V:EKN Official Clan Tremere Newsletter January 2002 Volume 3, Issue 1 Well, I've been doing this (off and on, quite spottily) for a little over three years now. Crazy. My own play style has changed a lot since I started writing these, and I've been trying to get back to the basics for the last year or so. At the beginning of this whole long, strange trip, I was more interested in building trick decks or trying to see Tremere combat work, which it eventually did, in my environment. Disturbing, I know...though I'm thinking about building another Tremere combat deck in the near future, with Bum's Rush/Perfect Clarity as the angle. Over the course of the last two years, my playgroup has finally settled down, and we hear very little grumbling about being forced to play by tournament rules, and some of the old dissenters are now quite in favor of playing with tournament rules in general. All in all, a happy thing, and I credit most of it to Minneapolis' Prince, Mark Shanewood. At this same time, as I've been going back to the beginning, and my playgroup has agreed to play by a consistent ruleset, I've noticed a marked increase in the number of wins I've been getting (partly due to a decreased ability to gang up), as well as the aforementioned shift in my playstyle, from what used to be semi-focused, but too many moving parts; to solid, all-out decks (i.e. Rededication/Murmur of the False Will); and now I find myself branching out to try the styles of other groups (toolbox and Atlanta deck size concepts) and once again entertaining "trick" decks, but built around a solid foundation (much like I see in Ben Peal's decks). I guess that for the initial issue of the new volume (renumbered for the new year, the long break since the last issue, and because of the split in the metagame I suspect Bloodlines will drive), this will be a recap of things I have brought up in previous newsletters, along with, well, other stuff. By my count, 4 Tremere decks have won tournaments this year, which while seemingly not too many, is up from 1 in 2000, 0 prior to that, as far as I can tell from The Lasombra's Tournament Winning Deck Archive. Obviously nowhere near the levels of mainstays such as the Ventrue, Brujah, and the Malkavians, but becoming respectable, nonetheless, especially when you consider that there are a lot of non-clan-based decks represented in the archive. (Specifically, the weenie presence or dominate bleed decks, along with a few others.) As I finish writing this, I see that two more have won already in 2002 (Siege of Linz and Gothenburg by Night)...excellent work! As mentioned, for me, this year has been all about going back to the beginning, and figuring out why I like to play the Tremere, and how they have been most effective. I asked myself this question back in February, and came up with the deck I entitled "Rededication" (later "Murmur of the False Will" post-Final Nights). The deck has proven to be my most enduring Tremere deck, and though it has undergone several revisions, is still pretty close to the deck as I originally envisioned it. In essence, a bruise & bleed deck, it has only rarely failed to gain me at least 1 VP, and over the course of the last year, has gotten a table win in approximately 50% of my games. With aus/dom/tha, the Tremere are really suited to do a few things well. Thaumaturgy is, at its core, a combat discipline; however, it does not have enough internal support to be an efficient mono-combat discipline. Unfortunately, many people try to play it this way. Auspex is primarily geared towards intercept, and has some combat support. Dominate is mostly about bleeding, but also has other tricks, including Thoughts Betrayed, a highly useful card for the Tremere. One can toolbox the Tremere, and make a clan deck into a bleeding/untap & intercept/combat affair, but I generally find that the card requirements to do this leave you short in all areas. Focusing on two of these three areas is probably the way to go, and even then, I recommend emphasizing one over the other. For efficient play and ousts, I feel that bruise & bleed is the most effective tactic. The Tremere don't have enough stealth to really do stealth & bleed. In the absence of piles of Art's Traumatic Essence, the Tremere aren't able to effectively tap & bleed. Seduction and Blood Bond are possibilities, though I don't like the effort required for Blood Bond. Intercept, while it is an option, requires a lot of cards to effectively move forward. I plan to build an AUS/THA Pulse/untap & intercept deck in the near future, but I don't see it being strictly as easy to play as DOM/THA bruise & bleed/deflect. Which, of course, doesn't make it a bad deck, just not one to work in as many environments (people always block Pulses if they can, it seems). So far, this has been a much more introspective newsletter than most, though not compared to one of Legbiter's, I guess. I find that although I would like to do more deep thinking about the game, I generally just build some decks and go play, letting revelations come to me as they may. I'll get around to thinking later, perhaps. Feel free to respond with any comments. Focus on a Card Nose of the Hound Action Auspex/Spiritus +1 stealth action. [aus]: (D) Enter combat with a ready tapped minion controlled by another Methuselah. This acting minion gets an optional maneuver in that combat. [spi]: As [aus] above, with an additional maneuver during that combat. [SPI]: As [spi] above, but enter combat with any ready minion controlled by another Methuselah. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Nose of the Hound is an amazing card. Yeah, it's Ambush, which isn't as good as Bum's Rush, but it's at +1 stealth. That is incredible. And it's for Auspex, also incredible. Yup, Spiritus is great and all, but I'm going to ignore it, since no Tremere have Spiritus, and plenty of them have Auspex; well, and the effect is pretty much the same with Spiritus, it's just slightly more powerful. Though it'd be entertaining to get an Infernal Familiar and use it just to play the [spi] version of the card. I haven't built a deck for this yet, but it is custom-made for Aisling Sturbridge and Hannigan. Nose of the Hound to enter combat. Thaumaturgy strikes. Telepathic Tracking to continue to second round (whether to get around S:CE, or with the press/maneuver). More Thaumaturgy strikes. Simply amazing. Strategy Corner Completely unrelated to Tremere bruise & bleed, we have Tremere politics. To do this most easily, you want to use Presence, which a number of Tremere do have innately. Unfortunately, not all of their other disciplines match up well. Not all of the good voters have Dominate to use Seduction, and some of the best titled vampires don't have Presence. They do all have superior Thaumaturgy, which unfortunately, doesn't really help out all that much, except perhaps to fetch (with Magic of the Smith) Lyndhurst Estate, New York. You could use that and a couple of other Loquipment (and, perhaps Concoction of Vitality and Venificorum Artum Sanguis) to boost a Tremere political deck. At any rate, crypt selection is a little problematic. For the library, take note that Tremere have a lot of AUS floating around, and this allows you to include Telepathic Vote Counting. Some of the Dominate anti-vote cards could be used, or the Presence cards, depending on crypt selection. If you don't want to fall over to the usual anti-vote tactics of simply intercepting the votes, you have a couple of choices. Since it is hard to increase the stealth of your Tremere, you can try to work with Dominate for Seduction to remove the most potent blocker from the mix. Alternatively, you could use a combat angle, and try to scare any blockers off, which Thaumaturgy can be used for, as usual. An additional use for Thaumaturgy in this deck is for Perfect Clarity. The acting vampire's votes cannot be cancelled with Kindred Coercion or Pulling Strings once you've played Perfect Clarity. Delaying Tactics and Dread Gaze will still be effective, but hopefully you can account for this, perhaps by bluffing on an earlier vote, or using the TVC on the vampire playing Dread Gaze. Preemptively, Revelations is also a good means by which to reduce the possibility of your vote getting shut down. Otherwise, a Tremere vote deck plays pretty much as a standard vote deck. Get out vampires with titles, and vote away. Gain pool for defense and block only what you have to. The following deck is a work in progress, but has performed adequately to date, getting 1 VP at a 4-player table (fell over to Nosferatu princes at the end), and 3 VP at a 6-player table (my prey hung on by 1 pool, ousted, and then I eventually ousted him; endgame was vs. Malkavian S&B, and I pulled it out). This is similar to a deck I have posted previously, but which I never actually built. Now that I've had a chance to test it, I'm posting the current deck with some changes that will be made shortly. Sample Deck Title: Author: Xian Crypt 2x Aisling Sturbridge 1x Astrid Thomas 1x Dr. John Casey 2x Javier Montoya 2x Lydia Van Cuelen 2x Rebekka, Chantry Elder of Munich 2x Spiridonas Average: 5.58 Best: 19 Worst: 36 Library (90) Masters (10): 1x Arcane Library 1x Barrens 1x Chantry 5x Minion Tap 2x Presence Actions (4): 2x Revelations 2x Rutor's Hand Action Modifiers (24): 8x Bewitching Oration (change to 4x BO and 4x Charming Lobby or Cryptic Rider?) 4x Perfect Clarity 6x Telepathic Vote Counting 6x Voter Captivation Combat (6): 6x Majesty (more combat defense would be good, but would have Political Actions (26): 1x Ancient Influence 2x Ancilla Empowerment 2x Consanguineous Boon 2x Disputed Territory 2x Domain Challenge 1x Dramatic Upheaval 2x Honor the Elders 1x Kindred Restructure 6x Kine Resources Contested 4x Parity Shift 3x Tremere Justicar Reactions (20): 8x Telepathic Counter 6x Telepathic Misdirection 6x Wake with Evening's Freshness Ideally, you get Rebekka out and make her Tremere Justicar. Next, you get out Javier or Spiridonas and other random flunkies (Javier is preferable). Now you start passing votes left and right, intercepting what you need to, bloat and reduce incoming bleeds. Fairly straightforward, no real tricks to it. I have yet to get out a Rutor's Hand in play, and I also haven't seen Lydia or Aisling in my crypt to date. So far, my opening draw has been Rebekka, one of the Princes, and Dr. John. This works well, it's just a little surprising. I currently have the deck rounded out with a lot of general purpose votes, but it could be slimmmed down to mostly just KRC and Parity Shift. In my current environment, it seems useful to have a couple of 'off' votes to be ready for unusual situations. The Ancilla Empowerments saved me in the last game I played, as a matter of fact. Your environment may dictate differently, but it seems helpful currently. There are too many Bewitching Orations in the deck, I'm thinking about switching out a few for either Charming Lobby or Cryptic Rider, but I'm unsure which at the moment. Most likely, I'll go with Charming Lobby, as it's less threatening to people than Cryptic Rider seems to be. A trick I just noted: if you make Astrid Tremere Justicar, and perhaps give her Presence, you should be able to call votes with her using Perfect Clarity and be completely immune to Pulling Strings/Kindred Coercion affecting any of your vampires. That's it for now. Please feel free to comment on the newsgroup, or send me suggestions (or submissions) via email. Xian Chronicler of Clan Tremere -- I'd tell the world and save my soul, But rain falls down and I feel cold. A cold that sleeps within my heart, It tears the earth and sun apart. --_Shellshock_, New Order www.waste.org/~xian