Assamite Clan newsletter Volume 4, Issue 7 (July 2004) Written by Otto Koskinen ========================= Something old, something new. This month, I'll be reviewing some of the late decks that I've presented. Here we go. ---------------------------------------- TARIQ, THE SILENT (April, 2004) -Violently happy. Blood Weakens Event Gehenna. Do not replace until a vampire commits diablerie. Cards that require any Disciplines to play are not replaced until the end of the current action or until any Methuselah's hand is empty (whichever comes first). Any vampire who commits diablerie is immune to this effect until the next Gehenna card is played. The Slow Withering Event Gehenna. Do not replace until a vampire commits diablerie. Requires at least one other Gehenna card in play. Cards that require any superior Disciplines cost an additional blood to play. Any vampire who commits diablerie is immune to this effect until the next Gehenna card is played. Ah yes. Both harass vampires who a) are too lame to eat people, and b) play cards which require disciplines. Now, considering the common Tariq action, he goes in (cardless), meaby soaks the strike (using one card requiring a discipline), hits with the ring (cardless) and eats via Amaranth (disciplineless). And on the plus side, he gains immunity to these both when he mucnhes on someone. The Slow Withering requires at least one other Gehenna event in play, so if you play one of each, the chances of getting it into play -with your own events- are rather slim. Still worth it, if you get it. For these reasons, I'd be tempted to play 2+1 of Blood Weakens and The Slow Withering, simply because Blood Weakens so heavily disrupts most other combat decks, unless they have what they already need in hand. As for the negative effects, if you get both events into play the table might react in a bad way. So timing will be off the essence, I'd daresay. The initial game you can plow free as you like, and drop these puppies nearer the endgame when vampires are already low in blood. As for the "something old" part, I present the following gentleman: Ghoul Retainer Retainer Cost: 2 pool Ghoul with 2 life. 1 strength. Each round of combat during strike resolution, the Ghoul Retainer inflicts 1 damage or may use a weapon that is not being used by the employing minion (or another retainer) during that round. This is not a strike, although it does count as "using" the weapon. Now, when they a) dodge b) Immortal Grapple c) Drawing out the Beast/Terror Frenzy, you can just laugh like a madman, and let your henchman do the dirty job for you. And then eat them. Yes, Ghoul retainer works under Immortal Grapple, can use weapons even if the vampires has been Frenzied, and does his damage in strike resolution, where the dodge no longer protects the opposing vampire. This here is the current setup, which managed 2 GW's and 6VP's in RopeCon 2004, a tournament of 86 people. Managed to "persuade" Wynn, Francois Villon, and a couple other big names, IIRC. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 17, Max: 28, Avg: 6,08) ---------------------------------------------- 5 Tariq AUS cel FOR OBF QUI 7, Assamite:2 3 Egothha AUS FOR NEC obf 7, Harbingers of Skulls:2 2 Rudolfo Giovanni NEC 3, Giovanni:2 1 Carlotta Giovanni dom NEC obf POT 7, Giovanni:2 1 Maldavis for pre AUS 4, Caitiff:3 Library: (85 cards) ------------------- Master (9 cards) 3 Blood Doll 1 Celerity 1 Erciyes Fragments, The 2 Necromancy 1 Path of Death and the Soul 1 Underworld Hunting Ground Action (7 cards) 1 Aranthebes, The Immortal 5 Daemonic Possession 1 Pulse of the Canaille Action Modifier (8 cards) 3 Forgotten Labyrinth 4 Freak Drive 1 Mask of a Thousand Faces Reaction (11 cards) 3 Forced Awakening 1 Telepathic Counter 4 Telepathic Misdirection 3 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (34 cards) 10 Amaranth 2 Aura Reading 4 Disguised Weapon 1 Preternatural Evasion 6 Psyche! 6 Rolling with the Punches 1 Side Strike 2 Telepathic Tracking 2 Unflinching Persistence Retainer (2 cards) 2 Ghoul Retainer Equipment (7 cards) 1 Flamethrower 1 IR Goggles 1 Ivory Bow 4 Rowan Ring Combo (6 cards) 3 Draught of the Soul 2 Ritual of the Bitter Rose 1 Swallowed by the Night Event (1 card) Blood Weakens ---------------------------------------- ASSAMITE SIDEKICK PROTECTORS Beast knows beast; birds of a feather flock together. -Aristotle Aziz, the Dammar of Istanbul. Fatima al-Faqadi. Qadir ul-Ghani. Antara. Parnassus. Bajazet al-Nasir. All vampires who easily get a deck built around them, and only around them. All who lack in the most common bleed defence; bounce. All being Assamites, most have but one option when being bled heavily; backrushing. In other words, depriving oneself from ousting one's prey. This is a bad thing. So, I've been lately wondering a module, if you want to call it that, which could be used with our dashing heroes/heroines. Here's what I've landed upon. "Schismatics" Francois Villon, Quentin King III, Fleurdumal, Ira Rivers. These 4 are all princes. They all share 2 disciplines. All of them have superior Auspex, which is needed for the Auspex bounce cards; Telepathic Misdirection and My Enemy's enemy. They all also share Presence, a skill noted for it's superior combat defense* and vote-pushing capabilities. (*Majesty, other S:CE's) Also, Presence packs a lot of bleed power, and light bloat in Enchant Kindred. So what? Lots, infact. Not only can you toss in 2 copies of these buggers, they also open up the door of voting to you. Anathema, Parity Shift, Banishment, Kine Resources Contested, Kindred Restructure. All great cards. 3 of which require a prince or a justicar to be able to call. Also, Francois Villon, and Quentin King III both also share a common discipline to us Assamites, Obfuscate, making their actions pass more reliably. Out of all the vampires I mentioned, only Antara and Parnassus dont have superior Obfuscate, thus negating their access to "Cloak the Gathering" which allows us to look after our compatriots when they hit the voting booths. So, how would you protect them *when* they get into combat, be it due to a blocked action, or a rush from your hungry prey, the one who is doing the backrushing now? Like I said, they all share Presence. Okay, only Aziz, Bajazet and Antara share Presence. Lets can that for a while. Francois, Fleurdumal and Ira Rivers all share Celerity. Yet another discipline found abundantly in our Clan. And hopefully we all know the sheer power of Celerity. Run away, dodge, S:CE. These all can be achieved with Celerity, and it's something that every Assamite deck usually packs. Side Strike, Preternatural Evasion, Sideslip, Pursuit, just to name a few of the most common that I myself like to use. Okay, enough talk, lets crunch some sheer numbers. For the bleed defence, you want the Telepathic Misdirections and My Enemy's Enemy. Now, to be reliable, I'd pack around 6-8 in total, with a few wakes. Lets say 5 Telepathic Misdirections and 2 My Enemy's Enemy with 4 Wake With Evening's Freshness. 11 cards used. Then you want some of your share of the voter power. So you pack 3 Parity shift, 2 Kindred Restructure, 2 Banishment, 2 Anathema. And to get those votes through, you also pack 6 Cloak the Gathering's, meaby a couple Forgotten Labyrinth's as well, so 15 card, in total. For combat, you pack your usual 30-40 card Celerity combat, depending on who it is that you are playing with. So, you've used 56-66 cards out of 90. 24 to go. Lets say a few rushes, say.. 8? The usual 13-15 Masters. And voila, still space left for Dragonbound. Of course, this isnt the be all end all answer to all of our problems concerning bloat and bounce. But sofar, the results have been positive. So, here it is. Aziz-thema revamped with the new module added in. Dropped Aziz to 4 in this version, but knocking him back up to 5 is not a big problem. Drop Ira or Fleurdumal, personally, I'd go with Ira, depending on your meta-game issues. (Heavy politics means Fleurdumal gets the axe.) This version has managed more consistent performances than the last version, which had some issues with either working like a charm, or not at all, and even when it worked it managed to get ruined by a heavy bleeding predator, even though it was capable of bloating and putting up a formidable fight. The current setup has (I hope) addressed these issues a bit, and added some more bloat power to the engine. I feel, that with this setup, the chances are limitless. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 28, Max: 40, Avg: 8,67) ---------------------------------------------- 4 Aziz CEL OBF PRE QUI ser 10, Assamite:2, 2 votes 2 Quentin King III AUS DEM obf pre 7, Malkavian:3, Prince 2 Ira Rivers ani AUS CEL pre 7, Toreador:3, Prince 2 Francois Villon AUS CEL chi obf pot PRE 10, Toreador:2, Prince 2 Fleurdumal AUS cel DEM PRE tha 8, Toreador:3, Prince Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (13 cards) 1 Art Museum 3 Contract 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Information Highway 2 Minion Tap 1 Storage Annex 4 Zillah's Valley Action (8 cards) 4 Clandestine Contract 4 Enchant Kindred Action Modifier (16 cards) 4 Aire of Elation 5 Cloak the Gathering 3 Forgotten Labyrinth 1 Lost in Crowds 3 Voter Captivation Political Action (13 cards) 6 Anathema 1 Free States Rant 2 Kindred Restructure 3 Kine Resources Contested 1 Parity Shift Reaction (11 cards) 2 Telepathic Counter 5 Telepathic Misdirection 4 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (28 cards) 4 Infernal Pursuit 4 Majesty 1 Preternatural Evasion 6 Psyche! 5 Pursuit 2 Taste of Vitae 6 Thin Blood Combo (1 cards) 1 Provision of the Silsila ---------------------------------------- PATH OF BLOOD Have you heard of it? No, I am not talking about the card anymore. The Path of Blood is the best on-line site dealing with Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. Mainly dealing with Assamites, naturally. Join the ever growing community of Assamite fanatics! If you are interested more closely in Assamites, visit the site at: http://www.thepathofblood.com/ ----------------------------------------