Pool Management, Part 3: Direct Pool Generation

Parts 1 and 2 of this series hammered home a lot of information around re-using blood from minions in play. Much of that exercise can't be considered "pool gain" until the amount of blood you receive the pool you invested in that minion.

Today, in Part 3, we add a new layer of pool management to the puzzle - Direct Pool Generation.  Welcome to a pool management techniques that really is innate pool gain (or for the crusty old Methesulah, "bloat.")

DIRECT POOL GENERATION (DPG)

Introduction

Definition: The movement of counters from the blood bank directly to one's pool.
Crypt-based Examples: Armin Brenner, Bartholemew, the Unnamed
Library-based Examples: Consanguineous Boon, Art Scam, Kindred Spirits, Voter Captivation, Ascendance, Failsafe
Limitations:  Most direct generation of pool is contingent on a successful minion action or a satisfying a specific condition (e.g., having a victory point, having the Edge, discarding or burning cards).

Note: I wanted to use "creation" instead of "generation" - it sounds less pretentious, but the abbreviations DBC and DPC looked so much alike that, even as the author, I was getting confused.  DPG is still similar at a glance, but visually differentiated itself a bit more.

Scaling

Like many of the other pool management effects, the way DPG works can be described with a few familiar terms.

• Horizontal:  used with the same connotations we had earlier - it depends on the number of minions meeting the relevant criteria (e.g., Consanguineous Boon, Political Stranglehold).
• Vertical: as before, return is based on some other attribute related to a single minion (e.g., Ancient Influence).  
• Fixed: their output is independent of any scaling parameter and consistent for each application (e.g., Momentum's Edge, Ascendance, Ashur Tablets, Art Scam).

Aha..... see, we found a way to sneak in that term "fixed" in a less ambiguous way than when apply it to Direct Pool Conversion :)   

Integrating Direct Blood Conversion and Direct Pool Generation

There's no hard and fast design rule for the use of these tools together.  But there are two general trends that seem to apply.

Most Direct Pool Generation is not suited for use in every deck built.

That's sounds like a pretty scathing indictment of the mechanic as a whole.  But it's one that I make having rewritten this post far too many times, because every broad advocacy position rung untrue.  Here's the reasoning:

• There are only 79 library cards that include the words "gain" and "pool."  
• Only 19 of those cards use are not contingent on a successful action or advantageous condition - these are the ones that represent true independent bloat actions.  
• Of that subset, several have strict requirements for use (e.g., you must have fewer than 3 pool).  By the time you can trigger that kind of effect, you have probably already lost.

There are clearly some powerful options in the general category of DPG.  Kindred Spirits and its ilk.  Consanguineous Boon. Ancient Influence. Voter Captivation. Combined Liquidation and Ashur Tablets.  They all fit the defination of DPG pool and are clearly 1st tier cards.  But most require specific deck designs to be effective.

Contrast those with Blood Doll.  Put that thing in any deck and you'll probably find a reasonable use for it.

Second,

The more a deck uses vertical and/or fixed-scale pool creation, 
the more it relies on direct blood conversion.


The more it leverages horizontal scale, 
the less it tends to converts blood back to pool.

The reasons for this are pretty clear.

• Fixed scale (and most vertical tools) return modest amounts of pool, but still consume MPAs or minion actions.  Since there is no economy of scale (on a per card basis), some recouping of initial pool investments goes a long way towards improving survival.  This is often further leveraged in vote decks by directly linking effects associated with DPG (Voter Captivation) with layered DBC (Minion Tapping the blood-gain kicker)

• Horizontal scaling is usually blood intensive (as "breeding" consumes blood) but is productive and card efficient in the late game.  Routinely planning to strip blood from crypt-based minions may be counterproductive design.  Horizontal DPG shows some early weakness as a result, but relies on recovering by completing one sizable DPG action to recover from early downward drift in pool.

As for how Conversion and Generation should be woven together, there are two broad approaches I often see.

• Redundant: to leverage well-developed play space and provide insurance against "hosers."   This approach retains all the other benefits and drawbacks of the fundamental design.   EXAMPLE: layering Tribute to the Master and Consanguineous Boon (both horizontal tools) in the same deck, circumventing risk of catastrophic Delaying Tactics in the typical breed-boon design (though perhaps leading to a long series of Embrace hunts).  

• Complementary (contrarian approach): to shore up the innate weaknesses of using a single dimension of scale.  EXAMPLE: including a few Villeins/Minion Taps in a breed-boon deck to reinforce the fragile period before economy of scale developed.  Long-term development might be deferred in the process (depending on the depth of the DBC), but this approach offers mid game survival benefits.

Sure, there are plenty of winning examples that don't follow either of those integrated approaches.  Some of them are mine.  But it's my belief that even those winning designs could be inherently more robust if layered pool management were considered - and in certain metagame situations, this might be necessary.

Design Considerations

DPG has an attribute other than scaling dimension - the way it is triggered.

• Independent: the action itself gains pool, there is no other effect (e.g., Art Scam).
• Kicker: a successful result also returns pool (e.g., Kindred Spirits, Voter Captivation)

I don't always include independent generation in decks, but there's a pretty high likelihood I'll weave in at least a few kickers where I can.  Getting pool for an action I wanted to take anyway optimizes my action-benefit ratio, even if I don't get the maximum possible payload from that action.

The single overwhelming consideration for independent pool generation is 
"How little pure bloat ensures survival while gaining at least 2 victory points?"  

There is a fine line here and I intentionally used the word "little" instead of "much".

Consider:

• A player has only a limited number of MPA and minion actions in a game.
• Actions dedicated only to pool generation don't oust my prey, they only increase my longevity.   

Assuming a consistent ousting threshold, it follows that each pool generation action I take either

• increases the required payload each remaining actions or
• must generate a replacement action at the same baseline payload (presumably by financing another minion)

Think about that  for a second.  The real message here is tough to swallow (I can provide supporting math and examples if needed).

The ADVERSE effect of  direct pool generation actions is cumulative.  

Each one makes ousting your prey incrementally more difficult. 

  

There are plenty of exceptions.  If a minion creates offense, untaps, then creates pool; that second action does not change my per-action payload requirements (since that minion got its one offensive action in for that turn).  I'm not sacrificing anything except library space with my DPG. 

But the message is sound.  Taking the minimum number of survival actions between ousts must be the theorically optimal approach, with zero dedicated pool gain actions being the best possible situation.  This "no wasted action" effect is a huge part of why straight-up [DEM] bleed with pool kickers is so good (the other being in-clan availability of bleed redirection).

In the interest of brevity, I skipped the archetype-specific analysis of DPG.  I can post it later if people really want to see it, I have it on file.  The conclusion is that there are four deck properties that really either leverage or require direct pool creation:

1. The actions can weave pool gain into other profitable effects (free pool kicker)
2. The deck aas no other recourse against incoming pool damage, especially if it is relatively slow to oust  (required bloat as a key function).  In these cases, the offensive actions must be disproportionately numerous or large to make up for the action count lost bloating.
3. Significant non-combat multi-action is employed, preferably using permanent effects (actions to spare)
4. The DPG action is so efficient that it simply demands inclusion (Ancient Influence in a Hardestadt rush deck).

Benefits and Drawbacks of Direct Pool Generation

Benefit....ummmm.....pool?  Yeah, that's it.  Lots of pool is the king of survival attributes, the only one that is universally applicable

• Bleed?  Fine....soak it.
• Votes?  Fine.....soak it.
• Combat?  Fine....buy more minions.

Still more downside:  Other than the likely effects that increase payload, there's a paradoxical, hidden downside.

In order for "kicker" direct pool gain to function, 
the deck has to already be working (at least to some minimal extent).

All the "kicker" pull gain effects are contingent of success - that's why they are "kickers."  Kindred Spirits and Social Charm have to hit a target.  Voter Captivation needs a referendum passing after polling.  Con Boon needs accumulated minions and votes in place to be reliable.  Momentum's Edge requires a victory point, the pinnacle of "look, my deck is cruising!"

Yup, when each of these pool creation situations works, its is because the deck is at least tactically (action-by-action), if not strategically (ousting you prey) working.  I should already be at least holding my own in the game or my design was flawed from the start (likely to due low theoretical payload).

That implies the pool creation simply ensures that my engine is running at higher efficiency, with the potential to generate additional offense through horizontal growth.  If the payload feels adequate, the extra counters residing in my pool increase my margin of error and probability of victory.

All that is great.  But none of these help much when the engine is completely stalled and I want to survive.  Maybe breeding got interrupted, or I lost vote control to a table coalition.  Maybe I've come up against a dedicated wall deck stuffing enough actions that predation is taking it toll.  In all these cases, "kicker" pool creation is probably between nil and squat.  I'm likely nearing depletion of DPC reserves (blood on minions).

This is where I would love to say including more independant DPG would help.  But the more I tried to find convincing arguments to include contingency direct pool generation, I always found it competing with my primary objective, being prey-focused.

I'm a pretty offensive player, for better or worse.  If my prey gets a game win, I'm in a sour mood for a while.  I also build slim decks, seldom over the mid-70s in thickness.  So for my deckbuilding style, including extraneous pool gain for worst case contingencies is a bitter pill to swallow.

This doesn't mean I fold my cards in the face of adversity.  I just try to mitigate risk in the game before it becomes critical.  A lot of this is reflective of play style, experience and metagame.  And......it sometimes fails.....miserably.

There are others who will advocate defense/bloat until you can't be killed.  Fine....what is your prey doing while all your actions are independent pool gain?  He should be running away with the table, accumulating 2-3 VP before he rounds the corner and fails to oust you.  Survival alone is a hollow victory, at best.

Predatory Viewpoint

As a predator of decks using extensive DPG, one needs to assess the way the deck scales.  

For horizontally designed DPG, interrupting development of the controlled region is critical - the deck needs to be stopped before it creates insane economy of scale.  Attack early and often, while the deck is vulnerable.  Strip pool, make them defensive, get them to burn DPG resources early and small.  Strip blood from breeders.  The key here is to remember that you can't allow horizontal decks to establish the kind of play space that leads to huge upswings in pool in the late game.

It might not be possible to stop these decks' DBC (if any exists) - but the moment you see a player drain the blood off a minion that is supposed to create Embraces, you know you're making headway (and that he has considered the mid-game weaknesses of his deck archetype - so be careful).

For vertically-scaled DPC, try to attack linchpins from the library at least as much as you attack the pool or minions.  Can actions that enable card flow be blocked?  Or is there better hope of stealth-locking them>  Can a referendum be subverted, making Voter Cap useless and stuck in-hand?  Can the player's pool simply be bled through over 2 turns?   Mostly, attacking vertical scale is a longer term proposition, and you try to create additional surge offense in those moments when the size of complexity of the library becomes a liability.

In the rare cases that you find good fixed-scale DPG-based on Masters (Liquidation-Ashur Tablets), it's a pretty tough nut to crack.  The combination of Master-based DPG and on the fly library restructuring can be powerful in the hands of a skilled player.  Ultimately, the best plan is to attack the sources of multiple MPA (with combat, Banishment, etc).  You'll still be dealing with DBC the deck carries, but deep blood conversion only makes incapacitating those minions easier.  Over time, the deck will hand jam without the extra MPA and you create opportunity.

Closing

Lots of information for one post, but some of it is applicable to other aspects of play, so I don't begrudge the time spent.  

The next post will address one of the real power elements of the game - Indirect Pool Generation.