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The Future is Now: A V5-Only Preview, Part 3: Tzimisce

With two games in, I wanted to try to play with the British Museum.  I've been hot on British Museum since Fall of London debuted, but have not actually managed to get a tournament win with it yet.  The Museum provides a lot of interesting options, but has a very limited card pool to work with in V5.  Recently, Garou Rim Gazette had a nice article about the card, if you want to understand it more fully.

The Deck

With the design criteria in place, that is to use the British Museum in V5, what type of deck can we make?  While we can build the Aggressive Corpse-Kevlar designs, the equipment that provides the most power is Living Manse.  Living Manse provides +1 bleed and a pre-range combat ends effect.  So, it helps with ousting and helps with keeping your vampires ready to do the ousting.  Though the latter effect removes the Manse, the vampire can just grab another (and unlock).

Let's dig into the deck and talk more about the design afterwards.

Deck Name: Manses and Babies
Author: Karl Schaefer

Crypt (12 cards, min=19 max=30 avg=6.08)
========================================
2x Adrino Manauara   8 ANI DOM PRO pot   baron   Tzimisce:6
3x Ángel Guerrero    7 ANI DOM PRO       baron   Tzimisce:6
2x Branimira         6 ANI dom pre pro   baron   Tzimisce:6
2x Marialena         5 DOM PRO ani               Tzimisce:6
1x Clara Hjortshøj   5 PRO ani aus dom           Tzimisce:6
1x Whisper           5 ANI DOM pro               Tzimisce:6
1x Prentis Derby     4 ani dom pro               Tzimisce:6

Library (81 cards)
==================
Master (22; 7 trifle)
----------------------
1x Anarch Troublemaker
6x British Museum, London, The
1x Carfax Abbey
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Giant's Blood
1x Papillon
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
3x Protean
6x Villein
1x Wider View

Action (9)
-----------
6x Childe of the Revolution
2x Dominate Kine
1x Fee Stake: Corte

Political Action (1)
---------------------
1x Revolutionary Council

Equipment (10)
---------------
2x Heart of Nizchetus
7x Living Manse
1x Ritual Goblet

Action Modifier (2)
--------------------
2x Conditioning

Action Modifier/Reaction (6)
-----------------------------
6x Form of the Bat

Reaction (19)
--------------
6x Bait and Switch
2x Deep Ecology
3x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics
1x On the Qui Vive
2x One With the Land
3x Organized Resistance

Combat (12)
------------
2x Earth Meld
2x Flesh of Marble
4x Form of Mist
4x Sculpt the Flesh

Crypt

Focusing on a Baron-heavy crypt gives access to all of the good Baron tools: Organized Resistance, Bait and Switch, Childe of the Revolution, and Revolutionary Council.  A lot of Tzimisce decks minimize Branimira, sometimes forgoing them completely.  While I favor Ángel Guerrero the most, it's tremendously important to have any Baron in the opening crypt because the deck wants to make babies as soon as it can.

The remainder of the vampires are focused on superior Protean, then superior Dominate.  I actually want to keep the capacity up on the sidekicks so that it is possible to Fee Stake them.  This provides more votes and access to the important Baron cards listed above.

Library

This deck is another toolbox-style, but it has a crazy amount of Master cards give the deck size.  The deck also doesn't have a large payload; there are only 2 Conditioning.  The goal is to survive with Villein and bounce, to create mass with Childe of the Revolution, and to oust via many small bleeds for 1 or 2, if the vampire has a Living Manse.

Dealing with the Master Cards

First, the Protean skill cards should be pulled from the deck when a Childe is played, hand first (unless it's your last action of the turn), then library, then ash heap.  The skill card should be discarded unless there's something that you absolutely cannot play in your hand, like a second British Museum or an already-played Giant's Blood.

Second, the many copies of the British Museum are necessary to obtain the unlocks.  You might notice in the video (below) how effective the deck was at obtaining a Manse, unlocking, and bleeding with it.  The Museum gives +1 hand size to mitigate some of the effects of carrying extras around.  Spare copies should always be discarded.

Third, the Heart of Nizchetus helps ensure that the hand is properly tailored to your needs.  You will bury many copies of the British Museum over the course of the game.

Fourth, there is a large number of trifles in the deck.  Villein anything and everything.  Villein a Childe.  It doesn't matter.  Move the card.

Keeping the Deck Moving

Always make some forward progress.  Even one bleed for 1 each turn from a Childe can help.  Oftentimes that Childe will make it through because it has no Dominate.  However, this is an area where you're playing the player and not necessarily playing the deck.  Some players hate letting any bleeds through, so judge the situation appropriately.  Be more cavalier with your vampires if you're holding some of the combat package trump cards.

Play cards to play them.  The deck wants several Childer and some real vampires.  Ideally, you want to be able to bleed for 2 six times a turn.  On top of the bounce that you have, this is a lot of pressure.  More importantly it's distributed pressure.  It's hard for decks to keep up with the many smaller bleeds.

Surviving

The reaction package in the deck is rather small.  It's design to survive, but offers a lot of variability in such a small package.  Deep Ecology and One with the Land offer unlocks and intercept against D-actions, which can help stop nastiness, especially in the endgame.  The mostly just wants to bounce the big bleeds and Villein your pool back to cover the small ones.

Opportunistic Combat

The decks combat package isn't focused on any particular area.  There's agg-poke, which can be trumpy if used at the right time.  Nothing is more shocking that a Childe with 1 blood, using free agg-poke to dunk an opposing vampire and still be ready at the end of combat.  Form of Mist is, of course, to sink critical actions.  Earth Meld is your get out of jail free card.

The Game

Hugh: Tremere blocker ->
Me: Manses and Babies ->
Steve: Mithras and friends ->
Jan: Ravnos blocker ->
Ginés: Lasombra bleed

V5 Tzimisce are known to be fierce bleeders as Steve is right to mention.  This deck however is much slower than those, different design and different playstyle.  One of the more interesting aspects of this game was my late game turns where I simply gained for the Edge and influenced out more vampires.  Sometimes it's important to downshift and prepare your playspace for future activity.

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