KGS Cards

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...

While this was the first game in the series, we have released the content second because we didn't have our cameras on and everyone wants to see our lovely faces, right?  Game 1 was short-handed, no Gines...and Hugh cheats, but he runs BCP, so he can get away with it. The Deck I've played various versions of weenie Presence over the years.  Group 1/2 has enough Dominate to work in some bounce, which makes that deck more survivable in the current meta.  However, it's always been a deck that dies when outpaced and has zero stealth.  I re-envisioned that archetype for the V5 format using only Toreador.  This approach grants a bleed boost on Aire of Elation and allows the use of the Loup, the new Toreador stealth card.  Unlike many super streamlined versions, this version is more of a toolbox, having options for many situations.  Let's take a look at the deck and we'll talk about some card choices afterwards. Deck Name: Tore...

Black Chantry Productions is introducing a V5 format.  I was kindly asked to join a series of demonstration games, using the V5 card pool.  The goal of these games is to show off V5 as a format the isn't limited in innovation, challenge, or fun, just in card pool.  Part and parcel with the games, I will be discussing and releasing deck lists that I played in them. The Deck I had already experimented with quite a few Hecata decks.  I played a zombie-rush version for Welcome Hecata 2025 , making the final along side another  Hecata zombie rush deck.  I was able to get set up after the other Hecata deck was ousted, but had wasted too much pool by that point.  Steve had seen a few versions of my Hecata decks and after I mentioned having one that was V5-compliant, was basically told to play it. A V5 ally deck is missing events, most importantly The Unmasking.  Let's be honest it's broken, so not having it in V5 is a good thing....

Well, that was a lot of decklists and a lot of minutiae. So, we're going to take a step back and review deck variants from a higher level. Some Basic Tenets for Variants Honestly, most of these apply to building decks from scratch too. 1. Understand what the original deck is doing. It may be obvious, but you can't play the original or hope to create a workable variant without first understanding how the deck works.  How does it intend to oust?  How does it intend to survive being ousted? Breaking down the deck into categories, similar to the way I broke down the variant comparisons will help you gain this understanding if you're struggling to sort it out.  Notice how some decks have polyvalent cards and how those cards end up in different categories.  That provides flexibility at play time. 2. Understand how you want to alter the original deck. There are many possible ways to create deck variants.  Switching groupings, changin...

A while ago, I was honored to participate in a survey of top players by Oriol Pubil ( BcnCrisis ).  He compiled and analyzed the results for his YouTube channel .  The first question that he asked in his survey was "How good is your deck building skill? (1 worst to 10 best)."  I responded with 7.  I honestly feel that there are many better deckbuilders than me.  However, that question got me thinking more about how I improved my deckbuilding skill over the years. The survey hit during the same period as the Week of Nightmares and Origins , so I was contemplating deckbuilding a lot as I saw what folks were playing.  For the Friday night tournament, I played a group 2 Setite (the old school guys will always be Setites to me) Death Star deck.  I won that event.  It was the third time that I've won with a Death Star deck and each with a different clan. That's when I realized one of the ways I got better at deckbui...

Tow variants down and one last one to go. As we've seen previously with the Followers of Set and Daughters of Cacophony versions, adapting the Death Star to a new clan opens up new options. My Original Ravnos Version I never played this original version in a tournament. After a test of two and some more experience with the other designs, I realized that I had taken an incorrect approach. I won't make that many updates in the winning version, but what was I thinking trying to play Durga Syn in this deck? Deck Name: Shilmulo Death Star Author: Karl Schaefer Crypt (13 cards, min=4 max=30 avg=4) ==================================== 1x Durga Syn 9 CHI OBF THA ani aus dom for Ravnos:4 1x Alexis Sorokin 8 CEL CHI OBF PRO for Ravnos:4 1x Tatiana Stepanova, Alastor 7 CHI PRE ani for obf Ravnos:4 1x Vassily Taltos 6 aus cel chi dom for obf Ravnos:4 1x Irena ...

In our last post, we talked about the original Death Star design and I shared some of the criteria that I used when determining what clans might be suitable replacements for Banu Haqim in a Death Star variant. In this segment, we'll discuss my Followers of Set variant. They were the first clan I chose to make a variant with. My Original Follower of Set Version This is the first version that I made.  (Keeping all of my versions of decks finally pays off!)  I was able to reach the finals with it, gathering 2GW 7 VPs along the way.  A poor seating choice and a misplay cut my chances to zero.  Let's take a look at the deck. Deck Name: Death Star (Setite Version) Author: Karl Schaefer Description: Original version. Crypt (13 cards, min=4 max=26 avg=3.77) ======================================= 1x Qufur am-Heru 7 OBF PRE SER cel tha Ministry:2 1x Sarrasine 7 OBF PRE aus nec ser Ministry:2 1x Ezekiel, Lord of Montreal...

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 C...