Toreador Clan Newsletter, Volume 5. March 2001 Section 1: Introduction Hello. My name is Daniel Poppe and I have just volunteered to pick up the Toreador Clan Newsletters. I have looked through the original four newsletters written by Chris Miller and I immediately notice that there have been a few changes to the game since then. I also have a different perspective on the Toreador than quite a few people seem to have. I'm looking forward to sharing my perspectives as well as 'traditional' views in how the clan works and how it doesn't seem to work. My goals are first and foremost to share information with you about how best to use the clan to have fun and be competitive in all types of play environments. I hope I can get a lot of feedback from all of you on what you want to see in these newsletters. I'd love to get successful decks referred in, especially if they have a unique focus or a clan related theme to them, for use as the center of future articles. Thanks to everyone for your time and patience with me as I get started and I hope we can both learn from this... Daniel Poppe AKA TigToad Section 2: Discipline Focus: Presence Presence is the strongest discipline a Toreador has to work with. It offers excellent bleed actions such as Legal Manipulations as well as the best bleed modifer in the game IMO in Aire of Elation. (A card I will feature in a future article). Aire of Elation gives a +2 bleed modifier at inferior to a Toreador and a +3 bleed modifier at superior to a Toreador for the cost of one blood. It is also the only presence bleed modifier in the game. Even the threat of an Aire of Elation is enough to get you blocked. Now with any vampire that is going to see a lot of combat, keeping that vampire alive becomes of the utmost importance. Fortunately, Presence also contains one of the most infamous ways around combat: Majesty. With only a few good cards a Toreador is able to make a powerful bleed action, or the threat of a powerful bleed action, and still get away unharmed should that action fail and get blocked with the use of a majesty! Presence has a few other things going for it besides bleed modifiers and strike: combat ends cards. (Though these are certainly big bonuses if you look at the number of decks today that use weenie Presence bleed or that have Presence in them just for the Majesties!). It also has some of the best action cards in the game. For example: Enchant Kindred. At inferior it is a +1 bleed action while at superior it lets you put two blood onto a younger uncontrolled vampire at +1 stealth. This is one less blood than the very popular Govern the Unaligned allows but does not cost the blood to use. It also allows you to do something other than bleed after you were blocked on your first bleed action if you used a Majesty to untap. In fact, most of the Presence bleed actions offer an added bonus or better ability at superior, such as Social Charm which gives you a plus 1 bleed action for no blood, but also at superior lets you gain a pool if you bleed successfully. As you probably noticed there is not a lot of stealth involved with Presence and with strike: combat ends, dodges, etc. as your main strikes in a Presence-based deck you're going to get blocked quite a lot. This leads us to our card of the month! Section 3: Card of the Month: Aching Beauty This month's card is a true staple in a Toreador deck. Aching Beauty. This master card costs 2 pool, but forces any Methuselah who blocks the vampire with this card to burn a pool. This is an awesome ability and obviously the more you get this vampire blocked the more damage you to do to your prey's pool. (It is usually your prey blocking bleed and Presence based actions). Aching Beauty is a card that is easy to overlook. After all, it costs two pool, the same cost as a weenie vampire. Furthermore, it takes a master phase action. Yet, despite these drawbacks it really is that good. A fine multiple-action deck can be made using small presence Toreador. Add a few of the Auspex Toreador for bleed reductions and bounces and you can actually drive a Methuselah out of a game without ever successfully bleeding him. (Okay, Okay that is unlikely but it is possible. In a Majesty/bleed deck a Toreador with only superior presence and Aching Beauty can try to bleed a Methuselah. By being blocked you cause a pool loss to your opponent. You play Majesty and pay the 1 blood to untap. Then you can do an Enchant Kindred action to transfer two blood to an uncontrolled vampire. If you're blocked again you cause yet another pool loss and maybe do a third action or stay untapped to block (after using superior Majesty again). If you have an Art Museum out you can get a 7 point vampire out in one turn, for one action, and only burn 4 pool. That helps supply you with other minions with superior Presence and more bodies to put future Aching Beauties on! Section 4.1: Vampire of the Month: Kallista--Master Sculptor At this point I can hear the, "huh, what?", from the experienced vampire players. I have had a very extensive list of cards above that use superior Presence yet the vampire I am focusing on this month only has presence at basic. Lets see what she does have. Kallista--6 Cap, AUS,CEL,pre,pro. She has two in clan superiors and the final in clan discipline at inferior. She also have a fourth discipline found on only two other (larger) vampires. Obviously, if you do not intend to use that fourth discipline Felicia Mostrom is the better deal as she is a 5-cap with the same in-clan discipline spread. Why pay that extra blood for basic protean? A: If there is an out of clan discipline that does strike: combat ends better than Presence and can make better use of Aching Beauty than Presence it is Protean. Namely, Form of Mist. This strike: dodge card at inferior offers up one of the greatest abilities in the game at superior. "Strike: combat ends. The vampire can continue with this action at +1 stealth as if it were unblocked. This action can still be blocked." Lets look at what you have accomplished with Kallista and two master cards (aching beauty & protean). A bleeding Kallista (with that Aire of Elation threat behind her) bleeds. She gets blocked and that costs your opponent a pool. Combat happens which taps an opponents vampire. You play Form of Mist to end combat, and continue with your bleed action. Worst case scenerio? You get blocked again (tapping another opposing minion and costing another pool loss). Best case? You get to bleed your opponent. Section 4.2: Bonus Vampire of the Month: Ramiel DuPre Now here is a much more traditional vampire for the cards we are looking into this month. Ramiel DuPre--5 Cap, PRE, cel, aus, dom Unfortunately, Ramiel is the smallest Toreador with superior presence unless you are fortunate enough to have one of the promo vampires Mariana Gilbert. For a standard Aching Beauty deck, Ramiel is an ideal vampire. He is large enough to be able to afford the Presence actions that cost a blood several times before needing to be refilled, yet he is small enough to get out quickly. His inferior Celerity is not a big deal for this type of deck as it is only going to be used on rare occassions for manuevers, etc. The inferior auspex is a bigger deal as he cannot use Telepathic Misdirection as a bleed bounce card. However, since he's going to be a work horse vampire for this type of deck you can usually leave the bleed bouncing to smaller vampires such as Isabel de Leon (3-Cap, AUS). Section 5: Aching Beauty Deck Comparison: Traditional vs Off the Wall First off, let me say straight up that the traditional route is probably the better deck in this comparison. I am using Conor Key's (the Prince of Raleigh) tournament winning deck 'Aching Beauty' for the traditional route. For the untraditional deck, I am using my own deck, 'Beauty in the Mist'. It has not been in a tournament, but it has never failed to earn at least one victory point whenver I have brought it out. Deck Name: Aching Beauty Created by: Conor Key Crypt: (12 Cards) [Min: 14, Max: 34, Avg: 6.00] 3 Anson [Toreador, 8 au CE do PR, Prince] 1 Felicia Mostrom [Toreador, 5 AU CE pr] 1 Francois Villon [Toreador, 10 AU CEL ch ob po PR, Prince] 2 Isabel de Leon [Toreador, 3 AU] 2 Mariana Gilbert [Toreador, 4 ce PR] 1 Ramiel DuPre [Toreador, 5 au ce do PR] 2 Tatiana Romanov [Toreador, 7 AU ce pr, Prince] Library: (72 cards) 10 Aching Beauty 7 Aire of Elation 1 Art Museum 8 Change of Target 1 Elysium: The Arboretum 2 Entrancement 6 Fifth Tradition: Hospitality 3 Fourth Tradition: The Accounting 10 Majesty 6 Minion Tap 4 Second Tradition: Domain 2 Secure Haven 1 Society Hunting Ground 8 Telepathic Misdirection 3 Wake with Evening's Freshness Deck Name: Beauty In the Mist Created by: Daniel Poppe Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 13, Max: 32, Avg: 5.67] 1 Adrianne [Toreador, 6 au ce pr po +1 bleed] 1 Andreas-bard of crete [Toreador, 9 AU CE PR do pro Primogen] 2 Anson [Toreador, 8 au CE do PR Prince] 1 Delilah Easton [Toreador, 2 pr] 1 Demetrious Slater [Toreador, 4 au ce pr] 1 Dorian Strack [Toreador, 4 AU ce] 1 Felicia Mostrom [Toreador, 5 AU CE pr] 1 Isabel de Leon [Toreador, 3 AU] 2 Kallista [Toreador, 6 AU CE pr pro] 1 Tatiana Romanov [Toreador, 7 AU ce pr Prince, +1 Bleed] Library: (88 cards) 5 Aching Beauty 8 Aire of Elation 1 Art Museum 5 Blood Doll 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 4 Earth Control 4 Earth Meld 4 Enchant Kindred 13 Form of Mist 4 Legal Manipulations 4 Majesty 12 Protean 2 Pulse of the Canaille 1 Society Hunting Ground 7 Telepathic Counter 10 Telepathic Misdirection 3 Wolf Claws Review Deck 1: Conor uses two disciplines in Presence and Auspex and relies on Princes and Traditions for massive occassional Minion Tap/5th Tradition pool gain. His deck is very focused on bleeding and getting blocked (10 Aching Beauties!), only using his Aire of Elations when the bleed is allowed to go through. He has a sizable bleed defense with 8 Telepathic Misdirections which are also flexible enough to stop occassional low stealth actions (such as votes) which absolutely cannot be allowed to go through. A bit of untap/intercept via Second Traditions is also available for his deck's Princes. Conor uses one of the most under appreciated cards in the game in this deck in Change of Target. This thing is similar to a superior Majesty except it cannot be stopped by Immortal Grapple, etc. Its only down side is it does not tap the blocker. Ah well, with Aching Beauty all over the place opponents still take their pool loss. All in all, a very strong deck with a central focus on Aching Beauty. A limited crypt could cause a problem right off the bat, but other than that, a very strong deck. Review Deck 2: My deck is slower than Conor's. Even though my crypt is slightly smaller my deck relies on getting master Protean cards onto vampires in addition to an Aching Beauty. Fortunately, this deck also provides you a lot of time to get yourself ready. With an insane number of bleed counters (10 Telepathic Misdirections and 7 Telepathic Counters), all you need is one AUS vampire to thwart off several bleeds a turn. The Telepathic Counters are important for this deck as it has no Wakes (probably an oversight) and therefore needs the bleed defense that does not cause tapping. Both Majesty and Earth Meld provide untaps at superior after ending combat. This deck's pool gain is slower from the blood dolls but more versatile. This deck suffers badly from master card jam as it has 23 masters. Anson helps this a lot. The only edge Beauty in the Mist has over Aching Beauty is its versatility. This is a very focused deck that has more staying power than it seems. An opponent who has seen the deck before will let Legal Manipulation bleeds go through for 3 blood without blocking at all to avoid taking the fourth point of damage from blocking the vampire with Aching Beauty unless they have intercept (since the action will just be resumed at +1 stealth anyway). Section 6: Conclusions I hope I was able to show the value of this months focus cards through these two decks. As you can see they both have the same basic idea on how to win. One is just a lot more traditional than the other. In the Protean deck's defense it is a heck of a lot of fun to play, which is also a very important aspect of this game. Please send me feedback. If I don't hear from you, I won't learn what subjects you want covered... but more importantly, I may think no one is reading these and lose interest in writing them. I'm very interested in any and all feedback. Thanks for reading... Please send all comments, questions and criticism to: TigToad@qwest.net www.tigtoad.org Submitted by Daniel Poppe, March 13th, 2001