Table of Contents
- General Comments
- Origins ’98: Can Combat Win?
- The !Brujah and their friends
- Clan-specific cards
- Another Bruise/Bleed deck
I. General Comments
What? A newsletter in the middle of the month? Unheard of! Well, with Origins coming up and lots of free time on my hands, why not? This time, I’ll have a discussion on the effectiveness of good combat decks in tournament situations. Also, a break down of the !Brujah vampires, as well as others which fit well into !Bru crypts (Jimmy Dunn). Finally, a !Brujah bruise and bleed deck. Hey, hey, let’s go!
II. Origins ’98
Well, _I’ll_ be there with my combat deck. But can combat prevail?
There are a number of issues.
A. The Surprise Factor. I’ve noticed at the few tournaments I’ve been to, that many people are not aware of effective combat decks. Players who seem to have otherwise well-developed bleed or vote decks are amazed when they can’t play their Majesty under Immortal Grapple. Part of this is the rareness of IG. If no one in a group has spent the effort to gather up ten or so, no one there will realize its power.
B. The Lack of Metagame. Decks tend to evolve to react to the other decks in the group environment. In an environment with little votes, vote defense will be small or non-existent. In an environment with weak combat, combat defense will be sparse.
When coming to a tournament, players try to tune their decks to meet every challenge, which in turn hurts the basic effectiveness of the deck, depending on how much of the deck is devoted to this defense. This is a trade-off, and it’s difficult (without lots of tournament experience) to say exactly what the best mix is for every deck. Since there’s no metagame, no time for decks to adjust, many decks perform miserably, even though they may have been effective in the home environment.
Comments, anyone?
III. The !Brujah and their little friends
Many fine (and many not-so-fine) vampires were printed in the Sabbat set, but a good deal of them seemed to break the well-established “point system” for building vampires. This, of course, is something to take advantage of when using the !Brujah, and here I’ll point out the big winners and the big losers.
Here they are, in rather illogical (but easily cut-and-pastable) alphabetical order:
Bronwen 10 POT CEL PRE dom obt
Sabbat Priscus: Once each combat, Bronwen may dodge as a strike.
For a 10, about the only thing she’s got going for her is the three in-clan superiors. I’ve never been a fan of the really big vampires unless they have a really useful special ability, which Bronwen does not.
Dodd 5 CEL dom pre
Who thought up this stink bomb? I will never understand why the designers thought 6-pointers with 8 or 9 points of abilities and 5-pointers with four were consistent. Even worse, Dodd doesn’t even have Potence. I’m sure he could be useful in some CEL/PRE deck, but then you might as well use Black Cat or Brachach.
Frederick the Weak 2 pre
Frederick may be weak in a !Bru combat deck, but he’s really useful in weenie presence bleed decks.
Hugo 4 POT pre vic
Sabbat: Hugo gets -1 intercept against Lasombra and Tzimisce.
Hugo is the Sabbat version of Hector Sosa. His disability is not that much of a drawback, and you never know when his vicissitude might come in handy.
Jacko 8 POT CEL PRE obt
Sabbat: Jacko gets an optional additional strike during the first round of combat. This does not count against his additional strikes for that round.
Where Bronwen is weak, Jacko is strong. He also has the three in-clan superiors, and a kick-ass special ability. Equip Jacko with the Sword of Judgement and go nuts with additional strike mania.
Jacob Bragg 3 pot cel
A staple in any !Bru combat deck. Use two or three.
Richter, The Templar of Du Mont 7 POT CEL pre for
Sabbat: +1 hand damage
Another great vampire. With POT, CEL, and +1 hand damage, he’s a combat machine. And, if you’re feeling especially combative, he’s also got fortitude for the exceptionally sketchy POT/FOR deck.
Rigby, Crusade Vanguard 5 pot CEL PRE aus
Sabbat: If Rigby attempts to block a Sabbat vampire and fails, and if any of your predator’s Bishops are not at full capacity, move 1 blood from Rigby to one of those Bishops.
Give yourself a minute to read the text. OK, got it? Yep, that will never, ever happen. And even if it does, who cares? Rigby’s main drawback is her lack of superior Potence. But she is a perfect Toreador! Also, if your deck uses both presence and celerity as well as Potence, she’s a good, cheap vampire.
Salinger 9 POT CEL PRE tha
Sabbat Archbishop of Philadelphia: As a (D) action, Salinger may enter combat with any Lasombra or Tzimisce. +1 bleed
Three in-clan superiors, +1 bleed, two votes, and a special ability make Salinger a good 9. But, he’s still a 9. If your deck can handle big vampires by having good pool gain, go for it. But in a rush deck, he’s just too big.
Sarah Brando 3 CEL
Sabbat: Sarah gets -1 stealth on each (D) action she attempts against a Methuselah who controls a ready Bishop or Archbishop.
Sarah’s big problem is her lack of any Potence at all. But, one Potence master (or my favorite, the Hand of Conrad) make her effective. Another option is to give her bonus hand damage with Depravity and have her use lots of additional strikes.
Sela 6 POT cel PRE obt
Sabbat Bishop: If Sela becomes an Archbishop, each ready Bishop controlled by your prey burns 1 blood. +1 bleed
Well, I’ve already said everything I can say about Sela. An interesting footnote: a large number of the !Brujah have Obtenebration. If anyone has any idea about how to make that useful, I’d like to hear it.
Friends of the !Brujah:
Jimmy Dunn and Mitchell, the Headhunter. Both of these vampires are good cheap vampires and make a great addition to a !Bru rush deck crypt.
IV. Clan-specific cards
There aren’t very many of these, but there is some good stuff here.
Amusement Park Hunting Ground
What can you say about a Hunting Ground?
Bruisers, The
Ally
Clan: Brujah Antitribu
Cost: 3
Unique Ally with 2 life. 2 hand damage, 0 bleed. The Bruisers may take a (D) action to burn a location controlled by your prey.
As allies go, not horrible. But allies in general suck, and this is no exception.
Gang Territory
Master
Clan: Brujah Antitribu
Cost: 2
Master: unique location During your influence phase, tap to move 1 blood from the blood bank to one of your uncontrolled Brujah antitribu.
An Art Museum for the !Brujah. Very nice, indeed.
Survivalist
Ally
Clan: Brujah Antitribu
Cost: 2
Ally with 1 life. 2R, 0 bleed. Tap to give a Brujah antitribu you control one maneuver.
If the !Brujah didn’t have celerity, this might be useful. As it is,
this guy is an expensive kind of Police Station. Marginal, at best.
Blood Brother Ambush
Action Modifier/Ally
Clan: Brujah Antitribu
Cost: 2 blood
Put this card in play when an action is blocked. Combat does not occur. This card is then considered to be an ally with 3 life and 2R damage; this ally enters combat with the blocking minion. Blood Brothers may play cards requiring basic Potence as a vampire with a capacity of 3. Any cost in blood is paid with life. If a card would give them blood, give them life instead. Burn this card at the end of combat or if the combat is canceled.
Unless there’s some compelling reason why the ally would fight better than the blocked vampire (and I can’t think of one), this card is useless.
Sword of Judgment
Equipment
Clan: Brujah Antitribu
Cost: 2 pool
Unique melee weapon The Brujah antitribu with this equipment gets +1 hand damage with each strike; he or she gains an optional additional strike each round of combat.
A pretty nice, if expensive, card. Though you may thwart the +1 damage with your own Immortal Grapples, LSJ has ruled that you always get the additional strike, which takes this card off of the wallpaper list.
V. A Bruise and Bleed Deck
With Gwen Morse’s recent posting of a Giovanni B&B deck (and the heated discussion following), I decided I would post a !Bru version. Comment at will.
| Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=2 max=9 avg=4.58) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1x | Frederick the Weak | 2 | pre | !Brujah:2 |
| 2x | Hugo | 4 | pre vic POT | !Brujah:2 |
| 2x | Jacob Bragg | 3 | cel pot | !Brujah:2 |
| 1x | Jimmy Dunn | 4 | for CEL POT | Pander:2 |
| 1x | Mitchell, The Headhunter | 2 | obt pot | Pander:2 |
| 1x | Richter, The Templar of Du Mont | 7 | for pre CEL POT | !Brujah:2 |
| 1x | Rigby, Crusade Vanguard | 5 | aus pot CEL PRE | !Brujah:2 |
| 1x | Salinger | 9 | tha CEL POT PRE | !Brujah:2 |
| 2x | Sela | 6 | cel obt POT PRE | !Brujah:2 |
| Library (90 cards) | ||||
| Master (14) | ||||
| 1x | Amusement Park Hunting Ground | |||
| 3x | Blood Doll | |||
| 2x | Gang Territory | |||
| 1x | Hungry Coyote, The | |||
| 2x | Minion Tap | |||
| 2x | Potence | |||
| 3x | Presence | |||
| Action (23) | ||||
| 5x | Bum’s Rush | |||
| 6x | Computer Hacking | |||
| 3x | Legal Manipulations | |||
| 9x | Social Charm | |||
| Equipment (4) | ||||
| 1x | Hand of Conrad | |||
| 3x | Laptop Computer | |||
| Retainer (2) | ||||
| 1x | J. S. Simmons, Esq. | |||
| 1x | Tasha Morgan | |||
| Reaction (3) | ||||
| 3x | Wake with Evening’s Freshness | |||
| Combat (44) | ||||
| 4x | Acrobatics | |||
| 6x | Flash | |||
| 8x | Immortal Grapple | |||
| 3x | Pulled Fangs | |||
| 2x | Pursuit | |||
| 4x | Sideslip | |||
| 5x | Taste of Vitae | |||
| 4x | Torn Signpost | |||
| 8x | Undead Strength | |||
This isn’t a rush deck, but with all the combat, I like to have a few Bum’s Rushes in there to take care of annoying vampires owned by my predator.
Well, that’s it for this newsletter. Look for #3 sometime in the middle of July. I’ll have an Origins report, as well as a discussion of the Sabbat Celerity and Presence cards.
James
James Hamblin
hamblin (at) math /./ wisc /./ edu
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