Official VEKN Nosferatu Newsletter for August, 2006.

So as the result of a moderately recent forum discussion on how to go
Anarch effectively, and then how not to get gummed up on the "go
anarch" cards your deck is packed with, all while actually doing
something useful, I put together the following Nosferatu based Anarch
stealth vote deck, which, all things being equal, is fairly effective:

"White Riot"

1x Alonzo Guillen (6) OBF
1x Gerard Rafin (6) OBF
1x Petra (5) OBF
1x Gemini (5) OBF
1x Skidmark (5) OBF
1x Evan Klein (5) OBF
1x Amelia, The Blood Red Tears (5) obf
1x Jeffrey Mullins (4) OBF
1x Roger Farnsworth (4) OBF
1x Clarissa Steinburgen (3) obf
1x Krid (2) obf
1x Denette Stensen (2) obf

6x Blood Doll
6x Galaric's Legacy
2x Secret Library of Alexandria
1x Powerbase: Los Angeles
1x Powerbase: Rome
1x Seattle Committee
1x Archon Investigation
1x Fear of Mekhet

6x Go Anarch
2x Fee Stake: LA
2x Fee Stake: NY
2x Fee Stake: Perth
2x Fee Stake: Seattle
2x Fee Stake: Boston
1x Fee Stake: Perth
8x Anarch Salon
8x Kine Resources Contested
2x Conservative Agitation
8x Rant!
8x Lost in Crowds
6x Swallowed by the Night
6x Spying Mission
4x Gemini's Mirror
4x Quick Exit

The crypt is built with two factors working against each other--the
want to maximize weenie Obfuscate and the need to have reliable access
to vampires of capacity 5+ to become Barons. Luckily, the Nosferatu and
their Anti-Pals provide three 5 caps with OBF and a pair of good 6 caps
with OBF--Alonzo's special ability to toss the Edge to look at
someone's hand is good enough to almost justify using a second Alonzo
in place of Gerry. Then mix in all the rest of the small OBF vampires
available, and then weenies with obf, and a good crypt comes together.
The one weirdo in the crypt is Amelia, a 5 cap with obf instead of a 6
cap with OBF (or a duplicate of, say, Petra). I wanted to avoid
doubling up in the crypt as this deck can get out 6+ vampires in a good
game, I wanted another Nosferatu, and I wanted another Baron-able 5
cap, so Amelia it is. In reality, her special (opposing vampire burns a
life after combat) is kind of more effective defensively than
offensively, as folks don't so much want to get in combat with her
more than anyone else, meaning her lack of OBF for bonus stealth and
available dodges isn't that big of a deal.

In the Master selection, there are 6 Galarick's Legacy and a Seattle
Committee (to combine with the 6 Go Anarchs in the Minion selection for
a total of 13 "become an anarch" cards) provide a good backbone to
get the deck going. 6 Blood Dolls provide some much needs pool income,
which can be very profitable due to the Anarch Salons. The secret key
to the deck comes from the Secret Library of Alexandrias, which let you
cycle cards like crazy when you need to. With so many (necessarily)
redundant cards in the deck (13 become anarch cards, 11 Fee Stakes),
you spend a lot of time with useless cards in your hand, unless you can
flush them actively. Powerbase LA is certainly handy for this, but the
Secret Library lets you cycle multiple cards per minion phase, during
the minion phase, and selectively (i.e. draw a card then discard,
rather than discard and then draw up). As the deck can bleed pretty
reliably (i.e. it has a lot of stealth), once the Library is in play,
you can cycle very effectively. To the point that this deck runs out of
cards in almost every game it does well in. The remaining Master cards
are sort of fringe support; Powerbase Rome for back up vote power (here
is hoping for an anarch based "Tap for +2 votes" Master card in the
future!); Archon Investigation for back of bleed "defense"; Fear of
Mekhet to hopefully gain a leg up when facing Justicar/IC vote
opposition.

In the Minion selection, as mentioned above, there are 6 Go Anarch
cards which, when combined with the Galarick's Legacy and Seattle
Committee means that most of the time you can become an anarch reliably
and quickly. 11 Barons have the same effect--you often can become an
Anarch and gain a Barony with the first 5 cap you get into play, and
start rolling from there. That there are doubles of all but one of the
Fee Stakes is less of a problem than one would think, as occasionally,
the table will decide to make you suck it, and vote away your Baronies.
Not that big of a deal if you can just become King of New York again on
your next turn. Yeah, it wastes a few actions here and there, but
really, better than getting shut down. For Political Actions, there is
the offense section of 8 KRC and 2 Conservative Agitation (you might
draw one early in a 5 player game which is solid, and also helps in the
face of Delaying Tactics) and the defense section of 8 Anarch Salons.
The offense is pretty self explanatory--oust your prey. The Anarch
Salons are very solid pool gain cards that quickly refill your Blood
Dolls, get you some pool outright, and can help you win friends and
influence people cross table by reminding them that they can go anarch
the hard way and reap the rewards of your Salons. To help pass votes,
there are the generally less effective than Bewitching Oration, yet
still handy Rants! which can get you 4 or 5 votes in a pinch if
necessary, and the blood cost is minimized by the Anarch Salons. Once
and a while, the Rants! will get someone punched in the face (i.e. if
the vote fails, the acting minion takes some damage), but usually, it
just helps the deck work better. The Obfuscate selection is pretty
generic, with some Lost in Crowds (efficient stealth), Swallowed by the
Night (back up maneuver defense), Spying Mission (back up bleed
offense), and some dodges (Quick Exit's press to end and free dodge
is very useful in a deck that has a lot of OBF and wants to avoid
getting hit in the face too much).

Overall, a pretty quick little deck that can oust with surprising
efficiency when it isn't facing a lot of vote opposition, and when it
is facing a lot of vote opposition, it can usually put up a good fight,
sometimes ending up ousting folks simply 'cause it is a deck with a
lot of little vampires with Obfuscate. It'll get whacked pretty well
by persistent Rush, but it tends to do just fine in the face of
opportunistic combat.