¤ Intelligent Bleed

(by Orpheus)

"- I bleed for 6
- Ok, I block. You'll eat my fist.
- No, I won't ! Add 2 stealth.
- Ok, so I'll deflect to my prey.
- (prey's prey) : And I don't like stealth-bleeders. Archon Investigation, you BUUUUUURN !!!"

It is easy to bleed in stealth, but harder to do so intelligently. We'll study here the various possibilities for avoiding to kill your grand-prey, and to have your vampires burned (or in short : anti-deflect and Archon strategies).

¤ Revelations

    A must-have in any bleed deck using Aus. Want to know what's in your prey's hand ? Use it at sup. Want to discard the cards he has ? Use it at inf. Le Din Tho has a free Revelations at inf incorporated, and that alone makes him worth being played in any Giovanni bleed deck (no Potence), and maybe sometimes even in a Malkavian deck.

¤ Monocle of Clarity

    This equipement belongs in every intelligent stealth-bleed deck. Once I realised howit changed my game when it came out, I decided to include two of them. Great combo with Le Din Tho. Remember : the first question you'll ever ask your prey (with notable exceptions) is : "Do you play Archon Investigation in your deck ?". If the answer is no, you'll know for sure that you can bleed like a pig every time. Then, you'll worry about deflections. If the answer is yes, you'll have to know if he has one in hand. Great combo with Revelations or Le Din Tho !

¤ Spying Mission

    This card can, of course, be used at sup for "small bleeders" like the Nosferatu, Samedi or weenie Obfuscaters, to add up some bleed ; but it most important use is to reduce the bleed to nihil when deflected. After all, you don't want to give your prey a VP and 6 pool, right ? And when you're done with him, you'll have a +1 while bleeding your new prey...

¤ Tapping the Minions

    A tapped minion cannot react. If you tap all your prey's minions, he'll have to use quickly all his wakes or untaps. Misdirection will do it for 1 pool and use no action, while Mind Numb, Blackmail or Jar the Soul will take an action and therefore be worth it only if you can untap right away and bleed, or have many minions. Mind Rape can be great too. Combo with Sleeping Mind, and great with Change of Target (your prey will discard his wakes for nothing and you'll stay untapped). Krassimir has one incorporated, can use Jar the Soul (and untap with Domain of Evernight) as well as Sleeping Mind, Seduction, and later Call of the Hungry Dead... do we see a pattern emerging here ?

¤ Responsible Bleed

    That's what they call bleeding at no stealth, just with Seduction (not you !) and Call of the Hungry Dead (you neither...). You can of course add 1 stealth from now on, especially if your grand-prey has a permanent +1 Intercept. You'll be blocked by your grand-prey, not by your prey. Also great with Krassimir.

Conclusion :

We can see that the Malkavians have access to most of the great cards that allow intelligent bleed. But then, the Giovanni can do Responsible Bleed, can have Auspex for Revelations, Le Din Tho, Krassimir, Jar the Soul... Most of them can't use Spying Mission in sup, but really... do they need it ?

Now, you know why the Giovanni are even more dreadful bleeders since Bloodlines...

Orpheus