Malkavian Antitribu December Newsletter
Volume 2, Issue 2.
I. Introduction.
Hi. My name is Lenny.
II. Fan fiction.
There will be no fan fiction this month. Our fan lost it's way and
we are desperately trying to find him and bring him back with friends
and family. If you find our fan, please send him in this direction.
There are a few lessons we need to teach him so he never gets lost
again, stupid runt no good fan... Oh, umm, yeah, we'd love to see him
again and hug him and rub him and cuddle him and hug him and hold him
real tight and...
What my friend Lenny is trying to say is that this section of our
news letter is no longer going to have fiction. I mean, what's the
use? None of it's true anyway. It's all baseless conjecture and
we'll have none of it. If we're going to be talking about something
or someone, it's all going to be true and scandelous. It's more fun
that way. So, in the spirit of that statement, section 2 is going to
turn into "Ramblings from the Editor".
II. Ramblings from the Editor.
Shortly after I released the last newsletter, I got an email from
someone complimenting the issue (which was definitely appreciated!!
:p). That person went on to say that though the content was good, I
probably didn't need to start off with a S&B deck. Perhaps. Perhaps
not. I'll get to that in a second.
Lately, there have been alot of posts on the NG flaming S&B decks as
being cheesy and no brainers. I don't necessarily disagree with many
of the comments that were made because I don't particularly like
being downstream of a S&B deck either. Even so, S&B is an intrinsic
archetype of the game; there is really no way of escaping it.
But why?
Short answer: Available Vampires
Medium Answer: Discipline spread and the strategies available to
those disciplines
Long answer: The plain and simple fact is that the Obfuscate
discipline exists and it has 1 primary purpose - stealth. While it
may have a few tricks, the vast majority of cards that exist for Obf
provide stealth. Of the following clans that have Obfuscate as an
in-clan discipline:
Assamite
Followers of Set
Nosferatu/!Nosferatu
Malkavian/!Malkavian
only the Assamite and the Nosferatu/!Nosferatu have a combat
discipline available to them so, if they use Obfuscate at all, it is
usually only used as a backup. Typically, the primary strategy that
is utilized by these clans is combat with the main purpose of beating
opponents minions to the ground before walking all over them.
However, neither the Setites or the Malkavians have adequete combat
disciplines available to them and so, if they want to avoid combat
altogether, they must use Obfuscate judiciously to avoid being caught
for woe is them if ever they are. Usually.
Since combat is unavailable to the Setites or the Malks, they must
utilize the other two primary archetypes - Bleed and/or Vote. While
Vote is a strategy available to these clans, it's much harder to pull
off. Here's why:
# of Vamps Average Average
w/Title Votes Capacity
Followers of Set 4 2 9.25
Malkavians 7 2 8.57
!Malkavians 5 1.4/*2 8.2
* if Korah is the only Priscus on the table
Not only are you talking about at least 2 turns (in most cases)
before you get a vamp into play, but only the Setites have the
discipline available to them to make sure that most of their votes
pass. The others are, more or less, at the mercy of the table.
Then, there is the whole issue of pool gain where, really, only the
Camarilla Malkavians would truly excel. This leaves bleeding as the
easiest and typically most effective strategy to implement by these
clans. Even so, it is far from being a no-brainer strategy. You not
only have to worry about jamming up on stealth but you also have to
worry about surviving combat. The balance is delicate and easily
swayed.
So the moral of the story is that on average, if these clans hit the
table, it is going to be a S&B deck. Even if it's not bleed, it's
going to be a Stealth & {Something} deck and that is what you are
going to not only see in games, but in these (mine and other's)
newsletters. It's the nature of the beast. Deal with it. :p
--George
III. Why us?
I don't know. Leave us alone. Go away.
Ok, so last month, I discussed a combo that could be used to keep you
informed of what your predator/prey is up to and make it just a bit
harder for them to bleed. This month, I'm going to discuss how you
can make your predator put all his Bleed-ing eggs in one basket.
Lovely imagery, don't you think? hehehehe
This months combo involves the following cards:
Blessing of Chaos [Sabbat]
Cardtype: Action
Cost: 1 blood
Discipline: Dementation
This is a +1 stealth action.
[dem] Put this card on the acting vampire. If the vampire with this
card attempts to block another vampire, that vampire cannot play
action modifiers requiring Dementation, Dominate, Presence, or
Chimerstry. Vampires opposing this vampire in combat cannot play
cards that require those Disciplines.
[DEM] As above, and actions requiring those Disciplines cannot be
directed at this vampire.
and
Archon Investigation [V:TES]
Cardtype: Master
Cost: 3 pool
Master: out-of-turn.
Only usable when a minion to bleed you for more than
3 pool. The action is not successful. Burn the acting minion. This is
not considered an act of diablerie.
The trick is to get Blessing of Chaos on your primary vampire
(whomever that might be) then move on to the other vamps in your
ready region. Typically, you'll want to start out with the highest
capacity vamp and go down from there. What BoC allows you to do is
prevent your predator from playing those nasty bleed mods like
Conditioning, Threats, Aire of Elation, etc. Sure, they can still
Govern or Legal Manipulate, but not much else. _Unless_ s/he decides
to play those action mods as the action is declared (before you have
the opportunity to block). Not only does this tell you exactly what
you are facing by forcing your predator to "put all his/her eggs in
one basket" but it also allows you to play that nasty AI you've been
holding on to for the last 3 turns. I can guarantee that once you pull
this trick off the first time, you'll never get bled for more than 3
the rest of the game not matter how badly they might want to bleed
you for 6. Even if you don't have an AI in hand, knowing the level
of bleed that is being directed at you will let you decide whether or
not you really want to Wake and Tel-Misdirect.
The other benefit that BoC has is that you can attempt to block PAs,
even if you don't have intercept. You'll fail in your attempt, of
course but simply by making the attempt you are preventing your
predator/prey from playing action mods such as Bewitching Oration,
Awe, Voter Captivation making it that much more difficult for him/her
to pass the vote. And since these action mods can't be tossed when
the action is declared (unlike bleed mods), these cards will start to
jam up their hand as they will have become completely useless.
Finally, if used at superior, really evil cards such as Mind Rape,
Sensory Deprivation, Sensory Overload, Reality, Mind Numb cannot be
targetted at the Blessed minion. All of which can put a serious
wrench in your strategy.
Here is a list of vampires that can utilize this combo:
They all can. However, in the event that you do successfully block,
you'll probably want it to be a higher capacity vampire. One that
can use Voice of Madness or that can afford Coma.
IV. Deck of the Month
Deck Name: Newsletter 12/01
Created by: Sorrow
Description: Deck included in the 12/01 Newsletter
Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 20, Max: 20, Avg: 5]
1 Artemis (aus cel DEM for OBF, Malkavian Antitribu, 6)
2 Claven (aus dem obf, Malkavian Antitribu, 4)
2 Dolphin Black (AUS DEM OBF, Malkavian Antitribu, 6)
1 Idalia (AUS dem, Malkavian Antitribu, 4)
1 Kite (AUS DEM obf pre, Malkavian Antitribu, 7, Bishop)
1 Korah (ani AUS DEM OBF, Malkavian Antitribu, 7, Priscus)
1 Muriel Foucade (aus DEM, Malkavian Antitribu, 5)
1 Quira (AUS OBF obt tha, Malkavian Antitribu, 6)
1 Virgil (AUS cel DEM OBF, Malkavian Antitribu, 8, Bishop)
1 Yorik (dem obf, Malkavian Antitribu, 3)
Library: (90 cards)
Master (18 cards)
3 Archon Investigation
4 Blood Doll
2 Dementation
2 Direct Intervention
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Hungry Coyote, The
1 Institution Hunting Ground
2 Obfuscate
1 Storage Annex
1 Sudden Reversal
Action (20 cards)
6 Blessing of Chaos
11 Kindred Spirits
3 Total Insanity
ActionMod (30 cards)
5 Cloak the Gathering
6 Confusion
5 Elder Impersonation
4 Eyes of Chaos
3 Faceless Night
5 Lost in Crowds
2 Scrying of Secrets
Reaction (17 cards)
7 Telepathic Misdirection
3 Voice of Madness
7 Wake with Evening's Freshness
Combat (5 cards)
4 Coma
1 Reality Mirror
V. Final
Unfortunately (or, fortunately, depending on how you look at things
because Dementation does have alot of really cool tricks), the !Malks
don't have access to much beyond their in clan disciplines. There
isn't much cross-pollonization going on with regards to the other
skills, sadly. There used to be a time where, when I was building a
deck based on a clan, I would only really use the in clan
disciplines. Then, one day, I met Todd Banister's Assamites.
Surprisingly (to me, anyway), he was using Auspex. And using it
quite effectively. I was taken aback at first, but it made me think
of things in a whole new light. More and more, I've been looking for
out-of-clan disciplines shared within the clan and attempting to make
use of them. Unfortunately, I can't really do that with the !Malks.
So don't be looking for any *major* creativity from me with this
clan. Certainly not on the order of Assamites with Auspex (pre FN).
It's just not really possible w/o a ton of skill cards, though
Sanguine Instruction may help out a bit here. I guess we'll see.
If you have used or seen a really good !Malk deck that makes use of
out-of-clan disciplines, I'd love to hear about it. If it's good
enough, I'll likely feature it in a future newsletter!