Official V:EKN Newsletter for Anarchs – March, 2004 Contents: I – Vampire(s) of the Month (Clan Gargoyle) II – Card(s) of the Month (Fee Stakes) III – Deck Idea (The Convention of Stones) IV - Conclusion (No fiction this month, as I just couldn't make a "Gargoyles go Anarch" story that didn't sound horribly hackneyed, and I did try. I'm sure you can picture it.) Note: Credit where credit is due: the initial inspiration for pure (no Tremere) Anarch Gargoyles came from Antti Siponen's deck, which is a significantly more combat-focused deck than the one I describe below. Nevertheless, he pointed out some key concepts to me, such as the importance of Fidus with votes. Do a search on "Gargoyle Anarch" and you should find our brief discussion on his deck. I. Vampires of the Month - Gargoyles This month, I'm bringing to you an entire clan, or rather – bloodline. Although I don't intend to make a habit of infringing on the territory of other newsletters, sometimes it will behoove me to show what it looks like when an Anarch deck is focused on a specific clan. Certainly there are many cases where the special cards accessible by a particular clan can really boost an Anarch strategy, such as Demonstration with a !Ventrue Barons deck. So this month I want to look at an entire clan and talk about the advantages and concerns of making a clan-focused Anarch deck using the Gargoyles. First, the suspects: Erinyi – (3), pot vis, Sabbat, -1 strength against !Gangrel Fidus – (4), for tha vis, Cam, Tre Slave, +1 stealth on undirected actions, -1 strength Luma – (5), aus FOR pot vis, Cam, Tre Slave Obsidian – (5), for pot VIS, Indie Pugfar – (5), aus for POT vis, Sabbat, !Tre slave, burn blood to give !Tremere a press Saxum – (6), FOR pot pre VIS, Cam, Tre Slave Ferox – (7), ani, FOR POT VIS, Indie, Enter combat with Nos, younger vamps burn blood to block, no diab Ublo Satha – (7), cel FOR POT VIS, Cam, Tre Slave, prevent one per combat, Brujah get +1 bleed against him The first thing to look for when considering whether the Gargoyles make good Anarchs should be obvious: they have SIX untitled minions between capacities 5 and 7! That, if I may say so, is the magic number. That many Baron-ready vampires with the same discipline spread make a perfect seed for an Anarch vote deck, as you'll see in this month's deck. Other factors to consider: Fidus is an excellent voter, and if you Sanguinely Instruct him (in potence, for instance), he be a Baron as well. The Gargoyles make an excellent wall, of course, and an Anarch component helps them bloat, particularly if you want to build a Smiling Jack or Anarch Revolt focus. If you don't want to make a pure Gargoyle deck, they mix better as Anarchs with the Tremere than they do just by themselves. For instance, consider the effect of using Sabine Lafitte as your accompanying Tremere in a deck with High Ground/Sewer Lid as your combat scheme. Throw in some Diversions, which Sabine can use at tha. On the other end of the grouping scheme, consider Kyoko and Eugenio, who can share in the Diversion defense. Problems: The biggest problem is of course the slave status. Gargoyles are not well configured for an Anarch bleed deck, nor can they rely on the minor harassment ability of Smash and Grab. And while it seems like High Ground and Improvised Tactics go well together, a Lid, Car or Arch would really be a better strike at long. (Imp Tac is really best utilized with a pot/CEL deck.) The benefits for Gargoyles being Anarchs really come down to the votes and the hunting, which should really be used together for maximum effect. Once your forward motion is all in votes, the Slave status stops being so crippling, and Fee Stakes are easily the most effective way to get voting power onto the Gargoyles. II. Card of the Month – Fee Stakes At some point, I had to do this – cover the Fee Stakes generically – because there is just too much strategy involved in making them work not to. The problem with Fee Stakes is that they SEEM straightforward, and as long as your opponents think of them that way that's fine, but as soon as the other players in your playgroup start to see Fee Stakes as a threat, you need to play them a little smarter. So this month I'm going to give what I hope is a fairly comprehensive list of pointers on acquiring, keeping and using Fee Stakes. First of all, here's the generic version of the text, so that we're completely clear: Fee Stake: [city] Action Requires a ready anarch with capacity above 4. +1 stealth action. Put this card on the acting anarch. This anarch is declared Baron of [city]. This may lead to a contested title. [on some Stakes: If this anarch is [clan] or [antitribu clan], he or she gets 1 additional vote in referendums he or she calls.] Any vampire can call a referendum to burn this card as a +1 stealth political action. In that referendum, non-anarch titles are worth 1 fewer votes. So what are the issues? First of all, let's consider acquiring the Fee Stake. That should be easy enough, since it's just a +1 stealth action, right? Wrong. Once you start regularly winning or at least wounding with Anarchs, you can expect the table to sit up and take notice whenever you want to Fee Stake. If your deck dies to casual intercept, this could be an issue. I highly recommend waiting until you have some perma-stealth on the table, like the Railroad or Creepshow Casino. Also, if you happen to be using a discipline that has access to S:CE/Continue, this is where to use it. Otherwise, find some way to build stealth into your decks. Playing Anarch vote without extra stealth is not likely to work very well. Now the big difficulty: protecting it. A single Fee Stake at a table of five players where four of them are not playing Anarchs is VERY fragile. It only takes a Justicar and the edge to get rid of it, and this becomes a greater issue if somebody is playing presence vote. So how do you protect it? Most of the strategy in protecting a Fee Stake actually lies in how you get it in the first place. Here are some pointers: 1) Don't get ahead of yourself. Try to time it so that you lay down both your first and second Fee Stakes in a single turn. 2) Firebrands are huge protection for Fee Stakes. If there's a vote deck across the table, try to deal with it to pass your Firebrand before you ever lay down a Fee Stake. 3) Watch for contestation. Remember that Barons pay double, so be careful about Fee Staking Seattle, Boston or New York. (And don't be dumb and put LA in a deck where you expect to merge Jeremy.) 4) Consider some anti-vote defense options. If you're playing !Ventrue, Demonstration is a perfect Fee Stake defense. Delaying Tactics is pretty generically useful, and always fun to play AFTER the Awe. And finally - using Fee Stakes. Chances are the clan you are playing is not normally considered a big vote-pusher. Otherwise you may not have bothered going Anarch. As a result, you're going to need to make sure you've got the oomph to pass your votes. Oddly enough, I haven't found this to be a huge issue once my Fee Stakes have gotten rolling. If I have two or three Barons, I can usually make a deal somewhere at the table to help me get Firebrands on them, and that usually cinches it. It's always good to save a Smash&Grab for the Ventrue Headquarters, but often other vote decks are relying on presence-push, so you may actually out-vote them raw. It may be a good call to put in a couple of Rants (particularly if you're playing Daughters) and MAYBE an Emissary or two just to make sure you get the Firebrands. Also, Bribes/Cryptic Rider can be a nasty combination if the first vote is an Anarch Salon and the second is a KRC, but try not to do it too often. Failing that, just keep cycling your cards and bringing out minions until you have all six Fee Stakes in play. You DID put all six in your deck, right? Hmm, that brings me to the REAL final issue: Building your deck for Barons. The only excuse for not playing with all six Fee Stakes in an Anarch vote deck is that you don't own them all. And if that's the case, you should double up on the one (if any) that corresponds to a clan you're using. (Even in a 90-card deck, I wouldn't recommend doubling up to MORE than six very often, unless you die to casual intercept. Better to be prepared than redundant.) Then, even more importantly, OVER half your crypt should be "Baron-ready". That means 5-7 capacity, non-titled vampire, and preferably a Galaric's Legacy or Seattle Committee in your starting draw. (I don't recommend going over capacity 7 unless you've got something quirky going on.) IV. Deck Idea – The Convention of Stones (See above for crypt stats) Crypt – 12 cards (Min 16, Max 28, Avg 5.5): Erinyi 3x Ferox, the Rock Lord 2x Fidus, the Shrunken Beast Luma, Stone Beauty Obsidian Pugfar 2x Saxum, Master of Slaves Ublo Satha Library – 80 cards Masters (17): Anarch Free Press Anarch Railroad Archon Investigation 5x Blood Doll Creepshow Casino 5x Galaric's Legacy Hospital Food Life Boon WMRH Talk Radio Actions (13): Aranthebes, the Immortal 2x Armor of Terra 2x Clan Impersonation Fee Stake: Boston Fee Stake: Corte Fee Stake: Los Angeles Fee Stake: New York Fee Stake: Perth Fee Stake: Seattle 2x Sanguine Instruction Political Actions (19): 7x Anarch Salon Consanguineous Boon Disputed Territory 2x Dramatic Upheaval 3x Firebrand 5x Kine Resources Contested Action Modifiers (15): 4x Bribes 2x Conscripted Statue 2x Cryptic Rider 4x Freak Drive 3x Skin of the Chameleon Allies/Equipment/Retainers (6): 4x Razor Bat 2x Rock Cat Reactions (8): 2x Delaying Tactics 6x Forced Awakening Combat (2): 2x Flow Within the Mountain Comments: Yes, for those of you counting, that's 38 card-based actions. Welcome to the magic of Firebrand. (I also noticed a significant boost when I added the four Freak Drives, because then Ferox or Ublo could take two actions as well as helping someone else take two actions.) This deck took a game win (3vps) at the most recent Lafayette tourney, and could have done better if I hadn't faced (mostly) irresponsible backwash in both the other games. You may notice that the vote package is built to similar VP-sniping effect as "The Baronesses" from January. Perhaps it's a personal style thing, but I think the Anarchs do very well with this strategy. IV – Conclusion So now I'll go back to individual vampires and temporarily cease weaseling in on other newsletters' territories. Next month – Hrothulf, the vampire with too much to do. Also, a look at Improvised Tactics, which will leave me with only one 3-way to go (though I don't know if I need to bother discussing Smash and Grab). Yes, that's right – Hrothulf and Improvised Tactics. Does that feel like an April Fool's issue? 'Cause it should. Thanks for reading, and power to the people! Eric Simon Prince of Chicago Writer of the Official V:EKN Anarch Newsletter