If links and tables are not legible, please view the newsletter online at http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=65 9/8/2001 Editors Corner - Ethan Burrow, Prince of Austin Since I waited two months, this'll be a big issue with lot's of strategy and tips. Final Nights has now been played at tournaments, and the Independents haven't really made much of a showing. Is it because it's still too early for tournament players to feel comfortable with the new strategies, or are they just not viable enough? We shall be exploring that in the next few issues. Although, I would like to congratulate Chad from Atlanta for making the finals of Dragon's Breath with a Follower of Set deck. Good work Chad! And special thanks to LSJ for editing the editor on the sticky points :-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vampire of the Month - Victoria Ash Having already talked about all the Toreador-Antitribu vampires in previous newsletters, I'm now going to move on to supporting vampires. Victoria is a very good mid-capacity vampire, definitely worth the cost. All 3 in clan skills, plus dominate, a title, and a special that's probably useful in at least 30% of your games. She's easily a throw in for any voting deck your playing with due to her superior Presence and title. Her special might come in handy for tap-n-bleed decks. There're plenty of younger vampires out there with Dominate that you would just as soon didn't deflect your Legal Manipulations. She's the youngest female Toreador with Dominate, and coupled with the increase of Dominate in the Toreador-Antitribu a 4 discipline deck is very viable now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Card of the Month - Creepshow Casino A +1 stealth location for anyone now, although it does have some drawbacks which we'll go over first. -Must be tapped as the action is announced. No baiting out the intercept. -Cannot be used on directed actions such as bleeding or rushing. -And some of the common Toreador-Antitribu actions you cannot use it for : Mind Numb, Diablerie, Revelations, Distraction (superior), etc. -It's Unique, and so most everyone can play with it. -It's a location, and therefore vulnerable to Arson, Rampage, Disputed Territory, Unnatural Disaster, etc. Having said that here's a list of actions that you can use the Creepshow Casino for -Hunting -Rescuing from Torpor -Equipping -Employing Retainers (Marijava Ghoul, Mr. Winthrop) -Recruiting Allies (Goth Band, Akhenaten) -All votes -Art Scam, Patronage Since our clan doesn't have access to stealth aside from Alacrity, I recommend you start putting Creepshow Casino in your Toreador-Antitribu decks that perform any of the actions in the second list. With intercept seeing more play thanks to those dirty snakes, +1 stealth is no longer enough to guarantee actions. Beware intercept! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homework Assignments - an exercise in creative deckbuilding All of the responses to the Abomination assignment used Necromancy in some form to bring the Garou back into play for free. While I was hoping to receive other ingenious ideas, one deck did stand out as being able to compete in the Austin Metagame. Once again, David Hammond has provided a deck that flowed well and gained VP's. Certainly proving the worth of the Homework Assignment, I give you : "It shouldn't happen to a vet..." By David Hammond Crypt: Ingrid Rossler x 3 Stanislava x 2 Angus x 2 Katarina x 2 Chandler Hungerford Ramona Haakon Mortenson Library Masters = 15: Minion Tap x 7 Necromancy x 3 London Evening Star Ecoterrorists Zillah's Valley Parthenon Backways Minion = 75: Renegade Garou x 6 Abomination x 6 Sargon Fragment x 3 Compel the Spirit x 4 Freak Drive 5th Tradition: Hospitality x 6 Govern the Unalligned x 2 2nd Tradition: Domain x 4 Wake with Evenings Freshness x 2 Deflection x 2 Cats Guidance x 3 Earth Control x 4 Rapid Change x 4 Form of Mist x 2 Earth Meld x 2 Flesh of Marble x 8 Skin of Night x 5 Skin of Steel x 3 Body of Sun x 4 Claws of the Dead x2 Assault Rifle x2 Total = 90 Bascially, get the Garous out, turn them into Abominations, use the Abominations to rush and Body of Sun other vampires. When they burn, make another Abomination. The Necromancy is in there to try and get the Garou straight back out with Compel the Spirit. God bless the Sargon Fragment too! Minion Tap and 5th into oblivion. Prevent damage and S:CE to taste. It would probably do OK if Ingrid and Stanislava were out, since Stani has better bleeds and Ingrid allows easy 5ths. Next Homework Assignment This homework assignment is a bit different than ones past. I'm not going to limit you to a card, so much as a concept. Recently I've noticed how difficult it is for Setites to defend against power bleeders (either through stealth or tap-n-bleed or any other successful method of getting the bleed to succeed for 3+). It is this weakness which I believe is keeping players from winning with Setites in sanctioned tournaments. This month's assignment is to build a Setite deck that can survive and hopefully win at a table where one of the five players is playing one of the following decks : -Ben Peal's National Championship stealth bleed deck. -Malkavian Antitribu stealth bleed deck. -Brian Reed's Sexy Bleed Deck. So you know there will be a stealth/power bleed deck at the table, you just don't know where it will sit. And you don't know which of the three decks it will be either. I eagerly await your ingenious decks :-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keeping the Metagame in Mind With all the differing Metagame discussions, I thought I'd also touch upon basic table dynamics and how they may affect your deckbuilding and playing style. Now a quick overview, veteran players may want to skip the next few paragraphs :-) While everyone assumes a 5-player game when they build their decks, keep in mind that some games may end up being 6-7 players depending on who's available, not to mention that a 5-player game will eventually lose players as they get ousted. The following chart based on generalizations may hopefully help to organize this concept. Stability refers to how much 'focusing on your prey' will yield results in the game. Number of Players / Stability of Table / Survival Strategy 6+ / Unstable - too many players with their own agenda / Bloat until game reachs 5 or less players. Drawing attention to yourself will only get you ousted by the table. 5 / Unstable / 1) Be very aggressive and force a 4 player game (unfortunately you will be viewed as the threat in the 4 player game) 2) Be conservative/defensive and wait for someone else to force a 4-player game 4 / Stable / The more you attack your prey, the less pressure your Grand-Predator will have, and subsequently put pressure on your predator. For aggressive decks, this is an ideal configuration unless it threatens to sweep, and then you will likely get ousted first 3 / Unstable - crippling your prey will allow your Predator to oust you / Conservative. Strike your prey when it'll yield the oust, but mostly consider defense and survive to the 2 player game unless you clearly have the upper hand. 2 / Stable / For aggressive decks, this is an ideal configuration. Crippling now gives you victory, stop at nothing. As the above table shows, very aggressive decks are very good for 4 and 2 player games. Can work in 5 player games, and in more than 5 tends to not work so well (table perceives threat and eliminates). In a 3 player game it will have to contend with the other two decks, and may not survive. I label this type of deck style the 'Aggressor', and it usually will define the metagame for a 5 player game. It's prey will focus on defense, and Grand-prey will have no pressure, etc. If this is not the case, expect the Aggressor to get a quick VP. Conservative decks fare better the more players there are. They don't draw attention to themselves, and they build up over time to be a solid contender in the end game. In a four player game, they have it the hardest if they are not across from the aggressive player, as they will be defending for most of the game. I label this type of deck 'Conservator', and it maintains a defensive posture in the opening rounds of the game, and then after sufficient buildup will begin attempting to oust it's prey, or become a wall. Now knowing how the games fare, and knowing your playing style, incorporate that into your deckbuilding. If you're aggressive and going for speed, acknowledge that you may not be the last person standing...you may get 2 VP's to the 3-player game, and then two conservative decks that have been building up team up against you. It will require good metagame skills to sweep a table unless all four players were completely unprepared. And in tournaments that doesn't quite often happen. If you're conservative, don't expect to sweep. Understand that you don't have to get all 5 VP's to win, and play the table against the person who does get the first VP. Knowing your style and how the game collapses will help you understand which cards you need to incorporate into your deck designs. It also sharpens your playing style. Most players recognize that the game would be more stable in a four player game. A conservative player could very well help choose who the first person ousted is, to help their position in the four and three player games later on. This is not collusion mind you, but it does create many an upset player. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is it Collusion or Just a Very Good Deal? Collusion - A secret agreement between two or more parties for a fraudulent, illegal, or deceitful purpose. All definitions I found of collusion included the words 'secret' and 'illegal' in them. So for something to be collusion, it would appear that it needs to be hidden from most players and in some way violate the rules of the game. So if a player were to be open about the deal, and the deal didn't break any V:EKN or V:TES rules, no matter how the deal affected the game it doesn't seem it would be collusion. Now we take this to the next level. If players are open about their deals, and not breaking the rules, they must now contend with the rule stating that you cannot make a deal that would not allow you to gain the maximum VP's. If they break this rule via a deal, it is still not collusion as it is open to the table, but they are breaking a V:EKN rule. Where the grey area lies in whether the player truly feels his position is so hopeless that the only way to gain VP's in their current state is to deal. So who is to decide if a players position is hopeless? The judge, plain and simple. The judge is a resource that many players often ignore. Don't hesitate to call on them, they are the neutral arbitrator. Every player will likely have their own opinion of whether someone's position is hopeless. Everyone has visual access of all the cards in play, but everyone is privy to extra information - their hand. Someone with a hand jam and no combat cards will likely view their situation differently than a prey with 2 pool and a weenie rush deck would view theirs. It is very difficult to determine *actual* position, so many deals are made based off of limited knowledge at best. In all my tournaments, I've noticed a few things. One being that there are people who will deal, and people who will not. People who deal, generally will counter deal anything in the metagame that doesn't improve their position. They are open about their intentions and try to use metagame politics in addition to their cards to win. Then there are the people who don't deal, who follow the strict rules of the game, and try go oust as many prey's as possible. And they also hate the dealmakers. Is there room for both types of players? I think so. As shown at GenCon, some deals go south and players don't always reap the rewards. Some deals cause counter deals, and sometimes a balance is still achieved at the table. But if you take nothing else away from this article, remember the following things : If a deal is made openly at the table, and it wasn't discussed before the game, it's not collusion. No matter how much the deal sucks for you. Many players refer to all forms of self-destruction as collusion, even when it's actually some other form of unsportsmanlike activity (or merely just painfully poor play). Splitting VP's is merely the dealmakers way of trying to maximize his VP's. If you dislike the deal he's making, make a counter deal. Or if you think they could get more VP's than the deal indicates, call the Judge. If a player could probably get 2 VP's during the game, but decided to deal for the easy 1 VP, that's illegal according to V:EKN rules. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cleaner Last newsletter I featured two cards, Melisande and Sniper Rifle. Well, here's a robust deck that utilizes both of them. I took it to GenCon and it fared real well in the pickup game I played it in. I may end up pulling the Minor Boons, but they were intended as bleed deterrents, as well as saving vampires across the table from going to torpor. Deck Name: The Cleaner Created by: Ethan Burrow Description: Tor-Anti Intercept deck using guns - mainly Sniper Rifles. Toolboxy enough for forward motion and bloat. Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 16, Max: 32, Avg: 6.08] 1 Carter (cel, Toreador Antitribu, 2) 1 Felicia Mostrom (AUS CEL pre, Toreador, 5) 1 Greta Kircher (AUS CEL obf PRE, Toreador Antitribu, 7) 1 Ian Wallingford (aus CEL PRE, Toreador Antitribu, 6, Bishop) 1 Jessica (AUS CEL OBT PRE, Toreador Antitribu, 7, Bishop) 1 Jost Werner (ani AUS PRE, Toreador Antitribu, 6) 1 Kallista (AUS CEL pre pro, Toreador, 6) 1 Lachlan (AUS CEL dom PRE, Toreador Antitribu, 8, Archbishop) 1 Melisande (AUS CEL DOM PRE tha, Toreador Antitribu, 9) 1 Miller Delmardigan (aus CEL PRE pro, Toreador Antitribu, 8, Bishop) 1 Remilliard (AUS pre, Toreador Antitribu, 4) 1 Victor Revell (aus CEL dem pre, Toreador Antitribu, 5) Library: (90 cards) Master (21 cards) 4 Blood Doll 1 Direct Intervention 1 Fetish Club Hunting Ground 1 Hungry Coyote, The 1 Metro Underground 3 Minion Tap 3 Minor Boon 1 Palla Grande 1 Rack, The 3 Sudden Reversal 1 Tomb of Rameses III 1 Visit from the Capuchin Action (12 cards) 6 Art Scam 1 Distraction 1 Guard Duty 3 Patronage 1 Psychic Projection Reaction (22 cards) 3 Eagle's Sight 3 Enhanced Senses 3 Precognition 2 Sins of the Cauchemar 5 Spirit's Touch 2 Telepathic Counter 4 Telepathic Misdirection Combat (21 cards) 6 Blur 1 Fast Hands 7 Flash 3 Pursuit 4 Vampiric Speed Equipment (14 cards) 2 .44 Magnum 1 Assault Rifle 1 Deer Rifle 1 Flamethrower 4 Leather Jacket 1 Palatial Estate 1 Pier 13, Port of Baltimore 2 Sniper Rifle 1 White Phosphorus Grenade ------------------------------- Ethan Burrow - Prince of Austin saark5@yahoo.com http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/