What's happening, Metuselahs?
I've been thinking a while about the decks I build and the decks I have plans to complete, changes to them, etc, and it's very common to see players lowering the efectiveness of a deck but using the vampires they like, or focusing on a strategy they just love.
Some months ago, I had a Tremere deck, the typical, proved effective, blocker, Carna as a leader, other tremeres, govern, conditioning, chantry, etc and it just worked nice. Same the case of Anarch Fatima multirushing asses, but then I started to like vampires like Valerius or Malgorzata, and the deck was quite less effective (well, less Valeriu than Malgie) but the idea of getting back to the other deck is always discarded. I've also dropped Fatima to a Janni AK deck, which I find funnier to play but its huge less effective deck, but.... it's what we like!
In the international chat, in one of the talks, a user was thinking about a Lucubratio+weenies AUS+Anima Gatherings, and I enjoyed to read new ideas to me, and think how can you make a vampire that you hardly see a useful tool to get vps.
In the last tournament I assisted, saw some tier decks of many clans, and an Elimelech Rush deck that even the owned admitted it was something weird, but he came with it, to play against those decks with well-known-effective strategies. Awesome :D
Most of this times, when we get obsessed with a vampire, we build a deck around him and the deck also weakens (star vampire down? game gets harder..)
In conclusion, I like to see when we try to manage the most potential of some vampires we like, or cards that can be of some use, and maybe, someday, a new tier deck can be born from the mindfuck of someone creative :)
Of course, if you want to rank, and it's your primary objective, the easiest way is to use a tier deck, and to be an excellent player....
Still, I like to improve with the decks I play, even tho I own a tier deck that I use sometimes.
Do you play your creations, or are you always getting inspired in TWD?
Malkav gave us the way, minfuck, Metuselahs ;)
What constitutes a "Tier 1" deck is pretty subjective and metagame dependent. If you play around a lot of weenie potence, Malk 94 and Kindred Spirits bleed, two of the strongest archetypes out there, will have serious problems. What is commonly called "Tier 2" is "sub-optimal." Tier 3 and down is not competitive, but may occasionally win.
ReplyDeleteDoing some alterations to existing deck archetypes, !Trem/trem intercept combat for example, can hurt you in some situations and help you in others. "Toolboxing" a deck usually involves trying to compensate for a deck's typical weaknesses or adjusting to the metagame. With the Trem toolbox you mentioned, Mal's special is great if you can get away with bringing out big vampires. Toolboxing can take some steam out of a deck, or it can save you depending.
In the Las Vegas North American Qualifier, I included two toolboxy cards that helped me quite a bit. Skin of Night saved me from Ash's agg and Slaughtering the Herd helped me get past an ally and burn my famed vampire in combination with Daring the dawn. There are many situations where I'd be better with something else, but the calculated risk paid off.
At my point of view, meta determines which of the well-known effective decks are the tier 1. Of course, every deck has its achiles heel, and has its modifications to trying to overcome it.
ReplyDeleteWhich archetypes are Tier 2? It only comes to mind the toolbox with Carna and stuff like that.
And sometimes we are tempted to change the archetype not only for toolboxing him a bit, but to remain unconditional to an idea/vampire you just like to play (until you realise that some times you remain Tier3)
Thanks for reading, Brandonsantacruz :)
On this weekend I will play one of my favourite vampires. The deck is really not a tournament deck, but is really fun to play. Check HUN FRAGMENT next week for the tournament report.
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