Dudes, as always the web version is better : http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/TorA12012000.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 12/1/2000 Editors Corner - Ethan Burrow, Prince of Austin I've decided that I don't have enough time on my hands. I apologize profusely, but I will be unable to have my homebrew available during Crusade Austin this month. I wasn't able to brew in time, and thus we'll have to resort to going to a local brewpub after the tournament. I will however, let you smell the brews I currently have in progress. :- ) Incidentally we're having a VEKN Constructed tournament December 16th with Sabbat War boosters as prizes for all finalists. But of course you already knew that from previous posts to rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad and the V:TES Yahoo Calendar. I have built a lot of new decks since Sabbat War's release, and overall I love the expansion. However I'm a big fan of sealed, and having the set sold out (and having wacky vampire sorting) pretty much dampened my spirits of doing leagues and Sealed Deck anytime soon. That can only happen if there are always cards on the shelves, and sadly Sabbat War is too damn popular - but not popular enough to overstock. Ironic isn't it. Well, with the new cards it appears that our Clan has plenty more things to talk about. Let's get on with it! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vampire of the Month - Miller Delmardigan, Teacher of Bahari Ah, Miller. He's easily become my favorite vampire in the new set, and among one of the strongest Toreador-Antitribu in the game. You get a titled vote, you get +1 strength, he pays one less for Celerity cards, and has all 3 in clan disciplines - 2 at superior and Celerity being one of them. He also has an added bonus of having Protean, giving him the 2 strongest combat disciplines in the game. All for just barely Mid- Ranged - 8 capacity. You get him in 2 turns if you're lucky, and he's worth every point. His biggest cool factor is the 'pays one less for Celerity cards' ability. There are only 2 Celerity cards in the game that cost 2 blood, Alacrity and Backstab. All other Celerity cards are free to Miller (except the burn blood cards like Lightning Reflexes). With his +1 Strength, it is not uncommon to see Miller Blur for a lot of damage without paying any blood to do it. Alacrity and Backstab are no longer painful to play with, and actually see a lot more play with Miller on the table. Backstab especially since Miller has Auspex for intercept. Since he has +1 strength and can additional strike at will, he's begging for Taste of Vitae. Use Blood Doll or Minion Tap to get the blood back off of him, and have him go to town. I mean, he has to kick some ass so he can play Taste of Vitae for your pool gain :-). And he also has Protean. Bless him, the guy can make his hands aggravated on the third additional strike. Combat veterans will enjoy the finesse of trying to burn vampires instead of sending them to torpor. Also many other interesting Protean cards become available such as Flesh of Marble, Homunculus, and more stealth. Having a titled vote never hurts, and in fact Miller is *very* susceptible to Bribes. The one thing that Miller lacks is Superior Auspex. Remind yourself constantly that he has inferior Auspex. All Auspex intercept cards will *not* provide to cool extra ability at superior. Telepathic Tracking will *not* get around combat ends for Miller, he has to use Psyche. Miller *cannot* Pulse of the Canaille for +2 bleed. Miller *cannot* bounce bleeds. So if any of these things are important to you, play with Auspex skill cards. Don't make the mistake of forgetting he has inferior at a critical moment. One other thing, Miller, like his clanmate Jost, is a target. Beware of things such as Protect Thine Own from IC members. And never ever leave him in Torpor. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Card of the Month - Telepathic Tracking This card works exactly like Psyche (see my October 1999 newsletter for strategies on Psyche ) except you need Auspex. It's a little better at inferior but works a bit differently at superior, all in all worth the extra blood if you need the extra abilities it provides that Psyche doesn't. At the inferior, it mirrors Psyche by giving you a press. However if you successfully press, you also gain a maneuver the next round. For Toreador it gives us further control over combat. Whether we're using guns for long range or Art of Pain and melee weapons for close range, it'll give us the press and the maneuver much like Flash will. It costs more blood than flash, but Auspex vampires can use it in a pinch, and the superior is really why we're playing with the card. For second round Tremere decks this will help immensly. Use your Apportation/Movement of the Mind to maneuver to long for the first round, and Telepathic Tracking will give you the press, and the maneuver for second round. You can also use the maneuver to help ensure close range if you wish to Blood to Water or some other close range nastiness. Tzimisce need every press and maneuver they can get, and this card is gold to a Tzimisce deck. The superior is again similar to Psyche, but with a slight twist. You don't restart another combat, you continue the current one to another round, even if you opponent played combat ends. All second round strikes can now have a chance to connect, and all before range cards played in the previous round stick around. This is the key to utilizing Telepathic Tracking. The Tzimisce, with the Animalism and Vicissitude skills, gain the most from this feature. Trap, Carrion Crows, Song of Serenity, Terror Frenzy, Horrid Form, Kraken's Kiss, the list goes on. Now combat ends doesn't hose these cards, provided you have enough Telepathic Trackings to offset their S:CE. Lest we forget the focus on our clan, the Toreador and the Toreador- Antitribu now have access to 2 ways around combat ends. Don't forget that Donatien, Mercy, and Sheila don't have superior Celerity, but do have superior Auspex. Telepathic Tracking would allow you to circumvent combat ends without using Celerity skill cards to play Psyche. However each work a little differently, thus mixing them up will ensure more options in combat. Psyche will let you restart combat to avoid the second round nonsense of other clans...or we could start a second round and then Riposte. And then Telepathic Tracking to start another round, and then Riposte, and then Telepathic Tracking to start another round, and then Riposte, and then Telepathic Tracking..... Miller could hose somebody really bad if he had superior Auspex ;-) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Combat Cards and how Sabbat War changed things. Let's look at the breakdown of all the combat cards per discipline, updated from the March issue due to Sabbat War Discipline Other (Pre-Range/Pre-Strike/etc) Maneuver Strike Additional Strike Dodge Strike :Combat Ends (S:CE) Damage Prevention Press No Skill 11 1 2 0 1 1 0 2 Animalism 6 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 Auspex 3 1 0 0 2 0 0 2 Celerity 4 3 2 8 4 2 1 6 Chimerstry 2 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 Dementation 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 Dominate 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Fortitude 1 1 0 0 0 0 10 2 Necromancy 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 Obfuscate 1 2 0 0 3 0 0 3 Obtenebration 2 2 3 1 1 2 0 1 Potence 9 1 12 0 0 0 0 4 Presence 0 0 1 0 1 3 0 0 Protean 5 5 2 1 1 3 2 4 Quietus 3 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 Serpentis 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 Thaumaturgy 3 2 10 0 0 0 0 2 Vicissitude 7 1 4 0 0 2 1 2 Changes since Sabbat War : Auspex - Gained a maneuver, a press, and the ability to start a second round if combat ended. Auspex's first maneuver. Dementation - Gained a strike and a press. Dementation's only other combat card other than Coma. Obtenebration - Gained a pre-range, a maneuver, a strike, a press, and a combat ends. The press is Obtenebration's first, although the Lasombra had access to Potence before. Vicissitude - Gained 4! pre-range, a maneuver, a strike, 2 combat ends and 2 presses. This from a skill that had no maneuvers, combat ends, or presses beforehand. Clearly Vicissitude got the best deal, and we'll probably see more ferocious Tzimisce decks as a result since two of their three skills got a boost. Let's see the clan standings with the new results. Clan Matrix sorted by combat cards descending. Clan Other (Pre-Range/Pre-Strike/etc) Maneuver Strike Additional Strike Dodge Strike :Combat Ends (S:CE) Damage Prevention Press Total Gangrel-Antitribu cel+obf+pro 21 11 6 9 9 6 3 15 80 Brujah cel+pot+pre 24 5 17 8 6 6 1 12 79 Gangrel ani+for+pro 23 8 7 1 2 4 12 9 66 Assamite cel+obf+qui 20 7 8 8 8 3 1 11 66 Nosferatu ani+obf+pot 27 5 17 0 4 1 0 10 64 Toreador aus+cel+pre 18 5 5 8 8 6 1 10 61 Lasombra dom+obt+pot 23 4 17 1 2 3 0 7 57 Tzimisce ani+aus+vic 27 4 9 0 3 3 1 7 54 Ravnos ani+chi+for 20 3 7 0 1 1 12 5 49 Giovanni dom+nec+pot 21 2 15 0 2 2 0 6 48 Tremere aus+dom+tha 17 4 13 0 3 1 0 6 44 Ventrue Antitribu dom+for+aus 16 3 2 0 3 1 10 6 41 Ventrue dom+for+pre 13 2 3 0 2 4 10 4 38 Followers of Set obf+pre+ser 12 3 4 0 5 5 0 5 34 Malkavian-Antitribu aus+dem+obf 15 4 5 0 6 1 0 8 38 Malkavian aus+dom+obf 15 4 3 0 6 1 0 7 36 What changed? Tzimisce and Lasombra went up in the scales, but not quite up to the Celerity clans. Malkavian Antitribu are no longer the weakest clan, that is now the Camarilla Malkavians. I also mistakenly omitted the Ventrue-Antitribu from my the April Newsletter, so I've added them in here, just above their Camarilla counterparts. The last time I touched on this matrix I referred to the City Gangrel as being the best in combat, but lacking in vampires. Sabbat War went a long way towards fixing this, and there are now 6 'true' City Gangrel in the Game. They're still at the top of the chart, and the meanest combat clan out there in my opinion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Deck : Miller dishes out the Pain This is the deck I am having the most fun with currently. It involves Miller, and pretty much scaring the rest of the table. It'll get ganged up on, but that's OK....at least the table respects Miller. If he somehow get's burnt (in my case by a Protect Thine Own), there's plenty of copies of him so you can bring him back out and kick some more ass - especially the one who managed to get rid of him the first time! Deck Name: Miller dishes out the Pain Created by: Ethan Burrow Description: Give Miller Art of Pain, send him to kill vampires. Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 19, Max: 34, Avg: 6.75] 1 Blaise (ANI CEL obf vic, Gangrel Antitribu, 7) 1 Darrell Boyce (CEL OBF PRO, Gangrel Antitribu, 6) 1 Ellen Fence (aus CEL OBF PRO, Gangrel Antitribu, 8, Bishop) 1 Jost Werner (ani AUS PRE, Toreador Antitribu, 6) 1 Mercy (AUS cel dom pre, Toreador Antitribu, 5) 3 Miller Delmardigan (aus CEL PRE pro, Toreador Antitribu, 8, Bishop) 1 Remilliard (AUS pre, Toreador Antitribu, 4) 1 Samantha (ani CEL OBF PRO tha, Gangrel Antitribu, 10, Bishop) 1 Wren (cel obf pro, Gangrel Antitribu, 4) 1 Zachary (CEL for OBF PRO pre, Gangrel Antitribu, 7) Library: (90 cards) Master (19 cards) 2 Art of Pain, The 4 Blood Doll 1 Campground Hunting Ground 1 City Gangrel Connections 1 Fame 1 Fetish Club Hunting Ground 2 Gangrel Conspiracy 1 Giant's Blood 2 Path of the Feral Heart, The 2 Protean 2 Tribute to the Master Action (24 cards) 6 Ambush 2 Arson 5 Bum's Rush 1 Distraction 8 Precognizant Mobility 2 Shadow of the Beast ActionMod (4 cards) 4 Cloak the Gathering Reaction (2 cards) 2 Delaying Tactics Combat (37 cards) 4 Acrobatics 1 Adaptability 10 Blur 2 Bone Spur 3 Claws of the Dead 3 Earth Meld 1 Fast Hands 8 Flash 1 Pulled Fangs 1 Sideslip 1 Taste of Vitae 2 Wolf Claws Equipment (4 cards) 3 Leather Jacket 1 Meat Cleaver ------------------------------- Ethan Burrow - Prince of Austin saark5@yahoo.com http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/