Hmm. Now that I am no longer MIA, I shall continue with my highly specific look at various Nosferatu vampires. This month, I'm focusing on another one of my favorites, Ebanezer Roush: Ebanezer Roush (8): ANI, OBF, POT, pro. Ebanezer may attack a vampire of your predator or prey, providing that vampire's blood capacity is no greater than 3. This is a +2 stealth (D) action. Ebanezer is a veritable powerhouse of destruction, provided you build the right deck around him. He is an 8, which is kind of pricey, sure, but you can't really lose with his excellent discipline spread (all three in clan superiors *and* the very useful Protean) and he provides the strong backbone for a very damaging Potence/Protean Rush deck. As he has all three Nosferatu disciplines at superior, he can fit pretty well into any Nosferatu deck that can afford to have such a big vampire, but in most cases, you are simply better off using either someone smaller or someone with a title, as if you aren't running a combat deck, Ebanezer's special ability becomes pointless. Ebanezer's special attack option is pretty strong, and while not as good as, say, Beast, still useful in any combat deck. Sure, he can only attack vampires that are 3 points or smaller, but often your opponents have multiple little vampires wandering around calling votes or acting as blood dolls, and even if you attack a useless small vampire, it might be the action you need to undo a horrible hand jam. As it is a permanent Rush ability, it can always be used, and is always worth trying, if for no other reason than to cycle cards. Looking at Ebanezer's picture, you just know that he is trouble. He has blue skin, big claws, nasty, bitey teeth, and a cool outfit that says "Look at me! I'm dressed in scraps! And I'm going to eat you!". While I'm not often real fond of Daniel Gelon's paintings, I think he did a smashing job with Ebanezer. Now, for a deck that highlights Ebanezer... "Oops, that *is* 7 points of aggrivated damage, isn't it?", version 2.0 Crypt" 4x Ebanezer Roush (8) POT, ANI, pro 2x Badger (6) PRO, pot, ani 2x Zack North (6) pot, pro, ani, +1 hand damage 2x Lisette Vizquel (6) POT, pro 1x Daliyah (4) PRO 1x Chandler Hungerford (3) PRO Masters: 4x Blood Doll 4x Potence 3x Info Super Highway 3x Haven Uncovered 1x Slum Hunting Ground 1x Zoo Hunting Ground Minion: 10x Bum's Rush 8x Taste of Vitae 10x Immortal Grapple 8x Torn Signpost 10x Undead Strength 4x Fists of Death 8x Bone Spur 8x Quick Meld 6x Flesh of Marble 2x Owl Companion The immediately obvious problem with this deck is that the crypt is full of huge vampires, you have limited pool gain, and you won't have many action per turn. There is no real answer to fixing that--this deck is simply going to suck in a situation where it's predator is a really quick deck. Once you come to terms with that, it will probably be really fun to play in a game where everyone is using kind of stupid, experimental decks, or where everyone is playing something really slow. Suffice to say, if you bring this deck to a tournament, don't blame be when you get ousted before you take a single action :-) Regardless, the clear purpose of this deck is to Rush your opponent's vampires and punch them for absurd amounts of aggrivated hand damage, hopefully burning them in one shot. With the new aggro ruling (where it effectively takes N+2 aggro damage to burn a vampire, where N is the current blood on that vampire), it will be a bit harder to burn folks, but regardless, many a vampire will cruble to dust in the face of this deck. The Protean gives this deck an abundant supply of good manuvers, which most Nosferatu decks have only limited access too. I chose to use two of the Sabbat Protean cards that provide strong superior abilities (Quick Meld and Bone Spur), but due to there only being 4 vampires with PRO in the crypt, the superior abilities probably won't come up often, so they could easily be replaced with Form of the Ghost and Claws of the Dead. The two Owl Companions are in there so that you will be able to see if your opponent can play Skin of Steel (or Majesty, if you wan't to save an Immortal Grapple). The actions required to recruit the Owls are sttep for this deck, but assuming you aren't already dead, you'll probably be able to spare an action or two to get a pet. Peter D Bakija PDB6@aol.com "He sees the things he knows are his He sees the bright and hollow sky" -Iggy Pop