Lasombra Newletter August 2007 INTRODUCTION Another month; another newsletter. This month I thought I'd take a long overdue look at the Black Hand trait and how it interacts with the clan of Shadow. The Black Hand trait has been looked at in previous newsletters of course, but I feel that the release of Sword of Caine means that a new general overview is now necessary; to see what membership in the Black Hand offers the new G4/G5 vampires, as well as what the new Black Hand library cards mean for the old guard. Rather than try to compress everything relating to the Black Hand into a single newsletter I plan to spread it out over the course of this newsletter and next month's. THE BLACK HAND The Black Hand trait is something like an unusual discipline in that it is shared by a number of vampires across various clans and gives them access to a number of cards that they would otherwise be unable to play. Probably the best parallel to draw though would be that of the Anarch trait. Neither trait seems to get played much, probably due to the fact that decks that want to make use of them must first ensure that the vampires in the crypt obtain the trait in question; otherwise the Anarch/Black Hand module simply becomes a module of dead cards. The Black Hand trait appears more playable then the Anarch trait for the number of important reasons, the primary one being that it is easier to build a crypt containing Black Hand vampires. Although (prior to Sword of Caine at least) there were more options for making a vampire an Anarch (including a card-less action) no vampires are innately Anarchs and thus all the Anarch cards in one's deck are unplayable until one can convert at least vampire to the Anarch cause. By comparison there are a significant number of vampires who possess the Black Hand trait out of the box and most of them have at least minor discipline overlaps. Short of a few tricks only Sabbat vampires can join the Black Hand and while it gives them access to a number of interesting support cards it is unlikely to provide an entirely new possibility for ousting, though it theoretically can support an already present strategy nicely. The original Black Hand set offered an interesting combination of cards which provided an interesting mishmash of effects and an advantage over other Sabbat vampires (as the Black Hand is an elite faction within the Sabbat they have some significant authority other their Sabbat brethren). These included cards that provided intercept, increased bleed, a conditional permanent rush, card cycling opportunities and increased hand size; the most powerful cards being the Watchtowers. Although the Sword of Caine set hasn't really given the trait an increased focus it has provided a number of new complimentary effects, including increased access to untap effects, increased voting capacity and a number of new (easier) ways to make vampires Black Hand members. So what does this offer the clan of Shadow? MEMBERS OF THE BLACK HAND At the present there are five Lasombra who claim membership in the Black Hand, two of them in Group 2, one in Group 3 and two in Group 4. Banjoko Clan: Lasombra (group 3) Capacity: 5 Disciplines: DOM obt pot Sabbat. Black Hand Seraph. Rarity: BH:U2 Henri Lavenant Clan: Lasombra (group 3) Capacity: 7 Disciplines: DOM OBT pot qui Sabbat. Black Hand: You have +1 hand size while Henri is in combat. Rarity: BH:U2 Ermenegildo, The Rake Clan: Lasombra (group 4) Capacity: 5 Disciplines: DOM OBT pot Sabbat. Black Hand. Rarity: Third:V Appius Claudius Corvus Clan: Lasombra (group 5) Capacity: 10 Disciplines: DOM OBT POT cel nec Sabbat. Black Hand. Seraph: +1 stealth. Rarity: SoC:V Saul Meira Clan: Lasombra (group 5) Capacity: 8 Disciplines: CHI DOM OBT POT Sabbat. Black Hand: Saul may burn a blood during your discard phase to untap another ready Black Hand vampire. Rarity: SoC:V A couple of things become apparent; firstly every single one of these vampires has DOM, with all but Banjoko having OBT as well. None of them share any out of clan disciplines. The G3/4 pair has a lower average capacity(with an exceptionally young Seraph) while the G4/5 pair has a higher average capacity but increased access to out of clan disciplines. A number of other Black Hand vampires share slight discipline overlaps with these vampires, but one can always convert other Lasombra into members of the Black Hand to support them. There are a number of ways to do this: Blooding Type: Action Requires: sabbat +1 stealth action. Requires a ready Sabbat vampire. Put this card on the acting vampire and move one blood from the blood bank to this vampire. This Sabbat vampire is Black Hand. A vampire can have only one Blooding. Released in the Black Hand set Blooding is an action that allows a Sabbat vampire to join the Black Hand and gain a blood in the process. Although the blood gain is helpful the main problem with Blooding is that it is an action card and can thus be blocked, despite its innate +1 stealth. Since the acting vampire doesn't untap afterwards it's also perhaps a bit ineffective, as you'll have to wait another turn to be able to act. Cadet Type: Master Master. Trifle. Put this card on a Sabbat vampire in your uncontrolled region who is not Black Hand. While this Sabbat vampire is controlled, he or she is Black Hand. This card remains in play, even when the vampire is in the uncontrolled region. A minion may have only one Cadet. One of the new options presented to us in Sword of Caine, Cadet has a few things to recommend it. Firstly, as a master card it cannot be blocked and is far less likely to be prevented than Blooding. Also, being a trifle you should still be free to play another master card should you so wish. The theoretical disadvantage however is that the vampire you wish to play it on must be in the uncontrolled region, making the card ineffective once you've influenced out the vampire in question. Theoretically the value of the card rapidly decreases as the game goes on and it's a card you really want to see in your opening draw. To be sure of that however you'd need to include a large number of copies, all of which would take up deck space, all of which would have a high probability of becoming dead cards. Perhaps some sort of clever trick involving Descent into Darkness is possible, but as it stands Cadet is not ideal. Mustajib Type: Action Requires: black hand +1 stealth action. Requires a ready Black Hand vampire. Put this card on a younger non-Black Hand Sabbat vampire who has performed a successful action this turn, and untap that vampire. The Sabbat vampire with this card is Black Hand. Mustajib is interesting. It's an action just like Blooding and therefore can be blocked, but it allows you to untap the younger vampire who becomes a member of the Black Hand, reducing some of the cost of having to take an action in the first place. Although the targeted vampire must be younger (and perhaps therefore less effectual), an older vampire is also probably that much harder to block, making the action itself for likely to succeed, though the younger vampire must have performed as successful action himself earlier in the turn if he is to be a viable target. Trophy: Chosen Type: Master Master. Trophy. When this card is moved to a vampire, that vampire gains 4 blood, becomes Sabbat and untaps, or that vampire can choose to burn this card instead. The vampire with this card is Black Hand. If he or she was already Black Hand when receiving this card, he or she is a Seraph. A tricky one. This is one of the few ways to make a non-Sabbat vampire a member of the Black Hand (and Sabbat), but it seems to require far too many moving parts. It's difficult enough to build trophy hunter decks, which require a large number of additional cards. Throwing the Black Hand into the mix as well just seems suicidal. This card would probably be used more often as a way of making a Black Hand trophy hunter a Seraph, though I'm not sure I see a vast value in that myself. Clearly there is no perfect option and choices must be made as to which of the above cards suit the aims of ones deck in question. Stealthier decks or those that have access to multi-acting are probably better of using the actions, while those that have little hope of sneaking past casual intercept has best make use of Cadet. After all this effort one must ask what the actual value of joining the Black Hand actually is. Here I want to take a look at a number of cards and discuss how they interact with our clan. LIBRARY CARD FOCUS Admonitions, The Type: Master Unique master. Put this card in play. Tap to discard one card if you control a ready Sabbat vampire. Tap to draw two cards if you control a ready Black Hand vampire. During your discard phase, control of The Admonitions passes counter-clockwise until it is controlled by a Methuselah who controls a ready Sabbat vampire (or is burned if there are none). Card cycling is obviously an important part of VTES, there are a large number of decks that include the Barrens for this very purpose, a card that the Admonitions is obviously quite similar to. So how does it compare? Firstly one has to note that if you don't control a ready Sabbat vampire then the Admonitions is useless to you and will most likely go towards helping someone else at the table (or just burning). Even if you do control a single Sabbat vampire the Barrens is probably a better choice, other than the fact that you're more likely to have to contest it. The card's value becomes apparent when you control a ready Black Hand vampire; it lets you draw two cards, reassess your hand and discard those cards you don't want. Obviously the value of the Admonitions is somewhat metagame dependent; if everyone else around you plays Sabbat then this card is probably a poor addition to your deck. However a Black Hand rush deck could consider rushing other Sabbat vampires at the table to secure you're the exclusive use of the Admonitions. As combat decks can run into trouble if they get jammed on problematic cards this seems like a reasonable strategy. Chronicle of the Lost Tribe Type: Action Requires: black hand +1 stealth action. Requires a ready Black Hand vampire. Unique. Put this card in play. You get +1 hand size. Any vampire with a capacity above 4 may steal this card for his or her controller as a (D) action. Obviously increased hand size is a wonderful thing, but given the Lasombra's general inability to muster much intercept you probably won't be able to defend the Chronicle of the Lost Tribe. That said there are a handful of Lasombra with at least inferior Auspex and Obtenebration can provide a little intercept, so this isn't a card to rule out at first glance. Corporal Reservoir Type: Master Master: trifle. Put this card on any Black Hand vampire. This vampire may tap this card to prevent 1 point of damage in combat or to gain a blood. This card doesn't untap as normal. This vampire may burn a blood to untap this card during his or her untap phase. A lovely card for its flexibility. Corporal Reservoir can provide slight protection for agg-poke or allow you to gain a single point of blood when you really need it. As the card is only a trifle it won't eat up your master phase action, so for Black Hand vampires it's simply superior to Life in the City. Note that there's no limit to how many Corporal Reservoirs you can put on a vampire, so a couple of these in a Black Hand deck where blood is an issue could be a good idea. Dominion Type: Master Master. Put this card on a Black Hand vampire. Vampires must burn 1 blood to attempt to block this Black Hand vampire. A vampire can have only one Dominion. In and off itself this Dominion doesn't seem too powerful, but the ability to wear down blockers through minor attrition shouldn't't be ignored, especially when combined with stealth. Multi-acting vampires in particular could stand to gain a lot from this, providing both a disincentive to block as well as blood loss. Ebony Fox Hunt Type: Master Cost: 1 pool Master: out-of-turn. Cancel a blood hunt called on a Black Hand vampire you control. You may play this card during your turn. If you're considering committing diablerie rather than Grave Robbing this should provide some protection in case you can't be sure of dominating the political arena. Ministry Type: Reaction Requires: black hand Cost: 1 blood Requires a ready Black Hand vampire. Do not replace until the end of this action. This vampire gets +2 intercept. If the acting vampire is Sabbat, this vampire gets an additional +1 intercept. If this vampire does not successfully block this action, he or she is tapped after action resolution. The conditions of this card obviously make it quite unforgiving, it costs you blood, you don't replace it until the action ends (making a resulting combat more dangerous for you) and if you fail to block you'll get taped out. Still, the Lasombra don't have vast amounts of intercept available to them, a card that offers +2 or a possible +3 intercept is therefore definitely something to consider, especially if you plan to be defending cards such as the Chronicle of the Lost Tribe. Remover Type: Master Master. Put this card on a Black Hand vampire. This vampire can tap any card (including a minion) as a +1 stealth (D) action. A vampire can have only one Remover. Remover can give smaller Black Hand vampires something useful to do, taping possible blockers, (or ambush targets), or master cards that could pose a problem, such as the Ventrue Headquarters. Given the increased amount of untap effects now available to Black Hand vampires the value of Remover has probably increased, offering some tap and bleed prospects. Shakar Type: Master Cost: 1 pool Master. Put this card on a Black Hand vampire. This Black Hand vampire can enter combat with any younger non-Black Hand vampire as a (D) action. A vampire can have only one Shakar. Rarity: BH:C/PN2 The value of this is obvious. Put it on a large combat monster and get to work. Luca Italicus strikes me as vampire who would have something to gain from Shakar if he were made a member of the Black Hand; look our for a deck best month. Watchtower: Chosen are Called Type: Master Requires: seraph Cost: 1 pool Master: watchtower. Requires a ready Seraph. Put this card in play. You may use a master phase action to draw three cards (discard down to your hand size afterward). Burn this card if another watchtower enters play. Burn option. We Lasombra have access to the smallest Seraph in the game; it would be foolish not to consider the watchtowers. Watchtower: Chosen are Called is great because it provides some very strong card cycling opportunities, doesn't require a political action like Watchtower: Greatest Fall, while offering an effect that suits the Lasombra better than Watchtower: Four Ride Fourth Weeping Stone Type: Master Cost: 3 pool Master: unique location. +1 hand size. During your untap phase, a ready Black Hand vampire you control gains 1 blood. Any Assamite can burn this card as a (D) action that costs 1 pool. If you really want the extra hand size and can afford its cost Weeping Stone is probably better than Chronicle of the Lost Tribe as short of any Assamites you won't have to worry so much about defending it, while combined with a blood doll and a Black Hand vampire it can actually pay for itself over time. SIGN OFF That's it for this month. Next month the star of the show will be the new cards from Sword of Caine, as well as a deck staring Luca trying to make use of a number of them.