Official VEKN Ravnos Clan Newsletter - September 2005

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Ravnos Clan Newsletter September 2005
Written by Graham Smith

Introduction

I asked Emile Bosman if he would mind if I wrote a few Ravnos
newsletters and he said go right ahead. So here we are.
I will try to write one every couple of months but don't hold
me to it!

=============================================================

Kindred Most Wanted

The Ravnos clan got a lot of new toys in KMW. I will try and pick
two of them to talk about in each newsletter. This month I'm
going to look at Tatiana Stepanova, Alastor and Edged Illusion.

Vampire of the (next two!) months:

Tatiana Stepanova, Alastor
Clan: Ravnos (group 4)
Capacity: 7
Disciplines: CHI PRE ani for obf
Camarilla: You and Tatiana may play cards that require Brujah
or Gangrel as if Tatiana were a member of the required clan.

Rarity: KMW:U

So what is there to say about Tatiana? She is a 7 cap with only
one traditional in clan discipline at superior. However, since
that is Chimerstry, all is not lost. She has superior Presence
which matches up nicely with 2 of the new smaller Ravnos, Devyn
and Paul Forrest. Presence allows Tatiana to enchant down
to give the Ravnos a much needed influence enhancer and also
combos nicely with Red Herring in a tap and bleed deck as Presence
can provide a lot of different bleed actions. She also has
a very interesting special.

I'm still working on the best uses of Tatiana's special but here
is the list of cards that she can play:

Brujah

Al's Army Apparatus
Arms Dealer
Knights, The
Loyal Street Gang
Oxford University, England
Slashers, The
Sword of Troile
Triole's Revenge
Warzone Hunting Ground

Gangrel

Dog Pack
Gypsies
Renegade Garou
Ritual Challenge
Shackles of Enkidu
Werewolf Pack
Zoo Hunting Ground

So from this list, we can see that Tatiana can call upon and use
a number of cheap or useful Allies. She can also give the Ravnos
access to anti SC:E with the Dog Packs. I will include some
decks that uses Tatiana's special to greater depth in the
next newsletter.

=====================================================================
Card of the month:

Edged Illusion

Type: Action
Requires: Chimerstry
Cost: 2 blood
[chi] (D) Tap a ready minion. This acting vampire inflicts 1
unpreventable damage on that minion.
[CHI] (D) Choose a Methuselah. This acting vampire inflicts 1
unpreventable damage on each ready minion controlled by that
Methuselah.

Rarity: KMW:C

Edged Illusion is a very good card, expensive but good. At inferior it
combos well with Red herring to make sure a minion is going to end up
tapped, at superior it is screams weenie killer. Ravnos have been able
to slow down the mid to large cap vampires using Sensory Deprivation
but still get overrun when dealing with weenies. Not anymore!
Hit the weenie deck with a couple of Edged Illusions and watch
them spend a lot of time hunting or in torpor.

Deck of the month:

There has been a lot of interest in Edged Illusion on the newsgroup
lately with decks posted that use it to knock vampires in to torpor
after removing their blood with Free States Rant. I've been playing
around with a FSR and Edged Illusion deck but thought I would try
something a bit different.

After looking back through the Ravnos newsletter archive on
www.thelasombra.com I came across the July 1998 newsletter that
discussed the use of Sensory Deprivation and Society of Leopold
to burn vampires. The plan was very simple, place the Sensory
Deprivation on the target vampire, let the society come after them,
watch them burn. I thought this concept would work very well with
the new cards available in KMW. Hence the deck listed below:

Deck Name : The Society lend a hand.
Author : Graham Smith
Description : The plan is to place Sensory Deprivation on
your prey's vampires. Then when you have the Society of
Leopold in hand place it on said vampire. Before the society
burns the vampire, move it away from them with Jayne Jonestown
and hit them with an Edged Illusion.

You have to keep up the regular bleeding to stop your prey from just
letting their vampire burn to the society.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 7 average: 4.5
------------------------------------------------------------

3x Tatiana Stepanova, 7 CHI PRE ani for obf Ravnos:4
3x Jayne Jonestown 2 PRE !Brujah:4
2x Paul Forrest, Fals 5 chi for pre Ravnos:4
2x Devyn 4 ani chi pre Ravnos:4
1x Callirus 5 CHI FOR ani Ravnos:4
1x Gharston Roland 4 CHI ani pot Ravnos:4


Library [87 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [19]
4x Edged Illusion
5x Enchant Kindred
2x Fatuus Mastery
2x Mass Reality
6x Sensory Deprivation

Action Modifier [5]
5x Fata Morgana

Action Modifier/Combat [9]
4x Mirror Image
5x Occlusion

Action/Reaction [5]
5x Draba

Combat [16]
5x Apparition
3x Majesty
5x Staredown
3x Zip Gun

Event [1]
1x Dragonbound

Master [19]
1x Barrens, The
4x Blood Doll
1x Week of Nightmares
1x Park Hunting Ground
2x Path of Paradox, The
2x Perfectionist
1x Secure Haven
3x Society of Leopold
1x Tension in the Ranks
1x Warzone Hunting Ground
2x Waste Management Operation

Reaction [11]
5x Ignis Fatuus
6x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Retainer [2]
2x Raven Spy


Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Sun Sep 25 09:26:30 2005]

Please send any comments, suggestions and contributions to:
graham.r.smith@gmail.com

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (More info?)

Graham Smith wrote:
> Tatiana Stepanova, Alastor
> Clan: Ravnos (group 4)
> Capacity: 7
> Disciplines: CHI PRE ani for obf
> Camarilla: You and Tatiana may play cards that require Brujah
> or Gangrel as if Tatiana were a member of the required clan.
>
> So what is there to say about Tatiana? She is a 7 cap with only
> one traditional in clan discipline at superior. However, since
> that is Chimerstry, all is not lost. She has superior Presence

I believe you'll explore obfuscate in next issue so...

> I'm still working on the best uses of Tatiana's special but here
> is the list of cards that she can play:
>
> Gangrel
>
> Dog Pack
> Gypsies
> Renegade Garou
> Ritual Challenge
> Shackles of Enkidu
> Werewolf Pack
> Zoo Hunting Ground

You forgot Ecoterrorists. If you have Gangrel in your crypt this can be
also useful even if you don't have the intention to control them.

>
> Deck Name : The Society lend a hand.
> Author : Graham Smith
> Description : The plan is to place Sensory Deprivation on
> your prey's vampires. Then when you have the Society of
> Leopold in hand place it on said vampire. Before the society
> burns the vampire, move it away from them with Jayne Jonestown
> and hit them with an Edged Illusion.

Maybe Vampiric Disease could be also an option.

> You have to keep up the regular bleeding to stop your prey from just
> letting their vampire burn to the society.

Can you explain this idea better?

> Action [19]
> 4x Edged Illusion
> 5x Enchant Kindred
> 2x Fatuus Mastery
> 2x Mass Reality

I'd remove the MR.

> 6x Sensory Deprivation
>
> Action Modifier [5]
> 5x Fata Morgana
>
> Action Modifier/Combat [9]
> 4x Mirror Image
> 5x Occlusion
>
> Action/Reaction [5]
> 5x Draba
>
> Combat [16]
> 5x Apparition
> 3x Majesty
> 5x Staredown
> 3x Zip Gun

Odd combat selection. Why not all Majesty and damage prevention?


>
> Event [1]
> 1x Dragonbound
>
> Master [19]
> 1x Barrens, The
> 4x Blood Doll
> 1x Week of Nightmares
> 1x Park Hunting Ground
> 2x Path of Paradox, The
> 2x Perfectionist
> 1x Secure Haven
> 3x Society of Leopold
> 1x Tension in the Ranks
> 1x Warzone Hunting Ground
> 2x Waste Management Operation

I'd remove these 2. You should also decrease the card numbers in your
cript to get the Societies ASAP!

>
> Reaction [11]
> 5x Ignis Fatuus

I'm not sure about Ignis Fatuus...

> 6x Wake with Evening's Freshness
>
> Retainer [2]
> 2x Raven Spy

Mr. Winthrop?

..- Luis Duarte

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (More info?)

Luis Duarte - Powerbase:Lisbon wrote:
>
> I believe you'll explore obfuscate in next issue so...

I was thinking more along the lines of Renegade Garous, but she would
work well using obf/pre/chi. Maybe an Anarch deck using Undue Influence
and Clotho's Gift? Care to submit a deck for the next newsletter?

>
> You forgot Ecoterrorists. If you have Gangrel in your crypt this can be
> also useful even if you don't have the intention to control them.

Thanks, forgot that one.

>
> Maybe Vampiric Disease could be also an option.

They only burn the blood when untapping with Vampiric Disease, so more
likely to be countered by the Sensory Deprivation. If the Vampiric
Disease was played early it would help though.

>
> > You have to keep up the regular bleeding to stop your prey from just
> > letting their vampire burn to the society.
>
> Can you explain this idea better?

My thinking goes along the line of:

Once a vampire is Sensory Deprivation-ed they will probably let it burn
to the society. If you can give them a reaaon to have to block lots of
actions they may keep the deprivation-ed vamp around as a blocker. But
then again maybe not.


> > 2x Mass Reality
>
> I'd remove the MR.

See combat selection.

>
> > 6x Sensory Deprivation
> >
> > Action Modifier [5]
> > 5x Fata Morgana
> >
> > Action Modifier/Combat [9]
> > 4x Mirror Image
> > 5x Occlusion
> >
> > Action/Reaction [5]
> > 5x Draba
> >
> > Combat [16]
> > 5x Apparition
> > 3x Majesty
> > 5x Staredown
> > 3x Zip Gun
>
> Odd combat selection. Why not all Majesty and damage prevention?

The Staredowns are there to provide cheap S:CE for Tatiana and Jayne.
They could all be Majesty. The zip guns are there to pack a little
punch against non - combat decks, which work well with the MRs - if you
drop the MRs drop these.

> > Master [19]
> > 1x Barrens, The
> > 4x Blood Doll
> > 1x Week of Nightmares
> > 1x Park Hunting Ground
> > 2x Path of Paradox, The
> > 2x Perfectionist
> > 1x Secure Haven
> > 3x Society of Leopold
> > 1x Tension in the Ranks
> > 1x Warzone Hunting Ground
> > 2x Waste Management Operation
>
> I'd remove these 2. You should also decrease the card numbers in your
> cript to get the Societies ASAP!

I wanted the Waste Management Operations to cycle back out Sensory Deps
and edged Illusions - I'd consider this expermental.

> >
> > Retainer [2]
> > 2x Raven Spy
>
> Mr. Winthrop?

No reason not to.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

Graham.