Official VEKN Malkavian Antitribu NEWSLETTER, January 2005 VOLUME IV, Issue IV 0. ERRATA Rastacourere lowers only votes cast in the main referendum, so Prisci are unaffected. The text of the card is somewhat confusing, but LSJ himself confirmed this. Go Korah! You can collect several counters on Polaris Coach and use them all in a single action. This allows you to push a crucial action. Maybe, the card will see play in some "weird" decks. "Orc of Ulain" is actually Orb, not Orc :) 1. INTRODUCTION "Weenie" is a small vampire with capacity 4 or less, preferably less. This newsletter is about weenie decks based on Dementation (DEM-weenie). The whole issue is dedicated to Norman S. Brown (Archon of the Swamp), who was so kind to provide a deck that inspired this newsletter. Weenie decks are one of the most exciting decks in the game. You concentrate on the single Discipline and trade versatility for increased number of actions...what actions? Each Discipline provides its own. Building weenie decks is the best way to learn the best cards of each Discipline. OBF-weenie deck and AUS-weenie decks will be completely different, as well as POT-weenie, FOR-weenie and so on. Unfortunately, the price for having a lot of actions is usually harsh. You have to concentrate on inferior abilities of the cards, and you cannot use blood-expensive cards. Your options are limited and predictable. Most of the time you will have to concentrate on bleed, as you simply cannot do anything else, except for hunting. And you generally have no votes, so your influence on the table would be minimal... you can even expect that most players will unify against you. 2. HERE WE ARE Dementation is one of the few Disciplines that provide both stealth and bleed modifiers, so it seems to be a wonderful choice for a weenie deck. Unfortunately, there is only one Dementation-based card that provide stealth with inferior Dementation - Mind Tricks, that costs a blood, and there is only one weenie vampire with superior Dementation - Midget, which is infernal. Thus, a true weenie deck based solely on Dementation would be limited to bleeding with occasional +1 stealth. It wouldn't have any combat abilities, and it wouldn't be able to bounce bleeds. Though it would certainly pose a great threat to its prey, its agressiveness is going to force its prey to concentrate on defense, and its grandprey is going to get a good chance of stopping it. As the deck would be virtually defenseless, "stopping" means "losing" to it. According to the tournament-winning decks archive, it seems that the most effective usage of DEM-weenies is incorporating "weenie package" into the famous Kindred Spirits deck. Resulting decks are even more aggressive than "traditional" KS decks, they have a good chance of bleeding the defenseless prey on turn 2 and gaining a pool for the Edge; they can throw their weenies to force blockers to tap or spend their Wakes, and they can block rushes with the weenies. But they didn't lose the ability to generate a lot of stealth using Obfuscate cards or bounce bleeds with Telepathic Misdirections. Their weenies just increase the pressure applied on their prey. 3. CARDS OF THE MONTH Name: Confusion [Sabbat:C, CE:C/PM4] Cardtype: Action Modifier Discipline: Dementation After playing this card, you cannot play another action modifier to further increase the bleed for this action. (Only usable on a bleed action.) [dem] +1 bleed. [DEM] +1 stealth and +1 bleed. This card provides everything you need in the one package. Add +1 bleed if your prey doesn't attempt to block you, or add +1 stealth and +1 bleed if he does. This card is a staple of any S&B deck based on Dementation. Take any vampire with superior Dementation (Persia, Uncle George, Artemis, Dolphin Black or even Muriel Foucade), play Kindred Spirits and Confusion to bleed for 3 at +1 stealth, avoiding Archon Investigation and gaining a pool. This card is also very good for weenie vampires, as it doubles their bleed for free. Most decks including weenies prefer Eyes of Chaos, though, since having a lot of actions usually means that you will be able to push some of them even without stealth. As a rule, "traditional" Kindred Spirits decks without weenies (having average capacity between 5 and 5.5) have more Confusions, but "weenified" decks with average capacity lower than 5 have more Eyes of Chaos. Name: Eyes of Chaos [Sabbat:C, SW:C, CE:C/PM4, BH:PM4] Cardtype: Action Modifier Discipline: Dementation After playing this card, you cannot play another action modifier to further increase the bleed for this action. [dem] +1 bleed. [DEM] +2 bleed. This card is an alternative of Confusion, as you can play only one of them for each action, not both. This is also the most powerful bleed modifier among Dementation cards. If you like comparing the Disciplines, you can notice that Confusion is an eqivalent of Bonding, and Eyes of Chaos is an equivalent of Threats, but there are no equivalents of Conditioning which clearly states that Dementation isn't the most powerful bleeding Discipline. If you mix Eyes of Chaos with superior Kindred Spirits, you will get bleed for 4, which is susceptible of Archon Investigation and bounce. Generally, you should avoid such bleeds - that's why traditional Kindred Spirits decks prefer Confusions (6-9 Confusions and 4-6 Eyes of Chaos). On the other hand, "weenified" decks prefer Eyes of Chaos, as they have more actions, and they are going to play either the Eyes or Kindred Spirits, but not both in a single action. 4. VAMPIRES OF THE MONTH Name: Eddie Gaines [Anarchs:PAG] Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Caitiff Group: 3 Capacity: 1 Discipline: dem pot Camarilla: If Eddie successfully hunts, he does not untap as normal during his next untap phase. Eddie is the only 1-capacity vampire with Dementation that alone makes him outstanding, but he also has Potence! If we had other dem/pot weenies we'd be able to build really devastating deck... but, unfortunately, while we still lack them, Eddie's Potence is useless. Nevertheless, having basic Dementation is good enough for an 1-cap vampire, even considering Eddie's disadvantage. The disadvantage isn't as bad as it may seem, since it may persuade your neigbours to avoid blocking the hunt. Unfortunately, the disadvantage means that you should try to play only free cards with Eddie - no Mind Tricks! Name: Boy Toy [Sabbat:V, BH:PM] Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Malkavian antitribu Group: 2 Capacity: 2 Discipline: dem Sabbat. Just a common 2-capacity vampire with a single Discipline at inferior. Nothing to write home about, as many clans have similar vamps, but not too bad either. You wanted a weenie? Here are you. Boy Toy can do everything that can be done with inferior Dementation, except for Coma, as he hasn't enough blood, and Sleep of Reason, as you won't encounter "younger vampires" 99% of the time. He can even play Mind Tricks. Name: Gillian Krader [Sabbat:V] Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Pander Group: 2 Capacity: 2 Discipline: ani dem Sabbat: Gillian cannot attempt political actions. Would you wish to include political actions in a DEM-weenie deck? I wouldn't. Gillian's disadvantage still applies some restrictions - i.e. he cannot burn Anarch Revolt, but in most cases you may ignore it. So, you have a 2-capacity vampire with inferior Dementation and Animalism. If you manage to find a way to benefit from his Animalism, Gillian would be really amazing in your deck, but currently he is just another Boy Toy. Name: Midget [BH:U2] Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Malkavian antitribu Group: 3 Capacity: 3 Discipline: obf pre DEM Sabbat: Infernal. Animal retainers lose their abilities while Midget is acting or is in combat. At last we have something really different... VERY different, for sure. Midget offers a huge discount on a standard Kindred Spirits set of abilities (DEM/obf), which usually costs at least 5 pool (Persia, Uncle George). But this discount is actually a lease, as you will be forced to pay 1 pool each turn to avoid tapping him. So, he will cost you 4 pool prior to his first action, 5 pool prior to the second, and so on. In short, you will get your DEM/obf man one turn earlier if you are not first or second player (60% of the time in a five-player game), but you will eventually pay much more. Don't forget that normal 5-capacity vampire has five blood which you may spend on useful cards or return through Blood Dolls, while Midget has only three blood. Certainly, Midget has some additional neat tricks. Inferior Presence allows Majesty, though without untapping, but there are not enough low-cost DEM/pre vamps to use Presence cards. Midget's special ability, however, is quite useful: it suppresses Raven Spies and similar intercepting retainers, as well as Murder of Crows. Overall, is Midget worthy or not? This question is linked to another: can you easily afford paying 1 pool each turn? Sometimes you can, especially if you're playing weenie deck based on Kindred Spirits, and you generally spend not more than 20 pool on your vampires, regaining at least 10 pool with Kindred Spirits. In the other words, if DEM-weenie deck becomes viable, Midget can play there, but "traditional" Kindred Spirits deck can't afford him. 5. DECKS OF THE MONTH Deck Name : Four Damage on the Second Turn 50% of the time Author : Norman S Brown Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 4 average: 2.67 ------------------------------------------------------------ 2x Eddie Gaines 1 dem pot Caitiff:3 2x Boy Toy 2 dem !Malkavian:2 2x Gillian Krader 2 ani dem Pander:2 1x Midget 3 DEM obf pre !Malkavian:3 1x Yorik 3 dem obf !Malkavian:2 1x Adelaide Davis 4 aus dem obf Malkavian:3 1x Claven 4 aus dem obf !Malkavian:2 1x Idalia, Prophet of 4 AUS dem !Malkavian:2 1x Jeremy Talbot 4 dem obf Malkavian:3 Library [77 cards] ------------------------------------------------------------ Master [17] 6x Anarch Revolt 1x Anarch Troublemaker 1x Barrens, The 5x Effective Management 1x Hungry Coyote, The 3x Misdirection Action [30] 15x Dive into Madness 15x Kindred Spirits Action Modifier [21] 13x Eyes of Chaos 8x Mind Tricks Action Modifier/Combat [9] 9x Deny This deck was created by Norman S. Brown, my Gargoyle colleague, to prove the possibility of a DEM-weenie deck that can bleed for 4 on the second turn at least 50% of the time. And this deck really can do this, as it has a lot of Kindred Spirits, Dive into Madness and Eyes of Chaos. This fact doesn't mean that the deck is very effective, as you won't get all the three cards each turn, but at least it's interesting enough. Norman claimed that this deck almost always ousts his first prey, and it's easy to believe him. You are almost guaranteed to have at least three players against you (your predator, your prey and your grandprey), but this fact won't save your prey. You can try playing this deck if you really want to sell many copies of Aranthebes, the Immortal for a good price :) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deck Name : Fast Eddie Author : Jo Heroellen Description : This deck won the French European Championship Qualifier (September 20th, 2003) Crypt [14 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 7 average: 4.65 ------------------------------------------------------------ 1x Korah 7 AUS DEM OBF ani priscus !Malkavian:2 1x Quentin King III (Adv) 7 AUS DEM OBF cel pre Malkavian:3 1x Dolphin Black 6 AUS DEM OBF !Malkavian:2 1x Dr. Douglas Netchurch 6 AUS OBF dem dom Malkavian:3 1x Tony 6 AUS DEM dom obf Malkavian:3 1x Evan Klein 5 OBF aus dem pre Malkavian:3 1x Persia, The Beautiful 5 DEM aus obf Malkavian:3 2x General Perfidio Dios 5 AUS dem obf bishop !Malkavian:3 1x Uncle George 5 DEM aus dom obf !Malkavian:3 1x Yorik 3 dem obf !Malkavian:2 1x Boy Toy 2 dem !Malkavian:2 1x Gillian Krader 2 ani dem Pander:2 1x Eddie Gaines 1 dem pot Caitiff:3 Library [90 cards] ------------------------------------------------------------ Master [20] 1x Archon Investigation 2x Blood Doll 3x Dementation 3x Direct Intervention 5x Dreams of the Sphinx 1x Obfuscate 1x Pentex Subversion 2x Secure Haven 2x Sudden Reversal Action [19] 17x Kindred Spirits 2x Restructure Action Modifier [30] 3x Cloak the Gathering 5x Confusion 2x Domain of Evernight 3x Elder Impersonation 8x Eyes of Chaos 3x Faceless Night 3x Lost in Crowds 3x Spying Mission Action Modifier/Combat [5] 3x Deny 2x Swallowed by the Night Reaction [16] 3x Delaying Tactics 2x My Enemy's Enemy 7x Telepathic Misdirection 4x Wake with Evening's Freshness Here is a good example of Kindred Spirits deck with weenie package. There are only three weenies without Obfuscate here (21.4%), so it's clear that the author wanted to get only one of them - maybe none, but definitely not more than one. Having 1-cap or 2-cap in your crypt opening means that you will almost always be able to bleed on the second turn (preferably with Kindred Spirits) and sometimes you will even get an additional pool from the Edge. Looks like this tech is really good. Note that this deck has a lot of skill cards (3 Dementation and 1 Obfuscate) to "patch the holes" of its vampires. Playing Dementation on a weenie makes it much more useful, as it can get stealth from Confusion and Deny, and it can get +2 bleed from Eyes of Chaos. You should also note that Cloak the Gathering can be used to provide stealth for a vampires without Obfuscate, and even weenies can play Delaying Tactics. All this makes weenies more useful and enhances the deck. That's all for January. I wish all the fellow players good luck in the New Year! Yours, Ector (Ector@mail.ru)