Vampire of the Month

Card of the Month

Deck of the Month

VEKN Official Clan Tremere Newsletter July 2001

Volume 2, Issue 7 October 1, 2001

Please direct all correspondence and commentary to Xian.

My apologies to all my fans for not posting any newsletters for the last few months. It's not that there hasn't been anything to write about, but there's something about real life that always seems to crop up every so often that the whole montly thing never seems to work out right. Anyway, since the last newsletter, we've seen Final Nights enter tournament legal play in force. Not to mention, a number of major tournaments have taken place, including GenCon (US & UK), DragonCon, the European V:tES Championship, and I think something out in L.A. Maybe a few things out in L.A. Those crazy kids. Heh.

There have been more Tremere decks making the finals recently, it seems, and a few winners, including Brad Ward playing the Spiridonas deck, and I won the Shadow Twin tournament at GenCon with the Tremere. So it seems everyone's favorite clan is making a come-back.

I reviewed the best cards from Final nights (Aisling and Perfect Clarity) last time around, and I had a blast using them at GenCon, so I won't comment on them more at this point.

Vampire of the Month

Javier Montoya
Tremere
9
ani AUS cel pre THA
Camarilla: Prince of Barcelona Javier burns 1 less blood when rescuing a vampire in torpor.

At first glance, most people say, "What? No dominate? What good is he?" Aside from this minor failing, Javier is huge (literally and figuratively). I think that after Cardano, he's my favorite titled Tremere. A little celerity to throw into the mix, some animalism to add into the old Goratrix trick deck, AUS and THA go nicely for the Tremere (not to mention Telepathic Tracking or Perfect Clarity can substitute for Thoughts Betrayed if you really want to work the combat angle). Additionally AUS goes very well with a Pulse and his +1 inherent bleed. All in all, I'd say he's worthwhile. I'm working on a deck that utilizes some of his less-used qualities, namely his title itself and presence. That's right, the old titled-Tremere vote deck. I'll keep you all updated.

Card of the Month

Seduction
Action Modifier
Dominate
Only usable when the acting vampire's action is announced. Choose a younger vampire. He or she cannot block the acting vampire. (S) As above, but the affected vampire can be the same age or older.

Seduction is my new favorite card. (Well, after Shambling Hordes.) With the Tremere, you should have a fair amount of DOM, even if you aren't using it for bleeding, and Seduction really comes into its own at this point. Everyone realizes that Seduction is a nice utility card, but hardly anyone ever finds room for it in their deck. Big mistake, if you ask me. Rather than worrying about stealth vs. intercept, throw the Seductions into your deck, seduce the big blocker at the table, and jam any interceptors with their annoying reaction cards that they can't play. Not that there are many Tremere with stealth, but you get the idea. Admittedly, the Giovanni have Call of the Hungry Dead to knock down another blocker, but the Tremere have better combat availability (THA at low levels, unlike the Giovanni and POT), not to mention Camarilla membership, which has its own perks.

Deck of the Month

Deck of the Month

Title: Tremere-!Tremere Infernalists

Author: Tim Eijpe

(As a note, this is like a year old, so I suspect Tim has a new version of this, but I'm too lazy to check with him right now.)

Crypt (12)

Al Ashrad
Anvil
Astrid Thomas
Bryan Van Duesen
Cardano
2x Ian Forestal
Iliana
Kij Dansky
Marlene, the Infernalist
Muaziz, Archon of Ulugh Beg
Reverend Blackwood

Min: 25, Max: 34, Avg: 7.33

Library (90)

Master (15)

1x Academic Hunting Ground
1x Arcane Library
3x Blood Doll
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Infernal Pact
4x Minion Tap
1x Rack, The
1x Spirit Summoning Chamber

Minion (75)

7x Apportation
4x Blessing of Chaos
2x Blur
4x Conditioning
2x Death of My Conscience, The
2x Deflection
2x Disarm
2x Eagle's Sight
2x Enhanced Senses
2x Flesh of Marble
4x Govern the Unaligned
2x Immortal Grapple
5x Infernal Familiar
1x Ivory Bow
2x Magic of the Smith
1x Mr. Winthrop
2x My Enemy's Enemy
2x Precognition
1x Sengir Dagger
2x Skin of Steel
2x Soul Burn
2x Spirit's Touch
2x Telepathic Misdirection
6x Theft of Vitae
6x WwEF
4x Walk of Flame
2x Wolf Claws

As you can see, it's very...umm...well...yeah. Toolboxy. Very. Perhaps Tim can offer some comments. All I know is that you use the Infernal stuff to gain the off-disciplines, and then giggle madly as you put Blessing of Chaos on one of your vampires, and next turn rip someone's arms off. Odd.

Xian
Chronicler of Clan Tremere