Official V:EKN Tzimisce Newsletter, May 2004 I. Introduction II. Strategy - Lean Pink Killing-machine III. Crypt Focus - Horatio - Little Tailor of Prague IV. Card Focus - Jake Washington (Hunter) - The Unmasking V. Deck Focus - Jake Washington Eats the World - Little Shop of Horrors 2 VI: End Credits I. Introduction. New month, new newsletter. This time focusing around our little pink pet, the War Ghoul. Gehenna edition is coming up soon to and so far we haven't been able to see what cards the Tzimisce gets. We have seen 3 crypt cards in the checklist: Sascha Vykos (adv.) Really cool, dare we hope for a merge archbishop or cardinal? (think Vykos went archbishop of dc and then cardinal in the clan novels). John Paleologus One of the last group 3 Tzimisce's. Google and my vampire genealogy tell me he was the former prince of Constantinople. Dare we hope for yet another titled group 3 Tzimisce? Maybe a Camarilla Prince :o) Cyscek A Tzimisce Methuselah according to the Gehenna Vtm book. And the first group 4 Tzimisce. Well, that's it for Gehenna spoilers. We'll just have to wait a week and see what White Wolf and mister LSJ brings us this time. But it sure looks like "it's the end of the world as we know it" *singing pop music*. II. Strategy Lean Pink Killing-machine. I know that War Ghouls really are an old subject and tons of decks have been built around this pink pile of flesh. But I can't see any newsletter handling our little friend. So I think this is the time for this subject to be handled. I'm not trying to break any new ground, I just try to collect my thoughts on War Ghouls for new Tzimisce players. So what do we have to work with? Name: War Ghoul Cardtype: Ally Cost: 3 pool Ghoul with 5 life, 4 strength, 0 bleed When War Ghoul enters play, burn an ally or retainer you control. She can enter combat with any ready vampire controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action. She may prevent 1 damage each round. Tap and burn War Ghoul to burn any location; you cannot use this ability during combat. Now we can all see this is a monster. But how should you play it? Allies always has drawbacks and the ghoul is no exception. I will try to mention all the strategies and drawbacks here below. 1.) Requirements to play. You need to burn an ally or a retainer to get yourself a war ghoul. This is the most obvious drawback in this card but it really doesn't need to be a problem. There are loads of good allies and retainers that are free. Vagabond Mystic, J.S Simmons, Tasha Morgan, Jackie Therman, Mr Winthrop are all good choices if you just need an ally or retainer fast and for free. And then we have some really good retainers and allies you can get yourself for a cheap cost, like Revenant and Repo Man. And then we have the simplest way of them all, Jake Washington which is an ally which you play as a master card. I will focus on Jake later on. 2.) Rarity! This is not a problem with most vtes cards. But the Ghoul is an exception. You can be forced to pay up to $26 for a War Ghoul and it's a r1 from the Sabbat and Sabbat Wars expansions. It's not hard to get 1 or 2 War ghouls to use as support in any Tzimisce deck. But to build a focused War ghoul deck often requires a huge amount of Ghouls. So how can I help you with this? Well, the truth is that I can't :o( I can recommend you to use the internet trading sites and trade online to get your precious Ghouls. But this takes time, patience and a whole lot of good rares to offer. The other solution you can use is to use presence and The Summoning. The Tzimisce's have a good presence crypt with vampires like Velya and The Rose and these vampires can summon the War Ghouls and the allies and retainers you need to bring them into play. Another good thing with summoning is that a War Ghoul played from your hand is more likely to be blocked than a summoning. And if the summoning gets blocked you won't have wasted a War Ghoul. 3.) Blocking. The War Ghoul is a pink monster. Not many decks can handle the Ghouls for long and therefore they will block your attempts to create your Ghouls. So how can one do to bypass this problem? Speed is one way to do it. Turn 1 Play Jake and try to get 2 pools onto Horatio or Piotr so one of them enter play. Turn 2 Get yourself a ghoul. Not many decks are able to block in turn 2. So this is probably the best way to get fast War Ghouls. Another option is stealth. Plasmic Form, Changeling, Stealth Ritus, Creepshow Casino and Unlicensed Taxicab are all helpful cards here. A third option is once again to use presence and The Summoning to get your Ghouls. A summoning is not as attractive to block as a War Ghoul played directly from your hand. 4.) Combat. The Ghoul is tough but without combat support a simple ir goggles or zip gun can ruin your day. With an opponent maneuvering to long in the combat the War Ghoul can't do much more than wave and look mean. So what combat support should one use? I would recommend Trap and Fake Out as primary combat cards. A trapping War Ghoul has a good chance of inflicting 16 damage to the opposing minion and Fake Outs are really good to follow the fleeing vampires with. For they will flee. I promise you. Another problem is minions inflicting big amounts of damage on you. Vampires with Assault Rifles and permanent +strength are a serious problem for the Ghouls wellbeing. I can think of two awesome cards to use here. Memories of mortality and Vagabond Mystic. Memories can shut down a fighter completely and the old hippie (that's Vagabond Mystic) can heal your War Ghouls with his mysterious Hippie powers. Another option to consider is to get yourself a repoman that brings Hawgs and other cool vehicles to your Ghouls. Permanent presses can be what give you the GW in the longer games. So now you can handle dodges, manuvers and heavy hitting opponents. How can you handle Combat Ends? Well, you can't. You just have to use the ghoul's permanent rush and rush til your opponent runs out of combat ends. And don't worry. With 2-3 Ghouls rushing him each turn he will run out. 5.) Poolgain. The Ghouls cost pool. They only cost 3 pool though so this is not a big problem. I do recommend you to have some sort of poolgain in your decks even if you go for the weenie approach. Blood dolls are maybe the best way to get this poolgain, and it's also the way I recommend. You don't need much blood on you vampires if you have Ghouls to do their combat for them. Poolgain is not that important if you go for a weenie War Ghoul deck, but if you want to include biggies like Little Tailor of Prague into your deck you really should consider both blood dolls and also cards that prevent you from loosing pool in the first place. Like bounce cards (don't forget that the Tzimisce's are masters of the misdirecting forces of auspex). 6.) Rushing. The Ghouls can rush. It's one of their abilities and one of the reasons for their success. No-one can bleed you to death or vote you to death if all their vampires are in torpor. But rush responsibly! It is good to take out your prey (it always is), but don't beat him into a bloody pulp if you can't oust him. If you do his prey (your grandprey) will get his back free and probably flow forward through the table out of your control. It is good to kill of your predators offensive capabilities, but it's not good to kill your predator (if he's not a mean son of a bleep who deserves to die). Be careful with your backward rushing. Shut your predator down, but don't kill him off. Balance him on the edge of death. In this state he will be an elegant poolbag which keeps your back free while you sweep the table. Another thing you should be really careful with is crosstable rushing. It's always hard to read the game and know when to rush someone crosstable because he's growing too big. I think my tip to you is read the game for yourself. Don't listen too much to the other players. They are only interested in things that are to their own benefit. So take care. Making unnecessary enemies is never a good thing to do. But remember, rushing is your primary defence. So kill everything that even moves at your pool. Choose your targets carefully and kill them horribly. A dedicated War Ghoul deck is not a good bleeder, voter, bloater or blocker. You kill and defend by rushing your enemies, so don't be soft-hearted. 7.) Thieves. This is a real problem. Players' stealing your War Ghouls is very dangerous thing. A War Ghoul deck is not a fighter. You can't handle a renegade Ghoul rampaging through your vampires or other Ghouls. So what can you do about it? Well, if you use a Dominate or Presence crypt for your War Ghoul deck you can always put a few Far Masteries or Entrancement's in there just to steal them back. Another solution is to use the Vicissitude card Lobotomy which protects your Ghouls from Dominate or Presence actions. The drawback is that the Ghoul will get -1 bleed (it's not very likely to bleed a lot) and that it will be unable to use maneuvers. So you can protect your ghouls if you can live without Fake Out's. But it's oh so worth it if you're in an ally stealing meta. 8.) Ghoulacept. War Ghouls are not blocking machines. But they can block. Cards like KRCG News Radio and Mr Winthrop grant permanent intercept to minions and very valuable for the Ghouls. With an untapped Ghoul with permanent intercept ready to block, your predator will get very peaceful, and you can focus your efforts on ousting your prey. I also recommend the new event card The Unmasking which I will focus more on later in this newsletter. I think that's it for the War Ghoul strategies and War Ghoul handling I can think of. If you have more thoughts and ideas on this please share them with me and the crowd. III. Crypt Focus. Horatio and Little Tailor of Prague. 1.) Name: Horatio Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Tzimisce Group: 2 Capacity: 2 Disciplines: vic Sabbat One of the ultimate fathers of War Ghouls. He can produce a War Ghoul in turn 2 with the help of Jake Washington and he only costs 2 pool to bring into play. A real killer vampire. And you can do a lot with inferior vicissitude. You can stealth; get +1 bleed, maneuver and strike for 1 range aggravated damage. And if you get bored you can always transform yourself into a Flamethrower or Assault Rifle with a Bauble :o) Horatio is an awesome weenie in every Tzimisce deck which uses vicissitude. And he is essential for speed in a dedicated weenie War Ghoul deck. 2.) Name: Little Tailor of Prague Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Tzimisce Group: 2 Capacity: 8 Disciplines: dem ANI AUS VIC Sabbat: When the Tailor recruits an ally or employs a retainer that requires Tzimisce or Vicissitude, the cost is reduced by one blood or pool. +1 bleed. Another fine father figure. His ability to get the Ghouls cheaper is awesome. Little Tailor with Charisma pays only 1 pool for a War Ghoul. And he gets the revenants for free. He gets all the benefits from the clan disciplines which makes him a very useable vampire in many Tzimisce decks and he's also skilled in Dementation if you want to do something strange and funny with that. His +1 bleed helps him to oust your badly beaten prey even faster and it also grants him a place in all non-weenie Tzimisce bleed decks. So for 8 pool you get a War Ghoul making monster with superior in all the in-clan disciplines and +1 bleed. A good investment if you ask me. So I would recommend you to use the butcher of Prague in many nasty Tzimisce decks. And to give him a special place in most of your War Ghoul decks. IV. Card Focus. 1.) Name: Jake Washington (hunter) Cardtype: Master Unique master. Put this card in play. While in play, this card represents a mortal ally with 1 life, 0 strength and 0 bleed. During your untap phase, you may burn Jake to move up to 4 blood from the blood bank to a ready vampire with no blood. Jake is the basis of the modern War Ghoul deck. With him you can play the ally you want to sacrifice, as a master phase action. You can play him on your first turn. Transfer Horatio or Piotr into the game and get yourself a War Ghoul in your second turn. Not to shabby. He is also able to act at once and can use your first turn to bring a sacrificial retainer into play. Or a Vagabond mystic which can help you to heal you War Ghouls. And if you like to do fancy stuff you can always use him to computer hack in your first turn. This is not only the fastest way in the game to do pool damage on your prey but it's also a certain way to get a few pools out of the edge. And if you don't need any more War Ghouls you can always use him to refill your vampires if they ever run out of blood. The only problem I can see with this card is that he's yet another rare card that you really, really need to get an effective and good War Ghoul deck. So once again, trade online or go berserk on e-bay. I really recommend you to get a bunch of Jake's. 2.) Name: The Unmasking Cardtype: Event (isn't it cool to write that for the first time) Gehenna. Do not replace until your next discard phase. Allies get +1 intercept when attempting to block vampires. I thought that I also wanted to be cool and new. So I decided to include one of the preview cards from the Gehenna edition in this newsletter. This is not a played card yet, so I take no responsibility if it sucks. But it really looks promising. All allies get +1 intercept while blocking vampires. This is awesome for the Ghouls. Having a prey with 3 War Ghouls with permanent +1 intercept is a nightmare for most players so I find this card very strong for ally decks. Events are a new type of cards. Ever since Black Hand the discard phase has been reformulated to look more like the master phase. With you getting a discard phase action which you can use to discard a card, or now to play an event. So instead of discarding a card you put The Unmasking into play. Then you enjoy the fact that your War Ghouls (and Jake's, Repo Man's and whatever allies you use) starts to "see" and you suffer the drawback of not getting to replace until your next discard phase. A small price to pay for such a powerful cards. Events can only be played once each game so sadly you can't stack them (or should I say luckily). And beware. They are global, meaning that they affect every player. So if there are multiple ally decks on the table I would be very careful to play this event. All in all a good card which shows great promise. Beware for the events to become tournament legal. Beware for the return of the War Ghouls into the tournament arena. V. Deck Focus. These are the two decks a present to you this time. Both decks are created by awesome players and good friends of mine. The first one is a tournament winner from Gothenburg. The second missed the finals in the 2004 Australian championships with 1 (or was I 0.5) vp's. Copy, play and enjoy. 1.) Deck Name: Jake Washington eats the world Created By: Eric Torstensson and Henrik Ericsson Description: A pre Black Hand weenie War Ghoul tournament winner I wanted to include in this newsletter for the brutal force in the deck. It really kills everything that stands in its way. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 13, Max: , Avg: 3.6) ------------------------------------------- 5 Horatio vic 2, Tzimisce 4 Lolita Houston aus VIC 4, Tzimisce 1 Terrence ani aus vic 4, Tzimisce 1 The Rose aus PRE VIC 5, Tzimisce 1 Wendy Wade ani aus 3, Tzimisce Library: (60 cards) ------------------- Master (17 cards) 2 Blood Doll 1 Creepshow Casino 2 Direct Intervention 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 5 Jake Washington (Hunter) 1 KRCG News Radio 2 Memories of Mortality 1 Mob Connections 1 Pentex Subversion 1 Secure Haven Action Modifier (3 cards) 3 Changeling Combat (14 cards) 2 Breath of the Dragon 6 Fake Out 6 Trap Ally (13 cards) 3 Vagabond Mystic 10 War Ghoul Retainer (6 cards) 2 J. S. Simmons, Esq. 1 Jackie Therman 1 Mr. Winthrop 2 Tasha Morgan Combo (7 cards) 7 Plasmic Form 2.) Deck Name: Little Shop of Horrors 2 Created By: Cameron Roberts Description: The entire deck is basically designed to set Little Tailor up recruiting a War Ghoul every turn. There are several mechanisms which help to do this. Firstly, get a weenie to recruit the Repo Man as soon as possible. Have the Repo Man take his action to get a vehicle every turn, until you have none left, starting with giving an Unlicensed taxi cab to the Little Tailor. Hawgs are obviously for the War Ghouls, and provide a permanent way to get across 8 points of damage to one unlucky vampire. The deck also has excellent bleed capacity, with Little Tailor's +1 bleed, changeling and Tasha Morgan. This means that when you have decimated your prey's vampires, you can get through his pool quick enough as not to give your Grand Prey too much of a head start. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 9, Max: 32, Avg: 5.33) --------------------------------------------- 6 Little Tailor of Prague ANI AUS dem VIC 8, Tzimisce 3 Horatio vic 2, Tzimisce 1 Lolita Houston aus VIC 4, Tzimisce 1 Isabel de Leon AUS 3, Toreador 1 Zoe AUS cel obf 3, Malkavian Library: (75 cards) ------------------- Master (18 cards) 4 Blood Doll 2 Charisma 2 Direct Intervention 5 Jake Washington (Hunter) 3 Life in the City 1 Secure Haven 1 Sudden Reversal Action Modifier (7 cards) 7 Changeling Reaction (12 cards) 7 Telepathic Misdirection 5 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (10 cards) 4 Meld with the Land 6 Trap Ally (14 cards) 2 Repo Man 3 Vagabond Mystic 9 War Ghoul Retainer (2 cards) 1 J. S. Simmons, Esq. 1 Tasha Morgan Equipment (5 cards) 2 Hawg 3 Unlicensed Taxicab Combo (7 cards) 7 Plasmic Form VI. End Credits. It has (as always) been a pleasure to compile yet another Tzimisce newsletter. And I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Next month we will discuss the full impact of the Gehenna expansion and what the end of the world means for the Tzimisce clan. I also want to make a plea. Many of the great clans in vtes stands without a newsletter (for complete list of free clans watch the Lasombra's newsletter post). Newsletter which can help new players to start playing your favourite clans and can help them understand the clans and the game better. Compiling a newsletter takes me somewhere around 2-3 hours of work. This is not a long time if you spread it over a month. So my plea to the many good vtes players out there is to start writing. It's not so hard as you think. Until next time I wish you the best of greetings from the Swedish west coast and I really hope this newsletter gives you some inspiration on the Tzimisce's and the War Ghouls. Peace! //Alex Ek/_angst_ http://www.vekn.nu/ #vtes #vtes-game @ sorcerynet, IRC chat can also be found @ http://www.thelasombra.com/ or http://www.almadrava.net/damnans/