Who are the Brujah-Antitribu? Some would say that they're just like the regular Brujah, but no, no... All right. Cut the crap. Fact is, the two clans have the same disciplines, so the kinds of things you can do with the Brujah you can do with the Brujah-anti's. So what sets the two clans apart? That's the subject of this month's (premiere) Brujah-Antitribu newsletter. PUTTING THE ANTI IN BRUJAH-ANTI ------------------------------- Horribly broken vampires. While I will most certainly do a vampire by vampire survey in a future newsletter, I had to take this chance to point out the Queen of Broken Vampires, Sela Brujah Antitribu Bishop Capacity: 6 Disciplines: cel obt POT PRE Sabbat Bishop: If Sela becomes an Archbishop, each ready Bishop controlled by your prey burns 1 blood. +1 bleed So she's a 6. With 6 points of disciplines. AND a vote. AND +1 bleed. AND a goofy special _ability_. Sela is almost guarateed to go into whatever !Brujah deck you make. How about the "Sabbat angle"? Well, for sure all of the !Brujah are Sabbat vampires, but is that an advantage or a disadvantage? Besides the general underpricing of vampires in the set (and again, I'll talk about individual vampires in the future), how do the Sabbat-specific cards help the !Brujah? This month I'll talk about the discipline-specific cards, and I'll talk about the masters (Mmmm... Hungry Coyote) in a future newsletter. Potence ------- Ahh, the mother of all combat disciplines. One great advantage to the Potence combat deck as a whole was the rarity change of Immortal Grapple from Rare to Uncommon. Now more people can get their hands on this key ingredient to any !Brujah rush deck. Decapitate. How do you open an aspirin bottle? Heh, heh, heh. This is a fun little card, and the easiest thing to compare it to are Pulled Fangs and Amaranth. If the opposing minion is going to torpor against the !Brujah, then most likely it's because of a big potence strike (or multiple of such), so that they probably won't have any blood left. In that case, Pulled Fangs and Decapitate do the same thing; they burn the opposing vampire with no threat of a Blood Hunt. Except that Decapitate costs 2 blood and requires POT. However, combine the two; after the first strike, pull their fangs, _then_ Decapitate them. Heh, heh, heh. Disarm. We're getting the real good ones out of the way first! Disarm is very similar to a "fixed" Pulled Fangs. In some groups, there is the house rule that Pulled Fangs simply sends the opposing vampire to torpor, instead of inflicting that painful point of aggravated damage. Since this was the function of the card before the aggravated damage rules were changed, it's not too far out there. But, don't fret; Disarm can also be combined with Decapitate for fun and prizes. Fire in the Blood. Unless your combat is going on for more than three rounds, this card is strictly inferior to Fists of Death. And if you're a rush combat deck, no combat should be going on for more than four rounds. Fractured Armament. If you're worried about guns, you may want to use Shattering Blow, since without first strike, this card will allow them to get a shot off with their gun. Then again, if you're worried about guns, why not use Immortal Grapple? Hand of Conrad. Not a potence card per se, but I'll stick it in anyway. This equipment is good news for vampires like Sarah Brando, who can get POT with one card for one pool. Plus, its special ability may let you get a little fast and loose with diablerie. "Oh, no! Jacob Bragg just diablerized Mariel, Lady Thunder! Oh, no! He's been diablerized! Hey, newly Potent Sarah Brando's digging up his bones! At the end of the turn, he's back!" Immortal Grapple. Can't say much more about this card that hasn't already been said by Peter Bakija. Pushing the Limit. IMHO, this card isn't worth the blood. Granted with a Taste of Vitae in your hand, it makes up the difference. But once you're striking for 5 (TS+US) does one more damage make enough difference? Sacrament of Carnage. Another good pitch card for the pitch deck, and usable at close if your maneuvers disappear. Twisting the Knife. This one is just terrible. I can't help but thinking that there's a typo or something, that the card was originally meant to do something else, something useful. Well, that's it for Potence! I see that I'm running a little long, so I'll cover Celerity and Presence some other time. Just remember: Sela is broken, broken, broken. Have a nice day! :) James -- James Hamblin hamblin@math.wisc.edu