Followers of Set Newsletter: V.4 #2 By Screaming Vermillian Contents -------- Intro: I'm all alone! CE talk: New tools for the snakes New NRA: Toolbox, untap, toolbox, etc... Card Analysis: Blood Reducing Agents Outro: Where are you? Intro: I'm all alone! --------------------- Well, I'm sure you're all busy complaining about CE packaging system, the new vampires, group 3, or whatever. But for those few of you who care about the Setites this is for you. An article about the new cards. And article about the new rules and how to abuse them. A final article doing a nearly exhaustive quick description of every card in the game that can suck blood off of vampires. Preferrably others. Some of you may be confused why there's two newsletters floating about. One by Wes, and one by Myself and Claus. Wes prefers Bimonthly, and I have something new to say about every 2 hours, so I decided I'd pick up the slack and make some more Followers of Set Strategy. There is SO much to say... so little time. New tools for the snakes ------------------------ With the introduction of a few new cards, the followers of set, and any other clan really, has the capabilities to do some wonderful things. Special report is costly in master phase actions, but it can be well used to provide the followers of set some intercepting capabilities previously unknwon to them. With the three intercept locations, sport bike, Mr. Winthrop, Canopic Jar, we've got quite a few intercept sources. That's six sources people! Without eyeball! Perfect to begin our blocking other people's hunts to keep them low on blood (to be stolen with FoC or temptation) and good for blocking and using sets call or extortion. Harass can come in useful also. Granted, we're not totally geared for combat, but we've a few cards that suggest otherwise. Mark of Damnation on a few of your prey's vampires, or just one, and harass them. You'll be getting multiple presses to beat them up. Call a bounty on the vampire and influence the entire table to knock the vampire off. Add your archon to suck the rest of the bounty into your pool. A favorite of mine (if I played more often it would be) is messing with people's blood. Hell, people've been complaining about low blood supplies with a "crippled" 5th tradition, and what with Strike: Combat Ends and 2nd tradition (in one case) more and more vampires will be low on blood and will be wanting to hunt. Slap a Tension in the Ranks into play and then a Reduced Vitae Supply (the one that makes all hunts at -1 stealth), and watch people be afraid to do much of anything. Add your own Hesha and still hunt at stealth. Oh, and the new ally, which we'll search for with The Summoning, saps a blood from others at stealth. Note that most of these cards are master cards so some more master phase actions would be nice. Parthenon works well, or your could cryptic rider (after passing that Free States Rant) a Rumours of Gehenna, or you can make this a good time to start playing with Synesios (only if using Special Report). Hell, there's some interesting temporis reaction cards that need to be used more often, and this is a great time to start including them. Hello Frozen Object, hello Internal Recursion. Both of which have useful outferiors for the snakes. Of course one intercept alone won't cut it with all these +1 stealth vampires floating around, so see the second paragraph for more details. Toolbox, untap, toolbox ----------------------- So, what does this new NRA thing mean to us? Tool boxyness (that's SO not a word) is getting better. And what does that mean to FoS? Well, duh, we're often inclined to tool box once in a while. But perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me explain. The new NRA rules state that you basically can't PA, Bleed, do the same action card twice in a row. These are things we CAN do twice in a row. Equip with different equipment. Recruit allies. Employ retainers. Diablerize. Rescue yourself or others from torpor. HUNT So what's the big deal? Well, despite what sweetness this could mean to some Gangrel decks out there (Jay Kristoff, its time to unretire your Mirembe decks...) it also means some interesting things to the FoS. I give you, Hesha, the blood maker. You knew he could do it before, but watch him do it twice now. Hesha tempts himself, you suck his blood off with Heidelberg, you untap him, he hunts. Next turn, he hunts, you suck his blood off, he hunts. Also Hesha could learn fortitude and do the freaky thing. Wow... that's four+ blood a turn you can be netting. Make sure you've got multiple blood dolls out there on another minion, or just use a large minion with minion tap. Every turn you can suck four blood off the guy. For a large minion I recommend one with fortitude so you can get lots of freakiness on. Get Preistess of Sehkmet, get a Marijuana Ghoul, get a Flak Jacket, Leather Jacket, get a Deer Rifle, get a 44 magnum, get IR goggles, get Mr. Winthrop, get Aman the Devourer, get some crappy bane mummy (bleck), whatever. The best thing is that your Heidelberg will send some of those retainers and equipment over to Hesha too. Sure its tool boxy, but its now EASIER to be tool boxy. BTW: Off topic, but: For shame on Reyda for not mentioning this. Reg Driscoll gets a weapon, passes it on to another minion, uses Hag's Wrinkle to untap, get another, repeat. Its almost broken. Snap to it, Samedi newsletter editor. You slacker. Blood Reducing Agents --------------------- Temptation and Form of Corruption (FoC) require serpentis, which FoS seem to have, and require blood of prey's (or anyones...) vampires to be depleted. How do you do this? There are several ways to deplete blood off of minions (specifically vampires), and I will take this article, and probably many others, to comment on them. I'll try to categorize each section. As there's a crap load so I'll just write a few sentences. Votes: Free States Rant (FSR): Votes are powerful with presence in clan. More so with FSR. Likes large capacity vampires, which means you're taking less actions per turn (unless you're rutoring or tempting yourself, in which you're losing even more actions). Needs synergy with Bewitching Orations or Awes. Final Nights: One blood off of every vampire in the game. Its good weakener, and can help you pull your vampires blood down, so they're easier to tempt. Rabble Rousing: Vampires less than 4 cap lose a blood. Good for you, as there's usually SOME weenie presence deck in play. Masters: Heidelberg Castle: Requires you get the guy first for a turn, with temptation (or spirit marionette, or mind rape, or Malkavian Dementatia), but a good drainer. Its even good tempt them, drain them with HC, then steal with FoC cause you now have a minion in your control that's tempted. Use it to untap next turn after hunting. The Damned: Unique and costs a pool, but put it out and watch them burn a blood attempting to get that edge to burn those extortion counters. Laugh as your FoC goes up a notch too. :) Legacy of Caine: Wow, a corner case, but it could be done. They've got to steal the blood from somewhere, and hopefully it'll eventually be a vampire you've got tempted or one of your prey (or future prey's) vampires, and if its you, you can just block and extort them or something. Fear of Mekhet: Target justicars and Inner Circle members, likely to be more popular with CE coming soon. Then call your votes to drain more blood. Sucks cause it costs two pool. Society of Leopold: Not good if they burn... Best to play it on a vampire you haven't tempted, and just steal with FoC if it so happens that they get low enough. Illegal Search and Seizure: Seldom played. Burn equipment and they burn a blood. Multifaceted. :) Vampiric Disease: Best to steal him with a zero FoC or just take every turn with temptation (assuming they don't start a hunt loop with them at two blood, in which you can just Masquerade Endangered them or lock thanks to your Strained Vitae Supply Strained Vitae Supply: Yep. Hunts are at zero stealth. Perfect for you to start blocking and Extorting or Vitae Blocking, or whatever combat cards you want to play (Serpent's tongue, Disguise (conceal) a weapon) with no intercept needed! Concerned about your own hunts? Use Hesha. He still gets one stealth (as his special text gives him +1 stealth on hunting. 0+1=1, right?) Masquerade Endangered: They hunt to try to mess with your 'thing', and then they find that they DON'T get to hunt after all, and they'll be tapped next turn to boot (so you'll tempt them again, assuming this is their last blood they're on). Best if used in combination with temptation rather than FoC. Sudden Reversal: Doesn't eliminate their blood, but can be a preventative measure against blood dolls or (ha!) Gird Minions. Hey, there's one in the Nos Starter so it must be played by someone right? :P Direct Intervention: Another preventative measure. Stop those Taste of Vitaes, or whatever. :) Rumor Mill: Hey, if they're willing to spend the blood for the intercept, you're all happy about it. Newsradio and Tabloid: Spread the intercept around baby. Let them block each other. Let them burn blood doing stuff. :) Reactions Extortion: Sucks cause you have to block, and sucks cause they'll just get the edge and axe it. But hey, then your FoC goes up. That's even better than reducing their blood on one hand. I'm talking about using it in the inferior here. If all goes well, they'll be stuck on a hunt loop, and you'll get them every turn. Ecstasy: In superior they burn blood if the bleed was reduced to zero. It's the Brian way (ie. against your predator) but it's sometimes good to tempt your predator's minions too. Equipment Note: Weapons: Sure. Cause you do damage which burns blood. Just try not to torp them. We do have obfuscate as an in clan, so consider disguising them in, or just conceal them, whatever. I find Deer's rifles are good for defense too. Consider ranged over close weapons. Baleful Doll: Need necromancy, but that's not so hard. And three blood is pretty sweet. Sucks cause it happens a turn later during your untap, but you could always smuggle it (and other blood reducing equipment) in. Canopic Jar: Hey I get intercept and I MAY burn it to end combat and burn one of their bloods (and then play an extortion). Cute. Actions Throne's Crumble: Yep. Target titled vampires, burn two of their blood, steal them with tempt., and then call a FSR or Rabble Rousing. Sweetness. Cryptic Mission: Requires Tha. and its only a ping for one. Not too hot, but it is at one stealth. Tha is a frequently occurring out clan discipline. Shadow Twin: Requires Obt, wow, and its another ping for one. Sweet. It could work, just as above could (but the discipline requirements are a bit odd). There's only one vampire (Danny Larkshill) with Obt and Ser. Mark of Damnation: Well, you've got to get into combat with them also, but +1 or 2 hand damage with a press is sweet. Just don't torp them, as that defeats the purpose of temptation and FoC (unless you really want to rescue them!). Combat Cards: Note: Any strike that does damage really. Potence (Danny Larkshill's got it), animalism (Hesha's got it), are good one's. And do try to not torp them. I'll just mention a few interesting ones. Vitae Block: Heheh. Yeah, I'm actually going to try this. I can use it in pre range after rushing, and take them with temptation in the middle of combat! I'm crazy! :oP Serpent's Tongue: Eh... only at close, and its a steal blood. I'd rather just punch them (or shoot them) but if they've got prevention... Catatonic Fear: At superior your combats ended and they lose a blood. Terror Frenzy: Them burning blood for more combat cards is good for you. :) Thoughts Betrayed: Technically it reduces blood of opposing minion. Many FoS have dom, but I don't see the cost being all that great for its effect. Weather Control: Sure you take a damage too, but if your tempt counters are at a certain level, you don't even have to go past the pre range step. :o) Outro: Where are you? --------------------- So where are you? What have YOU been doing with the game, specifically for the FoS. Too many people think about where they're going, and seldom consider where they are now. Consider where the game is now. We've 115 new cards out. Don't think about the future yet. We've a lot of new cards to play with. And besides, I don't think we've fully covered Bloodlines yet. So get off your butts, look at the cards we have, don't think about the Anarchs Set yet. Oh, and try to do something tournament viable with FoS. In addition: Claus! Where are YOU? ~SV