k Ani Barons
Highlights
This is a rush deck built on the group 6 Anarch Barons with superior Animalism . The crypt spans Tzimisce k, Gangrel p and Ravnos x, but clan is irrelevant: what matters is that everyone is a native Anarch with , most of them Barons, with Anarch Convert to smooth the draw.
Deep Song is the engine, run in bulk, flexing between a bleed and a rush. Combat is pure ranged attrition on Aid from Bats and Carrion Crows: the crows deal environmental damage every round while the bats add damage and the maneuvers to stay safely at long range. Terror Frenzy and Drawing Out the Beast keep the opponent from closing in or pressing out, and Taste of Vitae recoups the blood spent along the way.
The ousting plan is attrition too: Anarch Revolt drains every Methuselah without a ready Anarch each turn, while Fame and Tension in the Ranks convert the torpors the combat module produces into direct pool damage. The Ivory Bow adds aggravated damage at range, so vampires sent to torpor can be burned outright on a follow-up rush.
Defense is the classic Baron suite: Bait and Switch to bounce, Organized Resistance and Deep Ecology for wake and intercept, backed by Raven Spy and Mr. Winthrop as permanent intercept.
The economy runs on Villein and a set of one-of locations — Carfax Abbey, The Rack, Powerbase: Montreal, Poacher's Hunting Ground — to refill the vampires, with Wider View and Dreams of the Sphinx for crypt and hand fluidity.
Tips & Tricks
The standard combat line is Carrion Crows before range, then Aid from Bats maneuvering to long range: most vampires take 2 or 3 ranged damage per round without ever landing a strike. Against dodgy opponents, inferior Terror Frenzy locks them at range, while the superior instead taxes every combat card they play a blood. Massimiliano's +1 strength and Adrino Manauara's built-in press make them the preferred rushers when combat is expected to go multiple rounds.
Anarch Revolt is the clock the whole table plays against: opponents can only remove it with a +1 stealth referendum, and the singleton Delaying Tactics is best saved to cancel exactly that. Run in numbers, one can usually be kept in play from the early game onward — combined with Fame, it often does more ousting than the bleeds do.
NSA Trio never hampers the deck: Deep Song rushes involve no blocking vampire, and the deck plays no combat ends of its own. But when a wall blocks a Deep Song bleed, the blocker cannot strike to end combat in the first round, so the bats and crows always connect at least once.
Small crypt synergies matter: Kuyén pays 1 less for Raven Spy, and Branimira has +1 intercept only while one sits at 9 pool or fewer — mind that a big Villein can switch it off. Poacher's Hunting Ground scales with the hunting grounds other Methuselahs control, so it is well worth playing even late.
Variants
The archetype is remarkably consolidated: this list is Jozef Patrnciak's deck, winner of the Polish Nationals two months earlier, taken over almost card for card (the credit is in the deck name). The only touches are two fewer Aid from Bats, one more Organized Resistance and Deep Ecology each, Dreams of the Sphinx and Poacher's Hunting Ground over Vessel, and the Delaying Tactics and NSA Trio singletons.
Earlier builds were looser: Giulio De Cicco's deck, from 2024, runs a thicker reaction wall with Cats' Guidance and Protection Racket, Army of Rats as an extra drain, and Groundfighting in place of the frenzy package. The core of the archetype — Deep Song, bats and crows, Anarch Revolt and the Baron reactions — has been stable ever since.