Basically, the idea behind my deck was to be anti-weenie. So, I chose the Lasombra because they had many big vamps. Then, I chose votes to guarantee anti-weenie behavior: Ancilla Empowerment, Domain Challenge. Otherwise, my deck did a bit of everything. I exploited the big vamps to have good bleed capability, some votes, a little bit of Potence combat, and other fun things. I regained pool through Ancient Influence and Poitical Stranglehold (anti-weenie again).
However, it was cross-table examinations that won me this one, the biggest thing being Lutisse getting both a Vampiric Disease and the Mind of a Killer, allowing him to terrorize the game.
Playtest cards I used and why:
Clan Backing: It would help guarantee me the vote base through Cardinal Benediction and Regency.
Regency: A wonderful card. The +2 bleed is what makes the card so great. At the point that your Cardinals are passing votes, who cares about the extra vote?
Stunning Blow: When I made the deck, the tapping version of SB was used. That was for tap and bleed; it wouldn't work anymore.
Alertness: I'm low on intercept, so this was for emergencies.
Shadow Walk: Stealth that I never ended up needing.
Political Consultant: Extra votes, of course. These never came up.
Twilight Portal: For the times I didn't want combat. I never drew these, either.
Ancient of Days, Stock Market Manipulation, Kindred Antipathy: Theme-related. I never drew these, either.
Viscid Darkness: A very important combat card for this deck. The ability to prevent damage in combat cannot be underestimated, and it allowed me to be much more frightening in play, as I could stare down the shaft of an Ivory Bow with ease. However, is it too powerful? I'm still not sure. I'm just going to mentally flag this card and hold it for later.
Cards I didn't use:
Cauldron of Darkness: Wallpaper, plain and simple.
Darksight: Stupid me. Better than Pack Tactics. My mistake.
Out of Your Shadow, Reach Through the Shadows: It would have been too
much combat, watering down my other stuff.
Wave of Darkness: That's what Potence is for, for me.
Dominate, Potence cards: None of them, except for the minion tapping
Stunning Blow, were useful to me.
Voter Intimidation: I'm an actor, not a blocker.
Also of note: Most of the vampires in my crypt were playtest vampires. I used Angelica, Gratiano, Ignacio, Alvaro, and Antonio. Im addition, I used Lutisse, Sir Branough, Malachi, Francisca, Crispin, Frederico, and Lezard. Yes, my crypt was big. Adriano wasn't enough in discipline for my purposes.
The playtest vampires seen (Lutisse, Andrea the Compassionate, Neil, Ezekiel, Petros, Juliette, Igor, Juno, Alexia) didn't seem to cause any troubles or be too useless. Juliette's special would be the source of the most concern, but I don't think there's much concern there, either.
One playtest card I should mention, though, is Mind of a Killer. If you're a noncombat deck, this card will screw you royally. If you're a combat deck, you'll want as many MoaK on your guys as you can manage. This card may need fixing. Beware.
I like Heart of the City. I think it's a definite winner. As for Bengal Light and TT:Poseur, I never saw their effects used.
Multiple Personality Disorder is strong, but it doesn't seem imbalanced. There's already the Madness Network, so I doubt there's a problem. Look into Megalomania. Being able to simply cancel a referendum at the drop of a hat is a considerable power, but, then again, there's Delaying Tactics already. I didn't see much effect in Confusion of Purposes.
Supernatural Tenacity is kind of a weak Freak Drive, but it doesn't cost blood. I'll wait for Justin's opinions on the card. Splinter Servant, on the other hand, may be too powerful. Once you're in torpor, it's virtually impossible to get rid of.
Karl's early ousting this game proves that the Conjuration ally deck isn't overpowered. This actually vindicates Conjuration, in my opinion, and makes it a reasonable card.
James was able to use Chimerstry to much greater effect than I was in earlier games. It may be okay after all.
pt11... let's see, how did I lose in *this* one?
Oh yes, weenie voters. I've always hated Anarch voter decks. I helped Lutisse get nasty by giving her a Mind of a Killer and apparently she (he?) wiped the table pretty well. Didn't stop me from getting ousted by the weenie voters though.
Mind of a Killer - this was a fabulous card. I loved it. Unfortunately, the inferior has been neutered. It was quite powerful before. 8(
Confusion of Purposes - I expected this to be more useful than it was. The problem is that it's only usable by the vampire who's getting the action directed at it, only if it's from a younger vampire, and only if your vampire is untapped. I'm afraid all those restrictions make it wallpaper. Perhaps it needs to be rethought.
Megalomania - It's actually not as strong as I first thought it was. Just a disiplined version of Delaying Tactics. But it saved my butt once. A pretty good card.
My deck was a little weak this game. This deck was named Demon Tater (or Dementator), as it was intended to dementate and cripple everyone else's vampires. It worked a little bit, but my predator had too many minions and my prey's minions were too strong. It was just slightly too slow. Plus, my Derange/Malkavian Derangement: Paranoia combo never came up. With a revised Mind of a Killer, this deck will be even weaker... oh well.
Believe it or not, my deck wasn't intended to be a Fame deck (only had 2 of them). It was originally supposed to disable vamps with Splinter Servant and Seeds of Corruption. The Day Operations and all the rest I added to solve the problem of getting my actions through, since Splinter Servant was not at stealth. Anyway, I underestimated how blood-intensive the deck would be and made a couple of crucial mistakes.
Playtest vampires used: Juliette, Yvonne, Petros, and Rue. Juliette and Petros, who came up, seemed fine.
Playtest cards used: Splinter Servant, Stone Slumber, Supernatural Tenacity, and The Dreaming.
Splinter Servant has since been dropped. Supernatural Tenacity was distinctly inferior to Freak Drive in this deck, since I didn't want to get into combat anyway. Stone Slumber and The Dreaming I always wound up discarding, since i badly needed cardflow.
Well, I was playing another of my "Pick a discipline combination out of the air and run with it" decks. Basically how I like to play Jyhad atm, gives a bit of spice and difficulty to it (not that I'm any good *anyway* but still).
Cards I used and liked a lot:
Concert Hunting Ground - beautiful card. I was worried about location destruction but it didn't happen that way, and got me a lot of blood back, when I remember to use it (I never do).
The Circus - Hurrah again! A boon for the pool and blood heavy Chimerstry cards (combine with Gird or Doll, say). Very nice card.
Igor - a lot of fun again. chi dom for (chi dom being the combo I picked). A slightly off the wall 4 capacity. Neat.
Alexia - lovely vampire again. I don't know, though, how useful she'd been to a lot of decks due to her lack of obf. I'm not saying we should change her, she's kooky and fun at the moment, but I just thought I'd mention it. Her CHI DOM proved to be nice for me though.
Illusions from Afar - goes nicely with Fata Morgana (though expensive) and provides the ever useful barter technique. Or the more fun "If you block me, I'll only hit for one cos I don't care about bleeding you being as I've been bounced to you but it's already at 5 bleed, sorry" "Oh, okay" "No, not okay - here's the stealth (*smug grin* *exit stage left*)"
Delivery Van - I didn't end up using much equipment. I was hoping to have more as permanent combat defence, mainly cheap stuff. The Bow, the Magnum. It would have been nice, but I found the Concert Hunting Ground had got me a little too low for my tastes early on in the game.
Eidolon of Fraility - A card which I would have loved to play, but didn't get the chance. I just wanted to hit with an Ivory Bow first strike! Just to clarify, if I was using a strike like, say, a .44 Magnum, could I use Eidolon of Fraility, cancel the strike, choose the Magnum again and get first strike with it? I know that's how the card reads, last time I checked it, but is it what we actually want it to do?
Tranquility - My old bug bear. I threw it in to see how it worked. Worked reasonably well. Not too powerful, I don't think, but it's yet another skill for Dominate, which I loathe.