7/8/2000 Editors Corner - Ethan Burrow, Prince of Austin Now how the hell am I going to write about all my experiences from DragonCon and meet the first week of the month deadline for newsletters?? The answer : I can't, so that's why this is delayed a week. After thinking about it, I decided to move a lot of my ramblings of the 4 day convention to the 'Tour of the domains' area I'm starting to build. It seemed to fit there better, and will not bloat this newsletter into being more of an editorial than it needs to be. I'll post the URL to this page when I finish it up, and I'll also link to it from the Austin homepage. As a footnote, I wanted to mention what a pleasure it was meeting all of you at DragonCon. Posting to this newsgroup now has new meaning for me, since I've now met a lot of you, and it will feel more like friends discussing their favorite game as opposed to strangers. Not only that, but the pleasure of playing in a tournament with 40 players was truly a treat. I only regret I didn't get more time to talk with all of you, namely Steve Wieck and LSJ. Seems like they were busier than I was ;-) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vampire of the Month - Jessica A solid, no frills, vampire for our clan. Has all 3 in clan superiors, as well as a title of Bishop. Having incidental votes is always handy for bribes, and you never know when one vote will sway a referendum. She is probably worth the cost if that was all, but she's also blessed with superior Obtenebration. While she doesn't have any other Lasombra skills, many Sabbat vampires that also have obtenebration, also share another skill with her. OBT/CEL, OBT/PRE, OBT/AUS decks are viable in combination with her and several other Antitribu vampires. Also consider building a Toreador-Antitribu deck around her, and use obtenebration for stealth, playing several other obtenebration skill cards to enable others to stealth as well. Stealth is something which our clan really lacks aside from Jost and Alacrity, so using obtenebration could come as quite a surprise the first time or two you play it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Card of the Month - Social Charm I'm choosing to talk about this card this month simply because it was one of TheLasombra's primary tools in winning the Sabbat Sealed at DragonCon. Bleeding your prey for an additional pool is nice, but the superior gives you a pool if successful. Bleeding and pool gain all in one card. If continually successful, you will almost ensure that you will oust your prey before your predator can oust you. In practice, Jost and Rebekka are the best vampires to use. They have inherent stealth and already have presence at superior. You can also utilize the Marijava Ghoul, as Steve Coombs the winner of the Dragon's Breath constructed tournament did. Also see Legal Manipulation, which has the same effect except you bleed for an additional pool at the cost of a blood from your minion. Sometimes the extra bleed is worth it, but sometimes blood on your minion's are. Use whichever card best suits your environment and needs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- How our Clan fared at DragonCon I would be remiss if I were not to mention that the winning deck for the Sabbat Sealed Draft was a Toreador-Antitribu deck. TheLasombra managed to draft *all* the presence in his pod (we started using 'pod' to define the other players which you drafted with), as well as Jost. He also managed Lochlan and a few others, since he got Art Scam among other cards. TheLasombra managed to win the finals primarily through stealth presence bleeds with Jost. Consult my April 1999 newsletter for more detailed strategies on how to abuse this vampire. I also incidentally drafted Jost and several other Toreador-Antitribu - mostly Remiliard, Lolita, and Carter as I was drafting for low capacity with AUS/CEL/PRE. I also managed a few Fetish Hunting Grounds, but no other Clan specific cards to speak of. The funny thing is I got to the finals, but never influence Jost out in all 4 of my games. If I had him in my opening crypt in the finals, I'm sure the game would have ended a lot differently. Matt Heslin also managed to draft Remilliard that I know of, so our clan made a huge showing in the Finals of the Sabbat Draft. ------------------------------- Ethan Burrow - Prince of Austin ethan@ddg.com http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/