Malkavian Antitribu Newsletter, December 2006 Volume V, Issue XII 1. INTRODUCTION In the last newsletter I've started the review of using Vicissitude with !Malks, and this time I'm going to finish it. Should we have a lot of vamps with superior Vicissitude, we could talk about solid decks using this discipline, but, unfortunately, three of the four of them have it only at inferior. What can be done with inferior Vicissitude? OK, our !Malks could maneuver with Chiropteran Marauder and shoot from the Ivory Bow, but they wouldn't become good combatants anyway. Inferior Breath of the Dragon is a good "fear card" in the Coma fashion - you'll go into torpor, but not alone. Maybe, you could use inferior Reform Body to avoid losing vampires in combat or as a diablerie? This isn't good enough, alas. One Vicissitude card is quite useful at inferior, though - see below. What about the rest Vicissitude cards? Fortunately, we've got one vampire with superior Vicissitude, and he's very good. Tzimisce will appreciate him, I guess... 2. VAMPIRES OF THE MONTH Name: Gravitnir [Third:V] Clan: Malkavian Antitribu Capacity: 10 Group: 4 Disciplines: AUS CEL DEM OBF VIC Sabbat priscus: During a political action, if Gravitnir is ready, he may burn a blood to force the acting vampire to abstain (this can cancel that vampire`s votes). Five disciplines at superior, a good title and a very strong ability should easily justify playing a 10-cap Sabbat vampire, if there were no PTO around... Time to send LSJ the regular rant about changing or banning the card, yes? No, wait! Did I say "PTO"? But PTO is a political action, and Gravitnir can force the damned Inner Circle to abstain! Forget about your 4 votes, Awe and Bewitching Oration - and we're going to have three votes against the referendum. Do you STILL want to play it, dude? Don't forget that Gravitnir may just block it, using his superior Auspex. Obviously, he is one of the best available choices against PTO and other hostile votes. His ability isn't as strong as Quentin's (that guy could cancel votes of ANY vampire, not just the acting one), but this is compensated with much better title and disciplines. Take any five disciplines, and you are guaranteed to get a lot of ideas to implement, if your vampire has them at superior. Skipping the usual combos available for our clan disciplines (The Call, Madman's Quill, etc.), we should note that Gravitnir can play superior Soul Decoration. Actually, he is one the few vampires able to do it (the only other playable candidate is Lady Zara Slatikov), and his actions can be very important (Eternal Vigilance, Creation Rites or just a heavy bleed with his Dementation), so the permanent ability to cancel Auspex cards cannot be avoided. Two combat disciplines (Celerity and Vicissitude) allow you to make a very good fighter of Gravitnir: he can gain additional strikes if somebody dodges his aggravated hands; he can dodge himself and then gain additional strikes; he can use weapons at their full potential besides the common Marauders and Breath of the Dragon; and, finally, he can beat S:CE and Rotschrecks with Psyche! Having only Vicissitude-based combat cards, the vampire tends to be very dangerous, but fragile - without Rotschreck he is likely to get into torpor with his opponent. Add Celerity, and he will survive most of the time - with CEL/VIC you can even rush yourself! What would you say about a deck with both Gravitnir and Louhi? Both vampires have very strong permanent abilities that can completely stop your voting predator: Louhi can cancel one action per turn, and Gravitnir will outvote another. Unfortunately, their combat disciplines are completely different, but I'm sure that something can be done here: Louhi can equip Drum of Xipe Totec, or Gravitnir can learn Thaumaturgy. Such deck isn't going to be stable enough, but it should provide a lot of opportunities to make useful short-time deals: ask some "tribute" for your votes, for refusing to block something, for both abilities... Such deals cannot be underestimated, especially with the new tournament rules that make table splits less likely. Any Tzimisce deck with large vampires should consider using Gravitnir just for his ability, Auspex and Vicissitude. Lack of Animalism can be painful, as he cannot employ any intercept-providing retainers and cannot play Read the Winds, but nevertheless, most common Tzimisce decks rarely have a lot of Animalism cards: Auspex provide most intercept and bounce, while Vicissitude is the primary combat discipline. If you are going to play CEL/VIC, Gravitnir is going to be your "star". Name: John Paleologus [Gehenna:U] Clan: Tzimisce Group: 3 Capacity: 9 Disciplines: pot ANI AUS CEL VIC Sabbat Archbishop of Istanbul: During your untap phase, if John is ready, he may burn 2 blood to cause your prey to burn 1 pool. As you can guess, there are just few vampires with CEL/VIC in the whole game, and the 9-cap John Paleologus is the youngest of them. If you are looking for a company for Gravitnir, you cannot miss John: Bela Kardoza doesn't have Auspex (besides, are you going to play 10-cap without a title?), while Demdemeh is too concentrated on his Animalism that Gravitnir doesn't have. John Paleologus share AUS/CEL/VIC with Gravitnir, which is enough for a deck. Moreover, John has a decent title, so you will potentially have 5 votes total, and a good ability. If you manage to provide him a good source of blood (like The Rack), he will "ping" your prey for a lot of pool, without any chance to defend. Without any doubts, John can do much more than that: I was forced to skip his Animalism and Potence in my "deck of the month", since Gravitnir doesn't have them. You may pair John with Ira Rivers in ani/AUS/CEL deck, or with some Osebo (AUS/CEL/pot), and so on. But since you're reading the !Malkavian newsletter (not a Tzimisce one), let's just say that John Paleologus is the "best friend" of Gravitnir :) 3. CARD OF THE MONTH Name: Bauble [Sabbat:R, SW:R, Third:R] Cardtype: Action Cost: 2 blood Discipline: Vicissitude +1 stealth action. [vic] Put this card on the acting vampire. Search your library and put a non-unique, non-location equipment card on another minion you control. Do not pay the cost to equip. The vampire with this card cannot attempt actions, block or vote. You may burn this card and the chosen equipment card during your untap phase or when the minion with the chosen equipment leaves the controlled region. [VIC] As above, but you may burn this card and the chosen equipment at any time. So we are going to play a mixed !Malk/Tzimisce CEL/VIC deck? Looks like we'll need some serious weapons to maneuver and/or deal serious damage. One-shot Vicissitude combat cards are good, but we can run out of them, which would be fatal. Bauble provides a way to get an expensive weapon for free (OK, not for free - for tapping another vampire, but you won't have to pay pool for it). It's something like "a Tzimisce Alastor" :) This card is old enough, but it wasn't very popular: Tzimisce rarely have stealth, and, more importantly, they rarely need equipment so badly to justify playing such cards. Anti-Malkavians suddenly made Bauble much more attractive for three reasons. Firstly, the CEL/VIC deck really can benefit from the big nasty weapons like Assault Rifle or Flamethrower, even if you'll have to tap a vampire for them: two or three strikes with such weapons will torporize almost any vampire. Secondly, !Malks can fetch Bauble with their Sibyl's Tongues - paying 4-5 pool for these weapons would be too much; even the vampire playing Bauble may cost less. Finally, !Malks have additional stealth - they can play Cloak the Gathering to avoid casual blockers, even if the acting vampire doesn't have Obfuscate. Unfortunately, there are no Horatio in 3-4 group, but we can use Guedado or Ana Rita Montana that have Obfuscate. Bauble is the promised Vicissitude card that is useful even at inferior - moreover, it's usually played this way. Thus, any !Malk with inferior Vicissitude can play it - Luc, for instance. You may even build a breed deck with Creation Rites, put Vicissitude skill cards on your progeny and use them to play Baubles! Looks like such deck would use Vicissitude only for Baubles, an its primary disciplines would be Celerity and Obfuscate. Unfortunately, Gangrels antitribu don't have cheap Archbishops with CEL/OBF (9-cap Migur Sabau is the cheapest one), so this idea doesn't look very playable right now, but nothing prevents you from trying. 4. DECK OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Fool's Bauble Created By: Ilya Ginsburg Description: Gravitnir and John AUS-CEL-VIC Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 17, Max: 40, Avg: 7,41) ---------------------------------------------- 4 Gravitnir AUS CEL DEM OBF VIC 10 !Malk 3 John Paleologus pot ANI AUS CEL VIC 9 Tzimisce 2 Luc dem vic OBF 5 !Malk 1 Ana Rita Montana aus dom obf VIC 5 Tzimisce 1 Guedado aus obf vic 4 Tzimisce 1 Ilias cel Frumos aus vic 3 Tzimisce Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (16 cards) 1 Rack, The 1 Powerbase: Madrid 1 Rotschreck 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 2 Zillah`s Valley 1 Black Forest Base 2 Trophy: Domain 1 Trophy: Hunting Ground 4 Blood Doll 1 Creepshow Casino Action (7 cards) 2 Bauble 4 Sibyl`s Tongue 1 Soul Decoration Action Modifier (6 cards) 4 Forgotten Labyrinth 2 Red List Political Action (3 cards) 2 Templar 1 Trumped-Up Charges Reaction (21 cards) 5 Quicken Sight 6 Telepathic Misdirection 8 Forced Awakening 2 Eagle`s Sight Combat (31 cards) 6 Chiropteran Marauder 4 Breath of the Dragon 6 Psyche! 1 Fast Hands 4 Blur 6 Side Strike 4 Taste of Vitae Ally (1 cards) 1 Mylan Horseed (Goblin) Equipment (5 cards) 1 Heart of Nizchetus 2 Assault Rifle 1 Flamethrower 1 Bowl of Convergence This is a mixed combo/intercept deck focusing on Baubles. You can dig Bauble with Sibyl's Tongue, Luc's ability or Heart of Nizchetus. The most pleasant thing is the ability to play without Bauble (and without weapons) for a while - you can easily impersonate a "normal" AUS/CEL/VIC deck without any "tricks". Fetch Creepshow Casino if your neighbours can generate more than +1 intercept: this deck doesn't have a lot of stealth. Other first-priority cards include Heart (of course), Mylan Horseed and Bowl of Convergence. This deck operates as a casual blocker and a "casual Trophy hunter". There is some votes and a good anti-voting ability, so you can make deals, if needed. Deal with a voting deck, if possible, since you will benefit from Ancient Influence and Political Stranglehold as much as your partner. Besides, you need to push at least one Templar and start rushing. You may easily confuse your opponents with your toolbox, but don't get confused yourself :) This deck serves as a demonstration of a CEL/VIC based Trophy hunter. Flamethrower and four Breaths of the Dragon allow you to burn empty vampires, while Assault Rifles make them empty in a few strikes. Make a vampire Red List, then torporize him, let them resque him, catch him while hunting and burn. With your votes, you may be able to simply diablerize the victim, especially with Powerbase:Madrid in play. If you manage to get at least one Trophy, your position will become much stronger, but you should try to get two at once: play one as a master prior to burning. That's all for December. As always, all comments and ideas are appreciated. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Yours, Ector