Lasombra Newletter August 2007
ICanSeeTheH...@gmail.com
has thus (rather foolishly) entrusted posting his monthly newsletter
here, in addition to proof-reading it (I being the one referred to as
Revamp in a previous letter or two), to me. So here it is; let us hope
that he does not burn with all that sun and as far as I am aware
normal programming shall resume next month:
INTRODUCTION
Another month; another newsletter. This month I thought I'd take a
long overdue look at the Black Hand trait and how it interacts with
the clan of Shadow. The Black Hand trait has been looked at in
previous newsletters of course, but I feel that the release of Sword
of Caine means that a new general overview is now necessary; to see
what membership in the Black Hand offers the new G4/G5 vampires, as
well as what the new Black Hand library cards mean for the old guard.
Rather than try to compress everything relating to the Black Hand into
a single newsletter I plan to spread it out over the course of this
newsletter and next month's.
THE BLACK HAND
The Black Hand trait is something like an unusual discipline in that
it is shared by a number of vampires across various clans and gives
them access to a number of cards that they would otherwise be unable
to play. Probably the best parallel to draw though would be that of
the Anarch trait. Neither trait seems to get played much, probably due
to the fact that decks that want to make use of them must first ensure
that the vampires in the crypt obtain the trait in question; otherwise
the Anarch/Black Hand module simply becomes a module of dead cards.
The Black Hand trait appears more playable then the Anarch trait for
the number of important reasons, the primary one being that it is
easier to build a crypt containing Black Hand vampires. Although
(prior to Sword of Caine at least) there were more options for making
a vampire an Anarch (including a card-less action) no vampires are
innately Anarchs and thus all the Anarch cards in one's deck are
unplayable until one can convert at least vampire to the Anarch cause.
By comparison there are a significant number of vampires who possess
the Black Hand trait out of the box and most of them have at least
minor discipline overlaps. Short of a few tricks only Sabbat vampires
can join the Black Hand and while it gives them access to a number of
interesting support cards it is unlikely to provide an entirely new
possibility for ousting, though it theoretically can support an
already present strategy nicely.
The original Black Hand set offered an interesting combination of
cards which provided an interesting mishmash of effects and an
advantage over other Sabbat vampires (as the Black Hand is an elite
faction within the Sabbat they have some significant authority other
their Sabbat brethren). These included cards that provided intercept,
increased bleed, a conditional permanent rush, card cycling
opportunities and increased hand size; the most powerful cards being
the Watchtowers. Although the Sword of Caine set hasn't really given
the trait an increased focus it has provided a number of new
complimentary effects, including increased access to untap effects,
increased voting capacity and a number of new (easier) ways to make
vampires Black Hand members. So what does this offer the clan of
Shadow?
MEMBERS OF THE BLACK HAND
At the present there are five Lasombra who claim membership in the
Black Hand, two of them in Group 2, one in Group 3 and two in Group 4.
Banjoko
Clan: Lasombra (group 3)
Capacity: 5
Disciplines: DOM obt pot
Sabbat. Black Hand Seraph.
Rarity: BH:U2
Henri Lavenant
Clan: Lasombra (group 3)
Capacity: 7
Disciplines: DOM OBT pot qui
Sabbat. Black Hand: You have +1 hand size while Henri is in combat.
Rarity: BH:U2
Ermenegildo, The Rake
Clan: Lasombra (group 4)
Capacity: 5
Disciplines: DOM OBT pot
Sabbat. Black Hand.
Rarity: Third:V
Appius Claudius Corvus
Clan: Lasombra (group 5)
Capacity: 10
Disciplines: DOM OBT POT cel nec
Sabbat. Black Hand. Seraph: +1 stealth.
Rarity: SoC:V
Saul Meira
Clan: Lasombra (group 5)
Capacity: 8
Disciplines: CHI DOM OBT POT
Sabbat. Black Hand: Saul may burn a blood during your discard phase to
untap another ready Black Hand vampire.
Rarity: SoC:V
A couple of things become apparent; firstly every single one of these
vampires has DOM, with all but Banjoko having OBT as well. None of
them share any out of clan disciplines. The G3/4 pair has a lower
average capacity(with an exceptionally young Seraph) while the G4/5
pair has a higher average capacity but increased access to out of clan
disciplines. A number of other Black Hand vampires share slight
discipline overlaps with these vampires, but one can always convert
other Lasombra into members of the Black Hand to support them. There
are a number of ways to do this:
Blooding
Type: Action
Requires: sabbat
+1 stealth action. Requires a ready Sabbat vampire.
Put this card on the acting vampire and move one blood from the blood
bank to this vampire. This Sabbat vampire is Black Hand. A vampire can
have only one Blooding.
Released in the Black Hand set Blooding is an action that allows a
Sabbat vampire to join the Black Hand and gain a blood in the process.
Although the blood gain is helpful the main problem with Blooding is
that it is an action card and can thus be blocked, despite its innate
+1 stealth. Since the acting vampire doesn't untap afterwards it's
also perhaps a bit ineffective, as you'll have to wait another turn to
be able to act.
Cadet
Type: Master
Master. Trifle.
Put this card on a Sabbat vampire in your uncontrolled region who is
not Black Hand. While this Sabbat vampire is controlled, he or she is
Black Hand. This card remains in play, even when the vampire is in the
uncontrolled region. A minion may have only one Cadet.
One of the new options presented to us in Sword of Caine, Cadet has a
few things to recommend it. Firstly, as a master card it cannot be
blocked and is far less likely to be prevented than Blooding. Also,
being a trifle you should still be free to play another master card
should you so wish. The theoretical disadvantage however is that the
vampire you wish to play it on must be in the uncontrolled region,
making the card ineffective once you've influenced out the vampire in
question. Theoretically the value of the card rapidly decreases as the
game goes on and it's a card you really want to see in your opening
draw. To be sure of that however you'd need to include a large number
of copies, all of which would take up deck space, all of which would
have a high probability of becoming dead cards. Perhaps some sort of
clever trick involving Descent into Darkness is possible, but as it
stands Cadet is not ideal.
Mustajib
Type: Action
Requires: black hand
+1 stealth action. Requires a ready Black Hand vampire.
Put this card on a younger non-Black Hand Sabbat vampire who has
performed a successful action this turn, and untap that vampire. The
Sabbat vampire with this card is Black Hand.
Mustajib is interesting. It's an action just like Blooding and
therefore can be blocked, but it allows you to untap the younger
vampire who becomes a member of the Black Hand, reducing some of the
cost of having to take an action in the first place. Although the
targeted vampire must be younger (and perhaps therefore less
effectual), an older vampire is also probably that much harder to
block, making the action itself for likely to succeed, though the
younger vampire must have performed as successful action himself
earlier in the turn if he is to be a viable target.
Trophy: Chosen
Type: Master
Master. Trophy.
When this card is moved to a vampire, that vampire gains 4 blood,
becomes Sabbat and untaps, or that vampire can choose to burn this
card instead. The vampire with this card is Black Hand. If he or she
was already Black Hand when receiving this card, he or she is a
Seraph.
A tricky one. This is one of the few ways to make a non-Sabbat vampire
a member of the Black Hand (and Sabbat), but it seems to require far
too many moving parts. It's difficult enough to build trophy hunter
decks, which require a large number of additional cards. Throwing the
Black Hand into the mix as well just seems suicidal. This card would
probably be used more often as a way of making a Black Hand trophy
hunter a Seraph, though I'm not sure I see a vast value in that
myself.
Clearly there is no perfect option and choices must be made as to
which of the above cards suit the aims of ones deck in question.
Stealthier decks or those that have access to multi-acting are
probably better of using the actions, while those that have little
hope of sneaking past casual intercept has best make use of Cadet.
After all this effort one must ask what the actual value of joining
the Black Hand actually is. Here I want to take a look at a number of
cards and discuss how they interact with our clan.
LIBRARY CARD FOCUS
Admonitions, The
Type: Master
Unique master.
Put this card in play. Tap to discard one card if you control a ready
Sabbat vampire. Tap to draw two cards if you control a ready Black
Hand vampire. During your discard phase, control of The Admonitions
passes counter-clockwise until it is controlled by a Methuselah who
controls a ready Sabbat vampire (or is burned if there are none).
Card cycling is obviously an important part of VTES, there are a large
number of decks that include the Barrens for this very purpose, a card
that the Admonitions is obviously quite similar to. So how does it
compare? Firstly one has to note that if you don't control a ready
Sabbat vampire then the Admonitions is useless to you and will most
likely go towards helping someone else at the table (or just burning).
Even if you do control a single Sabbat vampire the Barrens is probably
a better choice, other than the fact that you're more likely to have
to contest it. The card's value becomes apparent when you control a
ready Black Hand vampire; it lets you draw two cards, reassess your
hand and discard those cards you don't want. Obviously the value of
the Admonitions is somewhat metagame dependent; if everyone else
around you plays Sabbat then this card is probably a poor addition to
your deck. However a Black Hand rush deck could consider rushing other
Sabbat vampires at the table to secure you're the exclusive use of the
Admonitions. As combat decks can run into trouble if they get jammed
on problematic cards this seems like a reasonable strategy.
Chronicle of the Lost Tribe
Type: Action
Requires: black hand
+1 stealth action. Requires a ready Black Hand vampire. Unique.
Put this card in play. You get +1 hand size. Any vampire with a
capacity above 4 may steal this card for his or her controller as a
(D) action.
Obviously increased hand size is a wonderful thing, but given the
Lasombra's general inability to muster much intercept you probably
won't be able to defend the Chronicle of the Lost Tribe. That said
there are a handful of Lasombra with at least inferior Auspex and
Obtenebration can provide a little intercept, so this isn't a card to
rule out at first glance.
Corporal Reservoir
Type: Master
Master: trifle.
Put this card on any Black Hand vampire. This vampire may tap this
card to prevent 1 point of damage in combat or to gain a blood. This
card doesn't untap as normal. This vampire may burn a blood to untap
this card during his or her untap phase.
A lovely card for its flexibility. Corporal Reservoir can provide
slight protection for agg-poke or allow you to gain a single point of
blood when you really need it. As the card is only a trifle it won't
eat up your master phase action, so for Black Hand vampires it's
simply superior to Life in the City. Note that there's no limit to how
many Corporal Reservoirs you can put on a vampire, so a couple of
these in a Black Hand deck where blood is an issue could be a good
idea.
Dominion
Type: Master
Master.
Put this card on a Black Hand vampire. Vampires must burn 1 blood to
attempt to block this Black Hand vampire. A vampire can have only one
Dominion.
In and off itself this Dominion doesn't seem too powerful, but the
ability to wear down blockers through minor attrition shouldn't't be
ignored, especially when combined with stealth. Multi-acting vampires
in particular could stand to gain a lot from this, providing both a
disincentive to block as well as blood loss.
Ebony Fox Hunt
Type: Master
Cost: 1 pool
Master: out-of-turn.
Cancel a blood hunt called on a Black Hand vampire you control. You
may play this card during your turn.
If you're considering committing diablerie rather than Grave Robbing
this should provide some protection in case you can't be sure of
dominating the political arena.
Ministry
Type: Reaction
Requires: black hand
Cost: 1 blood
Requires a ready Black Hand vampire. Do not replace until the end of
this action.
This vampire gets +2 intercept. If the acting vampire is Sabbat, this
vampire gets an additional +1 intercept. If this vampire does not
successfully block this action, he or she is tapped after action
resolution.
The conditions of this card obviously make it quite unforgiving, it
costs you blood, you don't replace it until the action ends (making a
resulting combat more dangerous for you) and if you fail to block
you'll get taped out. Still, the Lasombra don't have vast amounts of
intercept available to them, a card that offers +2 or a possible +3
intercept is therefore definitely something to consider, especially if
you plan to be defending cards such as the Chronicle of the Lost
Tribe.
Remover
Type: Master
Master.
Put this card on a Black Hand vampire. This vampire can tap any card
(including a minion) as a +1 stealth (D) action. A vampire can have
only one Remover.
Remover can give smaller Black Hand vampires something useful to do,
taping possible blockers, (or ambush targets), or master cards that
could pose a problem, such as the Ventrue Headquarters. Given the
increased amount of untap effects now available to Black Hand vampires
the value of Remover has probably increased, offering some tap and
bleed prospects.
Shakar
Type: Master
Cost: 1 pool
Master.
Put this card on a Black Hand vampire. This Black Hand vampire can
enter combat with any younger non-Black Hand vampire as a (D) action.
A vampire can have only one Shakar.
Rarity: BH:C/PN2
The value of this is obvious. Put it on a large combat monster and get
to work. Luca Italicus strikes me as vampire who would have something
to gain from Shakar if he were made a member of the Black Hand; look
our for a deck best month.
Watchtower: Chosen are Called
Type: Master
Requires: seraph
Cost: 1 pool
Master: watchtower. Requires a ready Seraph.
Put this card in play. You may use a master phase action to draw three
cards (discard down to your hand size afterward). Burn this card if
another watchtower enters play. Burn option.
We Lasombra have access to the smallest Seraph in the game; it would
be foolish not to consider the watchtowers. Watchtower: Chosen are
Called is great because it provides some very strong card cycling
opportunities, doesn't require a political action like Watchtower:
Greatest Fall, while offering an effect that suits the Lasombra better
than Watchtower: Four Ride Fourth
Weeping Stone
Type: Master
Cost: 3 pool
Master: unique location.
+1 hand size. During your untap phase, a ready Black Hand vampire you
control gains 1 blood. Any Assamite can burn this card as a (D) action
that costs 1 pool.
If you really want the extra hand size and can afford its cost Weeping
Stine is probably better than Chronicle of the Lost Tribe as short of
any Assamites you won't have to worry so much about defending it,
while combined with a blood doll and a Black Hand vampire it can
actually pay for itself over time.
SIGN OFF
That's it for this month. Next month the star of the show will be the
new cards from Sword of Caine, as well as a deck staring Lucia trying
to make use of a number of them.
AcheronNi...@gmail.com
> Obviously increased hand size is a wonderful thing, but given the
> Lasombra's general inability to muster much intercept you probably
> won't be able to defend the Chronicle of the Lost Tribe. That said
> there are a handful of Lasombra with at least inferior Auspex and
> Obtenebration can provide a little intercept, so this isn't a card to
> rule out at first glance.
I have to disagree here - with two best intercept cards in the game
and ultra cheap permacept(Abbot) lasombra can defend very well action
directed in you (bleeds and steal action)
> Corporal Reservoir
>
> Type: Master
>
> Master: trifle.
>
> Put this card on any Black Hand vampire. This vampire may tap this
> card to prevent 1 point of damage in combat or to gain a blood. This
> card doesn't untap as normal. This vampire may burn a blood to untap
> this card during his or her untap phase.
>
> A lovely card for its flexibility. Corporal Reservoir can provide
> slight protection for agg-poke or allow you to gain a single point of
> blood when you really need it. As the card is only a trifle it won't
> eat up your master phase action, so for Black Hand vampires it's
> simply superior to Life in the City. Note that there's no limit to how
> many Corporal Reservoirs you can put on a vampire, so a couple of
> these in a Black Hand deck where blood is an issue could be a good
> idea.
Great card combined with Either Descent into Darkness or Disarm
(preferably both)
>We Lasombra have access to the smallest Seraph in the game; it would
>be foolish not to consider the watchtowers. Watchtower: Chosen are
>Called is great because it provides some very strong card cycling
>opportunities, doesn't require a political action like Watchtower:
>Greatest Fall, while offering an effect that suits the Lasombra better
>than Watchtower: Four Ride Fourth
I have to disagree again - with tatoo signal,seraph's seconds and
W:FRF you can act every your minion AND save some card slots (it is
permanent wake - good synergy with abbot - +2 stealth deflected bleeds
are not easy to block)
My deck of the month:
Can be tweaked to be more S&B or more toolboxy :)
Deck Name: Black Hand Lasombra v1.1
Created By: Raziel
Description:
Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 16, Max: 25, Avg: 5,0Cool
----------------------------------------------
2 Henri Lavenant pot qui DOM OBT 7 Lasombra
2 Ermenegildo pot DOM OBT 5 Lasombra
1 Andrew Emory aus dom pot OBT 5 Lasombra
1 Dame Hollerton myt DOM OBT 5 Kiasyd
1 Virginie obt DOM POT 6 Lasombra
1 Lucy Markowitz dom obt 3 Lasombra
3 Banjoko obt pot DOM 5 Lasombra
1 Hester Reed obt pot 3 Lasombra
Library: (86 cards)
-------------------
Master (16 cards)
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
2 Watchtower: Four Ride Forth
1 Powerbase: Montreal
3 Corporal Reservoir
1 Elysian Fields
1 Hungry Coyote, The
5 Blood Doll
1 Direct Intervention
Action (13 cards)
1 Black Metamorphosis
1 Far Mastery
1 Aranthebes, The Immortal
2 Abbot
5 Govern the Unaligned
3 Tattoo Signal
Action Modifier (17 cards)
3 Shroud of Absence
4 Shadow Play
4 Seraph's Second
2 Shroud of Night
2 Conditioning
2 Threats
Reaction (12 cards)
4 Redirection
2 Eyes of the Night
2 Ministry
4 On the Qui Vive
Combat (20 cards)
6 Arms of the Abyss
2 Disarm
3 Darkness Within
3 Oubliette
6 Weighted Walking Stick
Ally (3 cards)
1 Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
2 Procurer
Retainer (3 cards)
1 Tasha Morgan
1 J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1 Mr. Winthrop
Equipment (1 cards)
1 Guarded Rubrics
Event (1 cards)
1 Uncoiling, The
AcheronNi...@gmail.com
2nd place during quite small tournament
1st game:
-3vp gw
cross table tupdog deck so not so sprectacular.
2nd game:
-1vp
survived as tupdog prey and managed to oust kindred spirits deck -
killed cross table by AAA toreador vote deck
3th game
-5vp gw
survived 1 cap breath of the dragon rush deck, oust !Nosferatu beast
deck, oust Ravnos Gabrin deck, oust Madness Network freak drive deck
and finaly oust weenie gun+breath deck.
final
-1vp
oust una deck but failed to oust weenie ani deck. first there was only
combat, then stealth then bleed :( not to mention Banjoko was 6th card
in my crypt :(