Black Chantry is releasing a new set of demo decks, New Blood. Like First Blood, there are five decks with the same clans as the Fifth Edition boxed set: Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, and Ventrue. BCP switched things up and gave us both Tremere previews, so we'll skip to that.
New Blood: Tremere
Black Chantry describes it as a deck with "a defensive stance...[and i]t weakens its enemies with persistent attrition." This deck is heavily oriented toward defense. I've seen smaller reaction packages in larger decks. This deck is going to survive; is it going to oust? It has some payload, but it feels a little lacking to me. With the Arcane Library, Blood Dolls, and blood theft, you should be able to turn the minion advantage eventually.
As a Demo of the Game
This decks offers demo players a nice mix of bleed, block, and combat. New players will be able to experience the basics of the game. Building up permanents, mostly in more vampires, this deck will be slow, but effective. I don't expect this deck to be the first to oust unless it's fortunate to bounce enough bleed, but it should build a slow stranglehold over the game. The Nosferatu may pose the most difficulty with their combat. Chantry should help keep the ready region full.
For New Players
This deck offers quite a few new cards for players that have gotten into the
game with BCP. (We'll talk about the brand new vampires in a bit.)
- Blood Fury
- The bigger brother of Blood Rage, which we saw in the Banu Haqim starter. Blood Sorcery has always been able to thwart Fortitude and it's nice to see more options for newer players. This card tends to work with specific deck designs. It's good to have it reprinted, but expect that you're going to merge these into a Banu Haiqm deck instead of a Tremere deck.
- Flaming Candle
- Effects that prevent vampires from blocking are strong. The Candle is single-use, but has no downside other than the action to equip it.
- The Fragment of the Book of Nod
- A classic. Typically used in blockier decks that want to be able to cycle out their hand. Blockier deck designs work in tandem with the Fragment's steal clause. If you're already set to block, then blocking the theft of the Fragment is just what you're already prepared to do. As for its effect, drawing cards in a game where card flow matters is always valuable.
- Melange
- My experience has taught me that Melange is underwhelming. The +bleed effect is rarely used. It does offer more free intercept options and the superior effect might come in handy.
- The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
- A cheap media location that spreads the cost between you and your vampires. Spending 1 blood to gain 1 intercept with the hopes of getting into combat, where you're likely to lose 1 more blood, can get blood intensive very quickly. While there's nothing wrong with The Rumor Mill, decks have to be prepared to get their blood costs back somehow. Good to ensure that folks can go media wild, if they want. I typically prefer WMRH or Wall Street Night to this.
- Scouting Mission (also in Malkavian)
- Yes, this is Govern the Unaligned's little brother. This is generally considered weaker and rarely played. Perhaps more useful in a modern Law Firm deck or in a deck with smaller vampires, so that you don't need to worry about refilling their lost blood.
- Sniper Rifle
- The gold standard in block equipment. I find, however, that .44 Magnum has more general versatility. While having one or two of these is a good idea in blocking decks, I'd prefer most guns to be usable on offense as well. Ousting is a requirement of winning; ousting requires action.
- Threats (also in Malkavian)
- Yes, this is Conditioning's little brother. This is good much for the same reasons as Scouting Mission. I do like it for Giovanni powerbleed decks that spend so much blood in general.
What's Missing?
There are a few cards that haven't been reprinted by BCP that would have been
good includes. Outcast Mage is the
obvious choice. Grimgroth is still very
sad that only Thadeus Zho has seen a
reprint. While Outcast Mage is
underpowered versus vampires historically, the current meta is more in their
favor. In a combat where zero cards are played, they can beat either
Nephandi or
Legionnaires
and live to tell the tale. As I mentioned in the Malkavian write-up, My
Enemy's Enemy needs a reprint and that would offer a more variety for our
Auspex reaction module.
New Blood: Tremere Mash-Up
With the First Blood decks, BCP released a How-To-Play download for it, which
included instructions on making a "real" deck by putting two copies
together. While I expect BCP will do the same, here's my first cut at
the mash-up.
Deck Name: New Blood: Tremere Mashup Author: Karl Schaefer Description: Strive for minion advantage.
Use the Blood Dolls and Arcane Library to get out all the vampires.
Lots of wake effects to go forward and still block.
Wish we had a Wider View (or two).
Crypt (12 cards, min=20 max=30 avg=6.17) ======================================== 2x Abraham DuSable 8 AUS DOM FOR THA Tremere:6 2x Ayelech 7 AUS DOM THA prince Tremere:6 2x Lloyd Brooks 6 aus pot THA DOM primogen Tremere:6 2x Trevon Parker 6 AUS DOM THA Tremere:6 2x Chrysanthemum 5 dom AUS THA primogen Tremere:6 2x Mason Ha 5 aus cel dom THA Tremere:6 Library (72 cards) ================== Master (9) ---------- 2x Arcane Library 4x Blood Doll 1x Chantry 1x Fragment of the Book of Nod 1x Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper, The Action (10) ----------- 2x Magic of the Smith 8x Scouting Mission Equipment (4) ------------- 1x Flaming Candle 1x Ivory Bow 2x Sniper Rifle Action Modifier (8) ------------------- 4x Bonding 4x Threats Reaction (24) ------------- 2x Enhanced Senses 4x Eyes of Argus 6x Forced Awakening 2x Melange 2x Precognition 2x Spirit's Touch 6x Telepathic Misdirection Combat (17) ----------- 5x Apportation 3x Rego Motum 9x Theft of Vitae
Fifth Edition-New Blood: Tremere Mash-Up
Taking it a step further, let's take a look at what a Fifth Edition-New Blood
mash-up would look like.
Deck Name: V5-New Blood: Tremere Mashup Author: Karl Schaefer Description: Left-focused Tremere deck. V5 and New Blood Tremere decks are very similar. This deck tries to eschew some of the blocking to focus on a more bleed-oriented design. Use Govern, Arcane Library, Blood Dolls, and Wasserschloss to obtain minion advantage. Overwhlem your prey with constant bleeds (yours and bounced). Ideally, we'd have more +bleed action modifiers here. Crypt (12 cards, min=17 max=28 avg=5.67) ======================================== 2x Ayelech 7 AUS DOM THA prince Tremere:6 2x Trevon Parker 6 AUS DOM THA Tremere:6 1x Abraham DuSable 8 AUS DOM FOR THA Tremere:6 1x Inês Tristão 6 aus dom pre THA prince Tremere:6 1x Lloyd Brooks 6 aus pot THA DOM primogen Tremere:6 1x Chrysanthemum 5 dom AUS THA primogen Tremere:6 1x Mason Ha 5 aus cel dom THA Tremere:6 1x Patrik Söderberg 5 dom for tha AUS Tremere:6 1x Lauren 4 aus dom tha Tremere:6 1x Rosalina Cortez 3 THA Tremere:6 Library (70 cards) ================== Master (11) ----------- 1x Academic Hunting Ground 1x Arcane Library 2x Blood Doll 1x Chantry 1x Misdirection 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion 2x Vessel 1x Wasserschloss Anif, Austria 1x Wider View Action (16) ----------- 14x Govern the Unaligned 2x Magic of the Smith Equipment (3) ------------- 1x .44 Magnum 1x Flaming Candle 1x Ivory Bow Action Modifier (15) -------------------- 6x Bonding 7x Mirror Walk 2x Threats Reaction (18) ------------- 4x Deflection 5x Eyes of Argus 4x On the Qui Vive 5x Telepathic Misdirection Combat (7) ---------- 7x Theft of Vitae
For Established Players
Let's start with the new vampires. They're attractive to new players,
but may be the real gem for established players, especially those with large
collections.
- Abraham DuSable
-
An 8-cap vampire with all of the in-clans at superior, plus
F . He does everything you want a Tremere to do and can do it multiple times per turn with Freak Drive. His special can help cycle out unwanted Blood Sorcery and he can even hit 3-stealth on a bleed with Bonding, Mirror Walk, and any other Blood Sorcery card. Daring the Dawn is always a solid choice when trying to ensure an action will succeed. He'll mix well with !Ventrue for a grinder, but his lack of title will make him less useful to the Ventrue variant. - Mason Ha
-
He's a significant upgrade to the vanilla 4-capacity Tremere for
offensive-minded Tremere decks. At his size the lack of
D isn't an issue, but the addition ofT allows him to play superior Mirror Walk. You're unlikely to get a lot of use from hisc , but that does match up with Bituin and the Banu Haqim.
As for the reprints in the deck,
Flaming Candle really shines. It's never
had a reprint and it appeared 19 years ago in my favorite set, Black
Hand. There are definitely useful reprints besides that. Who
doesn't need another Sniper Rifle? I've
always found Melange a little underwhelming,
but it's reprint that is definitely needed.
Mixing It Up with KoT Tremere
There are a lot of Tremere with f or F in group
5/6. Useful for multi-acting or using
Burst of Sunlight as a slightly better
agg-poke. You can mix and match these Fortitude-oriented vampires with
!Tremere, Ventrue, or !Ventrue. There are interesting grinder
possibilities.
The c angle is less interesting. There are only two vampires
to mix Mason with that are Tremere. A more interesting angle might be
Bituin and the small untitled c /d
vampires going Anarch. I'd imagine some kind of bruise-bleed variant.
What inspiration can you draw from these new vampires?
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