OFFICIAL VEKN KIASYD NEWSLETTER VOL II ISSUE II MAY 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. EDITORIAL I am excited by the new Gehenna expansion, which arrived in last week. The Seal of Veddartha could actually serve this month's featured deck very well, but I constructed the deck with cards that are currently available and tournament legal. We've also seen a preview for the Giovanni's reward for winning the last Storyline tournament, which brings me to this month's editorial. As a player who enjoys playing bloodlines, I'm disheartened by the prospect that we will probably never see a Storyline reward card for any of the bloodlines clans. Let's face it, the major clans will see more play in upcoming Storyline events, as we've seen in the past. To compensate for this, I suggest that during the next Storyline, not only should the winning clan be rewarded as normal, but the bloodline which gets more wins than other bloodlines should be given a benefit as well. It would be cool to see a Fiendish Tongue for the Kiasyd or a Siphon Soul for the Nagaraja. Perhaps the new Storyline format mentioned in the Developer Chat will handle these type of eventulaties. Anyway, on with the show. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH Kassiym Malikhair Kiasyd Cap: 6 dom for MYT OBT Sabbat: During your untap phase, you can move 1 blood from Kassiym to any ready Pander. Cold iron vulnerability. Kassiym is a great "go left" vampire. With superior Mytherceria and Obtenebration, Kassiym can pour on the stealth, and he's no slouch in the bleeding department either, with the ability to play Governing the Unaligned, Scouting Mission, Threats, Bonding and Conditioning, as well as the other Dominate bleed actions and modifiers. Stealth/bleed is a standard tactic for using Kassiym, and his reasonable size means that he often shows up in Lasombra stealth/bleed decks that are looking for another midcap vampire to fill out the crypt. However, this month I want to take a fresh look at him, his special ability, and his lone out-of-clan discipline, Fortitude. To take advantage of Kassiym's special you really have to plan to build your deck around it. As amusing as it is to give a blood to a Pander controlled by your grandprey blood to keep that vampire from having to hunt, you are not normally going to want to waste Kassiym's blood on anyone else's vampires. Pander can be a great addition to a lot of Kiasyd decks. All (or mostly all) Kiasyd decks have a large average crypt size, since our smallest vampire is a 5-cap. With 15 Pander in the game, ranging from 1-cap to 7-cap, there is a wide range of possible Pander to add to the crypt of a Kiasyd deck. Typically, you will want to choose the smaller vampires to use as chumps (either for blocking or bleeding) and use Kassiym's special ability to refill them so that they will not need to hunt. Feo Ramos, Royce, Mitchell the Headhunter, Christine Boscacci, Rex the Necronomist, Lena Rowe, Jimmy Dunn, and both versions of Alfred Benezri have Kiasyd clan disciplines or disciplines that match Mytherceria outferiors. Those nine vampires can be worked into a Kiasyd deck with little effort to help out by bleeding for one (or more, in the case of those Pander who have Dominate), blocking rushes targetting your more important minions, hunting for Blood Doll bloat, and running various errands. Kassiym is also the only Kiasyd with Fortitude. This off-clan discipline can be put to more use than simply allowing Kassiym to prevent damage in combat. If you're looking to prevent damage to your Kiasyd, you're better off using Flak Jackets and Guardian Angels, as these two cards are permanents and can be used by Kiasyd other than Kassiym. The real strength of Kassiym's Fortitude is to allow him to be able to act multiple times in one turn by using Freak Drives, something which his clanmates cannot do. With Kiasyd crypt capacities tending towards the upper end of the spectrum, you need to focus on ways to make your actions efficient. For a good article on action efficiency, see this article on The Path of Blood Web site (http://www.thepathofblood.com/displayarticles.php?article=efficiency). Since Kassiym can use Freak Drive, he can give you more bang for your buck, in terms of the pool invested in him. He can bleed, untap, call a vote, untap, play a Riddle Phantastique on a vampire, etc. Kassiym can form the backbone of some interesting decks for the clan, but to use him to his fullest potential you need to take advantage of all the pool you poured into him. Utilizing his Fortitude to allow him to take multiple actions each turn is a good way to do this. Next month: Beatrice L'Angou -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. CARD OF THE MONTH This month we are going to look at all of the Mytherceria combat cards as a group. While most players tend to view Kiasyd as ineffective in combat, there are actually many combat options open to our clan that are often overlooked. While I will not be focusing on the uses of Obtenebration or Dominate in combat, there are some obvious tie-ins and comparisons that I will make during this analysis. Absorb the Mind [Bloodlines:C2] Cardtype: Combat Requires: Dominate/Mytherceria [dom]: Strike: dodge. [myt]: Strike: ranged. Steal 1 blood. [MYT]: Strike: ranged. Steal 1 blood and steal 1 Master: Discipline card from the opposing minion and put it on this striking vampire. This card provides the Kiasyd with a lot of flexibility when determining how to handle combat. It allows both light offense and light defense, all in one card slot. The Dominate effect of Absorb the Mind adds a nice option for the Kiasyd; since all Kiasyd have Dominate, they can all use the outferior effect of Absorb the Mind. Dodge is the second-best form of combat defense, inferior only to S:CE. While there are many ways to get around dodges, your opponent will have to plan for and react to that dodge. The inferior Mytherceria effect is the same as the inferior Theft of Vitae. The strike is unpreventable since it steals blood, but causes no damage, and so is useless against empty vampires. The blood gain from this strike is negligible, but is equal to the average vampire's hand strike, so you should come out of the combat no worse off than when you entered it. If you can get your Kiasyd to long range, then your vampire can leave combat with more blood than he started the fight with. The superior Mytherceria effect is awesome. It is somewhat cornercase, as many people do not play with Master: Discipline cards, and your vampire cannot already have the discipline at superior. But when you do get a chance to steal another Methuselah's discipline card, you have meddled with their game on two levels: you have effectively nullified the master phase action used to play the card, and also increased the chances that some of your opponents' minions will not be able to play cards requiring that discipline as effectively. That Methuselah has the discipline cards in his deck for a reason, after all. (Note that vampires cannot play Absorb the Mind at superior to steal a Master: Discipline card for a discipline that the minion already haa at the superior level.) Most decks will use this card at the outferior. But when Master: Disciplines get played by other Methuselahs, you have the option of stealing them. This card is good enough to be included in most Kiasyd decks. It is primarily defensive, but its ability to alter the game by stealing disciplines means that it should be used in offensive Kiasyd decks as well. Basilisk's Touch [Bloodlines:R2] Cardtype: Combat Requires: Potence/Mytherceria Cost: 2 blood Only usable in combat with an ally or younger vampire. Only usable before range is determined. [pot]: This vampire gets +1 strength for the remainder of combat. [myt]: If any damage is successfully inflicted from this vampire's hand strikes this round, send the opposing vampire to torpor or burn the opposing ally. [MYT]: As above, and the opposing vampire burns 1 blood. I am going to try to give Basilisk's Touch a fair review, but I will state beforehand that I simply don't like this card. The Potence outferior is poor at best, but as only one Kiasyd has Potence, it isn't very likely to be played by us anyway. The Mytherceria inferior is much weaker than any of the Protean "make your hand strike aggravated" cards. Even if your Kiasyd somehow generated +2 strength, superior Resilience can prevent all damage from your strike, but if the damage were actually aggravated, this would not be the case. Also, since Basilisk's Touch doesn't actually inflict aggravated damage, it cannot be combined with Rotschreck to trump other combat or combat defense. The Mytherceria superior burns a blood from the opposing vampire on top of the "send to torpor" effect. Big deal. That still doesn't help you torpor or burn a vampire, or make the damage inflicted by your vampire any less preventable. Perhaps most importantly, Basilisk's Touch costs two blood and must be played before range is determined. With the prevalence of S:CE and dodge as combat defense mechanisms, two blood is a lot to spend without being sure that you're going to get some return on that expenditure. This card could possibly be combined effectively with Thoughts Betrayed to avoid dodge and S:CE, but now you've spent four blood from that minion (and only two vampires can use that combination without first getting a discipline card). Maneuvering to long range will also make this a wasted card. Some combat decks plan on going to long (Assamites, Potence/Lid combat, CEL/gun), so you've simply drained blood from your vampire, making it more likely that your vampire will be torpored. Even worse, about one-third of the vampires in the game have Fortitude, which can easily prevent the one or two points of damage you might inflict with Kiasyd hand strikes. Pound for pound this card is weaker than Entombment, Claws of the Dead, or Chiropteran Marauder. If you are considering using Basilisk's Touch, you should probably think again. Darkling Trickery [Bloodlines:R1] Cardtype: Combat Requires: Obtenebration/Mytherceria [obt]: Press, only usable to end combat. [myt]: Maneuver or press. [MYT]: Only usable when the opposing minion attempts to strike with a weapon that does ranged damage. The damage from that weapon is reduced to zero. The opposing minion takes 1 additional damage during strike resolution. Since the Obtenebration effect is subsumed by the inferior Mytherceria effect, there is no real need to comment on it. The Mytherceria inferior effect "maneuver or press" is duplicated by only four other combat cards in the game: Dissolution (which costs one blood), Flash, Rapid Thought, and Swiftness of the Stag (a Spiritus card). This puts the Kiasyd in an elite group of vampires. Celerity has some of the best combat support options and Flash is one of the better choices for Celerity-based decks. Allowing a maneuver or press at inferior and giving both at superior, no other game effect can match it. Dissolution is second-tier because of its cost. This versatility makes Darkling Trickery an important card for Mytherceria combat. The Mytherceria superior, like Rapid Thought, offers an interesting option in lieu of a the maneuver with an optional press providing by Flash at superior. Darkling Trickery's superior effect is tremendously important to Kiasyd combat. Since only one Kiasyd has Fortitude, the Kiasyd have to rely on equipment or masters to provide damage prevention. Darkling Trickery, while not damage prevention in the traditional sense, protects your vampires from some of the most damaging weapons in the game. Guns, flamethrowers, and even the Ivory Bow will do no harm to the charmed Kiasyd. The additional point of damage is a nice touch that really gives this card some teeth at the superior. Also, the superior version can be played during additional strike resolution, even if you don't gain any additional strikes. This card is so versatile that it should make it into most Kiasyd decks. The only problem with Darkling Trickery is getting them; I know I'm hoping for reprint of this card as an uncommon. Earth Swords [Bloodlines:C2] Cardtype: Combat Requires: Potence/Mytherceria [pot]: Strike: 1R damage. [myt]: Strike: 2R damage. [MYT]: Strike: 3R damage. Earth Swords is fantastic, without a doubt. It allows you to dish out up to three damage, regardless of range, without any blood cost. The Potence outferior is a second-class citizen when compared to Thrown Gate. The optional maneuver that the Gate provides is often the cornerstone of long-range pot/cel combat, allowing a vampire to maneuver to long and then gain additional strikes for Thrown Sewer Lids. Earth Swords are no replacement for Thrown Gate; however, when mixing the Kiasyd with the Lasombra, the Potence strike is a nice touch. Earth Swords really shines when played as the superior effect. As discussed in last month's newsletter, Julia is the only Kiasyd that can't play it at superior. The only thing that could make the superior Earth Swords better would be to give it an optional maneuver, making it like a free Stone Quills. As it is, Earth Swords will give Kiasyd combat the punch that the clan needs to compete with other strong combat decks. Given the prevalence of Grapple combat, getting to long range will be the key to making sure this strike hits home. Next month: The Grandest Trick (useful or useless?) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. DECK OF THE MONTH This month I wanted to build a deck that attempts to utilize Kassiym to his fullest potential and show off Kiasyd combat. So, I present Kassiym multirush, with Pander buddies. Kassiym dunks enemy vampires and the Pander horde rescues or bleeds. You should be able to beat people up pretty effectively until you get a concealed gun. There is very little stealth or intercept. Save the stealth to get through the Black Metamorphosis. This deck should be fun to play, but multi-action is a difficult style to master (and I haven't mastered it yet). So, have fun with it. This deck expects that Kassiym will be performing different types of actions during his multiple-action turns. Deck Name: Captain Kassiym and the All-Pander All-Stars Created By: Karl George Schaefer Description: Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 6, Max: 25, Avg: 4.33) --------------------------------------------- 1 Alfred Benezri (ADV) aus dom PRE THA 7, Pander:3, Bishop/Archbishop 5 Kassiym Malikhair dom for MYT OBT 6, Kiasyd:2 1 Alfred Benezri aus dom PRE THA 6, Pander:3, Bishop 1 Lena Rowe aus obf pre 3, Pander:2 1 Mitchell obt pot 2, Pander:2 1 Christine Boscacci dom vic 2, Pander:2 1 Royce dom 1, Pander:2 1 March Halcyon for 1, Pander:2 Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (11 cards) 3 Fame 3 Fortitude 2 Guardian Angel 1 Humanitas 1 Life in the City 1 Strained Vitae Supply Action (19 cards) 2 Ambush 2 Black Metamorphosis 4 Bum`s Rush 4 Fiendish Tongue 4 Govern the Unaligned 3 Harass Action Modifier (14 cards) 10 Freak Drive 4 Stone Travel Reaction (12 cards) 3 Deflection 3 Redirection 6 Wake with Evening`s Freshness Combat (28 cards) 3 Absorb the Mind 2 Arms of the Abyss 2 Concealed Weapon 7 Darkling Trickery 7 Earth Swords 2 Entombment 5 Taste of Vitae Equipment (2 cards) 2 .44 Magnum Combo (4 cards) 4 Aura Absorption I am also including a variation of this months deck that was remixed by John Eno (Kushiel) to be more combat-oriented. This version is a multi-rush deck. It uses weenie Lasombra and Pander, so Kassiym's special may not be used (and probably shouldn't be). Deck Name: Captain Kassiym and the All-Pander All-Stars (Remix) Created By: Karl George Schaefer (remixed by John Eno) Description: Kassiym multirush. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 7, Max: 24, Avg: 3.75) --------------------------------------------- 5 Kassiym Malikhair (dom for MYT OBT, 6, Kiasyd) 1 Cameron (dom pot, 3, Lasombra) 1 Hester Reed (obt pot, 3, Lasombra) 1 Aaron Duggan, Cameron's Toady (obt, 2, Lasombra) 1 Samson (dom, 2, Ventrue Antitribu) 1 Mitchell (obt pot, 2, Pander) 1 Christine Boscacci (dom vic, 2, Pander) 1 Royce (dom, 1, Pander) Library: (89 cards) ------------------- Master (12 cards) 1 Barrens 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 3 Fame 3 Fortitude 1 Haven Uncovered 1 Humanitas 1 Hungry Coyote Action (16 cards) 5 Ambush 2 Black Metamorphosis 5 Bum`s Rush 4 Harass Action Modifier (12 cards) 2 Conditioning 10 Freak Drive Reaction (5 cards) 3 Deflection 2 Wake with Evening`s Freshness Combat (39 cards) 3 Absorb the Mind 8 Arms of the Abyss 5 Concealed Weapon 8 Darkling Trickery 8 Earth Swords 7 Taste of Vitae Equipment (5 cards) 5 .44 Magnum -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. SIGN OFF Thanks for reading. I hope that you have picked up a new idea or two. Karl Schaefer kschaefe@alumni.nd.edu