VEKN Brujah Newsletter March 2003 Introduction: Welcome to a short and late issue for this month - could have been none at all what with all those real life issues creeping into my existence lately, but anyway... This one is not so much about strategies and deck-building, but about something our Munich playgroup came to enjoy quite a lot lately: special tournament formats. It all began when we couldn't secure a pre-release for the Cam edition, so went for a Jyhad/Vampire limited constructed event under the title of "Auguries of Innocence" - only cards from the original base set were allowed, a strict clan rule was enforced (only one vampire out-of-clan allowed per crypt), and everybody had to choose his clan beforehand. The Ventrue did win, but that's another story... (In case you're interested, there's a report on my website somewhere). Anyway, the past two weeks we paired our skills in a new limited format I developed, and as I already got some questions about it through our local mailing list, I thought it might be interesting enough for you all to hear about it. Alternative tournament format - Honour the Elders The rules: Quite a few of them, the ideas behind them will be explained afterwards. Note that this format was designed for an unofficial tournament of our playgroup, it requires a certain amount of pre-planning. Here we go: 1. Each player choses one vampire with a capacity of nine or higher in advance (the Elder). Only one Elder per clan is allowed for the tournament. The chosen Elders are made public prior to the tournament. 2. A copy of the Elder is placed in his uncontrolled region at the beginning of each game. The crypt (minimum size of 11) is shuffled and three more vampires are added to the uncontrolled region. 3. All Elders are considered famous, and this is considered a unique effect (so you can't play Fame (the card) on an Elder). 4. Other minions cannot take directed actions as long as an Elder of their clan is not in play. 5. Each minion has a minimum cost of six pool to bring out. If it has a lesser capacity, the excess drains off. 6. The Elder is attached to a Methusalah until it's brought into play. (So if another player brings out a copy of the vampire you have chosen to be your Elder, that copy is not an Elder. But if your Elder gets stolen later in the game, it's still considered an Elder, so minions of the same clan can take d-actions). 7. Elders do not contest. Any contesting copies of an Elder are burnt upon entering play. (This is similar to Jimmy Dunn's special, if a copy of a vampire you have chosen as your Elder enters play while you already have your Elder out, or if you bring out your Elder and another copy of that vampire is already in play, that copy burns immediately.) 8. Being an Elder of a clan is not attached to the clan of the Elder during play. (If your Elder gets deranged or clan impersonates, he's still the Elder of his original clan.) 9. Clanless vampires have no restriction on taking d-actions. One card is banned in addition to the regular list: Brainwash (Reason: Only Sudden Reversal or cross-table help would save you once one is played on your uncontrolled Elder - since without him you can't take the d-action against the controller of the Brainwash to get rid of it). Apart from that all standard rules apply. The idea: Well, first of all it is meant to create a challenging and fun environment for V:tES play a little outside the normal meta game. I was trying to create a limited format that forces players to change their views on deck-building and come up with interesting combos/strategies (especially by giving them one Elder to toy with, so they will have access to a discipline set or special ability of their choice without having to build a mono-vampire crypt with 5 or 6 copies of the one). It is also an experiment to find out if and how a restricted format might result in a broken game - i.e. will taking the most-quoted-as-broken strategy (weenie) out of the equation make the game more balanced or just exploitable in a new way. Most of the rules were invented to balance the three strategies (bleed, vote, combat) in this environment - the d-action rule to stop semi-swarm bleed decks, the fame rule to give high-cap combat a chance to actually oust someone. The political angle IMO didn't need any restrictions as most of the possible Elders have votes in one form or the other, so vote-lock is very hard to achieve, nor any boon as obviously Bewitching/Awe/Telepathic Vote Counting is still a promising way to go (not to mention table agitation). The result: We gave this format a try during two consecutive regular playing sessions, 3 rounds + final. As it turned out we had only one dedicated vote deck (a Cailean-based Obf/Pre deck), and many players stuck to classic archetypes (Arika and Giovanni power bleed, Cock Robin Ani-wall, Brujah Antitribu bruise'n'bleed) or tried a one-vampire show (Lambach 7 Raptors, Rachel Brandywine Madness Network action). Still the format made an impact on all decks, with strong combat defense in most of them and many trump masters flying around (Pentex, Archon Investigations, Golconda, Secure Haven). I experienced the games as very "fragile": Many had early ousts, but many (and sometimes the same ones) also went to time. People were trying to protect their small pool amounts (after bringing out 2-ish minions at a total cost of roughly 16) against the threats of drastic actions (Arika bleeds for 8 anyone?) - those that couldn't cope died soon. Card cycling was naturally difficult with fewer actions to be taken, I felt the danger of exposing myself much stronger than usually, but often had to do something to draw into my defense. Did it break the game? No, though I don't think many players were actually trying hard (well, I did, with a Tremere Signet/Pier 13/Incriminating Videotape effort, but neglected the defense a little), but that might be attributed to the fact that with all those rules the meta game looked complicated enough to most, so they tried to figure how to survive first. No surprise on the winner(s): Ventrue and Giovanni monster bleed dominate the final, Ventrue win. Was it fun? Hell, yeah! (And that, apart from sharing this idea, is the real message for this issue: While all discussions on the newsgroup and usually also within this letter are strictly based on tournament V:tES play with all applicable rules, one should never forget that playing by alternative house rules is probably as popular as the official way, and that every way to make V:tES even more enjoyable is worth trying.) Deck: Just to keep this whole newsletter a little on topic, here's the Brujah deck that got played by Erwin Dworzak in the tournament. He decided on Maxwell as his Elder. I added my comments below. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 21, Max: 36, Avg: 7,17) ------------------------------------------------------- 2 Constanza Vinti (Brujah 8, CEL DOM POT, Prince) 2 Donal O'Connor (Brujah 8, CEL DOM POT, Prince) 3 Maxwell (Brujah 9, CEL FOR POT PRE PRO) 2 Pug Jackson (Brujah 6, CEL for POT pre, Primogen) 3 Volker (Brujah 5, CEL pot, Prince) Library (90 cards) --------------------- Master (9 cards) 1 Archon Investigation 1 Anarch Troublemaker 1 Fear of Mekhet 1 Golconda: Inner Peace 1 Major Boon 4 Secret Passage Action (22 cards) 16 Computer Hacking 2 Judgement: Camarilla Segregation 4 Fourth Tradition: The Accounting Political Action (6 cards) 6 Autarkis Persecution Combat (32 cards) 12 Concealed Weapon 8 Dodge 12 Dragon's Breath Rounds Ally (9 cards) 9 Arms Dealer Equipment (12 cards) 12 Saturday Night Special My comments: Well, I'm sure he'll kill me for saying it, but Erwin is a rather new player to our group (and plays strictly post CE for aesthetic reasons...), and his deck shows some typical weaknesses of newbie affairs. Still: He's addressing some points about a Honour the Elders-format quite nicely. First, the Arms Dealers give him a minion advantage in an environment notoriously short on action slots. Concealed SNS with Dragon Breath Rounds is a semi-scary combat option and well suited for both the Brujah and the Arms Dealers. Autarkis is a vote that will find allies on the table, as there's almost always someone out there starving for pool, and most players will control a few votes via their Elder. Finally, Arms Dealers make good blockers in the face of Seduction, which he rightly assumed to be highly popular in this format. The problems of the deck are obvious: All pool-gain and the whole Arms Dealer mechanism is stuck at +1 stealth, and it lacks any sort of defense against stealth bleed (apart from one Major Boon and the Archon Investigation), or for that matter any stealthed actions against it. I'd probably put in a media outlet or two, some Seconds and a couple of Blood Dolls and take it more easy on the Secret Passages. Memories of Mortality would work nicely as well. On the crypt side Marlena could possibly replace one or two Volkers, as her special goes quite well with the Arms Dealer theme. Overall Erwin's deck didn't perform too hot. It almost stopped me dead in the second round though when my Cardano pr0n factory ground to a halt against 4 Arms Dealers ready to block, with only Muaziz squeezing in the bleeds. He didn't make the final as there wasn't much he could do when the big geezers in the business suits moved in for 8 pool at some stealth around turn 5... Final Words: I hope to have some more time to devote to new Brujah tech now that our group returns to regular play, so keep your eyes open for the next installment in a month's time. Cheers to the Munich crowd for making our Honour the Elders event such a great experience, and to Erwin for sharing his deck. Thanks for reading Skaffen www.8ung.at/colddawn "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour." (1 Timothy 5:17) "But he comes to thee sad, without feigning, Who has wearied of sorrow and joy; Less careful of labour and glory Than the elders whose hair has uncurled: And young, but with fancies as hoary And grey as the world." (A. C. Swinbourne, 'Dolores')