Fanchion Fever

There seems to be a lot of buzz in the Vtes newsgroup about Mistress Fanchion, the new Tremere Inner Circle. I just saw at least three or four decks already posted for comments. In terms of gameplay, Fanchion is a powerhouse. I think Extrala did a comparison study of Vtes vampires recently and Fanchion was at the top of the list in terms of sheer number of superior disciplines. So yeah, I can definitely see the interest in creating fun or wacky Mistress Fanchion decks.

Taking a look at her discipline spread also gives me some ideas for decks but for many players, her ability is also something to be considered. The ability to fish out a key card from your library is just awesome. Drawbacks? Limited untap. Which is important for an eleven cap vampire. Rutor’s hand is a must.

VIC, OBF, CEL, and the standard Tremere disciplines of THA, AUS, DOM makes her hard to beat in combat. She has access to aggravated unpreventable hand strikes, blood theft, ranged aggravated strikes, damage prevention from three disciplines, and several ways to stop/foil combat ends. Maneuvers and presses are also readily available.

I’d make a combat deck with Fanchion as the key vamp. Ready access to Magic of the Smith and Rutor’s Hand with four votes and three bleed with DOM is a frightening thought. I’m not comfortable making a combat deck without immortal grapple so I think the first step would be to grab a Hand of Conrad asap. TheLasombra had a nice idea to pair her up with Sha-Ennu since they share a lot of disciplines together. I think I can take advantage of that superior CHI by smithing up an Eye of Hazimel. In that way Fanchion can get both POT and CHI with a built in rush.

It’s fun to take advantage of non fortitude damage prevention since at least two people in the local metagame use Tremere decks. Rego Mortus and Horrid Form will be fun to use. I’d throw in some Apparitions once Fanchion gets the eye.

Offensive options include: the standard Tzimisce package of either long or shirt ranged aggravated damage. Chiropteran Marauder, Breath of the Dragon. It’s also possible to use Blood Fury backed up with Horrid Forms and Chiropteran Marauder for anti-fortitude combat. CEL adds support by additional strikes like Blur, Flash for maneuvers and presses and Psyche! for reactive anti-combat ends.

Mistress Fanchion definitely opens up a wide variety of options for putting the hurt on someone! I think it’s time to get started on making a deck!

Gangrel Combat

I blame Wrath of the Lich King for this delayed post!

Since everyone and their mother probably has a few packs or starters of KoT by now, I think it’s time to talk about some deck ideas that are currently swimming in my head. One of them is: Simple Gangrel Combat.

Since the days of Jyhad and Ancient Hearts, Gangrel combat has pretty much stayed the same, using almost the same cards. Claws (wolf claws or claws of the dead) and Fortitude Prevention (skin of rock or skin of steel). Sabbat added Carrion Crows for environmental damage and Ancient Hearts added Dog Pack as a foil to combat ends.

Assuming your Gangrel already has a Dog Pack equipped (or hired since it’s technically a retainer), your combat chain would still consist of just 3 cards: Crows pre-range, Strike hands, Claws, Prevention. Simple and effective for most decks without dodges or prevention.

The last casual game I played showed me that the Philippine metagame hasn’t changed much. There’s still a lot of combat and combat avoidance in the form of Fortitude and combat ends.

I’ll try to make a basic combat package this weekend and see if I can tweak it to survive and hopefully dominate the local meta.

Key Gangrel vampire for my deck? Ariadne. Immunity to bloodhunts is simply too good to pass up.