Toreador Clan Newsletter Vol 1, Issue 2 I. Introduction This month I add my own opinions about deck building in the soapbox. War Stories relates the results of how well the deck I introduced from last issue faired. Revelations, the card of the month, will show you how to get your prey to act like you predator (if you want that). The Deck of the Month revisits the interceptor deck from last issue and shows any improvements. Finally, the letters section relates highlights from the one and only response I received last month. II. Soap Box Legbiter is sharing his wisdom for building decks in the GA Clan Newsletter so I think I'll add some of my own. Something often overlooked in deck building is the concept of opportunity costs to play cards. Certain cards can be played at most anytime while others require a certain set of circumstances in which to play them. In this case, your deck building has to consider the costs of cards in terms of how long they will take up room in your hand before you can use them. A simple example would be the following. Both Blood Doll and Minion Tap can only be played on ready minions however; Blood Doll can be played effectively at anytime while Minion Tap has an additional restriction to it. You would prefer to Minion Tap a larger vampire that is close to full rather than one that is closer to empty. Therefore, Minion Tap may stay in your hand longer because you need to bring out or fill up a minion before you can use it effectively. III. War Stories The first game with my interceptor deck was a bit disappointing. It began badly, with an animalism weenie predator playing a Drawing out the Beast and Aid from Bats combo to stop my guns. My hand jammed early with lots of Tradition cards and a crypt with no titled vampires. I had to suffer quite a few Computer Hackings before I could clear my hand jam and get to my maneuvers. Then I was able to use the DotB against my predator by maneuvering back to close and smacking him for lots. I was also able to play Revelations on my prey and managed to keep it for a few turns. Although it cost me Dorian with a .44 in torpor, it was fun to play. I had to fight hard to keep Dorian from being diablarized and then rescue him so I let my prey burn the revelations. After that I had only 5 pool, Kallista and Dorian out (and armed), and my deck was beginning to click. I was able to block most of the actions my prey and predator took. Across the table from me was the Tzimice "Punch me and die" deck (Tzimice Clan Newsletter, Vol 4) which also has lots of intercept, so between the two of us we were able to freeze the table for awhile. Most actions were blocked and most minions ended up empty and in torpor by the end of the game. Eventually my prey managed to oust his prey and was able to sweep the table thanks to all the minions in torpor. Although I was the last one to be ousted, this deck still needed some work. I modified the deck a bit by adding some Pulse of the Cainille and Aire of Elation, hoping to get a little more bleeding in it while still keeping the defense. The next time out, however, was not much better. My predator was a Malkavian Madness network/Homunculus thing that used out of turn Bum's Rushes, aggravated damage and Rotschreck to send my minions to torpor. It made for a very nasty combination and would have been worse, but he experienced hand jam and I was able to send all his minions to torpor by the end of the game. My prey was a Brujah Rush, Taste and Minion Tap deck which was able to generate enough additional pool to ignore my bleeds (he never rushed me and only blocked me once). I was able to bleed for 5 a couple of time (Anneke with Aire) but never consistently due to my difficult predator. The end the result would have been the same, (my prey had just gotten a victory point and my predator was out of minions) but for the time limit. The deck once again proved to be very good defensively but unable to do much to oust my prey. The third time for the deck was no better. My predator was the Tzimice "Don't play with your food deck." (Tzimice Clan Newsletter, Vol 5) which didn't do much to me but made a real mess out of Marianna Gilbert. I was able to keep my predator at bay and managed to get a few bleeds through my prey (a Brujah rush deck) before Felicia went to torpor with a .44 and was diablerized. Once my predator was outsted, my grand predator (a !Malk stealth bleed deck) was in a world of hurt. My deck started clicking and I sent three minions to torpor before I ran out of both wakes and intercept and ended up getting ousted. Once again, it was a really fun deck to play but failed to gain a victory point. I pulled a Wake/Fast Reaction/Blur combo on both Violett Tremaine and Artemis, sending them both to torpor. III. Card of the Month Revelations "This is a +1 stealth action. (D) Look at your preys hand. He or she discards one card of your choice. (S) Put this card in play. Your prey plays with an open hand. This card can be burned by any minion as a (D) action." Although some players may ignore this card, most will work aggressively to get rid of it. This will result in you prey taking many actions directed toward you. This comes in handy, especially when your combat deck is clicking and you want to start clearing your prey's minions. It will also work well to distract your prey from ousting, which may give you the opportunity to oust two players if you time it right. For Auspex blocking decks, this is very handy for distracting your prey and getting into combat with your prey's minions. IV. Deck of the Month Toreador Interceptors Revisited After playing 5 games with this deck and failing to win a full victory point I'm going to try something different. It went through many minor modifications but I tried to stay faithful to the original intent. The deck is fun to play and can certaintly stay busy in a 5 player game (intercepting left and right) but it falls short when trying to oust its prey and lacks enough permanent intercept to handle stealth bleeders. 1 X Dieter Kleist 2 aus 1 X Colin Flynn 3 aus cel 1 X Isabel de Leon 3 AUS 1 X Marianna Gilbert 4 PRE cel 2 X Felicia Mostrom 5 AUS CEL pre 2 X Kallista, 6 AUS CEL pre pro 2 X Marcellus 8 AUS CEL pro 2 X Anneke 10 AUS CEL PRE Average 5.8, Best 12, Worst 36 15 - Masters 3 - Presence 3 - Blood Doll 3 - Minion Tap 2 - Vast Wealth 1 - Society Hunting Ground 1 - Art Museum 1 - Giants Blood 1 - Fragment of the Book of Nod 10 Equipment / Retainers: 5 -.44 Magnum 1 - Ivory Bow 2 - Resplendent Protector 2 - Leather Jacket 6 Actions: 1 Revelations 2 Atonement 3 Fifth Tradition 8 Action Modifers: 8 Aire of Elation 18 Combat: 4 Aura Reading 4 Pursuit 4 Side Strike 4 Blur 2 Glaser Rounds 33 Reaction: 6 Forced Awakening 6 Wake with Evenings Freshness 6 Fast Reaction 4 Spirits Touch 4 Precognition 2 Enhanced Senses 2 Eagles Sight 3 Second Tradition The basic idea is to equip a minion with a gun and then block with another minion. If you can successfully block then you can you play Fast Reaction and shoot the blocked minion for 6 or more points without taking any damage yourself. During one game Dieter stepped in front of Anvil (much to the amusement of my predator) and was punched into torpor. However, Felicia Fact Reacted and shot Anvil into torpor. With all the wakes it is fairly easy to play the Fast Reaction (even if you have to pay one blood to use the forced). V. Letters I only received one letter last month, and that was from Legbiter. Besides enjoying the newsletter, he referred to my deck as "Cute". I guess Toreadors just won't get any respect from Gangrel Antitribu when it comes to combat. Please send all comments, questions and criticism to toreadors@hotmail.com Deck ideas and strategies are encouraged. Submitted by Chris Miller, November 3, 1999