Official VEKN Nosferatu Newsletter for March, 2003 So I have been slacking off of late, as I have written, like, 35 of these things, and Iım simply running out of things to say. But gamely, I play on, and after a funny discussion I had at the North East Regional Championships (where I kinda sucked with The Nosferatu Hate You!, Mk VIII, gaining 2 total VPs in 3 rounds), I came up with a funny deck to design and post, maximizing crazy new Camarilla edition cards and abilities. First off, however, I would like address a wrong that passed through one of my fairly recent newsletters. After the Camarilla set came out, I reliably rated all the new Nosferatu vampires (you can find that on my web site archive if interested), but somehow managed to leave out the new Anti-Nosferatu: Julio Martinez (9) POT, OBF, ANI, DOM, nec. Bishop. +1 strength. Julio may burn a blood to get +1 intercept when attempting to block a Camarilla vampire. *** Julio is certainly solid for a 9 point vampire, what with having 9 points in disciplines, +1 strength, a vote, and conditional built in intercept. You are getting a lot for the 9 points, so if you are going to use him, you had better be taking advantage of all of it. His DOM allows him to fit in with bleed heavy decks with obfuscate (like with the neo-Ventrue who are obfuscate rich). His nec, POT, DOM make him an obvious (and fairly strong) ally for the Giovanni, who can lend some extra stealth with Cloak the Gathering. While Julio is certainly a very usable 9 point vampire, he loses out on his lack of fortitude (that would make him fit in nicely with his larger Nosferatu kindred). This being said, he certainly fits in many different deck types, and if you can afford to use him, he seems very reasonable. Right. On to the deck of the month, which is kind of a silly deck, but might actually be moderately useful. Or not, but if nothing else, it is funny. Based on the interaction between the new wording on Patagia: Flaps Allowing Limited Flight (which now provide limited flight!) and the powerful new High Ground (well, powerful if you have flight), I have devised a Nosferatu/Gargoyle flight based combat deck. Granted, I canıt actually build it, due to my lack of High Grounds (hey--if anyone wants to trade me some, drop me a line...), but in theory, it seems viable. Crypt: 2x Wolfgang (4): pot, for, obf 2x Obsidian (5): pot, for 2x Alonzo Gulien (6): OBF, pot, for 2x Gerrard Rafin (6): POT, OBF, for 2x Ferrox, Rock Lord (7): POT, FOR 2x Nikolaus Vermullen (7): POT, obf, for Library: 4x Haven Uncovered 3x Blood Doll 2x Minion Tap 2x Fame 1x Tension in the Ranks 1x Dreams of the Sphinx 1x Slum Hunting Ground 6x Patagia: Flaps Allowing Limited Flight 10x High Ground 6x Freak Drive 6x Skin of Rock 4x Indomitability 16x Thrown Sewer Lid 6x Increased Strength 4x Bumıs Rush 4x Harass 2x Ambush 6x Taste of Vitae 6x Cloak the Gathering Is this deck good? Probably not, but it is kind of funny. It acts as kind of a combat trump deck, good for punishing your pal who always plays a close range combat deck. Have your Nosferatu grow wings, rush, set range to long, and fling sewer lids till something dies. Youıll tend to avoid damage from most folks, and for those who can shoot you at range, there is some light damage prevention. The Freak Drives make up for the need to waste actions to grow wings, and allow for multiple rush actions with a single minion on a single turn (Gerrard Bumıs Rushes, Freak, Harass, Freak, vist someoneıs Haven, etc). Light stealth can help get the Patagia actions through against someone who really wants to block, and can pave the way for laser guided Rush actions. What are the weakness of this deck? Well, the main weakness is that it is kind of dumb. That being said, itıll have trouble against a predator that does anything quickly, as it brings out minions slowly and then doesnıt have that many anyway. Against the dreaded Strike: Combat Ends, itıs got nothing. At all. So hope you donıt run into any of that :-) On the up side, itıll really trump close range combat, and can kill pretty well. Even with inferior potence, you can do respectable damage, so the master card selection is wider than in most combat decks, due to not really needing any skill cards. As it will pretty much always be fighting at long range (otherwise, well, it isnıt going to work), your minions arenıt going to take much damage, so you can afford to suck most of their blood back into your pool. So that is my newsletter for March--and I think my first of the year. As I am kind of running out of things to say, here is an idea. If someone out there has a sketchy Nosferatu deck that they would like to volunteer to act as the focus for a deck clinic (i.e. you send me your deck, Iıll try and make it better and explain why...), e-mail it to me, and itıll be in the next newsletter. My many old Nosferatu newsletters are archived at: http://www.myplanet.net/pdb6/vtes.html Peter D Bakija PDB6@bigplanet.com http://www.myplanet.net/pdb6 "she tore down Paris on the tail of Thom Paine but the left wing's broken and the right's insane" -Bowie