w Parliament of Shadows
Highlights
This is a vote & bleed deck relying on the Lasombra w clan and their titled Sabbat vampires. The archetype nowadays takes its name from the Parliament of Shadows distributed by BCP, based on this idea.
As usual with decks, the plan is to get the highest capacity vampire out first, so that he can use Govern the Unaligned at superior to get more vampires out fast and cheap. Relying on big capacity vampires in his crypt, the deck also uses the classic Zillah's Valley & Villein combination to influence faster in the beginning.
Given the number of big capacity vampires, the deck naturally includes all three "big capacity" votes: Ancient Influence, Reins of Power and Political Stranglehold. It also tends to include multiple Banishment and quite a few votes devestating to swarms like Anarchist Uprising and Domain Challenge.
On the bleed side, brings its usual package with Govern the Unaligned but also Foreshadowing Destruction and Seduction. Stealth is provided by and its numerous modifiers, but also by Montano's ability.
There is a bit of bleed defense with Deflection, and combat defence is assured by both combat ends with Shadow Body and the excellent Obedience, a sure way of getting out of trouble, provided it can be played.
Given the crypt here, the deck has unusual access to both and , which allows for the inclusion of Freak Drive for multi-action (vote and bleed in the same turn with a single vampire) and Voter Captivation to help regenerate blood when a vote goes well.
Tips & Tricks
The deck does not include any wake, so it is important to keep an eye out for threats and keep a vampire unlocked if necessary: Obedience and Deflection can only be played by unlocked vampires. In case those reactions are in hand and could come in handy, playing it slow and keep a non-acting vampire for defence is the way to go here. Luckily, between Freak Drive and Monçada's ability, this should not be too much of a burden.
The deck is well equipped for crypt acceleration: between Zillah's Valley, Information Highway and Dreams of the Sphinx, it has 9 cards that will gain a turn of influence to get Montano out (or the other oldest vampire) if drawn in first hand, which has a 64% chance of occurence: this is probably the minimal advisable density here so it should be kept in mind when tweaking the deck: if the library cards count get up, a couple of Zillah's Valley should be added to keep the proportions. Likewise, if removing one or the other of these three cards, the other two should be augmented accordingly.
Variants
There is a lot of space for tweaks and variations here: the Master module can help getting the vote lock in multiple ways, with Power Structure, Powerbase: Madrid and Día de los Muertos for example, but also Fear of Mekhet against Inner Circle decks if you expect some. Monastery of Shadows is a common inclusion, as well as Mylan Horseed. Include a couple On the Qui Vive or Nocturn is also usual, and the combat module, given the access to and the nice tricks has to offer can often pack a couple of surprises like Entombment, Slam or Disarm just to get the opponents to hesitate before entering combat.
The Vitel variant uses Marcus Vitel as a star, his Prince title allowing for the inclusion of Parity Shift, like in Tuomas Nyberg's deck from 2019. It also tends to have more stable access to , so a few vote modifiers like Bewitching Oration are a good inclusion.
The Beast variant packs a bit more combat and intercept to transform this deck in a toolbox of sorts. In a light combat environment, he can have devastating effects, and the few cards that are included serve as a useful deterrent against combat for the titled vampires, who all have access to the discipline. Petrus Makkonen's deck from 2017 is a good example.
Finally, the G5 approach relies on the new vampires published in the Parliament of Shadows to build a diffferent crypt with groups 5 and 6, like in Tuomas Nyberg's deck from 2019.