Ventrue Antitribu Newsletter, December 2004
I. Introduction
II. A Card Revisited: Masochism
III. Feature: Combat and the Ventrue Antitribu
IV. Deck of the Month: Protean !Ventrue for the Win!
V. Conclusion
Introduction
Welcome back to another exciting issue of the Ventrue Antitribu
Newsletter brought to you from the chilly campus of Purdue University,
heartland of the Midwestern tundra. This month we'll briefly examine
!Ventrue combat strategies in anticipation of Kindred's Most Wanted.
We'll also reflect on Masochism, which is the perfect turbo boosting
card in a combat deck.
A Card Revisited: Masochism
+1 stealth action.
for: Put this card on the acting vampire. Whenever damage is
successfully inflicted on this vampire, put 1 rush counter on this
card for each point of damage. Remove rush counters in excess of the
vampire's capacity. Whenever the vampire plays a card, you may remove
X rush counters from this card to reduce that card's blood cost by X.
FOR: As above, but put an additional rush counter on this card at the
end of any round of combat in which this vampire takes damage.
This card has been discussed in past issues of the Ventrue Antitribu
newsletter, but I think it bears reflection again in the light of
Sabbat War's reprinting now that many more people have access to the
card. Considering how very often our clan must fight our way to
success, there is no reason to not include a copy or two of this in
every deck to maximize the utility of our precious blood (unless
you're playing some freakish deck that doesn't expend blood to play
its cards). Lets look at what this card can do, shall we?
What this card means is that even casual blocking is dangerous for the
other Methuselahs around the table. Your minion will be taking a
point of damage, then be able to use that rush counter to do something
horrible to your prey – govern for free, or govern and conditioning
for free if the Masochism is played at superior, and that's just the
tip of the iceberg. Staying with in-clan disciplines, Thoughts
Betrayed becomes affordable to play consistently as you're not burning
blood to use it in combat, you'll burn rush counters which will be
replaced, usually, by the other minion's hands for one. Ever use a
deck with Freak Drives? They're free now, too ("free" of course
assuming you get into combats and occasionally take a point of
damage). After enough combats, even Pulse of the Canaille can be
free, so Pulse at inferior…consistently.
Going into some of our out of clan disciplines, even greater effects
are possible through the blood mitigating influence of Masochism.
Lazverinus has protean; after a few combats (or even just one with the
right combat module), he can Horrific Countenance for free. Got a few
mythic forms? In combat, they're free (eventually). Bruce de Guy has
obtenebration (a very blood costly discipline, as I'm sure you know);
Masochism allows him to sometimes ignore this drawback, so Entombment
away, Bruce, you masochist, and play all the obtenebrational stealth
you want. Masochism allows our large capacity vampires to double the
effectiveness of their blood. It's an amazing card; we should use it
more.
A secondary effect of having a large, masochistic vampire is that it
supports our strategy of block punishment. Used in combination with
Crocodile's Tongue, we win the attrition war even faster since we're
really not losing anything by entering combat (we're just redirecting
our blood into a more virtual form). Once we have a few counters, we
can Kiss of Ra for nothing at all, completely mitigating its powerful
drawback and leaving someone else in torpor. Masochism allows us to
manage our blood supply and create devastating effects. What else
could you want? (And by the way, Masochism is stackable; ouch!
Broken superior fortitude masochistic stackability!)
Feature: Combat and the Ventrue Antitribu
Some clans fight fast and dirty, dishing out punishing blows or quick
series of rapid strikes to destroy their foes. Other clans unleash
brutal attacks of violent ferocity that disable in a single strike.
Our clan generally does neither of these things (though several
distinguished members of our clan are quite adept at those
strategies); we have a different path. We control combats and use
them to our advantage, for we are the masters of our destiny.
Our disciplines are auspex, dominate, and fortitude, and we rule the
night with them in the following ways. Both auspex and fortitude
contain maneuvers and presses, the keys to controlling any combat.
Auspex enables combat directly (through Nose of the Hound), and
dominate enables it indirectly (through a wide variety of actions that
either your predator or prey would be wise to block). Auspex also
allows us to gain a permanent press and increased strength through
Ecstatic Agony or to thwart S:CE with Telepathic Tracking (and
dominate, of course, allows us the same through its exemplary Thoughts
Betrayed). Fortitude keeps us out of torpor through damage prevention
in a wide variety of ways, can be used to destroy weapons, and can
even enable us to magically avoid being burned through Ashes to Ashes.
(Note that Ecstatic Agony + Undead Persistence is almost so good as
to be broken.) Both auspex and dominate can allow us to dodge if we
should really feel the need to. All these things result in one thing:
our control of combat is unquestionable.
But even with all that power, controlling combat is often not enough;
we must use combats toward some purpose, even if we're blocked
(especially if we're blocked). This means we must plan ahead. If we
wish to deal damage, generally we need out of clan disciplines or
weaponry; both are effective yet beyond the bounds of this current
discussion (which I'm trying to confine to our clan disciplines).
Fortitude will allow us to deal aggravated damage if we are acting
(through Dawn Operation), and often this is worthwhile. Another
tactic is to control combats such that we cycle into needed cards, and
auspex provides us this through Aura Reading, or punish the blocking
Methuselah by revealing his or her hand (again, Aura Reading is good
for this, but we may also use Lessons in the Steel).
The size of our minions will generally determine which strategy we
employ. Our younger, lower capacity brethren, usually used as part of
a weenie bleeding or fortitude rush hoard, are best suited to
employing a hand-cycling strategy if they are unfortunately (or
fortunately) blocked. Our larger vampires should show no restraint
and burn their victims to ashes by inflicting aggravated damage over
and over again. Alternatively, dip into our out of clan disciplines
for the combat boost you need (this is the strategy used in this
month's deck). Ultimately it is for you to determine how you need
combat to function in your deck; do not allow combats to overwhelm
you. Choose to use combat to your advantage and you shall rule the
night with our clan.
Deck of the Month : Protean !Ventrue for the Win!
Author : cmb
Description :
Once you get masochism in play, you've effectively won. If you get two
masochisms in play, life is very happy for you.
If you get into combat, the module is built around multi-round combat
cards used with Telepathic Tracking to defeat S:CE, dodge, maneuver,
and press based combat. Bone Spur, Trap, Flesh of Marble, and Superior
Metal endure through multiple rounds, letting you continuously inflict
three (potentially aggravated) damage with Lazverinus each round. If
one of two pieces are missing, your combat is still okay, since Laz
strikes for three. The only card to be careful with is Taste; you need
that blood back. If you have Mythic Form, put it in. I toyed with the
idea of adding Thoughts Betrayed, but ultimately the deck just doesn't
need it and doesn't have room for it.
You oust by lunging in the late game or after torping several minons
with conditioned bleeds or whatever governs you've chosen not to use
for pool gain.
Possible changes include adding a beefier combat module over reacting
and focusing the deck on torporizing vampires (which it can still do
rather well in its current incarnation, by the way). One might also
increase the dominate oust and include some small dominate bleeders if
you think you need more speed, but that really breaks away from the
protean angle. Possibly the deck needs more permanent actions, so you
might swap out Demonstration for Local 1111 to give your guys
something to do (and something to offer to someone else). If your
metagame needs more bloat, consider adding Powerbase: Montreal, since
you can defend it against anything but a dedicated stealthy deck or a
weenie hoard; you might also want to consider adding atonements and
more of the 5-cap gangrel and !gangrel.
Crypt (12 vampires) Capacity min :5 max :10 average : 8
6x Lazverinus, Thrall of Lambach 10 AUS DOM FOR POT pro archbishop Ventrue antitribu (group 2)
2x Omaya 7 ANI AUS FOR pro Gangrel antitribu (group 2)
2x Dylan 6 aus cel dom for pro Ventrue antitribu (group 2)
1x Dr. Allan Woodstock 5 PRO ani aus for Gangrel (group 3)
1x Monique 5 ani aus for pro Gangrel antitribu (group 2)
Master(12)
1x Auspex
3x Blood Doll
1x Dominate
1x Hungry Coyote, The
1x Information Highway
2x Perfectionist
1x Protean
1x Storage Annex
1x Zillah's Valley
Action(16)
2x Bum's Rush
1x Dominate Kine
1x Ecstatic Agony
2x Eternal Vigilance
4x Govern the Unaligned
3x Masochism
1x Pulse of the Canaille
2x War Party
Action Modifier(17)
4x Conditioning
1x Dawn Operation
2x Earth Control
7x Freak Drive
1x Horrific Countenance
2x Seduction
Ally(1)
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
Combat(33)
6x Bone Spur
8x Flesh of Marble
2x Superior Mettle
5x Taste of Vitae
6x Telepathic Tracking
5x Trap
Equipment(2)
1x Local 1111
1x Sargon Fragment, The
Reaction(10)
1x Deflection
1x Eagle's Sight
2x Enhanced Senses
1x My Enemy's Enemy
2x Telepathic Misdirection
3x Wake with Evening's Freshness
Conclusion
That's it for this month. Kudos to Ankur Gupta for pointing out that
Masochism doesn't suck and yet being unable to win with Wynn (yet)...
Next month I plan to examine an as yet to be determined out of clan
discipline in our clan (likely obtenebration) to explore the ways we
can cheat with it... As always, if you have fiction, strategy, or
deck ideas you'd like to see featured, send them my way.
Happy Holidays,
cmb