True Brujah March Newsletter 2006 Mark Merlin Petersen, editor hallofhadescourt@sbcglobal.net "If consequences dictate, My course of action and it Doesn't matter what's right- It's only wrong if you get caught- I should play god and just Shoot you myself." - Tool, "Jerk Off" So you wanna be a tough guy? Let's take a look at the combat aspect of the Trujah. I'm talking (typing, really, but ya get the point) in particular about multi-rush, because if an investment of 7-9 pool is made for a vampire and the deck is combat-oriented, getting into combat more than once per turn will accelerate the deck's success. Older minions need to act more often to pay for their cost. Weenies don't need to multi-act because they are more numerous. True Brujah combat decks need to capitalize on the vampire's ability to take multiple actions in a turn. The three common ways to deplete the prey's pool are: Bleeding, voting away pool, and beating the blood off of their vampires (this would be "indirect pool damage"). The final is my favorite method as it usually stops the opponent from seeking retribution because they have no minions left to perform vengeful actions. The first two are strictly governed by the "No Repeat Action rules", quoted herein directly from the online rulebook: 6.1.1. Bleed Bleeding is one of the most fundamental actions of the game. It is the basic means of removing your prey's pool. By default, your minion's bleed actions can be directed only at your prey. Some cards or effects may allow or force you to bleed a Methuselah other than your prey. You can never bleed yourself, however. A minion cannot perform more than one bleed action each turn, even if he untaps. ... 6.1.6. Action Card (or Card in Play) A minion cannot perform an action with the same action card or via the same card in play (including from the minion's own card text) more than once each turn, even if he untaps. ... 6.1.7. Political Action (+1 stealth) A political action card is an action card that is used to call a referendum. As indicated on the cards, these actions have a default +1 stealth and can only be played by vampires (allies cannot call referendums). A political action is always undirected, because all Methuselahs can vote in the referendum (see Who May Attempt to Block, sec. 6.2.2.1). A minion cannot perform more than one political action each turn. ... Make the NRA work for you: Multi-Rush Clearly when a minion is able to take multiple actions in the same turn, it is only worth the Freak Drives if the minion has multiple useful actions to take. The best options for clans with access to multi-action disciplines such as Fortitude and Temporis are to: A. Multi-Rush, using the extra actions to take down multiple enemy minions in a single turn. The Assamites, Samedi (I'm thinking J.D.), Gangrel, and True Brujah are adept at this. B. Diversify the actions taken by the minions. Use two or more of the above ousting strategies (e.g. bleed, vote, combat) in addition to useful support actions. The Ventrue do this particularly well because of the utility of Dominate bleed actions such as Govern the Unaligned and the proliferation of titles and Presence in the clan. Thus they can bleed and vote in the same turn using Freak Drive or Majesty. C. Create a Restoration-based (or hunt-based, or whatever) bloat engine that supports the ousting strategies that the deck uses. Gangrel can use this between Dominate bleeds with Stanislava or Illiana, and weenie Gangrel hordes often use this to bloat to pay for Renegade Garou. Option A is the leanest choice from the above points because it has a focused approach instead of a diversified approach. All actions lead to combat instead of bleed and vote or bleed and bloat (though Govern/Scouting makes that pretty efficient, too). The end result should always be a fight, and since the deck is unburdened by other ousting strategies, there should be no shortage of combat cards and permanents to use on opposing minions. The only thing left to do is win the fight and keep the multi-rushing vampire kicking ass. Permanents/Equipment Having a permanent way to deal extra damage is important for a multi-rush deck. Enkidu and Lazverinus do well in combat because of their natural +2 strength. This will be enough to crush most foes without using many cards. The Trujah do not have any minions with extra strength or combat-specials and usually need to compensate with equipment cards. There are two pieces of unique equipment that grant rush-actions to the bearer, the Eye of Hazimel and Talbot's Chainsaw. This is a good start for multi-rush decks. These options require a few cards to get moving and some flush-cards to get rid of the extras afterward, but aside from that they are gravy. Magic of the Smith, Jack of Both Sides, Disguised Weapon, and Vast Wealth are excellent ways to find these items quickly in a game, though the Eye is not a weapon and cannot be disguised. If using Disguised Weapon or Jack of Both Sides, using other weapons or equipment will help to make the remainder of the cards in the deck useful instead of dead in the hand. For example, in the Al-Muntaquim deck in this month's newsletter, "Chainsaw the Kids!" I'm using 5 Jack of Both Sides and 2 Disguised Weapons to get Talbot's Chainsaw to Al-Muntaquim. On a suggestion from David Cherryholmes on thepathofblood.com I swapped the DW and JoBS ratios (from 5 DW & 2 JoBS to the other way 'round) in this version and traded transient prevention cards for some Flak Jackets. This way the extra JoBS can be used to get Flak Jackets and aren't useless after The Avenger acquires his magic chainsaw. I'm also using one Ivory Bow to make Disguised Weapon more playable post-chainsaw manifestation. The Eye of Hazimel requires some careful planning as well. Vast Wealth is a favorite way to get one's hands upon it, and pool management cards such as Blood Doll will be necessary for longevity due to the cost of the Eye. Extra flush cards in the form of Hourglass of the Mind, Learjet, and Master cards such as The Barrens and Dreams of the Sphinx can help get rid of extra Vast Wealth or Eyes when they are clogging the hand. Hourglass can also be used to overcome the reduction in hand-size that Dragonbound causes. Expensive non-unique equipment is also a hallmark of the True Brujah, since they can pay half-cost (rounded down) for such with the Kiss of Lachesis. Using Kiss of Lachesis, an Assault Rifle or Flamethrower can be purchased for the paltry sum of two pool. Using these implements of destruction, the Trujah can cut a swath of terror in foe's ranks with ease. These strategies will require some extra rush cards or some other way to get into fights, since there is no inherent rush gained with these weapons. If using equipment that gives a rush-ability, rush actions in a multi-rush combat deck can be halved. So while I would normally run 12-14 rush actions in a combat deck, I can run 6-7 if I am using Talbot's or the Eye. Untap effects such as Freak Drive, Forced March, and Domain of Evernight should get some attention as well. At least eight ways to untap if they are transient, perhaps less for permanent untap such as Clotho's Gift. Clotho's is another wonderful card for this type of deck, as it doubles as bloat and gives the multi-rushing vampire something to do while there are no rush cards in-hand or there are no more targets to rush. Nu, the Efficient Pillar Nu's untap ability combines excellently with multi-rush strategies, since he doesn't need nearly as many untap-cards to take several actions per turn. If Nu gets (nougat?) the Eye or Talbot's, he's a card-less combat-monster, and if he plays cards in combat he'll be almost guaranteed to send all but the toughest opponents to the dirt. For comparison, I've copied and pasted a Nu Eye of Hazimel deck by antero from thepathofblood.com. He built his deck upon the back of a deck posted on the same site by Puska. Second Look: The Path of the Scorched Heart Card Name: The Path of the Scorched Heart Cardtype: Action Set: LoB Cost: 0 blood Requires: True Brujah. Cardtext: +1 stealth action. Path. Put this card on the acting True Brujah and untap him or her. Frenzy cards cannot be played on this True Brujah. While this True Brujah is acting, minions cannot play reaction cards that require Presence. Minions opposing this True Brujah in combat cannot play cards that require Presence. A vampire can only have one path. If using equipment, this card is necessary for the anti-frenzy ability. Many decks depend on Drawing out the Beast or Rötschreck to give them combat superiority. This card is a one-stop solution to all of the frenzy problems and it trumps one of the more common defenses as well: Majesty/Presence SCE. The Lunge A good idea with multi-rush decks is to lull one's prey into a false sense of security before sending all of his minions to torpor and ousting him. If their first minion is vaporized before the fourth turn they may decide not to influence at all and try to slow their demise by not bringing up minions. This needs to be addressed by most combat decks. One of the better ways to address it is to let them play their game for a few turns (provided that they can't oust/cripple you in the process; Inner Circle members can't be allowed to stay ready unless there is adequate PTO defense in-hand) and then "lunge" when all of the pieces are in place. Sure, drop a Fame card on their weakest, most defenseless vampire, but bleed instead of rushing the first turn or two, or rush backwards to take pressure off. Then, when Tension in the Ranks and/or Dragonbound is also in-hand, play them and send as many minions to the left into torpor as possible. The pool damage may be enough to oust; if not it shouldn't take too many extra turns without a lot of cross table help. This is one of the best reasons to make a combat deck into a multi-rush deck: focusing the oust-efforts into a 10-12 pool lunge. Fame + Tension with two dunks on the Fame (beat up, rescue, beat up) does nine damage, three from each Fame-trigger, one from each Tension trigger, and one during untap from Fame again. With Dragonbound the damage can get even higher if all of a foe's vampires (2-4, presumably) are in torpor. Summary/Suggestions: Equipment-Based Multi-Rush Talbot's Chainsaw Multi-Rush Package: 4-5 Talbot's 1-2 other weapons 2 Disguised Weapon (if using Obfuscate) 2-3 Vast Wealth or 4-5 Jack of Both Sides 7 Rush actions 8-10 Freak Drive/Domain of Evernight/Forced March/Mylan/Clotho's Gift, etc. 5-6 "Flush-tech" cards, Dreams of the Sphinx, The Barrens, Fragment of the Book of Nod, Hourglass of the Mind, Scrounging (If there are actions to spare and no Temporis for Hourglass, maybe), Learjet, etc. 2 Path of the Scorched Heart or Sire's Index Finger for anti-frenzy = ~35-40 cards, not including oust-module and a way to pay for the self-destructive Chainsaw. Masochism is recommended for the latter, and Fame/Tension/Dragonbound for the former. Supplemental combat should include Lapse+Taste of Vitae. Eye of Hazimel Multi-Rush Package: 4-5 Eye of Hazimel 2-3 Vast Wealth and/or 2-5 Jack of Both Sides 7 Rush actions 8-10 Freak Drive/Domain of Evernight/Forced March/Mylan/Clotho's Gift, etc. 5-6 "Flush-tech" cards, Dreams of the Sphinx, The Barrens, Fragment of the Book of Nod, Hourglass of the Mind, Scrounging (If there are actions to spare and no Temporis for Hourglass, maybe), Learjet, etc. 2 Path of the Scorched Heart or Sire's Index Finger for anti-frenzy = ~30-45 cards, not including oust-module and a way to pay for the self-defeating Eye. Blood Dolls, Minion Taps, and other pool-gain are practically necessary. Fame, Tension, and Dragonbound are again great choices there. Supplemental combat should again include Lapse+Taste of Vitae. Decapitate becomes much more playable with the Eye. Kiss of Lachesis+Normally Expensive Weapons Multi-Rush Package 6-7 Weapon of Choice, Assault Rifle and Flamethrower are the biggest markdowns 6-7 Kiss of Lachesis/Disguised Weapon if using Obfuscate 12-15 Rush actions 8-10 Freak Drive/Domain of Evernight/Forced March/Mylan/Clotho's Gift, etc. 6-8 "Flush-tech" cards, Dreams of the Sphinx, The Barrens, Fragment of the Book of Nod, Hourglass of the Mind, Learjet, etc. 2 Path of the Scorched Heart or Sire's Index Finger for anti-frenzy = ~40-50 cards, not including oust-module. Fame, Tension, and Dragonbound are again great choices there. Lapse+Flamethrower+Decapitate will probably lose you some friends if done regularly. The Eye and Chainsaw deliver a tiny bit of efficiency card-wise in these packages due to the inherent rush actions, but also bring an extra card-slot cost because of their drawbacks. Nu can drop the untap-card ratio in half (or altogether) and save quite a bit of card-slots for other things, such as pool- and vote- defense. Also, if multi-rush isn't the total plan Nu can rush with the Eye and then untap and bleed for two, which saves some rush cards as well. Deck Name: Chainsaw the kids! v2.1 Author: Mark Merlin Petersen Description: Al-Muntaquim gets Talbot's Chainsaw. That's really the whole deck. There is very little pool recursion in this one, which may require some back-ward movement that tends to unbalance a table. Getting a Blood Doll on Al-Muntaquim early can make or break this deck's game. Al-Muntaquim can get a huge bleed from burning spare Caitiff when the deck is set up, and the Monocle is there to check for Archon Investigation prior to bleeding for X, where X is the number of Caitiff Al-Muntaquim has "eaten". Removal of minions with bounce capacity by Chainsaw is also highly recommended. Hand of Conrad has been added to increase the burn/+bleed pile of Caitiff at a reduced cost of actions instead of pool (for finding new Caitiff). Superior Mettle with a Trap and a Chainsaw tends to be pretty nasty. The Lids and Unflinching Persistence are there for long-range decks. Of course, Lapse can also be played to cancel maneuvers. Check through your opponent's ash heap before playing Lapse. If they aren't playing dodge or strike: combat ends but they are playing Aid From Bats or something similar, use the inferior Temporis version of Lapse to seal the deal instead. There are 6 card-slots left, and i am considering adding a defensive module so that i can interact with the game when it isn't my turn. Otherwise the Chainsaw will be the answer to every problem. Sport Bike+Winthrop+4 Wakes, maybe. Or Sport bike + 3 Wakes + 2 Rewind Time. Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 8 average: 3.17 ------------------------------------------------------------ 3x Al-Muntaquim, The 8 FOR POT TEM obf pre True Bruj:4 2x Hanna Redmonds 2 obf tha Caitiff:3 2x Sandra White 1 Caitiff:3 1x Maldavis 4 AUS for pre Caitiff:3 1x Afifa, The Herald 1 dom Caitiff:4 1x Eddie Gaines 1 dem pot Caitiff:3 1x Lisa Noble 1 ani Caitiff:3 1x Nedal, The Careles 1 cel nec Caitiff:3 Library [84 cards] ------------------------------------------------------------ Action [18] 2x Ambush 2x Arson 2x Bum's Rush 2x Clotho's Gift 1x Harass 5x Jack of Both Sides 2x Masochism 2x Path of the Scorched Heart, The Action Modifier [12] 6x Domain of Evernight 6x Freak Drive Combat [30] 2x Disguised Weapon 7x Lapse 2x Rolling with the Punches 2x Skin of Steel 2x Superior Mettle 7x Taste of Vitae 3x Thrown Sewer Lid 3x Trap 2x Unflinching Persistence Equipment [11] 3x Flak Jacket 1x Hand of Conrad 1x Ivory Bow 1x Monocle of Clarity 1x Palatial Estate 4x Talbot's Chainsaw Master [13] 2x Blood Doll 2x Carver's Meat Packing and Storage 2x Effective Management 2x Fame 1x Giant's Blood 1x Information Highway 1x Perfectionist 1x Stranger Among Us, The 1x Tabriz Assembly Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Wed Mar 08 19:09:03 2006] Post by antero, used w/ antero's permission. Props to Puska for the classic deck draft. This deck also illustrates the "European" use of Tupdog to "round out a crypt." I haven't tried this yet, but the Finns seem to love it online: I'll be damned! I'm not gonna drop the Tupdogs. Why? Cos they can play Hourglass of the Mind at outferior! Keeping that in mind, I have rebuilt the Nu deck...no big modifications, but the nice thing IMO is, that Hourglasses should enable me to add more Masters (the original had only 12 I noticed as it had 4 dolls)+another Path, without increased fear of handjam. Even 2nd Giant's Blood could go in... Heck, the potential of Hourglass could even extend to Nu+dom/pot weenies. Nu plays hourglass at inferior to clear the bounce on top of library, proceeds to pulverize someone and leaving the defense to Cameron&co. And if predator is not bleedy, the wee ones just cycle the def(l)ections away with outferior HG... Nu Has A New Eye, anteromod 4 Nu, The Pillar Tru 9 ani aus pro POT PRE TEM pay blood to untap 1 Hadrian Garrick FoS 4 obf pre +1 str. 1 Tabitha Fisk Las 4 obt pot pro 1 Tock !Nos 4 obf pot pre 1 Paul diCarlo, The Alpha Gio 2 pot 1 Sadie !Gangrel 2 pro 3 Tupdog Gar 1 POT VIS Library (82) Master (14) 4 Blood Doll 1 Carver's Meat Packing and Storage 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 2 Fame 1 Giant's Blood 2 Haven Uncovered (sumthin' to do for Nu's sidekicks, and more power for famedunking....) 2 Perfectionist 1 Tabriz Assembly Action (15) 2 Clotho's Gift 5 Enchant Kindred 3 Hourglass of the Mind 3 Nose of the Hound 2 Path of the Scorched Heart Action Modifier (11) 6 Domain of Evernight 3 Recurring Contemplation 2 Tangle Atropos' Hand Combat (35) 5 Claws of the Dead 2 Decapitate 2 Drawing out the Beast 3 Flesh of Marble 4 Immortal Grapple 6 Lapse 5 Taste of Vitae 4 Torn Signpost 4 Wolf Claws Equipment (7) 5 Eye of Hazimel 1 Ivory Bow 1 Flak Jacket