FOLLOWERS OF SET NEWSLETTER
Volume 3, Issue 14
May 2004
Author: Andrew 'Wes' Weston
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For this issue I decided to skip the normal format for my newsletters. Instead, I have analyzed and rated
each of the archetypes in the game according to their utility. It may be too early to tell how good a lot
of the new archetypes are, but I offer you my initial assessments on each. Feel free to disagree with me.
I would also like to thank Daniel Silva for the supplemental Followers of Set newsletter this month, for
which he did a fine job. I hope that we will see more from Daniel. I have it on good authority that Lord
Sutekh is pleased with your works, young Daniel. Keep it up!
As for myself, I've managed to put out one newsletter a month fairly consistently lately, so I didn't want
to skip out on May. Although I've left mine for rather late in the month, I hope you will enjoy it just
the same.
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BRAVO
[Gehenna:C]
Master: archetype.
Put this card on a vampire you control. Once per turn, when this vampire successfully performs an action
to enter combat with another, he or she gains 1 blood from the blood bank when the combat ends, if he or
she is still ready. A vampire can have only one archetype.
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Rush decks are a common deck-type, so this card should in theory see a lot of play. However, rush decks do
not typically have space for many masters, and what space they have is reserved for more essential cards.
Also, rush decks are less likely to need the blood gained, since most will be using Taste of Vitae to
greater effect. So, although Bravo is not asolutely useless, its likely to be overlooked for more useful
cards such as Tension in the Ranks, Fame, Haven Uncovered etc.
Additionally, Perfectionist, another archetype, can approximate the benefits of Bravo but is much more
versatile. Both will gain you blood after a successful Bum's Rush for example, but Perfectionist also gains
you a blood after hunting, rescuing a vampire, etc (assuming conditions are met).
Rating --> C+
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CAPITALIST
[BH:C]
Master: archetype.
Put this card on a Sabbat vampire you control. Once per turn, when this vampire successfully bleeds his or
her prey, he or she gains 1 blood from the blood bank. A vampire can have only one archetype.
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Most vampires will bleed at some point in a game, and in many decks bleeding is all they will do.
Capitalist turns a bleed into a bleed plus a hunt, which in turn could be used for pool gain via a Blood
Doll. This makes Capitalist a very versatile card.
Unfortunately, Captialist is limited only to Sabbat vampires, which limits its use considerably. It is
possible to make vampires Sabbat via Into the Fire or more difficult options, but that's probably too much
work just to get Capitalist on a vampire.
It would have been nice to see this card limited to non-Camarilla, as the Ravnos and Baali would be prime
candidates to become capitalists. Despite it being useful only to Sabbat vampires, it is still a very good
card. A Tzimisce bleed deck idea I shamefully stole from Mesh in Australia uses this card to good effect.
Rating --> B+
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CONNIVER
[Gehenna:C]
Master: archetype.
Put this card on a vampire you control. If your prey loses pool when it is neither your turn nor your
prey's turn, you may tap this card to move 1 blood from the blood bank to this vampire. A vampire can have
only one archetype.
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This card isn't terrible, but it seems much more limited compared to the other archetypes we have to choose
from. First of all, Conniver is only usable when another Methuselah is acting, so it effectively gives
control of the blood gain to them. The card is reactive rather than proactive, which can make all the
difference.
Granted, bleed bounce is fairly common, and the two most common bounce cards Telepathic Misdirection and
Deflection both cost a blood. At best, you are breaking even, which is not bad, but also not terribly
exciting.
What other conditions will make your prey lose pool on someone else's turn? Not many... Extra damage from
some vote cards like Kine Resources Contested might be applied to your prey, but how often will this happen?
And other Methuselahs will be much less likely to throw damage to your prey if they see Conniver on your
vampire, which defeats the point.
Note that you will only be able to gain this blood once before your turn starts, because the card is tapped
when used.
One way this card might be useful is as a bluff. Even if you don't have a Deflection in hand, leaving this
conniving vampire untapped during your predator's turn will make him far less likely to bleed you.
Rating --> C+
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CREEP SHOW
[BH:C/PN]
Master: archetype. Trifle.
Put this card on a Sabbat vampire you control. Once per turn, when a minion opposing this vampire in combat
dodges or ends combat as a strike, this vampire gains 1 blood from the blood bank. A vampire can have only
one archetype.
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Similar to Bravo, but much more reactive and restricted. Because it is a trifle, you can put it into play
much easier than many other archetypes in this list.
I see this card as being useful for the various Sabbat combat clans that cannot prevent or deal with Strike:
Combat Ends, such as the Ahrimanes, Tzimisce and !Gangrel. However, gaining a blood when your victim eludes
you seems a poor compensation for what is essentially a failed combat. Still, if they're going to get away
from you, you might as well get something for your troubles.
One benefit of this card over others is that it can be used on each Methuselah's turn, including your own.
So using Ahrimanes as an example. Howler enters combat with your prey's vampire on your turn, gains a blood
when Gilbert Duane runs away by playing a Dodge. Then, on your prey's turn Howler wakes and blocks Gilbert
the sissy sneak-bleeder once again. Gilbert runs away again, playing a Dodge like the coward he is. Howler
gains another blood. Then on your predator's turn, you block some other sneak-bleeding scumbag (or try to).
Still, if you're biggest concern is dealing with dodges and combat ends cards, you're probably better off
playing with a different deck type altogether in my opinion.
Rating --> C-
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CURMUDGEON
[Gehenna:C]
Master: archetype. Trifle.
Put this card on a vampire you control. During your prey's untap phase, you may choose a minion controlled
by your prey. If that minion is blocked this turn, you may tap this card to move 1 blood from the blood
bank to this vampire. A vampire can have only one archetype.
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Another reactive archetype, Curmudgeon seems at first to have limited usefulness. Presumably, if you are
playing Curmudgeon, you will also have some capability of blocking. Since Curmudgeon specifies that the
blocked vampire must belong to your prey, you are also either hoping to block that vampire yourself using
Eagle's Sight or Falcon's Eye, etc or you are hoping some other Methuselah will be blocking them. In any case,
that's a lot of ifs. Too many, for my taste.
However, while Curmudgeon only works on your prey's vampires, it should be noted that every game eventually
ends up with two Methuselahs, and at that point your prey will also be your predator. So Curmudgeon makes a
airly good archetype in the endgame for most wall decks.
One advantage of Curmudgeon is that the vampire with the archetype on it need not be the blocking vampire.
This means that you could use some other vampire you control as the blocker and use the Curmudgeon vampire
as a Blood Doll. So you could have Nadima with a Rebel archetype and Mirembe with a Curmudgeon and when
Nadima blocks Gilbert Duane (that sneak-bleeding bastard of a vampire), you can have both Nadima and Mirembe
gain a blood. In fact, you could have one designated blocker and many other vampires, all Curmudgeons. That's
a lot of blood gain.
It is possible that your prey will choose not to take any actions with the vampire that you name, but this
can be used to your advantage. A prey that is not taking actions is probably also not ousting your grand-prey
or blocking your actions.
Rating --> B
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GURU
[BH:C/PM]
Master: archetype.
Put this card on a Sabbat vampire you control. Once per turn, when this vampire calls a referendum and it
passes, he or she gains 1 blood from the blood bank. A vampire can have only one archetype.
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Most vote decks will use Presence, and thus also use Voter Captivation for blood gain. In fact, it is rare to
see vote decks that don't use Presence in some capacity. And if you are using Presence, then Guru doesn't
really add much to what is already available. Better to use Voter Caps instead in most cases.
The fact that this card is also limited to just Sabbat vampires makes it even less likely to see play.
Lasombra are capable voters, and could see some use from this card. In my own experience however, enough of
the Lasombra voters have Presence, making Guru rather redundant. Other Sabbat clans could find a use for this
card however. Both !Ventrue and Tzimisce have some good titled vampires without any Presence.
Guru isn't exactly a bad card. Once again however, Perfectionist does everything that this card does, with
less restrictions.
Rating --> C+
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LONER
[Gehenna:C]
Master: archetype.
Put this card on a vampire you control. During your influence phase, if this vampire successfully performed
an action this turn and none of your other minions attempted any actions this turn, he or she gains 1 blood
from the blood bank, if he or she is ready. A vampire can have only one archetype.
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This is a difficult archetype to judge. Most decks would not use only one vampire, except perhaps for the
various multi-rush decks. But multi-rush decks suffer from the same lack of master-space described under
Bravo (see above).
Another deck-type that comes to mind are the various "turbo" decks, which recycle the same vampire over and
over, generally using Soul Gem. But in this case, Loner does nothing as the vampire would be a different copy
from the one that took the action, therefore not meeting the conditions for Loner.
There may be decks that can be built around Loner, but I'm just not seeing many at this point.
Rating --> D
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PERFECTIONIST
[Gehenna:C]
Master: archetype.
Put this card on a vampire you control. Once per turn, when this vampire sucessfully performs an action and
no reaction cards are played, he or she gains 1 blood after the action is resolved. A vampire can have only
one archetype.
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Ah, Perfectionist. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
This card seems the best of the various archetypes to me. It has no sect requirement, making it easy to play.
It's effect takes place during any action of any type, so long as the other conditions are met. This makes
it effectively superior to cards like Bravo, Capitalist or Guru which specify blood gain only on certain actions.
Basically, any action X becomes X + hunt, so long as nobody interferes. Since most people do not interfere with
hunting, for example, most of the time you will end up with an extra blood. It is possible that someone will
cycle a Wake with Evening's Freshness to stop you getting your blood, but this seems unlikely to me. They'd be
better off keeping their wakes for actions that will hurt them.
You can use Perfectionist on a weenie 2-cap vampire with 2 Blood Dolls for good pool gain. Blood Doll off each
turn and then hunt for 2. It's like a poor man's Hesha Ruhadze.
I can't think of too many decks that won't find some use for a card like Perfectionist. I think it will be
going in most of my decks from now on.
Rating --> A+
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REBEL
[Gehenna:C]
Master: archetype. Trifle.
Put this card on a vampire you control. Once per turn, when this vampire successfully blocks a titled vampire
or a political action, he or she gains 1 blood from the blood bank (before the resulting combat, if any). A
vampire can have only one archetype.
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This card might not be bad in a wall deck. It's fairly reactive though, counting on someone at the table
playing with either titles or votes or both. Vote decks are common enough that this might not be a bad guess.
And it's rare to see a table without a single titled vampire at the table, though it has been known to happen.
You could also subtly encourage people to call votes which you then block. Anarch Revolt is a card that many
people will want to vote off the table. But if you have a vampire sitting there with Rebel on her, don't be
surprised if people refrain from calling that referendum.
Note that this archetype does not require it to be your turn. So you could conceivably use it once on your
prey's turn and once on your predator's turn. But that's assuming that all conditions are met, which is unlikely.
Overall, Rebel is about as good as Curmudgeon. Curmudgeon only works for one vampire, whereas Rebel will be more
useful when there are more titles floating around.
Rating --> B
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SOCIOPATH
[BH:C/PTr2]
Master: archetype.
Put this card on a Sabbat vampire you control. Once per turn, when this vampire remains ready and burns a
minion in combat or sends a vampire to torpor in combat, he or she gains 1 blood from the blood bank. A
vampire can have only one archetype.
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Another combat archetype.
This card seems generally inferior to Bravo and Creep Show, as the conditions are more strict. Instead of simply
entering combat or by being dodged, this card requires you to actually burn or torpor a minion, which is not
always the easiest thing to do.
Additionally, since Sociopath requires the vampire to be Sabbat only, this card will be even harder to play.
Maybe Beast could use it. He certainly looks sociopathic. In general though, combat decks would be better off
using Taste of Vitae for blood gain. Or Bravo if they absolutely insist on using an archetype.
Rating --> D-
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TRADITIONALIST
[Gehenna:C]
Master: archetype. Trifle.
Put this card on a vampire you control. Once per turn, when this vampire casts his or her votes against a
referendum and the referendum fails, he or she gains 1 blood from the blood bank. A vampire can have only one
archetype.
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Most Methuselahs that play vote decks have some kind of mechanism that helps them pass referendums. Some use
Awe or Bewitching Oration, or Animal Magnetism, or simply rely on having more titled vampires in play than
anyone else could compete with.
Reacting to votes is much more problematic. Cards like Dread Gaze see less play, since it is assumed that the
acting vampire will have more control over pro-votes than anyone else has over anti-votes. It is more likely
to see cards like Delaying Tactics, which simply cancel the referendum altogether.
Fortunately, Traditionalist can be used with Delaying Tactics, assuming the traditional vampire threw his votes
against the referendum before the Delaying Tactics was played. This will offset the cost of playing the Delaying
Tactics. You don't really require a serious voter for this tactic. A simple Bishop or Primogen will suffice.
Overall, however, Traditionalist is a difficult card to use as it relies on other people calling votes. You
could conceivably try to fail your own votes in order to get the blood, but that would be rather stupid. Easier
to just hunt.
[*** Editor's note -- This tactic does not work after all, it seems. A cancelled referendum is not the same as a
failed referendum. This makes Traditionalist much more corner-case and thus deserving of a lower rating than
I previously gave it ***]
Rating --> D-
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So, my ratings for the archetypes, from best to worst are as follows:
PERFECTIONIST Rating --> A+
CAPITALIST Rating --> B+
CURMUDGEON Rating --> B
REBEL Rating --> B
BRAVO Rating --> C+
CONNIVER Rating --> C+
GURU Rating --> C+
CREEP SHOW Rating --> C-
LONER Rating --> D
SOCIOPATH Rating --> D-
TRADITIONALIST Rating --> D-
Note that none of the cards actually got a failing mark. All cards have a use somehow, even the most useless
cards like Eyes of the Dead.
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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
Keeper of the Grand Temple of Set
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