Deck building

Over time, a handful of excellent ressources have been created on the subject by the community:

• Basic Concepts in Deck Construction by Gregory Williams
• Strategy Guide For N00bs: Deckbuilding 101 by Kevin Scribner
• Deckbuilding Theory by Bram Vink
• Lyrics of the Night: Building a Deck by Singing VTES
•  Finnish Politics: A guide to Deck Construction in VTES by Otso Saariluoma

Modules and density

Decks can be broken down in « modules »: group of cards with a similar objective. The percentage of cards each module contains is its density. As the normal hand size is seven, the expectation (ie. the number of cards of the module you can expect in any given hand) is the density time seven.

Spam modules have a density over 25% entail an expectation over 1.75: more often than not, two cards of the module in hand. This is a rare distribution, but necessary to continuously play a given card multiple times every turn.

Strong modules have a density between 14% and 25% and an expectation between 1 and 1.5: these cards will be used once or twice at each turn. Most decks have one or multiple strong modules, and their strategy can often be identified by checking them.

Standard modules have a density between 7% and 14% have an expectation between ½ and 1. They are supposed to be used regularly but not necessarily every turn. Strong and standard modules cards can be discarded when needed, as one can be confident to get another in hand quite soon.

Tactical modules have a density below 7% and typically provide specific support. From unique permanents and events to counters or responses to expected counters, they provide build-up power and security. As these cards are drawn sporadically, they are meant to be kept in hand for special cases or immediately discarded if the context is not favourable. In case they might come in handy, they should be kept in hand until needed: the sparse distribution of the module makes sure the cards will not jam the hand.

Rotation

Games usually last between 10 to 20 turns and decks are tailored with the peak card rotation speed in mind: the number of cards played on average between one unlock phase and the next, not counting the few first turns of build-up. The deck size should enable a peak rotation during 12 turns. The efficiency of a deck depends on its capacity to maintain an optimal rotation speed throughout the game: being stuck with no relevant card to play is a loosing situation.

Cycling cards and purposefully increasing the rotation to get more efficient cards is sometimes the only way to keep the rotation fluid. Multiple cards are available to provide good cycling options:

• Dreams of the Sphinx
• The Barrens
• Heart of Nizchetus
• Fragment of the Book of Nod (needs to be defended)
• Powerbase: Los Angeles (needs to be defended, best with Anarchs)
• The Admonitions (Sabbat only, best with Black Hand)

A card that is hard to play can jam the hand. Action modifiers, especially restricted stealth cards like Forgotten Labyrinth, can only be used when the opponent tries to block, so they can jam. On the other hand, action cards like Computer Hacking do not usually jam the hand as they can be played as soon as a minion is unlocked and ready to act. A tactical module for card rotation can be played in situations when jamming is expected.

Building a deck in practice

1. Theme

The first step to build a deck is to choose a theme, a core principle to build upon. Multiple possibilities here:

• Clan: the most common theme, just choose a clan.
• Discipline(s): choose one or more disciplines you want to play.
• Star: choose a star vampire with powerful disciplines or abilities.
• Cards combination: choose a combination of two to four cards you want to play together.

2. Four strategic pillars

The second step, before adding more cards to the deck, is to define the four pillars of the deck strategy:

• Payload: how the deck delivers pool damage to its prey. Does it bleed? Use politics? Some other pool damage device like Anarch Revolt or Dragonbound?
• Delivery system: how the deck makes sure the payload is delivered. If it bleeds, does it use stealth, block denial or an overwhelming number of actions? If it uses political actions, does it use stealth to get them through? How does it get enough votes? If it uses specific pool damage cards, do they need protection or support to apply their effect?
• Defense: how the deck avoids to lose. Bloating is the most generic defense: gaining pool works against all offensive strategies. Most decks use a modicum of bloat, some rely on a heavy bloat as their sole defense. Blocking is the second most generic defense: most offensive strategies use actions. More focused defensive tools are often used against the most widespread offensive strategies: Bounces or reduction against bleed, Delaying Tactics and Poison Pill against politics.
• Combat Management: how the deck deals with minion combats. It is essential to choose a clear combat posture, and the correct one depends on the previous pillars. If it delivers with stealth and defends without blocking, resisting will be easier. If it plans to block, it can either resist or grind. Disabling is usually both a defense and a delivery system.

3. Cards

Now select the crypt and library cards to put in the deck. The minions you select will define the range of disciplines you can use and, symmetrically, the library cards you choose and their requirements will define what minions you want in your crypt.

During this card selection process, only add one copy of each card you want to play. Check the best cards and the deck archive for ideas. If you find tournament winning examples close to your deck list, they may give you ideas about what to include.

At the end you should have 4 to 12 crypt cards and 20 to 40 library cards. If you have more, it is time to sit back and ponder what is really useful and what should be cut. Consider your four strategic pillars to help you decide: payload is more important than delivery, itself more important than defense, and combat management comes last.

Note at this point you are working in single copies. This means that if you are building a rush combat deck, you should consider removing combat cards before removing a payload card like Fame. When adjusting the number of copies on the other hand, no pillar has priority and you may choose to use dozens of copies of the combat cards you kept in the selection and a single Fame.

4. Card flow

Once the skeleton is ready, you can adjust the card flow. First adjust the crypt: use 4 (or more) copies for a star, 3 copies for an especially good minion if he is not mandatory for your play, 2 copies for an efficient one and 1 copy for support minions.

Then try to get an idea of the rotation speed: what would a normal turn be in the mid-game (including reactions)? How many minions are acting and reacting and how many cards are used? This will give you the target library size as well as the number of cards you need in each of your modules.

Finally, define modules and their density and adapt the number of copies in each of them to match the desired density, working module by module. Adjusting the master module first may be easier, as the number or cards only depends on the number of master actions you expect to get. For the rest of the deck though, there is no predefined pattern: no strategic pillar has the priority in terms of density. A Stealth & Bleed can typically have two strong module for bleed and stealth, two standard modules for bounce and combat defense, and a tactical module against politics. A Wall deck, on the other hand, can have a spam module for wake & intercept, a standard module for bloat and only a tactical module for the payload.

This little calculator may help you figure out the number of copies you want to include for each card:

The probability to get a specific card is computed as the cumulated probability (sum) of having 1, 2, ..., n copies of the card.
The formula used is \(\sum_{i=1}^{\min\left(d,c\right)}\ \frac{\binom{c}{i}\binom{s-c}{d-i}}{\binom{s}{d}}\), with s: stack, d: draws and c: copies and \(\binom{n}{k}\) the binomial coefficients.
To second computation just computes the preceding probability for consecutive values of c.

5. Test and refine

Once the first version of the deck list is ready, it should be tested to check if it behaves as expected. Just doing a dozen play simulations alone, playing out the first 3 to 5 turns with no opponents, can help you adapt the card flow a bit. If you have some time at hand, you can use the play test system devised by Paul Johnson to test your deck more thoroughly.

In the end, only real games can help refine a deck. Actual play get you accustomed to a deck strengths and weaknesses. It helps to note the cards cycled or discarded during a game, as well as those used to oust the prey: cards that you repetitively do not use, or payload cards that do not help you oust your prey, are cards you should consider removing.