Official VEKN Malkavian Antitribu NEWSLETTER, May 2005 VOLUME IV, Issue VIII 1. THE CARD (not just "CARD OF THE MONTH", but much more...) Are you surprised to see a newsletter starting with "Card of the Month" part? Yes, that's very unusual but the card really deserves it. Unlike the previous issue (that covered usage of Mind of a Killer) this newsletter is dedicated to the card with unique ability. You guessed right, I'm finally going to talk about Sibyl's Tongue, which was used in virtually all my previous decks. Name: Sibyl's Tongue [BH:R2] Cardtype: Action Clan: Malkavian antitribu Cost: X blood +1 stealth action. This action costs X blood, where X is the number of Sibyl's Tongues in your ash heap. Choose a card by name. Search your library for a copy of that card, show it to all players, and move it to your hand. Discard down to your hand size and shuffle your library afterward. Currently Sibyl's Tongue is the only card in the whole game that allows you to fetch ANY card in your library. There are some ways to fetch equipment, and some of them are very effective (i.e. Magic of the Smith or Ivan Krenyenko's ability), there is a card to fetch Gehenna events - Fortshritt Library, which, unfortunately, can be played only once. Spirit Summoning Chamber can fetch any Thaumaturgy card, but if you want to fetch a master card or an action card, the only way to achieve this is Sibyl's Tongue. Now please have a look at the current situation in the game. Hundreds of library cards are unique, or can be played only once, or just should be played early (Web of Knives Recruit is one of the best examples). These cards are very powerful - usually much more powerful than "common" cards that are used in great numbers, but you generally can't afford putting a lot of them into your deck. A second copy of the unique card in your hand is a dead card, as you cannot play it. You still CAN use several copies of the card, if the card is really important and you want to increase chances of getting it in time, but how many copies? A typical deck contains 80-90 cards, and even 2-3 copies of the card still won't guarantee receiving one copy in the first 5-6 game turns. Packing 5-6 copies of a card that you're going to play only once is calling for trouble, but sometimes this may be reasonable. Haven't you encounter Anneke deck with 5 Anima Gatherings at the newsgroup? Then you should gladly admit that Sibyl's Tongue, which nullifies these problems, is really wonderful. Just to demonstrate the wonder, let's assume that you're playing a standard !Malk Kindred Spirits deck, and you use Information Highways to get your vampires faster, The Barrens to cycle unneeded cards and Secure Haven to protect your best vampire against rushes. Without Sibyl's Tongues, you should put at least two Information Highways and two Barrens (you can always discard second copy using the first one). Some decks also have two Secure Havens, as this card really can turn a loss into a victory. Chances of getting Info Highway in your starting hand are slim, but KS decks usually have a good card flow, and you may get one of them until they got useless. Barrens never get useless, unless you cannot afford contesting it, but Secure Haven may be useless if nobody tries to rush you. Generally you can manage the problem of replacing unneeded cards (especially if you have Barrens), but why should you? If you replace extra copies of all three cards with 3 Sibyl's Tongues, your deck will be much more stable. First-turn Yorik or Boy Toy will be much more efficient if he would play Sibyl's Tongue to fetch Information Highway instead of bleeding for 1. This would be especially effective if you're going to influence a huge vampire who will, in turn, play Governs/Calls/4th Traditions to help you getting the rest vampires. IMHO, there are two kinds of anti-Malkavian decks: decks with just a few Sibyl's Tongues (1-3) and decks with a lot of them. Note that I just DISMISS !Malk decks without Sibyl's Tongues. Really, why should anyone avoid putting 2 Sibyl's Tongues into a deck with enough !Malks to play them? The first Tongue would be free, the second would cost just one blood. Surely, sometimes you'd prefer another card - especially if you're playing S&B and you need just one bleed modifier to oust your prey - but the ability to fetch Dreams of the Sphinx or Ivory Bow when you need them far outweights the possible inconvenience. You must spend an action to play Sibyl's Tongue, but this action doesn't require any Disciplines, and it may be played even by Yorik, who has Obfuscate. You may even send Boy Toy, especially if someone can play Cloak the Gathering - and you'll never find more efficient task for him. That's why I really cannot understand why people still play !Malks without Sibyl's Tongues. So, the decks with few Sibyl's Tongues are just normal !Malk decks, but decks with a lot of them aren't. If you play a lot of S'sT, your deck behaves like a "combo decks" in Magic or many other CCGs: you are going to fetch several cards that, being combined, would create tremendous advantage. The whole concept of combo decks is almost nonexistent in VtES for several reasons: there aren't cards to fetch needed parts (except for Sibyl's Tongue and few other limited cards), deck size is large, and the game usually lasts for not more than 12-15 turns. But you still can build combo decks and even win with them if you would follow these guidelines: * Don't include too many Sibyl's Tongues. Your deck should play not more than 5-6, since their price becomes too expensive. Thus, you can put not more than 7-8 copies into your deck. If you want to increase chances of getting them, you can lower the number of cards instead of adding more copies. * Most effective combo decks are built around intercept strategy. The reason is simple: you need time to get your Sibyl's Tongues. If you would fail to stop your predator, you wouldn't survive long enough to demonstrate your brilliant combo. This creates certain problems, as !Malks aren't very good in combat (at least they weren't prior to Louhi), so you'll generally be forced to mix them with vampires from the other clans. * Have a good card cycling. Combo decks want to get needed cards quickly - it would be great if you manage to play two Sibyl's Tongues in the first 5-6 turns. And you will happily get rid of the last Tongues, when you won't need them anymore. Dreams of the Sphinx and Fragment of the Book of Nod are the best, if Learjet isn't good enough in your deck. * Your deck should work even without Sibyl's Tongues - at least it should be able to do something. Don't rely on getting a 3-4 card combo. Two-card combo should allow you to hold the fire until you get the rest cards. 2. VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH Name: Quira, The Bitch Queen [Sabbat:V, tenth] Clan: Malkavian antitribu Group: 2 Capacity: 6 Discipline: obt tha AUS OBF Sabbat: +1 bleed. Some vampires have really cool names - what do you think about "The Bitch Queen"? IMHO, Quira's name is second only to the Miller Delmardigan's "Teacher of Bahari". Actually, "The Bitch Queen" sounds much better, but, unfortunately, her bitchy nature is represented only by her +1 bleed bonus in the game, while Miller usually performs amazing shows of "the Bahari", involving Blur, Quickness and Psyche! As an anti-Malk vampire, Quira is very strange. She has no Dementation, and, as you already know, this Discipline is our sole source of power. Without Dementation, she cannot play Kindred Spirits, Confusion or Eyes of Chaos. On the other hand, she has inbuilt +1 bleed - actually, Quira is the cheapest vampire having "unconditional" +1 bleed, and there are no other 6-caps (or even 7-caps!) with +1 bleed and superior Obfuscate. Speaking about Kindred Spirits deck, it should be obvious that having "+1 bleed" is much better than having inferior Dementation, but much worse than having it at superior. Inferior Dementation allows gaining a pool from Kindred Spirits, but you'll have to play a bleed modifier to bleed for 2, while Quira bleeds for 2 without any cards. Superior Dementation enables bleeding any player at least for 2 and gaining a pool with a single Kindred Spirits, and you may increase bleed up to 3-4. Unsrprisingly, you will often encounter Quira in the Kindred Spirits decks: she is a good bleeder and a wonderful "support vampire" with superior Auspex and Obfuscate. Decks with Dementation skill cards, however, tend to avoid Quira, since playing a single Dementation on her would be less profitable than playing it on a smaller dem/obf vampire (i.e. Yorik): the ability to play Confusion and Deny at superior is crucial. But sometimes you aren't building a Kindred Spirits deck; you want to play without Dementation at all, but you still need Auspex to reduce/bounce bleeds and superior Obfuscate to play Cloak the Gathering/Confusion of the Eye or just push the crucial actions - Sibyl's Tongue is a good example :) And you may just need a Malkavian antitribu to play Sibyl's Tongues - what can be better than a good 6-cap vamp capable of bleeding for 2 each turn without any cards? Quira was born to form a core of a "Sibyl's Tongue support group" in any crypt willing to play this card. Roger Farnsworth is also very good for this, and he's much cheaper, but if you can afford Quira, you will always prefer her. When you have no Tongues, or just don't need more Tongues, Roger can just hunt or bleed for 1, while Quira can bleed for 2, or use her superior Auspex to bounce/reduce bleeds. Finally, let's inspect Quira's out-clan Disciplines: inferior Thaumaturgy and Obtenebration. Inferior Thaumaturgy matches the same Discipline of Marie Faucigny, with the same possibilities - Quira also can play Burst of Sunlight and Rutor's Hand if someone would resque her from torpor after that. She can accompany Marie in 2-3 group DOM/OBF deck with Thaumaturgy support, which I will eventually post (hint for now: do you know that Reverend Blackwood is very good with Bursts?), but she really lacks Marie's abilities, especially the optional dodge. Inferior Obtenebration enables two S:CE cards - Oubliette and Shadow Body. Both cost 1 blood, but hey, it's Strike: Combat Ends! If Malks had S:CE, they would dominate the whole game. And these cards at inferior are the same as the inferior Majesty - does anybody want to say a single word against Majesty? Overall, you may encounter Quira in a DOM/OBT/obf stealth-bleed deck along with Gratiano and Guido Lucciano. Quira is really good. 3. CARD OF THE MONTH (the "regular" one) Name: Seal of Veddartha [Gehenna:R] Cardtype: Equipment Cost: 1 pool Unique equipment. Only usable by a vampire with capacity above 5. This vampire can bleed at +1 bleed as a (D) action. During each of your untap phases, put a counter on this card if it has fewer than four counters. The first two counters each grant this vampire one level of Dominate [dom]. The next two each grant this vampire one level of Fortitude [for]. Remove all counters from this card if another minion gains control of it. This card is so powerful that it should be at least ten times more popular than now. Just for one pool you get +1 bleed (OK, this ability is worse than "+1 bleed", but...), superior Dominate and superior Fortitude! Just +1 bleed would be good enough for this price, but this card allows you to "patch the holes" of your vampires and get the much-needed Disciplines. Speaking in terms of "vampire points", Seal of Veddartha's full bonus is worth FIVE points (two Disciplines at superior and +1 bleed)! Why the Seal isn't as popular as Ivory Bow or Giant's Blood? The first reason of this is the fact that you generally get only part of its bonus, since you cannot pack Dominate and Fortitude cards into your deck if your vampires don't have these Disciplines at all. The second reason is time. Four turns is very much in VtES, and if you find your Seal on turn 10, generally you may discard it, as it would be too late. Nevertheless, there are decks that can negate these disadvantages, and in such decks the Seal becomes nearly "broken". You may build your deck around vampire without DOM and/or FOR and include enough vamps with these Disciplines to play your cards without Seal. In most cases you should use Ventrue/!Ventrue as a base clan, since Dominate and Fortitude are their clan Disciplines. On the other hand, Seal of Veddartha should be appreciated by any clan without bleed bounce, since superior Dominate offers the best possible bleed bounce cards; by any clan without serious bleed capabilities, since it provides +1 bleed and access to Bonding to bleed for 3 at +1 stealth, and by any deck based on a large vampire, as the vampire would be able to play Govern the Unaligned. Fortitude isn't completely useless even without any Fortitude cards, since it protects your vampire from Kiss of Ra, and sometimes it would be the single available combat Discipline. Generally, Gangrel/!Gangrel should need the Seal most - I'm sure that Enkidu would use it if only he could... I guess you've read enough theory - let's look at the examples. Anneke + Seal = Govern, Deflection, Forced March and protection against Kiss of Ra, not counting the Fortitude cards you can play to protect her in combat. Cock Robin + Seal is very similar to Lazverinus :) Mateusz Gryzbowsky + Seal is the same case, cheaper, but without votes. And now I'm going to demonstrate some deck ideas that REALLY "break" Seal of Veddartha. Ivan Krenyenko can fetch it without any actions, and he can use Obfuscate cards (or Jack of Both Sides) to play it. You ALWAYS get your Seal early enough, so you can relatively safely pack Dominate cards. Unfortunately, you won't get full bonus, as Ivan already has superior Fortitude, but +1 bleed and superior Dominate is just too good for a 1-pool equipment. Another example of the "broken Seal" is my "deck of the Month" (see below). You can fetch Seal of Veddartha with Sibyl's Tongue or Vast Wealth, you will have time to collect the counters, as you're playing an intercept deck, and this time you will get full 5-point bonus, as you really need Dominate and Fortitude. Marie Faucigny with the Seal of Veddartha will have all !Ventrue clan Disciplines at superior and +1 bleed - just like "!Malkavian Gustav Mallenhous" :) That would be too good for one pool, you say? One pool? What are you talking about? Marie would play the Seal for free! 4. DECK OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Laz & !Malks Created By: Ilya Ginsburg Description: !Malks play Sibyl's Tongues, Lazverinus protects them Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 17, Max: 40, Avg: 7) ------------------------------------------- 4 Lazverinus pro AUS DOM FOR POT 10 !Ventrue 2 Quira obt tha AUS OBF 6 !Malk 3 Marie Faucigny dem tha AUS OBF 7 !Malk 2 Roger Farnsworth aus OBF 4 !Malk 1 Zoe cel obf AUS 3 Malk Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (16 cards) 1 Rack, The 1 Demonstration 1 Institution Hunting Ground 6 Blood Doll 1 Hungry Coyote, The 1 Fear of Mekhet 1 Powerbase: Montreal 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Fragment of the Book of Nod 1 Vast Wealth Action (18 cards) 1 Aranthebes, The Immortal 2 Eternal Vigilance 6 Govern the Unaligned 1 Anima Gathering 7 Sibyl`s Tongue 1 Pulse of the Canaille Action Modifier (12 cards) 5 Freak Drive 7 Cloak the Gathering Reaction (19 cards) 6 Telepathic Misdirection 6 Eagle`s Sight 3 Precognition 4 Wake with Evening`s Freshness Combat (20 cards) 8 Unflinching Persistence 6 Immortal Grapple 4 Taste of Vitae 2 Disarm Ally (2 cards) 1 Mylan Horseed (Goblin) 1 Neighbourhood Watch Commander (Hunter) Equipment (3 cards) 1 Bowl of Convergence 1 Flak Jacket 1 Seal of Veddartha This deck is very interesting, as it's almost "pure intercept" deck that, however, can oust its prey pretty fast with a help of Quira, Anima Gathering and Pulse of the Canaille. Sibyl's Tongues are used to fetch the most effective answers to the most dangerous threats. Everyone knows that Lazverinus is good, but he needs Eternal Vigilance to become truly powerful blocker, and Anima Gathering/Bowl of Convergence provide permanent +2 intercept. All these cards are primary targets of your Sibyl's Tongues. You may also wish to fetch Mylan Horseed or The Rack, as they make your life much easier. If you have time (your predator isn't very aggressive or he is concentrated on defense against your grandpredator), you may fetch Vast Wealth instead of Bowl of Convergence, especially if you control Marie Faucigny - she will then fetch all your equipment for free. There are also two "emergency targets": Fear of Mekhet against IC members, especially Arika (PTO is a huge threat that will ruin your game) and Aranthebes, the Immortal against weenies. The crypt deserves a few words, as it was designed to achieve several goals. Obviously, in a deck like this we have no place for Dementation cards, so we don't need Dementation at all. This makes the most famous !Malks (Dolphin Black, Uncle George, Yorik etc.) useless in this deck, but Quira becomes really brilliant, and Marie Faucigny's disadvantage (inferior Dementation) disappears. Both girls are very good in this deck, though it may be clever to influence Quira last as the table can assume that you're playing S&B. Marie is the "second blocker" of this deck - she can play second Eternal Vigilance, block and use her inbuilt dodge or Flak Jacket. Roger Farnsworth can enter play fast and fetch the most needed card (including Dreams of the Sphinx to get Lazverinus quickly). Zoe is a Camarilla Malk, and she cannot play Sibyl's Tongue or hunt for 2 blood in The Hungry Coyote. The only reason of her presence here is Anima Gathering. If you get Zoe, you should fetch Anima Gathering first, since +2 intercept and +1 bleed for Lazverinus is well worth having Zoe tapped forever. If you don't have Zoe, you can play Anima Gathering with Roger Farnsworth or even Quira, but they can perform useful actions, so it may be better to fetch Bowl of Convergence first or get it through Vast Wealth. Now you should note that ALL !Malks here have superior Obfuscate, so each of them can play Cloak the Gathering to protect the most important actions: Eternal Vigilance, Anima Gathering and Bowl of Convergence. Nowadays almost every deck can block +1 stealth actions, at least eventually, and the ability to increase stealth may be crucial. You can add more Cloaks if intercept is popular in your playgroup. The rest cards are pretty straighforward. You may regain pool with the Blood Dolls, and you have The Hungry Coyote, Hunting Grounds and The Rack to refill your vampires. There are also Governs and Powerbase: Montreal to ensure that you manage to influence at least Laz and Marie and survive. Cards can be cycled with the Fragment of the Book of Nod; Dreams of the Sphinx, as usual, can help in both cases. Intercept and combat modules are rather light, but they are backed up by the good permanents (Neighbourhood Watch Commander is actually a "permanent combat card" which may force your predator to cancel the actions he was planning). That's all for May, and, as usual, any ideas and comments are appreciated. Yours, Ector