FOLLOWERS OF SET NEWSLETTER Volume 3, Issue 10 January 2004 Author: Andrew 'Wes' Weston ========================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Fiction - The Hunger Card Analysis - Consignment to Duat Second Glance - High Museum of Atlanta Contest Sign Off ========================================================== INTRODUCTION Welcome to 2004. I invite you all to join me and make a resolution to play more V:tES. Keep the game alive. I also resolve to play more Setite decks, especially at tournaments. We should be at the top of the game, rather than the *ten* piddly wins we have so far. What are we... Gargoyles? No! We are the orignal clan! All clans are descended from us! We should rule the night! Onwards to corruption for corruption's sake! My other resolution is to drink less coffee. ========================================================== FICTION -- The Hunger Jeffrey looked to both ends of the grabage-strewn alley before throwing the desiccated husk of his prey into a dumpster. Although he certainly didn't like the idea of being discovered by cops, he liked even less the possibility of being discovered by the local Brujah Sherriff. It was considered a great crime in the Camarilla to break the "Masquerade" and while dead homeless were hardly rare this time of year, dead homeless drained of all of their blood might cause a stir among the mortal population. Nevertheless, Jeffrey felt compelled to hunt. A week ago, a quick "kiss" stolen from a bar-crowd reveller was enough to keep him going for days. She'd wake up with nothing more than a hangover at worst and nobody would be the wiser. Most of the time, his victims wouldn't even remember that they had ever met Jeffrey, a talent which he had cultivated with the help of his clan's disciplines. But tonight he had met a strange vampire in his usual danceclub haunt. She had barely hidden the fact that she was a vampire, baring pointed canines when she smiled cruelly at Jeffrey from a dark booth. Jeffrey didn't recognize her, and that was reason enough for him to flee. Probably an Anarch, or more dangerously, she could belong to the Sabbat. Jeffrey had no intention of finding out. He had fled out the backdoor of the bar while pretending to go to the bathroom. But somehow she had been waiting for him out back. The rest was a bit of a blur. Jeffrey remembered her raising her hands and chanting words that sounded... Arabic? No, older sounding. Suddenly, Jeffrey had felt drained, and he collapsed to the ground in shock. This would kill a mortal, but for a vampire it only caused severe hunger. A severe hunger that must be sated at all costs. But by the time he had recovered and looked around for the strange vampire, she was gone. So he had grabbed the nearest source of blood he could find. And now that victim lay twisted in a dumpster amidst the refuse and the filth. For the first time since he had become a vampire almost a year ago, he had killed a man. It surprised Jeffrey how little this fact bothered him. Already, he was finding it easy to justify his actions, rationalize what he had done. He knew that he would hide what he had done from other vampires, would deny that he had even encountered the strange woman. It was for the best. The elder vampires were not exactly an understanding bunch. As he brushed himself down, he felt something odd. Despite the amount of blood he had taken, he still felt hungry. This should not be the case. He should be able to last nights without needing to hunt again. His stomach and insides felt cramped, and he felt the blood rage coming back into him again. Initial dread was replaced by cold hard predator logic as the hunger for blood returned full-force. He knew that he would kill again tonight. He knew that he would keep killing until someone stopped him. He knew that the Sherriff would hunt him down and destroy him. And part of him didn't care. The hunger was all that mattered. ========================================================== CARD ANALYSIS -- Consignment to Duat Consignment to Duat Action 1 blood Common [ser] (D) steal 1 blood or life from a ready minion. [SER] (D) Put this card on a ready minion. During this minion's untap phase, he or she burns 1 blood or life. If this vampire cannot burn a blood, he or she goes to torpor. Burn this card if this acting vampire enters combat or leaves the ready region. A minion can have only one Consignment to Duat. Of all the clans, I think we Followers of Set are best at denying vampires their blood. The de facto Setite vote card Free States Rant, Extortion, Ecstacy along with lesser used cards such as Thrones Crumble and Tongue of the Serpent. We are also the clan most suited to taking advantage of anemic vampires with cards like Form of Corruption, Temptation and the aforementioned Extortion. Setites also have access to the same lovely cards that everyone has access to, such as Society of Leopold, Gregory Winter and Banishment, but because of the cards mentioned in the previous paragraph, we are able to reap the benefits much moreso than other clans. A Banishment will hurt any Methuselah, but a Banishment on a vampire who has been Free States Ranted will hurt much more so. Consignment to Duat gives us yet another way to deny vampires their blood, and this is not unwelcome. A consignment of Duat will put a 1-blood vampire into a hunting loop, which often is enough to give us the edge in a tight game. A vampire that is forced to hunt each turn is a vampire that is not bleeding, not calling votes, not blocking. And in the case on this particular hunting loop, if they lose 1 more blood, they'll likely go torpor which is where they will probably stay. The inferior of Consignment to Duat is, frankly, not that impressive. I would advise against playing at inferior if possible. Without a Path of Typhon in play, the card basically reads "Remove 1 blood from a target vampire at 0 stealth" -- not exactly frightening. You gain 1 blood, but it also costs you 1 blood to do it. However, with a Path in play, the inferior is similar to Cryptic Mission and could bring some needed bloat when combined with Blood Dolls etc. Like many Setite/Serpentis cards, Consignment to Duat has no inherent stealth. Many players complain about this, and I agree that it makes things much harder. But I think that stealth is just something that most Setite players need to accept as a component and therefore, stealthing by a bleed or stealthing by a Consignment, or stealthing by a Temptation... at least we'll probably be prepared beforehand. Almost all of my Setite decks have a lot of stealth, probably almost as many as your average Malkavian Stealth-Bleed deck would have. It is at the superior where Consignment to Duat really shines. This is an action that people will definitely want to block. Any intelligent player will see that a Consignment at the wrong time will slow down their deck if not cripple it altogether. An obvious strategy to use this card with is to lower the blood on opposing vampires in order to use another effect. For example, when you have a Form of Corruption in play, you can lower their blood to the point where they come within reach of FoC's steal clause. Similar tactics could be used with Temptation to make sure they are always available for your use each turn. After all, a vampire with 10 blood makes a terrible target for a Temptation. However, a vampire who always has 1 blood essentially belongs to *you*. With Form of Corruption, a hunting loop will obviously leave a vampire at 1 blood by the time it gets to your untap phase, so it would probably help to have at least 1 counter on the card. You also want to be sure that a stolen vampire doesn't have the Consignment to Duat on it at the point when you acquire it. This can be remedied by entering combat with the vampire that played it and then Majestying away. This could be risky of course, but the option is there. Certain environments will be harsh for this card. A combat-heavy game may mean that it is not worth playing at the superior level. If you can't guarantee that your vampire will escape combat, think first before taking the action as the card may be burned soon thereafter. Similarly, watch out for hostile Banishments. ========================================================== SECOND GLANCE -- High Musem of Atlanta High Musem of Atlanta Unique location Rare Gain 4 pool when you put this card into play or gain control of it. Any vampire can steal this location for his or her controller as a (D) action. Burn 4 pool when you lose control of the High Museum (including when it is burned or becomes contested). Seems simple enough, right? But let's look at this card from a different perspective. Your prey is getting close to ousting your grandprey. You don't have any ways to stop it. You resign yourself to accepting the fact that your prey is going to quickly gain 6 pool and become even harder to oust. How often has this happened to you? High Museum of Atlanta can be used to give a friendly Methuslah across the table a chance to survive a round. Invite your grandprey to take an action to take the Museum from you. The sudden gain of 4 pool means that their predator will either have to steal the Museum for themselves or do 4 more pool's worth of damage. At the very least, this may keep your grandprey in the game for a little bit longer, which to my mind is never a bad thing. The fact that you also benefit from this pool cushion for a short while is nothing to sneeze at. Granted, it is a simple matter for many decks to steal it, or less likely burn it... but where does that leave you really? At worst you are exactly where you started. If possible, don't *rely* on the 4 pool given to you by this card. In fact, don't even think of it as yours. When I play this card, I put the 4 pool I gain on the card itself, so I keep in mind that I have a possible weakness to exploit. Although this is a Follower of Set newsletter, I must admit that Setites are probably the least likely of all clans to be built around walling up and blocking, so this particular segment of the newsletter is not well-suited for us. Nevertheless, when looked at as a grandprey-saving device, it can really be used by anyone. Just be careful that the wrong Methuselah doesn't end up with this card instead of you. Though in that department at least, it's much easier for Setites to steal it back. ========================================================== CONTEST Haven't there been enough contests in the past month? Go do a crossword or something. ========================================================== SIGN OFF I hope you have enjoyed this most recent installment of the Followers of Set newsletter. As always, questions and comments are appreciated. Cheers, WES