Archetype Categories

V:tES has been played for years, and this has given birth to a number of efficient decks archetypes. Given the multiplayer nature of the game, many archetypes are valid choices at the highest level, as the efficiency of a deck depends a lot on its table placement and on the negociations skills of the player. Even on the modern tournament scene, dozens of different archetypes are usually played in a single event.

As such, having a basic understanding of the most common archetypes and their strong and weak points is a very important skill for a player. Knowing the inner workings of the archetypes on the table is the only way to fathom the table balance and detect the opportunities as they arise during the game.

The archetypes are usually divided into broader categories, as presented here.

Bleed

Bleed decks are focused on prey aggression and use bleed actions to inflict heavy pool damages. d is without question the most damage-heavy bleed discipline, plus it does come with bounce cards. r and e are good second choices.

Stealth & Bleed and Powerbleed

There are two ways to get bleeds through: using stealth is the most obvious one. o is the best stealth discipline, but it does not often come along with d. $ and j come second.

The other way to get bleeds through is to make sure the prey has no minion available to block the action. Along its strong bleed capabilities, d offers the excellent Seduction. O Elder Impersonation, N Call of the Hungry Dead, f Daring the Dawn, c Forced Confessional, and r Mind Numb are also effective tools. Combining these options with the few Master cards that can prevent block or lock minions — Pentex™ Subversion, Misdirection and Anarch Troublemaker — makes stealth and intercept irrelevant.

Flavours

• Lasombra w and Kiasyd S have a strong combination with d for bleed and $ for stealth. Check the Kiasyd Stealth & Bleed and Lasombra Nocturn archetypes.
• The Malkavian q can use e, alone or alongside o, for devastating bleeds, like in the Dementation Bleed archetype. In other groups (1 and 6+), they can also combine the best stealth with o to the strongest bleed with d, as in the and archetypes.
• The new Ministry r, with the ojr combination, have excellent stealth combined with a very solid bleed module in r, and have access to the excellent Platinum Protocol, which gives the the eponymous Platinum Revelation archetype.
• Similarily, V5 Ravnos x, with the or combination, have excellent stealth combined with a very solid bleed module in r, and have access to both Break the Bonds and Visions of Gehenna, which gives the Ravnos Break archetype.
• Assamite D also have a nice combination with q and o, as in the Black Hand archetype.
• d also works well in weenie archetypes, like Weenie DOM and Bima Dominate.
• Using J for stealth gave birth to powerful bleed deck, as in the Stanislava archetype and its variants.
• Toreador t with R and Ventrue v with DR can produce strong powerbleed decks like The Bleeding Vignes or Rebekka / Jost.
• Inner Circles also deliver a very strong bleed as they have a +2 bleed ability. The Mistress archetype is a good example.
• Using J to bleed multiple times during the opponents turns with Homunculus is also powerful: The unnamed and Rachel Madness are built around this idea.

Highlights

Bleed decks have the highest prey damage. They tend to oust their first prey quite often, but it also attracts the table attention on them and one oust is not enough for a game win. They are usually weak in combat. They tend to rely on « combat ends » effects, but some flavours can have aggravated damage or torpor strikes as a threat.

As they are focused on their prey, bleed decks have a weak defence against their predator and do not try to intercept actions. They usually use d or A for bounces or strong bloat modules to survive.

Vote

Vote decks usually have a strong pool damage module to deliver to their prey. The difficulty to gather enough votes to get the referendums through is balanced by the constant +1 stealth bonus of vote actions. There are basically two ways of building a vote deck: either breed and find a way to give votes to all your vampires, or use older vampires with titles themselves.

Flavours

• Inner Circle can be used in strong vote decks, as in The Dark Side of Politics and Lutz Politics.
• Baali E Arishat, thanks to her powerful ability, gave birth to multiple strong political archetypes like Infernal Princes and Infernal Barons.
• Camarilla Princes also often use votes, like in the Nosferatu Royalty archetype.
• Non Camarilla vampires can also build good titled crypts, especially Ishtarri R with Ishtarri Politics and Daughters of Cacophony J with Scout and Daughters Politics.
• Baali E offer a nice political angle with The Dark Side of Politics.
• Banu Haqim n have good options, like in the Amaravati Politics or the Death Star archetypes, but also new possibilities with their Camarilla titles, like the Banu Politics archetype.
• Ravnos x have a unique breed archetype: the Ravnos Clown Car.

Highlights

Votes decks deliver high pool damage once they get the vote lock. They also have a good bloat, using Consanguineous Boon, Parity Shift, Ancient Influence or Political Stranglehold depending on the build. Depending on the exact build, stealth vary, but they are not easily blocked. Builds that do not have high stealth levels rely on a swarm of minions that make it hard to block them all. Finally, vote decks have a very weak combat module and — especially the swarm builds — a weak bleed defence, relying exclusively on bounces, if at all.

Wall

Wall decks maximise their defence, trying to block their prey and predator actions alike while slowly building up bloat and pool damages. The ability to intercept and wake are tantamount in these decks, so a and i are the most common options here. a gives more options and a higher intercept all in all, with the excellent Eyes of Argus atop. It is also the only discipline besides d that provides bleed bounce reaction cards. i also has good intercept cards though, and better combat options than a: it can be used with no additional equipment or discipline. Anarch, Sabbat, Camarilla and Laibon titled vampires each have access to excellent intercept cards: Organized Resistance, Eternal Vigilance, Under Siege, Second Tradition: Domain and No Secrets From the Magaji.

Flavours

• A is the best intercept discipline, and the Weenie AUS wall is an obvious idea.
• The Tzimisce Wall is also a very classic archetype, as the combination of iv offers even better intercept capabilities.
• Tremere u in general, but Goratrix in particular offer excellent wall capabilities in the Goratrix High Tower archetype.
• The Cats archetype uses Ahrimanes B and their ZI disciplines combination.
• Saulot has a nice discipline combination with ATF and +1 bleed. The Saulot Wall archetype is built around him.
• The Anarch Gangrel p and their Barons recently gave birth to the wall. The Organized Resistance and Bait and Switch combination looks good on them, especially with Form of the Bat, Deep Ecology and Earth Meld added to the mix.

Highlights

Wall decks obviously have an exceptional defence. Moreover, having high block capabilities let them play fragile master cards that need protection to be efficient like Smiling Jack, the Anarch, The Rack, Powerbase: Montreal, Powerbase: Barranquilla (Sabbat) and Anarch Revolt (Anarchs), helping both with bloat and offence. Still, wall decks tend to have a weak offence, dealing only a moderate amount of damage to their prey. They're very good at exhausting other decks around the table though, and will eventually win a game if no other player can get enough Victory Points first.

Toolbox

Toolbox decks balance their offence and defence capabilities. They have good intercept, a decent combat module and efficient pool damage options to use on their prey, sometimes even some votes they can try to pass or a bit of stealth. The key to this archetype is to use versatile cards offering multiple play options.

Flavours

• Using Camarilla Princes and Justicars with their access to Second Tradition: Domain and Parity Shift led to good toolboxes like the Anson Guns, Euro Brujah, Gentlemen With Sticks and Haqim Royalty archetypes.
• Anarch Brujah o, supported by their Barons, are often built as toolboxes, see Brujah Resistance.
• Ventrue Antitribu m provide excellent toolboxes with the Anti Ventrue Grinder archetype and its variants.
• Tremere u have a good disciplines combination for a toolbox too, as proves the Princess Toolbox archetype.

Highlights

Versatility is obviously the best asset of a toolbox deck. It can handle and exploit any table configuration. To make the most out of toolbox decks, one has to display excellent table awareness and negotiation abilities. For the toolbox to have a proper effect around the table and display all its efficiency, one needs to play their hand, whatever is in it. The deck chooses the strategy as much as the Methusalah. The player still chooses on which target to use its cards, but the cards in hand demand to be played for the deck to shine.

Finally, toolbox decks have strong defence, although not as strong as wall decks. They tend to have good intercept options and/or rush capabilities to handle their predator. Having much less offensive options than a vote or bleed deck, they cannot rely on pure speed to best their predator: they have to deter its actions actively using blocks, bounces or combats depending on the build.

Rush

Rush decks use combat as their main weapon. Many disciplines have good combat options and they are also good combat cards with no discipline. Getting vampires down around the table is fun, but does not help so much to get the prey's pool down. To this effect, a handful of cards can help, namely Fame, Dragonbound and Tension in the Ranks.

Flavours

• The Tupdogs & Nephandus archetype is a classic, using a dozen Tupdog along a Tremere Antitribu.
• Allies with a rush ability are also good, like in the War Ghouls and archetypes.
• Guruhi P provide a strong rush build too with their PI disciplines combination, like in the Guruhi Rush and Nananimalism archetypes.

Highlights

The ability to take down any minion provide these decks with a strong defence against their predator. Depending on the predator archetype, going against its minions first is a common strategy for a rush deck: it may take some combats to get them down, but they can disable their predator very fast. On the other hand, they have a weak offence and have trouble finding a way to deliver pool damage to their prey. This is the core issue of the archetype.

Combo

Some decks do not fit into any of the aforementioned categories. These rare constructs are unique combinations of cards that proved unexpectedly efficient. The following examples are not exhaustive.

Flavours

• Some archetypes focus on stealing the vampires of their opponents, like Mind Rape, Spirit Marionette, Chameleon and Baltimore Purge.
• The Cybelotron is an archetype created by Erik Torstensson in 2007 and refined by Ben Peal. It uses a complicated combination to play Call the Great Beast efficiently.
• The Madness Reversal is an archetype created by Orian Gissler in 2009 and refined by Danilo Torrisi in 2017. It uses Reversal of Fortunes to play twice as much as its opponents.

Highlights

Combo decks use complicated card combinations to a devastative effect. Their strength is in the absolute advantage their combination provides if all goes well. Their weakness is the frailty of such a combination. Blocking the right action or countering the right Master can often stop them dead in their tracks. Moreover, known combinations tend to attract the attention of all players, often leading the Methusalah to lose all its allies very early in the game.