Malkavian Antitribu Newsletter, August 2007 VOLUME VI, Issue VIII 1. INTRODUCTION While all VTES players are awaiting for the first Lords of Night spoilers, talking about one of the most popular deck archetypes for the Independents seems quite logical. This time we're going to speak about Shambling Hordes. Yes, the Hordes require Necromancy, and there are no !Malks with this Discipline. But, as usual, !Malks can offer some great support to build an interesting new deck of Hordes... maybe, somewhat slower than the common variants, but having a greater potential after the setup. 2. CARDS OF THE MONTH Shambling Hordes [FN:C2] Cardtype: Ally Discipline: Necromancy Cost: 3 blood Zombie with 3 life. 0 bleed, 0 strength. [nec] When Shambling Hordes enters play, remove an ally or vampire in your ash heap from the game or burn Shambling Hordes. Shambling Hordes gets +1 strength for each life counter it has. Shambling Hordes can never gain life counters; any life counters it gains go to the blood bank instead. Shambling Hordes can enter combat with any ready minion controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action. [NEC] As above, with 4 life. This is not War Ghoul, but Hordes are much easier to recruit. Three blood is generally much less than 3 pool (and there are good ways to reduce the cost), and getting an ally in your ash heap is as easy as discard it - while War Ghoul's food must be taken from play, which means spending actions and paying the costs. With superior Necomancy a fresh Horde has slightly less life than War Ghoul and cannot be sacrificed to burn locations. More importantly, Hordes cannot prevent any damage and their strength depends on their life - so their life and usefulness are going to be short. So what? A dead Shambling Horde becomes a "food" for the next one. If you can recruit enough Hordes to assemble an army, you can defend yourself (with Unmasking) and assault your enemies, preferably non-combat ones. Though there are some ways to improve your Hordes, the "swarm" approach is usually the most popular, and often the most effective. For instance, you could equip a Flak Jacket for your Horde to make it "permanent" unless the opponent can deal more than 1 damage, but this requires a card, an action, and 1 pool, so it won't be much more effective than just recruiting another Horde. Fortunately, you can build a deck around Marie Faucigny at Pier 13 to get a lot of Flak Jackets for free, then distribute them to your Hordes via Nod - and get some "almost War Ghouls" for much lower price. Zombies in jackets are definitely much more frightening than naked zombies! My Deck of the Month is an example of this approach. Ankara Citadel, Turkey, The [AH:U5, CE:U] Cardtype: Equipment Clan : Tremere Cost: 2 blood This equipment card represents a unique location and does not count as equipment while in play. The vampire with this location pays only half of the blood cost for any cards he or she plays (round down). For Tremeres, this card isn't very profitable, since they usually have enough blood (stolen from other vampires). Besides, most of their popular cards are cheap or even free, so Ankara Citadel's cost (2 blood) isn't going to be compensated very quickly. You can build a deck based on expensive cards (like Shotgun Ritual or Seeds of Corruption) and fetch the Citadel with Magic of the Smith, though. This card becomes a true trump on Mata Hari. Ravnos are very blood- hungry (almost all their cards cost blood), and there are very expensive yet effective cards like Sensory Deprivation or Tumnimos. Reducing cost of Sensory Deprivation from 3 blood to just one makes the card absolutely insane... but, unfortunately, Mata Hari is Red List, and playing Deprivations makes her a target #1 for all combat decks. I guess that free Fata Morgana, Draba and Mirror Image are going to repay Ankara's cost in a few turns, and without such danger. Another interesting application of Ankara Citadel is Eldest Commands Undeath. Mata Hari can play it, so she will need just 6 blood to burn Arika and just 5 blood to burn any 10-cap. Pushing the vote won't be easy, but Mata Hari has 2 votes, and she allows you to play any vote- gaining locations like Ventrue Heaquarters or Ferraile. Burning Arika is going to be really funny: that bitch really deserves to be burned for all her PTOs! Ankara Citadel is obviously very good with Shambling Hordes if your Mata Hari will learn Necromancy somehow. There are two ways to achieve it: Infernal Pact and The Sargon Fragment. When the combo is assembled, your Mata Hari will recruit Shambling Hordes for 1 blood. Obviously, with such "discount" you can easily have 6-8 Hordes or even more. Unfortunately, even Charisma won't make the Hordes absolutely free, but you will get free Procurers, which is also very nice: Charisma reduces the cost to 1 blood, Ankara Citadel makes it zero. If you wish to get some Asanbonsam Ghouls, they will also be free. Census Taker [SoC:R] Cardtype: Master Cost: 1 pool Unique Master. Put this card on a ready Black Hand vampire. During an action, this Black Hand vampire can tap to give any other Sabbat vampire +1 bleed or 2 additional votes for the current action. During an action, this Black Hand vampire can tap to give any other Black Hand vampire +1 intercept. There is absolutely nothing special in this card, but it's still much more popular than its price may indicate. All you need to play it is a small Black Hand vampire (it would be silly to tap a large vampire, right?) Piotr Andreikov isn't going to do much with his inferior Auspex, but make him Census Taker - and he will provide you everything you may need. Any deck will benefit from increasing bleed, extra votes or intercept. After several games you will discover the true power of this card: versatility. No other card in the whole game provides bleed, votes and intercept, and though some cards provide more votes or more intercept, they are rare. Do you know many bleed-enhancers providing +2 bleed or more? Yes, there are Pulses and Heart of the City, but they make vampire a target and cost 2-3 blood. Do you know many permanents providing more than 2 votes? Ventrue HQ, probably Powerbase: Madrid, but that's all. Do you know many permanents providing more than +1 intercept? Channel 10, the Bowl... that's all. That's why Census Taker is so good: it converts almost useless Black Hand weenie into an extremely versatile and powerful "location" - but you can still use him as a vampire, if you wish. Even if you aren't running a pure Black Hand deck and cannot use "+1 intercept" ability, Census Taker can be useful. For instance, my Deck of the Month needs to push some crucial votes, and tapping Roger Farnsworth isn't a huge price for 2 votes (especially considering the fact that even tapped Roger can play Cloak the Gatherings). If you don't have votes to push, you may use Census Taker defensively (to gain votes against opponent's referendum) or just to increase bleed. 3. VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH Name: Sennadurek [LoB] Clan: Nagaraja Group: 4 Capacity: 6 Disciplines: dom AUS NEC Sabbat. Black Hand: Whenever a Methuselah loses the edge when it is not your turn, Sennadurek untaps, and you may look at that Methuselah`s hand. Scarce. One may think that Sennadurek isn't as powerful as Le Dinh Tho, as she cannot rip somebody's hand, but she has a different purpose and no other vampire can be compared to her. How often Methuselah loses the edge? Probably several times per turn. Each time Sennadurek will untap, and you will get to look at somebody's hand. If you had the Edge at the end of your turn, Sennadurek will untap as long as somebody will bleed successfully; if your predator will bleed you regularly, she will untap after the first bleed and be ready to play Telepathic Misdirection. Most of the time she will untap much earlier, since other players also bleed sometimes. Thus, Sennadurek will save you a lot of Wakes - you will be able to use these slots for more important cards. You may try to build a deck that will fully utilize multiple untaps of Sennadurek. An Auspex deck with a lot of Eagle's Sights will greatly benefit from this ability. Alternatively, you can just put Census Taker on Sennadurek (yes, she is Black Hand!) and use its abilities several times per turn. BTW, did you notice that Census Taker can increase bleed or votes of ANY Sabbat vampire, not just yours? :) Finally, "you may look at that Methuselah's hand" ability usually means a lot. When your grandprey takes the edge from your prey, you may look at your prey's hand and in most cases he will be UNABLE to change his hand until his own turn (even if he has a lot of playable reactions). Looking at your predator's hand will be more tricky, as Sennadurek's ability doesn't work during your turn, but you may let your prey take the edge from your predator and prepare to defend against his plans. If you know that his hand is clogged with stealth, you may avoid blocking, for instance. Doesn't that seem too good to you? It really should. IMHO, Sennadurek is on the same power level as Le Dinh Tho. After all, he can use his ability just once per turn, while Sennadurek's ability is usually activated 2-3 times per turn or even more. Yes, she is a larger investment (6-cap compared to 5-cap), but she doesn't have "-1 stealth when hunting" disadvantage, she is Black Hand, and she has superior Auspex. 4. DECK OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Shambling Hordes of Mata Hari Created By: Ilya Ginsburg (Ector) Description: Mata Hari + Ankara Citadel + Infernal Pact = Shambling Hordes almost for free! Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 23, Max: 28, Avg: 6.58) ---------------------------------------------- 1 Roger Farnsworth aus OBF 4 !Malkavian 2 Sennadurek dom AUS NEC 6 Nagaraja 4 Mata Hari aus for qui CHI OBF 7 Ravnos 4 Marie Faucigny dem tha AUS OBF 7 !Malkavian 1 Don Michael Antonio Giovanni DOM NEC POT 7 Giovanni Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (17 cards) 1 Tower of London 1 Specialization 1 Infernal Pact 1 Drop Point Network 1 Charisma 1 Ventrue Headquarters 1 Ferraille 3 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Census Taker 1 Secure Haven 1 Powerbase: Madrid 1 Institution Hunting Ground 1 Creepshow Casino 2 Nod Action (6 cards) 4 Sibyl`s Tongue 2 Magic of the Smith Action Modifier (13 cards) 8 Veil the Legions 5 Cloak the Gathering Political Action (3 cards) 3 Autarkis Persecution Reaction (6 cards) 6 Telepathic Misdirection Combat (16 cards) 6 Fake Out 2 Aura Reading 8 Spiritual Intervention Ally (20 cards) 16 Shambling Hordes 4 Procurer Equipment (8 cards) 1 Ankara Citadel, Turkey, The 1 Sargon Fragment, The 1 Heart of Nizchetus 1 Pier 13, Port of Baltimore 4 Flak Jacket Event (1 cards) 1 Unmasking, The This is a "fetchdeck" based on Shambling Hordes. Mata Hari and Marie Faucigny are the "stars", though they don't have Necromancy. Your primary goal is Infernal Pact on Mata Hari, if you get Sibyl's Tongue, or Sargon Fragment, if you get Marie Faucigny and Magic of the Smith. Without at least one of these cards you will be able to do very little, so try to survive and cycle until you get them. With Infernal Pact, your Mata Hari will be able to recruit Shambling Hordes, as well as Marie with Sargon Fragment, but Marie will also return the played Sibyl's Tongue or Magic of the Smith back into your hand to play them once more. When you get Infernal Pact + Ankara Citadel on Mata Hari and Sargon Fragment + Pier 13 on Marie, you may consider yourself ready for mass summoning. Take care of the Procurers, they will bring a lot of blood to your vampires. When you get at least 2-3 Hordes, the next target will be Unmasking to defend yourself against your predator. After that you will be free to assemble the army of Hordes and equip some of them with Flak Jackets. Though the deck seems to be very fragile, actually it has good reserves to compensate for the initial weakness. Mata Hari + Marie Faucigny cost 14 pool, your allies cost only blood, and your equipment should be free for you if Marie would equip it. Thus, only your masters will cost you some pool. You don't have any Blood Dolls, since blood of your vampires is precious, but you still have good sources of pool. Tower of London will provide 1 pool for each summoned Horde, Specialization will provide at least 3-4 pool for the duration of the game (plus, you will easily fill your ash heap with Hordes), and each Autarkis Persecution should provide a lot of pool if you push it. Chances of pushing are quite good: though this deck isn't a true voter, you still have 4 votes on Mata Hari and Marie +1 for the card, and you can gain more from Ventrue HQ, Ferraile, Powerbase: Madrid and Census Taker. These votes should defend you against the voting predator as well, and you have Telepathic Misdirections and Hordes against the bleeding predator. Your defense isn't so fragile as it may seem from the first glance, so your chances of surviving the necessary number of turns are quite decent. That's all for August. As always, all comments and ideas are appreciated! Yours, Ector