Decided it was about time I shared the latest version of my Blue deck in Rivals.
Yes I know the others in my play group will now know what the agenda is. And yes Diego will be going “I knew it. I was right” along with “he went with my suggestion”.
But I need to record the deck before I possibly go on and tinker with it.
Agenda – Disheveled Shelves
Haven – Eternal Life Mortuary
Leader – Annika (Hecata)
Vampire Deck
Kwame (Hecata)
Lorenzo Murik (Tremere)
Anjali the Samedi (Hecata)
Zahara (Hecata)
Sophia Giovanni (Hecata)
Scott (Hecata)
Library
Diminish (Ritual) x 1
Sleep of the Damned (Ritual) x 2
The Shakedown (Action) x 3
Clairvoyance (Action) x 3
Bind the Spirit (Ritual) x 2
Summon Spirit (Ritual) x 3
Mental Block (Unhosted Action Ongoing) x 3
Tenebrous Avatar (Reaction) x 3
Fortify the Inner Facade (Reaction) x 3
Defense of the Sacred Haven (Ritual) x 2
Grave Robbing (Action) x 3
Early Grave (Action) x 2
Fourth Tradition: The Accounting (Action) x 2
Flesh of Marble (Reaction Special) x 2
Spirit’s Touch (Action) x 2
The Mighty Fall (Attack/Reaction) x 2
Slap in the Face (Reaction) x 2
Thoughts
So I did the pivot from Rituals to Wraiths. Which I am happier about. Although I still have Rituals in the deck. But these are mainly defensive or aiding in getting the wraiths.
I’m not convinced the lovely Annika is the right leader now. But not sure who’d be better. Her advantage is her bp and this deck needs a hard to kill vampire in the haven. I technically don’t need to splash any other clan in this deck. But Lorenzo does have that handy heal ability.
Still think this deck can be tweaked further. But need to spend some time thinking about it. Who knows there may be some must add cards in the next expansion The Dragon & The Rogue. I’m hoping for at least a good reaction card I can splash!
Wednesday morning saw me visiting Diego’s Pad once again to play VtM Rivals.
It was a chance to try out the changes I made to my blue deck. Diego was also trying out his first built Rivals deck.
Below are our two leaders for the mornings games.
Our leaders
Our first game was a victory for Diego by knocking out my last vampire in my coterie. I’d shuffled my deck too well and wasn’t hitting the newly added reaction cards. Or when I did it was too late. I also remember running dangerously low on my prestige in this game too. Which meant I also wasn’t hitting any of my prestige generating cards.
Game two ended in an agenda points win for Diego.
Something I was unable to stop.
In this game I failed to control the streets, so there was a build up of citizens and vagrants.
The game did last a lot longer. The control side was working really well. The reaction cards were impactful.
I did mill Diego! And for a couple of rounds had Diego down to zero or one card in hand. Having two copies of mental block out meant a lot of pain for Diego.
I’m happier the deck is working a lot better.
Ok here is the bit folks really want to see, the new deck list.
Blue V2.0
Leader, Haven, and Agenda
Agenda – Death is Only the Beginning
Haven – Eternal Life Mortuary
Leader – Annika (Hecata)
Vampire Deck
Faith Gray (Tremere)
Lorenzo Murik (Tremere)
Anjali the Samedi (Hecata)
Bianca Giovanni (Hecata)
Kristin (Hecata)
Nathaniel (Hecata)
Library
Second Tradition: The Domain (Action Ongoing)
Sleep of the Damned (Ritual) x 2
The Shakedown (Action) x 3
Clairvoyance (Action) x 2
Blood Makes Noise (Ritual)
Truth of Blood (Ritual)
Mental Block (Unhosted Action Ongoing) x 3
Tenebrous Avatar (Reaction) x 3
Fortify the Inner Facade (Reaction) x 3
Defense of the Sacred Haven (Ritual) x 2
Grave Robbing (Action) x 3
Early Grave (Action) x 2
Seek Knowledge (Ritual) x 2
Fourth Tradition: The Accounting (Action) x 3
Flesh of Marble (Reaction Special) x 2
Spirit’s Touch (Action) x 2
Hardened Flesh (Reaction)
The Mighty Fall (Attack/Reaction) x 2
Slap in the Face (Reaction) x 2
Thoughts
So approximately a third of the deck are reaction cards! That’s a pretty big commitment.
With me milling Diego in game two I want to try this deck with the Disheveled Shelves agenda.
I’m also thinking maybe cutting back the rituals and adding in the wraith cards!
I still need rituals to increase the havens secrecy. But I’m not really getting the opportunity or deciding to play them. Which means the vampire slots might be open to consideration also.
August has started off with some games of Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.
Last night was a Vampire Wednesday session where Shane, Marcin, and myself saw our clans battling it out for control of Prague.
Then this morning it was Diego’s turn to try his luck winning control of Prague.
From the above you may have gathered we were playing with the new city deck that comes in the latest expansion Heart of Europe.
For both sessions I was testing my first attempt at building a deck for the game.
It was good that I got a multiplayer game in with it. Plus a head to head. I was able to see how it played in both circumstances. A deck will sometimes be more suited to one format over another.
But before I talk more about my deck let’s briefly look at the games and new city deck.
First up below are the leaders and rivalries for the Vampire Wednesday session. It was the same for both games played.
How the rivalries played out at the Vampire Wednesday session
This was a session where both players teamed up against me!
What can I say? I guess neither Marcin or Shane have played MtG, especially against a blue player.
They did not like it that I was attaching cards to their characters, or stopping them playing cards.
Naturally the way my initial draft of the deck is constructed I didn’t have much in my tool box to stop attacks. Plus I forgot to burn vagrants and citizens in the street when I used my leaders ability.
Leaders from this mornings games with Diego
The new Prague City deck was renamed the deck of doom. The new Second Inquisition cards are nasty. They stack! Ignore secrecy! Do damage and discard cards based on number in the stack!
The new citizens and vagrants are colourful and paint a seedy side to Prague. Plus a bit more tougher to remove.
The new Prince of the City title gives two agenda points when attached to a character. So less impactful than the previous one that gave an agenda point plus prestige at the start of each of your turns. You don’t feel pressured to attack the Prince to stop that gradual accumulation of agenda points.
I like the new City deck. It feels fresh.
Obviously I could have made changes to my deck before playing with Diego. But I didn’t. I wanted to see how it did in a head to head game.
It did it’s thing. But the same weaknesses I identified last night were also an issue in this format.
Game results for both sessions
My first deck
Let’s now look at my first ever Rivals deck and the thinking/inspiration behind it.
When I was sleeving the Shadows and Shrouds expansion cards I came across the card Mental Block. I wanted this in the Hecata deck. Then it got me thinking. This is a very blue card.
The inspiration for this deck
I have been known to splash blue in a deck.
I wondered if it was possible to make a blue archetype deck in Rivals? Are there enough cards to make it viable?
I used the Hecata precon as my starting point.
I stripped out the cards to do with wraiths. They didn’t fit in with the game plan.
I wanted vampires in torpor, getting the torpor ability value from them each round plus clock up the agenda points.
But at the same time I needed to protect my haven and leader. The plan to do this was to control my foes/rival. Whether thats from forcing them to discard cards, stopping them playing cards, removing mortals/citizens from the streets, or giving them curses.
All blue like things to do.
I also needed to generate prestige somehow so there are ways to do that.
I have card draw options in the deck and a way to increase the secrecy of my haven. Enabling me to try find solutions, and make it harder to attack vampires in the haven.
This is a passive deck. It’s not meant to be aggressive. It’s meant to control.
Here is my first attempt at a deck in Rivals which I call…
Blue
My leader, haven, and agenda
Agenda – Death is Only the Beginning
Haven – Eternal Life Mortuary
Leader – Annika (Hecata)
Vampire Deck
Faith Gray (Tremere)
Lorenzo Murik (Tremere)
Anjali the Samedi (Hecata)
Bianca Giovanni (Hecata)
Kristin (Hecata)
Nathaniel (Hecata)
Library Deck
Soul Crushing (Attack)
Second Tradition: The Domain (Action Ongoing)
Sleep of the Damned (Ritual) x 2
The Shakedown (Action) x 3
Clairvoyance (Action) x 2
Blood Makes Noise (Ritual)
Utter Darkness (Attack)
Interrogation (Attack)
Truth of Blood (Ritual)
Mental Block (Unhosted Action Ongoing) x 3
Psychic Assault (Attack) x 2
Tenebrous Avatar (Reaction)
Fortify the Inner Facade (Reaction) x 3
Defense of the Sacred Haven (Ritual) x 2
Grave Robbing (Action) x 3
Early Grave (Action) x 2
Seek Knowledge (Ritual) x 2
Fourth Tradition: The Accounting (Action) x 3
Flesh of Marble (Reaction Special) x 2
Spirit’s Touch (Action) x 2
It’s Your Funeral (Attack) x 2
I need to replace the Attack cards with more Reaction cards. They are dead cards in the deck.
Do I have the correct number of copies of each card? Not sure that will be the tweak after I add in the reaction cards.
I’ll close with this Rivals agenda which has me thinking about a second deck!
