Salubri antitribu newsletter June 2008 By: Aidan Knight Introduction It has been quite some time since the last newsletter for Anti Salubri appeared. Things have not changed much since (concerning new cards in new editions); however, this bloodline clan deserves to be mentioned once again... Deck of the Month There are several ways of how to use this interesting clan of knights. You can probably imagine the bruise ’n’ bleed deck with camera phones, laptops and/or Pulses of the Canaille, wall deck with many Eagle’s Sights and other intercept cards, or rush deck with Fames and direct enter-combat cards such as Sense Death. Nevertheless, there can be something fresh. As far as I can remember, the Anti Sal decks were always built around Adonai and his group 2 weenie assistants. Now it is time to take a look at groups 3 and 4... The best thing to do at the moment is to compare these groups. Let us get started from the youngest... G2 Doris Mc Millon is a standard 2-capacity vampire with inferior Valeren and no special. G3&4 does not have a 2-capacity vampire. G2 vampire with capacity of 3 is Kervos, the Lieutenant with inferior Auspex and Valeren. In comparison G3&4 has Rashiel with inferior Fortitude and Valeren. Which one is better? Well, I prefer Rashiel. The reason is simple. If I want a weenie vampire, he/she has to have either one superior discipline or the best combination of the clan’s disciplines at inferior. Auspex is about blocks and deflections, Fortitude about damage prevention and Valeren is a combat winning one. To deflect, one needs to have superior Auspex. Thus, for combat-heavy deck, I find the combination of Fortitude and Valeren as the best for the 3-capacity vampire. There are 2 vampires in G2 with capacity of 4: Wolf Valentine and Thomas Steed, the Angry. Neither of them has all 3 clan disciplines. Valentine’s special is very selective and nearly off use. Thomas’ special, on the other hand, is great but it must not get blocked. Unfortunately, he lacks Fortitude. G3&4 has Nkechi, a 4-cap vampire with innate clan disciplines at inferior and a useful special... Moreover, she is Laibon, which can give you more cards to consider when building such a deck. No 5-cap vampire for Anti Salubri in G2... G3&4, well, well, one good vampire and one superstar... Though Langa has only Fortitude at inferior and Valeren at superior, his special is worth noticing. Enter combat with ANY other vampire in play... Pity this action has no stealth and will be often blocked. But then, if I cannot kick the butt of the vampire I want to, why not kick someone else’s butt (especially a vampire of the same Methuselah)...? And the superstar? Here goes... Aredhel, a 5-cap vampire with inferior Auspex and (!!!) superior Fortitude and Valeren. And she is even Black Hand, interesting... The capacity of 7 is represented by Adonai, the G2 top vampire and honestly, probably the best Anti Sal ever printed yet. He lacks superior Fortitude, but he can enter combat with a Camarilla vampire and has innate +1 bleed. Cool guy. Last but not least, Dela Eden, the only Anti Sal to have all three clan disciplines at superior. Being Laibon and having +1 strength makes Dela a fantastic vampire for both G2 and G4 crypt, since she is G3. In my opinion, the comparison is a little in favor of groups 2 & 3, but group 3 & 4 vampires have better choice to find perfect friends and library cards for Laibon. More to the point, since each of G3&4 vampires has Fortitude, prevent cards come to consideration. Solomon Batanea is my first choice when looking for a suitable addition with superior Auspex and Fortitude. Right behind him in line is Neighbor John with only inferior Fortitude but with +1 intercept, what makes him the best blocker and a worthy deflector. The worst fact that I found out is that there is no suitable 6-cap vampire around, best choice being Mariel St. John, which is worse than both John and Solomon. Some of you may already have tested Blackhorse Tanner, a 7-capacity anti Ventrue with one of the coolest specials... As to the library cards, there is one master providing huge advantage as long as you play Laibon: Powerbase: Tshwane. More to the point, Laibon is the only sect to have a melee weapon that may be used as ranged one... yes, you know it, too... Kerrie. Until Kerrie appeared there was no possibility to deal with long range. Now, there is Kerrie and Eye of the Unforgiving Heaven as well. To give my thoughts a halt, here is the deck. Crypt 12 vampires, capacity min. 3, max. 8, average 5.42 3x Dela Eden cap 8 cel dom AUS FOR VAL Salubri antitribu 2x Aredhel cap 5 aus FOR VAL Salubri antitribu 1x Langa cap 5 for VAL Salubri antitribu 2x Solomon Batanea cap 5 nec AUS FOR Harbingers of Skull 1x Neighbor John cap 5 dom for AUS Ventrue antitribu 2x Nkechi cap 4 aus for val Salubri antitribu 1x Rashiel cap 3 for val Salubri antitribu Library (90) Master (14) 1x Auspex 1x Fortitude 1x Blooding by the Code 2x Path of Retribution 2x Vessel 3x Blood Doll 1x Powerbase: Tshwane 1x Dreams of the Sphinx 1x WMRH Talk Radio 1x KRCG News Radio Action (10) 3x Sense Death Enter combat, one of the best around. 3x Brother in Arms Weenie deck may profit from these little soldiers... 2x Sense Vitality 2x Blessing of the Name Ousting-your-prey card. Use wisely, it will pay off. Action Modifier (2) 2x Gift of Bellona If your prey and predator are smart enough, they will try to block your equip actions. Gift is the way to avoid wasting your precious weapons... Combat (31) 2x Armor of Caine’s Fury Sorry, dude, no Rotschreck... 1x Concealed Weapon One copy in addition to 2 Gifts should be enough... 3x Sword of the Righteous 2x Eye of the Unforgiving Heaven 6x Vengeance of Samiel Combat winning cards. You need to stay alive though, thus... 3x Skin of Rock 3x Unflinching Persistence 2x Soak 3x Rolling with the Punches ...I opted for cheaper prevent cards. 3x Taste of Vitae 3x Telepathic Tracking None will escape... Reaction (24) 5x On the Qui Vive 2x Forced Awakening 3x My Enemy’s Enemy 4x Telepathic Misdirection 4x Eagle’s Sight 4x Spirit’s Touch 2x Enhanced Senses Equipment (9) 1x Kduva’s Mask Cool thing for Laibon... 1x Pier 13, Port of Baltimore So the equips are easier... 2x Camera Phone In such deck, I consider the Camera to be better than Laptop... 1x Crimson Sentinel 1x Nightstick 1x Bang Nakh – Tiger’s Claws 2x Kerrie Well, eight out of our twelve vampires are Laibon, Kerrie rules... Sign off... Well, there it is. The alpha version. Comments and your experience with this clan are welcome. Feel free to send me an e-mail: aidanknight@seznam.cz