[Newsletter] Official Ventrue Antitribu Newsletter, October 2004
cmb
I. Introduction
II. Focus on Finding the Path
III. Crypt 4 Symmetry and Politics
IV. The Guy: Bruce de Guy
V. Deck: Bruce de Guy Screws the Camarilla
VI. Conclusion
Introduction
This month's newsletter focuses primarily on the powers of a political
deck and how our favorite clan can manipulate the political process.
First I'll discuss "Finding the Path," a reasonably under-the-radar
vote that can be used to fulfill table-talked deals, test a table
ally, and mildly punish your prey. I then move to discuss Crypt 4,
examining the utility of both incorporating non !Ventrue into a
!Ventrue deck and how our own Crypt 4 vampire, Bruce de Guy, might
splash into other decks. Finally, I'll end by exploring Bruce "The
Guy" de Guy and giving you a sample deck to work with.
Focus on Finding the Path
Finding the Path [Gehenna:C]
Cardtype: Political Action
Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any vampire at +1 stealth.
Choose at least half of the Methuselahs in the game. Successful
referendum means each chosen Methuselah burns 1 pool and each of the
other Methuselahs gains 1 pool.
I like to call this "the little card with a lot of punch." Sure, on
the surface it doesn't look like much, but this gem of a political
action can really turn a table when used properly (and when I say
"used properly," what I really mean is when you get more than a pool
from it). They key to unlocking this card's power is in realizing
that it's neither an ousting mechanic nor a bloating mechanic for our
clan, it's a political enabling mechanic. If we wanted to oust, we'd
bleed our prey to death, or torporize all its minions, or vote them
off the table. If we wanted to bloat, we'd vote our way to happiness
or use master cards. But what we've traditionally been bad at is at
being "happy neighbors" or "useful allies," and that's what this card
lets us accomplish: deal making.
Our clan is fantastic at punishing those we dislike, but we generally
fail at baiting other players with favors. For instance, we can
fight, but we rarely pack enough combat to very willingly get into
other people's fights, so offering rushing services isn't our clan's
cup of tea. Likewise, we specialize in dominate, so we can bleed,
bleed, bleed; but this rarely wins us friends (and more often makes us
targets). We have vote manipulation power, but it's mostly to kill
off votes rather than build friends through happiness and joy. Yes,
unless the table or deck is very strange, the art of deal making is
difficult for our clan at best. But that's where this card comes in.
You see, with this card you can make friends, hurt those you dislike,
and give a little pool to those you're trying to woo. Sure, it's only
a matter of one pool, but how often has one pool won or lost a game?
Sure, it's only one pool, but it's hard to dislike someone who's
throwing it your way. And it's only one pool, so if you target your
prey with a loss, you don't look like a big threat. In fact, you'll
look like the nice guy, since obviously you're not bleeding for 3…
This card flies under the radar. Few people perk up at the mention of
"Finding the Path," although they may give you an odd look for playing
it. KRC and Dramatic Upheaval, both staples of political decks, cause
heads to turn your way and great concern; they force you to make deals
and squirm under the light of attention. FtP is clean and "harmless"
enough to escape most people's notice. Chose the Methuselahs
correctly and this vote will never be hard to pass, making it an
excellent candidate for Cryptic Rider or for setting up (or honoring)
deals.
This is the perfect vote for a table talking fiend. Need some help?
Offer to give someone pool (which in my experience is always a better
deal-sealer than offering to harm their prey). Need to "reward"
someone for rushing your annoying predator? Throw a pool their way!
Dangle your pool-bone in front of others like a carrot, and get
everything you can from it. Things to keep in mind are table dynamics
– look at who's in trouble and who's in power. We play dirty, nasty
politics, so we want to set people up for the fall and topple them
ourselves so that we get the VP; this card facilitates that process by
either damaging someone or throwing them a small pool boon.
Tricks with using it with our clan include the Cryptic Rider "table
screw" (use with caution) and Bribes. Cryptic Rider is an excellent
post-victory modifier for this vote, since we can then pass whatever
we'd like. Make sure your hand is set up for the Rider'd vote, since
everyone will want to block you (please use your FtP leverage to talk
people into ‘not blocking' deals), and to this end you'll want to have
whatever "punishment" cards you're using in hand as well as a
seduction. Use the Rider with caution, since it will quickly turn the
table against you, which is at cross purposes to including FtP in the
deck! Bribes, of course, works extremely well with FtP for the
obvious reason of more-love-your-way. Instead of giving your friends
one pool, you've given them two, and you've potentially not even done
any damage to "enemies" (since they can vote for it, too).
Finally, don't forget to Freak Drive up from calling this vote; even
though it's an excellent politically enabling strategy, it's still not
usually going to oust your prey; so, call it and then do something
"useful" with your minion.
Crypt 4 Symmetry with Ventrue Antitribu Politics
Recently I've been looking at crypt 4 in detail to plot how our clan
could most easily adapt to these new nights and new possibilities.
Crypt 4 has much to offer; most notably, crypt 4 offers us a potential
Sabbat answer to the brutal political domination of crypt 2/3
Camarilla obfuscation. Even with the limited number of available
crypt 4 vampires, an obtenebrate-presence-dominate vote/bleed/bloat
deck is not only possible, but also potentially very effective.
Consider the possibilities of Bruce de Guy (who is detailed below)
combined with a presence/dominate crypt. Three of the four crypt 4
vampires with obtenebration have titles (Bruce is a Cardinal,
Giangaleazzo a Camarilla prince, and Shawndra Dorrit, one of the best
of the crypt 4 vampires, is a Priscus [and a 6-cap]). The fourth
crypt 4 vampire with obtenebration (Matthew Romans) shares auspex with
our clan, has an excellent special, and is a perfect target for
Cardinal Benediction. Giangaleazzo not only has superior
obtenebration, but also has superior presence and inferior dominate.
Shawndra has inferior presence.
There are seven crypt 3/4 vampires with presence and obtenebration,
five of whom have superior presence for those juicy bloating voter
caps. Two are princes, so parity shift is an option. But even at the
inferior level, a voter cap will return to you all the blood you've
spent on blood-intensive obtenebrational stealth cards; blood that you
can then turn back into pool through minion tap, blood dolls, or
whatever your preferred bloating technique is.
Our clan's two crypt 3 vampires with presence (Edward Neally and Owain
Evans) work nicely in such a deck due to their own special abilities,
in spite of lacking superior presence or titles. One should consider
adding them into any Sabbat vote deck.
The single crypt 4 Archbishop (Alicia Barrows: !malk 9 cap Archbishop
of Mexico City) shares auspex with our clan and also has superior
presence and can be considered in a Sabbat 3/4 vote deck. Her special
is also symmetrical with Edward Neally's special in that she can allow
you to look at a Methuselah's hand (in her case for free if you
control the edge during your untap phase).
Crypt 3 offers several interesting possibilities for a more
traditional !Ventrue "we know we're going to get blocked so we come
prepared" vote deck as it has seven titled vampires with fortitude
(four at inferior and three at superior), most of whom also share
auspex with our clan, and three share dominate with us. Of the seven,
Ladislas Toth, The Torch is perhaps most appropriate to be added to a
2, 3, or 4 crypt of !Ventrue since he is a 7-cap Archbishop with AUS
DOM THA and fortitude, but the others should not be overlooked.
With all the fantastic decks possible with only one crypt 4 vampire
for our clan, I really look forward to future supplements and the next
generation of Ventrue Antitribu. Great things are pending for us!
The Guy: Bruce de Guy
Bruce de Guy [Gehenna:U]
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue antitribu
Group: 4
Capacity: 10
Discipline: AUS DOM FOR OBT
Sabbat cardinal: Bruce may burn a blood when he announces a political
action to prevent Camarilla vampires from casting votes in the
resulting referendum. +1 bleed.
Bruce is one of the most brutal political machines to be added to
V:TES since Quentin. If only we could use both at once, we would be
the undisputed masters of the political realm; but alas! If we use
Bruce we can console ourselves only with our demonstration, but Bruce
is quite effective. Being able to shut down the Camarilla voting
block without even using a card is devastating to a traditional vote
deck. Bruce can pretty much pass anything he needs to pass if he's
not blocked.
To get a vote to referendum, Bruce has several things going for him.
Superior obtenebration adds many ways of gaining stealth (as well as
the threat of obtenebrational combat – never a force to be idly
ignored). Superior auspex lets him croc-tongue. Superior fortitude
opens up all the traditional block-avoiding action modifiers (dawn op,
day op, kiss of Ra) as well as freak driving multi-actions; it
probably goes without saying that it also keeps him alive in combat,
since he'll be the largest target for the Camarilla vampires to hit
once you influence him out. Dominate, of course, adds all the things
dominate has added for years: seduction, and etc.
The only thing he wants for is presence, and this is sadness, but
hardly something to mourn for long because BRUCE IS SO GOOD. With his
discipline spread, his amazing special, his three votes, and his +1
bleed, he's like a miniature Inner Circle member, and you'll likely
have to protect him as you would one of those vile Camarilla
tricksters.
One of his mightiest tricks, and the one reason you will always,
always, always want to keep an eagle's sight ready (to block the PTO
that will burn him), is that he can call a Blood Siege and deny the
Camarilla any ability to vote against it. For those that don't know
Blood Siege, I'll paste it below:
Blood Siege
Type: Political Action
Requires: bishop,archbishop,priscus,cardinal
Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any archbishop, priscus or
cardinal at +1 stealth.
No action modifiers can be played during or after this referendum.
Choose a ready Sabbat vampire and a ready prince. Successful
referendum means that that prince loses his or her title and the
Sabbat vampire becomes archbishop of that city. Any ready vampire can
gain votes during this referendum by burning one blood per vote
gained.
With this political action, Bruce can systematically strip Camarilla
Princes of their titles and grant them to your Sabbat minions, and
there's nothing they can do about it but whine. This card is the
basis of the deck below, which features Bruce de Guy.
Deck: Bruce de Guy Screws the Camarilla
Author : cmb
Description :
This deck features the might of Bruce de Guy, who should be used to
his fullest potential in this toolbox deck. Blood Seige is the
instrument of his wrath, as he can pay an extra blood to disallow all
Camarilla vampires from voting in the referrendum, thus costing the
Camarilla a Prince and giving you another Archbishop. Use your Eagle's
Sight's to keep as many people in the game as possible until the late
game, when you launch out with KRC's to win the table. The deck tends
to work best on tables with a heavy amount of Camarilla voting power,
and it works least well against dedicated rush combat. It has been a
thorn in the side of many tables locally, but it needs a lot of work,
and is posted merely to inspire you to create your own deck using
Ventrue Antitribu.
Crypt (12 vampires) Capacity min :4 max :10 average : 7.42
3x Bruce de Guy 10 AUS DOM FOR OBT cardinal Ventrue antitribu (group
4)
2x Jesse Menks 8 AUS DOM FOR ani archbishop Ventrue antitribu (group
3)
2x Katherine Stoddard 4 dom for Ventrue antitribu (group 3)
1x Owain Evans, The Wanderer 8 AUS DOM FOR cel pre Ventrue
antitribu (group 3)
1x Blackhorse Tanner 7 AUS DOM FOR Ventrue antitribu (group 3)
1x Edward Neally 7 DOM FOR aus pre Ventrue antitribu (group 3)
1x Ladislas Toth, The Torch 7 AUS DOM THA for archbishop Tremere
antitribu (group 3)
1x Charice Fontaigne 6 AUS DOM for pot Ventrue antitribu (group 3)
Library (90 cards)
Master(11)
4x Blood Doll
1x Corporate Hunting Ground
1x Creepshow Casino
1x Demonstration
1x Direct Intervention
1x Hungry Coyote, The
1x Purchase Pact
1x Regent
Action(9)
2x Eternal Vigilance
5x Govern the Unaligned
1x Pulse of the Canaille
1x Revelations
Action Modifier(21)
3x Crocodile's Tongue
1x Dawn Operation
6x Freak Drive
2x Kindred Manipulation
2x Kiss of Ra, The
4x Seduction
3x Stealth Ritus
Combat(11)
2x Hidden Strength
1x Lessons in the Steel
3x Rolling with the Punches
2x Soak
2x Superior Mettle
1x Undead Persistence
Equipment(4)
1x Chalice of Kinship
1x Sengir Dagger
2x Sniper Rifle
Political Action(14)
4x Blood Siege
1x Disputed Territory
7x Kine Resources Contested
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Sabbat Priest
Reaction(19)
5x Deflection
5x Eagle's Sight
3x Enhanced Senses
4x Forced Awakening
2x Spirit's Touch
Retainer(1)
1x Jackie Therman
Conclusion
I hope this month's newsletter has given you fuel for thought. Next
month I will investigate the uses of Ventrue Antitribu in an Anarchs
deck. I welcome your feedback as well as your submissions of fiction,
strategy, or decks/deck ideas.
AL
> One of his mightiest tricks, and the one reason you will always,
> always, always want to keep an eagle's sight ready (to block the PTO
> that will burn him), is that he can call a Blood Siege and deny the
> Camarilla any ability to vote against it.
:D! Now, where I have put my thought-as-no-good-Blood Sieges that I never have used?