Issue 84 - April 2002 Killer Decks - Vampire by Robert Goudie Everybody knows that vampires sleep during the day. And they're wrong. If you want your vampires' action to proceed unhindered, send them on their evil errands when the sun's up. Careful use of Day Operation will drain your opponents with unblockable bleeds. TOP CARDS. While the tournament rules prevent a vampire from repeating the same action or type of action in a given turn, nothing prevents them from doing a bunch of actions with similar effects. Govern the Unalighned, Scouting Mission and Enchant Kindred are all plus-bleed actions when played in the inferior form. However, in their superior form, all three may be played by one of your vampires on the same turn. These cards allow you to move blood from the blood bank to an uncontrolled vampire. You can then use that blood to bring up more vampires at a significant discount or it can be transferred back into your pool. In combat, stick with Majesty, which lets you end combat as a strike and, at superior, allows you to burn a blood and untap your vampire. Playing superior Majesty after you're blocked taps an oppon3ent's blocker and frees your fiend to act again. HOW IT BEATS YOU. The first thing to do is to bring out a big vampire at the start of the game. To play Govern The Unaligned or one of its twins, you'll need an older vampire since the cards require you to move blood to a younger vampire in your uncontrolled region. Take these early turns to add a few more vampires to your active region. You will also want to influence-up at least one Prince if you have the opportunity. In addition to the defensive power of a titled vampire or two, you may be able to damage your prey a little politically. Ideally, you'll untap with Majesty after a blocked bleed attempt and punish your prey with a 4-pool loss from a Conservative Agitation vote. Your Princes, armed with the vampire refilling effects of The Fifth Tradition: Hospitality, will be key to keeping your vampires with enough blood on them to pay for your costly action modifiers. Intercept decks may cause you some serious problems. If you come upon one that's harassing you, lay low until you can cycle for a Kiss of Ra, which will send a blocker to torpor if they don't have the fortitude skill. If your prey doesn't tap enough defenders and if the +1 stealth that Bonding gives isn't enough help to get your bleeds through, you always have more drastic options at your disposal. Your vampires have the skill to make their actions unblockable with a Day Operation. Of course, vampires who act during the daytime don't do so without paying a price. After successfully completing the action, a vampire making use of a Day Operation is moved to the torpor region. Additionally, if you don't have another vampire untapped and available to rescue your sunburned vampire from torpor, you run the risk of losing him to diablerie. Use your Day Operations to inflict monstrous bleeds then recoil and rebuild. Blood Dolls will allow you to move blood to your ready vampires and are a way to suddenly boost your vampires' blood moments before you attack. #1 CARD. Freak Drive. It allows you to untap after taking an action and provides you an opportunity to act again or to remain untapped and available for blocking. With this card one of your vampires can bleed, vote, and move blood to an uncontrolled vampire in a single turn. Deck Name: Day Tripper Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 19, Max: 35, Avg: 6.66) ---------------------------------------------- 1 Courtland Leighton dom for pre 4 Ventrue 2 Emerson Bridges pot DOM FOR PRE 8 Ventrue 1 Heather Florent dom FOR PRE 6 Ventrue 1 Jazz Wentworth dom for PRE 5 Ventrue 1 Queen Anne aus obf DOM FOR PRE 10 Ventrue 2 Ranjan Rishi for DOM PRE 5 Ventrue 2 Sir Walter Nash DOM FOR PRE 7 Ventrue 1 Vanessa aus pre DOM FOR 6 Ventrue Antitribu 1 Wilhelm Waldburg aus cel DOM FOR PRE 9 Ventrue Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (10 cards) 5 Blood Doll 2 Direct Intervention 1 Golconda: Inner Peace 2 Sudden Reversal Action (30 cards) 1 Dominate Kine 5 Enchant Kindred 1 Far Mastery 5 Fifth Tradition: Hospitality, The 10 Govern the Unaligned 1 Mind Rape 7 Scouting Mission Action Modifier (26 cards) 4 Bonding 3 Conditioning 1 Daring the Dawn 6 Day Operation 1 Foreshadowing Destruction 9 Freak Drive 2 Kiss of Ra, The Political Action (2 cards) 2 Conservative Agitation Reaction (10 cards) 2 Deflection 2 Obedience 4 Redirection 2 Wake with Evening`s Freshness Combat (12 cards) 12 Majesty REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION of Inquest Gamer magazine.