Call of the Hungry Dead: Sudario Destruction

Back when I first started V:TES, I had built a typical Giovanni shambling hordes deck involving liquidation and Dom bleed. When Lords of the Night was released, Khazar's Diary immediately caught my eye. I realised that Liquidation would fit perfectly in a deck based around the card. So far, this has been my longest serving and most successful/reliable deck.

Most recently, I played it in the Singapore Qualifiers for the Asian Continental Championships 2010. 1 game win and 3.5 VP isn't the best result for the deck, but it performed admirably despite some tough opposition. All in all, my best deck to date.

Deck Name: Sudario Destruction
Created By: The Necromancer

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 10, Max: 19, Avg: 3.58)
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1 Isabel Giovanni pot DOM NEC 5 Giovanni
1 Vittorio Giovanni dom for nec pot 5 Giovanni
1 Patrizia Giovanni nec qui tha 5 Giovanni
1 Francesca Giovanni dom nec pot 4 Giovanni
1 Gloria Giovanni nec DOM 4 Giovanni
1 Chas Giovanni Tello DOM POT 4 Giovanni
1 Rudolfo Giovanni NEC 3 Giovanni
1 Lia Milliner dom nec 3 Giovanni
1 Cristofero Giovanni nec pot 3 Giovanni
1 Mario Giovanni nec pot 3 Giovanni
1 Marciana Giovanni dom 2 Giovanni
1 Paul DiCarlo pot 2 Giovanni

Library: (90 cards)
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Master (22 cards)
8 Liquidation
2 Acquired Ventrue Assets
2 Protected Resources
1 Information Highway
3 Parthenon, The
1 Channel 10
1 KRCG News Radio
1 Fortschritt Library
2 Tribute to the Master
1 Powerbase: Cape Verde

Action (19 cards)
1 Chair of Hades
4 Sudario Refraction
2 Embrace, The
12 Khazar`s Diary (Endless Night)

Action Modifier (15 cards)
2 Conditioning
7 Call of the Hungry Dead
6 Shroudsight

Combat (5 cards)
4 Dodge
1 Zip Gun

Ally (20 cards)
1 Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
2 Felix `Fix` Hessian (Wraith)
3 Repo Man
3 Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
2 Leonardo, Mortician
1 Young Bloods
1 Impundulu
2 Ambrosius, The Ferryman (Wraith)
2 Gregory Winter
2 Tye Cooper
1 Ossian

Event (2 cards)
2 Unmasking, The

Combo (7 cards)
7 Spectral Divination

Primary Oust Method:
Self-explanatory. Trigger the Endless Night by putting 7 counters on Khazar's Diary, and drown your prey(and the rest of the table) with Wraiths bleeding at +1 stealth. Getting to 7 counters of course requires some work. That's where the set up comes into play. Speed is of the essence. I bring out my vampires as fast as possible. Early actions consist of putting a Diary into play, and then recruiting allies for defense. Get the Unmasking into play ASAP, and start to use Liquidation to regain pool and dump Allies into the Ash Heap. Meanwhile, keep playing more Diary, using Shroudsight to speed things up, and block actions with your expendable Allies. This effectively lets your Prey/Predator do your work for you when they burn your unique allies that are so annoying positioned as blockers which they neither want dead or alive. Once the Diary has triggered and you've put a fair few Wraiths into play, the game is often in the bag for you as long as you defend your pool properly. Not many people can survive more than a couple of rounds being bled by that many minions.

Secondary Oust Method:
If the circumstances are not in your favour and the Diary has not been triggered for whatever reason, the 2nd option is to swarm bleed your prey. I put 2 Conditionings in as there are a few vampires in the Crypt with Dominate. The Conditionings prove useful for a sneak bleed when least expected, and can be returned back to hand with Sudario Refraction if needed again.

Plan C:
If things are really grim and nothing is going your way... Bloat, and refuse to die.

Strengths:
-Able to quickly oust most prey once the Diary has triggered.
-Many blockers to stand in the way of incoming bleeds/rushes.
-All actions(except bleeding) taken are at +1 stealth base, so it is not easy for opponents to block consistently, short of a dedicated intercept wall. Spectral Divination and Call of the Hungry Dead make blocking the deck's actions even more problematic.
-Consistent intercept with the Unmasking and media locations allows you to block many actions.
-Decent pool gain mechanisms allow the deck to survive a protracted game.

Weaknesses:
-Takes a few rounds to set up.
-Suffers if predator is a stealth bleeder or stealth power bleeder, in which case only digging out Protected Resources and bloating will keep you alive long enough to see the Diary trigger.
-Suffers if prey is an intercept wall. Inability to get actions through will stall the deck.
-Suffers against consistent multiple rush decks. The allies you recruit to block rushes will eventually die(unless you bring out Tye and Ambrosius) and when the rushes start to reach your soft chewy Vampires, the game is up. Combat defense is minimal, only a few Dodges to protect against certain attacks.