchanged, although this time Manuel was the first player.
Game two was much more balanced. David brought out Elimelech the Twice-Damned and Coco Thorn, Manuel had Al-Ashrad and Blythe, while my lunatics were represented by Juliet and Andi Liu. David managed to keep the Assamites under pressure this time, which had the pleasant side effect of keeping them away from my vampires. Funny how much better political debate works when nobody is actively punching the politicians.
This finally gave Juliet room to demonstrate why I wanted to build around her in the first place. I managed to push through several political actions, and her ability to give me +2 hand size was fantastic. Those extra cards dramatically increased my options and made the deck feel much smoother. More importantly, I had little difficulty getting my political actions through. Three or four stealth was perfectly achievable, so anyone wanting to interrupt Malkavian democracy had to work for it.
The game remained surprisingly balanced until we approached the endgame. A successful Parity Shift created a net six-pool swing between David and me, giving me some much-needed breathing room. On my following turns, two Kine Resources Contested actions finished the job. After being brutally dismantled in about half an hour during the first game, the Malkavians had somehow returned from lunch and won the second.
Despite the victory, however, these two games revealed something important about the deck. Getting political actions through wasn't the problem. The stealth worked beautifully, Juliet was excellent, and Dominate gave me plenty of forward pressure. The problem was what happened when someone decided that instead of debating my political agenda, they would simply beat up the person proposing it. Against serious rush and combat decks, my Malkavians were falling like flies, and I had very few answers. Apparently "please respect the democratic process" is not a valid combat card.
The second lesson was about table optics. A deck capable of political actions, high bleeds and considerable stealth can very quickly become the problem. Even if you aren't currently winning, everyone can see what the deck might do if left alone. Suddenly your harmless little Malkavian politician is attracting cross-table attention, deals are being made about you rather than with you, and somebody starts casually asking whether anyone has a rush card. Being powerful is useful. Looking powerful can be considerably less so.
Still, that is exactly why I wanted these practice games. The Malkavian experiment was fun and winning the second game showed me that the basic concept absolutely works. Juliet in particular impressed me, and I would happily return to the deck for friendly games and further tinkering. For the UK Nationals, though, I am not convinced. Walking into a large tournament with a deck that practically wears a sign saying "dangerous but surprisingly punchable" feels like a questionable decision.
So one candidate has probably removed itself from consideration. The search continues. And somewhere on my shelf, several other deck boxes have started whispering again.
The game never ends, only pauses. I'll see you at the next move.
Custodian Hargrave
No comments:
Post a Comment