Official VEKN Nosferatu Newsletter for August, 2006. So as the result of a moderately recent forum discussion on how to go Anarch effectively, and then how not to get gummed up on the "go anarch" cards your deck is packed with, all while actually doing something useful, I put together the following Nosferatu based Anarch stealth vote deck, which, all things being equal, is fairly effective: "White Riot" 1x Alonzo Guillen (6) OBF 1x Gerard Rafin (6) OBF 1x Petra (5) OBF 1x Gemini (5) OBF 1x Skidmark (5) OBF 1x Evan Klein (5) OBF 1x Amelia, The Blood Red Tears (5) obf 1x Jeffrey Mullins (4) OBF 1x Roger Farnsworth (4) OBF 1x Clarissa Steinburgen (3) obf 1x Krid (2) obf 1x Denette Stensen (2) obf 6x Blood Doll 6x Galaric's Legacy 2x Secret Library of Alexandria 1x Powerbase: Los Angeles 1x Powerbase: Rome 1x Seattle Committee 1x Archon Investigation 1x Fear of Mekhet 6x Go Anarch 2x Fee Stake: LA 2x Fee Stake: NY 2x Fee Stake: Perth 2x Fee Stake: Seattle 2x Fee Stake: Boston 1x Fee Stake: Perth 8x Anarch Salon 8x Kine Resources Contested 2x Conservative Agitation 8x Rant! 8x Lost in Crowds 6x Swallowed by the Night 6x Spying Mission 4x Gemini's Mirror 4x Quick Exit The crypt is built with two factors working against each other--the want to maximize weenie Obfuscate and the need to have reliable access to vampires of capacity 5+ to become Barons. Luckily, the Nosferatu and their Anti-Pals provide three 5 caps with OBF and a pair of good 6 caps with OBF--Alonzo's special ability to toss the Edge to look at someone's hand is good enough to almost justify using a second Alonzo in place of Gerry. Then mix in all the rest of the small OBF vampires available, and then weenies with obf, and a good crypt comes together. The one weirdo in the crypt is Amelia, a 5 cap with obf instead of a 6 cap with OBF (or a duplicate of, say, Petra). I wanted to avoid doubling up in the crypt as this deck can get out 6+ vampires in a good game, I wanted another Nosferatu, and I wanted another Baron-able 5 cap, so Amelia it is. In reality, her special (opposing vampire burns a life after combat) is kind of more effective defensively than offensively, as folks don't so much want to get in combat with her more than anyone else, meaning her lack of OBF for bonus stealth and available dodges isn't that big of a deal. In the Master selection, there are 6 Galarick's Legacy and a Seattle Committee (to combine with the 6 Go Anarchs in the Minion selection for a total of 13 "become an anarch" cards) provide a good backbone to get the deck going. 6 Blood Dolls provide some much needs pool income, which can be very profitable due to the Anarch Salons. The secret key to the deck comes from the Secret Library of Alexandrias, which let you cycle cards like crazy when you need to. With so many (necessarily) redundant cards in the deck (13 become anarch cards, 11 Fee Stakes), you spend a lot of time with useless cards in your hand, unless you can flush them actively. Powerbase LA is certainly handy for this, but the Secret Library lets you cycle multiple cards per minion phase, during the minion phase, and selectively (i.e. draw a card then discard, rather than discard and then draw up). As the deck can bleed pretty reliably (i.e. it has a lot of stealth), once the Library is in play, you can cycle very effectively. To the point that this deck runs out of cards in almost every game it does well in. The remaining Master cards are sort of fringe support; Powerbase Rome for back up vote power (here is hoping for an anarch based "Tap for +2 votes" Master card in the future!); Archon Investigation for back of bleed "defense"; Fear of Mekhet to hopefully gain a leg up when facing Justicar/IC vote opposition. In the Minion selection, as mentioned above, there are 6 Go Anarch cards which, when combined with the Galarick's Legacy and Seattle Committee means that most of the time you can become an anarch reliably and quickly. 11 Barons have the same effect--you often can become an Anarch and gain a Barony with the first 5 cap you get into play, and start rolling from there. That there are doubles of all but one of the Fee Stakes is less of a problem than one would think, as occasionally, the table will decide to make you suck it, and vote away your Baronies. Not that big of a deal if you can just become King of New York again on your next turn. Yeah, it wastes a few actions here and there, but really, better than getting shut down. For Political Actions, there is the offense section of 8 KRC and 2 Conservative Agitation (you might draw one early in a 5 player game which is solid, and also helps in the face of Delaying Tactics) and the defense section of 8 Anarch Salons. The offense is pretty self explanatory--oust your prey. The Anarch Salons are very solid pool gain cards that quickly refill your Blood Dolls, get you some pool outright, and can help you win friends and influence people cross table by reminding them that they can go anarch the hard way and reap the rewards of your Salons. To help pass votes, there are the generally less effective than Bewitching Oration, yet still handy Rants! which can get you 4 or 5 votes in a pinch if necessary, and the blood cost is minimized by the Anarch Salons. Once and a while, the Rants! will get someone punched in the face (i.e. if the vote fails, the acting minion takes some damage), but usually, it just helps the deck work better. The Obfuscate selection is pretty generic, with some Lost in Crowds (efficient stealth), Swallowed by the Night (back up maneuver defense), Spying Mission (back up bleed offense), and some dodges (Quick Exit's press to end and free dodge is very useful in a deck that has a lot of OBF and wants to avoid getting hit in the face too much). Overall, a pretty quick little deck that can oust with surprising efficiency when it isn't facing a lot of vote opposition, and when it is facing a lot of vote opposition, it can usually put up a good fight, sometimes ending up ousting folks simply 'cause it is a deck with a lot of little vampires with Obfuscate. It'll get whacked pretty well by persistent Rush, but it tends to do just fine in the face of opportunistic combat. Till next time, -Peter D Bakija You can check out all of my old Nosferatu Newsletters at: http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html