Ventrue Antitribu Newsletter for January 2005
cmb...@purdue.edu
Newsletter for the first month of 2005.
I. Introduction
II. A Brief Nod Toward the Anniversary Set
III. The Common !Ventrue Out of Clan Disciplines
IV. Obtenebration Strategies
V. Deck of the Month
Introduction
It's been an interesting few months. It seems like just yesterday
Gehenna was released upon us. We had only a small time to embrace its
qualities when the Anniversary Set arrived on the scene, causing quite
a stir. And now the dawn of Kindred's Most Wanted breaks into our
world! There is far too much to talk about.
This month, I limit my comments to a brief glance at the Anniversary
Set and then plunge into the common out of clan disciplines shared
among the Ventrue Antitribu. Obtenebration is the most interesting of
those disciplines, since it provides us with almost our only access to
stealth, and so I give you a sample deck that uses that discipline.
A Brief Nod Toward the Anniversary Set
White Wolf's Vampire: The Eternal Struggle 10th Anniversary sets are
really quite good for both players who are new to the game and need all
the out of print minions and those players seeking a few of the older,
out of print rares. (Of course, the ten new cards are all very
interesting, too.) Our clan might be more interested in the following
two cards:
Samson
Clan: Ventrue antitribu (group 2)
Capacity: 2
Disciplines: dom
Sabbat.
Samson is our clan's only 2-cap, and until recently he was quite a
difficult vampire to find due to his inferior dominate. Surely I don't
have to tell you that he's great.
Sins of the Cauchemar
Type: Reaction
Requires: Auspex
Cost: 1 blood
[aus] +1 intercept.
[AUS] Put this card on the acting vampire. You still control this card.
This reacting vampire gets +1 intercept when the vampire with this card
attempts to bleed you. The vampire with this card can burn this card as
a (D) action.
Though not the most powerful or useful of the out of print cards (nor a
very difficult one to acquire), Sins of the Cauchemar certainly has its
uses in a Ventrue Antitribu deck since it gets one of your vampires a
permanent intercept enhancement against one of your predator's bleeding
minions, which is well worth the one blood cost of the card. At
inferior, it's not very good, but at least cycle-able. The new card,
Bowl of Convergence, is better in all ways; however, the Bowl is an
action which will likely be blocked. It is unlikely a Methuselah will
waste either a Direct Intervention or an Approximation of Loyalty to
cancel this card.
The Common !Ventrue Out of Clan Disciplines
Our clan is blessed with a multitude of fantastic out of clan
disciplines to assist our most prevalent strategies of bleeding,
voting, or combat. The most common of the out of clan disciplines for
us are potence, presence, celerity, and obtenebration; four Ventrue
Antitribu have access to these disciplines. Animalism, protean, and
thaumaturgy have a nice showing with two minions among our clan
possessing them. Following far behind are dementation and vicissitude.
Our blood has problems with obfuscate; none among the Geeks have any
access to it at all.
Obviously, with access to celerity and potence with fortitude as an
in-clan discipline, we fit in very nicely with combat intensive decks
that choose to use larger minions to deal destruction both up and
downstream. Potence is, by any measure, the most effective discipline
to add to our decks since it forces our foes to pause and wonder if
they would prefer to let an action through or lose a minion. Because
we have access to both celerity and potence, several of our kin work
well with the Brujah Antitribu (and I suppose I must include their
deluded Camarilla kindred with them, though we, of course, would never
associate with them), and our auspex would be of great use to them in
their battles against their foes. Both these disciplines mitigate our
clan's real weakness: a lack of direct combat threat ("I hit you hands
for one" just doesn't come across as a problem to our foes, even if we
can do so throughout multiple rounds). Slide in some celerity or
potence and that problem vanishes.
Presence, too, can be a great boon to our clan when we need just a
little more push to get a vote through or some pool to endure our
nightly jihad with. Generally we can ignore the other powers of
presence (Approximation of Loyalty excepted) as we have better
disciplines to accomplish bleeding and surviving combat. Note that
presence/auspex is a powerful voting force, especially when wielded by
our minions, and works well with many Malkavians, Malkavian Antitribu,
Tremere, and Tremere Antitribu (as well as a few more freakish vampires
of other clans).
Obtenebration Strategies
In many ways, obtenebration is one of the single best choices of the
out of clan disciplines we can use in our decks. Our lack of stealth
is a big problem, causing us to have to punish those that block us
rather than avoid combat altogether (which is a drain on card resources
when we almost always have to expend cards in combat). Obtenebration
solves that stealth problem. Obtenebration may also be used to
increase our combat threat if you can grant a minion superior
obtenebration, providing extra attacks and very effective strikes. It
even provides some cripplingly potent actions (Shadow Twin and Black
Metamorphosis to name only two).
Four of our clanmates possess obtenebration: Gerard, Gustav
Mallenhous, Quentin, and Bruce de Guy. The first three are crypt 2
minions; the unparalleled Bruce de Guy is crypt 4, so there are certain
problems with the spread. However, the following discipline spreads
are common enough to warrant mention:
Among crypt 2/3 there are 13 minions with auspex and obtenebration,
many of whom are either quite excellent mid-caps or come with titles.
This discipline spread allows for excellent table control through both
intercept blocking with obtenebrational combat support and
auspex-enhanced vote domination backed up with obtenebrational stealth.
Crypt 3/4 has but three minions with this spread, but all have
superior auspex and two of the three have superior obtenebration.
We'll have to wait and see if this strategy can be maximized more
readily with future crypt 4 expansions.
Combining dominate with obtenebration is almost effortless, since our
sabbat kindred, clan Lasombra, possess both in spades (as do the
freakishly good Kiasyd). Dominate has never had problems winning
tables, especially when combined with stealth, and obtenebration is the
easiest means we have toward that stealthy end. Combining dominate and
obtenebration in this way also opens up a mitigating solution for the
blood problems of obtenebrational stealth through the Master:
archetype, Capitalist; by bleeding, you're paying for the stealth
you'll be using.
If you wish to try obtenebration- and fortitude-based combat, this,
too, is an option. Among crypt 2/3 there are 11 minions possessing
such a discipline spread. Since the Lasombra are known for being quite
the fragile vampires, incorporating fortitude with them is an excellent
solution to this weakness. Among crypt 3/4 there are only three
vampires with this spread, so as with auspex, we'll have to wait and
see.
Deck of the Month: January 2005 DotM for !Ventrue
Author: cmb
Description:
It's a pretty basic political/bleed deck that uses obtenebration for
additional stealth for its political actions. Combat avoidance is
available through Obedience; use them well. It's definitely not a
tournament worthy deck, but might provide you with some ideas.
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 9 average: 6.17
------------------------------------------------------------
2x Quentin 9 AUS DOM FOR cel obt bishop !Ventrue:2
2x Gustav Mallenhous 8 AUS DOM for obt priscus !Ventrue:2
1x Kij Dansky 8 AUS DOM THA obt priscus !Tremere:2
1x Elena Mendoza Vasq 6 AUS THA dom obt !Tremere:3
1x Quira, The Bitch Q 6 AUS OBF obt tha !Malkavian:2
1x Talley, the Hound 6 OBT POT aus dom Lasombra:2
1x Gerard 5 aus dom for obt !Ventrue:2
1x Peter Blaine 4 aus dom for !Ventrue:2
1x Sister Evelyn 3 aus dom !Ventrue:3
1x Samson 2 dom !Ventrue:2
Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Master [12]
3x Blood Doll
2x Capitalist
1x Corporate Hunting Ground
1x Demonstration
1x Diamond Thunderbolt, The
1x Perfectionist
1x Storage Annex
2x Sudden Reversal
Action [4]
2x Eternal Vigilance
1x Jack of Both Sides
1x Sanguine Instruction
Action Modifier [21]
2x Blanket of Night
3x Conditioning
3x Crocodile's Tongue
2x Seduction
3x Shadow Play
1x Shroud of Absence
2x Sleeping Mind, The
2x Telepathic Vote Counting
3x Tenebrous Form
Combat [6]
2x Aura Reading
1x Concealed Weapon
3x Skin of Steel
Equipment [5]
1x Bowl of Convergence
2x Desert Eagle
1x Local 1111
1x Sargon Fragment, The
Political Action [14]
1x Cardinal Benediction
1x Crusade: Amsterdam
1x Crusade: Atlanta
10x Kine Resources Contested
1x Sabbat Priest
Reaction [28]
3x Deflection
3x Eagle's Sight
3x Enhanced Senses
6x Forced Awakening
3x Melange
8x Obedience
2x Telepathic Misdirection
Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder.
Up Next Month:
That's it for this month. Next month's big news is, of course, KMW; I
don't know how useful it will be for our clan, but time will tell.
If you wish to contribute something to the Ventrue Antitribu
Newsletter, please email me at: cmb...@purdue.edu
cmb
Gregory Stuart Pettigrew
> Cost: 1 blood
> [aus] +1 intercept.
> [AUS] Put this card on the acting vampire. You still control this card.
> This reacting vampire gets +1 intercept when the vampire with this card
> attempts to bleed you. The vampire with this card can burn this card as
> a (D) action.
>
>
I just wated to point out that it's even easier to cycle at superior. You
can use Superior Sins on *any* action, even non-bleeding actions, even
actions you cannot block!
> Note that presence/auspex is a powerful voting force, especially when
> wielded by our minions, and works well with many Malkavians, Malkavian
> Antitribu, Tremere, and Tremere Antitribu (as well as a few more
> freakish vampires of other clans).
>
You know, I hear some Toreador Antitribu have Auspex/Presence. Some have
Obtenebration, Fortitude, or even Celerity!