VEKN BRUJAH NEWSLETTER, JULY 2004 Any suggestion, Murat? Napoleon, asking his marshal, before calling a cuirassier's charge against Russian 12lb batteries at Borodino _______ Card of the Month: Brujah Deabte _______ Building a deck around this card _______ DECK: Debating under Gehenna VEKN BRUJAH NEWSLETTER, JULY 2004 _______ Card of the Month: Brujah Debate When Dark Sovereigns appeared, the Brujah gained lots of goodies. Princes with DOM, burning wrath... Even Thoughts Betrayed. Very few considered, at that time, this card. I collected it then, as a fetish card. Ever thought of playing it seriously. a few years later, after sabbat war returned this game to live, I found a dozen of this card in one of my several trash boxes, and decided to build a deck around them. When I realized that this card was stackable (by that time we didn't paid too much attention to this kind of facts) during a casual game, I decided to build a banner of it, just for the fun of seeing several copies of lazverinus in play. But it obviously forces you to build your whole strategy around it, as it offers you a combat edge at a significant cost. Brujah Debate [DS:U] Cardtype: Master Clan: Brujah Cost: 1 pool Master. Put this card in play. Each Methuselah with a ready Brujah must tap [(one of)] the highest capacity Brujah he or she controls during his or her master phase. Each Brujah gets +1and an optional maneuver each combat. This card may be burned by any minion who is not Ventrue as a (D) action. So, what are the pros and cons of this card? If we want to build a deck (or several) around it, we should no it in order to minimize its defects and enforce it's strengths. Pros: - Combat management: A few copies of this card in play grants you both strength and combat management; you can set the range of each combat almost always. - Stackable: Having multiple copies of it on the table is the key, achieve it is the key of any deck build around Brujah Debates, and it's drawback affects only one of your vamps. - Permanent source: Once it's in play, if you can keep them, you get an unlimited source of combat efficiency, so you can drop most of your combat card slots in favour of other card type - Swarming efficiency: Obviously, the more brujahs you got, better effect you get from your debates. That grants you some extra points for this deck: If you manage to put 7 o 8 brujahs in play, that's a bleed for lots each turn, or else. - Ventrue can not burn it. It is more important than you think, as, if there is a ventrue player at the table; there is one player less whose minions should remove your debates, so we could be able to drop them on the table earlier in the game. We'll take care of it later. Cons: - 1 pool cost. Ok, not too much, but when we talk about having 3-5 on the table, that's a considerable pool cost. If we stack over it the pool reserve a deck without innate bleed bouncing, then we are talking about a need for serious bloat - Burnable: This is the key. The fact that this card can be burned as a 0 stealth D action performed by any minion demands for a good defence, mainly untap, if you want to keep them in play OR a way to put 2 of them each turn. - You loose one minion action: During your master phase, your biggest brujah must be tapped. Note that it doesn't require you to tap a ready brujah. Playing several brujahs with the same cap is usually a good way to alternate between your vamps. - Other brujah at the table also gain benefit from it. But it also forces them to tap their eldest brujah each of their turns - It's a master, thus you'll need to be able to play several copies at a time and more than 15 masters per game, so rumors and/or parthenon are compulsory. Questions and answers 1) Will I ever care to defend my debates? This is basic for the concept of the deck. If we don't plan to defend them at all, then we are going to build a weenie rush deck with less potence cards and more rushes. The fact is that this way, we'll depend a lot on having at least one debate each master phase, as your opponents will be more likely to burn them. The best way to build it seems a deck based on menele and lots of weenies. Who cares if menele is tapped? In my experience, this will be very unstable, though might be fun to try. Defending the debates also means defending yourself, thus making it harder to oust you. Also it helps adding some distortion to the game, and putting more permanents, even burnable/stealable ones, is good. The more targets they have, the less "burn a debate action" they attempt. 2) How may I get the best from them? Quick answer: Lots of minions. How to influence them, then? You can go either DOM (Governs) or PRE (Enchant kindred) or even Menele plus Honor the Elders, though this option turns your crypt into a 8-10 cap. Everything that helps influencing minions fast is ok, from info highway to powerbase montreal, along with menele and effective managements. This also means lots of pool, so a bunch of blood dolls and/or minion taps must come along. In my experience with decks build around this card, being able to do so without granting an opportunity to block is basic, otherwise you'll be obliged to put a debate in play too early, and that surely means a debate burnt. 3) When can I start playing debates? There are two ways usually: Early if your prey is putting pressure on you (the rest of the table won't see it as immediate threat so they'll leave you do your game) or when you have enough minions to defend yourself and do your play (your predator's minions+prey's minions)/2+2, usually. The exception is when a ventrue player is at your bay, since they can't remove them 4) And what do I use them for? Well, the best of this card is that when you have some in play you'll decide if there will be damage or not. So you block actions without sending vamps to torpor if you don't want to. As the game goes on, simply stop running away and hit for 5 because someone dared to block one of your consanguineous boons. Choosing a crypt So we'll try to build a deck that gathers the best from it's pros and minimizes (or even takes advantage) from its cons. The first thing we ought to take care is to put in play the largest number of vampires, so we have two options: Influencing a lot of vamps with cards (either dom or pre) or lowering the overall crypt, using our smaller brothers. The first option requires us to go for a slower development and some kind of punch/stealth to avoid occasional blockers stop our governs/enchant kindreds. The second option minimizes our opportunity to use the superior version of our discipline based cards somehow, but with a quick search of our crypts 1-2 and 2-3 we found a reasonable number of vamps with CEL. Both way, we have access to several titled vamps, and that "extra" discipline can help us solve somehow some of our cons and needs. Via prince based cards we have access to a fine amount of untap and intercept (2nd trad) and an opportunity to call parity shifts and other political goodies. As we will need the intercept to defend the debates and our pool, and this can grant us some additional pool gaining other than blood dolls, we shall enforce it. If we go for the 1-2 crypt, we have 2 princes under 6, and 4 if we stack the 8 caps with dom. If we go for the swarming way, rake and Volker are a nice start, but not enough if we want to block with more than 2 vamps. Adding a bunch of praxis seizures might help, and we have presence as a clan discipline, so with some vote pushing might be possible to get some princes on the table, thus granting us more votes and the ability to play second tradition with more vamps, alas weenie presence vote decks. In this option, Brachah will be as basic as Rake or Volker, as she is the smallest cap with PRE of the crypt, and potence is a discipline that we want make large use of. If we focus on DOM, then other goodies can help us build a solid crypt, making use of our vamps disciplines better and granting some bleed power. Also, under 8 capacity we can pack in Theo Bell and Anvil, and make some use of POT and occasional rushes, and bleed bounce but the deck will be seriously slower and if our earlier govern the unaligned get blocked, our game might get crippled even before starting. As we won't pack a full combat set (we want to rely our punch on the debates) if someone catches the bluff we'll have problems. But anyone seeing Donal, Anvil and theo on the table will not be really sure that you don't pack heavy combat, so if you play some spicy cards (like immortals, disarms, etc) they'll think it twice before blocking What seems clear is that we plan to put in play the largest number of brujah that we are available to, thus even vassillis, lupo and angel have their place, doubling only those which we consider critical for the development of the deck Blood and Pool gain This is another basic pillar of the game. Gaining blood seems quite plain and simple when you can hit easily for 3-4 each combat, just pack a few taste of vitae. As we plan to slow down the game to gain the most of the debates, adding permanent sources of blood is also ok. Hunting ground, rack and palatial state should kick in. Coven is not a bad option, as in the late game we'll care little if our opponents are at 1 blood or at 5, but might be a drawback when facing decks whose vamps are usually starving, like tzimisce decks. Gaining pool might come for the classic blood doll set, but as we already plan to block with second trads, why not pack a bunch of consanguineous boons? We'll have to ensure such votes get passed, but if we can call a boon with 9 brujahs on the table. well; ask your predator what does he thinks about it. And as we plan to use pre to some extend, we can add some voter captivation, to refill our blockers and gain some extra pool. Politics Either way, it's clear that the use of political actions is a must. Other than the classic set (kine resources contested, consanguineous boons, parity shifts, even anathemas) there are rarely seen political cards that can help us. One is National Guard Support, a political card that shall be burned after a few turns and that gives -1 stealth to all direct actions. This slows down most stealth bleed decks, along with some more effective defence for our Brujah debates. The other is reinforcements, as we might want to return to the deck some key cards that we've drawn or discarded earlier in the game. This card has become somehow obsolete in this deck since Anthelios has arrived, but if we plan to make good use of anthelios and we already plan to play a large amount of master cards, adding rumors of Gehenna should help too Lots of consanguineous boons can help us during all stages of the game. Even just to stay alive in the early game or do some favour cross table, or exchange it for an ok to a praxis seizure vote call. Passing the praxis seizures requires more guile or vote punch, but that's something that you should have seen in most weenie political decks. Charming lobby, brujah justicar, bewitching orations and even bribes are our friends here. Stacking more intercept Any aid this way helps us staying alive - and entering combat. Even though, it depends on our metagame. The stealthier one, then we'll need more bloat and permanent intercept. The more combatant then more untaps and dodges. With the 2nd trad and the National Guard we reach to 3 intercept. If we pack enough 4-5 caps, then a few atonements might help a lot, along with some sport bikes, Aranthebes, etc. Intercept locations are not a good option, as we already pack lots of masters. More transient intercept (such as rooftop shadow or legwork) would be ok if we plan to play medium to large sized minions (cap 6 and above) as it's cost for smaller ones might be too much to afford. Even if you don't plan to play a serious amount of intercept, a large quantity of untap cards are a need. There might come the time when the remaining players at the table decide to burn your debates by sending their combined efforts in a given turn. If you achieve to send some of the earlier ones to torpor, the later might think twice before doing so. Seen it too many times, reminding me of those Napoleonic war formations charging against a bunch of rifles and muskets, and retreating as the third rank falls. Combat A nice suggestion for a Brujah debates deck is ranged combat. You'll save A LOT of deck space as you'll need really few maneuvers. But after all, why? You already hit them with your plain hand for a nice amount, without spending cards. Use those card slots for damage prevention/avoidance. If you build it purely political, then majesty and staredown are your friends. What seems a must if you build any Brujah debate deck, is to pack taste of vitas. You'll always make good use of them. Other brujahs at the table. Even though some might think it's good to have friends at the table. It's not the case. Other Brujah means contesting. It means someone getting annoyed because you force their vamps to tap. And worst, someone who can beat your combat, as they surely pack more maneuvers than you so he will be able to either run away or to hit your pals. It means that you should be slowed down as you might not be able to put debates in play earlier, since he might be more crippled than you want him to. Or empowered. My suggestion? Use their vote support as soon as you can, but don't move an inch to help them stay in play. Deck Name: Debating under Gehenna Description: Brujah debate deck, MK 4.0.1. This one tries to revamp the Anthelios module, as it already plays lots of masters and rescuing your debates should stop other players' attempts to remove them. In order to do so, we have removed some killing capability such as KRC, and added some other events that play in our favour, as we don't pack lots of cards requiring discipline (12) both blood weakens and slow withering are ok. Wormwood is another pain card for large crypt voters, but I'm not sure packing so many events is a good idea. After all, some of them can really hurt our game. Fall of the Camarilla and Recalled to the Founder, for instance. Torpid Blood and Dragonbound if there are several combat decks, etc. Crypt: (14 cards, Min: 9, Max: 23, Avg: 4,21) --------------------------------------------- 2 Rake aus cel pot PRE 6, Brujah:1, Prince 1 Bianca CEL pot pre 6, Brujah:1 2 Volker CEL pot 5, Brujah:2, Prince 2 Brachah for CEL PRE 5, Brujah:2 1 Black Cat CEL pot pre 5, Brujah:1 1 Yuri cel pot pre 4, Brujah:1 1 Uma Hatch cel pre 3, Brujah:1 1 Dre cel pot 3, Brujah:1 1 Vasilis pre 2, Brujah:2 1 Lupo pot 2, Brujah:1 1 Angel cel 2, Brujah:1 Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Event (5 cards) 2 Anthelios, the Red Star 1 Blood Weakens 1 Slow Withering, The 1 Wormwood Master (28 cards) 1 Archon Investigation 6 Blood Doll 6 Brujah Debate 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 2 Emergency preparations 1 Fortschritt Library 4 Life in the City 1 Momentum's Edge 2 Parthenon, The 1 Pentex Subversion 1 Powerbase: Montreal 1 Rack, The 1 Warzone Hunting Ground Action (7 cards) 1 Aranthebes, The Immortal 2 Atonement 2 Charming Lobby 2 Sanguine Instruction Action Modifier (4 cards) 2 Bewitching Oration 2 Bribes Political Action (16 cards) 1 Brujah Justicar 4 Consanguineous Boon 2 National Guard Support 2 Parity Shift 1 Praxis Seizure: Athens 1 Praxis Seizure: Barcelona 1 Praxis Seizure: Cairo 1 Praxis Seizure: Istanbul 1 Praxis Seizure: Monaco 1 Praxis Seizure: Rome 1 Rumors of Gehenna Reaction (16 cards) 2 Delaying Tactics 6 Forced Awakening 8 Second Tradition: Domain, The Combat (12 cards) 2 Majesty 2 Side Strike 2 Sideslip 2 Stutter-Step 4 Taste of Vitae Equipment (2 cards) 2 Sport Bike Epilogue And that's all for this issue. If any of you want a different version of this deck (relying on big caps, with dominate, or more combat oriented) don' t hesitate asking me for it at: tmadico@almadrava.net Might we see this card reprinted someday? Who knows. This card was uncommon from an expansion already out of print, and people stopped buying this set as the camarilla edition precons pack all the good vamps from it. Perhaps in the 10th year edition? Hope so. Got 27 of them, but doesn't seem enough. On the next one we'll see what can be done with auspex. After all, with Advanced theo bell we have a fair team of four brujahs with aus, and some outsiders who can join us.