Strategy Event Restricted Vitae by RavATwoFaces and Massimo Battaglino ------------------------------------------------------------ The first player I've seen with Follower of Set + Free State Rants was Massimo Battaglino, one of the players of Torino. He is a Serpent inside and he plays Followers from the beginning (Ancient Hearts expansion), he has used any kind of decks with serpentis. This Strategy Challange writing belongs to both of us. As in other posts, I apologize for my english: please be patient. ******************************************************************************** Restricted Vitae + Free States Rant + Temptation & Form of Corruption ******************************************************************************** The best event to use with Follower of Set is Restricted Vitae, it's a Gateway Event that let you steal vamps from other players with ease. This event cannot permit the hunt action unless necessary, so you can lower the blood on vamps very easy and then you can take control of them (if tempted) every turn. That's very good for you! ...And this transform your gateway event in both an 'Enabling Event' (for you -your temptation/Form of Corruption strategy will improve) and a 'Disabling' one (for others - they ahve less options with very small blood on vampires). But, which kind of Setites will be suited for the Restricted Vitae? I think any setite deck will work (if you have temptations/form of corruptions) but you can make a focused deck which 'steals' vamps. So you can choose to use all the "dirty tricks" you know and make a Free State Rants deck with the added power of some new Gehenna cards, also for the reason that if you run a vote deck you don't need to hunt 'cause you can fill your vamps without hunting by using awe/bewitching oration + voter captivation (and you will reduce the votes of opponent titled vamps thanks to the text of Free State Rants). I think that everyone at the table will hate you deeply... so be ready to make an alleance with your grand predator or you will face a 4-vs-1 situation (and it's near impossible to win if all the table is against you from the beginning of the game)! My idea is that many decks doesn't function if their vamps have only 1-2 blood left and if you play wisely your free states no vamps will have more than 1 blood! (again... try to have the support of your grand predator, but you must balance your action to avoid to help him too much). A good target for your temptations are vamps with +X bleed abilities or titled one - with more than 1 vote, remeber! - (Gratiano is a very good choice, also many IC and Queen Anne), *but* if someone at the table has a "rushing vampire" (as Beast, Jeremy McNeal ADV, Wynn, or the like) you may consider to take it and kill it by diablerizing another vamps and then burning it during the blood hunt. If you can't burn it by the use of your temptations, you can decide to put on them Vampiric disease + Society of Leopold to see the poor rusher be transformed in ash (another method is to put the Society and then use a Free State to make him burn the 1-3 remaining blood). The optimal number of Temptations in the deck is 8. No more! 'cause you can't have room for the cards if you want to gain enough pool from voter captivations. As you don't have any initial voting power you can think about putting in some Aura of Invincibility (if you have succesfully made 3-4 vote passing, you can have an amazing voting power with that vampire!). And then keep the 'invincible vampire in the back line and vote with others). You can also have very small defense from bleed ('cause of clan) but you can deal with your predator by the use of temptations/free states. As per my experience my prey doesn't want to have my predator's vampires in torpor (or burned) so he doesn't block them and he let them exit the combat with no/small harm. If the stolen vampire will exit combat with no blood he has to hunt and next turn will be mine again (and it will be harmless for me!). The 'very small blood on vaps' tactics will be more effective if you have rooms for some Society of Leopold and/or Vampiric Disease as noted above but I've some more advice on using them with Followers of Set: as you have S:CE, you can think on putting the disease on your vamps and let them be intercepted... only to play majesty (and have a new diseased vampire in the game!). Society of Leopold works better on not-tempted vamps because if the controller of the tempted one choose not to pay the blood cost the vampire is burned (and you can't use it again!)... so, be wise and put the card on a vampire you will be out of the game. As per my test of that deck I think that 3-4 Restricted Vitae are enough, but you can think to add also 1-2 Fortschritt Library. If you can try to make this deck you can also think on using only ODD vampires (to maximize the effect of the free states vs cap of vamps). A good addition will be Sargon. It's ability to take the edge for every action he makes is very useful. This kind of deck make you the only player with vampires with enough blood to play efficiently but has a weakness: look for DI and delaying tactics. You can find yourself weakened by your plan if a player twist your 'blood gain' combo, so be wise and don't use all the bloods on your vamp for awe. Another thing that can block you is the fact you don't have enough stealth to make your little serpents bleed: use the vampire of the others or try to bleed when you have diseased your vamps (and you have a majesty in hands). P.S. You can try to make a different deck that deals on the same idea by using crypt 2-3 Setites and crypt 2-3 !Malkavian with presence (Aristotele, Kite, Midget) to use the sibyl's tongue/sargon's fragment combo... but you may consider also to play Seattle Committee to transform them in anarchs. ******************************************************************************** CARD TEXT ******************************************************************************** For fast reference I will put here the text of the cards that are named in this article. Aura of Invincibility Type: Action Modifier Cost: 1 blood Only usable during a referendum, before any votes are cast. If this referendum passes, put this card on the acting vampire and put a counter on this card. This vampire gets an additional vote for each counter on this card in referendums he or she calls. Add a counter to this card when a referendum called by this vampire passes. If a referendum called by this vampire fails, burn this card and send this vampire to torpor. A vampire can have only one Aura of Invincibility. Awe Type: Action Modifier Requires: Presence Cost: X blood Only usable during a referendum. [pre] This vampire gets X+1 votes. [PRE] As above, but this vampire gets 2X+1 votes. Bewitching Oration Type: Action Modifier Requires: Presence Only usable during a referendum. [pre] This acting vampire gains 2 votes. [PRE] This acting vampire gains 4 votes. Fortschritt Library Type: Master Master. Search your library for a Gehenna event card. Show it to all players and add it to your hand. Discard down to your hand size afterward. Only one Fortschritt Library may be played per game. Free States Rant Type: Political Action Requires: independent Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any Independent vampire at +1 stealth. Allocate X points among one or more ready vampires, where X is half the capacity of the acting vampire (rounded up). No more than 3 points can be allocated to a single vampire. Successful referendum means each vampire burns 1 blood for each point assigned. In this referendum, titles are worth 1 less vote each (even in the prisci sub-referendum), and burning the Edge for a vote is worth an additional vote. Heidelberg Castle, Germany Type: Master Cost: 2 pool Master: unique location. Tap to transfer equipment cards, move blood and transfer retainers between any two ready vampires you control. (You may choose the amount of blood you move and which cards you transfer.) Cannot be used during an action. Rarity: DS:U2 FN:PR Restricted Vitae Type: Event Gehenna. Do not replace until a vampire successfully hunts. Vampires cannot hunt unless forced to hunt. A vampire who must hunt may hunt by stealing a blood from a younger vampire as a (D) action instead of performing the usual hunt action. Society of Leopold Type: Master Unique master. Put this card on a vampire. During his or her controller's untap phase, the vampire with this card either burns 1 blood or is burned (the controller's choice). The vampire with this card can move it to any other vampire as a +1 stealth (D) action. Temptation Type: Action Requires: Serpentis Cost: 1 blood [ser] (D) Put this card on a ready vampire; you still control this card. During your master phase, you may put a temptation counter on this card. During your minion phase, if the number of counters on this card equals or exceeds the amount of blood on that vampire, you may burn all the counters on this card to untap that vampire and take control of him or her until the end of your turn. [SER] As above, but put a counter on this card when you put it on the vampire. Vampiric Disease Type: Master Master. Choose a controlled vampire; put a disease counter on him or her if he or she does not have one. Each time a vampire with a disease counter is in combat at close range with another vampire, the second vampire gets a counter as well. An afflicted vampire cannot gain blood by hunting. When an afflicted vampire untaps, he or she burns a blood, or, if unable, loses all disease counters. Voter Captivation Type: Action Modifier Requires: Presence Only usable after a successful referendum. [pre] The acting vampire gains X blood from the blood bank, where X is the number of votes by which the referendum passed. [PRE] As above, but move up to 2 of those blood counters to your pool instead of this vampire. ******************************************************************************** DECK SAMPLE ******************************************************************************** This is the sample of the deck with wich I've won some games. Deck Name: No hunt for the Serpents Author: RavATwoFaces Crypt (13 vampires) Capacity min: 3 max: 11 average: 6.7 1x Celine Chevalier 3 FoS:2 1x Count Ormonde 5 FoS:2 1x Sargon 5 Baali:2 2x Sir Marriot D'Urban 5 FoS:2 1x Danny Larkshill 7 FoS:2 2x Greta Kircher 7 !Tor:2 (you must transform her in anarch to use free state) 1x Qufur am-Heru 7 FoS:2 1x Sarrasine 7 FoS:2 1x Khay'tall 9 FoS:2 1x Saqqaf 9 FoS:2 1x Sutekh 11 FoS:2 Library (90 cards) Master (12) 4x Blood Doll 1x Opium Den 3x Society of Leopold 1x Temple Hunting Ground 3x Vampiric Disease Action (14) 2x Consignment to Duat 2x Entrancement 2x Form of Corruption 8x Temptation Action, Political (13) 1x Dramatic Upheaval 12x Free States Rant Action Modifier (34) 2x Aura of Invincibility 8x Awe 2x Bewitching Oration 9x Forgotten Labyrinth 3x Lost in Crowds 10x Voter Captivation Combat (10) 2x Catatonic Fear 6x Majesty 2x Zip Gun Combo (2) 2x Swallowed by the Night Equipment (1) 1x Sargon Fragment, The Event (4) 4x Restricted Vitae Best deranges! RavATwoFaces