y Hecata Swarm
Highlights
This is a swarm bleed deck built on the Group 6 Hecata y and their signature wraith, Spectral Servitor. It floods the table with cheap allies bleeding for 1 at stealth: the prey drowns under a stream of small bleeds while Shroud of Decay takes care of the rest.
The servitor does everything a swarm wants, and crucially it plays basic non-action cards as a vampire would — so the stealth modifiers (Shadow Cast, Shadow Cloak, Stygian Shroud and Where the Veil Thins) serve the wraiths as well as the crypt. Charisma makes its bearer's recruits free, and a recruiter with superior can keep a servitor alive for 1 pool during the unlock phase instead of burning it.
Shroud of Decay gives the vampires their own reach: a +1 bleed whose forced discards feed the prey's ash heap, but more importantly superior mode that strips that same ash heap to burn pool — an oust no bounce can stop, and serious extra reach once the game drags on.
The all-Hecata y crypt means Family Gathering always hits, speeding up the next vampire. Defense is solid for a swarm deck: Telepathic Misdirection on the superior vampires, Shadow Sentinel to wake a surprise blocker — a wraith too, at superior — The Unmasking turning the swarm into actual blockers, and Parijat taxing blocks against the wraiths.
Tips & Tricks
Sequence the turns around the unlock clause: only the first successful recruit unlocks the vampire, so spread recruits across the crypt instead of chaining them on a single minion, then use the unlocked vampires to bleed with Shroud of Decay or to hold Telepathic Misdirection up.
Do not pay the upkeep by reflex. A servitor is 1 blood for a stealthed bleed of 1: letting it burn is fine business. Keep only the ones needed as blockers under The Unmasking, or as repeat bleeders once the prey's defense is down. Burnt copies are not lost either — Mora and Lenelle both fish cards back out of the ash heap.
The deck plays no combat card at all — it does not need to win fights, only to avoid them. Pentex™ Subversion shuts down the table's dedicated blocker, superior Where the Veil Thins taxes non-Oblivion blockers a blood and bars allies from blocking outright, and Parijat discourages the rest. Jake Washington refuels an emptied recruiter, Perfectionist recoups blood on unreacted actions, and Heart of Nizchetus keeps the cards flowing.
The sore spot is vote decks, as Delaying Tactics is the only political defense, and heavy ally hate votes like Anarchist Uprising.
Variants
There are no settled variant names yet, but the winning lists spread along a single axis: how much of the deck goes to the swarm versus to Shroud of Decay. Stefano Chiodi's deck (25 players, 2025) trims the wraiths down to 6 for 12 Shroud of Decay, a thicker reaction package, Villein bloat and 8 Pass Through Shadow — closer to a classic Stealth & Bleed with the swarm as a side engine. Ke Carlton's deck (22 players, 2025) goes the same route with 14 Shroud of Decay, 11 Family Gathering and a suite of Powerbase locations, banking on the superior pool burn to close games.
Richard Aumann's deck (24 players, 2026) keeps the shell but swaps the wraiths for zombies: 15 Bone Shambler, which lock one another for +1 bleed, with Cappadocian Crypt covering the blood economy and no Shroud of Decay at all.
The neighboring Hecata Corpse archetype shares the crypt and the shadow stealth module, but builds around Aggressive Corpse and a toolbox of utility allies rather than the pure servitor swarm — different enough to be its own archetype.