Official VEKN Malkavian Antitribu NEWSLETTER, October 2005 VOLUME IV, Issue XIII 1. INTRODUCTION This time we are going to look at !Malks with superior Presence that potentially can be used in a political deck. Malkavian and anti-Malkavian politics has the unique flavor: there are vampires with votes, and a lot of stealth, but only few of these vampires have Presence, which is vital for combat protection (Majesty) and voting support (especially Voter Captivation). Nevertheless, we can at least try to build a pure !Malk voting deck. 2. CARD OF THE MONTH Name: Aura Reading [Jyhad:U2, VTES:U, CE:C/PTr2, BH:PTr2] Cardtype: Combat Discipline: Auspex Only usable before range is chosen. [aus] The opposing minion's controller plays with an open hand for the remainder of combat. [AUS] Your hand size is increased by 2 cards for the remainder of this combat. Discard down to your hand size at the end of combat. A vampire can play only 1 Aura Reading at superior each combat. This card is a wonderful tool for cycling unneeded cards and improving your hand, if you can survive the combat. I used it even in Kindred Spirits decks without any combat protection: your General Perfidio Dios may get into torpor, but you would cycle Telepathic Misdirection to get +1 intercept and some other cards you were unable to play, and replace them with the cards needed to finish your prey. And the blocked action also mean something! Obviously, the value of Aura Reading grows with the number of combat cards in your deck. The more combat cards you have, the better are your combat abilities, and the more often you will fight. Combat cards are most useful in combos - for instance, Unflinching Persistence + Immortal Grapple + Disarm or Theft of Vitae + Apportation + Walk of Flame. BTW, the first combo is a "trademark" of Lazverinus - no wonder why you can encounter Aura Reading quite often in decks based on him. If you plan to fight a lot, you should have a strategy of the fight - at least, against the weaklings without any combat abilities like most !Malks. And if you get a larger hand for the combat, your chances of getting the needed card combinations really increase. Really extreme guys can even use Dreams of the Sphinx to further increase their hand (to 11 cards!) and implement the most bizarre combat strategies. Don't underestimate the inferior ability of Aura Reading, as it may save your life - or, at least, life of your vampire. Knowing what's going on is very good. For instance, your Lazverinus would play Immortal Grapple only when it would be really needed - no card waste, and no risk of catching Coma :) After all, you may use the inferior ability just to cycle unneeded copies of Aura Reading if you get too many of them. In a long run, having several Aura Readings provides two effects, one good and one bad. The good one is the much better chance of getting the cards you need - this is especially useful in a "combo-decks" with Sibyl's Tongues. The downside is the much faster depletion of your deck, which already depletes quickly enough for most combat decks. 3. VAMPIRES OF THE MONTH Name: Alicia Barrows [Gehenna:U] Clan: Malkavian antitribu Group: 4 Capacity: 9 Discipline: AUS DEM OBF POT PRE Sabbat Archbishop of Mexico City: If you control the Edge during your untap phase, you may look at the hand of another Methuselah and discard up to two Gehenna cards from it. Alicia is a strange mix of Malkavian and Brujah, as she has two Brujah disciplines at superior - Potence and Presence. Surely, this creates some interesting possibilities - you may try to use her in a POT/PRE Brujah or !Brujah decks. Alicia can play Sibyl's Tongues, bounce bleeds and play Cloak the Gatherings for the remaining vamps. You can even build an intercepting AUS/POT/PRE deck with Jeremy McNeil! Unfortunately, Potence is the only combat discipline Alicia has, and this isn't enough to justify using a 9-cap fatty in a combat-heavy deck - she simply can't protect herself. Celerity could provide maneuvers, dodges and additional strikes, Protean could provide Flesh of Marble, Fortutude could prevent all damage and enable multiple actions per turn. You should really think about playing Fortitude skill cards on Alicia to use her as a combat vampire, especially if you plan to intercept with her. Even inferior Fortitude will enable prevent + Disarm strategy, Freak Drives and protect Alicia from Kiss of Ra. Being an Archbishop with superior Obfuscate and Presence, Alicia is really good for voting decks. Nine capacity is a lot, but there are no younger vampires with the comparable stats (OBF, PRE and at least 2 votes) in the whole game. As usual, Archbishop title enables many good Sabbat cards like Eternal Vigilance or Purchase Pact. Alicia's title is very unlikely to become contested, as Stravinsky isn't very popular, and Camarilla even doesn't have a Praxis Seizure for Mexico Sity! Finally, Alicia has an ability, which is far from useless even if nobody plays Gehenna cards. You may look at the hand of ANY player, not just your prey, and this information cost you nothing, if you manage to keep the Edge. In any competitive game the value of such information is immense, especially if the player cannot cycle any cards during your turn. Name: Aristotle de Laurent [BH:U2/PM] Clan: Malkavian antitribu Group: 3 Capacity: 9 Discipline: pot AUS DEM OBF PRE Sabbat: While Aristotle is ready, every Methuselah has +1 hand size. +1 stealth. Aristotle is very strange. Permanent +1 stealth is very good, but he cannot perform more than one action per turn, which isn't very attractive for a 9-cap vampire without any votes. Again, adding Fortitude can turn Aristotle into a monster: you'd be able to get the second action with Freak Drive, and both actions would have +1 extra stealth! Aristotle definitely can abuse this, bleeding and playing politics on the same turn. But you need to find Fortitude skill card first, and some votes to push your politics... not too reliable plan. Like Alicia, Aristotle also has Potence, though at inferior. There is almost no difference: he also needs some extra combat disciplines to fight regularly, and Fortitude would be the best. Unfortunately, there isn't any equipment providing superior Fortitude, except for Seal of Veddartha, and it requires too much time. The most strange feature of Aristotle is the ability providing +1 hand size for ALL players. Using the "common sense", this ability should be considered awful, as you gain only 1/5 of the benefit, while the other 4/5 goes to the other players. The ability of Jan Pieterzoon, which reduces hand sizes, is much better. Moreover, the increased hand size is the most useful in combat-heavy decks, and Aristotle is very unlikely to get into one of them. But in VtES, such logic is often unrealistic. One of the major disadvantages of being "common enemy" is the isolation. Deploy Jan Pieterzoon, and don't be surprized when a crosstable Rush deck would torporize him to get his hand size back. But when you deploy Aristotle, a deal with a player using a combat-heavy deck becomes quite realistic. You provide them a significant boost, which would end with Aristotle - thus, making an alliance with you would be much more beneficial for them than torporizing him. 4. DECKS OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Louhi Calls for politics Created By: Ilya Ginsburg Description: Louhi and the Presence !Malks Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 32, Max: 40, Avg: 9,08) ---------------------------------------------- 5 Louhi pro ANI AUS DEM OBF THA 10 !Malk 3 Alicia Barrows AUS DEM OBF POT PRE 9 !Malk 2 Aristotle de Laurent pot AUS DEM OBF PRE 9 !Malk 2 Marie Faucigny dem tha AUS OBF 7 !Malk Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (17 cards) 5 Minion Tap 1 Purchase Pact 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 3 Zillah`s Valley 2 Presence 1 Legendary Vampire 2 Direct Intervention 1 Powerbase: Madrid Action (14 cards) 6 Call, The 2 Rutor`s Hand 2 Madman`s Quill 1 Eternal Vigilance 3 Sibyl`s Tongue Action Modifier (19 cards) 4 Voter Captivation 4 Elder Impersonation 4 Forgotten Labyrinth 4 Lost in Crowds 3 Spying Mission Political Action (15 cards) 1 Ancient Influence 1 Political Stranglehold 1 Reins of Power 6 Consanguineous Boon 3 Banishment 3 Kine Resources Contested Reaction (6 cards) 6 Telepathic Misdirection Combat (11 cards) 3 Aura Reading 8 Majesty Retainer (2 cards) 2 Raven Spy Equipment (2 cards) 1 Sargon Fragment, The 1 Ivory Bow Combo (4 cards) 4 Swallowed by the Night This deck tries to play politics with a bit of intercept and bleed - a toolbox that may confuse other players and score a GW as well as miserably fail to get even one VP. As long as !Malks have only two vamps with superior Presence, and they aren't amazing, building a stable voting deck based on our clan is nearly impossible. Certainly, I could use vampires from the other clans, but this would prohibit Consangineous Boons and The Calls, which really help to stay alive and get vampires faster. You should influence Louhi first, especially if you get Zillah's Valley or Dreams of the Sphinx - both allow you to get her in two turns. Louhi is mean and even somewhat terrifying; nobody can predict what deck she represents. Is it an intercept deck, stealth-bleed, voting or somewhat else? You can bluff that you're playing Bursts of Sunlight, for instance. Unfortunately, in this deck the only combat option for Louhi is Ivory Bow, at least until she gets Presence to play Majesty. Hopefully, other players would determine what kind of deck you're playing only when you reveal the second minion (Alicia or Aristotle). Obviously, The Call is your best friend in the early game. In the ideal situation you will have Louhi + Presence skill card, Alicia and Marie - seven votes total, and you may get two additional votes from Legendary Vampire and up to four from Powerbase:Madrid. The Sargon Fragment enables extremely good "engines" like replaying Dreams of the Sphinx, The Call or inferior Madman's Quill. If your Louhi has Rutor's Hand, she can play superior Quill - it should work like Palla Grande in the !Toreador vote & bleed decks. Note that Louhi with two Presence cards can Banish even Inner Circles! As soon as Louhi would get Presence and Ivory Bow, she can act like a blocker. Eternal Vigilance and two Raven Spies provide permanent Wakes and permanent intercept with minimal card investment; these cards also can confuse other players. If your Louhi would employ a Raven Spy as her first action, you won't even need to bluff about playing an intercept deck - in fact, nobody would believe you if you say the truth :) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Deck Name: Guess what else I can do? Created By: Ilya Ginsburg Description: PRE/OBF/pot/for bizarre toolbox, something like "jack of all trades" Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 32, Max: 40, Avg: 9,08) ---------------------------------------------- 5 Jaroslav Pascek for obf CEL POT PRE 10 Brujah 2 Mukhtar Bey obf pot FOR PRE QUI 7 Caitiff 3 Alicia Barrows AUS DEM OBF POT PRE 9 !Malk 2 Aristotle de Laurent pot AUS DEM OBF PRE 9 !Malk Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (16 cards) 5 Minion Tap 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 3 Zillah`s Valley 1 Legendary Vampire 2 Direct Intervention 1 Elysium: The Arboretum 2 Fortitude Action (1 cards) 1 Heart of the City Action Modifier (23 cards) 4 Voter Captivation 4 Elder Impersonation 4 Forgotten Labyrinth 4 Lost in Crowds 3 Spying Mission 4 Freak Drive Political Action (16 cards) 1 Ancient Influence 1 Political Stranglehold 1 Reins of Power 3 Banishment 6 Kine Resources Contested 1 Cardinal Benediction 3 Parity Shift Reaction (6 cards) 6 Telepathic Misdirection Combat (22 cards) 3 Aura Reading 8 Majesty 3 Weighted Walking Stick 6 Rolling with the Punches 2 Disarm Equipment (2 cards) 1 Sargon Fragment, The 1 Seal of Veddartha Combo (4 cards) 4 Swallowed by the Night This deck is much more funny than the previous one, and it was especially designed for the people loving to surprise their opponents. Besides the obvious Presence and Obfuscate, this deck uses Fortitude and Potence! Can anybody consider the possibility of catching Disarm fighting against the voting deck? Now you really have a chance to surprise them... Prevent their hand damage with Rolling, play Disarm, and voila! Everyone knows that Jaroslav Pascek is very good. He surely can play ALL the cards you have, and his 3 votes may be enough to push your politics. But in this deck he also acts like a "guardian" until you get someone else, as +1 permanent intercept is really precious. Weighted Walking Stick is a wonderful "fear card" with him, as he strikes for 4 two times, and you may put more Sticks if three won't be enough. By the way, ANY vampire in your deck can play Disarm after successful strike with the Stick, not just Jaroslav! Compared to the first deck, you lose The Calls and Consangineous Boons, but you get Parity Shifts and Freak Drives instead. Alicia and Arostotle have no Fortitude, but there are enough vampires with it, and you are almost guaranteed to have at least one of them. There are Fortitude skill cards and Seal of Veddartha to "patch the holes". In the combat-heavy environment you may prefer to upgrade Jaroslav's Fortitude to the superior level - superior Rollings are good, and he would be able to Banish almost everyone. That's all for October. I'm really sorry for the late newsletter, but I was very busy all the time. Please don't take my Decks of the Months too seriously - they aren't going to win tournaments, but they ARE going to provide a lot of fun. As always, all ideas and comments are appreciated. Yours, Ector