Well pt9 is over, so I guess this is around that time where we all start talking about the playtest cards. Well I didn't exactly get to see how well my pretty basic s/b could work b/c everyone was self-ousting, but it got me 3 quick points so I guess it worked. The one really good card I like was multiple personality disorder. I think its a really good card cause if your wondering wether u should block or take and action, u can wait and if u dont need to block u can take an action during someone elses turn. Also good for getting the edge during your predator's turn. The few cards I didn't like w ere Brainstorm and Mind Games. I added mind of a child/coma in my deck too, and I ended up having alot of these cards in my hand at the end with no blood on my vamps for them to use. I think alot of dementation cards r over priced, or there aren't enuf helpful smaller no-cost cards. Maybe take out the pool cost or make it a +0 stealth action with Brainstorm. And maybe Mind games superior could have +1 stealth or something. I think people assosiate malkavians with obfuscate, so stealth isn't really added to dementation action cards(mind of a child). I think they assume that u will be able to add the stealth yourself, so its not needed to add it on the card. But I was trying not to add alot of obfuscate in my s/b deck, and I got screwed in the end. I didn't really notice many other playtest cards due to the fact that alot of peepz droped out in the begging, so I guess this is it for me.
Okay, so my deck was originally built around Tracy*, the really talented chick that can't learn anything. So, ignoring ser because it's a scrub discipline (and didn't mesh with the other three), I made a cel/dom/vic deck. It was meant to be a bruise and bleed, and worked mildly well at that. This was helped by Changeling which gives either +1 bleed, or +1 stealth if I needed it. And Cel/Vic meshed well together. The optimal combo of the deck was: Horrid Form/Sculpture of the Mind/Kraken's Kiss/Extra Appendage. The Kraken's Kisses turned out to be invaluable. Increased Agility turned out to be a cool card as well.
My predator's assamite deck turned out to be just too nasty for me. This was not a tightly tuned deck, as I had not prepared to face heavy S:CE or heavy combat. Since my predator had heavy combat and lots of long range combat (which was my preferred range), I had some trouble. I was able to keep a few of the fights even, but he just had too much card cycling.
As for vampires, I got out my two main vampires, Tracy and Joshau, and I think they both pretty much rock (unfortunately Joshau got toasted before he could do much of anything, but I had big plans for him). Balthezar was pretty cool, and his almost guaranteed 3 votes look like they'll be fairly powerful. Szecso was a scrub vamp, but he turned out nastier than I thought. There are a bunch of Vicissitude cards that now combo together really well at superior.
The problems with the deck were mainly with the non-playtest cards, so in pt turns, I consider my deck a success.
I played a Gangrel denial deck with large quantities of Raptors and other Intercept. The idea was to use the retainer enhancer cards and the Raptors to get a minion with 7 Raptors on it and block everything. But after half my deck was gone through none of my 10 Raptors showed itself. It showed that cards that the retainer modifying cards are particularly succeptible to the luck of the draw, since you can not put enough of retainer cards in the deck to guarentee getting them when you need them. I think an animalism card that is an action modifier or reaction card at inferior and a retainer card at superior would be nice.
Something like:
A second Pair of Eyes
inf: Reaction, +1 intercept
sup: Retainer, +1 intercept, 1 life.
This would be very nice!
I really liked Animal Succulence and the retainer modification cards were nice when they worked, though they didn't add much to the game.
Blinky's deck was interesting. It make me less worried about the unblockability of whatever that card was. [Walk Through Arcadia --Justin] It has a big price for the ability. All of the cards seemed pretty balanced in my opinion.
My deck was supposed to have Masika Clan Impersonate a Malkavian Antitribu, and then develop a Multiple Personality Disorder*, enabling him to bleed every turn. The only other playtest card I had was Summon*, to haul out Marijava Ghouls, so he could Social Charm at stealth. Unfortunately, my deck jammed; I think I had too much extra stuff in it.