Lyrics of the Night : Speed

Lately, the games in our little community seems a lot more vicious than I remembered.

By vicious I mean the predator is generally faster, deadlier, with better focus and well, kills me off quite quickly.

Partly, I blamed my own decks, which I think are generally not accustomed to serious play. On the other hand, I think I'm simply unprepared for the cruel world of reality in Vtes - that speed is of utmost importance in any given serious environment.

I remembered being awed by those 11-cap Inner Circles and super big ultra Vampires who supposedly can single-handedly destroy a whole cabal of their younger offspring, I remembered reading the clan novels and was impressed by the sheer power wield by mighty ancient Vampires such as Moncada or even just Fatima. The fear that these mighty Vampires instill in the Vampire community.

Well, what they do nicely is bleed you for 9+ pool plus give your predator (usually) a round or even 2 to do what they need to do to you.

That's not to say that one shouldn't ever play with fat Vampires. The issue here is to bring them out fast enough for their power to deter, or even completely shut down the predator's attempt to get rid of you quickly.

You see, a good DOM bleed deck can send you a good 6 bleeds with a single Vampire, give him 2 rounds and you might have already lost 12 pool. Couple that with a 11-cap Vampire, you may have already lost the game the moment you bring out your Mistress.

So, if you still want to play with fat Vampires, speed is so important.

Cards like The Eternals of Sirius is too clan-focused. So let's look at the other choices we have - Zillah's Valley, The Tomb of Ramses III and Information Highway.

For fat Vampires, Zillah's and the Tomb are speed enhancers of great effectiveness. The Tomb will actually save you some pool, and Zillah's will cost you extra pool for that speed they give.

The Tomb of Ramses is excellent for Vampires that have means to get their blood back, since the trade-off for Tomb is the loss in the blood when the Vampire comes into play. For this, it intimately favors the Vote decks with Presence to Voter Cap the blood back. Also, it potentially saves you some pool for influencing big Vampires. For 3 pool, you can put it in play, and in that round, for a total of 7 pool, you effectively has 8 transfers on the process of influencing a Vampire - meaning, if you are player 4, you would have gotten yourself a 8-cap Vampire in play (however with only 4 blood on him), and would have saved 1 pool for him. And if you are player 1, you would be able to influence a 10-cap Vampire by round 2 for the cost of 8 pool. This is a necessity for survival against fast predators. In a nutshell, you can use the Tomb for Vampires below 8 cap, but it will cost you pool instead of saving pool. But you still get the speed.

Zillah's Valley is only useable on Vampires of 8 cap or higher. It is a straight forward card though there are players who feel that it is expensive, but one should look beyond the 5 pool cost and you would realize that it is actually a 1-pool cost card that gives you 4 transfers. Again, as player 4, you would be able to call out an 8-cap Vampire at turn 1 with this card.

Both of these cards are dead weight at late or even middle game. They serve very little function once you've gotten your first (and who knows? second) fat Vampire on the table. They take up deck space, since it is quite pointless to include anything less than 3 copies (only?) in the deck if you want to have any decent chance to get them early. And if you don't get them early, they're quite pointless when you eventually get them.

Information Highway, on the other hand, is a speed card in it's own arena. It is however, an unique location, and therefore can be contested, taken, or destroyed. When in play, however, its benefit is commendable.

Many treats Information Highway as absolutely necessary in weenie decks. Information Highway gives you 2 extra transfers the moment it hits the table, it is free, and allows you to get that 2 extra transfers every turn it remains on your side. For weenies, it means moving out another Vampire from the crypt every round with 2 transfers to spare.

But one shouldn't forget the value it has to decks with fat Vampires. Yes, it doesn't give you the kind of speed Zillah's or the Tomb gives, so there's no way you can influence an 8-cap Vampire at round 1 with Information Highway. But by turn 2, it is on par with Zillah's and the Tomb - as player 4, you will effectively have 12 transfers at turn 2, enough to bring out ANYBODY - which means, by turn 2, Information Highway will give you the same speed you get with the other cards.

But what happens when it get contested? (If it's reversed it is reversed, nothing you can do about people hating you) Let's faced it, people like to play Information Highway, and being free it doesn't hurt them to make you pay for the contest. You will not get the speed then.

Well, look on the bright side. You can bargain with them not to contest with you in the beginning, telling them that you'll let them have the Information Highway 2 turns later (or something). If your prey or predator is contesting you, then be glad that at least they are not getting the speed either, which should level the fighting field a little~

Therefore, if you play with Vampires of 8-cap or lower, Zillah's is the best bet, or Tomb of Ramses if your deck is good at putting blood back on Vampires. But if you're playing Vampires of 9-cap and above, Information Highway is every bit better than the other two. Do, however, remember to take into account how many Information Highway players there are, and the chances of contesting it with (or by) somebody in turn 1.

(o.o)