5/1/2001 Editors Corner - Ethan Burrow, Prince of Austin By the time you read the next newsletter we should be done with the Southwest Regional Qualifier in Dallas. As a reminder it is going to be June 2-3 at the A-KON convention in Dallas. We plan on having the qualifier on Saturday, with an Elder Draft sealed event the next day. I plan on being there the whole weekend, and the more of you that also make those plans means more V:TES games and more fun. I'm happy to report that the player base of Texas is growing rapidly with playgroups forming in Denton, College Station, and finally a stable group in Houston. Just in time for Final Nights :-) I've recently changed my deckbuilding strategy to include Mid-Range vampires, depending on only inferior disciplines, and/or toolboxing more than I have in the past. So far I've been pleased with the results and I'll let you know how competitive my new decks fare with the existing metagame in Austin. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Card of the Month - Distraction I'm a big fan of versatile cards, and an even bigger fan of utility cards for disciplines. With Celerity being mainly a combat discipline, it's fun to use other cards such as Distraction to further your goals while keeping disciplines at a minimum. Not to mention, both uses of this card can be very helpful in many situations. At the inferior, you can basically improve your hand. The key bonus is that you can draw 5 cards, and then of the X+5 you now have in your hand you can pick the best X. It's better than discarding to draw, as you don't necessarily want the new card any more than the one you discarded. Several times I've been able to optimize my hand when I lacked combat defense and had too many bleed modifiers, only to play a distraction and end up with a good hand. The superior is very useful for Tap and Bleed decks, or harassing your Predator. While anyone can see the use of tapping a Minion, it should be noted that this card is better than Passion while not quite as versatile as Jar the Soul. But since the inferior is a completely different effect, I would put this card on par with Jar the Soul in usefulness. Since Distraction was a rare in V:TES, it's nice to see it reprinted in the Brujah-Antitribu starter to give more people access to such a useful card. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homework Assignments - an exercise in creative deckbuilding The winner of the Frenzy assignment is Skaffen, Chantry Elder Of Munich. Like other submissions, this deck was based upon intercept without using Animalism (since Drawing out the Beast is far superior to Frenzy). While the Tremere seemed like a likely candidate, the following Ventrue-Antitribu deck was more effective as well as being a lot of fun to play. While I am printing the deck as submitted, I wanted to note that I replaced 4 Eagle's Sight with 4 Melange for enhanced bleed capability when I built it for testing. Deck Name: Lazfrenzinus Created by: skaffen Description: !Ven Trap Wall Deck Crypt: (12 cards) 1 Billy (AUS dom for, Ventrue Antitribu, 5) 1 Dominique (ani AUS dom FOR vic, Ventrue Antitribu, 7) 1 Juan Cali (aus for, Ventrue Antitribu, 3) 2 Kyle Strathcona (AUS DOM for POT PRE, Ventrue Antitribu, 9, Cardinal) 3 Lazverinus (AUS DOM FOR POT pro, Ventrue Antitribu, 10, Archbishop) 1 Marlene (AUS dem DOM for tha, Ventrue Antitribu, 6) 1 Roxanne (AUS DOM FOR OBF pot, Malkavian, 9, Primogen) 1 Vincent Day (aus dom for pot tha, Ventrue Antitribu, 5) 1 Peter Blaine (aus dom for, Ventrue Antitribu, 4) Library: (80 cards) Master (12 cards) 4 Blood Doll 4 Frenzy 2 KRCG News Radio 1 Metro Underground 1 Tomb of Rameses III Minion (68 cards) 8 Eagle's Sight 6 Enhanced Senses 2 Eternal Vigilance 3 Fire in the Blood 8 Forced Awakening 3 Govern the Unaligned 2 Indomitability 1 Mr. Winthrop 1 Political Antagonist 4 Precognition 3 Pulled Fangs 3 Pulse of the Canaille 3 Resilience 1 Sport Bike 6 Superior Mettle 4 Taste of Vitae 2 Telepathic Misdirection 4 Torn Signpost 4 Trap The most important function Frenzy could have is preventing the opposing minion from playing presses to end combat. Thus it could be used in all sorts of Trap-like decks. Unfortunately Drawing Out The Beast is way better for this sort of decks, as it prevents presses to end as well and also deals 1 damage in each press phase at superior. Plus it can be played in any combat, not only once per turn in an intercept situation. My choice for a Frenzy deck thus centers around a clan that doesn't muster Animalism: !Ven. I use Lazverinus and Kyle as core vampires - both have AUS/FOR/POT to block and destroy. Potence is just used for giving extra strength through Torn Signpost and Fire In The Blood. The idea: Block everything, anywhere at (almost) any stealth and beat them up slow, deep and hard... Prevent their damage with Superior Mettle. Offence is limited with the occasional Govern and Pulse Of The Canaille, but as the deck is only (*cough*) 80 cards as it stands more bleed could be added. Or, as an alternative, Immortal Grapple, which I deliberatly left out. Depends on the metagame, as always... IMHO not a killer deck, as all intercept affairs, but at least it should be very good at blocking and destroying. - Skaffen, Chantry Elder Of Munich Next week's Homework Assignment - Due May 31st, 2001 The winner will be the one that builds the most interesting and unique deck based around Grenades. It doesn't necessarily have to be a winning deck, but one that would make people gape in amazement at how cool it was. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ways to gain pool without Master Cards With Minion Tap and Blood Doll being pretty much THE staple cards for pool gain, our group has taken to playing with a lot of Sudden Reversals. The idea being simply that if you Sudden your prey's pool gain, they usually depend on it for mid/late game and are ousted much quicker (or at the least are not nearly as effective as they wanted to be). Recently I've been thinking on ways to get around that, and not depend on your Master Phase for pool gain. Here's my unofficial list : The Edge - Keeping it is difficult in large games, but decks using the Madness Network have been fairly successful at gaining the edge before their turn. Voting Bribes - If you can call a vote, you gain a pool whether it passes or not Voter Captivation - If you can pass the vote, reap the rewards Vote Cards - Consanguinous Boon, Autarkis Persecution, Political Stranglehold, Ancient Influence, Anathema, etc. are staple vote/bloat cards. Provided the Meta-Game votes and Delaying Tactics aren't against you. Presence Bleeds - Bleeding at superior succesfully yields moderate pool gain. Especially with Jost. Influence Phase - Govern the Unaligned, Scouting Mission, Enchant Kindred, Recruiting Party, and 4th Tradition can generate free blood onto uncontrolled vampires, which you can then use transfers to move to your pool. They also double as bleed cards, so this method tends to be quite popular. Art Scam - Gotta love the Toreador-Antitribu :-) Trick of Dayna - Used in conjunction with Brainwashes and/or Banishment, this card can possibly keep your pool stable. Vampires Victoria - Also a Madness Network combo, you use Victoria to gain 3 pool at the beginning of your turn. (see The Edge above) Saqqaf - If you have a lot of Serpentis actions, Saqqaf could pay for himself over the course of a game. Upon completing this list, I noticed how many of them can be utilized by the very clan represented in this newsletter. Aside from the Vampires and Trick of Dayna, the Toreador-Antitribu can use all of the other methods to gain pool without using Masters. I am still surprised by the versatility of this clan, which is why I enjoy playing them so much. ------------------------------- Ethan Burrow - Prince of Austin saark5@yahoo.com http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/