Official VEKN Nosferatu Newsletter for August, 2005. In an act of shameless clan (and self) promotion, I'll first mention that I won a 30 person some odd tournament at Origins last month with, essentially, the same Nosferatu based deck published in Nosferatu Newsletter #51 (June 2005)--"Bats with Birds in Their Mouths." Go team Nosferatu! The tournament winning version of the deck can be found on the Tournament Winning Deck Archive at: http://www.thelasombra.com/decks/twd.htm#2k5originsfri Right. Now that that is out of the way, on to the business at hand. While thinking of subjects for a new newsletter, I was looking at the many new bad decks I had built last week. Focusing specifically on a really atrocious Brujah based Ghouled Ally deck, I thought to myself "Self, this deck would probably work much better if the allies had a default bleed of 1. Hmm. What mortal allies have a default bleed of 1...", which led to this particularly atrocious Nosferatu based Ghouled ally deck, which, while highly questionable, might be so crazy, it just might work! "I Ain't Gonna Be No Repo Man!" Crypt: 2x Teresita, The Godmother (7) ANI, OBF, POT 2x Chritianus Lionel, The Mad Chronicler (6) ANI, OBF, pot 2x Ox, Viceroy of the Hollows (6) ANI, OBF, POT 2x Cicatriz (5) ani, obf, pot 1x Agatha (4) POT, obf 1x Josef (4) ani, obf 1x Shannon Price, the Whisperer (3) ani, obf 1x Tommy (3) ani, pot Avg of 5.16 Library: 2x Channel 10 2x Nosferatu Kingdom 1x KRCG News Radio 1x The Rack 1x Shanty Town Hunting Ground 1x Sunset Strip, Hollywood 1x The Coven 1x Festivo dello Estinto 1x Using the Advantage 1x Archon Investigation 1x Left for Dead 1x Charisma 1x Memories of Mortality 15x Thrown Gate 10x Lost in Crowds 4x Psychic Veil 8x Animal Magnetism 10x Courier 2x Vagabond Mystic 1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter!) 1x Caiaphas Smith 1x Repo Man 3x Unlicensed Taxicab 10x Ghouled 8x Autarkis Persecution 2x The Unmasking Clearly a silly and flawed deck from the get go, but even then, it has some entertaining angles. What got me to this point was, as mentioned above, trying to make a Ghouled Ally deck that had some forward momentum. As most mortal allies have no default bleed, I had to pack my deck with Computer Hackings, which was a losing proposition, as there were never enough Hackings to bleed as much as I needed, especially when most of the Hacking bleeds were destined to be blocked. Thus, I fell back to the !Nosferatu, and their goofy ally, Courier, who comes with a default bleed of 1. On the up side, this means that a Ghouled Ally deck has some forward momentum. On the down side Couriers, especially Ghouled Couriers, are expensive, at 3 blood per successful recruitment. So I messed around, trying to cover all angles, and came up with this monstrosity. In the Crypt, there are two each of the three medium sized no brainers for the deck, Teresita, Christisanus, and Ox, all of whom can use Animal Magnetism at superior. Then, however, the crypt selection becomes a bit trickier. With no other !Nos with ANI/OBF in a smaller size, I had to start weighing the advantages of the various !Nos with mostly inferior disciplines. Two Cicatriz seems like a good idea, as he gets a vote (kind of making up for the inferior disciplines) and has a useful special ability. Then I find myself in the weird situation of saying "Man. How come the !Nos don't have a Sammy?". Which is weird, as I rarely ever use Sammy. But if he were !Nos, I'd be using him now. Anyway, in goes Agatha, who is cute and can Gate people well when blocked; Josef, who can sneak around and use inferior Animal Magnetism; Shannon, who apparently is in every deck I build; and Tommy who, really, is just a 3 cap body for making a Courier. The Master selection contains intercept locations (so allies can block), an ally support infrastructure (Charisma, Left for Dead, Sunset Strip, Memories), and ways to get blood back on my vampires (Rack, Hunting Ground, Coven, Festivo, which synergizes nicely with the hunting option of Sunset Strip). In a deck with all !Nosferatu, two Nosferatu Kingdom are kind of a necessity (as they are so good, you want one early), Using the Advantage is a surprisingly useful card in a long game, and I'm currently in a phase of including Archon Investigation in every deck I build, just so people will worry about it locally. In the minion card selection, there are allies, cards that make the allies work, and general deck support. The core of the deck are the Ghouleds and the Allies, so there are a lot of both--10 Couriers seems like a reasonable number; 2 free Mystics as healers seem like a reasonable number; Carlton as primary blocker; Caiaphas, surprisingly, seems like a reasonable plan in this deck--he'll usually be able to intercept something as soon as you bring him out, and between your prey and your predator, he should be ok, and he can always go out and recruit his pal Carlton; and Repo Man (the impetus behind the questionable deck title), while he can't be Ghouled, exists to pull the Taxicabs out of the deck. With a lot of Ghouled allies who can play a pot strike card, and pretty much everyone in the crypt having Potence at some level, 15 Thrown Gates isn't at all unreasonable, as a lot of time, a Courier will go to bleed for 1, get blocked, and then maneuver and fling a gate. 10 Lost in Crowds for general stealth. 4 Psychic Veils for en masse bleeding--play the Veil and send ten or so minions to go bleed for 1 each at +1 stealth. The Unmasking let the allies block--granted, the Couriers start with -1 intercept, but with the Unmasking, they can block the zero stealth actions, and Channel 10 lets them block a lot of stuff, while Carlton or Caiaphas can start blocking like crazy with The Unmasking in play. Then there is the most dubious aspect of the deck--the Autarkis Persecutions. As most of the master slots are taken up with blood management (as opposed to pool management), and most of my minions will be not real useful for harvesting pool off of anyway, this deck is kind of stuck for pool gain options. Clearly, the best option available to it is Autarkis Persecution--gain 1 pool for every minion you have in play. The obvious flaw, is, well, it gives *everyone* pool, including your prey, who you are pretty slow to oust anyway. This being said, I don't think the card is that crazy, as this deck will likely be generating twice the pool on each vote than everyone else will, people cross table will often help you pass the vote, it will help keep your grand prey alive, and with a couple turns of Psychic Veil masse bleeds can oust when unexpected, especially if your prey over extends himself with all the extra pool you give him. How does the deck work? Well, get out some !Nosferatu, start building an army of Ghouled Couriers, and hope you don't get ousted too quickly. Call Autarkis Persecutions when you are low on pool. Occasionally bleed forward, possibly using the secondary "discard cards off the top of your prey's deck" function if you don't think you can get Couriers through to bleed that turn--given that this deck might make any game a long one, it isn't at all unreasonable to run someone out of a deck (hey--I clearly need a Brinksmanship in here!). When it looks convenient, send Couriers forward to bleed for 1, and if they are blocked, have them fling a gate. When it looks like a good time, play a Veil and bleed a lot at +1 stealth. This might just work! What are the flaws of the deck? Well, clearly, there are many. It might get ousted early by a speedy bleed predator before it can get set up. A persistent rush deck will probably eat it for lunch. Your minions run out of blood really quickly. On the up side, it can generate a lot of pool, set up a reasonably consistent blocking defense, has a reasonable amount of stealth, can sometimes accidentally torporize folks, and might actually be able to oust folks. So there you have it. Another preposterous Nosferatu based deck out of the Nosferatu Newsletter camp (yeah, yeah, Nosferatu Antitribu. I know. I still maintain that they are essentially the same clan.) If you wanna check out all the previous Nosferatu Newsletters, you can find them at: http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html Peter D Bakija pdb6@lightlink.com http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6 "So in conclusion, our business plan is to sell hot, easily spilled liquids to naked people." -Brittni Meil