The only way a wall deck can lose the Game Win is to let its prey get any Victory Points, or to let the table time out in some fashion.
Reread that carefully. I know it'll surprise some people. A wall deck has complete control over the Game Win. The only way it can FAIL to gain the win is: - Allow its prey to get 3 Victory Points, eliminating anyone else from contention for the Game Win. - Allow its prey to get 2 Victory Points and someone else to get 1 Victory Point, guaranteeing that the best the wall deck can do is tie or allow another player to get a Game Win. - Allow its prey to get 1 Victory Point and someone else to get 2 Victory Points,... see above. - Let the table time out, guaranteeing that nobody gets a Game Win. None of these are an acceptable option when playing a wall deck. Therefore, a wall deck should have two primary focii: first, preventing its prey from EVER gaining a Victory Point by any means necessary, and second, ensuring that the table does not time out under any circumstances. The first criteria mandates the use of Eagle's Sight, which mandates superior Auspex. No other means is sufficient. Even Eagle's Sight may not be enough against certain decks of your prey, but it will do for most. In addition, the first criteria also mandates that as few as possible of your prey's actions be successful. No action which causes damage to your grandprey, or gains your prey pool in some fashion, should be allowed to complete if at all possible. Judgement is required here -- if you're going to get killed blocking a bleed of 1, perhaps you should let it by. But your minions' survival is secondary to the Game Win; since you know you cannot win by inaction, you should be as antimaterialistic as necessary to stop your prey from gaining Victory Point. Occasionally this will mean exploding one of your own minions, but it may be necessary. The second criteria can only be satisfied by cards such as the much-reviled Anarch Revolt and Smiling Jack. HOWEVER! This does not mean you should pitch Anarchs out of your hand like they're going out of style (Peter Bakija, I see you lurking in the back). Instead, keep one or two Anarchs in play at all times. Do not block attempts to remove them (unless of course your prey tries) -- they've already hurt the most important person, your prey. Combined with the heavy chain you're tying around your prey's ankles, your prey should be almost completely unable to do anything other than be pitifully ousted by the Anarchs -- since of course your own blood gain via Blood Dolls and just not-taking-pool-damage should be more than sufficient to outlast him. Once your prey is dead, let's pause for a moment and review our criteria. First, our prey has gotten no Victory Points, and we have 1. The table is definitely not going to time out, because the Anarchs and possibly Jack are being a dead weight on even the strongest bloat decks. What could be happening on the rest of the table? Only a few things: - It is very likely that our grandprey, having no pressure at all on him all game, has ousted our grandpredator and predator, gaining 2Victory Points. However, he still has to oust us to ensure the table win, and we have the upper hand on him since our deck, like all wall decks, becomes a monster in a 1-on-1 situation. We like this situation, especially with Anarchs on the table forcing their hand and denying them the "bloat-and-get-ten-minions" approach. The only problem is going to be that we MUST obtain the Edge as soon as possible to deny pool gain, and our deck does not have a lot of room for stealth. A few Night Moves might be an excellent choice. - Our grandprey is pathetic, and our grandpredator has ousted our predator, gaining 1Victory Point. (or our grandprey has ousted our grandpredator but has not yet finished the job on our predator, either way.) While our deck is strong in a three-player environment, the conditions are not yet ideal for us to be able to force the situation and win. We would like it to be 1-on-1. Conveniently, we are able to do this by changing strategy -- completely ignore our prey, and kill our predator ruthlessly. Once our predator is ousted, the score will be 1-1-1, and we are in the "duel" situation that we wanted in the first place. We should be able to handily win from here. - The entire table is flailing helplessly under the weight of the Anarchs. Sit back, defend, gain pool, and watch to see which of the above two situations it becomes. With the Anarchs out, it shouldn't take long for SOMEONE to fall into the well. Are we likely to be the table target? Well... the Anarchs will not make you popular, but once it's clear that you're not going to go nuts with them or prevent them from being removed, people will calm down somewhat. Your prey is going to be pretty pissy about it (as well he should be; he's the one taking it in the ass), but your grandprey is going to completely be your friend. Since your grandprey has no pressure, he is very likely to become the table target himself -- he'll have a lot more forward motion than you do, and that draws attention whether or not people realize it. By the time it's a three player game, everyone is a target anyway. Your task is to avoid being targeted during the 4-player or 5-player phases; from that point forward you'll be in a lot better shape.
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"There's no gray. There's just white that's got grubby." -- T.P.