FOLLOWERS OF SET NEWSLETTER
Volume 3, Issue 13
April 2004
Author: Andrew 'Wes' Weston
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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
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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."
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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.
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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!
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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!
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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
NAVIGATION
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