The Eternal Jyhad : An Eternal Melody

One interesting thing about Vtes is that the environment does force you to constantly adapt and tune your decks in response to the metagame. This sometimes changes with an entrance of new players or new decks, or a shift in the entire community, but it almost always changes when a new expansion is released, especially if they have cards that impact existing norms - such as when Vessel and Villein were released (and to a lesser extent - Wider View).

Because of that I think it is not practical for me to maintain so many decks - in theory (and it feels good man!) I'll never get to play with all of them in any form that resembles "tuned" since I have to split my collections among all of them and will never have enough time to try out and complete all of their changes before another change in card directions shakes the metagame.

But tearing all these decks apart is easier said than done...

Oh well~

(o.o)

Vampire : the Evaluated Situation : 27-04-2010

The night of 27th April, in the year 2010, Paradigm Infinitum.

Thus begins the final table for the Battlelines Tournament Singapore. Since Danz couldn't make it and Bann didn't bring his deck, G1 became the 5th player in the final table without the need to roll any dice to compete for it.

After all have settled down, the Methuselahs soon chose their individual seating, and the final table's seating position was-

Jef's Baali Vote, bleeding

LeFei's Samedi bleed/bloat, bleeding

Ben Chia's Baali Cybele, bleeding

YY's Daughters vote, bleeding

G1's Baali Nergal.

And of course, ALL of us Singaporeans supported Bahari.

It wasn't really a surprise - all Methuselahs supported Bahari, not least due to the pretty Bahari counters created by Shermin for the use of this tournament (and definitely for all the future Bahari goodies that will eventually turn up)

And thus the battle begins

The early game of this battle seem pretty subdued. Jef started the ball rolling on turn 3 with his Horde calling the first of many damaging vote in this game. The KRC hit LeFei and Ben (the standard 3-1) and quickly turn Ben into a hostile ally and put everyone's focus on him, especially after he brought out Arishat this turn. Meanwhile, on the table every Methuselah prepared themselves for the battle by influencing minions onto the table, many of whom only had their first this round. LeFei engaged Tangine, Ben got his Cybele, YY had Hilanvale last turn and G1 got his Nergal. Pretty much all the star vampires were on the table by now.

Turn 3 was also one of the most important turn in the game. It started when YY tried to call a Lily Prelude targetting G1, but would require Jef's help in securing the vote, even with the help of a Madrigal. It all seemed like a definite happening until G1 offered an irresistible deal to Jef - G1 offered not to attack Jef until there be 2 players left in the game if Jef vote down YY's damaging votes against him. This deal was too good to let go and Jef went for it and voted down the Lily Prelude. In response, YY brought out his own Arishat and started contesting her with Jef, much to Jef's detriment.

Jef managed to call another KRC with the aid of Betwitching Oration, but without Arishat and none of the Hordes being enhanced, he couldn't play any Tend the Flock - which by then every other Baali on the table was busy tending to the Hordes with their elder Baali. A testament to the threat that Jef had presented himself was made clear when a bleed towards Ben for 2 by Tangine was bounced to Jef instead of YY! Ben then threw out a Unleashed Hell's Fury, which will stay on the table until the end of the game.

Despite the early damage done, LeFei's bloating engine was supported by Ben's cooperation, and was able to maintain quite a good pool with constant Off Kilter and Little Mountain Cemetery. Ben was also doing very well with all the Tend the Flocks and the extra pool given by the Greater Curses and Social Charms that the Bahari Hordes were doing to YY - in fact, he was to have a very impressive amount of pool soon. The Methuselahs all had good bloating functions and soon many more minions were called to engage into the struggle. Jef had another Horde, but was kept from bringing out anymore due to the contest cost and the lack of Tend the Flocks, but since he had no pressure whatsoever his pool was quite alright. The Samedi brought out Baroque, and by turn 11 Jorge Frederick, and her bloating function kept her pool always above 8. Ben had a ridiculous number of Hordes. YY brought out Dmitra to gain vote superiority and bloated very well with Voter Caps. Nergal only had the help of another single Horde.

At turn 6 YY decided to contest G1's Carlton Van Wyk, making him the most contesting player on the table. Meanwhile, due to the special benefits that Bahari gave to the infernals in this game, we saw a lot of fat Baali hunting for 1 blood all the time...

At turn 9 YY decided to bring out Lucinde, bringing his pool down to 2, no doubt expecting to be able to Villein or bloat back to health next round. Jef responded by putting a Condemnation : Mute on Dmitra, removing her votes as a Justicar. But it turned out unnecessary as Ben quickly took the chance and bled YY to death.

At this point Ben had over 30 pool...

Jef, now with Arishat back in action, started to have his deck working fine. A Consanguinous Boon for Baali net a 10 pool on the whole table, with LeFei miserably left out. (Ben got the most out of it since he had 5 Baali on table then) This excercise put Ben's pool at a ridiculous number of 36.

This is the ridiculous amount of pool Ben had

Even though Ben slapped a Haven Uncovered on Arishat, Jef managed to use her to call forth KRCs and eventually bled LeFei dry by turn 12, the final bleed was actually enhanced by G1's Horde... at this point the whole table was full of Baali, with 9 Hordes showing off their hairstyle to the world.

Ben went on an alpha strike, with the first Horde bleed Veiled by Cybele spending 5 blood to give the rest of the Hordes 1 extra stealth. The bleeds proved too much for Nergal and G1 was ousted.

Left with the final 2

Though Jef brought out Xeper to aid in his attack, the outcome was quite clear. Eventually the large number of Hordes on Cybele's side managed to bleed out Jef's remaining pool, giving Ben the table victory.

Final VP Count

Ben Chia - 4 VPs plus GW

Jef - 1 VP

Victory goes to Ben Chia! Baali supporting Bahari wins for Singapore, with the key vampire being THE HORDE.

End Game, Bahari wins!

(From left to right - Ben, YY, LeFei, Jef "the Great" (he insist), G1)

Many thanks to the players for participating in this messily organized tournament. Till next time!

(o.o)

Vampire : The Evaluated Situation : 24-04-2010

The Day of 24th April, in the year 2010, Paradigm Infinitum.

Battlelines Storyline Tournament Singapore. Take 1.

Well, that's what you get for trying to run a tournament in the day, where the sun is still strong. Apparently many Methuselahs didn't survive the Day Ops to get to the store, and I have only (more or less) 7 players in this tournament, down from the 12 that I was expecting. In fact, due to the coming and going of players the entire Archon software is messed up pretty much, so we make do as much as we can.

Anyway, at this point the tournament isn't over yet, the final table is to take place tomorrow night at 830pm. Well, at least the night should bring out more Methuselahs and I don't really expect people to miss this~

Nevertheless, 7 Methuselahs are in this game, and ALL of them supported Bahari, so there will be no doubt that Bahari will rule Singapore for this tournament.

The beginning of the battle where all seems fresh.

After much confused VP and position calculations, and after 3 stressful rounds of battle. (I think somehow due to the Blessing of Lilith, everyone seems to be bloating alright, making the tournament kinda long), we more or less had the game sorted out.

Here are the decks involved in this struggle, and their current standing -

Jef leading with 1 GW and 6 VP with his Baali Vote deck, followed by

Ben Chia with 1 GW and 5 VP with his Baali Cybele deck, followed by

YY with 1 GW and 4 VP with his Daughters vote deck, followed by

LiFei with 1 GW and 3 VP with her Samedi bleed/bloat deck, followed by

Whoever wins the dice roll tomorrow night, between the 3 remaining players with 0 GW and 0 VP at the moment -

Bann's Blood Sisters, G1's Baali Nergal and Danz's Salubri Marionette.

All players also had the privilege to receive 3 of Sherman's creation - the Vtes Singapore PI Bahari Counter. I get to have 5 because I was the organizer~ :)

I think the counter is pretty cool~

The Bahari Counter created by Sherman.

Stay tuned for the result sometime Wednesday (I hope)

(o.o)

One Clan to Rule them all : Abomination : HttB

Well, actually, if there's one clan that isn't going to rule them all, it's the Abomination. There are only 4 vampires in this "clan" (There are so many more Caitiffs and they're not considered a clan, so why the Abomination is a clan with only 4 members? Not even enough for a basketball team.) Though they all have Scarce, you can't even put the 4 of them together in a deck due to their Groupings - for that matter, no more than 2 Abominations can work together in a deck - making Scarce probably the least of their worries where disadvantages are concerned.

So I guess the Abominations are meant to supplement other clans with their (often) deadly and powerful abilities, so therefore they must be very unique and very mighty vampires, being half vampire and half werewolf and stuff like that. Indeed, these Abominations are all pretty unique, as for their powers, they are most often than not, countered with disadvantages amounting to disabilities. More often than not, these disadvantages made the Abominations to require very focused (and therefore very specialized) decks in order to maximize their powers.

But powerful they are, if one manages to get them to work properly.

Since there are only 4 Abomination, I guess we can look at them one by one.

Allonzo Montoya

Being the youngest vampire with Superior SER with aus, Allonzo will be welcomed in many SER or Settites deck. (This is one of the main advantage of the Abominations, they're ridiculously cheap for their discipline spread and abilities). Among the Abominations, Allonzo has the most inconsequential disadvantage. Despite having aus and ani, it is highly unlikely that you'll want Allonzo to be a combat monster in your deck, so being unable to block undirected actions shouldn't be a major issue most of the time.

Do not look down on the +1 Stealth that Allonzo gets for SER actions. Most of the SER actions that are very effective, like Form of Corruption, Enticement, Consignment to Duat, Temptation etc. has no stealth to start with. Getting the +1 Stealth, combine with Allonzo's superior OBF, makes him perhaps one of the most effective person to play in such decks. At worst, he will help you conserve stealth cards, at best, he'll allow you to cruise through your target without significant obstructions.

Having SER, aus and ani also allows Allonzo to be using some pretty exotic cards - Weigh the Heart comes to mind, making him an excellent corrupter once you slap a AUS master discipline on him. (Now with Lilith's Blessing it is getting a little easier to do that). If you go the Anarch way, Allonzo can be quite combat effective. Once you combine Mind of the Wilds you have many options to do whatever damage you want against your opponents, or just use the optional maneuver to run away, meanwhile, you have Groundfighting to aid in defense as well as the rather effective combo of Hell for Leather plus Cobra Fangs (almost as effective as Arms of the Abyss plus Entombment, with much lower cost).

All in all, I think Allonzo is one of the most useable of the Abominations.

Lorrie Dunsirn

Now here comes the ultimate combat monster of the Abominations. Lorrie can do 8 damage without playing a single card - and for that alone she is probably one of the most powerful vampires you can have in a draft environment. Imagine Lorrie with a Guardian Angel and you have Immortal Grapple, and most draft decks predator will simply be shut down.

Lorrie, however, is pretty inefficient to have in a deck. Without the ability to play reaction cards, and cannot have retainers or equipment, she is pretty much crippled when it comes to blocking, since she cannot add any intercepts to herself without the aid of Master cards or other forms of assistance. Of course, with her in a deck, you'll usually see many Master intercept locations, even Special Report to untap her (since she cannot wake in any way except via Fillip). She also has the ridiculously expensive problem of costing you a pool every time you take any action with her - which is very painful, since you'll probably want to use her to go into combat with somebody.

Her disciplines, however, makes her one of the most effective combatant at her age. With superior POT and inferior for, she is already the standard disarm monster. She is also the youngest vampire with the 3 disciplines she has - which screams for Dead Hand attacks that will give FOR decks the chill that comes with those skully symbols. Once you slap a NEC master discipline card on her Lorrie will be ready to roll. With a couple of Dead Hands in hand (and hopefully some damage prevention cards) Lorrie can eliminate pretty much the large majority of opponents that she is facing.

The pool cost for her actions is an issue, but can be recouped with either Street Cred, or making it more costly to the target. One still needs a lot of pool recovery function in order to make decks like these work - but one thing is for sure, with Lorrie around, that deck is almost definitely a combat deck with all those Fame things going on - for that, Lorrie does shine in her role.

Pariah

Another deadly Abomination, and in my opinion, one of the most flexible, but also the most difficult to use vampire in Vtes. His disadvantage simply requires one to build a deck in order to use him - you can't just slap him into a typical deck and hope he'll work for you, this dog is very very demanding. In order to use him at all (assuming you're not just waking him occasionally and designate him as a blocker), a master card needs to be discarded to keep him from tapping. So when you don't have one in hand, or you run out of master cards, Pariah is a paper tiger, or more like a ming vase, sit there and look good.

But when he's happy with your master card investment, he is the youngest vampire with the in-built ability to enter combat with ANY minion, unconditionally. And with +1 Strength and the mighty PRO discipline (and pot thrown in to make him deadlier), Pariah is a very able combatant. Between Claws of the Dead and Immortal Grapple, he can kill many vampires that aren't ready for him, and he can harass them again and again every round. With OBF he can also become a very effective support vampire in Cloaking your other vampires' actions (even when he is tapped), and OBF do give him some extra maneuverability in combat with Swallowed by the Night.

Pariah is a surprisingly effective bleeder if you capitalize on his pre discipline, made even more effective if you manage to slap a master PRE on him. With OBF he is an excellent stealth bleeder. If you can somehow find a way to untap him during your minion phase to increase his efficiency (well, Famous Insurgent might do if you can make Pariah an Anarch, no easy feat where this dog is concerned, or all those untapping allies or vampires (Mylan will require you to give Pariah 2 master discipline cards, again made easier with Lilith's Blessing nowadays; or some other action cards that can untap him - curiously all the Group's vampires that can work with Pariah doesn't have the ability to untap him - what a waste)

Pariah is the kind of vampires that can do many things in a round, without needing any action cards, but doesn't really worth the cost if you're unable to make him shine in those actions. However, it is this flexibility that makes him such a good vampire. Even with minimal card support, he can be a good bleeder or a combat fighter as you see fit, switching roles effortlessly when the situation arise, he can also support and aid in Cloaking your other vampires, and his OBF allows many of his actions to go through - True Love's Face really shine with this vampire.

However, he is also severely limited in other options, not just the cost in master card. He cannot leave torpor or rescue any of you own vampires, being undirected actions and all, as well as get any equipment and/or retainers that will definitely make him so much more effective.

The master card investment is now much more tolerable due to so many excellent "optional" masters such as Ashur Tablets, and with Trifles you can put in many master cards and still get the usual efficiency of a deck. Remember that you just need to discard the master card during your master phase - meaning you can play a master card FIRST, or discard FIRST, depending on your hand (for example, you can play a Visit from the Capuchin and hope to draw into a master to throw it to Pariah and make him happy)

Zubeida

The eldest and the only Abomination without any disadvantages to help discourage anyone to use him. Zubeida is most interestly a Black Hand, opening the options of Black Hand cards for him to use. With OBF and PRO, combine that with PRE, Zubeida is an excellent bleeder. His special ability is actually pretty deadly, given the fact that one do not always have any ready vampire above 6 - and if you do, Zubeida has the combat discipline to remove him from the equation. With many interesting Black Hand cards that he can use, Zubeida can be really unpredictable. The main issue with him is that he is fat, and therefore, despite having no disabilities that are normally associated with Abominations, he would still be more or less of a "superstar" status in a typical deck. That said, he is still amongst the easier going ones where Abominations are concerned.

As a last note, why is Abomination the only clan with ZERO cards that they can call their own?

(o.o)

One Visit One Deck

Haha.

I'm going to make sure I have one working deck for every Visit from the Capuchin that I have. Which means tearing down 10-20 decks actually~ :)

(o.o)

Booking Your Time - My Date with a Vampire 1 & 2

Well, dug out the VCD (VCD!) of this ancient TVB drama with a vampire theme. Probably one of the better ones where TVB vampire shows are concerned, and I did kinda fell in love with the main theme song for the first series.

For serious vampire viewers, stay away from this series. This is more of a romantic drama with some (maybe low-end isn't a good description) not-so-impressive special effects; it is however, in my opinion, 100000000x better than the glittering ones.

The story follows Fang Tian You, whom was a freedom fighter back during the Sino-Japan war in the 30s, and he was attacked (along with a 10-year old kid) by the most ancient of vampires (Jiang Chen) while he was fighting off a Japanese officer (Shan Ben Yi Fu). Both of them were then turned (for whatever reason(s) Jiang Chen had, apparently he was just in the mood for a snack).

Many many years later he is now a police officer in Hong Kong, along with his little vampire kid friend, he got himself into battles against the plots of Shan Ben, whom wanted to turn the world into a vampire-only playground. He got romantically involved with 2 (reasonably good-looking) girls, which is the main romantic plot in the show, one of them being Ma Xiao Ling, an exorcist (or bounty ghost hunter, for the lack of a better description) whom in series 2 had a multi-generation romantic involvement with him.

Nevertheless, the story isn't too complicated, or, actually, it became completely unfollowable by season 2 when time travel and multi-generation (of the same actor) became involved in what appears to be nothing more than trying to prevent a bad lightning storm.

But one of the redeeming factor in this series is the psychology (specifically the romantic inclination) of the characters that at least tried to be a little unique. Fang's decision not to turn his girlfriend into a vampire to save her life (this is in season 2, in season 1 that seems to be the norm whenever there is a need to heal anybody), knowing that she doesn't want to become a monster - completely against the normal selfish and evil nature of vampires. The curse of the Ma family about losing their powers if they shed tears for anyone was also a pretty interesting depiction of Ma Xiao Ling's (the latest one, not the future, nor the previous ones) subtle feelings for Fang (whom is the boyfriend of her best friend at that point of time).

All in all I threw the VCD set away after going through it in fast motion for the last time. But I think tribute should be given to probably the most successful of Hong Kong Vampire drama series. And the theme song is nice.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Target (many parts of your body, and others)

Well, since the Target cards appeared in Vtes, a new option has been given to combat. Though the environment has not been seeing much besides the Target Vitals (a testament to the fatal inclination of vampiric combat), many of these Target cards are actually worth looking at.

The first thing you need to know about the Target cards is of course "you can only choose one aim card per strike", so you can't target every part with a single strike. Secondly, at the moment every Target card can be cancelled if the opponent discards a certain number of combat cards from his hand, usually 2, except against Target Head. And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the strike which the Target is associated with has to successfully cause some damage, or the Target effects wouldn't kick in at all.

With so many problems one might think the Targets aren't really worth playing, and to a great extent it is true. Except in certain cases, most Target cards aren't going to do much. The one main exception is with strikes that do damage that are either unpreventable at all, or extremely difficult to prevent.

The king of all unpreventable damage in this case is undoubtedly those strikes that cause damage out of combat, making FOR cards and other damage prevention cards stare in utter disbelieve. Fortunately such cards are rare, with only Catatonic Fear and now Loving Agony being the only means of doing so. Cards like these used to be more of an annoyance than a real threat before the Target cards, but now with Target Vitals they become truly dangerous.

But besides this (pretty much) self-explanatory and (used to death) effective method of using Target Vitals, there are other ways to exploit this card. For example, using Target Vitals with Aid from Bats in an Animalism combat can be a lot more deadly than ever - removing the opponent's ability to press to end a battle that the Bats are pressing on, not to mention the extra 2 points of damage that it is causing - even a successful Target Head will spell problem to the otherwise normally unafraid CEL gun deck (a Target Hand will devastate it)

The issue with discarding 2 combat cards to cancel the aim card is a double-edged sword. First, it is not as easy as it sounds, since not all decks have that many combat cards to discard, and the opposing Methuselah may not want to do that if he can afford the loss in blood for the minion or vampire. On the other hand, allowing your opponent to cycle away 2 unnecessary combat cards (especially if he's your power bleed predator waiting to draw into more Conditionings) might not be the best idea. One really needs to think whether or not it is worth it to aim during a battle.

Also, if the strike accompanying the aim can be defeated (meaning no damage is done), then the aim card will be wasted. Again, this is not necessarily a bad thing. A hand strike for 1, accompanied by a Target Vitals, may draw out the opponent's FOR card immediately, opening him up for your additional strikes with aggravated damage (or any other devious attack plans). But even with strike damage that are normally extremely difficult to prevent, such as Catatonic Fear, can be overcome with Dodges, or even Leather Jacket, so the Target cards are not the almighty combat answers to the normally not so combat discipline (actually, only PRE).

Of course, there are ways for Catatonic Fear and Loving Agony to get through the normal obstacles presented in combat, such as Immortal Grapples. The Anarch Daughters have made it quite clear with Groundfighting, and the !Salubri has Deathseeker to handle almost everything that can impede the Loving Agony. Of course, a very maneuverable opponent will be able to run away and not take those damage, but that's not a big deal if you're not using the cards as a combat solution to win the game.

Target cards that adds damage can also be a very devious means of working with other combat disciplines. QUI has lots of unpreventable damages, as with the Salubri's Anesthetic Touch which is also pretty difficult to prevent. Even attacking with a POT weenie packed with Targets will force the opponent to discard cards or face Disarm possibility.

The Target cards, especially Target Vitals, is also a fantastic defense mechanism, making the normally defenseless weenies hit for more than they could, and probably deterring (or even removing) the opponent's combat threat.

All in all these Target Cards are a pretty interesting means of adding to your combat options, and with the new goggles you might even consider using them exclusively as a combat option. (a Light-Intensified Target Vitals Animalism weenie is a problem indeed (or a CEL weenie with a .44 for that matter, or we can dream about a Light-Intensified Target Vitals vampire with Assault Rifle attached with a Manstopper Round Magazine, and her name is Janni with a CEL master discipline card. By the way, there is no such thing as overkill in my Vtes dictionary.) ) They should probably not be your primary answer to combat, but is definitely going to help tremendously.

(o.o)

Skirmishes in the Dark : 14-04-2010

14th April, in the year 2010, Paradigm Infinitum.

Quite a few Battlelines testing is going on when I reached the store, which is pretty late for my normal routine. I sat out for a while and helped YY played a demo game with the demo decks, and then got involved in 2 games.

Randomized seating for game 1. It is a Battlelines trial.

Ben Sum's !Salubri, (Bahari), bleeding

Bann's Blood Sisters, (Bahari), bleeding

BK's !Salubri, (Loyalist), bleeding

My Eze like Sunday Morning, (Bahari), bleeding

Danz's Toreador, (Bahari)

Not all decks are Battleline decks, I think both Danz and Mine aren't Battlelines legal.

This game was plagued by too many attempted negotiation and many fiery battles, since so many of the decks are combat-based. Being player 3, I brought out Eze on turn 3, and managed to out vote Danz at the beginning by slapping a Ancestor Spirit on Eze. However, BK decided to come over with his Qawiyya and severely damaged Eze. In order to survive, I tried to use Eze for a Founders of Ebony Kingdom, but Danz decided to block me instead! By doing that, I was in a very difficult position. Even though I did manage to call out Aren, Eze was immediately sent into torpor following Aren's appearance. (Qwaiyya had Monster on thanks to the Guide and Mentor)

But by now I started to get my combat cards in hand. Rescuing Eze I called several damaging votes, targetting BK to reduce his ability to look my way. My KRC was effective in reducing BK's pool to a dangerous level, as well as hurting Danz occasionally. An Anarch Revolt was called to the table by Ben, and it was to remain throughout the game. Meanwhile, Bann was having a very bad hand, but still manage to hold off Ben's many !Salubris, and when Ben made a deal with BK to focus on Bann, he sent Horseshoes BK's way to cause much damage, including sending Qwaiyya to torpor once.

Seeing that Danz was doing absolutely nothing, true to the name of the ally killer, I sneaked through Ben's defense with High Aye (Eze had 3 Ayes on him by then after he was rescued) and enhanced with Iron Glare for a bleed of 4 to entice Danz to go forward. And went forward he did, causing a lot of damage to Ben. I also managed to call an Ancient Influence, both to boost up BK's pool a little, but mostly to enhance my own pool. Using those pool, I called forth Lumumba and quickly Villein him and used the Lilith's Blessing to top her up again.

A quick round of multiple KRCs plus bleeds allowed me to oust Danz, helped tremendously by BK's deal with Ben in sending Qwaayya to attack Danz's vampire. I then called a Reins of Power, and caused 5 pool damage to Ben. Even though Lumumba and Aren were both sent into torpor, I managed to increase my minion support with Iniko.

With 5 pool left (thanks to consistent bleeding by the Sisters, whom by then had ousted BK), I went all out to kill Ben, and did eventually ousted him. I then decided to concede the game so that we can go on to the next one~

Overall the Blood Sisters had been elevated to a deadly degree with Lilith's Blessing.

Final VP Count

Bann - 3 VPs plus GW

Me - 2 VPs

Randomized Seating for Game 2.

Ben Sum's Black Hand Assamite, bleeding

Bann's Spell of Life, bleeding

G1's Kiasyd bleed, bleeding

My Fortitude Weenies Unite, bleeding

BK's PRE weenie bleeds.

We decided to complete the game in 30 minutes, regardless, so the game started fast and furious. BK started the attack early with his PRE weenies and Brainwashes, and I called forth several FOR weenies with DOM.

Because of the DOM G1 was very careful in bleeding me, and I did have a couple of Deflections in hand to send it BK's way. The game was very fast and was therefore done rather quickly, with BK's vampires going into combat with Ben's Joe Boot Hill, many did not survive the experience. But Ben was also severely damaged by the attack. Eventually my bleeds and bounces allowed me to be the first to oust BK, followed quickly by ousting Ben too. Bann helped me a great deal with his Ossian and Mummies.

Time's up after that, and Bann had already ding his Spell of Life.

We decided to call it a day then~

Final VP Count

Game ended halfway~

(o.o)

Lyrics of the Night : Battlelines Storyline Tournament

One very interesting aspect of Vtes is the deviation of games one can have when playing in a storyline tournament. We had that in many of the previous tournaments - Cultists, Nergal, the Anarch and Alastors, even minor changes such as the Imperator storyline do have players create completely dedicated decks in order to capitalize on the advantage(s) given to certain (sometimes) underused or otherwise "not-very-competitive" cards/clans/sects.

The current Battlelines tournament illustrates this expertly.

Bloodlines have always suffered from a thin crypt, and even with 3 expansions dedicated to it, (all of which are pretty good) due to the grouping mechanics, one doesn't really have a lot of choice when selecting a crypt - and very often it limits the way one can play with the Bloodlines. Take the Gargoyles for example, the different slave clans are loosely Grouped, so you kinda are limited in your preferences on Groups when you're choosing your master clan.

The Battlelines tournament changes all that~

Now we have the options that help each Bloodline to do things a little differently, and will definitely see "Battlelines-only" dedicated decks, more so than during the other tournaments. The Battlelines introduced many exotic options -

1. No Grouping issues - all vampires' Grouping ignored.

2. No slave issues - all slaves can do what they need to do without a master.

3. No Infernal costs - all Infernal vampires do not need to pay for untap.

4. No Scarce issue - no extra cost associated with Scarce vampires.

5. You start with either the "Guide and Mentor" or "Blessing of Lilith" already in play.

6. There is a whole group of vampires that are considered "Bloodlines"

7. 75% of the crypt must be of the same Bloodline clan.

I'd like to see how this will work for the different Bloodlines~

Abomination

Well, though grouping is not an issue, and scarce is ignored, Abomination's crypt is still too thin to actually work very well here - though having Pariah and Zubeida together could be an interesting team. But the most exotic aspect here is Count Germaine and Pariah. With Infamous Insurgent and Anarch Convert, the problem of Pariah's reliance on Master cards could be slightly averted, and they have enough disciplines in common to be cohesive. Include Lilith's Blessing and both Pariah and Count can quickly get the necessary disciplines onto themselves (with extra blood to power up when the time is right). Most of the Abominations lack one discipline or the other, with Pariah simply rejecting Guide and Mentor, so Lilith's Blessing probably works better with them.

Besides that, the Abomination clan is too small to have noticeable abusing of the tournament.

Ahrimanes

With Lilith's Blessing, the major issue of the many younger Ahrimanes' problem of basic Animalism can be quickly addressed and you can compound that with their now excellent selection of crypt (Ahrimanes have some of the best vampires in their groups, though they could not be used together normally) (Howler's existence is of course going to be welcomed in most decks), there are now enough weenie Ahrimanes (and enough have PRO) to create a reasonably deadly bruise/stealth bleed deck of your choice. It also makes Spirit Claws so much easier to use. Ahrimanes can benefit greatly from Guide and Mentor, even with the cost - there are enough Blood-costing PRE bleed actions that rewards the pool if successful, and with the stealth associated with SPI a stealth bleed Ahrimane deck isn't that far from reality. (think of Cavalier Ahrimanes)

Baali

Ha, what else do you want? No Infernal cost! I think that, oddly, the Baali may be one of the clans that will consider Guide and Mentor seriously over Lilith's Blessing. With Tend the Flock they don't really need those blood or Master discipline badly, and unless you're playing the Horde it isn't that common that you need to use the Blessing.(I guess you can Villein every Horde and then give them 3 blood back...) Moreover, many archetypes help in one way or anther in many of the more specialized Baali decks.

The best gift to the Baali in this tournament is the ability to use THE HORDE in any and every crypt - opening up the combinations otherwise not seen in standard decks. Before there is only the Group 5s and 6s (so usually you see the Unnamed), but now one can technically use the Hordes with the other powerful Baalis such as Nergal and Cybele. (Cybele's extra Master phase screams of multi Tend the Flocks)

Blood Brothers

Whole world is talking about Lilith blessing the Blood Sisters. With POT coming in together with 3 blood, the Hermanas suddenly become immediately useable and effective the moment they hit the table. And not just them, most Blood Brothers do have issues with insufficient superior disciplines, and they use up blood like nobody's business, therefore the Blessing is a god-send. With blood-replenishment that is so needed by the Brothers, and the (usually) good number of Brothers on the table, the Blood Brothers may technically be using the Blessings the most in a game. The crypt extension only added Angelo to all, since the circle aspect of SAN cannot be bypassed. I guess Infamous Insurgent do work with Angelo too, though it is kinda silly unless you're looking at an Anarch Blood Brothers deck.

You can also consider working with Karsh (ADV) for his ability to call Blood Hunts all the time and the Blood Brothers gang can then go out and dish it out to the unfortunate fellow.

Daughters of Cacophony

Like the Ahrimanes, the Daughters' crypt is reasonably alright, though the extra Grouping extension will help to make the crypt even more efficient for Conductor and other Daughter spamming tech. The bloating mechanics that the Daughters do so well might actually allow them to use Guide and Mentor and spam Cavaliers on enough Daughters to do the otherwise difficult to achieve Multi Shattering bleeds.

Like their wilder friends the Ahrimanes, the Daughters are reasonably well supported now without too much need for help from the storyline.

Gargoyles

No slave issues? TupDog is so going to rule. Without the slave issue many of the more powerful Gargoyles will shine in the deck - and imagine the combat capability packed by Ublo-Satha, Ferox and Chaundice working together in a deck, flanked by Tupdogs. For the bigger Gargoyles, perhaps Guide and Mentor will do better than Lilith's Blessing, since archetypes work so well with Gargoyles - be it Perfectionist or Monster. However, I'm going to go for Lilith's Blessing because Hatchlings are so going to get the most from it, and become very effective fighters very quickly with FOR or more possibly POT on them quickly. (And since you burn 1 blood to gain flight, you get 2 blood back!) Just beware of Tension in the Ranks if you're spamming TupDogs.

Harbingers of Skull

I rest my case with the Harbingers. The efficiency they get in this tournament kinda look a little timid when compared to the others. I have yet to see how the Harbingers will benefit extensively for this tournament. I guess if you do go the Anarch way (which is pretty common for their Slaughterhouse tech), they could work with Ambrogino being an Infamous Insurgent...

Kiasyd

Full selection of cheap Kiasyds. Master phase for blood and discipline. (DOM!) (Isanwayan might actually be tapping for extra master phase here) What else do you need for this already powerful clan? Even Guide and Mentor might come in handy if archetype is what they want to do~ One do need to manage the blood on the vampires properly to maximize the Blessing.

These blue fellows really don't need any more help.

Nagaraja

Hmm...without the Scarce issue, and the full crypt available to the Nagaraja, then add to it the blood and discipline enhancement of Lilith's Blessing, and we might be looking at the first and ever ally spamming Nagaraja (I'm talking about the Shambling Hordes here baby~) With blood regaining ability up to the heavens (many associated with ally in the first place), many cheap minions with interesting abilities (Just think of Anu helping the Hordes to bleed...Empower plus her ability, and voila, each Horde bleeds for 3) Getting the Hordes into play quickly, and replenishing blood when they are killed, (Consume the Dead when your Hordes go down blocking), or ping your own Hordes with Ritual Scapel then block with it and Consume it, and then eat it as Emergency Ration. These extra blood will then be used to power up more Hordes. Ambrogino can come in to help with his abilities if you find there aren't enough good Nagarajas to work with.

Due to the blood cost involved in calling Shambling Hordes, I think it shouldn't be too much of an issue to get the Nagarajs to no blood and take advantage of the Lilith's Blessing. I also think that it would be most interesting to see a Nagaraja deck - I kinda almost never see their colors on the table.

Salubri

Ha, Saulot plus all others, and no scarce. Combine this with their now very effective power and you have a powerhouse right there. However, the Salubris do not actually gain much from this tournament besides this, and due to their generally fat capacity and their uncanny ability to gain so much blood already, they might be the one clan that will go for Guide and Mentor over the Blessing more often than the others.

Salubri Antitribu

Definitely a good thing for all the little ones to come together. And the Lilith's Blessing will make the Brothers-in-arms so much more dangerous with AUS powering their Eye of Unforgiving Heaven. Already a powerful combat clan, the Blessing will also give them the much-needed blood replenishment for working before the Path is in play - more weenies, more blood, faster discipline cards. I foresee the !Salubri being one of the most powerful beat decks in this tournament environment. To maximize Lilith's Blessings, the !Salubris' usual means of blocking and fighting could be a good way to manage blood counts. Karsh could work well with these fellows too if you like~

Samedi

Sigh.

Sigh.

Sigh somemore.

True Brujah

Like what Damien said, multiple True Brujahs isn't necessarily a good idea, so the crypt extension isn't going to do much for them, and is actually more a hindrance than a boon. In this case the True Brujah needs to re-think and definitely restructure the deck into something more specific to the tournament, which might not be easy. The Guide and Mentor will help a little but besides that the tournament isn't very friendly to the True Brujahs.

I actually think that True Brujah is quite difficult to play in this tournament.

Storyline Characters

So many of them, but not many of them are actually cohesive with each other or with some Bloodline clans. There are possibly interesting combos but it's beyond my ability to fully figure out the possibilities.

Others

I was told that White Wolf obviously wanted Bahari to win this tournament since Lilith's Blessing is superior to Guide and Mentor in many ways, since it gives blood AND discipline and does not require an action to do so. What it does is takes up your Master phase action. But it is not actually all that useable if you can't get your vampires to have no blood at the untap phase quickly.

For that the Guide and Mentor, given the right deck support, might, in the long run, be worth the cost and initial disadvantage. Imagine many Cavaliers on Daughters who call Preludes, or many Perfectionists on all the Kiasyds (or for that matter, the HORDE bleeding with Greater Curses) Though the second and following archetypes of the same kind will cost you pool, there are enough archetypes that can get that back for you very quickly (and how many are you gonna call anyway, 3 is quite a lot already)

I think the storyline tournament will be very interesting~ can't wait!

G1 even created an Abomination deck with NO Abomination vampires!

Really can't wait!

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : 419 Operation

Probably one of the more interesting card in the not-so-exciting Ebony Kingdom expansion, 419 Operation however, still seems to be quite a difficult card to use. While it may not be the game-winning card, or being the foundation of mighty decks that other cards (like Shattering Crescendo, or Summon History) may present, 419 Operation is not without its kill value.

For the Osebo, 419 Operation presents another potential pool gain cum kill prey option, where the current Osebos kind of lack in the main stream style. But if one wants to use 419 as the killing engine, it requires a lot of deck space, and a lot of preparation, for a method that can sometimes be easily countered.

But what if the stars aligned, and your prey is unprepared for such an attack?

If your prey somehow couldn't get the edge, or is not willing, or unable to get the edge consistently, then 419 can slowly but eventually grind down his pool. Compound this with multiple 419s and suddenly your prey is faced with a pool-depleting attack that works by itself. Let's say you have 3 419s in operation, your prey will lose 3 pool to you every round, that's as good as a successful Govern bleed, while your vampires are still free to do what they need to do - whatever that may be.

So obviously the problem is about making sure that you have many 419s, and that your prey does not, preferably, never gets the edge.

The multiple 419 part can be handled if you have enough minions, or your immediate opponents do not want (or unable to) block them. But how does one prevent one's prey from getting the edge? Of course, the Osebo's in-clan disciplines included AUS, which if you really want to, allows the Osebo to play with enough Eagle's Sight to help your grand-prey from blocking your prey's bleeds. On the other hand, since the Osebo are quite adept at fighting, entering combat with your prey's minions and then send them all to torpor isn't that bad an idea either.

But it makes one think that, if I can already beat up everyone that my prey is working with, why bother with 419? 419 is slow, takes up deck space, and most probably doesn't work very well.

Well, I can't really argue with that, but 419s do have their little advantage if you can spare the deck space.

First, it FORCED your prey in attacking your grand prey, especially if you have 419s all the time. Your prey may, or may not attack every turn, depending on whether or not he can handle the pool lost, or is willing to take a risk on whether or not his prey will block his bleeds when you actually do get to pull counters from his pool. But I believe most of the time your prey is going to bleed for the edge. That itself creates the tension between your prey and your grand prey, and erodes the option of your prey. This might not always work - some prey pisses off the grand prey right from day 1 anyway. So, hopefully, it weakens your grand prey as it forced your prey to bleed for the edge, and if you can call out a consistent stream of 419s, you prey will be busy bleeding every turn, while your grand prey will eventually be forced to start fighting him, or be weakened.

That brings out the second good thing about 419 - it disrupts the plan of your prey when your prey is not a dedicated bleeder. Some decks requires time to set up, some decks just don't bleed very well, and some decks can't bleed until they're ready. The 419s, in such cases, stressed out the Methuselah, and forced him to commit some or even all of his minions to attack. This by itself may be worth the sacrifice of the action to put 419s onto the table.

Let's not forget that, when there's only 2 players left, 419 is directly involved in your killing plan now. If there are enough 419s, your prey may be forced to do what his deck may not be ready to do - and that is bleed you for the edge or suffers the consequences of the 419s.

But let's say all this are not attractive, why use a card that can be so easily removed?

A couple of 419s in the deck may come in handy after a while, and it helps. If you take a weenie route, or you throw in enough Bambas, your Osebo deck could potentially put down 2-3 419s in a turn. That is one turn of aggressive bleeding that your prey needs to take in order to survive an extra 2-3 pool loss next turn. If he commits his minions to bleeding, then he might not be able to block some or all of your next turn's action, who might be deadly to him.

419s can be combined with some of the more successful tactics practised by the Osebo to increase its effectiveness. First, the combat route - have Massassi and all of her Osebo friends go in and pound every single minion into oblivion, and then 419 the rest. Second, have Cesewayo and (among others) the cheap Magajis, Telepathic Vote Counting, and the efficient vote-increasing cards (such as the Kholo, Ancestor Spirit, and Kduva's Mask) to aid in minion-cutting referendums such as Banishment and Eldest Command Undeath. Or you can combine the 2 of them. If you can somehow also put in enough Bambas to call 2-3 419s a turn...

Of course we can all dream~

419s, in small quantity, still constitute as an interesting surprise element in an Osebo deck, and can be pretty effective if the prey only have one, or at least few vampires. In those cases, since vampires can only bleed once, a couple of Eagle Sights may spell the end of your prey's minions, and thus his pool.

One thing we need to remember though - the effectiveness of 419 operations is directly related to the number of minions bleeding for the prey - which is something that the Osebo is pretty well equipped to tackle most of the time.

So, why not?

(o.o)

Skirmishes in the Dark : 09-04-2010

9th April, in the year 2010, G1's place. The first of our VTES "out-of-PI-store" outing, and many thanks to G1 and Rachel's hospitality. The turn out was excellent too (I forgot to count the total number of Methuselahs present, but seeing we have 2 tables of 5 and still a couple of Methuselahs floating around watching Heroes or playing pool (or eating etc etc) I think the number is probably around 12-15. I only managed to get 2 games before I have to leave early. Work is, well, not exactly on very good terms with VTES. Anyway. Randomized seating for Game 1. Ben Chia's Brujah vote, bleeding Khris's Malgorzata, bleeding Ben Sum's Assamite Black Hands, bleeding My Nu Guns in Town, bleeding BK's PRE weenie bleeds. This is the first time I'm playing a True Brujah one vampire does it all deck. I was pretty lucky to have it to work the way it did, received quite a bit of help from Ben since he required my assistance in controlling BK. In the end I didn't do a very good job. I only managed to influenced Nu the Pillar onto the table by turn 3, immediately supported by Francisco. An early Vessel and Perfectionist on Nu set him up to defend and attack. Francisco also successfully started an Anima Gathering on Nu, providing him with the Intercepts that he needed to fight. My prey by then had reduced Ben's pool to about 6 or 8, and had about 6 vampires on table. I was lucky to have PRE as a discipline and managed to steal Mary Johnson from him. She was to become one of my heaviest bleeder in the game - perhaps I should include her in the crypt. An interesting intermission in the game was the rootbeer that was quietly standing at the side of the deck - it was completely frozen and started to melt as there was probably ice around it. My deck was wet and I think that was the end of the my Nicholas Chang. I did reacted in time to save my other vampires but they had to be left out of the sleeve to dry for a bit. Coming back, my predator had Djuhah and Ihzim on table, with Djuhah an Abbot and equipped with a .44. I had a lot of luck drawing into my Assault Rifles and AK-47s, but didn't draw any Kiss of Lachesis, so I was at quite a bit of disadvantage in terms of combat here. I told Ben that I was going to pay for a Dreams of the Sphinx, when he already had one that had been used once. Bann reminded him to use the Dreams, utilize the House of Sorrow that he already had, and managed to maximize his Dreams. After a while, Ben's Black Hands were pretty ready to come my way, with a Watch Tower, a Market Square, and a WMRH all on the table. He actually managed to block my Vaticination. And of course, with Domain of Evernight and Outside the Hourglass, I promptly sent Djuhah to torpor. At this point Nu had quite a lot of cards on him, a Clotho's Gift amongst them. Although his attempt to diablerize Djuhah was blocked by Izhim the first time, Nu Majesty-ed and then successfully ate Djuhah, gaining 3 blood and the .44. Ben pretty much gave up at this point. Meanwhile Nu wasn't having much luck against BK's vampires. Entering combat with BK, and attempted to shoot out those little ones was thwarted by Glancing Blow! Ah, no Kiss, or Nu wouldn't had to make do with tiny .44s. Ben Chia, despite waiting out to call a Reins of Power before I had my first vampire out, struggled to survive BK's multiple bleeds (which included Fiendish Tongues and Computer Hacking, supported by Pentex Loves You), eventually succumbed to BK's consistent bleeding. But BK was also down to 6 pool. I kept up the pressure and bled with Mary and Nu (which by then was enhanced with Heart of the City) and ousted BK. Meanwhile, Khris's KRCs and heacy bleeds also managed to remove Ben Sum from the game. I was fighting one on one with Khris then. With Mirror Walk and Plasmic Form, Malgorzata and Mistress Fanchon did get some actions through. But by then Nu was truly set up - He had a Guardian Angel on him, with +2 Intercept given by the Anima Gathering, had a Feeding Razor, 2 Clotho's Gift, a Homunculus, a .44 from Djuhah and kissed an AK-47, and was also responsible for a Hourglass of the Mind with 2 counters. On table I also had a KRCG. After a few failed actions, and my high bleeds with the Heart and Iron Glare. Khris gave up. Final VP Count Me - 3 VPs plus GW BK - 1 VP Khris - 1 VP Randomized seating for Game 2 Jeff's Pussy Cat Gargoyles, bleeding BK's Salubri, bleeding Keith's Giovanni Daggers, bleeding Khris's Tremere bruise bleed, bleeding My Fortitude Weenies Unite. Another game that I got pretty lucky. My predator was having quite some issues against the power bleeds from Keith's Giovanni, while my prey took a while to set up. I influenced Rosemarie as my first vampire and slapped an Ablative Skin on her, and she started bleeding. A lucky block sent the Biothaumaturgic Experimented Keith Moody with an Ivory Bow to torpor as I indomitability enough times to remove Keith's ability to take those damages. After that little battle Khris left me pretty much alone for the majority of the game. Meanwhile, Jeff's little Tremere managed to send almost every one of my 1-bleed to BK, whom of course use Glare and or other bleed reducing cards to reduce them to nothing. I had quite a lot of minions by then and did successfully cause some damage. I eventually had about 5 vampires, all with superior FOR, but they pretty much all bleed for 1 only. An early Tension in the Ranks played by Khris allowed me to cause some damage to my prey. I was lucky to have fought Cedric when he blocked my bleed and I Dawn Operationed it, sending him to torpor while absorbing the damage with FOR cards. That slowed down Jeff a little. But he eventually recovered and managed to employ his first Rock Cat. At this point I had few combat cards in hand, and 2 out of my 4 vampires were 3 cap or below. A Rock Cat with a Garrote then managed to burn one of my 2-cap vampire. Khris slapped a Fame on Rosemarie, and by then I went into the defensive, almost doing nothing every round, in preparation for the Rock Cat's attacks. Jeff over extended himself a little, and employed a Vegabond Mystic and another Rockcat (he used Soul of the Earth, so it wasn't that expensive) He was to have 3 Rock Cats eventually, but did not actually had much chance to use them as I soon bled him successfully (with some Deflections to move some bleeds from my predator to him). I managed to oust Jeff with many "bleed for 1". With Jeff out of the way I then proceed to burn the 2 Lord of Serenity on Saulot. Without that bloating mechanism BK was soon ousted by my multi-bleeds too. By then Khris had been ousted by Keith and it went into a lengthy one on one bleeding skirmish. I drew into enough Conditionings to force Keith to give up. Final VP Count Me - 4 VPs plus GW Keith - 1 VP (o.o)

Skirmishes in the Dark : 06-04-2010

6th April, in the year 2010, Paradigm Infinitum.

Another routine Vtes night, and some of the Methuselahs are preparing for the coming Battlelines Tournament, but we still see many non-bloodline decks skirmishing around for dominance.

I managed to get into 2 games, but brought with me 2 decks that were un-prepared. Oh well.

Randomized Seating for Game 1.

Danz's Toreador Vote, bleeding

Jeff's Unnamed Baali, bleeding

My Dead Hand Punching, bleeding

YeQi's Malkavian bleed, bleeding

Nick's Tremere bleed.

With zero pool recovery card in this deck (I forgot to put them in), I was living with a ticking clock of doom, not to mention Lorrie's problematic issue. I was lucky in the sense that my predator was under a lot of pressure from Danz, and was pretty intimidated by Lorrie's combat capabilities.

Danz, as the resident ally killer, truly present the ultimate ally-killing technique. Summoning a Smiling Jack somewhere in the middle of the game, he also called enough votes to damage his prey and his predator, but did not manage to kill them off. Meanwhile, everybody else was suffering from the Smiling Jack.

My attacks against YeQi went pretty well, and I torpored several of her vampires, reducing her ability to kill of Nick, while Nick bounced quite a number of bleeds to Danz (some ended up to Jeff), which reduced YeQi's ability to gain pool and kill off prey quickly. Lorrie's combat ability is frighteningly effective against the Malkavians, whom had no real answer to her mighty attacks. Malkavians after Malkavians went to torpor until YeQi only had 4 pool left.

At this point she decided to bleed me with Kindred Spirit instead, hoping that I would die and Jeff would give her some time to get her VP. Unfortunately she miscalculated and left me with 1 pool.

At that point, Jeff had a Vampiric Diseased Unnamed with only 1 blood, Abdelsobek with 1 blood, and only 4 pool left. With Smiling Jack at 3 counters it was a delicate situation. After a lot of suggestions from surrounding Methuselahs, and backtracking what he did and redoing everything again, Jeff decided to pull back 1 blood from the Unnamed, untapping her with 1 pool and burn the Vampiric Disease counter, retaining 1 blood on Abdesobek to attempt to kill me. A stealth bleed went through as my Lorrie failed to block with the WMRH and losing the 1 pool that I had, despite Danz actually trying to use Eagle Sight to help me block that bleed (without first telling me he's going to, so I'm going to brand him as ally-killer still~ :) )

With me out of the way, and YeQi having 4 pool left and a single vampire with 1 blood, Jeff was then in a great position. Eventually he called in the last Shatter the Gate that was needed to activate it, and the Shattering plus the Smiling Jack killed off everybody else, in the exact order that Jeff wanted~ a perfect Shatter the Gate!

Final VP Count

Jeff had the table!

Randomized seating for Game 2

Dzaki's Gangrel, bleeding

BK's Salubri, bleeding

Danz's Toreador Vote, bleeding

Ben Sum's Black Hand, bleeding

My Bouncing Magic.

Another of my fun deck that usually doesn't work very well, but the stars aligned this night to make it pretty effective.

To start with I was lucky to brought out a 4-cap Tremere in the first turn when Danz called Ancient Influence while nobody else had any vampires. That really hurt everybody except me and Danz. (in fact I was the biggest winner since my vampire was 4-cap and Danz's was 3). Ben called a Powerbase Montreal and everybody started to take it from him, without his combat engine in place yet, his lone Izhim didn't really dared to block everybody, including me.

With the Powerbase Montreal's help I influenced Helena ADV eventually and had Janine to add to my bleed power. The Bouncing Magic deck, however, relied a lot on my predator's bleeds, whom I will then bounce it to my prey, in this case, Ben wasn't exactly the biggest bleeder, but enough Loss was bounced to Dzaki to make his life difficult.

Dzaki called Danielle onto table and soon recruited a Homonculus. I thought I was going to have issues with this powerful blocker when Danz again called his Smiling Jack. Dzaki influenced another Gangrel onto table and left his pool at 4, I stealth bleed through with a Bonded Governed to oust him immediately.

With many minions in my camp (I had 4 at this point), I also managed to burn BK's Lord of Serenity the turn it came into play (very bad timing for BK) and that pretty much stopped BK from bloating. A successful block from Ben when I tried to take the Powerbase from him again ended up with both my vampire and his going into torpor (I had Flames of Netherworld while he maneuvered to long with his .44).

BK was soon ousted with my Deflections and bleeds.

Ben eventually burnt the Smiling Jack since he could no longer handle the cost. Danz successfully called a couple of KRCs that hurt Ben a lot, but it did not enable him to survive my Deflections and bleeds - though during then, Ben's bleeds was bounced here and there couple of times but I usually win the bounce contest with Helena's special ability.

A Pentex Subversion got me my final ousting as Izhim was unable to react to my final strikes despite having Abbot and Mr Winthrop and a buckload of uptaps.

Final VP Count

The table is mine!

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Evil Eye

Continuing my awe at the power wielded by vampires with Maleficia, let's take a look at the Evil Eye.

This is one card that can single-handedly make a large number of decks lose it's combat capability, and in good numbers can be the foundation of a deck, especially if it has combat in mind.

Any combat card that cancel strike cards is a valuable card, and this one not only cancels the strike, it also ensures that the opponent doesn't get another one. Combine this with the aggravated damage open to Daimoinon, and many vampires will just topple and die. This card trumps all combat ends, remove powerful counterstrike cards such as Coma or Entombment, and allows you to do your strikes with impunity. This card, combine with Flames of Netherworld, spells death to a large number of opposing vampires.

At superior this reaction card is almost as good as Direct Intervention. Yes, it only targets action cards, but that's one big issue that can be dealt with, and only with a 1-blood cost card. Moreover, the acting minion is then tapped, and if he has no untap capability, your 1-blood cost has just removed one of his action that potentially can cause great harm (or make your life difficult in general). Evil Eye will simply stop the harmful action right at the beginning.

Combine the 2 effects of this card, it actually becomes quite a good combat solution. It stops enhancement cards such as weapons and strength enhancements, so that vampires do not easily get combat support, and in combat, those decks that relies on powerful strike cards simply loses it's potency to the cancelling.

You may think that the Eye will create a scare tactic in combat - so that the opponent will ponder whether or not to strike with a hand strike instead of losing strikes totally. Well, I assure you that most good opponents will still strike with their strike cards - it's 1-blood cost to you anyway, and you'll run out of Eyes eventually. So don't expect enemies to just stop fighting because you Eye them a couple of times. What the Eye will create however, is a sense of doom and affect your opponent's decision to fight with you. For that, you may be able to get a few bleeds through by scaring your opponents. (Imagine which nut would attempt to fight the Unnamed with Maleficia without damage prevention)

The Eye, however, is powerless against many decks that use environmental damage. But very often these can be easily dealt with by some other combat package, depending on your vampires. For example, you can combat end easily, or absorb the damage with a single Flesh of Marble, since very few environmental cards cause aggravated damage by themselves. So with the Eye and Flesh of Marble (Yes, the Unnamed comes to mind), even an Immortal Grapple with Torned Signpost isn't going to worry you much. For other Infernal vampires that has no access to these cards, you'll still be vulnerable to Immortal Grapples with Strength Enhancements. But the Eye has other weakspots too - such as Claws of the Dead or Raking Talons, or CEL gun decks that uses the gun instead of strikes. (They can Sideslip the 1 miserable point of Flame, so they don't really need to Dodge, but if they do, feel free to make them feel lose by Eyeing them hard hard) So do be careful with who you picked a fight - the Eye is not a total solution.

With these incredible capability packed into one single card, no wonder Maleficia is difficult to achieve. This card of course, will suffer from Direct Intervention, and will hamper your hand size since you don't get to replace until your untap phase. But these are minor issues when you consider the might that Evil Eye gives you, both in and out of combat.

Don't you just want to sell your soul right now?

(o.o)

Singing a New Tune - Angry Dragon - Post HttB

The Angry Dragon deck is a very simple combat deck designed to exploit the power of the Typhonic Beast. This deck is so simple that it has very little adapting power against any other decks that does not yield to the might of the Beast. However, it is reasonably effective, and extremely friendly for new players to try out, since it pretty much does one thing only.

Primary Path of Ousting It is primarily a bruise bleed deck, utilizing PRE bleeds and the might of the Typhonic Beast to deter or remove blockers. However, the bleeds are not overly exciting, and therefore every bleed enhancement card must count. If able, I always use the enter combat cards to remove prey's ability to block your bleeds, and therefore eliminate any chance of my bleeding not doing what it is supposed to be doing. The Waters of Duat are there to increase the bleeds available to this otherwise minion-lacking deck.

Secondary Path of Ousting Of course, combat, since it is already so prominent, I might as well add in Fame to deal damage. I only put in 2 since the deck actually cycles pretty fast, and with or without Fame on the prey's vampires I'm gonna go pound them up anyway, so I didn't really put much effort into it. Nevertheless, this is what my opponents will be prepared for and will be expecting it, so I might as well let them sit and sweat on it.

Another pretty obscure way for me to oust them is to rely on Bupe's +1 Intercept, which is actually pretty deadly for decks that are not ready for that kind of thing. A block usually results in death if the opponent's deck cannot deal with Immortal Grapple and/or Typhonic Beast. Crypt Bupe is the most important vampire in this crypt, an absolute must for the deck to perform properly. Her +1 Intercept and perfect discipline mix is key to both execute Typhonic Beasts and protecting your resources. Nehemiah doesn't benefit from the Path of Typhon, but has good disciplines and the special abilities to keep your hand in proper mix. Shemti is good to have if I can afford it, but most of the time I have Bupe supported by a mix of weenies to power up bleeds. Combat

Typhonic Beasts and that's it. Immortal Grapple to remove combat end or troublesome strike cards possibility (like Coma) and hit them hard with Typhonic Beast-enhanced strength. The number of Typhonic Beasts to play in each combat will test one's ability to read potential damage from the opposing vampire. If I expect nothing more than a measly hand strike of 1 I usually play Typhonic Beast 1 by 1 to exploit the press that it gives. Preventing damage will keep my vampires healthy and Taste of Vitae them back if necessary.

The Path of Typhon is absolutely crucial to the use of the Beast. Without it the deck will struggle to survive.

Defense

Block with Bupe's +1 Intercept and enhance it with all the Intercept location in the deck. If that doesn't seem enough enter combat with the opponent's vampire and remove them from the equation.

Pool Recovery There are precious few means of getting pool back for this deck, so use the Vessels carefully and protect the Powerbase. Surprise Element Zip. Nothing. The Beast is it.

Known Weaknesses

Burning the Path of Typhon is usually the best way of remove or reduce the threat level of this deck. With many weenies attacking, this deck will struggle to survive, and usually can't cope with that. Fae Contortion and multiple maneuver decks can also deal very well against this deck, as will FOR decks. (a single Superior Mettle makes this deck pointless)

Playing the deck Get Bupe on table, set up the path and defend it like there's no tomorrow, go bleed, go beat, no need to think.

Crypt [12 vampires]

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4x Bupe Kuila

2x Nehemiah

1x Shemti

1x Ankh-sen-Sutekh

1x Clea Auguste d'Hol

1x Sisocharis

1x Ahmose Chambers

1x Reverend Djoser Jo

Library [90 cards]

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Action [17]

2x Ambush

3x Bum's Rush

2x Enchant Kindred

1x Entrancement

3x Harass

2x Public Trust

4x Waters of Duat

Action Modifier [4]

4x Truth of a Thousand Lies

Action Modifier/Combat [7]

3x Form of the Serpent

4x Swallowed by the Night

Combat [32]

6x Immortal Grapple

4x Taste of Vitae

22x Typhonic Beast

Equipment [3]

1x IR Goggle

2x Mokole Blood

Master [19]

2x Fame

1x Giant's Blood

1x KRCG News Radio

1x Monster

5x Path of Typhon, The

1x Powerbase: Montreal

2x Presence

1x Temple Hunting Ground

4x Vessel

1x WMRH Talk Radio

Reaction [8]

5x Forced Awakening

3x On the Qui Vive

(o.o)