Official VEKN Malkavian Antitribu NEWSLETTER, May 2006 VOLUME V, Issue V 1. INTRODUCTION Last time we started to review the Imbued and their options, and now I'm going to continue. According to TheLasombra's store, Imbued aren't very popular, and I cannot explain this. Surely, they are different, and you wouldn't be able to use the cards you regularly use on them - but there are dozens of the new cards, which seems to be good enough. Anyway, if nobody plays Imbued in your playgroup, then the first player who brings them to a tournament will get a huge benefit. In my April newsletter you can find a Gehenna-heavy Wormwood deck, trying to "harm" all vampires on the table. Personally I admire such world-breaking decks, but don't like to play them, since they are too unstable, and you may eventually get a whole table against you. What about a common stealth-bleed? Can you build a S&B based on Imbued? I'd say "yes". 2. THEORY To play stealth-bleed, you obviously need cards to increase stealth and bleed. Let's start with bleed first. Strike with Conviction enables bleeding with +1 bleed, regardless of the Virtues, and you may return it each turn. This isn't exactly as good as having permanent +1 bleed, but it's very close, and it's outstanding for a 3-4 pool minion. How many vampires with such capacity and +1 bleed do you know? Don't bother about searching - there are none. Unconditional +1 bleed starts from 6-caps, and 5-cap Shasa Abu Badr has +1 bleed on Presence-based actions, which can work almost each time in the right deck, but that's all. Now look at Imbued: except for Strike with Conviction, two of them has inbuilt +1 bleed: 3-cap Beatrice Tremblay and 4-cap Jennifer Vidisania! You cannot use your favorite Dominate/Dementation/Presence cards to increase bleed of Imbued, but you can live without them. The Imbued are cheaper than most popular S&B vampires, so you are going to have a lot of them; each Imbued can bleed at least for 2 (some for 3), and if that won't be enough, you may use Laptop Computers. The most common feature of a stealth-bleed deck is its acceleration: such decks cannot wait and must strike fast. Imbued are better than any other S&B deck in this: they are cheap, and they can use Travis Miller, Paul Moreton and Church of Vindicated Faith. This allows you to influence at least 5-6 Imbued, often more. Sometimes you will leave some of them untapped to block and play reactions. Now, what about stealth? Though Imbued have no Disciplines like Obfuscate, they have Second Sight, that can be burned to get "+1 stealth against monsters". There are also some Powers that provide "quasi-stealth": Hide provides the same effect for 1 conviction, Project greatly limits the number of vampires able to block your Imbued. And there are two Imbued that can get "inbuilt +1 stealth": Earl Deams and Lupe Droin, if she get a vehicle. This is definitely not enough for a stealth-bleed deck, so it would be great to add a support vampire with superior Obfuscate to play Cloak the Gatherings and Psychic Veils. You still won't have as many stealth as the good S&B deck usually has, but you'll have more minions with far more options than just bleed at stealth. 3. CARDS OF THE MONTH Hide [NoR:R] Cardtype: Power Virtue: Innocence Not usable by an imbued with Illuminate. [Action Modifier] [1 Conviction] Only usable as the action is announced. Monsters get -1 intercept against this action. [Reaction] [1 Conviction] Only usable during a monster`s (D) action targeting this imbued.The action fails. This is the best Power for "stealth-bleed Imbued": you can get "+1 stealth against monsters" for 1 conviction each action. Normally, your Imbued gains one conviction from your hand or ash heap each turn, and he will get one extra conviction for Edge Explosion after the successful action. This means that you may spend two convictions per turn for each Imbued: Hide + Second Sight to get "+2 stealth" if somebody is going to block you with +1 intercept or Hide + Strike with Conviction otherwise. Bleeding at +2 stealth or at +1 stealth with +1 bleed is much better than a regular weenie vampire can do, and there are Imbued that can do even more! Now let's talk about the second ability of the card. Rush is the worst enemy of stealth-bleed, since S&B tries to avoid combat at all, but Rush actions make this impossible. Who would waste a precious Rush action on a minion that can make it fizzle just for one conviction? Surely, your Imbued must be untapped to play reactions, and his Hide must be untapped, too, but sometimes it's quite easy to achieve. You may untap your Imbued with Vigilance, or even don't tap him/her at all - for instance, if you use Maman Boumba to protect your vampires against rushes. What should a Rush deck do against a S&B with Maman Boumba and Hide? Rush any vampire, and Maman will just end combat. Rush Maman, and she will just use her Hide. Thus, you are likely to waste your first Rush action each turn, or rush Maman first and kill her... But Maman's ability works even if she's incapacitated! Abjure [NoR:R] Cardtype: Power Virtue: Redemption [Combat] Tap this imbued before range is determined to end combat between a monster and a mortal. If the mortal is a minion other that this imbued, you may move a conviction to this imbued from your hand or ash heap. This card is pure gold in a "stealth-bleed" Imbued deck. Generally you have a lot of Imbued, so you can just send one of them to bleed, let your prey block him and use Abjure with another. You will tap two Imbued, but as a result you will tap one potential blocker (or make your prey spend his Wake) and get one conviction. Unless your prey plays a dedicated intercept deck, this tactics is going to be pretty effective, as he won't be able to block a lot of +1 stealth actions. Abjure is really universal in terms of combat defense: you may use it in any combat - when somebody blocked you, when you block somebody, when somebody rushes you,and so on. You may even leave an Abjuring imbued untapped in case of the rushes, and he will foil at least one Rush action per turn. Foresee [NoR:R] Cardtype: Power Virtue: Vision [Combat] [1 Conviction] Only usable before range is determined on the first round of combat resulting from a block. Look at the opposing minion`s controller`s hand. You may then choose to cancel combat. If you do, and this imbued was blocking, the action continues as if unblocked. If you use Foresee instead of Abjure, you don't need to tap a second Imbued, but you spend a conviction instead of gaining it. The most valuable thing you gain is the information about the hand of your prey. Every S&B player knows how important it is... after all, Patterns in the Chaos is rather popular in the Kindred Spirits decks. Can your prey block you or not? Can she deflect your bleed? Is she really dangerous in combat RIGHT NOW? Such information is precious for a stealth-bleed deck. Foresee cannot be used against rushes (unless your imbued blocked the rush), and it lets the blocked action to continue, if your imbued cannot fight. This is generally worse than Abjure unless you have other blockers. It's quite possible to use a single Imbued with Foresee in a blocking deck just to know somebody's hand prior to blocking him, though. Psychic Veil [Jyhad:R, V:TES:R, CE:R/PM] Cardtype: Action Cost: 1 blood Discipline: Obfuscate [obf] All of your vampires' actions are at +1 stealth this turn. [OBF] All of your minions' actions are at +1 stealth this turn. Now, this is THE CARD. If you manage to play it at superior, all your Imbued will get +1 stealth this turn. Add Second Sights, Hide, Project and Cloak the Gatherings, and your horde will overload almost any intercept. Nothing can replace Psychic Veil in a "stealth-bleed" Imbued deck. 4. NOT-SO-INNOCENT IMBUED OF THE MONTH Seems that "Innocent" Imbued were specifically designed for the missions requiring stealth. They are extremely cheap (even cheaper than most Imbued), and they can Hide. All Innocent are girls, but despite the name, they are far from "innocent"! Beatrice "Oracle171" Tremblay Life: 3 Creed: Innocent Virtues: VEN INN Imbued: During your untap phase, another ready imbued you control takes 1 unpreventable damage. +1 bleed. Beatrice is outstanding: a 3-cap minion with permanent +1 bleed! Yes, she has a disadvantage, but it doesn't work if you have no other Imbued. Thus, she's going to become a wonderful "finisher" in the Rush decks, when nobody can block her (bleed for 3 each turn with Strike with Convition). She's also a brilliant "bait" for the Hidden Lurker-based deck: can anyone refuse to block a bleed for 2 or 3 each turn? Having Vengeance, Beatrice can use Surge to prevent some damage. Actually, even if you DO have other Imbued, Beatrice's disanvantage isn't too harsh to avoid her. Imbued don't use their life as a resource - the life is needed only to stay alive. Thus, if you influence Beatrice on turn 6, she's going to inflict not more than 6-10 damage for the rest of the game, and it's unlikely that you will lose even one Imbued unless somebody will successfully rush you. After all, a single Rejuvenate is enough to compensate for Beatrice's drawback, and permanent +1 bleed is HUGE. Inez "Nurse216" Villagrande Life: 3 Creed: Innocent Virtues: INN Imbued: When Inez enters play, you may search your library (shuffle afterward) or hand for a power that requires Innocence and put it on her. You may read "When Inez enters play, search your library for a Hide and put it on her", as Hide is the best available power for Innocence. You will get your normal conviction, too. Having a 3-cap minion that can get "+2 stealth" (with Second Sight) or "+1 stealth and +1 bleed" (with Strike with Conviction) on the next turn is really wonderful! And Inez can also cancel rushes directed at her! I wonder, are we still talking about a 3-cap? :) Liz "Ticket312" Thornton Life: 2 Creed: Innocent Virtues: INN RED Imbued: Liz doesn`t gain a conviction as normal when entering play. Liz is the smallest Imbued in the game - she costs only 2 pool. Her disadvantage isn't very critical for a deck with a lot of convictions: she will get her first conviction during the next untap phase anyway. But having an Imbued with two Virtues for 2 pool and 2 transfers is very, very good. At least, Liz can play Abjure and get a lot of convictions for resquing other Imbued in combat. 5. DECK OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Innocent Girls Created By: Ilya Ginsburg Description: Imbued Stealth-Bleed with a lot of tricks Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 12, Max: 26, Avg: 4,66) ---------------------------------------------- 3 Marie Faucigny dem tha AUS OBF 7 Malkavian Antitribu 3 Travis "Traveler72" Miller DEF MAR 5 Martyr 1 Liz "Ticket312" Thornton INN RED 2 Innocent 1 Beatrice "Oracle171" Tremblay VEN INN 3 Innocent 1 Inez "Nurse216" Villagrande INN 3 Innocent 1 Jack "Hannibal137" Harmon DEF JUD 4 Defender 1 Paul "Sixofswords29" Moreton DEF VIN 4 Visionary 1 Leaf "Potter116" Pankowski INN RED VIN 4 Redeemer Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (17 cards) 1 Rose Foundation, The 1 Church of Vindicated Faith, The 1 Secure Haven 2 Information Highway 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 2 Sudden Reversal 5 Effective Management 1 Thaumaturgy 1 Perfectionist 1 Nod Action (13 cards) 4 Sibyl`s Tongue 5 Psychic Veil 2 Magic of the Smith 1 Rutor`s Hand 1 Eternal Vigilance Action Modifier (10 cards) 8 Cloak the Gathering 2 Forgotten Labyrinth Reaction (6 cards) 6 Telepathic Misdirection Combat (2 cards) 2 Aura Reading Ally (2 cards) 1 Moise Kasavubu 1 Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter) Equipment (12 cards) 1 Crusader Sword, The 5 Laptop Computer 1 Phased Motion Detector 1 Pier 13, Port of Baltimore 2 Flak Jacket 1 Signet of King Saul, The 1 Ivory Bow Event (3 cards) 1 Edge Explosion 1 Unmasking, The 1 Thirst Conviction (14 cards) 4 Strike with Conviction 6 Second Sight 4 React with Conviction Power (11 cards) 1 Foresee 1 Rejuvenate 4 Hide 2 Vigilance 2 Abjure 1 Project This deck isn't tested and probably isn't very effective, but it definitely is very funny to play. The only support vampire here is Marie Faucigny, and you should get her after Travis Miller, or sometimes even before him. There are 35 cards that can play only Marie (or can be played only on Marie) which means that you can do something without her, but you'd better get her as fact as you can. There are only three copies, since a "stealth-bleed" should try to get a lot of minions, and adding extra copies would interfere with that goal. Use your Effective Mangements or just get more vampires until you find Marie. The same could be said about Travis Miller: you need him to accelerate and generate pool, so find him quickly. Marie Faucigny performs a lot of tasks here. She uses her Obfuscate to play Psychic Veils and Cloak the Gatherings, enhancing your Imbued, or to play Forgotten Labyrinth to push the most important actions. She uses her Auspex to bounce bleeds or intercept with Telepathic Misdirections. She uses Thaumaturgy to get crucial equipment (especially Pier 13 and Ivory Bow) with Magics of the Smith - and you even can teach her superior Thaumaturgy to get Rutor's hand. She uses her title to vote and to play Eternal Vigilance, which is used primarily to deflect heavy bleeds of S&B predators. And, certainly, she uses her clan affiliation to play Sibyl's Tongues. Marie uses her equipping ability, too, and she uses it very often. This deck really depends on its equipment: there are 12 pieces of equipment here, including 5 Laptop Computers to make your bleed dangerous enough. Eight of these cards normally cost 1 pool, but they are free to Marie: Laptops, Flak Jackets and the Signet. This is a very good saving! You should even fetch Pier 13 with Magic of the Smith to equip things without wasting actions. Your Imbued should take their equipment from Marie - unfortunately, Heidelberg Castle doesn't work for them, but you may use Nod. If you have pool to spare or just want to save your actions, you may fetch your equipment with Moise Casavubu and place it directly on the Imbued you want. Phased Motion Detector is wonderful with The Unmasking, since the stealth-based decks would have to get at least +3 stealth for each action to avoid being blocked. Signet of King Saul makes a combo with Project that should make one of your Imbued nearly unblockable. The rest of the deck should be obvious if you did read this newsletter. Use Secure Haven to protect Marie from rushes, and Perfectionist to regain her blood. Aura Readings are for hand cycling, when the opposing vampire isn't too dangerous for Marie. Ideally, this deck builds up until you find an opportunity to oust your prey - at that time, you should launch an "alpha strike". I have no doubts that you can make this deck much better - just try. That's all for May, As always, any comments or ideas are appreciated. Yours, Ector