Gangrel Newsletter
September 2001
Contents
Section 1.0 Welcome
Section 1.1 Feral Whispers
Section 1.2 Talking point
Section 1.3 Vampire of the month
Section 1.4 Card of the Month
Section 1.5 Ritual Challenge
Section 1.6 Conclusion
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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.
Well, just to prove scaremongering DOESN'T work, my fears over King of
the Mountain were completely unfounded. To date that is, at least.
I have had a very busy couple of months, and as such haven't had
a lot of time to be writing in these hallowed pages. "What I did
in my Summer Holidays" mainly revolved around Gencon UK. This
was a bittersweet experience, where I had a great laugh, but somehow
lost nearly every game I played (scoring 5.5 points over 3
tournaments!). I was a little dissapointed with my performance, but
was secretly glad, since it means the competition has been getting
tougher over the last year. I can personally rate just about EVERY
player in the UK scene at the moment as someone to be reckoned with.
Anyway, with that to deal with and a lot of real life stuff happening,
I haven't had quite the time I would have liked to look at some
Gangrel stuff I said I would, but I still have a packed issue for you
this time! The results to the Ritual Challenge "pain test"
are below in Feral Whispers (another reason why I had to take my time,
since I received shed-loads of mails entering this competition), as
well as some more thoughts on table dealing in Talking Point. Plus
another competition.
I hope you enjoy it.
DH
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Section 1.1
FERAL WHISPERS
Right, as I said above, I had a HUGE response to this. Just to remind
you what I asked (after a couple of revisions):
"What is the most amount of damage any given vampire can inflict
onto another vampire during strike resolution on the first round of
combat, without additional strikes, and only using one of each card
used in the combo".
A bit of a mouthful! However, after reviewing all the entries, I think
the best entry was that of Christian "Xian" Herro who
offers the following:
[Archivists note: Xian's answer removed because of inconsistencies
and incorrectness not caught by the newsletter editor.]
Good work, my friend! See the Ritual Challenge below for this months
chance to show off to all your friends.
Feel free to comment either to the group or to my email address:
davecrazy@hotmail.com
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Section 1.2
TALKING POINT
A Bluffer's Guide to Table Dealing, part two...
Part 2 - The tools for the trade
In the last few weeks, I have been looking at what is hot and what is
not for table dealing. There are lots of cards that can give you, or
someone else, a real advantage in playing. Of course, the trick is to
convince the other player to accept your "help", since it
comes at a price.
What follows is a selection of cards that can fit almost ANY deck. I
recommend that whatever deck you make, you include just a couple of
these cards. They will serve you well in buying other peoples support
and helping you get to a stronger position.
1) The Rumour Mill / London Evening Star / (KRCG News Radio)
The first two more than the latter, these are a gift to those wanting
to sell their services to the highest bidder! A classic deal is
"I will lend you intercept if you (do x) for me". The more
important the intercept becomes, the more you can ask in return
(voting in your favour, rushing a specific target, etc). The best case
is always lending it to your grand prey to stop one of your
prey's vampires - and hope they smash each other up!
KRCG is not so good in this case, since to lend intercept, you have to
pay out of your pool. The Rumour Mill is the choice of the
connoisseur, since it is cheap to buy and will cost the vamp
regardless. In any event, the fact they are permanent locations means
they are the cards that can keep on giving!
2) Starshell Grenade Launchers
In much the same way as the previous locations, these are a godsend
for table dealing. Once again, they screw over someone over the table
and are fairly cheap to equip with. The big bonus with these tools is
that they also have offensive bonuses for the wielder - yes, it
is only useable at long range, but it certainly could be seen as a
deterrent if used by any deck with celerity in it.
The downside is that there is an opportunity cost in using them -
you have to leave the vamp with it untapped. Over than that,
it is a cool new card that has a lot of potential.
3) Delaying Tactics
This is the best non-discipline reaction card for dealing with votes.
It IS the Daddy. Basically, if you have a handful of these in your
deck, you can bring a vote deck to its knees. The threat of playing
one of these will often be enough to freeze up their actions.
Remember, kids, you don't need to block the vote action, it
doesn't have to be a vote called by a card, and the voting
vampire still plays all their modifiers. It screws people over at that
critical moment - for example, a vampire playing a Kine
Resources Contested and an Awe (paying 8 blood) would normally expect
it to pass. But if you drop your Delaying Tactics into play,
it's all in vain and at a heavy cost to the voting vampire!
Often the threat of a Delaying Tactics can mess up a vote deck, since
they don't want to risk using all their precious stealth / vote
boosting modifiers. Many vote decks are oppertunistic, relying on the
right moment to act. If you can destroy that moment, that leaves them
at risk.
Of course, the downside is that they can call the same vote next turn,
but this will often give you enough time to deal with your defences.
This is a great dealmaker, though. The best kind of deal using this
card is to target the Methuselah calling the vote, especially when
Parity Shifts or Consanguineous Boons are suggested ("Get me
pool or I toast your vote").
I recommend adding one or two of these babies into ANY deck if you
can. A prayer card maybe, but what a prayer!
4) Succubus Club
This is a bit controversial at the moment, but this is still one of
the best cards in the game. I haven't quite perfected the best
approach to using this, but it can save your ass, and that of someone
across the table to you, many times over. However, it can easily damn
you if you are not careful. I made a huge mistake at the national cup
event this year - I gave out 4 pool to my grand prey in order to
stop him being ousted (on the assumption that I could easily take my
prey in the state he was in). Of course, he survived, I suddenly got
rushed from all sides, and he ousted me shortly afterwards.
The trick is never overdo it. If you swap a card, make sure YOU
won't need it later. If you offer pool, make sure you can afford
it. Stupid, but true. I am slowly learning myself not to succumb to
temptation.
My favourite use of this is with a rush deck. Offer the following deal
in your untap phase to your prey or predator (to the person most
likely to go with it):
"I am going to rush you with my hideous, nasty vampire. Look at
his teeth - he is scary, isn't he? I have a combo in my
hand that will wipe your vampires out. Nasty eh? Give me 1 pool via
the Succubus Club, and YOU can choose which of your vampires I rush.
Give me 2 pool and I won't rush you at all. Give me 3 pool and I
will rush ANYONE ELSE'S vampires".
This works quite a lot. Really! You can also boost the amount of pool
you want if it is at a critical time.
5) Cull the Herd
I have been speaking to Leggy quite a lot on the subject of the value
of Information. This gives you the inside track on whether or not they
have bleed bounce, nasty master cards, or anything else. What's
more you are more than welcome to announce what you find to the table,
and if you have the Succubus Club you can make it at a price.
Cull the Herd is a very good card since it is non-discipline, so ANY
deck can use it. It doesn't have quite the impact of Revelations
at inferior (ALWAYS play revelations at inferior), but it is much
better that inferior Pulse of the Canaille and gets +1 stealth, unlike
Sleight of Hand. (I have always wanted to have a Nossie deck that uses
this card heavily, but somehow never get around to it.)
I recommend that you think about sticking this into any deck, because
there will always be a time when you need to know what is in store.
You may have noticed that I haven't included Sudden Reversal or
Direct Intervention in this list. This is because these cards are
quite useful, but 4 times out of 5 will be used to save your butt, not
the butt of someone else. As such, it is not a useful dealmaker, since
it is unpredictable. All the other cards can be directed and packed en
mass without disturbing the balance of your deck too much.
Sudden's and DI's mess up you hand if you have more than 2
in your deck, since they are Masters. They cannot help at any other
time except in an emergency, and even then they mostly just help you.
More on table dealing next time.
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Section 1.3
VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH
Genevieve
Clan: Gangrel Antitribu
Capacity: 10
Sabbat Priscus
Ability: Genevieve gets one additional vote during each political
action.
Artist(s): Larry Snelly
Disciplines :
Superior Animalism
Superior Fortitude
Superior Protean
Auspex
Dominate
Awright moi luvver! This is a great example of how a Gangrel Antitribu
can be a tempting proposition for a Country Gangrel deck. She has all
the skills that her Camerilla colleagues aspire to have, and Dominate
to boot! This puts her on a par with Ingrid Rossler. However, her
special is not quite as good as Ingrid's - an extra vote
is nice to have, but not game-breaking. Also, Ingrid's 2 votes
are a better bet than Genevieve's "maybe 3" votes as
a Priscus.
Once again, she looks less appealing when you consider that she is a
Sabbat vampire - no 2nd trads, no 5th trads, not really Archon
material, etc. However, she is not a bad vampire, just a little
pricey. Once again, often forgotten when it comes to the
"Gangrels with Dominate" deck.
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Section 1.4
CARD OF THE MONTH
Adaptability
Type(s): Combat
Discipline: Protean
Blood Cost: 1
Rarity: Rare
Artist(s): Hannibal King
Card Text:
Basic
Change all aggravated damage from the opposing minion's strike to
normal damage.
Superior
Prevent all aggravated damage from the opposing minion's strike.
I had an interesting experience in a game recently, where a long
experienced player rushed me with a nasty Gangrel deck. I was playing
Malks with Protean. He tools up with Wynn, Uncontrollably Raging with
a Torn Signpost in his hand, Drawing out the Beast and Grappling me.
Gulp!
My Gregor (with only basic protean) played Flesh of Marble.
"Haha!" says my assailant, "Basic FoM means you
can't stop Agg damage!"
"Doh!" I said.
He strikes with Pushing the Limit for more than god intended.
I play Adaptability. Gregor takes 1 damage and pays one for the
Adaptability (then one from the DotB during the press stage).
Wynn takes 2 DotB damage.
Then there was a frantic curiousness about this card. It is the card
that nearly everyone forgets! Most vampires who have Protean
(especially Gangrels) have fortitude too, so prevent damage that way.
Also it is a rare, so people usually can't be arsed to
accumulate them. However, if used with Flesh of Marble, it means you
will be losing only 2 blood off the vampire (one as damage). Not bad
for a single discipline, 2 card combo that only uses basic skills!
The only downside to the combo is that it doesn't stop
environmental damage that is aggravated, so the Weather Control / Dawn
Operation deck will beat it hands down. However, I have faced 1 of
these decks in all my time playing VTES. I beat it, too.
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Section 1.5
RITUAL CHALLENGE (or COMPETITION CORNER)
Can someone, ANYONE come up with a decent deck using Lots of Mythic
Forms?
Answers to the usual address, or to the newsgroup.
Best of luck.
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Section 1.6
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.
See y'all
David Hammond
UGPOW