I.      Introduction
II.     Fiction:  Part 2, but not really
III.    Special Feature:  Drafting the !Ventrue
IV.     Strategy:  KMW and the !Ventrue
V.      Conclusion

Introduction

First of all, my apologies for missing the entire month of March,
April, May, and June!!!!  I'm a Ph.D. candidate, short on time...
Mea Culpa!  This month, I have chosen to look at our starter deck with
regard to drafting and to briefly examine some of the potential KMW
unlocks for our clan.

Fiction

[The author of this newsletter grunts something unintelligible about
being on too many academic committees to have time to write part 2 of
the fiction section begun in his last newsletter; he then returns to
his office to contemplate where life went wrong.]

Special Feature:  Drafting the Ventrue Antitribu

Drafting is an often overlooked tournament style due to the complexity
inherent in V:TES, but it can be amazingly rewarding.  Lets assume
you're going to be doing a starter-based draft and adding a few
boosters.  You'll begin with a basic !Ventrue stater from the Sabbat
War expansion, and you'll have access to the following crypt:

1x Lazverinus            10 AUS DOM FOR POT pro  archbishop
1x Kyle Strathcona        9  AUS DOM POT PRE for  cardinal
1x Quentin                9  AUS DOM FOR cel obt  bishop
1x Dominique              7  AUS FOR ani dom vic
1x Dylan                  6  aus cel dom for pro
1x Marlene                6  AUS DOM dem for tha
1x Vanessa                6  DOM FOR aus pre
1x Gerard                 5  aus dom for obt
1x Vincent Day            5  aus dom for pot tha
1x Ingrid Russo           4  DOM for
1x Juan Cali              3  aus for
1x March Halcyon          1  for

With an average capacity of 5.92, you can plan to field two minions
with a possible third, depending on your initial crypt draw, what
you've drafted as additions, and the table seating.  Among the large
minions, the ones you'll want to see most are Lazverinus (for his
combat supremacy) and Quentin (for table vote control; between the two
of them, you want Quentin).  Unless you've happened to luck into
drafting a Voter Captivation (only available to our clan through
Camarilla edition boosters), Kyle is a very weak investment of 9 pool
in spite of his cardinal title (his inferior fortitude is likely not
going to be enough to save him when he gets into combat).  I'd remove
Kyle from the deck if I drafted an acceptable substitute (virtually any
voter with either dominate or fortitude).

Among the mid-caps, Vanessa is the best of the bunch, coming with her
built in superior dominate and fortitude for only six pool.  Marlene is
second with her superiors in auspex and dominate.  I'd cheer loudly
if both appeared in my uncontrolled region at the same time!
Dominique, Dylan, Gerard, and Vincent Day are all good minions, too; in
fact, one of the great strengths of the !Ventrue starter is our superb
range of mid-cap vampires.  Sadly, the deck-type requires you to field
a fatty to have any success at all; else, we could run a straight-up
mid-cap deck.

The weenies of our crypt are pretty solid reactors, the gem of which is
the unparalleled Ingrid Russo.  Juan Cali is an excellent blocker.
March Halcyon has fortitude and can fight for quite a while in spite of
being a 1-cap, depending on the strength of your hand.

Our minions' special abilities are none-too-shabby, either.
Dominique can take care of those pesky locations people may be playing
(goodbye Ventrue Headquarters, farewell Dreams of the Sphinx, hasta la
vista Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper).  Dylan can be quite dangerous
with his +1 bleed.  Since we'll take the edge at some point, Vincent
Day's edge-burning vote special can come in amazingly handy in a
pinch (and you need all the votes you can get).  Of course, if you must
field Kyle, his delicious "I give blood to all my peoples" special
is great to have.  Quentin and Lazverinus will be the single most
dangerous vampires on whatever table they're sitting on (save perhaps
for Arika, whom Quentin just might be able to take care of anyway).

In short, our beginning crypt is pretty good.  We're a bit shy on
voters, so if you draft into any with auspex or dominate, you should
think of shifting them in; otherwise getting VPs is going to be a
nightmare of deal making and luck.  On to our beginning library of 77
cards:

Master [15]
  1x Antediluvian Awakening
  1x Auspex
  1x Blood Doll
  1x Corporate Hunting Ground
  1x Demonstration
  1x Dominate
  1x Fortitude
  1x Life Boon
  1x Minion Tap
  1x Out of Control
  1x Purchase Pact
  1x Recruitment
  1x Short-Term Investment
  1x Sudden Reversal
  1x Ventrue Investment

Our master selection looks okay, given that we're using a starter.
We've got several pool gain options:  blood doll (sadly only one, but
you can't have everything), minion tap, a short-term investment, and
a ventrue investment.  We have four fantastic masters which deserve
special attention.  Antediluvian Awakening is a brutal card, dealing
permanent pool damage to the table unless a terrible sacrifice is made.
 Think of it as our "definitely going to be suddened by someone"
master card of the deck.  Demonstration will likely lock down vote
control for you, and is almost too good as it can completely manipulate
the entire table to your advantage as long as it's untapped.
Purchase Pact, on the right table, can save you an abundance of
fortitude combat cards and cause many starter deck types to whimper in
anger and frustration, especially since everyone's going to be low on
rushes.  The saving grace of our deck is our Life Boon, which (if in
hand at the right time) can insure that you take the game win.
Finally, do not underestimate the power of Recruitment.  The deck
depends on having one of your three voters out and manipulating things.
 If there are any other vote decks on your table, you simply must have
Quentin in order to survive the Jyhad.

There really aren't any "bad" masters among the ones we start
with (Out of Control being the only exception here, but since the
!Brujah starter begins with our foil, I find it appropriate that we
have an answer).  Things to look for in drafting would be more pool
gain/blood manipulation, permanent intercept locations (always good),
and hand flushing tech.  I might possibly take out a discipline card
(fortitude being the most likely candidate), but only if I had
something very good to replace it with.  Much of our pool gain requires
the sacrifice of master phase actions, so I might possibly think about
dropping down to 13 masters.

Action [7]
  1x Eternal Vigilance
  1x Far Mastery
  1x Govern the Unaligned
  1x Pulse of the Canaille
  1x Rapid Healing
  2x Restoration

Our actions are few, but amazingly powerful (and likely to be blocked).
 Probably the weakest of them is Eternal Vigilance, since only Laz or
Kyle will be able to play it (but if either of them succeeds at it,
it's happy days for our clan).  Hopefully you'll draft more
Archbishops...  Far Mastery, too, can be game-turning if it succeeds.
Govern is always solid, alas that we have only the one.  If you luck
into a prey who can't bounce, inferior's the way to go here;
otherwise use it for pool gain.  Pulse:  it wins games.  Rapid Healing
is normally not such a great card...but honestly, you're going to be
going to torpor, and any way of getting out of torpor for free is a
good thing.  The two restorations are very solid, especially if you
luck into your blood doll.

Actions to draft would be +bleed and any of the dominate "steal
something" cards.  Anything that will get blood back on your minions
is good, too (Entrenching, although not a fortitude card, would be a
solid addition to this deck; seek it out in Gehenna).

Action Modifier [10]
  3x Bonding
  2x Bribes
  1x Daring the Dawn
  1x Kindred Manipulation
  1x Private Audience
  1x Seduction
  1x Telepathic Vote Counting

Action modifiers, too, look pretty skimpy; however, all of them are
useful.  Savor and defend your three bondings; they're the only
stealth you're going to see.  Along this same "I want my actions to
be successful" vein, Daring the Dawn and Seduction are equally
game-saving cards.  Alas that we have so very few!  If you (somehow)
succeed in getting an action through, Bribes, Kindred Manipulation,
Private Audience, and Telepathic Vote Counting assist this deck's
strategy as nothing else.

If you're looking to slim the deck down a little, I would possibly
consider dropping the Private Audience.  There's likely to be more
Sabbat votes on your table, and if you're me, they'll more than
likely be your predator.  You'll especially want to toss it if the
draft is Sabbat only.

What to draft?  Bleed modifiers and Bribes.  You want as many Bribes as
you can get your grubby little torporous hands on (seek ye out Sabbat
War boosters).  It's your pool gain, means of propping up a weak
Methuselah, and one of the easiest ways to get your votes passed.  The
Sleeping Mind would be a very solid addition to this deck, considering
that it's a seduction for a tapped vampire (and is common in the
Sabbat War boosters you might choose to draft from).  If you find
yourself with a Stealth Ritus in hand, you might consider drafting it
(they're from the Black Hand expansion); in a draft, very few minions
are going to be able to block a 2 stealth action.  On to the combat
options:

Combat [11]
  1x Boxed In
  1x Dodge
  1x Open Grate
  1x Resilience
  1x Rolling with the Punches
  1x Skin of Rock
  1x Superior Mettle
  1x Thoughts Betrayed
  1x Undead Persistence
  1x Unflinching Persistence
  1x Zip Gun

The combat module is, well, really bad, especially considering the
number of times your minions are going to see combat.  You'll want to
draft some more fortitude prevention cards, definitely.  I'd toss out
Boxed In and the Open Grate.  I'd seriously consider tossing Thoughts
Betrayed since the deck has very few ways of recouping that 2 blood
investment and ...

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nit-pick