Malkavian Antitribu Newsletter, July 2007
Ector
VOLUME VI, Issue VII
1. INTRODUCTION
This newsletter is going to be dull and sad. Due to my personal
problems, I'm currently have no mood to write newsletters, but I think
that newsletter must be written for each month unless the world would
be destroyed by a disaster. So, you have a choice of just skipping
this one or reading it, with my apologies...
2. VAMPIRES OF THE MONTH
Mariel St. John [Third]
Clan: Ventrue antitribu
Capacity: 6
Group: 4
Disciplines: dom pro AUS FOR
Sabbat.
At the first glance, there is nothing special in Mariel - she's almost
a common 6-cap !Ventrue with all clan Disciplines at superior, but one
level of Dominate was replaced by one level of Protean. Does this mean
much? Surely it does! Superior Dominate is great for the large
vampires who can play Governs, but for a 6-cap, even inferior is
enough to bleed with Governs and to play Deflections. Superior
Deflection is certainly better, but most of the time this won't be
crucial unless Mariel will be your only vampire with Dominate.
Besides, decks with reliable AUS usually prefer Telepathic
Misdirections anyway due to their versatility.
What about inferior Protean? Actually, it makes Mariel somewhat
special. Protean is a wonderful combat discipline, even at inverior
level. You still can play Claws to inflict aggravated damage, Flesh of
Marble to prevent almost all damage or Earth Meld to end combat. Anti-
Ventrue traditionally have serious problems with combat: while their
AUS enables intercept decks, and their FOR allows them to survive
these combats, they have no disciplines to strike back. Protean
compensates for this disadvantage and makes Mariel almost a "must
have" in AUS/FOR/pro decks.
A quick search in the VTES card database shows that Mariel St. John is
a youngest vampire with AUS/for/pro. You will also notice that ALL
vampires with these disciplines are great: Omaya is a "star" of
several decks, Ian Forestal is infamous for his versatility, Szechenyi
Jolan should be good in War Ghoul deck, Lernean is a "new Goratrix",
but with a good title... and, I guess, there is no need to introduce
Lazverinus and Elimelech :) The latter, Elimelech, is the best
companion for Mariel (better to say that Mariel is a good companion to
Elimelech, I guess), since they share all four Mariel's disciplines
and clan.
Mariel isn't Black Hand, but not every deck based on Elimelech must be
a Black Hand deck. You may use just a few Black Hand cards for
Elimelech (especially Watchtower: Four Ride Forth), and nothing more.
AUS/FOR/pro is a good theme for Elimelech, since Claws at first strike
work very nice, you don't depend on any weapons (Drawing Out the Beast
cannot stop you), and you can trump even Immortal Grapple. Obviously,
Mariel is the best support vampire for this deck theme.
Neighbor John [Third]
Clan: Ventrue antitribu
Capacity: 5
Group: 4
Disciplines: dom for AUS
Sabbat. +1 intercept.
Prior to Neighbour John, the youngest vampire with unconditional +1
intercept was 7-cap Carna and Matthias. A 5-cap vampire with the same
ability is a major breakthrough. John's combat abilities are limited
to inferior Fortitude, alas, so he is going to be very effective in
the noncombat metagame, but much worse in the combat-heavy metagame.
Nevertheless, John is a great support vampire in any AUS/for deck, and
he truly shines in the Auspex weenie. Give him a .44 Magnum, and he
will block a lot of dangerous actions even without the additional
cards. If nobody plays heavy combat, he will protect you even without
any weapons.
3. CARD OF THE MONTH
Shattered Mirror [Third:U]
Cardtype: Reaction
Discipline: Dementation
Only usable when this vampire successfully blocks an ally or younger
vampire bleeding you.
[dem] Put this card on the acting minion and end the action (with no
combat). The minion with this card gets -1 bleed. He or she may burn
it as an action that costs 1 blood. A minion may have only one
Shattered Mirror.
[DEM] As above, and this reacting vampire doesn`t tap for successfully
blocking the action.
Dementation is mostly a bleeding discipline, and it doesn't have a lot
of good reactions. Actually, Voice of Madness is a bad replica of
Obedience, Abandoning the Flesh is a "prayer card", Random Patterns is
somewhat versatile, but requires a second discipline, and only Babble
was quite interesting if you were going to cooperate with the other
players instead of just straight bleeding... but Babble was designed
primarily for small vampires, as you aren't likely to keep a large
vampire with Dementation untapped, or tap him to untap somebody else.
Shattered Mirror is the first Dementation-based reaction that is
definitely good for the large vampires with Dementation - especially
with superior Dementation:
1). You completely avoid combat. This cannot be underestimated: most
vampires with DEM aren't very good combatants. If you have Shattered
Mirror, you can block any combat monster without fear - there are no
ways to continue combat after the action is ended. The very idea of
"bruise & bleed" is completely ruined by Shattered Mirrors, if your
deck has enough of them. You may ask your ally to redirect a bleed to
you and deal with the bleeder using just one card.
2). You foil the enemy plans for the current turn. No Freak Drive
after Shattered Mirror, no Forced March, and Flurry of Action will do
nothing. This simple card can seriously slow your predator even
without considering the need of burning it.
3). You "spoil" the enemy minion. Not only he wasted one action for an
unsuccessful bleed that you've blocked, but he will be forced to waste
another action and 1 blood to burn Shattered Mirror - and you can
block that action, too! As far as I understand the card text, allies
CANNOT burn it, since they have no blood. This means that Shattered
Mirror severely punishes Imbued, Satyrs and other allies bleeding
decks.
4). If you have superior Dementation, you don't even tap for blocking
the action. All you lose is a single card, and the opponent loses two
actions and some blood! This looks like "broken". As long as your
blocker is going to have AUS/DEM most of the time, you can play
Shattered Mirror on the light bleeds and Telepathic Misdirection on
heavy ones. Or, if you have a Rotschreck, Shattered Mirrors will
defend your pool against minor bleeds while you're waiting for the
intended target for Rotschreck.
In short, this card made intercept deck with Dementation much better.
It isn't a panacea: you will have to block different actions, not only
bleeds against you, but bleed is the most basic action, and you can be
sure to encounter it. Theoretically, one 3-cap Jackie with a lot of
Shattered Mirrors can easily stop a disciplineless weenie horde!
4. DECK OF THE MONTH
Deck Name: Elimelech & Louhi
Created By: Ilya Ginsburg
Description: Elimelech & Louhi blocking deck
Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 21, Max: 44, Avg: 8,83)
----------------------------------------------
4 Elimelech the Twice-Damned pro AUS DEM DOM FOR OBF 11 !
Ventrue
4 Louhi pro ANI AUS DEM OBF THA 10 !
Malkavian
2 Mariel St. John dom pro AUS FOR 6 !
Ventrue
1 Hagar Stone obf AUS DEM 5 !
Malkavian
1 Neighbor John dom for AUS 5 !
Ventrue
Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (17 cards)
1 Shakar
3 Rotschreck
1 Watchtower: Four Ride Forth
5 Minion Tap
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Powerbase: Montreal
2 Direct Intervention
1 Information Highway
1 Giant's Blood
Action (10 cards)
4 Sibyl`s Tongue
1 Emergency Powers
1 Blessing of Chaos
3 Magic of the Smith
1 Rutor`s Hand
Political Action (2 cards)
1 Ancient Influence
1 Political Stranglehold
Reaction (27 cards)
5 Telepathic Misdirection
6 Forced Awakening
5 Eagle`s Sight
2 On the Qui Vive
5 Shattered Mirror
4 Spirit`s Touch
Combat (24 cards)
6 Amaranth
4 Coma
4 Disguised Weapon
5 Flesh of Marble
5 Claws of the Dead
Equipment (7 cards)
1 Bowl of Convergence
1 Ivory Bow
1 Improvised Flamethrower
1 Rowan Ring
1 Heart of Nizchetus
1 Sengir Dagger
1 Blade of Enoch
Event (3 cards)
1 Fueled by Heart`s Blood
1 Rise of the Nephtali
1 Thirst
This is a variation of Elimelech deck from my previous newsletter.
This version is not so "reckless" and much more reliable, since
intercept is rarely considered a major threat (probably, until you
improve your position enough to play Shakar). This deck is not a
"demonstration toolbox" anymore: there are no Trophies, no Anarchs
cards (you may still need to convert your Elimelech to anarchy if you
play Rise of the Nephtali), and so on. The "fetching part" of the deck
was also greatly reduced - now it's just an AUS/DEM/pro intercept deck
with some aggravated weapons and Rotschrecks.
The second "star" of the deck is Louhi. She is quite famous as a
wonderful blocker with a good title and awesome ability, so the old
lady greatly enforces the deck protection. She also has Protean and
can play all cards in this deck, but her role isn't limited to that.
As long as Louhi has superior Thaumaturgy, she can fetch the needed
equipment with Magics of the Smith at +3 stealth, which is almost
safe. While Elimelech has the Watchtower to untap, Louhi has Rutor's
Hand for the same purpose. Finally, this deck can have a LOT of votes
(up to 7 votes for Elimelech and 3 votes for Louhi's title), so you
are going to have a strong influence on the table voting.
Combat module was also changed - Groundfightings were replaced by the
Protean cards, Flesh of Marble and Claws. This is not enough to
dominate the table, but in combination with aggro weapons, Coma and
Rotschreck is should work quite good.
That's all for July. As always, all comments and ideas are
appreciated.
Yours,
Ector