V:EKN Malkavian Newsletter September 1998
V:EKN Malkavian Newsletter September 1998
"Order, order. Let the defendant be brought forward," spluttered
Leandro, banging his gavel on the desk.
A small, pale faced, dishevelled looking man was led through the court
placed in front of High Judge Leandro.
"Name?" asked Leandro.
"Iztakh" replied the man.
"Clan?"
"Ventrue"
Turning to one of her aides, Leandro assumed his most authoritative
voice. "Of what is the defendant accused?"
An unimportant, newly embraced Neonate, assuming the role of clerk,
placed on the ceremonial silly glasses and unrolled the charges,
allowing the many sheets of two-ply to roll along the floor. "Of the
most heinous crime one can commit against our clan! Prevention of
unnecessary silliness!"
"Well, how do you plead?"
"Not guilty," he replied meekly.
"And what have you to say in your defence?"
"But modern business methods require strict discipline and respect.
Unnecessary silliness cannot be tolerated in the modern work place..."
"This is an outrage!" bellowed Leandro. "You deny your crime and then
compound it even further! Guilty, with no chance of saving."
"Sentence, m'lud/m'lady?" asked the clerk.
"Oh, just stick an extra eye on him and send him to the Tremere for some
fun."
***
Taking the lead from my fellow Clan spokesperson, he of the Nosferatu, I
thought this month I'd take a look at the Malkavians available to you in
the V:TES expansions:
Card Title: Greger Anderssen
Capacity: 7
Disciplines: OBF AUS dom pro
Clan: Malkavian
Card Text: Prince of Stockholm
Artist: Lawrence Snelly
Rarity: Vampire
A good solid utilitarian vampire. Obviously, in a Malkavian deck, you
might be going more for the stealth-bleed example which might mean you
want the superior Dominate but the vampire has the superior Obfuscate
you need, the superior Auspex which could provide you with a Pulse of
the Canaille for permanent extra bleed and inferior Dominate which
provides bleed bounce, bleed increase and so forth. Inferior Protean
won't make much difference in a standard Malkavian deck but it would
help other decks. Dominate-Protean might be a fun combination to try
out - it's served me well before - a little bleed from the Dominate with
Protean for some minor stealth. Protean and Dominate also provide some
combat defence for you, and Dominate could steal a few vampires. Which
way you want to play the deck - even handed, or more of one way than the
other - is up to you, but it's a distinct possibility. You shouldn't
forget, of course, the two votes he provides and his Praxis which can
provide other useful cards for you.
Card Title: Leandro
Capacity: 11
Disciplines: OBF AUS PRE dom cel
Clan: Malkavian
Card Text: Inner Circle: (4 votes) If Leandro is ready during any
Methuselah's untap phase (except yours), that
Methuselah burns 1 pool or loses all transfers during
his or her next influence phase. +2 bleed
Artist: Drew Tucker
Rarity: Vampire
Well, I know that a lot of people scoff at Leandro for her lack of
superior Dominate but if you want a fast stealth bleed deck, Leandro
might not be in their anyway because of his/her size (I never know with
the Malkavians - note the fiction). You have similar advantages to
Greger with the increased base bleed, though, and extra votes.
Obfuscate-Presence is a possible alternate combination that people have
been considering on the newsgroup recently. Stealth your votes and pass
them if you want to. Leandro provides you with that little extra oomph
because of the 4 votes inherent in their title. Also, the special
ability can make Leandro very vulnerable to early rushes but if you can
defend it, you can often stall a game to an acceptable level. It makes
a 6 pool ousting benefit go a lot less way since to use it to bring new
vampires out, they have to pay. Heh.
Card Title: Victoria
Capacity: 5
Disciplines: AUS obf cel
Clan: Malkavian
Card Text: If Victoria is ready during your master phase, you
may forfeit the Edge to gain 2 pool.
Artist: Drew Tucker
Rarity: Vampire
Victoria has that natty little special ability where you look at it and
think "Ooh, wow, that'd be nice." Then you think "Damn, I'm never going
to keep the edge" and then you think "Ooh, Madness Network." In a
Madness Network deck, Victoria could be invaluable as pool gain but
she's going to get thumped because of it probably. Auspex provides a
little combat defence - Read Intentions - as do inferior obfuscate and
celerity - dodges and so forth. A Secure Haven might help you survive
against a combat onslaught, being as a heavy combat deck might not have
the location destruction necessary to get passed it. Of course, you
need to be able to defend the Madness Network or back it up with more
copies of it. A fun deck to play around with, perhaps. Also,
obfuscate-celerity can be a fun little combination to play around with.
Additional strikes with a Hidden Lurker and so forth, and she'd slip
quite nicely into many Assamite decks if you could do it. Her ability
to commit diablerie, whilst Bloodhunt provoking, could be invaluable
when the time was right.
Card Title: Zoe
Capacity: 3
Disciplines: AUS obf cel
Clan: Malkavian
Card Text: Zoe does not get the usual +1 stealth when hunting.
Artist: Daniel Gelon
Rarity: Vampire
Exact same set of disciplines as Victoria. That restriction on hunting
can be more damaging than you think, since a vampire on 0 blood has to
hunt and then she's easily blocked. Nasty. Similar possibilities to
Victoria - again, the possible Assamite cross over and she's much
cheaper. Much smaller, too, but that might not be a problem if you can
insure steady blood gain with Tastes and so forth.
Card Title: Cornelius Ottavio
Capacity: 8
Disciplines: OBF AUS pre qui
Clan: Malkavian
Text: +1 bleed. If your prey has a ready Non-Camarilla
vampire, Cornelius gets an additional
+1 bleed.
Artist: Heather Hudson
Rarity: Vampire 3
Again, the lack of Dominate or superior Dominate in an expansion
vampire. It's enough to make you think that people saw the Malkavians
as only being capable of stealth bleed. The Quietus makes him ripe for
odd cross-over decks (with the obfuscate and quietus as well, he might
slip in with some of the Assamite scholars (those with Thaumaturgy and
Auspex), Parnassus and Al-Ashrad, although Parnassus drops the
Obfuscate). He does make up for his lack of Dominate, though, with
inherent bleed. His basic +1 bleed is useful at all times, and it is
increasingly common to see players with Independent or Sabbat vampires.
Remember, of course, that it's only if the Methuselah you're bleeding
has a Non-Camarilla vampire and not just your prey, although that is
more difficult now with cross-table bleeding being limited.
Card Title: Damaskenos, Herald of Leandro
Capacity: 6
Disciplines: DOM cel pot aus
Clan: Malkavian
Text: If Damaskenos becomes the Prince of Cairo, each
ready Follower of Set burns 1 blood. If he becomes
the Malkavian Justicar, each ready Follower of Set
burns 2 blood.
Artist: Anson Maddocks
Rarity: Vampire 3
A solid set of disciplines, though lacking in the obfuscate necessary to
a stealth bleed deck. His special ability is unlikely to come up much,
especially the Prince of Cairo version. You might be able to pass a
Justicar vote through clan numbers (difficult if there are other voters
on the table but not altogether impossible). It would be a possible way
of combating Setites if they became prevalent, or at least annoying, in
your group, though not a particularly effective or good way of doing it.
Flavour, more than anything really. His inferior cel pot make him a
possibility, though a very expensive one, for combat decks. Auspex-
Potence is a combination for which I have a little sympathy. It's the
intercept combination that I'd like to see work. I suppose the problem
with it is, Auspex is very much transient intercept so you need a lot of
it, whereas, say, Animalism has permanent retainers. This means you
have to lose a lot of card space for Auspex or just not be very good at
it, and as anyone with experience of potence combat will tell you,
losing the space isn't an option really. Dominate Potence makes him
useful in a Giovanni Lasombra deck. His Camarilla status provides you
with the options of that sect if you want them - I personally often try
and include all three sects, being as I hate the cards which require a
sect to do something and I can do nothing about them.
His discipline combination, though, seems to be screaming out for
SOMETHING to be done with it. I'd like to see a deck revolving around
him made. I'd also like to see a response to this, but we all know that
isn't going to happen. Is anyone actually seeing these posts of mine?
*sigh*
Like I say, he seems to scream to have something hideous done with him.
What is the question I suppose. A "Domestos, Cleansing of the Toilet"
(if you don't know, don't ask) seems to light up like a "This deck only
works if I get Marty Lecthansi out." I'd appreciate comments from those
of you out there. Pretty please? Ah, go on. You know you want to.
Card Title: Ohanna
Capacity: 2
Disciplines: dom
Clan: Malkavian
Text: n/a
Artist: Rebecca Guay
Rarity: Vampire 3
Ohanna. Bloody little vampires with Dominate. Since dominate is so
useful, I'm not of the opinion that having it on small vampires is a
Good Thing (ackn. The Hairy Happening (again, if you don't know, don't
ask). The fault of the cards rather than the vampires I suppose. She'd
slip well into a stealth bleed deck, but needs the discipline cards to
back her up. She'd also go into things like Giovanni-Lasombra Dominate
Potence and so forth. Anywhere you need Dominate I suppose.
Card Title: Watenda
Capacity: 3
Disciplines: obf
Clan: Malkavian
Text: Once each combat, Watenda can cancel the effect of a
combat card played by an opposing minion by burning
an amount of blood equal to the cost of the card. If the
card is a strike card, the opposing minion may choose
a new strike.
Artist: Terese Nielsen
Rarity: Vampire 3
Woohoo. He of the Shrunken Head. Back him up with a few discipline
cards to increase his capacity and you'll be away. If you haven't seen
the Pro-Watenda contingent (okay, person) on the newsgroup, then just
think about it. Cancelling other people's combat cards, it's great fun.
They need to double up on lots of cards to get round you. If you can
slip him into a combat deck you build with Obfuscate in it, have fun.
Get round Combat Ends. Draw out the Damage Prevention. Stamp on those
pesky maneuvers and claws. Heh.
--
James Coupe (Malkavian Mouthpiece)
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