Malkavian Antitribu Newsletter, September 2007 1. INTRODUCTION I present you a sort of LotN review. I definitely may be wrong (as anyone who tries to do something), but at least I'm trying... There are no !Malks in this set, but a lot of cards can be used in various !Malkavian decks. So, if you wonder "what is !Malkavian in this newsletter", I can tell you - "point of view". 2. CRAPPY CARDS (aka WALLPAPERS) OF LOTN I *hate* the crappy cards. Each card should be playable at least in one deck archetype. If you open the card that is completely unplayable, you feel yourself robbed. One of the reasons for my former love in VTES was almost absolute lack of crap. Unfortunately, Lords of Night has some unplayable cards, including rares, but not very much (something like 10%). Some greedy CCG producers print 75% of crap or even more! Agent of Power -------------- Sometimes you need a Discipline just for a single card in your deck, but nobody will wait until he get both the card and Agent of Power in his hand. If you have several cards that your vampires cannot play, Agent of Power won't save you; look for Infernal Pact or some equipment like Sargon Fragment. Uniqueness makes the card even worse. Ambulance ---------- "If this action is blocked again, burn this card". This is a death sentence for a 1-pool equipment. Everybody knows that actions that "continue as unblocked" are blocked again quite often. If the blocking vampire was Waked, he even doesn't need another Wake to block again! Armor of Vitality ----------------- Melee weapons aren't so popular to hose them, and if there are no swords to break, it's much worse than Rolling with the Punches, Skin of Steel and Superior Mettle. Oh yes, you can prevent damage from Carrion Crows, but Soak is still better for that. Bestow Vigor ------------- You spend an action (though you untap after it) and a blood to give an ally inferior Fortitude in combat for 2 turns. So what? You need an ally to play this, and you need the Fortitude cards, and, finally, all you get from these complicated combos is some protection for the ally? In 99% cases the ally doesn't worth it, or you can use much more powerful cards like Heaven's Gate. If you plan to use Bestow Vigor on vampires, why not Shared Strength? No actions, and good surprise for your opponents. Community Justice ----------------- Who plays cards that work only after opponent's diablerie? Divine Image ------------ What do you plan to achieve with this card? Bleed at +1, even with +1 strength but at -1 stealth doesn't cost 2 blood. Rush with +1 strength still doesn't cost 2 blood. What else? Kpist m/45 ----------- While AK-47 is very cornercase, but playable in the decks without Celerity that have some way to get it cheaper, this one is completely useless. Oh yes, Rounds, I know, but they are far less flexible than Pursuits, Blurs and others. Without Rounds you will get the same damage as from .44 Magnum, but for 3 pool, and this one cannot be Concealed. Resume the Coil ---------------- Who is planning to get into torpor so othen that he needs cards to reduce the resque cost? Vampires that resque cheaper are different matter, but wasting cards for that? No way. Trophy: Library ---------------- Getting a Trophy is rather difficult, so nobody is going to make somebody Red List and then burn him just for +2 hand size. AFAIK, Elder Library is not uber-popular. Trophy: Revered ---------------- +2 bleed isn't a good reward for burning a Red List. You may get +1 from Camera Phone just for an action. 3. HORROR CARDS OF LOTN (CARDS THAT SHOULD NEVER BEEN PRINTED) Burden the Mind ----------------- This card enforces the horrible weenies, and we all know that they must be eliminated, not enforced. Why this is worse than Pentex Subversion? Because only THAT vampire can burn the card; so, actually it means "no Wakes for one turn and waste an action on the next turn". It's also cheaper and not unique, so a weenie with Parhthenon can play *two* Burdens in one turn and completely lock prey's Wakes. I don't think that !Malks need this card. We play a fair game of "stealth against intercept", not "our numbers will overcome your Wakes". Camera Phone ------------- Permanent +1 bleed for free? Really??? Again, great thanks from the disciplineless weenies. They don't need 20+ Computer Hackings anymore, 10-15 Camera Phones will replace them more than adequately, especially in non-combat metagames, and leave more space for dodges and other tricks. Anti-Malks don't need this card - it doesn't combine with Kindred Spirits. False Resonance ----------------- Do we really need to help S&B to cancel bounce? This card hoses Telepathic Misdirection, and that's awful. Besides, how many playable reactions on Dementation do you know? One: Shattered Mirror. Is there any point in printing the good card (not broken by any means) and printing its hoser in the next set? Thanks to the +1 stealth at superior, this card is going to be popular. Anti-Malks hate this card with a passion, as it nullifies the only bounce card we have and prevents us from playing Shattered Mirror (why?) Fantasy World -------------- Do we really need another "star hoser"? I don't think so. With this card, Ravnos can completely shut down any minion for his own turn, burn one blood or life from him and leave him tapped for the next turn - all for 2 blood. Not a Sensory Deprivation, for sure, but "cannot play cards and cast votes" is much more harsh than just "doesn't untap as normal". This will hit even a Baali! Besides, Fantasy World is cheaper and has +1 stealth at superior. Lesser Boon ------------ This completely destroys all Wall decks based on a single "star" (Lazverinus decks, for instance). All you need is to block that monster and play Lesser Boon. "This minion cannot block your minions" is too powerful, and it *cannot* be burned!!! You may have a horrible voting deck that will drop your prey to 1-5 pool in few turns. After that, the monster will be able to block, but it may be too late. Now you can play without stealth at all - include a light intercept module (preferably permanent) and some Lesser Boons. It is not unique, so you can repeat this trick as needed... !Malks can use this card - probably, even better than anybody else, as Telepathic Misdirection can be used to get intercept, and we have Kite with inbuilt +1 intercept. But still, WW should NOT print such things. Leverage ---------- So we need to give disciplineless weenie more tools besides Camera Phones? Oh really? "I bleed for one" - "No block" - "Once more" - "No block" - "Leverage". Oh yes, !Malks can use this card too, as there are no restrictions like "no more bleed enhancers". I just think that it wouldn't be very clever to use it, since we can bleed for 3-4 without it, and larger bleeds are very dangerous (bounce, Archon Investigation, etc.) Probably, Dementation-weenie is the best deck for this card: it's forced to use Confusions (not Eyes of Chaos) to get stealth, so getting some more bleed would be nice, especially in such aggressive deck. But still, Leverage is going to be most popular in the weenies, and enforcing weenies is definitely bad. Mental Maze ------------ Rush is the traditional enemy of stealth-bleeding and stealth-voting decks. Does anybody wants to see a large Setite blocking all rushers and playing Mental Mazes for free without tapping? Blocking rushes is simple enough most of the time... I thought that WW is trying to enforce Rush, but such cards are killing it! Mesu Bedshet ------------- This is the most broken card in the entire set. Getting a new vampire costs 4 transfers + 1 pool. If it's younger, you get additional +2 transfers and +2 pool, so you gain +6 transfers and +3 pool total just for an action that costs 1 blood. That's too good, especially transfer-wise. Setites are going to spread like rats. Let's compare this to the existing cards. Yes, there are actions like Kindred Intelligence and Clotho's Gift that give you another vampire, but you get only +4 transfers and +1 pool (a cost of getting the additional vampire in "normal" way). And there are Governs/Founders of the Ebony Kingdom that provide up to +4 transfers and +4 pool, but you need to have a younger vampire in your uncontrolled region - so if you want to spread a horde, you will have to pay 4 transfers and 1 pool for each new vamp, and this effectively neutralizes the threat of over- spreading. How often did you paid for another vamp just to be able to get pool from your Governs? With Mesu Bedshet, you have absolutely no problems in getting a huge horde. Having +6 transfers for a single action is so insane that Information Highway is nothing compared to this! Two extra transfers per turn? I can have +12 or even more! Looks like the designers don't realize the value of "transfers" at all, as long as they are printing such cards. Players are getting *four* transfers per turn to ensure more-or-less equal speed of influencing vampires. If some player can get *six* transfers just in one action, the balance is completely broken. Moreover, if you just need pool, Metsu Bedshet never fails to provide you 2 pool, as long as you have Setites in your crypt, and the acting vampire is the eldest (use a Discipline card - Setites often use Obfuscate cards for their Waters anyway). Now please think about Dreams of the Sphinx that will provide you even more free pool and transfers, The Eternals of Sirius, if you have some fatties, and superior Public Trust that also moves blood to your uncontrolled region. You can influence vampires so quickly that rushers won't have enough actions to torporize them! Mokole Blood ------------- What the designers were smoking when they designed this? Fetching FOUR cards requiring Serpentis and effectively increasing your hand by these 4 cards! What about 4 Enticements that are going to hit the prey for 12 pool, without any chance to bounce? Or maybe Form of Corruption, Truth of a Thousand Lies to untap and Consignment to Duat? In this case, "burn this card when there are no cards on it" is an *advantage* , since you can equip another copy of Mokole Blood and fetch 4 MORE cards. Anti-Malks are protesting against such overpowered cards! Our Sibyl's Tongue is a fair card for a fair price: you can fetch only ONE part of the combo, not all the combo at once. There are cards that increase your hand size, even "giant stores" like Shulmulo Tarot, but you still have to cycle until you find what you need. There are great cyclers, but fetching 4 cards at once and keeping them in addition to your normal hand is too much. Narrow Minds ------------- So, we really need to hose bounce, aren't we? Bounce is the only remedy from the reckless powerbleed that would ruin the entire game - and now we are cutting the branch where we are sitting. You may say that increasing cost is not much, people will still play bounce, but, you know, if a stealth-bleed manages to slow its prey, it's almost guaranteed to oust it until it ousts its own prey. And Narrow Minds results in loss of 5-6 extra blood per game that could be easily converted into 5-6 more pool via Blood Dolls and Vessels. If they tried to enforce stealth-bleed, they could make more stealth (or better stealth), or more bleed, but hosing bounce wasn't very clever. Surely, !Malks will play this card! Narrow Minds is going to be in *EVERY* bleeding deck, and it will negatively affect the game. Preternatural Strength ----------------------- OK, this card is not broken, but it still is much more powerful than other strength-enhancing cards. Getting +2 strength permanently just for a +2 stealth action and 1 blood is too good. This greatly diminishes value of vampire's additional strength. Yes, I know that cards like Heart of the City and Pulse didn't kill the transient cards providing +2 bleed, but these cards cost more than 1 blood, and, more importantly, a vampire with Pulse is a target #1 for all rushes, while a vampire with Preternatural Strength is a person to avoid :) Besides, you can use +2 bleed only once per turn, while +2 strength can be used several times per turn, either in multirush decks or in blocking decks. On the other hand, Rush decks really need a boost... But nevertheless, it's strange to see that any vamp with superior Potence can become Lazverinus with a single action. Reckless Agitation ------------------- This one is clearly too powerful, despite the cost and requirements. KRC deals no more than 3 damage to your prey, Conservative Agitation deals 4, but only until somebody gets ousted, Parity Shift works only when your prey has more pool. This one deals FIVE damage to your prey, and you will generally have to push it just 2-3 times to oust. Voter Captivation wasn't changed, Awe is the same, so pushing Recksless Agitation isn't too difficult. Too powerful. Unholy Penance --------------- Combat Ends for 1 blood is OK. S:CE and untap is very good, but "S:CE and +1 bleed until you waste an action" may appear to be too good, especially in S&B decks. When your Rush prey is attempting to stop your Setite S&B, you will not only foil his action, but also get +1 bleed against him? Or you were trying to play Reckless Agitation, your prey blocked, you can play Unholy Penance, untap and bleed with +1 bleed? Setites already had the second best Combat Ends in the whole game: Majesty. I don't think that S&B decks needed something even better. Vessel ------- This card is a "dream of all stealth-bleeds". You don't need to Wash that Blood Doll anymore, just convert your own Blood Dolls to Vessels. Pool cost is generally not that crucial for S&B, but the ability to play another master card really is. This card empowers S&B a lot: play more masters and burn your prey's Blood Dolls, all for 1 pool! Non- aggressive decks will still prefer Blood Dolls, since they are free, and you can gain pool immediately. !Malk S&B decks will definitely play Vessels instead of Blood Dolls. But I'm pretty sure that S&B was powerful enough without such hosing toys... 4. GOOD CARDS FOR !MALKS Blithe Acceptance ----------------- Having +1 permanent stealth is good. You will need stealth to push it, though, since it doesn't have inbuilt +1 stealth, but still. This card isn't going to be very good in S&B, because it makes the vampire a target, but it will be very good in the various "fetch-decks" and combo-decks. Use one Forgotten Labyrinth to push it, and you will be able to push several crucial parts of your combo. Fillip ------- !Malks are often used as a support with superior Auspex to play Telepathic Misdirections. Having a good mix of Fillips and On the Qui Vives allows you to wake when you need and always replace the card. Into Thin Air ------------- Almost strictly better than Lost in Crowds, but doesn't get replaced until your untap. Nice to have a pair of these for extreme cases... Jericho Founding ---------------- Finally. I tired of the decks with all sorts of permacept locations. Malajit Chandramouli --------------------- Again, the card for combo-decks that need to push the crucial actions. Omael Kuman ------------ Can serve as a panacea against a close-range Rush, for instance. Losing 1 blood is much better than losing a vampire. Powerbase: Zurich ------------------ Very powerful card for S&B decks. As long as you bleed successfully at least once per turn, nobody will be able to "burn the Edge during his master phase" and steal your Powerbase. Acceleration and pool-gaining are always good. But this card isn't overpowered, since you get only 2 pool + 2 transfers for each action. Tye Cooper ---------- Excellent blocker (immune to non-aggravated damage!) and makes wonders with retrieving Sibyl's Tongues from your ash heap. Use Mata Hari to play him, and then your vampires will cover his action with Veil the Legions. Not sure who will torporize and how, but this depends on the deck. 5. OTHER GOOD CARDS (not including the mentioned above) Bloodlust ---------- Finally, a good way to get a rush for a weenie horde. The price is OK, but why does the card require Presence? This effectively limits it to Brujah/!Brujah unless you are going to take a star like Una. Dream World ----------- Something like Madman's Quill for Setites. Less powerful, but free. Eyes of Blades --------------- Yet another "non-strike Combat Ends". Would be much more popular without the words "Do not replace...". Flesh Bond ----------- Combat Ends for Animalism. Why not? Haqim's Law: Leadership ----------------------- Assamites can bloat. Finally. Kumpania --------- Good Ranvos location. Just one pool, no blood burning. Going to be popular. Loss ---- Assamites can bleed!!! And burn equipment and locations with the same card! Really nice. Lost in Translation -------------------- This card won't affect the metagame much. Two blood is quite a lot, and "younger" is a serious limitation, but the real reason is: not every deck needs bounce. If your deck ousts your prey slowly, bounce will just help your predator to oust his next prey. And you cannot put many copies of Lost in Translation into your deck due to its cost. This card will be probably limited to aggressive decks without Auspex and Dominate - for instance, a voting deck with Reckless Agitations can use it. Mirror's Visage --------------- +2 stealth for undirected action is very good, especially if the action has inbuilt +1 stealth. Nice for equipping crucial things and recruiting Tumnimos. Monster ------- This card is very, very good. You may use it in multi-rush deck instead of Freak Drives (especially if your vamps have no Fortitude), or in intercept deck instead of extra Wakes. Sometimes you can even use it both ways (for instance, Akunanse No Secrets from the Magaji deck). Anneke with Alastor/Assault Rifle will be happy to become Monster, too. The same about Elimelech and many others. Murmur of the False Will ------------------------ Finally, Dominate got a bounce card that can be used when there are only two players left! Precision --------- This makes Celerity-based decks much better. "Discard that Majesty and burn 1 pool. Then, I will rush you". Resist Earth's Grasp -------------------- Finally, some decent stealth for Celerity. Great! Sense the Savage Way -------------------- Very good card for Animalism-based intercept. Now there are enough cards to build real Walls... Set's Curse ----------- A brutal card. Burn ally or weenie and get an ally for yourself, that can block weenies and hit them hard. Really good and anticipated card. Sheepdog -------- Fifth Tradition for infernals :) Slam ----- Potence finally got a strike with maneuver to close range. Great! Street Cred ----------- Pool gain for combat achievements!!! Finally. At last... Target Hand ----------- A decent anti-weapons card for vampires that cannot use more effective cards. And for allies, too. The Eternals of Sirius ---------------------- This is NOT another Zillah's Valley: you pay 4 and get 5, not vice versa :) Your chance of influencing a 8-cap on the first turn are quite good. Even if you don't have any large Setites in your uncontrolled region, you will still get 1 pool from this card. Therbold Realty --------------- Harbingers will be able to build a whole street of Slaughterhouses for free :) And we !Malks will help them to fetch Therbold Reality and other important cards. Trochomancy ----------- Harbingers also got +2 bleed modifier. Not sure why they should need to remove prey's library from the game, though. Underbridge Stray ----------------- Cheap ally that can do at least three things: block opposing vampires, provide you some presses (good for Carrion Crows) and die to untap another minion. Not spectacular, but decent. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. DECK OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Cry Wolves Cry Created By: Ilya Ginsburg (Ector) Description: Anarch Giovanni summon Cry Wolves, then their wraiths! Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 14, Max: 22, Avg: 4,67) ---------------------------------------------- 1 Raphaela Giovanni pot pre DOM NEC 6 Giovanni 1 Francis Milliner pre vic NEC POT 6 Giovanni 2 Margaret Milliner dom for nec pot pre 5 Giovanni 1 Donatello Giovanni aus pot pre DOM 5 Giovanni 4 Luc dem vic OBF 5 Malkavian Antitribu 1 Thomasso Ghiberti pot NEC 4 Giovanni 1 Stephen Milliner nec pre 3 Giovanni 1 Cristobal Ghiberti nec 2 Giovanni Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (13 cards) 1 Hospital Food 1 Anarch Free Press, The 1 Morgue Hunting Ground 4 Proxy Kissed 1 Powerbase: Cape Verde 3 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Seattle Committee 1 Powerbase: Los Angeles Action (37 cards) 10 Gear Up 10 Undue Influence 4 Sibyl`s Tongue 8 Khazar's Diary 5 Shell Break Action Modifier (16 cards) 10 Call of the Hungry Dead 6 Veil the Legions Reaction (4 cards) 4 Deflection Combat (12 cards) 2 Groundfighting 10 Spiritual Intervention Ally (8 cards) 8 Cry Wolf This is a very funny deck that was inspired by a combination of Khazar's Diary, Cry Wolf and Shell Break. You get free counters for the Diary "when unique minion is burned" - not an easy condition to trigger. If you can burn opposing vampires, do you need Khasar's Diary and other tricks? Fortunately, you can use unique ally that dies itself: Cry Wolf. The beastie cost you nothing and lives just one turn. If you manage to play Shell Break on it, your vampire will get +1 bleed and +1 intercept, which is definitely good! Poor Wolves seems to be ideal allies for these horrible Giovanni deeds. So, we need an anarch Giovanni deck. Fortunately, LoN has some low-cap Giovanni with Presence (they are Milliners, not Giovanni, but whatever), and we have FIVE such vampires in 4-5 groups now. So we can use the most effective anarch cards like Gear Up and Undue Influence. I am not a great fan of anarch decks, so please consider this deck just a sketch of a real deck, if you wish to use this idea. I was forced to remove Go Anarchs since there are too many Actions here; you can fetch Seattle Committee with Sibyl's Tongue or just spend some blood to become anarchs. The only !Malk here is Luc which helps with cycling and stealth. You need to find as much Khasar's Diaries and Cry Wolves as you can, since each Diary after the first one adds a counter. As long as you have 8 copies of each card, it's quite possible to find 2-3 copies early, especially with Luc. Don't forget that you can retrieve Diaries from your ash heap with Gear Up, so you won't really need to find 8 Wolves/ Diaries. The first target for your Sibyl's Tongue should be Seattle Committee, if you get it early, or probably Anarch Free Press or Powerbase: Cape Verde. If you don't have Khazar's Diary, you may fetch it too, especially if you have a lot of Cry Wolves. That's all for September. You can discuss the mentioned topics, but I cannot guarantee that I will have time to answer everybody. Sorry for that. Ector