I wouldn't go that far.  There are many decks that are bad matchups for
Imbued, it's true, but some handle them fine.  I think the mistake some
players make is to go "AAAHHH!  I can't play Temptation on them!!!" and
basically panic.  Instead of that, what you have to do is play on their
weaknesses.

Don't get me wrong.  I used to really love playing the Imbued.  The only
reason I stopped is because of my quest to win with every clan.  Until
Jeff starts putting Imbued in by Creed in the TWDA, I won't be playing
them seriously.  To beat Imbued, you have to play a little differently.
So here are some suggestions on how to do that.

* Know what the Imbued deck is capable of right now.  For example, if
there are four Imbued on the table and two have Judgment, that deck can
bleed for at least 11, even if there currently isn't a Laptop in play and
none of them have Strikes.  It can come together in a single turn.  I used
to hide my Strikes in my ashheap (well, not intentionally conceal them,
but avoid drawing attention to them) and somebody would ask how many of my
guys had strikes.  I'd scratch my head, look through piles of cards for
just a quick moment and announce "none."  Of course, next turn they'd all
have Strikes.

* Know what the Imbued deck is capable of right now.  For example, if you
try to bleed and play Lost in Crowds, your only stealth card, only to get
blocked by The Unmasking + Discern when there's an untapped KRCG and an
unburned Second Sight, you haven't played very well.  You can count how
much stealth you need.  Don't hope to top-deck three stealth cards or just
go in blindly.

* Know what the Imbued deck is capable of right now.  Many Imbued decks
run Sudden and/or DI and recycle them with Anthelios and Parthenon.  With
Angel of Berlin in the mix, they tend to be high on OOT masters.  Has the
Imbued deck played an OOT already or can he still Sudden your Jack or DI
your Forgotten Labyrinth?  If you don't know instantly, shame on you!

* Know what the Imbued deck is capable of right now!  That Ivory Bow will
hit you for 2 agg.  You don't want to block with Cailean counting on your
Guardian Angel to save you.  Don't do that!  Jack Harmon gets a maneuver.
Jennie gets guys out of incap.  Travis makes pool.  You need to know this
stuff!

* Tap them out!  Anarch Troublemaker doesn't work, but Majesty can do okay
(they often don't want to burn Reacts for fear you'll have Entrancement)
and Earth Meld is even better.  But be smart about it.  Using Champion,
for example, doesn't tap an Imbued.  I once watched a game where a
Stanislava deck would bleed with Stanislava first every turn, get
Champion'd, then bleed with other minions.  So sad....

* Play into the table hate.  Not only do a lot of people hate facing
Imbued, but Imbued tend not to be very good cross-table buddies.  I know
people used to complain bitterly when I played them because I wouldn't do
anything to my prey for ages, then I'd just clean up once I could bleed
for 20 every turn, so basically it's the worst of both worlds - your
predator has no predator, but if somehow you survive that, he suddenly
does and you both die fast.

* Finish the Imbued decisively.  You know how much pool they have.  You
know how many guys they has out and whether they're untapped and how much
intercept they can have.  You can make a pretty good guess to how many
untaps they can manage.  Use this information to build the perfect ousting
hand.

* Be quick about it!  Imbued decks are sometimes very slow or can slow
down the table (especially when there are players present who still
haven't learned what the cards do).  The clock is your enemy.  Beat it,
even if the cost is losing to a fellow methuselah.  Losing to the clock is
worse.

* Keep the pressure up if it looks like they're going to get too many VPs.
Imbued don't get to wake up a whole lot, so unless you're facing a deck
that is successfully pulling off a Darby Dance, it'll typically have to
tap out when it's in the lunging phase.  By keeping pressure high, you can
make it a lot harder for that deck to try to lunge.

* Play possum if the deck seems too defensive or isn't going forward much.
If you can get him to tap a bunch on dumb actions, then bounce a bleed or
two into him, you should be able to finish him, if you've got sufficient
payload on hand (which is the other thing you'd need to be working on).

I could probably come up with more, but it's been a while.  I think
Imbued, crafted carefully and played well, are still one of the strongest
archetypes, but they are not unbeatable and don't even have to be
miserable to play against or at least won't tend to be any worse than
weenie AUS.

Matt Morgan