Official V:EKN Caitiff Newsletter
May 2004
Contents
- Life in the City (Vampire fiction)
- Um, I dunno. What d'ya wanna do? (Clan Strategy)
- ...and the Kitchen Sink too! (Discipline overviews)
- Pick Me! PICK ME! (Card overviews a. crypt b. library)
- Smack Talk (Reader feedback)
- Dear Azel (Advice column)
- Ante up, Sucka (Deck designs)
- Peace Out (Conclusion)
Life in the City
No short fiction this time. Any submissions welcome.
Contact information on the bottom.
Um, I dunno. What d'ya wanna do?
Last newsletter I covered the eclectic spread of disciplines
within the Caitiff. Some interesting patterns emerged, and surely
many of these will be explored in later newsletters. But we also
have among our crew the *disciplineless*. Yay, we cover almost all
the bases! But, what to do with the disciplineless? Why many things!
Like bleed, hunt, rescue from torpor, recruit, employ, call political
actions, disciplineless actions, bow for the favor, er, wait...
no, um, no bow for the favor... oh, and diablerize! We make great
expendible cruise missiles against the torporized. Unfortunately
we are very dependent on our allies to speak for us to spare our
destruction. But our two disciplineless buddies have a neat little
trick, if they survive they get a nifty bonus from diablerie.
Besides being great cruise missiles to the torpored, we are
also great help with the side-actions; they may not be pivotal
to the game, but they help stack each little chip towards our
favor, sparing our allied vampires for the more critical actions.
It is this capability of doing dirty work that is our greatest
strength. Running out those extra actions, gathering more blood
for pool for our master, dealing tick damage, and being a flesh
wall are all actions that any vampire can do, but we are so
readily available (and unfortunately expendible).
And if it's all the little things that add up, it'd be good
to know what actions (outside of recruit, equip, hunt, bleed,
rescue, open political actions, etc.) that would be interesting
considerations on the sidebar. Cards that I'm interested in
casually pointing out are Scrounging, Ritual of Bitter Rose,
Computer Hacking, and Thin-Blooded Seer. Computer Hacking goes
wthout saying, the extra bleed is very useful when timed well.
Ritual of the Bitter Rose begs to be allied with our two disciplineless
cruise missiles - I'll be talking about this later in the library
card overview: Pick Me! PICK ME! Thin-Blooded Seer is a nice
side-action to double your pleasure, double your fun. An extra
vampire to help us divide the labor is always a great thing, and
their special is quite interesting! And lastly Scrounging is an
interesting alternative to typical card cycling. Takes advantage
of our "message courier" nature, not contestable, and generally
can fit as a casual filler card in most decks. So pick up a token
Caitiff for your crew today! You won't regret it!
...and the Kitchen Sink too!
No discipline overviews this time. This is all about the disciplineless, baby!
Pick Me! PICK ME!
Crypt:
Name: Smudge the Ignored
[Jyhad:V, VTES:V]
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Caitiff
Group: 1
Capacity: 1
Discipline:
Camarilla:
After Smudge diablerizes an older vampire for the first time,
he gets +1 strength.
This is the original disciplineless vampire. Unfortunately
the two disciplineless Caitiff cannot play together, grouping
rules. But Smudge has a place in many a Methuselah's memory.
He was the cardinal cruise missile. Not only did he get the
potential to get a discipline card after his first diablerie,
but also +1 strength! This all depends on whether he survives
the wrath of vampiric society, but, eh, c'est la vie. Needless
to say that, besides being incorporated to decks just for his
disposability, he also found a comfortable niche in some fighty
decks, especially those with some latent vote power. He still
has his uses, but many in the Methuselah community have found
a new darling in the diablerie role.
Name: Sandra White
[Anarchs:U2]
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Caitiff
Group: 3
Capacity: 1
Discipline: --
Camarilla: If Sandra diablerizes an older vampire,
the controller of that vampire burns 1 pool.
Ahh, salt in the wound of my enemy is ambrosia to my lips...
There are very few vampires Sandra is going to be diablerizing
that will not be older than her. And she doesn't invite using
up discipline cards on her, why would you want to make her any
generation older than she is? Disciplines, she doesn't need to
bother with such things - she already pays for her self-sacrifice
and then some by her special. If she does happen to survive, heh,
cool another opportunity to twist the knife (not the card! not the
card!). Yes indeed, Smudge's modern replacement more than
adequately fills his space.
Library:
Name: Ritual of the Bitter Rose
[Jyhad:R2, VTES:R, CE:R]
Cardtype: Action Modifier/Combat
This card can be played as an action modifier card or a combat card.
Each ready vampire you control gains an amount of blood from the
blood bank equal to the amount of blood on a vampire being burned
either by diablerie or while in combat with this vampire.
The 'while in combat' is wishful thinking for the most part.
Sure, I'm positive someone out there has worked Smudge up into
a combat monster and finds this card extremely useful for his
combat mechanics. But that's not what interests us, the Caitiff.
We don't lend ourselves to such elaborate combinations as easily,
so the plain and simple attracts us more. That's why basic
'courier duty' is our forte; we can do the basics, and we can do
them often - and guess what, they add up. So the big use of this
card is the obvious: diablerie. To not only diablerize without much
care, but the opportunity to fill up our buddies from our selfless
action, is a great boon to our utility. The trick is to find a
vampire with an 'amount of blood' on them while being burned.
Generally this isn't too hard with aggravated damage. Many tables
face a bit of agg damage throughout the course of the game.
Some disciplines are replete with it, and there's a nice spread
of it in equipment. You don't have to be an agg. saturated deck
to exploit this, just a little agg. and a little of this card
will do.
Name: Thin-Blooded Seer
[BH:]
Cardtype: Action
Cost: 1 blood
Capacity: 1
Requires a ready non-sterile vampire of capacity less than 3.
Put this card into play; it becomes a 1 capacity vampire. This
vampire is clanless and sterile. This vampire is not considered
unique, must hunt this turn and is the same sect as the acting
vampire. Cards that cost blood cost this vampire twice as much
blood to play. During your untap phase, you may tap this vampire
to look at the top two cards of any Methuselah's library.
Whee! Let's make friends! Literally! This is a great boon
to us Caitiff. Often we are outnumbered by our allies and when
we do make it onto the board we are swamped with menial tasks.
Often when our fellow Caitiff buddies are with us in the crypt
they don't always make it out with us. But does that mean our
tasks would be lessened in response to our manpower shortage?
Noooo... So now we can create a friend! This speeds up the completion
of menial tasks considerably. Unfortunately their big drawback is
any 'cards that cost blood cost this vampire twice as much blood
to play.' But considering the cards I was mentioning earlier, CH,
RotBR, Scrounding, are free and inherent hunting and bleeding are
free, along with the ever important Wake with Evening Freshness,
you really aren't hurting too much from this. And the special,
oooo! If you got a bit of free time sitting about for us 'couriers'
(sometimes just staying still is strategic) you can still squeeze
out some nifty effect. There's no possibility of interference from
others during the special's activation (that I know of), and it
gives useful information - about anyone you so please. And if you
are particularly devious with bluffing and deals, well, the value
of these Seers only increase. Bravo.
Name: Scrounging
[CE:U]
Cardtype: Action
+1 stealth action.
Look at up to 3 cards from the top of your library and move up to
2 of them to your hand. Discard down to your hand size and shuffle
your library afterward.
Hmm, but aren't there better cards to cycle? Yes. But of those
cards they are either unique, cost a Master Phase Action, and are
very popular or have less appealing conditions for Caitiff, such
as 'only usable in combat.' And this card has broad appeal because
any minion can use it - no discipline, sect, clan, or type restrictions;
good cyclability. This card complements our 'courier' nature well.
With some free time, or in an emergency hand jam, we can take this
menial action to spy on the future, choose what's most needed, and
cycle out the chaff sitting in our hand. It cycles out more than 1
card at a time, and gives you a free glimpse of what's next. Not a
bad trade off for an expendable action from us industrious Caitiff.
And given the above card, Thin-Blooded Seer, there's a nice mini-combo
working to add every bit of fortune to our Methuselah masters.
Considering there's often a few slots open for variance in many
decks this card should definitely be up in the running on the
sideboard. Give it a whirl.
Smack Talk
Well, this month is my birthday and I'm trying to figure out how
to make a birthday themed deck. Flaming Candle comes to mind, but
considering its restriction, and that I'm older than 1 year old, it
doesn't work well. That and I can't find a big, pink, frosty cake
anywhere in the pictures of my library cards. So, I pose it to my readers:
Can you make a birthday themed V:tES deck?
You get mega-kudos for pulling it off; and if there's more than one
we'll debate to find out who has the most bad-ass b-day deck, who has
the most imaginative, and who has the most bizarre. Are you capable?
ps: I'm a gemini sun sign, virgo rising sign, if that helps in the process.
Dear Azel
Been all over the place busting my ... souffles, trying to get all
my schooling gear in order. Vaccinations, transcripts, grants, red tape...
you name it I probably saw it these past two months. Then I came to a
realization. I don't like bureaucracy (profound, no?). I know it's
needed, but I don't like it.
So I came to thinking about V:tES, because when stuck in line it's
a natural reaction, and started to think: Is there a use for Tongue of
the Serpent? I stood there, playing with the ideas of how to exploit
this card, and as I was starting to touch upon something, *blam*, I was
next in line. Needless to say I wasn't the quickest on my feet, head
full of V:tES terminology and all, and was often weirded out because
as I was talking to the person over the counter I had this mental
image of some faceless stranger behind them with this big elongated
tongue by their face. Yeah. Um, those poor people must have thought
I was bugging out with my startled and contorted face every now and
then. Yeah... I strongly suggest being mindful of what V:tES
brainteasers you do and where.
So I, Azel, leave two questions to you, my readers, (along with
disturbing imagery) about the above. First, have you ever found your
real-life self getting messed with your V:tES hobby? And second, is
there a good use for Tongue of the Serpent?
Ante up, Sucka
Because I can't find a V:tES card with a picture of a big, pink,
frosty cake there will be no deck design this month. This is a
travesty of CCGdom and must be rectified ASAP. I want my big,
pink, frosty cake!!!
Peace Out
Yes, I came back. And now I must go. Hope you had a great time like
I did. Go toss a few White Phosphorous Grenades in the air to
celebrate my birthday with me and I'll go blow out the Flaming
Candle and make a wish. Whoever pins the tail on the Gargoyle
is the winner (of a world of hurt)!
With Love, Azel
opaopajr@comcast.net