We just finished our Storylines and Pre-releases in Texas. Nergal came up empty in our state, one victory for Followers of Set and one for Ventrue. Overall the reaction to Legacies of Blood is very positive, with talks of this being the best set yet. I'm sure I'll delve into the secrets of the Laibon and the Bloodlines in future newsletters while still keeping it topical for !Toreador, but for now I wanted to share my experiences with some key cards before they become forgotten. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vampire of the Month - Alan Sovereign (Advanced) Austin hosted one of the early storylines, so I was able to pick up a couple copies of Alan and build a deck around him. His specials and disciplines made me want to splice him into a !Tor gun deck, so that's what I did. Has AUS and pre, which for a mid-cap isn't too bad considering he's out of clan. Just two more pool than Remiliard (so he's your bouncer/protector minion), and his specials when merged are way hot. Not being Sabbat is annoying, but oh man does this vampire rock when merged. Consider that when merged, you're basically playing a short term for no cost, or with a Parthenon you literally can put 4+ counters on a secret horde and expect to get it back (or get an Assault Rifle without putting yourself into lunge range). And if you're playing with equipment it more than mitigates the cost. It had the feeling of even speeding up equipping since you don't have to manage your pool level as much. I've also used Jack of Both Sides to really good effect with merged Alan, making most equipment very cost effective. That plus the bloat potential of his special, such that investments get more counters and you get them off faster, made for reasonable pool gain. Since he works so well with gun decks, I designed a combat package that would allow Alan to fully play the deck rather than be a sidekick. At best he should have an Assault Rifle/Flamethrower, and at worst a .44, so I focused on how to make sure he could either connect with the weapon or have the option to 'abort mission'. Nose of the Hound/Aura Reading seemed like a very good choice. Stealth rush with an optional maneuver with a gun is gold. The Aura Reading let's you plan and maximize your combat. If you can see your prey has a trump for your combat, Alan has presence so you can maneuver to long (from the rush) and/or end combat without commiting with the gun. If you don't see adequate combat defense, you have 2 maneuvers and your weapon will connect. And lastly you use Telepathic Tracking for both levels. The extra maneuver again for the second round is nice, and superior allows you to counteract combat ends/Rotschreck and other combat ending effects that would thwart your gun. I've actually splashed some tranquility in the deck since he can play it for the other vampires in the deck, and with Abombwe packing so much frenzy it turns out it was probably a good idea. This combat package, even lacking celerity, has been quite robust for our current metagame. ----------------------------------------------------- Card of the Month - Suppressing Fire This card is actually as good as you think it is, a Call of the Hungry Dead for the gun discipline. It allows responsible bleed, not to mention very useful for getting around casual permacept. Zip guns as combat defense will also now double as your delivery system for forward momentum. I've never been disappointed with it in any deck I've put it in, including a Ravnos starter deck in our league game. It got me a GW. Seriously. Obviously you need to be playing with a sizable amount of guns, as this card is useless until you have at least one gun out. Fortunately with Zip Gun and Concealed Weapon, you don't already need to have a stealth option to enable this one. ------------------------------ Deck : Silent Partner This is my current Alan Sovereign deck that has *always* managed to survive way beyond the brink than many thought it could. It is notorious for always getting down to 2-3 pool and then recovering. Recent deck clinics have gotten it up to the competitive level, and I got my first game win with it the other night. This is the first deck where I realized the Blood Dolls were slowing me down and I pulled them. That's right I said it, Investments don't suck with Alan merged on the table. I still want to find room for more Aura Reading, but I'm hesitant to pull the Caseless Rounds or Tranquility. If you decide to run something similar, let me know how it goes. Deck Name : Silent Partner Author : Ethan Burrow Description : !Tor Gun deck financed by Alan Sovereign Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 6 average: 5.5 2x Alan Sovereign 6 AUS DOM for pre Ventrue:3 3x Alan Sovereign Adv 6 AUS DOM for pre Ventrue:3 1x Ian Wallingford 6 CEL PRE aus bishop !Toreador:2 1x Jost Werner 6 AUS PRE ani !Toreador:2 1x Sheila Mezarin 6 AUS PRE cel for !Toreador:2 1x Cristos Mantigo 5 aus cel dom obf pre !Toreador:3 1x Mercy, Knight Inqu 5 AUS cel dom pre !Toreador:2 1x Remilliard, Devout 4 AUS pre !Toreador:2 1x Sabrina 4 aus cel pre !Toreador:3 Library [90 cards] Action [20] 3x Art Scam 3x Enchant Kindred 1x Entrancement 3x Jack of Both Sides 6x Nose of the Hound 4x Zillah's Tears Action Modifier [4] 4x Suppressing Fire Combat [22] 4x Aura Reading 2x Caseless Rounds 4x Catatonic Fear 2x Concealed Weapon 2x High Ground 2x Taste of Vitae 4x Telepathic Tracking 2x Tranquility Equipment [9] 4x .44 Magnum 3x Assault Rifle 1x Flamethrower 1x Laptop Computer Master [18] 1x Barrens, The 1x Dreams of the Sphinx 1x Elder Library 1x Fetish Club Hunting Ground 3x Gift of Experience 1x KRCG News Radio 1x Palla Grande 2x Parthenon, The 2x Protracted Investment 2x Secret Horde 3x Short-Term Investment Reaction [17] 3x Spirit's Touch 6x Telepathic Counter 4x Telepathic Misdirection 4x Wake with Evening's Freshness Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Thu Nov 17 16:30:58 2005] ---------------- Deck Clinic I'm sure you guys do something similar in your neck of the woods. Many of the current nasty decks in our playgroup have started out as a trick deck or something toolboxy. Then over time other players play the deck and critique it a bit. Then you actually sit down at some point huddled around the deck and try to fine tune the last 5-10 slots. It's this type of collaborative deckbuilding that has honed many a deck. If you clutch decklists close to you afraid of other people to steal your idea, then I think you're missing out on taking your deck to the next level. Many of my decks, the deck of the month included, have been cliniced many times before it reaches its game winning success level. ----------------- Ethan Burrow - the pre/vic guy http://monger.vekn.org http://presence.vekn.org http://wiki.vekn.org