Malkavian Antitribu Newsletter, December 2006
Volume V, Issue XII

1. INTRODUCTION

In the last newsletter I've started the review of using Vicissitude
with !Malks, and this time I'm going to finish it. Should we have a
lot of vamps with superior Vicissitude, we could talk about solid
decks using this discipline, but, unfortunately, three of the four of
them have it only at inferior. What can be done with inferior
Vicissitude? OK, our !Malks could maneuver with Chiropteran Marauder
and shoot from the Ivory Bow, but they wouldn't become good combatants
anyway. Inferior Breath of the Dragon is a good "fear card" in the
Coma fashion - you'll go into torpor, but not alone. Maybe, you could
use inferior Reform Body to avoid losing vampires in combat or as a
diablerie? This isn't good enough, alas. One Vicissitude card is quite
useful at inferior, though - see below.
What about the rest Vicissitude cards? Fortunately, we've got one
vampire with superior Vicissitude, and he's very good. Tzimisce will
appreciate him, I guess...

2. VAMPIRES OF THE MONTH

Name: Gravitnir [Third:V]
Clan: Malkavian Antitribu
Capacity: 10
Group: 4
Disciplines: AUS CEL DEM OBF VIC
Sabbat priscus: During a political action, if Gravitnir is ready, he
may burn a blood to force the acting vampire to abstain (this can
cancel that vampire`s votes).

Five disciplines at superior, a good title and a very strong ability
should easily justify playing a 10-cap Sabbat vampire, if there were
no PTO around... Time to send LSJ the regular rant about changing or
banning the card, yes?
No, wait! Did I say "PTO"? But PTO is a political action, and
Gravitnir can force the damned Inner Circle to abstain! Forget about
your 4 votes, Awe and Bewitching Oration - and we're going to have
three votes against the referendum. Do you STILL want to play it,
dude? Don't forget that Gravitnir may just block it, using his
superior Auspex.
Obviously, he is one of the best available choices against PTO and
other hostile votes. His ability isn't as strong as Quentin's (that
guy could cancel votes of ANY vampire, not just the acting one), but
this is compensated with much better title and disciplines.
Take any five disciplines, and you are guaranteed to get a lot of
ideas to implement, if your vampire has them at superior. Skipping the
usual combos available for our clan disciplines (The Call, Madman's
Quill, etc.), we should note that Gravitnir can play superior Soul
Decoration.
Actually, he is one the few vampires able to do it (the only other
playable candidate is Lady Zara Slatikov), and his actions can be very
important (Eternal Vigilance, Creation Rites or just a heavy bleed
with his Dementation), so the permanent ability to cancel Auspex cards
cannot be avoided. Two combat disciplines (Celerity and Vicissitude)
allow you to make a very good fighter of Gravitnir: he can gain
additional strikes if somebody dodges his aggravated hands; he can
dodge himself and then gain additional strikes; he can use weapons at
their full potential besides the common Marauders and Breath of the
Dragon; and, finally, he can beat S:CE and Rotschrecks with Psyche!
Having only Vicissitude-based combat cards, the vampire tends to be
very dangerous, but fragile - without Rotschreck he is likely to get
into torpor with his opponent. Add Celerity, and he will survive most
of the time - with CEL/VIC you can even rush yourself!
What would you say about a deck with both Gravitnir and Louhi? Both
vampires have very strong permanent abilities that can completely stop
your voting predator: Louhi can cancel one action per turn, and
Gravitnir will outvote another. Unfortunately, their combat
disciplines are completely different, but I'm sure that something can
be done here:
Louhi can equip Drum of Xipe Totec, or Gravitnir can learn Thaumaturgy.
Such deck isn't going to be stable enough, but it should provide a lot
of opportunities to make useful short-time deals: ask some "tribute"
for your votes, for refusing to block something, for both abilities...
Such deals cannot be underestimated, especially with the new
tournament rules that make table splits less likely.
Any Tzimisce deck with large vampires should consider using Gravitnir
just for his ability, Auspex and Vicissitude. Lack of Animalism can be
painful, as he cannot employ any intercept-providing retainers and
cannot play Read the Winds, but nevertheless, most common Tzimisce
decks rarely have a lot of Animalism cards: Auspex provide most
intercept and bounce, while Vicissitude is the primary combat
discipline. If you are going to play CEL/VIC, Gravitnir is going to be
your "star".

Name: John Paleologus [Gehenna:U]
Clan: Tzimisce
Group: 3
Capacity: 9
Disciplines: pot ANI AUS CEL VIC
Sabbat Archbishop of Istanbul: During your untap phase, if John is
ready, he may burn 2 blood to cause your prey to burn 1 pool.

As you can guess, there are just few vampires with CEL/VIC in the
whole game, and the 9-cap John Paleologus is the youngest of them. If
you are looking for a company for Gravitnir, you cannot miss John:
Bela Kardoza doesn't have Auspex (besides, are you going to play
10-cap without a title?), while Demdemeh is too concentrated on his
Animalism that Gravitnir doesn't have. John Paleologus share
AUS/CEL/VIC with Gravitnir, which is enough for a deck. Moreover, John
has a decent title, so you will potentially have 5 votes total, and a
good ability. If you manage to provide him a good source of blood
(like The Rack), he will "ping" your prey for a lot of pool, without
any chance to defend. Without any doubts, John can do much more than
that: I was forced to skip his Animalism and Potence in my "deck of
the month", since Gravitnir doesn't have them. You may pair John with
Ira Rivers in ani/AUS/CEL deck, or with some Osebo (AUS/CEL/pot), and
so on. But since you're reading the !Malkavian newsletter (not a
Tzimisce one), let's just say that John Paleologus is the "best
friend" of Gravitnir :)

3. CARD OF THE MONTH

Name: Bauble [Sabbat:R, SW:R, Third:R]
Cardtype: Action
Cost: 2 blood
Discipline: Vicissitude
+1 stealth action.
[vic] Put this card on the acting vampire. Search your library and put
a non-unique, non-location equipment card on another minion you
control. Do not pay the cost to equip. The vampire with this card
cannot attempt actions, block or vote. You may burn this card and the
chosen equipment card during your untap phase or when the minion with
the chosen equipment leaves the controlled region.
[VIC] As above, but you may burn this card and the chosen equipment at
any time.

So we are going to play a mixed !Malk/Tzimisce CEL/VIC deck? Looks
like we'll need some serious weapons to maneuver and/or deal serious
damage.
One-shot Vicissitude combat cards are good, but we can run out of
them, which would be fatal. Bauble provides a way to get an expensive
weapon for free (OK, not for free - for tapping another vampire, but
you won't have to pay pool for it). It's something like "a Tzimisce
Alastor" :) This card is old enough, but it wasn't very popular:
Tzimisce rarely have stealth, and, more importantly, they rarely need
equipment so badly to justify playing such cards.
Anti-Malkavians suddenly made Bauble much more attractive for three
reasons. Firstly, the CEL/VIC deck really can benefit from the big
nasty weapons like Assault Rifle or Flamethrower, even if you'll have
to tap a vampire for them: two or three strikes with such weapons will
torporize almost any vampire. Secondly, !Malks can fetch Bauble with
their Sibyl's Tongues - paying 4-5 pool for these weapons would be too
much; even the vampire playing Bauble may cost less. Finally, !Malks
have additional stealth - they can play Cloak the Gathering to avoid
casual blockers, even if the acting vampire doesn't have Obfuscate.
Unfortunately, there are no Horatio in 3-4 group, but we can use
Guedado or Ana Rita Montana that have Obfuscate.
Bauble is the promised Vicissitude card that is useful even at
inferior - moreover, it's usually played this way. Thus, any !Malk
with inferior Vicissitude can play it - Luc, for instance. You may
even build a breed deck with Creation Rites, put Vicissitude skill
cards on your progeny and use them to play Baubles! Looks like such
deck would use Vicissitude only for Baubles, an its primary
disciplines would be Celerity and Obfuscate. Unfortunately, Gangrels
antitribu don't have cheap Archbishops with CEL/OBF (9-cap Migur Sabau
is the cheapest one), so this idea doesn't look very playable right
now, but nothing prevents you from trying.

4. DECK OF THE MONTH

Deck Name: Fool's Bauble
Created By: Ilya Ginsburg
Description: Gravitnir and John AUS-CEL-VIC

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 17, Max: 40, Avg: 7,41)
----------------------------------------------
4 Gravitnir AUS CEL DEM OBF VIC 10 !Malk
3 John Paleologus pot ANI AUS CEL VIC 9 Tzimisce
2 Luc dem vic OBF 5 !Malk
1 Ana Rita Montana aus dom obf VIC 5 Tzimisce
1 Guedado aus obf vic 4 Tzimisce
1 Ilias cel Frumos aus vic 3 Tzimisce

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (16 cards)
1 Rack, The
1 Powerbase: Madrid
1 Rotschreck
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
2 Zillah`s Valley
1 Black Forest Base
2 Trophy: Domain
1 Trophy: Hunting Ground
4 Blood Doll
1 Creepshow Casino

Action (7 cards)
2 Bauble
4 Sibyl`s Tongue
1 Soul Decoration

Action Modifier (6 cards)
4 Forgotten Labyrinth
2 Red List

Political Action (3 cards)
2 Templar
1 Trumped-Up Charges

Reaction (21 cards)
5 Quicken Sight
6 Telepathic Misdirection
8 Forced Awakening
2 Eagle`s Sight

Combat (31 cards)
6 Chiropteran Marauder
4 Breath of the Dragon
6 Psyche!
1 Fast Hands
4 Blur
6 Side Strike
4 Taste of Vitae

Ally (1 cards)
1 Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Equipment (5 cards)
1 Heart of Nizchetus
2 Assault Rifle
1 Flamethrower
1 Bowl of Convergence


This is a mixed combo/intercept deck focusing on Baubles. You can dig
Bauble with Sibyl's Tongue, Luc's ability or Heart of Nizchetus. The
most pleasant thing is the ability to play without Bauble (and without
weapons) for a while - you can easily impersonate a "normal"
AUS/CEL/VIC deck without any "tricks". Fetch Creepshow Casino if your
neighbours can generate more than +1 intercept: this deck doesn't have
a lot of stealth. Other first-priority cards include Heart (of
course), Mylan Horseed and Bowl of Convergence.
This deck operates as a casual blocker and a "casual Trophy hunter".
There is some votes and a good anti-voting ability, so you can make
deals, if needed. Deal with a voting deck, if possible, since you will
benefit from Ancient Influence and Political Stranglehold as much as
your partner. Besides, you need to push at least one Templar and start
rushing. You may easily confuse your opponents with your toolbox, but
don't get confused yourself :)
This deck serves as a demonstration of a CEL/VIC based Trophy hunter.
Flamethrower and four Breaths of the Dragon allow you to burn empty
vampires, while Assault Rifles make them empty in a few strikes. Make
a vampire Red List, then torporize him, let them resque him, catch him
while hunting and burn. With your votes, you may be able to simply
diablerize the victim, especially with Powerbase:Madrid in play. If
you manage to get at least one Trophy, your position will become much
stronger, but you should try to get two at once: play one as a master
prior to burning.

That's all for December. As always, all comments and ideas are
appreciated.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Yours,
Ector