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Gargoyle Clan Newsletter |
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Contents:
I. Introduction
II. Vampire of the Month: Ublo-Satha
III. Gargoyle Strategy: Bruise Bleed with the Slave Mechanic
IV. Deck of the Month: Exploiting the Slaves
V. Closing Remarks
I. Introduction
With the calendars now rolling over into 2006, it's been quite some time since anyone has posted a newsletter for the Gargoyles. I've decided to at least temporarily claim mastery over the stone slaves, but if anyone out there in internet-land still feels attached to this project and is bothered that I'm doing it, let me know.
I figured I should start my first newsletter with some personal information, as it relates to playing Jyhad. First and foremost, I should note that for a player who takes the game as seriously as I do (or imagine I do) my spending on the game is quite miniscule. I'm currently in college, with practically no end to it sight, and my expendable income has been rather smallish the past few years. If I were interested in playing certain other card games, I would certainly be totally unable to compete. You might be wondering why all of this matters. The bottom line is pretty simple: my intent with this newsletter is to describe decks and strategies that can be played on a small budget. Every deck I post will be one that I can build out of my own collection, and will hopefully have done so and play tested it. My theory is that if I can build the deck, most readers should be able to as well. It's also worth noting that most of the Gargoyles' important cards are fairly easy to acquire in sufficient number, since they have been rather unpopular to date and not many of their cards have use to other clans. With some of the new cards that arrived in Legacies of Blood, the Gargoyles' popularity may be on the upswing, so you might want to get trading fast!
The other thing about my playing habit is that I seldom attend tournaments. I would like to play in them more often, but it's at least a 2 hour drive in any direction to the nearest venues--and I don't drive. Nonetheless, Dave Clooney (currently the author of the Gangrel newsletter) and I have made a few pilgrimages out to Boston to play at events there. So far my track record has been fairly poor, but I blame it on seating. Really. As a result of this, my slant on the game is much more in the direction of what people call "casual" play. I'm really not down with the former term though. The games we play are nasty, unrelenting, and every bit as "competitive" as any tournament game I've seen. I have a certain distaste for the way many people approach tournaments. I'm absolutely not a fan of the way time limits are implemented, and I believe that they can seriously alter the way the game is played at all levels of engagement--from deck building on up. I really don't want to turn this newsletter into a forum for arguing about such things though, so just take my prejudices as given.
II. Vampire of the Month
Given how recently Legacies of Blood was released, I'm sure people would expect me to focus on some of the newer cards and vampires that came out there. I'm going to take a somewhat more conservative approach however, and start off with some of my old favorites from the vault. This will give the dust more time to settle around the new arrivals, and give me more time to experiment with them. Needless to say, Tupdog will be a major feature in some future article as will Raking Talons, Roll, Rockheart, etc. I couldn't help but touch on some of these new cards this time through, however. So without further ado, our vampire of the month is the rock solid combat monster Ublo-Satha:
Ublo-Satha
Capacity: 7
Clan: Gargoyle
Disciplines: FOR POT VIS cel
Camarilla Tremere Slave: Ublo-Satha may prevent 1 damage each combat. Brujah get +1 bleed when bleeding Ublo-Satha's controller. Flight.
For starters, Ublo-Satha is 1 of only 2 Gargoyles in groups 2/3 with all 3 in clan disciplines at superior. The other Gargoyle sharing this claim to fame is Ferox, who is not a Tremere slave (which can be either an advantage or disadvantage depending on deck design). Toss in basic Celerity and Flight and you're looking at minion who effectively has access to 5 combat disciplines (Flight is not actually discipline, but I'm sure you're following me regardless). In addition to that, Ublo comes out of the box with not one but two specials that help him fight or get into fights. As Omaya has proven time and time again, cardless damage prevention is an extremely useful ability. Ublo-Satha can get into a combat for one of your Tremere without worrying about agg-pokes and cutting even potence or weapons-based damage down to more manageable numbers.
You can back that up with damage prevention effects from both FOR and VIS to make Ublo practically invulnerable in combat. The best picks for these slots would probably be cards that provide secondary effects along with preventing damage. The classic example is Indomitability. When you can pull up a Signpost, Grapple, and prevent damage all night long presses can really go a long way. The newly printed Stonestrength provides options very similar to Indomitability, and might even wallpaper it in Gargoyle decks. The card is strictly better at the inferior, and provides an additional point of prevention at superior. Lacking however is the ability to prevent and press from the same card, which is pretty clutch to the way Indomitability works. For now, I'm playing with a mix of the two cards to see which I end up liking more. In the end, a mix might be best. Unflinching Persistence is another possible pick, but Flight offers much better maneuvers, such as Roll and Swoop. If you really want to go to long range (which is far from inconceivable) you could use High Ground.
The defense angle being covered, we can look at some of the ways Ublo-Satha can pound his enemies into the ground for daring to interfere with the master's plans. To a very great extent, the oldest trick for this purpose is still the best: use potence. Torn Signposts and presses make a very efficient offensive package, and you can easily include Immortal Grapple for insurance (and the additional press). Pounce more or less replaces Undead Strength in the classic potence combat package, and provides additional protection against multiple-striking Brujah or what-have-you. Don't play Pounce without thinking though, because the downside of missing can be quite painful. Only playing Pounce under Immortal Grapple is a good policy, and I'd recommend sticking to it unless you're absolutely certain the enemy can't dodge. If they can, they'll probably have been sitting on the card for just that oppurtunity--or at least for a Grapple-free combat.
Adding the brand new Raking Talons to this offensive mix is just plain over the top. The Gargoyles are now the only clan with access to free in clan aggravated hand damage and Potence, a combination that smells suspiciously like fried chicken. To get the most mileage out of your cards, don't play Raking Talons until you're certain you can get to close range and play Immortal Grapple. It would be a shame to see a card that good go to waste. Note that Raking Talons can be played on the second or subsequent rounds of combat, so with all the pressing you plan on doing you might be able to time things just right to burn your enemy far more often than your opponents would like. Disarm is another good addition to your offensive, and with Ublo's damage prevention ability there's a chance you can play it after an otherwise cardless combat.
For those who prefer the long range approach there are multiple options coming from both Potence and Visceratika. From Potence, the primary choices are Thrown Sewer Lid and Earthshock (note that Gargoyles are immune to the latter, but can still play it). I personally prefer the Lid, but a detailed argument regarding both cards is available on the newsgroup at http://tinyurl.com/cr38h. If you really want to go nuts with damage prevention, there's Stunt Cycle as well. Visceratika offers some additional choices in the form of Stone Quills and Collapse the Arches. The former is really much easier to play, and it basically functions as a Lid with a built in maneuver for the cost of a blood--and no press. Unlike Lid it is playable at close range. Perhaps most importantly, the card has a decent outferior effect for Thaumaturgy, which could help your Tremere masters put up a fight. If your opponents waste all their combat defense fighting Ublo-Satha and the other Gargoyles, 2R damage coming from a Tremere might be enough to put them over the edge. The power vs. opportunity cost on Collapse the Arches is very interesting. I would probably reserve heavy use of the card for a Gargoyle wall deck that tries like hell to block and get to long. Other than that, 1 copy in a 90 card deck isn't too likely to stick up your hand, and it just might catch someone in a very nasty way. My sense is that close range beating is probably the most damaging combat available to the Gargoyles, but the long range stuff might work with fewer cards in a deck focused more on something else.
The biggest question now is what to do with Ublo-Satha's basic Celerity. Many of the abilities granted by it have already been covered in a round-about way by the other disciplines at Ublo's disposal, but it's still tempting to put the little lightning bolt in a box to work. It's possible to try to match up the out of clan discipline with the various Tremere who have it, but this strikes me as a poor proposition. However, in a deck with multiple copies of Ublo-Satha, you could easily get away with splashing in a handful of cel cards to confuse, surprise, and torporize the enemy. Coming from the strictly cel angle, the cards of choice would have to be Flash and Blur. Flash allows extreme versatility in controlling the range and duration of combat in a way that few other cards can do. There are much better ways for the Gargoyles to get maneuvers or presses separately, but Flash does both, allowing for flexibility during play and greater efficiency during deck design. While Blur is clearly much better at its superior use (2 is more than 1) it's still worthwhile to consider a few copies in an Ublo-Satha combat deck. Springing an additional strike when your opponent thought you couldn't can come in very handy, especially if people start preparing presses to end.
The combination of FOR cel offers some other possibilities, the most notable of which is Forced March. Note that you cannot play Forced March after taking over a Tremere's combat with the Slave mechanic, but you can use it after bleeding, fetching a Razor Bat, rushing, etc. Forced March could play a vital role in an Ublo-Satha multi-rush deck, saving precious blood that would otherwise be burnt to play Freak Drive. The other for cel combo card of note is Diversion, if you're willing to forgive the weirdness of an Anarch Slave. The damage prevention on Diversion is clearly beat by other FOR effects, but it's still nice to have around, while the free additional strike at basic cel is just plain awesome. Additionally, you have a tha "outferior" that could help protect the Tremere in the deck. Props go to Matt Winner for coming up with this idea several years ago, though he could never quite get it to work.
All in all, Ublo-Satha is an incredibly powerful and versatile minion in combat. How then can we best send our ferocious slave to wreak havoc among the enemy? I can see three major options, which are not mutually exclusive. The simplest is rushing, with the FOR cel combo offering great potential for multi-rush. Sadly, you'll need to control at least 1 ready Tremere to give the sic! command. A weenie with dominate is the most obvious choice, giving you cheap access to bounce and the occasional Conditioning, but there's also the outside possibility of using Martin Franckel, who could play Precognizant Mobility for additional untap that doesn't cost Ublo-Satha any blood. If Martin gets blocked untapping the main man, you'll hopefully have another slave, like Saxum, ready to back him up. The next possibility is intercept combat. With Razor Bat, Patrol, Scry the Hearthstone, and Defender of the Haven, the Gargoyles have access to a nice cache of permanent and transient intercept. The biggest problem is that much of that intercept cannot be used against undirected actions, so blocking your prey is likely to be very difficult. Last but not least, Ublo-Satha and the other Gargoyles can exploit the Slave mechanic in a bruise bleed style deck, which will be the focus of the strategy discussion below.
III. Gargoyle Strategy: Bruise Bleed with the Slave Mechanic
Since the Slave rule comes up so rarely in most games, it seemed prudent to paste the text from the rulebook below.
Slave: Some minions are identified as slaves to a specified clan. A slave cannot take a directed action if his controller doesn't control a ready member of the specified clan. Also, if a member of the specified clan controlled by the same Methuselah is blocked, the controller can tap the slave to cancel the combat and to untap the acting vampire and have the slave enter combat with the blocking minion instead.
My first impression of this mechanic is that it absolutely screams to be utilized in one of the Tremere's oldest strategies: bruise bleed. I've said some pretty negative things about this strategy in the past, and I still stick by them, but the Gargoyles really ratchet the possibilities to a new a level. For anyone prepared to fight and defend himself in combat, Thaumaturgy is really not all that frightening. Gargoyle combat, on the other hand, is quite certainly among the most intimidating there is. With the Gargoyles as back up, weenie Tremere can push forward unafraid of being blocked by even the most dangerous of enemies while packing a Conditioning under one arm and the slave's leash in the opposite hand. The really nice thing about this equation is that after the Gargoyle jumps in to cream the offending blocker, the acting Tremere untaps. You can't bleed again, but you can sure as hell Deflect, hunt, give one of your Gargoyles Defender of the Haven or Soul of the Earth, etc. Since your Gargoyle slave is now tapped, and never actually bled, you can use Force of Will to continue the pressure against your prey. If you don't feel like fighting, and your prey (or grand prey if bounced) tries to block, you can play Change of Target to come out of the deal untapped and ready. The Gargoyle can't bleed again, but your other Tremere sure can, and there's no restriction against using the Slave mechanic multiple times in a turn. Those same CoT's will come in handy any time you get bounced and don't feel like fighting your grand prey. There's even the outside option of untapping after Force of Will with either Freak Drive or Forced March, and then Rapid Healing to pop out of torpor. Bolting Dominate masters onto your Gargoyles can greatly increase the overall effectiveness of your bleeding offensive.
With a fairly solid bruise bleed core in place, you can fill out the deck with master cards, toolboxy elements, and defense. The best starting place is a good number of Deflections, some wakes, and a handful of intercept cards. In case your prey refuses to block any of your actions, or if you need to go upstream with a vengeance, a few rush actions are vital. These actions have a place in every bruise bleed deck. A couple Razor Bats won't hurt either. Master cards will have to be fairly slim, given how fast a deck like this can cycle cards. Some Blood Dolls are the obligatory starting point, followed by 2 copies of Fame for additional ousting power. As mentioned above, some Dominate master cards will really help the deck move forward. The few remaining master slots are more or less open to taste. I've chosen to include Haven Uncovered, since it provides me (and every other combat monkey at the table) with a cardless rush at +1 stealth. Dropping a Haven Uncovered can even be a low commitment effort to help other people balance the table. If the target tries to find a new home, that's just one more opportunity for me to clobber the sucker--provided I have the intercept at hand. Note that the action to remove HU is directed, so all of the Gargoyles' intercept can be used to block it. I'll nominate Ublo-Satha Defender of the Haven Uncovered.
Many people would suggest running Tension in the Ranks in a deck like this. I am not one of those people.
IV. Deck of the Month: Exploiting the Slaves
Deck Name : Exploiting the Slaves
Author : Cthulukitty
Description :
Gargoyle bruise, Tremere bleed.
There should definitely be a third copy of Ublo-Satha in the crypt, but at this point I only own 2. Obsidian would probably be the boy to get cut for him.
Another 1 or 2 copies of Roll, and about a billion more Raking Talons would also help. Swoop is very cornercase, but it's so damn cool I had to include it. The only major impediment to building this deck on a small budget would probably be the 10 Immortal Grapples and 7 Torn Signposts, which I've been trading like mad to get hold of for years.
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 7 average: 4.75
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3x Saxum, Master of Slaves 6 FOR VIS pot pre Gargoyle:2 Slave, Flight. 2x Ublo-Satha 7 FOR POT VIS cel Gargoyle:2 Slave, Flight, Prevents 1 each combat, cornercase disadvantage involving Brujah. 1x Luma, Stone Beauty 5 FOR aus pot vis Gargoyle:2 Slave, Flight. 1x Obsidian 5 VIS for pot Gargoyle:2 Idependent, Flight. 1x Ignatius 4 aus dom tha Tremere:1 1x Sarah Cobbler 4 THA dom Tremere:1 1x Jing Wei 3 dom tha Tremere:1 1x Mustafa Rahman 2 dom Tremere:2 1x Roreca Quaid 2 tha Tremere:1 Library [90 cards] ------------------------------------------------------------ Action [7] 1x Ambush 1x Bum's Rush 1x Defender of the Haven 2x Force of Will 1x Harass 1x Restoration Action Modifier [9] 3x Change of Target 6x Conditioning Combat [45] 1x Collapse the Arches 2x Disarm 1x Flow Within the Mountain 10x Immortal Grapple 4x Indomitability 2x Pounce 2x Raking Talons 2x Resilience 2x Rockheart 2x Roll 3x Rolling with the Punches 2x Stone Quills 1x Stonestrength 1x Swoop 3x Thrown Sewer Lid 7x Torn Signpost Master [12] 3x Blood Doll 5x Dominate 2x Fame 2x Haven Uncovered Reaction [15] 5x Deflection 5x Forced Awakening 4x Patrol 1x Scry the Hearthstone Retainer [2] 2x Razor Bat Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Tue Jan 03 16:26:07 2006]
V. Closing Remarks
I hope people enjoy this newsletter and find it useful in some respect or another. I appreciate compliments as well as critcism, and will happily receive offers to trade or donate Gargoyle related material to the project. Post comments to the newsgroup we all know and love, or send email to jessecn AT student.umass.edu. I'm looking forward to what everyone has to say.
Jesse
(aka Cthulukitty)