Official VEKN Malkavian Antitribu NEWSLETTER, June 2006 VOLUME V, Issue VI 1. INTRODUCTION I really tried to build a deck with Louhi and a lot of Imbued with Vision that almost completely stops its predator with Determines and Louhi's ability, but failed to create anything playable. Louhi is too big for a "support vampire"; if you play her, you want to use her Disciplines besides her title and ability - after all, she has five Disciplines at superior. But when you mix cards for Louhi with cards for your Imbued you end up with a "smaller hand size", since you will almost never be able to play all cards in your hand. If you really wish to annoy your friends, you can try to build the deck, and I'll be happy to look at your decklist. When I fail to implement an insane idea, I usually try to create something MORE insane. This time I tried to build a deck that radically differs from the majority of "normal" decks. What can you say about a Brinksmanship deck without any Harbingers? 2. VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH Name: Mata Hari [KMW: PAn] Clan: Ravnos Group: 4 Capacity: 7 Disciplines: aus for qui CHI OBF Independent, Red List: Mata Hari has 2 votes (titled). You and she may play cards that require a sect and/or clan as if she were of that required sect or clan. Mata Hari is the "mother of all combo-decks". She can play cards that require any clan or any sect, and, more importantly. she enables you to play them, too. There are tons of wonderful clan-specific and sect-specific cards that can form poweful combinations, and Mata Hari is the key to these combinations. She allows you to play Slaughterhouses without any Harbingers, to play Powerbase: Tshwane without any Laibon vampires and save a lot of pool, using the Powerbase to reduce the cost of the Slaughterhouses. Since Mata Hari can also play our hallmark card, Sibyl's Tongue, to fetch the needed combo components, and she has two Malkavian clan Disciplines (Auspex and Obfuscate), mixing her with anti-Malks is quite obvious way to get a decent combo-deck. Mata Hari's ability generated a lot of questions. Basically, when she plays a card (or when you play a card), you can name what clan and/or sect she is "emulating", and the card would "see" her as a vampire of that clan or sect. When the card is played, though, it would "see" Mata Hari as an Independent Ravnos. You can, for instance, play The Labyrinth as though Mata Hari were a Nosferatu, but it won't give her any stealth, since she can emulate Nosferatu only when the card (not its ability) is played. If you play Slum Hunting Ground, though, it will work for Mata Hari, as well as for any ready vampire, since there are no clan restrictions in the text of the ability. My favorite combo for Mata Hari (so far) is Talons of the Dead + Infernal Pact to get superior Obeah + a lot of Anesthetic Touches. "So you've played Torn Signpost, Increased Strength, Immortal Grapple and Undead Strength? My strike is hand strike for 1 aggravated and combat ends, with First Strike" :) Note that Anesthetic Touch provides Dodge at outferior Auspex, which is very good for weak !Malks that should accompany Mata Hari. I plan to post that deck in some future newsletter, but nothing stops you from building it yourself right now. Mata Hari can perform a lot of tasks even without using her amazing ability. The most obvious is Sensory Deprivation: having superior Obfuscate in addition to superior Chimerstry, Mata Hari really can push the world-breaking action even through the heavy intercept. Give her an Auspex skill card, and she will be able to play Nightmare Curse, which is cheaper and more effective. But these actions should be done with caution, since they attract rushes, and Mata Hari is already a Red List. Besides that, she has 2 votes, which is very good for a 7-cap, and she allows you to play Ventrue Headquarters, so she is going to be great in a stealth-voting deck. Finally, her 5 Disciplines prompt using her in Anarch deck, to play Smoke and Mirrors, Reformation and Undue Influence; though she would need Anarch Secession to become Anarch. It's hard to believe, but the only disadvantage that should balance Mata Hari's amazing abilities is her Red List status. Being Red List is nothing pleasant, especially if there are trophy hunters around, but most Red List vampires can defend themselves. Mata Hari isn't very good in combat, though her Chimerstry provides even S:CE cards - if somebody would mark her, he's going to attack her with all his vampires, and your combo deck isn't likely to be full of combat cards. But in the real play things aren't that bad. First of all, Mata Hari isn't going to attract crosstable rushes, unless she would perform world-breaking actions like Sensory Deprivation. After all, she doesn't represent an immediate threat like Arika :) Next, you can play Priority Shift to get rid of the Red List status. You may also play Secure Haven on Mata Hari that should protect her for at least a few turns. You may just block rushes with your minions and/or end combat with Maman Boumba, as my Deck of the Month does. Finally, you may just incorporate a combo that would detract people from rushing Mata Hari: even a single Talons of the Dead is going to make them think about the easier targets. 3. CARDS OF THE MONTH Name: Autarkis Persecution [Jyhad:C, VTES:C, SW:PB, CE:C] Cardtype: Political Action Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any vampire at +1 stealth. Successful referendum means each Methuselah gains 1 pool for each minion he or she controls. Do you like Bribes? I rarely play the card myself, but it really amazing to see how important even a small bribe of 1 pool can be. When you play a political action, it may be harmful for one player (usually for you prey or your predator), but the other players don't care most of the time. But if you Bribe them, they are going to get 1 pool "for nothing", and many players would vote in favor to get it. Even the players going to get hurt can vote in favor to get the pool, if they cannot hope to foil the referendum! Now look at Autarkis Persecution. Do you need ANY Bribes with this card? Each player is going to get some pool. His predator and prey are going to get the pool, too, but you'll almost always find some players willing to vote in favor. Heavy voting decks usually develop slowly, and they are extremely vulnerable to a fast bleeding decks, so they can vote for Autarkis Persecution. Why should you play a card that feeds everybody and slows the game? There are two reasons for this. Firstly, you are going to get more pool than most other players, since you are playing a lot of allies and/or breed cards like Embrace, Tumnimos or Creation Rites. Secondly, the pool of your prey doesn't matter to you, since you're going to kill her with Brinksmanship :) Name: Absimiliard's Army [Gehenna:R] Cardtype: Event Gehenna. Do not replace until a Methuselah is ousted. Requires at least one other Gehenna card in play. During each Methuselah's untap phase, he or she may put the top card of his or her library in play. That card represents a ghoul ally with 2 life, 2 strength and 1 bleed. If the ally is burned, it is removed from the game. When a Methuselah is ousted, burn this card. Remove all such allies from the game when this card leaves play. This Gehenna event is nearly unplayable - it has too many requirements, and it will be burned if somebody get ousted, and its bonus is equal for all players. Once I made a deck based on Sebastian Goulet (adv), that could steal ghouls from your predator and your prey, but that was all. Now look what you get if you have The Unmasking and play a lot of Autarkis Persecutions. Each ghoul gets +1 intercept, and each Persecution provides 1 pool for each Ghoul, so let's make Ghouls! In a few turns each player VOLUNTARILY burns some cards from his library, gets a lot of pool, and the Ghouls slow virtually any activities on the table. Your prey loses cards even faster than normal, and soon enough your Slaughterhouses remove her library, making her unable to create new Ghouls. In a few turns your Ghouls are going to overrun her, and you'll be able to bleed her away even without Brinksmanship. Note that you may lose some crucial cards if you will create Ghouls too early, so you shouldn't play Absimiliard's Army until you fetch these cards (with your Sibyl's Tongues, for instance). The "animated" cards will be removed from the game, so they will be lost forever. Fortunately, some vampires (including Maris Streck and Anatole) allow you to look at the top cards of your library, so you can minimize chance of such disasters. Name: Nightmares upon Nightmares [Gehenna: R] Cardtype: Event Gehenna. Do not replace until your next discard phase. For each minion a Methuselah controls during his or her untap phase, the Methuselah must burn a card from his or her hand or tap that minion. Cards burned in this way are not replaced until the master phase. Vampires with capacity greater than the number of Gehenna cards in play and mortal allies are not affected by this card. This card creates an interesting combo with Absimiliard's Army and Autarkis Persecutions. Ghouls aren't vampires or mortal, so your prey will be forced to discard a lot of cards or tap them. Discarding 4-5 cards per turn when your predator has a battery of Slaughterhouses is unlikely, so you may expect that your prey would avoid creating Ghouls, which is definitely good. Other players may be greed enough to create Ghouls and burn cards for them, which is even better, since you'll oust your next prey faster. The Ghouls are going to disappear when you oust your first prey anyway, and your next prey will have far less cards in her library! Unfortunately, Nightmares Upon Nightmares is going to hit you as well, and as a result you may lose your own library. This isn't too dangerous if you don't have a lot of non-Mortal allies in your deck, but my Deck of the Month has a lot of them, so I was forced to exclude the card. Feel free to experiment with this card in a different variant of the deck. 4. DECK OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Mata Hari's Slaughterhouse Created By: Ilya Ginsburg Description: A lot of allies, a lot of life for all, and milling your prey with Slaughterhouses Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 22, Max: 36, Avg: 7,16) ---------------------------------------------- 4 Mata Hari aus for qui CHI OBF 7 Ravnos 2 Marie Faucigny dem tha AUS OBF 7 !Malkavian 2 Maman Boumba INN MAR 4 Martyr 4 Maris Streck ani dem dom AUS OBF 9 Malkavian Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (23 cards) 1 Maabara 3 Blood Doll 1 Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter 1 Powerbase: Tshwane 1 Sunset Strip, Hollywood 1 Charisma 5 Rotschreck 8 Slaughterhouse, The 1 Parthenon, The 1 Temptation of Greater Power Action (6 cards) 5 Sibyl`s Tongue 1 Revelations Action Modifier (14 cards) 6 Cloak the Gathering 4 Forgotten Labyrinth 4 Lost in Crowds Political Action (9 cards) 1 Brinksmanship 6 Autarkis Persecution 1 Reversal of Fortunes 1 Rumors of Gehenna Reaction (16 cards) 5 Telepathic Misdirection 6 Eagle`s Sight 5 Wake with Evening`s Freshness Ally (15 cards) 4 Procurer 1 Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter) 4 Escaped Mental Patient 1 Ossian 1 Ohoyo Hopoksia (Bastet) 1 Muddled Vampire Hunter 2 War Ghoul 1 Vagabond Mystic Equipment (2 cards) 1 Ivory Bow 1 Sargon Fragment, The Event (4 cards) 1 Absimilard`s Army 1 Anthelios, the Red Star 1 Blood Trade 1 Unmasking, The Conviction (1 card) 1 Second Sight This deck tries to recruit allies, paying less for them whenever possible, and use them to block hostile actions. Mata Hari and Maris Streck are both vital in this deck. Without Mata Hari you will be unable to play key cards like Slaughterhouse and Powerbase: Tshwane, not even dreaming about War Ghouls. Without Maris Streck you will lack votes to push your political actions, and your allies will lack intercept. When you will have both vampires in play, you will be able to regain pool with Autarkis Persecutions and pursuit the primary strategy of your deck. Marie Faucigny and Maman Boumba should be influenced only when you successfully stop your predator and generate enough pool. Your Sibyl's Tongues should be played very carefully. Your primary targets are Parthenon/Rumors of Gehenna, The Unmasking, Charisma and Powerbase: Tshwane, though you may wish to fetch Maabara first and recycle your Sibyl's Tongue. This deck has a lot of allies. Procurers restore blood of Maris Streck and ensure that she will never run of it. If the situation is stable, you may use them to regain some pool through Blood Dolls or to "feed" vampires of your ally through Blood Trade. Carlton, Muddled Vampire Hunter and Escaped Mental Patients are your primary blockers; they are mortals, so you can recruit them for free with Sunset Strip. Ossian and War Ghouls are your heavy-hitters that should completely stop your predator or slow down your prey. Vagabond Mystic supports them. Ohoyo Hopoksia lets you block crucial actions without risking your primary vampires. Maman Boumba does the same, and she can also provide some votes against the referendum. The rest cards serve as a support frame. Milicent Smith slows down the game, especially with Reversal of Fortunes. Maabara and The Sargon Fragment recycle important cards, especially dead allies, Sibyl's Tongues and Autarkis Persecutions. Powerbase: Tshwane, Sunset Strip and Charisma make your allies cheaper. Rotschrecks forces even combat-heavy decks respect you. Slaughterhouses are the primary cards of your deck. Parthenon is needed to play a lot of master cards, and Temptation of Greater Power is a vicious card that can suddenly provide you a huge advantage. That's all for June. Hope you enjoyed it. As always, all comments and ideas are appreciated. Yours, Ector