q Malkavian Dominate
Highlights
This is a brutal stealth & bleed deck using V5 Malkavian q and their newly regained .
The plan is to bleed hard, with stealth. Govern the Unaligned is probably the best available action card in the game. Used at superior after getting the oldest vampire out first, it provides fast and cheap vampires in the early game. Once at least three vampires are out and ready, it can then be used to bleed. modifiers provide the required stealth.
The Master module provides some cycling tools like Dreams of the Sphinx and The Barrens. It also uses a good number of Sudden Reversal, since they amount to a good bleed when they counter a Villein, a Blood Doll or a . Moreover, they can be used to counter other painful Master: permanent intercept locations like KRCG News Radio and Haven Uncovered. One Conceal is included too, since it can be used to destroy either a burdensome location or even an equipment like Bowl of Convergence.
The deck is fragile when it comes down to combat defence: only No Trace can help there, and only a few vampires can play it at superior. To try and compensate for that, , Carlton Van Wyk and Jake Washington are included as dispensable blockers against rushes.
Tweaks and variants
There are a lot of ways to tweak this deck. Seduction is an option that might be worth including, since it's a good block denial card and it does not jam the hand. The balance between stealth, bleed and reactions is a delicate thing you might want to tinker with to adapt to your local meta. A bit more blood generation is another possibility, with Papillon and Asylum Hunting Ground, and maybe a couple of Blood Doll to go with. It would be a bit slower but maybe more resilient depending on the meta.
If you do not have access to him, Gilbert Duane can be replace by the Nosferatu s Nathaniel Bordruff and Cedrick Calhoun.
Fall of London is coming up, and in it two new Malkavian vampires you will probably want to include here: Abraham Mellon and Darius Shirazi. You can read more about those tweaks as well as other variants on the Information Highway article about the V5 Malkavian builds.
What to buy
The bulk of the cards come from V5 Malkavian and two New Blood: Malkavian. Carlton Van Wyk and Sudden Reversal can be found in Pact with Nephandi, although you will need two to get enough Sudden Reversal - maybe just trade or buy the missing two. 25th Anniversary for The Coven and the second Dreams of the Sphinx and, finally, Jake Washington can be found in Parliament of Shadows.