In our last post, we reviewed our first Death Star variant, using the Followers
of Set. Using the criteria from my original post, I decided that the Daughters
of Cacophony would be the next clan I tried to create a Death Star variant with.
My Original Daughters of Cacophony Version
This is the first version that I made. I earned 1 GW 3VPs, which was
enough to make it into the finals. I was ousted holding an oust for my
prey on my next turn. I had a solid chance of doubling-up and grabbing
my grandprey too, but alas never got to take that turn. Let's take a
look at the deck.
Deck Name: (Death) Stars of the Stage Author: Karl Schaefer Crypt (13 cards, min=4 max=23 avg=3.31) ======================================= 2x Yseult 6 FOR MEL PRE Daughter of Cacophony:3 1x Gaël Pilet 6 FOR MEL chi pre Daughter of Cacophony:2 2x Angela Preston 5 MEL PRE for Daughter of Cacophony:2 1x Delilah Monroe 4 MEL for pre Daughter of Cacophony:2 1x Céleste, The Voice of a Secret 3 mel pre Daughter of Cacophony:2 1x Muse 3 ani for mel Daughter of Cacophony:2 5x Anarch Convert 1 Caitiff:ANY Library (77 cards) ================== Master (14; 1 trifle) ---------------------- 1x Anarch Railroad 1x Archon Investigation 1x Barrens, The 1x Bastille Opera House 1x Carfax Abbey 1x Command Performance 1x Conductor 1x Coven, The 1x Creepshow Casino 1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum 1x Paris Opera House 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion 1x Seattle Committee 1x Twilight Camp Action (13) ------------ 7x Embrace, The 1x Fee Stake: Boston 1x Fee Stake: Corte 1x Fee Stake: Los Angeles 1x Fee Stake: New York 1x Fee Stake: Perth 1x Fee Stake: Seattle Political Action (16) ---------------------- 4x Benefit Performance 1x Eat the Rich 3x Firebrand 4x Lily Prelude 1x Patsy 3x Revolutionary Council Retainer (1) ------------- 1x Crypt's Sons Action Modifier (22) --------------------- 2x Bewitching Oration 2x Change of Target 2x Cryptic Rider 1x Daring the Dawn 4x Freak Drive 6x Missing Voice, The 1x Virtuosa 4x Voter Captivation Action Modifier/Reaction (7) ----------------------------- 7x Madrigal Combat (4) ----------- 4x Majesty
Comparing the Decks
Let's break down the decks. I've chosen a series of categories for the
comparison. You'll notice that some cards end up in more than one
box. These polyvalent cards provide real power through different
options.
| Role | Original | Replacement |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent Pool Gain |
2 Blood Doll1 | — |
| Transient Pool Gain |
Anarch Salon 5 Consanguineous Boon Exclusion Principle 2 Undue Influence ( |
4 Benefit Performance 4 Lily Prelude ( 4 Voter Captivation ( |
| Childer |
4 The Embrace 5 Web of Knives Recruit |
7 The Embrace |
| Permanent Bleed |
Club Illusion | — |
| Transient Bleed |
Khabar: Glory 3 Spying Mission ( |
Virutosa ( |
| Damaging Votes |
4 Kine Resources Contested Patsy 3 Revolutionary Council |
Eat the Rich 4 Lily Prelude Patsy 3 Revolutionary Council |
| Permanent Vote Support |
3 Alamut Amaravati The Black Throne 6 Fee Stakes 2 Firebrand Patsy |
Bastille Opera House Conductor 6 Fee Stakes 3 Firebrand Patsy |
| Transient Vote Support |
2 Cryptic Rider |
2 Bewitching Oration 2 Cryptic Rider Eat the Rich2 7 Madrigal |
| Permanent Stealth |
— |
Anarch Railroad Creepshow Casino Paris Opera House |
| Transient Stealth |
18 |
Daring the Dawn3 6 The Missing Voice Pentex(TM) Subversion3 Virtuosa ( |
| Permanent Unlock |
2 Firebrand |
Command Performance 3 Firebrand |
| Transient Unlock |
6 CrimethInc. ( |
2 Change of Target 4 Freak Drive 4 Majesty |
| Defense |
Archon Investigation Yoruba Shrine |
Archon Investigation 7 Madrigal 4 Majesty |
- One could argue this isn't pool gain, but pool recoup. That's a different blog post.
- I am counting the title reduction as push.
- I am treating the X cannot block as "stealth" for comparison purposes.
Notes
- There is permanent pool gain in the Daughters version, but it does have more transient options. Lily Prelude also deals damage, making the deck efficient at that.
- Even though there are two less childer, I consider this equivalent. Web of Knives Recruit takes 3 turns to come into play, so you're never going to play all of them. On the other hand, The Embrace is the weakest form of childer and very costly. Although I don't explicitly compare the blood gain between the two variants, you'll notice that the blood gain in the Daughters variant is high (The Coven, Madgrial, Voter Captivation). It's there to counteract the high cost of The Embrace to allow the smaller vampires to make childer every turn.
- The Daughter version has no real bleed boost. It might sink a bleed for 1, but Virtuosa is too important to be used at inferior.
- The damaging vote packages are mostly the same. As previously noted Lily Prelude doubles as pool gain, which adds efficiency.
- We probably have better permanent vote options than the original variant. Alamut requires successful bleeds, but both Conductor and Bastille Opera House just get stronger as you breed more vampires. On top of that, the Daughters variant has additional vote push options. As previously mentioned, Madrigal is the real workhorse here, as it double as blood gain.
- The Daughters of Cacophony have only one stealth card, which we play a lot of because the inferior can be cycled away. To compensate, I added three permanent stealth locations.
- This version also offers much more permanent and transient unlock than the original does. Sometimes this requires bait actions. Other times, this lets you flow from Fee Stake to vote. Because many of the unlocks are in response to being blocked, careful planning is required to make full use of the action space.
The Tournament-Winning Version
After four revisions, I played this for the second time. After two rounds, I
earned 1 GW 4 VPs and took 3 VPs in the final. One thing to note before
looking at the changes is that the sect updated had happened by this point,
which made the babies Anarch. That allowed easy removal of the Anarch making
cards.
Deck Name: (Death) Stars of the Stage Author: Karl Schaefer Description: Daughters Death Star variant. Crypt (13 cards, min=4 max=23 avg=3.31) ======================================= 2x Yseult 6 FOR MEL PRE Daughter of Cacophony:3 1x Gaël Pilet 6 FOR MEL chi pre Daughter of Cacophony:2 2x Angela Preston 5 MEL PRE for Daughter of Cacophony:2 1x Delilah Monroe 4 MEL for pre Daughter of Cacophony:2 1x Céleste, The Voice of a Secret 3 mel pre Daughter of Cacophony:2 1x Muse 3 ani for mel Daughter of Cacophony:2 5x Anarch Convert 1 Caitiff:ANY Library (77 cards) ================== Master (15; 1 trifle) ---------------------- 1x Anarch Railroad 1x Archon Investigation 1x Barrens, The 1x Bastille Opera House 1x Carfax Abbey 1x Command Performance 4x Conductor 1x Coven, The 1x Creepshow Casino 1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum 1x Paris Opera House 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion Action (12) ------------ 7x Embrace, The 1x Fee Stake: Boston 1x Fee Stake: Corte 1x Fee Stake: Los Angeles 1x Fee Stake: New York 1x Fee Stake: Perth Political Action (17) ---------------------- 1x Anarchist Uprising 4x Consanguineous Boon 1x Domain Challenge 2x Eat the Rich 3x Firebrand 4x Lily Prelude 2x Revolutionary Council Action Modifier (22) --------------------- 2x Bewitching Oration 2x Change of Target 2x Cryptic Rider 1x Daring the Dawn 4x Freak Drive 6x Missing Voice, The 1x Virtuosa 4x Voter Captivation Action Modifier/Reaction (7) ----------------------------- 7x Madrigal Combat (4) ----------- 4x Majesty
As with the Setite version, most of the balance tweaks are in the voting package. Agina, I swapped a Revolutionary Council for a Reckless Agitation and added a second copy of Eat the Rich. The Consanguineous Boons returned in place of Benefit Performance. The ability to boost a cross-table ally and/or garner support for calling another clan proved too useful. Domain Challenge, which was used, and Anarchist Uprising, which wasn't, were last minute additions. This is likely where the move to add Domain Challenge in the Followers of Set variant came from.
As I mentioned in the preamble to the winning deck, the sect change had occurred by this point. This freed up slots to add more Conductor. Conductor makes the deck hum and works perfectly with Madrigal is a blood gain option. I dropped a Fee Stake as I only have three vampires that can play them. It wasn't missed.
Unlike the Setite version, The Uncoiling isn't present. I hadn't had as much event pain at this point to make me think it was necessary.
Lastly, I am running an Anarch Convert ratio with my old approach. Check out my earlier posts on crypt construction to understand why you most likely want a 5/12 ratio when using Anarch Converts.
Final Thoughts
Of the variants this is likely the furthest afield of the original Assamite Death Star design. Comparing this to both the original and the Setite version, this should show you an example of how broadly you can adapt the base design. I am particularly pleased with the synergy between The Embrace, Conductor, and Madrigal to refill the vampires.
Next up if the final variant that I've won with, the Ravnos. It's definitely got the most interesting mix of polyvalent cards.
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