Sorry 'bout the delay, just noticed the bat signal above Alamut...
Now that you have my attention, where oh where do I begin....
I guess I'll respond to the guys comment that "when was the last time anyone
saw an assamite deck win a tournament?". Well, I felt like I had a shot to
do some damage at DragonCon here this year. I got 4 VPs in three rounds and
would have ended up with 6VPs and a trip to the finals if Mike Perlman had
not played three Anarch Revolts very late in the game to oust me. 4VPs is
not to bad given that the level of play was extremely high at this tourney.
It CAN be done. Easy? Hell no. How? Well read on...
First off before I get to the deck I played at DragonCon, let me direct you
over to some articles I have written in the past on the Assamites. You
REALLY need to read them. Why? I have found that playing the Assamites (at
least for me and I am very biased) is the most challenging clan there is.
The reason is that you almost never can just play the cards in your deck as
they come up. There is a lot of thinking and head games that you have to
play with other Methuselahs. In order to make them successful, you must
fully understand their weaknesses and how to capitalize on their strengths.
This is no different than fully understanding how to play a dedicated
intercept or rush deck. Anyone can pick up one of these decks and play with
them but until you fully understand them, then you will probably not get the
results you are looking for.
Links to the all of the articles can be found at:
http://members.tripod.com/~Lasombra/newsletter.htm
Below is main write-up in the 5th newsletter:
Main Discussion of December: Finding a way to allow combat to gain victory
points
One thing that I continue to notice is that most people playing the
Assamites try to build decks that resemble typical rush combat. Most of
these Methuselahs soon learn that playing a rush style combat deck with the
Assamites generates a lot of destroyed minions around them but rather few
victory points. Why is this?
A successful rush combat deck needs to be deadly in combat while still being
as fast as possible. The Assamites have the first condition easily met with
their combination of celerity and quietus. The second condition is where the
Assamites tend to fall apart. They are simply not fast enough due to them
only having one vampire with the celerity/quietus combination with a
capacity below seven. Over the course of a typical game an Assamite player
averages only a little over three vampires out at any given time. This leads
to the assassins not having enough available rush actions and basic bleeds
for one pool to finish any Methuselah off very quickly. So what can you do?
I have studied most of the Assamite decks that have been posted online and
none of them seem to get around them having insufficient number of actions.
Therefore I believe the key to the Assamites is not to create more actions
but to be as efficient as possible with the actions that they have. It would
be ideal if the Assamites had a way to deal damage to their prey's pool
supply while concentrating on what they do best - combat. Luckily for them
there is a way to do this now without having to wait for the coming
expansion set. The card that makes this possible is Fame.
Fame: Unique Master
Put this card on a ready vampire. If he or she goes into torpor, the
{vampire's controller} burns three pool. Each Methuselah burns one pool
during his or her untap phase if this vampire is in torpor.
The basis of the Fame decks has been around since the Jyhad days but not
until the recent rule changes did it make its way into dedicated combat
decks. Now the famous vampire becomes a target that when hunted down acts
like a bleed for four pool (three for the initial sinking and one during
your prey's untap phase for being in torpor). With just three actions (sink
the famous vampire, rescue and sink again) the Assamites can effectively
bleed for seven pool in a single round and most importantly the pool loss
can not be bounced or reduced. That is impressive for any combat deck.
But what makes Fame work better for the Assamites over the other clans? The
answer comes in the card that defines the essence of the assassins.
Contracts give the Assamites a form of permanent rush combat that is
desperately needed in order to continually punish the hunted vampire. With
just one Contract the famous vampire can no longer quietly escape from harm
due to you not having a single Bum's Rush or Haven Uncovered. Another
advantage that the Assamites have in the Fame style deck is the use if Foul
Blood. If for any reason the famous vampire has to hunt (due to having zero
blood) a well-placed Foul Blood can send the vampire back into torpor and
cost the Methuselah another three pool.
One of the most important things about playing the Fame deck is the
selection of who gets to be hunted. You should take your time in choosing
your victim, as your deck's overall performance will be directly affected by
this decision. I have noticed that in most decks players will include a few
token weenie vampires that help round out their decks. These vampires tend
to show up very early in the game as blockers and such. The token vampires
make good targets due to them being fairly weak and easily sinkable. Another
strategy in choosing the hunted is to find your prey's main vampire that is
blocking other player's actions and make them famous. Selecting the
interceptor will increase your chances of being able to rush into combat via
the Contracts. A third strategy is to pick out your prey's main bleeder and
drop Fame on them. Choosing the heavy bleeder will definitely slow your prey
down because now there are two Methuselahs (you and your grand prey) that
want to see this vampire sent to torpor. This creates a temporary ally in
your grand prey and gives you a chance to oust your prey before he picks up
an additional victory point and six pool. Regardless of the strategy you
choose, the one thing that remains the same with most of the famous vampires
is that they tend to play fairly conservative for the remainder of the game
for fear of being caught. Always keep this in mind and try to use this to
your advantage.
Another aspect to this deck is to consider when is the proper time to play
Fame and rush the vampire. The first thought is to start pounding on your
prey as soon as possible but more times than naught this leads to trouble.
This is because many Methuselahs will slow down or even stop transferring
out additional vampires when they realize what your deck plans to do. This
puts more pressure on your deck to perform and leaves you with even more
pool to burn through for a victory point. About the optimal time to begin
playing Fame and rushing the victim is when your prey transfers down to
around ten to twelve pool. Now your victory point is just a few trips to
torpor away instead of being numerous visits.
Now that you have a grasp on who to make famous and when to rush the last
thing to consider is how do you get them out of torpor so that you can dunk
them again? There are two cards in the game that make this task easier for
the rescuer and they are Humanitas and the Catacombs. Both of the cards give
the rescuer an additional plus one stealth and they burn one less blood if
the action is successful. Both can be stacked on the same vampire to allow
them to rescue the victim at plus two stealth and not have to pay any blood
for the action. One last thing to remember is that when rescuing someone
else's vampire from torpor you do not have to always pay the cost of the
action. Simply announce that you are going to rescue the famous vampire in
torpor and have them pay for your action if it is successful. This is a
fantastic way to keep the hunted low on resources and makes them very
susceptible to a well-aimed Foul Blood.
Description: DragonCon 2000 deck
Created By: Todd Banister
Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 12, Max: 28, Avg: 5.08]
3 Abd al-Rashid (Assamite, 5, CE ob QU)
1 Colin Flynn (Toreador, 3, au ce)
1 Dorian Strack (Toreador, 4, AU ce)
1 Kalinda (Assamite, 6, CE OB th)
1 Kanya Akhtar (Assamite, 2, ce)
4 Parnassus (Assamite, 7, au CE QU th)
1 Zoe (Malkavian, 3, AU ce ob)
Library: (81 cards)
Master (17)
2 Blood Doll
3 Contract
1 Depravity
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
4 Fame
1 Giant's Blood
1 Heidelburg Castle, Germany
1 Humanitas
1 Market Square
1 Quietus
1 Tribute to the Master
Minion (64)
Actions: (10)
2 Bum's Rush
1 Catacombs
1 IR Goggles
1 Ivory Bow
1 J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1 Leather Jacket
1 Mr. Winthrop
1 Palatial Estate
1 Tasha Morgan
Reactions: (13)
2 Enhanced Senses
5 Forced Awakening
2 Foul Blood
1 Spirit's Touch
1 Wake with Evening's Freshness
2 Telepathic Misdirection
Combat: (41)
4 Acrobatics
5 Blood Sweat
2 Blur
6 Flash
4 Lucky Blow
1 Precognition
5 Psyche
5 Pursuit
4 Taste of Death
5 Taste of Vitae
This should at least get you started. I would love to hear from you later
after you have played a few games and how you faired. Need more ideas for
the Assamites? Just ask - I've got lots.
Also, I will try and finish the new newsletter that I have been working on
for a while now. Just been VERY bust with work, VEKN ratings, and other
things...
Until then, pray that Ur-Shulgi does not visit you in your dreams...
Todd Banister
Prince of Atlanta
Scribe of the Assamites