p Stanislava
Highlights
This is a vote & bleed deck using Stanislava and fellow Gangrel p royalty.
The preconstructed decklist is already a top tier tournament archetype, only you might want to remove Fear of Mekhet, a good counter to this deck that has nothing to do in it: it was a decklist printing error. You can check the tournament archetype page for additional insights.
This is a Bleed & Vote deck. The plan is to get Stanislava out first, use Govern the Unaligned to bring a Prince or Justicar out faster and cheaper. Villein and Parity Shift are used to get some pool back, then it's all about using stealth to bleed and vote, while using to bounce bleeds away with Deflection and Murmur of the False Will.
A lot of cards in the decks are very versatile. Form of Mist and Rapid Change can be used as stealth devices or combat defense, Murmur of the False Will as bleed boost or bleed defense, Forced March and Instantaneous Transformation for more actions or additional stealth. This opens up a lot of options during the game: how one decides to play the cards has a huge impact on the result.
Tweaks and variants
Although the decklist is already powerful, it still leaves a lot of room for tweaking it to your own style and local meta. Minor tweaks are common, like removing the nerfed Pentex™ Subversion and a few Parity Shift, adding one or two Zillah's Valley and a Scourge of the Enochians, using a fifth Stanislava for a higher draw chance, doubling Ennoia's Theater and Dreams of the Sphinx, reducing the number of Earth Meld, adding a Banishment or two and removing Permanent Vacation. All these changes are judgment calls and depend on your meta.
One of the possible variants includes a number of changes: remove the Zillah's Valley to avoid jamming the hand and change the crypt a bit. Hartmut Stover can be removed to include more Gangrel. Ingrid Rossler in particular can be included in 4 copies with the idea of getting her out first. Ennoia's Theater and Dreams of the Sphinx can both be doubled for a better chance to get her out in two turns. This gives access to her ability sooner, alleviates the absence of Zillah's Valley and can even let you remove a few Govern the Unaligned. On the other hand if you remove Hartmut Stover and don't put enough Xaviar, you're left with no decent sidekick for Enkil Cog: better remove it, it's a dangerous modifier to put on Stanislava because it leaves her open to an Archon Investigation.
Another completely different idea, if you have access to legacy cards, is to include Alastor and Assault Rifle and double the number of Xaviar. Both Stanislava and Xaviar should be able to rush and vote in the same turn, a powerful combination. Anathema can even be added to the mix, as in Desso Alastor's deck from 2021.
What to buy
This is a 25th Anniversary deck straight out of the box. A second one is useful for a few tweaks.