OFFICIAL VEKN NOSFERATU-ANTITRIBU NEWSLETTER VOL1 ISSUE 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1.1 INTRODUCTION 1.2 DISCUSSION: OUTSIDE THE BOX 1.3 DISCUSSION: ONE TRICK PONIES 1.4 CONCLUSION 1.1 INTRODUCTION I am an avid and religious reader of the other VEKN newsletters. As a newer editor I do not have the raw volume of previously published works that the other editors do. Therefore, I haven't necessarily feel the need to expound on topics outside the clan yet. I find the information exceedingly informative (like Pat's analysis of anti-weenie strategies and Wes's clan analyses) and appreciate that they write what they write. But as far as I saw it, I didn't have a need to talk about broader problems rather than Clan problems. Until now. The following discussion section will have very little, if anything, to do with the Nosferatu or their Antitribu. Feel free to skip to section 1.3 if you want to skip my self-aggrandizing musings. 1.2 DISCUSSION: THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX (NOTE: THIS ENTIRE DISUCUSSION IS BASED ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE BLOODLINES IN VTES WILL HAVE THE SAME CLAN DISCIPLINE SPREAD AS THEIR WoD COUNTERPARTS) I've seen an awful lot of healthy musings about Bloodlines, the future Camarilla expansion, and the future of the game. Its been very entertaining to see what people thought about what was coming. However, what I fear will happen, especially in terms of the Bloodlines expansion, is knee-jerk reactions like "There's only three Salubri. how am I supposed to make a deck around this???" or "Like I'm ever going to use a Spiritus Master Skill Card. this is chaff!" Bloodlines is a very different expansion than what we are used to. White Wolf has been right out front about the purpose of it. to BOLSTER existing card sets, not spawn more clan-specific deck archtypes. Bloodlines will be a godsend to the non-tournament attending Jyhad player, and I think it will most benefit the Tournament player who is flexable enough to think outside the box. Any player of any skill level can look at, say, the Baali and say "hrm. OBF and PRE. this will easily fit into my Settite deck!" Existing deck archetypes will be bolstered in this extremely simplistic manner. However, think about the new archetypes that will spawn. Blood-Brother rush. PRE/ANI bruise/bleed. Mono-Necromancy decks and mono Obtenebrate decks. The sky's the limit. My guess is that you won't be able to make a Daughters of Cacophony deck. Odds are you won't be making a mono-Thanatosis deck. This is not why the set exists. I too had initial trepidation concerning a bunch of new clans and disciplines, but the balance of Sabbat War and Final Nights (other than my belief in the fact that the Ravnos are now the undisputedly weakest clan in VTES) has convinced me that WW and LSJ deserve the benefit of the doubt. We' ll get a set that is not worthless. We'll get a set that will be fun for the casual player and strong for the competitive player who leaves his pre-conceptions at the door. Personally, I'll have a PRE/ANI deck just waiting for the release. 1.3 DISCUSSION: ONE TRICK PONIES The phrase "one trick pony" generally refers to, in VTES terms, a deck that does one thing really well, but does so at the expense of everything else. A weenie potence rush deck for example puts vamps in torpor/ash heaps, but generally bleeds for a maximum of 1, has no intercept, no votes, and no bleed bounce. Nosferatu players are certainly familiar with that archetype. However, what I wanted to talk about in this discussion is the reason why Nosferatu and their antitribu are generally underrepresented in deck-building. My reason for this is simple: they possess two clan disciplines that are one trick ponies: Obfuscate for stealth and potence for combat. I love Animalism. Most of my recent deck-building endeavors have been made with animalism in mind. Animalism has bleed (in Tier of Souls and Army of Rats), intercept (Raptor, Raven Spy, Cats Guidance), Untap (Cats guidance, Guard Dogs, Rats Warning) combat tricks (drawing out the beast, conquer the beast, terror frenzy, song of serenity) and outright beatdown (canine horde, carrion crows, aid from bats, song in the dark). Most if not all of these cards are free, making cycling them very easy. Animalism is as flexable a discipline as you find in VTES. In stark contrast, Obfuscate and Potence are pretty much one trick ponies, providing little outside of stealth or combat beatdown. Below I will outline the cards in those disciplines that fit outside those definitions (they are not many, but some are quite interesting). RAMPAGE: Potence (D) action to destroy a location. Strictly superior to Arson, in that you can replace it right away. In many cases it acts as a free Bums Rush if the location is juicy enough. Great card to play if your prey dropped a KRCG on turn one or such and did not influence out a vampire before you did. I generally include 2 in most Nosferatu decks. (yup, that's the only non-combat card in Potence) OBFUSCATE COMBAT CARDS: Obfuscate has access to a few combat cards, generally used to avoid combat but there are a choice few which should be VERY familiar to Nosferatu players of all types. THE OFTEN USED ONES: Among these, the cream of the crop is Behind You! This rare VTES obfuscate combat card provides a maneuver at inferior and a dodge at superior, but only in the first round. Since both a close-range combat strategy (using potence) and long range ones (using carrion crows, aid from bats, or potence range strikes like Thrown Gate or sewer lids or such) benefit from maneuvers, and the other Nosferatu base disciplines are not exactly rife with maneuvers, Behind You! is a card commonly found in Nosferatu decks. Similarly, Swallowed by the Night provides a maneuver usable in any round, but only at Superior Obfuscate. The inferior power is +1 stealth, which is almost always of use. THE LESS "COMMON" ONES: Most of the rest of the combat cards in Obfuscate are dodges and presses. Vanish from Mind's Eye is a press to end at inferior and a generic press at Superior. Similarly, Quick Exit provides a press to end at inferior, but provides a dodge at superior. I've seen Quick Exit played heavily in Malkavian decks for combat defense. Fade from View provides a generic press at inferior and a dodge at superior, making it seem to be superior to Quick Exit. However there are subtle differences which make Quick Exit MUCH more commonly found in decks than Fade From View. 1) Fade from View costs one blood, Quick Exit is free 2) Fade from View was rare, Quick Exit is common 3) Fade from View was printed only in Sabbat, whereas Quick Exit was printed both in Sabbat and Sabbat War. The last Obfuscate combat card is Concealed/Disguised weapon. Concealed weapon has no use outside sealed deck or a format with card limits. Disguised weapon is strictly superior, and does see some use in decks for one specific reason. it provides you with a way to equip unblockably. The equipping happens in combat (where you generally want to be when using a weapon) so it does not cost you an action, and more specifically does not cost you an action that can be blocked, wasting the weapon card. Back in the day I had an Adrian Paul deck with Nosferatu who would pull Bastard Swords and Bang Nok out of their trenchcoats. It was not terribly effective but a lot of fun. This is already running a bit long so I'll leave the non-combat Obfuscate cards for another Newsletter. IV. CONCLUSION We as a community need to be open-minded. Not every deck will fit a combat/bleed/vote model. Not ever clan discipline spread need be balanced. Not every Bloodline needs to fit a current cookie-cutter deck archtype. En Vogue said, "Free your mind, and the rest will follow." I think Bloodlines will reward those who can do just that. Talk at you all next time Matt Latham Denizen of the Sewers of Detroit