Brujah Antitribu Newsletter January 2004 1. Contents: 1. Contents 2. Introduction: About the Author 3. Library Card Overview 4. Crypt Card Overview 5. Deck Discussion 6. Final Words 2. Introduction: About the Author Not being a player since the very beginning, but later on occasionally borrowing a deck from a friend to fill in the fifth player, I picked up playing vampire with my own cards about two years. The first cards I ever owned were those in the Brujah antitribu starter from the Sabbat War expansion. I enjoy playing combat decks and I play those a lot. A whole lot. In my opinion none are better at it than the !Brujah which is why I play them more than any other clan. I play in the San Francisco Bay Area. 3. Library Card Overview Vendetta [BH:R2] Cardtype: Reaction Clan: Brujah antitribu Only usable when you are successfully bled for more than 2 pool. Put this card on the acting minion. Brujah antitribu get +1 strength in combat with the minion with this card. Any ready Brujah antitribu may enter combat with this vampire as a (D) action. Burn this card if this minion goes to torpor. Every main Sabbat clan gained one new card in the Black Hand expansion, for the !Brujah this was Vendetta, a reaction card that should provide much needed bleed defense or at least make your predator think twice about bleeding you for more than 2 at a time. While initially I was enthusiastic about this card, I soon found this card wasn?t really as useful as I at first thought. As it is a reaction card, you need to have a ready !Brujah that is able to react while being bled, it generally means that you have to wake, don?t act for a turn with one of your !Brujah, untap with Zillah?s Tears or you have to use Antonio Veradas's untap ability. Now doing that you note that you still have to take a bleed for at least 3 and then you basically have to wait till your next minion phase (unless you have an ?ally? at the table who happens to have a ready !brujah) before you can start beating that bleeding minion into torpor or beyond. Hmm, well facing a dedicated bleed deck, I would prefer an Archon Investigation, as no matter how big the bleed is, the maximum pool loss that I as the methuselah that is being bled am going to suffer, is 3. The cost of the Archon Investigation. Oh yeah, and the getting rid of the bleeding minion part is immediately take care of too, so you won't need to waste an action on that in your next minion phase. The only drawback is that you can only play one per turn as it is a master out of turn and that you will thus forfeit your next master phase action. Archon Investigation also only works on bleeds of more than 3. This provides a significant difference in the amount of times you can play the card, as you won't be able to play it during the opportunistic inner circle, govern the unaligned or legal manipulations bleed. But I argue that if you are attempting to include bleed defense in your deck, it's not because you want to stop that one bleed of 3. Instead of spending a card slot on Vendetta, in most cases you will be better of including a more versatile card like Sport Bike, Mr Winthrop or probably even an Enchant Kindred. Conclusion: While Vendetta certainly has its uses and the idea behind the card is certainly a cool concept, not to mention that the silhouette style artwork of Peter Bergting is outstanding , its lack of flexibility and it being unable to effectively stop major bleeds against you, usually makes the card a below mediocre addition to most of your decks. 4. Crypt Card Overview Henry Taylor [BH:U2] Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Brujah antitribu Group: 3 Capacity: 6 Discipline: cel pre pro POT 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. With Sela, Julian Sanders and Jeremiah Noble, the !Brujah now have a fourth quality 6-cap minion. With only potence as superior discipline, no title and no Black Hand status, it was not immediately clear to me how good Henry Taylor really was, until I tested him. His special ability is strong, really strong. I can tell you about all those times I had that much needed Immortal Grapple, Torn Signpost or Taste of Vitae and I used them over and over again. You never have to face a Strike: Combat Ends again, or you can always have the 3 strength to put those weenies in torpor. Also know that as you give him skill cards like Celerity or Protean, he becomes even better. I can tell you how I reused that same Sideslip over and over again and brought down minions like Thetmes without getting a scratch. Use protean for aggravated hand strikes over and over again, or maybe better, bleed with Legal Manipulations and always have that annoying Form of Mist ready to continue the action after being blocked. Seriously, in the right deck, Henry Taylor can swing table balance in your favor very fast. Especially in combat heavy environments he is likely to give you the edge over other combat decks, as you never run out of the good stuff. Conclusion: With Waste Management and Henry Taylor, !Brujah have become one of the best clans in recycling cards. Henry Taylor is a very solid minion whose special ability makes him shine in almost any game if you include a lot of rush-like cards. Give him extra skill cards and you?ll see the table turning in your favor in no time. 5. Deck Discussion Pre Black Hand, active dedicated combat decks rarely had a chance in tournaments. Mostly because they would lack ousting power, would sooner or later run out of steam or did not possess enough defense against political or stealth bleed decks. This was certainly true for the Brujah antitribu, and their lack of tournament wins partially reinforces this idea, as they did not possess many other options besides combat strategies. Did this change with Black Hand? I certainly like to think so. With minions like Miguel Santo Domingo and Doctor Streck and Advanced Sela they now have more bleeding and voting capacities. Iron Glare, a card cut out for the !Brujah will add to both these new options and Henry Taylor might just be enough to push !Brujah combat decks to victory. Decklist: Deck Name: !Brujah Brutality Created By: Hans Schrijvers Description: The following is a dedicated combat rush deck, which in my hands has performed surprisingly well, with 4 table wins, a draw and a loss in 6 games, so far. This while facing a variety of different decks. The deck mainly wins through fame and an uninterrupted onslaught with Bum's Rushes and Ambushes. Minion Taps and Blood Dolls provide pool gain, mostly in combination with Taste of Vitae and Sociopath, another card I praise highly and that deserves discussion in a next issue. All minions in the crypt have superior Potence, so I only had to include a few Celerity masters, to let all the minions work at 100% effectiveness. The ability to put almost any minion in torpor gives you a very large amount of control over the table. In long drawn out games, Henry Taylor and Sociopaths can give you the edge you need. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 18, Max: 30, Avg: 6.00) ---------------------------------------------- 2 Jacko CEL obt POT PRE 8, Brujah Antitribu:2 2 Richter CEL for POT pre 7, Brujah Antitribu:2 2 Jeremiah Noble obt pre CEL POT 6, Brujah Antitribu:3 2 Henry Taylor cel pre pro POT 6, Brujah antitribu:3 2 Wah Chun-Yuen cel dom pre POT 5, Brujah antitribu:3 1 Hugo POT pre vic 4, Brujah Antitribu:2 1 Jimmy Dunn CEL for POT 4, Pander:2 Library: (89 cards) ------------------- Master (16 cards) 3 Blood Doll 2 Celerity 3 Fame 1 Gang Territory 1 Giant's Blood 3 Minion Tap 3 Sociopath Action (21 cards) 6 Ambush 6 Bum's Rush 3 Legal Manipulations 6 Zillah's Tears Combat (52 cards) 6 Blur 4 Disarm 10 Immortal Grapple 6 Pursuit 4 Side Strike 4 Sideslip 8 Taste of Vitae 10 Torn Signpost 6. Final Words This is the end of my first newsletter. I hope it has given people some ideas or might reinvigorate the use of !Brujah decks. All the content represented in this letter are my own views and is based on my own experience. Feel free to send feedback, questions or ideas for possible next issues to mundug2000@yahoo.com. - Hans Schrijvers "Sometimes, the traditional methods are the best." - Jacob Bragg