Malkavian Antitribu Newsletter, July 2007 VOLUME VI, Issue VII 1. INTRODUCTION This newsletter is going to be dull and sad. Due to my personal problems, I'm currently have no mood to write newsletters, but I think that newsletter must be written for each month unless the world would be destroyed by a disaster. So, you have a choice of just skipping this one or reading it, with my apologies... 2. VAMPIRES OF THE MONTH Mariel St. John [Third] Clan: Ventrue antitribu Capacity: 6 Group: 4 Disciplines: dom pro AUS FOR Sabbat. At the first glance, there is nothing special in Mariel - she's almost a common 6-cap !Ventrue with all clan Disciplines at superior, but one level of Dominate was replaced by one level of Protean. Does this mean much? Surely it does! Superior Dominate is great for the large vampires who can play Governs, but for a 6-cap, even inferior is enough to bleed with Governs and to play Deflections. Superior Deflection is certainly better, but most of the time this won't be crucial unless Mariel will be your only vampire with Dominate. Besides, decks with reliable AUS usually prefer Telepathic Misdirections anyway due to their versatility. What about inferior Protean? Actually, it makes Mariel somewhat special. Protean is a wonderful combat discipline, even at inverior level. You still can play Claws to inflict aggravated damage, Flesh of Marble to prevent almost all damage or Earth Meld to end combat. Anti- Ventrue traditionally have serious problems with combat: while their AUS enables intercept decks, and their FOR allows them to survive these combats, they have no disciplines to strike back. Protean compensates for this disadvantage and makes Mariel almost a "must have" in AUS/FOR/pro decks. A quick search in the VTES card database shows that Mariel St. John is a youngest vampire with AUS/for/pro. You will also notice that ALL vampires with these disciplines are great: Omaya is a "star" of several decks, Ian Forestal is infamous for his versatility, Szechenyi Jolan should be good in War Ghoul deck, Lernean is a "new Goratrix", but with a good title... and, I guess, there is no need to introduce Lazverinus and Elimelech :) The latter, Elimelech, is the best companion for Mariel (better to say that Mariel is a good companion to Elimelech, I guess), since they share all four Mariel's disciplines and clan. Mariel isn't Black Hand, but not every deck based on Elimelech must be a Black Hand deck. You may use just a few Black Hand cards for Elimelech (especially Watchtower: Four Ride Forth), and nothing more. AUS/FOR/pro is a good theme for Elimelech, since Claws at first strike work very nice, you don't depend on any weapons (Drawing Out the Beast cannot stop you), and you can trump even Immortal Grapple. Obviously, Mariel is the best support vampire for this deck theme. Neighbor John [Third] Clan: Ventrue antitribu Capacity: 5 Group: 4 Disciplines: dom for AUS Sabbat. +1 intercept. Prior to Neighbour John, the youngest vampire with unconditional +1 intercept was 7-cap Carna and Matthias. A 5-cap vampire with the same ability is a major breakthrough. John's combat abilities are limited to inferior Fortitude, alas, so he is going to be very effective in the noncombat metagame, but much worse in the combat-heavy metagame. Nevertheless, John is a great support vampire in any AUS/for deck, and he truly shines in the Auspex weenie. Give him a .44 Magnum, and he will block a lot of dangerous actions even without the additional cards. If nobody plays heavy combat, he will protect you even without any weapons. 3. CARD OF THE MONTH Shattered Mirror [Third:U] Cardtype: Reaction Discipline: Dementation Only usable when this vampire successfully blocks an ally or younger vampire bleeding you. [dem] Put this card on the acting minion and end the action (with no combat). The minion with this card gets -1 bleed. He or she may burn it as an action that costs 1 blood. A minion may have only one Shattered Mirror. [DEM] As above, and this reacting vampire doesn`t tap for successfully blocking the action. Dementation is mostly a bleeding discipline, and it doesn't have a lot of good reactions. Actually, Voice of Madness is a bad replica of Obedience, Abandoning the Flesh is a "prayer card", Random Patterns is somewhat versatile, but requires a second discipline, and only Babble was quite interesting if you were going to cooperate with the other players instead of just straight bleeding... but Babble was designed primarily for small vampires, as you aren't likely to keep a large vampire with Dementation untapped, or tap him to untap somebody else. Shattered Mirror is the first Dementation-based reaction that is definitely good for the large vampires with Dementation - especially with superior Dementation: 1). You completely avoid combat. This cannot be underestimated: most vampires with DEM aren't very good combatants. If you have Shattered Mirror, you can block any combat monster without fear - there are no ways to continue combat after the action is ended. The very idea of "bruise & bleed" is completely ruined by Shattered Mirrors, if your deck has enough of them. You may ask your ally to redirect a bleed to you and deal with the bleeder using just one card. 2). You foil the enemy plans for the current turn. No Freak Drive after Shattered Mirror, no Forced March, and Flurry of Action will do nothing. This simple card can seriously slow your predator even without considering the need of burning it. 3). You "spoil" the enemy minion. Not only he wasted one action for an unsuccessful bleed that you've blocked, but he will be forced to waste another action and 1 blood to burn Shattered Mirror - and you can block that action, too! As far as I understand the card text, allies CANNOT burn it, since they have no blood. This means that Shattered Mirror severely punishes Imbued, Satyrs and other allies bleeding decks. 4). If you have superior Dementation, you don't even tap for blocking the action. All you lose is a single card, and the opponent loses two actions and some blood! This looks like "broken". As long as your blocker is going to have AUS/DEM most of the time, you can play Shattered Mirror on the light bleeds and Telepathic Misdirection on heavy ones. Or, if you have a Rotschreck, Shattered Mirrors will defend your pool against minor bleeds while you're waiting for the intended target for Rotschreck. In short, this card made intercept deck with Dementation much better. It isn't a panacea: you will have to block different actions, not only bleeds against you, but bleed is the most basic action, and you can be sure to encounter it. Theoretically, one 3-cap Jackie with a lot of Shattered Mirrors can easily stop a disciplineless weenie horde! 4. DECK OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Elimelech & Louhi Created By: Ilya Ginsburg Description: Elimelech & Louhi blocking deck Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 21, Max: 44, Avg: 8,83) ---------------------------------------------- 4 Elimelech the Twice-Damned pro AUS DEM DOM FOR OBF 11 ! Ventrue 4 Louhi pro ANI AUS DEM OBF THA 10 ! Malkavian 2 Mariel St. John dom pro AUS FOR 6 ! Ventrue 1 Hagar Stone obf AUS DEM 5 ! Malkavian 1 Neighbor John dom for AUS 5 ! Ventrue Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (17 cards) 1 Shakar 3 Rotschreck 1 Watchtower: Four Ride Forth 5 Minion Tap 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Powerbase: Montreal 2 Direct Intervention 1 Information Highway 1 Giant's Blood Action (10 cards) 4 Sibyl`s Tongue 1 Emergency Powers 1 Blessing of Chaos 3 Magic of the Smith 1 Rutor`s Hand Political Action (2 cards) 1 Ancient Influence 1 Political Stranglehold Reaction (27 cards) 5 Telepathic Misdirection 6 Forced Awakening 5 Eagle`s Sight 2 On the Qui Vive 5 Shattered Mirror 4 Spirit`s Touch Combat (24 cards) 6 Amaranth 4 Coma 4 Disguised Weapon 5 Flesh of Marble 5 Claws of the Dead Equipment (7 cards) 1 Bowl of Convergence 1 Ivory Bow 1 Improvised Flamethrower 1 Rowan Ring 1 Heart of Nizchetus 1 Sengir Dagger 1 Blade of Enoch Event (3 cards) 1 Fueled by Heart`s Blood 1 Rise of the Nephtali 1 Thirst This is a variation of Elimelech deck from my previous newsletter. This version is not so "reckless" and much more reliable, since intercept is rarely considered a major threat (probably, until you improve your position enough to play Shakar). This deck is not a "demonstration toolbox" anymore: there are no Trophies, no Anarchs cards (you may still need to convert your Elimelech to anarchy if you play Rise of the Nephtali), and so on. The "fetching part" of the deck was also greatly reduced - now it's just an AUS/DEM/pro intercept deck with some aggravated weapons and Rotschrecks. The second "star" of the deck is Louhi. She is quite famous as a wonderful blocker with a good title and awesome ability, so the old lady greatly enforces the deck protection. She also has Protean and can play all cards in this deck, but her role isn't limited to that. As long as Louhi has superior Thaumaturgy, she can fetch the needed equipment with Magics of the Smith at +3 stealth, which is almost safe. While Elimelech has the Watchtower to untap, Louhi has Rutor's Hand for the same purpose. Finally, this deck can have a LOT of votes (up to 7 votes for Elimelech and 3 votes for Louhi's title), so you are going to have a strong influence on the table voting. Combat module was also changed - Groundfightings were replaced by the Protean cards, Flesh of Marble and Claws. This is not enough to dominate the table, but in combination with aggro weapons, Coma and Rotschreck is should work quite good. That's all for July. As always, all comments and ideas are appreciated. Yours, Ector