Lasombra Standard Deck
"Victory through better beatings and bleeding"

Masters = 16 cards
2 x Minion Tap  
1 x Tribute to the Master       
4 x Blood Doll          
1 x Political Hunting Ground    
1 x Elysian Fields      
4 x Obtenebration       
3 x Potence

Action Cards = 8 cards
6 x Bum's Rush  
2 x Ambush

Reaction Cards = 8 cards
4 x Wake with Evening's Freshness
4 x Forced Awakening

Potence Skill Cards = 28 cards
8 x Immortal Grapple
8 x Torn Signpost
3 x Pushing the Limit
3 x Undead Strength
4 x Increased Strength
2 x Sacrament of Carnage

Domination Skill Cards = 16 cards
3 x Govern the Unaligned
5 x Scouting Mission
2 x Threats
2 x Bonding
4 x Conditioning

Obtenebration Skill Cards = 16 cards
7 x Eyes of the Night
7 x Shadow Play
2 x Arms of the Abyss

Total Cards = 90

Vampires
1 x Alvaro - 9 - dom OBT POT pre - Archbishop of Pittsburgh: If Alvaro
abstains during a political action, he gains 2 blood at the end of that
action. +1 bleed.  (Lasombra)
1 x Antonio Delgado     - 9 - DOM OBT POT thu - Archbishop of Atlanta: If
Antonio performs a successful political action, untap him at the end of the
turn.  (Lasombra)
2 x Gratiano -  8 - DOM obf OBT pot - Priscus: Gratiano gets one
additional
vote during the Prisci vote. +1 bleed.  (Lasombra)
2 x Aurora Van Brande - 6 - dom for OBT pot - Aurora may inflict 1R damage
as a strike.  (Lasombra)
3 x Ignacio - 4 - dom obt pot - (Lasombra)
1 x Sela - 6 - cel obt POT PRE - Bishop: If Sela becomes an Archbishop, each
ready Bishop controlled by your prey burns 1 blood. +1 bleed.  (Brujah
Antitribu)
1 x Quentin - 9 - AUS cel DOM FOR obt - Bishop: Once during each political
action, Quentin may burn 1 blood to cancel the votes of any vampire.
(Ventrue Antitribu)
1 x Gerard - 5 - aus dom for obt - (Ventrue Antitribu)


(Offensive/Defensive Combat, Heavy Bleed, Minimal Stealth Deck)
The deck works very well for not having any deflections or large amounts of
stealth.  It follows the same philosophy as the Brujah, "Who wants to
rumble?"  Intimidation is a wonderful thing.  The deck works by carefully
balancing predator threat to fast prey removal, plus whatever happens to be
in your hand at the time.  The Rushes and Ambushes are primarily there for
the predator (keep him/her just stable enough to play defense) and other
annoying minions on the table that seem to have it in for you.  The bleeds
can come through with little or no stealth once players realize you can
usually whip out 5 to 8 points of combat damage with one shot. Combos of
Torn Signpost, Increased Strength (optional), Immortal Grapple  and Undead
Strength or Pushing the Limit.  When Immortal Grapple carried over to the
second round of only hand strikes the damage potential was doubled and
usually placed the opposing vampire into torpor.  Intercept seems to come
out of the woodwork with the Eyes of the Night, and usually catches people
off guard as it also provides a nice maneuver or press at superior with no
blood cost.  I usually use the maneuver to offset any maneuver the other
Methuselah would use and lock down an Immortal Grapple combo to dish out the
punishment.  The deck can go toe to toe with the Nosferatu and sometimes
with the Brujah.  When faced with the Gangrel try using the maneuver to go
long and hit with Sacrament of Carnage augmented by Increased Strength (5
point strike at superior).  I thought about using the Thrown Sewer Lid
instead of Sacrament of Carnage but wanted the flexibility of being able to
strike at either long or short based upon the demands of the situation.  I
have put some thought on inserting Fire Dance to try and offset the Gangrel
aggravated hand damage potential, but haven't playtested it yet.  All in
all, the deck had a good win rate provided I didn't have  Rob behind me with
his deck, which is listed below.  At that rate, I only had one recourse and
that was to leave my prey alone and go purely defensive.  If I didn't the
table was Rob's every time.  Major weakness to the deck is lack of real
blood recycling capability.  To make up for this flaw, I usually used the
"Govern the Unaligned" to place blood on a minion in the inactive region and
reverse influence the blood back.  Despite this flaw, the deck is a blast to
play.  The predominate vampires for this deck are Gratiano, Alvaro, Aurora
Van Brande and Ignacio.  The vampires that I love to have out are Gratiano
or Alvaro, Aurora and Ignacio.  If I can get both Gratiano and Alvaro it
isn't until somewhere in the middle of the game, but when it happens...
Look Out!  :-)  Augment minion capabilities with the Discipline Masters and
have at it.  Sela makes a great complement to any of the above vampires even
without Dominate.  The +1 Bleed makes her a sweet tooth as she is able to
dish it out with great abandon in combat.  After all, is it worth having a
minion pounded to mush just for 2 blood?