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Table of Contents:
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Politics: Should We Fool Around With It?
Theme Decks: The Storytelling
Deck of the Month
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Politics: Should We Fool Around With It?
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Politics are a very powerful weapon in V:TES. Though not quite as effective as bleeding, political actions deal the second-most pool damage in the game. Additionally, the damage dealt by political actions cannot be bounced or reduced by your opponents. However, going the political route has the downside of needing enough votes to acquire "votelock" on the table, which is very hard to achieve sometimes. Here are a few ways to make sure you get it.
1.) Torporize the opposing voters. This is my favourite method, because there are no questions asked about whether or not your referendum passes when other the voters on the table are lying in torpor. Of course, this requires a lot of other cards (combat cards and get-into-combat-cards) in your library. So my suggestion is to make your combats simple and effective; disguised weapons that do aggravated damage are a good example that won't eat up too many card slots. Or design your crypt well, with vampires that have the leverage in combat. Thetmes has 2 votes and aggravated hand damage, for example.
2.) Use Presence as one of your disciplines. Assamites have quite a few vampires with Presence; Aziz and Tegyrius have it at superior and can be the cornerstones in this type of build. It can be a very good idea to add some non-Assamites with titles in the deck too, just to save some Bewitching Orations (or whichever action modifiers you use to get your votes to pass succesfully).
3.) Alamut. This is very familiar location for many Assamite players. For those who aren't familiar with it, Alamut is a location which gathers the pool damage done by your bleeds and gives you the opportunity to use those counters as transient votes. It's worth noting that every titled Assamite has either Presence or Dominate, which can be used to make those bleeds bigger, thereby giving you more counters on Alamut. Having many low-capacity vampires to bleed with can accumulate counters quickly as well. When using Alamut, make sure that you remember to use the proper number of counters to gain votes, as you can only burn counters from Alamut once per political action.
4.) Last but not least, you can choose anarchy. Fee Stakes were an addition to the game which made (almost) every clan suitable for voting without inherent votes or vote-pushing disciplines. It's relatively easy to get the Fee Stakes successfully with obfuscate, and Assamites have good candidates for becoming Barons. This method can also be complemented by those listed above; Alamut can help defend your Baron titles if someone attempts to vote them away, for instance.
As I mentioned above, it's good to include non-Assamites in the crypt too, because Assamites have only few titled vampires. Cheap votes may be your salvation in many games. Many clans have vote-enhancing cards, like Ventrue Headquarters, Ferraille and Oxford University, England. These are good to remember if you put enough of the required clan in your crypt.
As a side note, playing with votes doesn't necessarily mean that you should only be calling votes. It's always good to have some defence against vote decks. You can do this with your titles, Alamut (which provides good defence while requiring activity on our behalf) and a rather new card called Confusion of the Eye. Confusion of the Eye is really powerful for clan Assamite, as with superior obfuscate it can foil any vote that requires a titled vampire to call it. Confusion of the Eye and Delaying Tactics give you good defence against voters alone, but simple titles can also go a long way here.
For the topic, should we fool around this? My opinion is that yes, we should, even if it presents many difficulties. Every clan has a stigma in the game - Assamites have their lethal combat, and political actions are the last thing many players think of when seeing an Assamite deck at the table. This might give you some leverage, since people are likely to think twice before entering combat with your Assamites. This can be a good way to bluff other players. Be sure to make it worth your while, though. You shouldn't attempt to make semi-political decks with Assamites, because their lack of titles will make playing such a deck an uphill battle. But don't entirely neglect combat; keep in mind that Assamites have the capability to control their combats with Celerity, and can also Obfuscate to tighten it down. Swallowed by the Night is a really good card if you want to keep the combat card ratios down to a minimum. That and Taste of Death should keep your opponents on their toes.
Theme Decks: The Storytelling
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Ever get bored with the mathematical, serious part of the game? Want to build your deck with some spirit in it? After all, we play the game for fun, or at least we should. I can compare the game to all kinds of activities here, but it seems obsolete to point them out. I once heard someone saying that it's more fun to play with other players than by yourself.
By "theme decks" I mean decks where you can spin a yarn while playing and concentrate on having a good time without worrying about counting every move. I always enjoy seeing a deck with some flavour in it. "Okay, now I have +2 bleed and +5 stealth when I bleed you with my Ozmo," is the bare bones of the game, and what you're most often going to hear, but I've also heard players accustomed to playing thematic decks say, "After purchasing this laptop computer on sale, Ozmo now bleeds you for 3. He's got +5 stealth after crawling in the sewers and wading through the thickets," or something similar.
You get the picture I'm trying to draw here. If you try to force yourself to say these phrases, it doesn't sound too good; your deck has to be built from the core with a theme in it. I've had always a thing for themes in V:TES and my first was to play Gangrel minxes. That wasn't too deep or anything, but that's where it all started. After that I came up with "Pensionates," which was basically Shambling Hordes with Weightened Walking Sticks waving them at everyone.
A themed deck won a local tournament here in Turku; it was a Bukkake theme where the crypt had topless men and Creamy Jade. And the library supported the theme, of course. While this is mainly for fun, you can also benefit from it strategically. Leaving red herrings on the table can confuse your opponents and sucker them into taking useless actions.
My message is to remind all of you to have fun while playing casual games...and why not in tournaments, too?
Deck of the Month
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Here I present the tournament winning deck made by mister Harviainen.
Deck name: Undead Bukkake featuring Miss Creamy Jade
Creator: J. Tuomas Harviainen
Crypt: [13 cards]
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3x Creamy Jade PRE cel aus vic 1x Salinger CEL PRE POT tha, Archbishop 1x Tegyrius, Vizier CEL AUS QUI FOR pre 1x Tegyrius, Vizier Adv CEL PRE AUS QUI FOR 1x Parnassus CEL QUI aus tha 1x Quentin King III AUS DEM obf pre, Prince 1x Quentin King III Adv AUS DEM OBF cel pre 1x Ian Wallingford CEL PRE aus, bishop 1x Matteus, Flesh Scu CEL PRE AUS VIC, Priscus 1x Thetmes, Caliph of CEL OBF QUI dom pot, 2 votes 1x Antoinette DuChamp pre Library [90 cards] ------------------------------------------------------------ Master [11] 1x Art of Pain, The 2x Blood Doll 1x Celerity 2x Contract 1x Depravity 1x Direct Intervention 1x Gift of Experience 1x Obfuscate 1x Presence Action [17] 2x Art Scam 6x Enchant Kindred 1x Entrancement 4x Flurry of Action 1x Lunatic Eruption 1x Patronage 1x Restructure 1x Seeds of Corruption Political Action [5] 1x Banishment 1x Justicar Retribution 1x Kindred Segregation 1x Political Stranglehold 1x Screw the Masquerade! Equipment [5] 1x Changeling Skin Mask 2x Incriminating Videotape 1x Winchester Mansion 1x Writ of Acceptance Action Modifier [18] 2x Aire of Elation 1x Awe 1x Bewitching Oration 2x Bribes 1x Change of Target 3x Cloak the Gathering 2x Faceless Night 2x Lost in Crowds 1x Mask of a Thousand Faces 3x Voter Captivation Reaction [11] 1x Delaying Tactics 1x Dread Gaze 1x Enhanced Senses 1x Fast Reaction 2x Pack Tactics 5x Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat [21] 1x Backstab 1x Behind You! 4x Blur 1x Body Arsenal 2x Flash 1x Inner Essence 2x Lucky Blow 2x Psyche! 3x Sideslip 1x Taste of Death 3x Taste of Vitae Action Modifier/Combat [2] 2x Swallowed by the Night
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My time as Newsletter writer is finished for now, the next newsletter will be written by other Assamite fan. Remember to visit www.thepathofblood.com frequently to read the latest Assamite decks and strategies.