Top Hat Times #4 Samedi newsletter - December, 2008. -= Table of contents =- 1 -- Word from the editors desk 2 -- Hunk of the Month: Vittorio Giovanni 3 -- Card of the Month: Old Friends 4 -- Deck of the Month: Trix are for Kids 5 -- Hats off ===== 1 - Word from the editors desk ===== Hello there, Sadly the Samedi presence in the Keepers of Tradition set was exactly zero. No new fresh air in the crypt selection sadly, except for some from other clans you might want to play with alongside the Samedi (or the other way around?). But some fine new cards to toy around with none the less. This months special future among the library cards from the latest set got me thinking a lot for example :) Hope you find something that catches your interest inside! /alex ===== 2 - Hunk of the month: Vittorio Giovanni ===== Vittorio Giovanni Clan: Giovanni (group 2) Capacity: 5 Disciplines: dom for nec pot Independent This guy was one of my favourite Giovannis for a long time, mostly because of his illustration on the card - I never really played him in any deck to speak of, but for me hes a neat little guy. I belive the only deck I played him in that almost worked was a bruise'n'bleed deck with dominate and disarm+prevent combat package, I dismantled the deck after a test drive though so he never really got a lot of table time as my underling. Why I featured him in this newsletter is because he's a perfect fit as a support vampire in a Samedi deck that wants to splash into dominate. He can deflect, govern bleed, freak drive and gain advantage of any fortitude-combat package you might have in the deck. His lack of obfuscate can be patched up via cloak the gatherings and Veil the Legion from his friends. With some showing of the Giovanni family in the crypt you also gain access to strong clan-restricted cards. Sudario Refraction in particular lets you setup a lot of your game on the go and lets you cheat on copies of certain cards because its so easy to piece together combo parts with the card. More on this in the Deck of the Month-section :) By investing 5 pool into Vittorio Giovanni you get a decent amount of bang for you buck, the downside about him that I find a tad annoying is that he got inferior necromancy and that is not too hot usually. ===== 3 - Card of the Month: Old Friends ===== Old Friends Type: Action Modifier Requires: Obfuscate Cost: 1 blood Do not replace until your untap phase. [obf] +1 bleed. You cannot play another action modifier to increase this bleed. [OBF] Only usable during a referendum. This vampire gains 2 votes. This card was printed as a common in Keepers of Tradition and its a mighty fine card in my opinion. A great addition to the Samedi's weaponry. A bleed modifier at basic obfuscate is nice, the traditional Samedi bleed-deck with computers and bleed retainers on top of the old group 2 vampires +bleed effects printed on them together with this card should make your bleeds get more oomph at the cost of a hand size. The replace at next untap-limitation hurts the cards playability to a degree since you really want your card flow to be good when you play a stealth-bleeder to ensure you're sitting with the goods to deliver on hand. As only a bleed push-card Old Friends is pretty poor but with the superior obfuscate that gives votes this card is going to be sweet to try out Samedi voting with. Anarch voting should be totaly doable now, similar to the Daugthers of Cacaphony variants that is (was?) very popular - Samedi have not had the traditional voting power that the daughters has but this card introduced something along those lines. Again, a card that you dont replace in the same turn to get you going and going is pretty handicapping for a vote deck too. I'll explore this territory of Samedi deck building in the months to come for sure. ===== 4 - Deck of the month: Trix are for Kids ===== Back 2004 Tobias op den Brouw won a tournament with a deck he called "Even Samedi are better with Dominate" and this months deck is a variant on that concept. I want to cut down the deck size by at least 10 more cards to get more chances to setup a good hand via Sudario Refraction recyclying, but the basic idea is to put out a psychic veil and bleed some with your dorks and then pick up cards with Sudario to basicly do the same thing next turn until you win ;) Combat defence status: Zero =P Crypt: 3 Vittorio Giovanni nec for pot dom 5 3 Baron dom FOR NEC OBF THN 9 2 George Frederick FOR nec obf THN 6 2 Jorge De La Muerte cel for nec OBF THN 7 1 Lithrac for thn OBF 5 1 Reg Driscoll aus for pre OBF THN 8 Library: - 80 cards Master: - 12 5 Minion Tap 1 Blood Doll 4 Dominate 1 Giant's Blood 1 Barrens, the Action: - 17 6 Govern of the Unaligned 5 Sudario Refraction 3 Psychic Veil 3 Restoration Action Modifier: - 28 4 Cloak the Gathering 4 Veil the Legion 7 Freak Drive 4 Lost in Crowds 4 Spying Mission 3 Conditioning 2 Swallowed by the night Ally: - 7 1 Brigitte Gebauer (Wraith) 1 Leonardo, Mortician 5 Reanimated Corpse Equipment: - 3 1 Seal of Veddartha 1 Camera Phone 1 Heart of Nizchetus Reaction: - 13 7 Deflection 3 Wake with evening's Freshness 3 On the Qui Vive ===== 5 - Hats off ===== This newsletter came out as thin as the one last month. Oh, well. Can't White Wolf pay me to do this so I can sit on my butt infront of the computer all day? ;) If you have any deck lists or other material that you want included please mail me at kitzuneninja (at) hotmail (dot) com and I'll slide it right in! Thank you and good night. /alex http://intelliganism.blogg.se - Vtes Strategic Nonsense