VEKN Brujah Newsletter November 2003 Introduction: Black Hand has finally arrived at was met with a lot more enthusiasm than Anarchs. I agree that the cards seem better, and it's a good expansion by the look of it, but I'm also aware that my reaction is mainly due to the new cards addressing the obvious aspects of the game: stealth, intercept, etc. I didn't hear many complaints about the Black Hand mechanism itself, although all-Black Hand decks seem to be even more difficult than all-Anarch decks what with only one way to go: Blooding. But maybe a well-placed Black Hand vampire is enough to make the difference... It remains to be seen. I share the feeling of disappointment surrounding Anarchs, but I also see this as a challenge - some good deck types will eventually emerge out of this expansion and will be recognized by the community as such, I hope. A discussion of new cards: Definetely the time has come (or so the designers wish) for Cel/pot/pro to claim the throne of ultimate combat gonzos. Many new vampires with this combo...: Skryta Zyleta (Gangrel Antitribu 5, CEL obf pot pro), Henry Taylor (Brujah Antitribu 6, cel POT pre pro), Soldat (Gangrel Antitribu 7, cel dom obf POT PRO) and the scary Black Hand Seraph Jalan Aajav (Gangrel Antirtribu 9, ani CEL FOR POT PRO). I remain sceptical if this mighty combo will change the face of combat, but Flesh of Marble alone makes the inclusion of Protean into a cel/pot combat deck worthwhile. Still: The weenier, the better is still the golden rule of successful combat decks (muti-rush aside) - so hopefully we'll see interesting times and not a new monculture. And of course Steve-O will see a lot more playing now that he has all these folks to hang around with... A couple of new cards, though within the context of the expansion clearly geared towards Brujah Antitribu, are great additions to the Brujah arsenal. The most obvious one is Iron Glare Action modifier [pot] [pre] Only usable during a referendum. This vampire gains 2 votes. [POT] [PRE] +2 bleed. After playing this card, you cannot play another action modifier to further increase the bleed for this action. The great stuff about this one is the flexibility it offers in any mixed vote/bleed environment. Sure: Bewitiching Oration is at least as good with only Presence, and Aire of Elation costs a blood, but doesn't need Potence. But how often have you stared at a hand full of vote modifiers without a proper vote card? Now you can just cycle the Glares out and (hopefully) do some serious pool damage on the way. I don't say it's a must for every Brujah deck (not for pure combat ones, anyway), but everything with a vote angle will profit - this card alone makes the default bleed option pretty scary. Clan Brujah classically being CEL/pot/pre, the vampire selection is not that ace, but as you will see below some fine decks are waiting to explore this card. Every discipline got one goodie in Black Hand, here's the stuff for our in-clan skills: Rooftop Shadow Reaction, 1 blood [cel] +1 intercept. Not usable if the acting minion has Celerity [CEL] +1 intercept. Not usable if the acting minion has superior Celerity. This card delivers what The Mole promised to do: Casual transient intercept from a Brujah in-clan discipline. It's not a great card, as always when Celerity mimmicks effects in the stealth/intercept arena, but backed up by serious combat it will give many players that think +1 stealth is enough a hard time. Coupled with the also new Legwork (see below) and the usual media outlets, Moto Guzzis and Ole Winthrop, there's some mileage now for intercept combat based on Brujah outside Second Tradition (which, truth be told, in the right deck is still far superior to this thing). Brick Laying Action [pot] (D) Burn a haven on an ally or younger vampire, or tap an ally or younger vampire. [POT] As above, and inflict 1 damage on that minion Strangely enough it's not the primary effect that catches the eye here (Rampage and Mind Numb are maybe better in that respect), but again the dual use and the superior "inflict 1 damage" effect. If it weren't for the nasty "younger vampire" clause, I could envision a bruise and destroy sort of deck, similar to Shadow Twin, but with "Potence stealth" as backup. Card is on my list of stuff I have to try... Mask Empathy Combat [pre] Strike: ranged. Burn a retainer employed by the opposing minion (usable at close range). [PRE] Play before range is determined. This vampire burns 1 blood to burn a retainer employed by the opposing minion. Weird thing, this... And rare to boot. Kills Dog Packs for Majesty wielders... Or any intercept retainer for those "I'll try my luck with +1 stealth actions" political decks that admitedly are still more successful as they should - at least locally. At the moment I could see this as a prayer card, but I'm not excited about it. Then again: Did Presence need another power card? There you go... While a good portion of the expansion is geared towards Black Hand vampires and the Sabbat clans, there are a few cards of general utility. Black Gloves Equipment, 3 pool Unique Melee Weapon Strength+1 aggravated damage each strike. Bearer takes 1 damage during strike resolution when this weapon is used, but only once each combat. The expensive brother of the Sengir Dagger. Gives an extra damge so might actually burn someone for the cost of an addtional pool and one damage to the bearer. This can be quite nasty in the right deck, but how often do you see the dagger? Flaming Candle Equipment The vampire with this equipment may burn 1 blood when he or she declares an action. If he or she does so, vampires cannot block this action, and the candle is burned. Only one Flaming Candle can be played in a game. A variant on Concoction of Vitality, this one costs a blood to trigger, doesn't cost a pool, is playable only once per game and has the same effect - no vampires can block. Flaming candle allows you to play modifiers requiring disciplines, but the "once per game" thing alone turns this into a prayer card. Still, the not-so-stealthy Brujah might have use for is occasionaly. Kaymakli Barrier Master, 1 pool Requires a ready vampire. Unique (D) Put this card on a younger ready vampire. You still control this card. This vampire cannot block undirected actions. (D) actions cost this vampire an additional blood. A good hoser for politcal decks against that one guy with the Sport Bike or Mr. Cock Robin and his Raptor Zoo. Seems nicely balanced against Penetx Suberversion and might replace it in the right kind of deck. Last Stand has been discussed elsewhere, so I'll leave it out. It's not really geared towards typical Brujah decks anyway, because they rarely try to speed oust two players in one go. Path of Death and the Soul Master Unique Put this card into play. When a minion controlled by another Methuselah is burned, you may tap this card to search your library (shuffle afterward), ash heap or hand for a Master: Discipline card. Move 1 blood from the blood bank and that card to a ready vampire you control. Well, it's not unheard of that when a Brujah decks is on the table, a couple of vampires get burned. In case said Brujah deck is relying on master skill cards to some extend, I might want to spare a master slot for this Path. It's nice to get that Celerity on Theo for example, even if he only vaporized Royce... Sire's Index Finger Equipment Unique The vampire with this equipment is immune to frenzy cards (including Brujah Frenzy, Drawing out the Beast, Frenzy, Rotschreck and Terror Frenzy). Have you been humilated by an Animalism long-range combat deck recently when playing you celeritous gun-slingers? Here's your way out. Sure, it's unique, you can't conceal it out, but hey: It's for free, it works as advertised. Ist usefullness depends larely in the meta-game, but it can hose a whole type of deck. Thin-Blooded Seer Requires a ready non-sterile vampire of capacity less than 3. Put this card into play; it becomes a 1 capacity vampire. This vampire is clanless and sterile. This vampire is not considered unique, must hunt this turn, and is the same sect as the acting vampire. Cards that cost blood cost this vampire twice as much blood to play. During your untap phase, you may tap this vampire to look at the top two cards of any Methuselah's library. I'm a bit surprised that such a weenie card made it into the set. Thematic reasons, I guess. Anyway, it's a cheaper, weaker Embrace for the total weenie players among us. And to be honest it's just as bad: It can play Computer Hackings without any drawback (or, more appropriate for Brujah: Immortal Grapple, Undead Strength and Disarm once you have that Potence skill card on him) or diablerize. Do you feel the synergy with Path of Death and the Soul? :-) And actually the tap and see cards ability is pretty strong in my book - doing this regularily will tell you a lot about your opponent's hand. WMHR Talk Radio Master, 1 pool Unique Location Tap to give any minion +1 intercept for the current action. If that minion doesn't successfully block the action, burn 1 pool after the action resolves. This obviously compares to the Rumor Mill. Both are sellable cross table, but the Talk Radio has a sharp drawback if the attempt fails. No cost to the minion though, and while we're at it - this one gives your Arms Dealers intercept as well. Still I guess I'll see it mainly in wall-type decks as an additonal layer of defense. I am not a clan fanatic to the extent of playing solely Cammie vampires in my Brujah decks, so the new Brujah Antitribu are of interest as well. Here they are: Mariano Pomposo Brujah Antitribu 4, aus cel pot Sabbat. Black Hand The older brother of Gengis, without the drawback. Still haven't tried the Brujah with Auspex deck, but he-of-the-ridiculous-name is in. (Also a very cheap Black Hand vampire, so when the !Bru start to go down that path, expect to see him a lot.) Wah Chun-Yuen Brujah Antitribu 5, cel dom POT pre Sabbat. Black Hand. Great guy because of the cheap Dominate coupled with reasonable combat skills. Same discipline set as Theo Bell, so you can't go amiss when contemplating to employ him in that familiar environment. Henry Taylor Brujah Antitribu 6, cel POT pre pro Sabbat. After an action, you may move a combat card Henry played during that action from your ash heap to the top of your library. I mused about the cel/pot/pro stuff above. Henry is sort of expensive for only superior Potence, but he has an interesting special - especially when combo-intense combat strategies start to jam or you suddenly need to reuse a certain card a lot to counter a specific defense. Still Theo Bell is just around the corner price-wise, and he's usually just better. Miquel Santo Domingo Brujah Antitribu 7, cel for POT PRE Sabbat. Once each action, Miquel can burn 1 blood to give any other Sabbat vampire you control +1 bleed for the current action. All 7-caps compare to Theo, and Miquel doesn't make the cut. Even the Fortitude doesn't thrill me, as now he compares to Pug Jackson and Richter, both superior in combat. Sela (Adv.) Brujah Antitribu 7, cel obt POT PRE Sabbat Archbishop of Rome. Sela gets +1 stealth on (D) actions directed at a Methuselah who controls a ready bishop. The commander was a good addition to many Brujah decks in the past, now she has an addtional vote and some conditional stealth. My initial thought was that Iron Glare was made for her - she's perfect for the heavy handed votey/bleedy decks, and thus doesn't need to be judged against the combat machine Theo Bell. Doctor Streck Brujah Antitribu 8, aus CEL OBF pot PRE Sabbat. When Streck bleeds successfully, the target Methuselah discards one card at random from his or her hand. He fits into the Francois Villon scheme or any Presence stealth bleeder, but I find him a little on the expensive side with no title and no really powerful special. The picture has a certain similarity to yours truly though, my mistress says, so I won't diss him any further... All in all while not a power boost to the Brujah (which I never expected in the first place), Black Hand gave us some interesting options, some good utility cards especially in the intercept department, and some food for thought. Which is all I ever hoped for. Deck: As always when new cards come out the first impulse is to throw the coolest looking stuff into a deck and see how cool it really is. That's what I did, with Iron Glare and Rooftop Shadows. Out comes a Brujah bruise'n'bleed deck with the occasional vote and a quite strong casual intercept angle. It's certainly is an extremely powerful deck. For me it's a vehicle to get a feeling for the new cards (and also the avanced/merged stuff which I haven't used in a Brujah deck yet). At the same time it should be a solid deck for newer players since it hardly uses any rares, and those that are (Gift of Experience, Aranthebes and Brujah Justicar) in can easily be replaced/left out. The Iron Hand Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 19, Max: 39, Avg: 6,25) 1 Arnold Simpson (Brujah 2, pot) 1 Jeremy MacNeal (Brujah 7, AUS cel chi POT PRE) 1 Jeremy MacNeal (Adv.) (Brujah 8, AUS cel chi POT PRE) 1 Marlena (Brujah 5, cel POT pre) 2 Pug Jackson (Brujah 6, CEL for POT pre, Primogen) 1 Sela (Brujah Antitribu 6, cel obt POT PRE, Bishop) 1 Sela (Adv.) (Brujah Antitribu 7, cel obt POT PRE, Archbishop) 2 Sir Ralph Hamilton (Brujah 6, cel POT PRE ser) 2 Theo Bell (Brujah 7, cel dom POT pre) Library: (89 cards) Master (90 cards) 5 Blood Doll 1 Gift of Experience 4 Haven Uncovered 1 KRCG Newsradio 2 Presence 1 Warzone Hunting Ground Action (7 cards) 1 Aranthebes, The Immortal 6 Enchant Kindred Action Modifier (7 cards) 7 Iron Glare Reaction (14 cards) 2 Delaying Tactics 6 Rooftop Shadow 6 Wake with Evening's Freshness Political Action (6 cards) 3 Ancilla Empowerment 1 Brujah Justicar 2 Dramatic Upheaval Combat (37 cards) 2 Disarm 5 Flash 7 Immortal Grapple 4 Pursuit 1 Shattering Blow 4 Taste of Vitae 6 Torn Signpost 8 Undead Strength Equipment (4 cards) 3 Leather Jacket 1 Sport Bike Retainer (1 card) 1 Mr. Winthrop Final words: As you might have noticed this newsletter is not coming out as regular as it used to be, due to real life interferences above all (and some laziness, admittedly). I hope to publish the next edition soon, and you're welcome to send me ideas, comments etc. at skaffen_amtiskaw"at"mailru. Finally a few words with a big sorry to Patrick van der Reest: Thanks for your mail and the deck, I tried to reply but the mail got bounced, and then I forgot to retry later. I hope to send you my comments on the deck soon, and if it proved itself in the game, I'll be happy to include it in the next issue. Thanks for reading Skaffen www.8ung.at/colddawn "(...) Eyes of fire Glared at me throbbing with a starved desire; The hoarse and heavy and carnivorous breath Was hot upon me from deep jaws of death; Sharp claws, swift talons, fleshless fingers cold Plucked at me from the bushes, tried to hold." (James Thomson, 'The City of Dreadful Night')