Malkavian Antitribu Newsletter, May 2007 VOLUME VI, Issue V 1. INTRODUCTION Sometimes puzzle pieces mysteriously come together, and you realize that the new cards allow you to build a much better deck than you ever hoped. Let's look at one such deck that was completely impossible to build prior to Sword of Caine. Yes, it's a Black Hand deck, but it's also a decent S&B with Fortitude to enable combat protection and Freak Drives! Considering the fact that we currenly have just few Group 5 vampires, this is really a wonder! Please read on... 2. VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH Name: Marge Khan [SoC] Clan: Malkavian Antitribu Group: 5 Capacity: 7 Disciplines: aus for DEM OBF POT Sabbat. Black Hand. Marge is a bit too large for a stealth-bleeder, but she has both primary disciplines (DEM and OBF) at superior, as well as inferior Fortitude. Why Fortitude is so important? Because it allows both performing several actions per turn (Freak Drive) and serious combat protection that our clan always lacked. With Freak Drives, your deck is no longer limited to the straight bleeding - you can implement some different strategies as well. Moreover, you are much less predictable for the other players: you may perform "non-agressive" actions for some time, and then launch an "alpha strike" using additional actions from Freak Drives. Marge is very good for this strategy. But we've seen such decks before, right? Anatole, Prophet of Gehenna, also has Fortitude, as well as Artemis and Jason, the World's Voice. So, what's so special about Marge Khan? The answer is: better vampires, lower capacity and Black Hand. Anatole and Jason are 8-caps, Artemis is 6 - a bit too high for a S&B deck, despite the fact that Anatole and Jason have very good specials. Now we have 8-cap While Lily (Black Hand), 7-cap Marge Khan (Black Hand) and 5-cap Apache Jones for a 4-5 group DEM/obf/for crypt, and group 5 will definitely bring us more goodies!!! This is what I call a "wonder": not only we can build a very effective DEM/obf/for deck, but we can also use most Black Hand cards there! Now we can look at the other Marge's abilities. Unfortunately, she doesn't have superior Auspex. This is a very serious problem for now, since Hagar Stone is the only vampire with AUS/DEM/obf with capacity lower than 8 in groups 4-5. I'm sure that we'll see more such vampires of Group 5 in the future sets, though. Probably, the most important feature of Marge Khan is her superior Potence. She is definitely not a typical frail !Malk we're accustomed to: for/POT is an extremely effective combination that can defeat even the most combat-heavy decks. As long as we have FIVE !Malks with Potence in the 4-5 group, we can consider it "our new clan discipline". I don't think that "bruise & bleed" decks with Potence are going to be much effective, but some people are already trying them. On the other hand, you can easily build a for/POT combat deck with Marge Khan as a platform for Veil the Legions, Blessing of Chaos and, probably, even Kindred Spirits. 3. CARD OF THE MONTH Name: Guarded Rubrics [SoC:R] Type: Equipment Cost: 1 Pool Unique equipment. Requires a Black Hand vampire. The vampire with his equipment may bleed at +2 bleed as a (D) action that costs 1 blood. While bearer is ready, Gehenna cards cost an additional pool to play. Yet another permanent bleed enhancer. Not as good as Heart of the City, perhaps, since you cannot get +2 bleed for your Kindred Spirits, and you have to pay a blood for the action. Moreover, you cannot get +3 stealth from Vermin Channel, since that would be a different action. But nevertheless, you don't have to pay 1 blood each turn, as you would have for Robert Carter, so you may easily call Guarded Rubrics the best permanent bleed enchancer that doesn't require any disciplines. It does require a Black Hand vampire, for sure, but if you want to build a Black Hand S&B deck, you are going to have some ! Nosferatu and !Gangrel with Obfuscate, but without any decent ways to increase their bleed besides the Rubrics. That's why this card is going to be quite popular. You may look at my Deck of the Month below as an example. How good is "Gehenna cards cost an additional pool to play" ability? Usually not much, it's just a remedy against the weird decks like my "Turbo-Wormwood" and other Gehenna menace. This will do nothing with the already played Gehenna cards, so you should play it early. This effectively means "you should have a way to fetch it". Personally I think that this card is much stronger against a heavy Gehenna deck that The Uncoiling: you will simply have no time to wait until The Uncoiling will remove the most harmful events, especially with the reduced hand size. Plus, you can fetch Guarded Rubrics with Drop Point Network, but you cannot fetch The Uncoiling this way. One could argue that The Uncoiling is better for killing the occasional event, but you will have to drop it right after the harmful event, before the Gehenna player plays more events, which is very difficult even with fetching tech. If you have 3 Gehenna events + Fall of the Camarilla in play, your chances of hitting the Fall are only 25%, and the Gehenna player will pay pool to burn your Uncoiling, if able. Plus, your Rubrics is not a "counter" card, it will be useful even without any Gehenna. And you can pretend that you are equipping it "just to defend against that terrifying Gehenna deck" :) 4. DECK OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Black Hand Bleeds & Tricks Created By: Ector Description: 4-5 groups Kindred Spirits deck with Fortitude! Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 17, Max: 30, Avg: 5,58) ---------------------------------------------- 2 Hagar Stone obf AUS DEM 5 !Malkavian 1 Gabriel de Cambrai aus cel dem obf pre 5 !Toreador 2 Marge Khan aus for DEM OBF POT 7 !Malkavian 2 White Lily cel dom for DEM OBF 8 !Malkavian 1 Lubomira Hradok OBF 3 !Nosferatu 1 Rashid Stockton cel obf vic 4 !Gangrel 2 Apache Jones aus for obf DEM 5 !Malkavian 1 Luc dem vic OBF 5 !Malkavian Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (16 cards) 2 Drop Point Network 1 Admonitions, The 1 Charisma 1 Sunset Strip, Hollywood 5 Blood Doll 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 2 Direct Intervention 1 Information Highway 1 Barrens, The Action (29 cards) 10 Reunion Kamut 14 Kindred Spirits 4 Sibyl`s Tongue 1 Aranthebes, The Immortal Action Modifier (26 cards) 6 Freak Drive 4 Elder Impersonation 4 Lost in Crowds 6 Veil the Legions 6 Confusion Combat (5 cards) 5 Skin of Steel Ally (6 cards) 4 Marijava Thuggee 2 Escaped Mental Patient Equipment (4 cards) 1 Guarded Rubrics 1 Seal of Veddartha 1 Ivory Bow 1 Heart of Nizchetus Combo (4 cards) 4 Swallowed by the Night This is a "mixed" stealth-bleed deck that combines "goods of many worlds". Three worlds, to be precise. Kindred Spirits, Confusions and stealth are coming from our "motherland", the world of S&B. Nothing new here, just the same good stuff. Black Hand world offers Reunion Kamuts, Marijava Thuggees and support cards. Finally, there is a Fortitude world that provides Freak Drive and Skin of Steel. Other players are going to be surprised when you will play this deck for the first time! Let's look at the crypt first. Half of the crypt has Fortitude, so you're almost guaranteed to have at least one such vampire. Eight vampires of 12 have superior Dementation, only two don't have it al all. Nine vampires are Black Hand (75%), so you are going to find targets for your Reunion Kamuts. This decks bleeds with its larger minions and uses the smaller ones to play allies, the mentioned Kamuts and occasional bleeding with Guarded Rubrics, Seal of Veddartha or just for one. Note that Seal of Veddartha will eventually provide Fortitude to one additional vampire. The Black Hand cards allow you to build-up much stronger force that you could assemble without them, and do it much faster. Each Reunion Kamut is +2 pool and +2 transfers, each Marijava Thuggee is an additional little bleeder that will increase pressure on your prey or just save your butt from rushes. Each Escaped Mental Patient is a dedicated "fear blocker". With Charisma and Sunset Strip you have a chance of recruiting your allies for free! And you really have some cards to fetch them: 2 Drop Point Networks and 4 Sibyl's Tongue, not counting Luc, Admonitions, Barrens and Dreams that allow you to dig for the needed cards. Unfortunately, this deck has a weak spot: it has no reactions. Without the superior Auspex, there is no point to put Telepathic Misdirections, and without them there is no point to put any Wakes. But, after all, any deck should have a weak spot, right? That's all for May. As usual, all comments and ideas are appreciated. Next time: Elimelech the Twice-Damned reveals all his beauty and power! Stay with us! :) Yours, Ector