Official VEKN Nosferatu Newsletter for July, 2007. While driving back from Origins (where, lemme tell you, I didnıt do Clan Nosferatu any favors--my one tournament played with a Nosferatu ANI/POT Rush deck ended with me getting a powerful .5 VP in two preliminary rounds...) for 8 hours with my buddy Dave, we spent a lot of time discussing VTES strategy (as what the hell else do you do while driving back from Origins for 8 hours?), and one thing I kept wondering was ³how come I donıt see Confusion of the Eye more often than I do?², which is something Iıll hit on a bit lower on the page, but that kinda morphed into me reconstructing an old, moderately effective Nosferatu themed deck, which I have reassembled, put into practice, and have been doing pretty well with, so it is the new meat for the Newsletter mill. A kind of toolboxy Stealth/Bleed/Fight deck that is remarkably flexible, pretty effective at ousting, and primarily, exists to make Lithrac into a superstar (Lithrac is always near and dear to my Nosferatu heart, as he was the lynchpin in the original power play that became the Bakija Gambit...). There are enough Nosferatu included to make playing some of the stronger Clan Masters possible, and to count as a Nosferatu deck should it ever win a tournament :-) ³Spy! Spy! Spy! Spy!² Crypt: 2x Lithrac (5) OBF 2x Count Ormonde (5) OBF, dom 2x Zebulon (5) OBF, dom 1x Badr al-Budur (5) OBF, dom 1x Grendel-The Worm Eaten (5) OBF 1x Agrippina (4) OBF 1x Laurent de Valois (4) obf, dom 1x Duck (3) obf 1x Dimple (2) obf Avg. 4.4 Library: 6x Blood Doll 1x Haven Uncovered 1x Fame 1x Dreams of the Sphinx 1x Slum Hunting Ground 1x The Labyrinth 1x Fragment of the Book of Nod 1x Coronerıs Contact 15x Spying Mission 8x Swallowed by the Night 7x Disguised Weapon 4x Lost in Crowds 4x Behind You! 4x Vanish from the Minds Eye 4x Confusion of the Eye 1x Hidden Lurker 8x Deflection 8x Harass 6x On the Qui Vive 6x .44 Magnum 1x Ivory Bow 1x Improvised Flame Thrower So here you have a OBF based Stealth and Bleed deck the aims to get a pile of Spying Missions on someone and then sneak through and bleed someone for 11 in one shot, while packing guns, maneuvers, and Rushes to cull the weak and once and a while, score a death blow with Fame. Dominate is restricted simply to enabling the always important bleed bounce. With fairly cheap minions, you can afford to get out 4 or 5 vampires with a few guns, which makes swarm tactics viable. It is certainly arguable as to whether or not this deck is going to be more effective than simply using Dominate for the bleed bonus, but going the Spying Mission route has a few advantages, in that the Spying Missions double as stealth when needed, the deck is virtually bleed bounce proof (if you get bounced the Spying Missions you have donıt go off, and you can always play another Spying Mission on your new bleed target). In the Master department, there are a lot of Blood Dolls for pool gain and blood management, a Haven Uncovered and a Fame for the light Rush angle, some card cycling from Dreams and the Fragment, a Hunting Ground (good due to the lack of Tastes) and the Labyrinth for perma-stealth, and a Coronerıs Contact as ³go get Lithrac² back up. The main bulk of the deck consists of stealth as the delivery mechanism and Spying Missions for bleed bonus. Go bleed for 1, stealth by, and if you donıt need the Spying Mission for stealth, stack one on for the +2 bleed later on. Feel free to pile them up as that increases the bleed efficiency. The Disguised gun Rush angle works very well with Lithrac (who gets an inherent +1 stealth on Rush actions) and is useful for killing weak folks or troublesome opponents--the guns are unlikely to really damage anyone with significant combat defense, but the press from the Harass (which will actually work, as there is enough stealth to get your Harass actions to land on target most of the time) will allow you to wear down anyone who isnıt really defensive. As noted, being able to play Fame on some weak minion of your prey and then stealth Rush them into torpor is often how this deck makes its first oust. It isnıt usually going to get more than a couple weapons out, so hopefully the cycling Masters will let you flush unneeded Disguised Weapons and guns out of your hand. The defense of the deck consists of a reasonable amount of Deflection for the always useful bleed bounce, and then a few Confusions of the Eye. And now a public service announcement (with guitars!) about Confusion of the Eye. Confusion of the Eye is a *really* good card. To the point that Iıd think that it would show up far more often than it does. It is a very strong defensive card that is easily cycleable, has multiple uses, doesnıt tap you, and can really get your old ladyıs car out of a bad area. On first look, it screams ³Iım a magic bullet against PTO!² which, in and of itself, is probably enough to justify playing the card in a lot of decks. But then it also foils Parity Shift (which is incredibly common and tends to be brutal). And Alastor. And Anathema. And Archon. And a bunch of other votes too (although PTO, Parity Shift, and Anathema are probably the best ones to foil). And even if your opponent is calling a non title needing vote, Confusion of the Eye cancels all the votes of the acting vampire, which means a great deal of the time, the vote will fail anyway. And the Voter Captivation will probably not do much also--wait till Arika plays Awe for most of her blood on the horrible vote that is going to kill you, and then Confusion of the Eye her. That is one screwed Arika. And if that isnıt enough, it is incredibly flexible as a bleed reducer if you donıt need it for vote defense--yeah, the bleeding minion has to be younger or an ally, but it is incredibly likely that you will, at some point, be bled by someone who fits the bill for the inferior of Confusion of the Eye. So it is a flexible, powerful, incredibly handy defense card that costs zero blood and doesnıt tap you. Why is this card not in every Obfuscate deck ever at this point? I have no idea. Granted, the illustration is confusion (as confusing as the eye?)--is it a picture of Oscar Garza doing stand up? I got nothing. But in any case, everyone out there who isnıt paying attention to the Confusions of the Eyes in their collection, start using them. They are fantastic. Well, thatıs it for now--a reasonably effective, Nosferatu based bleedy/fighty deck (that makes Lithrac awesome!) and a psychotic rant on how Confusion of the Eye is pure gold. -Peter D Bakija You can check out all of my old Nosferatu Newsletters at: http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html Peter D Bakija pdb6@lightlink.com http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html