Brujah Antitribu Newsletter February 2004 1. Contents: 1. Contents 2. Introduction: !Brujah and voting 3. Library Card Overview 4. Crypt Card Overview 5. Deck Discussion 6. Final Words 2. Introduction: !Brujah and voting: This month's newsletter will focus on !Brujah and voting. Not having had the time to do a lot of actual playing this past month, I will mainly focus on the experience I got from playing with my only !Brujah vote deck I have constructed so far. I realize this gives a very limited view on the voting possibilities of the clan and I would like to invite readers to write and discuss about their attempts to get !Brujah politics to work. 3. Library Card Overview: Iron Glare [BH:C] Cardtype: Action Modifier Discipline: Potence & Presence [pot][pre] Only usable during a referendum. This vampire gains 2 votes. [POT][PRE] +2 bleed. After playing this card, you cannot play another action modifier to further increase the bleed for this action. Probably one of the Black Hand cards every Brujah Antitribu player has been excited about, in a lot of decks Iron Glare has become a replacement of or a supplement to cards like Bewitching Oration and Legal Manipulations. Its versatility often frees up valuable card slots and as an action modifier it often provides a reason to block bleeding minions with both superior presence and potence. Speaking of those minions, there have been printed 29 of them and not surprisingly the Brujah (11) and !Brujah (8) have the most of them among their ranks. With the group restrictions, the Brujah and !Brujah are tied, having 8 minions capable of playing Iron Glare at superior and something that is not unimportant, the Brujah have only 3 of those being lower than 9 capacity while the !Brujah have 6 of those being lower than 9 capacity. A lot of numbers to make my point that this card is really cut out for the !Brujah and in the deck I am discussing later on in this newsletter I am packing 8 of them. Conclusion: With no drawback except for maybe its restrictive discipline combination, Iron Glare's versatility, free cost and action modifier's surprise effect will often make a significant difference, whether your strategy is voting or bleeding or both. 4. Crypt Card Overview: Sela [BH:U2] Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Brujah antitribu Level: Advanced Group: 2 Capacity: 7 Discipline: cel obt POT PRE Advanced, Sabbat Archbishop of Rome: Sela gets +1 stealth on (D) actions directed at a Methuselah who controls a ready bishop. Sabbat: After an action, you may move a combat card Henry played during that action from your ash heap to the top of your library. Sela is definitely one of the !Brujah's best vampires, in fact if you are playing !Brujah and not have her in your crypt, you better have a really good reason. Black Hand gave us the advanced version and while maybe not as good as the unadvanced 6-cap, a 7-cap Archbishop with a good, although not always likely to occur special ability is not bad either. Having lost the +1 bleed does hurt a bit though and it makes her a little less useful if your deck is not concentrating on voting. Merging her with the unadvanced version is definitely not as good as doing it the other way around, as you will have spent 1 more pool on influencing and also the marginally useful and widely neglected special ability that the unadvanced Sela has, will not trigger. All that being said, it's nice to have another archbishop next to Salinger in this clan that mainly had to count on its bishops for votes. Having another minion with both superior Presence and Potence for Iron Glare is very good too and the fact that she has Obtenebration too, makes it possible to play 5 different minions with this discipline in a !Brujah crypt. Conclusion: While maybe not strictly as good as the unadvanced version, advanced Sela is a welcome addition to the clan that opens up and strengthens a whole range possible strategies for the Brujah antitribu. Having no additional merged effect, it is best to always merge the unadvanced with the advanced version, if you have the option. 5. Deck Discussion: Deck Name: Doing It The !Toreador Way Created By: Hans Schrijvers Description: As hinted by its name, this deck plays a lot like a 'standard' Toreador antitribu vote and bleed deck. The idea is by using evasive tactics doing damage to your prey's pool in any way you can, using votes or bleeding. Cards like Pentex Subversion, Mind Numb and Propaganda, reduce the available blockers, while the multiple untaps, provided by Majesties, Zillah's Tears and Change of Targets try to create windows of opportunity in which damage to your prey can be done as they run out of even more available blockers. Blood Dolls, Minion Taps, Gang Territories, Voter Captivations and Enchant Kindreds are able to provide the necessary pool gain as there is next to no defense against heavy bleed. Using votes and bleed to oust this deck cannot be completely shut down, should either of the two strategies be made impossible. The Shattering Blows are a metagame choice, as lately a lot of Ivory Bows, Assault Rifles, Rowan Rings and other equipment have been showing up in my games. I might want to replace the Bloodbath in the future and this deck is certainly up for some more tweaking. Not having access to cards like Palla Grande, Patronage or Art Scam has been fairly well compensated by the versatility of Iron Glare and the presence of Miguel Santo Domingo and also the Gang Territories. Not having access to Telepathic Misdirection for bounce has not yet proven to be much of an issue as there is not that much stealthy bleed around in my area. Propaganda has often been the key in getting VPs and I am considering adding a few more. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 14, Max: 32, Avg: 6.00) ---------------------------------------------- 2 Frederick the Weak pre 2, Brujah Antitribu 2 Rigby aus CEL pot PRE 5, Brujah Antitribu 2 Sela cel obt POT PRE 6, Brujah Antitribu, Bishop 2 Sela (Advanced)cel obt POT PRE 7, Brujah antitribu, Archbishop 2 Miguel Santo Domingo cel for POT PRE 7, Brujah antitribu 2 Salinger CEL POT PRE tha 9, Brujah Antitribu, Archbishop Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (16 cards) 4 Blood Doll 2 Gang Territory 1 Giant's Blood 1 Legendary Vampire 4 Minion Tap 1 Pentex Subversion 1 Powerbase: Madrid 2 Sudden Reversal Action (22 cards) 1 Bloodbath 6 Enchant Kindred 2 Entrancement 2 Intimidation 2 Mind Numb 2 Propaganda 7 Zillah`s Tears Action Modifier (21 cards) 3 Bewitching Oration 5 Change of Target 8 Iron Glare 5 Voter Captivation Political Action (15 cards) 2 Cardinal Benediction 1 Crusade: Mexico City 1 Crusade: Rome 2 Dramatic Upheaval 8 Kine Resources Contested 1 Political Flux Combat (16 cards) 4 Flash 10 Majesty 2 Shattering Blow 6. Final Words: This is the end of the February edition, hopefully it was interesting enough, as I wrote in the intro, I have barely had the chance to play any games of vtes the past month, but I hope to be able to do some more testing this month. Anyway feel free to send questions, feedback or other comments to my e-mail mundug2000@yahoo.com or just post them on the newsgroup. Also if you have ideas for or want to contribute to future issues, let me know. - Hans Schrijvers "Sometimes, the traditional methods are the best." - Jacob Bragg