Writers note: This is my first newsletter, so bear with me, okay? Index: Short Story - Deck Building Ideas Review of Protean Cards (Jyhad) Short Story --------------------------------------- It was almost fully light as Roman Alexander made his way back to the enlarged skunk den he had made his home. He had "persuaded" the skunk to leave it, but after it returned it had made a tasty, although light, lunch. Roman had just come back from the yearly meeting of the gangrel, although really it was sort of just an informal meeting where any gangrel who wanted to come could. Usually not many showed up, but he tried to make most of the meetings. This year they had had a guest. A Ventrue Prince had visited them, which had brought in a (slightly) larger attendance than last. Sir Walter Nash had spoken on the problems that the Sabbat Antitribue were having, especially in a certian mental institution where some of the paitents were claiming large purple things were crawling up from the depths. He had wanted to know if any of the gangrel here had been "infected" with this madness or if we knew anything about it. Quinton had told him rather bluntly we didn't know nutin' and that he should go talk to the Malks about "purple things from the depths". All in all it had been a rather interesting evening, but Alexander had been getting hungry, so on his way home he had stopped by a local lumber jacks village and gotten a bite to eat. (And they say that the uncivilized don't know how to eat take out!) As he walked along, almost home, deep in thought, he heard a rustling sound. Looking around him he saw a Gangrel he didn't know rushing him and attacking him. Although suprised, he had enough of a warning to turn his nails in to 6 inch long claws and give his opponent a nice scrape as their attack bounced off his skin. Calling upon the creatures of the forest, he found a wolf nearby and asked for it's aid. The Sabbat was wounded, although not enough for him to give up the fight. He turned again and rushed Roman, this time getting through Roman's tough hide and doing some damage. Roman was suprised. He had done enough damage to send almost any vampire without fortitude to torpor. Ahh well... he has fortitude. I'll have to beat him at his own game. He sensed the wolf was nearer, but still not here yet... They turned and faced each other. The other vampire also had animilism, as he kept looking around, specifically towards where the wolf was. Roman attacked again, this time inflicting seriuos damage with his claws, although taking some himself. Enough to hurt, but he could still defeat this guy. Suddnely, the wolf sprang into view and jumped at his prey. Suprised by this, as all his attention had been on Roman and he had forgotten the wolf, his opponent didn't have time to react as the wolf raked him across the chest while biting down on his forearm, almost taking off the limb. Then Roman saw the thing he was fearing the most. The suns rays started to creep over the horizon, illuminating the scene bit by bit. Gathering the last of his strength he sank into the ground to get away from the approaching danger, but not before he saw the terror in his opponents eyes. Roman kept his head above ground long enough to see his prey burst into flames and start to incinerate, and then slowly sank in to a peaceful sleep to heal for a couple of days. Deck Building Ideas ------------------------------------- As i'm a newbie here in the world of Darkness, I still have yet to come up with any great decks, although Gangrel was the clan I started with and I still like them the best, even though it seems like they have less variety than other clans. This isn't true. Let's look at the other clans in the basic set. (I'll deal with the other clans in a later newsletter). Ventrue - Alright, so They have the most versatility. Bleed, Votes, Some Combat, and defense in each, they are the all around best clan, although they have their weakness. They have no stealth and no intercept. So no only do they have a hard time getting actions passed, they can't stop them easily if the action is at stealth. Tremere - While Thamaturgy could be a good combat discipline, with the reduction of thoughts betrayed by errata they now aren't as fearful as the brujah or as the gangrel in combat. Dominate is good for bleeding and stealing vampires, and they have intercept, but they have little in the way of votes or stealth. Brujah - Combat baby Combat. With celerity, Presence and Potence they just fight fight fight. And when they get bored of that? They fight. They can pass votes also, and have some bleed defense, but other than that they really are stuck for options. Since Celerity is a combat discipline and doesn't have much effect elsewhere, they have to deal with action in only two disciplines, whereas other clans have three options, usually. Toreador - With presence, clereity and auspex, I've heard yet of a really good deck for this clan. Well, alright Wamplers "I bleed for 15 in one turn" deck is toreador, but there are exceptions all around. Again the celerity is a combat discipline, and auspex gives intercept, but neiter do much for actions, so any actino a toreador takes usually will be with presence, which means votes or bleed. Malkavian - Your usual stealth and bleed deck. Obfuscate and Dominate makes a nasty combination when you bleed 'em for 6 at +2 stealth (ozmo, GtU, bonding and Lost in crowds) If their opponent doesn't have an intercepty deck, they will get bled. But other than that and intercept actions (why? I don't know. No S:CE and not combat would make that a poor choice) they can't do anything else really. Nosferatu - Another well rounded clan. Can bleed with obfscate, fight with potence, and can intercept and untap with animilism. So you bleed 'em, then untap and block 'em and send 'em to torpor. Sounds good to me. Caitiff - What can you say about a non-clan. Can't build a deck around them, although they are good in certain decks. So that leaves us with gangrel. What can we do? Well, we can bleed. Form of mist, especially before it was eratta'd was really good. You bleed, they block. S:CE and continue action at +1 stealth. Wash, rinse and repeat. But now you can only use it once. Still, I got completely wasted by a deck using this concept today. We can fight. With agg damage, we only need to hit 'em once to send 'em to torpor, although unlike our sabbat cohorets, we can't aviod the blood hunt. So that's why you send those darned princes to torpor first. No votes when you're dead. (Oh wait, were all dead already, aren't we?) Unfortunately we can't vote. Not usually, but if we can send everybody else to torpor first, we won't need to, and then we can pass all the votes we want. But we can wake and block using animilism and then send 'em to torpor that way. So the three basic decks we can use? Bleed, Fight and Intercept. I'll address these more in other newsletters. Card Review - Protean ------------------------------------ Body of Sun - cost 4 Well, this would be a nice card, if usable. But it costs too much, and if you don't have PRO then you get damage too, meaning if you aren't 7+ you go to torpor. Just isn't good enough to put in any deck. Claws of the Dead - cost 1 Good card. The better of the two agg damage cards in the basic set, the other being wolf claws. A must in any protean agg damage deck, as the manuver at superior is also invaluble. Earth Control - Cost 1 Our stealthy card. +1/2 stealth is good, especially if you don't have those form os mists in your hand and you are trying to bleed. But pretty much useless in other decks. Could be used in a combat deck, but it would take up other needed space. Flesh of Marble - Costs 0 We have fortitude, so why use this? The two aren't even compatable, since any fortitude would reduce the damage, and then this would take effect. Good in a pure protean deck, but just not worth the deck space. Form of Mist - cost 1 The best bleed card in the game. Not only does it double as S:CE, it allows you to continue with that action they just blocked, and their vampire is still tapped. And at +1 stealth too. But it is only useable once, so you better make that once count. Form of Ghost - cost 0 Press/Manuver as opposed to Gleam of the Red eyes, which is the exact oppisite. Use which ever depending on which is more necessary. Gleam of the Red Eyes - cost 0 See above Movement of the slow body - cost 0 Well, we