Official VEKN Nosferatu Newsletter for March, 2005 So back in Newsletter 33, I examined the Camarilla edition Nosferatu starter. Yeah, not a real spectacular starter by any stretch of the imagination, but between the Disputed Territory, Arson, and Bomb included in the deck, we finally got the important evidence to support a long standing theory of mine--that the Nosferatu HATE LOCATIONS!!!! Following this very solid, completely non questionable line of thought, and wanting to build a new deck that focuses on a crazy new card, as well as needing something to fill up another newsletter, I present to you, the noble reader, this fantastic new Nosferatu based deck: "The Nosferatu HATE LOCATIONS!" Crypt: 2x Kendrick (7) ANI, obf, Priscus 1x Teresita, The Godmother (7) ANI, OBF 1x Jara Drory (7) ANI, OBF, Primogen 2x Chrstianus Lionel (6) ANI, OBF, +1 hand size 2x Ox, Viceroy of the Hollows (6) ANI, OBF 1x Calebros, The Martyr (5) ANI, obf, Prince 1x Shannon Price, The Whisperer (3) ani, obf 1x Clarissa Steinburgen (3) ani, obf 1x Panagos Levidis (3) ani, obf Avg 5.5 Library: 6x Blood Doll 4x Insurance Scam 2x The Parthenon 2x Information Network 1x Channel 10 1x Rumor Mill 1x Communal Haven, Temple 1x Powerbase: Madrid 1x Powerbase: Los Angeles 1x Powerbase: Chicago 1x The Barrens 1x Metro Underground 1x Police Department 1x Secure Haven 1x Steam Tunnels 1x Church of the Order of St. Blaise 1x Storage Annex 1x Filchware's Pawn Shop 1x Centralized Background Check 1x Nosferatu Kingdom 1x Shanty Town Hunting Ground 6x Swallowed by the Night 4x Lost in Crowds 2x Forgotten Labyrinth 8x Animal Magnetism 6x Carrion Crows 6x Aid from Bats 8x Kine Resources Contested 5x Disputed Territory 3x Rumors of Gehenna 1x Crusade: Pittsburgh 1x Crusade: Chicago 1x Crusade: Detroit 1x Changeling Skin Mask 1x Palatial Estate 1x Catacombs 1x Ruins of Villers Abbey 4x Forced Awakening Kind of a crazy deck with lots and lots of different cards, but the focus is pretty clear--get out lots of locations, use them for whatever use you can get out of them while degrading your prey with KRCs and building a pool base through Blood Dolls and blood gain. When you need to make that last push, and need a cushion of pool to survive, burn down your locations as necessary to survive. Granted, burning your locations with Insurance Scam arguably isn't hugely better than just playing with 31 Ascendances, but while your locations are in play, they give you intercept, pool, votes, and plenty of other wacky abilities that are bound to be useful at some point, and in the end, they'll "accidentally" burn down, leaving you a big pile of pool for that end game lunge. The crypt is pretty straight forward--maximize ANI, OBF and get some votes in the deck. Jara Drory has a vote and a cool ability; Kendrick is a Priscus and has another cool ability (between the two of them and the Storm Sewers, you have a lot of information available on your prey's hand); Christianus has ANI, OBF and a fantastic ability; Ox has ANI, OBF; Calebros is a small Prince--yeah, he might lose his title which might be a problem, but not that often; the three little weenie are ani, obf triplets. No one is too big to be unwieldy, there is a good discipline spread, and Kendrick is often the only table voter you need to get through most of your political actions. The master selection is kind of ridiculous--31 cards, most of which are locations. The Blood Dolls provide income. The Insurance Scams are vital, but not immediately, so 4 is probably the right number. 2 Parthenons speeds up the location deployment, and duplication isn't really a problem, as you can always burn the first one to play the second one. The rest of the locations provide varied abilities, all of which are bound to be useful at some point--intercept, extra votes, pool gain/management, untap, card cycling, defense, whatever. Play them all, and burn down whichever don't seem useful at the time. In terms of the rest of the deck, there is some stealth--not a ton, but enough to get through most votes and the occasional bleed; light combat to cause some damage when intercepting folks or to dissuade Rush actions and to avoid getting punched by no combatant opponents; Animal Magnetism to push votes through; eight KRC for forward momentum; 5 Disputed Territories to, ya know, steal other locations (there are always going to be a few Hunting Grounds at the very least, and sometimes you might score, like, a Ventrue HQ or The Rack or something), Rumors of Gehenna to really get the master cards flowing, and some Crusades so the !Nosferatu slum lords can really represent for the Mid-West. Throw in a few useful (or free) location equipment cards and a Changeling Skin Mask to give Kendrick OBF and act as some last ditch intercept, and you've got a deck. In practice, the deck works pretty well (certainly better than expected...) with reasonable solid pool gain, good vote offense and reasonable combat defense. It has trouble with a lot of really focused intercept and Rush combat, but can usually make it a game in most situations. There is high entertainment value to having a dozen or more locations in play at a given time, and the large pool cushion you can create in the end game is often decisive. Next month, I'll look at all the cool new Kindred Most Wanted cards that the Nosferatu get to play with. If you want to look at old 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 "How does this end?" "In fire." Emperor Turhan and Kosh