Followers of Set Newsletter -- March 2004
Wes
FOLLOWERS OF SET NEWSLETTER
Volume 3, Issue 12
March 2004
Author: Andrew 'Wes' Weston
==========================================================
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Fiction
Strategy - Flushing your hand
Card Analysis - Gemini's Mirror
Sign Off
==========================================================
INTRODUCTION
I've been very busy since the last newsletter, helping to organize the
Jyhad Online
tournament and suffering through a long spell of sleeplessness.
You'd think that insomnia would at least give you more hours to work
with,
but the sad truth is that those hours are usually spent in a state where
very little
work can be done.
Wouldn't it be great if we could eliminate the need for sleep
altogether? Wouldn't
it also be great if we could lift trucks, run like the wind and read
people's minds?
Hmm, where am I going with this...
==========================================================
FICTION
(The following was used as my entry for the fiction contest that LSJ
recently
mentioned on the newsgroup. I don't know if it's any good or not, but I
figured
some people might like to read it. Enjoy!)
There were several things that bothered Smudge about his current
predicament.
Primary of these was the large table leg protruding from his chest. But
the pain and
paralysis this gave him had long since blended into boredom and hope for
an eventual
release. Of course, judging by what had happened to many of the other
vampires
staked in the cold storage facility, that release may end up being less
than pleasant.
Still, it had to beat staring at the floor for weeks on end, not to
mention the rather
obese kindred that had been so cruelly lain atop him. Actually, it might
be several
vampires on top of him. It's hard to tell when one's head is frozen
looking straight
forward. A part of Smudge hoped he didn't look too goofy with his mouth
agape,
eyes and fangs making his true nature both obvious and pathetic at the
same time.
Smudge recalled being captured by the Sherriff, thinking that this was
your average
everyday cop-hassles-lowlifes affair. As a Caitiff, he had never been
popular and
being chased out of town or beat on by the Sherrif was like a sport for
the elevated
Brujah bully called Hector Sosa. Smudge would have tried to run if he
knew that this
time would be more than the usual "Gimme your lunch money and get the
fuck outta
Windsor" routine that Hector was known for. No, this time Hector brought
friends
and did not seem interested in talking at all.
Before he knew it, Smudge felt a sharp pain in his undead heart and then
darkness
as they threw him into a body bag to take wherever the hell he was now.
When the
bag was eventually unzipped, he found himself here, in what must be some
kind of
meat-packing facility or abbatoir. And he wasn't alone. At least thirty
other high
generation licks were in there with him, many of whom he recognized. All
were
staked and laid out like sandbags, one atop the other.
It wasn't until the Prince of the city came in one night and casually
diablerized Smudge's
fellow Caitiff Hasina that Smudge realized that he was absolutely
fucked. This was not
some kind of temporary detainment centre. This was a goddamned
smorgasbord... a
buffet for the big cats. If his mouth wasn't paralyzed along with the
rest of him, Smudge
would have screamed.
Over the next few weeks other vampires, including Hector, would come in
for their
nightly snack. Hector, to his credit, seemed reluctant at first. Maybe
he acually
believed his own bullshit about diablerie being bad after all. Kind of a
do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do sort of thing. Hector must have been real hungry
though
because any pangs of consciense didn't stop him from devouring one of
the staked
vampires. Hector must have noticed the rage and hatred in Smudge's eyes
because
he promptly flipped Smudge over onto his stomach so that he couldn't
watch.
Smudge had no way of knowing how many vampires were left in this bloody
buffet.
The weight on top of him was some consolation, as it meant that he
probably wouldn't
be the first one to go.
As Smudge lay there recalling the events that led him here, the door
opened again.
"Which one do you want, ma'am?" A familiar voice... Hector was back.
With a
friend, apparently.
"That large one looks disgustingly unkempt. Bring me the one beneath. I
will wait in
the lounge." It was a woman's voice. Though her accent was your standard
haughty
uptight British dowager-type, Smudge could tell that she was old.
Vampire old. You
could just tell with the older ones. And it looked like Smudge would be
her tasty
treat for the night.
As the weight was pulled off of him, Smudge was inadvertently knocked
off the
table he was on and onto the bloody floor. The stake in his chest was
knocked
clean out due to the angle of his fall, causing a sharp pain but freeing
Smudge
from his paralysis.
Not questioning his good luck, Smudge waited until Hector approached him
and
then sprang. Hector noticed the missing stake too late to prevent him
from stopping
Smudge's fangs from entering his leg. Now it was Hector that was
paralyzed,
frozen in the ecstatic embrace of a vampire's kiss. Smudge drank deep
until there
was nothing left. Serves the bastard right, Smudge thought to himself as
he
devoured the Brujah's very soul.
When the deed was done, Smudge felt stronger than before, strong enough
in
fact that he might have a chance. He scanned the room fully for the
first time
since he had entered it. Yes, definitely a meat locker of some sort.
There were
five vampires remaining including fat-ass, all staked. Smudge wasn't
sure what
to do with them. If he freed them, he might end up as their lunch as
they frenzied
for his blood. Not my problem, Smudge thought to himself and shrugged.
Smudge removed Hector's leather jacket and put it on himself, barely
covering
up his blood-stained shirt. Better not to freak the mundanes, he thought
to himself.
He rifled through Hector's jeans, taking his car keys and wallet.
Smudge grabbed the heavy sealed door and pulled. Locked from the
outside,
it seemed. He called upon the power in his blood to enhance his strength
and
pulled the handle right off with a loud snap. After this, Smudge was
able to easily
push the broken door open. Trying to be as silent as possible, Smudge
tried to
figure out where he was and what he was going to do.
Proceeding down the hallway, he passed what appeared to be a smoking
lounge.
Sitting in a leather chair was the probable owner of the uptight prissy
voice he
had heard earlier with Hector. Standing beside her was a single
bodyguard.
Great.
The woman had not noticed Smudge as she sat there reading, occasionally
looking up at a wall clock and tapping her foot impatiently. When she
looked back at her fashion magazine, Smudge slipped past her unnoticed.
Smudge found the front door and scanned the parking lot. Parked cloesby
was
Hector's black SUV. Funny, he had always hated seeing that vehicle but
right
now it was the best thing he had ever seen. He grinned as he unlocked
the car
door and slipped into the driver's seat. Smudge started the engine and
sped off
into the night.
A few days later it would all be over, but for now Smudge had a few more
days
of immortality to enjoy.
==========================================================
STRATEGY -- FLUSHING YOUR HAND
The ability to 'cycle' cards is very important in V:tES. There are
several cards that
allow you to cycle through your cards to something useful, such as
Dreams of the
Sphinx, Visit of the Capuchin and The Barrens.
As good as Voter Captivation is, it can only be used if you get past the
referendum
stage with a passing vote. Granted, this is easy to do with a deck that
intends to
win referendums, but if you can't win one, your ability to cycle through
your cards
will suffer.
Other cards are easier to cycle because their usage is relatively
open-ended. A
non-combat deck featuring Celerity will be likely to get in at least one
combat in
any given game. Why not include a few copies of Flash? You can maneuver
away
from the Immortal Grapplers (since we know they'll usually be present)
and if the
Potent vampire tries to keep the combat going for another grab, you can
press to
end. Let's say there are no combat decks at the table and you have a
hand full of
Flash. Allow your bleed to be blocked, Flash to go to long, Flash to
continue, Flash
to go to long, Flash to continue... etc. A maneuver will not save your
vampire from
every situation, but then neither will a Majesty.
Another card that cycles easily is Swallowed by the Night. Need stealth?
Play it at
inferior. Need to get away from a grappler? Play it at superior. This
diversity
makes a hand of seven cards look more like eight. You can also cycle
through
a hand of Swallowed by the Night if you know your opponent has some
intercept,
since using it as a modifier does not prohibit it being used in the
resulting combat.
Taste of Vitae is usually seen in combat decks, especially those that do
a lot of
damage to opposing vampires. But it doesn't have to be. If you know that
your
deck is anemic (ie low on vampire blood) you could use this card to
prevent
yourself from a forced hunt, in the same way that Life in the City is.
Life in the
City might be more useful generally speaking, but every little bit of
blood helps.
Aura Reading is another card that gives several options. Most of the
time it is used
at inferior, in order to see the opposing methuselah's hand, but the
superior can
be used to get rid of useless cards in your hand. What use is knowing
your
opponent's hand if you know that yours is probably much worse?
One thing you can probably say about most winning decks is that they
usually
go through a lot of cards. I have not done so, but I would imagine that
if you
were to compare the size of ash-heaps of the various decks at the table,
the
winner's would probably have the largest pile. A free-flowing deck is
often a winning
deck, all other factors aside.
==========================================================
CARD ANALYSIS -- GEMINI'S MIRROR
Gemini's Mirror
Combat
1 blood
Common
[obf] Strike: dodge with an optional maneuver
[OBF] Only usable before range is determined. When resolving each strike
against
this vampire, flip a coin. If it's tails, the strike has no effect on
this vampire. This
lasts until heads is flipped or combat ends. A vampire can play only one
Gemini's
Mirror at superior each combat.
The Black Hand exapnsion gave Obfuscate users a great new way to avoid
certain death with this baby.
Although paying 1 blood for a combat card may seem expensive, it's
basically
the same cost you would be paying if the opposing vampire slapped you
with
hands at one strength.
How many types of combat does this card work against? Most that I can
think of.
Against an Immortal Grapple-based combat, you have several things going
for you.
First of all, many such decks are not able to maneuver back to close,
and some
of those will choose to throw Sewer Lids at you. Even if they do catch
you at
short range, they'll still have to have that precious Immortal Grapple
in-hand,
meaning they just cycled two cards (so far) just to catch you. If played
at superior,
Gemini's Mirror can be potentially better or worse, as you may be able
to
completely counter their strikes. It's a 50/50 chance of course, but to
my mind,
those are better odds than you usually face against a dedicated combat
deck.
Against Fortitude-based Trap/Undead Persistence decks, the best option
is at
superior. Since it is played at the beginning of the round, the effect
takes place
throughout the combat, the Trap will not be reset... not by you at
least.
Against Assamite combat, the inferior may be best. Assamite combat
usually
relies on controlling the range. Most want to be at long range; others
need to
be at close. The key therefore is to deny them that choice in the first
place. Of
course, any Assamite deck worth its weight will probably have other
maneuvers
to counter yours, but then they have to deal with the dodge you now
have. How
many Assamite decks do you regularly see that are able to answer both of
these
problems? Moot question I suppose, since no respectable player would
ever
play Assamites (yuk yuk).
Animalism combat is harder to avoid. Carrion Crows is environmental
damage
and thus not affected by Gemini's Mirror. Same thing for Murder of
Crows. The
strike from Aid from Bats doesn't need to connect to give the press to a
second
round of combat, and taking one damage from Aid from Bats is the
equivalent
of paying one blood for the card anyway.
Decks with additional strikes are tricky. Since they feature Celerity,
they likely
have lots of maneuvers. And they obviously will still hit you regardless
of any
Dodge, albeit less than they would. Best to play at superior where you
can
counter approximately half of their strikes. This is about as good as
playing
Skin of Steel. While Skin of Steel will counter all the attacks for that
round,
it will not carry over to the next round when Mr. Celerity presses.
Gemini's
Mirror will.
As a general rule, a combat deck will usually catch you more often than
it doesn't.
It is, after all, what that deck was designed to do. This card will make
catching
you a lot harder to do, which may not completely stop them, but it will
stop them
*most* of the time. For a robust combat defense, I highly recommend this
card
to all defensive Obfuscate users.
==========================================================
SIGN-OFF
I hope you enjoyed this month's newsletter. I always look forward to
hearing
from my reader(s) so feel free to drop me a line with questions or
comments.
I often get asked to review and make suggestions for decks built around
the
Followers of Set. While I am flattered that people would ask me for my
advice,
I must admit that I find complying difficult at best. The reason for
this comes
down to the fact that Setite decks are very metagame-dependent in my
opinion. A deck that works well in one place will be utter crap in
another. This
can be said of many decks, but I think Setite decks much more so. Just
be
prepared for things like stealth-card ratios to be an open question at
best.
The number of stealth cards you need depends on the number of times
people
tend to block you. Nobody ever blocks me 'round here because they all
know that I'm harmless.
That sounded more like a rant than it was intended. In any case, please
don't stop sending me your decks. And keep me informed of your
successes.
Any success with a Setite deck is a success for us all. Hail Sutekh!
Cheers,
WES
Wes
"Wes" <gh...@NYETSPAMmnsi.net> wrote
>
<snip messy crap>
For a *readable* version, please go to the archives:
http://www.mnsi.net/~ghost/jyhad/vol3iss12.htm
Sorry 'bout that...
Cheers,
WES
Nagaraja
it's indeed better
thanks a lot !
Nagaraja
Derek Ray
"Wes" <gh...@NYETSPAMmnsi.net> mumbled something about:
>==========================================================
>CARD ANALYSIS -- GEMINI'S MIRROR
>
>Gemini's Mirror
>Combat
>1 blood
>Common
>[obf] Strike: dodge with an optional maneuver
>[OBF] Only usable before range is determined. When resolving each strike
>against this vampire, flip a coin. If it's tails, the strike has no effect on
>this vampire. This lasts until heads is flipped or combat ends. A vampire
>can play only one Gemini's Mirror at superior each combat.
Interesting analysis, but I have to point out one flaw with it.
All your scenarios seem to assume that Gemini's Mirror lasts all combat.
It doesn't. The effect ceases as soon as you flip heads, per card text.
This means that it's much less effective than you quote against Celerity
decks, Trap decks, etc -- anything which can generate 3 strikes during
the combat, in other words.
So you may prevent the first 2 strikes from a Trap/UP deck, but on the
3rd round it comes heads, and you won't be able to play another, and it
gets you anyway.
-- Derek
a host is a host from coast to coast
and no one will talk to a host that's close
unless the host that isn't close
is busy, hung, or dead
Wes
"Derek Ray" <lor...@yahoo.com> wrote
>
> All your scenarios seem to assume that Gemini's Mirror lasts all combat.
> It doesn't. The effect ceases as soon as you flip heads, per card text.
> This means that it's much less effective than you quote against Celerity
> decks, Trap decks, etc -- anything which can generate 3 strikes during
> the combat, in other words.
Eep. How embarrassing! It appears that my playgroup has been playing this
card wrong all along. My apologies to everyone... I'll have to correct this
part of the newsletter.
Well, most of it stands, but the inferior now looks stronger to me most of
the time than the superior, which is how I've mostly been using it anyway...
Thanks for pointing that out, Derek.
Cheers,
WES
LSJ, if you are listening... can you please errata this card so it is more
like I thought it was? This will make it easier for me to save face. Thanks!
:)
Izaak
combat.
> > It doesn't. The effect ceases as soon as you flip heads, per card
text.
> > This means that it's much less effective than you quote against
Celerity
> > decks, Trap decks, etc -- anything which can generate 3 strikes
during
> > the combat, in other words.
>
> Eep. How embarrassing! It appears that my playgroup has been playing
this
> card wrong all along. My apologies to everyone... I'll have to correct
this
> part of the newsletter.
>
> Well, most of it stands, but the inferior now looks stronger to me
most of
> the time than the superior, which is how I've mostly been using it
anyway...
Agreed. I have yet to use Gemini's mirror at superior and I've played it
quite a bit with both my Setite Free States Rant deck as well as my obf
weenie/breed/hunt/bloat machine. A maneuver and a dodge in a single card
is very very strong.
The tails/head is kind of cute, but not reliable. Might make a fun card
in a *real* Malkavian deck instead of the S/B crap :-)
Snapcase
> Agreed. I have yet to use Gemini's mirror at superior and I've played it
> quite a bit with both my Setite Free States Rant deck as well as my obf
> weenie/breed/hunt/bloat machine. A maneuver and a dodge in a single card
> is very very strong.
> The tails/head is kind of cute, but not reliable. Might make a fun card
> in a *real* Malkavian deck instead of the S/B crap :-)
Might have potential with POT/OBF nos/!nos folks to potentially avoid
large hitback under a grapple.
--
-Snapcase
Peter D Bakija
> Might have potential with POT/OBF nos/!nos folks to potentially avoid
> large hitback under a grapple.
Yeah, I'm seeing it best as a way for a long range POT/OBF deck can avoid
S:CE--go to long, fling an Increased Sewer Lid, hope they flip heads...
Peter D Bakija
pd...@lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6
"Punk rock's been pretty good to me for twenty years. It's my year to give
back: I'm dedicating the next year of my life to fucking the Bush
administration."
-Fat Mike, http://www.punkvoter.com
Snapcase
says...
> Snapcase wrote:
>
> > Might have potential with POT/OBF nos/!nos folks to potentially avoid
> > large hitback under a grapple.
>
> Yeah, I'm seeing it best as a way for a long range POT/OBF deck can avoid
> S:CE--go to long, fling an Increased Sewer Lid, hope they flip heads...
I'm pretty sure that Mirror doesn't affect S:CE in the slightest, since
S:CE has no direct affect on your minion other than the combat ending
(although it would stop them getting hit by the extra point of damage
from Catatonic Fear/Riposte/Oubliette).
--
-Snapcase
Peter D Bakija
> I'm pretty sure that Mirror doesn't affect S:CE in the slightest, since
> S:CE has no direct affect on your minion other than the combat ending
> (although it would stop them getting hit by the extra point of damage
> from Catatonic Fear/Riposte/Oubliette).
Oh, yeah, you are probably right. That is probably why I haven't tried that
particular trick yet...
AL
> FOLLOWERS OF SET NEWSLETTER
snip fiction - Smudge rules! At least the gutter...WW really should
print Advanced Smudge. He deserves that :)
> Moot question I suppose, since no respectable player would
> ever
> play Assamites (yuk yuk).
Wha--- I guess you are just a little bitter because with Deed the
Heart's Desire, Assamites now beat the Followers in bleeding, too ;)
-Antero
Izaak
since
> > S:CE has no direct affect on your minion other than the combat
ending
> > (although it would stop them getting hit by the extra point of
damage
> > from Catatonic Fear/Riposte/Oubliette).
It'd be cool if it did though :-)
Wes
"AL" <nom...@jippii.fi> wrote
> snip fiction - Smudge rules! At least the gutter...WW really should
> print Advanced Smudge. He deserves that :)
He already has a built in advanced clause! :)
> Wha--- I guess you are just a little bitter because with Deed the
> Heart's Desire, Assamites now beat the Followers in bleeding, too ;)
Actually I like it when they bleed me. It means that they aren't putting
my Setites in torpor.
Cheers,
WES
AL
Is he totally outclassed by Nehsi & co, or does he still have some
influence in the ranks of the Servants of Sutekh?
-Antero
Curevei
>Is he totally outclassed by Nehsi & co, or does he still have some
>influence in the ranks of the Servants of Sutekh?
There was a deck I was putting together, if pressed to pick a favorite deck of
all time to play, I might very well pick that one, that Saqqaf fit into
beautifully. Was quite amusing.