Official V:EKN Clan Salubri Newsletter Vol.4 No.2 (December 2006) Of interest to Scholars and Slanderers Editor: Joel Tate In this issue: 1. Introduction 2. Miscellanea et Demonica - strategy 3. The Dwindling Few - featured vampire(s) 4. The Powers of the Righteous - featured card(s) 5. The Hosts of Heaven - featured deck(s) 6. Conclusion - summary & theme for next issue --------------------------------------- 1. INTRODUCTION --------------------------------------- Hello everyone and welcome to a new addition to the Salubri Newsletters. Following on from last month's review of a quarter of the additions to the Salubri arsenal, we shall cover a few more cards this issue; specifically associated with applying counter cards as defense to your decks. The deck featured, revolving around blending counter wall with Undue Influence, is a modification on one of my old weenie Anarch bleed decks which packed with cards for a counter style defense, rather than a block defense. Eurayle Gelasia Mylonas is this month's vampire of choice, and her out-of-clan Presence, combined with other disciplines perfectly complements the featured deck. --------------------------------------- 2. MISCELLANEA ET DEMONICA --------------------------------------- One of the most common forms of a wall deck is the combat wall deck; either using lots of permanents or disciples which lean heavily to intercept, and some nasty combat to enforce the denial. The counter approach is a more uncommon form of wall deck, which aims to prevent or reduce the affect of cards played. The objective of both sorts of wall decks is denial, usually of their predator, and attempts to establish table control. A couple of benefits exist to counter strategy, firstly that the deck stays small, and while not as fast as some decks, it can avoid becoming considered the major threat on the table. The second advantage is that countering can improve the resilience of the deck and you expose less risk to your minions by not blocking. However, as a Methuselah, you are probably aware that at some point you must go forward, and the strategy should not be exclusively relied upon. There are numerous Master cards that can be relied upon in forming counter-walls; as anti-Master card actions, Bleeding the Vine, Sudden Reversal & Wash (discussed below), all act to cancel Master cards as they are played. A special mention should be made for Direct Intervention, a Master out-of-turn that allows you to cancel a minion card as it is played, this single card has saved more than its fair few players from an untimely demise. Minion cards also play a key role in counter-wall, cards which can be used to negate or reduce the effectiveness of your predator / prey's actions form a key component of the deck. Against bleeds you are spoilt for choice, for example Telepathic Counter tends to be the staple choice for Auspex decks, Folderol for Mytherceria/Auspex decks and Ecstasy for Serpentis decks; the benefit of all these cards is that the vampire playing them doesn't tap for playing them. Dummy Corporation, a Master card, can also be used to reduce a bleed against you. If you are tempted to play numerous cards to reduce bleed, Major Boon, a Master out-of-turn can be used in order to aid ousting power. By redirecting bleeds to your prey and subsequently accepting the bleeds through the Boon, when you are bled for a significant amount, burn the Boon to damage your prey. Playing Major Boon on your predator can also be helpful, since they will be more reluctant to bleed for a sizeable amount, else they themselves will feel the pain. There are fewer transient ways commonly used to counter votes, Delaying Tactics can cancel the vote and force it not to be played until next turn. The card Poison Pill, which rarely sees the light of day (or should that be moonlight?), provides a disincentive to being targeted for pool loss, by causing the amount of pool lost in a vote to be inflicted on the Methuselah calling the vote. As with most denial decks, card flow can be an issue, as the deck becomes more of a reactionary force and card turnover slows to effective hand-jam. In order to aid the counter deck play, the ability to cycle cards in your hand almost becomes indispensable. There are many cards that can aid us in this; Fragment of the Book of Nod, Heart of Nizchetus and The Barrens are three such examples. Applying this all to the Salubri, as the clan possesses Auspex at superior on 4 of the 6 vampires in the clan (2 per grouping), they are perfectly suited to reducing bleeds, however are required to either delay, intercept or poison pill any votes played. The Obeah discipline also now possesses its own ways of reducing bleeds, Glare of Lies and Peacemaker, these have been discussed in section 4 to further detail, which further complements counter decks. Card appendix: Direct Intervention Type: Master Cost: 1 pool Master: out-of-turn. Cancel a minion card as it is played. That card has no effect. No cost is paid. If the burned card was an action card, the acting minion remains untapped. If the card was a strike card, the minion chooses another strike. Telepathic Counter Type: Reaction Requires: Auspex [aus] Reduce a bleed against you by 1. [AUS] As above, but reduce the bleed by 2. Heart of Nizchetus Type: Equipment Cost: 1 pool Unique equipment. During your untap phase, if the bearer is ready, you may draw up to three cards from your library and then move the same number of cards from your hand to the bottom of your library. --------------------------------------- 3. THE DWINDLING FEW --------------------------------------- Eurayle Gelasia Mylonas Salubri (Group 4) Capacity 6 for pre AUS OBE Independent. Eurayle may untap any minion as an action. If you control the minion, this is a +2 stealth action. Scarce. Eurayle is a bargain at a cost of six pool; her discipline spread is particularly strong, with the capability to reduce bleeds using the combined disciplines of Auspex and Obeah (Telepathic Counter, Glare of Lies & Peacemaker). Her additional ability to make up for "Scarce" can be used to untap one of your minions, ready for further mischief, or to untap one of your opponents minions to be carried away with a Spirit Marionette in the following action. The basic Presence casts about interesting options with a vote/bloat deck, else she could always play Soul Painting or The Summoning. It almost encourages teaming her up with the Daughters of Cacophony, or even Ishtarri, to provide some defensive support, as well. To me there are few problems with Eurayle, as she will work well out of clan, as well as in, and probably is the most flexible, for cost, of all the new Salubri. The only point is that she doesn't have superior Fortitude, however that can easily be solved with a Master skill card or Sanguine Instruction. Eurayle will team up effectively with the Salubri Antitribu, Harbingers of Skulls and Ventrue Antitribu. She will also work to a lesser extent with the Toreador & Tremere and their respective Antitribu clans. I have also seen Eurayle work well with Hunters, and this shall be seen in a later issue (if I'm given the deck list from one of my group). --------------------------------------- 4. THE POWERS OF THE RIGHTEOUS --------------------------------------- Glare of Lies Type: Reaction Requires: Auspex & Obeah Only usable when a minion is attempting to bleed you. [aus][obe] You may look at the acting minion's controllers hand. [AUS][OBE] As above, and the bleed amount is reduced by X, where X is the number of action modifiers in his or her hand. Glare of Lies is a handy card, especially in games with heavy levels of stealth-bleed, where the stealth modifiers will prove the undoing of the sleaziest of players! Even in a modest bleed environment, the ability to see your opponent's hand, normally your predator, and decide what course of action to take can prove useful. The card fits right in to a Salubri block-wall or counter-wall deck, and is playable by the majority of Salubri. However, due to the card being a multi-discipline card, it's effect outside of Salubri decks will be limited to those playing with Spontaneous Power, Infernal Pact or Infernal Familiar. Peacemaker Type: Reaction Requires: Obeah/Presence Only usable by a vampire who successfully blocks a (D) action directed at you (play before combat). [pre] Cancel combat. The action continues as if unblocked. For the remainder of this action, all minions get -1 bleed and -1 strength. [obe] As [pre] above, and untap this blocking vampire at the end of the action. [OBE] As [obe] above, but all minions get -2 bleed and -2 strength and cannot use weapons. Peacemaker is another card that fits into a defensive Salubri deck although it's uses are less restrictive in terms of playability by other vampires or the type of action. Apart from the obvious use of bleed reduction, blocking with your Salubri allows you to cancel combat and reduce the strength of all minions for the remainder of the action, thus decks relying on cards like Hidden Lurker have their affect reduced. There are two abuses I can see for Peacemaker, firstly combining it with Undying Thirst, to force diablerie actions by your opponent's minions when there are vampires in torpor. The second option is also concerning and pairs Peacemaker with Revelation of Despair, to reverse corrupt your predator; the one relief is a Setite block deck is rare. (Note: Peacemaker cannot be used in combination with cards played after combat, when block is successful, for example Extortion.) Wash Type: Master Master: out-of-turn. Trifle. Do not replace until your next untap phase. Cancel a master card played by your predator or prey as it is played (no cost is paid). That Methuselah gains a master phase action (if the canceled card is an out-of-turn master, it doesn't count against that Methuselah's next master phase). Okay, I'm going into 3rd Edition here, but since Wash fits so neatly into the theme of the newsletter I felt I had to just add it. Wash is affectively the transitory version of Bleeding the Vine, one of the few power cards from Anarchs set and unlike other Master out-of-turns, allows you to take a Master phase action in your following turn (Sudden Reversal et all). --------------------------------------- 5. THE HOSTS OF HEAVEN --------------------------------------- Here is a work in progress group 3-4 version of a counter / Anarch bleed deck. From experience with the group 2-3 variant, which played majority 2-4 cap's, it tends to start relatively fast however does have issues with intercept-combat or a dedicated vote predator. I've included a few new tricks to the deck, for example recycling cards via Waste Management & Anthelios to pull back Wash. Once I've play tested it a bit, I'll be able to see how to best improve the flow and card selection. Deck Name: Eurayle Counter Wall + Undue Influence v1.0 Created By: Joel Tate Description: Get out weenies, make them Anarch. Bring out vampires with superior Auspex to reduce bleeds. The threat of +bleed on minions means people are less likely to block the rest of your vampire's Undue bleeds for one. Anything you don't like, counter & pull back with Anthelios, Waste Management or Sargon Fragment. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 8, Max: 22, Avg: 3.75) --------------------------------------------- 1 Jayne Jonestown PRE 2 Brujah Antitribu 1 Aimee Laroux for pre 2 Daughters of Cacophony 1 Emerson Wilkershire III pre 2 Toreador 1 Justine Chen pre 2 Toreador Antitribu 1 Smash pot pre 3 Brujah Antitribu 1 Maldavis for pre AUS 4 Caitiff 1 Robin Withers dom obf pre 4 Ventrue 1 Tock obf pot pre 4 Nosferatu Antitribu 1 Cristos Mantigo aus cel dom obf pre 5 Toreador Antitribu 1 Axel Von Anders cel obf pot PRE 5 Brujah Antitribu 2 Eurayle Gelasia Mylonas for pre AUS OBE 6 Salubri Library: (85 cards) ------------------- Master (22 cards) 1 Anarch Railroad 6 Galaric`s Legacy 1 Powerbase: Los Angeles 2 Seattle Committee 2 Effective Management 1 Waste Management Operation 1 Barrens, The 1 Heidelberg Castle, Germany 1 Direct Intervention 1 Major Boon 3 Wash 2 Tribute to the Master Action (18 cards) 15 Undue Influence 2 Reformation 1 Smash and Grab Action Modifier (8 cards) 2 Cloak the Gathering 3 Lost in Crowds 3 Smoke and Mirrors Reaction (20 cards) 4 Delaying Tactics 12 Telepathic Counter 2 Telepathic Misdirection 4 Glare of Lies Combat (8 cards) 8 Staredown Retainer (4 cards) 1 J. S. Simmons, Esq. 2 Marijava Ghoul 1 Tasha Morgan Equipment (2 cards) 1 Laptop Computer 1 Sargon Fragment Event (1 cards) 1 Anthelios, the Red Star --------------------------------------- 6. CONCLUSION --------------------------------------- Well, that's it for this newsletter, next issue we venture into the end of times with Gehenna, looking at the various events, and hopefully integrating Alia, God's Messenger, as she fits nicely into a Salubri deck. I shall return to the remainder of the Legacies in a subsequent issue, when I work out how to combine Salubri with the Imbued and other allies. If you have any ideas, comments or additions please feel free to contact me. Hope everyone has a good Christmas / Holidays. Joel Cambridge, UK