Deck Archive: Malkavian Out-Of-Turn
Submitted by James McClellan
Introduction
The deck's aim is to torporise and then diablerise opponents' vampires. It does this by attempting to deal aggravated damage when it is not your turn, either by intercept or Madness Network rushes, and then playing Rotshreck if required. Properly played, it wins essentially all 3 and 4 player games in which it participates, and it has enough resilience and speed to win a good proportion of 5-player games too. Once Greger has a homunculus, superior PRO and the Rack your opponents may as well give up, unless they have a specialised anti-Malky OOT rush deck .... Elysium the Arboretum, Allies, Kiss of Ra, Obedience and Legacy of Power are really the only cards that scare this deck at all.
However, like all rush-combat decks this one takes a bit of finesse to pull off. Concentrate on your prey, and let your predator hurt you a little bit rather than give your grand predator an easy VP. In big games, offer to oust yourself to give your predator 2 VP's at the end of the game in exchange for being left alone. Don't for Caine's sake get drunk with success and start attacking your grand prey/grand predator until you absolutely MUST, ie when they are about to oust your predator. Remember you only can play one Rotschreck per time round the table, so don't use till you have to. You must play Rotschreck as you announce your intention to deal aggravated damage, so it is wise to smack it down if you are dealing with somebody who has PRE or FOR, and wisest of all to save the PRE/FOR guys for last in the round.
The deck only works post-7/7 BTW, because of the change to the Rotschreck and second tradition rules. The Fame change helps too, but the Fame cards are not essential except in bigger games. If fame had its old text then it would probably be replaced by 2 GtU's. GtU's instead of FoM's might well make the deck work better, but i haven't got round to testing this variant yet. There is a weapons variant which is also good but screwable by some of the animalism combat cards. The Madness Networks are the thing that make this deck work so well, because they allow you to be pro-active - essential for combat success, in my view.
Replacing Marcellus by two more Gregers is risky, because you then become TERRIBLY vulnerable to contestment, as i discovered in the last Portsmouth constructed deck tournament.
Crypt
12 Vampires
- Marcellus, Prince of Monaco x 2
- Zebulon x 2
- Greger Anderssen x 3
- Victoria
- Brazil
- Normal
- Watenda
- Dollface
Library
90 Cards
18 Masters
- The Rack
- Protean x 4
- Rotschreck x 7
- Madness Network x 4
- Fame x 2
16 Reactions
- The Second Tradition - Domain x 10
- Eagle's Sight x 2
- Precognition x 4
26 Combat
- Form of the Ghost x 6
- Claws of the Dead x 13
- Body of Sun x 2
- Flesh of Marble x 3
- Ritual of the Bitter Rose x 2
2 Equipment
- Ivory Bow
- White Phosphorous Grenade
6 Action Modifiers/Combat
- Rapid Change x 2
- Swallowed by the Night x 4
20 Actions
- Ambush x 2
- Bum's Rush x 10
- The Third Tradition - Progeny x 4
- The Fourth Tradition - The Accounting x 2
- The Fifth Tradition - Hospitality x 2
2 Retainers
- Homunculus x 2