Compendium of Resources Extraordinary : Keepers of Tradition Malkavian

Keepers of Tradition Malkavian Pre-Constructed Starter The first of the starters that I worked on for the Keepers of Tradition set. No, it has very little to do with the gorgeous Gem Ghastly's protrait on the cover, it has absolutely nothing to do with the adore and longing that I have for this pretty Vampiric girl and all her glorious beauty, nor with her exotic and wild look that is completely different from all the other starter artwork that I've seen. I started on the Malkavian Starter because it is supposed to be the easiest starter for new players to work with - afterall, it is a stealth bleeder, isn't it? Like all base set starter groups, stealth bleed is usually the domain of the Malkavians or their Sabbat counterpart. This pre-con is no different. And it is very well geared to be a starter to teach new players how to play Vtes, albeit in the most fundamental way - it does illustrates a few key concepts in the game with the card mix that it has - blood expense, pool gain and the usage of stealth and intercept. Once you've grasped the fundamentals of playing this deck well, the Brujah will be a good follow up to understand combat and why your Vampires keep dying to other Methuselah's combat monsters. I think White Wolf has it all thought out. How to Kill Simple, bleed. Stealth through and bleed like there's no tomorrow. Well, there is nothing much you'd need to do besides that anyway, so, just bleed. Bleed with Kindred Spirit whenever you can, preferably with superior DEMENTATION to get that +1 Bleed (I don't really agree with the new artwork, but that explains the "gain 1 pool" part of the card). When the opponent declares a block, stealth through with your myraid hand of stealth cards - preferably in this order - Into Thin Air, Veil the Legions, Deny if necessary (or able). Note that Veil the Legions is to be used by another untapped Vampire rather than the acting minion - which is a great way to exhibit action modifiers operated by minions other than the acting one, thus paving the way for the new player to get used to cards such as Cloak the Gathering and Fast Reaction. Kindred Spirit will be a chance to understand the bleeding relationship between predator and prey and the (most common) exception to it, this is most often illustrated by Kindred Spirit's "offensive negotiation" by bleeding (or even ousting) predator or any other Methuselah that one finds offensive to look at. This is a great way to highlight the need to negotiate in Vtes, and the resources one can use to do so.

Bleed enhancers is another key element that the new player will get to learn to use. Basically the Eye of Chaos is the only one, so it's a little lacking in highlighting multiple enhances. Of course, given Tryphosa, Forgery and Kindred Spirit, the player will have a bit of math to do with every bleed - this will help him understand the intricacies of bleeding. Spying Mission helps in avoiding bounces as well as a "storing" alternative to make your bleeds even stronger later. Learn to "bleed responsibly", meaning that if your prey bounced your bleed somewhere else, usually to your ally or your grand prey, use Change of Target or Spying Mission to avoid bleeding for your prey. This is an important tactics for stealth bleeders. Tryphosa, the Malkavian Prince is an interesting addition to this deck, as it exhibits global effects on Malkavians, and the changes that it brings to a deck. It also creates the opportunity to relate blood cost to the player, and the power of a blanket +1 Stealth. To support this Vampire's ability, as well as some other cards that require blood - for example, Veil the Legions and Voice of Madness, there are actually quite a good number of cards that add blood to a Vampire - Cooler, Life in the City, The Coven and the mighty Giant's Blood. You can also use Forgery to bleed and gain back the blood cost. Do remember that the moment Tryphosa hits the table, ALL your bleed actions cost 1 blood, regardless of whether you're using a card or not, and whether you like it or not - you will lose the option the moment she comes to play so time her entrance well or you may end up slowing down your momentum. This is an interesting notion to new players to consider. But this deck lacks the number of cold bodies for you to bleed very quickly for your VP, so some level of defense is provided to prolong the unlife of your Vampires. That includes combat cards but probably more importantly, cards to avoid combat. Combat and Defense The only combat card in this deck is Glancing Blow. It is only marginally useful against the most unprepared combat opponent (or the very specialized). It is however, a good example of how to prevent damage. Not that the Malkavians is particularly good at that, and probably not really a good show of how it works (one should get the Ventrue starter for a show of that). But hey, you get what you get.

The most important component of the defense in this deck is actually the cards which avoid combat altogether. Shattered Mirror and Voice of Madness can be used to avoid combat after a successful block. You can keep a Vampire or two (if you can afford it, or you're expecting a major offense from your predator) untapped to deal with any attacks, and you have the Spirit's Touch to help you add that precious +1 Intercept to deal with light stealth. Keep in mind that Spirit's Touch provides a manouever for you, which might or might not save your Vampire's hide. But nothing is safer than making sure that the combat doesn't occur in the first place. Learn to choose between Voice and Shattered as you play along (provided you actually get to choose). Remember that this pre-con is pretty offense-oriented, so the best offense is usually the best defense. Take note of the Sleep of Reason. If you spot a Vampire that you can send to torpor with it, do so with your stealth, it really helps since you can also block their rescue if you have the right cards. As with all the new KoT starters, you might actually randomly end up with enough votes to survive a blood hunt referendum to allow your Vampires to diablerize the torpored Vampire.

You might also get to use Elysium : Arboretum once in a while if you face a Camarilla-heavy enemy, but you shouldn't be counting on that too much. Bleeding the Vine is another interesting card, but will really take some practise to use, so for new players, I'd recommend that you keep that card in the ash heap for the time being, or just use it in the turn you brought it in and forget about it unless you have so much pool you don't know what to do with them - but if you really have to, focus on canceling those cards that provide Intercepts for your opponents, or even pool gain cards such as Blood Dolls or Vessels played by your prey, definitely cancel those Haven Uncovered or direct combat cards (such as Contract) played on your Vampires as this is the weakest aspect of this deck.

Hand

Cards in your hand is a resource, but too many of the same card is a liability. Remember that this deck requires a good mix of stealth, bleed action, bleed enhancers, and at certain times, blood gain and defense. But you'll have to judge when it is considered too many and when you should hoard a certain card. For example, if you have 6 Kindred Spirits in hand, but you don't see any blockers that is able to generate Intercepts and you already have Tryphosa on table, you might consider to just hold these Kindred Spirits in hand (afterall, you only have 6 in this deck, and it is the most powerful bleed card that you have). On the other hand, in the same situation, and you have 4 Glancing Blows in hand, then you really should get rid of a few if you're not expecting some attacks.

You only have 1 discard phase every turn, but Learjet will help in drawing more cards for every use, and therefore cycling through your hand with more "forced discards". Note the line "you may draw" so there is no need to draw more and discard if you have everything you need in hand (unlikely, but, well, it happens)

Vampires

All the KoT starters (like most pre-cons) aren't that fantastic with crypt choice. This is exceptionally true in this one. The fat Vampires in this starter are not good investment to bring out since you do not really have lots of defense. Granted, you don't always come up against opponents that are really good at pounding your Vampires into bloody mess everytime they look your way (In fact, it is pretty rare to come across these over here), but even non-combat decks may be able to randomly put your Vampire into torpor once in a while, and losing an Inner circle with 11 pool investment might just cost you your game. Also, this deck is action-reliant rather than discipline-reliant, meaning that the more Vampires one has, the more damage it can do to your prey, and it is generally better and easier for a weenie stealth bleeder to work than a fat stealth bleeder (especially in the case of a starter deck)

In this case, the lower end Vampires in this deck, Morel not included, lacks one key discipline or the other (Cassandra lacks OBFUSCATE and Florentina doesn't have DEMENTATION), making them lacking in one area or the other. The bigger Vampires are also constrained as Tryphosa will demand that the deck is ready for her; Aleister doesn't have superior OBFUSCATE; and the power of Lutz is quite irrelevant and at best, a random bonus if there's a vote deck on the table. So in this crypt, the best option is to bring out Morel whenever he is available, with Aleister a second choice as you have 2 OBFUSCATE master discipline card to make him better (and at inferior OBFUSCATE he can still do enough damage against light intercept preys). You can then go on to Florentina and/or Cassandra depending on your hand and the situation. Despite her problem, Tryphosa will actually make all your bleeds a lot easier. So if your Vampires are ok with blood management, you can get her out at the right time. Lutz is really not very worth it unless you're desperate for his +2 Bleed. Don't ever bring out 2 fat Vampires (namely Tryphosa and Lutz) at the same time unless you're in such a great position. (or you have no choice)

Where you go from here

One has 2 major options with these Malkavians. One can go stealth bleed and decide on mid-fat bleeds or weenie bleeds. For weenie it is pretty simple. Just get the ARDB and weed out all the 4 cap and below that comes with OBFUSCATE and/or DEMENTATION. Load up a good number of Kindred Spirit and Stealth cards, plus some bleed enhancement like Confusion and Eye of Chaos, throw in some Master Disciplines and get a good mix of library by trial and error; and you're good to go. Since you don't really have to bother about clan purity here, it will probably be a mix of Malkavians and !Malkavians. For this concept, besides the lower cap Vampires that you need to gather, you'll need more stealth cards and bleed enhancers.

You can also create a weenie centered around Tryphosa. In this case you might need some blood recovery cards such as Hunting Ground or even Club Zombie. Kindred Spirit can replendish your pool pretty quickly so reverse Blood Dolls might be an option too. These cards slots can be salvaged from the lesser reliance on stealth cards. You however, do need to have some way to get Tryphosa out quickly and defend her if necessary. You can either block with your other weenies, or slot in a few No Trace and/or Behind You! for combat defense. With fat Vampires like Tryphosa you can delicate her to defensive projects that utilised bounce cards such as Telepathic Misdirection or My Enemy's Enemy. Or she can use Shattered Mirror or Voice of Madness to block and avoid combat. With a crypt that relies on her, you might need 4 copies of her (or more) in the crypt.

Bigger Malkavians do have other options. To make it more toolboxy the Malkavians can work with some mid-cap or even high-cap Vampires to create a stronger defense. Traditionally Malkavians and !Malkavians can utilise their high Intercept ability and use Rotschreck plus Disguised Weaponed aggravated weapons such as Ivory Bow (I think the Ivory Bow in the Toreador starter should belong here, the Toreadors have too many guns for their own good already) and Flamethrowers to deter or eliminate attackers. Another card that you can look at for such a direction is Milicent Smith, since it is a favourite among stealth blockers that can block well and stealth well. Decks like these will probably work with mid-cap Vampires for more AUSPEX and discipline spread, and do pack more defensive cards.

The Malkavians also have access to the Madness Network. But that is a totally different animal and requires a completely different set of Vampires and cards, so new players might want to keep away from that for the time being. However, it is one hell of a deadly concept. There are other interesting Malkavian possibilities, like Malkavian Prank decks, Deranged with Social Ladder and so on, which makes the Malkavians one of the more interesteing clans to play with.

Value for Money

The KoT starters are made for value. All of the KoT starters have enough valuable cards (by today's value on ebay) to make buying anyone of them more or less worth it, especially if you needed those cards. For example, all KoT starters have 3 On the Qui Vive and 2 Vessels, and these alone would cost you about US$4-6 if you buy these off ebay individually. Of course, now that the KoT starters pack so many of these in them, the price of these cards will drop over time. I'm guessing that it'll take about another 2-3 months or so for the prices to be stabilized enough to get a better idea of the value of these starters, but at the moment they're really quite worth it to buy.

Among these the Malkavian starters are actually the least valuable. It has the standard compliment of cards, but besides that pack quite few other "valuable" cards when compared to the others. It has a Giant's Blood, 2 Deny, a Coven, and you can consider Bleeding the Vine of some value, plus some lower end cards such as Change of Target and Spying Mission. But besides that it has not much more.

One major change in the KoT starters is that the Vampires in the starters are now only available in the starters. And since they all contain Inner Circles, it will make Inner Circles of these 4 clans exclusive to the starters, and technically they'll eventually be worth a little bit. But we have no indication that they'll be of any value in the short run. (perhaps in the future then)

(o.o)y