VEKN MALKAVIAN NEWSLETTER - JANUARY, 2002 - BLOODLINES OVERVIEW ISSUE Table of Contents I. Intro II. First Impressions III. New Friends IV. New Cards V. New Enemies I. Intro: Happy New Year. Bloodlines is here, and its the talk of the town. And this Newsletter is certainly no exception. This month I'll be going on about the new set and what it means to the game, and I'll probably even mention the Malkavians a few times. II. First Impressions I like the set. I'm a sucker for new sets in general. I like to get new toys, and in this respect, Bloodlines delivers. And how. When Bloodlines was announced I was among those who joined in the collective *gulp*. Twelve new clans in one set? Who has been calling out to play Daughter's of Cacophony or Salubri? What the hell are they thinking? Well, now that it is here, I apologize for LSJ and White Wolf for ever doubting them. The new clans are nicely developed. Each has a distinctive flavor, and seems highly playable. The set offers lots of new possibilities, and plenty of interesting supplements to existing strategies. It was an ambitious and risky project which has been pulled off beautifully -an admirable display of creativity, talent, passion for the game, and attention to detail. I do have a few quibbles, mainly with the rarity distribution. I'm very happy to see the Uncommon rarity return for library cards. Final Nights was hampered by the fact that some utility cards you want to own and play with 6+ copies of got stuck in rare slots (Provision of Silsila, Path of Paradox, and Deny come to mind). And this has been repeated, to some extent, in Bloodlines. Condemnations, The Call, Engling Fury, and Shroud of Absence, are the kinds of workhorse cards you want more than one of. They are already on the impossible-to-get-list and would have been nice to see at (at least) Uncommon rarity. Also, the sheer size and diversity of the set does come with some drawbacks. It's a hard set to play sealed. And you can't buy a few booster packs and expect to build something coherent. There are a lot of new clans and disciplines. I had to open a whole box before I felt I enough for any one of the new clans to build something solid. And even then I was hungry for more. But, once you do have a good supply of cards, its fun to see all the new and fun things you can do with the relatively few Vampires and minion cards assigned to each new bloodline. The set was advertised as providing supplements to existing clans and decks. The scarce clans work well this way. But, once you accept the notion of a little crypt doubling, most all the other new clans can form a solid deck core on their own, needing only a little help from the older sets to fill out the crypt. Good stuff. So, What Does All This Mean to the Malkavians? III. New Friends The new bloodline that can most obviously play well with the Malks is also one of the more curious additions to set - the elusive Nagaraja. There are only 3 of then. They are scarce, so its hard to play with more than 1 at a time. They have 0 clan-specific cards. And, unlike the other two scarce clans, Salubri and True Bruja, they don't have a cool new power discipline to offset the scarcity disadvantage. So, what do you do with them? Lets look at the new Vampires: Name: Kanimana Belghazi Rarity: R2 Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Nagaraja Capacity: 7 Discipline: pro AUS DOM NEC Independent: Kanimana may put a research counter on herself as a +1 stealth action that costs 1 blood. While she is ready, your hand size is +X, where X is the number of research counters on her. Scarce. Name: Le Dinh Tho Rarity: R2 Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Nagaraja Capacity: 5 Discipline: aus dom NEC Independent: Tho may look at another Methuselah's hand and discard one card from it as a +1 stealth (D) action (that Methuselah draws back up to his or her hand size). Tho gets -1 stealth when hunting. Scarce. Name: Raful al-Zarqa Rarity: R2 Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Nagaraja Capacity: 6 Discipline: dom nec obf AUS Independent: Once each action, Raful can burn a blood to get +1 stealth. Scarce. Check out those specials: Increase your hand size as an action. Free Revelations at will. Burn a blood for stealth. Yowza. With her discipline spread (including obf) and +1 stealth, Raful is a strong candidate for most any Malk deck. I'm intrigued, but not sold, on including the other two in an obf/dom/aus Malkavian deck. Really cool specials, but they lack Obfuscate, and I like to keep my crypt size down. I'm wary of spending for disciplines I won't be using. But who says you can't use that Necromancy with a Malkavian deck? Probably the most interesting thing the Nagaraja can do for the Malkavians is serve as a bridge-clan to the Giovanni, and open up viable Obfuscate/Dominate/Auspex/Necromancy decks. A little extra stealth is great for insuring that those cool allies hit the table. Cloak of the Gathering is there to help those Puppeteers and Shambling Hordes can find their targets. Or Psychic Projection could turn them into blockers. A death-defying Muddled Vampire Hunter and Compel the Spirit?* Now things get interesting. * Quick Tip: An ally that is burned during your turn and then brought right back via Compel the Sprit is not restricted by NRA or "summoning sickness". If he comes back with Compel, Muddles can attack again in the same turn. IV. New Cards Bloodlines also introduces the split-discipline cards for the new disciplines. Most of these are only worth playing if you are trying to integrate Malkavians with someone who has a chance at playing the stronger (non-out-ferior?) effects. But a few of the split-disciplines, and other new cards in the set, can do nice things for a pure Malkavian deck. Name: Clotho's Gift Rarity: C1 Cardtype: Action Cost: 1 blood Discipline: Temporis/Obfuscate +1 stealth action. [obf] Move the top vampire from your crypt to your uncontrolled region. You know that weenie obfuscate deck that your friends won't let you play anymore? This would be a really nasty addition to it. And imagine the crypt machine and free Vampires that can be gained by combining this with superior Govern the Unaligned. I feel all sleazy just thinking about it. Name: Nose of the Hound Rarity: C2 Cardtype: Action Discipline: Spiritus/Auspex +1 stealth action. [aus] (D) Enter combat with a ready tapped minion controlled by another Methuselah. This acting minion gets an optional maneuver in that combat. I'm not the first person to notice this. But allow me to add a few drops to the drool bucket. Ambush with stealth. Get to your target and keep your maneuver once you get there. What's that? You don't fear a Malkavian rush deck? You should. Nose. Disguised Weapon. It's a.... Name: Improvised Flamethrower Rarity: U2 Cardtype: Equipment Cost: 2 pool Weapon. 2R aggravated damage each strike. Only usable once per combat. If the opposing minion inflicts any damage on this minion at long range (even if it is prevented), this weapon is burned and the bearer takes 2 aggravated (non-strike) damage. What a cool card. Do you think a self-respecting-blue-blood-Ventrue is going to pack a Napalm Super-Soaker? Nope. This has got Malkavian written all over it. Burn baby! Burn! Even when some dope with a Zip Gun makes it blow up in Ozmo's face, it's still +2 fun. Thinking about this with Madness Network, Nose, and Rotschreck definitely makes me want to pull together a new Graverobbing deck. Name: Aura Reading Rarity: U2 Cardtype: Combat Discipline: Auspex Only usable before range is chosen. [aus] Controller of the opposing minion plays with an open hand for the remainder of combat. [AUS] Your hand size is nine cards for the remainder of this combat. Discard back to your maximum hand size at the end of combat. Oh wait. This isn't from Bloodlines. It's a old Jyhad card. My mistake. I plugged this card in my July Newsletter, and Greg Willians listed it as one of the 10 Most Underrated cards in his November Rustworks article. But, in case the word still isn't out there, I'll say it again. This is a very good card. I recently bought 4 copies of Aura Reading for 10¢ on ebay. I can tell you, that was the best dime I've ever spent. I've been playing with 4-7 copies of it in a variety of Auspex combat decks, and been very pleased with the results. Great for card cycling. Great for laying out the opposing player's hand. Drop it for free, pre-range, and see what he's got and hasn't got. "How shall I screw thee? Let me count the ways..." I'm even seeing it crop up in the decks of players I've victimized - a good sign that I'm on to something sinister. Name: Mark V Rarity: R1 Cardtype: Equipment Cost: 2 pool Weapon. Gun. 4R damage each strike. Only usable at long range. Only usable once per round. 4 is a lot of damage. But the only-at-long-range clause means to really get your monies worth you either need to build the deck around it, or put it in a deck that was going to be fighting at long anyhow. But I can see a nice little Malk hit-man deck with Mark V, Nose of the Hound, Behind you, Swallowed by Night, Aura Reading, and Telepathic Tracking. Ozmo's revenge! V. New Enemies It will be interesting to see how Bloodlines impacts the overall metagame. But the set does include a variety of new counter-measures that could be effective against the classic sneak-and-bleed deck. We can expect see everything from bleeders getting Doomed to having Frozen Objects fall on their heads. I won't attempt to enumerate all the new dangers, but there are a few that jump out at me: Name: Defender of the Haven Rarity: R1 Cardtype: Action Clan: Tremere/Tremere antitribu Cost: 1 blood +1 stealth action. Put this card on a slave Gargoyle with a capacity above 4. The Gargoyle with this card gets +2 intercept when attempting to block (D) actions. A Gargoyle can have only one Defender of the Haven. You might be able to routinely slip past someone with a Sports Bike. But once minion gets up to +2 permanent intercept, you can be sure he's going to run you out of stealth, and probably sooner rather than later. Defender's not even a retainer you can plink. So, block the action when you see it, or get ready to tussle with the Gargoyle. Name: Blood Brothers Of all the new bloodline clans, these guys seem like the biggest threat right out of the box. VERY strong combat capabilities, and they have access to pool gain, blood gain, intercept, and bleed modifiers. Secure your haven. Wait and watch for Walk of Caine before you play the Deflection. And hope for the best. That's all for this month. Please send along any feedback, suggestions, and submissions to bwainbank@hotmail.com. And thanks for reading. -Ben Swainbank