Table of Contents: 1. Whispers from the Dead: The One That Got Away 2. Allies: The Family Friends 3. Focus on the Family: Regina Giovanni 4. Deck: Legbiter’s Lackeys of Legerdemain Whispers from the Dead I must apologize for getting this out late. Work has been creeping up on me, and I’m trying to get my Ph.D. thesis proposal completed. I did receive a letter from someone else last month. Unfortunately, I lost it when my entire life hiccuped, burying the letter in the deleted file. I couldn’t retrieve it, nor could I locate the person who wrote it to me, so it remains lost. I’ll try to do better with my letters in the future. Allies: The Family Friends Allies tend to get a bum rap in this game. After all, why should you use them? For the cost of the pool you have to pay, you could just as easily get a vampire, who can use more disciplines, have inherent bleed which most allies lack, and built-in healing methods. You also don’t need to spend a blockable action getting them into play. Sure, a few of them have interesting effects, but very rarely are they really what you’re looking for. Once again, however, the Giovanni can make allies far more useful than just expensive cannon fodder. Suddenly, they’re recyclable cannon fodder! Firstly, they have the Necromancy card Compel the Spirit. This is a card that is meant for the advanced level of the discipline. At the basic level, you’re better off with a Whispers from the Dead, which has the same cost and loses the stealth, but can be used on any card in your ash heap at any time, as opposed to only an ally or retainer up to one turn after it is removed from the active region. In other words, you’re better off carrying another copy of the retainer or ally in your hand. At the superior level, however, the card is amazingly cheap. As a +1 stealth action, the retainer or ally jumps back into play, absolutely for free! Sure, you paid 5 pool for that Garou the first time, but now that he’s been out once, he can just keep coming back… and back… and back… Essentially, the cost of playing the retainer or ally is reduced to 1 blood. Of course, this means that there are very few retainers that it’s worth to use in conjunction with this card (Ghoul Retainer, Infernal Familiar, and maybe Spiritual Protector spring to mind) but when it comes to allies, this card is gold. An ally deck should always consider throwing in some Necromancy at superior just to use this card. I discussed all the beauty of Ambrosius, Talbot’s Chainsaw, and Zombies last month, so I won’t go through it again here. Besides, I doubt I need to convince people that Ambrosius is a worthy ally for use. I also mentioned Scapelli, the Family “Mechanic” last month. However, I didn’t mention the one other reason that the “poor man’s Garou” is worth using: bleed. Scapelli has 1 bleed, so he’s quite useful in a bruise-and-bleed strategy that doesn’t need any more minion cards to back himself up. Since you can just Compel him back into play, there’s no reason to worry about having him die once or twice, either. Just put him on autopilot and away he goes! Of course, no discussion of the Giovanni allies would be complete without Leonardo, Mortician. He’s a wonderful boon for any deck, since his purpose is to hunt for other vampires. He’s essentially a second Hunting Ground for the Giovanni, not even counting the speed-HG of Acquired Ventrue Assets. Together, these cards all work toward keeping your vampires filled with the blood they’re spending on the better Necromancy cards. Don’t worry too much about Leonardo being blocked and dying; once again, he can be Compelled. You could even just play him again, since he only costs 1 pool. Hopefully, though, you shouldn’t worry too much with even that. Since he’s so non-threatening by himself, most players will let him hunt and wait to stop the vampire’s big nasty action. His simplicity, cheapness, and ease of use makes him a staple card of most Giovanni decks, whether or not they’re thinking about allies. Other non-Giovanni allies of mention include the mummies Akhenaten and Kherebutu. They both have basic Necromancy and excellent hand damage. However, their cost doesn’t make them nearly as useful. For the same cost, you can get out a vampire with more than basic Necromancy. In addition, they jump back into your library if ever they’re burned. Now this is great for most clans, but for the Giovanni, or anyone else using Necromancy, this is downright annoying! You can’t Carlotta, Whisper, or Compel them back! Unfortunately, there’s also little call for an ally using basic Necromancy; about the only reasonable use would be for a Jar the Soul or maybe Spectral Divination if you don't mind the life loss. Unless you particularly hate the Followers of Set or the Tremere (and playing with Dedefra), I wouldn’t bother with these two. Focus on the Family: Regina Giovanni Okay, so I’ve worked on the low end of the Giovanni line. Now it’s time for the high end. Regina Giovanni is the largest of the Giovanni family available in the game. She’s a 10 with DOM POT NEC for aus, 2 votes, and the cost of retainers and allies is reduced by 1 for her. The first thing attentive players will notice is that she’s the only Giovanni with all three in-clan disciplines at superior. So, whereas many clans have a 6, 7, or 8 with the full set, you’ve got to go up to a 10. However, once again, this isn’t as bad as it could be. The Giovanni tend to only have two of the three clan disciplines apiece, and so you typically don’t need a vampire with all three because you’ll just spend the time trying to make a deck work with all three disciplines and feel a little disappointed. Okay, I know I just said, “Don’t worry about the lack of experts in the clan because there’s a lack of experts in the clan,” but the Giovanni challenge the traditional thoughts on making a good deck regularly. Is she worth it? Depends on your deck ideas. Her size makes her special somewhat less useful than the likes of Black Cat. However, allies are a strong suit of the Giovanni, so this power should not be overlooked. She and two allies drops her effective cost to about 8, and she starts looking better. However, keep in mind that it’s a couple turns later in the game. Also, in a NRA environment, she can’t just Freak Drive and play another ally; she’ll have to wait a turn. “Hey, wait,” some of you might say, “We’ve got a 10-cap here, and we’re wasting her with recruiting allies? Shouldn’t that stuff be left to the little guys, so that she can do the really nasty stuff?” Well, okay, sure. However, consider this: Dominate, Potence, and Necromancy don’t really combo very well. Also, her other special, 2 votes, can be used whether or not she acts. So, you might as well leave the “really nasty stuff” to smaller vampires, such as Gloria for Dominate, Gaspare for Potence, and Rudolpho for Necromancy. Well, what I’ve given here are a whole bunch of lukewarm thoughts about Regina disguised as a rave. How exactly should she be used? Regina is great for getting out allies and/or retainers. She has Fortitude and Auspex, both of which have untap abilities. She could be used in combination with the Ventrue Antitribu quite handily. She would fit right in with a tap-and-bleed strategy, using Jar the Soul and Misdirection for the tap, Fortitude for combat defense and untaps, Dominate for the bleed and Auspex for defense, support, and maybe even Precognizant Mobility. Of course, that’s four disciplines and allies thrown in, so your deck better be very well-tuned. Using Regina well requires considerable finesse and skill. Otherwise, consider Enzo, Carlotta, or the Lasombra for your high-end support. Deck: Legbiter’s Lackeys of Legerdemain This month, the deck comes from our very own Legbiter. I’ll leave him to discuss the details of how his deck works. We had spoken to each other about the value of allies, and he said that he had made this deck recently. As it relies on the quite effective Tremere Antitribu allies, I felt it would fit the theme this month. Crypt: Heinrich Schlempt Brooke Kurt Strauss Richard Tauber Thelonius Ian Forrestal Francesca Giovanni Rudolpho Giovanni x 2 Gloria Giovanni Carlotta Giovanni Rafaele Giovanni Library: Necromancy Thaumaturgy Dominate Fame KRCG News Radio University HG Morgue HG Blood Doll x 4 Barrens Fragment of the Book of Nod Infernal Pact The Rack Elder Library Mob Connections Dreams of the Sphinx Heidelberg Castle x 2 Talbot's Chainsaw x 5 Ambrosius the Ferryman, Wraith x 5 Nephandus x 2 Succubus x 3 Shotgun x 2 Ghoul Retainer x 2 Leonardo, Mortician Compel the Spirit x 6 Rutor's Hand x 2 Thoughts Betrayed x 6 Taste of Vitae x 4 Blood Tears of Kephran x 2 Govern the Unaligned x 4 Mr. Winthrop Sports Bike Jackie Therman Spectral Divination x 8 Torment the Soul x 3 Wake with evening's Freshness x 4 Atonement Deflection x 3 Laptop Computer IR goggles Arson x 2 The idea is to treat your opponents' vampires as a resource ... steal their blood with the succubus, put them into torpor with the chainsaw, and then eat them with the Nephandus. Pool gain, combat and a bit of deflection is your defense against bleed; intercept and rush- combat is your only real resource against votes. The key to the deck is the Ambrosius/Talbot's chainsaw combo. Ambrosius takes the chainsaw damage each untap, and it doesn't affect him. If an ally gets killed you Compel the Spirit to get it back again. Heidelberg allows you to mount two combats with the chainsaw per turn, and if you're lucky you will have two ghouls each armed with a shiny shotgun for both fights. Next month: Romano, Mozzarella, Possession, and other Italian cheeses. John Baker Clan Giovanni Newsletter Editor