Contents - Section 1.0 - Welcome Section 1.1 - Talking point Section 1.2 - Vampire of the month Section 1.3 - Card of the Month Section 1.4 - Deck of the Month Section 1.5 - Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Section 1.0 WELCOME Come, brother, sit by my fire and listen to our tales of old. We are Gangrel and we are the beast. January was a quiet month, but lord help those who spent it in torpor! February looks like a very lively time, especially in the locale of the south east of England. Three tourneys in the space of two weeks, and a whole new playgroup to meet and play! As far as the Gangrel go, I have yet to fully explore a couple of facets of their build, but I promise next month we will be focussing on that holy grail of decks - the Gangrel Bleed deck. This has been explored in part, but not fully in these pages, and I can only apologise for another typical Gangrel rush deck below. Ho hum... Enjoy! ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Section 1.1 TALKING POINT Animalism The best all-round discipline the Gangrel possess is Animalism. This can offer untapping / intercept reaction cards, retainers, light combat, and some useful actions. Naturally, the best of these functions only come through having the superior ability. Unfortunately, only one Gangrel under 7 cap has superior, making it very tricky to put a cheap crypt together. Is the distance between the basic and superior so great? Let us see: Card Basic Superior Cats Guidance Untap the Vampire after Combat +1 Intercept Tier of Souls Burn Blood of vampire and +1 Bleed Song of Serenity Opponent at -1 H/d for 1 round Same but for whole combat Song in the Dark 2 Damage 2 Agg damage Shepherds Innocence Steal Animalism cards of 1 opp. Steal All Animalism cards Raptor +1 Intercept and -1 hand size for opponent There is a significant difference to the levels of the abilities - it would be a lot harder to base a deck around the inferior skills than it would be to base them around the superior. Imagine a Raptor deck using only the basic ability? And Song in the Dark is useless at basic alone (especially at the cost of 2 blood). Compare this to Dominate, Dementation, or Thaumaturgy and there is no comparison. All of these have useful and truly scary effects even at basic, but not so wide a selection of functions (Dominate has one combat card, for example but plenty of actions / modifiers). This is the payoff for Animalism - wide range of ability, shallow depth of effect at basic. Compare this also to Protean, where the Basic ability is powerful, but the Superior is not that different - only slightly juiced. Animalism is the functional end of the Gangrels abilities. Protean and Fortitude have very few actions, and those they have are mostly to do with combat. Animalism is therefore the balance allowing the Gangrel to act effectively, but it is far better to do so using the superior discipline. ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Section 1.2 VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH Faruq Clan: Gangrel Capacity: 8 Ability: Faruq may enter combat with any Assamite controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action. If this action is not blocked, Faruq gets +1 strength for the duration of that combat. Artist(s): Phillip Tan Disciplines : Superior Animalism Inferior Dominate Inferior Fortitude Inferior Potence Superior Protean Faruq is a curious fellow. He is a Gangrel Toolbox deck’s dream since he has the perfect set of Gangrel disciplines (Superior Ani and Pro, basic For and Pot, and even Dom for giggles!) and a bizarre ability. However, you never see him out and about as much as you’d expect and this, I suspect, is mainly due to his spread of mostly inferior talents. This once again highlights the difference between Sabbat and Cammie vampires. I can think of about a dozen Sabbat vampires who are the same cost as Faruq, and yet have a far superior makeup - especially in clan Tzimisce. Most will have more disciplines at superior, some will have votes, but in each and every case, they have a better special than Faruqs, which is truly awful on the whole. Maybe it will become more valuable after Final Nights is released, but to my mind, rushing Assamites at the moment is usually a piss poor special. For the money, he is a poor value vampire. However, he does have three of the most attractive disciplines in the game (Dom, Pot, and Pro) which for a Gangrel isn’t bad going. Still, with Ingrid costing only one pool more (for a Gangrel with Votes and dom and a useful special) and Badger costing two less (with Potence), unless you _really_ want the discipline spread, my advice is "don’t pick Faruq". Where he would be good, though, would be in a deck with Lazerwhatsisface, the thrall of Lambach - they both had Pot, Pro, Dom and For. Very nice... ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Section 1.3 CARD OF THE MONTH Dog Pack Type(s): Retainer Clan: Gangrel Pool Cost: 2 Rarity: Rare Artist(s): Randy Gallegos Card Text: Retainer with 1 life. Minions opposing the minion with this retainer in combat cannot play "combat ends" as a strike. I don’t know about these guys. They can be great in a rush deck, and being retainers, once they are recruited, they are permenant. They aren’t unique either - so you can have a whole fleet of them. However, they suffer from costing 2 pool (2 POOL!!!) and having only one life. That means one Aid from Bats could finish them! That means one Thrown Gate could finish them! Also they are limited in function - your opponent can’t S:CE, but can dodge, Entombment (for Lasombra) or Coma (for !Malks). Finally they take an action to recruit. As you can see, the cons outweigh the pros. Bearing in mind that the Gangrel’s forth discipline is Potence (7 of 24 vamps have it), it strikes me that it is better to add more Immortal Grapples than Dog Packs in a Gangrel rush deck. IGs are great against all strikes, give a press, and are a lot easier to get hold of besides! Up close and personal doesn’t bother the Gangrel as much as it does, say, the Brujah thanks to the wonders of Fortitude. Here’s the lesson - More IGs, less Dog Packs. So, feel free to send me all of your clearly useless Dog Packs at the usual address... ;) ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Section 1.4 DECK OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Animal Crackers Created by: DH Description: Long range Animalism workout Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 9, Max: 22, Avg: 4] 1 Anastasia Grey (ani pro, Gangrel, 3) 2 Bear Paw (ANI for pre pro, Gangrel, 5) 1 Camille Devereux (ani FOR PRO, Gangrel, 5) 1 Chandler Hungerford (PRO, Gangrel, 3) 1 Gitane St. Claire (ANI FOR PRO, Gangrel, 7, Primogen) 1 Mirembe Kabbada (ani PRO SER, Gangrel, 5) 1 Navar McClaren (ani, Caitiff, 1) 1 Panagos Levidis (ani obf, Gangrel, 3) 1 Raven (ani FOR PRO, Gangrel, 5) 1 Roman Alexander (ani for pro, Gangrel, 4) 1 Vliam Andor (ani, Gangrel, 2) Library: (90 cards) Master (17 cards) 7 Animalism 4 Blood Doll 1 Ecoterrorists 1 Parthenon, The 1 Sudden Reversal 2 Tribute to the Master 1 Zoo Hunting Ground Minion (73 cards) 11 Aid from Bats 2 Army of Rats 2 Arson 8 Carrion Crows 4 Cats' Guidance 3 Computer Hacking 2 Dog Pack 4 Forced Awakening 1 Gangrel Justicar 3 Guard Dogs 2 Laptop Computer 1 Mr. Winthrop 1 Murder of Crows 2 Raptor 3 Rats' Warning 2 Raven Spy 1 Shepherd's Innocence 3 Song in the Dark 4 Song of Serenity 6 Terror Frenzy 4 Tier of Souls 4 Trap This deck is slow to get going (due to the lack of Gangrel with ANI) and weka against heavy stealth, but is a great "dare yer!" deck - swarm in with weenies and bleed away! Most are about 5 cap, so can’t be rushed by Amelia or be Rabble Razed, too. This deck just goes to show how cool superior Animalism is. Admittedly I am not too keen on having the Dog Packs in here, but they could really put a spanner in the works for any political deck / presence bleed deck. Best of luck if anyone else using it! ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Section 1.5 CONCLUSION Thanks for reading. As before, any comments or ideas, feel free to post, or mail to me at davecrazy@hotmail.com. Any abuse, mail to ghoulsbestfriend@hotmail.com (after that Deck of the Month, I am ducking for cover!) See y’all David Hammond UGPOW