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.

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.

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.

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.

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

• 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!