Official V:EKN Tzimisce Newsletter, July 2004 I. Introduction II. Strategy - Attrition III. Crypt Focus - The Gehenna Lads IV. Card Focus - The Gehenna Cards V. Deck Focus - Poke! You're dead! VI. End Credits I. Introduction. The Tzimisce newsletter is back after a month of downtime, due to a big lack of spare time. I will focus this newsletter around the Gehenna expansion and what some of the cards in that expansion does to the Tzimisce. I will also talk a bit about the new Vicissitude cards and the new Tzimisce vampires. II. Strategy. - Attrition Two days ago I didn't know what this word meant for vtes. But I got myself an explanation and I have chosen to focus around this concept for this newsletter. (And if I got it all wrong, I'll blame it on Erik) So what is this all about? To my knowledge this is the fine art of poking your opponent to death. Not massive bleed or massive vote. But small amounts of damage on him and his minions dealt constantly to weaken him and finally kill him. A little like the strategies used by the fighting countries on the western front during the Great War. This comparison can also have something to do with me spending too much time in front of Discovery: Civilization. So how do you poke your opponent to his death and what does the Gehenna edition bring to strengthen this type of deck? There are some obvious cards to use like anarch revolt and antediluvian awakening (also judgement: camarilla segregation if you play a camarilla deck). These cards deal constant damage around the table which is good. Only problem is that the ones you can play with as a Tzimisce hits you back. This doesn't have to be a problem if you have a good amount of bloat in your deck. But taking constant pool-damage in your untap phase can be rather tiring. If you choose to use these cards as your main source of forward pressure I would recommend you to consider cards that give you pool in your own untap phase. Cards like Powerbase: Chicago, Washington D.C and Barranquilla. Maybe even gambit accepted if you are sure to get an oust fast. As a Tzimisce you have access to animalism and army of rats which is a very good card to use for this type of deck. Poking your prey for one in each of your untap phases. The only problem is that it's removable so you must be able to defend it. Gehenna gives us two new cards that do constant damage on the tables' vampire population. The events Becoming of Ennoia and The New Inquisition. Only problems with these cards are that the former is very hard to get into play (requires two events in play controlled by other Methuselah's) and the latter requires one event in play and is removable (by a referendum called by a titled vampire). Another problem is that they like anarch revolt hit you back just as bad. And you have to have a good amount of bloat on your vampires to control them. But if you're sure that you can get them into play, defend them and control them. Then they can be very helpful for this type of deck. Another event that Gehenna brings us is Restricted Vitae which can be very good in this type of deck to slow your prey's recovery speed. Just be careful since all events are global and can hit you just as bad if played badly. Another awesome card for this type of deck is smiling jack, the anarch. Jack hits your opponent's pool and blood. A very strong combination. And the amount of damage he does increases with the time. The problem here is that he's removable and since he is so powerful people tend to try to remove him very quickly. So you need to have a very strong defence in your deck to defend Jack. Both to block the actions taken to remove him and to have combat that are scary enough to keep people away. Not a big problem for the Tzimisce. But alienating the entire table can be very bad. Then we have combat. Combat gave you good opportunities to do small amount of pool damage by torporizing vampires. Fame and Tension in the ranks are good attrition cards. Doing a small but rather constant amount of damage to your prey when you beat him up. The Gehenna edition then introduced three very powerful cards that does even more damage when you kill your preys vampires with your never ending supplies of aggravated damage. - Dragonbound Cardtype: Event Gehenna. Do not replace as long as this card is in play. During each Methuselah's discard phase, he or she burns X pool, where X is the number of vampires in torpor he or she controls. At the cost of one permanent handsize people will start to take serious damage when multiple vampires enter torpor. The only problem with this card as I see it is the same problem that you have with tension in the ranks. It might hit you. And it might hit you hard. - Leadership Vacuum Cardtype: Master Master: out-of-turn. Unique. Only usable when a ready titled vampire controlled by another Methuselah is burned or sent to torpor. Usable during your turn. Put this card in play and put X counters on this card where X is the number of votes that vampire has. That Methuselah burns X pool during each of his or her untap phases. During his or her untap phase, if he or she controls a ready vampire with a capacity above 7 or with a title, burn this card. A very strong card if you manage to play it. It's rather hard to play and it's pretty easy for the poor lad suffering it to get rid of it, considering that cross table rescues will be likely if your prey is under the threat of suffering 4 damage in his untap phase due to a torporized Arika. Another thing is that you can't combine it with rötschreck. But if you manage to play it, it can be very powerful. - The Path of Lilith Cardtype: Master Unique master. Put this card in play. When a non-Camarilla vampire you control sends an opposing vampire to torpor in combat, you may tap this card to put a torture counter on the opposing vampire. During your untap phase, each Methuselah who controls any vampires with torture counters burns 1 pool. Any minion may burn this card as a (D) action. Burn all torture counters when this card leaves play. Another good way to do constant pool-damage. Two drawbacks as I see it. You can't combine it with rötschreck and you have to defend it. These are the ways I find for the Tzimisce to do a good attrition deck. And with all these cards in play at the same time we are talking some serious damage. My version of this type of deck can be found below in the deck section of the newsletter. And we can't forget that we got ourselves a new vampire in Gehenna pretty much built for this type of deck. John Paleologus. Which I will talk a little more about in the vampires section. I hope that this small strategy analysis has been some help for you or maybe a source of inspiration. III. Crypt Focus - The Gehenna Lads So we got ourselves three new vampires. One in each group. Now let's take a close look at them. Sascha Vykos, the Angel of Caine Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Tzimisce Level: Advanced Group: 2 Capacity: 8 Discipline: ani, dom, AUS, THA, VIC Advanced, Sabbat Archbishop of Washington, D.C.: If Sascha is ready, you may draw a card from your library whenever another Methuselah plays a master card. [MERGED ICON] Sabbat cardinal. OMG was the first thing I though when I saw this. Old Sascha has never really been worth it in my former decks. Contesting (so to say) his/her prisci title with Meshenka and having a rather weak special. But this is good. This is very good. Sascha adv. Have the same disciplines as his/her old counterpart. Is archbishop. Has a very good special (helps you cycle your cards a lot). And when you merge it you get yourself a brand new Cardinal (the third Tzimisce cardinal if I'm not mistaken). I can see this vampire in many future Tzimisce decks. John Paleologus Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Tzimisce Group: 3 Capacity: 9 Discipline: pot, ANI, AUS, CEL, VIC Sabbat Archbishop of Istanbul: During your untap phase, if John is ready, he may burn 2 blood to cause your prey to burn 1 pool. The reason for the attrition focus in this newsletter. For an investment of nine pool you get yourself four superior disciplines and one inferior. An Archbishop title and a very good attrition ability. Rack him up and you'll deal a damage to your prey in each of your turns. And all this in a group 3 vampire. So you can play him with all the old boyz and gals. Good shit I tell thee. You can also use him in some sort of tacky cel/vic deck. Which I still refuse to write about since the crypt still sucks. But if you have something good to say on the topic. Then hit me. One of the strongest vampires in the Gehenna set if you ask me. Cyscek Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Tzimisce Group: 4 Capacity: 10 Discipline: dem, ANI, AUS, OBF, VIC Sabbat: When any Methuselah plays a Gehenna card while Cyscek is ready, that Methuselah burns 1 pool, and you get the Edge. +1 stealth. This is tougher to place. The first group four Tzimisce is the legendary Methuselah Cyscek (why couldn't he be a good 11-cap :P). A good vampire but he lack a title and are hard to combine with the old group 3 vampires to do any real good. He might be very good to use if your meta sees a lot of events. And for all you that are complaining about the events. Play Cyscek and the ones playing events will cry bitter tears of pool damage. But I think we have to wait and see what happens in group 4 before we evaluate Cyscek. IV. Card Focus - The Gehenna Cards Two new vicissitude cards in the Gehenna edition. And I must say that I'm not that impressed. But I include them here anyway since they're all new, fancy and shiny. Root of Vitality Cardtype: Action Discipline: Vicissitude +1 stealth action. [vic] Rescue a vampire from torpor (this action costs 2 less blood than the normal rescue action). [VIC] Move 1 life counter from the blood bank to any ally who has fewer life than his or her starting amount. This is not a bad card. But I find it hard to find the room for it in a deck. Maybe a War Ghoul deck can benefit from it. But I think Vagabond Mystic is better. Maybe someone can build the first ever Guardian Ghoul deck with this card :) Starvation of Marena Cardtype: Combat Cost: 1 blood Discipline: Vicissitude [vic] Strike: 2R damage, with an optional press. [VIC] As above, but for 3R damage. It's like a light version of krakens kiss. Safer but a bit restricted. And it's like most light products. Not as good as the original. This one might see some playtime but I still think Breath of the Dragon and Krakens Kiss are better ranged strikes. V. Deck Focus - Poke! You're dead! Deck Name: Poke! You're dead! Created By: _angst_ Description: The general idea is to use cards that do small amounts of constant damage to tire your prey into dying. It's based on one of my old control decks. But it has more ousting power. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 18, Max: 35, Avg: 6,75) ---------------------------------------------- 3 John Paleologus pot ANI AUS CEL VIC 9, Tzimisce, Archbishop 1 Meshenka ANI AUS VIC 8, Tzimisce, Priscus 2 Sascha Vykos ani dom AUS THA VIC 8, Tzimisce, Archbishop 2 Caliban ANI AUS VIC 6, Tzimisce 2 Corine Marcon ani AUS VIC 6, Tzimisce 1 Lolita Houston aus VIC 4, Tzimisce 1 Horatio vic 2, Tzimisce Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (21 cards) 6 Blood Doll 1 Fame 1 Leadership Vacuum 1 Library Hunting Ground 1 Powerbase: Montreal 2 Rack, The 4 Rotschreck 2 Smiling Jack, The Anarch 1 Tension in the Ranks 1 The Erciyes Fragments 1 The Path of Lilith Event (1 cards) 1 Dragonbound Action (6 cards) 1 Aranthebes, The Immortal 2 Army of Rats 3 Eternal Vigilance Action Modifier (6 cards) 6 Changeling Reaction (32 cards) 2 Cats` Guidance 4 Eagle`s Sight 4 Enhanced Senses 6 Forced Awakening 2 Melange 2 Precognition 2 Spirit`s Touch 6 Telepathic Misdirection 4 Wake with Evening`s Freshness Combat (20 cards) 6 Breath of the Dragon 2 Canine Horde 12 Chiropteran Marauder Retainer (4 cards) 4 Revenant VI. End Credits I hope this newsletter has lead to some inspiration and thoughts. Sadly I haven't got enough time to put into it. But hopefully it'll do. And hopefully I will have more time to use when writing the next newsletter. Hopefully it'll be done in august and be about Tzimisce politics. Peace! //Alex Ek/_angst_ http://www.vekn.nu/ #vtes #vtes-game @ sorcerynet, IRC http://absolutvodka.no-ip.com/vtesreg chat can also be found @ http://www.thelasombra.com/ or http://www.almadrava.net/damnans/