Since I'm starting to play again, I figured it would be more interesting to discuss what I'm currently thinking and playing rather than arbitrarily pick a vampire/card to spout about. Just had a great weekend of VTES with the Houston crowd and 'Orgplay', and felt the need to make another newsletter. Crocodile's Tongue. IMHO one of the top 5 cards printed in the Gehenna set, I have collected 20+ and they're all in decks. I need more. Most AUS clans lacked sufficient stealth, and this block denial/blood denial card is huge. You can't play it with weenies obviously, but I've found that generally they work great unless you have a 10-cap special trick wall deck in front of you. One of my current favorites using Crocodile's Tongue right now is my Daughter/!Tor bleed deck. It started as mainly a deck where I wanted the Daughter's to do something other than vote. When I hit on the Art's Traumatic Essence angle, it became a beautiful tap/bleed deck with all the !Tor with fortidue (and your other !Tor stars of course). Rosa is a machine, and I frankly need to put more forced march's in the deck. Undue Influence. This card is going to put weenie presence back on the map. Took my clotho's gift weenie module and bolted on Undue Influence and True Love's Face. It bloats beautifully and I got the game win. One thing to keep in mind playing this card, make sure you always have a vampire in your uncontrolled region. According to card text, it seems that unless you have a valid vampire target you can't play the card. We joked that Memory's Fading Glimpse will start to see more popularity. I can't wait to try out an Undue Influence/Palla Grande deck, seeing as how every !Tor has pre except Carter. It seems that Anarchs as a deck strategy is finally coming into it's own. I'm sure it's mostly due to there now being enough cards to make it worth your while. And we're also starting to see a lot more vampires in the 5-6 capacity range with a broader discipline spread. One thing we noticed is the synergy of for/cel now. It allows you to use diversion, friend of mine, the mole, and forced march. 7 group 4 vampires of capacity 6 or less have both disciplines, so it's likely (or rather I'm hopeful) we'll start to see more mid caps printed with a discipline spread of going anarch in mind. Bowl of Convergence is bad. Evil even. Especially in a deck that steals blood. It's just wrong. I felt dirty...unclean. Crocodile Temple. This combos with Ecstasy right? So if someone bleeds for one, you can make them burn a blood...and then the *action* was still successful and then you ping them for a damage right? So with multiple ecstasys you can quite possibly send someone to torpor...right? My Pre/Vic decks have matured, they seemed really solid this weekend. Even when I got crypt screwed one game and only got one vampire with vic (The Rose). I still later managed to diablerize with Jost and get a skill card to rock and roll. I really like the KMW set, going to go build some more decks. Lots of ground to cover, lotta good cards. I'm actually building group 3/4 decks now which I didn't think I'd do for a while....but that's another newsletter. ----------------------------------------- Here are a couple of decks submitted by David Knowles, Prince of Merseyside, UK. Deck name: The Ayes to the Right v1.2 Toreador Antitribu based Vote. This deck has been in play for about two years, and has a very good track record. It almost always gets multiple VPs, and occasionally takes the table. To some players, it may look as if there are too many vote boosters. My local group tend to play with vote defence in mind, it is usual to see at least one vote deck in play, and high ranking Ventrue, Toreadors, Tzimisce and Lasombra are often skulking about. Also vote boosters are required during bigger games, when a few Methuselah's group together to prevent your votes from passing. In smaller or less vote defence heavy games, the Voter Captivations are fantastic for blood and pool gain, they may not achieve much in vote heavy environments. Cardinal Jost Werner with basic Obfuscate and 'equipped' with superior Pulse of the Canaille is a scary thing to face. Palatial Estate is a great card to have for a Blood Doll vamp or for Greta, to help in her basic Bleed defence. Bleeding the Vine can be the best thing ever, and can help control a game; but is very expensive to use. If the Art Scams and Voter Captivations are working, then it's quite reasonable to keep Bleeding the Vine operating for most of the game. It is an interesting card to have in play if you need to cut deals with other players. Played: 5, VPs: 11, GWs: 2 Crypt: 2x Greta Kircher: Toreador Antitribu 7. Sabbat. Can reduce a Bleed by 1. PRE, AUS, CEL, obf 2x Jost Werner: Toreador Antitribu 6. Sabbat. Has +1 Stealth. AUS, PRE, ani 1x Jessica: Toreador Antitribu 8. Sabbat Bishop. Has +1 Stealth for political actions. AUS, PRE, OBT, CEL 1x Marthe Dizier: Toreador Antitribu 10. Sabbat Black Hand. When a combat involving her ends, she can burn a blood to move a combat card back to your hand, +1 Bleed. PRE, AUS, CEL, OBF, pro 1x Cailean: Nosferatu Antitribu 10. Sabbat Archbishop. He sets range in combat. PRE, POT, OBF, ANI, dom 2x Kite: Malkavian Antitribu 7. Sabbat Bishop. +1 Intercept. DEM, AUS, pre, obf 1x Lena Rowe: Pander 3. Sabbat. Can't have a Title. aus, obf, pre 1x Antoinette, She who Watches: Toreador 6. Camarilla Primogen. PRE, AUS, cel, obf 1x Suzanne Kadim: Toreador 7. Camarilla. +1 Bleed. PRE, CEL, aus, dom, obf Library: 2x Blood Doll 2x Minion Tap 1x Tribute to the Master 1x Pentex Loves You 1x Fetish Club Hunting Ground 1x Zillah's Valley 1x Guru 1x Creepshow Casino 1x Legendary Vampire 1x Powerbase: Madrid 1x Bleeding the Vine 2x Obfuscate 1x Secure Haven 6x Art Scam 2x Pulse of Canaille 4x Cloak the Gathering 4x Lost in Crowds 1x Faceless Night 1x Swallowed by the Night 9x Kine Resources Contested 2x Cardinal Benediction 1x Dramatic Upheaval 5x Awe 3x Private Audience 2x Bewitching Oration 7x Voter Captivation 8x Wake with Evening's Freshness 7x Telepathic Misdirection 9x Majesty 1x Mr.Winthrop 1x Palatial Estate Deck name: Two Faces are better than One Tzimisce and Toreador Antitribu voting. This deck was conceived to give Matteus an outing. He's not exactly the most common vampire you see in decks. Having chosen Matteus and Velya, the bulk of the crypt fell naturally into place. It is better use the Vicissitude masters to give minions Superior Vicissitude, mainly to gain the stealth from Changeling. The group I play with use heavy vote defence, hence the number of vote modifiers here. I've only played it once so far. It got one VP, and was still in play in a strong position when we timed out. [Editor's Note:] It's great to see other people playing pre/vic. I finally saw Approximation of Loyalty used to good effect this weekend, so I might start splashing it into my decks. You also might want to try Chiropteran Marauder instead of so much combat ends. A maneuver to run from a grapple or a surprise aggpoke is very versatile. If people can't deal with it, they may decline to block in the future, works wonders for me. Crypt: 3x Matteus, Flesh Scupltor: Toreador Antitribu 10. Sabbat Priscus. VIC, PRE, AUS, CEL 1x Jost Werner: Toreador Antitribu 6. Sabbat. +1 Stealth. AUS, PRE, ani 1x Creamy Jade: Toreador Antitribu 5. Sabbat. PRE, vic, cel, aus 1x Venere Carboni: Toreador Antitribu 8. Sabbat Pricus. Burn 1 blood to move from torpor to ready region during untap. PRE, CEL, AUS, ani 1x Greta Kircher: Toreador Antitribu 7. Sabbat. Reduce bleed by younger or ally by 1. PRE, CEL, AUS, obf 2x The Rose: Tzimisce 5. Sabbat. VIC, PRE, aus 2x Velya, the Flayer: Tzimisce 9. Sabbat Cardinal. Discard an Auspex card for a Press. VIC, PRE, AUS, ANI, for 1x Enid Blount: Toreador 5. vic, pre, aus, dom Library: 2x Minion Tap 3x Blood Doll 2x Creepshow Casino 1x Legendary Vampire 1x Powerbase: Madrid 1x Fetish Club Hunting Ground 1x Secure Haven 1x Information Highway 1x Regent 1x London Evening Star, Tabloid Newspaper 2x Vicissitude 1x Traditionalist 1x Guru 2x Patronage 2x Pulse of the Canaille 1x Eternal Vigilance 1x Art Scam 4x Changeling 4x Plasmic Form 2x Approximation of Loyalty 2x Crocodile's Tongues 1x Reins of Power 1x Ancient Influence 1x Cardinal Benediction 1x Dramatic Upheaval 2x Conservative Agitation 7x Kine Resources Contested 4x Private Audience 2x Bewitching Oration 5x Awe 5x Voter Captivation 7x Telepathic Misdirection 2x Enhanced Senses 9x Wake with Evening's Freshness 3x Staredown 6x Majesty 1x Corpse Ballon 1x Raven Spy 1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin) ------------------------------ Ethan Burrow - the pre/vic guy http://monger.vekn.org/