VEKN Brujah Newsletter January 2003 Introduction After reading Legbiter's amusing recent Gangrel Antitribu newsletter, I suddenly felt like "I don't need to publish one this month, he's done it for me!" - with a Happy Families Euro-Brujah deck. No revolutionary new tech, admittedly, but nothing I will positively rectify with this writing. But yes, I have a little something to say, although the deck I feature was born in the alcoholic fumes around christmas and never lived up to the grandeur and stylishness it exuded on paper... ;-) Fiction A hollow voice is heard over the sight of an approaching army - ancient warriors, clad in shiny armor, the fierce masks of their helmets giving no sign of compassion nor fear, not even humanity. "As when the south wind spreads a curtain of mist upon the mountain tops, bad for shepherds but better than night for thieves, and a man can see no further than he can throw a stone, even so rose the dust from under their feet as they made all speed over the plain." The view circles towards another mass of fighters, their spears lowered in anticipation of the attack. The dust that covers the plain extending from Troy down to the Mediterranean looks thirsty for the blood that will be spilled. Suddenly a gloomy silence sets in. The trampling of feet, the thunder of the horse-driven chariots is gone - the Achaean army has come to a stop, their tattered banners limply flapping in the breeze. "When they were close up with one another, Alexandrus came forward as champion on the Trojan side. On his shoulders he bore the skin of a panther, his bow, and his sword, and he brandished two spears shod with bronze as a challenge to the bravest of the Achaeans to meet him in single fight." Proud and beautiful the man faces the ranks of the enemy. A roar as of an awakening beast is heard amidst the hesitating phalanx. His brow covered in sweat, his lips distorted to a malevolent snarl, Menele springs from his chariot. His eyes spell death and destruction, yet he doesn't speak. "Alexandrus quailed as he saw Menelaus come forward, and shrank in fear of his life under cover of his men. As one who starts back affrighted, trembling and pale, when he comes suddenly upon a serpent in some mountain glade, even so did Alexandrus plunge into the throng of Trojan warriors, terror-stricken at the sight of the son Atreus." His retreat is stopped by a mighty, iron-clad hand that grabs his shoulder. Slowly he turns around, not daring to look the other man in the eye. Helmet clings on helmet, as the slayer of many a Greek knight brings his lips towards the young man's ear. The Trojan battle line reestablishes its order, then the noise subsides and Hector's words can be heard. "Did you not from your a far country carry off a lovely woman wedded among a people of warriors - to bring sorrow upon your father, your city, and your whole country, but joy to your enemies, and hang-dog shamefacedness to yourself? And now can you not dare face Menele and learn what manner of man he is whose wife you have stolen?" The young man's courage thus restored Hector turns around to face the enemy. On his sign the Trojans lower their weapons, despite the occasional flurry of stones and arrows still raining down on them from their bloodthirsty opponents -until a regal figure, quite similar in appearance to Menele, albeit more human, steps forward and raises his voice: "Hold, Argives, shoot not, sons of the Achaeans; Hector desires to speak." "Thus he spoke, and they all held their peace, till Menelaus of the loud battle-cry addressed them. 'And now,' he said, 'hear me too, for it is I who am the most aggrieved. I deem that the parting of Achaeans and Trojans is at hand, as well it may be, seeing how much have suffered for my quarrel with Alexandrus and the wrong he did me. Let him who shall die, die, and let the others fight no more. Bring, then, my Chainsaw, and let's make an end to it!'" Terror spreads among the Trojan ranks as a shiny golden, alien looking contraption is produced from the Atreide's chariot and, on Menele's command, becomes alive with a thunderous noise that speaks of pain, blood and madness... With a scream Volker wakes from his nightmare. Far above a hammer drill is singing a cacophonous battle song against the reinforced concrete - since the renovation of the downtown office building that houses his haven began, he didn't get a decent day's sleep at all. Cursing he searches for the bottle of Absinthe he had stored in his coffin, only to discover that it has fallen over and spilled its sticky, yellowish content on his brand new trousers. Strategy Of course there are invisible irony tags around the "grandeur and stylishness" part of the introduction, but I admit that a certain deck style to me always had a mystical attraction: the one-vampire deck. A couple have been posted on the newsgroup over the years, most notably the Wynn-Wynn deck, and I had a very interesting conversation about this with Ben Peal during our drive to the EC. So what follows on the issue of building a deck centered around one vampire is fueled by Ben's thoughts as well as by my experiences (only one deck posted so far, "Dial A for Alamut", which is on my website - www.8ung.at/decks/deck_dial.html - and as an earlier version also on the fabulous Path Of Blood site). Apart from certain concepts that use the Soul Gem of Etrius to recycle their one vampire (like "Turbo Arika" or certain Spiridonas abominations) a one-vampire deck usually includes more than one vampire in the crypt, by my definition all decks classify that plan to bring out a certain protagonist and literally fall apart without him (or her). Who is worthy your attention? The easy answer: Anyone, as long as it makes sense to restrict your crypt to 1 + something. The motivations leading to a one-vampire deck are manifold: unique discipline combos, powerful specials or trick combos. That's the part of "grandeur and stylishness". The complicated answer also addresses the question of viability: As your chosen one will have to handle most of the business, can he guarantee your survival? If your focus is on offense, how will you defend? If you concentrate on survival (wall, bloat), how will you oust? Are there other vampires that have some sort of synergy with The One? Generally access to untap/intercept (along the lines of Second Tradition/Read the Winds), a bounce discipline (AUS or dom/DOM) and/or a significant title are things worth looking for. Also good: Specials that either slim down your card requirements for the main strategy (Wynn's inbuilt rush for example) or cover a essential strategical requirement (as blood management in case of Francois Villon, Hannibal or Goratrix). Finally getting multiple actions out of your monster is advisable (Fortitude for Freak Drive, Thaumaturgy for Rutor's Hand). How many copies do you want? It really depends on how many other vampires you plan to bring out. I draw the line at 4 copies of The One, everything below has a rather high chance of not yielding at least one copy in the starting crypt. With 4 copies you have a 86 percent chance of having at least one (considering a 12 card crypt), with 5 it rises to 93 percent, which makes it reasonably unlikely to never draw your guy even in a full tournament. Higher numbers to me only make sense if you don't bother at all about additional vampires, as the probability of drawing exessive numbers of The One in your starting crypt dramatically increase. What are the problems? Time: I wrote a good deal about playing with big vampires in an earlier issue, and as most of the times your central character will be quite expensive, most is appropriate here as well. Depending on the table situation it might be an idea to bring out some support figures first to secure a marginal defense while you are spending big on the main force, and don't expect to hit the ground running with a deck like this... Especially since the usual speed toys (Info HW, Zillah's) don't really cut it: You only want one big guy, so all the stuff you didn't draw early just clogs your hand. Protecting The One: The weak point of a one-vampire deck is easy to spot - kill the vampire, and it dies along with him. It all depends on your strategy, of course: If it's a combat deck, it better be a good one, if it does politics, you have probably fewer nightmares about Protect Thine Own, but should include a couple of Secure Havens. Don't plan for all eventualities, but Security Through Obscurity, i.e. the other players don't know the weak spots of your deck, doesn't really work. Plan B: Although I defined a one-vampire deck as one that doesn't have much else to do if The One goes down (or never shows up...), you should spend a few minutes on working out possible survival strategies if the shit hits the fan. This might include working the table in your favor (so bring some possible boons as trading material), not basing your defense solely on The One (for example with some Dominate guys for Deflections) or contemplating the joys of bleeding for one a lot (by making the rest of the crypt as weenie as possible). Well, a lot more could be said about the weaknesses of such decks, and substantial they are - which shoves most attempts in this arena straight into the fun deck category. Still: Put you sparkling imagination aside for the moments it takes to find out how you will deal with the rough reality of a game of Jyhad. On the other hand: Don't be paranoid. If you are afraid of Pentex Subversion, better play a weenie deck. Deck The Trojan Chainsaw Massacre It's no coincidence that I chose this time to write about one-vampire decks: The big CE Brujah all scream for a deck build around them. Which doesn't necessarily result in a one-vampire deck, but nonetheless... Menele is our guy this month, and while he normally sees more use in Euro-Brujah sort of decks, this one returns to an old favorite piece of equipment: Talbot's Chainsaw. There are three classic ways to cope with its damaging side effect: Ambrosius, the Ferryman (takes only aggravated damage); the Arms Dealer horde (see last March's newsletter), and weenie Tremere with Chantry. Considering the fact that Menele has superior Thaumaturgy, you can see where this is going. Bring him out, use his special to get some little warlocks, play Chantry, Magic of the Smith the Chainsaw into play and go to town. Cut a Tremere in half each untap, rescue with the Chantry. Problems I had so far (two games) included not getting Menele in the starting crypt (so much for probability) and playing against Ahrimanes with loads of Terror Frenzy... Biggest drawbacks though are a) too much setup, and b) too many blockable +1 stealth actions (especially the required hunt by the "punchball" Tremere, which the Theft of Vitaes try to address, but, well, not really...). Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 9, Max: 40, Avg: 5,75) ------------------------------------------- 1 Almiro Suarez (Tremere 2, aus) 1 Blythe Candeleria (Tremere 3, aus THA) 1 Ehrich Weiss (Tremere 3, dom tha) 1 Masika St. John (Tremere 3, THA) 5 Menele (Brujah 10, aus CEL dom POT PRE THA) 2 Mustafa Rahman (Tremere 2, dom) 1 Pieter van Dorn (Tremere 4, dom pre tha) Library: (80 cards) ------------------- Master (12 cards) 1 Academic Hunting Ground 1 Barrens, The 4 Chantry 1 Guardian Angel 3 Haven Uncovered 2 Heidelberg Castle, Germany Action (15 cards) 3 Embrace, The 4 Magic of the Smith 5 Nose of the Hound 3 Rutor's Hand Reaction (10 cards) 7 Deflection 3 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (38 cards) 7 Psyche! 12 Pursuit 5 Sideslip 7 Taste of Vitae 7 Theft of Vitae Equipment (5 cards) 2 Flak Jacket 3 Talbot's Chainsaw Final Notes Well, cheers to Ben Peal for the thought-provoking talks - I hope he's not going to tear my head off for (ab)using some of his wisdom. A good 2003 to all of you, and as always thanks for reading! Skaffen Archon of The Cold Dawn www.8ung.at/colddawn "This is really nothing else than a prelude to the entertainment." (Menelaus in Petronius' 'Satyricon')