True Brujah Newsletter August, 2003 I. Introduction When I have the time, and if the current editor is willing, I'll be guest-writing a few different newletters. I cannot see myself sticking with one for too long a time, but we'll see if I can't get some ideas going by mixing them up a bit. This first installment is for the bloodline which I noticed hadn't had a clan newsletter written for it, as of yet. Hope you like it. II. Fiction Hector winced as the infuriatingly fast rain of blows fell on him. Frustration and anger welled up in his atrophied chest, unable to do anything to counter. As the vitae leaked from his body, everything seemed to slow to the crawl of a snail's pace. Ironic, he thought. He had always been slow, for his kind. 'This is what Final Death feels like' he thought, briefly, before he realized that the slowness wasn't affecting how fast his wounds were bleeding. Confused, he looked up at the unknown Bedouin still above him. A punch-knife in his hand (Hector could see it, now), the Bedouin's robed arm was descending slow enough for Hector to scuttle to his right, avoiding the blow. Despite a searing pain rising in his head, Hector managed to get to his hands and knees, crawling away from the now unmoving Bedouin. Turning his attention fully to his escape, he spied a storm drain opening ten feet away under the narrow alley's mercury light. Good. Dinge owed him a favor for some past brute-work. Time to cash in, if the freak was anywhere close to here. Damn, his head was hurting! It was probably a bad sign that he didn't remember getting hit in the head... Hector screamed in pain as he crawled along the broken concrete, a sound that went unheard, due to some lingering effect of the Bedouin's. At last he reached the black gash where road and sidewalk met, and crammed his thin frame into the gap, feet first. A quick glance down the alley showed Hector the shining black slug-trail of his own escape and the still unexplained, still-frozen Bedouin. The pain in his head flared strong, causing him to lose his grip on both pavement and reality. Hector slid the rest of the way into the grate, quickly losing consciousness. As darkness enveloped him, he had an odd after-image (memory?) of a wild-haired woman standing yards behind the Bedouin, blurred when all else was in stark contrast. Though her image was wholly indistinct, he knew she was smiling at him... III. Strategy Concepts - Making the best of Scarce Clans It may seem obvious to most, but I thought that it bears mentioning that scarce clans are almost impossible to run effectively on their own. Scarce vampires serve best as a supporting role to another deck concept. One of the easiest uses for scarce vamps is to bolster the shortcomings of some other deck concept. For the Salubri and the TrueBrujah, they can offer some very strong tactics of blood gain and control, or combat and bleed, respectively, to those that need it. The following sections try to make use of this support concept. IV. Deck Concepts - Outferior Obfuscate I find that most often, trading in general deck concepts is at least as productive as dissecting individual cards. We're all familiar with batting around new ideas with fellow players (mad props to Ben Peal and Dave Cherryholmes, my two best sounding boards). Here, I'd like to do a little bit of that, as one-sided as it may be, being a newsletter, and all. The popularity of Nu multi-Rush decks has made the benefits of Lapse, inferior Domain of Evernight, etc. as combat options a matter of common knowledge. Give a Google search if your curious, or haven't seen a Nu Rush deck in action. An email to me from Dave Hammond, though, suggested that Synesios and Krassimir are both better at complimenting winning deck strategies, which is what a Scarce clan is really all about. This is something that I'd like to explore a little more. Combat alone remains extremely difficult to win games with. Instead, lets take the two Temporis cards with outferior obfuscate abilities, and conjure up some possible deck ideas that might benefit from them. Clotho's Gift and Domain of Evernight both give effective outferior benefits for mixing in True Brujah with Obfuscate Clans. From Clotho's Gift, we get an action-based Effective Management, and from Domain of Evernight, a simlple, free +1 Stealth. Domain gives the obvious benefit of a simple cycle option that makes it easy to shed when you don't have a True Brujah ready, so we'll focus more on Clotho's Gift. Consider a Setites with Synesios deck, and a few Clotho's Gift/Minion Taps to drive Khobar Towers. Or Synesios supporting a small to mid cap Nos/!Nos Pot/Obf brute squad. Such combos allow for mixing use of these cards as True Brujah untap (and Domain's inferior agg damage). Including a True Brujah could go a long ways towards bolstering either deck concept, as both clans are generally lacking in Fortitude-esque untap capabilities. The Nosferatu could also stand to gain from the additional bleed available through Presence, perhaps using Enchant Kindred to further accelerate the number of ready minions. Alternatively, one could also work this concept into a Ventrue with Obfuscate vote deck. Synesios, Arika, Queen Anne, Suhailah, Catherine DuBois, Lucinde Alastor and Marcus Vitel would make for a huge crypt, but the untap capabilities from Fortitude _and_ Temporis, along with Synesios' two votes make it a compelling combination. In all of these iterations, outferior Clotho's Gift gives a method for getting at a copy of the scarce vampire without wasting influence or master phase actions, in the event of an unlucky crypt draw. V. Deck Clinic - Krassimir and Ventrue Concept: Krassimir supports a group of small to mid capacity Ventrue, using an excess of bleed actions, and untap, along with light tapping capabilities (Misdirection, Anarch Troublemaker, Mind Numb). As it stands, this deck may burn through its blood too fast, but the basic concepts are there. This deck is merely a concept. I haven't run it, yet. Crypt 3 - Krassimir 1- Ranjan Rishi 1- Boss Callihan 1- Diane Vick 1- Lana Butcher 1- Catherine duBois 1- Edward Vignes 1- Horatio Ballard 1- Victorine Lafourcade 1- Vanessa Library Master (17): 5- Blood Doll 3- Minion Tap 3- Misdirection 2- Anarch Troublemaker 2- Hostile Takeover 1- Pentex Subversion 1- Tabriz Assembly Bleed (16): 5- Govern the Unaligned 3- Threats 4- Social Charm 1- Entrancement 3- Forshadowing Destruction Untap (11): 6- Freak Drive 5- Wake with Evenings Freshness Bleed Bounce (6): 3- Deflection 3- Redirection Combat (22): 7- Majesty 4- Catatonic Fear 4- Rolling with the Punches 2- Lapse 4- Skin of Rock Mixed Use/Other (17): 3- Clotho's Gift 6- Domain of Evernight 4- Rewind Time 4- Internal Recursion 2- Mind Numb VI. Conclusion Well, I hope that this got some ideas going for you. See you next time.. With who knows which clan Regards DaveZ Atom Weaver