The Giovanni in LotN

The final article is up ... finally ;-)

Giovanni got very little good toys in this set, but as I was going through older sets and decks to write this article, I realized that this was always the case with the lewd necromancers :-(

So let's start with the worse part ... the crypt. Eric is a decent potence weenie in the wrong group, Stephan wastes his second discipline with presence, Nunzio with two in-clan at inferiors is actually good at the G4/5, Kay has protean, which could possibly be utilized in a deck build around that discipline and finally Primo is the standard 4-cap with 3 in-clan at inferior.
At mid-caps, Margaret is the standard anarch, Francis is the only vampire below 7 with superior necromancy, Accorri with superior dominate and along with Gianmaria all three have superior potence. Paolo is the first solid vampire with interesting options, considering his off-clan disciplines. Diego & del Giorgio at 8-cap are the youngest with all in-clan superior, while the later has an extremely useful ability and superior protean.
The high-caps still suffer from useless disciplines. Guillaume is saved by his two amazing specials. Lorenzo is exactly the opposite with an offensive combat special and potence as his sole combat discipline! Constancia is the only one with useful off-clan discipline, but her ability is mediocre the least and finally Luna has a good voting special, but no voting discipline! on the other hand her superior obfuscate can be useful for the Puppeteer decks.
I hoped for some support to proxy kissed + dead hand (NEC/pot + for), but instead there is one vampire with superior necromancy below 7! and the one with fortitude pays for it extra! while the other is a 10-cap!

The discipline distribution now in G4/5 is:
POT/pot -> 9/14 (23)
NEC/nec -> 10/13 (23)
DOM/dom -> 7/13 (20)
PRE/pre -> -/6, useless at inferior
PRO/pro -> 2/2
FOR/for -> 2/2
CEL/cel -> 1/3, too few for combat
AUS/aus -> 1/3, only for revealation
OBT/obt -> 1/2, useless
ANI/ani -> -/3, even more useless
THA/tha -> 1/1, for Magic of the Smith
one with CHI or OBF // probably in star decks
one with vic or dem // ignore them

The clan cards include Swiss Cut, which is a limited HG, unless someone has lost his mind and plays investments. Diary and Shell Break, while not bad themshelves are very hard to utilize. Tye is a nice alternative to Gregory Winter for finishing off beaten minions. Charigger isn't really a big benefit for a clan with dominate and finally the Promise is powerful against Camarilla.
Necromancy didn't get the support I expected. Chair of Hades is at least effective against the Imbued, but Resume the Coil and Soul Feasting are unbelievably bad (reminding me the AH/DS days). Shroudsight is useful to specific decks and Trochomancy (+ auspex) is very good for the Harbingers, but not the Giovanni since only four have auspex. Finally, Cold Aura could crawl into decks in certain metagames.
Dominate's Command the Legion is a solid addition, Murmur of the False Will is giving versatility and Autonomic Mastery is just decent.
Potence got also some strong cards, but without some kind of defense it loses it's value. Preternatural Strength can also save card slots by reducing or removing TS. Brute Force seems to me unecessary, on the other hand Slam gives a much needed maneuver and Street Cred is also nice addition to combat decks.
Finally, we got some pretty interesting cards without requirements. Bundi can be combined with IG and save slots from combat and Malajit offers additional stealth. The more significant cards though are aiding the Shambling Hordes and these are Leverage, Forearm Block, Target Head, Target Leg and Target Vitals.

The main problem a new player will face is the crypt. Not only the new vampires are inferior to the old G2/3, but getting your hands on the rest of G4 is hard. Gualtiero is the only worthy necromancer in Legacies of Blood, Raphaela and Don Michael are in Kindred Most Wanted. The two Giovanni with fortitude are even harder to find, since Benedict was only in the Alastor Starter and Baldesar is in Gehenna boosters. In general Legacies of Blood has some useful cards, but more importantly gives access to the three bloodlines with necromancy (Samedi, Harbingers and Nagaraja). Kindred Most Wanted on the other hand, offers more useful library cards, but does not really extend the horrible crypt options. Finally, Gehenna is a further example of next to zero useful crypt cards but has several powerful library cards.
3rd Edition not only offers some staple cards (Obedience, Scouting Mission (BH:Tr4), Delaying Tactics, Trap), but also has a lot of other useful ones, either for trade or to utilize the off-clan disciplines, especially if you take advantage of the bloodlines. The older base set (Camarilla Edition) has also some staple (Govern the Unaligned (FN:PG2), Seduction (BH:PTr2), Deflection (BH:PTr4, FN:PG2), Bonding (BH:Tr4)) and has the same advantages with the new base set. The problem is that it is hard to locate it.
A cheap alternative is the Tremere Antitribu starter from the Black Hand (NOT the 3rd Edition) since it has most of the dominate cards you will need. The old Giovanni from Final Nights has also a lot of useful cards, but more importantly gives you access to the old G2/3 crypt. And I also should note that three powerful cards (Spiritual Intervention (10th:B), Carlton Van Wyk (10th:B), Liquidation (10th:B)) can be found in the 10th anniversary set B.
Final Nights doesn't really offer anything significant apart from Charisma. It has useful cards and is worth buying, but given the difficulty to find boosters, I do not think it is worth the effort. On the other hand if you aim at making G2/3 crypts you will probably be more motivated ;-)

With the same limitation I used for the other three clans, I managed to put up a decent bruise-bleed deck for casual games. Pay attention that it has limited maneuvers (Slam) and damage prevention (Forearm, Armor & Undying), thus it will crumble against dedicated combat. Also the limited amount of IGs will be incapable of dealing with S:CE and without Dead Hand there is no way to deal with damage prevention. The bleed threat is also limited, but this is intentional, you could always include the conditionings from the starters, if you see that your metagame is neither bounce or intercept heavy.

Crypt [12] (average: 6.67)
3x Lady Constancia (Gio.10 / AUS DOM FOR NEC POT)
1x Guillaume Giovanni (Gio.9 / CEL DOM NEC POT obt)
1x Giovanni del Georgio (Gio.8 / DOM NEC POT PRO)
1x Paolo Sardenzo (Gio.7 / dom NEC POT THA pro)
1x Accorri Giovanni (Gio.6 / ani DOM nec POT)
1x Francis Milliner (Gio.6 / NEC POT pre vic)
1x Gianmaria Giovanni (Gio.5 / dom nec obt POT)
1x Primo Giovanni (Gio.4 / dom nec pot)
1x Nunzio Giovanni (Gio.3 / nec pot)
1x Eric Milliner (Gio.2 / pot)

Master [12]
1x Giant's Blood
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Morgue Hunting Ground
1x Path of Bone, The
4x Proxy Kissed
4x Vessel

Action [10]
1x Dominate Kine
2x Graverobbing
5x Harass
2x Sudario Refraction

Ally [8]
8x Shambling Hordes

Equipment [6]
3x Bundi
2x Nightstick
1x Sargon Fragment, The

Reaction [6]
3x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus
3x Fillip

Action Modifier/Reaction [10]
6x Murmur of the False Will
4x Spectral Divination

Action Modifier [8]
6x Call of the Hungry Dead
2x Forger's Hammer

Combat [30]
4x Armor of Vitality
3x Forearm Block
4x Immortal Grapple
6x Slam
3x Street Cred
4x Taste of Vitae
4x Torn Signpost
2x Undying Tenacity

There two ways to improve this deck (both removing combat). First, you can double or triple the Shambling Hordes and get your hands on Liquidation to boost ash heap recursion. The other is to focus on power-bleed, by increasing the stealth and block denial, as well as bleed-bounce and combat defense. In both cases you will need additional starters and the 10th anniversary preconstructed. A third option is to focus on potence, but this has not proven very successful in tournaments and the learning curve is pretty steep, so I would not suggest it to new players, even for casual games.

COMING NEXT

During this month I will put up a large article about the most competitive "indie" decks, including the Gangrel!

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Ravnos, post-LotN

Ravnos have a special place in my heart, because it is the clan with which I won my first game, way back in the 90s. They have some of the most powerful cards in the game, albeit at very high cost. They suffered from mediocre crypt choices, having a few amazing vampires, but loads of crappy ones. With the release of FN they got the necessary tools to counter their card costs as well as the Week of Nightmares, which became a staple card. More support followed in the next sets, thus they are today one of the most successful clans.

The least I can say about the new Ravnos crypt is ... weird! First and foremost we have Gwen, who sucks unless you play aus/chi (then she sucks less), but if another players throws a Gehenna card, in four turns, she gets AUS/ANI/CHI/FOR, +1 bleed and +1 capacity! Then we have Neel, without chimerstry and Brian, the standard 4-cap with the 3 in-clan at inferior. Johann is yet another low-cap with auspex and a useless ability.
At mid-caps, Papa Legba can get at least +1 bleed for a blood to compensate his useless obtenebration and the in-clan inferiors. Returning to the auspex theme, we also got Anjalika, the only out of the six new vampires below 6-cap with a superior discipline! Vassily, follows the new anarchic trends, sporting six inferiors, without even animalism, but guess what ... with auspex! Jayakumar & Ganesh have two in-clan superiors, corner-case abilities, the later trading his animalism for superior dementation. Chavi is the first new vampire we got that I actually liked, he's solid with two strong abilities and a big target painted on his forehead (Red List)! Vasiliy follows on the same trend, solid disciplines and a free boosted bleed per turn, nice. Kiradin is the second new Ravnos with superior dementation and free additional strike, which could be useful in a mass/horrid reality gun deck.
Durga Syn is a powerhouse, with seven disciplines (ani CHI for / aus dom OBF THA) and two powerful abilities. I am absolutely certain that she will lead a variety of decks and with good reason. Marcia is solid, shares with Durga dom/THA and has all in-clan at superior. Lizette & Phaedyme are decent, if not overcosted and seem to me more geared towards combat, the later is also the third new vampire with superior dementation.

The discipline in the last two groups are now distributed according to the table:
CHI/chi -> 16+10
FOR/for -> 10+11
ANI/ani -> 9+12
AUS/aus -> 1+7 // only one with AUS !
DEM/dem -> 3+2 // worth it?
OBF/obf -> 3+2 // Veil the Tumnimos ;)
PRE/pre -> 2+3 // to do what?
THA/tha -> 2+2 // Magic of the Smith !
POT/pot -> 1+3 // prevent+disarm
CEL/cel -> 2+1 // Horrid/Mass Reality ?
PRO/pro -> 2+1 // interesting options
DOM/dom -> 0+3 // deflection is still very strong
and one each with obt, nec, qui, or abo // safely ignore these guys
When I compare the with the G23 crypts, I realize that now the high-cap got stronger and the low-caps are pretty much useless, but given that Ravnos have the best breeding card in the game, as well as multi-act, the new crypts should be on par with the old ones.

The clan cards have some interesting, though not game-breaking additions, like Kumpania, a solid permanent intercept master, that is not a location. Karavalanisha Vrana is somewhat expensive, but still useful. Talith is one more useless melee weapon we got in this new set. Mantle of the Moon seems to me unnecessary with all the stealth the clan has. Finally, Zapaderin is a big boost to breed decks employing high-caps, like Gabrin, Durga, etc.

Chimerstry got Fantasy World, yet another weak imitation of Sensory Deprivation. Mirror's Visage, one the other hand, is just amazing, keeping your minions safe form harm and ready to react at inferior, while offers stealth at superior. False Resonance is also a killer, since it hoses the intercept discipline (auspex)! While the last new action modifier Will-o'-the-Wisp, can stop minions from both blocking, but more importantly deflecting! Army of Apparitions at inferior is simply worthless, but the superior can be somewhat useful since it can stop alone a rush (or other harmful action), albeit at high cost. Finally, Sympathic Agony (which also requires fortitude) is corner-case.

Animalism got three good new cards (Underbridge Stray, Sense the Savage Way & Flesh Bond), but none of them is especially useful to the Ravnos since they can already do everything they offer, but most importantly there are only nine ravnos with superior at an average capacity of 8,34! The situation with fortitude is somewhat better. Armor of Vitality can be a nice companion to Apparition. Hard Case is also an effective way to stay safe from combat, especially for a clan that excels at blocking. Bestow Vigor & Undying Tenacity seem more or less wallpaper to me.

There also some clan/discipline-less cards that fit well with the clan. The new weapons AK-47, Kpist m/45 & Bundi could find their way along with old ones in a Mass/Horrid Reality deck, as well as the Ambulance to deal with those annoying Imbued! The new untaps Fillip & Eluding the Arms of Morpheus are also nice additions, especially the former. Finally, you can now deflect bleeds without relaying on dominate with Lost in the Translation and if you don't, you can hose it with Narrow Minds.

Now, it's time for some advise to the new players who got interested in the clan and want to play with it. Despite the fact that Ravnos have a lot of solid cards, there also a lot missing and some of them will be very hard to find. First of all, the bulk of the rest of the G4 Ravnos can be found in in Kindred Most Wanted, along with Tumninos (thankfully a common), as well as Shilmulo Tarrot (in a rare slot). From Legacies of Blood you can pick Tsunda and Eldest are Kholo, but unless you want to begin collecting Laibon and bloodlines, it would be wiser to trade for these cards. Of course, Third Edition offers a lot of useful cards, along with nice trade options. If you can find the old starter from Final Nights it would be a huge boost to your collection, since it has a lot of strong cards that weren't reprinted. Unfortunately, Gabrin & Draba can be found only in the boosters, so trade is the only option for them.

With the same constrains I used for Assamites and Setites (2xStarters and 9 drafted boosters), it is very hard to make a competative deck. The one below though, should be decent for casual games, even capable of winning, depending on the opposition.

Crypt [13] (average: 6.16)
1x Lizette
1x Durga Syn
1x Kiradin
1x Vasiliy Vasilevich
1x Chavi Oraczko
1x Ganesh
1x Jayakumar
1x Vassily Taltos
1x Anjalika Underwood
1x Papa Legba
1x Brian Thompson
1x Gwen Brand
1x Neel Ramanathan

Master [12]
1x Fortune Teller Shop
1x Park Hunting Ground
2x Path of Paradox, The
2x Ravnos Carnival
4x Vessel
2x Week of Nightmares

Action [4]
4x Edged Illusion

Equipment [3]
1x Bundi
1x Talith
1x Treasured Samadji

Retainer [5]
5x Raven Spy

Reaction [18]
3x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus
3x Fillip
6x Ignis Fatuus
2x Instinctive Reaction
1x Lost in Translation
3x Sense the Savage Way

Action Modifier [18]
2x False Resonance
3x Fata Morgana
2x Forced March
2x Freak Drive
3x Heart's Desire
3x Leverage
1x Mantle of the Moon
2x Zapaderin

Action Modifier/Combat [6]
3x Mirror Image
3x Occlusion

Combat [24]
6x Apparition
6x Carrion Crows
6x Indomitability
3x Mayaparisatya
3x Soak

The idea is to block as often as possible your opponents, reducing the blood on their vampires and finishing them of with Edged Illusions. Albeit, there isn't enough intercept and no way to counter S:CE. The deck packs also a decent bleed threat. If your metagame sees a lot of low-caps or breed decks, it would be nice to use all four Durga Syn from the starters. Against heavy intercept, increase the stealth by removing transient intercept. Finally, if your metagame sees a lot of rush switch the Carrion Crows with Army of Apparitions.

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Setites after LotN

The Setites, in V:tES, is one of the clans that its playstyle is still reminescent of the archtypical old school Malkavian stealth and bleed. It was the only independent clan that actually faired well even before Final Nights came out. After FN, they were able to win around four tournaments per year, mainly due to the crypt boost they got (from 15 vampires with serpentis before FN, they reached 30 after). The next boost came with Kindred Most Wanted and some auxillary cards that the set offered. Now with LotN, a lot of old strategies are enforced, even some obsolute like corruption, but apart from that I really can not say that we are going to see something really new. On the other hand, some crippling weaknesses of the clan are addressed, bounce (though indirectly) and influancing. Still intercept remains the biggest weakness of the clan, since generating even a single point is very difficult task!

For discussion check the comments or the newsgroup.

The new crypt cards offer more or less what we already had, discipline-wise. Belle, Ahmose, Marla & Sisocharis are good and solid weenies. Abdelsobek just begs to become an anarch (he's able to use 8 out of the 12 3-way cards) and he also has an ability similar to Mylan Horseed. Halim is similar to Black Lotus, with superior dominate and but without presence; he also bestows stealth on mummies while he is ready. Renenet & Clea are solid mid-caps with all the in-clan disciplines. Ogwon offers another way to reduce opposing vampires' blood. Arnulf has a very strong ability that aids blocking and coupled with his auspex, offers the best chance the clan has in defending. Sundervere is a powerful bleeder (cardless upto 3, without permanents can reach 7, just one below his capacity and Pulse or Heart 9!!!), has superior auspex and he is red list, which translates as prime rush target for every combat competent deck. Pentweret is funny because he has all of the Salubri disciplines at inferior and from a serious perspective, a powerful anti-imbued ability (remember that the Imbued are 0-cost allies). Porphyrion is just bad design for two reasons; first he has an ability related to a card not yet printed (Treaty of Laibach is going to be a promo) and second he would be a better addition to the Ravnos than his own clan with CHI for OBF! Shemti looks totaly nuts in the artwork and has an ability similar to Crocodile Temple (enhancing Temptation). Seterpenre has a weird and probably useless ability. Last but not least, comes Nakhthorheb, who has the same ability as Eze, untap during your minion phase, which just overwhelmingly powerful! and if this is not enough corrupted minions can block him! oh he also has +1 strength, but than again who cares ;) This guy must be in every deck that uses his disciplines and the gretest minion is not below 4! namely all setite decks!

Discipline distribution of G4+5 is:
SER/ser -> 16+9=25
OBF/obf -> 14+9=23
PRE/pre -> 13+8=21
THA/tha -> 3+2=5
AUS/aus -> 2+3=5
POT/pot -> 3+1=4
DOM/dom -> 2+2=4
NEC/nec -> 1+3=4
FOR/for -> 0+4=4
CEL/cel -> 0+2=2
one with CHI
one each with obe or vic

The new clan cards offer some possibilities. Cave of Apples, for example, is a huge boost to corruption strategy, since it lets any setite corrupt without a card any younger minion, including imbued! Mesu Bedshet is also a very effective card, bringing crypt cards to the uncontrolled reason and provided you do it right, also put on each two free pool. Spell of Life complements the previous action, since all those uncontrolled vampires can enter play as mummy allies. Speaking of mummies, Nephren-Ka is decent, but still nothing game-breaking. Finally, setites got Mokole Blood, which is just amazing, not only you temporary expand your hand size, you choose the cards from either library or ash heap and even after playing them, it burned, so you can bring the next one! Serpentis offers less usefull cards, Eternal Mask, for example would be a could addition to a weenie combat deck, not setites. Revalation of Ecstasy, on the other hand, is a very strong complement to the cave, since it in addition to corrupting, it also taps the chosen minion, plus it has no capacity limitation! Set's Curse is to expensive and I'd rather stick with the old pre/ser steal ally cards. Divine Image is one failed try to boost the setite combat potential. Cobra Fangs is a decent threat against combat deck.

Presence's Public Trust is very powerful (and similar to Undue Influence). Dream World is a huge boost to breed decks. Bloodlust, apart from being weak, is totally out of the discipline's character. Unholy Penance is pretty good for intercept decks, thus not the setites. Obfuscate was discussed in detail in the Assamite article, I'll just spotlight in the cards relevant to the clan. Into Thin air is a huge boost to breed decks, especially when coupled with Dream World from above. Hide the Mind is effective since auspex still is the strongest and most common intercept discipline. Finally, there is Mental Maze, which is free for setites, though the blocking limitation prohibits its use to very few decks.As for off-clan disciplines, celerity's Precision, is a very effective against bounce.

Eternals of Sirius is simply overwhelmingly powerful! saves you five transfers and one pool, meaning if you're fourth or fifth you can bring out a 9-cap in your first round! Powerbase: Zürich is another boost to influencing and also impossible to lose it with a stealth-bleed deck. Influencing support was one way the clan's lack of bounce was addressed, another option is Narrow Minds, which makes your opponents' bouncing more expensive. Finally, there is the disciplineless bounce with Lost in the Translation.

Since setites have presence, I think it best to address the new political actions. Reckless Agitation is amazing, but still on par with KRC, just be cautious since this card will draw hate by two players. Jericho Founding is just mediocre. Can't Take it with You is very good, since a lot of decks depend on permanents. Permanent Vacation is one more anti-imbued card from this set, but still even without imbued it's going to be useful against Warghouls, Hordes and others. Finally, there is Warrant make it's target a Red List in all but the name, so no trophies and goodies ... why make a card this?

It won't be an exaggeration to say that setites are the most newbie friendly of four clans. The preconstructed is fairly good, by itself and with the cards that can be found in the boosters, a competative deck can be created (see below for a suggestion). There are also three older preconstructed that have a lot of useful cards. Guruhi offer Giant's Blood, Legendary Vampire, 3 Minion Tap, Sudden Reversal, Awe, 4 Bewitching Oration, 3 Voter Captivation, 2 Wake with Evening's Freshness and many political actions. Istharri have 2 Blood Doll, Heidelberg, Sudden Reversal, 3 more Wakes, a Marijava Ghoul, Entrancement, 5 Enchant Kindred and 3 Legal Manipulation. Finally, from KMW there's the Baali preconstructed, which has Sahira & Suren, 3 Blood Dolls, 5 Legal Manipulation, another Enticement, a Temptation, extra stealth (which is really necessary), 5 Wakes, but most importantly a Mylan Horseed. KMW boosters also have several solid group 4 setites, Ferraille (imperative for voting), Waters of Duat, Disengage (must for S:CE defense) and Heart of the City. Not a lot, but is economic for drafting, the other option is trade. Again 3rd edition offers a lot of cards that are generally useful both for play and trade. Also LoB is also a good option to expand your collection and play options, if you chose the preconstructed. Finally, the FN preconstructed and boosters won't really aid your collection, they are more or less obsolute for what the setites care.

For deck suggestion I will restrain myself in card selection, since the whole article is primarily for new players. I take for granted that a player has 2 clan starters and has either drafted 9 LothN boosters (approximately the same as buying a whole booster box). Thus the limitation are no rares, up to 5 commons, 2 uncommons & vampires, plus whatever cards you get from the two starters.

Crypt [12]
4x Nakhthorheb
1x Ogwon
1x Clea
1x Abdelsobek
1x Renenet
1x Marla Kenyon
1x Sisocharis
1x Ahmose
1x Belle
Master [12]
1x Crocodile Temple, The
2x Eternals of Sirius, The
1x Khobar Towers, Al-Khubar
1x Opium Den
1x Secure Haven
4x Vessel
2x Wash
Action [24]
2x Enticement
1x Form of Corruption
6x Mesu Bedshet
9x Public Trust
6x Temptation
Action Modifier [30]
3x Approximation of Loyalty
9x Into Thin Air
3x Revelation of Desire
4x Spying Mission
3x True Love's Face
4x Truth of a Thousand Lies
4x Veil the Legions
Reaction [12]
2x Confusion of the Eye
3x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus
3x Fillip
1x Lost in Translation
3x Mental Maze
Combat [12]
8x Majesty
4x Unholy Penance

The basic concept is to speed influencing and save pool (Eternals, Mesu and Public Trust), get as many as possible minions and bleed at stealth. Defense is the biggest problem, while 12 CE will stop most Psyche/TP Tracking combat, IG can only be dealt with Mental Maze, so if you face a lot of potence combat increase their number. Bleed/Vote defense also is thin, but this is a general problem for the clan. You could add the two Dummy Corporation from the preconstructed, as well as Ecstasies and more Confusions; removing either stealth/denial (if you don't face a lot of intercept) or combat defense (if there is not much rushing in your metagame). Finally, there are 17 stealth and 6 denial modifiers which is not enough to pass through dedicated intercept, so I would suggest to increase them at the expense of either bleed modifiers or reactions.

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Assamites (post-LotN era)

If it wasn't for the recent Alamut/Amaravati decks and the old "Tariq eats the World", the "clan of the assassins" would never have won a single tournament. Well, not anymore, Lords of the Night offers a lot of new cards to enforce old strategies (both successful and not), as well as opens up new possibilities. One thing is certain after this set Assamites will be at least showing up more than once in tournaments.

The crypt has some interesting addition or should I better say that the addition, actually now got a crypt to be added in. In whatever case, Alu & Sajid are good weenies for Alamut/Amaravati, as well as Hafsa & Layla in mid-capacities. Djuhah (one of my two all-time favorites from the RPG) seems more geared towards a non-combat Black Hand deck. Bakr is a wonderful combatant with his built-in rush at stealth and CEL/QUI. Monty Coven can find his way in a variety of decks, because apart from having all in-clan disciplines at superior he also has both dominate & fortitude. Izhim (at last he found his way into V:tES) is a powerhouse with THA (say Magic of the Smith) & pot, as well as a Seraph, who gets equipment discounts and spends less on quietus! Kabede is the second magaji of the clan and has AUS. Dmitri comes with built-in stealth and inferior Skin of Steel, also with AUS. Jamal and Thucimia also have a lot of potencial. The rest and less interesting are Evan, Sukainah, Bertrand & Kashan.

Now with 27 vampires in groups 4+5 the discipline spread is:

QUI/qui->19+7=26
OBF/obf->14+8=22
CEL/cel->14+7=21
AUS/aus->2+7=9
PRE/pre->1+5=6
FOR/for->1+4=5
PRO/pro->1+4=5
ANI/ani->1+2=3
DEM/dem->1+2=3
POT/pot->0+3=3
DOM/dom->1+1=2
one each with NEC or THA at superior
one each with abo or chi or obt at infirior

New clan cards include: The Black Throne, which is good both contract-combat and voting. HL: Leadership which can remove (or at least diversify) the voting angle of breed decks. Omael Kuman is a nice addition with built-in range set. Finally the Nest seems more like a wallpaper, especially now that the clan has easy access intercept, bounce and "obedience".

Quietus is constantly changing over the years, from a failed combat discipline to a really characterless discipline that is now. This lack of character does not mean though that it became weaker, the opposite, now it is a very strong and versatile support discipline to both celerity and obfuscate. Loss is by far the most needed card that the discipline got in a long time, the inferior can be useful, but the superior is where the card really shines, providing the much needed ousting option. In the beginning, I really shunned Retain the Quick Blood (which also requires celerity), I thought it was inferior to the path, but after building a combat deck, I realized that celerity is actually more expensive than quietus, not to mention the versatility that it offers by practically reducing two disciplines, instead of one. Poison the Well of Life & Condemn the Sins of the Father are both cornercase actions and their use depends on the metagame. Blood Awakening is simply amazing, intercept at inferior and block denial at superior! Strike at the True Flesh was probably made to support melee weapons and by-pass grapples in either potence or fortitude decks, but still seems card intensive approach to combat.

Obfuscate got even more stealth, but also a controversial Obedience-clone. Conceal is OK, if you have no other option to deal with equipment and location, which usually shouldn't the case. Blithe Acceptance is semi-permanent stealth and also seems uninteresting. Hide the Mind is an auspex hoser, that can be quite useful in certain metagames. Into Thin Air is just amazing, better than Lost, but with a sever hand limitation, to balance it, good design (since both card deserve their place in obf decks). Mental Maze is as Obedience but works additionally to allies, costs 1 blood and requires blocking (which is no problem any more for Assamites), now a lot of people point out that it is worse than its dominate counterpart and I tend to disagree, first of all it also can be used against allies (a severe limitation for Obedience), the cost is negligible compared to the potential loss of a minion and finally blocking rushes at +1 stealth, is quite easy now with Blood Awakening (which can be also useful when acting). All in all, it is very similar and quite useful for all non-combat decks.

Celerity's scope got a little expanded in this set, but still it remains THE gun-discipline (after losing the title of THE potence-companion to fortitude, since Disarms become more common then IGs & TSs). Precision offers a way to get rid of annoying cards (read: Deflection) by additionally doing pool damage at stealth (later is at superior). Resist Earth's Grasp is just wonderful and very nice companion to Flash. I don't really understand why people are so excited about Mercury's Arrow, especially Assamites have much better option when it comes to strike cards. AUS+CEL offers some god damn powerful offensive combat option, thus I see no place for Eyes of Blades (which also requires auspex), it would have been a decent defensive combat card given different discipline requirements.

There are more interesting cards for the clan in the set. First of all Monster is just amazing for combat decks, notice that you can untap up to three times (more with superior Eagle's Sight) by rushing and blocking prey/predator! PB:Zürich is also very powerful for stealth/bleed hordes, since it is certain that no other player is going to be able to hold the edge, because you can certainly pass one bleed per turn. Ambulance is one more Imbued hating card from this set, but still it is going to see a lot of play in combat decks, as long as the imbued stick around. Bundi is a melee weapon that can be used along with IGs (unfortunately though it is card intensive, but still useful when you are playing with/against potence). Open Dossier is a good enhancement to contract mechanic by offering more intercept. Lost in the Translation is a very expensive redirection, but still useful when playing whiout dominate or superior auspex. Fortitude offer Hard Case (at infirior is as Narrow Minds) and Armor of Vitality (prevent 3 damage for one blood is very useful when facing a lot of animalism combat), both also come with anti-weapon-tech at superior, which is very useful especially when your gun deck faces another. Finally, dominate's Command the Legion is just perfect for Amaravati, to aid his swarm vote/bleed your prey to death.

The cards found inside the new preconstructed can be viewed here. But some important cards were not reprinted: Alamut, Yoruba Shrine, Blood Sweat, Lost in Crowds, Elder Impersonation, Forgotten Labyrinth, Disguised/Concealed Weapon, Flash, Blur, Psyche! So where does that leave a newbie, who want to begin playing the game and focus on Assamites? Let me answer frankly, in very difficult position. It true that with a couple of preconstructed he can still enjoy casual games, but there are several staple cards that he will need in order to win games (.44s, Blood Doll/Minion Tap, Psyche, etc). Most of these cards can be obtained from the Third Edition along with a lot of cards either for trading afterwards or to be able to play other clans/sects. Now the next problem is the crypt, many key vampires were printed way back in Kindred Most Wanted, namely Michael, Vardar, Joe, Antara and Amaravati. Unfortunately, the boosters of that set do not offer that many useful cards to the clan, so it would be much more effective to trade for them or buy them as singles.

For those interested in the Black Hand angle, they will need one box from the Sword of Caine mini-set, which contains most of the Black Hand goodies, but still they will miss few very strong cards, printed only in Black Hand, like Ministry, these though are very easy to trade. Also you can look into Legacies of Blood, both for Laibon-tech and bloodlines, but both aspects although interesting to try are not where Assamites are geared at. Finally, there are Final Nights and the old Assamite preconstructed, in these you will find Tariq (booster) and Alamut (preconstructed). This set is out-of-print for quite some time so trading seems the only viable option, but I must discourage newbies for trying to purchase staff this old, since they really hard to obtain and not as competitive as the newer stuff.

Below I have a deck that can be easily constructed with two preconstructed and drafting 9 boosters (or buying a booster box). It very weak, since it misses key cards, not available in the set (see above). But still it's the best shot a starting player has at staying in a game and if he lucky, he might even be able to grab a VP. Additionally, playing rush requires a good skills in making deals and very sharp perception of the tables status, adding to the difficulty for newbies.

Crypt [12]
1x Dmitri Borodin (10.Ass, AUS CEL NEC QUI obf)
1x Izhim abd Azrael (9.Ass, CEL OBF QUI THA pot)
1x Kabede Maru (9.Ass, AUS CEL OBF QUI abo pot)
2x Bakr (8.Ass, CEL OBF QUI dem pro)
1x Kashan (7.Ass, CEL OBF QUI obt pre)
1x Hafsa, The Watcher (6.Ass, OBF QUI aus cel)
2x Layla bint-Nadr (5.Ass, CEL OBF qui)
1x Bertrand d'Anjou (4.Ass, aus cel qui)
1x Sajid al Misbah (4.Ass, QUI)
1x Evan Rogers (3.Ass, cel qui)
Master [11]
2x Frontal Assault
1x Haqim's Law: Judgment
1x Market Square
1x Path of Blood, The
1x Quietus
1x Underworld Hunting Ground
4x Vessel
Event [1]
1x Dragonbound
Action [12]
8x Clandestine Contract
2x Khabar: Glory
2x Loss
Equipment [6]
2x Bundi
4x Garrote
Reaction [16]
6x Black Sunrise
5x Open Dossier
5x Rooftop Shadow
Action Modifier/Reaction [8]
6x Blood Awakening
2x Provision of the Silsila
Action Modifier/Combat [4]
2x Resist Earth's Grasp
2x Swallowed by the Night
Combat [32]
2x Baal's Bloody Talons
4x Gemini's Mirror
4x Khabar: Honor, The
8x Pursuit
4x Strike at the True Flesh
4x Taste of Death
6x Weighted Walking Stick

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