[Strategy] Descent into Darkness by pallando pallando(at)gmx(dot)at When I first saw this card I didn't really get it. Then I read it again, and probably once more. I decided that it was a cool card. But I didn't really know what to do with it. So I put it away. The simplest strategy should be to minion tap a big vampire and refill him slowly with descent into darkness. While this is an option there are other ways to get the blood off a vampire, e.g. he could enter freak drive frenzy. That enables him to do many useful actions quickly and to make good use of his blood before he descends into the darkness to recover. It should even be useful to get out a second copy of a vampire who is currently recovering in the Abyss. Just make sure you have a descent into Darkness left so you can get the first copy out again. Let's elaborate on this concept. What we need is a big vampire with Obtenebration (obviously!), Fortitude for the Freak Drives, and also superior Dominate because Govern the Unaligned fits a deck like this very well. Also nice to have are titles to be able to play Creation Rites / The Third Tradition. This gives us three vampires: Moncada (group 2), Marcus Vitel (group 3), and Bruce de Guy (group 4). Because of group restrictions we cannot put all of them into one deck. And because of Creation Rites / The Third Tradition it seems easier not to mix Vitel with one of the Cardinals. So in the end each of those three will be the backbone of his own deck. The basic design of each of the decks will be similar: some masters to speed up the setup, some for blood management, lots of nice actions, freak drives, a bit of combat defense, Consanguineous Boons to make use of the high number of vampires from one clan (note that all three come from a clan with a good voting master), and of course some bleed defense. Here is what I came up with for each of the three. The decks are still untested. The design looks quite solid though. I'm afraid I will also take quite some time to test them. The high number of Freak Drives prevents me from building all three at the same time :-) The Lasombra variant: The idea is to bring out Moncada first. He should Creation Rite, Freak Drive, Govern the Unaligned. When nearly empty --> Descent into Darkness to fill up again. If you draw the Master: Discipline cards you can discard them. They are for the Creation Rites. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 17, Max: 40, Avg: 7,25) ---------------------------------------------- 4 Ambrosio Luis Moncada aus DOM for OBT POT PRE 10, Lasombra:2, Cardinal 1 Francisco Domingo de Polonia DOM OBT POT PRE pro 9, Lasombra:2, Archbishop 1 Gratiano DOM obf OBT pot 8, Lasombra:2, Priscus 1 Henri Lavenant pot qui DOM OBT 7, Lasombra:3 1 Aurora Van Brande dom for OBT pot 6, Lasombra:2 1 Guido Lucciano dom obf OBT 5, Lasombra:2 1 Dr. Julius Sutphen dom obt POT 5, Lasombra:3, Bishop 1 Ignacio dom obt pot 4, Lasombra:2 1 Cameron dom pot 3, Lasombra:2 Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (19 cards) 2 Blood Doll 2 Dominate 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Elysian Fields 1 Giant's Blood 2 Information Highway 3 Minion Tap 2 Obtenebration 1 Path of Night, The 1 Political Hunting Ground 2 Power Structure 1 Visit from the Capuchin Action (17 cards) 4 Creation Rites 4 Descent into Darkness 1 Embrace, The 7 Govern the Unaligned 1 Sanguine Instruction Action Modifier (24 cards) 2 Blanket of Night 3 Conditioning 7 Freak Drive 4 Shadow Play 4 Shroud of Absence 4 Shroud of Night Political Action (4 cards) 4 Consanguineous Boon Reaction (14 cards) 6 Deflection 2 Obedience 6 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (10 cards) 3 Arms of the Abyss 1 Entombment 6 Shadow Body Ally (1 cards) 1 Mylan Horseed (Goblin) Equipment (1 cards) 1 Seal of Veddartha The Ventrue variant: Basically the same deck again, with some minor variations. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 17, Max: 40, Avg: 7,25) ---------------------------------------------- 4 Marcus Vitel DOM FOR OBF OBT PRE 10, Ventrue:3, Prince 1 Wilhelm Waldburg aus cel DOM FOR PRE 9, Ventrue:2, Prince 1 Katarina Kornfeld ani DOM FOR PRE 8, Ventrue:3, Primogen 1 Horatio Ballard aus DOM FOR PRE 7, Ventrue:3 1 Edward Vignes DOM for PRE 6, Ventrue:3 1 Ranjan Rishi DOM for PRE 5, Ventrue:2 1 Catherine du Bois DOM for obf pre 5, Ventrue:3 1 Earl dom for pot 4, Ventrue:3 1 Lana Butcher dom for 3, Ventrue:3 Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (19 cards) 2 Blood Doll 1 Creepshow Casino 2 Dominate 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 2 Fortitude 1 Giant's Blood 2 Information Highway 4 Minion Tap 1 Uptown Hunting Ground 1 Ventrue Headquarters 2 Visit from the Capuchin Action (16 cards) 4 Descent into Darkness 1 Embrace, The 6 Govern the Unaligned 1 Sanguine Instruction 4 Third Tradition: Progeny, The Action Modifier (24 cards) 2 Approximation of Loyalty 2 Bewitching Oration 4 Cloak the Gathering 3 Conditioning 8 Freak Drive 3 Seduction 2 Shadow Play Political Action (6 cards) 5 Consanguineous Boon 1 Ventrue Justicar Reaction (14 cards) 6 Deflection 2 Obedience 6 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (11 cards) 1 Hidden Strength 3 Majesty 3 Rolling with the Punches 3 Skin of Steel 1 Staredown The Venture antitribu variant: Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 20, Max: 40, Avg: 7,50) ---------------------------------------------- 4 Bruce de Guy AUS DOM FOR OBT 10, Ventrue Antitribu:4, Cardinal 1 Owain Evans cel pre AUS DOM FOR 8, Ventrue antitribu:3 1 Jesse Menks ani AUS DOM FOR 8, Ventrue Antitribu:3, Archbishop 1 Joseph O'Grady aus cel DOM FOR 7, Ventrue Antitribu:3 1 Edward Neally aus DOM FOR pre 7, Ventrue antitribu:3 1 Blackhorse Tanner AUS DOM FOR 7, Ventrue antitribu:3 1 Charice Fontaigne for pot AUS DOM 6, Ventrue antitribu:3 1 Katherine Stoddard dom for 4, Ventrue antitribu:3 1 Sister Evelyn aus dom 3, Ventrue antitribu:3 Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (19 cards) 2 Blood Doll 1 Corporate Hunting Ground 1 Creepshow Casino 1 Demonstration 2 Dominate 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 2 Fortitude 1 Giant's Blood 2 Information Highway 4 Minion Tap 2 Visit from the Capuchin Action (17 cards) 4 Creation Rites 4 Descent into Darkness 1 Embrace, The 6 Govern the Unaligned 1 Restoration 1 Sanguine Instruction Action Modifier (23 cards) 3 Conditioning 3 Crocodile's Tongue 8 Freak Drive 3 Seduction 3 Shadow Play 1 Shroud of Absence 2 Telepathic Vote Counting Political Action (5 cards) 5 Consanguineous Boon Reaction (15 cards) 6 Deflection 2 Obedience 1 Telepathic Counter 6 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (10 cards) 1 Hidden Strength 5 Rolling with the Punches 1 Shadow Body 3 Skin of Steel Ally (1 cards) 1 Mylan Horseed (Goblin) This last variant is the most difficul to build at the moment because Bruce de Guy is the only group 4 !ventrue at the moment. Still I believe he is good enough to build a deck around him. One way to make up for the small number of !ventrues in groups 3 and 4 would be to use several different clans. This way the deck can make use of Diversity which should be easier to get through than Consanguineous Boon. The resulting deck is this one: The Bruce de Guy multi-clan variant Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 15, Max: 40, Avg: 6,75) ---------------------------------------------- 4 Bruce de Guy AUS DOM FOR OBT 10, Ventrue Antitribu:4, Cardinal 1 Jesse Menks ani AUS DOM FOR 8, Ventrue Antitribu:3, Archbishop 1 Ladislas Toth for AUS DOM THA 7, Tremere Antitribu:3, Archbishop 1 Alan Sovereign AUS DOM for pre 6, Ventrue:3 1 Catherine du Bois DOM for obf pre 5, Ventrue:3 1 Banjoko obt pot DOM 5, Lasombra:3 1 Katherine Stoddard dom for 4, Ventrue antitribu:3 1 Lia Milliner dom nec 3, Giovanni:3 1 Lana Butcher dom for 3, Ventrue:3 Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (20 cards) 2 Blood Doll 1 Corporate Hunting Ground 1 Creepshow Casino 1 Demonstration 2 Dominate 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Emergency Preparations 2 Fortitude 1 Giant's Blood 2 Information Highway 4 Minion Tap 2 Visit from the Capuchin Action (17 cards) 4 Creation Rites 4 Descent into Darkness 1 Embrace, The 6 Govern the Unaligned 1 Restoration 1 Sanguine Instruction Action Modifier (22 cards) 3 Conditioning 3 Crocodile's Tongue 8 Freak Drive 3 Seduction 3 Shadow Play 1 Shroud of Absence 1 Telepathic Vote Counting Political Action (5 cards) 1 Ancient Influence 4 Diversity Reaction (15 cards) 6 Deflection 2 Obedience 1 Telepathic Counter 6 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (10 cards) 1 Hidden Strength 5 Rolling with the Punches 1 Shadow Body 3 Skin of Steel Ally (1 cards) 1 Mylan Horseed (Goblin) Comments Welcome! regards pallando -- pallando(at)gmx(dot)at