Lyrics of the Night : Laibon

The Laibons are a fairly new addition to the Vtes scene, given that they are pretty much the last "sect"-based keywords that was introduced before Vtes goes into torpor a second time. 

The Laibons, being in Africa and all, comes with their own set of special advantages just for being exotic. This article tries to look at the different Laibon cards that are good enough to be included in most Laibon decks (or at  least considered), or perform very well in Laibon-based deck concepts or clans.

First of all, let's look at one of the defining, though not really very successful concept of Laibon-based tech - Aye and Orun. 

Well we all know it is not really easy to slap 3 or any one of these onto a vampire quickly, not to mention 3 of both of them to enable them to"transcend". Moreover, these fellas only really work (and interact with cards) when they are in a suite of 3s - so any time you have a vampire with 2 Ayes, for example, is not of much use to you.

Comparing them, Aye seems to be easier to use - wake and cancel Frenzy seems to be marginally more useful than increase capacity against opponent's cards and extra votes. (1 vote for 3 Oruns is a terrible bargain for the effort). The Highs on these 2 cards are quite powerful though. High Ayes provides excellent stealth for some of the otherwise stealth-light Laibon clans, and High Orun is incredible for blood-intensive combat decks. Dusk Work is pretty much a free Freak Drive, and Unholy Radiance is a good oration useable even as a reaction. Of course, the down side is still the Aye and Orun requirement.

Aside from these, there are several combat cards that rubs off Ayes or Orun, some of them are quite interesting. Invoke Poison Glands is actually easy to use as a single Orun gives sort of a +1 STR all the time though I must say that the Akunanses usually have better means of fighting with all those Devil Channels, which bring me to Devil Channel Feet, which is a misplaced card since most Akunanses won't be needing much of Strike:Dodges (though I guess the press is cool, moreover, with 1 blood cost the Akunanse might as well as Freak Drive).

There are some decks that uses Ayes or Oruns pretty effectively. The Lucian Orun bleed deck that I've encountered in Philippines is a deadly deck when ready (I heard the highest bleed was 29 or something), well, he managed to bleed me for 12 in a single attempt. I have a Eze deck who uses Aye as well, and it is reasonably effective.

Although one can technically use Nkishi to place more Oruns and Ayes, still, not the most efficient decks in the world.

Other Master Cards

The 2 Powerbases are powerhouses. Powerbase : Tshwane is very good for pool saving, and every Laibon deck who uses a reasonable number of cards which cost pool should throw in one for good measure. Powerbase : Luanda is an auto-include if you're playing a combat-able deck. Ancestor Spirit is another auto-include as long as you have a reasonable number of vampires above 4 cap. Finally, Mbare Market is also a good card to play, though a little expensive.

I've yet to try out the effectiveness of Mundane and Pallid but I think they are circumstantial at best.

Action Cards

Well Marked is possibly the best Laibon action card here, a prevent 1 damage card in combat is always good, and if you use it with a 5cap or above vampire it is pretty much a free action. Aside from this, perhaps Masai Blood Milk is a honorary mention, too bad it is unique and doesn't last too long if you don't utilise it in a hurry - that really remove quite a bit of functionality from an otherwise very efficient card.

Bamba is Laibon's breeding card, and it is pretty ok with reasonable requisite and really shines in a Magaji deck.

Action Modifier Cards

Strange Day my friends, Strange Day. This one probably turns up in almost every Laibon deck - really no reason not to play 1 copy of it.

Besides that we should mention the Kholos (since every Laibon clan gets one). Again Kholos are excellent card, useable as vote boost or vote defense, always good to have too~

Equipment

Laibons have quite a couple of cool equipment. Kduva's Mask is a must, 1 bleed 2 votes plus (don't forget this one) anti Auspex is an excellent package not to have in any Laibon deck, also, Reliquary : Trinket and Kerrie are all interesting equipment in the right deck.

Reaction

Oh, Terra Incognita, one of the most valuable card you pray for when your predator bounced the last 20 million bleeds to you. The Familial Bond, though limited to usually the predator's minions, are also quite useful for a combat deck that is built to exploit it.

Referendum

Here the Laibons have powerful cards. No elaboration is needed for the much feared (though blood intensive) The Eldest Command Undeath.  Very few cards in Vtes burn vampires just like that, so even though this card will put the playing vampire into quite a bit of a vulnerable position, the ability to just burn one of your prey's minion is too much an advantage, especially if there is one important or highly invested one available for you to target.

The Secret Must Be Kept is another unique referendum not duplicated in other clans/sects. It targets allies and retainers, and again burn them straight. Combine this with Ilomba and you get a cute (though not exactly a very deadly) combo.

Retainers

Shaman is a superb multi-purpose retainer, but the other Laibon retainers are so-so only, though you occasionally do see Elephant Guardian in a Demdemeh deck.

In summary, they may not look much with these cards above, but when you're building a Laibon deck, you'll often find that quite a few of those mentioned above are auto-include and significantly improve the efficiency of your deck. A similar vote deck, for example, say with the Ishtarri versus a typical Toreador PRE vote, gets pretty much most of the advantageous cards useable by the Toreador, augmented by many of the Laibon-only cards - starting with the specialized referendums. Combat decks also, cards like Powerbase : Luanda and Well Marked are exceptional cards for combat decks; Ancestor Spirit and Kduva's Mask are good to have in bleed decks, and Terra Incognita is a reasonably effective defense for those clans (such as the Akunanse) without good bounce tech.

If you don't have a Laibon deck yet, try building one, they're great fun to play. 

(o.o)dum dum dum dum