Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (
More info?)
On 28 Mar 2005 19:59:49 -0800, "Preston" <prestonpoulter@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>Here are the decks I use right now and the pool gain tactics:
>Weenie Dominate: It uses no pool gain tactics, it just attacks
>Venture Arika Vote & Bloat: Uses Minion Taps and Voter Cap, and votes
>for huge gains
>Gangrel Dominate w/Stanistlava: Uses Minion Taps into Golcondas
>Nosferatu Titled Combat: Uses Con Boons and Anathemas
>
>None of these decks use a single blood doll but most have mutliple
>copies of wake. I have to rate wake as much more powerful than BD. Now
>I do have decks with BD in them, but the strange thing is that those
>are decks that don't perform as strongly as those I've listed above.
>It's a card I tend to use when I lack a better pool management vehicle.
I guess it depends largely on playstyle.
I wouldn't say "lack of a *better* pool management vehicle", but lack
of steady source of big amounts of incoming pool. All decks you've
mentioned could potentially live out of Blood Dolls for good reasons,
but they seem to be very aggressive decks.
It also depends on the metagame. In here I wouldn't dare to play only
decks based on votes to gain pool (be it Con Boon or Minion
Tap/Voter). These are high profile, meaning they depend largely in
being able to call and pass votes, which is not guaranteed in a
metagame where you often see efficient rush and intercept decks. If
your big cap bites the dust early or you can't achieve vote lock, you
won't gain pool. Put a Blood Doll in a weenie or midcapt crypt-filler
and you at least can generate some steady incoming pool.
At the moment, I have decks with Dolls, one with Dolls and Tribute to
the Master, and one with Minion Tap/Voter Cap only. All poolgain
choices were made based on how the deck is supposed to go. I can say
for sure that the Minion Tap/Voter Cap one is the most threatening and
tends to attract the harshest response from other players - and the
main votes are Hierophant and Free States Rant, not Kines, Parity
Shifts etc.
>Which is to suggests to me that a stronger deck should have better pool
>management than to rely on BD.
I don't think the Tournament Winning Deck archive supports this, but
I'm too busy now to check. Anyone?
I fail to see why "stronger" decks *should* have "better" pool
management. "Better" pool management means more setup - be emptying
(an therefore burning) an Anathema, using Minion Taps and passing
votes etc. More setup doesn't necesseraly means better decks.
So I think you're overrating other poolgain strategies as much as some
overrate Blood Dolls.
To me, its what you throw in when you
>don't have anything better, and that suggests a mediocre card to me-
>not one that needs fixing.
Again, I see this as a matter of playstyle. Blood Doll is certainly
not attractive when one's used to aggressive play - it requires
patience and caution to pay off. It's also non-threatening - if I see
a cross-table player with a vote deck playing Minion Tap/Voter Cap for
the second time and I'm with a rush deck, I'll go rush him instead of
my prey. Vote decks with too much pool means more voters, more pool in
the long rung, more minions to bleed, more everything. If no one has
reliable intercept, it means a sure GW. So he must be contained.
Blood Dolls don't attract that sort of attention, and bring you pool
to keep you alive the same, as long as you play the attrition game.
That's why people use them that often.
best,
Fabio "Sooner" Macedo
V:TES National Coordinator for Brazil
Giovanni Newsletter Editor
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