Official VEKN Malkavian Antitribu NEWSLETTER, February 2005 VOLUME IV, Issue V 1. INTRODUCTION This newsletter is dedicated to preparing your Kindred Spirits deck to struggle against Bowls of Convergence, Channels 10 and the other brand new cards that were introduced in the 10th Anniversary set to enhance intercept decks. In the December issue I clamed that Bowl of Convergence was going to be a death of Kindred Spirits deck. I even managed to launch a discussion of this situation at the newsgroup, and many good players were kind enough to share their wisdom. Finally the common opinion stated that Kindred Spirits decks could survive, but they would be forced to suffer serious changes. Now, I'm trying to build a Kindred Spirits deck that would be playable in the "Bowled" metagame. 2. HERE WE ARE As long as Malkavians antitribu aren't great fans of combat, they aren't going to break Bowls of Convergence with Canine Hordes or Fractured Armaments, or steal them with Blessings of Durga Syn. So, what we can do with the Bowl of Convergence? * Destroy it with Anarch Troublemaker. Really good solution, since Anarch Troublemaker was used in S&B decks even before. Sometimes it's crucial to tap two vampires of your prey, and sometimes you can even burn a super-duper Assault Rifle. * Block the Bowl. If you can block it, do it! * Have a lot of Elder Impersonations/Faceless Nights and play vampires with superior Obfuscate. This sometimes allows you to pass unblocked AND tap the vampire with the Bowl. * Have a lot of minions... Your prey won't have enough Wakes to block them all. * Just contest the Bowl! We have Auspex, and the Bowl is very good. Why not? My Deck of the Month tries to use some of these methods. 3. CARDS OF THE MONTH (aka "The Bloodlines cards") Our clan benefits from two very good rare cards from Bloodlines set. Both require Auspex and Dementation, both are quite good even with the basic aus/dem, and, obviously, both are quite popular. Name: The Call [BL:R2] Cardtype: Action Discipline: Auspex & Dementation +1 stealth action. [aus][dem] Move 2 blood from the blood bank to a younger vampire with Dementation in your uncontrolled region. [AUS][DEM] As [aus][dem] above, but move 3 blood. This card is our Govern the Unaligned (or our Fourth Tradition, if you aren't playing Dominate). Getting 3 blood for a vampire in your uncontrolled region is almost equal to getting 3 pool, and if you are going to influence the vampire, it's even better, as you get +3 transfers as well. If you can't afford influencing the vampire, you can move the blood to your pool. This card is very good in any Kindred Spirits deck since the most popular vampires (Dolphin Black, Korah, Tony, Quentin King III) can play it at superior, and these vampires are usually the elders of your crypt, so they have plenty of targets for The Call. Moreover, even if you don't have a vampire with AUS and DEM, you can play The Call at inferior for 2 blood, and even four-capacity Claven can play it (provided you have a younger vampire in your uncontrolled region, of course). Unlike Govern the Unaligned that costs 1 blood, this card is free, which makes it even more profitable. Now you should ask me "If this card is so good, why most Kindred Spirits decks don't use it or use just 1 or 2 copies?" The answer is "Due to the lack of versatility". The Call can do only one thing: provide some blood/pool/transfers, and nothing else. With Govern the Unaligned, you can bleed with +2 bleed, so you can play superior Governs to get your vampires quickly and then play basic Governs to oust your prey. While you need to influence vampires, The Call is as good as Govern (or even better, as it's free), but later in the game it often appears useless. You want to bleed your prey, and a card in your hand can be used only for bloating! If everything goes right, you don't need extra pool, since your Kindred Spirits provide some pool while you're bleeding. All that said, it's still quite possible to use 6-8 copies of The Call in your deck, especially if you have a lot of AUS/DEM vampires. Playing The Call may convince the table that you're just trying to survive, or you're just building up your forces - everything is better than appearance of a vicious stealth-bleeder :) Overall, if you start bleeding too early, you will force your prey to concentrate on defense, which is definitely bad. You want him to influence some vampires and to press on your next prey, aren't you? Name: Madman's Quill [BL:R2] Cardtype: Action Cost: 1 blood [aus][dem] (D) Bleed at +2 bleed. [AUS][DEM] (D) Put this card on any ready minion controlled by your prey. Not usable if a Madman's Quill is already on any of your prey's minions. When a vampire with Dementation bleeds this minion's controller, that acting vampire gets +1 bleed. Any vampire can burn this card as an action that costs 2 blood. The first thing you should know about this card: it's the only card that allows an aus/DEM vampire (Persia, Uncle George etc.) to bleed for five without permanent bleed enhancers like Tasha Morgan or Pulse of the Canaille. Just play Madman's Quill, add Eyes of Chaos, and voila... but beware of catching bounce or Archon Investigation. Moreover, even a vampire with basic Auspex and Dementation can bleed for 4 with Confusion or Eyes of Chaos - without Madman's Quill they could bleed not more than for 2. So, this card is perfect for unexpected coup de graces when your prey is defenseless. Please don't even think that inferior Madman's Quill can replace Kindred Spirits, though. Kindred Spirits allows you to make alliances, it's free, and it provides a pool. Generally it's better to have a versatile card. As usual, the most interesting part of the card is its superior ability. Ideally, you should put Madman's Quill on a vampire controlled by your prey and immediately send all the other vampires to bleed. You will get a bleed advantage compared to the inferior version only if you bleed with at least three vampires, and you will generally lose an action of your best vampire to play the Quill... Is it worth playing at all? The hidden value of this ability lies in the fact that it CANNOT hurt your grandprey. Superior Madman's Quill doesn't work like Palla Grande or Pulse of the Canaille: it increases your bleed ONLY when you bleed your prey. If your bleed will be bounced, its value will be unaffected. Thus, you can bleed with inferior Kindred Spirits for 1 (+1 for the Quill), and if your prey would bounce, your grandprey ally can let it pass. So, if you're playing superior Madman's Quill, the whole table won't unify against you... or at least they shouldn't :) Surely, any vampire can burn Madman's Quill, but this card is controlled by your prey (as it's an action card and not a master card), so your prey would burn it as an undirected action without inherent stealth. Thus, any vampire controlled by his predator and prey (you and your grandprey) can block it without any intercept. If your grandprey plays combat-heavy deck, and you are allied with him, any attempt to burn the Quill will be extremely dangerous for your prey. Certainly, he can ask his allies to burn the card, but they may refuse to spend an action and 2 blood for it. In general, Madman's Quill is a good prerequisite for making an alliance with your grandprey, which is extremely good for a deck like S&B. 4. VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH Name: Korah [Sabbat:V, SW:U, BH:PM] Clan: Malkavian antitribu Group: 2 Capacity: 7 Discipline: ani AUS DEM OBF Sabbat priscus. You don't need to be a genius to find out that Korah is very good. Take Dolphin Black, make her a bit older, then give her a Priscus title, and you will get Korah. Though Dolphin Black may seem a "standard" 6-capacity vampire with all clan Disciplines at superior, she is much more popular than other similar vampires, since Kindred Spirits deck really needs all three superior Disciplines (see Dolphin Black description in October 2004 newsletter). If you're happy with Dolphin Black, you are going to consider paying one extra pool for a Priscus title... and play Korah. Is the Priscus title really worth extra pool? Well, even if you're playing S&B deck without any political actions, having votes is still very good. You can "sell" your votes to your allies and forbid harmful actions of your enemies. You can diablerize (or at least threat to diablerize) vampires of your enemies, which is especially helpful if you can torporize them with Coma or Ivory Bow. If your Korah will be a single Priscus in the game, you will get 3 votes from her title, which is extremely good. If not, you will neutralize votes of another Priscus (except from Gratiano, of course). Even if you aren't going to play politics, having a Priscus allows you to play some effective cards that require a Sabbat title. The most useful cards for anti-Malks are Puchase Pact (protection against Sabbat Rush decks!), Creation Rites (make a horde of vampires with Dementation!), Eternal Vigilance (you can block or redirect bleed without Wakes) and Blood of the Sabbat. Some Prisci are well-known for their special abilities (Gratiano and Meshenka are the best examples), but Korah is also very good Priscus. She is the cheapest Priscus with all clan Disciplines at superior, and the only cheaper Priscus is 4-group Shawnda Dorrit, which is quite poor for her price. In the "pure" Kindred Spirits deck Korah is considered worse than Dolphin Black since her capacity makes her very inconvenient to recruit at the beginning of the game. If you are going first or second, you will get her only on your third turn. Strangely enough, if she would cost 8 pool, it would be possible to influence her fast with Zillah's Valley, but 7-pool is too cheap! :) If you are going to bleed your prey at the very beginning, you may use one Korah as a "second Dolphin Black", but not more than one. But who said that this strategy is the best? Korah and Marie Faucigny allow you to play political actions without huge vampires (5 votes for 14 pool is quite good), and they both can play good Sabbat cards. The resulting deck may be somewhat slower, but it will be much more versatile, and more powerful. 5. DECK OF THE MONTH Deck Name : Heavy Kindred Spirits Author : Ilya Ginsburg Description : Kindred Spirits with votes, Creation Rites and Madman's Quill. Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 7 average: 6.00 ------------------------------------------------------------ 3x Korah 7 AUS DEM OBF ani priscus !Malkavian:2 3x Marie Faucigny 7 AUS OBF dem tha archbishop !Malkavian:3 1x Artemis 6 DEM OBF aus cel for !Malkavian:2 1x Dolphin Black 6 AUS DEM OBF !Malkavian:2 1x Evan Klein 5 OBF aus dem pre Malkavian:3 1x Persia, The Beautiful 5 DEM aus obf Malkavian:3 1x Uncle George 5 DEM aus dom obf !Malkavian:3 1x Yorik 3 dem obf !Malkavian:2 Library [90 cards] ------------------------------------------------------------ Action [27] 3x Call, The 5x Creation Rites 14x Kindred Spirits 3x Madman's Quill 2x Sibyl's Tongue Action Modifier [25] 5x Confusion 5x Elder Impersonation 3x Faceless Night 3x Forgotten Labyrinth 4x Lost in Crowds 5x Spying Mission Action Modifier/Combat [5] 5x Swallowed by the Night Equipment [3] 1x Bowl of Convergence 1x Enchanted Marionette 1x Ivory Bow Master [18] 1x Anarch Troublemaker 5x Blood Doll 6x Dementation 2x Dreams of the Sphinx 1x Hungry Coyote, The 1x Purchase Pact 1x Secure Haven 1x Vast Wealth Reaction [12] 6x Telepathic Misdirection 6x Wake with Evening's Freshness The main idea of this deck is a synergy between Madman's Quill and Creation Rites. You can create several vampires with Dementation, then play Madman's Quill and overrun your prey with a horde of bleeders. This is just one of the ways to deal with the dreaded Bowl of Convergence and similar cards that were intended to stop you. Your main vampires are Korah and Marie Faucigny (14 pool total), and you are going to get both in a four turns. (Marie is also a brilliant vampire, and she is going to be my Vampire of the March) Pool gain module consists of three The Calls, 5 Blood Dolls, which are very good with The Hungry Coyote, and, certainly, the Kindred Spirits. The worst crypt opening requires 26 pool, so in most cases you will be able to influence all the vampires even without serious pool gain. Thus, you aren't forced to fetch your pool gain cards with Sibyl's Tongues - it would be much better to fetch Vast Wealth and get your equipment or fetch Secure Haven if you face a rush deck. Play Vast Wealth on Marie Faucigny, as she has an optional dodge, and she will pay less for Enchanted Marionette. When you will fetch your Bowl and your Ivory Bow, you will be able to block +1 stealth actions and even win the resulting fights! Get Secure Haven on Korah as fast as possible, and your most valuable vampires would have some protection against rush. You also have Purchase Pact, which may be even more effective, if you have enough votes to keep it on the table. Note that this deck has very light combat protection, as it's impossible to achieve everything - if you face a good Rush deck, try to make peace with the player... at least until you will be ready :) When you find the first Dementation skill card, put it on Marie Faucigny. This will fix her single disadvantage (inferior Dementation), and you will get 8-capacity vampire which may be crucial to prevent Banishment or to play The Call on a 7-capacity vampire just to get some pool. There are two more vampires with inferior Dementation (Evan Klein and Yorik), so you may put extra Dementations on them, if you have them. If not, feel free to discard the Dementation, as your Creation Rites can find it even in your ash heap. You may notice that there are only three vampires with inferior Obfuscate, since we really want to use our Obfuscate cards at their full potential. This deck contains 5 Elder Impersonations, 3 Faceless Nights and 3 Forgotten Labyrinths, so it really can fight with an intercept deck and win the battle. If you like this deck, feel free to experiment with it and create something different. You may easily remove Creation Rites module and add some political actions, or increase combat protection... And nothing prevents you from playing Legendary Vampire, which can be played on both Korah and Marie! As usual, all comments and ideas are appreciated. Yours, Ilya Ginsburg (Ector@mail.ru)