#13 Properly Playing ... Frontal Assault

Frontal Assault is a noteworthy addition to dedicated rush decks since it provides another source of rush actions with a "cost" that should be manageable for decent rush decks.

Comparing FA with other, more common non-clan/discipline rush cards:

• Bum's Rush - No "do not replace" clause
• Ambush/Harass/Big Game - Can target any minion of your prey
• Haven Uncovered - Targets multiple minions
• Talbot's Chainsaw/Eye of Hazimel - Free, and does not require upkeep

Personally, I include FA in weenie rush decks because:

• It's easy to cycle if your prey has no controlled minions (yet). You can just play it to gain 0 and lose 0.
• You only need to have enough aggression to deal with 50% of your prey's minions to net 0 pool.
• This is another way to generate pool for an otherwise pool-challenged deck archetype.
• If you don't even need to make use of it. (See Horseshoes)

But be careful! If you manage to oust your prey with FA, and your new prey has 10 minions, you still burn 10 pool for that. (This is a very good reason for crosstable rushes.)

Check out this (almost) tournament-winning deck from the 2008 Portuguese Continental Championship that features FA.

Deck Name: Weenie CEL guns Created by: Bruno Crypt [12 vampires, average capacity: 3.75] 3x Black Cat CEL pot pre 5 Brujah:1 1x Brachah CEL PRE for 5 Brujah:2 1x Felicia Mostrom AUS CEL pre 5 Toreador:1 1x Rigby, Crusade Vanguard CEL PRE aus pot 5 Brujah antitribu:2 1x Volker, The Puppet Prin CEL pot 5 Brujah:2 prince 1x Sarah Brando CEL 3 Brujah antitribu:2 1x Uma Hatch cel pre 3 Brujah:1 1x Angel cel 2 Brujah:1 1x Antoinette DuChamp cel pre 1 Caitiff:2 1x Nik cel 1 Caitiff:1 Library [90 cards] Master [14] 2x Archon Investigation 2x Blood Doll 4x Frontal Assault 1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany 3x Monster 1x Secure Haven 1x Specialization Action [16] 3x Big Game 2x Bum's Rush 4x Harass 7x Legal Manipulations Action Modifier/Combat [3] 3x Resist Earth's Grasp Equipment [8] 8x .44 Magnum Event [1] 1x Narrow Minds Reaction [4] 1x Delaying Tactics 3x On the Qui Vive Combat [44] 2x Blur 8x Concealed Weapon 5x Flash 10x Psyche! 9x Pursuit 6x Sideslip 4x Taste of Vitae Crafted with: Anarch Revolt Deck Builder

Bruno said the following about including Frontal Assault:

[FA] was one of the main questions on the days before the tournament. Most of the people said there were too much Frontal, but in play I never missed one. If you use them carefully, and since you need only to kill half of your prey vampires to don’t loss pool, they are pretty safe, and normally poolmakers. I would not take any of them, but putting more is too risky.

Read the rest of the archived post on The Internet Wayback Machine.

In closing, I think Frontal Assault is a good choice for rush decks. It appears a number of times in TheLasombra's TWDA, though the maximum it has appeared in a deck is 3 copies. It's free, versatile, and can get you out of nasty jams once in a while. Of course, if your deck isn't that good in torporizing/burning vampires, then you might as well look for another master to put in your deck.