VEKN MALKAVIAN NEWSLETTER: July, 2001 This Month: We're Mad as Hatters and We're NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE! (Malkavian combat issue) Table of Contents: I. Rumors of Gehanna - Fiction II. Implications of Final Nights III. Introduction to Malkavian combat IV. Deck - Tag Team V. Deck - Great White Hunters I. Rumors of Gehanna Anatole leaned forward and looked deeply into the eyes of the unbeliever. "You don't understand. The Final Nights have arrived. The Gehanna is at hand. I have SEEN IT! The helicopters probing from they sky. The starshells bursting. The Giovanni investigator is underfoot. It's all coming. I know it. I feel it. Blood clots and vascular eruptions. Bane mummies walk the earth. The anarchs are arisen. The rules of the game are changed. Tutu is evil, doubly evil! Nothing will ever be the same..." "Uhhh.. yeah..." The clerk looked down as his register. "Look buddy, with the chalupas that going to come to $11.42. Ok? Hey! Where'd he go? Anyone see that guy leave..?" Sigh. "Man, I gotta stop working nights." The clerk looked around the small shop and felt a sharp pain behind his eyes that quickly faded. As he took the order of the next customer he felt a slight itching in his left hand. He found himself wondering if shoving his arm into the deep fat fryer might be a good way to make it go away. II. Implications of Final Nights This issue is about Malkavian combat, but given all the new goodies that have arrived this month, I'd feel remiss if I didn't at least take a look at some of the new Final Nights cards. New Friends: Anatole, Prophet of Gehenna: 8/8 Malkavian AUS DEM OBF dom for If Anatole is ready during your master phase, you may look at the top 5 cards of your library and then shuffle the top five cards of your library. +1 intercept. The bad news is that Anatole is an 8 cap with no title. His special is pretty wacky. Useful, interesting, but not that enticing. And it overshadows his OTHER special. +1 intercept! That makes the total package fairly attractive. He's especially useful in a !Malk deck as a partner or replacement for Kite. Thematically, its also interesting to note the appearance of a Malkavian with Dementation given the clan's transformation from Dominate to Demenation in the RPG history. Does this foreshadow more changes to come to the CCG? Badr al-Budur: 5/5 Assamite OBF cel qui dom (Blood Cursed) Count Ormonde: 5/5 Follower of Set OBF dom pre ser Hmmm... two new 5 caps with superior obfuscate and dominate. What could I use them for? Tactically, there's probably more bad news than good for the Malks in the new set. The biggest implications are likely to come from the new cards that increase casual or disciplineless intercept options. The Starshell Launcher and Marciana are both interesting new additions. The starshell's only-at-range damage makes it a somewhat specialized weapon, but I'm wondering if we won't see it played just to toss intercept around (same with Marciana). National Guard Support is the other gorilla. -1 stealth to the table! As a vote! Very interesting. But it is rare and might not get played as often for that reason. But sneak and bleed just got a bit trickier. Time to come out swinging. III. Introduction to Malkavian Combat The first question you have to ask yourself about Malkavian combat decks is; why bother? There are all these other clans that have a discipline set that supports combat quite well. Why try to make a go of a combat deck with a clan that is notoriously weak? But, with a little imagination we can find a few fun, effective decks that exploit the Malks abilites and disciplines. With a Malk combat deck you've got the element of surprise going for you, as your fellow players will tend to expect your deck to be something altogether different. More importantly, its jolly good fun to go "Hidden lurker. It's Dollface with a disguised Gas Powered Chainsaw! Muahahahahah. NO STRIKE FOR YOU!" ... or something to that effect. Rather the just pontificate, I'll present some decks, and use them as a springboard to look at some cards, tricks, and strategies. IV. Deck - Tag Team I'll do a list of the deck first, and then an annotated version with some notes. Crypt: Normal Malk 2 cap obf Wantenda Malk 3 cap obf Brazil Malk 2 cap aus Dollface Malk 3 cap obf aus Zoe Malk 3 cap obf AUS cel Aleph Malk 4 cap AUS dom Roland Bishop Malk 4 cap obf aus dom Victoria Malk 5 cap obf AUS cel Idalia, Prophet of Guadalajara !Malk 4 cap AUS dem Regilio Nos 3 cap obf aus Lena Rowe Pander 3 cap obf aus pre Franciscus Caitif 1 cap aus Masters: 15 Blood Doll x3 Tribute to the Master Asylum Hunting Ground Powerbase Montreal Humanitas Effective Management x3 Dreams of the Sphinx Heidelburg Castle, Germany Rumor Mill Guardian Angel The Barrens Library: 74 Auspex: 16 Fast Reactions x10 Eagle Site x2 Spirits Touch x2 Aura Reading x2 Obfuscate: 18 Hidden Lurker x7 Behind You x5 Mask of 1000 Faces Disguised Weapon x5 Combat: 15 Fake Out x4 Dodge x2 Lucky Blow x2 Pulled Fangs x6 Taste of Vitae Equipment: 12 Sports Bike x2 Leather Jacket Meat Hook x2 Gas Powered Chainsaw Starshell Launcher .44 Magnum Sawed-Off Shotgun Ivory Bow Sengir Dagger IR Goggles Retainers: 2 Mr. Winthrop J.S. Simmons Esq. Allies: 1 Muddled Vampire Hunter Reaction: 10 Wake With Evening's Freshness x10 Playing the deck: Bring out a bunch of little Malks and friends. Get a weapon on two out (preferably using Disguised Weapon) then use Hidden Lurker and Fast Reactions to nail anyone who blocks your bleeders or gets caught by you interceptors. Lets take a closer look... Crypt: Normal Malk 2 cap obf Wantenda Malk 3 cap obf Brazil Malk 2 cap aus Dollface Malk 3 cap obf aus Zoe Malk 3 cap obf AUS cel Aleph Malk 4 cap AUS dom Roland Bishop Malk 4 cap obf aus dom Victoria Malk 5 cap obf AUS cel Idallia !Malk 4 cap AUS dem Regilio Nos 3 cap obf aus Lena Rowe Pander 3 cap obf aus pre Franciscus Caitif 1 cap aus This is 2 discipline deck; obfuscate and auspex. This crypt has a slight bias toward Malks (this being their newsletter and all). The deck doesn't require, or make much use of superior disciplines. And even though its a combat deck, it will function quite well even if the minions don't have much blood on them. It also requires a bunch of minions to get the tag team effect going, since most combats will involve 2 of your vampires. So, we're thinking small and cheap. Watenda. He's one of my absolute favorites. Not only does he have a killer special, but its sitting on cheap 3 cap. He's a must have any Malk combat deck, and I like to slip him into a variety of decks. Give him a weapon and a way to jump to long range, and he can stymie even very dedicated combat (or S:CE) decks by canceling whatever they had planned. Much fun. Idalia's special will also come in handy. Use her to funnel equipment to the rest of the team. Minion/Blood/Pool Management: Blood Doll x3 Tribute to the Master Asylumn Hunting Ground Powerbase Montreal Humanitas Effective Management x3 Dreams of the Sphinx Lots of opportunity for blood and pool gain. Accelerate your development with Management, Sphinx, and Montreal. Draw any blood more than 1 or 2 blood off your minions and back into your pool. Tributes work well in weenie decks, but I tend to prefer blood dolls. They're more versatile, better in the early game, and over the long haul. Lately, I've been surprise by how often I use them to get blood ON a minion. Very often 1 pool is a worthwhile investment to keep someone from hunting and give you an extra minion to act, block, or get someone out of torpor. Powerbase Montreal is a very powerful card, provided you can defend it and/or get it back easily. If you've got at least 2 of the following: intercept to keep it, stealth to get it back, extra minions to defend/snatch it, then Montreal should be in your deck. When you get it out, defend it rabidly, and go right back after it if it slips away. This is a VERY strong card for Malkavians. This deck will have a lot of combats with "bait" minions who are setting up the Fast Reactions/Hidden Lurker. You're likely to see a bit of torpor. So, Humanitas gets a slot. Keep rescuing minions who end up in torpor. Nothing frustrates another combat deck quite a much as having to play whack-a-mole with a bunch of weenies who won't stay down. Tag Team: Fast Reactions x10 Hidden Lurker x7 Mask of 1000 Faces These cards are the core, the heart and soul, of the deck. Gang up on your enemies, deprive them of their strike. Hose S:CE. Bleed with weaponless dudes with auspex to set up the Hidden Lurker. Block with unarmed obfuscators to set up the Fast Reactions. With a little luck, you'll have knocked 3 or 4 minions into torpor before your opponents have figured out what the hell is going on. I like Fast Reactions a bit more than Lurker because it works well with a Wake to help you overcome the 2-minions-per-action problem. Mask of 1000 faces is really just here because it goes with the theme, to enhance the *surprise* factor of this deck, and to keep your prey guessing. Intercept: Rumor Mill Guardian Angel Eagle Site x2 Spirits Touch x2 Sports Bike x2 Mr. Winthrop Starshell Launcher A mixture of transient, permanent, minion, and location intercept creates a strong blend without eating too many card slots. Look for any opportunity to block and beat your prey's minions. If your predator isn't a offensive powerhouse, then go easy on him. Eating a light bleed or two is actually better than obliterating your predator (even if you can). Even if he goes away, you'll just get a new one. Weaponry: Heidelburg Castle, Germany Gas Powered Chainsaw Starshell Launcher .44 Magnum Sawed-Off Shotgun Ivory Bow Sengir Dagger Meat Hook x2 Disguised Weapon x5 Malkavian combat decks are going to be weapons decks. Weapons decks are much maligned, but I find them quite fun to play, and they can be quite effective. One problem you're likely to run into is that you're playing a combat deck, but until you get a weapon or two out, you're not much of a threat. Cycle whenever you can, as fast as you can, to get to that first weapon. This deck can exploit the advantages and disadvantages of the different weapons. So, I've included a variety. Two of the disadvantages of using weapons; having to take an action to get one, and getting blocked, which not only means you lose the weapon, but now you're in a fight, unprepared. Disguised Weapon solves these problems, but remember that a Disguised Weapon without a weapon card is worthless, while a weapon, without a Disguised card, may be worth equipping. I like 8 weapons with 5 Disguises in a weapons deck to insure I'll get at a weapon early, and should be able to use a Disguised or two along the way. Heidelburg is a very nice card for a permanents deck and can give your a lot of mileage out of a few pieces of equipment. Wish everyone could have a Sports Bike and an Ivory Bow? They can! (well, 2 of then can...) This deck has a lot of expensive toys (22 pool worth!). But you don't need to get them all. Get some permanent intercept and weapons early, discard the rest, and watch your pool. The minions are cheap and there's lots of pool gain, so that should help pay the bills. Combat: Aura Reading x2 Fake Out x4 Dodge x2 Lucky Blow x2 Pulled Fangs x6 Taste of Vitae IR Goggles Leather Jacket Behind You x5 Aura Reading is one of the great cards the nobody ever plays. Forget Tortured Confession. This cards lets you see your opponent's hand just for showing up. You replace it immediately, so it doesn't use a hand slot during the combat, and at superior its a card cycler. Did I mention it's free? I would think this would be worth a slot or two in any auspex deck that expects to see some combat. Note on Pulled Fangs; 1 is more than 0. So, an unarmed Brazil can fast react, punch for 1 and perform all kinds of unlicensed dentistry on the opposing minion. There's also some light combat defense for the "bait" minions. Behind You is a particularly strong (and also rarely seen) card for this purpose. Card Cyclers: The Barrens Dreams of the Sphinx Aura Reading x2 Get rid of permanents you can no longer afford. Strive for that Perfect Hand. Reaction: Wake with Evening's Freshness x10 A lot of wakes. Use them to fast react with tapped minions. Wakes are nice for defense, but they also serve an important offensive purpose in allowing you tap you minions going forward (or getting cool toys) and still protect yourself. Ideally, you can swarm forward attacking your prey, and wake react to bounce back and stop your predator. Ally: Muddled Vampire Hunter Ah, Muddles.. No Malk combat deck is complete without him. Nasty but very, very fragile. Hold back and watch which decks contain Muddles killers. Only commit him to the attack when you're pretty sure he can wreak some havoc. V. Deck - Great White Hunters The is my variation of the Out-Of-Turn Malk Rotschreck deck. The point is to deliver a point of Agg, or threaten to. Send the opposing minion to torpor (will all his blood), and then swoop in with the Grave Robbing. It uses some of the same tricks and combos as the deck above, but also has its own nasty combos. Great White Hunters Crypt: 12 Watenda x2 Malk 3 cap obf Roland Bishop Malk 4 cap obf aus dom Didi Meyers Malk 6 cap obf aus DOM cel Gilbert Duane x2 Malk 7 cap OBF AUS DOM Anatole, Prophet of Gehenna Malk 8 cap AUS DEM OBF dom for Zoe Malk 3 cap Malk obf AUS cel Zebulon x2 Malk 5 cap OBF aus dom pro Ozmo Malk 6 cap obf AUS dom Aleph Malk 4 cap AUS com Library: 80 Masters: 16 Rotschreck x4 Heidelburg Castle, Germany Blood Doll x4 Golconda Rumor Mill Obfuscate x2 Asylum Hunting Ground Fragment of the Book of Nod Powerbase Montreal Allies: 1 Muddled Vampire Hunter Dominate: 6 Grave Robbing x6 Obfuscate: 21 Forgotten Labyrinth x2 Lost in Crowds x2 Swallowed by the Night x7 Disguised Weapon x5 Behind You x5 Auspex: 16 Enhanced Senses Spirits Touch x3 Precognition x2 Fast Reactions x6 Eagle Site x3 Aura Reading Equipment: 10 Ivory Bow x2 Sengir Dagger x2 Starshell Launcher x2 White Phosphorous Grenade Leather Jacket Sports Bike x2 Allies: 1 Mr. Winthrop Action: 2 Bums Rush x2 Reaction: 6 Wake with Evenings Freshness x6 Notes: The big difference between this deck and the classic Malk Rotschreck deck is that it uses interecept combat instead of Maddness Network/Rush. I figure you've got Auspex, so getting into combat out of turn is not a big problem. Since its a weapons deck, you may have to cycle a bit to get to that first weapon. So, better to have intercept, where you can at least thwart, if not demolish everyone in the early game. Then when you're set up, you can begin to pick off and pick up choicest minions at the table. I'm in the club that thinks Rotschreck is a fairly broken card. But hey, you're playing a Malk combat deck. You're entitled to a little sleaze. For Extra Sleaze use the WP Grenade with Rotschreck. The grenade isn't even burned, and at close range you don't take the damage. Honest. But you should bring a copy of the ruling with you: LSJ Date: 1998/10/06 > Subject: White Phos. Grenade Question > Hm, suppose I were to declare my strike with a white phosphorous grenade, > then play Rotschreck...? What happens to the grenade? Nothing. It isn't burned until it is used and Rotschreck pre-empts that use. Similarly, the grenade would not be burned if the opposing minion used "End Combat" as his strike, since combat would end and the grenade would not get used. Pointing this out won't save you from a beating however. Fast Reactions is a nice poor-man's-Rotschreck and will typically have the desired effect. Keep in mind that there's the Golconda in the deck. If you can pick up some poor 8+ cap, you'll be happy to redeem him for cash and prizes. That's all for this month. Thanks for reading. Submissions? Questions? Comments? Complaints? Kudos? Let me know at bswainbank@my-deja.com -Ben Swainbank Prince of Portsmouth, NH