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Official VEKN Newsletter for Anarchs |
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Contents:
I – Fiction
II – Vampires of the Month (Jeremy MacNeil and Dominique)
III – Card of the Month (Firebrand)
IV – Deck Idea (Jeremy's New Carthage)
V - Conclusion
I. Fiction
The Prince awoke and sipped from the chalice filled each evening by his loyal ghouls. His dreams had been troubled, and he knew, therefore, that the people would also be disquieted this night, for he was the Heart of the City. He sat at his desk and read the reports summarizing the day's events. Another gallery had been burned, one the Prince recognized. He shook his head. That slut continued to be an irritant, and seemed to be getting very good intelligence regarding the havens and feeding grounds of the city's more prominent kindred. At least she respected the Elysium he had declared to protect the most important works of art.
A soft but insistent thud rattled the underground room. The Prince tried not to be flustered, but nevertheless hurried up several flights of stairs to his 3rd floor balcony. A car was burning on the street across from his home, and half a dozen figures were silhouetted against the blaze.
"Villon," one of them called.
The Prince recognized the voice immediately. "Dominique," he snarled, "what the hell do you think you're doing? Finally making your pitiful move? You can't possibly have enough support to claim my domain, and even if you did, Anne would sweep down on you and destroy you in a heartbeat."
Dominique laughed – far too melodiously, thought the Prince, for a petty vandal – and led her group closer to the balcony. The streetlights allowed him to identify the others, including the scandalous Céleste and the insolent Gaël Pilet.
"You've slept too long, old man. Your dreams aren't the city's dreams anymore, and many things have changed. If I were still Sabbat I might fear Her Majesty's retribution, but the Treaty of Thorns prohibits her from attacking me directly now that I am Anarch. And so, I hereby declare Paris a free state with myself as Baron. In honor of that same Treaty, I will allow you to leave peacefully, provided you do so quickly."
The Prince laughed, "Baron? Of your former pack mates and a couple pet Daughters? You have a long way to go before you can call that a free state, my dear."
She smiled. "Oh this is just a small ambassadorial delegation. The rest of my forces are busy with a special project. Something to demonstrate just how far this city has slipped from your grasp."
Francois Villon looked out at Paris with dawning horror. The clouded sky over one particular section of the city flickered strangely, too bright for city lights. His enhanced hearing began to pick out the sirens, and he could smell smoke on the wind. The Louvre, he realized, the Louvre is burning…
II. Vampires of the Month
This month I take a look at two vampires – specifically at their merged versions, so I will be considering the process of merging from either Basic or Advanced. To save space, however, I will only list card text from the Advanced versions:
Jeremy MacNeil
Brujah
Group: 3
Capacity: 8
AUS cel chi POT PRE
Independent. Advanced. Jeremy can enter combat with a younger vampire controlled by your predator or prey as a (D) action [[] Anarch Baron of Los Angeles
If building a crypt with a focus on Jeremy, the AUS/POT/PRE combo is very flexible, and does have some decent support out there. You don't necessarily need to look for them all at superior (since that just leaves Kyle Strathcona and Huitzilopochtli), but Sir Henry Johnson, Rigby and Sigrid make decent supporting Anarchs, articularly if you're going the vote/bruise or bleed/bruise route. If PRE is important, you may also want Rebekka, who can help Enchant those weenies out. Alternately, focusing on POT/PRE with just a little cel support is perfectly reasonable (at least I hope so, since it's this month's deck), and the AUS can sit there as a potential surprise waiting to happen. Jeremy could also theoretically fit into a Ravnos Anarch vote deck with the likes of Khalil (who makes a fine Baron) and Ankla and some other weenie Ravnos with Presence masters. Sure it's silly, but don't say I don't offer options.
Dominique
Ventrue Antitribu
Group: 2
Capacity: 7
Ani AUS dom FOR vic
Advanced, Sabbat. During your untap phase, you may burn a location you control to gain X pool, where X is the cost of that location. [[] Independent Anarch Baron of Paris
Dominique is a little more difficult to match up. Her discipline spread seems to lead towards pairing her with Tzimisce, but 7 pool for a vamp with inferior vicissitude and animalism is a little pricey. You might try matching her with Velya and Szechenyi, but again that becomes cost-prohibitive for not much value. And anyway, we're focusing on Anarchs here. So the best use for Dominique (in my opinion) is as part of a mixed-discipline Anarch deck. In this respect, one thought might be to build around vic/aus plus 3-way, and then you get a crypt that includes Creamy Jade, Ana Rita Montana, Devin Bisley, Elizabeth Westcott and the not-often-used Edith/Enid Blount combo. That's SIX 5-cap vampires without titles who have a variety of disciplines useful in 3-ways. Sounds like a Baron deck to me.
A note on merging strategy:
If your deck wants to see your pivotal vampire merged, I recommend a minimum of 2 Basic, 2 Advanced and maybe one Gift of Experience. If it's more critical to have one or the other out first, go 3/2, and keep in the Gift if you can. The only reason I see for going 3/3 is if your deck absolutely depends on having that vampire out and preferably merged. In that case, you may also want to trade for a few extra Gifts so you can have around 3. And, like any deck that focuses on a single vamp, tossing in some Effective Managements is probably not wrong. If you don't care which version comes out first, you will usually want to start with the Basic in cases (like Jeremy) where the Advanced has a higher capacity. However, there are certainly cases where the Advanced should come out first, and this is usually dependent on the interaction of the version's special with the table situation. In certain decks and table situations, for instance, Adv Jeremy could be an important early threat/deterrent.
On the tactical side, I do not recommend using Gift of Experience until you have a second minion up. Many people perceive merged vamps as a threat and the tapped-and-alone state as a weakness, and while you might use this to your advantage, it also might be true. If you're doing the cardless merge, go ahead and do it right away, though again, that's four transfers you've spent and you still only have the one minion. Hopefully it's a good one, but maybe you want to have some backup before you go merging.
III. Card of the Month:
Firebrand
Political Card - Worth 1 Vote.
Called by any anarch as a +1 stealth action
If this referendum is successful, put this card on the acting anarch. This anarch gets 1 additional vote during a political action. During your minion phase, this anarch can burn 1 blood to untap a ready younger anarch. Burn this card if this anarch goes to torpor. An anarch may have only 1 Firebrand.
I made what some might call an excessively superlative statement last month by saying that Firebrand is the most powerful card in the Anarch arsenal, but I'm going to stick with that claim. Many people have asked me why this makes Anarchs useful when you could just build around Freak Drive if you want the extra actions, and it doesn't make THAT much of a difference in votes, right? Au contraire – with regard to the extra actions, this is a permanent, disciplineless untap that can happen at any time during your minion phase. And as far as votes go, Firebrand is extremely helpful for at least one very important thing – defending Baron titles. When all non-Anarchs have their titles reduced in value (in the vote to dethrone a Baron), the extra one or two votes you have from Firebrands can make all the difference. Also, one important thing about Firebrand is that it works so well with Anarch Salon. If you've got cascading Firebrands (see below) and everybody calls an Anarch Salon, everybody except the oldest one can then be untapped with more blood than they had at the start. And one tactical note – it can often be very effective to have all your minions take an action before you start untapping. The psychological effect on this is that your prey will occasionally tap out against the last one or two and forget that you still have three or four more actions to take.
Two ways to configure your Firebrands:
One way is to set up a cascade. This is when you have several vampires of varying capacities and all but the youngest is a Firebrand. In this way, the 6-cap can untap the 5-cap, who can untap the 4-cap, who can untap the 3-cap. The advantage of this is that each of your minions other than the oldest can take two actions per turn (or act and then be untapped to block/react.) The other way is to set up a focus minion. This is when you have several Firebrands of the same or similar capacities and one younger vampire that everyone else untaps. The advantage of this setup is that the younger vamp may be allowed to do things the others wouldn't because no one feels compelled to block the weenie. Note that if your Firebrands are set up to cascade, they can ALSO focus.
Fun ideas with Firebrand:
1) Have a weenie play Border Skirmish to draw out the block. If blocked and still ready, untap them and do something else. If not blocked, untap them and do something else, and still be untapped at the end of the turn. (Also works with Leather Jackets.)
2) Have one of your smaller minions start your turn with a Domain Challenge and then take NO DAMAGE because you untap them during the referendum.
3) Tell your grandprey to have a minion go Anarch so you can untap them if you don't have anything better to do. Works especially well if your prey is bleeding and your grandprey is bouncing.
IV. Deck Idea
Jeremy's New Carthage
Crypt – 12 cards (Max: 30, Min: 17, Avg: 6.0): Allison Maller cel pot pre, Brujah 4 Evangeline cel pot pre, !Brujah 4 Hugo POT pre vic, !Brujah 4 2x Jeremy MacNeil AUS cel chi POT PRE, Brujah 7 2x Jeremy MacNeil (Adv) AUS cel chi POT PRE, Brujah 8 Jeremiah Noble CEL obt POT pre, !Brujah 6 Marlena cel POT pre, Brujah 5 Richter CEL for POT pre, !Brujah 6 Sir Ralph Hamilton cel POT PRE ser, Brujah 6 Theo Bell cel dom POT pre, Brujah 7 Library – 90 cards: Master (16) Archon Investigation Anarch Free Press 4x Blood Doll 2x Fame 3x Galaric's Legacy Hospital Food Redline Tension in the Ranks Warzone Hunting Ground Waste Management Operation Action (22) 4x Ambush Brick Laying 4x Bum's Rush 8x Enchant Kindred Fee Stake: Boston Fee Stake: New York Fee Stake: Seattle 2x Harass Political Action (5) 5x Firebrand Action Modifier (3) 3x Iron Glare Combat (29) 2x Concealed Weapon 5x Flash 4x Increased Strength 5x Torn Signpost 10x Undead Strength 3x Taste of Vitae Allies and Equipment (10) Arms Dealer 2x Leather Jacket 2x Meat Cleaver Poker Sword of Judgement Sword of Troile 2x Wooden Stake Reaction (6) 3x Telepathic Misdirection 3x Wake With Evening's Freshness
Comments:
Clearly this is not intended to be a tournament-winning rush deck. Much of what's in here is for flavor (such as the Swords), but it's still fairly effective at what it does. Cryptwise, Jeremy MacNeil is obviously a cornerstone minion, but Theo Bell is also very good to have out. Advanced Jeremy and/or Theo are important in that they add to the 10 card-based rush actions in the deck. Sir Ralph is also a decent first draw if you have some of the younger vamps uncontrolled so you can Enchant down. You do want to have several minions out of varying capacity, because otherwise there's no point to the Firebrands.
The Enchants are usually not for bleeding (especially early), though the Iron Glares can be. As tempting as it is to target the big vamp, put Fame on small, weaker vamps. If the table is vote-heavy, use your rush for deal-making or threatening in order to get a couple Firebrands passed.
I can anticipate a couple of questions, so I'll just answer them now: 1) Why the Fee Stakes? Yes, it's partially to get the Firebrands to pass, but the threat of a rush can help that. Mostly the titles are to help diablerie along, which can help get the Wooden Stakes back on my minions. 2) Why weapons? Yes, I realize that POT without Immortal Grapple seems wrong, but I like to have something permanent, and often I can get people to use up prevent or S:CE without playing a single card. 3) Is that enough Tastes? Personally, I find that when I have more than 3 or 4 in a deck, I frequently play them for 0 or 1 blood. Why am I wasting a card slot on that? I'd much rather just have one sitting in my hand waiting for the rare occasion when I slash that full vamp for 7. If I really need to get blood on my vamps, I have the Free Press and the Hospital Food.
V. Conclusion
I did not include a deck with Dominique this month mostly because I had just featured the !Ventrue in November. However, if you read the fiction, you will see that I am making a suggestion of the kind of deck that might include a merged Dominique. What exactly am I suggesting? Consider Maldavis, Alan Sovereign, and perhaps even Owain Evans as part of it as well, and see where that leads you.
Next month – The Mole, and a discussion of two Baron-ready vampires
that can burn blood for votes: Sundown and Joseph O'Grady.
Eric Simon
Prince of Chicago