OFFICIAL VEKN CLAN VENTRUE NEWSLETTER: NOVEMBER 2007 CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Ventrue and Obfuscate 3. Vampires of the Month 4. Deck of the Month Introduction Greetings, and welcome to the November edition of the VEKN Ventrue Newsletter. It’s been a few months; class and work have kept me busy. Let’s get this rolling. Ventrue and Obfuscate Continuing with my review of Ventrue and off-clan disciplines, this month I’m tackling how the discipline of Obfuscate helps Ventrue efforts of city domination. Many players consider Obfuscate the best off-clan discipline for the Ventrue and it’s easy to see why. The Venture clan discipline spread makes them one of the most offensive (pun intended!) clans in the game; few things are as devastating as something like Democritus Parity Shifting you then immediately following that up by Freak Driving and then bleeding you for 7. The only thing stopping this from being a regular occurrence is that those actions aren’t very sneaky and get blocked more often than not. Which, of course, is where Obfuscate comes in... The single best and of course most obvious thing Obfuscate does is provide stealth for all those vicious actions you want to victimize your prey with. As of the most recent set, Lords of the Night, there are 19 Obfuscate cards which provide your minions with some form of stealth, which is certainly a large field from which to choose. Are some better for the Ventrue than others? Since Obfuscate is an off-clan discipline you may not have it on the majority of your vampires unless you’re using lots of skill cards, and having it at superior may only be limited to one or two vampires. Also, Ventrue tend to like Obfuscate to help them get their bleeds and votes through. With that in mind, here is a quick review of each stealth-providing Obfuscate card, rated from one to five stars. A one or two-star card is less useful for Ventrue, a three-star is just as useful to the Ventrue as anyone else, while a four or five-star may be more useful to the Ventrue than your average Obfuscate possessing vampire. Blithe Acceptance *** I haven’t had a chance to use this card, but looking at its effects, standing +1 stealth is really strong for a clan that doesn’t have a stealth discipline. Normally it doesn’t stay on the vampire too long if it’s played at inferior, which looks like the more common scenario for Ventrue, but since they have access to Obedience, that may mitigate this somewhat if the minion gets rushed. Cloak the Gathering **** One of the staple stealth cards. Since it’s a likely scenario that not all of your vampires are going to have Obfuscate, being able to give them stealth is a great boon. Arika or Vitel (or even Suhailah) can be your stealth provider for all your other minions. Domain of Evernight * You really only see this card used at the outferior level in heavy Obfuscate decks that need as many different stealth modifiers as possible in order get huge amounts of stealth. Since that’s a highly unlikely deck concept with the Ventrue there’s really no reason to use this card. Elder Impersonation ** At the cost of one blood this card is only worth playing at the superior level, and really only after you have at least one or two stealth on the action already. Both of these facts limit its usefulness to the Ventrue. Faceless Night *** A staple stealth card for just about any deck that uses Obfuscate. Forgotten Labyrinth ***** This card was practically made for the Ventrue, in my opinion. Sure, it does cost a blood and it can’t be used on bleed actions, but Ventrue are known for being quite fond of politics, and this card is the gold standard of stealth cards for getting those mean political actions into referendum. Adding +3 - or even +2 - stealth to an action that already has an inherent +1 stealth virtually guarantees your vote isn’t getting blocked. And the 1 blood cost will probably just be recouped by an eventual Voter Captivation anyway. Hag’s Wrinkles ** A weak card in general (at least at outferior), and the Ventrue aren’t known for being equipment happy. Pretty cornercase. Hidden Pathways * This rarely seen card provides permanent +1 stealth for all non-bleed (D) actions against your prey. Unfortunately, the two most popular Ventrue activities, voting and bleeding, get nothing from this card. Pretty much useless. Into Thin Air **** The nature of this card tends to dictate usage in decks that don’t have a great deal of stealth modifiers. Since Obfuscate isn’t a clan discipline for Venture, you probably aren’t going to be able to dedicate as many slots to Obfuscate as a clan that has the discipline, so this card merits strong consideration. Lost in Crowds *** Another one of the staple stealth cards. Getting +2 stealth from a single card is good for decks that don’t have a lot of card slots to dedicate to Obfuscate, but it’s only better than any other stealth card if the vampire using it has superior Obfuscate, which probably isn’t going to be common for the Ventrue. That kind of evens things out. Marked Path ** One of the best Obfuscate cards out there, but really best suited to dedicated stealth-bleed decks. Ventrue like to vote a lot, which limits this card’s usefulness to them. Mask of a Thousand Faces * You need superior to get the +1 stealth, and beyond that the Ventrue are often taking minion restrictive actions such as Parity Shift or Third Tradition, which further limits its use. Night Moves * Between Dominate and Presence, the Ventrue have more bleed actions than anyone else in the game. Usually the best use for this card is for getting the edge or annoying your predator, but the Ventrue can do that anyway with votes. Psychic Veil **** Ventrue princes are known for making baby vampires, and this card is certainly a boon to them because most likely you’re putting Dominate or Presence on said baby vampires. Even when you’re playing the big large cap vampires it can be quite useful because large cap Ventrue are often multi-acting with Freak Drive. Skullduggery * I really like this card when I’m playing Anarch decks, but how often are you going to play Ventrue Obfuscate Anarch decks? I guess they can play it a Presence level too, if you’re actually going to try to go that route. Smoke and Mirrors * Not only would you have to construct the aforementioned Ventrue Obfuscate Anarch deck, but you’d have to have this deck do a lot of something other than bleeding and voting. Next. Spying Mission ** The upside of this card for Ventrue is that their bleeds are often painful so you can spare your grandprey when you get bounced, but unfortunately you have to have superior Obfuscate to do it. You’d probably never use the superior version against your prey. Another card more suited to heavy Obfuscate bleed decks or clans with limited bleed modifiers. Swallowed by the Night *** The last of the staple stealth cards. Having a maneuver is nice, but generally not a big deal for Ventrue since they have Presence and Fortitude. Veil the Legions **** Another card that can give stealth to other minions, which is another boon for the Ventrue. It can get blood intensive at superior, but with Restoration, Fifth Tradition, and Voter Captivation, blood management isn’t usually a problem for the Ventrue. What other Obfuscate cards might the Ventrue be interested in? Behind You! provides a first round maneuver and Fear the Void Below provides a more costly generic maneuver. If you’re playing some form of Ventrue combat with weapons Disguised Weapon is better than concealed weapon and Hidden Lurker is another way around S:CE and Dodges. Memory’s Fading Glimpse is a way to make sure that banished vampire goes away for good. In general though, Obfuscate’s best benefit to Ventrue is stealth, and that’s all they really need from it. Vampires of the Month Marcus Vitel PRE OBT OBF FOR DOM Camarilla Prince of Washington D.C. Marcus can burn a retainer as a +1 stealth (D) action. While Marcus is ready and a prince, Sabbat vampires you control get +1 bleed when bleeding a Methuselah who controls a ready Camarilla vampire. Catherine du Bois DOM pre obf for Here are two of the G3 Ventrue which possess Obfuscate. Marcus is a staple vampire for any G3 Ventrue voting deck, but you should really be taking advantage of his superior Obfuscate if you’re going to justify paying 10 pool for him. With Veil the Legion and Cloak the Gathering he can be your stealth provider for your other Ventrue, including (and especially) any progeny he or another prince makes. You see him a lot in Lasombra decks because of his OBT and bleed special, but what I find most underrated about him is his ability to destroy retainers. Being able to eat pesky spying ravens and nosy Mr. Winthrop is great for giving your votes a chance to get to referendum when you’re not drawing into your Seductions or other stealth modifiers (if you’re using Obfuscate). Catherine is a standard 5-cap vampire with one clan discipline and superior and two others at minor, plus an off-clan discipline, in this case Obfuscate. She’s a nasty little bleeder since she has DOM, and she gets those bleeds through more often than not with her obf. She doesn’t have a title, but she can easily get one with pre and a Praxis Seizure card. Unless you’re just using the big capacity titled Ventrue, there’s no reason not to put her into any Ventrue deck that uses Obfuscate. Deck of the Month Big Ventrue Voters Crypt: x3 Arika x2 Lucinda Alastor x2 Marcus Vitel x2 Queen Anne x1 Leandro x1 Jaroslav Pascek x1 Cailen Library (80 cards): Masters (11): x6 Minion Tap x2 Information Highway x2 Zillah’s Valley x1 Golconda Actions (19): x8 Kine Resources Contested x2 Conservative Agitation x1 Reins of Power x1 Ancient Influence x1 Political Stranglehold x3 Parity Shift x1 Protect Thine Own x1 Reinforcements x1 Heart of the City Action Modifiers (21): x6 Voter Captivation x2 Awe x1 Closed Session x2 Cloak the Gathering x3 Lost in Crowds x2 Faceless Night x2 Elder Impersonation x3 Forgotten Labyrinth Reactions (15): x2 Elder Kindred Network x2 Kindred Coercion x2 Obedience x4 Deflection x3 Second Tradition: Domain x1 Wake with Evening’s Freshness x1 Eluding the Arms of Morpheus Combat (9): x4 Majesty x1 Staredown x2 Superior Mettle x2 Rolling with the Punches Multifunction (5): x3 Swallowed by the Night x2 Murmur of the False Will A huge capacity stealth vote deck. The idea is simple; call votes and use stealth if minions try to block. The biggest difference between this and other large capacity vote decks commonly seen is the lack of Freak Drives. Since I have no bleed actions or bleed modifiers, I don’t have a second useful action often enough to justify including Freak Drives. Another reason is the table hate; calling a successful KRC every turn to make your prey burn 3 pool is plenty enough offense; adding big bleeds on top of it tends to make the other players perceive your deck as a much larger threat. What this deck likes to do is take its time and steadily whittle your prey down while it builds itself up. The key to this deck is getting the 3rd minion. If you can get a third minion into play, you’re almost guaranteed a table victory, in my experience. -Luciano Mariucci, Prince of Minneapolis maclitron@yahoo.com