Official VEKN Nosferatu Newsletter for September, 2007. A Tale of Two Decks! So this month, we have two versions of the same deck. I was discussing Nosferatu decks with the inimitable John Eno, and he sent me a (tournament winning?) Nosferatu Royalty Anathema breed deck that used G1/2 Nosferatu with titles to make potence kids, call Anathema on his preyıs vampires, and then mass rush them with Potence to beat them up, burn them, and bloat up as he went. Iıve been playing a pretty standard Nosferatu BreedBoon deck for a long time (and got one in the TWDA), but when John showed off his hot Anathema tech, I was totally sold on the awesome. So I completely bit off his deck and made my own version that focused on the G2/3 titled Nosferatu and instead of going OBF/POT like John did, I went ANI/OBF to maximize the use of Calebros, the Martyr. In any case, here is John original deck and commentary: Deck Name: The Witchfinder Army By: John Eno Crypt (12 vampires, avg size = 5.33) 2x Selma the Repugnant (OBF POT, 8, prince) 2x Murat (OBF POT, 7, prince) 2x Nikolaus Vermeulen (obf POT, 7, prince) 1x Calebros, The Martyr (obf pot, 5, prince) 1x Agatha (obf POT, 4) 1x Agrippina (OBF pot, 4) 1x Duck (obf pot, 3) 1x Dimple (obf, 2) 1x KoKo (pot, 2) Library (90 cards) Master (15 cards) 3x Blood Doll 1x Giant's Blood 4x Haven Uncovered 1x Labyrinth, The 1x Mob Connections 4x Potence 1x Slum Hunting Ground Action (9 cards) 3x Blood Hunt 1x Rampage 5x Third Tradition: Progeny Political Action (11 cards) 4x Anathema 5x Consanguineous Boon 2x Nosferatu Justicar Action Modifier (12 cards) 2x Cloak the Gathering 2x Domain of Evernight 2x Faceless Night 2x Lost in Crowds 2x Spying Mission 2x Veil the Legions Action Modifier/Combat (3 cards) 3x Swallowed by the Night Combat (30 cards) 4x Behind You! 8x Increased Strength 18x Thrown Gate Reaction (10 cards) 2x On the Qui Vive 8x Second Tradition: Domain [John Eno]Nothing shocking in the crypt. A bunch of princes to make sure you can play your cards, and a bunch of dorks to get the other stuff done. The only possibly questionable inclusion is Agatha, since she can't interact with any of the Nosferatu stuff (Labyrinth, Con Boons, justicar vote, Nikolaus' discount ability). However, her cheapness, coupled with her abilities to be sneaky when needed and kill folks real good the rest of the time, more than make up for those minor drawbacks. Again, nothing groundbreaking in the Master selection. It's quite possible that Mob Connections would be better off as any number of other generically good masters (Barrens, Dreams, DI), as it generally hasn't actually been used more than once or twice in games I've played. Remember that you mostly want to discard the skill cards, as they're more intended for the Third Tradition weenies than your crypt minions (but having the ability to make Koko super-punchy is sometimes worthwhile too, of course). In the action department, the Blood Hunts will make you sad if you're sitting next to titled Camarilla guys; otherwise, they're much stronger than most people seem to realize - I've had lots of people laugh or give me funny looks when playing them, at least until the vampire they're played on gets evaporated due to Anathema and swarm-rush. Rampage could possibly be something else, but I like screwing with other peoples' locations. The Political section ends up being pretty massive bloat, which the deck needs since it lacks bounce. These aren't votes with much inherent sellability, should you see a hostile vote deck at the table, but you may be able to use strong-arm persuasion to get them passed. It's also possible sometimes to limp along without being able to pass these votes - there's enough toolboxiness in the deck to allow for some flexibility. The combination of stealth and combat appears really ungainly on paper, but tends to work very well in play. There are enough must-block actions that your stealth shouldn't sit in your hand for very long, and enough ways to dump combat cards if you need to, that you shouldn't jam on either one. The combat package is pretty basic, but it works very well offensively and fairly well defensively. "Fair" is good enough defensive combat since you generally don't care too much about any particular minion with this deck, and should have enough spare actions to rescue should something go awry. CEL/guns will probably kill you dead, though you might be able to take them with you as you go down. I know there is a lot of untap, but I like playing with lots of wake-up tech. Also, it's not uncommon to have to tap out with this deck even once you've got 6-8 minions on the table, as both its bleed and rush strategies can be pretty action-intensive. Fun side note: This decks runs out of library more consistently than any other deck I've ever made (including 60- and 70-card decks). :)[/John Eno] So I was so darned impressed by the entertainment value of this deck, I immediately decided to build my own version. Rather than go with OBF/POT, I wanted to go ANI/OBF, figuring that I could use Animal Magnetism for extra vote push and Carrion Crows/Aid from Bats is arguably a more robust combat angle than Increased/Thrown Gate due to the inherent press and the Crows not being strike damage; yeah, less shock value then a Thrown Gate for 10 damage, but also less foiled by most standard combat defense. As I wanted to maximize ANI, I had to go with the G2/3 crypt of titled Nosferatu which worked out well, as then Calebros becomes super awesome and you get to take advantage of Casino Reeds. Crypt: (12) 3x Casino Reeds (9) ANI, OBF, Prince 2x Nikolaus Vermeulen (7) ani, obf, Prince 2x Jara Drory (7) ANI, OBF, Primogen 2x Calebros, The Martyr (5) ANI, obf, Prince 1x Clarissa Steinburgen (3) ani, obf 1x Krid (2) obf 1x Mouse (2) ani Library: (90) Master: (15) 6x Animalism 4x Haven Uncovered 3x Blood Doll 1x Giant's Blood 1x The Labyrinth Action: (10) 6x Third Tradition: Progeny 4x Blood Hunt Action Modifier: (10) 4x Animal Magnetism 4x Lost in Crowds 2x Elder Impersonation Action Modifier/Combat: (6) 6x Swallowed by the Night Combat: (26) 12x Aid from Bats 12x Carrion Crows 2x Canine Horde Political Action: (15) 5x Anathema 4x Consanguineous Boon 2x Parity Shift 2x Nosferatu Justicar 1x Praxis Seizure: Cleveland 1x Praxis Seizure: Rome Reaction: (8) 8x Second Tradition: Domain In the crypt, I decided to maximize Casino Reeds, as he is a totally fantastic vampire--a Prince who comes with built in Grooming the Protégé and does +1 damage with Aid from Bats. Originally, I had Cock Robin in the crypt, but as he is so huge and I often turn Calebros into the Nosferatu Justicar as my first action, poor Cock Robin often got left uncontrolled. Calebros becomes a super star in this version of the deck, as his ANI is huge and occasionally, he wonıt even need to change his title due to the high occurrence of non-Camarilla vampires these days. Jara Drory is possibly a questionable vampire to use two of in the crypt, but she has ANI/OBF in a reasonable 7 capacity package, her Primogen vote is often very helpful in the vote push limited Nosferatu crypt, and her special ability is actually kind of useful, if you can remember to actually use it all the time. In the library, I went with more skill cards, figuring my 3rd Tradition kids will pull most of them out of the deck, and it is handy to be able to give Nikolaus ANI early on. I have lighter stealth, a similarly sized combat selection, although again, the Crows/Bats combination is less likely to be foiled by a single dodge or Skin of Steel. Because of being able to use ANI/OBF, Animal Magnetism becomes a useful vote pushing tool, and I decided to fit a few Parity Shifts in for extra pool gain and offense all in one (and really, who doesnıt like Parity Shift?). Much like Johnıs version, a gun deck is probably going to kill you, but at least having ANI, I can send some dogs out to eat my opponentıs guns once and a while. In casual play, this deck has been doing surprisingly well, winning more often than not. Weıll see how it goes in the next tournament I attend... -Peter D Bakija You can check out all of my old Nosferatu Newsletters at: http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html Peter D Bakija pdb6@lightlink.com http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html "Find hungry samurai." -The Old Man