OFFICIAL CAITIFF NEWSLETTER: JANUARY 2002
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CONTENTS:
1. Editorial
2. Talk of the Town: Bloodlines In The House
3. Fiction: Request for submittals
4. Create a Caitiff(tm)
5. Deck of the Month: PAYOLA by TJ Fullington
6. Creator's Notes
7. Statistics & Strategies: Deck Archetypes; The 4 S's
8. Finale
1. EDITORIAL
As we exit the Yuletide season it's as though Santa brought us
presents early with the advent of Bloodlines.
While on first glance, it may not be a perfect set but it sure
is packed full of goodies. While I have my usual list of gripes,
they can be aired more fully on the Newsgroup than wasting space
in the editorial.
Just announced is a number of impending storyline tournaments
to be held soon. I notate it here as Caitiff decks are currently
ineligible for participation in Storyline tournaments.
Considering that deck requirements demand 75% of a crypt to be
clan specific, allowing the Caitiff to play would likely skew
tourney results if they participated.
2. TALK OF THE TOWN: BLOODLINES IN THE HOUSE
Bloodlines is here, and man it's a huge expansion.
In my local metagame Bloodlines decks are starting to make appearances
as players are figuring out how the new clans mesh.
In terms of how Bloodlines affects the Caitiff? Well, let's
look at some particular items of interest:
CALL OF THE GREAT BEAST: When Great Beast comes into play it is
clanless, but NOT Caitiff (per LSJ/White Wolf)
SANGUINE INSTRUCTION: Caitiff cannot target other Caitiff as they
are not a Clan.
LAZARENE INQUISITOR: Harbinger of Skulls can burn 2 blood off a
target vampire as a +1 stealth (D) action. Ick.
ANISA MARIANNA LOPEZ: Anisa can burn a vampire with a capacity less
than 4 controlled by your predator or prey as a (D) action that costs 1 pool.
CONTAGION: {at superior} can steal your Caitiff away from you with ease
THE MISSING VOICE: {inferior} Requires a vampire with a capacity
greater than 4.
Vampires with a capacity less than 5 get -1 intercept when
attempting to block this action.
This is just a sample of cards from the Bloodlines set which show
a design trend in strengthening larger vampires and increasing
penalties for "weenie" type decks. While it may sound odd coming
from the Caitiff Newsletter Editor, it's a very good thing that they are.
From my observations at tourneys, the strongest decks often are very
focused on disciplines (for cheap) and Speed (weenies).
By infusing V:TES with new cards which give the "big boys" more utility,
we (the players) should have more creative avenues open to explore over
the next few years.
However! This does not mean that Caitiff should be overlooked in the
upcoming Camarilla base set. I can speculate that all the existing
clans will receive new vampires, and it would be a real shame (if not
a disservice) if we didn't get a few new kids to play with.
3. FICTION
Having intended to write (ack!) a real story or somesuch, has been
derailed due to impending & current unemployment.
The Caitiff newsletter will still come out monthly, especially as I
may have lots of time on my hands (doh!). The fiction section may
remain empty while pursuing a new employer, unless someone else would
care to contribute.
So if someone is longing to write about their favorite Caitiff, please
submit your fiction for review.
Nik is dead, long live Nik..
4. CREATE A CAITIFF(tm)
Though I didn't receive as many submissions for December's
newsletter, we still managed to get a few good ones.
This month's highlight is on Martin Cooper by Eric Minton:
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Martin Cooper, Clanless Prodigy
Caitiff, 3, ani cel dom.
While Martin is Caitiff, any vampire of another clan may take a
political action at +1 stealth to change Martin's clan to
match its own.
Normally, the Caitiff aren't valued terribly highly by other Kindred,
and are forced to live in the shadows while their Camarilla betters
enjoy the high life. But when a Caitiff comes along who is smart,
charming and talented in the gifts of the Blood comes along,
suddenly half the elders in the area start falling over themselves
to claim him or her as their childe.
His unusual Discipline spread doesn't match any of the existing clans
(or, unless I'm mistaken, any of the new Bloodlines), limiting his
utility in most decks, but making some unorthodox discipline spreads
more playable.
- Eric
EMinton@vnuemedia.com
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5. DECK OF THE MONTH: PAYOLA by TJ Fullington
BERNIE's COMMENTS: TJ played and qualified for the US Nationals with
PAYOLA last year. I tried out a variation of TJ's deck, and it's
very accurately described. Under the new table wins rules which
went into effect this year, PAYOLA would have to be retooled
to still be tourney viable.
CRYPT:
1x Hasina Kesi (1)
1x Igo The Hungry (1)
1x Navar McClaren (1)
1x Nik (1)
1x Smudge the Ignored (1)
1x Uriah Winter (1)
1x Antoinette DuChamp (1)
1x Franciscus (1)
1x Julius (1)
1x Angela Decker (1)
1x Basil (1)
1x Huang - Blood Cultist (1)
1x March Halcyon (1)
1x Royce (1)
MASTERS: 10 Cards
Brainwash x7
Information Highway x2
Succubus Club x1
POLITICS: 60 Cards
Kine Resources Contested x17
Conservative Agitation x11
Autarkis Persecution x1
Dramatic Upheaval x3
Bribes x28
6. CREATOR'S NOTES
I have seen and played several different versions of decks based on
bribes but this one is notable as it has the potential to do 16
points worth of pool loss to your prey on turn 2. The crypt draw is
always perfect and it gains pool steadily as long as you can reach
the referendum. This deck almost always gains 1 victory point and can
grab several more without a strong vote presence on the table. The
amazing quickness of this deck has its drawbacks as well. These
include very fragile vampires, the fact that it folds to early
permanent intercept, and that rarely sweeps tables.
To minimize these drawbacks I included Brainwashes and Dramatic
Upheavals. Brainwashes are key because they lock down those nasty
tzimisce interceptors and the large cap voters of your prey. If you
do not draw a brainwash within the first turn and you think your prey
is an interceptor or a vote deck then you must wish for a dramatic
upheaval to rearrange the table. Make deals to place yourself
opposite any other vote deck so that you can ally.
Another key concept is that I decided to go with vote cards that
didn't require any conditions. By this I mean cards like Banishment
or Praxis Seizures. I wanted to be able to play any vote that I drew
as soon as I drew it. Sometimes I was faced with a hand consisting of
one brainwash, 5 bribes, and 1 Kine Resources Contested with four
untapped minions. If I only had sabbat vampires in my opening crypt
then a Praxis Seizure would jam my hand. With such a dense deck I
found that if I can play a vote and a bribes then my chances of
drawing another vote card to continue cycling were great.
As a side note Julius' disadvantage is really a benefit in this
deck. If any of the vampires go into torpor without blood there is no
way to rescue them precluding any cross table help. Since Julius
burns when he goes into torpor that is one less minion that can count
against me if someone else calls an Anarchist Uprising. Another
interesting point about this deck is that it totally screws most
other weenie decks because they typically don't have titles or
permanent table votes.
If you can live with the dirty "been with a hooker all night"
feeling that can result from playing this deck, you will find it to
be an interesting tool to shake up your local meta-game.
7. STATISTICS & STRATEGIES: Deck Archetypes; The 4 S's
Current Caitiff strategies are currently broken down into the
following categories:
1. SWARM: The swarm method is where your crypt is comprised entirely
of 1-2 capacity Vampires. Essentially hoping to get early momentum
and netting early VP's while other decks are still in an establishment
phase.
PRIMARY WEAKNESSES: Fragile Vampires and low stealth. Due to low-cap
fragility these decks will fall either be heavy bleed or Quick Vote.
Swarm Politics is nearly shutdown if your predator/prey has easy
access to intercept.
Swarm Bleed will most likely gain 1-2 VP's, then shuts down as other
decks should be established enough to deal with the swarm threat by
then.
DECK EXAMPLE: Payola (This issue)
2. SHEPHERD: Premise being that your little ones are being herded and
protected by 1-2 larger vampires. Often I use this strategy with
Cloak the Gathering, Mask of 1000 Faces, Hidden Lurker, and so on..
PRIMARY WEAKNESSES: Once your 1-2 primary vampires are targeted for
destruction, if removed the deck strategy will most likely collapse.
Skill cards can help extend deck life somewhat.
DECK EXAMPLE: Basillia's Brigade (September Newsletter)
3. SPECIAL: Where the advantages/disadvantages of a given Caitiff
are exploited to pursue a specific strategy. Note the occasional
Uriah Winter decks that have been semi-effective.
PRIMARY WEAKNESSES: Denial of the Vampire in question. These decks
are also very hard to pull off due to the support structure of cards
required to make them work.
DECK EXAMPLE: The Winter of My Betrayal (November Newsletter)
4. SUPPORT: Decks designed to take advantage of a specific discipline
may opt to use Caitiff/Pander for speed. In the November 2001 article I
broke down the discipline spread showing how many vampires have
access to the primary bleed disciplines (Presence/Dominate) at minor.
PRIMARY WEAKNESSES: Most of the vampires in play will likely not be
playing with anything more than the basic level of the chosen
discipline. So while focused on a specific task, will be very limited
in flexibility.
DECK EXAMPLE: None yet published.
8. FINALE
Once again, this wraps up another installation of the Caitiff
newsletter.
Note that there was no issue published for December 2001.
Please send any ideas of submissions to my e-mail address below.
Ciao,
Bernie Bresnahan (bernaise1@yahoo.com)
Editor of most things Caitiff
Prince of Lansing, Michigan. USA