V:EKN Official Toreador Newsletter September 2004 Introduction: Autumn again. Players coming back from the sunshine, hiding indoors for protection from the weather – and cards being read, reread and bundled together into decks with which to wreak havoc upon other unsuspecting players. All in all, gaming is catching up speed again after a sleepy summer. Late spring there were events – and a total lack of rejoicing. Early autumn there are few events – and a total lack of reaction. VTES survived the worst threat to its existence with a collective yawn, just as it has done every time earlier when the specter of looming death threatened the game. Events keep hitting the table from time to time, and more often than not they help the player playing the event. Some accidents occur and are frowned upon, but not much more than the bleed for five at three stealth killing a grandprey. Taking a quick read at TheLasombra's list of tournament winning decks I see the return of the master deck this last summer. Ok, ok, the point is made. It's a winning concept, but please, clan Toreador is useful for more than one vampire and more mastercards than the rest of the table has together. At the end of this newsletter I'll give a suggestion of how to aggravate the table in a slightly different way instead. I did promise a rundown on the events, so here's the second half. Continuation of events listing. Cardname: Recalled to the Founder Cardtype: Event Set: Gehenna Cardtext: Gehenna. Do not replace as long as this card is in play. Requires at least two other Gehenna cards in play. During each Methuselah's untap phase, if he or she controls more than two vampires of the same clan, he or she burns one such vampire. If that vampire's capacity is above 5, this Methuselah becomes immune to the effects of this card for the remainder of the game. A hard card to like for any deck based on one clan. Best used with a weenie horde based on disciplines or any deck using one or two very high capacity vampires. For clan Toreador I'd expect this card to be useful in a Inner Circle / Justicar Toreador Grand Ball vote and bloat deck. Main problem is the difficulty to see this card in play with any certainty. Cardname: Restricted Vitae Cardtype: Event Set: Gehenna Cardtext: Gehenna. Do not replace until a vampire successfully hunts. Vampires cannot hunt unless forced to hunt. A vampire who must hunt may hunt by stealing a blood from a younger vampire as a (D) action instead of performing the usual hunt action. Another card to slow down play. The usual vote / bloat deck can use it as it'll rely on Voter Captivation as its main means to regain blood on the vampires. Trick decks with Aaron's Feeding Razor, Anarchdom or Hungry Coyote could benefit as well. On average not the event of choice for a Toreador deck. Cardname: Rise of the Nephtali Cardtype: Event Set: Gehenna Cardtext: Gehenna. Do not replace until a vampire becomes a Liaison. Requires at least one other Gehenna card in play. Any Independent vampire may take an action to become liaison. Liaison is a unique Independent title worth 4 votes. If this title would be contested with a younger vampire, the younger vampire immediately yields instead of contesting. Another event for high capacity independents. Anarchs could benefit, but for clan Toreador it's all but useless unless you plan to play with the untitled ten caps. Cardname: The New Inquisition Cardtype: Event Set: Gehenna Cardtext: Gehenna. Do not replace until a titled vampire goes to torpor. Requires at least one other Gehenna card in play. During each Methuselah's untap phase, he or she may choose a ready vampire controlled by his or her prey. That vampire takes 1 unpreventable damage. Any titled vampire may call a referendum to burn this card as a +1 stealth political action. Requiring another Gehenna card and inflicting little damage this event is simply not worth the effort. Cardname: The Slow Withering Cardtype: Event Set: Gehenna Cardtext: Gehenna. Do not replace until a vampire commits diablerie. Requires at least one other Gehenna card in play. Cards that require any superior Disciplines cost an additional blood to play. Any vampire who commits diablerie is immune to this effect until the next Gehenna card is played. This is actually a very powerful card in certain decks. Anything based on bleeding at stealth should benefit as bouncing bleeds either becomes more difficult or exceedingly expensive. Such decks usually suffer from lack of combat capacity, and increasing the cost of attractive combat effects should come in handy. Again Toreador decks would normally want to benefit from using disciplines available at superior in which case this card might be more trouble than gain. Cardname: The Unmasking Cardtype: Event Set: Gehenna Cardtext: Gehenna. Do not replace until your next discard phase. Allies get +1 intercept when attempting to block vampires. Not a card for clan Toreador. Cardname: Thirst Cardtype: Event Set: Gehenna Cardtext: Gehenna After a Methuselah has finished all of his or her minion phase actions, each ready vampire he or she controls with capacity less than the number of Gehenna cards in play who did not hunt in that minion phase burns 1 blood. Another event for slowing down weenie hordes. Useful as added mayhem in the Master card deck. Cardname: Torpid Blood Cardtype: Event Set: Gehenna Cardtext: Gehenna. Do not replace until a vampire moves from torpor to the ready region. Actions taken by vampires in torpor cost an additional blood. Rescuing an older vampire from torpor costs an additional blood. Highly useful if your combat is based on aggravated damage. As such a relatively unlikely card in a Toreador deck. Cardname: Veil of Darkness Cardtype: Event Set: Gehenna Cardtext: Gehenna. Do not replace as long as this card is in play. Each turn, when a vampire plays his or her first card that turn that requires any Disciplines, that vampire's controller reveals the top card of his or her library (before drawing to replace). If it is a master card, the original card has no effect (no cost is paid), and in addition, if the original card required Obtenebration [obt], the vampire burns 2 blood. You'd better know what you're doing if you put this event in play. Playing a discipline less deck helps, as does playing one not using master cards, but this event will create unexpected surprises all over the table. Should realistically not see play in a Toreador deck. If this card enters play early on and the rest of the table does not gang together to get rid of the menace that table deserves the same fate as a table who blindly allows Anson/Parthenon/Anarch Revolts to have its day. Cardname: Wormwood Cardtype: Event Set: Gehenna Cardtext: Gehenna. Do not replace until your next discard phase. Requires at least one other Gehenna card in play. Put 10 counters on this card. Burn 1 counter whenever another Gehenna card is put in play. A vampire whose capacity is greater than X is treated as if his or her capacity is X (minimum of 1), where X is the number of counters on this card. Apart from some peculiar general mayhem, we hate games longer than thirty minutes, it's so cool to watch red cards all over the table, this card should never see play in any deck. The sheer amount of Gehenna cards needed to make this card worth playing also makes any such games more or less unplayable. A deckidea based on clan Toreador: Name: Legion Description: Breeder. Get your hand from prey and discard when building a weenie. Deck's not really trimmed and has seen varying succcess. The card engine works and it cycles little more of your own library than for example any normal combat deck. Sometimes the cards you steal from your prey are quite useful. Decktypes: Bounce/Weenie Crypt Cards Total: 12 Min: 12 Max: 41 Avg: 6.42 Name Amount Agaitas, The Scholar of Antiquities 4 Alexandra 1 Emerson Wilkershire III 1 Isabel de Leon 1 Madame Guil 3 Michael Luther 1 Yvette, The Hopeless 1 Library Cards Total: 90 Name Amount Master Total: 38 Art Museum 1 Blood Doll 3 Dominate 7 Elysium: The Arboretum 1 Fortitude 4 Giant's Blood 1 Humanitas 1 Obfuscate 1 Perfectionist 2 Presence 1 Secure Haven 1 Society Hunting Ground 1 Sunset Strip, Hollywood 1 The Barrens 1 The Parthenon 2 Toreador Grand Ball 5 Tribute to the Master 5 Action Total: 11 Legion 7 Third Tradition: Progeny 4 Action Modifier Total: 9 Freak Drive 9 Combat Total: 14 Lucky Blow 4 Majesty 4 Weighted Walking Stick 6 Reaction Total: 16 Deflection 7 Telepathic Misdirection 1 Wake with Evening's Freshness 8 Equipment Total: 2 Catacombs 1 Palatial Estate 1 That's all for now. Sten Düring