Introduction: The continental qualifiers are getting closer. There has already been one in the North American zone and a triple is almost upon them late mars. Here in Europe we're still waiting for the first one. As each released expansion seems to take around half a year to truly make a repeatable impact in the tournaments I find it unlikely that tha upcoming Anarch expansion will be much more than a surprise during the North American championship, but I do expect Anarchs to be one of several standardised decktypes for all other continental championships 2003. It still remains to be seen what an ordinary Anarch deck will do and how it will differ from what we expect to see today. Our local play is peculiar to say the least. The weekly games feature an insane amount of combat, but more than half of the players turn to other means when attending our tournaments. I'm still fighting, unsuccesfully at that, with the Salubri Antitribu and have just recently started to put together a Camarilla Edition version of an older Toreador deck. Experiencing the clan: Since I started writing the Toreador Newsletter in september 2001 I have won five tournaments with Toreador-decks and failed utterly with more or less anything else. What then makes the clan so easy to play if you trust it? Gunning: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As gunners they have access to the strong combination of Celerity, Auspex and Obfuscate. That enables you to pick a weapon of your choise, attack another vampire at +1 stealth and block stealthing vampires - not only limited to the actions you would normally be allowed to block. Add Toreador Grand Ball and you can pick exactly the vampire you want to attack. Celerity they share with Assamites, Brujah and !Brujah and a few of those make good additions to a Toreador gun-deck. Let's take this down to cards: 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: On top of these six vampires you have another 25 vampires with the combination belonging to other clans. You really only need Obfuscate at inferior to get good use of Disguised Weapon, allowing you to put ANY weapon you have in hand into play at the beginning of combat. Inferior Obfuscate is also usually enough for stealthing through key actions. Nose of the Hound requires inferior Auspex to attack another tapped vampire at +1 stealth. That's a lot better than Ambush. Auspex in general gives you intercept, but two cards really shine: Eagle's Sight that gives you intercept at inferior and at superior allows you to attempt to block any action that is not explicitly unblockable. Telepathic Misdirection that costs one blood but at inferior gives you intercept and at superior allows you to bounce a bleed to another player. This versatility makes it a fantastic card as you can use it during the duel that ends the game on a table instead of having to discard every copy you draw. Toreador Grand Ball is probably one of the most powerful cards in the entire game. Cardtype: Master Clan: Toreador Cost: 1 pool Cardtext: Master. Put this card in play. Choose 2 ready Toreador you control. The first Toreador's nonbleed actions cannot be blocked. The second Toreador does not untap as normal during the untap phase; tap the second Toreador. Any minion may burn this card as a (D) action; Nosferatu get 1 stealth when attempting that action. Remember that if you are in a position to create your second unblockable vampire, the tapped one you used to create number one can be reused. Yes, that's right, you only lose one single vampire for any number of unblockable Toreadors. Now, if you did base your deck around Auspex, Celerity and Obfuscate, the mean combination of Toreador Grand Ball and Mask of a thousand Faces suddenly occur. Call an action with an unblockable Toreador, wait until all players are forced to decline blocking and Mask with another Toreador. Celerity is of course the backbone you rely on when it comes to shooting your opposition to torpor. Psyche can be used as a countermeasure to Rötschreck and is one way around Strike: Combat Ends. Pursuit is versatile as it helps you to determine range as well as giving you an additional strike. Sideslip gives you a Dodge when you need it or can be used to prevent one point of damage when you are better off gunning down the other minion. Taste of Vitae is a good card without any discipline-requirement that allows you to refill your gunners. I'm sadistically fond of combining it with Assault Rifles as my weapons. Yes, I know, it's too expensive, it doesn't yield enough result in comparision to its cost, you only need .44 Magnum if you have Celerity, etc, etc. Noone who usually use those arguments have approved of my getting the big guns out when actually sitting as my prey or predator during a game when I have tuned one of those decks. Assault Rifles have played a major role in three of my winning decks as well so I'm prone to watch that weapon with great fondness. Non-combat: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Another angle to the Toreador is to vote, bleed and escape combat. You'll probably rely mostly on Presence and Auspex in such a deck. There are 18 Toreador with superior Auspex and at least inferior Presence and there is a total of 49 vampires with that combination. There are 11 Toreador with superior at both disciplines out of which only three belong to group 1. A deck that both bleeds as well as votes will make good use of two cards: Aching Beauty Cardtype: Master Clan: Toreador Cost: 2 pool Cardtext: Master. Put this card on a Toreador. If this Toreador is blocked, the controller of the blocking minion burns 1 pool (before combat occurs). and Change of Target Cardtype: Action Modifier Cardtext: Only usable when this acting minion is blocked (play before combat, if any). Untap the acting minion, do not tap the blocking minion, and end the current action (it is not successful). This minion cannot perform the same action again this turn. My own experience, though, is that Change of Target can be replaced by: Majesty Cardtype: Combat Cost: 1 blood Discipline: Presence Cardtext: [pre] Strike: combat ends. [PRE] As above, and this vampire untaps before combat ends. as long as you don't see too much combatcards that prevent you from playing Strike: Combat Ends. You're not forced to alternate between Change of Target and Strike: Combat Ends -cards when acting and blocking. There are a multitude of cards that help you getting through massive bleeds, but I've grown very fond of: Enchant Kindred Cardtype: Action Discipline: Presence Cardtext: [pre] (D) Bleed with +1 bleed. [PRE] +1 stealth action. Move 2 blood from the blood bank to a younger vampire in your uncontrolled region. as it allows your larger vampires to speed up the arrival of more vampires as well as allowing you to regain some pool if the need is great. Aire of Elation Cardtype: Action Modifier Cost: 1 blood Discipline: Presence Cardtext: You cannot play another action modifier to further increase the bleed for this action. [pre] +1 bleed; +2 bleed if acting vampire is Toreador. [PRE] +2 bleed; +3 bleed if acting vampire is Toreador. is a great substitute for Conditioning when played by a Toreador. When voting you'll usually have a choise between relying on a few Princes or a larger amount of smaller, untitled vampires. Kine Resources Contested Cardtype: Political Action Cardtext: Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any vampire at +1 stealth. Allocate 4 points between 2 or more Methuselahs. Successful referendum means each Methuselah burns 1 pool for each point assigned. is a staple-card, but if you do rely on Princes then Parity Shift Cardtype: Political Action Set: CE, V:TES, Jyhad Cardtext: Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any prince or justicar at +1 stealth. Choose a Methuselah who has more pool than you do. Allocate X of his or her pool between 1 or more of the other Methuselahs (including you), where X is the number of Methuselahs in the game. Successful referendum means the chosen Methuselah loses that pool, and it is allocated as you announced. is a fantastic card as it both allows you to have expensive Mastercards as well as never stop getting more and more expensive vampires under your control - after all you need your target to be weaker than you poolwise. Don't forget that it can also help you to keep a nice and weak predator alive. Praxis Seizure: Monaco, Praxis Seizure: Paris and Toreador Justicar are useful cards to grab more permanent votes with in a deck that doesn't rely on vampires already occupying one of the corresponding titles. When you finally arrive at the Referendum there are a few ways of getting your votes to pass. Bewitching Oration and Awe both add to your amount of votes, but if you want to swarm the table with small Toreadors then, to begin with, Change of Target should not be replaced by Majesty, and one seldomly used card starts to look interesting: Scorn of Adonis Cardtype: Action Modifier Clan: Toreador Cardtext: Only usable during a referendum. Any Methuselah casting or controlling a vampire casting at least 1 vote against the referendum burns 1 pool before the results are tallied. You could even combine it with the weakened version of Embrace as long as you have a Change of Target handy. Using larger vampires you'll make good use of Voter Captivation as refilling your vampires could never be a bad idea. Auspex in such a deck should probably be more focused on bleed-bounce rather than actually intercepting and blocking. Special Cases: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The clan will lend itself to some peculiar decks that are types of their own. Anneke Cardtype: Vampire Sect: Camarilla Group: 1 Clan: Toreador Capacity: 10 Discipline: AUS CEL dom PRE Cardtext: Camarilla Toreador Justicar: Anneke may attempt to block a vampire controlled by another Methuselah after others have declined or failed to block. +1 bleed. She can try to block more or less any action and escape with Obedience. There are several decks built around this single vampire and all suffer from her quickly becoming a VERY visible target, but Obedience is after all a comparatively good protection and very often enough. Anson Cardtype: Vampire Sect: Camarilla Group: 1 Clan: Toreador Capacity: 8 Discipline: aus CEL dom PRE Cardtext: Camarilla Prince of Seattle: If Anson is ready, you get 2 master phase actions (instead of 1) during your master phase. He is the backbone of the decks with more Master-cards than you thought humanly possible to include in a deck. Again Obedience plays an important role in keeping him alive. I'll continue experimenting with the two Toreador that have inferior Fortitude in order to see if combining Freak Drive and Toreador Grand Ball works as well today as it did before Fifth Tradition: Hospitality was changed. Such a deck will, for obvious reasons, not rely on bleeding too much, but could have a "perfect turn" looking something like Third Tradition: Progeny, Freak Drive, Enchant Kindred, Freak Drive, Sanguine Instruction, Freak Drive, Judgement: Camarilla Segregation, Freak Drive, Parity Shift, Bewithing Oration, Voter Captivation - before you start thinking of what to do with your second vampire. Special Cards: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Art Museum Cardtype: Master Clan: Toreador Cost: 2 pool Cardtext: Master: unique location. During your influence phase, you may tap this card to move 1 blood from the blood bank to a Toreador in your uncontrolled region. Without it you'll see a capacity 8 vampire in two rounds, but with it you'll be able to bring out one of the expensive group 3 beasts in two rounds. Powerbase: Montreal Cardtype: Master Cardtext: Master: Unique Location. During your influence phase, you may move one blood from the blood bank to a vampire in your uncontrolled region. Any vampire may steal this location for his or her controller as a (D) action. If you plan to play gunning Princes then this gem of a card will be a major asset. Why attack other vampires when you can block them? Combine this card with: The Rack Cardtype: Master Cardtext: Master: unique location. When this card is brought into play or the controller of this card changes, the controller chooses a ready vampire he or she controls. During the controller's untap phase, the chosen vampire gains 2 blood from the blood bank. A vampire controlled by another Methuselah can steal this location for his or her controller as a (D) action. and players will eventually be forced to visit you, especially if you decide that Blood Doll is preferable to Minion Tap. I have won more than one game by building in this way. The trick is to nail your prey while there are still three players left. If you for some peculiar reason have been left unchecked at this stage of the game then your predator is no longer a danger when the ending duel starts. Sten During