Ashur´s War Journal - November 2025

 

Just a quick list of my current decks before I trash 5-10 of them in order to build new bad decks.

Current decks:

!Nosferatu Cailean & friends rush/wall (Can try with some Path?)

!Tremere Nephandus (Modified precon.)

ANI Path of Caine Bishops Mastiff-abuse toolbox (Not sure if Unholy Sacrament can be slimmed out?)

Banu Haqim G6 royalty guns (Stable, but horribly boring to play.) 

Brujah G6 Saku toolbox

Gangrel Fakir rush (Ginés-built "my combat is better than your combat" deck, and that is the only thing its good at!)

Gangrel Mictlantecuhtli & Talbot´s Chainsaw (Very slow setup.)

Gangrel Murder of Crows rush (Seems Dread Mastiff does this better!)

Gangrel Stanislava V25

Guillaume Giovanni & Nocturn stealth-bleed

Hecata G6 toolbox (Modified precon.)

Lasombra & Bruce de Guy vote (Will try this with some new Path-toys now, as does everyone else.)

Lasombra G6 servitor stealth-bleed (Boring but solid, will try to optimize.)

Malkavian 94 with skill cards (Jens Johansson-built. Maybe my best deck, seldoms leaves without vps.)

Malkavian Santaleous stealth-bleed (The only fun Dem-deck?)  

Ministry Velvet Tounge Dom vote (Works, but sensitive to combat. Velvet Tounge means solid lategame.)

Salubri & !Ventrue Saulot toolbox (Works, in theory, but haven´t played it much.) 

Salubri G7 toolbox (Modified precon.)

Tremere Gerald Wyndham toolbox (Fun deck!)

Tremere Oliver Thrace AK-47 rush (Sloooooow setup, usually good in lategame but sensitive to Banishment. Will need to rethink this one.)

Tremere V5 format stealth-bleed 

Tremere/!Tremere 11 Dreams stealth-bleed (Effective!)

Tzimisce G2-3 rush (Scythe-built, RIP.)

Tzimisce G6 stealth-bleed

Tzimisce old school prey-punisher

Decks with the Dominate discipline: 15 of 25. Ouch. Some diciplines are better than others. Or is it just me? :)

Ashur´s War Journal – July 2019

My current decks (in no particular order):
Kiasyd/Lasombra Nocturn stealth-bleed
Lasombra G5-6 stealth-vote (Slightly modded double Parliament of Shadows)
Nosferatu Cock Robin toolbox (Based on Otso Saariluoma 2010 TWD)
Bigcaps Setites Tempation + Vampiric Disease (This sucks. Way worse with Nakh than with weenies!)
Toreador G2-3 Aching Beauty (Tried to make something to abuse Aching Beauty. Weak!)
Bigcap OBF/DOM stealth-vote (Based on Danilo Torrisi 2018 TWD)
Tremere/!Tremere toolbox (Based on Daniel Garguláks 2019 TWD. Nice!)
Tzimisce ANI-combat toolbox (Based on Robert Scythes 2012 TWD. Brutal!)
Ventrue princes with sticks
Decks with the Dominate discipline: 5 of 9. Have been worse.


Ashur rant of the month: People should f**king STOP RANTING about Star Wars, Game of Thrones, various card games and other games! Toxic fandom MUST STOP!! With that said, you can already look forward to next Ashur rant of the month - I´m sure I can think of something ...

Ashur deck of the month: South Brooklyn Casket Company toolbox (Draft 1)

Crypt: 12 (Tried for a “passive votes are great” crypt. Can´t fit own votes!)
5x Lambach (This vamp is so VERY good!)
1x Vlad Tepes
2x Velya, The Flayer
1x Stravinsky
1x Little Tailor of Prague
2x Meshenka

Library:
Masters: 16
1x Fear of Mekhet
1x Giant´s Blood
1x Guardian Angel (Intercept + prevent)
1x Library Hunting Ground
2x Pentex Subversion
1x The Rack
4x Vessel
3x Wash
2x Wider View

Events: 2
1x Scourge of the Enochians
1x The Uncoiling

Actions/Allies/Equipment: 15
2x Under Siege (Untap + intercept)
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x .44 Magnum (Manuever + damage)
1x Living Manse (Bleed + Strike: Combat ends)
1x Mylan Horseed
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Always good for Daring the Dawn-defense)
4x Govern the Unaligned (Bleed + pool gain/acceleration)
4x Deep Song (Bleed + rush)

Action modifiers: 10
6x Changeling (Bleed + stealth)
4x Plasmic Form (Stealth + dodge)

Combat: 6
4x Chiropteran Marauder (Maneuver + aggraveted damage)
2x Breath of the Dragon

Reactions:
4x Cat´s Guidance (Intercept + don´t tap)
4x Eagles Sight (Intercept + choose block)
4x Eyes of Argus (Wake + Intercept)
3x My Enemy´s Enemy (Intercept + bounce)
2x On the Qui Vive
6x Sense the Savage Way (Wake + intercept)
5x Telepathic Misdirection (Intercept + bounce)

General idea: I made a list with all VTES cards that have two different effects (think Changeling, or Resist Earth´s Grasp, or Govern the Unaligned, etc.), and then I checked what kind of deck could fit most of those cards. I came up with the deck listed above.

My thoughts after playing it three times: Didn´t work fantastic, but okey if my predator wasn´t very fast and aggressive. It´s in the “fun toolbox” category, but nowhere close to tournament level quality. Maybe could swap a lot of funny utility masters for boring crypt acceleration masters? Anyone got other thoughts?

Some other ideas I´ve pondered recently: 

• How broken is dominate? Could I build a deck with just 10 Govern, 10 Conditioning, 10 Deflection and just about any other 40 cards?!
• Seriously, midcap bruise-bleed POT+DOM?
• Top secret Black Chantry stuff!
• Probably time for Guillaume Giovanni again, as we no longer seem to have 3+ others playing him in our play group. I wonder what variant?
• How do one handle Matasuntha and Goratrix decks in the most humiliating way? What is the optimal block denial-bonanza?

If anyone have any answers to the questions above, feel free to comment below, or at it´s VEKN thread. Thanks!

BobbyDoc's deck clinic part 2: Adonai Agony

It's time for the second chapter. It was a while ago, but it takes time to gather decks and see if I can do something about them.

-- Deck idea -- 
This is a Salubri Antitribu deck I saw my friend Kari played some time ago and I was intrigued. Loving Agony + Target Vitals is a cool concept. Hide the Heart is wonderfully flexible as well.


-- Design -- 
The original deck:

Crypt (12)
4 Adonai (7, AUS for VAL, Salubri Antitribu, 2, Sabbat: Adonai can enter combat with any ready Camarilla vampire controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action. He gets +1 strength when in combat with a Tremere. +1 bleed)
2 Doris McMillon (2, val, Salubri Antitribu, 2, Sabbat)
2 Kervos, The Lieutenant (3, aus val, Salubri Antitribu, 2, Sabbat)
2 Thomas Steed, The Angry (4, ani aus val, Salubri Antitribu, 2, Sabbat: Thomas may search your library for a melee weapon and move it to your hand as a +1 stealth action. Discard down to your hand size and shuffle your library afterward)
2 Wolf Valentine (4, for VAL, Salubri Antitribu, 2, Sabbat: Wolf gets 1 optional press per combat, only usable to continue combat, when in combat with a Tremere)

Library (62)
Master (15)
1 Anarch Troublemaker
3 Blood Doll
2 Blooding by the Code
2 Hungry Coyote
2 Perfectionist
3 Vessel
2 Wider View

Event (1)
1 Uncoiling, The

Action (2)
2 Brother in Arms

Equipment (3)
2 Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers
1 Ivory Bow

Reaction (20)
2 Delaying Tactics
8 Hide the Heart
2 My Enemy's Enemy
6 On the Qui Vive
2 Wake with Evening's Freshness

Combat (15)
7 Loving Agony
2 Soak
6 Target Vitals

Combo (6)
6 Burning Touch

-- Analyzing and redesign --
Seeing the deck in action I recognized that the deck burned a lot of blood and also had problems getting the bleeds through.
    I decided to make the deck mono-valeren, skipping the odd auspex and fortitude cards. Also to be able to play a lot of Hide the Heart, I opted to make it a 90 card deck! Then I made it slightly more combat focused, also by adding some rush I would be able to interact with the table even more.
    I added three allies to further support the attrition theme and superiour Rayzeel's Song is actually playable with them around (but will obviously mostly be used for bleed).
    Blissful Agony is mainly there to handle guns, but is generally awesome.

Not being dependent on Adonai, I could also have a smaller crypt. And here is the result:

Vamps (12)
2 Adonai (7, AUS for VAL, Salubri Antitribu, 2, Sabbat: Adonai can enter combat with any ready Camarilla vampire controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action. He gets +1 strength when in combat with a Tremere. +1 bleed)
3 Doris McMillon (2, val, Salubri Antitribu, 2, Sabbat)
2 Kervos, The Lieutenant (3, aus val, Salubri Antitribu, 2, Sabbat)
2 Thomas Steed, The Angry (4, ani aus val, Salubri Antitribu, 2, Sabbat: Thomas may search your library for a melee weapon and move it to your hand as a +1 stealth action. Discard down to your hand size and shuffle your library afterward)
3 Wolf Valentine (4, for VAL, Salubri Antitribu, 2, Sabbat: Wolf gets 1 optional press per combat, only usable to continue combat, when in combat with a Tremere)

Library (90)
Master (16)
1 Code of Samiel
2 Hungry Coyote
4 Blood Doll
2 Path of Retribution
3 Blooding by the Code
2 Wider View
1 Direct Intervention
1 Giants Blood

Event (1)
1 Narrow Minds

Action (13)
3 Brother in Arms
5 Sense Death
5 Rayzeel's Song

Allies (3)
1 Greory Winther
1 Impundulu
1 Young Bloods

Retainers (2)
1 J.S Simmons
1 Tasha Morgan

Reaction (21)
1 Delaying Tactics
15 Hide the Heart
5 On the Qui Vive

Combat (27)
9 Loving Agony
8 Target Vitals
2 Weighted Walking Stick
6 Blissful Agony
2 Taste of Vitae

Combo (7)
7 Burning Touch

-- Field Test --
I decided to play this in the wednesday league and was afraid it would be crushed in no time, but as it turned out the other players did not either bring the best decks to the table.

Peter: Big Settites, big bleeds - 0 vp
Thomas: Shalmath Talbot Chainsaw - 1 gw 3 vp
Kalle: Lasombra combat w Talbot Chainsaw as well - 0 vp
BobbyDoc: Salubri Antitribu - 1 vp

I had an awesome start with 1 Blood Doll, 1 Code of Samiel and 1 Brother in Arms on my hand and a nice diversified crypt.
    I was able to bring out 2 Brother in Arms quite quick and bled Peter right of the bat. After a while Thomas rushed backwards, making my game even easier. Now I did not play my best, I decided to continue bleed and build up. What I should have done was to save Peter's vampires from torpor so he eventually (hopefully) could oust Thomas. Meanwhile I managed to make my predators life difficult by continiously playing Hide the Heart, so I was in a good position.

Also Kalle should much earlier have tried to contest the chainsaw. Anyway, when I ousted Peter the game was all about Thomas, although I thought I had him a couple of times, but he always had a Lapse on hand when needed.

If I just had played better I would have won or split the table

-- Conclusion --
A very fun deck to play and it's hard for the opposition to figure it out, and that is always a bonus.

Thank you for reading!

/BobbyDoc

Ashur´s War Journal – April 2016

Hello again, a bit late again, but here´s this months ramblings.

My current decks (in no particular order):
1: Ventrue princes with sticks (Classic Hugh style)
2: Ravnos G5-6 stealth-bleed (see below)
3: Gerald Windham sb (Get Ankara and Govern down, Freak Drive, people get ousted)
4: !Nosferatu Black Hand Teresita Inside Dirt toolbox
5: Gangrel Mictlantecuhtli+Talbots chainsaw with ANI-weenies
6: Brujah Appolonius multi-bleed combat toolbox (Fun!)
7: Nosferatu G4-5 vote (Will be tweaked soon)
8: Tremere Blood Fury bruise-bleed (Much like the old Uta Kovacs deck, but worse)
9: Lasombra Black Hand stealth-bleed with Nostoket (Kind of funny)
10: !Tremere anarchs G4-5 with Nephanduses (Didn´t work)

Note: Decks with the Dominate discipline: 6 of 10. Sad.


Ashur rant of the month:

Goddamn I´m tired of Gehenna events. So very, very, very boring. Do anyone think Slow Withering, Veil of Darkness and Blood Weakens makes this game more fun? Terrible, terrible design. Everybody knows I like cards with short text on them - my favorite is Lost in Crowds. That should be an ideal for card design. But then you have Veil of Darkness, a veritable novel that slows down the game ALOT and impacts it totally randomly. Sure, the cards are (as I can judge) thematically correct, but what was LSJ after, design-wise? If he wanted to make the bigcap, superior-discipline-decks weaker, and strenghten deck with weenies that use few or no discipline cards, couldn´t it be done in a funnier, yet strategically interesting way?

From now on I will run two The Fourth Cycle in all decks for a while, because The Uncoiling is too weak. Hope it has some effect on the meta over here.

Ashur deck of the month:

Deck Name: Mayapaya Sewing Circle (Ravnos G5-6 stealth-bleed)
Author: Necross
Description: This deck is it´s earliest, experimental stages. No rocket science though :) I just had to build something with this crypt - six vamps with superior chimerstry below 7 cap. Stealth-bleed seemed obvious, and Sense Dep is to strong to leave out, boring or not.

Crypt (12 cards)
2x  Desiree Narayan, Anarch Historian   6  ani cel for nec CHI  Ravnos:6
2x  Dhita Choudhair                     5  aus ANI CHI          Ravnos:6
2x  Dr. Lawrence Mayhew                 6  ani for AUS CHI      Ravnos:5
2x  Ganesh                              6  CHI DEM FOR          Ravnos:5
2x  Irena                               5  ani for pre CHI      Ravnos:5
2x  Sanjay Chakrabarti                  4  ani CHI              Ravnos:6

Library (71 cards)
Master (13)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Archon Investigation
1x Barrens, The
1x Coven, The
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Fortune Teller Shop
1x Kumpania
2x Path of Paradox, The
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Two Wrongs

Event (1)
1x Narrow Minds

Action (11)
1x Illusory Resources
4x Sensory Deprivation
6x Suspension of Disbelief

Equipment (4)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
1x Karavalanisha Vrana
1x Treasured Samadji

Action Modifier (12)
1x False Resonance
8x Fata Morgana
1x Mirror's Visage
1x Red Herring
1x Will-o'-the-Wisp

Combat (9)
2x Apparition
4x Hall of Mirrors
3x Mayaparisatya

Combo (13)
3x Draba
6x Mirror Image
4x Occlusion

Reaction (8)
2x Delaying Tactics
1x Ignis Fatuus
4x On the Qui Vive
1x Wake with Evening's Freshness

My thoughts after playing it three times:
- The deck needs Path of Paradox. Should be 4 or 5.
- I will probably add a couple of Sense Deps, and remove some of the other defensive stuff (Kumpania, Ignis Fatuus).
- The combat module should probably go, even though I like it alot. Maybe I´ll try some deck with more combat, less s-b later on.
- Suspension of Disbelief is not very strong. Might switch them for some permanent bleed tools.
- Karavalanisha Vrana might not work in this deck. I´ll probably remove it, if I don´t decide to add some larger vamps.
- Draba is strong.


Some other ideas I´ve pondered recently:
- What about Sense Deppin everybody with a Eternals-influenced Porphyrion?
- Try some anarch-tech in my Mictlantecuhtli+Talbots chainsaw-deck?
- Is this the strangest TWD ever?
- What cards would be good for Harbingers, Gargoyles, Salubri Antitribu, Blood Brothers and Samedi?
- Still haven´t found any use of Cardinal Benediction.
- Isn´t Barrenness underplayed?
- What would Richard Garfield change if V:TES would be tweaked a bit?

If anyone have any answers to the questions above, feel free to comment below, or at it´s VEKN forum-thread, or by mail to vtes/at/msghsfhi.com. Thanks!

BobbyDoc's deck clinic part 1: The Marcellus situation

The purpose of this clinic is to tune existing decks to the better (hopefully). So please, my fellow Methuselahs, contribute with your decks that needs some care and attention. Meanwhile I'll tweak my own decks here.

-- Deck idea --This is a toolbox deck featuring Marcellus and Ellen Fence as the main characters. There Marcellus is the main defender and Ellen is the one rushing.

-- Design --This is quite an old deck from back in the days. What I could remember it was doing ok. I haven't played it for 10+ years, but tweaked it a couple of times. But today, just by looking at it, I acknowledge the fact it's not that good. The positive news is that there are a some new cards since then that would improve it.

Crypt (12)

4 Ellen Fence, the Tracker (8, aus CEL OBF PRO, Gangrel Antitribu, Bishop, 2, Sabbat bishop: Ellen can enter combat with any tapped minion controlled by your predator or prey as a (D) action)

4 Marcellus (8, AUS CEL pro, Toreador, Prince, 2, Camarilla Prince of Monaco: If Marcellus is ready, political actions cost Nosferatu 1 additional blood. +1 bleed)

1 Darrell Boyce, Consul (6, CEL OBF PRO, Gangrel Antitribu, 2, Sabbat)

1 Skryta Zyleta (5, obf pot pro CEL, Gangrel Antitribu, 3, Sabbat. Black Hand)

1 Scarlet Carson O`Toole (4, pro CEL, Gangrel Antitribu, 3, Sabbat)

1 Wren (4, cel obf pro, Gangrel Antitribu, 2, Sabbat)

Library (71)

Masters (15)

2 Dreams of the Sphinx

1 Pentex

2 Wider View

2 Protean

3 Gangrel Conspiracy

5 Blood Doll

Action (5)

2 Shadow of the Beast

3 Bums Rush

Action Modifier (4)

4 Cloak the Gathering

Action Modifier / Combat (7)

2 Ritual of the Bitter Rose

5 Swallowed by the Night

Ally (1)

1 Carlton van Wyck

Combat (40)

6 Amaranth

3 Bone Spur

2 Earthmeld

2 Flesh of Marble

2 Form of Mist

2 Infernal Pursuit

8 Psyche!

6 Pursuit

4 Stutter Step

5 Wolf Claws  

Equipment (4)

2 Camera Phone

1 Bowl of Convergence

1 Ivory Bow

Event (1)

1 Urban Jungle

Reactions (9)

9 Second Tradition: Domain

Retainers (1)

1 Resplendand Protector

Votes (2)

2 Templar

-- Analyzing and redesign --The crypt looks ok. Will add Sadie. Also another Marcellus would be nice, since it's important to have a good defence at start.

    Ennoias Theatre is a no-brainer here, as well as Under Siege.

    Instantaneous Transformation will replace all obfuscate cards, it will definatly provide some extra momentum to the deck.

    Monster for more multi-action and I doubled up on Ivory Bow. Parity Shift is always good (no room for Templar).

I also (during lotsa pain) decided to slim the library to 71 cards (a whopping 19 cards difference), and this is the result:

Crypt (12)

4 Ellen Fence (8, !Gangrel, CEL, OBF, PRO, Bishop, rush d-action prey or predator)

5 Marcellus (8, Toreador, AUS, CEL, pro, Prince, +1 bleed)

1 Sadie (2, pro, !Gangrel, 2, Sabbat)

1 Scarlett Carson o’Toole (4, !Gangrel, CEL, pro)

1 Skryta Zyleta (5, !Gangrel, CEL, obf, pro, Black Hand)

Library (71)

Masters (12)

1 Dreams of the Sphinx

2 Pentex

1 Wider View

1 Protean

1 Ennoias Theatre

1 Gangrel Conspiracy

4 Blood Doll

1 Monster

Action (4)

1 Shadow of the Beast

2 Bums Rush

1 Under Siege

Action Modifier (5)

5 Instantaneous Transformation

Action Modifier / Combat (1)

1 Ritual of the Bitter Rose

Combat (33)

5 Amaranth

5 Claws of the Dead

1 Earthmeld

1 Flesh of Marble

1 Form of Mist

2 Infernal Pursuit

7 Psyche!

7 Pursuit

3 Stutter Step

1 Wolf Claws  

Equipment (5)

1 Camera Phone

1 Bowl of Convergence

2 Ivory Bow

Event (1)

1 Urban Jungle

Reactions (8)

8 Second Tradition: Domain

Retainers (1)

1 Resplendand Protector

Votes (1)

1 Parity Shift

-- Field Test --

Daniel H had a house warming party with VTES, so I brought this new creation. This evening would be more casual than the normal super-competitive environment of Stockholm, so a perfect moment to get a feeling of the flow of the deck.

Game 1 (which had three, yes three decks, using "Gear Up"):

BobbyDoc > Daniel (Giovanni Protean anarch multi-act) > Jonas (Ravnos Anarch breed boon) > Henrik (Teresita s&b) > Kalle (Giovanni/Samedi Shamblers Talbot Chainsaw)

Although I had no Ellen in the start crypt, I got the other three !Gangrel. So I was still pleased, and managed to get Ellen a little later with Wider View.

    One of the first actions of the game was Kalle trying to recruit Shamblers, but was promptly blocked and eaten by Marcellus. Excellent. This gave me time to set-up and move forward.

    After a while it was clear to me that Jonas would be hard to stop if he was allowed to gain more pool from Con Boon. A well placed Parity Shift weakened him and Daniel asked me to bleed him so he could deflect.

    So Jonas became the first casualty. Kalle, still in a losing position, had rushed backwards a little which had weakend Henrik. But soon Kalle was ousted and I was in a very good position.

    Now I didn't play my best game, I decided to rush backwards neutralizing Henrik, instead of just bleeding. But earned some extra style-points eating a full Frank Litzpar and played Ritual of the Bitter Rose, filling up all my four vampires.

    Daniel managed to oust Henrik and then conceded.

Robert 2 vp, Daniel 2 vp, Henrik 1 vp

-- Conclusion --The deck had a really nice flow and if I just played a little better I may have won the game. It will be interesting to play it more and see how it copes against tougher decks.

Thank you for reading!

/BobbyDoc

Ashur´s War Journal – March 2016

Hello again, Ashur here. Much is happening, the journal is a bit late, but here it is.

My current decks (in no particular order):
1: Ventrue princes with sticks (Classic Hugh style)
2: Kiasyd/Lasombra sb (A bit more Nocturns than in my Nationals TWD)
3: Gerald Windham sb (Get Ankara and Govern down, Freak Drive, people get ousted)
4: !Tremere and friends anarchs Diversion with Nephaduses (Didn´t work at all)
5: Gangrel Mictlantecuhtli+Talbots chainsaw with ANI-weenies (Crater-deck = sucks)
6: Brujah Appolonius multi-bleed combat toolbox (Fun!)
7: Nosferatu G4-5 vote (see below)


Ashur deck of the month:

Deck Name : Old friend Alonso

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 7 max: 11 average: 9.41667
4x Alonso Petrodon 10 ANI DOM OBF POT for tha justicar Nosferatu:5
3x Baron Dieudonne 9ANI OBF POT PRO prince Nosferatu:4
2x Josef von Bauren 11 ANI DEM OBF POT cel inner circle Nosferatu:4
2x Benjamin Rose 7 AUS OBF ani pot prince Nosferatu:5
1x Gabrielle di Righetti 10 ANI AUS DOM THA obf pot justicar Tremere:5

Library [77 cards]
Master [21]
1x Archon Investigation
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
1x Information Highway
1x Papillon
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
7x Villein
2x Warsaw Station
4x Zillah's Valley

Event [1]
1x Narrow Minds

Action/Equipment [7]
3x Fourth Tradition: The Accounting
1x Heart of Nizchetus
2x Judgment: Camarilla Segregation
1x SchreckNET

Political Action [14]
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
1x Ancilla Empowerment
2x Banishment
2x Kine Resources Contested
1x Neonate Breach
5x Parity Shift
1x Political Stranglehold

Action Modifier [24]
4x Animal Magnetism
4x Elder Impersonation
2x Enkil Cog
4x Forgotten Labyrinth
4x Lost in Crowds
3x Old Friends
3x Swallowed by the Night

Combat [2]
1x Burning Wrath
1x No Trace

Reaction [8]
6x Second Tradition: Domain
2x Sense the Savage Way

My thoughts after playing it three times:
- I tried to build a Nosferatu vote deck that´s not the usual Legendary Selma+Parity Shifts nor some kind of breed-boon. I understand it´s not tier 1.
- I wanted to try out Animal Magnetism and Old Friends, two cards I don´t think I´ve played with before. They´re kind of nice, but strangly underpowered compared to Bewitching Oration, Iron Glare and Scalpel Tounge. There is no need for this - Presence is the number 1 vote-discipline anyway, because of broken Voter Captivation.
- Alonsos special is kind of fun now when anarchs are popular in our meta. As is Judgment: Camarilla Segregation.
- Of course the deck works best with Warsaw Station in play. Maybe I need one more? Hard to find place though.
- Metro Underground should be in the deck, for Enkil Cog double-bleed to work.
- It´s sad to see how bad non-Presence vote decks are.
- A bit too many masters. Will try to slim away a couple.
- I´ll might need some more discard/hand manipulation tech to get rid of late arriving crypt acceleration, superfluous Villeins, etc. Decks with Unmada, Ulugh Begh and Thurmicia have this "for free".
- Judgment: Camarilla Segregation hits wildly cross-table sometimes. Of course that sucks, but on the other hand it hits perfect sometimes, removing lots of pool from the right places.
- Benjamin Rose is crappy, but also somewhat interesting. I´ll might try a deck based on him soon, me being the sado-masochist that I am :)


Some other ideas I´ve pondered recently:
- Valerius Maior + Gear Up?
- I won the Gothcon draft. We need to draft more! :)
- I failed to reach the finals at the ECQ. Time for new ideas.
- Great that the VEKN site is looking better again. Thanks Damnans and whoever helped him!
- I am selling some cards. Check out the list here. I can also trade if you have anything I need.
- What do White Wolf Publishing have in mind for the future of VTES? The VEKN surveys has been completed and the results has been delivered. Something might happen soon. I will sum up my own ideas and wishful thinking in a separate post.

If anyone have any answers to the questions above, feel free to comment below, or at it´s VEKN forum-thread, or by mail to vtes@msghsfhi.com. Thanks!

Ashur´s War Journal – February 2016

Hello fellow Methuselahs, Ashur here again. Time to scrutinize my current decks and ideas.

My decks (in no particular order):

1: Ventrue princes with sticks (Classic Hugh style, almost no surprises)

2: Kiasyd/Lasombra sb (A bit more Nocturns than in my Nationals TWD)

3: Gerald Windham sb (Get Ankara and Govern down, Freak Drive, you know the drill)

4: Nosferatu+DEM bigcap vote (Josef von Bauren star)

5: Malkavian G1-2 vote “White House” (Will soon be rebuilt)

6: Gangrel Mictlantecuhtli+Talbots chainsaw with ANI-weenies (Crater-deck = sucks)

7: Malkavian G4-5 midcap stealth-bleed (Built for demo)

8: Brujah G4-5 royalty vote (Dmitra star, Marko L style)

9: !Tremere Nephanduses with Ashur Tablets (Wargrim style)

Ashur deck of the month:

Deck Name: Ugly, crazy and old

I wanted to try to use Josef von Bauren with Warsaw Station in some way, so I somewhat glanced on Tukos TWD and came up with this. But it doesn´t really work. Too slow, too vurnerable, not enough throughput. Any ideas anyone? Or else I´ll rip this apart soon and go back to my old Ellison Humboldt + Warsaw Station plan, that was more aggressive. 

Stockholm star player Randal Rudstam has a variant of this, but with Josef, Unmada and Thucimia, doing Dark Mirror of the Mind + Kindred Spirits and only a few political actions. More aggressive and way better, I guess. 

Crypt:

5x Josef von Bauren

1x Lutz von Hohenzollern

1x Gravitnir

1x Louhi

1x Unmada

1x Ysador the Foul

1x Drozodny

1x Gem Ghastly

Library (77 cards)

Master (18)

 3x Warsaw Station

 1x Giant's Blood

 2x Golconda: Inner Peace

 4x Information Highway

 8x Villein

Action (8)

 4x Kindred Spirits

 2x Dark Mirror of the Mind

 1x Abactor

 1x Schrecknet

Political Action (12)

 1x Anarchist Uprising

 1x Ancillae Empowerment

 1x Ancient Influence

 7x Kine Resources Contested

 1x Political Stranglehold

 1x Reins of Power

Action Modifier (19)

 3x Cloak the Gathering

 1x Closed Session

 4x Elder Impersonation

 4x Faceless Night

 4x Lost in Crowds

 2x Spying Mission

 3x Swallowed by the Night

Combat (4)

 2x No Trace

Reaction (16)

 5x Mental Maze

 4x On the Qui Vive

 5x Telepathic Misdirection

Recent ideas I ponder:

- Anach stuff. I´m not very impressed with Anarch Unbound set, but now I finally have all the cards printed, so I guess I want to do something. But every idea I get either include some titled vamps or don’t get better with adding anarch tech. The thing I am thinking about most is some bigcap Malkavian deck with Memory Rift. Maybe check out how big a bleed Esau can deliver? :)

- Rebuilding my Malkavian “White House” voter to focus more on Madness Network? With My Kin Against the World and Direct Interventions. Might be fun!

- Something with Synesios. I love that dude. Obf-PRE-bleeder with lots of Sudden Revearsals?

- Revisiting my Xaviar advanced Garou/Parity Shift deck?

- Porphyrion + Ravnos Sense Dep-deck? Is it worth adding some of the new anarch tech?

- Something with Alonso Petrodon and Judgement Camarilla Segregation? Good old Petrodon hates those pesky anarchs that´s so popular right now.

If anyone have any answers for these questions, feel free to comment below, or at it´s VEKN forum-thread, or by mail to vtes@msghsfhi.com. Thanks!