View this newsletter and the archive online at http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/sections.php?op=listarticles&secid=2 6/09/2001 Editors Corner - Ethan Burrow, Prince of Austin Interesting thing I wanted to note about our sealed event 'The Day After' on June 3rd. We did a mixed draft of 3 V:TES boosters and 5 Sabbat War boosters. We had a ball. I think that was one of the best drafts I've ever done. It was fairly quick, the variety was a lot of fun to draft, and we all got fairly good decks out of it. An onlooker of the final watched interested for about 30 minutes, and then asked if we had sealed events . He was surprised to learn that we *were* playing a sealed event. Also the mixture of the 2 sets worried some people as to viability of certain clans. Well, the 2 most predominate clans in the final were Lasombra and Malkavian-Antitribu. Actually, easily 75% or more of the vampires in everyone's crypt was Sabbat. I mainly attribute that to the spread of disciplines in many mid-cap Sabbat vampires, but we all know the Sabbat vampires are more powerful...it was just interesting to actually have an event with with to use as an example. Of all the drafts I've done (Booster, Table, and Mixed) I think my favorite is now Mixed. And with drafting, 2 rounds, and a final we finished in six and a half hours. Fun and fast, that's what I call a sealed tournament. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vampire of the Month - Lazverinus I want to go on a tangent from our Clan, and talk about Lazverinus. Originally underrated, he has slowly reached the top 5 best Sabbat vampire in recent months. If you haven't built a deck with him yet, you are missing out. I think I've drafted, and used him in every sealed event I've played in since DragonCon 2000. He's just the man. No strategy tips, that's the Ventrue-Antitribu newsletter's job. I just wanted to make sure you play with him. He's fun. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Card of the Month - Enchant Kindred With Sabbat War making the superior a +1 stealth action, this card just became indispensable. To review it's features : You can bleed with the inferior, but the reason you play with this card instead of Computer Hacking is because you have versatility if you have superior presence. You can speed up influencing new vampires by about 50% if you play one per turn. Granted you have to go for your older vampire first, but you did that last turn with a Tomb of Ramses III ;-). In a pinch, you can transfer the blood off to your pool during your transfers. This is pool gain without master cards. Since there were several clans with Presence that didn't have Dominate, this card helped to level the playing field a bit. Whether you play with 1-4 caps, 8-10 caps, or the whole range...this card will serve you well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homework Assignments - an exercise in creative deckbuilding The winner for the Grenade assignment is Brian Reed. His "We'll blow your planet up!" turned out to be *surprisingly* effective in combat. "We'll blow your planet up!" by Brian Reed Crypt: 2 - Tansu Bekir 2 - Abd al-Rashid 1 - Kalinda 3 - Fatima al-Faqadi 1 - Wren 2 - Dancin' Dana 1 - Tiberius, The Scandalmonger Total 12 Action 10 - Ambush Master 3 - Underworld Hunting Ground 3 - Blood Doll 3 - Haven Uncovered 3 - Heidelburg Castle, Germany 3 - Minion Tap Combat 10 - Acrobatics 15 - Disguised Weapon 15 - Flash 5 - Taste of Vitae Equipment 14 - Grenade Retainers 5 - Ghoul Retainer Total 89 Next week's Homework Assignment - Due June 30th, 2001 Build a deck where the sound of 'You enter combat with the Ghouled Street Thug' strikes fear into the opposing minion. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'PAYOLA' or 'How to be a Vote Whore' - by TJ Fullington During the unbelievably long drive to Dallas for the Southwest Qualifier, I took an informal poll of my fellow travelers. The question was: Which is more important in tourney play - speed or bloat? The resounding and uncontested answer was that speed was the ultimate factor in winning VPs in a tournament setting. I had several decks built that I considered speedy but my thoughts went to making the fastest deck possible. This is what I came up with: Deck name: PAYOLA Hasina Kesi, Caitiff 1 Igo The Hungry, Caitiff 1 Navar McClaren, Caitiff 1 Nik, Caitiff 1 Smudge the Ignored, Caitiff 1 Uriah Winter, Caitiff 1 Antoinette DuChamp, Caitiff 1 Franciscus, Caitiff 1 Julius, Caitiff 1 Angela Decker, Pander 1 Basil, Pander 1 Huang - Blood Cultist, Pander 1 March Halcyon, Pander 1 Royce, Pander 1 Brainwash x7 Information Highway x2 Succubus Club x1 Kine Resources Contested x17 Conservative Agitation x11 Autarkis Persecution x1 Dramatic Upheaval x3 Bribes x28 I have seen and played several different versions of decks based on bribes but this one is notable as it has the potential to do 16 points worth of pool loss to your prey on turn 2. The crypt draw is always perfect and it gains pool steadily as long as you can reach the referendum. This deck almost always gains 1 victory point and can grab several more without a strong vote presence on the table. The amazing quickness of this deck has its drawbacks as well. These include very fragile vampires, the fact that it folds to early permanent intercept, and that it rarely sweeps tables. To minimize these drawbacks I included Brainwashes and Dramatic Upheavals. Brainwashes are key because they lock down those nasty tzimisce interceptors and the large cap voters of your prey. If you do not draw a brainwash within the first turn and you think your prey is an interceptor or a vote deck then you must wish for a dramatic upheaval to rearrange the table. Make deals to place yourself opposite any other vote deck so that you can ally. Another key concept is that I decided to go with vote cards that didn't require any conditions. By this I mean cards like Banishment or Praxis Seizures. I wanted to be able to play any vote that I drew as soon as I drew it. Sometimes I was faced with a hand consisting of one brainwash, 5 bribes, and 1 Kine Resources Contested with four untapped minions. If I only had sabbat vampires in my opening crypt then a Praxis Seizure would jam my hand. With such a dense deck I found that if I can play a vote and a bribes then my chances of drawing another vote card to continue cycling were great. As a side note Julius' disadvantage is really a benefit in this deck. If any of the vampires go into torpor without blood there is no way to rescue them precluding any cross table help. Since Julius burns when he goes into torpor that is one less minion that can count against me if someone else calls an Anarchist Uprising. Another interesting point about this deck is that it totally screws most other weenie decks because they typically don't have titles or permanent table votes. If you can live with the dirty "been with a hooker all night" feeling that can result from playing this deck, you will find it to be a interesting tool to shake up your local meta-game. ------------------------------- Ethan Burrow - Prince of Austin saark5@yahoo.com http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/