Official Nosferatu Antitribu Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 2 - November 2003 ---------------------------- In this issue: New tools in the Black Hand Set Vampires of the Month: A second look at Teresita, and Mateusz Gryzbowsky Cards of the Month: Gemini's Mirror + Information Network Strategy of the Month: Intercept Decks of the Month: One Smiling Jack/intercept deck, one pre-BH Bruise+Vote. Introduction: The Black Hand is here at last, and with it the shiny new Nosferatu Antitribu starter deck. There's lots of rich creamy goodness for the clan in the set, so let's get to business. The decklist for the clan starter is archived here: http://www.thelasombra.com/decks/nosferatu_antitribu_precon.txt - thanks to The Lasombra for keeping archives for everybody. New tools in the Black Hand set: The new vampires for the clan are as follows: Teresita, The Godmother Group: 3 Capacity: 7 Discipline: for ANI OBF POT Sabbat. Black Hand Seraph: Teresita gets +1 intercept against Camarilla vampires. Mateusz Gryzbowsky Group: 3 Capacity: 8 Discipline: ANI OBF POT Sabbat: At long range, Mateusz's strikes inflict 1 less damage. +2 strength. Tarbaby Jack Group: 3 Capacity: 8 Discipline: dom ser ANI OBF POT Sabbat. Black Hand: If Tarbaby is ready, you get one extra transfer during your influence phase. Yong-Sun, Harmonist Level: Advanced Group: 2 Capacity: 10 Discipline: aus ANI OBF POT THA Advanced, Sabbat cardinal: Yong-Sun gets +X bleed, where X is the number of vampires in the target Methuselah's ash heap. And two only found in the starter: Tock Group: 3 Capacity: 4 Discipline: obf pot pre Sabbat. Ingram Frizer Group: 3 Capacity: 6 Discipline: ani pot AUS OBF Sabbat. Black Hand. Additionally, we got reprints of Beast, Cailean, Calebos, Christianus Lionel, Dani, Josef, Kendrick, and Olivia in the starter. (Tock, Ingram, Teresita and Yong-Sun round out the starter Crypt.) No reprint for Agatha, Cicatriz, Nigel, Ox, Shannon Price, or Tommy, but those are all still findable in the Sabbat War boosters. What's especially nice is that the BH set reprints the vampires that were formerly only available through the long-out-of-print Sabbat set – with the exception of the base Yong-Sun, due to a misprint. (White Wolf has announced they'll be rectifying the misprint in the near future with a combination of future expansion and a mail-in program.) So now we have every vampire in the clan currently in-print save the one misprint, which is very nice indeed. Library cards for Black Hand include one new one expressly for us: Information Network Cardtype: Master Clan: Nosferatu antitribu Cost: 1 pool Unique master. Tap to give a Nosferatu antitribu you control +1 intercept. It also contains reprints of the Shanty Town Hunting Ground, Nosferatu Kingdom, the Steam Tunnels and Courier. No Using the Advantage, no Dirty Little Secrets and no Gang Tactics. No Unacceptable Appearance either, which I'm sure everyone is terribly disappointed by. The starter contains some other nice toys for new players and old. Out of the new set, the deck holds a Vox Senis, a Creep Show, two Shakars, one Blooding, one Brick Laying, and two Marijava Thugees. The three Carrion Crows are nice for players who don't have enormous card collections, as are the two Taste of Vitaes and the two Blood Dolls. The two Fames are a big help to new players, as that card is currently only available in pre-constructed decks. Oh yes, there's also a Disarm in the deck. Silly me, almost forgot that part. The current newsletter for our misguided brothers in the Camarilla contains a very nice analysis of how the starter deck stands as a playable deck; it's archived at http://www.thelasombra.com/newsletter/nosferatu_december_2003.htm and was written by Peter Bakija. Rather than reiterate Peter's points, I'll just give you that link and suggest you look at his in-depth review of the Starter deck, especially if you're a new player looking to jump into the sewers feet-first. Instead, I'll analyze a couple of specific new cards and strategies. Vampire(s) of the Month: Teresita, The Godmother Group: 3 Capacity: 7 Discipline: for ANI OBF POT Sabbat. Black Hand Seraph: Teresita gets +1 intercept against Camarilla vampires. Teresita got a pre-release analysis in last month's newsletter. Now that we have the full set in hand, we can revise things a bit. Seraph isn't a title, merely a designator, and she's one of only five inherent Seraphs. Teresita is still the only !Nos with Fortitude. Her Black Hand status opens up a number of great, great cards to her, and the Seraph status lets you play with another few useful ones. Even without Seraph being a title, still a great, great vampire. Mateusz Gryzbowsky Group: 3 Capacity: 8 Discipline: ANI OBF POT Sabbat: At long range, Mateusz's strikes inflict 1 less damage. +2 strength. Hellooooo, Mateusz. Quite possibly the vampire in Black Hand that brought the biggest smiles and ‘OOOOOOO's from players when seeing the cards for the first time. All three in-clans at superior, monster hand damage and a liveable weakness, all for only two influence phases. No title, which is acceptable due to the number of small-cap titled vamps the !Nos already possess. No out-of-clan disciplines, which some people will find a pity and others view as a big advantage, depending on their deck. Sure, it'd be nice if he had one more discipline, like basic fortitude or auspex or dominate or anything, to help him stand-alone as the focus of a deck or mix with other vampires. But if you're just going to play straight !Nos, there's no disciplines wasted on him, so for those decks it's a benefit. Mateusz's disadvantage isn't even that bad. The only ranged strikes he's likely to even have a chance to play are Aid From Bats, Thrown Sewer Lid, Thrown Gate or Sacrament of Carnage. Gates and Sacraments still inflict some damage, the Lid still pops for 2 and the Bats still provide a press, which puts you right back at close. (The Lid provides the press as well, as does the Well-Aimed Car if you bother to play with it.) Really, the only strikes that Mateusz would be completely wasted for are the basic Canine Horde (which he can still destroy equipment with) or equipment strikes inflicting 1R. And if Mateusz is going in a deck, you're not likely giving *him* popguns or an Ivory Bow to begin with. Torn Signpost/Grapple is enough to punch for 5 undodgably/un-S:CE'ably with a two card combo. He can get maneuvers off Obfuscate, like Swallowed by the Night which will double as stealth in a deck. The biggest weakness in my opinion for Mateusz is his inability to take damage in return – any hand strike coming back at him will do full damage, and there's nothing you can do about that with his discipline spread if you plan to Immortal Grapple. Or at least there *was* nothing you could do about it, before our card of the month... Cards of the Month: Name: Gemini's Mirror Cardtype: Combat Cost: 1 blood Discipline: Obfuscate [obf] Strike: dodge with an optional maneuver. [OBF]Only usable before range is determined. When resolving each strike against this vampire, flip a coin. If it's tails, the strike has no effect on this vampire. This lasts until heads is flipped or combat ends. A vampire can play only one Gemini's Mirror at superior each combat. Wow. A pretty nice avoidance at basic, but a _very_ useful superior. Some people will look at this and say ‘that sucks, it only stops the opposing strike half the time'. But for the !Nosferatu, that's 50% better than we had before. One of the biggest liabilities of Nosferatu Antitribu decks is that the three clan disciplines can't take a punch. Immortal Grapple and Drawing out the Beast deal with people avoiding, using wacky strikes or guns and bows, but the clan has had zero defense against punches being met with equally potent hand-strikes, or worse, aggravated ones. Gemini's Mirror at least gives a chance to avoid it. The fact that your opponent gets to see you use it ahead of time just means they might hesitate before ‘wasting' their cards on a strike that might not work at all. This card combines nicely with Owl Companion – look at their hand and see if they have the ability to generate a strike you'd like to avoid, then play the Mirror if they do. Information Network Cardtype: Master Clan: Nosferatu antitribu Cost: 1 pool Unique master. Tap to give a Nosferatu antitribu you control +1 intercept. Very, very, very nice. Permanent intercept, as cheap as it comes. Best of all, unlike every other tap-for-intercept master except the Anarch Free Press, it's not a location. No Haunting or Rampaging or Arsons here! Strategy of the Month: Intercept The Nosferatu Antitribu are starting to get spoiled for intercept choices. In addition to the traditional set of Radio/Newspapers, they now have the lovely Info Network to go along with their Animalism retainers and reactions. Don't overlook the two animalism-outferior Spiritus intercepts (Speak with Spirits and Falcon's Eye), as both provide conditional intercept at with basic Animalism – players are used to seeing Cats Guidance and expecting that [ani] vampires can't generate any. Black Hand also provides quite a bit of useful intercept cards to the clan. Legwork is a point for anyone that hasn't tooled up with a Raven Spy/Raptor/Sport Bike. Ministry is 2 points for any Black Hand vampire, possibly three points – and we start with three Black Hand vampires and have the stealth needed to pretty much count on being able to use Blooding if you want more. Watch Commander is another intercept for a Hand vampire. Enough of the clan's heavy-hitters have Celerity (Beast, Calebos and Smallpox) where Rooftop Shadow could be employed in decks featuring those vampires. Let's face facts – with only two [dom] vampires (one a 10-cap), and only one [AUS] vampire, the !Nosferatu aren't going to do much bouncing. So the only two solid defenses left against bleed decks are rushing their vampires into torpor, or intercept. Rushing is easy, and lots of people use this method (especially with Beast). Intercept's your other option, and the !Nosferatu have a few advantages here. The Nos/!Nos have one of the best options for making an opponent pay when you do intercept them, and the !Nos have the shiny new intercept master that the Nos don't have. Ministry/Watch Commander should balance out Second Traditions closely enough where the !Nos actually have a slight edge over the Nosferatu in this arena. Aside from arguably the Tzimisce, nobody else has AUS or ANI with the ability to dish it out like the Nos/!Nos can, and that threat of taking a massive IG/Potence strike and/or Carrion Crows with a range strike makes most decks start counting and re-counting their stealth and damage prevent cards nervously. The Nosferatu Antitribu can use this threat to their advantage – everybody knows that an Auspex deck *might* generate a lot of intercept, but Animalism decks can display it for everyone to see – loading up on Raven Spy/Raptors, Sport Bikes and Radio/News masters. Once you demonstrate the ability to handle yourself fearsomely in combat, you can paralyze decks into hesitating to take any action for fear of being blocked and crushed into torpor. A few backup from-your-hand intercept cards like Cats Guidance or Pack Tactics should keep them off-balance as to exactly how much you can generate, while still showing them your ability to catch all but the stealthiest of actions. And given the extra untaps Animalism provides, that will make your opponents second-guess how many times you can block in a turn. I've also been experimenting lately with mixing tap-to-give intercept and card-from-hand sources with the usual permanent-on-a-vamp types. Due to the popularity of Bike/Raven or One Prince And A Weenie Horde decks in the local play circle, players have responded to ‘this one vampire has +3 intercept on him' by adding more ‘your block fails' modifiers. Putting a few permanents in play that can be applied to any vampire has helped avoid getting caught with only one vampire being locked into intercept mode, and it's been surprisingly effective at stopping all but the most dedicated stealth decks. Decks of the Month: First, a Smiling Jack intercept deck that I've been playing steadily – so far it's only failed to get a VP once (when no Jacks appeared in the first 50 cards), and has earned multiple game wins against a variety of opposing decks. The only cards in the deck that cost the vampires any blood are Atonement and the Rumor Mill, so much of their excess blood can get siphoned through the Blood Dolls to keep you healthy. The masters do cost a good deal of pool, so don't try to bring all your vampires out from the start – you should have more than enough untap to do just fine early one with 2 or 3, pay for 5 or 6 pool of masters, and still have double-digits of pool left to defend/pay for Jack. (I've considered dropping Beast entirely, since he's never managed to enter play yet with this deck; his rush is really just gravy that can be done without – I'd probably replace him with a second Kendrick for the potential votes. Unburdening the Bestial Soul is in the deck solely as a corner-case to pass blood to someone else's vampire cross-table to delay a Jack from ousting them should it be truly needed. Despite the intent to go to long range whenever possible, the Disarms are a nice surprise with Guardian Angel – usually someone's arm is ripped off after combat damage comes out 1-0. Deck Name: Ugly Jack Created By: John Flournoy Description: Smiling Jack/Intercept deck using the !Nos. Untap, block, go to long and zap them for daring to act against you. More analysis in the November 2003 !Nosferatu Newsletter. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 16, Max: 29, Avg: 5.58) ---------------------------------------------- 1 Tommy ani pot 3, Nosferatu Antitribu 1 Tock obf pot pre 4, Nosferatu antitribu 1 Agatha obf POT 4, Nosferatu Antitribu 1 Cicatriz ani obf pot 5, Nosferatu Antitribu, Bishop 1 Nigel the Shunned ANI obf POT 5, Nosferatu Antitribu 1 Olivia OBF POT vic 5, Nosferatu Antitribu, Bishop 1 Christanius Lionel ANI OBF pot 6, Nosferatu Antitribu 1 Ox ANI OBF POT 6, Nosferatu Antitribu 1 Kendrick ANI aus obf POT 7, Nosferatu Antitribu, Priscus 1 Teresita for ANI OBF POT 7, Nosferatu antitribu 1 Beast ani cel OBF POT 7, Nosferatu Antitribu 1 Calebos ANI cel OBF POT 8, Nosferatu Antitribu, Bishop Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (18 cards) 7 Blood Doll 2 Guardian Angel 1 Information Network 1 KRCG News Radio 1 London Evening Star, Tabloid Newspaper 1 Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper, The 4 Smiling Jack, The Anarch 1 WMRH Talk Radio Minion (72 cards) 7 Aid from Bats 3 Atonement 8 Behind You! 5 Cats' Guidance 2 Disarm 10 Forced Awakening 5 Guard Dogs 2 IR Goggles 1 Ivory Bow 1 J. S. Simmons, Esq. 1 Mr. Winthrop 1 Sniper Rifle 7 Swallowed by the Night 1 Tasha Morgan 7 Thrown Gate 8 Thrown Sewer Lid 1 Unburdening the Bestial Soul 2 Zillah`s Tears ------------------------------------ Second, a pre-BH bruise+vote deck from Cameron Roberts. Smack other voters into torpor to insure your KRCs go through. Deck Name: Kendrickandbuddies Created By: Cameron Roberts Description: Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 28, Max: 35, Avg: 7.75) ---------------------------------------------- 3 Julio Martinez ANI DOM nec OBF POT 9, Nosferatu antitribu, Bishop 3 Beast ani cel OBF POT 7, Nosferatu Antitribu 3 Calebos ANI cel OBF POT 8, Nosferatu Antitribu, Bishop 3 Kendrick ANI aus obf POT 7, Nosferatu Antitribu, Priscus Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (12 cards) 1 Fame 1 Guardian Angel 1 Hungry Coyote, The 2 Information Highway 7 Minion Tap Political Action (17 cards) 6 Cardinal Benediction 8 Kine Resources Contested 3 Templar Reaction (15 cards) 4 Cats' Guidance 4 Redirection 7 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (46 cards) 6 Carrion Crows 3 Drawing Out the Beast 5 Fake Out 3 Fists of Death 9 Immortal Grapple 5 Pushing the Limit 8 Taste of Vitae 7 Torn Signpost ----------------------------------- -John Flournoy