What is the Deck Challenge?
  >The Deck Challenge is an exercise for your V:TES deck building skills. Lets face it, people are creatures of habit and often we tend to follow patterns in deck design. This is not a failing... its style, which is unique to every player. The object of the deck challenge is to pose interesting deck concepts and try to make a solid deck incorporating that concept. Hopefully, you will learn something about your own skills as a player, and get to try a deck concept that was not part of your typical repertoire. New challenges will be issued periodically. You can post your deck creations in the forum section and vote on the the best of the entries.

Unexpected Assailants

 > Death strikes from the shadows. Create a deck that confounds your opponents with unexpected assailants. Use cards that change the minion to one they didn't expect or hits them with an additional minion. Mask of 1,000 Faces, Malleable Visage, Shilmulo Deception, Coordinate Attacks, Hidden Lurker, Fast Reaction, Siren's Lure, Status Perfectus, Blood Brother Ambush, Conscripted Statue, Winged Second, Illusions of the Kindred, or even Slave Gargoyles, etc. The deck must at least 10% (9 in a 90 card deck, 8 in an 80 card deck, 7 in a 70 card deck, 6 in a 60 card deck, etc.) of your deck with these cards. Or make a Slave Gargoyle deck.

Unwilling Participants

 > This month, lets see your minion stealing decks. Build a deck that takes control of other players minions, either temporarily or permanently. Corruption, Mind Rape, Graverobbing, Temptation, Spirit Marionette, Grand Temple of Set, etc. etc. The deck must at least 10% (9 in a 90 card deck, 8 in an 80 card deck, 7 in a 70 card deck, 6 in a 60 card deck, etc.) of your deck with these cards.

The Hunter's Hunted

 > "In the absence of light, darkness prevails. There are things that go bump in the night... Make no mistake about that. And we are the ones who bump back."  - HELLBOY

With the release of the Nights of Reckoning, it only seems fitting to have a challenge that create a deck that uses these new imbued mortals. Your crypt must be at least 50% imbued. Lets see those hunter decks!

Dance Monkeys Dance!

 > The challenge this month is to create a deck that puts your minions to work doing double duty. Create an 'untap' deck that utilizes many of the untap cards in VTES, such as Rutor's Hand, Patronage, Freak Drive, Metro Underground, Myland Horseed, Domain of Evernight, Clotho's Gift, Homunculus, etc. Build a deck that uses at least 10% (9 in a 90 card deck, 8 in an 80 card deck, 7 in a 70 card deck, 6 in a 60 card deck, etc.) of your deck with these cards. Time to make the monkey's dance!

The Bleed Deterrence Experiment

 > There has been an on-again/off-again discussion on Bleed Deterence on the ASH HEAP forums <HERE>. For the purposes of this Deck Challenge let us define Bleed Deterence as "a card, other than Bounce or Reduction, that negatively effects your predator for bleeding you ". Cards that meet this definition are Retribution, Frozen Object, The Crocodile Temple, Burnt Offerings [SUP], Friend of Mine [obt], Fata Amaria [SUP], Edge Vitiation [SUP ], Ecstasy [SUP], and Major Boon. Build a deck that uses at least 10% (9 in a 90 card deck, 8 in an 80 card deck, 7 in a 70 card deck, 6 in a 60 card deck, etc.) of your deck as these cards. Also make sure that no more than 10% of you deck is Bounce or Bleed Reduction (Ecstacy and Friend of Mine count as both). I think Bleed Deterence has a lot of possibility, lets see if any of you can come up with some interesting angles. Have fun!

"Aye"' of the Tiger -or- "Orun"-t You Glad to See Me?

 > Lets try our hand at exploring the Aye and Orun facets of the game. Build a deck that has at least 10% (9 in a 90 card deck, 8 in an 80 card deck, 7 in a 70 card deck, 6 in a 60 card deck, etc.) of your deck as Aye, Orun, High Aye, High Orun and/or Static Virtue. I think there is a lot of potential for these cards, it will be interesting to see what everyone comes up with. Good luck.

Infernal Pursuits -or- Hell Unleashed

 > The dark side calls to you, my friend. Create a deck that oozes pure evil and unleash it on the world. At least 50% of you crypt must be Infernal vampires and 15% of your library must be Daimonion cards or Infernal cards (14 in a 90 card deck, 12 in an 80 card deck, 11 in a 70 card deck, 9 in a 60 card deck, etc.).

Lure of the Ebony Kingdom

 > The dark continent calls! With the release of Legacies of Blood, its only fitting that we have a Deck Challenge to go with it. This month we need to make a deck that uses the new sect of vampires, the Laibon. Your crypt must be at least 75% Laibon and your library must be 20% cards that require Laibon, Laibon Clans or Abombwe (18 in a 90 card deck, 16 in an 80 card deck, 14 in a 70 card deck, 12 in a 60 card deck, etc.)

Employment Agency and Taxi Service

 > Okay, so we've done allies, now its time for the Retainer onslaught. Your challenge is to create a deck that uses loads of servants to do you bidding. Will it be a Masquer Wraith intercept wall, a Murder of Crows beat down deck, or a Raptor Brinksmanship deck, or a D'habi Revenant bleed monster. You must have 15% of your deck as retainers (14 in a 90 card deck, 12 in an 80 card deck, 11 in a 70 card deck, 9 in a 60 card deck, etc.) ALTERNATELY: if that seems too easy, instead of Retainers, you may choose to use Vehicles to make your deck. Good Luck!

BONUS: As an extra bonus this month, in honor of LoB release, all partticipants will be entered into a drawing to win some promo cards (Angelo, Alan Soveriegn ADV, Helena ADV). Hey, its not much, but free stuff is.... free stuff!

I Stand Alone

 > It’s happened to all of us. We’ve looked at one particular vampire and thought, “Damn, that monster could carry a whole deck on its own.” Arika, Enkidu, and Tariq are just some that immediately spring to mind. So why not do just that. Build a feasible deck consisting of 12 copies (or a mix of bases and advancements) of the same vampire in the crypt and see if that vampire can truly stand alone. (Submission by Daniel Boud)

Burn-Baby-Burn!

 > Last month, we posted an article by Ben Peal <HERE> on decks that run themselves out of cards in order to recycle cards from their graveyard. They do this in order to stack their hands with what they want. Your challenge is to build such a deck using cards like Waste Management Operation, Pochtli, and Henry Taylor. You may have a max of 60 cards in your deck, of which 10 or more must be Burn Option cards. Essentially, a 50 card deck. There are plenty of variations that have yet to be explored, such as the Political angle. Good luck!

D-Day!

 > Time for the Allied Invasion! The challenge this month is to create an 'all out' Ally deck. This means that a minimum of 15% of your deck needs to be Ally cards (14 in a 90 card deck, 12 in an 80 card deck, 11 in a 70 card deck, 9 in a 60 card deck, etc.) Futhermore, these Allies need to be the main focus of your deck and you need to have supplemental cards (another 15% or more) that these Allys can play (i.e. cards like Computer Hacking, Dodge) or that can be used on or with Allies (i.e. Memories of Mortality, Precognizant Mobility, Compel the Spirit). Time for the Invasion!

The Main Event

 >Create a deck that either uses the text of an Event card or the playing of Events as the main focus of the deck. Obviously, Dragonbound Rush decks come to mind, but that is a bit obvious. The idea here is to create something that is unique, if possible, or at the very least, try and cleverly recreate an existing idea and make it your own. Don’t be afraid to try something outlandish, these submissions don’t have to be Super-Charged tournament decks. The deck challenge is about stretching your creativity, so try something fun.

Create an Non-standard Ousting deck

 >You are challenged to create deck that ousts your prey in a non-standard manner, without Political damaging cards or Bleed cards. In other words, make a deck that uses Brinksmanship, Enticement, Choir, Anarch Revolt, Victim of Habit, Baltimore Purge/Dragonbound, etc. etc. Your vampires can bleed, but you may not have bleed cards (action or action mod), political cards that do damage, or Actions, Equipment or Retainers that give you addtional bleed, etc. Good luck.

Gargoyle Vote Craziness

 >Your challenge is to create a deadly and efficient gargoyle vote deck. At least 8 vamps in your crypt must be gargoyles and you must have at least 15 political actions in your library.