Malkavian Antitribu Newsletter, September 2007

1. INTRODUCTION

I present you a sort of LotN review. I definitely may be wrong (as
anyone who tries to do something), but at least I'm trying...
There are no !Malks in this set, but a lot of cards can be used in
various !Malkavian decks. So, if you wonder "what is !Malkavian in
this newsletter", I can tell you - "point of view".

2. CRAPPY CARDS (aka WALLPAPERS) OF LOTN

I *hate* the crappy cards. Each card should be playable at least in
one deck archetype. If you open the card that is completely
unplayable, you feel yourself robbed. One of the reasons for my former
love in VTES was almost absolute lack of crap. Unfortunately, Lords of
Night has some unplayable cards, including rares, but not very much
(something like 10%). Some greedy CCG producers print 75% of crap or
even more!

Agent of Power
--------------
Sometimes you need a Discipline just for a single card in your deck,
but nobody will wait until he get both the card and Agent of Power in
his hand. If you have several cards that your vampires cannot play,
Agent of Power won't save you; look for Infernal Pact or some
equipment like Sargon Fragment. Uniqueness makes the card even worse.

Ambulance
----------
"If this action is blocked again, burn this card". This is a death
sentence for a 1-pool equipment. Everybody knows that actions that
"continue as unblocked" are blocked again quite often. If the blocking
vampire was Waked, he even doesn't need another Wake to block again!

Armor of Vitality
-----------------
Melee weapons aren't so popular to hose them, and if there are no
swords to break, it's much worse than Rolling with the Punches, Skin
of Steel and Superior Mettle. Oh yes, you can prevent damage from
Carrion Crows, but Soak is still better for that.

Bestow Vigor
-------------
You spend an action (though you untap after it) and a blood to give an
ally inferior Fortitude in combat for 2 turns. So what? You need an
ally to play this, and you need the Fortitude cards, and, finally, all
you get from these complicated combos is some protection for the ally?
In 99% cases the ally doesn't worth it, or you can use much more
powerful cards like Heaven's Gate. If you plan to use Bestow Vigor on
vampires, why not Shared Strength? No actions, and good surprise for
your opponents.

Community Justice
-----------------
Who plays cards that work only after opponent's diablerie?

Divine Image
------------
What do you plan to achieve with this card? Bleed at +1, even with +1
strength but at -1 stealth doesn't cost 2 blood. Rush with +1 strength
still doesn't cost 2 blood. What else?

Kpist m/45
-----------
While AK-47 is very cornercase, but playable in the decks without
Celerity that have some way to get it cheaper, this one is completely
useless. Oh yes, Rounds, I know, but they are far less flexible than
Pursuits, Blurs and others. Without Rounds you will get the same
damage as from .44 Magnum, but for 3 pool, and this one cannot be
Concealed.

Resume the Coil
----------------
Who is planning to get into torpor so othen that he needs cards to
reduce the resque cost? Vampires that resque cheaper are different
matter, but wasting cards for that? No way.

Trophy: Library
----------------
Getting a Trophy is rather difficult, so nobody is going to make
somebody Red List and then burn him just for +2 hand size. AFAIK,
Elder Library is not uber-popular.

Trophy: Revered
----------------
+2 bleed isn't a good reward for burning a Red List. You may get +1
from Camera Phone just for an action.

3. HORROR CARDS OF LOTN (CARDS THAT SHOULD NEVER BEEN PRINTED)

Burden the Mind
-----------------
This card enforces the horrible weenies, and we all know that they
must be eliminated, not enforced. Why this is worse than Pentex
Subversion? Because only THAT vampire can burn the card; so, actually
it means "no Wakes for one turn and waste an action on the next turn".
It's also cheaper and not unique, so a weenie with Parhthenon can play
*two* Burdens in one turn and completely lock prey's Wakes.
I don't think that !Malks need this card. We play a fair game of
"stealth against intercept", not "our numbers will overcome your
Wakes".

Camera Phone
-------------
Permanent +1 bleed for free? Really??? Again, great thanks from the
disciplineless weenies. They don't need 20+ Computer Hackings anymore,
10-15 Camera Phones will replace them more than adequately, especially
in non-combat metagames, and leave more space for dodges and other
tricks.
Anti-Malks don't need this card - it doesn't combine with Kindred
Spirits.

False Resonance
-----------------
Do we really need to help S&B to cancel bounce? This card hoses
Telepathic Misdirection, and that's awful. Besides, how many playable
reactions on Dementation do you know? One: Shattered Mirror. Is there
any point in printing the good card (not broken by any means) and
printing its hoser in the next set? Thanks to the +1 stealth at
superior, this card is going to be popular.
Anti-Malks hate this card with a passion, as it nullifies the only
bounce card we have and prevents us from playing Shattered Mirror
(why?)

Fantasy World
--------------
Do we really need another "star hoser"? I don't think so. With this
card, Ravnos can completely shut down any minion for his own turn,
burn one blood or life from him and leave him tapped for the next turn
- all for 2 blood. Not a Sensory Deprivation, for sure, but "cannot
play cards and cast votes" is much more harsh than just "doesn't untap
as normal". This will hit even a Baali! Besides, Fantasy World is
cheaper and has +1 stealth at superior.

Lesser Boon
------------
This completely destroys all Wall decks based on a single
"star" (Lazverinus decks, for instance). All you need is to block that
monster and play Lesser Boon. "This minion cannot block your minions"
is too powerful, and it *cannot* be burned!!! You may have a horrible
voting deck that will drop your prey to 1-5 pool in few turns. After
that, the monster will be able to block, but it may be too late. Now
you can play without stealth at all - include a light intercept module
(preferably permanent) and some Lesser Boons. It is not unique, so you
can repeat this trick as needed...
!Malks can use this card - probably, even better than anybody else, as
Telepathic Misdirection can be used to get intercept, and we have Kite
with inbuilt +1 intercept. But still, WW should NOT print such things.

Leverage
----------
So we need to give disciplineless weenie more tools besides Camera
Phones? Oh really? "I bleed for one" - "No block" - "Once more" - "No
block" - "Leverage".
Oh yes, !Malks can use this card too, as there are no restrictions
like "no more bleed enhancers". I just think that it wouldn't be very
clever to use it, since we can bleed for 3-4 without it, and larger
bleeds are very dangerous (bounce, Archon Investigation, etc.)
Probably, Dementation-weenie is the best deck for this card: it's
forced to use Confusions (not Eyes of Chaos) to get stealth, so
getting some more bleed would be nice, especially in such aggressive
deck. But still, Leverage is going to be most popular in the weenies,
and enforcing weenies is definitely bad.

Mental Maze
------------
Rush is the traditional enemy of stealth-bleeding and stealth-voting
decks. Does anybody wants to see a large Setite blocking all rushers
and playing Mental Mazes for free without tapping? Blocking rushes is
simple enough most of the time... I thought that WW is trying to
enforce Rush, but such cards are killing it!

Mesu Bedshet
-------------
This is the most broken card in the entire set.
Getting a new vampire costs 4 transfers + 1 pool. If it's younger, you
get additional +2 transfers and +2 pool, so you gain +6 transfers and
+3 pool total just for an action that costs 1 blood. That's too good,
especially transfer-wise. Setites are going to spread like rats.
Let's compare this to the existing cards. Yes, there are actions like
Kindred Intelligence and Clotho's Gift that give you another vampire,
but you get only +4 transfers and +1 pool (a cost of getting the
additional vampire in "normal" way). And there are Governs/Founders of
the Ebony Kingdom that provide up to +4 transfers and +4 pool, but you
need to have a younger vampire in your uncontrolled region - so if you
want to spread a horde, you will have to pay 4 transfers and 1 pool
for each new vamp, and this effectively neutralizes the threat of over-
spreading. How often did you paid for another vamp just to be able to
get pool from your Governs?
With Mesu Bedshet, you have absolutely no problems in getting a huge
horde. Having +6 transfers for a single action is so insane that
Information Highway is nothing compared to this! Two extra transfers
per turn? I can have +12 or even more! Looks like the designers don't
realize the value of "transfers" at all, as long as they are printing
such cards. Players are getting *four* transfers per turn to ensure
more-or-less equal speed of influencing vampires. If some player can
get *six* transfers just in one action, the balance is completely
broken. Moreover, if you just need pool, Metsu Bedshet never fails to
provide you 2 pool, as long as you have Setites in your crypt, and the
acting vampire is the eldest (use a Discipline card - Setites often
use Obfuscate cards for their Waters anyway).
Now please think about Dreams of the Sphinx that will provide you even
more free pool and transfers, The Eternals of Sirius, if you have some
fatties, and superior Public Trust that also moves blood to your
uncontrolled region. You can influence vampires so quickly that
rushers won't have enough actions to torporize them!

Mokole Blood
-------------
What the designers were smoking when they designed this? Fetching FOUR
cards requiring Serpentis and effectively increasing your hand by
these 4 cards! What about 4 Enticements that are going to hit the prey
for 12 pool, without any chance to bounce? Or maybe Form of
Corruption, Truth of a Thousand Lies to untap and Consignment to Duat?
In this case, "burn this card when there are no cards on it" is an
*advantage* , since you can equip another copy of Mokole Blood and
fetch 4 MORE cards.
Anti-Malks are protesting against such overpowered cards! Our Sibyl's
Tongue is a fair card for a fair price: you can fetch only ONE part of
the combo, not all the combo at once. There are cards that increase
your hand size, even "giant stores" like Shulmulo Tarot, but you still
have to cycle until you find what you need. There are great cyclers,
but fetching 4 cards at once and keeping them in addition to your
normal hand is too much.

Narrow Minds
-------------
So, we really need to hose bounce, aren't we? Bounce is the only
remedy from the reckless powerbleed that would ruin the entire game -
and now we are cutting the branch where we are sitting.
You may say that increasing cost is not much, people will still play
bounce, but, you know, if a stealth-bleed manages to slow its prey,
it's almost guaranteed to oust it until it ousts its own prey. And
Narrow Minds results in loss of 5-6 extra blood per game that could be
easily converted into 5-6 more pool via Blood Dolls and Vessels.
If they tried to enforce stealth-bleed, they could make more stealth
(or better stealth), or more bleed, but hosing bounce wasn't very
clever. Surely, !Malks will play this card! Narrow Minds is going to
be in *EVERY* bleeding deck, and it will negatively affect the game.

Preternatural Strength
-----------------------
OK, this card is not broken, but it still is much more powerful than
other strength-enhancing cards. Getting +2 strength permanently just
for a +2 stealth action and 1 blood is too good. This greatly
diminishes value of vampire's additional strength. Yes, I know that
cards like Heart of the City and Pulse didn't kill the transient cards
providing +2 bleed, but these cards cost more than 1 blood, and, more
importantly, a vampire with Pulse is a target #1 for all rushes, while
a vampire with Preternatural Strength is a person to avoid :) Besides,
you can use +2 bleed only once per turn, while +2 strength can be used
several times per turn, either in multirush decks or in blocking
decks.
On the other hand, Rush decks really need a boost... But nevertheless,
it's strange to see that any vamp with superior Potence can become
Lazverinus with a single action.

Reckless Agitation
-------------------
This one is clearly too powerful, despite the cost and requirements.
KRC deals no more than 3 damage to your prey, Conservative Agitation
deals 4, but only until somebody gets ousted, Parity Shift works only
when your prey has more pool. This one deals FIVE damage to your prey,
and you will generally have to push it just 2-3 times to oust. Voter
Captivation wasn't changed, Awe is the same, so pushing Recksless
Agitation isn't too difficult. Too powerful.

Unholy Penance
---------------
Combat Ends for 1 blood is OK. S:CE and untap is very good, but "S:CE
and +1 bleed until you waste an action" may appear to be too good,
especially in S&B decks. When your Rush prey is attempting to stop
your Setite S&B, you will not only foil his action, but also get +1
bleed against him? Or you were trying to play Reckless Agitation, your
prey blocked, you can play Unholy Penance, untap and bleed with +1
bleed?
Setites already had the second best Combat Ends in the whole game:
Majesty. I don't think that S&B decks needed something even better.

Vessel
-------
This card is a "dream of all stealth-bleeds". You don't need to Wash
that Blood Doll anymore, just convert your own Blood Dolls to Vessels.
Pool cost is generally not that crucial for S&B, but the ability to
play another master card really is. This card empowers S&B a lot: play
more masters and burn your prey's Blood Dolls, all for 1 pool! Non-
aggressive decks will still prefer Blood Dolls, since they are free,
and you can gain pool immediately.
!Malk S&B decks will definitely play Vessels instead of Blood Dolls.
But I'm pretty sure that S&B was powerful enough without such hosing
toys...

4. GOOD CARDS FOR !MALKS

Blithe Acceptance
-----------------
Having +1 permanent stealth is good. You will need stealth to push it,
though, since it doesn't have inbuilt +1 stealth, but still. This card
isn't going to be very good in S&B, because it makes the vampire a
target, but it will be very good in the various "fetch-decks" and
combo-decks. Use one Forgotten Labyrinth to push it, and you will be
able to push several crucial parts of your combo.

Fillip
-------
!Malks are often used as a support with superior Auspex to play
Telepathic Misdirections. Having a good mix of Fillips and On the Qui
Vives allows you to wake when you need and always replace the card.

Into Thin Air
-------------
Almost strictly better than Lost in Crowds, but doesn't get replaced
until your untap. Nice to have a pair of these for extreme cases...

Jericho Founding
----------------
Finally. I tired of the decks with all sorts of permacept locations.

Malajit Chandramouli
---------------------
Again, the card for combo-decks that need to push the crucial actions.

Omael Kuman
------------
Can serve as a panacea against a close-range Rush, for instance.
Losing 1 blood is much better than losing
a vampire.

Powerbase: Zurich
------------------
Very powerful card for S&B decks. As long as you bleed successfully at
least once per turn, nobody will be able to "burn the Edge during his
master phase" and steal your Powerbase. Acceleration and pool-gaining
are always good. But this card isn't overpowered, since you get only 2
pool + 2 transfers for each action.

Tye Cooper
----------
Excellent blocker (immune to non-aggravated damage!) and makes wonders
with retrieving Sibyl's Tongues from your ash heap. Use Mata Hari to
play him, and then your vampires will cover his action with Veil the
Legions. Not sure who will torporize and how, but this depends on the
deck.

5. OTHER GOOD CARDS (not including the mentioned above)

Bloodlust
----------
Finally, a good way to get a rush for a weenie horde. The price is OK,
but why does the card require Presence? This effectively limits it to
Brujah/!Brujah unless you are going to take a star like Una.

Dream World
-----------
Something like Madman's Quill for Setites. Less powerful, but free.

Eyes of Blades
---------------
Yet another "non-strike Combat Ends". Would be much more popular
without the words "Do not replace...".

Flesh Bond
-----------
Combat Ends for Animalism. Why not?

Haqim's Law: Leadership
-----------------------
Assamites can bloat. Finally.

Kumpania
---------
Good Ranvos location. Just one pool, no blood burning. Going to be
popular.

Loss
----
Assamites can bleed!!! And burn equipment and locations with the same
card! Really nice.

Lost in Translation
--------------------
This card won't affect the metagame much. Two blood is quite a lot,
and "younger" is a serious limitation, but the real reason is: not
every deck needs bounce. If your deck ousts your prey slowly, bounce
will just help your predator to oust his next prey. And you cannot put
many copies of Lost in Translation into your deck due to its cost.
This card will be probably limited to aggressive decks without Auspex
and Dominate - for instance, a voting deck with Reckless Agitations
can use it.

Mirror's Visage
---------------
+2 stealth for undirected action is very good, especially if the
action has inbuilt +1 stealth. Nice for equipping crucial things and
recruiting Tumnimos.

Monster
-------
This card is very, very good. You may use it in multi-rush deck
instead of Freak Drives (especially if your vamps have no Fortitude),
or in intercept deck instead of extra Wakes. Sometimes you can even
use it both ways (for instance, Akunanse No Secrets from the Magaji
deck). Anneke with Alastor/Assault Rifle will be happy to become
Monster, too. The same about Elimelech and many others.

Murmur of the False Will
------------------------
Finally, Dominate got a bounce card that can be used when there are
only two players left!

Precision
---------
This makes Celerity-based decks much better. "Discard that Majesty and
burn 1 pool. Then, I will rush you".

Resist Earth's Grasp
--------------------
Finally, some decent stealth for Celerity. Great!

Sense the Savage Way
--------------------
Very good card for Animalism-based intercept. Now there are enough
cards to build real Walls...

Set's Curse
-----------
A brutal card. Burn ally or weenie and get an ally for yourself, that
can block weenies and hit them hard. Really good and anticipated card.

Sheepdog
--------
Fifth Tradition for infernals :)

Slam
-----
Potence finally got a strike with maneuver to close range. Great!

Street Cred
-----------
Pool gain for combat achievements!!! Finally. At last...

Target Hand
-----------
A decent anti-weapons card for vampires that cannot use more effective
cards. And for allies, too.

The Eternals of Sirius
----------------------
This is NOT another Zillah's Valley: you pay 4 and get 5, not vice
versa :) Your chance of influencing a 8-cap on the first turn are
quite good. Even if you don't have any large Setites in your
uncontrolled region, you will still get 1 pool from this card.

Therbold Realty
---------------
Harbingers will be able to build a whole street of Slaughterhouses for
free :) And we !Malks will help them to fetch Therbold Reality and
other important cards.

Trochomancy
-----------
Harbingers also got +2 bleed modifier. Not sure why they should need
to remove prey's library from the game, though.

Underbridge Stray
-----------------
Cheap ally that can do at least three things: block opposing vampires,
provide you some presses (good for Carrion Crows) and die to untap
another minion. Not spectacular, but decent.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. DECK OF THE MONTH

Deck Name: Cry Wolves Cry
Created By: Ilya Ginsburg (Ector)
Description: Anarch Giovanni summon Cry Wolves, then their wraiths!

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 14, Max: 22, Avg: 4,67)
----------------------------------------------
1 Raphaela Giovanni pot pre DOM NEC 6 Giovanni
1 Francis Milliner pre vic NEC POT 6 Giovanni
2 Margaret Milliner dom for nec pot pre 5 Giovanni
1 Donatello Giovanni aus pot pre DOM 5 Giovanni
4 Luc dem vic OBF 5 Malkavian Antitribu
1 Thomasso Ghiberti pot NEC 4 Giovanni
1 Stephen Milliner nec pre 3 Giovanni
1 Cristobal Ghiberti nec 2 Giovanni

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (13 cards)
1 Hospital Food
1 Anarch Free Press, The
1 Morgue Hunting Ground
4 Proxy Kissed
1 Powerbase: Cape Verde
3 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Seattle Committee
1 Powerbase: Los Angeles

Action (37 cards)
10 Gear Up
10 Undue Influence
4 Sibyl`s Tongue
8 Khazar's Diary
5 Shell Break

Action Modifier (16 cards)
10 Call of the Hungry Dead
6 Veil the Legions

Reaction (4 cards)
4 Deflection

Combat (12 cards)
2 Groundfighting
10 Spiritual Intervention

Ally (8 cards)
8 Cry Wolf

This is a very funny deck that was inspired by a combination of
Khazar's Diary, Cry Wolf and Shell Break. You get free counters for
the Diary "when unique minion is burned" - not an easy condition to
trigger. If you can burn opposing vampires, do you need Khasar's Diary
and other tricks? Fortunately, you can use unique ally that dies
itself: Cry Wolf. The beastie cost you nothing and lives just one
turn. If you manage to play Shell Break on it, your vampire will get
+1 bleed and +1 intercept, which is definitely good! Poor Wolves seems
to be ideal allies for these horrible Giovanni deeds.
So, we need an anarch Giovanni deck. Fortunately, LoN has some low-cap
Giovanni with Presence (they are Milliners, not Giovanni, but
whatever), and we have FIVE such vampires in 4-5 groups now. So we can
use the most effective anarch cards like Gear Up and Undue Influence.
I am not a great fan of anarch decks, so please consider this deck
just a sketch of a real deck, if you wish to use this idea. I was
forced to remove Go Anarchs since there are too many Actions here; you
can fetch Seattle Committee with Sibyl's Tongue or just spend some
blood to become anarchs.
The only !Malk here is Luc which helps with cycling and stealth. You
need to find as much Khasar's Diaries and Cry Wolves as you can, since
each Diary after the first one adds a counter. As long as you have 8
copies of each card, it's quite possible to find 2-3 copies early,
especially with Luc. Don't forget that you can retrieve Diaries from
your ash heap with Gear Up, so you won't really need to find 8 Wolves/
Diaries.
The first target for your Sibyl's Tongue should be Seattle Committee,
if you get it early, or probably Anarch Free Press or Powerbase: Cape
Verde. If you don't have Khazar's Diary, you may fetch it too,
especially if you have a lot of Cry Wolves.

That's all for September. You can discuss the mentioned topics, but I
cannot guarantee that I will have time to answer everybody. Sorry for
that.

Ector