For all you web-saavy people - http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/newsletterarchive.html looks prettier and has links o' plenty. ------------------ 2/1/2001 Editors Corner - Ethan Burrow, Prince of Austin OK, so I skipped last month. I was having a busy month and something had to give. On a side note, and I don't want to jump the gun without confirming it...but hopefully there will be a surprise next week. You'll know it when you see it. And if things don't go to plan, I'll cry myself to sleep in the corner. BTW, we hope to have tournaments slated for March and July in Dallas. While we don't have confirmed dates, if you want to tickle Mike Ooi you should probably keep the weekends of those months open just in case. Don't worry, we'll announce when we know for sure. Oh, and the Assamites suck. Reap it Derek Ray! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vampire of the Month - Greta Kircher The third new vampire our clan received in the Sabbat War expansion, Greta's special ability makes her unique in the game and gives our clan a major boost. Another 7 capacity vampire with all three in-clan superiors is a definite boost for the clan. Plus the discipline obfuscate, the first vampire in our clan to receive this skill. She can surprisingly enough fit in well with Setites (who could use the bleed defense), but otherwise this skill will probably not be used with other members of our clan for some time. Her special ability warrants special attention. She can reduce each bleed by one, and she doesn't have to be untapped to do it. This is huge. Couple that with Telepathic Counter and you can reduce bleeds by 3. Give her ways to gain extra blood such as The Rack, Blood of the Sabbat, Aaron's Feeding Razor, Hungry Coyote, Palatial Estate, etc. and you can really shutdown small bleed decks and even hold off weenie swarms if you can continue to refill Greta every turn. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Card of the Month - Telepathic Misdirection When you hear of bleed defense, you immediately think of Dominate (Deflection/Redirection). While dominate is able to bounce at inferior, I still think Telepathic Misdirection is the superior card. At inferior you get intercept. Sure you pay a blood for it, but casual intercept can go a long way. At superior it bounces bleeds. It does tap you, but aside from dominate this is one of the only other bleed bounce cards. With bleed bounce being so important to tournament survival, you either play with dominate or you play with this card or it's cheaper and weaker cousin My Enemy's Enemy. This card has so many defensive capabilities that it will never jam your hand. If you aren't being bled you can still use it to intercept. Consequently you can also still use this card once you reach a two player game. The versatility of this card far outweighs it's blood cost. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Homework Assignments - an exercise in creative deckbuilding For the past couple of years, we've been daring each other to make certain decks. We'd pick a card we assumed useless, and then task a person to actually build a deck using that card. Most often, the results were surprising...as the card we once thought sucked finally became useful. Other times, it actually becomes a catalyst for a further refined deck idea that performs real well. Previous (but not all) Homework assignments for Austin players : Build a deck that uses Regeneration. Build a deck that uses Soul Stealing. Build a deck around Imogen using all of her disciplines. Build a deck with Twisting the Knife. Build a Malkavian-Antitribu Rush deck. You get the idea. Well, since it's become so popular in Austin (i.e. people continually ask me for a homework assignment), I figured I'll make it a regular installment in the newsletter so that r.g.t-c.j can join in. Anyone is welcome to submit their decks to me resulting from the assignment. I will pick the best deck based on my personal opinion using innovation, success in games, fun, and theme accuracy. The winning deck will be posted in the next newsletter, in addition to the owner of the deck gaining the respect of the Austin Coterie (and who knows what other boon in the future). This month's homework assignment - Due February 28th, 2001 Construct a deck using Violet Tremain. The deck *must* utilize all of her disciplines. Good Luck! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Deck Name: You will never bleed me much as I bleed you Created by: Ethan Burrow Description: Unforgiving Tap/Bleed deck, with moderate pool gain. Use Greta to reduce all bleeds unless for 4 or more. For the vampires with a big ego, you give them an Archon Investigation. Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 17, Max: 37, Avg: 6.67] 1 Donatien (AUS cel pot PRE, Toreador Antitribu, 9, Cardinal) 2 Greta Kircher (AUS CEL obf PRE, Toreador Antitribu, 7) 1 Jost Werner (ani AUS PRE, Toreador Antitribu, 6) 1 Lachlan (AUS CEL dom PRE, Toreador Antitribu, 8, Archbishop) 1 Lolita (for pre, Toreador Antitribu, 3) 2 Matteus (AUS CEL PRE VIC, Toreador Antitribu, 10, Priscus) 2 Mercy (AUS cel dom pre, Toreador Antitribu, 5) 1 Remilliard (AUS pre, Toreador Antitribu, 4) 1 Sheila Mezarin (AUS cel for PRE, Toreador Antitribu, 6) Library: (90 cards) Master (22 cards) 2 Archon Investigation 4 Blood Doll 1 Hungry Coyote, The 3 Information Highway 3 Palla Grande 3 Storage Annex 5 Sudden Reversal 1 Tomb of Rameses III Action (37 cards) 6 Art Scam 1 Blood of the Sabbat 1 Bloodbath 2 Cull the Herd 1 Entrancement 2 Eternal Vigilance 11 Legal Manipulations 6 Mind Numb 4 Patronage 3 Pulse of the Canaille ActionMod (1 card) 1 Aire of Elation Reaction (10 cards) 1 My Enemy's Enemy 9 Telepathic Counter Combat (13 cards) 9 Majesty 4 Staredown Retainer (3 cards) 1 Jackie Therman 2 Marijava Ghoul Equipment (4 cards) 1 IR Goggles 2 Leather Jacket 1 Palatial Estate ------------------------------- Ethan Burrow - Prince of Austin saark5@yahoo.com http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/