At Your Disposal : Antediluvian Awakening

Let's be nostalgic and talk about a very old card indeed - the Antediluvian Awakening.

At first glance this seems to be a pointless card - since it damages everybody at a slow pace without giving the user any special treatment - all take 1 pool damage at untap phase (or burn a vampire of at least 4 cap to burn the card) - no questions asked. What's the point? I have yet to see a prey killed by Antediluvian because he is down to 1 pool and has no vampires to burn, but I have seen lots of times that an Awakening with longevity caused a hell lot of damage to everybody and ended up forcing one of the players to finally lose a vampire or die - this may not always be under the control of the original user of the Antediluvian Awakening, and more often than not, some random ally suffers the damage instead of the prey - really quite difficult to control.

Gone are the days before the appearance of Vessel, the Awakening is even more fearsome than, and can perhaps be used as a last minute killer, but now, most of the time you'll see the opponent losing 1 pool that is taken from somewhere.

But first thing first, this card does treat the user kindly. 

The prey will be the first to suffer from this card - 1 pool or 1 vampire. Sometimes this can be rather troublesome for the prey, and if timed well and with good judgement (or lucky), this card can cause incredible damage to the prey that he/she might not recover fast enough to survive the next round. 

Next, the appearance of the card is strictly at the choice of the user, nobody is forcing you to go wake the fella if you are the one with the lowest pool. Therefore in decks that does have the ability to survive the Antediluvian, this is a hell of a damage card that will hit the whole table.

Last, but not least, this card is used by many themed decks to burn his own vampires - usually as a trigger for some funky effects, such as the Soul Gem. When one needs to get rid of your own vampire in a hurry, this card is probably one of the very few that can help you do it without physically asking another of your minion to go diablerize the vampire in question (and will require that vampire to be in torpor first)

Meanwhile, with decks that are focused on quickly killing everyone, Antediluvian is a great way of reducing overall pool / minion counts on the table, regardless of who owns them. For fast bleed decks, some of them actually don't care who dies first, as long as somebody dies - and since the highest damage output is usually delivered by the bleeder, the prey is usually the one who cannot play the endurance game and has to let go of a vampire, opening himself up for more bleeding pain.

Combat decks can consider that too - since the damage will come from pool or blood, the combat deck will usually see an easier time against the prey - plus, combat decks really shines when there are less players on the table (less minions help too, which is the essence of combat decks anyway). Not to mention combat decks that actually do burn/diablerize vampires - that could even make sure that the prey doesn't have vampires to burn for Antediluvian.

Using Antediluvian Awakening will require the user to have some form of pool recovery that should be superior to all others - it can be as simple as "I kill first, always", or "Too many Vessels for you to count", or as complex as all those Golconda plus Villein combos. Regardless, if you're the one with the highest pool gain tech and everybody else is slipping, just watch the jaws of your prey drops when you From a Sinking Ship his last vampire when he's down to 1 pool. See how he die to the Antediluvian Awakening on the ship- darn funny.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Ambulance

I remember you Ambulance, was quite a card during LotN, and I was usually quite happy when you appear in the booster pack, I remembered that the Ambulance cost something around $8 or so. However, after a while, it seems that Ambulance is almost nowhere to be seen, and very few decks in my community actually utilise its powers.

Well, afterall, what would Ambulance know about vampires anyway.

Granted, this card is powerful in its own way, especially in a deck that is well constructed to take advantage of it. The Aching Beauty deck quickly comes to mind - again, blocking is already a bad thing against an Aching Beauty, and if the opponent slap an Ambulance on Anson you really won't bother much. The problem of course then, is that the Ambulance is too effective in deterring the enemy from blocking, which forfeits the whole purpose of Aching Beauty. That said, free bleeds are always good.

Ambulance can also feature in stealth heavy decks - you see, heavy stealth decks with star vampires (Daughters or Trujah) should always consider an Ambulance. For starters, it is not easy to block a high-stealth vampire, and that the opponent knows that blocking once isn't enough will really make him think twice about even attempt to block, especially if you have other minions waiting to act. In this sense, the Ambulance is a great distraction for the enemy - forcing him to decide whether to commit to block somebody whom he knows will require a second attempt, or save his reacting opportunity to try against another more realistic attack - this will then provide you the leverage to do what you need to do by always using the Ambulance vampire first, often without the need to commit too much of your stealth resources, or even bluff your way through.

Secondly, if you use cards like Majesty in combat, Ambulance is as good as a multi-action card if the opponent blocks you, giving the vampire in question the option to do something more, or just be ready for defence - and in this case, still having the original action gone through to a second phase. This is again, a great deterrent to the opponent if he sees you pulled it off a couple of time.

IMHO I believed that the Ambulance is used more as a distraction than an actual bypass card, providing an option of strategy that its simple text hid. The opponent also often give away hints at blocking minions with Ambulance - he probably has the means to block your Ambulance twice if he commits a blocker despite knowing you can still try a second time with an Ambulance - in such cases, well, depends on whether you think he is bluffing, and whether or not you hold enough stealth resource to push through during your second try.

Cards like Blind Spot and Seduction works superbly with Ambulance, reducing the option on blockers that the opponent have to thwart your actions. It is a great deterrent, and truly useful in discouraging your opponent in blocking you.

Of course, if you face a Magaji No Secrets then the Ambulance is absolutely pointless.

Oh ya, it burns Imbued too.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Week of Nightmares

Has been using, and has been on the receiving ends of this card lately. The lessons I've gained from it told me that Ravnos decks should almost always carry at least one of these, more if the deck has means of exploiting it. In fact, the power of this card is so intense that the moment of landing it, and the means of exploiting it successfully often spells the skill and focus level of the Methuselah playing it.

The impact of this card upon the Ravnos is in theory a double-edged sword. It gives all Ravnos +1 bleed and +1 Strength, so in a hordy Ravnos deck this is extremely deadly, as all the Ravnos can now fight better, and more importantly, bleed better. Given the general stealth level of the Ravnos, this may mean a sudden double in bleed amount - something that if played well, usually means the death of at least the first prey.

The problem of this card is that it will cripple the Ravnos, sometimes immediately, and if not, eventually. This is at most times a do or die card. First, all Ravnos can longer hunt for extra blood normally, and if they has no means of regaining blood either by stealing from other Ravnos, or from Hunting Ground and other blood gain tech, the deck will soon be shut down, and does absolutely nothing else after a while when the Ravnos on the table ran out of blood. Even if the Ravnos managed to keep enough blood to work, the 10 counters on the card will eventually be distributed out and a good number of Ravnos, and almost certainly the important ones, will usually burn with the card.

But the power of this card is definitely worth the risk, and whether or not to put the card in play strictly lies in your control. Although one may be forced to hold it in hand for quite a while, due to the temptation of its power, and the unwillingness to discard it as it is almost always the only piece in your deck. This is also another of the Week's many problems - it is not only an unique card, but also a one-use card, meaning that if it was sudden reversed or cancelled in some way, it cannot be played again - this is why there is almost always only one copy in deck.

That said, there are many ways to overcome the weaknesses of this card to make it even more fearsome.

First, it is very common for your opponents to forget to remove counters on the Week in the heat of the battle. Granted, the prey normally will remind everyone, but that's not always the case. Every counter that is not removed prolonged the time that you can use the Week. However, even on a table of 5 the Week will almost always run out within 3-4 turns - translating that to say, 3-4 extra bleed per turn gives you an extra 9-12 bleeds, usually enough to oust the first prey, and go on to the second. The timing of dropping the Week then is essential to the use of the Week. If you see an opening to kill a prey immediately, drop the Week and score the first kill - but an essential consideration MUST be the position of your grand prey. The Week, if dropped, has to be able to at least help you kill 2 preys (or win the table), if not more, or it will definitely spell your doom. If you can drop in on a table of 2-3, the Week has a good chance of lasting 4-5 turns, making it that more effective.

The second issue of the Week must concern the blood level, and the blood gain ability for the vampires. Hunting Ground, Rack, FOR blood gain tech, blood reduction cards such as Path of Paradox and Fatuus Mastery are all very important for the Week, or the Ravnos will quickly find them running out of blood, and since they cannot hunt as normal, become inactive if there are no blood left on all the vampires. For this, try to drop the Week when the vampires you control are generally healthy, and your blood gain cards are in place.

Lastly, one should have enough Ravnos to capitalize on this card. Having only 1-2 Ravnos on your side doesn't really help, unless the table situation calls for it. Also note that the Week of Nightmares has a global impact - so if you have a Ravnos predator that outnumbers you, then dropping the Week might not be a very good idea.

One interesting aspect of this card is that if it is drawn early in the game, before the Ravnos deck is ready, it is a deadweight. This also applies when the table situation is unfavorable - making this card quite a dilemma sometimes. The appearance of the Ashur Tablet created some means of solving this - and given the normally inability of the Ravnos to bloat properly, the Tablet should be an auto-include in most Ravnos decks anyway. Using the Tablet to bring the Week back in hand solve the deadweight issue. And don't forget, Mata Hari will allow you to use the Waste Management Operation if you're using her, it also allows the recycling, albeit in a much much less controlled way.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Ascendance

Well. This is one card you don't really see. Why? 'Cause this is one card that you shouldn't be using if you at least have some options left.

You see, Master cards are very powerful actions in a game, so powerful that it has a phase dedicated to it, and you can generally only play one Master card during your turn. Ascendance is a good example of wasting that privilege. In a nutshell, spending one card and one "action" for gaining a miserable pool is an absolute indicator of a newly embraced player. (Or one that is so superior he needs to handicap himself in a game)

Look at all the other options you can have to gain that one pool. For example, a Powerbase Montreal. The Powerbase is generally alright for giving you that 1 pool too, as long as you have somebody at the uncontrolled region and some spare transfers to bring it back - and you can use it again and again provided you can defend it. Even a Blood Doll (bless'im) can bring back 1 pool as long as you have some blood lying somewhere with your vampires, and again it is a lot more permanent than an Ascendance. Various Investment cards, though unable to give you the pool immediately, can provide more kick for your card space in the long run.

And if you consider action cards, then you have even more options. From the ever popular Governed the Unaligned, to the very popular Off Kilter lately, the ability to get pool back from action cards far surpasses Ascendance.

However, with all that said. I think at the end of the day, Ascendance is still the only card that give you 1 extra pool from the bank, immediately as the card is played, with absolutely no other requirements besides the need to play this card successfully.

It is therefore one of the best cards to include in a demo deck.

And therefore, it'll never go away, despite the lack of support.

I think it is a great Vtes card.

(o.o)v

At Your Disposal : Ex Nihilo

Well, if Vtes doesn't come up with new expansion(s) soon, I will have to write about Ascendance eventually. But meanwhile let's look at a very special (and requires pretty much a special deck for it) card - Ex Nihilo.

The first time I saw this card I didn't realize how powerful it can be (it happens a lot to me, you need to write "+10 bleed" on a card to make me realize a card is good) During then I have yet to understand the value of an on-table +1 Stealth. And that's only part of the cool stuff that Ex-Nihilo gives your vampire.

So basically you have this card on a vampire and you pay 1 blood for +1 Stealth every round or you can burn the card, or burn the vampire during your master phase.

But the +1 Stealth is only the icing for what this card truly offers you - it gives you the ability to ignore aggravated damage! On the other hand, it reduced the damage that you do to zero - which means that you can't really rely on the vampire to damage the enemy. This may sounds like a completely defensive package, and it does work very well as a defensive measure - but have no doubt that this card can allow the vampire with it to become a killing machine, if you know how to prepare it.

One of the most common means of doing this is with the Zombie retainer, where it still does its own damage by itself without asking for the Ex Nihilo-ed vampire's help - and as a bonus you could burn the zombie for 2 blood when you feel the pain of maintaining the Ex Nihilo for too long. And with this methodology you have a full range of options - Ghoul Retainer, Murder of Crows, Elephants, or even just Lady Thunder. (Why you'd have Lady Thunder in such a deck is open for discussion -though she does have DOM and THA, so probably useable in a Nihilo bleed deck) Well, it all sounds cool on paper but I assure you that in practice this will not do much more than being another defensive enhancement for your vampire.

THA-abled vampires play with Trap and Weather Control with Ex Nihilo. (Please remember not to play Zombie AND Weather Control at the same time, the zombies will be blown away too) The Weather Control damage dealt to your own vampire is neutralized by Ex Nihilo, while the enemy will have a great time suffering in the storm. This is a much more effective killing engine, but it however, suffers from the issue of a thin selection of vampires without playing Master Discipline cards, and most of them are 7-cap and up. (Ambrogino Giovanni seems to be the most popular vampire for this, since he has +Stealth +Bleed as his base and merged ability, and he has a great ability to recover some blood). Remember to use Theft too, not only does it help your vampire to regain some blood after the Nihilo is burnt, it also effectively deals 2 "damage" to your opponent while the Nihilo in on. (You don't the blood of course, but who cares?)

But I personally think that using Ex Nihilo as a combat package is quite a waste for the effort it required to maintain this card. In the best case scenario, in my opinion, this card should be maximized in a deck where vampires can either take multi-actions in a round, and/or able to recover the blood spent on maintaining the Ex Nihilo. And all the NEC bloodlines have some benefits in this area. (The Giovannis already have DOM...)

First, many Samedis and Harbingers have FOR. With FOR we all know that Freak Drives will help them in taking multiple actions in a round, maximizing the +1 Stealth given by Ex Nihilo, and we also know that Samedis have lots of things to do in a round - Bleed, Off Kilter, Cemetery, Reanimated Corpse, Decompose etc etc. And once the vampire ran out of blood (and they do run out of those really fast), use Restoration to get those blood back. On the other hand, the FOR allows you to handle the occasional aggravated damage that comes along to prevent the vampire from going into torpor in those rare occasions that it is actually blocked.

The Nagaraja has even better blood recovery abilities - Emergency Rations, Consume the dead etc etc. The deadliest thing about this is that many of them has DOM, and that makes them excellent bleeding minions. The extra +1 Stealth is deadly in this case.

The one issue about Ex Nihilo is the maintainence. Eventually your vampire will run out of blood, since it cannot gain any while Ex is Nihiloing it. The way around is therefore to burn the Ex Nihilo when your vampire ran out of blood, and then quickly regain enough blood and slap a new Nihilo on it.

There are some vampires that will do very well with Ex Nihilo too, for example, Eze, since he gets a free extra action with his special ability, and he can use voter cap to regain a good number of blood after the Nihilo is burnt; and Oliver Thrace will just Weather Control away anyone who dared to block him without ability to generate aggravated damage.

Nevertheless, using Ex-Nihilo in a deck is unlikely to be a coincidence, since the maintainance cost is pretty high, though it'd be interesting to just include a copy or 2, just in case, since it can actually remove a lot of combat threat. The good thing is that Ex Nihilo works pretty well even at basic NEC, so it is not hard to use it in any deck with the relevant discipline.

You know what? I'm surprised that I've yet to see one of Keith's deck doing this - tweaked to a ridiculously effective and surprising level of course.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Underbridge Stray

When I first saw the doggie I wasn't too impressed. Just another generic little ally doggie that could help a little, and it has no bleed. Not worth the deck space was my original thought of this little card. I, of course, like most other times, were proven wrong rather quickly when the Stray turned up left right center among the ANI decks in my area. And these doggies are good!

The little doggie might look innocent at first glance, especially to naive neonates like me, but looking deeper into it now (several of my preys and/or predators have motivated me to read it carefully), it has a lot of utility packed into one single card.

Let's look at what it does, and where it fits. (besides under the bridge)

First, it is an ally, and therefore a minion, giving you another action (or reaction) once it hits the table. It looks innocent, and generally most enemies will leave it alone, and few will actually attempt to block your effort in recruiting this dog. They will soon regret it. The Stray can then do what most allies can do, block or burn some random cards (like an Army of Rats, or even better, some random Path, and would be really funny if you manage to use a Wall Street on the Stray and has some investment to target).

Don't forget that it only costs 1 blood. The only other non-unique allies which costs 1 blood or less, and has the utility of this little dog, IMHO, are the Nocturn, and the Arms Dealer. (And the Bima if you can actually has a deck built with him in mind). And even these 2 doesn't have the overall effectiveness of the Stray. I think it is not too much to say that the Stray is probably the best non-unique ally at his cost.

But that's if you play it at superior ANI. At basic it's cool, but not something you can write home about, and probably dies rather quickly. Once you play it at superior (that's the issue with ANI, at basic it is usually not too exciting, and the value-added at superior is truly superior), the doggie truly shines like a Pluto.

It now has 1 strength, therefore it can fight. If it causes 1 damage to the opponent it usually means you have more or less make back the cost of the Stray. Since it has 2 life, there is a chance that it can cause 2 points of damage before it goes~

But the true value of the Stray is in his ability. Burning a blood to provide a press (at superior it can do this twice) is useful once in a while in the right ANI deck to allow Carrion Crows to do one more round of damage, or prevent the enemy from getting away from that persistent Aid From Bats. In fact, the presence of the Stray alone can sometimes convince your enemy to give up on pressing to end. So you see, at superior ANI, you now have 2 on-table presses.

But that's not all, if you need, you can burn the Stray to untap a minon you control. Note the word UNTAP. This is not a wake card, it untaps a minion of your choice, so that even if you do fail to block with that minion, he or she will still be good to block the next action and so on. It also allows that untapped minion to take all sorts of defensive reactions that he/she fancies - Telepathic Misdirection for the Tzimisce, Terra Incognita for Akunanse, and all the other funky things that ANI vampires can do besides blocking. (even Fast Reaction would be cool). Of course, the untap is limited to useable only during a D action against you, but I'm sure you'll agree that D actions against you happens really often.

For ANI decks, blocking is a common strategy, and the presence of a Stray forced your opponent to really consider his actions against you, and therefore is something like a litmus test when the opponent tries to do something to you. Normally, if all your vampires are tapped out, an attempt to bleed might be a gamble to lure your untaps and wakes, but with a Stray on table (it doesn't even needs to be untapped), the action (unless the opponent is careless, ignorant, or plain stupid) is usually taken with some consideration of either surviving your blocks, or defeating your defenses. That is a pretty good hint for you to decide what to do. (There are devious psychological warfare meant to confuse you even when you have a Stray - don't care, just burn it and block it with your biggest vampire, chances are, if the opponent tries to talk to you about not blocking, do the opposite!)

Almost all of the ANI decks will benefit from this ally, some more than the others, and almost always superior in decks that use a good number of ally cards. I think that Derek is on the right track by including some of these puppies in his Renegade Garou deck, and a couple of them with the Tzimisce will serve both as the foundation of the War Ghoul's right foot, or as an alarm clock to remind the War Ghoul that somebody is knocking at the door (certainly better than using On the Qui Vive)

When all else fails, it bleeds for 1 with Computer Hacking.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : No Secrets From the Magaji

This is one darn good reason to be a Magaji. Been playing with my Spider deck for a while, and it's centered on this magnificent card, so I thought it'd be good to honor this card while I remember.

No Secrets From the Magaji is the ultimate dream for wall decks, and a good addition to decks that plays with any reasonable numbers of Magaji. In theory, it allows for unlimited attempts to block your enemies' vampires' actions, as long as your vampire has the ability to sustain the repeated combat that's generally the result of successful blocks.

Let's look at how ridiculously efficient this card is. For a start it is a free card. As long as you successfully attach this card to the Magaji in question (ie. not blocked or cancelled), the Magaji untaps. In this way the Magaji gains all the benefits of this card and is ready to take another action as if nothing has happened, you don't even need a Freak Drive! Secondly, it gives the Magaji an unconditional permanent +1 Intercept that is generally difficult to get rid of by normal means - in fact, it is rather difficult to do so if one's deck is not stealthy enough. Even decks with some stealth will be hard-pressed to get through the generally high intercept condition when a deck plays with No Secret with the right support.

The final ability of the No Secrets is a god-send for walls and defense. Most of the time, Methuselahs rely on the actions taken by their vampiric lackeys to oust or attack the opponents, and the one major problem for the defensive department of any player is always the issue of how to out-react the enemy's action - which is why untap cards are important since they allow your vampire to be able to defend after taking offensive actions during your turn. No Secrets allows your Magaji to block an action despite being tapped.

With the No Secrets your vampire can do whatever he wants to do during your turn, and still remains a viable defensive obstacle during your enemy's turn. The psychological impact of this vampire always there to block is invaluable at times - and is even more deadly when the said Magaji is supported with other cards that helps with handling combat, for example, a Sniper Rifle allows the blocker to set range to long and shoots for 2R damage,requiring no other cards to make this Magaji a very effective defender (and with CEL, this one becomes a gateway to hell for the attackers); or Guardian Angel, giving the Magaji another +1 Intercept against bleeds and the ability to prevent 1 damage per combat - effectively allows the Magaji to block all those pesky weenie bleeders.

But the No Secret has it's weaknesses. The most problematic one is that it goes away when you fail to block. High stealth will of course get through you, but most of the time the No Secrets is bypassed with denial cards such as Elder Impersonation or Call of the Hungry Dead. If you rely on the No Secrets to defend your remaining 2 pool and it is burnt because of an Elder Impersonation then you will be in deep trouble.

The next major issue is its complete inability to deal with non-vampires - allies. It cannot block allies the way it blocks vampires, perhaps the allies are better at keeping secrets. So against ally decks such as the Nephandus or Infernal Servitors the Magaji has absolutely no benefit.

Another issue is that the card allows the vampire to block as if untapped, but did not give it the ability to use reaction cards such as that given by wake cards. So the vampire with no secrets cannot play stuff to add Intercepts or bounce the bleeds and so on. This is an inconvenience but not too deadly since most Magaji decks rely on permanent intercepts rather than reactive ones.

There are other exotic cards that can deal with No Secrets, but besides that, a predator that is not prepared against a No Secrets deck can be shut down when you have just a single Magaji setup for stopping his attacks. I assure you that the feeling is not something you'd want to experience often.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Coma

All who has ever went up against any Malkavian or !Malkavian bleed decks (or bleed decks that make extensive use of DEM) knows that they have 4 common combat defense (there are others (like AUS defense or Gemini Mirrors) but those would be rare) - the "Take it!" defense, Disguised Weapons, OBF combat with No Trace, and the deadliest of all - Coma.

I can't recall how many times I've refrained from attacking my Malkavian prey's minions with my combat monster simply because they have 3 blood on one of the vampires - an indicator of the potency of Coma.

Of course, Coma has a lot of problems - for a start, it costs 3 blood, and there are no Paths or easy means for Malkavians to reduce that blood cost. A very simple way to spot if the Methuselah is holding any Coma in hand would be to look at if any of his vampires have at least 3 blood on it. It's not fool-proof, but if there are no vampires with 3 blood or more, it is usually a good time to go spill some Malkavian vitae.

Other standard combat mechanics also trump Coma - Immortal Grapple and all other cards that restrict strikes, such as Death Seeker, Thoughts Betrayed etc., would also make Coma useless; however, this is irrelevant since decks that used these cards are generally able to handle most combat defense anyway, so it doesn't actually make Coma look any less useful than say, Majesty. Moreover, maneuvers are not necessarily difficult for Malkavians unless they're facing high movement decks such as CEL or Flight combat.

So that narrows the Coma to 2 major disadvantages, its cost, and the fact that it has absolutely no use against allies.

You see, though Coma will send any vampire to torpor directly, trumping most other combat mechanics against damage, it is a total blood sink for the user, and if dodged, or combat ended, would have equate to a strength 3 hit from the opposing vampire, not to mention any other damage that the opponent would be causing, contributing to the demise of the vampire. Even if Coma was successful, it is often a "let's go down together" last resort.

It is still, a fearsome deterrent.

The good thing is that, Malkavians are rarely the initiator of any combat (and almost never with Coma in mind), therefore, minus the deadly Deep Song, the Malkavian in combat would probably be the reacting vampire, giving him the option to choose what to do after the enemy decided on his strikes. This greatly increased the success rate of Coma.

But there are some exception to this - beware the CEL + DEM vampires - mostly Toreadors and Malkavians and their Sabbat counterparts. Once Coma is used with CEL additional strikes, it become almost like Entombment plus Arms of the Abyss combo. Moreover, if you can afford the blood, Shadow Feint will be an excellent card to work with Coma.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Kyoko Shinsegawa

Kyoko Shinsegawa is the only Japanese vampire (or at least the only one with a Japanese name) in the Vtes crypt selection at the moment, and she is a most preculiar Tremere. As a Group 3 vampire she is within the batch of vampires that are very versatile in crypt selection, and she is young enough to be used occasionally in decks just to "fill in" space, mainly due to her dominate discipline, despite her only having the inferior level at a capacity of 5.

Kyoko is a very interesting vampire due to her special ability, and quoting Bann, she is most weirdly priced because of that. At 5 cap, she has only 4 inferior discipline, and without her in-clan THA. But her special ability makes her a formidable vampire in the right deck.

Kyoko cannot hunt normally, but she can hunt by stealing a blood from ANY ready vampire, at a +1 stealth. This makes her a Cryptic Mission machine. Given the fact that she has inferior FOR, she can be a one-girl Cryptic Mission machine, limited only by the number of Freak Drives you have in your hand, and the ability of the opponent in blocking. Robin's deck had used Kyoko as an offensive Cryptic Hunter against YY a couple of nights ago, and with Aaron's Feeding Razor on her she actually gets filled up pretty quickly. Against an opponent that couldn't handle that 1 stealth, this attack can be quite devastating after a while.

The problem she has is a lack of ability to generate stealth, limiting her hunting to a +1 stealth most of the time. Of course, her basic CEL allows for the expensive and inefficient Alacrity, but that's about it. Throwing in Sunset Strip will give her another stealth (and a single tap gives her a +1 stealth for the entire round, on ALL her hunts), and if you make her an anarch, Anarch Railroad provides another stealth.

Speaking of Anarchs, Kyoko makes an excellent Anarch. Her discipline spread makes her an excellent candidate for many Anarch possibility - Diversion for example. She has enough disciplines for her cost and her ability by itself works well with the extra hunting and stealth possibility given by the Anarch options.

Though I've yet to see a Kyoko deck, I've seen Kyoko appeared in many decks, especially those which favors the DOM disicipline. I'm sure she has way more potential than that, and I look forward to see a deck dedicated to Kyoko.

Perhaps I'll re-tune my Cryptic Mission deck to make her a star. Oh, she doesn't have THA.

Darn.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Marijava Thuggee

One of the best allies available in the game, and probably the best that is exclusive to the Black Hands (not that they have anything else to compete against). But even within the large number of selection of available allies in Vtes, these Thuggees remain one of the most effective and efficient allies that you'd want to consider using.

One of the most important advantage of the Thuggees is that they are not unique, and therefore you can have several copies of them working for you at the same time. Granted, they're limited by the number of Black Hand vampires you have, and you cannot have more Thuggees than you have Black Hand vampires. But in most cases, minus the most dedicated Black Hand Superstar deck, you should have 2, or hopefully 3 Black Hand vampires on the table - note that your Black Hand vampires do not need to be ready, just need to be around and they'll count towards the cap for the total number of Thuggees you have.

Even so, there are very few 2-pool cost or less allies that can challenge the efficiency of a Thuggee - the Nephandus definitely, and that is that, no other non-unique allies of similar cost can fight, bleed and do special thing and still run around with 3 life. The Thuggees have all that, PLUS the ability to use OBF cards. This make the Thuggees rather flexible in a game, and is interesting to ponder over the options you have with them.

Despite the limited number of Thuggees you can have on the table, 2 or 3 of them can give a big headache to the enemy, especially if you treat them like semi-disposable thugs like they are. You can use them to bleed, and since OBF is within your consideration you can probably Cloak them or use their own OBF to play some stealth to get the bleed through. These bleeds can be enhanced with equipment or Computer Hacking. (it is usually still alright to equip the Thuggees with Camera Phone, since with 3 life they tend to hang around long enough to make use of it) When the opponent shows off a minion or 2 that is within strike range, your 1 point damage from the Thuggess (be it in combat or with his special ability) can suddenly come into play and perhaps eliminate or delay his plans.

The Thuggees' special ability is a great deterrent that you can use to frighten or negotiate for certain terms when your opponent is vulnerable to it. But that is not all. Remember that the Thuggees can play OBF cards, opening up the way to exploit their extra actions. For example, Conceal will burn an equipment, Blackmail will tap a vampire, and Psychic Veil will help your vampires to gain stealth. These are all extra actions that most allies do not have the option to do, and since the Thuggees have 3 life, they're able to power up many of them with their life, saving the vampires' blood for better use. Not to forget, the Thuggees are excellent candidate for Night Moves. (especially if you need the edge, say, for Enticement (Ezekiel will love that, ya?)) And if you're evil enough you can heal the Thuggees by getting them to play Vulture's Buffet on their fallen comrades at outferior...

And the Thuggees, even without any equipment, can use OBF to protect themselves in a combat. There are now enough maneuver cards for OBF to allow the Thuggees to go where he wants to, even at inferior OBF - for example, the traditional Behind You!, Leapfrog to go the long, Fear of the Void Below and so on, and all these are useable to the Thuggees because they have the blood to pay for it, and then they have 1 strength too, so they can either hit back, or Dodge with many OBF cards' ability. Very handy for an ally.

There are other OBF goodies that you can explore, but the key thing about them is that you must have enough vampires to get the Thuggees working for you, all they'll all be tapped. That seldom happens actually, the Thuggees normally don't survive that long if you're losing vampires left and right - just make sure you're not stupid enough to recruit more Thuggees than you have Black Hands yourself.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Society of Leopold

The Society of Leopold is an under-rated card. Many considered too risky to use since it can be moved to pretty much every vampire on the table, and that the burning of a blood at the untap phase is not really a big deal, given that Vessel and Hunting Ground can easily help the "society"-plagued vampire to survive the inconvenience long enough to slap it on somebody else. This is seen as another of those "make the whole table think about it" card.

And it is precisely this that makes Society of Leopold a dangerous weapon to use, and if used carefully, especially if the deck is prepared for it, a very deadly weapon.

There are several cases where this card is simply awesome when placed in the deck - the prime example would be a Cryptic Mission deck where multiple weenie vampires leech blood away from the opponent, forcing the enemy to either transfer pool into the Vessel-ed vampire to keep it alive from the Society, or simply forced to burn the vampire - you see, if the vampire burns, the Society would lose its focus and will not pester any other vampire on the table, most notably your own.

Therefore, the moment you play a Society, you can target a vampire that has no Vessel or Hunting Ground or any other untap-phase blood gaining tech, and this will force the vampire to burn. A zero-cost master just got rid of one vampire (usually of your prey, but if pressured too much, the predator is a good target too) - note that Secure Haven is not going to prevent this attack, you just need to pay 1 pool for the Society. If the Society is slapped on a vampire with only one blood left, then the Methuselah controlling the vampire will simply be forcing the vampire to hunt until he finds a way to put more than 1 blood onto the vampire before his next untap phase - not an easy thing to do for most decks unprepared for such things.

Before Vessels were introduced this card is even deadlier than it is today, but with Vessel, it has lost much of its punch. However, even if the enemy could survive the first turn of the Society's hunting activity, you have at the very least, forced him to waste usually 1 blood (or pool) and 1 action in order to place the Society on somebody else. You might be worrying that the Society will be slapped back onto one of your own minions - negating the benefit of playing the Society. Well, this generally doesn't happen often. Most Methuselahs, when they can, will slap the Society onto their own prey whenever possible - petty grudges are not too useful in the Jyhad in this case, and the Society's power should be abused since it's already there.

Moreover, your deck would be prepared for the Society, right?

The easiest way to ignore the Society is to have good means of getting the blood back without needing to hunt - hence the Cryptic Mission deck - the vampire with the Society now on can choose to slap it away again, or simply ignore it and use Cryptic Mission to pay for the blood loss until he finds another victim to send the Society after. Another way is to have good Intercepts on table or discipline(s) to discourage the opponent to even look your way and seek easier prey. And of course, Secure Haven and stuffs like Zaire's River Ferry and Yoruba Shrine can also help.

And we should of course mention Jayne Jonestown - the only vampire in Vtes that works hand in hand with the Society of Leopold. Unfortunately her clan and discipline (and her Red List status) doesn't really gel very well with it, though you could always simply use her to supplement a deck with the Society - an Assamite vote deck for example, or a !Toreador Wall.

The timing to play the Society is the key in using this card. For as long as I have seen the card being played, it almost always burn or stop a vampire right there the moment it hit the table. There are very few ways to stop this since it is a master card, and at the very least the prey (usually) would have lost at least 1 blood from that vampire when you play the Society.

Not good to piss off the Society of Leopold I tell you, not good at all.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Lilith's Blessing

Now that the Battlelines Storyline is legal for normal play, one of it's most influential card will probably see emergence in many decks. Lilith's Blessing is probably one of the most effective and powerful cards that will impact the environment in the post HttB scene.

Of course, we still have very little use for the Bahari status. At this point, its only purpose is to prevent a vampire from benefiting from Lilith's Blessing more than once in a game - a very good indication of how powerful this card is.

In the Battlelines Storyline, Lilith's Blessing is one of the 2 cards that will begin in play, depending on which faction you choose to support. Compared to Guide and Mentor, Lilith's Blessing is a lot more efficient, as well as effective, even in common deck types.

Let's see how else you can get the benefit that this Master card provides.

Normally, in order for a vampire (let's just ignore the no blood part at his point), to gain a Master discipline card directly from the library and to gain 3 blood, he has to diablerize an older vampire with at least 3 blood on it. Now how often this happen without the vampire burning from the blood hunt? Well, I think that puts the power of Lilith's Blessing in perspective.

Lilith's Blessing provides several advantage once it is in play.

First, for any vampire with no blood, a single master phase action will let it gain 3 blood and let it continue to function with no need to hunt. Although every vampire can only benefit from this card once a game, and assuming that you only get to do it once in the whole game, it is 3 blood for 1 pool - not too bad, especially if you needed that vampire to be functioning at a crucial point of the game where Lilith's Blessing is in play. And if you have a deck that is prepared to capitalize from this card, and has packed your deck with trifle pool recovery cards from the vampire - such as Vessel, and especially Villein, Lilith's Blessing becomes a very effective support for retrieving blood but yet replenishing it in the same turn.

Secondly, the same master phase action allows the vampire to immediately gain a Master discipline card on the same vampire - this could range from crucial to helpful, depending on your deck strategy and the vampire in question.

Just how effective this would be can be illustrated from a weenie Animalism deck. As we all know, Animalism is a discipline that is best used with superior quality, and does suffers a little when the vampire isn't able to use the superior version of the discipline. Therefore Animalism weenie decks do need a very quick way to make all its vampires learn superior Animalism as soon as possible. Lilith's Blessing is a answer to Animalism's prayers. With Lilith's Blessing in play, and enough Villeins, the Animalism weenie deck can retrieve all the blood from a newly influenced vampire, and immediately searched for a Animalism master discipline card and top it up with 3 extra blood, often to its full or near full capacity, which will make it effective.

Put this card in some other more specialized deck, such as a Blood Sister POT deck, or a Gargoyle Hatchlings deck, Lilith's Blessing is practically essential, or at least extremely beneficial to have.

Now, there are issues with using this card too. You must first get the card to be on the table, and like all master cards, it can be Washed, or Sudden Reversed (or Rewind Timed, for that matter). Secondly, the number of Lilith's Blessing to include in a deck is also an issue - too many will clot up the deck, too few and you can't get it into play in time. Lastly, it still takes a Master phase action to activate Lilith's Blessing, limiting it's speed. And there is also the issue of it only useable on a vampire with no blood.

The first 2 issues are issues facing pretty much the majority of "only-need-one" master cards in every deck, and could be circumvented with good planning and deck building. Also, Lilith's Blessing, in most cases, shouldn't be essential to the point of endangering the deck's function without it on the table - it does not have the kind of impact of, say, Path of Typhon in a Typhonic Beast deck. Therefore, it is still not that much of an issue.

But in order to use Lilith's Blessing effectively, the deck must have means of reducing the Vampire's blood to zero during the master phase. Now, Villein is the natural answer to this, and it is a trifle, and it can be the immediate and common partner to Lilith's Blessing. But even Blood Dolls and Vessels can slowly prepare the vampire for the Blessing. There are some specific vampires or cards that can make use of the Blessing efficiently - the Hermana Menor, for example, or the Hatchlings, are all excellent cards to make use of the blessing quickly.

The ability to quickly replenish 3 blood on a vampire with no blood as a master phase action can also be very useful for some traditional decks. For example, a Gangrel wall who uses Homunculus to untap can quickly deplete it's blood, and very often will have the option to use the Blessing, the same goes to Eternal Vigilance or other cards which requires blood to react to enemy's actions, and prepare the vampire to have zero blood during the master phase.

Even without extensive support, even a one in a deck Lilith's Blessing can help at times. We all know that vampires will run out of blood at one point or another, therefore the chance of using a Lilith's Blessing in a course of a game is pretty high. So if the deck intend to use multiple vampires, this card will definitely come in handy.

The thinning of the deck by calling out the Master discipline is also a good extra boon, and it can be extremely useful to certain decks. Packing such powers into a single card that can is re-useable and have very little weakness to exploit, no wonder the Bahari is getting so much advantage when compared to the loyalist.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Mind of a Killer

There are some cards that are simply weird, or so interesting that only Malkavians understand them. Mind of a Killer is such a card. It is a cute card that does very random harassment to your enemy, or if used in large number successfully makes a very interesting deck, though hardly considered a feasible strategy, or at least, the primary DEM clan has easier ways to get the VP.

The issue with Mind of a Killer is that it can be neutralized pretty simply. The controller simply try to get into combat and the Mind of a Killer will simply burn after the combat, usually easily negotiated with the prey or even someone random over the other side to do waving combat. And the card is not practical to use on your own vampire, despite the +1 Strength and relative ease of putting it on, the cost definitely outweighs the benefit of this card.

Or is it?

Even the traditional way of using this card just because can be a real problem to some decks. Bleed decks and vote decks have to waste a vampire's action to try to get into combat. So if you use this card on your predator's vampire, it might forced him to use his vampire to fight you, or allow himself to be blocked - both of which allows your minions to do damage to him, despite the +1 Strength that you've just given him. And if he does that, you've just divert him from his more important business of ousting you the traditional way - be it a bleed or a vote. Meanwhile, if you throw this card on your prey's vampire, it does the same thing of slowing him down, and give you the benefit of getting a random chance of seeing his vampire go down in a combat that he isn't ready for.

Played at superior, this card will force the vampire in question to either go do something, or be tapped when the card is burned anyway - reducing his defense options.

Of course, the card can simply be ignored and just suffer the 2 damage on another vampire that the Methuselah controlled. Sometimes this equals sending a vampire into torpor, or killing off an annoying ally.

Now enter the new Salubri enhancement in HttB, and Mind of a Killer suddenly become quite an interesting Salubri card.

Imagine Spirit Marionette in a different way.

Supposed you slap a Mind of a Killer on a vampire that you're about to control, and then take it over, you can then, as usual, siphon off the blood and leave 1 to bleed, hoping your prey block it and damage both the vampires, now with a +1 Strength. On the other hand, put the Mind of a Killer on your own vampire, and take control of an opponent's vampire, siphon away the blood and end the turn. Since Spirit Marionette seems to turn over control of the vampire after the end of the next action you'll retain control until your prey's turn, in this case you'll almost definitely able to inflict the 2 damage on the marionetted vampire and return to your opponent a vampire in torpor.

Since DEM seems to be the in-thing for the Salubri now, this is a great option to consider in Salubri deck concepts. With FOR they can also block and Hard Case the predator's vampire with Mind of a Killer, removing their chance of getting into combat yet still blocking and not suffering from whatever action that your predator has been forced to try. And with AUS the Salubris are free to block anyone they want anyway.

Unless of course, you're facing a combat deck, then this card is not going to be of a lot of help.

Remember to use this card to add a little motivation to your ally too. If you can drop a few of these on your grand predator, it might interest him in being a little more offensive than just hunting all the time. This could also potentially help you to negotiate a little and push some Methuselahs to be a little more proactive (your way)

Nevertheless, this is not going to be an Earth-shaking card, but more like a little puddle of something to try out when you're free to do so. And believe me, this is actually a lot more effective than you might think it is.

Try it out when you can. (It is however, a pretty rare card)

(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)

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)

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)

At Your Disposal : Barrenness

Though Maleficia and Striga are yet to be commonly seen, some of their cards are interestingly powerful and deceptively effective. Granted, they do not yet have anything approaching tournament-dominating level, but if you take a look at Barrenness, you'll see that these 2 semi-disciplines do indeed pack some of the more exotic means of torturing your opponents.

Even by itself this card is fearsome. It may not look like a lot, but imagine a first or second turn Horde standing in the region with Maleficia master card on, and you'll know how deadly this card can immediately be.

Barrenness has several great points, but let's look beyond those "good to have" function and focus on what it does. Sure, reducing 2 capacity and making a vampire sterile, most of the time wouldn't be a big deal against anyone. But against a weenie Maleficia deck your vampires can quickly be decimated with 2 or 3 of these cards on him.

There are only 3 kinds of vampires in every game - Weenies, Mid-cap Vampires and fat Vampires. For weenies, they can quickly be reduced to one-cap fledglings that can barely support his own life, mid-vampires may require 2 of such cards, but once it hits, the mid-cap vampire will be struggling to power up your actions too. Fat vampires are not so susceptible to its effects, but consequently you seldom will have many of those, and every Barrenness will make its effect felt keenly by fat vampires.

What's the big deal of losing 2 cap? First, the immediate result is the loss of 2 blood invested in the vampire. Unless you've already pulled them back or used them, this vampire loses 2 blood PERMANENTLY. Translate that into short term effects - your vampire can now bleed with 1 less Legal Manipulations before restocking his blood supply, loses 5 less vote with Awe if he has superior PRE, takes 2 less damage in a combat, uses 2 less Deflections before restocking etc etc. Once you stack a couple of Barrenness on the same vampire, and poof, this vampire is effectively neutralized the moment he commit a single mistake - he has less blood to power up actions, less blood to heal damage, less blood to use modifiers...

Now, it's time to look at the cards that are normally available to Baali and the Infernals, and combine them with Barrenness. Diabolic Lure? It's now 2 cap easier to make the acting Barren-ed vampire Infernal (about 2 Diabolic Lure can lure 99% of vampires that has been hit by even a single Barrenness); Greater Curse or Condemnation : Betrayed will make your prey/predator's bleed actions grind to a halt after their vampires' blood total is limited; Psychomacia and BloodStorm suddenly become killing engines when the opposing vampires are small enough; not to forget that Barrenness is the BEST defense for your Shatter the Gate if you pick and choose your targets correctly.

In combat you gain a lot of benefit just for reducing the cap and therefore the capacity for healing or acting, and it opens up the use of Scourge of Alecto, making eveybody you fight a weenie for you to hit with this otherwise not very efficient card. (Enough Infernal Vampires can use this, and PRE is an in-clan for Baali anyway, just slap a CEL discipline on them~) Follow up the Barrenness with a Greater Curse and this vampire can barely Majesty.

Now, remember those very dangerous but difficult to use Gehenna Event cards? Time to put them to use since your opponents will be using weenies eventually. Thirst, Nightmares upon Nightmares, Scourge of the Enochians, even Restricted Vitae and Recalled to the Founder could be considered if the deck is ready for them. Fourth Cycle will simply turn the table upside down. (If your prey only has low-cap vampire, imagine what the New Inquisition will do to his vampires.)

There are probably a lot more interesting combos that one can think of, like a Atoned Baali (or Valerius, for that matter) blocking the world.

The superior function of Barrenness is a good bonus, but I don't think you'd really need to use it a lot. Very few 1-cap vampire are of much effectiveness, despite him having the face of Arika, I mean, he can barely Governed the Unaligned.

Now for the goodies of this card. First, it is free. And it has burn option. It's a +1 Stealth, and the basic discipline is good enough. It can be used repeatedly on the enemy, and is an excellent offensive/defensive card. The most powerful aspect of this card is that it is TOTALLY free if you pull it through. The acting vampire untaps after placing this card, freeing him to do something else, like for example, Greater Curse the fella you just Barren-ed.

The big problem of this card is of course the need to put in enough Maleficia master card to make sure you get to use the card at all, since it (justly), doesn't have a DAI outferior for you to use it for another purpose. But in a deck that intends to use this card extensively, I do not expect you burning too many of them before drawing into your Maleficia cards.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Cavalier

Cards that provide untaps are always good to have, especially those recurring ones. Cards like Homonculus and Monster are invaluable, as are untap modifiers like Freak Drives and Forced March. In HttB, a new addition, and potentially the best of them all has been added - the mighty Cavalier.

As an archetype, it is a master card that can be attached to a vampire, and allows the vampire to untap once a turn by burning a blood IF he successfully performs any action that cost 1 or more blood.

Now this may not be as commonly useful as Freak Drives or Homonculus, as the condition attached to Cavalier does requires some thinking and making a deck that more or less tries to maximize its use. But cards like these normally shine more in a deck that traditionally does not have FOR or untap-related disciplines in the first place. And for those decks, this card can be invaluable.

First, let's just think about how often your deck try to do actions that costs 1 or more blood. Not always, of course, there are weenie decks that almost never use a single blood in their actions (like DEM bleeds). But many more decks do use actions that costs blood, and many of those would scream at the opportunity to have Cavalier in play.

The most commonly used blood-cost action that comes to mind is Govern the Unaligned. Imagine the speed this card will lend to DOM vote decks that can now Govern at superior or inferior, get it through, and then burn a blood to untap and call a vote. If even a single vampire can do this a couple of times in a game it'll really add up to the multi-actions that these decks normally need. Come to think of it, this card is a god-send for vote decks that traditionally does not have FOR to untap with Freak Drives. Hear that, Toreadors? Enchant all the way!

Now, the tricky part is the blood cost. Burning one extra blood, plus the cost of the action itself, is no small matter. Your vampire will need means of getting those blood back in order to do this again and again. Multi-blood gain actions or blood-gaining options are abound in Vtes - Hunting Grounds; Hungry Coyotes; Hospital Food; Rack etc etc. So getting enough blood to power up Cavalier, only once a turn anyway, shouldn't be a big issue.

And PRE voters will just shrug and play more Voter Caps.

And there is a clan that will simply die to have this card - the Tremere. With Ankara Citadel many of their actions are free, but they're considered costing 1 blood or more. Without FOR they traditionally relies on Rutor's Hand to untap, but now with Cavalier things look a lot brighter for these fellows. And their discipline spread has so many options - DOM bleed or bloat, AUS spying or THA magic.

And somehow the Daughters seems to be gaining a hell lot from this card if you can get a lot of the ladies to be Cavaliers. Imagine a horde of Cavalier-ed Daughters calling Lily Preludes with Madrigal, untap to support the Conductor, and then bleed or Shatter when all the Preludes are over. In theory, every Daughter is only going to use up 1 blood for the Lily Prelude (and if you have Voter Caps every Daughter is going to be a happy Daughter)

And all those vampires with in-build actions that costs blood may want this archetype on them too, since they can always untap if they can afford the blood. (Cybele comes to mind)

Multi-action vampires have never been happier. Be Cavalier, friends!

(o.o)