Malkavian Antitribu Newsletter, March 2007 Volume VI, Issue III 1. INTRODUCTION The Sword of Caine set is released, and, as usual, it contains some great cards for our clan. One of them is so groundbreaking that the whole newsletter is devoted to it! Writing about such cards is always pleasant. Since they are really able to inspire a lot of new deck archetypes, nobody can complain that the game is stagnant, and there is nothing new in it. You know, when I started to write these newsletters, I feared that I would exhaust all anti-Malkavian vampires and all the good cards quickly enough and then wouldn't know what to review next. Actually, I have so much new cards that I have to postpone something less important to write about something more important first! I didn't review all Third Edition goodies yet, and now we have new cards. Thanks a lot for WW designers for that! 2. CARD OF THE MONTH Name: Veil the Legions [SoC:C] Type: Action Modifier Discipline: Obfuscate [obf] Only usable by a ready, untapped vampire other than the acting minion you control. The acting minion gets +1 stealth. Only one Veil the Legions may be played each action. [OBF] As above, and this vampire may burn X additional blood to give +1 stealth to the next X actions your minions perform this turn. Only one Veil the Legions can be played at superior each turn. This card isn't just "good", or even "wonderful" - these words aren't precise enough. It is *revolutionary*. A card that performs some job good enough may be called "good", but a card that creates a whole bunch of the new deck archetypes, isn't just "good". Veil of the Legions does right that - it creates a lot of the new deck archetypes. Yes, I know that we already had Cloak the Gathering that allowed to increase stealth of another minion, but that changes nothing... Veil of the Legions has two great advantages compared to Cloak the Gathering: 1). You may raise stealth of another minion with INFERIOR Obfuscate. 2). With superior Obfuscate you may raise stealth of SEVERAL minions with just one card. Now let me describe the meaning of these advantages in a deck that wants to get stealth for the minions that cannot get it themselves. With Cloak the Gathering, you had to use a support vampire with superior Obfuscate. Prior to Sword of Caine (and Lubomira Hradok) minimal capacity of such vampires was 4, and they rarely could do something useful besides Cloaks and, probably, clan-based cards like Sibyl's Tongue. Wasn't the price of stealth too high? And you had to add enough support vampires into your crypt to get at least one, which made the whole idea of "support Cloakers" almost absurd. Yes, I've built some decks with support OBF-vampires (especially Imbued), but they rarely were tournament-worthy. In fact, you could use Cloaks only if some of your core vampires happen to have superior Obfuscate: in "star decks", for instance (Arika comes to mind). Now inferior Obfuscate is enough to Veil your minions. And you may find even 1-cap vampires with inferior Obfuscate (Basil), or play it with Marijava Thuggee! More importantly, there are 149 vampires having capacity 6 or less and Obfuscate, but only 40 of them posess superior Obfuscate. Thus, you can relatively easily assemble crypts having enough vampires with Obfuscate, and you can build such crypts for a different deck themes, without having to invest into fatties. You can build a Presence weenie or Dementation weenie with a lot of Obfuscated vampires, for instance, and put a lot of Veils in these decks. No need to invest into superior Obfuscate anymore, eh? Now let's see what can be done with it. How many Cloaks can you put into your deck without losing its initial goal? Not very much, I guess. Thus, even with Cloaks your deck was still be able to demonstrate only casual stealth - it could be enough to push a few crucial actions, but you had to assemble the whole "combo" (action card, Cloak and the support vampire), so the opportunity cost was quite high. With Veil the Legions, you may Cloak a lot of minions with just one stealth card! This is NOT a frail and unreliable combo anymore, but a strong deck strategy instead. Field or breed a lot of minions, wait until the time comes, then Veil them all and organize an assault on your prey. How about Isouda de Blaise Veiling a horde of !Toreador weenies after Palla Grande? How about Stavros Veiling a horde of Presence weenies? What would you say about Luc Veiling some Imbued, eager to get their Powers??? Looks like we've got two distinct branches of Veiled decks: inferior- Veiled and superior-Veiled. First branch includes all weenie decks that suddenly became much more powerful with Veils. Choose any weenie theme, and if you can build a crypt having at least 5 vampires with Obfuscate, you can use Veil the Legions in that deck. Almost any weenie deck can benefit of this: Potence-weenie, Presence-weenie, Fortitude-weenie, and so on. Obviously, you should benefit much more if your weenie was designed to perform +1 stealth actions, like voting, hunt or equipping: most casual intercept deck cannot get more than +1 intercept, and if you play Veil, your stealth would overcome. Can you imagine a weenie voting deck with Veils? Actually, there's no need to imagine, I've provided one below. What about a Cryptic Mission deck with Veils? Or maybe Reunion Kamut deck? Even if you aren't planning to play +1 stealth actions, Veil the Legions may be extremely useful. What about a weenie Rush based on Games of Instinct to regain blood, for instance? Superior-Veiled decks are going to be more tricky and complicated, but definitely more powerful. They may be weenie decks with a support of some heavier "stars" like Luc+Imbued, or just any deck with enough suitable vampires. They may even have just a few Veils to organize a "sudden burst" and oust their prey as a surprise, which is a "hallmark behaviour" of many good decks. Would you like to see three Veiled inferior Governs from your "peaceful" Wall predator? It's quite possible now. Please note that a vampire playing superior Veil can cover his own action as well (inferior effect doesn't allow this) - so, your Luc can Veil the first action, then increase your hand, and then play some Cloaks for the rest actions. Yes, you can play BOTH Cloak and Veil in the "superior-Veiled" decks, and get +2 stealth on the most crucial actions. As long as most of these actions have inherent +1 stealth, even Second Tradition won't be enough to block you! 3. VAMPIRES OF THE MONTH Name: Jackie [Third] Clan: Malkavian Antitribu Group: 4 Capacity: 3 Disciplines: DEM Sabbat. Jackie is the "star" of weenie Dementation deck. Actually, it's quite strange to see a 3-cap with a superior bleeding discipline; traditionally such vampires were at least 5-caps. And Dementation is unique among the bleeding disciplines, since it provides some decent stealth as well (Deny, Confusion, Mind Tricks). So, little Jackie is quite a serious stealth-bleeder! See my first "Deck of the Month" below. You may also Jackie as a "babbler", since she is the youngest vampire with superior Dementation, and tapping a 3-cap isn't very much for untapping some huge blocker/bouncer with Babble. Name: Midget [BH:U2] Clan: Malkavian Antitribu Group: 3 Capacity: 3 Disciplines: obf pre DEM Sabbat: Infernal. Animal retainers lose their abilities while Midget is acting or is in combat. Yes, I know that Midget already was my Vampire of the Month, but I must admit that I seriously underestimated him. He is a wonderful stealth-bleeder, better than the 5-cap "main dudes" like Persia, Uncle George and Apache Jones, since he avoids Raven Spies. Yes, you will pay for his untap, but his low cost and fast influence speed are well worth paying for such "loan", especially if you have a lot of Kindred Spirits and regain the pool you pay for his untap. Midget is a frequent player in any Kindred Spirits team. Obviously, he's even better in Dementation weenie that tries to overrun its prey with a lot of actions at moderate stealth. Would you say that Jackie is better in this deck since she has the same superior Dementation, but no Infernal disadvantage? Not so fast. Midget can play inverior Veil the Legions for Jackie, she cannot. And Veil really makes this deck much better! Actually, Midget is so good that he can be used even WITHOUT his Dementation: he is one of the best vampires for obf/pre deck, as well. You won't find obf/pre vampires with smaller capacity! What about the penalty? Well, you may just keep Midget untapped to Veil the rest vampires... He may still participate in "alpha strike", when you will be ready to oust your prey. 4. DECKS OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Veiled DEM-weenie Created By: Ilya Ginsburg Description: "Inferior-Veiled" DEM-weenie Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 10, Max: 19, Avg: 3,58) ---------------------------------------------- 1 Eddie Gaines dem pot 1 Caitiff 1 Marta aus dem 3 !Malkavian 2 Jackie DEM 3 !Malkavian 2 Midget obf pre DEM 3 !Malkavian 1 Beauregard Krueller aus dem obf 4 !Malkavian 1 Jeremy Talbot dem obf 4 Malkavian 1 Adelaide Davis aus dem obf 4 Malkavian 1 Persia aus obf DEM 5 Malkavian 1 Uncle George aus dom obf DEM 5 !Malkavian 1 Apache Jones aus for obf DEM 5 !Malkavian Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (17 cards) 4 Dementation 3 Sudden Reversal 1 Obfuscate 3 Dreams of the Sphinx 3 Blood Doll 1 Bleeding the Vine 1 Pentex(TM) Loves You! 1 Jake Washington (Hunter) Action (27 cards) 20 Kindred Spirits 4 Dive into Madness 1 Blessing of Chaos 2 Restructure Action Modifier (35 cards) 11 Confusion 5 Eyes of Chaos 5 Mind Tricks 10 Veil the Legions 4 Change of Target Ally (3 cards) 1 Muddled Vampire Hunter 1 Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter) 1 Escaped Mental Patient Event (1 cards) 1 Unmasking, The Combo (7 cards) 6 Deny 1 Abandoning the Flesh I hate most weenie decks, even the effective ones. For a long time I didn't believe in DEM-weenie effectiveness and had a discussion with Peter Bakija and other players about it. I thought that the best possible DEM-weenies had too large average capacity to go without Obfuscate, while most of the vampires had Obfuscate anyway. Vampires with inferior Dementation could generate only +1 stealth with Mind Tricks (for 1 blood), and they were going to be blocked frequently, losing the traditional weenie advantage in numbers. But Veil the Legion completely changed the situation. We have just 4 vampires without Obfuscate, so we're going to have A LOT of vampires able to play the Veil. Even a vampire with inferior Dementation now can generate +2 stealth, and most of the time one Veil would be enough, without losing any blood. The deck is a pretty straightforward "maddog-style" S&B that starts to bleed very early and never stops. We have just 4 Dementation skill cards, since there are just 5 vampires with inferior Dementation, and you will rarely have more than one of them. An Obfuscate skill card should allow you to get superior Obfuscate and greatly increase the effect of your Veils. Dreams, SRs, Pentex Loves You! and Bleeding the Vine support your "maddog" behaviour: bleed quickly, bleed for a lot and never let your prey to survive. This deck has no combat defense except for allies: they proved to be much better protection for your vampires than any combat cards available to the weenies. You have 4 such allies (counting Jake Washington), and with The Unmasking they can block even +1 stealth rushes. The only other defensive cards are Blessing of Chaos (disables bleed modifiers from your predator), two Restructures (disables War Ghouls/Ossian) and Abandoning the Flesh as a "fear card" to disable diablerie. The rest is the more-or-less traditional S&B package, besides for Veil the Legion. I guess this deck cannot be called a pure DEM-weenie with 10 Obfuscate cards, but the crypt is the same, and I just cannot see any reason of avoiding the card that can be played by 2/3 of the crypt with a good effect. Note that Jackie and Midget are doubled here to get full advantage of their low capacity and superior Dementation. Deck Name: Crusader Legions Created By: Ilya Ginsburg Description: Veiled "weenie" vote Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 11, Max: 24, Avg: 4,08) ---------------------------------------------- 1 Justine Chen pre 2 !Toreador 2 Midget obf pre DEM 3 !Malkavian 1 Smash pot pre 3 !Brujah 1 Jonathan Gursel aus pre 3 !Toreador 1 Aiyana pre spi 3 Ahrimanes 1 Loonar cel PRE 4 !Toreador 1 Tock obf pot pre 4 !Nosferatu 2 Victor Pelletier cel dom for PRE 5 Ventrue 2 Stavros dem AUS OBF PRE 7 !Malkavian Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (16 cards) 1 Obfuscate 1 Creepshow Casino 1 Powerbase: Madrid 3 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Powerbase: Rome 5 Presence 2 Blood Doll 1 Institution Hunting Ground 1 Secure Haven Action (13 cards) 5 Charming Lobby 2 Sibyl`s Tongue 6 Enchant Kindred Action Modifier (28 cards) 12 Veil the Legions 4 Bribes 6 Bewitching Oration 6 Voter Captivation Political Action (20 cards) 1 Crusade: Brussels 1 Crusade: Geneva 1 Crusade: London 1 Crusade: Philadelphia 1 Crusade: Pittsburgh 1 Crusade: Rome 1 Crusade: Toronto 1 Crusade: Miami 1 Crusade: Barcelona 11 Kine Resources Contested Combat (11 cards) 3 Staredown 8 Majesty Ally (2 cards) 2 Procurer This is a variation of the traditional weenie vote, but with some serious changes. First of all, it isn't a "weenie" anymore, but it has some very efficient titled vampires that should help with pushing the Crusades. Veils provide a serious boost to the deck, at least in the world of +1 intercept. You have 5 vampires with Obfuscate here (2 Midgets, Tocks and 2 Stavros), so you can expect to get at least one of them in your crypt opening. 4 !Malks allowed to include some useful cards: Hunting Ground and Sibyl's Tongues. All vampires are Sabbat to play Crusades, except for Victor Pelletier who has the inbuilt title and is just too good to ignore. Stavros is a second "star" of this deck, having superior Obfuscate and Presence plus a title - he can Veil many vampires at once, and it would be great in this deck. You can expect to get either Stavros or Victor, and their votes would help a lot in your Crusade. And with all these stars, we still have average capacity 4.08 - it's almost a weenie! Fantastic!!! If you won't get Stavros, you have another chance of getting superior Obfuscate with the provided skill card. Feel free to fetch it if some of your neighbours has light intercept. Creepshow Casino is another stealth-booster, so you can get up to +3 stealth for one action per turn. Powerbases provide extra votes that you will need for your Voter Captivations, Dreams provide acceleration and hand cycling, and Secure Haven should protect your most precious vampire (usually Stavros or Victor) against rushes. You will need Presence skill cards to get superior Presence for your smaller vamps; if you have Midget or Tock, you should raise their Presence first, since you need to increase their capacity: they may eventually get superior Obfuscate, and then they will need all blood they can have for the superior Veils. The voting package is pretty clear: nine Crusades (trying to avoid contest whenever possible) and a bunch of KRC. As usual, you have some Charming Lobbies and Bribes, but this deck usually can push its votes even without bribery, so Charming Lobby is used just to get +2 votes, and Bribes is played only to get a tasty Voter Captivation. Nobody prevents you from keeping your Bewitching Oration in reserve and pretend to be weak, though :) There are two Sibyl's Tongues here that should be used wisely. Primary targets are Secure Haven and Powerbase: Madrid, though you may sometimes need a Hunting Ground most. There are six Enchant Kindreds that should speed up your deployment and enforce your pressure on your prey: even if he manages to block your vampire, you can play Majesty, untap and then bleed with Enchant Kindred. Blood can be a problem in this deck, especially for a smaller vampires that aren't usually play Voter Captivations That's why you have two Procurers, a Hunting Ground and 3 Staredowns. Vampires with superior Presence usually have enough blood here (thanks to the Captivations), so you can even take some into your pool with Blood Dolls. Victor is the best target for Blood Doll, since he uses his blood only for Majesties here, while Stavros may need it for Veil the Legions. That's all for March. As always, all comments and ideas are appreciated! Yours, Ector