Introduction: With january done player activity has increased again after the holidays. I'm fooling around with a multitude of different decks, some of which are actually almost playable and I expect the get thoroughly crushed at the upcoming local tournament. I'm happy to see an increase of limited tournaments. They require a very different skill than the constructed ones and two usual decktypes from the constructed tournaments are more or less disabled. Wake and Intercept decks and Bloat decks are more or less impossible to reliably construct. The Camarilla Edition: There is something resembling a trend that voting has become a bit easier since the release of the Camarilla Edition. Most probably it's a result of the rules changes rather than the edition in itself. The downgrade of Fifth Tradition and Second Tradition has made Prince and Justicar titles less attractive and players are looking at the goodies that come with high-capacity vampires who are either not titled or only Primogen. In turn it's more likely that any title in combination with a Bewitching Oration at superior will see your vote pass as the table needs to gather at least six votes to stop you. However, voting is definitely not a major winning type these days. Checking the outcome of the tournaments having their winning decks archived by TheLasombra during december 2002 and to date we see that the following decks made it: Type CE-dependent Gargoyle bash No Giovanni bleed/bash No Harbinger toolbox No Lasombra bleed No Lasombra bleed/vote No Lasombra bleed/breed/vote/bloat No Nosferatu vote Yes Malkavian stealth/bleed No Malk/!Malk stealth/bleed No Malk/!Malk stealth/bleed Yes Toreador block/guns Yes Ventrue vote/burn Yes Auspex weenie/block/bounce/guns No Celerity weenie/rush/guns Yes Dominate weenie/bleed No Potence weenie/bash No Potence weenie/bleed/bash No Out of the 17 decks 5 depended on cards specific to the CE, even though the celerity gundeck only needed Concealed Weapon to be changed. Out of the 6 decks with a large amount of Camarilla vampires in them 4 depended on CE vampires. The Malk/!Malk apparently wanted to focus on dementation, the Toreador gunner wanted obfuscate, the Ventrue wanted titles combined with obfuscate and the Nosferatu wanted one specific vampire. Three out of those four needed access to a combination that wasn't easily available before the CE, and what's most important is that the CE has definitely made its succesful way to the tournaments without ruining the day for the non-camarilla choises. That the weenie-concept runs rampant is clear, but they seem more prone to make it out on the battlefield rather than heading directly for the pool. The bleeders have come back, which I think is good for the game as it opens up for the return of the waking/intercepting combat. Only four voters, but I expect to see more of it as bleeders will increase their visits in the torporarea. Deck of the month: I've edited the text by translating the swedish comments I received to english. It's apparent that the creator plays in a less combatheavy environment than the one we're used to in Gothenburg, and as apparent is that it has impacted on his choise of cards. The result is a deck that is very agressive. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Creator Robert Doktorow Crypt (12): 1 Alexandra (11, Toreador, PRE, CEL, AUS, +2 bleed, Innercircle, can untap any Toreador) 4 Madame Guil (10, Toreador, PRE, CEL, AUS, for, ser, Justicar, +1 bleed) 1 Prince of Paris (10, Toreador, PRE, CEL, AUS, obf, +1 bleed, Prince, +1 stealth steal 2 blood) 1 Makarios, the Seducer (8, Toreador, PRE, AUS, SER, +1 bleed) 1 Victoria Ash (6, Toreador, PRE, cel, aus, Primogen, can tap younger as a +1 stealth action) 1 Barth (5, Toreador, aus, PRE, cel, vamps <4 gets ?1 stealth when Barth ready untapped) 1 Isable de Leon (3, Toreador, AUS) 1 Yvette, the Hopeless (3, Toreador, aus, cel) 1 Emerson (2, Toreador, pre) Comment: Changed Marianna to a groupwise legal Victoria Ash. I really wanted to keep the average capacity as low as possible. 4 Madame Guil, 1 Alexandra, 1 Francois and 1 Makarios is bad enough. Playing against good decks and good players I cannot fool around with too expensive vampires - or I'm dead. Weenies are cannonfodder and useful for the Toreador Grand Ball. Library (90) Masters (17) 4 Blood doll 1 Elysium (arboretum) 1 Art museum 1 Information Highway 1 Zillahs Valley 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Secure Haven 4 Toreador Grand Ball 1 Society HG 1 Temptation of Greater Power Comment: Heidelberg might be good, maybe remove the Hunting Ground. I think that 4 Grand Balls are enough. It's not always that the others have the time, need or ability to remove it. The Ball isn't always nessecary. Auspex (5) 4 Telepatic misdirection 1 Revelations Comment: Maybe remove one Telepathic Misdirection. The Revelation is usually played at inferior to remove a troublesome card. Presence (23) 7 Voter Captivation 5 Majesty 3 Awe 3 Enhant Kindred 5 Bewitching Oration Celerity (4) 4 Flash Comment: Some thought I had too little combatdefence (5 Majesty, 4 Flash, 1 Magnum, 1 Secure Haven and 1 Elysium). I'm not too sure about that. Often my prey/predator are occupied with other things. I also have cannonfodder available to block. Flash is good against close combat and gives a press against Immortal Grapple - IG-decks normally trust the one press to be enough. Serpentis (6) 2 Form of Corruption 4 Temptation Fortitude (9) 9 Freak Drive Miscallenous (11) 4 Domain (2:nd tradition) 3 Accounting 1 Judgement: Camarilla Segregation 2 Closed Session 1 Magnum Votes (15) 3 Parity Shift 3 Banishment 1 Kindred Restructure 1 Protect Thine Own 1 First Tradition 4 KRC 2 Ancilla Empowerment So, the eventual change would be to add Heidelberg and remove the Hunting Ground or a Telepathic Misdirection. Regards Robert Doktorow --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sten During