Toreador antitribu Newsletter Issue 38 It seems I always write a newsletter after some big event. Having just come back from Gencon Indy 2005 I have once again felt compelled to write a newsletter. It seems that there are now more game variants for V:TES than ever before, and I had a chance to try out some of them. Hella fun. I had more fun with Create a Clan (http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/index.php?line=cac) than I was expecting, and I had a blast playing clan Previcus as well as making them. You can read my quick synopsis of Gencon 2005 at http://presence.vekn.org/viewtopic.php?t=24. ---------------- Vampire of the Month - Jessica (Advanced) I think I've finally made the decision that Jessica (Advanced) practically wallpapers the original Jessica. For basically one more pool, you get all the same disciplines, titles, etc. with the addition of +1 stealth on political actions. That's worth a pool! Unless you're desperate for the Archbishop title I also don't think merging is really necessary. Sure you can bring up the basic and then merge for a total of 8 pool. But you could also just play with the advanced version for 8 pool and never need to merge. So unless you really need an archbishop, or for some reason you absolutely must have a 7 cap in your crypt, I see no reason to play with the basic version of Jessica anymore. Now that she's an 8 cap as advanced, she has all the following advantages over her basic version : 1. can be target of Zillah's Valley 2. can be target of Honor the Elders 3. can be target of Political Stranglehold 4. cannot be target of Hostile Takeover 5. can use Crocodile's Tongue, etc. on 7 cap vampires now 6. and many others which I'm sure are out there. ------------------- Card of the Month - Powerbase: Rome I love playing sealed/limited as it exposes me to potential cards I normally wouldn't have bothered to use otherwise. Recently I was playing in a league with the Ravnos starter and desperately needed vote defense. Kelly Nine had a Powerbase: Rome that he was willing to trade me, and we double checked the recent text (since we knew it was updated in Final Nights) to confirm that I could use it. I put it in and played a few games with it. I found that once in play I had several turns with no masters, so rather than waste the master phase action I always remembered to add counters. Over the course of the game I had vote lock for at least one vote a turn, and in league it was enough. Fueled by this success, I decided to splice Rome into some of my constructed vote decks to give it a try. I put in the usual Parthenon/Rumours to increase my master phases, reasoning that even if opponents took the action to remove the counters, I could still amass 2-3 counters after untap if I needed to. What resulted was amazing success as I abused Rome with Voter Captivations and bloated like mad, winning tables with several large titled vampires. With the updated text, Rome is now strong. Any clan can use it (and the Giovanni actually get extra use out of it). Other than the fragility of it being a location, it is now something that can stay in play. Much like Madrid you don't need to defend the action to remove the counters if it'll cost you too much. And most importantly, it's now a free card. However the strongest value I didn't expect came from how the votes are generated. It doesn't become associated with any vampires in play, nor have any titled restriction. By card text, it appears that you the Methuselah gain the votes. So all the new 'Vote Pull' cards that negate/switch vampire votes do not affect the votes generated by Rome at all. This fact makes those votes far more useful than those generated by Madrid for example, and should be noted if intend to play with both. ---------------- Vote Lock Module So being a module whore, once I realized the utility of Powerbase: Rome I set out to make a module that I could plug into vote decks. This module assumes that you want to generate votes by using Rome rather than the traditional vote push cards, so it should be easy to pull out Bewitching Orations and Awe from existing decks to put in this module. With the module's push on gaining more master phase actions, the additional masters this module uses should be negligible for master ratios of the deck you're bolting it onto. Vote Lock Module (5 cards) (By: Ethan Burrow) 2 Powerbase: Rome 1 Parthenon 2 Rumours of Gehenna Not surprising, I tend to play Sabbat vote decks that also have Powerbase: Madrid. This enhanced module accounts for this as well as including the Church of the Order of St. Blaise which can be used for either Powerbase to good effect. This is the module I use in all my current Sabbat vote decks. Sabbat Vote Lock Module: (7 cards) (By: Ethan Burrow) 2 Powerbase: Rome 1 Parthenon 2 Rumours of Gehenna 1 Church of the Order of St. Blaise 1 Powerbase: Madrid ------------------ Deck : Vote Lock Test Author : Ethan Burrow Description : Deck built to take advantage of the vote gaining powerbases. Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 6 max: 10 average: 8.17 2x Jessica 7 AUS CEL OBT PRE bishop !Toreador:2 2x Jessica Adv 8 AUS CEL OBT PRE bishop !Toreador:2 1x Donatien 9 AUS PRE cel pot cardinal !Toreador:2 1x Marcel de Breau 9 CEL POT PRE ani pro archbishop !Brujah:3 1x Salinger 9 CEL POT PRE tha archbishop !Brujah:2 1x Lachlan, Noddist 8 AUS CEL PRE dom archbishop !Toreador:2 1x Greta Kircher 7 AUS CEL PRE obf !Toreador:2 1x Sela 6 POT PRE cel obt bishop !Brujah:2 1x Bronwen 10 CEL POT PRE dom obt priscus !Brujah:2 1x Matteus, Flesh Scu 10 AUS CEL PRE VIC priscus !Toreador:2 Library [90 cards] Action [2] 2x Eternal Vigilance Action Modifier [9] 1x Under the Skin 8x Voter Captivation Ally [1] 1x Goth Band Combat [15] 7x Flash 4x Majesty 4x Staredown Master [24] 1x Creepshow Casino 1x Information Highway 8x Minion Tap 1x Parthenon, The 1x Pentex(TM) Loves You! 2x Powerbase: Madrid 2x Powerbase: Rome 1x Retribution 4x Sudden Reversal 3x Zillah's Valley Political Action [29] 1x Ancient Influence 4x Banishment 3x Deploy the Hand 3x Disputed Territory 2x Finding the Path 7x Kine Resources Contested 2x National Guard Support 1x Political Stranglehold 2x Reinforcements 1x Reins of Power 2x Rumors of Gehenna 1x Year of Fortune Reaction [10] 6x Telepathic Counter 4x Telepathic Misdirection