Woot! It is the exciting Nosferatu Newsletter #50! Crazy stuff. I mean, like, yeah, they aren't all gold or anything, but getting to number 50 has to count for something.
So we recently got a really cool new expansion, Kindred Most Wanted, that contained a few excellent new Nosferatu vampires, and a handful of new cards for the Nosferatu's basic disciplines that I figure I'll examine, hopefully to inspire some cool ideas out there somewhere.
-Rabbat, The Sewer Goddess (7) OBF, FOR, ANI, pot. Independent. Red List. Group 4. Rabbat may send a vampire to torpor or burn an ally as a strike. If she hunts, you may move 1 of the blood she gains to your pool. She cannot take (D) actions or block actions that are not directed at her or at a card on her. **** (of 5)
Rabbat is pretty fantastic, and clearly a vampire to build a deck around. She has a very solid discipline spread: OBF to keep her from getting blocked, FOR to protect herself and Freak Drive, ANI for general defense, and pot just for backup. She can send a vampire to torpor as a strike, which is quite potent, reasonable disincentive to take advantage of her Red List status. When she hunts, you can take one of the blood gained into your pool, which is huge, considering her built in FOR--clearly, trick number one to take advantage of with Rabbat is to load as many Freak Drives into her deck as you can. As hunting isn't restricted to once per turn, whenever you have too many Freak Drives in your hand (or need a pool boost), hunt over and over again, gaining a pool each time. She can't take (D) actions or block much, which restricts her to mostly political actions as an offense (luckily, she has OBF/ANI, so she can utilize Animal Magnetism to help get votes through), and she probably needs some kind of back up for general pool defense, but as the core of some sort of multi action Political deck, she is probably pretty solid. I'll see what I can cook up in the future.
-Black Annis (9) POT, OBF, pro, ani. Sabbat. Group 4. Black Annis can enter combat with any minion controlled by your predator or prey as a (D) action. Other non-hunt actions cost her an additional blood. +1 strength. +1 stealth. ***
Another vampire that is pretty solid to build a deck around--in this case, some kind of multi rush deck. She has +1 strength and POT for significant killing power and pro for defense (Flesh of Marble) and aggro damage (so she can Grapple you and hit you for 7 points of aggrivated damage, which everyone always loves). She comes with a built in, +1 stealth rush action which is fantastic, but if she wants to make other rush actions, they'll cost her an extra blood--just be sure to use a lot of Taste of Vitae, especially as her most likely way to untap for multiple rush actions is going to be inferior Dual Form (which will cost her 3 blood per turn). Probably a little harder to make pay off than, say, Beast, but her built in protean might make all the difference.
We also got Echo, who is another pretty solid mid cap vampire, but I looked at her in issue 48.
In terms of Library cards, the Nosferatu's basic disciplines got:
-Pack Alpha. A vampire may only play one pack alpha each round. (ani): Employ an animal retainer from your hand before range is determined. Pay cost as normal. (ANI): Burn an animal retainer employed by this vampire and put this card on the vampire. The minion with this card gets +1 strength. A minion may have only 1 pack alpha.
A pretty interesting card for a deck that wants to use a lot of retainers. The inferior saves you an action to equip, and the superior lets you cycle extra retainers for bonus hand damage--decks that, say, use a lot of Raven Spies to get them early and often can probably get a lot of mileage out of this card as it is highly cycleable. Once you can block someone, you can stack on more Spies, and when you have enough of them, you can stack an extra and burn it off for permanent +1 hand damage, making the Raven Spies and the Pack Alphas very fluid in your deck. Granted, in a lot of situations, especially in a deck that wants to block a lot (and has good combat potential, so folks won't want to block your recruit actions), you might be better off with just Forced Awakenings instead (so you can recruit and then Forced to block instead of not recruiting, blocking, and then playing Pack Alpha for the retainer), but in the right deck, this card could potentially be very handy.
-Confusion of the Eye. (obf): Reduce a younger vampire's or an ally's bleed against you by 1. (OBF): Only usable during a referendum before votes are cast. Not usable on a referendum that is automatically passing. If the referendum requires a titled vampire, the referendum fails. Otherwise, the referendum continues, but the acting vampire cannot cast any votes in this referendum.
This is potentially a *very* strong card, especially in a high political action metagame. The inferior ability isn't huge in and of itself, but allows the card to be mainlined into any OBF heavy, large vampire deck for the superior version, yet still be very cycleable if you sit with a non political predator (as you are pretty much always going to be able to play a card to reduce a bleed, as long as you are a pretty large vampire). The superior version of the card is huge, in terms of political defense--it automatically cancels some of the most brutal votes in the game (Protect Thine Own and Parity Shift), and even against a non title requiring vote, it will likely cause that vote to fail, as unless the Methuselah has significant table votes on other vampires, the inability of the acting vampire to vote means no Bewitching Oration, Awe, or Iron Glare to help push the vote through. This card will, more than anything, give the Nosferatu (well, anyone with OBF, really) very powerful vote defense that will likely often have a huge impact on the game. And again, unlike most other powerful anti-vote technology, Confusion of the Eye is very cycleable if you don't need the vote defense. A strong card I expect to see a lot of in competitive play.
-Earthshock. 1 Blood. (pot): Strike: strength ranged damage. This strike cannot be dodged. Not usable against a minion with flight. (POT) as above, but for strength +1 ranged damage.
A reasonably useful card for Potence combat decks. A lot of potence, close range, Immortal Grapple based combat decks (like the Nosferatu like often like to live in...) like to include a small handful of, like, Thrown Sewer Lids or Stunt Bikes instead of maneuvers to punish folks who have guns or light maneuver based defense. Earthshock is a really good card to replace the Lids or Bikes as it allows you to utilize the extra strength from the ubiquitous Torn Signposts in such decks, *and* you can use it at close range in a pinch (unlike the Lids and Bikes). That it can't be dodged is pure (yet significant) gravy, as the rise of CEL based gun decks means that Earthshock will hinder and possibly trump the long range dodge/additional strike with the Assault Rifle action that seems to be so popular these days. In a deck that relies on being at long range, the Lids and Bikes are probably still better, due to the blood cost on Earthshock and the need for back up strength increasers, but as a side angle in an otherwise close range, IG based strategy, this card is pretty solid. Yeah, you can't Earthshock Gargoyles, but, ya know, that probably won't come up that much.
Well, that is Nosferatu Newsletter #50. Stay tuned for more exciting, hot Nosferatu on Nosferatu action in the future. If you want to look at all the old Nosferatu Newsletters on the web, go visit:
carl wrote: > "Peter D Bakija" <p...@lightlink.com> wrote > > Rabbat is pretty fantastic, and clearly a vampire to build a deck around.
> Bit limited for kind of attention isn't she. > Cant bleed. Cant block bleeds. > good as a 7pt blood doll but thats about it.
I've had fun with her. Used her in a 3 cap crypt machine deck with Hidden Lurkers. If they want to block your bleed, Rabbat can make them pay. Drawing Out the Beast is great here, since they won't be striking due to Hidden Lurker you don't care that they now have +1 hand damage and they can't manuever to long to get out of the way.
> Local rule says cant join in as hidden lurker, or play errand girl to do > arson or skirmish and cant diabilerise other meths.
You shouldn't consider local rules when evaluating a vampire. You should rate it based on how it is played according to the tournament rules.
What do you mean about errand girl? That Rabbat can't take over with Mask of 1k Faces?
You can still diablerize (or rescue) your own vampires with her.
> Her bestest ability is to really annoy you pred/prey into trying to attack > her.
I find that adding the ability to strike send to torpor really adds something to crypt machine. The ability to hunt for pool is nice too.
carl wrote: > Bit limited for kind of attention isn't she. > Cant bleed. Cant block bleeds. > good as a 7pt blood doll but thats about it.
As mentioned, she can call votes, is difficult to mess up, people often don't want to block her, and can generate a lot of pool with Freak Drive (even more with Aaron's Feeding Razor).She isn't incredibly generally useful, but in a specialized deck, she seems likely to be pretty solid.
> Local rule says cant join in as hidden lurker, or play errand girl to do > arson or skirmish and cant diabilerise other meths.
> > Bit limited for kind of attention isn't she. > > Cant bleed. Cant block bleeds. > > good as a 7pt blood doll but thats about it.
> As mentioned, she can call votes, is difficult to mess up, people often > don't want to block her, and can generate a lot of pool with Freak Drive > (even more with Aaron's Feeding Razor).She isn't incredibly generally > useful, but in a specialized deck, she seems likely to be pretty solid.
> > Local rule says cant join in as hidden lurker, or play errand girl to do > > arson or skirmish and cant diabilerise other meths.
> Not super relevant to the discussion.
She can't take (D) actions or block (D) actions unless directed at her or the cards on her. (from memory)
So can't block a bleed etc. Hidden lurker appears to be an action that directs vamp to take an "action" another meths vamp (hence Directed)
Can't remove pentex's, do arsons, all those other "others vamps may take a (D) action to ..." things unless it is obvious to the whole table that the "(D) action" is undirected. (eg vote off archon cards which she has no vote either)
carl wrote: > She can't take (D) actions or block (D) actions unless directed at her or > the cards on her. (from memory)
Correct.
> So can't block a bleed etc. > Hidden lurker appears to be an action that directs vamp to take an "action" > another meths vamp (hence Directed)
Hidden Lurker is not an action. The Jyhad version is an action, but it has since been reprinted as an action modifier (has been for years and years).
> Can't remove pentex's, do arsons, all those other "others vamps may take a > (D) action to ..." things unless it is obvious to the whole table that the > "(D) action" is undirected. (eg vote off archon cards which she has no vote > either)
Correct.
> A few Amarath cards liven her up a bit though.
Sure. Especially if she can survive the blood hunt. But she can become an Anarch, become a Baron, call votes, back up those votes with Animal Magmetism. She can hunt, Freak, hunt again, Freak, hunt again to gain you pool. She can do so with Aaron's Feeding Razor (or Hospital Food if she is an anarch, or some other such tech) to break even while gaining you pool. She is all sorts of cool. Will she go in most decks? Probably not. But she is good by herself in the right deck.
>>Bit limited for kind of attention isn't she. >>Cant bleed. Cant block bleeds. >>good as a 7pt blood doll but thats about it.
> As mentioned, she can call votes, is difficult to mess up, people often > don't want to block her, and can generate a lot of pool with Freak Drive > (even more with Aaron's Feeding Razor).She isn't incredibly generally > useful, but in a specialized deck, she seems likely to be pretty solid.
Peter D Bakija wrote: > When [Rabbat] hunts, you can take one of the blood gained into your pool, > which is huge, considering her built in FOR--clearly, trick number one to > take advantage of with Rabbat is to load as many Freak Drives into her deck > as you can. As hunting isn't restricted to once per turn, whenever you have > too many Freak Drives in your hand (or need a pool boost), hunt over and > over again, gaining a pool each time.
I have witnessed that this is an incredibly powerful ability. If you own several dozen Freak Drives, try a deck with all of them, Rabbat, and either Out of the Frying Pan/Hungry Coyote or Aaron's Feeding Razor. Unless someone with +1 intercept feels like trying their luck in combat with Rabbat, you can scoop up one pool for every FD you have or cycle into you hand each turn. As Peter says, huge.
Emmit wrote: >Unless someone with +1 intercept feels like trying their luck in >combat with Rabbat, you can scoop up one pool for every FD you have or >cycle into you hand each turn. As Peter says, huge.
I mean, like, yeah, it requires a little bit of infrastructure to set up (equip with the Razor or go Sabbat and get out Hungry Coyote, or for slightly less effect, get out Inbase, or go Anarch which might be a good idea anyway and get out Hospital Food and/or Free Press), but once set up, the potential to gain absurd amounts of pool is there. Each Freak becomes "Gain 1 Pool and untap to do it again", and Rabbat has the OBF and or combat abilities to make stopping her a difficult and unattractive propposition.
> Emmit wrote: >>Unless someone with +1 intercept feels like trying their luck in >>combat with Rabbat, you can scoop up one pool for every FD you have or
>>cycle into you hand each turn. As Peter says, huge.
> I mean, like, yeah, it requires a little bit of infrastructure to set > up (equip with the Razor or go Sabbat and get out Hungry Coyote, or for > slightly less effect, get out Inbase, or go Anarch which might be a > good idea anyway and get out Hospital Food and/or Free Press), but once > set up, the potential to gain absurd amounts of pool is there. Each > Freak becomes "Gain 1 Pool and untap to do it again", and Rabbat has > the OBF and or combat abilities to make stopping her a difficult and > unattractive propposition.
People, people! Let's not forget Perfectionist. Rabbat just screams Perfectionist.
> A reasonably useful card for Potence combat decks. A lot of potence, close > range, Immortal Grapple based combat decks (like the Nosferatu like often > like to live in...) like to include a small handful of, like, Thrown Sewer > Lids or Stunt Bikes instead of maneuvers to punish folks who have guns or > light maneuver based defense....
I'm a major advocate of using both maneuvers and Lids/Cycles in potence based combat decks. The deck I played that did it to the greatest effect was built around Beast, other vamps with POT cel and +1 strength, and pot weenies. I played a lot of Flash and the odd Swllowed by the Night. It worked out really well because I could use both the maneuvers and the ranged strikes regardless of what kind of combat I was up against. If my opponent wanted to go long, I could either flash back to short and do what Beast does best or let them go long and toss something heavy. If noone was making an issue of going long I could use the flashes to get there myself and then use the Lids. Most rush decks get incidental maneuvers off Bum's Rush/Ambush already, and I find that more of a good thing is often better, since you can overload whatever defense mechanisms your opponents are using. Of course, Flash is also awesome in that it doubles as a press, so it's very easy to use in just about any combat deck. I even included Growing Furies since I had so many presses kicking around.
So I guess what I'm saying is that I don't see the utility of Earth Shock at close as all that grand (ie, not worth a blood cost), given what turned out to be quite a viable play style. Sacrament of Carnage didn't see much play either, and for the same reason (I'll give you that Earth Shock beats SoC though). The un-dodge-ability is cool, but Lid and Cycle come with cool bonuses too, they do more damage (typically), and they're free. What you're really paying for with ES is the ability to use the card at short, which I just don't go for. I'll stick with Sewer Lids.
Cthulukitty, who loves combat and old cards--and old combat cards.
CthuluKitty wrote: > So I guess what I'm saying is that I don't see the utility of Earth > Shock at close as all that grand (ie, not worth a blood cost), given > what turned out to be quite a viable play style.
The point here is that one of the most viable combat deck types is weenie mono Potence (or weenie Potence with a bit of cel or obf for back up). These decks are often very focused on close range combat (due to Immortal Grapple being the best way to ensure that combat will actually work). These decks can either put in a bunch of manuvers, which dilutes the rest of the combat, or put in some fringe ranged strikes, which when they are Lids are sometimes unplayable, or just ignore the whole thing and hope your opponent doesn't have manuvers (which isn't that unlikely, really).
All of these have benefits to them. With the rise of gun decks (due to concealed becoming disciplineless and increases in the understanding of Assault Rifle Multi Rush technology), it has become less and less possible to either compete without any manuvers or pack enough manuvers to really fight someone with a gun *and* a bunch of manuvers (as opposed to just a bunch of manuvers). So the reasonable plan for what is mostly a close range IG based Potence deck is to include a handfull of ranged strikes (like Sewer Lids). Given this, Earth Shock is probably a better option than the Lids 'cause:
A) Earth Shock benefits from the Torn Signpost you already played before manuvers.
B) Earth Shock can, in a pinch, get played at close range (assuming you didn't IG someone).
C) Earth Shock foils a dodge, which is a common element in a gun deck (Acrobatics or just Dodge/Additional).
The blood cost is unlikely to be much of an issue, as it is a fringe element of the deck.
Again, for a deck that is planning on being at range anyway (like a Flung Junk deck), Lids and Bikes are still better due to efficiency and 'cause Flung Junk decks don't generally increase the strength of minions. But as close range IG decks go, you are probably going to do quite well by swapping in Earth Shocks for manuvers on a one for one basis (making mono Potence a tad more viable, as you are probably better with Earth Shocks than you are Fake Outs).
Peter D Bakija wrote: > Official VEKN Nosferatu Newsletter for May, 2005.
> Woot! It is the exciting Nosferatu Newsletter #50! Crazy stuff. I mean, > like, yeah, they aren't all gold or anything, but getting to number 50 has > to count for something.
> Hidden Lurker is not an action. The Jyhad version is an action, but it has > since been reprinted as an action modifier (has been for years and years).
No wonder sometimes that was confusing. I was sure it was action until I "vamp"ed it.
> Magmetism. She can hunt, Freak, hunt again, Freak, hunt again to gain you > pool. She can do so with Aaron's Feeding Razor (or Hospital Food if she is <snip> > She is all sorts of cool.
That I don't dispute. Especially in a deck that already has a few freaks or is a little light on pool recovery. With weak bleed/block and attack/vote skills it seems an odd vamp to base a deck around. found her useful against Disarms, etc as well.
> carl wrote: > > Sorry an Action-Modifier to an Action that she can't do.
> "she can't do" isn't relevant to Hidden Lurker.
Is that the same for all those "can't do texts" if something comes along that lets them join in or if something is an effect of another card its ok?
Not some much after a ruling but more a guideline.
Folks like Beast getting gear from Al Army, or receiving items etc from diablerie actions. It's not equiping Action but it is gaining equipment which is somewhat out of character in this example. That's where I'm coming from on this.
> "LSJ" <vtesrepS...@TRAPwhite-wolf.com> wrote >> carl wrote: >> > Sorry an Action-Modifier to an Action that she can't do.
>> "she can't do" isn't relevant to Hidden Lurker.
> Is that the same for all those "can't do texts" if something > comes along that lets them join in or if something is an effect of another > card its ok?
> Not some much after a ruling but more a guideline.
> Folks like Beast getting gear from Al Army, or receiving items etc from > diablerie actions. > It's not equiping Action but it is gaining equipment which is somewhat out > of character in this example.
According to his card text he can not have or use equipment or retainers.
>>>>Sorry an Action-Modifier to an Action that she can't do.
>>>"she can't do" isn't relevant to Hidden Lurker.
>>Is that the same for all those "can't do texts" if something >>comes along that lets them join in or if something is an effect of another >>card its ok?
>>Not some much after a ruling but more a guideline.
>>Folks like Beast getting gear from Al Army, or receiving items etc from >>diablerie actions. >>It's not equiping Action but it is gaining equipment which is somewhat out >>of character in this example.
> According to his card text he can not have or use equipment or retainers.
it seems like Carl has absolutely no understanding of the rules, really. =/
|
