Well, all I can say in my defense is, I was blindsided. My deck was a "fun deck" based around getting out free weapons via Bauble/Daring the Dawn and then rescuing the vampire with Possession. I got the combo to work a couple of times, but I needed more bleed modifiers. I could have ousted James, but hoped that he would hurt Justin a bit more before I had to face Justin. That's when I got blindsided and ousted.
I can't find the deck right now, so I'm not sure exactly what playtest cards I used, but there weren't that many. Most of my crypt was playtest, as it's very hard to find vic/for, or NEC on small vamps. All-in-all, I didn't see a whole lot of reliance on pt cards before I got ousted.
I think in general the main strength of the playtest set has been the vampires. The greater variety of discipline combos and the strengthening of existing discipline combos has made many previously borderline decks much more viable.
I was really happy to see most of the players in the game make use of that.
Justin used good potence weenies and new pot/pro vamps.
I used small vamps with animalism.
Dav used more efficient for/dom vamps.
Chris used for/vic and nec.
James used serpentis vamps???
Some comments:
I still think that Karl Gruber is too good. His disadvantage is essentially nonexistant in the type of deck in which he is used, and his advantage makes him roughly the equivalent of Ebenezer Roush for efficiency.
Does dom/for really need the help? Perhaps Clive Black should be FOR aus dom or DOM aus for? It's not really a big issue (ie, there was no obvious evidence that he was too efficient in the game).
All the other vamps seemed fine.
As for the cards:
The Bengal Light was awesome before we fixed it. I'm not sure I think I would be so tempted to use it now that it is 3 pool. It's in line with the other weapons now, but it's been argued that all weapons are ineffective for the price.
Animal Succulence was a great utility card. I found myself wishing that I put more in.
The Menagerie was also a great help to my retainer-based decks; I think it's great that there is more incentive to use retainers. I'm halfway tempted to rebuild this deck now that we have a revised version of Sweet Whispers out there.
Sharing of Spirits was largely useless to me. I think that it's a card that requires careful thought as to its use.
I decided *not* to use Silent Observer in my deck because I felt that it would interfere with Shepherd's Innocence.
I've been alternating "gimmick" and "straight" decks in pt games, and this one was obviously straight pot/pro combat. Overall I'm quite satisfied with its performance, though I should have put in more rush.
My mistake was not putting Fredrico down for good when I had the chance, because I didn't want to give Chris a free VP and I wanted to save the blood. Then later when I needed to whack Fredrico again I didn't draw any rush...
This deck relied heavily on playtest vampires. Besides the ones who showed up (Ursula, Karl Gruber and Felice), I had Arkady, Perry Grimm, and Vladimir.
The only playtest cards in the library were Body Divide, which seemed fine, if a bit expensive, and Angel of Death, which was in there in case I encountered a Gangrel deck. I discarded the Angel when I saw that neither my pred nor prey had combat ability, but it might have been useful against the Bengal Light.
I'd have to agree that Karl Gruber is too good. If anything, he's a better weenie-toaster than Ebenezer, since he's a weenie himself and thus fast to get out. 3 pot for by itself would be really good; with the built-in rush he's overpowered. I suggest making him just 3 pot with the rush power and no diadvantage.
i only saw rob's comments but i will add a few of my own now.
i actually thought chris' deck was awsome and perhaps a sure win. i think maybe he got careless because rob, the powerful predator, was mutilating my minions. it was an impressive and interesting skill combination and theme and it definately depended on the expansion vampires.
robs deck didnt really rely on the expansion cards,they simply allowed him to get stronger faster. "the menagerie" i think that that is a very good and powerful card especially for the cost. i wouldnt change it because for two blood it would be too much of an investment and would be a throwaway no one would want to use. even now it is a niche card. but perhaps changing the 1 blood to 1 pool, since it is equipment and perhap the methuselah should feel it before accumulating so much power.
the Bengal light was actually much to good, it would have replaced all other weapons, perhaps even the ivory bow. it is almost undefeatable in animalism or celerity decks. furthermore, imagine it offline, when "thoughts betrayed" could be played.
the only expansion card i used was Clive Black and that is jsut because he fit so well into my prebuilt deck. raille said it would be useful to have some stock decks to evaluate against, so i otherwise kept to standard construction. i didnt even change the deck to protect against new cards. (what a wise decision. hmm, i wonder if fortitude would have helped?)
we didnt get to see Jame's deck do much and i think it got too spread out trying to build a mostly expansion deck. am i right or was it just a bad draw? i am interested to know what your deck was designed to do.
Difficult to agree with calling it "designed". Even my most highly constructed decks rarely qualify as anything other than thrown together.
*digs out the original deck*
It was actually dominate serpentis, an idea which came to me in a fit of madness. Designed to use Command the Wearied Mind for some well priced bleeding, with things like Gilded Tongue and Sense the Sin to enhance the bleeding capacity. I got Friar Blumm out early on, hoping to use him well. He had the Serpentis I needed and was a SoL to use the Strip bar for stealth. I also had a few Form of the Serpents in the deck for some more stealth. A few Cult Hunting Grounds for a little fun. Misdirection, some skill cards (dom and ser), parthenon and a few short term investments and blood dolls and that was basically the deck. Oh, and Dark Whispers.
The early loss of Friar Blumm hit me hard. Never really got over losing him :(
Ryan IngallsMy deck never was able to get rolling (political deck-meaning by default few playtest cards), so I died a quick death......my only real comment is below.
As the person on the receiving end of "Karl's ultimate fury"....I say he should be weakened slightly also....leave his skills but remove his special (way too strong for the weenie he is supposed to be)