Gargoyle Clan Newsletter for February 2006 I. Introduction II. Card of the Month: Roll III. Tactical Discussion: Range Flexible Combat IV. Deck List: Exploiting the Slaves-one month later I. Introduction Since I published my first Gargoyle newsletter last month, some interesting things have happened, and it seems that the next few months should be a very interesting time for people experimenting with the Gargoyles. First of all, there have been at least three Gargoyle related decks discussed on the newsgroup, one of which was directly inspired by my newsletter. While I'm taking credit for things I didn't do, the trade value on some notable Gargoyle cards has climbed to some surprising heights-just as I predicted would happen. As an example, several copies of Raking Talons were just sold on Ebay for more than $2 each. I can't think of any common card that has ever sold for that much in the past. Incidentally, this also supports the argument that Legacies of Blood contained too many cards, especially reprints, and that the commons weren't common enough. Considering the underwhelming popularity of certain reprints, and the inclusion of several overly wordy and ultimately useless cards (such as Bind the Night Walker and Winged Second), it seems like the set could have been a fair bit smaller. Another noteworthy event was the recent NERQ that I was lucky enough to attend this past weekend. Thanks again to Jon and Peter for giving me a ride there and back, to Matt and Josh for providing us with a floor to crash on (even if there were snakes), and to Herr Feuerstein von Boston for setting up such a remarkable event. While I did not play Gargoyles in the qualifier tournament, I did play them in three pickup games afterward. Ironically, the Gargoyles scored much better in those games than my tourney deck (an ANI dom bleed/combat toolbox featuring Cailean) did in the three rounds of the qualifier. The tournament metagame turned out to be much less combat-heavy than I expected, with Animalism seeming to be the most popular combat discipline and SCE appearing with rather annoying frequency. A Gargoyle rush-grapple deck starring Ferox or Ublo-Satha would probably have cleaned house. In one of my games with the Gargoyles I ended up losing to another Gargoyle deck, based around the Tremere antitribu slaves. In the 1v1 endgame it seemed that my combat was superior, but I was ground down pretty quickly due to a less developed position and lack of bloat. The opposing deck was really cool, and used Tupdogs in a non-tricky way I approve of. If the creator of that deck (sorry, I forgot your name) wants to send me a list I would certainly include it a newsletter. You deserve as much for having beat me at my own game. II. Card of the Month: Roll Type: Combat Requires: Flight Do not replace until after combat. [FLIGHT] Maneuver. A minion may play only one Roll each round. If this minion is still ready when you would draw to replace this card, you may move this card from your ash heap to your hand instead. This card is awesome. Just plain awesome. As a matter of fact, my renewed interest in the Gargoyles and my decision to write for them is in large part due to Roll and its appearance in the Legacies previews several months ago. It's really quite absurd that several people on the newsgroup whined about this card being underpowered at the time of the preview, and goes to show just how easy it is to upset some players' delicate sensibilities. To sum up the effect, Roll basically provides your minions with a permanent maneuver at the cost of -1 hand size for as long as you feel it's worthwhile, without requiring any actions or additional setup cards to acquire it. Compared to the action required to get permanent maneuvers from IR Goggles, or the inherent disadvantages of a card like Zip Gun (taking damage, being forced to make a lame strike), the temporary hand reduction is a very reasonable price for the advantage you get. Additionally, Roll provides its permanent maneuver to not just one minion, but to every vampire you control with Flight. As long as you don't get torporized after playing it, Roll makes it very hard for even the most dedicated ranged deck to keep outmaneuvering you. For example, a minion with a .44 Magnum will need to draw at least one transient maneuver each time he fights you to stay at long range. If you're able to prevent damage and press, the problem gets even worse for the gun monkeys, since each new round defaults to close range. If you manage to catch a CEL gunner even once, his problems are likely to get ugly fast. Immortal Grapple prevents him from cycling any dodges he might be holding (though Sideslip at CEL is still viable), and Pounce keeps him from using additional strikes. Unless the gunner directs his attention to fighting another Methuselah (which is difficult to do if you're consistently rushing, blocking, or bleeding him) he's going to have a rough time cycling his combat cards into fresh maneuvers. Adding additional maneuvers in the form of Crawling Chamber, Swoop, or Unflinching Persistence will make it even harder to stay away from your Gargoyles' Immortal Grapples. Most importantly, Roll gives you the ability of beating ranged combat decks with a strikingly small dedication of deck space. Running four copies gives you reasonable chances of drawing one fairly early, and even two or three is enough to provide good odds against a gun deck. Of course, all of this assumes that you'll be using maneuvers to stay at close range and then use Immortal Grapple and pumped/aggravated hand strikes to brutalize your opponent. This is not necessarily the case in all situations, which brings me to my next point. III. Tactical Discussion: Range Flexible Combat Most combat decks tend to prefer being at either close or long range at all times. Certain combat effects are limited to only one or the other (such as Collapse the Arches, or Immortal Grapple + Pounce) while others, like Breath of the Dragon, are clearly better at a given range in most cases. Combat builds tend to focus on offensive effects that work at the preferred range, and then sideline a backup plan to use against those who try to maneuver in a contrary fashion. The most popular choices are flexible maneuvers (e.g. Flash or Pursuit) or strikes that work at the suboptimal range. Since you need to plan on having more maneuvers than your opponent, the ability to cycle these cards when she isn't maneuvering is key, and some sacrifices are made to allow this. For example, Pursuit would often be outclassed by Blur, and Earthshock is often inferior to the Lid (not to once again harp on my differences with Peter Bakija, who is a stand-up dude; it just happens to be relevant). The other option is to play what I call range flexible combat, which is different from range independent combat. The approach I take is to include cards that are optimized for long range alongside a bigger pile of cards for close range, since the latter is the default. I then add enough maneuvers to try to control range based on what I want to play at any given time. The two major advantages of this are that I can often avoid range dependent nastiness from my opponent, and that I can maximize the effect of my combat cards without fear of jamming. If most of my combat cards are geared for close range, and my opponents are trying to go to long then I can either hit them with my ranged strikes or maneuver back. If no one is maneuvering, I can cycle my counter-maneuvers by going long myself and then play my ranged strikes. This approach works exceptionally well with the Gargoyles, due to a wide variety of ranged strikes and maneuvers, including Roll. Playing my current Gargoyle deck, I've been able to Roll to close and Grapple and then Roll to long (with the same card) and throw a Sewer Lid on the same turn. These kinds of antics force your opponents to keep guessing, which is especially useful in a high combat environment where everyone is eager to beat you down. V. Deck List: Exploiting the Slaves-one month later I haven't built any new Gargoyle decks, but I have had the opportunity to play the one from last month in a fair number of games and tune it accordingly. I've also managed to trade for many of the cards I was missing a month ago, and the crypt is looking much better. As is a standard problem with bruise bleed, I have run into situations where my prey refused to block and I jammed on combat while stealth bleeders killed me before I could cycle into rush or bounce. I've also been bled in multiple games by Brujah decks, which do far more harm based on Ublo-Satha's disadvantage than I had expected. These kinds of situations are difficult to correct for, but some other problems have come up that are easier to fix. The most irritating one is not drawing any Tremere, which has happened more times than seems statistically possible. Equally bad is not getting anyone with dominate and then jamming on Deflections and Conditionings. Both problems have been mitigated by including more Tremere, cutting Roreca Quaid for doubles of more useful vampires, and adding 2 Effective Managements. The crypt now stands at 13 cards, which is a bit odd, but the ratios look favorable. I can also make reference now to the 13th Warrior. Another problem was a lack of bloat in the endgame, so an Arcane Library has gone in along with the increase in Tremere. I had to cut Change of Target since it was just too hard to use effectively, even though I really like the Force of Will trick I described last month. Most other changes have been fairly minor and largely metagame dependent, such as the spur of the moment decision to swap excess Immortal Grapples for more Indomitability (thanks to Dave, who had them on hand as usual; I think he carries them around for good luck). Here's the current deck list: Crypt [13 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 7 average: 4.70 ------------------------------------------------------------ 3x Ublo-Satha 7 FOR POT VIS cel Gargoyle:2 2x Saxum, Master of S 6 FOR VIS pot pre Gargoyle:2 2x Jing Wei 3 dom tha Tremere:1 2x Mustafa Rahman 2 dom Tremere:2 2x Luma, Stone Beauty 5 FOR aus pot vis Gargoyle:2 1x Ignatius 4 aus dom tha Tremere:1 1x Sarah Cobbler 4 THA dom Tremere:1 Library [90 cards] ------------------------------------------------------------ Action [7] 1x Armor of Terra 1x Defender of the Haven 2x Force of Will 3x Harass Action Modifier [5] 5x Conditioning Combat [48] 1x Collapse the Arches 1x Disarm 1x Flow Within the Mountain 8x Immortal Grapple 4x Indomitability 5x Pounce 3x Raking Talons 2x Resilience 1x Rockheart 2x Roll 4x Rolling with the Punches 1x Stonestrength 3x Taste of Vitae 3x Thrown Sewer Lid 9x Torn Signpost Master [14] 1x Arcane Library 3x Blood Doll 4x Dominate 2x Effective Management 2x Fame 2x Haven Uncovered Reaction [14] 5x Deflection 5x Forced Awakening 3x Patrol 1x Scry the Hearthstone Retainer [2] 2x Razor Bat Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Wed Feb 01 21:56:58 2006] Thanks for reading the newsletter! As usual, I appreciate comments, questions, and ideas either here or at jessecn AT student.umass.edu.