"If you call one wolf, you invite the pack." - Polish Proverb

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I. Fiction
II. Featured Library Card
III. Featured Crypt Card
IV. Strategy
V. Deck of the Month
VII. Next Month
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I. Fiction:
"The Curse of the Beast"
Chandler Hungerford slowly opened his eyes as he rose from the warm embrace of the earth. Stretching his cold undead arms, he witnessed the final rays of the sun disappear over the mountains. A small sigh escaped from his lips as the memories of a life in the light passed through his mind. His quiet moment of reflection was shattered with the squawking of a crow just above his head. Trying to ignore it, he dusted off his clothing and began to grab his backpack that was hidden in the lee of a large stone. As his hands grabbed the shoulder strap, a blur of feathers crossed his vision leaving a small trail of blood on his arm. Chandler cursed loudly and lunged for the annoying bird. The crow dodged Chandler's clawed fingers and landed softly on a large tree only a stone's throw away. Just below the crow's perch was a large square of paper pinned to the bark.
Ignoring the bird, Chandler walked over and removed the letter from the tree. As he removed the lavender wax seal of a lily, the crow flew off into the night. The letter was penned in a long flowing script and in a style that has not been seen in centuries.

"Chandler,
In a world of email and instant messages, it is nice to once again place my thoughts onto parchment as I did in ages past. Now that you have proven yourself worthy to be accepted as my childe, I seek to impart upon you a lesson about the past... about the curse of Caine that flows within your veins.
To us, the mark of Caine is the curse of the beast. When you lose control of your hunger, you will discover that you have taken one step closer to becoming a beast. This change will not always be physical, although that is most common. There are many of our kind that must sniff the air when walking into a room. Some find that they need to mark their territory with small drops of blood. here are also those who are lost to the Beast, but have not changed in appearance since the night of her embrace.
Take care my childe, remember that the blessings of Ennoia are with you always, but so too is the curse of Caine."
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III. Featured Library Card:
Name: Frontal Assault
Type: Master
Rarity: U
Edition: 3rd
Cost: 0
Text: Put this card in play. Each ready minion you control may enter combat with any minion controlled by your prey as a (D) action. You gain 1 pool each time a ready minion controlled by your prey is burned or sent to torpor. During your influence phase, burn this card and burn 1 pool for each ready minion controlled by your prey.
As promised, I wanted to write about how 3rd edition has helped the Gangrel. While there are no library cards specifically for the Gangrel there are a few Country Gangrel Antitribu that will fit nicely in Gangrel Decks. However, the card that I would like to focus on this month is Frontal Assault.
This card is now going to be a staple for my Gangrel Combat Decks. While it can have a high cost (1 pool for each ready minion left), it saves the card slots of multiple rush cards. It also gives you a pool for each one you send to torpor (or burn). Multiple copies of this card could easily offset the cost of the dog pack retainer. It also forces you to go forward... something that all combat decks can fall into the trap of not doing.
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IV. Featured Crypt Card:
Name: Nadima
Clan: Gangrel
Capacity: 8
Disciplines: ani aus FOR PRO SER
Group: 3
Set: Anarchs:U2
Text: +1 Intercept
Some may overlook Nadima in a standard deck because she is an 8 capacity vampire and lacks of all the in clan disciplines at superior, but her +1 intercept more than makes up for it. Most of the decks that I have seen have Nadima as the star vampire, rather than a support vampire. Her +1 Intercept and superior protean make her the perfect Block - then Earth Meld and Untap wall. Her ability to protect Smiling Jack the Anarch should not be ignored.
Another option is to use her superior Serpentis as an offensive threat. A large number of deck variations have been created that use both Nadima and Mirembe Kabbada for just this purpose. For these decks, protean provides a wonderful assortment of combat, action modifier, and reaction cards to help support the damage dealing and minion stealing Serpentis cards.
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V. Strategy:
The deck of the month was provided by Andrew "Wes" Weston. It is a fairly straight forward PRO/SER deck with the added punch of Enticement. It cycles cards quite effectively. Bleed with Computer Hacks and/or perma-bleed modifiers, then Entice for 3 more. Form of Mist is perfect for tapping out your opponent to lessen the ability for Bleed deflection. The deck has enough combat punch to deter some opponents, but mostly it will want to get away from serious fighters. Nadima should be tooled up with Raven Spies, Guardian Angel and Homunculus in order to act as a defensive wall. It won't stop everything, but it will slow down some predators.

Crypt: (12)
3x Nadima(G3)
3x Mirembe Kabbada(G2)
2x Chandler Hungerford(G2)
1x Daliyah(G2)
1x Dr. Allan Woodstock(G3)
1x Ramona(G2)
1x Ramona (advanced)(G2)

Library: (90)
Master: (17)
5x Blood Doll
2x Perfectionist
1x Backways
1x Bleeding the Vine
1x Ecoterrorists
1x Gangrel Revel
1x Guardian Angel
1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
1x Retribution
1x The Barrens
1x The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
1x Zoo Hunting Ground

Action: (19)
8x Computer Hacking
6x Enticement
2x Shadow of the Beast
1x Army of Rats
1x Form of Corruption
1x Lure of the Serpent

Action Modifier: (4)
4x Earth Control

Action Modifier/Combat: (2)
2x Rapid Change

Ally: (2)
1x Procurer
1x Renegade Garou

Combat: (28)
10x Form of Mist
8x Earth Meld
5x Claws of the Dead
3x Quick Meld
2x Flesh of Marble

Political Action: (1)
1x Gangrel Justicar

Reaction: (8)
4x Forced Awakening
4x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Retainer: (9)
4x Raven Spy
1x Homunculus
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Mr. Winthrop
1x Robert Carter
1x Tasha Morgan
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VII. Next Month
I hope you enjoyed this month's clan newsletter. Next month I plan focus on some of the new offensive tools that the Anarchs set introduced to the Gangrel. Please send me your decks and if I like them I'll highlight it as the "Deck of the Month". And of course, please feel free to send me any comments or suggestions.

- John Zbyszinski
http://www.vtesinpa.org