SALUBRI ANTITRIBU NEWSLETTER Volume 2, Issue 1 December 2005 Author: Mercuriel =================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction II. New !Salubri Cards III. New Valeren Cards IV.New Vampires V. Laibon VI.Sign Off =================================================== I. INTRODUCTION The Salubri Antitribu have received some big boosts with the release of Legacies of Blood. I'm sure everyone is working on updating their !Salubri deck as we speak. I unfortunately won't be able to do that any time soon. I will have to settle with discussing our new tools here, and encouraging the rest of you to go forth and use them. =================================================== II. New !Salubri Cards We have several new clan specific cards: The first 2 are masters: -- Blooding by the Code C Master put this card on a !salubri you control. this !salubri gains 1 level of val and +1 strength and 1 capacity. only 1 BbtC cost is 1 pool -- This is basically our much needed Master Discipline:Valeren, with 1 pool cost and +1 strength. Superior Valeren has improved as well, so I rate this card highly. -- The Path of Retribution R Unique Master Requires !Salubri 1 pool Put this card in play. Salubri antitribu burn 1 less blood when playing cards that require Valeren. Any minion may burn this card as a D action; if that minion is a vampire, he or she takes 1 damage (damage not preventable) when this card is burned. -- Awe some. Valeren features a LOT of 1 cost cards that our low capacity Salubri can ill afford to pay for. All of those cards switching from 1 to 0 cost can make all the difference in the world. I see this card becoming crucial, and encouraging !Salubri decks to wall up a bit so as to defend it. The last !Salubri Card is a useful new action -- Brother in Arms U action 1 pool Salubri antitribu +1 stealth action. Requires a ready, non-sterile Salubri antitribu with capacity above 2. Put this card in play; it becomes a 2-capacity, non-unique Salubri-antitribu with basic Valeren. Move 1 blood from the acting vampire to this vampire. This vampire cannot act this turn. During your untap phase, if you control more ready Brother in Arms than ready unique Salubri antitribu, burn the excess ready Brother in Arms. -- !Salubri decks tend toward the weenie side, this gives them the ability to pop out more of their friends. It's self limiting, so you can't have too many of these puppies. Rather then have to hunt with this new vampire, he borrows a blood when he is embraced and has to remain an untapped blocker. =================================================== III. New Valeren Cards First off we have a spectacular new reaction -- Aversion C Reaction Celerity Valeren 1 Blood [cel] Reduce a bleed against you by 1 [val] burn X pool to reduce a bleed against you by 2X+1 [VAl] Only usable when a minion is bleeding you for 1 or more. Put this card on the acting minion. You still control this card. This minion gets -1 bleed when bleeding you. Any minion may burn this card as a +1 stealth (D) action -- Permanent bleed reduction as a reaction. With the path out it's free. Even at basic it's a useful bleed reduction. If you're playing a wall deck you can then defend these puppies. Next we have some good actions. -- Sense Death action Valeren/Animalism +1 stealth action. [ani] (D) Enter combat with a younger vampire. [val] (D) Enter combat with any minion. This acting vampire gets an optional press during this combat. [VAL] As [val] above, and this acting vampire gets an optional maneuver during this combat. -- At stealth, enter combat with any minion, press at basic, maneuver too at superior. One of the best enter combat cards yet printed. - Shadow Of Taint R Action [dom] (D) Move a card played by another Methuselah on an ally in your ready region to another ally [val] as [dom] above, or move a card played by another Methuselah on a vampire in your ready region to another minion on whom the card could be played. That minion cannot be a vampire older than the vampire with the card. [VAL] As [val] above, and this action is at +1 stealth. - I'm sure this card is very useful. I'm don't know what card's will most be bothering your minions, but I'm sure someone will be able to tell me why this card is a saving grace. Then we have our combat cards - Armor of Caine's Fury C Combat 1 blood [pre] Prevent 1 damage [val] Only usable before range is determined. This vampire may prevent 1 damage from the opposing minion's strikes each round. Frenzy cards cannot be played on this vampire; cancel the effects of any Frenzy cards that already have been played on this vampire this combat. [VAL] As [val] above, but this vampire may prevent 2 damage from the opposing minion's strikes each round. - !Salubri often depend on their weapons. Most of the commonly seen cards that prevent us from using our weapons are frenzies. So here we have a perfect defense against an unwanted drawing out the beast. The damage prevention is wonderful for any val weenies (read Brothers in Arms) that don't have access to fortitude. Damage prevention you have to use before range will often be wasted, but that beats a wasted weenie. Our last library card is a Valeren Auspex combo card. - Eye of Unforgiving Heaven U combat Valeren Auspex val/aus: Strike 2R aggravated damage to all vampires, demons allies and demon retainers in combat. If this striking vampire is burned during the resolution of this strike, you gain 2 pool. VAL/AUS: As above, but the damage done to this striking vampire is normal, not aggravated. - Kind of an impressive card huh? This gives us the ranged strikes we were otherwise severely lacking. I'll bet there are even circumstances where you'll welcome a burnt !Salubri for the 2 pool. =================================================== IV. New Vampires The group 2 !Salubri were very low capacity. There were just enough of them you could make a deck, but the only discipline you could count on was val. After val it was hard to count on any fortitude or auspex. Some even spent a slot on animalism. All !Salubri decks gained access to this formidable new group 3 vamp: - Dela Eden Salubri antitribu Group 3 8 capacity cel dom AUS FOR VAL Laibon: +1 strength - An intimidating Laibon. The only !Salubri with mastery of the clan disciplines, and +1 strength to boot. Dela might even be useful in some other clans AUS FOR deck. If you want alternatives to our prior group 2 bunching, we have some less weenie alternatives in group 4. The all have fortitude and valeren. - Rashiel Salubri antitribu 3-cap Group 4 val for Sabbat. - What we wanted before in a weenie, for val. - Nkechi Salubri antitribu 4-cap Group 4 val aus for Laibon:When Nkechi is in combat she may burn a blood before range is determined on the first round to allow you to look at the opposing minion's controller's hand. - Basic in the clan disciplines, a free special, and Laibon. With half the new !Salubri being Laibon you may want to consider including some Laibon specifics. - Aredhel Salubri antitribu 5 cap aus FOR VAL Sabbat. Black Hand. - Awesome. Exactly the disciplines we want, and it sure doesn't hurt to be Black Hand. Perhaps there are possibilities in a Black Hand !Salubri deck? - Langa Salubri antitribu 5cap G4 for VAL Laibon:langa may enter combat with a vampire controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action - Langa pays 2 discipline slots for her special, but built in rush sounds worth it to me. We partly pay for the rush by sacrificing auspex. If this vampire is always tapped having just burnt an opposing minion, we won't miss the aus too much. And Langa is another Laibon. There is one legendary vampire who is technically not Salubri Antitribu. He is beyond such petty distinctions as Antitribu, having recently claimed total control of the body of the usurper. - Saulot, the Wanderer Group: 4 Clan: Salubri Capacity: 11 AUS dai FOR OBE THA VAL Independent: All damage inflicted on Saulot by baali is reduced to 0. During your untap phase you can move up to 2 blood from Saulot to any vampire in your controlled or uncontrolled region. +1 Bleed. +1 Strength. Scarce. - When I first saw this spoiler I assumed it to be a hoax. They couldn't possibly print Saulot, one of the original antediluvians? Seeing the art helped convince me: http://gallery.shadownessence.com/details.php?image_id=1662&s=6ee849a4b49e2f5fd159f778ea8a3489 His weakness, (a mere 11 capacity!) can be explained by the fact he is stuck in Tremere's old body. Saulot may seem humbler then some other 11 caps out there. Being able to pump blood back to your uncontrolled suggests building a bloat deck out of him. With his discipline spread he would be a tough wall to tear down too. The inferior daimonion pretty much confirms he has had some dealings with the baali. He's not infernal though (which also means he can't use many of the cool daimonion cards). I'm not sure what to do with this critter, but I'm sure we'll think of something. Notice he has a very similar discipline spread to Nergal... If you want to include more Laibon only cards perhaps you'll want to include: - Solomon Batanea Harbinger of Skulls FOR AUS nec Capacity: 5 Laibon Group: 4 Ability: If Solomon is ready, you may spend transfers to move blood from your prey's uncontrolled vampires to your prey's pool at a cost of two transfers for each blood moved. - FOR AUS in common for our !Salubri decks, a Laibon, and something to do with leftover transfers. =================================================== V. Laibon 2 of our new !Salubri are Laibon. It is entirely possible to make a Laibon !Salubri deck. Especially with - Mozambique Allure Action Requires a ready Laibon or untitled vampire. +1 stealth action. If this acting vampire is Laibon, move the top card of your crypt to your uncontrolled region. Otherwise, this vampire becomes Laibon, and he or she untaps if he or she is Akunanse, Guruhi, Ishtarri, Osebo, Assamite, Follower of Set, Ravnos, Lasombra, Tzimisce, Harbinger of Skulls, or Salubri antitribu. - I really like this card. It gives you a reason to be Laibon (you can transfer out of your crypt as a +1 stealth action) and for us !Salubri it allows us to become Laibon and untap doing it. The other Laibon card I would like to mention is - Kerrie Equipment Pool Cost: 1 Melee weapon. Requires a Laibon. Strength+1 damage each strike. Alternatively, inflict strength ranged damage as a strike and, after strike resolution, turn this weapon face down (out of play) until the end of the action. - With this we don't especially need to bother with maneuvers anymore. It allows us to do a ranged melee weapon strike. You can thus use your Kerrie of Righteous Vengeance to do a ranged aggravated melee strike. =================================================== VI.Sign Off I'm not likely to be testing any of these cards any time soon, so I didn't construct a deck. I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave that as a homework assignment. It would be easy enough to just add Dela Eden and some Blooding by the Code, Path of Retribution, Brother in Arms, Aversion, Sense Death and Armor of Caine's Fury to your existing !Salubri deck. These seem like no brainers to me. Let me know how that turns out. -Mercuriel