VEKN Official Gangrel Newsletter Vol. 1 Number 5 June 1999 FROM THE EDITOR It's June now and getting hotter than hell in Austin, Texas. It's a good thing that we have a tournament coming up in Dallas to take our minds off the heat. This month's newsletter features tournament playing tips, along with the traditional vampire and library cards of the month. Finally Luis Duarte has included his Gangrel wall deck at the end of this month's newsletter. Take a look. Greg Faulkner Editor VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH Camille Deveroux Gangrel 5 capacity FOR PRO ani I've talked long enough about defensive (reactionary) vampires. My last two issues of the newsletter defined why Bear Paw and Chandler Hungerford made good blockers. In this issue, I wanted to focus on the Gangrel's primary offensive vampire (and her evil twin, Raven). "If you have Camille ready, and she is not taking an action every round, then you are either losing the game or doing something wrong". That's a bold statement, and there are exceptions to the rule. However, a cut and dried Camille (without retainers or equipment) needs to be the vampire taking your actions. Fortitude and Protean have nine (9) cards that provide action modifiers, all of which Camille can play at the superior level. Animalism provides none. Acting with a vampire of Camille's skills keeps your prey guessing. Guessing so much, that your prey will often ignore her for fear of Daring the Dawn or The Kiss of Ra. This gives Camille free reign on the table. But let's assume you wanted to get into combat. Unlike Animalism, Fortitude does not have any strike cards, so there is no advantage to playing strikes second in combat. Likewise, there is no advantage in the order of playing damage prevention cards. As for her Protean skill, Camille can still aggravate her hand damage after determining the other minion's strike, so there is still no advantage to playing second in combat. So if you need to get Camille into combat, you should initiate combat with a Haven Uncovered. For the uninformed, Camille Devaroux is only available in the Jyhad set. She was replaced by Raven in the V:tES edition due to a copyright dispute over the artwork in the original card. Several people (including a couple of lawyers) thought that Camille's portrait looked a little too much like a certain supermodel. Well, the law community's loss is our clan's gain because we can now use both vampires without contesting either. That's right. Put Raven and Camille side by side, and unleash the terror of the twins. LIBRARY CARD OF THE MONTH Eco Terrorists Master Card 2 pool Unique location. During your influence phase, tap to move 1 blood from the blood bank to one of your uncontrolled Gangrel. These influencing locations are reserved to only three Camarilla clans: the Gangrel, the Toreador, and the Tremere. Of these three clans, the Gangrels need it the most because they more susceptible to heavy pool loss due to bleeds and votes. Most Gangrel decks will use this card primarily as a pool gaining device, and will rarely use it for influencing purposes. The other pool gaining measure for the Gangrel relies on the Blood Doll - Restoration combo, which can really help out a blood-starved deck. The basic rule of thumb is to put the Eco Terrorists card into any deck which features duplicate Gangrel vampires (for example, see this week's Deck of the Month). This will help alleviate the negative impact of getting duplicates in your opening draw. As a unique location, it rarely gets contested because it is clan specific. Furthermore, it's usually not the first location stolen by political decks because Hunting Grounds are so much more beneficial to the receiver. It is an Arson target, so be on guard. Be sure to include more than one Eco Terrorist if you are worried about Sudden Reversals in your playgroup environment (because it will always be reversed). TOURNAMENT TIPS Crypt is key. Don't focus your strategy around a single vampire, or else you are doomed to failure. Some vampires (Muaziz, Anson, Jost) have permeated many decks, and they will likely be contested. Furthermore, you have to be able to play a winning game each round regardless of your opening crypt. This means reducing or eliminating the multiple copies in your crypt to prevent the chance of getting 2 or 3 identical vampires in the opening draw. Finally, you can't be worried about contesting vampires. All of these reasons explain why weenie decks succeed in a tournament format. Weenie decks get consistent play from round to round, and they can afford to pay the cost of contesting. Speed is of the essence. Ethan Burrow, the editor of the Toreador Antitribu Newsletter, has already pointed out that slow decks die quickly. Even if they don't die quickly, they will have a difficulty securing a respectable amount of the victory points on the table. Instead they will just watch their prey or their grand prey mow down a row of Methuselahs. Basic pointers are to eliminate cards that provide only long-term advantages such as Secret Horde and Temptation. More importantly, you need to design a library that won't suffer from a hand jam, because you won't have the time to wait it out. Be careful to play a deck that cycles through at the right speed to avoid an excess of Master cards or an excess of action modifiers. Is preparing for a 10-player tournament different than preparing for a 30-player tournament? Yes, it is. 10 player tournaments give combat and intercept decks a better chance of reaching the finals. These two types of playing styles focus on winning the round, but not necessarily sweeping the round. Someone on the newsgroup once said that playing a combat deck is like waging a war of attrition. The resources of all Methuselahs must remain in check for the duration of the game. The result can be a round winner, but it often leaves a distribution of victory points in its wake. Hence, a combat or intercept deck could win all three preliminary rounds (at 3 points a round), but a weenie dominate deck would only need to sweep two tables (5 points a round) to get a higher seating. Is this fair? I'm not sure. Do we need tournament reform? Probably not, but a part of me feels strongly that winning preliminary rounds should have more emphasis with regards to reaching the final round. DECK OF THE MONTH Luis Duarte and I conversed several times since last month's Newsletter, and in those meetings Luis was kind enough to share with me one of his Gangrel wall decks. Although Luis doesn't recommend it for tournament play, he's had a lot of fun and a lot of success playing this deck in his local playgroup. I haven't had a chance to play it myself, but I am dying to sink my fangs into it. I now present to you Luis's "The Scorpion Deck." "The Scorpion Deck" Gangrel Combat (Animalism/Protean) Name Clan /Cap. Disciplines (2x) Gitane St. Claire Gangrel, 7 ANI PRO FOR (3x) Gunther Gangrel, 7 ANI for pro aus (3x) Bear Paw Gangrel, 5 ANI for pro pre Roman Alexander Gangrel, 4 ani pro for Anastasia Grey Gangrel, 3 ani pro Luther Gangrel-A, 6 ANI pro for obt Caitlin Gangrel-A, 5 ANI PRO dom aus Average Vampire age: 5.67 Average opening crypt draw: 22.67 Maximum draw: 28 Minimum draw: 17 Total Library Size: 90 cards Action: 9 · Bum's Rush (4) · Ambush (2) · Army of Rats (1) · Atonement (2) Combat: 38 · Flesh of Marble (7) · Drawing Out the Beast (7) · Carrion Crows (4) · Scorpion Sting (8) · Claws of the Dead (5) · Wolf Claws (3) · Skin of Rock (4) Equipment: 3 · Flak Jacket · Sport Bike (2) Master: 16 · Haven Uncovered (3) · Blood Doll (3) · Vulnerability (2) · Protean (2) · Unnatural Disaster · Dreams of the Sphynx · Zoo HG · KRCG News Radio · Ecoterrorits · Archon Investigation Reaction: 18 · Forced Awakening (10) · Cat's Guidance (8) Retainer: 6 · Mr. Winthrop · Dog Pack (3) · Raven Spy (2) Strategy: Get 2 or 3 vampires out, especially Gunther and/or Gitane. Gunther is important for his ability to untap at the end of the turn. Bear Paw can be very useful in stopping Weenie decks (especially with the Atonement). Start equipping and hiring Raven Spies to get permanent intercept, since Cats Guidance will be needed to untap later in the game. Initiate combat, trusting Flesh of Marble to prevent massive amounts of damage. Aggravate the Scorpion Sting strikes to send opponents to torpor as soon as possible. Try to block their way out from torpor without diablerizing them; use Vulnerability to burn them instead. Use Dog Pack's to kill S:CE decks (Vote decks), and Scorpion Sting to kill dodge decks (Stealth & Bleed, Weenie Dominate, etc.). Remember 10 of the 12 crypt vampires have superior Animalism. You shouldn't need any more than 3 vampires ready to raise a mighty aggro-wall! Result: An effective deck against almost kind of decks, since: 1. It has intercept that increases during the course of the game, as your minions will have access to Raven Spy, Sport Bike, Mr. Winthrop, Atonement, KRCG News Radio and of course Cats Guidance! 2. It prevents massive damage using Flesh of Marble. 3. It inflicts aggravated damage, and damage can get up to 5 points in the first round through other environmental factors (DotB, Carrion Corws). 4. It has a nice pool-gaining engine, through Zoo HG/Blood Doll, Ecoterrorists and Dreams of the Sphynx. 5. Dodges are totally inefficient, and S:CE can be stopped using Dog Pack. 6. Worry about rush combat? From who? The guy in torpor? ;) 7. After the wall is raised, most players will turn against you in anger, since you're the major threat on the table! Bleed defense: It relies in permanent intercept and untap capability, but more importantly it relies on its aggressiveness. Initiate combat against the bleed decks. Dominate bleed decks are shutdown down by the Scorpion Sting. Presence bleed decks are killed by the Dog Pack. Vote defense: Intercept and Dog Pack in combat (or Atonement). Combat defense: Flesh of Marble, Skin of Rock, Flak Jacket. Tell your opponents after you play Flesh of Marble, that you will also be playing: superior Drawing Out the Beast, superior Carrion Crows, Scorpion Sting, and Claws of the Dead. On second thought, they'll figure it out after one or two demoralizing defeats. Weakness: A bad hand in this deck can be your major threat. Heavy Stealth and Bleed can be faster sometimes, and will cause you serious pool damage, in the initial rounds until your wall is raised. Cross-table votes (such as Parity Shifts and KRC) can easily destroy your pool (this is a social game and everyone will hate you!). Some weenie-type decks can kill you very quickly if you have a bad hand and no Atonements in play. Possible Changes: Add 2 more Atonements and 1 more Dog Pack, to increase its efficiency against weenies and vote decks. Guardian Angel might be useful against the stealth bleed. Sudden Reversal is always handy. If you are short 7 Flesh of Marble cards (it is rare), then you could replace them with Skin of Steel. Rules: Official DCI-rules. Deck by: Luis Duarte Luis.Duarte@ip.pt Well, I am off to Dallas for Project A-Kon 10 where I will be competing in Praxis Seizure: Dallas. I hope to see many of you there. In the meantime, I will be toying with all kinds of ideas on which deck to play. Wish me luck. Please send all comments and submissions to: Greg Faulkner gfaulkner@austin.rr.com