At Your Disposal : Specialization

Not exactly a common card to appear in decks, but it is a reasonably interesting card to include in decks with very focused card economy - namely, decks that use a lot of the same card over and over again.

For decks like these, say, stealth bleeders, their nightmare scenario will be to get stuck in a situation where the whole hand is full of bleed cards and the stealth cards are no where to be found. For example, a Malkavian bleeder has 6 Kindred Spirit and 1 Eye of Chaos, and his prey a single Magaji with No Secrets on him and 3 pool left. How he must have wished for some stealth cards around.

A single Discard phase in the game is hardly enough for situations like these, and focused decks tend to draw into many cards of the same kind very often, because that is what they do. Most of the time it usually wouldn't be a problem, there should be enough minions with enough actions to use up those cards pretty quickly, and most modifiers can be put to good use in order to cycle into another good round of cards for the next round.

But against good players they will usually find a way to clout your hand, the most common way is simply not to block so that you get more and more stealth cards stuck in your hand that is otherwise not useful at all. Or, they could send in combat monsters to send your vampires into torpor when your hand is full of Cryptic Missions instead of combat defense.

It's time like these when extra discard ability to enable you to cycle cards become extremely desirable.

Of course, there are famous discard-abler like the Barrens to use, and stuff like Dreams of the Sphinx is always good to help you get more cards into hand and then discard down to optimize your hand. Compared to these, Specialization is way more "specialized" and therefore not as flexible, and not as effective as those two. Plus, Specialization requires you to make that call to discard your card during the untap phase, and therefore loses the great flexibility of the other discard enablers who allows cycling of hands during other crucial moments.

But in the right deck, Specialization can be pretty effective. It is especially good for decks who does want cards to go into graveyard for their own devious purposes. The famous Shambling Hordes can't wait to find something in the graveyard to animate, Kiss of Lachesis can return equipment back from the ash heap and start wrecking havoc with them at a discounted cost, and I'm sure there must be more.

But even for decks that do not toy with ash heaps, the ability of Specialization to discard 2 instead of 1, and gaining you 1 pool in the process is a pretty good bargain. Plus, it's extremely unlikely that you'll ever need to contest Specialization, making it a pretty reliable card to always provide you the option to cycle your hand.

Not to forget that it is free.

Free is always good.

(o.o)

Lyrics of the Night : Discard

A while ago, while I was still a fledging neonate, an Elder (I can't remember who, I believed he had done something to alter my memory) told me that though it might not be apparent to see the skill of each player with how they work during the various phases of Vtes, it is often apparent if you observe how they handled their Discard phase. Today, I can't agree more. Sometimes I felt that the Discard phase of Vtes is often the one with the most difficult decision to make, round after round.

Vtes's unique system of replace one card as you play one card assures you (normally) of 7 resource cards in your hand pretty much most of the game. In the best case scenario, you want to have the exact cards in your hand that you need - be it a bleed card, a bounce card, a combat card, or even just a wake card. You should have a Master card for every Master phase (at least 1), and all the right tools of trade to tackle the current situation at hand.

Most good deck-builders (or like me, good net-deckers) have decks that are pretty much prepared for most common situation - that is to say, we all have the cards that we need, somewhere in the deck, though may not be in the right ratio, and very often not in the right place - namely, not in hand when you needed it most. This is where the Discard phase comes in.

The Discard phase is just that, discard what you think you don't need, and hope to draw into something you do, which is of course, related to how you build your deck. So technically, every turn you get a chance to throw away something you don't need, and draw a new card to get something more useful.

But here's the challenge. For Master phase, most of the time you just play whatever Master you have, as long as you can afford it. This is usually because most decks don't have enough Master cards for you to make decisions round after round (unless you're playing my Misery Tour deck); during the Minion phase you do what you do anyway, and unless you really don't have any idea what you're playing, or your hand is really really bad, you shouldn't be too confused. And Influence phase, you influence, normally dictated by your pool, your cards in hand, your crypt and what you like - and you only have 4 (normally) minions to choose from - no rocket science there.

The Discard phase, however, present you with several scenarios for you to make decisions every round, over and over again, and IMHO, it really test your skill as a Vtes player.

The first case is the easiest, it's when you have all the cards you need, and you're very sure of it. Either the cards in your hand are truly optimized for your plans next round (or for your defense), and you have no need to discard any. This is really rare for most decks, but pretty common for straight forward decks such as Stealth Bleeders, or most weenie decks.

Most of the time you will have some card(s) that you would rather have traded for something else in your deck - for example, you hold a Deflection but has no wake cards, and all you expect all your Vampires to be tapped by the time your predator start to work on you. In this scenario you have to discard a card to hope for the wake, but which card should you discard?

This is where the understanding of your deck ratio, the chance of getting what you need, and the opportunity cost of either absorbing the bleed and therefore retain a potential card that you could use next round, or drop the plan A and hope to draw into the card that you need right now.

The Discard phase therefore requires you to do several things -

1. Predict, or guess what your predator/prey (table) will be doing and how you want to react to it.

2. What are the chances of drawing into the card that you have in mind, or some similar cards that you may need?

3. Do you have enough copies of the card that you're discarding, and will you need it later?

4. Your plans for the next round, do you already have what you need, and if not, do you want to discard potentially useful cards in hand now to hope for the right card that you can draw into.

Once you've decided on one or all of these, you will have to choose the card to discard. Sometimes it is easy, sometimes it is not. Even the choice of not discarding is not always easy to make, and always right, even though you may "think" you already have all the right cards. The opposite is also correct.

So a lot of thinking will go into the Discard phase, often more than all the other phases. (except maybe the minion phase, since there will be a lot of actions and reactions) The Discard phase if for you to reorganize, rethink, plan, and prepare.

I'm sure you will agree with me, that this is the most challenging phase to work on, most of the time.

(o.o)

Skirmishes in the Dark : 26-01-2010

26th January, in the year 2010, Paradigm Infinitum.

Another great night for Vtes. Well, after a couple of days sinking my fingers (and the cash in the wallet) into my iPhone App Store, I was quite happy to have a break from that demonic machine and went down to the store for some welcomed Vtes action.

I was a little late due to work and a game was going on when I arrived. However, I was too engrossed in the Zombeat iPhone game to really care what was going on and hence had no idea what went on for that game (since it didn't involve me), see how devious these little machines are? I swear these iPhones have superior DOM.

Anyway, after dinner, I sat down for some proper Vtes game.

Randomized seating for Game 1, as usual, I was player 1...

My Cryptic Mission deck, bleeding

Shermin's Vote deck, bleeding

G1's Assamite Anarchs, bleeding

Damien's Rutor's Cryptic, bleeding

Ben Sum's !Toreador Vote.

Due to the relative small size of my Vampires, though I did not have enough Information Highway (pretty interesting how rare these are over here, just impossible to get), I still managed to have 2 vampires out by turn 2. I managed to hold on to the Edge for 2 rounds and recruited a Young Blood. Shermin soon had Mary Ann Blaire, but was trapped between my Cryptic attacks and G1's on-board intercept provided by Anarch Free Press. G1 got .44s onto Janni and 2 more Assamites pretty quickly and in the very first round, almost send Damien's Mariel into torpor. But Damien got lucky and slapped a Secure Haven on her, and a long, dragged out battle ensued between his 3 vampires, and G1's Assamites. Relying on the Perfectionists and the Rutor's Hand, Damien managed to hold off the assaults from G1 pretty well, and still managed to grab time to give Ben some bleeds. Ben, on the other hand, probably had a bad draw, and saw Venere Carboni and Jessica not calling many votes nor succeed in much bleeds. Jessica's cap made her vulnerable to the Young Bloods and therefore she maintained untapped most of the time.

Meanwhile, I had Succubus into play and had a spread of 4 vampires, all with superior THA. My Cryptic Mission soon forced Venere to hunt pretty much every round, and a blocked bleed from Brook turned out a Burst of Sunlight which sent Mary Ann into torpor. Shermin brought out Epikasta Rigatos but she was soon bloodless thanks to a backward rush from G1 and some Cryptic help from my vampires. G1 sent his Blood Turnip everywhere and when Shermin was almost down, decided to put it on my Succubus and shot her to death. Just when I was ready to return the favor, Ben decided to throw an Aired Bleed of 3 to me. That attempt reduced my pool to 5 and I was forced to look backwards again. 2-3 rounds later, thanks to a Vessel on Hannigan and the timely ousting of Shermin, my pool was back to a reasonable 12, and Ben's Venere basically didn't do anything after that.

I was stuck at this point because I didn't really have the cards to handle G1. Therefore I made a deal with him and waited for the right time. It was then Damien decided to take out Brook and started contesting her with me. But his gesture in helping Ben wasn't appreciated, and Ben put out a Secure Haven and contested Damien's copy instead. That pretty much signed Damien's death warrent (and all of ours, for that matter). Damien was ousted in 2 rounds after that, and then all my vampires went down in a hail of .44 bullets. Ben had no better luck and soon all his vampires were in torpor too.

We called it a G1 victory.

Final VP count -

G1 - 4 VPs plus GW

Me - 1 VP

We then started another game.

Randomized seating as below -

Damien's Assamite Atone deck, bleeding

My Misery Tour, bleeding

BK's new Malkavian deck, bleeding

Ben Sum's !Toreador Vote, bleeding

G1's Cock Robin deck.

Damien influenced Janni as his first vampire, supported by a WMRH and a Market Square, making her the ultimate Interceptor the moment she slapped an Atonement on her. I called out Pariah, followed by Boss Calihan. Pariah got his PRE discipline card in turn 3, and was able to bleed with Legal Manipulation successfully against BK in round 3. That was a sample of what was to come for BK's new unprepared deck. BK eventually brought out Lutz and successfully called a KRC, but didn't manage to Voter Cap that one. Ben had Jessica on table and soon merged her. Supported by a Powerbase Madrid he was in a good position, but he was intimidated by G1's Cock Robin, and therefore didn't manage to do much with his vampire.

It was a replay of previous round's combat as G1's Cock Robin and Damien's Assamite slugged it out in the open with Guns and Fists, and G1 still came out the winner. But with Hunting Ground and blood supply Damien continued to fight on relentlessly and it took G1 quite a while to eventually put Damien down. But not before I ousted BK with my stealth bleeds. It took me too long as Pariah was unable to be powered by Master card for 3 rounds, or BK would've been gone way earlier. BK was ousted also because he took a great risk and brought out Tryphosa, bringing his pool to 1 while I had 2 vampires and he only had 1 untapped one. I sent Tryphosa into torpor with Pariah's Wolf Claws, and successfully stealth through with Boss Calihan to bleed for 1. Lutz was awakened to Telepathic Misdirect it to Ben, and then, unbelievable, for a measly bleed of 1 while having more than 15 pool, Ben decided to bounce it back to BK. This of course, resulted in BK's demise and given me 6 pool and 1 VP.

After Damien is gone I made a deal with Ben to not send any KRC my way in exchange for an attack against Cock Robin. Pariah went in to fight Cock Robin, and managed to send him into torpor and forced him to burn the Warsaw Station to bring him out from torpor immediately or risked being diablerized. But after Ben's turn I saw that Ben was not doing anything at all against G1 and I would be forced to fight on 2 grounds which I was pretty sure I cannot win. With that thought, and that the night was getting late, I made a deal with G1 to get my VP and then cede the game.

Of course, against 2 combat decks like ours going after his vampires, Ben stood no chance. We called it a day.

Final VP count -

G1 - 3 VPs plus GW

Me - 2 VPs.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Perfectionist

One of the best, if not the best archetype cards in Vtes, Perfectionist is becoming so common and useful that it is unthinkable to not see a single one on a table of five nowadays. It is one free and effective card that as far as I can see, offers no reason not to have it in pretty much any deck where the Vampires you control requires blood to do anything.

First off, this is a very common card used in combat, bleeds and any blood-intensive decks. It offers a recurring +1 blood to the Vampire that it attached to whenever the Vampire performs an action successfully without any other players playing a reaction card.

This is especially useful with Vampires that are able to perform multiple actions, either with Freak Drive-like effects or with the ability to untap every round to do something (such as in a Madness Network). This will almost guarantee that the Perfectionist will come into play every round, giving you that extra 1 blood for doing something that you wanted, and needed to do anyway.

What you do with that extra blood is all up to you, but off hand, you can already see how much help this card will add to your Vampire. For example, a single hunt will give you 2 blood instead of one, and that extra blood can be used to power a Freak Drive to allow you to do something else - net gain, 1 blood. Or, with Perfectionist-empowered Governed the Unaligned, you're effectively bleeding for 3 at no cost. (assuming no one plays a reaction card and you're successful of course). You can also enter combat with one extra blood for that extra safety (the enter combat action is successful and you get the blood before combat commence), or get one extra blood for that Awe in a referendum you just called. (Same concept)

There are players who compared this to the other blood gaining Archetype card for bleeders - Capitalist. The main difference is that Capitalist only allows you to gain 1 blood upon a successful bleed against your prey, and nothing else. Against a dedicated bleed deck it's probably not a big deal, and it does alleviate a main problem that Perfectionist will face in a deck like this - against a Stealth Bleeder (or a Power Bleed, for that matter), most prey will play anything to avoid allowing the predator's vampires in gaining anything to power their bleed next round, and therefore, many reaction cards will probably be played to avoid Perfectionist coming into play. With Capitalist this problem is resolved since playing reaction cards will not cancel the effect of a Capitalist. Of course, if the bleed is bounced then it gets nothing, but in those cases Perfectionist wouldn't be helping either.

Despite this Perfectionist is still an excellent card to have in a deck as a blood gainer. Unless your Vampires are not thinking about taking actions a lot in a game (Like a Wall Deck), or your Vampires have very little need for blood (like Malkavian Stealth Bleeders), you should have Perfectionist in your deck to supplement blood gain. Even a Perfectionist Mouse with 2 Vessels on it is almost guaranteed to bloat you 2 pool every turn.

Again, why not?

Unless of course, you are Imbued.

(o.o)

PC is down!

My computer is not responding, so was sent for repair.

This post is done with the iPhone.

No matter what they tell you about typing with the iPhone, I tell you typing with it is a pain.

Don't let anyone else convince you otherwise. Typing is not iPhone's forte.

Or at least not mine.

(o.o)o

Skirmishes in the Dark : 19-01-2010

19th January, of the year 2010, Paradigm Infinitum.

Too much work (watching Full Metal Alchemist 6 times (8 now...) can be a little tiring), plus quite a bit of iPhoning leads to be arriving at the store late. By the time I got there the game had started. But the night was still young and soon many more players streamed in to the store and I actually got to have 3 games and still had no need to take a cab home~

Game 1

Randomized seating as below -

My Art of Shadows deck, bleeding

Ben Chia's Cock Robin deck, bleeding

Jeff's Malkavian Guns, bleeding

Keith's Asylum deck.

This is a most sad day for my Lasombras, evidenced in the extreme bad hand that I've drawn (7 stealth cards...). On the other hand, every discard phase brought me a really good replacement. I soon had Antonio Delgardo and Ignatio on the table, since I drawn a Zillah's Valley after I discarded my first Shadow Play, and managed to draw into a DOM master card to make Ignation my Deflector.

The game turned down stream from that point onward.

Keith soon got his deck set up, with 5 Vampires, of which 2, or 3, had superior NEC, and then he slapped 2 Mental Patience on the table, plus a Gregory Winters. I had zero combat cards. I made a very complicated deal with Ben to allow me to recruit Mylan Horseed, whom presence protected my vampires for about 1 round before he was sent to oblivion via a Chair of Hades (now this IS rare).

I did hurt Ben quite a bit with my KRC, and my final 5 point bleed got bounced around until it hit Keith... but all 3 of my vampires fell prey to repeated Compel-ed Mental Patients' aggravated attacks, and I was the first to be ousted.

Meanwhile, Ben was having a great time fighting with Jeff's Malkavians, whom had quite a bit of issue with the Mental Patients too. Zoe and Dana, though supplemented with guns, somehow didn't have enough firepower to punch through Keith's mad defenses. Even Lucian's presence in his entourage did not deal much damage to Keith. In return, Dana was sent into torpor by Ben's POT attacks, and Lucian eventually fell prey to the patients.

Ben eventually ousted Jeff, but I couldn't remember much after that, I think I went around to get the several new Black Library books at that point~ I did had 3 vampires burnt by Gregory Winters and a Mylan Horseed disposed by Chair of Hades... it was quite a sad day for the Lasombras~

Game 2

Randomized seating as below -

My (again) Art of Pain deck, bleeding

G1's Nosferatu vote, bleeding

Shermen (welcome!)'s vote deck, bleeding

Ben Sum's !Toreador Vote, bleeding

YY's Kiasyd bleed.

My deck didn't have a chance against a dedicated bleeder like YY. Bringing out Greta Kircher, I struggle to keep myself alive. Didn't draw into Telepathic Misdirection, but instead have a whole hand of combat and bleed, my life was pretty short in this game too... I relied on Telepathic Counter and Greta's ability to reduce the bleeds, but YY bounced many of Ben's Aired bleeds to me. Having only one single vampire, I soon succumbed to the consistent attacks.

G1 did Deep Song YY's Quincy to keep me alive for a lot longer than I otherwise could, but my defense and G1's attack, plus Ben's occasional KRC damaged YY enough that he was the second one to be ousted after I was gone. G1 then obviously was in a really good position, and he eventually gotten rid of Shermen and Ben.

Final VP count -

G1 - 3 VP plus GW

YY - 1 VP

Ben - 1 VP

Game 3

To be continued...

Booking Your Time - Daybreakers

About time there is a proper movie with proper Vampires. I'm willing to bet $1 that Twilight is commissioned by the Camarilla to make the new generation of kine to become more susceptible to embracing and will definitely facilitate recruiting ghouls.

Glittering Vampires. Hah.

Nevertheless, Daybreakers is a pleasant surprise for a Vampire movie. In the show the Vampires do all the Vampire things - they scheme, they drink blood, they have no reflection in the mirrors (Lasombras?), they turn to dust when they get a sunburn, and people they bite do turn into Vampires too.

There is a good amount of violence and blood, and a great deal of red eyes and monstrous Nosferatu-like mutated vampire thingy, but the coolest thing is that there is actually a vampire economic model in a vampire society. That is really pretty cool.

And the story, though simple and a little too predictable, does make for a good evening entertainment movie. The cast are good enough for me, and the acting reasonable. This movie has almost everything you can look for in a Vampire show - blood, REAL vampires, violence, crossbows, guns, bats, last stand defense, car race, intrigue (a little), tragedy (of sorts) and a lot of dark places. But, hey, no sex (but there is nudity, and definitely sex appeal of a sort).

Recommend it for all Vampire fans, it is well worth the time and the $8 for it. But don't expect too much, it is only a B-movie~ a really good one, as far as I'm concerned.

And no way this is going to be commissioned by the Camarilla.

(o.o)

A New Prince!

I'm pleased to announce to the world that Praxis Seizure : Singapore has been called and YY is now our new shiny prince.

We look forward to his leadership in the coming dark nights.

\\(O,o)//

Skirmishes in the Dark : 12-01-2010

12th January, in the year 2010, Paradigm Infinitum.

Took some effort to drag myself to the store to play Vtes tonight, telling myself that spending anymore time on the iPhone is a bad idea, I do need to get out more often~ I reached the store a little late and a table of 4 had already started. I sat around observing the game for quite a while before enough players gathered to start another table.

Here's the randomized seating for game 1:

Player 1 is YeiQi's Malkavian Prank, bleeding

Jeff's Malkavian Guns, bleeding

QX's Black Hand Assamite guns, bleeding

My Cryptic Mission, bleeding

Damien's Cryptic Mission.

Gee, 2 Cryptic Mission deck on 1 table, and in a predator-prey relationship...

The game started off fast and furious with me calling Sarah Cobbler to my side as the first Vampire, slapped a Vessel on her, summon a Rafastio Ghoul, and started Cryptic Mission Damien's 2 2-cap Vampires whom he influenced in turn 1. YeiQi influenced a couple mid-cap Malkavian, and was bolstered with an excellent round of Malkavian Prank, putting her pool at a very good position. Meanwhile, Jeff bought a Submachine Gun for Dancing Dana (I think) and has Jackie Thermen driving for her, making her a deadly combatant. QX brought out Djuhah (and Reza plus Yazid, eventually) but didn't manage to get any guns till way later, he did slapped a Tatoo Signal on Djuhah and was having great fun untapping Reza (usually for nothing much except hunting) An early Tension in the Ranks was added to the table by the Assamites.

Meanwhile, I quickly had about 6 minions on table after a Blood Doll and a Vessel supplemented my pool recovery. A timely Society of Leopold and a Charnas pretty much shut down Damien's low cap vampire, but by then he has Mariel under his service, and Mariel soon got herself a Rutor's Hand for extra services.

The first combat was between Reza and Dana, whom had Reza at zero blood after eating the Blurred Submachine Gun fire from her. QX was too afraid of my Cryptic Mission to provoke me and hence I was doing all I can to Damien without much pressure from my predator. Jeff, however, was suffering from the Malkavian's Kindred Spirits since YeiQi in turn wasn't very bothered by her predator as Damien was busy trying to keep his vampires working.

Jeff was soon ousted by YeiQi's stealth bleeds, but not before YeiQi made the blunder of attacking a Submachine Gun mounted on Jackie's car with a Celerity Gunner... I was successful in bleeding Damien to death by stealing away all his Vampires' blood and bleeding him when he had only 1 pool left, there was no way of surviving that since having a single vampire in torpor will result in Damien's death via the Tension in the Ranks.

The battle got very much more intense with a Fame slapped on one of the Malkavians, and both Yazid and the Vampire went torpor when Yazid managed to block him. YeiQi proceeded to diablerized Yazid with General Perfidio, and got his gun and bike instead. After a fierce combat, all but the General was torpored by the Assamites, and only a single Assamite remained standing defending QX's 3 pool.

By then I already had 8 minions on the table, every single one with superior THA. We decided to call it a day and let me win.

Final VP Count -

Me - 4 VPs plus GW

YeiQi - 1 VP

We started another game with only 4 players, here's the randomized seating-

Player 1 is BK's !Malkavian stealth bleed, bleeding

My Cryptic Mission, bleeding

Dzaki's Gangrel Wall, bleeding

YeiQi's Malkavian Stealth Bleed

Again, I am the one to bring out the first vampire on the table Roreca, and actually get to keep the Edge for 1 round to benefit from the pool gain before losing it to the table. Dzaki's first Vampire was Ryder and he was to be my bane for the entire game due to his in-built +1 Intercept. BK quickly started bleeding me with his Kindred Spirits and stealth, but I was able to bounce almost all of it to my prey, and I target my Cryptic Mission on his vampires since I have no way of getting across Ryder.

Meanwhile, YeiQi did a lot of bleed damage to BK, facing absolutely no opposition from the !Malkavians, and wasn't too pressured by the predator as Dzaki's deck usually takes a while to "warm up". I had to intervene and send some of my Cryptic Mission to disable YeiQi's vampire, forcing her to hunt and therefore be blocked and torpored by Dzaki's Raven Spy-ed Ryder.

Once Dzaki had Randall in his service he started to put more pressure on YeiQi, but even with a Tier of Soul-ed Randall he wasn't able to damage YeiQi enough for her not to be able to replace her losses with Kindred Spirit bleeds that are pretty much 100% successful. BK give in to destiny and after fighting for a while, fell prey to YeiQi's bleeds.

By this time I had about 6 minions on the table, including Talaq, the Immortal. A crucial turn when Ryder was tapped and unable to react I reduced his blood to 1 and bled Dzaki for 3. I was given another great turn by bouncing YeiQi's 4 bleeds to Dzaki successfully, giving me the chance to oust Dzaki with weenie bleeds.

But I wasn't able to face off YeiQi's consistent stealth bleed and was soon bleed to death.

It was a rather fast game...

Final VP Count -

Me - 1 VP

YeiQi - 3 VP plus GW

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Typhonic Beast

How anyone besides Enkidu can do this in "real" life I don't know, but this is one combat card to reckon with if your minion can pull it off properly. This is that kind of combat card that can be pretty much the majority of a deck and solve the majority of your fighting issue with almost any other physical threat, and combine with what the POT discipline also provide, it makes a deadly combat indeed.

This card, like most of the duo-discipline card, is pretty pointless at SER only level. One blood for +1 STR, despite it not being a common thing that SER can do, is really too expensive and too cumbersome. But once you add in basic POT into the package, the card become quite fearsome.

For the cost of one blood, this vampire in combat now not only has a +1 STR, but can also prevent 1 damage, for EACH Typhonic Beast that he plays. Yes, multiple copies can be played, and their bonuses stack. So, if you play 2 Typhonic Beasts, your vampire will have +2 STR and can prevent 2 damage EACH round, making this vampire a deadly opponent without needing to play any other card.

When both disciplines reach the superior level, this card can now be the death of almost every non-combat ready deck. With a press for the round, assuming that the opposing vampire has no means to press to end, or hit harder than you can and torpor your vampire before you torpor his, he's going to suffer from a cycle of Typhonic Beast attacks. This is how it normally works - Round 1 you play 1 Typhonic Beast, hit him for 2 and usually absorbs the one damage, press to continue. Now play another Typhonic Beast before range at round 2, now hit him for 3, and absorb up to 2 damage, press to continue. Rinse and Repeat until he dies. This single card will and can be repeatedly used against every vampire that he has and is probably going to be effective against him again and again.

The number of Typhonic Beasts to use in the first round is usually the key. This decision is of course determined by your perception of the challenge faced by your minion - is the opposing deck going to strike hard? Is it going to have additional strikes? Is he likely to combat end and do you have anyway of stopping him from doing that? How many blood can this vampire afford to spend? You should play just enough to survive and then use the presses to continue combat and then play more Typhonic Beasts subsequently.

The main issue with this card is that, though it is reasonable powerful, it actually only works when supported by other cards. The good news is that those other cards are already normally very useful in this kind of deck.

Issue one is blood cost - though the opponent might not hurt you with his punches, you still deplete yourself with the Typhonic Beast blood cost, 1 every round. This is too expensive to keep up. There are several ways to deal with this - one, is to use Taste of Vitae to taste back the damage you deal to the opponent, and let it power your beast. You don't need to use Taste every round of course, that would be an overkill unless your vampire is short on blood. Another way is to use Path of Typhon if you're using Settites (which is the normal clan of choice for this card), and since Typhonic Beast is considered a SER card, it becomes free. You however, need to defend the Path since pretty much everyone will target it eventually.

Issue two is the means to get into combat. You can either build your deck as a bruise bleed deck, using the Settites' PRE bleed as a ousting tech and eventually force your prey to block and enter combat. On the other hand, having some enter combat cards such as Ambush or Bum's rush is always good.

Issue three is against specific combat type - specifically combat ends and FOR decks. Immortal Grapple from the POT discipline will solve the large majority of combat end cards, and it also provides a press at the superior level. As for FOR decks, just carry on combat until they run out of FOR cards.

The last issue is the lack of vampires that has the superior level of both disciplines. Though technically it is possible to use Master Discipline cards to augment that, but that is slow and cumbersome. Viable and cheap vampires with both disciplines are rare and hard to come by, the youngest I can find is 7-cap, Maskini and Bupe Kuila (both are excellent vampires by the way).

There are some cards that naturally add on to the might of this card, Path of Typhon being one of them, Immortal Grapple, any rush cards, Trap (who adds to the presses), Disarm and so on. But any deck that uses this card extensively will suffer from a very quick depletion of library, and eventually run out of steam after facing off two, or even just one prey.

Even moderate use of this card is a good deterrent to combat, hitting for 2 while preventing 1 damage every round is no joke, and even strong combat decks might have issues with that over several rounds.

(o.o)

The iPhone is bleeding me

Just got myself an iPhone, and has been busily downloading applications. This is going to keep me busy for a week or two... iPhone bleeds for 39 at the moment. (o.o)-$

Singing a New Tune - Army of Shadows

Crypt (12 vampires)

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

3x Ambrosio Luis Moncada, Plenipotentiary

2x Gratiano

1x Angelica, The Canonicus

1x Antonio Delgado de Polonia

1x Francisco Domingo

1x Guido Lucciano

1x Ignacio, The Black Priest

1x Ramiro

1x Aaron Duggan, Cameron' Toady

Library (90 cards)

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Action (15)

7x Creation Rites

8x Govern the Unaligned

Action Modifier (17)

3x Bonding

1x Conditioning

2x Nightshades

2x Seduction

5x Shadow Play

2x Shroud of Night

2x Tenebrous Form

Action Modifier/Reaction (4)

4x Murmur of the False Will

Ally (1)

1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Combat (11)

3x Arms of the Abyss

1x Entombment

4x Oubliette

2x Shadow Body

1x Thrown Gate

Equipment (1)

1x Zaire River Ferry

Master (19)

1x Black Forest Base

1x Creepshow Casino

2x Dominate

1x Dreams of the Sphinx

1x Elysian Fields

1x Giant's Blood

1x Obtenebration

1x Perfectionist

1x Political Hunting Ground

1x Power Structure

1x Powerbase: Madrid

1x Secure Haven

1x Visit from the Capuchin

5 x Zillah's Valley

Political Action (12)

1x Banishment

4x Consanguineous Boon

1x Disputed Territory

6x Kine Resources Contested

Reaction (10)

5x Deflection

1x Fillip

2x On the Qui Vive

2x Redirection

A very standard Lasombra Breed Vote deck that has the typical bleed power of a DOM-able clan. This deck doesn't have the flexibility and reliability of the Kiasyds when it comes to combat defense, stealth or bleed, but focus on the vote power given by the titles, and especially the Power Structure augmented by the Creation Rites when enough are in play. Ambrosio is the best Vampire to have around whenever feasible, but he should be supported by at least one more deflect-able Vampire.

This is one of the oldest deck that has kept me company, and in general do perform admirably in most situation - bleed with DOM and stealth while waiting to secure votes, vote if you can or you have intercept heavy opponents, defend against rushers with OBT combat, and bounce bleeds to your prey when appropriate.

Simple, and straight forward, and a lot of shadowy fun.

(o.o)

Skirmishes in the Dark : 05-01-2010

5th of January, in the year 2010, Paradigm Infinitum.

Our first Vtes night in 2010. Probably due to the new year, today's turn out is a little low, boasting only 10 Methuselahs, and most of the newer players didn't turn up, probably due to school or work. Nevertheless, we started the night with good spirits.

I managed to get 2 games this night.

Game 1's randomized seating as follows:

My Misery Tour deck, bleeding

G1's !Salubri deck, bleeding

Donkey's Una deck, bleeding

Jeff's Malkavian Celerity deck (Welcome back!)

I brought out Pariah as my first Vampire and enhanced him with a Presence and a Vessel immediately, I then supported him with Zachary. G1 had Nkechi, Langa, and eventually Dela Eden and Aredhel. Una was Donkey's first and key Vampire, but he also engaged the service of Maria Stone and Skryta Zyleta. Jeff brought out Nik, and then Zoe and Did Meyers.

G1 proceeded to call out his Brothers-in-arms, soon he had about 2-3 running around. A Path of Retribution was played and G1's deck started to pound on Donkey with zest. Donkey's attempt to prepare Una was met with stiff resistance from Jeff's London Eveningstar enhanced Vampires. Zoe concealed weaponed a Submachine Gun and employed Jackie Therman as her driver, and became the most feared Malkavian on the table. Una's many attempts were thwarted by Zoe, and the several bleeds didn't manage to go through the Malkavians' Spirit Touches. Zoe Bum's Rush my Zachary and sent him to torpor with a Blurred Submachine gun shot, and right starting from there I went to defensive mode.

I bled G1 for 1 or 2 a round with Pariah until I see an opening against my predator. Jeff wasn't updated with the new Fame rules so his deck's main "Fame" ousting wasn't able to be executed now. Since Didi Myers didn't have a gun, Pariah took a risk and entered combat with her and sent her to torpor with a Claws of the Dead. One of G1's Brother-in-Arms then diablerized her and took the Submachine Gun, after making a deal with Una not to burn him during the Blood Hunt.

By this time G1 was in a good position as he was barely threatened by me, and his combat was deadly enough to deter Donkey from really dealing very well against him. My Social Charms kept my pool healthy enough to influence Harry Reese to augment my entourage and he rescued Zachary to beef up my defense.

At one point Una was torpored by G1's Eye of Unforgiving Heaven, and Harry went ahead to rescue him. All of us (except G1) were facing extinction, so I decided that I should help G1 sweep instead. (probably my worst mistake) I allowed G1 to bounce my Social Charm to Donkey and actually stealthed through and Aired for 4 bleeds. I then make a casual comment that whoever got the first VP will have Pariah's loyalty.

Donkey Vesseled and Minion Tapped his Vampires to survive, and actually manage to kill Jeff and got the first VP. Pariah instantly became Una's dog.

My combat against G1 was ineffective, but my bleeds were. At one point G1 was reduced to 2 pool while I still have Harry Reese untapped. Unfortunately that's all I could do and G1 survived by playing 3 Ashur Tablets to regain his Telepathic Misdirection and 3 pool.

I allowed Donkey to oust me, but Donkey had too thin a deck left to deal with G1, so Donkey conceded and we prepare for the next game.

Final VP Count -

G1 - 2 VP

Donkey - 2VP

Game 2's randomized seating-

YY's Assamite Assassins, bleeding

Keith's Mental Patients, bleeding

QX's YY Kiasyd bleed deck, bleeding

My Army of Shadows deck, bleeding

G1's Assamite Black Hands.

YY influenced (I think was) Joe Boot Hill followed by Yazid Tamari, and equipped them both with a Sports Bike. Keith had a number of Vampires, but the only ones I could remember was Dolphin Black. Only one of Keith's Vampires had Superior Necromancy though, so his Compel tech took a while to execute. QX had Pherydima and Roderick Phillips March, and trained Roderick into a Capitalist. I went to Zillah's Valley and influenced Moncada, and supported him with Romiro and eventually Guido. G1 had Izhim and Djuhah as usual, and soon tacked them with Tatoo Signal.

While YY and Keith went on a few sparring, nothing very significant happened over there. Keith ended up with at least 5 Vampires, and was doing the Sudario Refraction to cycle his cards. One single Mental Patient Escaped the Asylum but did nothing while waiting for a superior Necro Giovanni to come to work. So Keith just bleed with Kindred Spirits and that was quite damaging to QX since he didn't draw into Deflections.

Meanwhile QX seemed to have a very bad hand as he hardly bleed me with anything good. A couple of Governed the Unaligned, a single Threat, and some Bonding was all he could do. I kept my Vampires untapped to Deflect it to G1, causing a lot of damage to him. I made a mistake during a round where Romiro ran of blood to Deflect and was bled about 6 that single turn - the previous turn I saw that QX had no bleed enhancers, which is why I took the risk, but well~

I perform a single Creation Rites with Ambrosio, and throw down Power Structure and Powerbase Madrid, securing my vote superiority. A Black Forest Base then allowed me to bloat a little while slowly but inevitable bleeding and KRC-ing G1 to death. G1's Weeping Stone didn't really help him and eventually he succumbed to my Deflections and bleeds.

Meanwhile, QX was not doing that well against Keith's multiple attacks, and eventually was ousted by the many Kindred Spirits. Moncada was Contracted by the Assamites, but was lucky enough to equip a Zaire River Ferry. His in-built 1-pool cost to direct an action was also effective in deterring YY from immediately getting rid of him. I made a deal with YY on not attacking my vampires, in return of not causing any pool damage.

But I deviously Banish his Yazid instead. In retrospect I should've wait a little and let YY deal more damage to Keith, since I had very little defense against a now running Compelled Patience combat package.

I did manage to oust YY though, but after that I simply couldn't keep my Vampires from going into torpor one by one. Though Ambrosio was pretty safe on his Ferry, he couldn't block anything...neither can my Mylan Horseed...thus ended the Lasombra's attempt to dominate this table.

Final VP Count-

Me - 2 VP

Keith - 3 VP plus GW

(o.o)

Singing a New Tune - Journal of Noir

Crypt (12 vampires)

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10x Mr. Noir

2x Saulot, The Wanderer

Library (90 cards)

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Action (17)

6x Blood Bond

7x Spirit Marionette

4x Zip Line

Action Modifier (48)

42x Freak Drive

7x Repulsion

Combat (6)

6x Anesthetic Touch

Equipment (8)

8x Journal of Hrorsh

Master (10)

1x Creepshow Casino

2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany

1x Monastery of Shadows

1x Secure Haven

2x Stranger Among Us, The

1x Sunset Strip, Hollywood

2x Wash

Inspired by BK's Noir Journal deck we came up with this untested concept of a bloat deck that may be able to work.

Basically the idea is to get Noir out by first turn, since there is a good 50% chance for a player to be player 3 or 4 to influence Noir out immediately. It would be perfect if you have one of the Journal in hand, which Noir will then proceed to equip as the first action unless he sees that there is a need to change his hand by either bleeding to get rid of Spirit Marionette, equip Zip Line to ensure Journal's safety, or Hunt and Freak Drive to get into the right cards.

Once the Journal has been equipped on Noir successfully, Noir will hunt and Freak Drive until he runs out of Freak Drives in hand. Remember to bleed once if you can. Once you have expired all the Freak Drives in your hand, burn Noir to bloat with all the successful counters that is on the Journal. Bring out the next Noir.

If you happen to have Saulot in the uncontrolled region, start influencing him when you can, if not, wait for The Stranger Among Us to bring him out. Repeat the Journal bloat with Noir until Saulot is on table.

Use Saulot carefully, make sure you have Repulsion on him as soon as possible, then Blood Bond the prey's Vampire when you can, and Saulot can do whatever he wants, either Spirit Marionette or bleed and eliminate the prey.

The idea of this deck is to leave defense to complete and very fast bloating - using Noir to fully enhance your pool so as to ignore all the attacks up stream. By turbo-Freak Driving you should soon have the hand that you most needed to handle most situation.

The problem with this deck is that it runs out of cards really quickly, and there are very few ways to get it back. Ashur Tablets are too slow, and adding in a !Brujah doesn't really make a lot of sense here. Also, with only one active vampire doing the killing, the bleed is going to be quite slow, and therefore not very fast in killing. Combat is minimal, and so dedicated rush deck will still kill off this deck quickly. Once Mr Noir goes into torpor before Saulot is on table...gg

(o.o)y

Skirmishes in the Dark : 31-12-2009

31st December, in the year 2009, Paradigm Infinitum.

Well, didn't expect to actually have a chance to play Vtes on New Year's eve, but I did. Got some time off and decided to try my luck in PI and actually did manage to gather enough players to play not just 1, but 2 games! I then still had the chance to witness one more game before going home for the new year. Here's the details.

Game One's randomized seating:

My Misery Tour deck bleeding

Bann's Blood Sisters, bleeding

BK's !Salubri deck, bleeding

G1's Assamite bleed, bleeding

Ben Sum's Aching Beauty Deck.

On a note, for the 2 games that I played, the randomized seating ended up putting me as the first player twice. Not just that, but the existing seating where the different participants were already taking, didn't need to change. (Everybody is already sitting at where they need to be in terms of prey-predator relationship - no moving around is needed.) Interesting...

Early Game-

I brought in Pariah, as usual, and slap a Presence on him pretty early. I supplement my cohort with Lena Rowe after that. Bann had all the Menors plus one Mayor, bleeding BK's assortment of !Salubri. G1 got off a bad start, as BK proceeded to pound Djuhah into torpor with Adonai in the very first exchange, and after that, G1 pretty much given up the game. That gave Ben his free reign by pulling out Epikasta and making her an aching Beauty.

The table was out of balance very quickly when I struggled to survive under Ben's persistent bleeding. Meanwhile, Bann and BK got into a lot of fist fights with the !Salubris combat packages challenging the Sisters' Thrown Gates. Both were reasonably weakened at the end of the day.

With no predator pressure Ben was having a good time using his PRE bleeds on me. Even with Pariah I wasn't really able to stop him much. I got lucky with an Archon Investigation and got rid of Epikasta, though by then Ben had a few more Toreadors running around giving me problems.

Mid-Late Game.

Can't really recall what happened after that. I remembered seeing many Sisters in torpor and BK having only 1 pool left when he was ousted. Whether I did that or Bann did that I honestly couldn't recall. I had good reasons to forget what happened in this game as the last game in 2009 was really something to talk about. More on that later.

Final VP Count-

Not sure.

Game Two's randomized seating -

Again, I stay as player 1, with my Army of Shadows deck, bleeding

Bann's Cybele deck, bleeding

BK's new Noir bloat deck, bleeding

Ben's Una deck.

This game went off pretty slowly, since besides BK, we were all playing with fat Vampires.

BK started with his Noir's Freak Drive ultimate bloat with the Journal of Hrorsh, and we just looked on when he did his solitaire game - Freak Drive, Hunt, repeat, sack Noir, bring out Noir, equip, Freak Drive, Hunt. Bann proceeded to bring out his Cybele, and I was powerless to stop her Soul Gem sequence. Ben, on the other hand, brought out Una and Janey Pickmen and started putting Raven Spies on them (especially Una).

I got lucky at one point when Bann's Cybele, though already supplied with a Khobar Tower and Neferu, had just the exact amount of pool for me to DOM bleed him to death with an extra KRC. I convinced Ben that I am a better prey than Bann, and he allowed me to call through the KRC.

After that I had a very very boring time trying to get rid of BK's bloat deck, since he pretty much add like, 10 pool to his deck, every other round. All the time I had to fend off Ben's Tier of Soul-ed attacks from 2 combat-abled, Intercept heavy Vampires.

I almost succeeded in killing BK before Ben bled off my last pool. BK fell prey to Ben soon afterwards, afterall, he'd ran out of cards by then...

Final VP Count-

Ben - 3 VPs plus GW

Me - 1 VP

The last game was an interesting game. I didn't participate in the game so I chronicled it.

Here's the randomized seating-

Ben Sum's Sascha Vykos deck, bleeding

Dzaki's Gangrels, bleeding,

Bann's Sisters, bleeding

Patrick's Akunanse deck, bleeding

BK's new improved Noir bloat deck.

This game had a central theme of unhappiness about a bloat deck that did very little to his prey. Granted, BK's deck had evolved a little and was doing more damage to his prey than his previous version - afterall, he only had this deck for like, 4 hours, so we should be giving him a little more credit in getting a deck ready. But a deck that focused more on bloating and very little on killing is a frustrating prey. That, combined with Ben Sum's pretty much can't do anything to prey either deck made the table balance a big mess. To be honest, there was quite a bit of unhappiness in this last game of 2009.

Ben brought out Sascha Vykos, employed Revenant and a couple of Ravens, then got a Sniper Rifle and merged Sascha after he brought out another Vampire from his crypt. Dzaki had Rendall and Ryder serving him, and with very little pressure from his predator, Dzaki actually managed to bring out Danielle later on. (We can almost always tell how well Dzaki's Gangrels are doing by looking at how many Vampires he has on table - 3? He's really having a good time~)

Bann had many Sisters, and Patrick influenced out Uchenna and Amavi. Uchenna was soon enhanced with No Secrets from the Magaji. As for BK, it was Noir. Noir managed to get the Journal on him, and nobody really bothered much about him accumulating counters on it. A lucky bluff allowed Noir to put Blood Bond on Uchenna while removing the No Secrets from him (Uchenne tried to block but couldn't find the Repulsed Noir) From then on Noir had little trouble doing anything he wanted to, especially since Sascha Vykos had no reason whatsoever to block his hunt efforts.

It was at this point that I'd like to criticise Ben's play. With so little pressure from the predator, he should be in a great position to threaten Dzaki. But Sascha was too afraid of the Gangrels and therefore sat there blocking nothing, doing nothing, pretty much through to the late mid game.

With an excellent position like this, Dzaki was having his way with the Sisters, while Patrick used his new No Secrets well in fighting and torporing almost every Sister that Bann had. The Sunset Strip that BK played did help the Sisters in hunting but very little else. BK's pool, however, was too heavy even for the bleed-heavy Akunanse, and BK accumulated enough pool to influence Saulot.

The game deteriorated rapidly, until Ben decided to transfer out and let BK kill him. There was very little point to play on after that, but the relentless Methuselahs pressed on! Eventually I think everyone declared that Dzaki wins. ^.^

(o.o)