Compendium of Resources Extraordinary : Third Edition Brujah Antitribu

Well, a Methuselah must start somewhere if he is to conquer the world. Most around here usually starts with either the Demo decks, and go on to acquire a pre-constructed starter of some kind. The good thing about CCG starters nowadays is that the companies have learnt that a pre-constructed starter is more effective in teaching a player the game, and get him started along the way of becoming a player, than say, a totally random starter with randomly inserted cards. Of course, in order for the company to earn more money, the pre-constrcuted starters are rarely, if ever, good enough to be used in competitve play straight away, without a good amount of tuning. This is usually more evident in other CCGs than Vtes, as Vtes is IMHO, more a skill-oriented CCG, than a card-oriented CCG - which is to say, unlike some other games, where the same deck is going to be played pretty much the same way by 100 different people against 100 different opponents, a Vtes deck performs differently in different hands, on a different table, and even with a different seating against the same opponents with the same decks.

Therefore, the choice of what preconstructed deck to buy, will be dependent on either your thematic preference of the clans, the selected playstyle that you are interested in, or maybe the several cards that you want to get and is available in the starter (which is a great motivator for experienced players to pick up multiple starters of the same kind, as it is normally cheaper to get these cards this way than whacking packs or ordering online)

One thing I do find Vtes starters lacking, is the absence of a "How to play this deck" guide in the starters. If you take a look at Japanese CCGs, such as Aquarius Age, or Dimension X, their pre-cons almost always comes with a "How this deck works", "What important cards are there in the deck" and "where to go from here". IMHO, these guides are very useful for beginning players. Not only are they basic instructions that give examples of combos, but also how each card interacts with the deck, and what other cards that the player should buy or trade for - very handy.

Here I'll try to emulate that for the benefit of any players whom are unfamiliar with the pre-constructed decks.

I'll start with the 3rd Edition's Brujah Antitribu deck.

For a card list of this pre-constructed deck, please click on this link:

3rd Edition Brujah Antitribu Starter Card List

I would classify this deck as a Bruise Vote deck. The concept of the deck is to use your Vampire's titles and vote modifiers to call damaging referendums to destroy your enemies while relying on both the in-built +1 stealth of referendum actions to successfully bring the referendum to podium, and the combat capabililties of your Vampires to intimidate your opponents to allow the referendums through.

How to Kill

First, this deck can bleed. Your Vampires relies on Iron Glares to increase bleeds. But your Vampires are generally fat, so bleeding your prey to death is not a very reasonable path of ousting. Your option for combat oust is also non-existence. There are no combat-ousting key cards in the deck, and there is only a single option for your Vampires to directly enter combat with opposing Vampires - which is a key to combat oust. Therefore the only practical ousting path here is your votes.

Use your Vampires to call Kine Resources Contested (KRC) against your prey. Shawnda is a very cheap Pricus, and she offers you 3 votes if there are no other Pricus in play. You have 2 more Archbishops, 1 more Pricus and 1 Bishop for your titled votes, which is not exactly a very reliable way to get your referendums through, since these Vampires are expensive and it is unlikely for you to get anything more than 2 of them on the table - and that is hardly vote control. You will have to use your vote modifiers to improve your chances of getting those votes through. You have Bewitching Oration, Bribes and Iron Glare to increase your votes, and you should use them if you need to. Remember that these are modifiers, meaning that they will not be helpful in defending against offensive votes called by your opponents. Always try to use Voter Capitation to get blood or pool after a successful referendum, and if the calling Vampire has superior PRESENCE, pull 2 of those gains to your pool, it is generally more beneficial to do so unless your Vampires need those blood to achieve something else. Use Scalpel Tongue against any hostile Vampires that is voting against you to remove his votes.

When you call KRC, most of the time you want to do 3 points of damage to your prey, the other 1 point can go to your predator to force him to take a more defensive stance against his predator (that does not always work) or towards your grand prey if you forsee that you will be facing him very soon. Please also note that the 4 points of damage done by KRC can be a bargaining chip to get that referendum passed if there are other vote heavy decks on table. You can always offer some damage to your potential vote contender's prey to entice him to vote for you. For example, you can offer him 2 points of damage to his prey, 2 points to your prey, and ask for his support on your KRC. If he agrees, you should have more votes that is necessary to get the referendum passed, and hopefully a good number to call a Voter Capitation to increase your blood and/or pool.

Your referendum actions have an in-built +1 Stealth to help you get the action to the podium against decks without intercepts. But +1 Stealth is nothing to write home about, and the only ways to have that increased is with your Creepshow Casino (which you can only use once a turn, and you must announce that you're using it, you cannot use it as a reaction to blocks) and the ridiculously expensive Alacrity. Therefore, very often you need to intimidate your way to discourage blockers. To do that you have your combat capabilities to fall back on. By the way, in order to do that, you do however, normally, need to show those blockers what you can do first.

Combat

Your combat is quite good, due to the CELERITY and POTENCE in-clan disciplines of the !Brujah. You get into combat when people blocks your actions, be it a bleed, a referendum, or any other actions that you might take (hunt, equip, etc.) You can also enter combat if you're able to call the Dogs of War referendum, or if somebody bled you for more than 2, you can use Vendetta to get into combat with his Vampires. Your star Vampire for combat will be Hector, as his hand damage are automatically aggravated; Armin, Uracca and Marcel are also reasonably good fighters with all the necessary disciplines at superior.

Your combat is POTENCE CElERITY based, meaning you increase your strength when you can, keep the range at close if necessary with manouever cards, beat up your opponent with damaging strikes, and hit them again with additional strikes if necessary.

Here's an example of how a typical (more complex) battle will go. Let's say that Uracca was trying to call a KRC, and was blocked by your prey's Mata Hari. At the before range step, since you're the acting Vampire, you declare your before range options first. Uracca picks up a Torn Signpost and increase her strength to 3, focus her mind with an Increased Strength, she stays close while Mata Hari attempted to move away with Amria but Uracca Flash back to close range. Uracca then hit Mata Hari with an Undead Strength, causing a total of 7 points of damage while suffering a single point of damage from Mata Hari's hand strike. Seeing that Mata Hari is dazed but still standing, Uracca press for another round with the additional ability granted by Flash. Another hand strike with the Sign post send Mata Hari to torpor.

This pre-con has no reliable way of handling some common combat defense - for example, dodge, or more importantly, combat ends. Against these opponents you'll just have to be patient and hope that they run out of combat cards before you do. Your combat defense against other combat-able decks is primarily Acrobatics and Stunt Cycles, as well as your manouevering ability. You do have Leather Jackets that you can equip before combat to save yourself from a single enemy strike (hopefully buying you the chance to knock him senselss during the spar)

Where you go from here

If you fancy the bruise vote path of this deck, you can consider keeping the discipline mix. It is better to have a couple of smaller Vampires as your crypt is quite fat with no reliable ways of getting your Vampires in play quickly. Consider little Vampires with good disciplines at superior, be it PRESENCE or POTENCE. You can probably replace Father Juan with Axel Von Anders. If you don't mind mixing clans you can look to adding some good Brujahs or even Toreadors and !Toreadors into your crypt as they have some good titled Vampires.

You can then add in 13 cards to fill up your library to the standard 90 cards deck. A few more Blood Dolls or Vessels would be good, remove London Evening Star and add in KRCG News Radio, remove Toy Chest Test and add in something better, like a Dreams of the Sphinx or even a Minion Tap. Waste Management Operation and Gang Territory are good !Brujah locations, and you should have it in if you have space. Try to keep your Master cards total at about 13-17.

Remove Alacrity and Aura of Invincibility. You can consider adding in a few PRESENCE multi-purpose cards such as Enchant Kindred - Alacrity is not an efficient stealth card, and that +1 Stealth is hardly worth the 2 blood, you can keep 1 if you really want that surprise factor...

A few more Voter Capitations would be good, so would a few more Iron Glares. You don't really need the Sengir Dagger. Remove Mighty Grapple and Nimble Feet, and add in some Pursuit. A few Sideslip will help you survive some attacks. Throw in at least 4 Immortal Grapple if not more, that is a good way of tackling defensive combat strikes. 1 or 2 more Taste of Vitae is also good to have. Since your Vampires have PRESENCE, some combat end cards could be useful, such as Majesty.

With this deck you can also build a combat deck around it. Throw out some of the more expensive combat-inefficient Vampires such as Armin, and add in fellas like DeSalle and Jacquques Molay. Remove the referendum cards and add in rush cards like Harass, Bum's Rush Rumble and Ambush. Really stock up on combat cards and add in cards that make your enemy pay for losing minions, such as Fame and Tension in the Ranks.

A pure vote deck will require you to add in more vote cards, more modifiers, and because you might want to reduce the number of Vampires without vote-supporting disciplines (PRESENCE)

so you might need to add in Vampires from other clans.

Value of the Pre-constructed deck

This deck has several cards of value -meaning that these cards are more expensive to get, meaning that they cost some money to get on ebay as they are generally not available in our local scene (ie. in our pool of free cards), here they are:

1 x Aranthebes, the Immortal

2 x On the Qui Vive

1 x Creepshow Casino

1 x Dogs of War

2 x Torn Signpost

2 x Taste of Vitae

Overall this deck is not worth buying if cards are the only thing you're looking at.

Well, that's that, good luck with your !Brujah.

(o.o)y