Table of Contents: 1. Lasombra: Who we are... 2. Minion Call: What is Jyhad/V:TES and what could it become? 3. Deck: Lasombra - Victory through better beatings and bleeding 4. Deck: Invisible Raiders - Robert Souder's Weenie Stealth, Bleed and Breed Deck. Lasombra: Who we are... As stated in open text... "Lasombra are the elite of the Sabbat, ruthless manipulators who value strength and reward those who possess it." They are the Kindred who feel the ideas of the Camarilla to be weak and beneath them. The order of their nature is for the strong to survive and feed on those who are weak. Destruction to all who oppose them is never questioned by those of the true followers of Caine, the Sabbat! The Lasombra as a clan contain a wonderful mixture of disciplines to work with; Dominate, Obtenebration, and Potence. Dominate allows for heavy bleeding (the standard of Malkavians) with deflections, political manipulation, and location/retainer/ally theft capabilities. Obtenebration allows interception, stealth and combat capabilities at minimal levels at little or no blood cost to the vampire. Potence allows the full spectrum of combat damage inflicting and location destruction capabilities the Nosferatu, Giovanni and Brujah enjoy. Political capability - the Lasombra have 11 points of voting power to themselves alone. That coupled with Dominate's political manipulation cards is usually enough to make the Lasombra a strong presence in the political arena. Combat capability - the Lasombra have combat capabilities somewhere between the Brujah and the Nosferatu. This is due to the 0 to low blood cost combat cards available to only Discipline Obtenebration users. Bleed capability - the Lasombra have excellent blood draining capabilities that fall below the Malkavians and above the Ventrue or Tremere in getting through their prey's defenses. Minion Call: What is Jyhad/V:TES and what can it become? Jyhad/V:TES in it's simplest terms, it is a contest between players, acting out the roles of Methuselahs, to see who will remain on the table, a game of "cutthroat". On the flip side, it is a complex game of political intrigue, combat, and resource management. An analogy of the game would be Jyhad/V:TES is to chess as Magic: The Gathering is to checkers. Where everyone can learn and enjoy checkers, it takes something extra to learn chess. Some people who normally play M:TG have made the statement that to learn Jyhad/V:TES requires a Ph.D. to play the game. I personally think that is a load of crap, but... In comparing Jyhad/V:TES to M:TG, the entry level learning curve of Jyhad/V:TES is much higher than M:TG. There are many different areas to look at, remember, and balance at entry level in Jyhad/V:TES. While in M:TG, resources are acquired and forces marshaled and sent forth to destroy, kill and maim the enemy as it works well in the 2 player arena. Simple and straight forward. It isn't until later that more complex strategies can evolve in M:TG, especially when more than 2 people are at the table. In Jyhad/V:TES, resources must be used sparingly while acquiring forces to attack and defend with. There are different methods of reaching the goal of being the king of the table; politics, combat, or resource depletion of the enemy. The game works O.K. with 2 people on the table, but some of the common cards are only meant to work with 3 or more players. The optimal number of players for Jyhad/V:TES ranges between 4 to 6. Tables with 7 or more players work well, however, play tends to drag too long as each player conducts their turn. Thus, finding enough players to play against is often times a challenge in itself. As it is, Jyhad/V:TES may not be the easiest game to enter into for new players. But that is because it is a game of serious thought and consideration. Do you want to win! Or do you want to prevent the player who has the Hot deck at this time from winning? Or both? How do I recoup my blood pool losses? How do I keep that pesky Malkavian off my tail and stop the combat deck from torporizing my minions right after I pull them out? What Disciplines will perform the goals selected? What vampires? These are all considerations that must be thought of prior to building a deck. It is one of the most well balanced card games out on the market today. Not many of the card games sold can make that claim. Play balance is maintained in part to the few booster packages (allowing players to learn all the loop holes added to the game - leading to their closure), and the inability of creating the "perfect deck". There is always some method of stopping someone else's deck, even at the cost of not winning the game. This game is always full of spoilers. What could Jyhad/V:TES become? When RAGE came out there seemed to be some disappointment as it was not compatible with Jyhad/V:TES as a Stand-Alone/Expansion set, much like The Sabbat boosters were designed. I am unsure if other players in the game felt the same way. I believe that 1 or 2 more expansions could be made to incorporate the were-population and the mages. How this would affect game balance is unknown but if serious thought and work were put forth, game balance should remain static. Lasombra Standard Deck "Victory through better beatings and bleeding" Masters = 16 cards 2 x Minion Tap 1 x Tribute to the Master 4 x Blood Doll 1 x Political Hunting Ground 1 x Elysian Fields 4 x Obtenebration 3 x Potence Action Cards = 8 cards 6 x Bum's Rush 2 x Ambush Reaction Cards = 8 cards 4 x Wake with Evening's Freshness 4 x Forced Awakening Potence Skill Cards = 28 cards 8 x Immortal Grapple 8 x Torn Signpost 3 x Pushing the Limit 3 x Undead Strength 4 x Increased Strength 2 x Sacrament of Carnage Domination Skill Cards = 16 cards 3 x Govern the Unaligned 5 x Scouting Mission 2 x Threats 2 x Bonding 4 x Conditioning Obtenebration Skill Cards = 16 cards 7 x Eyes of the Night 7 x Shadow Play 2 x Arms of the Abyss Total Cards = 90 Vampires 1 x Alvaro - 9 - dom OBT POT pre - Archbishop of Pittsburgh: If Alvaro abstains during a political action, he gains 2 blood at the end of that action. +1 bleed. (Lasombra) 1 x Antonio Delgado - 9 - DOM OBT POT thu - Archbishop of Atlanta: If Antonio performs a successful political action, untap him at the end of the turn. (Lasombra) 2 x Gratiano - 8 - DOM obf OBT pot - Priscus: Gratiano gets one additional vote during the Prisci vote. +1 bleed. (Lasombra) 2 x Aurora Van Brande - 6 - dom for OBT pot - Aurora may inflict 1R damage as a strike. (Lasombra) 3 x Ignacio - 4 - dom obt pot - (Lasombra) 1 x Sela - 6 - cel obt POT PRE - Bishop: If Sela becomes an Archbishop, each ready Bishop controlled by your prey burns 1 blood. +1 bleed. (Brujah Antitribu) 1 x Quentin - 9 - AUS cel DOM FOR obt - Bishop: Once during each political action, Quentin may burn 1 blood to cancel the votes of any vampire. (Ventrue Antitribu) 1 x Gerard - 5 - aus dom for obt - (Ventrue Antitribu) (Offensive/Defensive Combat, Heavy Bleed, Minimal Stealth Deck) The deck works very well for not having any deflections or large amounts of stealth. It follows the same philosophy as the Brujah, "Who wants to rumble?" Intimidation is a wonderful thing. The deck works by carefully balancing predator threat to fast prey removal, plus whatever happens to be in your hand at the time. The Rushes and Ambushes are primarily there for the predator (keep him/her just stable enough to play defense) and other annoying minions on the table that seem to have it in for you. The bleeds can come through with little or no stealth once players realize you can usually whip out 5 to 8 points of combat damage with one shot. Combos of Torn Signpost, Increased Strength (optional), Immortal Grapple and Undead Strength or Pushing the Limit. When Immortal Grapple carried over to the second round of only hand strikes the damage potential was doubled and usually placed the opposing vampire into torpor. Intercept seems to come out of the woodwork with the Eyes of the Night, and usually catches people off guard as it also provides a nice maneuver or press at superior with no blood cost. I usually use the maneuver to offset any maneuver the other Methuselah would use and lock down an Immortal Grapple combo to dish out the punishment. The deck can go toe to toe with the Nosferatu and sometimes with the Brujah. When faced with the Gangrel try using the maneuver to go long and hit with Sacrament of Carnage augmented by Increased Strength (5 point strike at superior). I thought about using the Thrown Sewer Lid instead of Sacrament of Carnage but wanted the flexibility of being able to strike at either long or short based upon the demands of the situation. I have put some thought on inserting Fire Dance to try and offset the Gangrel aggravated hand damage potential, but haven't playtested it yet. All in all, the deck had a good win rate provided I didn't have Rob behind me with his deck, which is listed below. At that rate, I only had one recourse and that was to leave my prey alone and go purely defensive. If I didn't the table was Rob's every time. Major weakness to the deck is lack of real blood recycling capability. To make up for this flaw, I usually used the "Govern the Unaligned" to place blood on a minion in the inactive region and reverse influence the blood back. Despite this flaw, the deck is a blast to play. The predominate vampires for this deck are Gratiano, Alvaro, Aurora Van Brande and Ignacio. The vampires that I love to have out are Gratiano or Alvaro, Aurora and Ignacio. If I can get both Gratiano and Alvaro it isn't until somewhere in the middle of the game, but when it happens... Look Out! :-) Augment minion capabilities with the Discipline Masters and have at it. Sela makes a great complement to any of the above vampires even without Dominate. The +1 Bleed makes her a sweet tooth as she is able to dish it out with great abandon in combat. After all, is it worth having a minion pounded to mush just for 2 blood? The next deck is the Weenie Bleeder from Rob Souder from Omaha, NE. If you ever face him in tournament, have little or no doubts that you will face either this or his other rapid bleeder deck he practiced on us quite regularly. Were we ever able to beat it? Sure, but having it sprung on you out of nowhere is a hard lesson for anyone to swallow. It took a couple of sessions, with everyone licking their wounds, to figure out workable methods of neutralizing his deck and remain a viable on the table. That still didn't remove the fact that Rob could almost guarantee 1 victory point for taking out his prey before other decks on the table were ready for him. Enough said... Please note this deck is really a Nosferatu/Malkavian Weenie deck of fantastic potential. Peter Bakija is the main guru for the Nosferatu Newsletter and James Coupe the main guru for the Malkavian newsletter, and they really should be showing this deck in their products. But Rob knows me, gave me permission and I did promise to present it earlier in this newsletter as part of a counter point to the change in "Wake with Evening's Freshness". I will be submitting a copy of this deck to Peter and James, though so it can come out in their letters if they wish at a later date. Invisible Raiders - Robert Souder's Weenie Stealth, Bleed and Breed Deck Crypt 1 x Dollface Malkavian 3 obf 1 x Watenda Malkavian 3 obf 1 x Normal Malkavian 2 obf 1 x Yorik Malkavian Anti 3 obf 1 x Agrappina Nosferatu 4 OBF 1 x Duck Nosferatu 3 obf 1 x Regilio Nosferatu 3 obf 1 x Dimple Nosferatu 2 obf 1 x Dan Murdock Caitiff 3 obf 1 x Panagos Gangrel 3 obf 1 x Tansu Dekir Assamite 4 OBF 1 x Lazar Dobreseu Ravnos 3 Library Masters = 29 cards 15 x Obfuscate 6 x Tribute to the Master 1 x Asylum Hunting Ground 1 x Slum Hunting Ground 1 x Information Highway 1 x Inbase Discotek Frankfurt 1 x The Barrens 1 x Archon Investigation 1 x Direct Intervention 1 x Major Boon Actions = 37 cards 15 x The Embrace 15 x Night Moves 5 x Computer Hacking 2 x Psychic Veil Action Modifiers = 22 cards 10 x Cloak the Gathering 4 x Mask of 1,000 Faces 4 x Spying Mission 4 x Swallowed by the Night Deck Total = 88 cards Rob Souder speaking, "I love to play this deck. You would not believe the look on player's faces when I turn 4 vampires into 8 in one turn! The Master Out-of-Turns are the only reaction in this deck. Mostly you just bleed and breed. The Discotek and Hunting Grounds are there because this deck does a lot of hunting with embracing and the tributes. I have gained up to 10 pool with one Tribute to the Master! Lazar is in this deck solely for his ability. To be able to steal blood from the inactive region at 3 capacity is great. Always remember to discard your Obfuscate Skill cards so you can put them on your Embraces later on. I made this when everyone started playing deflection decks. You can deflect a few big bleeds, but try to deflect 8 or more little ones and you have trouble." Believe me when I say, it works and works well. There have been times when the whole table had to work together to remove Rob before he removed us. That's that. See you again next month. Enjoy! Mike Eichler (formally dubbed the Prince of Chaos in Omaha for my play style) (Michael.Eichler@ramstein.af.mil) This is the only account I possess at this time. The home account is being work on as you read this.