I. Overview:
Most aggressive characters wield their chips like cudgels. They have no finesse, no style. Vendetta isn’t just about killing an opponent before they have a chance to set up; he’s about doing it with a few precise strikes rather than a barrage of brutish blows. As an assassin, it’s important to have some pride in your work.
Strengths:
- Disruptive chips force the opponent to play Vendetta’s game, not theirs.
- Acrobatics lets him use any cheap chip reasonably well.
- Great synergy with Ouch! and other attack chips.
Weaknesses:
- Unable to typically afford the high-end chips without wasting a lot of time first.
- Reliant on drawing Acrobatics with his actions.
- Vulnerable to reactions that draw chips.
- No good backup plan if rushdown isn’t a viable option.
Vendetta’s General Gameplan
Vendetta’s Stunlock and Surgical Strike are exceptional when players’ handsizes are small. However, once a player is drawing a million chips from his engine, making them discard a few isn’t going to slow them down much. Vendetta’s goal is to play for a quick game before this happens.
II. Puzzle Chips
Chips Vendetta Loves
- Ouch!, Repeated Jabs, Sneak Attack, Color Panic, Knockdown, Mixmaster
Not only does Vendetta have red arrows on his character chips to play these, but they help him shorten the length of the game. Of all of these, Ouch! is by far Vendetta’s favorite chip. With it in the pool, opponents almost can’t buy Combines. If they do, a Surgical Strike into Ouch! combo will force them to discard and trash it. Color Panic also has considerable synergy with Vendetta’s attack, allowing you to see their hand before you have to name a color.
- Ebb or Flow, Risk to Riskonade
Blue? Brown? No problem! Vendetta’s Acrobatics lets him play any color of chip effectively. More importantly, these crazy-colored chips do something that Vendetta values highly: they speed up the game and let him crash a 4-gem that much faster. That said, both of these chips benefit from another cheap fork in the pool. Risk to Riskonade is particularly risky (duh), and without Gem Essence, Recklessness, or Button Mashing, should be only used as a desperation move against particularly bad matchups.
Chips Vendetta Fears
- Iron Defense
Iron Defense is a great stall chip, but it is particularly effective against Vendetta, who gets a lot of his wins by forcing you to discard your crash gem on a crucial turn. With Iron Defense Crash Gems in your pile, that simply never happens.
- Self Improvement
A single Self Improvement is enough to give Vendetta pause when thinking about using his Surgical Strike. Coupled with his like of attacks in general, Self Improvement shuts down most of Vendetta’s avenues of victory.
- Really Annoying
Vendetta already has some trouble getting his actions to line up with Acrobatics, and wounds make this even more difficult. Even worse, your opponent will often get to play these for free as you try to Surgical Strike him. If your opponent has 3 or more, you should start seriously considering whether to even play your Surgical Strike. As always, the best defense against Really Annoying is to buy some yourself.
- Stolen Purples
This attack is counter-intuitively bad for Vendetta. While Vendetta can (and should!) be buying these, the main issue is that Vendetta wants to Combine a lot, but does not have enough money to buy a lot of purples. If your opponent just buys these over and over, Vendetta’s deck might never get off of the ground. If you are playing with Stolen Purples in the bank, buy more money and cycling chips than you usually would. That way, if they steal your crash, you should be able to buy another one and draw it quickly.
- Combos are Hard
Nothing makes Vendetta sadder than an early Combos are Hard. While Vendetta might get lucky and discard it with Surgical Strike for a cycle or two, it will always grab a Double Crash Gem and another scary chip when it finally hits. Quick Double Crash Gems are brutal for Vendetta to try to play against, and are often a key play in defending against Vendetta’s rush. Worse still, Vendetta’s cash flow is too low to realistically be able to buy one unless he spends his early turns buying only money.
III. General Tips
- One of Vendetta’s most powerful moves is to fork into Surgical Strike, force them to discard a crash, and then crash at them through their lowered defenses. Make sure you are playing these chips in the proper order!
- Most of Vendetta’s interesting decisions come from choosing what to discard from Surgical Strike. In the early game, nabbing their early 2-gems and 3-gems can cripple their economy. Later in the game, you will often want to target their purples.
IV. Matchups:
Matchups Vendetta Loves
Gwen is vulnerable to disruption, which happens to be Vendetta’s specialty. You haven’t really lived until you’ve forced Gwen to discard her Shadow Plague! Additionally, Lum, Quince and Troq all have a common problem: their ongoing prevents them from buying purples. As a result, they tend to be light on them, and have a tough time defending against Vendetta’s selective discard.
Matchups Vendetta Fears
Gloria and Onimaru’s reactions feel like they are custom made to counter Vendetta. Additionally, both have strong defensive chips, making it difficult to punch through.
Geiger’s ability to pull puzzle chips out of his discard, and to pull forward 
s he hasn’t drawn yet, often lets him ignore Stunlock and Surgical Strike.
This guide was originally written by vivafringein 2012. It has been updated to take into account more recent strategy developments.