So I was kinda tired of playing my old effective Brujah pot/cel rush
deck, so I turned it into this one for the novelty value of using those
cool Brujah princes and justicars and such.  Unfortunately when I played
it for the first time last night I was unceremoniously defeated by hand-
jam, unfortunate vampire draw, and THE CONSPIRACY OF MY PREDATOR AND
PREY TO REMOVE ME FROM THE GAME!  Ahem.  Sorry about that. ;-)

It went like this:  My initial vamp draw was Dr. Dre, Jacob Bragggg,
Jimmy Dunn, and Gwendolyn.  I went second.  So I put one on each of
Dre and Bragg; my second turn I brought them both out; my third turn
I brought Dunn out.  My fourth turn, I paid one to look at another
vamp, knowing that Gwendolyn, while loaded with votes, couldn't play
my 5th Traditions, 2nd traditions, Anathemas, or Archons.  Found
Constanza Vinti, exactly what I was looking for.  Sadly, before my
fifth turn, I was bled for nine (seven from one vamp, two from another),
reducing me to seven pool and making me unable to get out the necessary
Constanza.  Bo.

Now, this didn't have to happen.  My predator (Jon Sushinsky) was playing
a Toreador/Anti-Toreador presence bleed deck.  He brought out Jost Werner
first, so I pounded him down to 0 blood (but unfortunately not to torpor).
Jon slapped a Blood Doll on him so he could harm me instead of hunting...
Next Jon brought out Alexandra (yipe!).  I pounded her into torpor with
Jimmy Dunn before she got to take an action.  Tried to bleed to get the
edge and then diablerize, but was blocked bleeding (my prey, Jon Evers,
was playing an anti-Nosferatu combat/intercept/Army of Rats/stuff deck),
so that failed.  So then my prey rescued Alexandra from torpor for my
predator, cause he didn't want Jon S to be unable to put pressure on
me.  Great.  So the next turn, Alexandra gained Blood Doll, a point of
blood, and came to bleed tapped-out me with Social Charm and Aire of
Elation for seven.  Plus Jost on the Social Charm for two.  Oh look,
now I suck.

Well anyway, so much for my pointless anecdote; I was ultimately ousted
by Jon S Telepathic Misdirecting two stealthy bleeds my way from his
predator (Trey Morita) with the Obf/Pres bleed deck.  Oh well.

So the upshot is, I think my deck could have done somewhat better if (a)
I had not had four master cards clog my hand all at once or (b) I had
managed to get out a Prince/Justicar for Minion Tap/5th Traditioning
before being reduced to insufficient pool to start that trick.  So
here's the deck.  Tell me if you have any good ideas for making it work
better, preferably while preserving the Prince/Justicar angle, although
I'm thinking that maybe I ought to lose the votes (which I may be completely
unable to win in the first place) and stick with just the P/J cards,
maybe add some 3rd Trad: Progeny or something.  (The deck was partly
inspired by "Joanie Loves Chachi", but I didn't want to make it a two-vamp
deck.  Well, plus I don't have six each of Constanza and Donal.  Although
if I did, that might not be completely a bad idea.  Oh wait, yes it would.)

crypt (13 vamps just cause I like using 13):

Dre, Leader of the Cold Dawn - 3 pot cel
Jacob Bragg - 3 pot cel
Jimmy Dunn x2 - 4 POT CEL
Volker the Puppet Prince x2 - 5 pot CEL prince
Rake - 6 pot cel prince
Anvil - 6 POT CEL primogen
Bianca - 6 pot CEL 2 hand damage
Donal O'Connor - 8 POT CEL prince
Constanza Vinti - 8 POT CEL prince
Don Cruez the Idealist - 10 POT CEL justicar
Gwendolyn - 11 POT CEL inner circle +2 bleed
---
I think Gwendolyn is probably a bad idea after all.  The theory
is that she can help pass votes, and she's the best for Minion Tapping
or Golconda'ing, but she can't play any of my P/J cards.

library (90):

masters:

3x Potence
2x Celerity
4x Haven Uncovered
5x Minion Tap
2x Golconda Inner Peace

actions:

4x Bum's Rush
3x Ambush
4x 5th Tradition Hospitality
3x Leather Jacket
Brujah Justicar
2x Anathema (accidentally lost one of those somewhere, used to have 3)
4x Archon

reactions:

3x 2nd Tradition Domain

combat:

12x Immortal Grapple
11x Torn Signpost
7x Blur
7x Taste of Vitae
2x Fists of Death
2x Pushing the Limit
3x Undead Strength
4x Flash
2x Amaranth
---

The idea behind the combat card split was to try and make fewer cards
per combat still do the work of putting vamps in torpor - eg superior
Signpost superior Grapple superior Blur for 9 damage, rather than
superior Signpost superior Grapple superior Undead Strength for 5,
press with Grapple, maybe Grapple again, hit for 3-5... In this way
I figured I could get away with reducing the proportion of combat
cards in the deck and putting other interesting stuff in.  (used to
be about 60 combat/30 non including 13 masters.)  At the same time,
the Archons are intended to reduce the need for as many Rush actions,
again to save space.

Problem is it's all still in theory, since I didn't even draw an Archon
let alone get to play one.  I'd like to play this deck (but may well
end up playing its predecessor) at the tourney LSJ is running in Columbia
next weekend, but I'd have to be more confident that it would work well.
(Clearly I am obligated to play one combat deck or another, as it is
my sworn mission in life to defend the tourney viability of combat decks.)

Josh