Official VEKN Malkavian Antitribu NEWSLETTER, July 2005 VOLUME IV, Issue X 1. INTRODUCTION This newsletter is about Black Hand, the mysterious group of Sabbat vampires of different clans. They have their own organization and "titles" (Seraph). They possess some unique powers and abilities, that require no Disciplines. And while it's rumored that they are struggling against the Gehenna, who might know their true goals? In V:tES, as usual, there are some cards that require a Black Hand vampire, or can be played only on a Black Hand vampire, or just work better with such vampire. If you are interested in Black Hand, there are two possible options: you can build a "true Black Hand deck", packing only Black Hand vampires into your crypt or just use a Black Hand faction to play some interesting Black Hand cards. 2. HERE WE ARE Malkavians antitribu have two good Black Hand vampires with low capacity and the most popular Black Hand disciplines (Obfuscate and Auspex). Assuming the fact that there are only 26 Black Hand vampires, and some of them aren't especially good (note that there are NO Black Hand vamps with titles, so players tend to avoid Black Hand elders), our two !Malks are going to be quite popular in the Black Hand decks. 3. CARDS OF THE MONTH Name: Remover [BH:C] Master. Put this card on a Black Hand vampire. This vampire can tap any card (including a minion) as a +1 stealth (D) action. A vampire can have only one Remover. This card is truly brilliant in a deck based on Obfuscate, especially with low-capacity vamps. No deck can have unlimited number of Wakes, and tapping a vampire reduces the possibility of block, bounce or any other reaction. Obfuscate provides stealth needed to tap the minion. If all the minions of your prey are tapped, you can tap a location (especially an intercept-providing one) to ensure that nobody would block your most important actions. This card can be devastating against certain decks: for instance, a vamp of ANI-based intercept deck may stay untapped and hope to untap with Cat's Guidance after successful block, but the successful Remover action would tap it. Infernal intercept decks and Bartholomew will be hosed by this card as well. Name: The Admonitions [BH:U] Cardtype: Master Unique master. Put this card in play. Tap to discard one card if you control a ready Sabbat vampire. Tap to draw two cards if you control a ready Black Hand vampire. During your discard phase, control of The Admonitions passes counter-clockwise until it is controlled by a Methuselah who controls a ready Sabbat vampire (or is burned if there are none). This looks like the Fragment of the Book of Nod, but you don't have to play intercept to use it. This card "wanders" around the table like Milicent Smith or The Coven, but you'll get it back much faster (actually, you will keep it forever if nobody would play Sabbat), and the players without Black Hand vampires would have just "one-turn Barrens" effect. The Admonitions allow you to cycle unneeded cards and get the needed ones. It is free, it's very unlikely to be contested (after all, if someone else would play it, you'd get the same effect!) and it isn't even a location, so you can freely keep it even if your predator plays Arika. This card is one of the primary reasons to include some Black Hand vampires in a deck, since it's very good. Name: Shakar [BH:C/PN2] Cost: 1 pool Master. Put this card on a Black Hand vampire. This Black Hand vampire can enter combat with any younger non-Black Hand vampire as a (D) action. A vampire can have only one Shakar. This card is the only permanent and reliable way to make your primary combatant able to rush almost all vampires on the table. There are some political actions to achieve this (Archon, Templar, Alastor), but you'll rarely manage to push them, as the whole table would fear that the power would eventually be used against them. Good combatants rarely have a lot of votes, and Archon/Templar can be removed by a successful referendum, which makes them nearly unplayable. Alastor is much better, but it requires at least a Justicar. Shakar is a master, not a political action, and it can be countered only by Sudden Reversal. It allows your Black Hand vampire to rush almost any younger vampire... as you see, age is the only restriction. Thus, if you manage to put some skill cards on your vampire, he or she would be able to rush everyone. Marthe Dizier with two skill cards and Shakar will be able to rush even Inner Circles. Shakar doesn't provide +1 stealth for the rush action, alas, but many Black Hand vampires have Obfuscate (including Marthe), which offers the best stealth cards in the game. Name: Corporal Reservoir [BH:C] Master: trifle. Put this card on any Black Hand vampire. This vampire may tap this card to prevent 1 point of damage in combat or to gain a blood. This card doesn't untap as normal. This vampire may burn a blood to untap this card during his or her untap phase. What a wonderful card! You may tap the Reservoir to save your vampire from aggro-poking enemy (Ivory Bow, Claws and so on), to avoid Disarm when the opposing vampire has +1 strength, to reduce opponent's Taste of Vitae and so on. Moreover, you can use this card just to gain a blood to avoid hunt when your vampire is empty. In most cases, having an untapped Reservoir is even better than having one more blood, as this "spare blood" cannot be burned by Blood to Water and similar cards. And Corporal Reservoir is only a trifle! Name: Reunion Kamut [BH:C] Cardtype: Action +1 stealth action. Requires a Black Hand vampire. Move 2 blood from the blood bank to a Black Hand vampire in your uncontrolled region. This is the only "governing" card that allows a younger vampire to help influence an elder one. It usually requires an "all Black Hand" crypt, but the card is so good that it alone may justify creating such deck. Reunion Kamut provides 2 pool and two extra transfers (if you need them) for an action, but this action can be performed even by 2-capacity Piotr Andreikov! And, as we know, an action of 10-cap vampire, who usually Governs out younger vampires, costs much more than an action of a 2-cap. Who needs Information Highways if your deck contains a lot of Reunion Kamuts? They provide so much pool that you may implement the most bizarre plans. Bloating is always good, especially in V:tES, where it usually isn't considered a threat, at least an immediate one. 4. VAMPIRES OF THE MONTH Name: Roger Farnsworth [BH:PM] Clan: Malkavian antitribu Group: 3 Capacity: 4 Discipline: aus OBF Sabbat. Black Hand. Roger has no Dementation, but our primary Discipline isn't very popular among Black Hand vampires anyway. He has superior Obfuscate, and he is the youngest vamp with it (along with Agrippina, Jeffrey Mullins and Tansu Bekir). This makes Roger a wonderful "cloaker" for any deck that desperately needs some additional stealth from Cloak the Gathering or protection from PTO/Alastor/Parity Shift from Confusion of the Eye. Superior Obfuscate and low capacity make him the best Remover. Decks with a lot of Reunion Kamuts also appreciate Roger, as he can provide stealth for the Kamuts. Inferior Auspex doesn't allow much, but Roger still can play inferior Revelations and inferior Anima Gathering, which can justify using him in different decks. And, certainly, he can play Sibyl's Tongue! Name: The Colonel [BH:PM] Clan: Malkavian antitribu Group: 3 Capacity: 5 Discipline: cel dem obf AUS Sabbat. Black Hand. The Colonel is the youngest Black Hand vamp with superior Auspex, and superior Auspex allows bleed bounce, which is very important to any deck. He also has inferior Obfuscate which is enough to get stealth for his own actions, but not enough to Cloak the others. Inferior Dementation could be used in a stealth-bleed deck, but, unfortunately, The Colonel is usually no match to General Perfidio Dios, if you don't need his Black Hand membership. An additional vote is almost always better than inferior Celerity, especially if you don't have any Celerity cards. It's quite possible, however, to include an "!Malk Black Hand module" in your crypt, if you really want to play The Admonitions or some other Black Hand cards. Colonel's inferior Celerity may be very useful in a Toreador/!Toreador AUS/cel deck if that deck would need his clan (for Sibyl's Tongue) or Black Hand membership. Unfortunately, in the other cases Zoe and Victoria are much better. 5. DECKS OF THE MONTH Deck Name: !Malk/Assamites Black Hand Created By: Ilya Ginsburg Description: Fetch Deviki Prasanta, get Disciplines and enjoy! Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 18, Max: 30, Avg: 6) ------------------------------------------- 2 Roger Farnsworth aus OBF 4 !Malk 3 Colonel cel dem obf AUS 5 !Malk 2 Reza Fatir obf pro CEL QUI 6 Assamite 3 Joe `Boot` Hill for obf CEL QUI 7 Assamite 2 Yazid Tamari ani dom obf CEL QUI 8 Assamite Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (21 cards) 1 Alamut 1 Market Square 2 Corporal Reservoir 2 Shakar 1 Admonitions, The 1 Hungry Coyote, The 4 Auspex 4 Blood Doll 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Serpentis 2 Fame Action (10 cards) 1 Covenant of Blood 6 Sibyl`s Tongue 3 Form of Corruption Reaction (17 cards) 6 Black Sunrise 6 Telepathic Misdirection 5 Eagle`s Sight Combat (35 cards) 5 Selective Silence 4 Aura Reading 5 Taste of Vitae 6 Blur 5 Pursuit 4 Disguised Weapon 6 Psyche! Ally (1 cards) 1 Deviki Prasanta Equipment (4 cards) 1 Ivory Bow 1 Bowl of Convergence 1 Sengir Dagger 1 Kali`s Fang Combo (2 cards) 2 Draught of the Soul This is a "deck for fun" that was created just to experiment with Black Hand Assamites and their new ally, Deviki Prasanta. Do you know what clan has the most number of Black Hand vampires? Don't guess, it isn't a Sabbat clan! Assamites have FOUR Black Hand vampires, counting the advanced Tariq. And three of these vampires have the similar set of Disciplines: obf/CEL/QUI. Looks like a good base for a deck, eh? Unfortunately, Quietus is rather weak Discipline even with the new KMW cards (Black Sunrise and Selective Silence) that are better than others. Most Quietus cards aren't very effective and cost some blood. Celerity is a good Discipline, but lone Celerity isn't enough for a true combat deck. This deck uses Auspex to intercept, bounce bleeds and play Draught of the Soul, which is very good, especially at superior. Besides this, it also uses Serpentis for its Form of Corruption. The only way to obtain all Disciplines in time is Deviki Prasanta. You should always fetch her with your first Sibyl's Tongue and play her as fast as possible. Deviki, in turn, can fetch all your skill cards and place them on your Assamites. The rest Sibyl's Tongues can be used to fetch Assamite locations (Alamut and Market Square) and/or The Hungry Coyote. You can use Alamut counters to avoid Blood Hunt after diablerizing a vampire to play Draught of the Soul. The rest is pretty straighforward. As a final note, I'd like to demonstrate how wonderful is Shakar in combination with Deviki Prasanta. Your Yazid Tamari can get two Auspex cards and one Serpentis card very fast, and with Shakar he will be able to rush almost everyone! Deck Name: Thugginator Created By: Ben Peal (Tournament-Winning Deck - June 26, 2004) Ben's description: Aus-Obf weenies, some of which start off as Black Hand and some of which use Blooding to become so, getting out a few Marijava Thuggees. Bleeding and thugginating ensues. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 7, Max: 22, Avg: 3,58) --------------------------------------------- 1 Quira obt tha AUS OBF 6 !Malk 2 Colonel cel dem obf AUS 5 !Malk BH 2 Roger Farnsworth aus OBF 4 !Malk BH 1 Lena Rowe aus obf pre 3 Pander 1 Basil obf 1 Pander 1 Ingram Frizer ani pot AUS OBF 6 !Nosf BH 1 Zoe cel obf AUS 3 Malkavian 1 Krid obf 2 Nosferatu 1 Hanna Redmonds obf tha 2 Caitiff 1 Piotr Andreikov aus 2 Tzimisce BH Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (15 cards) 1 Institution Hunting Ground 1 Barrens, The 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Admonitions, The 2 Remover 5 Blood Doll 2 Sudden Reversal 2 Into the Fire Action (12 cards) 7 Blooding 2 Bloodwork 3 Night Moves Action Modifier (31 cards) 7 Cloak the Gathering 5 Forgotten Labyrinth 5 Spying Mission 5 Lost in Crowds 5 Faceless Night 4 Domain of Evernight Reaction (16 cards) 8 Wake with Evening`s Freshness 8 Telepathic Misdirection Ally (10 cards) 10 Marijava Thuggee Equipment (1 cards) 1 Saturday-Night Special Combo (5 cards) 5 Swallowed by the Night Now, this time we see a professional deck from The Lasombra's TWD archive. It's an Obf-weenie deck that tries to maximize number of its minions by recruiting Marijava Thuggees. Each Thuggee can bleed for 1 and play Obfuscate cards like Basil. This deck can easily have 8-10 minions on the table, and this horde will quickly eat any Methuselah, despite the number of his Wakes. To achieve this, the deck uses unparalleled number of stealth: there are 36 (!) stealth modifiers plus three Night Moves. Two Removers can be used to tap potential blockers or intercept locations. Four vampires have superior Obfuscate to Cloak lesser cousins, especially Piotr Andreikov, who doesn't have Obfuscate at all. There are two Sudden Reversals to deny Blood Dolls/Minion Taps, as in the "normal" stealth-bleed decks, but even if you don't have Reversal, your Thuggees make draining blood from the vampires very dangerous: you may just torporize them! The only Auspex card used here is Telepathic Misdirection. It allows you to bounce heavy bleeds and block important +1 stealth actions like political actions and equips. Five vampires have superior Auspex to ensure that you'll get at least one of them in your crypt opening. Speaking frankly, I cannot understand some Ben's decisions. Considering the fact that the deck has five Malkavians antitribu, I would definitely use at least two Sibyl's Tongues to fetch Charisma and save A LOT of pool spent on Marijava Thuggees. The Hungry Coyote also looks like an obvious addition (it was probably left out due to its cost, but adding Charisma and Tongues would easily allow spending 2 pool for The Coyote). Finally, some Clotho's Gifts would allow getting extra vampires just for an action instead of paying 4 transfers + 1 pool. But, after all, who am I to criticize Ben Peal? :) That's all for July, As always, all comments and suggestions are welcome! Yours, Ilya Ginsburg (Ector)