#17 Properly Playing ... Escaped Mental Patient

The Malkavian Antitribu is a clan that's well-positioned for stealth mega-bleed (Pulse of the Canaille + Kindred Spirits + Eyes of Chaos + Lost in Crowds, anyone?), so naturally, some minion-targeting actions can be helpful in eliminating pesky chump blockers or weenie flickers.

Enter the Escaped Mental Patient. For two pool, you get a fragile minion with free rush, and an optional aggravated hand damage. It pops after using its special, but you can leverage this with FBI Special Affairs Division. Even a few in a deck can mean a VP if it means you can selectively remove your opponents' minions.

How do you deal with opposing minions that:

• hit back: Use the special. He'll die from the hands-for-one strike anyway.
• prevent damage: Use the special. He'll die from the hands-for-one strike anyway.
• maneuver long and strike with ranged damage: Try not to engage them. If they come to you, well that's it.
• manuever long only: If the manuever comes from a card, you have wasted one of their manuevers. Don't use the special.
• combat ends: It's up to you. The EMP won't burn if you use the special.

A deck that capitalizes on the interaction between FBI Special Affairs Division and Escaped Mental Patient can be found on the TWDA.

Deck Name: säävarauksella Created by: Matti Palomäki Description: The idea of the deck is to use the Escaped Mental Patients with Flash Grenades for tapping, Revelations and Change of Targets to get rid of Wakes and permanent bleed enhancers with some Dementation support for ousting. The EMPs are also great at slowing down too aggressive predators (or any players, for that matter) and defending against rushes and such. Crypt [12 vampires, average capacity: 5.66667] 1x Rodolfo AUS DEM OBF pro 8 Malkavian antitribu:3 bishop 2x Korah AUS DEM OBF ani 7 Malkavian antitribu:2 priscus 1x Marie Faucigny AUS OBF dem tha 7 Malkavian antitribu:3 archbishop 1x Dolphin Black AUS DEM OBF 6 Malkavian antitribu:2 1x Quira, The Bitch Queen AUS OBF obt tha 6 Malkavian antitribu:2 1x Colonel, The AUS cel dem obf 5 Malkavian antitribu:3 2x General Perfidio Dios AUS dem obf 5 Malkavian antitribu:3 bishop 1x Idalia, Prophet of Guad AUS dem 4 Malkavian antitribu:2 2x Roger Farnsworth OBF aus 4 Malkavian antitribu:3 Library [88 cards] Master [14] 1x Anarch Troublemaker 2x Blood Doll 1x Church of the Order of St. Blaise 2x Dreams of the Sphinx 1x Elder Library 1x Major Boon 1x Perfectionist 1x Powerbase: Chicago 1x Powerbase: Washington, D.C. 2x Rotschreck 1x Sunset Strip, Hollywood Action [14] 2x Madman's Quill 4x Pulse of the Canaille 1x Restructure 4x Revelations 1x Sibyl's Tongue 2x Zillah's Tears Action Modifier [15] 4x Change of Target 2x Cloak the Gathering 2x Elder Impersonation 3x Eyes of Chaos 1x Forgotten Labyrinth 3x Walk through Arcadia Ally [9] 1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter) 8x Escaped Mental Patient Equipment [10] 10x Flash Grenade Event [2] 1x FBI Special Affairs Division 1x Unmasking, The Reaction [13] 3x Telepathic Counter 7x Telepathic Misdirection 3x Wake with Evening's Freshness Retainer [2] 1x J. S. Simmons, Esq. 1x Tasha Morgan Combat [9] 9x Concealed Weapon

So, how have you used the Escaped Mental Patient?

#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.