V:EKN Official Tremere Newsletter, May 2005 I. Introduction II. Strategy Discussion - What to do about Deflection? III. Crypt Focus - Valois Sang, the Watcher IV. Library Focus - The Sleeping Mind V. Deck Focus - Seduced by the Pyramid's Power VI. Conclusion I. Introduction Welcome to the May 2005 edition of the Tremere Newsletter. Despite the fact that two months have gone by since the last one, not much has happened to our clan. There has been a startling lack of interest in Valerius Maior, Hell's Fool on the internet. On top of that, Kindred Most Wanted and the forthcoming Legacies of the Blood expansions do not spotlight our clan. But tournament season appears to be in full swing, so let's get out there and win! This issue will go into detail on beating Deflection, a subject on which I have touched but never gone in depth. This month's deck will attempt to show some of the theories in action. II. Strategy Discussion - What to do about Deflection? Bleed; our most basic offense and, arguably, Clan Tremere's greatest strength. And Deflection is the strongest defense against our best offense. As many Tremere players have found out, a typical bruise-and-bleed deck has a very hard time coping with Deflection. Let us go into detail on most of the methods we may employ to ensure our Tremere bleed successfully. Firstly, a combat deck has the capability of sending potential deflectors to torpor. When playing bruise-and-bleed, you should include a handful of actions to enter combat. For our clan the best options are Bum's Rush and Nose of the Hound. How you torporize the minion is up to you; I personally favor Theft of Vitae sprinkled with Walk of Flame. Another way to eliminate a deflector would be to remove its blood because the best (and therefore most common) deflection cards are Deflection and Telepathic Misdirection, which each cost a blood. You can utilize Cryptic Mission, Seeds of Corruption and even Crocodile's Tongue to keep their blood count low. Add insult to injury with Society of Leopold. An obvious solution in our clan is to play with Perfect Clarity. This eliminates Deflection and Redirection, but leaves Telepathic Misdirection and My Enemy's Enemy as options. It also costs two blood and does not stop anyone from simply blocking the action. Perfect Clarity is a very powerful card which should be played when you know you will go unblocked, but otherwise saved in hand. Reactions require the minion to be untapped, so you can tap any deflectors, forcing your prey to use up Wake with Evening's Freshness to bounce. You can use master cards such as Anarch Troublemaker and Misdirection. Art's Traumatic Essence and Steal the Mind have good "tap a minion" effects within our clan disciplines (Auspex and Dominate, respectively). When your prey has to rely on wakes, you can make the cost prohibitive by playing Regarhagan's Hold. At this point you have realized that we are discussing a classic "tap-and-bleed" style of deck. Most decks simply don't run enough Deflections to handle six minions bleeding for two apiece. Tremere have access to many methods of increasing minion count. Use Govern the Unaligned at superior to bring out your crypt. The Embrace and Third Tradition are both quick and easy methods of creating vampires, and don't forget that Rafastio Ghoul and Outcast Mage have 1 bleed each as well as light combat capability. Probably the most powerful option is Create Gargoyle, which can give you a slave to protect your Tremere and the discipline of your choice. This kind of minion swarm deck should work very well when combined with minion tapping cards as described above. Thanks to our clan's master of Auspex, we can see the deflections coming ahead of time. In combat play Aura Reading to evaluate your prey's hand and use that information to plan your strategy. Revelations is underrated as a permanent source of information, provided you are prepared to defend it; at inferior it simply removes the deflections from your prey's hand - probably the most effective way to eliminate the problem. But you play your bleed deck and you still occasionally get sent to your grandprey. Thankfully you are bleeding at 0-1 stealth and so it's easy to block. But tapping your grandprey out could get him ousted! Do not forget to pack Change of Target for just a situation as this. It can also keep your Tremere from getting beaten in combat with a dangerous prey when he wakes unexpectedly. Choosing one or more of these options can and should become an integral part of building a Tremere bleed deck. It will decide how to build your crypt and the ratios of cards in your library. Choose which methods work best for you based on your local metagame as well as your card collection; most people do not have 8 copies of Perfect Clarity, for instance. To see an example of these concepts in deck design, read on to this issue's Deck Focus. III. Crypt Focus - Valois Sang, the Watcher Valois Sang, the Watcher Clan: Tremere Capacity: 6 Group: 3 nec tha AUS DOM Camarilla. He's not a fighter, he's a lover. Or more accurately, a bleeder. Valois Sang's glaring weakness is his inferior Thaumaturgy, which keeps him from accessing many of the discipline's potent effects. Rutor's Hand and Magic of the Smith are hardly worth playing, and Theft of Vitae is not so impressive at inferior. But when it comes to bleeding and bleed defense, Valois Sang is good at his job. It is widely known that superior Auspex and Dominate provide amazing defense, combining intercept with all forms of bleed redirection and bleed reduction. Now when put into an offensive position, Valois Sang still shines despite his questionable combat ability. He can eliminate two blockers with Seduction and The Sleeping Mind (our Library Focus this issue), and possibly follow up with Crocodile's Tongue. He does not need to have superior Thaumaturgy to bleed using Perfect Clarity, either. He also can pair with Muhsin Samir as a 6-capacity vampire with superior Dominate, to Govern the Unaligned Tremere weenies. Inferior Necromancy provides a little bit of precious stealth and a way to recycle powerful cards, including Deflections or a recently-burned Thadius Zho. He may also combine with Nagaraja, Giovanni, and perhaps Beatrice L'Angou to add Auspex to a traditional Necromancy power bleed deck. When not utilizing his Necromancy, Valois Sang is an excellent pool defender with little combat ability and a frightening capacity for power bleeds when his prey's guard is low. Use him to round out your mid-caps when superior Thaumaturgy is not absolutely vital to your strategy. IV. Library Focus - The Sleeping Mind The Sleeping Mind Action Modifier Dominate 1 blood Only usable when the acting vampire's action is announced. [dom] Choose a tapped vampire. The chosen vampire cannot attempt to block this action. [DOM] Minions cannot untap during this action. The Sleeping Mind is often dismissed by players shortly after they read it. One complaint about this card is its blood cost; to use it regularly would mean that your vampires would drain their blood quickly. For this reason I have found it to be best used in small quantities, to support stealth cards and Seduction. Another common complaint is that it does not stop the ubiquitous Wake with Evening's Freshness or Forced Awakening when used. It seems to me that many people skip over the inferior level of the card when forming their opinions! In my experience, the superior level of The Sleeping Mind is simply gravy. Occasionally you will play against a deck using many copies of Second Tradition: Domain or the Animalism untap cards (Cats' Guidance, Guard Dogs, Read the Winds, etc.) and you will be able to stop them cold. At inferior Dominate The Sleeping Mind is a close cousin of Seduction; it is limited by its cost and restriction, but the two cards can be combined to create a formidable offense. For the Tremere it can be crucial in getting a crucial action through, or choosing which minion you want to block. For example, consider bleeding your prey with a Tremere with superior Auspex and Dominate. After carefully playing Seduction and Sleeping Mind, your prey still has a small-capacity vampire left to block with - whom you bypass using Crocodile's Tongue! Alternately, in a bruise-and-bleed deck, you can force your prey to choose to block with a Famous or weak minion, or not block at all. I find The Sleeping Mind to be a powerful addition to the Tremere's painfully low-stealth arsenal. Due to its restrictions you may want to only use one copy for every four Seduction you play. As always, it depends on the deck and your strategy. V. Deck Focus - Seduced by the Pyramid's Power Deck Name: Seduced by the Pyramid's Power Author: Dorrinal Blackmantle Description: This is a zero-stealth bleed deck which uses Change of Target and Perfect Clarity to nullify bleed deflection. There is a small range of capacities to allow for a cascade of superior Govern the Unaligned. Bleed for 3 when you can, while tooling up and influencing out minions. Then lunge for the big bleeds for the oust! Crypt (12 vampires, Min: 18, Max: 28, Average: 6.33) ---------------------------------------------------- 2x Carna, the Princess Witch 7 AUS DOM THA Tremere:3 2x Ladislas Toth, the Torch 7 for AUS DOM THA !Tremere:3 1x Eugenio Estevez 6 dom for AUS THA Tremere:3 1x Muhsin Samir 6 aus pot DOM THA Tremere:4 2x Selena 6 AUS DOM THA !Tremere:3 2x Valois Sang, the Watcher 6 nec tha AUS DOM Tremere:3 1x Cohn Rose 5 aus dom pre THA Tremere:3 1x Pieter Van Dorn 4 dom pre tha Tremere:3 1x Ehrich Weiss 3 dom tha Tremere:3 Library (90 cards) ------------------ Action (16) 12 Govern the Unaligned 3 Magic of the Smith 1 Rutor's Hand Action Modifier (32) 6 Change of Target 4 Crocodile's Tongue 6 Foreshadowing Destruction 6 Perfect Clarity 6 Seduction 4 Sleeping Mind Combat (10) 10 Theft of Vitae Equipment (3) 1 Ankara Citadel, Turkey 1 Flaming Candle 1 Signet of King Saul Master (15) 1 Academic Hunting Ground 1 Anarch Troublemaker 1 Arcane Library 4 Blood Doll 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Misdirection 2 Pentex Subversion 3 Sudden Reversal Reaction (14) 4 Deflection 4 Telepathic Misdirection 6 Wake with Evening's Freshness VI. Conclusion Perhaps the content of this newsletter is old news to many of you. Despite that fact we still see the kinds of "irresponsible" bleed decks which only serve to crash and burn after giving their prey a victory point. So let's spread the word on responsible bleeding! I hope we can become more sophisticated deck builders and players, while at the same time increasing the glory of Clan Tremere. A big thank you to the players on the #vtes IRC channel for all the input on deck design, and strategy as well. And thanks to all of you for continuing to read these newsletters despite their length. The next newsletter is scheduled for July, 2005. Until then, feel free to send any comments or questions to dorrinal@hotmail.com. Enjoy the tournament season! Dorrinal Blackmantle Chronicler of Clan Tremere