V:EKN Official Toreador Newsletter April 2005
Sten During
Two months since my last newsletter. Locally we've seen an EC-qualifier
in Sweden. That tournament happened to be just after Kindred Most
Wanted went legal to play, and so very few decks featured the new
cards to any greater extent. Clan Toreador also failed to make any
visible impact.
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Back to the basics:
One way of playing clan Toreador is to bleed, bleed and bleed. Together
with any clan they combine the abilities of bleeding and bouncing. The
main drawback with the Toreador is that you need two disciplines in
order to make this possible: Auspex at superior and presence at least at
inferior. The one thing to offset this disadvantage is that presence
offers the opportunity to end combat. However, since Majesty and
Catatonic Fear had a cost of one blood attached to it we've seen less
and less usage for a strategy based on a clan that has very little
opportunity to force those bleeds to become succcesful.
Our Sabbat counterparts have taken over more and more as they offer the
opportunity to swarm preys with bleeds.
So, in this newsletter I'll concentrate on bleeding and what help
Kindred Most Wanted brings us for bleeding.
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Kindred Most Wanted: What's in it for us?
Last time I wrote about a few cards making life easier for clan
Toreador, and by now I've identified a few more.
Heart of the city
Type: Action
Cost: 2 blood
+1 stealth action
[pre] Put this card on the acting vampire. This vampire gets +1 bleed. A
vampire can have only one Heart of the City.
[PRE] As above, but this vampire gets +2 bleed.
What can be wrong with a cheaper version of Pulse of the Canaille, and
with a permanent effect at inferior as well?
Undue Influence
Type: Action
Requires: anarch
+1 stealth action. Requires a ready anarch. Choose a vampire in your
uncontrolled region.
[chi] (D) Move 1 blood from a vampire in any uncontrolled region to the
chosen vampire.
[pre] (D) Bleed. If the bleed is successful, put 1 blood counter on the
chosen vampire.
[qui] Put 1 blood counter on the chosen vampire. If the number of
counters equals or exceeds his or her capacity, move that vampire to
your ready region.
Even though this card requires an Anarch it's a way to give Toreador a
much needed +1 stealth. The resources squandered for creating an Anarch
is offset by the added counter on one vampire in your uncontrolled
region. It can be used for bloating or influencing yet one more minion
with which to oust your prey. As it's only a bleed-action you could be
fooled into believing you're using one card for bleeding your prey for
one single pool. That, however, is not true. The bleed is combined with
whatever modifiers you have at hand, including permanent ones.
As this is an action using presence you can combine it with:
Marijava Ghoul
Type: Retainer
Cost: 2 blood
Ghoul with 2 life.
The minion with this retainer gets +1 stealth when attempting an action
that requires Presence [pre].
A card from earlier expansions it has seen comparatively little use. A
Toreador bleeder could make much use of it as both Undue Influence and
Heart of the City are actions requiring Presence.
Other cards, even though I'm not featuring them in this newsletter,
usable with this retainer are Enchant Kindred, Entrancement and Charming
Lobby to mention but a few.
A few other cards look better at first sight than they really are.
Cardname: True Love's Face
Cardtype: Action Modifier
Set: KMW
Discipline: Obfuscate&Presence
Cardtext: [obf][pre] +1 bleed. After playing this card, you cannot play
another action modifier to further increase the bleed for this action.
[OBF][PRE] Only usable when a minion attempts to block. That block fails
(do not tap that minion). That minion cannot attempt to block this
action again. The controller of that minion may burn a pool to cancel
this card as it is played.
The lack of vampiers with superior presence and obfuscate among clan
Toreador makes this card basically useless. Leave this one to the
Followers of Set.
Cardname: Distant Friend
Cardtype: Action
Set: KMW
Discipline: Dominate&Presence
Cardtext: +1 stealth action.
[dom][pre] (D) Choose a vampire and put this card in play. If this
action is successful, untap the acting vampire at the end of the turn.
You may burn this card during a referendum to change the votes of the
chosen vampire to votes of your choice.
[DOM][PRE] As above, and you can force the chosen vampire to cast his or
her votes when you burn this card.
Basically the same problem here. This one really is for clan Ventrue,
even though I fail to see why they should take this road to political
success.
Cardname: Scalpel Tongue
Cardtype: Reaction/Action Modifier
Set: KMW
Cost: 1 blood
Discipline: Celerity&Presence
Cardtext: Only usable during a referendum.
[cel][pre] Choose a vampire who has cast one or more votes in this
referendum. The chosen vampire is tapped and abstains during this
referendum (this cancels that vampire's votes).
[CEL][PRE] As above, and the chosen vampire burns 1 blood.
At least this card requires a discipline combination perfect for clan
Toreador. I can see it used in a Law Firm deck to some degree, but in
order to really get any use of it we need to look for vampires having
celerity, presence and fortitude as Freak Drive and Forced March gives
the voter an opportunity to untap after having tapped a potential
blocker.
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Deck of the Month:
I've concentrated on the Toreador with obfuscate and filled up with
vampires from other clans with auspex and presence.
Name: Undue Influence
Description: Tor Anarch stealth and bleed. A bit large vampires, but
do they bleed hard a bit into the game? It's a bleeder with very little
concern for responsibility -- basically an auspex/presence version of a
dominate bleeder.
A large proportion of Toreador in the crypt helps make Aire of Elation
behaving like Conditioning for that ousting bleed.
Crypt Cards Total: 12
Min: 27 Max: 40 Avg: 8.5
Name Amount
Antoinette, She Who Watches 1
Aristotle de Laurent 1
Cornelius Ottavio 1
Esau 1
Francois Villon 1
Greta Kircher 1
Helena 1
Joaquin Murietta 1
Klaus van der Veken 1
Marthe Dizier 1
Quentin King III (Advanced) 1
Suzanne Kadim 1
Library Cards Total: 90
Name Amount
Master Total: 18
Anarch Railroad 1
Blood Doll 7
Club Zombie 1
Galaric's Legacy 3
Hospital Food 1
Perfectionist 2
Seattle Committee 1
Society Hunting Ground 1
The Anarch Free Press 1
Action Total: 18
Anarch Secession 2
Heart of the City 4
Pulse of the Canaille 2
Undue Influence 10
Action Modifier Total: 25
Aire of Elation 5
Cloak the Gathering 5
Faceless Night 5
Lost in Crowds 5
Spying Mission 5
Reaction Total: 18
Telepathic Misdirection 9
Wake with Evening's Freshness 9
Equipment Total: 1
Palatial Estate 1
Ally Total: 2
Procurer 2
Retainer Total: 5
J. S. Simmons, Esq. 1
Marijava Ghoul 3
Tasha Morgan 1
Multitype Total: 3
Swallowed by the Night 3
Sten During