FOLLOWERS OF SET NEWSLETTER Volume 3, Issue 13 April 2004 Author: Andrew 'Wes' Weston ========================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS Fiction - The Prisoner Strategy - The Myth of the Cross-table Ally Decklab - "The Hydra" (Aabt intercept module) Card Analysis - Reformation Sign Off ========================================================== FICTION - THE PRISONER "Slug, you may unmask the prisoner." "Yesss, massster Sssaqqaf", said with difficulty from the shadows. A hunched figure approached, slithering more than walking. Draped in a mangy black robe, the creature named Slug may once have been human but now seemed more snake-like than anything. Slug's ophidian hands grabbed the black sack and tore it from the face of the bruised man beneath. A forked tongue darted out from the mouth of Slug's distended mouth, causing a cutting wound on the man's left cheek. Recent scars on both sides of his face implied that this was not the first cut. "Slug! Stop that... he has been through enough." "Sssorry, my liege. Sssslug thirsssty." Slug backed away from the chair where the prisoner had been bound with telephone wire and went to the corner to sulk in the shadows. "I know Slug. We all are... it comes with the blessing of Sutekh." He turned away from Slug and to the bearded man bound before him. "Now... what is your name?" The man in the chair said nothing, just stared at his captor without emotion. Saqqaf slapped the man's face. Hard enough almost to knock his head off his shoulders. "You will answer me when I ask you a question, scum. Are you are you not the one they call LSJ?" The man recovered from the blow, spat a bloody tooth to the ground before responding, "Correct." A slight smile appeared on Saqqaf's face. "Good. Back to business then. My organization would like to know why we have been overlooked. It does not please us." "We isss not pleasssed, no", came a voice from the corner. "Can it, Slug! I'm the one asking the questions". "Ssssorry, sssir." Saqqaf shook his head in disgust. "As you can see, we are in need of many things... starting with some decent help!", Saqqaf looked to the dark corner and frowned. Something halfway between a hiss and a whimper was the only response. The man in the chair seemed relaxed, despite his predicament. "I gave you Ezekiel, and let's see... Kahina... and Nadima. What more do you want?". "Nadima is a Gangrel, for Set's sake!", Saqqaf screamed in exasperation. "Well, yes... but that was a printing mistake." "Well, here's the deal, Mr. Johnson: We want more. We want it now. And if we don't see any more, we're going to be very angry. And do you know what happens when Followers of Set get angry?" "You Majesty away?" "Dammit! That's my point... we need something. Anything!" "Ok, ok... you're right. I'll give you something in the Gehenna set. It'll be called... 'Reformation'." Saqqaf put his hand to his chin and thought for a moment. "Ok, Slug... let the man go. We know where to find him if we need him again." ========================================================== STRATEGY -- THE MYTH OF THE CROSS-TABLE ALLY Some people are under the mistaken belief that the person sitting across from us has our best interests at heart. This is a serious error. There is no such thing as a "cross-table ally". There are only temporary non-combatants. While it may be true that the person sitting across the table from you has a vested interest in keeping you alive and happy (at first), the truth is that your survival and theirs rarely intersect in the long run. The object of this game is to win, and you don't do that by making friends. By all means rescue their vampires as a favour to them, or ask them to throw some Owain Evans blood over at you, but keep in mind that this game always ends up being down to two Methuselahs duking it out and it will often be you and your friend. Better to face that reality in the early game before it comes back to bite you. If your cross-table pal is too powerful and dominating the table, do they really need your help anyway? Probably not. Many a canny player has the ability to look more pathetic than they really are. If you look pathetic enough, perhaps your friend will give you some well-needed assistance. And if not, at least you don't look like the top dog. People in the lead have a habit of being cut down to size when they least expect it. A bit of false humility or grumblings of crappy hand etc can keep you from being a target at an inopportune time. You should get in the habit of seeing your cross-table "allies" as people to take advantage of. Take whatever they can offer you. Offer as little as you can get away with. Keep them from being ousted if you can... not because you're a nice person but because eventually they will be your prey and that oust might be a Victory Point to you. Especially if they're weak enough to need your help. Be careful that you don't tip the balance too much, no matter what you do. A cross-table ally scorned is like having an extra predator. It's hard enough having one predator in this game. So, if you have to knife them in the back... make sure the wound is fatal. Save your betrayal for a time when they can't get back at you easily or at all. And only do this if it will eventually end up with you as the winner. Making enemies cross-table is not to your advantage unless it gains you something siginificant. ========================================================== DECKLAB -- THE "HYDRA" MODULE In Greek myth, Heracles fought a great serpentine monster called the Hydra. Whenever Heracles would chop off one of its heads, two more would grow back in its place. It seemed an appropriate name for the following module idea. Atonement is a card that can shut down many decks, but it is a hard card to use correctly. Weenie vampires who are most affected by the card can simply take actions to remove the Atonement, wearing down the Atoned vampire or other blockers until they can no longer defend the card. This is why when people use Atonement, they try to use Sniper Rifles or Flak Jackets and such to give the Atoned vampire a way to prevent blood loss from attrition. We Setites have the perfect solution for Atonement -- Aabt Kindred. Aabt Kindred, being a 4-cap, are perfectly able to take the Atonement action, and even better they have a built-in damage prevention mechanism to ward off strength damage from most vampires. Being a 4-capacity vampire, however, means that the Atoned snake can only stay untapped when blocking vampires of 4-capacity or lower. While this may stop many weenie vampires, it won't be able to do much against decks focusing on older vampires. Therefore, it is in our best interest to pump up our snake's capacity such that they can be more effective blockers. With Black Hand, we have a solution to this dillemma: Path of Death and the Soul. Here is the relevant text: "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." (Note that this happens not just when a minion burns from combat or what-have-you, but also when a Methuselah is ousted, as they take their minions with them when they go.) Let's have a look at a potential module that attempts to abuse this combo. 3 Aabt Kindred 4 Atonement 4 Freak Drive 2 Path of Death and the Soul 6 Master: Discipline skill (various) So, what you would do is: 1) Aabt plays Atonement (Aabt 2/4) 2) Aabt Freak Drives (Aabt 1/4). This will get around the problem of people immediately trying to burn the Atonement while the Aabt is still tapped. 3) At some point play the Path 4) Wait for various burnings and oustings to pump up the Aabt's capacity. Like other modules seen in this newsletter, this probably works better in the endgame, as the process takes a while to set up. But this module also cycles relatively well, for various reasons. First of all, Aabt Kindred do not contest, so if you end up with 2 or 3 in your opening crypt, it's not the end of the world. You may even find that you need more than one anyway. Secondly, the discipline cards can be played on anyone to get them out of your hand, or even discarded if you like, since the Path can dig them out of the ash-heap later. By the end of the game, your Aabt may be a 10-capacity blocker. Imagine owning a minion that is able to block anyone of 10-capacity or less with +1 intercept, prevent 1 damage and remain untapped. It will be a Herculean task to get around this snake, to say the least! ========================================================== CARD ANALYSIS -- REFORMATION Reformation +1 stealth. Requires a ready anarch [chi] Steal an equipment card from your predator or prey [dom] Burn 1 blood to steal a hunting ground [ser] Put a corruption counter on any vampire. If the number of corruption counters on the vampire equals or exceeds his or her capacity, you may burn all of your corruption counters on that vampire to take control of him or her. In a previous newsletter, I mentioned that I did not see much of a point in making Setites into Anarchs. I hereby retract that statement. With Reformation, I think we will all be seeing more Setites reading Kropotkin and showing up at demonstrations dressed all in black. Oh yes. I have also stated in the past that I did not think that "Corruption" decks were all that hot. By itself, I still do not see it as an extremely strong deck archetype, but with Reformation I suspect that it just got a lot more viable. Unlike Corruption, this card does not need to be played by a Setite. Any anarch vampire with Serpentis will do. There are a variety of non-Setites that have Serpentis, including Nadima, Petru Sipos and Julius who can thus play this card. And it's not too difficult to slap a Serpentis skill card on a weenie vampire and use them instead. In fact, I think the weenified approach may work best with this card. More Reformations played means more vampires stolen. Another advantage of this action over Corruption is that it can target methuselahs other than your prey. What this means is that you can effectively snipe at weenie decks across the table, stealing them for your own. This will both slow down the weenie deck and speed up your own deck. A weenie always comes in useful at some point in a game, whether as a rescuer or a "jab" bleeder for 1. Everyone hates weenie decks behind them, so you're probably doing somebody a favour, and if there's one thing we Setites love... it's people owing us favours. And because Reformation is a different action from Corruption, there's nothing stopping a vampire from playing both in the same turn. Of course, not too many vampires are eligible to do this, ie having both a way to untap and being a Follower of Set. I've been looking at Saqqaf as a potential abuser of this card, since he can play Corruption + Freak Drive + Reformation and get a pool for his troubles. That's a pretty strong combination. Gradually, once you have stolen a large minion you can then use Khobar Towers to "cash them in" for even more pool. And for those of you who like Diversion, Saqqaf also has [cel for]. One difference between this and Corruption is that Reformation can only target vampires. Corruption lets you also target allies. But who cares, really? It's the vampires that we will want most of the time, and they're are more efficient ways of stealing allies from our enemies, namely Entrancement and the less useful Lure of the Serpent. The [dom] ability of Reformation also looks rather nice, since many loyal sons and daughters of our Dark Lord do seem to have that discipline. All that is required is inferior Dominate. Count Ormonde is the cheapest prospect at 5-capacity. And he can Cloak the Gathering to provide cover for your other "Reforming" vampires. The [chi] ability is less useful to us Setites, but may find a place in a deck featuring Petru Sipos, but to my mind the Ravnos have better ways of stealing equipment from people than this card. Within five minutes of seeing Reformation, I was building a deck in my head. It looks strong enough to possibly make Setites into the contenders we deserve to be. So be sure to play this card to your hidden heart's content and spread the word of both anarchism and our Dark Lord Sutekh! ========================================================== SIGN-OFF I hope you enjoyed this month's newsletter. I always look forward to hearing from my reader(s) so feel free to drop me a line with questions or comments. Hail Sutekh! Cheers, WES
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