Malkavian Antitribu Newsletter, December 2007

1. INTRODUCTION

I was very happy to see the changes in Tournament Rules for 2008
season. PTO was finally banned, along with Memories of Mortality and
Edge Explosion, and though I always prefer erratae to bans, these bans
are definitely better than nothing. At least, we can more-or-less
safely play non-Camarilla fatties! Cheers! I'm going to build my
favorite Elemelech deck right now!!!
Also, the dreaded prize-splitting was finally prohibited. I'm very
happy to see these changes, since the game is obviously moves towards
the serious, competitive edge, and I was struggling for this for a
several months. Voila! I'm going to play VTES again, and, look, I
wrote a newsletter!

2. CARDS OF THE MONTH

Name: Preternatural Strength [LotN:R]
Type: Action
Discipline: Potence
Cost: 1 blood
+2 stealth action.
[pot] Put this card on this vampire. This vampire gets +1 strength. He
or she cannot play Torn Signpost. A vampire can have only one
Preternatural Strength.
[POT] As above, but this vampire gets +2 strength.

This is the "ground-breaking" card, since we've never seen a card
providing permanent +2 strength before. Yes, there were cards for +2
bleed, but even the best of them (Heart in the City) cost 2 blood, not
one, and, seriously, this effect doesn't mean as much as +2 strength.
With +2 bleed you still can bleed only once per turn, your bleed can
be bounced, and your vampire becomes a target #1. A vampire can easily
use +2 strength several times per turn in a multirush or blocking deck
(just recall Lazverinus decks!), and this bonus allows you to free a
lot of space that was previously occupied by Torn Signposts and Undead
Strengths.
The only question is "how to get Preternatural Strength in time?" You
can easily build a low-cap POT deck with a lot of PretStrengths, and
you'll get a better deck than traditional decks with TS/US, since one
PretStrength replaces a lot of them. On the other hand, what you will
do if all your PretStrengths get blocked? This isn't going to happen
very often (not every deck is able to block a +2 stealth action), and
you may be able to torporize the blocker even without PS (blockers
beware!), but still. The best variants of POT decks usually use a
second discipline: POT/CEL, POT/pro, POT/for and so on, but PS makes
POT/obf decks much more attractive: you can not only reach the rush
destination, but also push TS with your stealth.
One of the most interesting deck types, hovewer, is the "fetchdeck"
based on PS. There are some vampires that could use extra
strength...OK, let's say "there are several great vampires that become
simply amazing with it"! One of the best examples is Hektor. When you
have a vampire with POT and aggravated hands, permanent extra strength
is really precious: you don't need any other cards to torporize at
all! Aggropoke can be easily prevented, but preventing 3 aggravated
isn't so easy, especially if you can add Immortal Grapple :)
Other good examples are Jacko and Lorrie Dunsirn that have inbuilt
additional strike. Hitting for 6 damage per round without any
additional cards is very impressive, and most of the time this will
torporize any vampire and kill any ally.

Name: Fillip [LotN:C/PR2]
Type: Reaction
Requires a vampire. Usable by a tapped vampire.Choose a younger tapped
vampire you control. The chosen vampire can play reaction cards and
attempt to block as though untapped until the current action is
concluded. A vampire may play only one Fillip each turn.

This is another variant of Wake, very good but somewhat limited. You
cannot play Fillip if you need to wake the oldest vampire you have at
least sometimes, but if any younger vampire can do, Fillip is the
best. It's replaced immediately, nobody burns any blood, and you
generally have enough vampires to play all Fillips you have. Some
decks can work entirely with Fillips - especially if you are building
a deck around 1-2 large "stars" with some support vampires for bounce,
and you need Wakes just to bounce. For instance, a multirush deck with
some POT/dom vampires can use this tech.
Some decks can use a mix of Fillips and On the Qui Vives, if you
aren't sure that you will have several large vampires. Two OtQVs and
3-4 Fillips is a good mix that will allow you to use all your bounce
in the most effective way. The same can be said about any other
reactions like Delaying Tactics or similar.
If you're playing intercept, that doesn't mean that you should limit
yourself to 2nd Traditions or Forced Awakenings as well. If you want
to bounce or play some reactions without blocking, you may also need
Fillips and OtQVs.

Name: Gramle [LotN:C]
Type: Action
Cost: 1 pool
+1 stealth action. Do not replace until the end of the action.Choose a
card in play or in any ash heap by name. Search your library or crypt
for the chosen card, show it to all Methuselahs, and move it to your
hand (discard afterward) or uncontrolled region.

You may think that Gramle is a crap, but it isn't. Though it's
completely inferior to our Sibyl's Tongue, it still can fetch a lot of
things. You cannot fetch the single card from your library, which is
the most valuable effect of a fetching card, plus you're paying 1 pool
and the card isn't replaced until the end of action, but sometimes
Grample is enough, and you don't need Malkavians antitribu!
The most obvious example is a deck based on several copies of some
valuable card, especially if the card is easily burned. Weighted
Walking Stick, for instance, is usually used in the decent numbers, so
you can play Gramle to fetch it when you need it. Why not just use
some extra Sticks? Because you may need something else, and Gramle
will fetch it. The best example, however, is Concealed Magnums. You
may have Magnum without Concealed Weapon and vice versa, and Grample
will fetch the part you're missing.
Gramle makes a interesting combo with Liquidation. You gain pool, fill
your ash heap and get targets for your Gramles. This can be very good
if you have a lot of copies of the fetched card, especially if you
have some ways to retrieve these cards from your ash heap too (like
Giovanni).
Fetching crypt cards is an interesting tech, and we've never had so
universal card for this task. Fetching Tupdogs is propably too
expensive, though you can assemble a deadly squad of them and launch
the squad at once, even if you aren't playing only Tupdogs, which is
quite interesting. You can fetch a burned Imbued, if you really need
the copy. Finally, you can fetch a missing standard/advanced version
of a vampire in play to merge, since you choose a card BY NAME, and
both versions have the same name.
Another interesting (but insane!) idea is a "contesting deck" based on
Gramles and Thanks for the Donation. Everybody knows that some cards
are frequently contested (Heart, Carlton, Bowl, Info HW, Barrens and
so on), so you can fetch a copy of somebody's card and play it to
contest.
The most interesting is combining Gramle with the other ways of
fetching cards or even filling your ash heap. If you can fetch the
card with Drop Point Network, but you fail to play it properly, you
will be able to fetch another copy with Gramle, choosing the first
copy in your ash heap.

3. VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH

Name: Hektor [Third:PAB]
Clan: Brujah Antitribu
Group: 4
Capacity: 9
Disciplines: for CEL POT PRE QUI
Sabbat priscus: Damage from Hektor`s hand strikes is aggravated. Baali
get +1 bleed when bleeding you.

Hektor is simply great. Though he isn't the most dangerous combat
monster in the game, he has a very good title and good set of
disciplines. His weakest point is inferior Fortitude that makes
protecting and untapping him rather difficult. You should plan to
upgrade it to superior level that will enable good protection and
superior Forced March.
Hektor and Armin Brenner usually form a core of "bruise and vote"
deck, a very rare archetype that is limited just to !Brujah and
probably Lasombra/Tzimisce, but !Brujah are the best due to Dogs of
War. Obviously, Preternatural Strength makes this archetype much
stronger, since you don't have to devote a lot of deck space on
combat, and still be dangerous enough to threaten. Hektor +
Preternatural Strength will shine in any rushing deck type: multirush,
rush & vote, trophy hunter and so on. Three aggravated damage from a
hand strike without any cards!

4. DECK OF THE MONTH

Deck Name: Preternatural Strength with !Malks
Created By: Ilya Ginsburg (Ector)
Description: Hektor + Armin deck with supporting !Malks

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 24, Max: 40, Avg: 8.33)
----------------------------------------------
4 Hektor for CEL POT PRE QUI 9 !Brujah
4 Armin Brenner ani obf CEL FOR POT PRE 10 !Brujah
1 General Perfidio Dios dem obf AUS 5 !Malkavian
1 Colonel cel dem obf AUS 5 !Malkavian
2 Marie Faucigny dem tha AUS OBF 7 !Malkavian

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (16 cards)
1 Fortitude
4 Minion Tap
1 Powerbase: Madrid
2 Monster
1 Black Forest Base
1 Creepshow Casino
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
2 Zillah`s Valley
1 Trophy: Domain
1 Trophy: Hunting Ground

Action (11 cards)
2 Preternatural Strength
5 Sibyl`s Tongue
4 Red List

Action Modifier (16 cards)
5 Iron Glare
6 Forced March
4 Forgotten Labyrinth
1 Voter Captivation

Political Action (8 cards)
3 Dogs of War
1 Ancient Influence
1 Political Stranglehold
2 Banishment
1 Peace Treaty

Reaction (9 cards)
5 Telepathic Misdirection
2 On the Qui Vive
2 Fillip

Combat (28 cards)
9 Immortal Grapple
4 Slam
6 Pursuit
6 Superior Mettle
3 Taste of Vitae

Ally (1 cards)
1 Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Retainer (1 cards)
1 Malajit Chandramouli


This is a !Brujah Trophy Hunter deck with supporting !Malks. It's very
toolboxy - there is combat, votes, bounce, fetching and so on, but it
can perform all its tasks due to the high number of votes and fetching
cards. You need Preternatural Strength for both fatties ASAP, and
Monsters would be great, too. Sometimes you will need to fetch Dogs of
War.
The voting package is light but powerful. There are pool-gaining (AI/
PS), rush (DoW), "bleed" (Banishment) and "silver bullet" against
weapons, Peace Treaty. Combat package is designed for vampires with
Preternatural Strength: Slam and Pursuit both provide heavy damage and
Taste of Vitae gets a lot of blood.
Reactions package is designed for !Malks only, and Fillips are simply
wonderful here: you will always have Hektor or Armin, but you will
never need to Wake them. Typically !Brujah don't have bounce, but
having it is always nice.
Finally, the stealth package is very slim (Creepshow Casino, 4
Forgotten Labyrinths and Malajit plus Forced Marches), but you don't
need much, either. When you get +2 Strength for your monsters, they
aren't going to be frequently blocked, especially Hektor :)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deck Name: !Brujah with Preternatural Strength
Created By: Ilya Ginsburg (Ector)
Description: Hektor, Armin & Black Hand !Brujah fetch cards without !
Malks

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 18, Max: 40, Avg: 7.83)
----------------------------------------------
4 Hektor for CEL POT PRE QUI 9 !Brujah
4 Armin Brenner ani obf CEL FOR POT PRE 10 !Brujah
2 Mariano Pomposo aus cel pot 4 !Brujah
2 Wah Chun-Yuen cel dom pre POT 5 !Brujah

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (18 cards)
1 Fortitude
1 Powerbase: Madrid
2 Monster
1 Black Forest Base
1 Creepshow Casino
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
2 Zillah`s Valley
2 Trophy: Domain
1 Trophy: Hunting Ground
3 Liquidation
2 Drop Point Network

Action (10 cards)
3 Preternatural Strength
4 Red List
3 Gramle

Action Modifier (11 cards)
5 Iron Glare
6 Forced March

Political Action (8 cards)
3 Dogs of War
1 Ancient Influence
1 Political Stranglehold
2 Banishment
1 Peace Treaty

Combat (36 cards)
9 Immortal Grapple
4 Slam
6 Pursuit
6 Superior Mettle
5 Taste of Vitae
3 Weighted Walking Stick
3 Blur

Ally (1 cards)
1 Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Retainer (1 cards)
1 Malajit Chandramouli

Combo (5 cards)
5 Resist Earth`s Grasp


Now, this is another version of the same deck, but without !Malks,
Toungues and bounce. You use Drop Point Networks and Gramles instead
of Sibyl's Tongues, and they are weaker. You use Liquidations instead
of Minion Taps to save blood and get some cards in your ash heap for
your Gramles. You cannot bounce, but your deck is much more
consistent: all your vampires have Potence and Celerity (Wah even has
superior Potence), and you have much more combat cards. Even your
stealth can be used in combat: it's new Resist Earth's Grasps.
Is this version better than the first one? Your choice! As usual, all
comments and ideas are appreciated.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Yours,
Ector