V:EKN Official Tremere Newsletter, September 2004 I. Introduction II. Strategy Discussion - Necromancy III. Crypt Focus - Hector Trelane IV. Library Focus - Perfect Clarity V. Deck Focus - DOM NEC THA Power Bleed VI. Conclusion I. Introduction Welcome to the September 2004 edition of the Clan Tremere Newsletter! Any loyal reader will have noticed that August swept by without even word from me. As it turns out I played few games in July and August so I did not have so much to present. In order to give fresh and well-thought-out material I will probably write every other month from now on. Once again I will begin discussing an out-of-clan discipline that has been cropping up in many new vampires. We will also take a look at the remaining Tremere crypt card from Gehenna. II. Strategy Discussion - Necromancy Necromancy is often referred to as a "toolbox" discipline - it has a little of this, and a little of that. Because of that we'll take a look at the cards I believe Tremere will find useful, based on what each card (or set of cards does). First we will start with stealth, which is commonly considered Necromancy's strongest tool in the box, and typically not part of the Tremere arsenal. Call of the Hungry Dead Spectral Divination As many Giovanni players know, these cards are excellent complements to a Dominate-based bleed deck. A Tremere can use Call of the Hungry Dead along with Seduction to devastating effect, stopping two blockers cold. Spectral Divination is a good stealth card for an inferior discipline and becomes dual-purpose at superior. Stealth may be the most obvious benefit, but other cards can assist us in the Eternal Struggle. Not all of them are fringe tactics, either. For instance, Jar the Soul can be used in varying quantities to add a strong tap component to your strategy. Necromancy has a few combat options as well. Normally Thaumaturgy covers strong offensive combat with Theft of Vitae and Blood Fury, and defensive combat with cards like Wind Dance. If your vampire has superior Necromancy, however, Spiritual Intervention provides Strike: Combat Ends at no cost. Torment the Soul is simply unplayable, especially when compared to the Thaumaturgy second-round strikes. Chill of Oblivion and Ex Nihilo can add a great deal of resilience to the otherwise fragile warlocks. If you are looking for some tricky combat try Ex Nihilo and play Trap and Weather Control at the beginning of combat. Baleful Doll could be effective in a Cryptic Mission-style deck. One or two Daemonic Possession can be useful in a deck that regularly burns vampires through Walk of Flame or Burst of Sunlight. Whispers from the Dead lets you get back a valuable card such as a Blood Doll, Govern the Unaligned, Deflection, or that Ankara Citadel that was blocked earlier. To a lesser extent Summon Soul adds recursion as well. Necromancy also deals with allies - dead ones, at any rate. A Puppeteer (Wraith) can be a support blocker and borrower of weenies, and Shambling Hordes could simply be built around. Note that a Tremere with Ankara Citadel only pays 1 blood to recruit the Shambling Hordes, almost negating the blood-management issues such decks usually have. Compel the Spirit has a high opportunity cost but can be useful if you have a tendency to lose your Outcast Mages or Thadius Zho. Another strong point to Necromancy is its light intercept capabilities. Divine Sign and Masquer augment the Tremere's strong defense. Should your Tremere go Anarch, Friend of Mine is a transient option, but expensive compared to the myriad Auspex cards available to the clan. III. Crypt Focus - Hector Trelane Hector Trelane Clan: Tremere Capacity: 5 Group: 4 dom nec AUS THA Independent: Hector can play strikes that require Thaumaturgy that are not usable on the first round during the first round of combat. If Hector is sent to torpor or burned in combat, he is burned, and the controller of the opposing minion gains 4 pool. Look out - On top of Hector's efficient discipline spread he has an incredibe special ability and a possibly hideous drawback! At the very least he can be used to replace Aisling Sturbridge when switching to a Group 4 crypt. When using his other abilities he can become a powerful ally instead of stock midcap. One thing to remember about his ability, and we've all made the mistake at one point or another: Blood to Water is not a strike so not even Hector can use it on the first round. Now that we have that out of the way, let us review the second-round Thaumaturgy strikes: Cauldron of Blood - Compared to Blood Fury, it does 2 more damage but does not stop Fortitude or weapons combat. It's hard to make a case for why one would ever use this card. Drain Essence - In most Tremere decks, every copy of Drain Essence should just be another Theft of Vitae. But with a vampire like Hector, this can be used for great effect early on. Think Anathema. Eldritch Glimmer - 4R damage for 1 blood is pretty good. Ignore the X blood ability for the most part; with Hector's disadvantage you will want to keep blood on him. Much like cauldron, compare it with Soul Burn: at least 2 more damage but does not stop Fortitude or weapons (guns). Walk of Flame - This is the only second-round strike most people use, and for good reason. 2R aggravated damage is dangerous on any round of combat. Hector can really put this to use if it's part of your normal combat package. The main problem I see with making use of Hector Trelane's special ability is that he is only one vampire in a crypt of twelve, and he is only a 5-cap. He will not be the only vampire in play. He will not be your only vampire in combat. If you go heavy on the second-round strikes you may be left without a press, when a simple Theft of Vitae or Blood Fury will do! So in order to best use that ability, I advise that you create a standard press-combat package with a few extra second-round strikes and just let Hector throw the Walk of Flames as they come. How do we deal with his potentially devastating drawback? Protect him! Keep him out of combat whenever possible. Use a lot of damage prevention like Precognition, Guardian Angel, and Leather Jackets. Perhaps a Secure Haven to stop rush decks. With his Necromancy he can be protected for a number of turns by Ex Nihilo. If you can protect a target like Hector Trelane, you can protect any Tremere - and your combats will be more successful than ever. IV. Library Focus - Perfect Clarity Perfect Clarity Action Modifier Thaumaturgy 2 blood Only usable when this acting vampire's action is announced. [tha] Reaction cards that require Dominate or Presence do not affect this vampire for the duration of this action. [THA] As above, and for the remainder of this action, minions opposing this vampire in combat cannot play cards that require Dominate or Presence. This is truly a rare and powerful card; its uses are few but profound. Normally I would avoid discussing a card that seems to be so hard to get a hold of without heavy trading, but it fits well with this month's deck (which also uses Necromancy). At inferior Thaumaturgy, this card stops power-cards Deflection and Obedience cold. Suddenly that untapped vampire cannot deflect, and blocking becomes risky business. That much is obvious upon first reading the card. The important part is that the ability is available at inferior Thaumaturgy; a power bleed deck of any clan may simply graft Thaumaturgy onto its vampires and enhance the effectiveness of their bleeds. On top of that, two heavy-bleeding clans have several notable vampires with inferior Thaumaturgy: Malkavians (Group 1, with Dominate) and Giovanni. So this card is our gift to power-bleeders world wide. There are several Dominate and Presence combat cards stopped by Perfect Clarity at superior, most notably the array of Strike: Combat Ends that Presence provides. This can be used to punish a blocker by denying them safety in combat or an untap via Majesty. A Tremere or even an Assamite could use this card when playing a rush action to leave their opponent defenseless. Considering that Thaumaturgy has many ways around damage prevention, crushing Strike: Combat Ends denys the most powerful combat defenses commonly in use. The effect you gain is well worth the cost of 2 blood, but if you are playing Tremere, you are probably packing Ankara Citadel, Turkey anyway. This card is begging for you to make a deck out of it... V. Deck Focus - DOM NEC THA Power Bleed Deck Name: Grab Your Ankles Created By: Dorrinal Description: Bring out a big Tremere, tool up with Ankara Citadel and/or other toys, then bleed for as much as possible with Perfect Clarity. Lille Haake has a nice discard special if you ever find yourself without a master card, and Oliver Thrace lets you move Thaumaturgy cards other than Perfect Clarity on bleeds. A striking weakness is the lack of superior Necromancy on the primary vampires - Marino may be a good focus for the deck but he cannot use the Ankara Citadel. Play this kind of deck very carefully but bleed decisively. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 13, Max: 26, Avg: 5.00) ---------------------------------------------- 2 Lille Haake AUS DOM nec pre THA 9, Tremere:3, Primogen 2 Oliver Thrace AUS DOM obf nec pot THA 9, Tremere:3 2 Marino Reymundo Vasquez ani AUS DOM NEC THA 9, Tremere antitribu:3, Archbishop 2 Muhsin Samir aus DOM pot THA 6, Tremere:4 2 Valois Sang, the Watcher AUS DOM nec tha 6, Tremere:3 2 Hector Trelane AUS dom nec THA 5, Tremere:4 Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (14) 1 Academic Hunting Ground 1 Arcane Library 3 Blood Doll 1 Coven, The 1 Giant's Blood 2 Information Highway 3 Necromancy 2 Visit from the Capuchin Action (13) 8 Govern the Unaligned 3 Magic of the Smith 2 Rutor's Hand Action Modifier (35) 7 Call of the Hungry Dead 8 Conditioning 2 Crocodile's Tongue 8 Perfect Clarity 8 Seduction 2 Sleeping Mind Action Modifier / Reaction (3) 3 Spectral Divination Combat (8) 8 Theft of Vitae Equipment (3) 1 Ankara Citadel, Turkey 1 Monocle of Clarity 1 Sargon Fragment Reaction (14) 5 Deflection 3 Redirection 6 Wake with Evening's Freshness VI. Conclusion Overall, Necromancy provides a few tools that can make up for some of the weak points of our clan. Instead of adding another toolbox, I recommend choosing one thing that Necromancy does well and build the deck around that. Some may say that is good deckbuilding advice in general, but it especially applies when working with many moving parts. In the above deck we used the block-denial and light stealth cards to augment a power bleed deck. It has its own strengths and weaknesses but certainly a very strong offense. While we all look forward to an Infernal Storyline Event and the 10th Anniversary set, new decks will be slow in coming. At the current rate, there will be a November Newsletter at the latest - I hope to get some playtesting in and discuss how to make Anarchs work for the Pyramid. As always I am open to comments, questions, or suggestions; email me at dorrinal@hotmail.com. Many thanks go to the inhabitants of #vtes, and specifically David Cherryholmes, Snapcase, GrahamS, and Jay Kristoff. Those of you not familiar with IRC can check out the chatroom on a dedicated Java client by heading to http://www.thelasombra.com/chat.htm or http://www.almadrava.net/damnans/vteschat.htm. Once again it is a pleasure to record my thoughts and experiences for the enjoyment and betterment of my fellow warlocks. I look forward to the next issue. Good luck in future games! Dorrinal Blackmantle Chronicler of Clan Tremere