OFFICIAL VEKN GANGREL ANTITRIBU NEWSLETTER VOLUME 4 NUMBER 10 OCTOBER 2001
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IN THIS CUT, PASTE AND COMMENT ISSUE ....
IN PLACE OF FICTION: Tribute to the Master; CANTO XIII by Ezra Pound.
DECKS: Tournament Quality Gangrel-antitribu decks. No, really.
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IN PLACE OF FICTION: Tribute to the Master; CANTO XIII by Ezra Pound.
i was going to write a pastiche of this for the fiction section but
it's so lovely that i just couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead,
here is one of my favourite ever poems for y'all to enjoy. It is by
Ezra Pound, and really it's only part of a much larger work, the
Cantos, where it occupies a special place. The Cantos is an odd poem,
painfully revealing about Pound's troubled and not-altogether-nice
personality, and his times. i'll leave those unfamiliar with the poem
and the poet to find out for themselves what i mean by the above.
CANTO XIII
Kung walked
by the dynastic temple
and into the cedar grove,
and then out by the lower river,
And with him Khieu Tchi
and Tian the low speaking
And ``we are unknown," said Kung,
``You will take up charioteering?
``Then you will become known,
``Or perhaps I should take up charioteering, or archery?
``Or the practice of public speaking?''
And Tseu-lou said, ``I would put the defences in order,''
And Khieu said, ``If I were lord of a province
``I would put it in better order than this is.''
And Tchi said, ``I would prefer a small mountain temple,
``With order in the observances,
with a suitable performance of the ritual,''
And Tian said, with his hand on the strings of his lute
The low sounds continuing
after his hand left the strings,
And the sound went up like smoke, under the leaves,
And he looked after the sound:
``The old swimming hole,
``And the boys flopping off the planks,
``Or sitting in the underbrush playing mandolins.''
And Kung smiled upon all of them equally.
And Thseng-sie desired to know:
``Which had answered correctly?''
And Kung said, ``They have all answered correctly,
``That is to say, each in his nature.''
And Kung raised his cane against Yuan Jang,
Yuan Jang being his elder,
For Yuan Jang sat by the roadside pretending to
be receiving wisdom.
And Kung said
``You old fool, come out of it,
``Get up and do something useful.''
And Kung said
``Respect a child's faculties
``From the moment it inhales the clear air,
``But a man of fifty who knows nothng
Is worthy of no respect.''
And "When the prince has gathered about him
``All the savants and artists, his riches will be fully employed.''
And Kung said, and wrote on the bo leaves:
If a man have not order within him
He can not spread order about him;
And if a man have not order within him
His family will not act with due order;
And if the prince have not order within him
He can not put order in his dominions.
And Kung gave the words ``order''
and ``brotherly deference''
And said nothing of the ``life after death.''
And he said
``Anyone can run to excesses,
``It is easy to shoot past the mark,
``It is hard to stand firm in the middle.''
And they said: If a man commit murder
Should his father protect him, and hide him?
And Kung said:
He should hide him.
And Kung gave his daughter to Kong-Tchang
Although Kong-Tchang was in prison.
And he gave his niece to Nan-Young
although Nan-Young was out of office.
And Kung said ``Wang ruled with moderation,
``In his day the State was well kept,
``And even I can remember
``A day when the historians left blanks in their writings,
``I mean, for things they didn't know,
``But that time seems to be passing.
And Kung said, ``Without character you will
``be unable to play on that instrument
``Or to execute the music fit for the Odes.
``The blossoms of the apricot
``blow from the east to the west,
``And I have tried to keep them from falling."
Ezra Pound
O, the connection to VTES .... well, i feel the same way about a good
tight game between 4-5 good players, where everyone gets a chance to
show what their deck can do, in much the same way as Tian felt about
watching the boys at the waterhole - especially when i win, which was
the case on Wednesday night.
Kung is, of course, Confucius aka The Master.
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DECKS: Tournament Quality Gangrel-antitribu decks. No, really.
The Great and Good Jeff "Lasombra" Thompson has archived the
tournament-winning decks by clan
[http://www.thelasombra.com/decks/clan-twd.htm] and two of them are
largely Gangrel antitribu affairs, one from Grant Garvin [aka
Evewalker] Prince of Seekonk, Massachussets, the other from Thomas
Kuster [aka oAFLORD] Prince of Caledon, Canada. Props to both
gentlemen, and thanks to them and to Jeff for letting me use this
information in the newsletter.
Each deck is an interesting mixture of largely old but some new cards.
They exploit very different aspects of our little clan: one is
toolboxy intercept-combat utilising country gangrel plus gangrel, the
other is focussed swarm-stealth-bleed based on City Gangrel plus
Assamites. Both are from this year and prior to that there were NO
!Gangrel decks in the winners archives, so it looks as though the new
sets are having a highly-desirable effect on the metagame already. IMO
wisely, both these decks conform to the Tatu dictum of 90 library
cards being generally too many.
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The Silent War: Seekonk (7/14/01)
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Grant Garvin's "Feral Eyes"
Description: Effective !Gangrel intercept combat deck using auspex.
Bleed
forward and stockpile untap to protect the Army of Rats and locations.
Drop
Jack late game, and make an example out of any minion that is foolish
enough
to attempt to destroy it.
Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 10, Max: 28, Avg: 5.08]
1 Caitlin (ANI aus dom PRO, Gangrel Antitribu, 6, Bishop)
1 Chandler Hungerford (PRO, Gangrel, 3)
2 Gunther (ANI aus for pro, Gangrel, 7)
1 Haakon Mortensen (ANI FOR PRO, Gangrel Antitribu, 8)
1 Leon (ani for, Gangrel Antitribu, 3)
2 Luther (ANI for obt pro, Gangrel Antitribu, 6)
1 Monique (ani aus for pro, Gangrel Antitribu, 5)
2 Omaya (ANI AUS FOR pro, Gangrel Antitribu, 7)
1 Sadie (pro, Gangrel Antitribu, 2)
Library: (75 cards)
Master (16 cards)
4 Blood Doll
1 Campground Hunting Ground
1 KRCG News Radio
1 London Evening Star, Tabloid Newspaper
1 Path of the Feral Heart, The
1 Pentex(TM) Loves You!
1 Powerbase: Montreal
1 Rack, The
2 Rotschreck
3 Smiling Jack, The Anarch
Minion (59 cards)
3 Army of Rats
4 Carrion Crows
8 Cats' Guidance
4 Claws of the Dead
2 Eagle's Sight
2 Enhanced Senses
1 Eyes of the Night
10 Forced Awakening
1 Ivory Bow
3 Laptop Computer
1 Melange
1 My Enemy's Enemy
1 Precognition
3 Raven Spy
4 Scorpion Sting
4 Skin of Steel
3 Superior Mettle
4 Wolf Claws
Editor's comments: two new vampires [Haakon and Omaya] and two new
library cards [Path of the Feral heart and Powerbase Montreal] but
otherwise all pre-WW cards, essentially. Four main disciplines [aus
pro for ani, or what we might call Monique with knobs on], ONE eyes of
the Night to make use of Luther's obt ability, and 9/12 vampire cards
are Country gangrel-antitribu. On topic or WHAT????
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Thomas Kuster's Winning Deck from
Autarkis Persecution 2001
(Toronto, Ontario, Canada - March 2001)
Workin' on the Night Moves by Thomas Kuster
(with a little help from Bob Seger)
Crypt: (12)
Wren
Tansu Bekir
Darrell Boyce, Consul x2 [Ed; See, if only you could slip a shotgun
into this deck it would be a double-darrelled shotgun deck. Maybe swap
out one of the bombs for a shotgun?]
Kalinda x2
Zachary
Melek
Ellen Fence, the Tracker
Husamettin
Samantha
Thetmes, Calif of Alamut
Library: (79)
Master (20)
Obfuscate x6
Minion Tap x2
Blood Doll x2
Dreams of the Sphinx x2
Campground Hunting Ground
Underworld Hunting Ground
Sudden Reversal
Direct Intervention
Alamut
Heartblood of the Clan
Major Boon
Effective Management
Minion Cards (59)
Night Moves x12
Speed of Thought x2
The Embrace x9
Distraction x2
Bomb x2
Cloak the Gathering x6
Lost in Crowds x2
Spying Mission x2
Faceless Night x2
Swallowed by the Night x2
Elder Impersonation x2
Preternatural Evasion x10
Behind You! x4
Rapid Thought x2
Editor's comments: Wren, Darrell Boyce and Ellen Fence are the new
cards in this deck and they combine well with the Assamites and 9
embraces for an obf/cel swarm sort of deck. 6 City gangrel antitribu
and 6 Assamites. Nice! Unless it is preying on you, of course.
Creator's comments: I have changed the deck a bit, I added more Night
Moves and dispensed with the Speed of Thought [Ed: strikes me as a
good switch]. The crypt is about the same. I did add the new FN City
Gangrel, I forget his name right now though... Max Lowell?? [Ed;
presumably instead of one of the Darrells or Tansu Bekir].
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And while we're on the subject of Gangrel antitribu decks, there is a
nice one in the October camarilla Gangrel newsletter edited by David
Hammond. This deck comes from Jesper "Tower of London" Boje who is
danish, so that o in the middle of his name shøuld have a strøke
thrøugh it. It is actually ALL gangrel antitribu, but i'm sure i won't
offend Jesper by saying that it isn't tournament-quality - rather, an
entry to one of Dave's competitions. Check it out!
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And that's it for October. At the end of the month i am visiting some
of you in SE USA, and looking forward IMMENSELY to that. See y'all in
November!