Introduction: A rather long issue this month, as I wanted to get rid of some fragments I had collected that may be obsolete with the advent of the new Camarilla Edition. So what do we have? A short discussions of the effect the card changes will have for standard Brujah decks, a strategy article on intercept and some deck sketches that showcast possible Brujah intercept decks. The Fiction department will take a break for this month. Discussion of card changes: Just a quick glance on the card changes that have been made public and their expected effect on Brujah decks. I left out the cornercase stuff, although Anvil's Thaumaturgy looks more tasty these days...) Oxford University: no cost, X pool for X votes, no inherent burn option. Yeah, it's a Brujah-only card. You never read about it in this newsletter so far, because it sucked really badly. The New wording makes it a no-cost, not burnable master card that lets you spend pool for votes. Still not spectacular, but with Rake (or any new hardcore presence guy) you can spend pool and Voter Cap. it back - well. up to two, that is. Viable for a heavy political deck, and since you only need a master slot to use it, a possible candidate for quite a few other deck archetypes. Second Tradition: the effect costs 1 blood when used by a tapped vampire. Okay, now it costs a blood to do the untap and block routine - only grabbing the intercept is still free. Actually I don't think this is going to be too much of an issue for Euro-Brujah-style decks, as a) I never include an excessive amount of Seconds, and b) should easily be able to recoup the cost with Taste Of Vitae. Volker is a different story, but still workable IMHO. Taste of Vitae: play at end of round. Only 1. Well, no more hit/taste to get blood for the blur/destroy tactics, which I have to admit happened quite alot in my Volker decks. With my playing style the card change directly effects pool management: I will have to take it more easy on the Blood Dolls. Al's Army Apparatus: only usable during your minion phase. The restritcion seems conercase, but could have been significant because when I wanted to equip my Brujah with shiny toys I'd usually use the Apparatus twice to load up on guns right before and when my turn began to maximise the chance to pass one of the equip actions (which are notoriously at a meagre +1 stealth with our lot). Alas, one other card change makes these maneuvers obsolete: Concealed Weapon: no discipline req., weapon cannot be unique, deal agg damage, cost more than 2 pool, or deal more than 3 damage (with a standard strike). Sweet.... Just load your blurred .44 decks with this beauty, and if you happen to stumble into combat, it's a simple "Al, pass me that gun, will you?" Majesty: costs 1 blood (no additional cost for superior). Catatonic Fear: costs 1 blood. Nice, IMHO, as it will make live easier, especially when going the Psyche route. In my S:CE Brujah decks I usually use Flash/Majesty as combat defense, which will lean a bit more towards Flash now - although I normally play Majesty at superior anyway. Fifth Tradition: cannot target the acting vampire. Blood gain is limited to 4 blood. A drastic change, but I don't see the Hospitality much in Brujah decks as it is very vulnerable to intercept. Anyway, as alternatives for bloating are in demand right now, there are two routes open for the Brujah: Taste Of Vitae (depends on having a tasty victim) and Voter Captivation (depends on having some sort of vote lock). I consider this a challenge... Strategy: Intercept and win The crucial thing for every intercept deck is getting that one extra VP. Every intercept monstrosity will be able to stay until the end, netting you 2 VPs, but not necessarily a Table Win. So the goal is unchanged: Oust your prey, and do it before he sweeps. Pay attention to him. If you just concentrate on your predator, you will have new and stronger one too soon anyway. (The "going upstream" strategy where you allow 1 VP to anyone apart from your original predator is a possible, if difficult way to win for a rush deck. Some intercept types - Tzimsce "wall of death" combined with War Ghoul rush for example - might have a shot at it, but it's VERY tricky and nothing I would ever advise as an initial strategy. I see it as a desperate maneuver when all else fails.) Aggressive intercept: In a broader sense I define aggressive intercept as stopping actions and punishing the actor - as opposed to denial strategies that just stop anything from happening. Here I will use the term in a different way, probably offensive intercept would be a more appropriate moniker. It means: Block your prey. If he cannot go anywhere, you will oust him somewhere down the road, thus solving the problem of getting a table win. Most of the times you will need either Eagle's Sight and/or Anneke, the Toreador justicar, to do so, as these allow you to block *any* action taken at the table. Table control The power of an intercept deck is best heard in the slighty trembling voice of the other players when they ask: "Do you block?" A good intercept is indeed the power that says "Yeah" or "Nay" to everything that is happening on the table. This form of table control is a mighty tool, but not itself the way to victory - more often than not it leads to time running out. Of course you could move to very forward aggressive intercept, but without having table control in mind pro-active rush/bleed/whatever would be the more promising strategy. So the art of playing intercept successfully is to control the table and subsequently to shape it in a way that it will eventually collapse in your favor. This of course is true for every V:tES deck, but many don't need to care about the implications. They do their stuff. Intercept though needs stuff done by others to become effective, as you always react. The most succesful ones set up a situation where they can actually control what will happen with cards like Smiling Jack or Anarch Revolt. Others try to have the answer to as many situations as possible, turn their immediate surroundings into a wasteland and move forward at what little pace they have offensively. Ranging from subtle to brute force, all intercept strategies have one thing in common: The parts that deal with blocking and those that deal with offense have to work hand in hand. (Which is not to say that everything else involving some sort of intercept can not work. It is saying that everything else is toolbox. ;-) Playing big vampire intercept decks opens an alternative or additional aspect: political control. The resources you can pour into your offensive are oftentimes rather meagre, so the aim is to be as efficient as possible. One of my favorites is going the Anarch Revolt route, were you just destablize the table and jump into the hot seat at the right time with the help of Dramatic Upheaval/Kindred Restructure. Political control narrows down the possible successful strategies for the other players; preventing vote lock by one player on the table is a very important goal for anyone aiming at table control; and incidently Brujah intercept decks will utilize rather large vampires... Not more than necessary By dedicating a huge portion of your deck to intercepting and subsequent combats, card slots for offensive actions are at a premium. Look for card efficient ways to do damage to your prey's pool - be it politcal power cards (Parity Shift), perma-bleed (Pulse Of The Canaille comes to mind, as Auspex is a very common discipline for intercept decks), power allies (War Ghouls/Renegade Garou, even Muddleds that go out and kill stuff for you) or what Rob Treasure so affectionately calls master bombs (master cards like Smiling Jack, Anarch Revolt, Hostile Takeover, Temptation Of Greater Power). Permanent effects are great, as they save card slots. If you are an aggressive interceptor, don't bother with stealth etc. - bruise your way through. Blocked - now what? Coming back to the difference between aggressive intercept and denial decks: You need to know what to do with the blocked minion. Are you satisfied with just having foiled her action, or do you want her scalp? The difference lies in the amount of space you have available in your deck: Denial comes as cheap as Second Tradition/Obedience, while killing vampires can eat a significant ammount of your resources, as all Brujah players know well. The more card slots you dedicate to blocking and killing, the less you have available for offensive actions. While - as we have seen above - some forms of offense require fewer cards than others, a deck that blocks everything and kills everyone will not move forward very decisively. If you want more than denial, attrition is the thing you should aim for. Do not plan to kill anyone, anywhere, at any stealth, but balance your intercept/combat module towards the local meta game. Block all threatening actions, and make them think twice before attempting them again. With the Brujah that usually means that you don't want play the full TS/IG/Blur/Taste combo every time, maybe just TS/Blur, but the simple fact that without a S:CE in hand your predator will loose a vampire anyway will slow down his game. Psychological warfare revisited I mentioned an important factor a few times now: Playing an intercept deck will slow down play on your side of the table. Many intercept decks I see grossly overestimate the number of actions they will have to block. Only denial decks without the threat of serious consequences for the blocked minion will have to ward off a steady amount of actions, as running them out of untap/intercept is a viable counter strategy - attrition will always result in more careful play by your prey and predator. This becomes even more effective if you put some permanents into play - media locations, Sport Bikes etc. for intercept, weapons for combat. Vampire of the month: Raziya Samater Brujah 3, ani pot Admittedly she's not that important for any of the decks to follow (although featured in two of them), still I never wrote about her so far, so I will do it now. Plus you will have the pleasure to meet her if you buy any Brujah starter - which you should, if only for the Disarm... Raziya is one of the strange Ancient Hearts 3-cap. weenies like Itzahk Levine (Ventrue, cel pre), Panagos (Gangrel, ani obf) and Regilio (Nosferatu, aus obf) that have two skills, one out-of-clan. She should be a Nosferatu, but we can use her in straight Potence decks as well as any time a little Animalism helps the Brujah cause. Unfortunately only Don Cruez himself has Animalism, but maybe the Camarilla Edition will offer some different partners in crime for this cool looking babe. Card of the month: The Second Tradition: Domain Requires ready Prince or Justicar. +2 intercept. Also usable by a tapped Prince or Justicar, even if intercept is not yet needed, to untap and attempt to block with +2 intercept. (note: this is the current card text, which will change with the new Camarilla Edition - see above) "Cheating bastard", I hear you screaming. Your are right, there is nothing innovative about mentioning the Second Tradition when talking about Brujah intercept. And while a typical Euro-Brujah deck using this tradition will probably be the most succesful archetype of a Brujah deck with an intercept component, this card is also the natural starting point for most things more dedicated. So what do we have: the possibility to untap and gain +2 intercept for a prince or justicar, all rolled into one neat package. It's so good that every Camarilla prince deck that ever thought about blocking anything uses this card. The Brujah like it even more, as they can actually achieve something in the resulting combat. The new Camarilla Edition version has a 1 blood cost for the untapping effect - I say: Very well indeed for balancing one of the strongest original Jyhad cards, and then again nothing a few more Taste Of Vitaes can not offset in a good Brujah deck. Decks: Three decks for this issue, which evolve around the idea of table control. The Don makes a showing as the ultimate Naysayer, Volker atones for his sins and shows the power of the new Concealed Weapon, and finally a horde of Arms Dealers will hand you the stars from the sky... The Impact of Idealism This one is centered around Don Cruez and his mighty discipline spread. Celerity, Potence and Protean form a pretty unresistable invitation to torpor, but the Don might choose to Amaranth you if it pleases him. Animalism offers untap capability and intercept through Raven Spies. The deck doesn't have much offense and is vulnerable to stuff like Call The Humbly Dead, Seduction and Pentex Subversion, at least Iron Heart and Sudden Reversal have a shot at countering the later (no DI, it's not my style - incorporate it at your own moral risk). The biggish wad of Dramatic Upheavals is there to give you the ability to upstream a little: Demolish your predator, then switch places with him. This is a very slow deck to start and not that easy to play, as you seldom get out more than two minions. Below you find one possible variant (ani/CEL/pro) using Psyche, Stutter-Step and Claws in combat, an alternative would use CEL/POT/pro with Torn Signpost, IG and Claws - better against heavy S:CE, but vulnerable to hit-back decks which are more common locally these days. Still I wasn't overly impressed by its performance, mainly because it doesn't really answer the question about how to get the crucial third VP, but also because it doesn't flow very well (the hot fix is encorporated in this deck list, namely Dreams Of The Sphinx and the Fragment). Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 16, Max: 40, Avg: 7,25) ---------------------------------------------- 1 Anastasia Grey (Gangrel 3, ani pro) 1 Constanza Vinti (Brujah 8, CEL DOM POT, Prince) 5 Don Cruez (Brujah 10, ani CEL dom pro POT PRE, Justicar) 1 Dónal O'Connor (Brujah 8, CEL DOM POT, Prince) 1 Nettie Hale (Ahrimanes 5, ani cel pre pro spi) 1 Raziya Samater (Brujah 3, ani pot) 2 Volker (Brujah 5, CEL pot, Prince) Library: (89 cards) ------------------- Master (16 cards) 2 Absolution of the Diabolist 5 Blood Doll 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Fragment of the Book of Nod 1 KRCG News Radio 1 London Evening Star, Tabloid Newspaper 3 Protean 2 Sudden Reversal Political Action (5 cards) 2 Archon 3 Dramatic Upheaval Reaction (25 cards) 3 Cats' Guidance 2 Deflection 4 Falcon's Eye 2 Iron Heart 9 Second Tradition: Domain, The 5 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (39 cards) 5 Amaranth 11 Claws of the Dead 2 Fast Hands 5 Flash 9 Psyche! 7 Stutter-Step Retainer (4 cards) 1 Mr. Winthrop 3 Raven Spy Volker hört die Signale I guess everybody with a little experience can throw together a blurred .44 deck using the new Concealed Weapon. This one leans towards the intercept side. It's a little similar to the old Frankfurt Chainsaw Massacre in crypt construction, featuring Volker and Black Cat as main actors - both have superior celerity and can play Atonement. Black Cat can get her guns cheap, while Volker may play the Second Tradition. Add media outlets, some bikes and an old factotum, Heidelberg the artillery as necessary and pump lead into everyone. Try to go forward whenever possible to first slow down and then oust your prey. (The deck name is a silly pun on the first line in the chorus of "The Internationale", the hymn of the labor movement. In German it goes "Völker, hört die Signale", a silly translation would be "Folks, hear the signals", although in English the line is "So comrades, come rally", if I'm not mistaken.) Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 13, Max: 24, Avg: 4,75) ---------------------------------------------- 3 Volker (Brujah 5, CEL pot, Prince) 2 Black Cat (Brujah 5, CEL pot pre) 1 Bianca (Brujah 6, CEL pot pre) 2 Rake (Brujah 6, aus cel pot PRE, Prince) 1 Anvil (Brujah 6, dom CEL POT pre tha, Primogen) 1 Dre (Brujah 3, cel pot) 1 Angel (Brujah 2, cel) 1 Uma Hatch (Brujah 3, cel pre) Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (12 cards) 2 Al's Army Apparatus 5 Blood Doll 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Guardian Angel 1 Heidelberg Castle, Germany 1 KRCG News Radio Action (8 cards) 2 Atonement 5 Bum's Rush 1 Rampage Political Action (5 cards) 3 Archon 2 Brujah Justicar Reaction (14 cards) 9 Second Tradition: Domain, The 5 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (39 cards) 8 Blur 9 Concealed Weapon 5 Flash 7 Psyche! 4 Side Strike 6 Taste of Vitae Ally (1 cards) 1 Arms Dealer Retainer (1 cards) 1 Mr. Winthrop Equipment (10 cards) 7 .44 Magnum 3 Sport Bike (In case it isn't clear yet - this is a deck using the new Concealed Weapon, it might be tournament legal as it stands, but nor very viable with those useless Obfuscate cards ;-) More stupid stuff to do with Arms Dealers: I never saw the stars so bright... Inspired by something Gomi posted a while ago, the idea is weird but simple: Get out a bunch of Arms Dealers, equip them with Starshell Grenade Launcher and IR Goggles, tap the required number to get the necessary intercept and block with the last in line. At 2 pool a piece the Grenade Launchers are a tad expensive, so Black Cat has to be the central vampire for this fun deck (she really deserves a "Vampire of the month" nomination soon!). The rest is made up by the usual computer-savy Brujah youngsters hacking their way through your prey's pool as soon as the Arms Dealer recruitment orgy is done. Brujah Debate makes another showing for added nastiness and maneuvers in case the boys want to use left-over Grenade Launchers. File under "Bruise'n'bleed with intercept", and do not bring this to your next tournament! Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 9, Max: 20, Avg: 3,75) --------------------------------------------- 1 Angel (Brujah 2, cel) 4 Black Cat (Brujah 5, CEL pot pre) 1 Dre (Brujah 3, cel pot) 1 Lupo (Brujah 2, pot) 1 Raziya Samater (Brujah 3, ani pot) 1 Uma Hatch (Brujah 3, cel pre) 2 Volker (Brujah 5, CEL pot, Prince) 1 Vasilis (Brujah 2, pre) Library: (80 cards) ------------------- Master (12 cards) 6 Blood Doll 2 Brujah Debate 1 Heidelberg Castle, Germany 1 KRCG News Radio 2 Left for Dead Action (19 cards) 19 Computer Hacking Combat (12 cards) 12 Fake Out Ally (10 cards) 10 Arms Dealer Equipment (27 cards) 10 IR Goggles 5 Leather Jacket 2 Pier 13, Port of Baltimore 10 Starshell Grenade Launcher Final words: In a few days I'm off to Scotland for vacation. So I expect the next newsletter to be late again, especially since I will have to digest the new vampires to offer you something insightful in September. Stay tuned! Thanks for reading Skaffen Archon of The Cold Dawn www.8ung.at/colddawn "Every wolf's and lion's howl Raises from hell a human soul."