"Lords of the Night": Top Ten Crypt & Library Cards

In reference to the "Legacies of Blood Top Ten" list made by Greg Williams in January 2006, I would like to show you a similar list, namely the top ten of the "Lords of the Night" expansion, at least from my point of view:

Top Ten Library Cards

1. "Reckless Agitation" -- finally a new political card that is a real alternative to "Conservative Agitation" or "Kine Resources Contested"; also nice to see that the requirement is an independent vampire making thus an incentive to build and play such a deck. Also nicely balanced with the cost of 2 blood and the inability to play the card once it's a one-on-one sitatuation at the table.
   
2. "Monster" -- Multi-Rush without "Freak Drive" (or "Fortitude" in general)! This card is a must of every Rush deck worth its salt. Put it on a vampire with a built-in rush and you've got a multi-rush engine.
   
3. "Khazar's Diary" -- this card together with "Spell of Life" make the basis to build a deck around it. Play some "Khazaar's Diary" and use some cheap allies, which can be burned easily, and you've got yourself a viable deck strategy.
   
4. "Target Vitals" -- this is the card that nearly made "Potence" obsolete. The +2 damage is the same as for superior "Undead Strength" or an "Increased Strength". The only real disadvantage is the ability of the opponent to cancel the effects of the card, but hey, it does not require any disciplines.
   
5. "Murmur of the False Will" -- this one is a very strong combo card. It combines the bleed capabilities of "Threats" with the bounce ability of "Redirection". Whereas normally you need to discard the "Dominate" bleed bounce cards in a heads-up situation, you can now use (or cycle) them in these situations.
   
6. "Preternatural Strength" -- finally a new non-strike "Potence" card, and it also gives a permanent +2 strength to the acting vampire. Gentleman, we have a winner. Sure you cannot combine with Torn Signpost, but on the other hand you do need to play one now you're strength is increased by +2.
   
7. "Camera Phone" -- cheap bleed equipment. Although it is not combinable with a bleed action like "Computer Hacking" or "Govern the Unaligned", but what the heck, it's for free!! This card we will see very often, and it will replace "Laptop Computers" almost completely.
   
8. "Loss" -- a strong bleed card for "Quietus. With this card "Bruise & Bleed" or "Stealth & Bleed" becomes a viable deck strategy for the "Assamites". Before this "Assamites" had to rely on non-clan disciplines like "Presence" or "Dominate".
   
9. "Mesu Bedshet" -- made for building a crypt machine deck: make a transfer of crypt cards to your uncontrolled with the chance to gain two blood. Combined with "Enchant Kindred" it can make bring out a 4 cap vampire from your crypt to your controlled region in a single turn without spending any transfers at all.
10. "Vessel" -- the "Blood Doll"-killer it's was dupped early after the card text of "Vessel" had been spoiled. After six month of seeing the card played, I am not so sure anymore. What looked in the first place as an overpowered card, it is finely tuned instead. The advantages (trifle and removes a "Blood Doll" from play) are in balance to the disadvantages (costs a pool and can only be used in the next turn).
    

Top Ten Crypt Cards

1. "Nakhthorheb" -- the star vampire for new era "Followers of Set" decks; his build-in untap along with he him unblockable by minions with corruptions counters, make him a formidable vampire. Even though he "only" has his three clan-disciplines at superior!
   
2. "Vasiliy Vasilevich" -- a "Ravnos" with +1 bleed with "Chimerstry" (i.e. access to stealth), who untaps after a succesful bleed? 'Nuff said.
   
3. "Jamal" -- though he's a "Assamite" on the "Red List", he has three extras on the positive side. 2 votes, +1 bleed, and +1 strength when battling Camarilla vampires is nothing to be ashamed of.
   
4. "Guillaume Giovanni" -- gives the player +1 handsze for each location you control; play him with "Therbold Realty" and bulkload of locations like "Storage Annex" or even "Slaughterhouses", and your handsize can easily increase to 15 or 20.
   
5. "Durga Syn" -- a "Ravnos" does not tap for blocking vampires below 5 (similar to "Justine the Elder") can easily build the basis for an intercept deck. Give her a "Sniper Rifle" and you got yourself a one man wall.
   
6. "Gwen Brand" -- a capacity 3 "Ravnos whose discipline combo is unusual for a "Ravnos". But her special ability let's her explode once she gains the 4 counters after a Gehenna event has been played.
   
7. "Lorenzo Detuono" -- a "Giovanni" with a special ability to take control vampires (or allies) he sents to torpor. Also a candidate to build a deck upon.
   
8. "Sajid al Misbah" -- though smallish, he's special ability for not paying for "Quietus" cards makes the difference. Good luck he has superior "Quietus", too.
   
9. "Giovanni del Georgio" -- a vampire who can single handedly ruin the strategy of Imbued deck, by removing the Convictions from an Imbued player's ash heap. And he's gaining 3 blood from the action, too. You can also use his special for paying for "Shambling Hordes" or just for bloating.
   
10. "Lady Constancia" -- a capacity 10 "Giovanni" with two votes, and a most interesting special. She's capable of drawing cards from the ashheap, albeit only as a discard phase action while burning the "Edge" and discarding a card at random.
    

Disappointments
But where's light there's also darkness (or was it the other way around in the "World of Darkness"). Some cards when shown in the preview or spoiled on the Usenet newsgroup wasn't as promising as it looked in the first place.

• "Bundi" -- this equipment looks nice in the first place, but is way too expensive for the advantage gained. If you want additional damage play "Preternatural Strength" instead, it cannot be stolen, or it's use prevented by "Drawing out the Beast" or "Terror Frenzy".
  
• "Autonomic Mastery" -- the preview talked about the fabled "Strike: Combat Ends" that works even under "Immortal Grapple". Yes, this card does it, but it is only usable on close range and only in combat with a younger vampire (or ally). What the card is good for is burning an opposing ally like a "Warghoul" or "Shambling Hordes" which are otherwise often hard to kill for "Dominate"-based decks. On the other hand there's still "Far Mastery" ...
  
• "Lost in Translation" -- granted it is bleed bounce with any discipline requirements, but the card itself has too many restrictions to see widespread use, and it costs two blood. So it only makes sense to play the card in deck with high capacity vampires with no access to "Dominate" or "Auspex" in an environment where you see bleeds of 4 or higher on a regular basis.

In summary "Lords of the Night" is the most interesting expansion of the past years, offering a wide variety of new and interesting cards and a whole bunch of ideas to build decks upon.

VtES Program Updates

Faster than I would have expected all of the major programs used for VtES card handling and search have updated their contents to the "Lords of the Night" expansion.

• The fastest of them all was Graham Smith, who has updated the card file for the "Anarch Revolt Deck Builder".
• Balazs Kuno Kiss updated the FELB to version 2.4.0, not only with the LotN expansion, but also with the functionality to view the pictures of the cards. These have to be downloaded seperately here, beware this file is about 150 MByte large!
  
• Also Ethan "I'm still maintaining this" Burrow has updated his online search tool, the Monger. Which is also quite useful for this site, since I am usually linking the card names to the corresponding page on the Monger's site.
• Also "darkbob" updated his shiny new program "Simple VtES Builder" for Linux to the new expansion.

"Lords of the Night" Complete Card Texts Available

Today White Wolf has published the complete card texts of all of the cards released in the VtES expansion "Lords of the Night". Also the list of the reprinted cards can be found there.

Hopefully this means the next few days the updates necessary for the FELB and Anarch Revolt Deck Builder are also available.

Results of the local "Lords of the Night" Launch Event

These are the results of our local "Launch Event" for the new VtES expansion "Lords of the Night" in Bochum, Germany after 3 rounds (no final round played):

# Name GW VP TP

1. Didi R. (R) 3 10 180
2. Alexander F. (S) 1 5 156
3. Debbie N. (R) 1 5 126
4. Thomas K. (G) 1 4 136
5. Jasper B. (S) 1 4 106
6. Sebastian Z. (S) 1 4 106
7. Sebastian K. (A) 1 4 96
8. Rene de W. (A) 1 3 136
9. Herman J. (A) 1 3 106
10. Martin S. (R) 1 2 106
11. Björn S. (S) 0 2 100
12. Yuri N. (G) 0 2 90
13. Ralf L. (G) 0 0 84
14. Danny B. (R) 0 0 68
15. Oliver V. (A) 0 0 68
16. Michael B. (G) 0 0 64

Results summarized by clans:

• Ravnos (R) 5 GW 17 VP
  
• Followers of Set (S) 3 GW 15 VP
• Assamites (A) 3 GW 10 VP
  
• Giovanni (G) 1 GW 6 VP
  

Despite my initial ramblings on the starter decks, the "Ravnos" proved to be the strongest clan during our 16 player tournament. Afterwards you could see that the "Ravnos" proved to be hard to oust, and in the end the Perma-Bleed w/ Stealth proved to be decisive.

The "Followers of Set" were close behind, but the bleed defense against any of the other three clans proved to be to weak in the end. So the "Setites" got a VP, but no always the GW.

The "Assamites" and "Giovanni" always had to struggle with the excellent combat defense of the "Ravnos" ("Fortitude") or the "Setites" ("Strike: combat ends"). In addition with a lack of decent intercept against the "Setites" (early in the game) and the "Ravnos" (late in the game) the other clans proved to be stronger.

Anyhow the tournament was very much fun to play, all of the starters proved to be quite playable. Special thanks to the six dutch players, who made the journey to Bochum to participate in the "Launch Event".

Starter Review for the Launch Event

Despite the fact (or because of it) that on Sunday is the official "Launch Event" for the VtES expansion "Lords of the Night", I couldn't resist taking a closer look at the preconstructed decks. Here are my thoughts on them and some advice for the draft tactics during the "Launch Event".

Followers of Set
This is IMHO the strongest starter of the four. The deck can either bleed with Presence ("Dream World") or Serpentis ("Revelation of Desire") and has enough "Obfuscate" stealth cards to bring actions through, or it can use the "Corruptions" and "Temptations" to take control of opposing vampires and allies, e.g. the "Shambling Hordes" of the "Giovanni" deck.

On the defensive side the deck has "WHRM Talk Radio", a "Dummy Corporation" and some "Ecstacies" & "Confusion of the Eye" (which also doubles as vote defense), so the bleed defense is there, but it's not too strong. The combat defense of the deck is great. There are 7 "Strike: combats ends" in the deck, and two combat-cancel-card with "Mental Maze" as well as a "Secure Haven".

The crypt is ok, the average capacity of the vampires is low enough, and the deck has "Nakhthorheb" as its star vampire. But with the three other clans being able to punish the Setites in combat, I would ditch the "Sundervere", since he is on the "Red List" and can be attacked easily.

In the combined starter/booster draft I would try to get cards requiring the three-in-clans of course, hoping to gain an "Eternals of Sirius" or two and if you are really lucky a "Cave of Apples".

There are few cards from the main deck I would ditch; "Tutu, the Double Evil One" isn't a good ally and so the "Summoning" can go as well. If you want a tighter deck, you could also get rid of the "Revelation of Wrath" and "The Jones".

Giovanni
This is more a less a straight bruise-and-bleed deck. It can hit opposing minions quite hard using either the "Shambling Hordes" or the "Harasses" to attack. During combat either the abundance of melee weapon help or the Govanni can just the Potence cards ("Slam", "Torn Signpost", etc.) in the deck.

The deck can also bleed quite well, with 7 bleed modifiers as well as two permanent bleed modifiers ("Camera Phone"). The deck can then use the block denial ("Call of the Hungry Dead") and the low stealth cards ("Spectral Divination") to bring the actions through. Quite strangely this deck has three "Reckless Agitation", but lacks the voting power (other than by "Constanzia") to bring the votes through.

In the draft I would ditch the more esoteric cards like "Whispers from the Dead" or "Ex Nihilo" since it dilutes the bruise and bleed abilities of the deck. I would also get rid of the "Path of Bone". The investment of 1 pool and the average count of Necromancy cards that cost blood doesn't justify playing the card in this deck.

During the booster draft I would try to get as much allies as possible to use as fodder in the ashheap for the "Shambling Hordes". The in-clan-disciplines are also of priority, luckly you do not compete with any of clans for "Necromancy", "Dominate" or "Potence". If you want to add some more variety to your deck, start drafting "Fortitude" cards, which you can use when playing "Proxy Kissed" or when playing with 4 of your 12 vampires from the main deck who have "Fortitude".

The crypt of the deck is rather bad. Only the high caps have superior "Dominate", and the distribution of the disciplines among the small- and mid-caps is not great in general. Try to replace these vampires by those aquired during the booster draft.

Ravnos
I do not really know what to think of this one. The deck is very defensive combat-wise with lots of defensive cards especially damage prevention, but very few offensive options in combat. There is little forward motion in this deck. There a few bleed modifiers, but the deck is missing other good offensive options.

The defensive package is so-and-so, the "Raven Spies" are great, as well "Instintive Reaction" and the four untap cards ("Forced Vigiliance" & "Fillip", but the defensive "Chimerstry" cards are somewhat bad.

What the deck is missing, is either former staple cards like "Sensory Deprivation" (to shutdown prey or predator's key vampires) or "Traps" (for effective use with "Apparation", or cards like "Tumnosis" or "Embraces" to fully take adavantage of the "Week of Nightmares".

The crypt is in general ok, but the vampires except the 10-cap "Lizette" lack superior "Animalism", so I would try to exchange some of the mid- to low-caps by other Ravnos with that discipline.

From the main deck I would lose all of the ineffective Chimerstry cards like "Ignis Fatus" and "Pseudo-Blindness" as well as "Amria" or "Fata Amria". During the booster draft try to get the Animalism cards like "Sense the Savage Ways" or "Flesh Bond". Avoid more damage prevention via "Fortitude", the deck already has enough.

Assamites
Despite my first impressions I think I do actually like this deck. It is somewhat toolboxy, but it can attack using "Frontal Assault" and four "Clandestine Contracts", it can bleed with "Loss" or even "Truth of Blood", it also has some decent untaps (both active ("Flurry of Action") and passive ("Black Sunrise")).

The deck also has a little stealth ("Swallowed by the Night" and "Resist the Earth's Grasp"), as well an equal amount of (low) intercept cards ("Rooftop Shadows" and "Blood Awakening". Vital for the deck are the "Paths of Blood", since lots of the "Quietus" cards cost blood.

Combat-wise the deck needs a little more punch, but that can be acquired during the booster draft, e.g by drafting "Strike at the True Flesh" or a "Nightstick". The decks strength is also its strong crypt, the Assamites have the best mid-cap vampires of the four decks, "Kashan" and "Layla bint-Nadr". I would only try replace one of the two 10-caps each by smaller clan members. Also try get as much "Obfuscate" cards as possible, on the hand to use it yourself and also to deny them from the "Followers of Set"!

The deck will be not easy to play, but played properly it can be devasting for its prey or predator.

Using "Lords of the Night" in "Duffin Draft"

In our local playgroups we have tried to use the "Lords of the Night" boosters for the "Duffin Draft". After a little experimentation, we decided to use actually the "Double Duffin Draft" rules (that is instead of just one booster used for drafting, two are used) and 15 starting pool.

The reason for this was, that with only one booster, there are too few coherent "decks" you can play ("Chimerstry", "Necromancy", etc. are not that common among the independent clans), you end up with one or two vampires who cannot play 80% of the cards you have in your 8 card deck. Also instead of 3 vampires in a 3rd Ed. booster, the LotN boosters frequently has only 2 vampires and 1 uncommon card instead. The reason for the 15 pool is the fact that the average capacity of the vampires are much, much higher than in 3rd Ed. With 15 pool you can play high cap and maybe a low- to midcap vampire in addition without being ousted immediately by a mere +1 bleed at +1 stealth.

We already had quite some fun with this kind of drafting:

• A "Reckless Agitation" threatens to kill most of the table, only to be thwarted by an "Army of Apparitions".
• The mummy "Nephren-Ka" is played, just to be converted into an animal retainer by "Set's Curse".
• Two players are trying to steal vampires from each other, because both of them are playing "Revelation of Ecstacy".

You can find a summary of the Duffin Draft rules here! So don't open up your LotN boosters alone, share the fun with friends.

"Lords of the Night": Review of the Preview

As several other players already pointed out, the VtES expansion "Lords of the Nights" will have a huge impact on the metagame and the game itself. I dare to say: "This is the biggest expansion in terms of novelty and fresh blood for the game since the "Bloodlines" expansion".

There are several factors that contributing to this:

• Each discipline has 3 to 5 new(!) cards, instead of just 1 to 2 as in most of the previous releases. Each of the disciplines get more versatile. If this is a good thing, I don't know right now. It's definitely more difficult to predict what a certain vampire can pull off at a given time. The previous expansions (like "Sword of Caine") had many new master cards & many new (often unique) equipment cards. This now has an end (or at least a break), the disciplines are back.

In detail the update highlights for the disciplines look like this:

• Animalism (3 new cards) gets a "Strike: combat ends" ("Flesh Bond") & and a combined untap & intercept ("Sense the Savage Ways").
• Auspex (0+3 multi-discipline cards) only gets multi-discipline cards - interesting!
• Celerity (3+1) gets cheap stealth ("Resist the Earth's Grasp") & a new ousting method ("Precision").
• Dominate (3) gets a zero-cost-burn-ally card ("Automatic Mastery") & a combined bleed & bounce card ("Murmur of the False Will").
• Fortitude (4+1) gets at very good damage prevention card at inferior ("Armor of Vitality") and also a combat cancel card ("Hard Case") when blocking.
• Obfuscate (5) gets "Strike: combat ends" ("Mental Maze") & permanent stealth ("Blight Appearance").
• Potence (4) gets a Maneuver ("Slam") & Bloat ("Street Cred") & Perma-Strength ("Preternatural Strength")
• Presence (4) gets a Mass Bleed card ("Dream World") & Mass Combat(!!) card ("Bloodlust") as well as "Strike: combat ends" which results in semi-permanent +1 bleed ("Unholy Penance").
• No "Protean" nor "Thaumthurgy" nor "Obtenebration" nor "Vicissitude" cards, since none of the Indepenent clans has these as in-clan-disciplines.

I haven't done a whole breakdown of the rest of the Disciplines and Clans, so here's the rest of my first impressions:

• The independent clans & their in-clan-only-disciplines get a lot of goodies, especially the Setite clan cards are amazingly strong IMHO.
• Blood Doll is nerfed(?) by Vessel. The old Blood Management is dead, long live the new Blood Management!
• There is significant support for Big Cap vampires. A couple of new (and sometimes power cards) are only usuable against Allies or younger vampires. So good for the fatties. Example cards are "Lost in Translation" and "Murmur of the False Will"
• There are a lot of "Imbued-hate"-cards in this expansion like "Permanent Vacation" or "Set's Curse".

When looking at the cards, especially the Library cards, I see a huge potential and a great number of new deck ideas in this expansion. Can't wait to play with some of the new toys at the local Launch Event on Sunday.

Please feel free to enter a comment, what you think about the new expansion!

"Lords of the Night": Complete Checklists

I have now assembled with the help of many, many other players and many other websites an (almost) complete checklist of all cards of the "Lords of the Night" expansion. I have posted them on the Presence forum. Since it is technically still before the actual release date, you may consider these as spoilers:

• Starter Checklist
• Crypt Checklist
• Library Checklist

"Lords of the Night" Preview #15: "Marcia Felicia Licinia"

The 15th and last preview card of the VtES expansion "Lords of the Night" is the "Ravnos" vampire "Marcia Felicia Licinia".

A quite interessting vampire, she has two votes and can dodge as strike (which costs a blood) each combat, so quite usable. Her discpline combination is also quite nice, one of the few vampires with superior "Thaumaturgy" and "Fortitude", the later allowing her to multi-act via "Freak Drive" quite easily. She has potential ...

With the preview finished, the checklists are also completed. These are the bare numbers:

• Total of 64 new vampires; each of the four Independent clan gets 16 new vampires.
• The rule of thumb is that the vampires in the starters are Group 4, those only in the boosters are Group 5.
• 50 Rare, 40 Vampires, 10 Uncommons, 50 Common cards are in the boosters.
• The starter-only-card is "Vessel" -- the "new" "Blood Doll" -- but appears twice in all of the preconstructed decks.

"Lords of the Night": Preconstructed Deck "Giovanni"

Here's the deck list -- copied from the Usenet newsgroup -- of the "Giovanni" preconstructed deck of the "Lords of the Night" expansion. Boy, does this starter contain a lot of solid staple cards, but look for yourself:

Deck Name: "Giovanni" Starter Deck (Lords of the Night)
Created By: L. Scott Johnson
Description: "Giovanni" Preconstructed Starter Deck from "Lords of the Night".

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 14, Max 38, Avg: 6,16)
---------------------------------------------
2x Nunzio Giovanni nec pot 3, Giovanni
2x Primo Giovanni dom nec pot 4, Giovanni
2x Margaret Milliner dom for nec pot pre 5, Giovanni
2x Francis Milliner pre vic NEC POT 6, Giovanni
2x Guillaume Giovanni obt CEL DOM NEC POT 9, Giovanni
2x Lady Constancia AUS DOM FOR NEC POT 10, Giovanni

Library: (77 cards)
---------------------------------------------
Master (11 cards)
1x Compel the Spirit (w/ new art)
1x Giant's Blood
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Morgue Hunting Ground (w/ new art)
1x Necromancy (w/ new art)
2x Proxy Kissed
2x The Path of Bone
2x Vessel

Action (18 cards)
1x Chill of Oblivion
2x Divine Sign
2x Dominate Kine
1x Ex Nihilo
1x Graverobbing
4x Harass
2x Jack of Both Sides
1x Possession (w/ new art)
1x Siphon
1x Sudario Refraction
2x Whispers from the Dead

Action Modifier (8 cards)
3x Call of the Hungry Dead
3x Conditioning (w/ new art)
1x Forger's Hammer
1x Inspire Greatness

Combat (13 cards)
3x Brute Force
2x Concealed Weapon
2x Immortal Grapple (w/ new art)
2x Slam
2x Taste of Vitae
2x Torn Signpost

Equipment (9 cards)
3x Bang Nakh - Tiger's Claws
3x Bundi
2x Camera Phone
1x The Sargon Fragment

Reaction (2 cards)
2x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus

Ally (4 cards)
4x Shambling Hordes

Combo (8 cards)
4x Murmur of the False Will
4x Spectral Divination (w/ new art)

Political Action (4 cards)
3x Reckless Agitation
1x Warrant

"Lords of the Night": Preconstructed Deck "Assamites"

Here's the deck list -- copied from the Presence Forum -- of the "Assamite" preconstructed deck of the "Lords of the Night" expansion. After some back and forth in the "Presence Forum" the deck list is now complete (and hopefully correct):

Deck Name: "Assamite" Starter Deck (Lords of the Night)
Created By: L. Scott Johnson
Description: "Assamite" Preconstructed Starter Deck from "Lords of the Night".

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 14, Max 40, Avg: 6,33)
----------------------------------------
2x Evan Rogers cel qui, 3 Assamite
2x Bertrand d'Anjou aus cel qui, 4 Assamite
2x Layla bint-Nadr qui CEL OBF, 5 Assamite
2x Kashan obt pre CEL OBF QUI, 7 Assamite
2x Dimitri Borodin obf AUS CEL NEC QUI, 9 Assamite
2x Thucimia for pro CEL DEM OBF QUI, 10 Assamite

Library: (77 cards)
-------------------
Master (10 cards)
1x Frontal Assault
1x Haquim's Law: Judgment, The
1x Market Square (w/ new art)
2x Path of Blood, The (w/ new art)
1x Quietus
1x Tadijd
1x Underworld Hunting Ground (w new art)
2x Vessel

Action (14 cards)
4x Clandestine Contract
2x Flurry of Action
1x Haquim's Law: Leadership, The
1x Khabar: Glory, The
3x Loss
1x Song of Distant Vitae
2x Web of Knives Recruit

Action Modifier (3 cards)
2x Deed the Heart's Desire (w/ new art)
1x Mask of 1k Faces

Reaction (11 cards)
3x Black Sunrise
2x Foul Blood (w/ new art)
1x Lost in Translation
2x Nest of Eagles
3x Rooftop Shadows

Combat (25 cards)
1x Baal's Bloody Talons
3x Gemini's Mirror
2x Khabar: Honor, The (w/ new art)
4x Pursuit (w/ new art)
4x Scorpion's Touch
4x Selective Silence
1x Shadow Feint
3x Taste of Death (w/ new art)
3x Weighted Walking Stick

Equipment (2 cards)
2x Garotte

Political Action (1 card)
1x Free States Rant

Event (1 card)
1x Dragonbound

Combo (9 cards)
3x Blood Awakening
1x Provision of Silsila
2x Resist the Earth's Grasp
3x Swallowed by the Night (/w new art)

"Lords of the Night" Preview #14: "Nephren-Ka"

The 14th preview card of the VtES expansion "Lords of the Night" is the unique "Mummy ally" card "Nephren-Ka".

His cost is somewhat reasonable considering his 5 life, his ability to prevent one (non-aggravated) damage and his ability to directly attack any minion in play. Of course, falls back in comparison to a "War Ghoul", but which "Ally" doesn't?

Although I am not a fan of the Mummy allies in VtES per se, he's not a bad ally, especially when you compare him to the other mummies (of course, the stats below are not everything, since each Mummy has his own special ability).

• "Akhenaten, The Sun Pharaoh" -- 4 pool -- 3 life. 3 strength. 1 bleed.
• "Amam the Devourer" -- 2 pool -- 3 life. 2 strength. 0 bleed.
• "Kherebutu" -- 5 pool -- 3 life. 3 strength. 2 bleed.
• "Nephren-Ka" -- 3 pool -- 5 life. 2 strength, 0 bleed.
• "Qetu the Evil Doer" -- 3 pool -- 3 life. 1 strength. 2 bleed.
• "Tutu the Doubly Evil One" -- 4 pool -- 3 life. 2 strength. 1 bleed.

"Lords of the Night" Preview #13: "Giovanni del Georgio"

The 13th preview card of the VtES expansion "Lords of the Night" is the "Giovanni" vampire "Giovanni del Georgio".

I like this vampire a lot, since he can fit into a lot of decks. Besides into a "regular" "Giovanni" deck, he's also fitting into a [PRO][DOM] bleed deck, or into a "Black Hand" w/ [DOM][POT][PRO]. Also his special is great; whether to fuel up again after playing a "Shambling Hordes" or to hose an "Imbued" deck by depleting their "React with Convictions" first, before he plays a "Far Mastery" by himself to take over one of the Imbued.

"Lords of the Night": Preconstructed Deck "Ravnos"

Here's the deck list -- copied fresh from the internat. newgroup -- of the "Ravnos" preconstructed deck of the "Lords of the Night" expansion. I am not too impressed with the starter when compared with the "Followers of Set" preconstructed. The "Ravnos" starter deck seems to be very toolboxy, and some of the more obscure "Chimerstry" cards have been reprinted.

Deck Name: "Ravnos" Starter Deck (Lords of the Night)
Created By: L. Scott Johnson
Description: Ravnos Preconstructed Starter Deck from "Lords of the Night".

CRYPT (12 cards, Min: 14, Max 38, Avg: 6,66)
2x Neel Ramanathan ani for 3, Ravnos
2x Brian Thompson ani chi for 4, Ravnos
2x Vassily Taltos aus cel chi dom for obf 6, Ravnos
2x Kiradin ani pot CHI DEM FOR 8, Ravnos
2x Durga Syn ani aus dom for CHI OBF THA 9, Ravnos
2x Lizette pot ANI CEL CHI FOR PRO 10, Ravnos

Library (77 cards)
Master (12 cards)
2x Chimerstry (w/ new art)
1x Fortune Teller Shop
1x Park Hunting Ground
1x Ravnos Carnival
2x Svadharma
2x The Path of Paradox
2x Vessel
1x Week of Nightmares

Action (5 cards)
2x Edged Illusion
2x Fatuus Mastery
1x Nightmare Curse

Action Modifier (11 cards)
4x Fata Morgana (w/ new art)
1x Forced March
1x Freak Drive
1x Heart's Desire
2x Leverage
2x Zapaderin

Combat (22 cards)
2x Amria
4x Apparition (w/ new art)
2x Armor of Vitality
3x Carrion Crows
4x Indomitability
2x Mayaparisatya
2x Skin of Night
3x Soak

Equipment (2 cards)
1x Talith
1x Treasured Samadji

Reaction (14 cards)
1x Army of Apparitions
2x Fillip
2x Forced Vigilance
4x Ignis Fatuus
3x Instinctive Reaction
2x Pseudo-Blindness

Retainer (4 cards)
1x Owl Companion
3x Raven Spy

Combo (7 cards)
1x Fata Amria
2x Mirror Image
4x Occlusion

"Lords of the Night" Preview #12: "Ambulance"

With the 12th preview of the VtES expansion "Lords of the Night", the equipment card "Ambulance", we are near the end of the previews.

The card is a nice, new equipment, which has usuable ability (to continue an action if blocked) in the right deck, and with a pool cost it's neither too cheap or too costly. I also like the drawback, which makes you think twice when to use the special ability of the "Ambulance". A fellow player suggested to add it to an "Aching Beauty" deck, where can use it to make your prey burn twice the pool for attempting to block the same action. In some forums it was suggested to use it in "Bruise & Bleed" decks, either to bring through an action, or to get into a combat twice with the same attacking minion.

The added ability of being able to burn a incapitated imbued is also nice topping for the card, but this just an added bonus and will (usually) not the reason to include "Ambulance" into a deck.

"Lords of the Night" Preview #11: "Thucimia"

The 10th preview of the VtES expansion "Lords of the Night" is the "Assamite" vampire "Thucimia".

The new vampire is a solid investment, with "Fortitude" she's a multi-rush candidate, she can bleed with the superior "Dementation" quite well, and - speaking of bleed - has an interesting special beside the permanent +1 handsize, too. Nothing spectacular, but she's not too shabby either.

No, I won't complain about the fattie parade in the preview anymore.

"Lords of the Night": Preconstructed Deck "Followers of Set"

Boy, oh boy, they sure keep me busy today. Over various intermediate stops, the contents of the first preconstructed deck of the "Lords of the Night" expansion, namely the one of the "Followers of Set", reached me. And the precon is quite a good one, a hefty S&B/Corruption deck with a fair number of very good reprints.

Deck Name: "Followers of Set" Starter Deck (Lords of the Night)
Created By: L. Scott Johnson
Description: The Followers of Set Preconstructed Starter Deck from Lords of the Night.

CRYPT (12 cards, Min: 12, Max 36, Avg: 5,83)
2 Belle Equitone ser 2, Follower of Set
2 Marla Kenyon ser PRE 4, Follower of Set
2 Renenet ser OBF PRE 5, Follower of Set
2 Halim Bey obf tha DOM SER 6, Follower of Set
2 Sundervere, the Devil Brahmin obf AUS PRE SER THA 8, Follower of Set
2 Nakhthorheb OBF PRE SER 10, Follower of Set

Library (77 cards)
Master (11 cards)
1x Dummy Corporation
1x Khobar Towers, Al-Khubar
1x Opium Den
1x Secure Haven (w/ new art)
1x Serpentis
1x Temple Hunting Ground
1x The Crocodile Temple
2x Vessel
1x WMRH Talk Radio
1x Wash

Action (20 cards)
2x Blithe Acceptance
4x Dream World
2x Enticement
1x Form of Corruption
1x Mesu Bedshet
2x Public Trust
4x Revelation of Ecstasy
3x Temptation (w/ new art)
1x The Summoning

Action Modifier (20 cards)
3x Approximation of Loyalty
2x Cloak the Gathering (w/ new art)
2x Into Thin Air
3x Revelation of Desire
2x Spying Mission
4x True Love's Face
2x Truth of a Thousand Lies
2x Veil the Legions

Reaction (10 cards)
3x Confusion of the Eye
2x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus
2x Mental Maze
3x Revelation of Despair

Combat (14 cards)
3x Ecstasy
4x Majesty
3x The Jones
1x Revelation of Wrath
3x Unholy Penance

Ally (1 card)
1x Tutu, the Doubly Evil One

Political Action (1 card)
1x Hierophant

"Lords of the Night" Preview #10: "Strike at the True Flesh"

The 10th preview of the VtES expansion "Lords of the Night" is the "Quietus" combat card "Strike at the True Flesh".

My first is impression was, that this sadly continues the "not-so-great-cards" tradition of "Quietus" (o.k. there are a few exceptions to this). Sure, it foils damage prevention like "Rolling with the Punches" or "Flesh of Marble", but this wasn't the problem with the "Quietus" discipline in the past. Some "Quietus" card would have been nice, that didn't allow the opposing vampire to play "Strike: Dodge" or "Strike: Combat Ends". This new card is sub-standard, also since it only applies to non-aggravated damage this vampire deals, so "Baal's Bloody Talons" cannot be used in conjunction with "Strike at the True Flesh".

"Lords of the Night" Preview #9: "Abdelsobek"

The 9th preview of the VtES expansion "Lords of the Night" is the "Follower of Set" vampire "Abdelsobek".

In the blurred pre-preview picture "Abdelsobek" looked like a big-cap vampire with his five disciplines, but he turned-out to be a mere 5 cap with five disciplines at inferior, and a usuable, though not overly powerful special. "Mylan Horseed (Goblin)" can do about the same, and is much cheaper to pay for.

"Abdelsobek" can fit into a lot of decks, he makes it into a deck featuring the "Followers of Set" (of course), but also into one featuring the "Samedi" or even "Ventrue". With his five inferior disciplines he also makes a decent "Anarch".

"Lords of the Night" Preview #8: "Lost In Translation"

The 8th preview of the VtES expansion "Lords of the Nights" is the card, that will change the meta game, the card that will create new TWDs without "Dominate", ... or not. It's the discipline-less bleed bounce card named "Lost In Translation".

At first I was a little disappointed, that the card is without any discipline requirement, thus making the access for using the card too easy. But take a look at the requirements to play the card:
1. the vampire needs to pay two blood.
2. it can only be played once during each action. So however plays the first LiT "wins".
3. it taps the reacting vampire
and most importantly
4. it's unusable by vampires when bleed a younger vampire or an ally.

With these restrictions in mind, it's costly version of the inferior version of "Redirection". So the usefulness of this card is quite restricted to decks with mid-cap or high-cap vampires (e.g. larger than 7 or 8 cap.) with no access to "Dominate" or superior "Auspex", e.g. "Nosferatu Royalty" decks or an "Assamite" high cap deck.

So I am not really expecting a huge change in the meta game or the TWD archive in the near future, but I see (and appreciate) the usefulness of the card in certain decks.

Like the card, hate the artwork ... it's green, yuck!!