Introduction: Will the beginning of a new year bring new play? We dodn't know, but at least in Europe there seems to be a trend towards bleeders after the EC. We've seen it locally as well with one stealth-bleeder winning in december and two making it into the finals in january. I don't know what the response has been out there, but here at least good old intercept has shown up again. Checking TheLasombras listing of winning decks we can see that the US arena seems slightly more combatorientated. The CE vampires are definitely showing up and my guess is that within the next month or so we will see new decktypes settle in just the way they did half a year or so after the release of the Final Nights and Bloodlines. The most obvious has been demented Malkavians, but we're seeing stealthy Ventrue and Toreador, which is not the same as the "two vampires in multiple copies" -decks made earlier, intercepting Brujah and of course guns, guns guns. The CE: A major change for the Toreador was the addition of obfuscate to the clan. As I mentioned in my august newsletter I had found some more, but in the end it turned out that the Toreador went from two princes with obfuscate to a whopping total of six vampires with obfuscate, and they are all legal to play together. Francois Villon Capacity: 10 Discipline: AUS CEL chi obf pot PRE Cardtext: Camarilla Prince of Paris: Francois may steal up to 2 blood from a younger vampire as a +1 stealth (D) action. +1 bleed. Klaus van der Veken Capacity: 9 Discipline: aus CEL obf PRE tha Cardtext: Camarilla Prince of Amsterdam: Klaus may cancel the effects of one of your prey's hunting grounds. Suzanne Kadim Capacity: 7 Discipline: aus CEL dom obf PRE Cardtext: Camarilla: +1 bleed Joaquin Murietta Capacity: 9 Discipline: AUS CEL obf pre qui Cardtext: Camarilla: Joaquin gets an optional additional strike in the first round of combat. At long range, his strikes with guns are at +1 damage. Helena Capacity: 10 Discipline: AUS CEL DOM obf pre tha Cardtext: Camarilla: If Helena is tapped and ready, she can burn a blood to be able to attempt to block and/or play reaction cards that require Auspex as if untapped for the remainder of the action. +1 bleed. Antoinette, She Who Watches Capacity: 6 Discipline: AUS cel obf PRE Cardtext: Camarilla primogen: All of them also share the inclan disciplines. It is obviously possible to effectively create a Setite stealth-bleed-deck based on these vampires. You'll get an added bonus to Aire of Elation to balance the disadvantage of a higher cost of your vampires, and of course the ability to both intercept and bounce helps your defences. Fill out with your choise of the ones below: Catherine du Bois Count Ormonde Evan Klein Hadrian Garrick Lena Rowe Nepata Sargon Sir Marriot D'Urban Enchant Kindred, Social Charm, Legal Manipulation, Intimidation and Aire of Elation. Lost in Crowds, Faceless Night, Cloak the Gathering, Swallowed by the Night, Spying Mission and Mask of a Thousand Faces. Majesty, Staredown and Catatonic Fear. Auspex is what will give you the staying edge but don't forget that Celerity may help you getting to play that Strike: Combat Ends. Unlike Setites your vampires have a decent chance of checking the Pulse of the Canaille as well in order to REALLY pump up those bleeds. Before you do that, make a reality-check controlling how much bleed- bounce you will encounter. A stealth-vote-deck based on these Toreador vampires is also an option. I'd probably include one or more of the following non-toreadors in such a deck: Jaroslav Pascek, the Brujah Justicar. CEL and PRE combined with obf and a sometimes VERY mean special (inflicting 1 damage on each of preys sabbat vampires). Add a built in +1 intercept. Lucinde Alastor, Ventrue Justicar. PRE and obf. Her special isn't worth much in a vote-deck though. Marcus Vitel, Ventrue Prince. PRE OBF. His ability to burn a retainer may come in more handy than one might think. Queen Anne, Ventrue Prince. PRE, aus and obf. Built in +1 bleed. Quentin King III, Malkavian Prince. AUS, pre and obf. All at capacity 10 except Quentin who is 7. Combining titles, stealth and vote-pushing makes for good blood and pool gain as well as getting whatever political result you want. Forgotten Labyrinth is probably a very important card. Camarilla Exemplary and Mask of a Thousand faces combined with Aching Beauty is definitely not nice to your neighbours. The third nastiness is the ability to build a deck that can make use of Disguised Weapon and intercept. Celerity gunfighting can be done without Disguised Weapon, but you don't have access to the entire range of weaponry. There is a choise of if you want to torporize your opposition by giving them aggravated damage or if you simply prefer emptying them by dealing out a massive amount of normal damage. If the former solution is to be preferred, then have a look at Rotschreck. There are a multitude of vampires with obfuscate and celerity, but some non-toreador stand out if you start thinking about gunfighting. Casino Reeds, Nosferatu Prince. cel and OBF. Inflicts an extra damage on all ranged strikes even if at close. Ellen Fence, Gangrel Antitribu. aus, CEL and OBF. Built in Ambush against prey and predator. Fatima al-Faqadi, Assamite. aus, CEL and OBF. Built in inferior Disguised Weapon. Greta Kircher, Toreador Antitribu. AUS, CEL, obf and PRE. Can burn a blood to reduce a bleed against you. Jaroslav Pascek, as above. Ruth McGinley, Malkavian Primogen. aus, cel and obf. Gets First Strike with guns. The aggravated damage version should probably go for Acrobatics, Flash and Rapid Thought. Shadow Feint is a bit more risky but saves you from relying on a two card combination. The massive damage version will make good use of Pursuit, Sideslip, Taste of Vitae and Psyche!. Spirits Touch combines intercept with a maneouver. Lastly: A deck that is probably more fun than good, even though it won me our last tournament. As long as players tell me that Assault Rifle is not a tournamentworthy card I'll attempt to prove them wrong. This far I've managed to do so three times, but this is the first time since Fifth Tradition was changed. Author: Sten During Name: CE Firepower Description: Camarilla Edition version of an older tournament winner based on Toreadors with Obfuscate. Disguise out big guns, block and torporize while tasting back blood for later bloat. The deck is very expensive to play so Parity Shift with a couple of token stealth-cards is there to help you get back in business. There's just enough rush to keep players wary of you, but count on having to spend at least three turns doing nothing while bloating. Crypt Cards Total: 12 Min: 24 Max: 40 Avg: 8.25 Name Amount Antoinette, She Who Watches 1 Calebros, The Martyr 1 Casino Reeds 1 Fatima al-Faqadi 1 Francois Villon 2 Helena 1 Jaroslav Pascek 1 Joaquin Murietta 1 Klaus van der Veken 1 Ruth McGinley 1 Suzanne Kadim 1 Library Cards Total: 90 Name Amount Master Total: 23 Art Museum 1 Blood Doll 7 Celerity 3 Club Zombie 1 Giant's Blood 1 Guardian Angel 1 KRCG News Radio 1 London Evening Star, Tabloid Newspaper 1 Powerbase: Montreal 1 Society Hunting Ground 1 The Parthenon 4 The Rack 1 Action Total: 3 Nose of the Hound 3 Political Action Total: 5 Parity Shift 3 Praxis Seizure: Monaco 1 Toreador Justicar 1 Action Modifier Total: 5 Forgotten Labyrinth 2 Mask of a Thousand Faces 3 Combat Total: 25 Disguised Weapon 6 Pursuit 8 Sideslip 5 Taste of Vitae 6 Reaction Total: 16 Forced Awakening 5 Second Tradition: Domain 7 Telepathic Misdirection 4 Equipment Total: 12 Assault Rifle 5 Flak Jacket 1 IR Goggles 2 Ivory Bow 1 Palatial Estate 1 Pier 13, Port of Baltimore 1 Sport Bike 1 Retainer Total: 1 Mr. Winthrop 1 Sten During