Wanderer's Counsel Akunanse Website

The Akunanse Letters - Nkule Galadima

By coming and going will a bird weave its nest.
-Ashanti proverb

Nkule Galadima
Akunanse
8 capacity
Animalism, Auspex, Presence, superior Abombwe, Superior Fortitude
Lasombra cannot cast votes in referendum called by Nkule (including
in the prisci sub-referendum). While he is ready, if you burn the
Edge for a vote, you gain an additional 2 votes.
Laibon magaji.
Group 4

The Akunanse can pursue many strategies. Nkule Galadima is built to bring out
the best in our ability to oust our prey with successful political actions.
With his awesome vote related specials, Nkule Galadima will be the focus of this
second letter and the associated deck. As Uchenna and Nkule Galadima are our
only vampires with built-in titles, we will need to exert our influence on those
vampires we have used Abombwe to bring to prominence in other clans. Tsunda of
the Ravnos and Ugadja of the Guruhi will help to ensure that we have plenty of
distinct titles in play. As only Ugadja, Nkule Galadima, and Amavi have any access
to presence, we will need to rely on alternate vote increasing options. There are
two types: permanent votes from master cards / equipment / Kholo, and temporary votes
from action modifiers / master cards.

First, we will discuss the master cards:
Ancestor Spirit
Esgrima
Legendary Vampire
Orun
Powerbase: Rome

Ancestor Spirit is a definite include in our Akunanse vote deck, as we will plan
on having many Laibon with capacity greater than four in play, and +1 bleed will
be a good fall back ability if we have no political actions to call at the moment.
That it only gives its additional vote when that vampire is taking the political
action is certainly a drawback, but still worthwhile for a deck with few vote
increasing options.

Esgrima is a two-edged sword, and it should be considered carefully. If included
in the deck, playing it will be a significant tactical choice if there are other
decks at the table that are likely to call votes. If you draw it late enough in
the game to know that you need it, and that it will not enable votes against you
to pass, then it is powerful. If you play it too early and another player is also
calling votes, then it can work against you significantly. We will need to play
our deck in order to make friends of our two cross table allies, and enemies only
out of our predator and prey until such time as we have ousted our prey and our
allies become our enemies. During the turns that our predator or prey has Esgrima,
we will need to avoid calling votes that cannot pass by a clear majority in spite
of the three votes we have given them. These will be good turns to bleed, hunt,
or remain untapped to defend. During the turns when we or our allies have Esgrima,
we will choose the terms of our referenda to ensure that they tap it in our favor.
Esgrima is not a card for those new to vote decks, and should be excluded if you
are not completely comfortable working a table to get your votes to pass.

Legendary Vampire is a great choice for us to include, as our crypt is likely to have
six vampires of capacity seven or above, and the vote to remove it is frequently
overlooked by the other players. We will plan on using the additional two bleed
infrequently, with our focus in this deck on voting.

Orun is not going to be of any significant use to our vote deck, as Orun requires
three copies in play on the same vampire to grant a single vote. This would require
nine to twelve copies in the deck, and we will require those spaces for the
political actions and other cards to ensure the votes pass. Orun will not go into
many Akunanse decks.

Powerbase: Rome is a good choice for vote decks that can gain multiple master phase
actions and can use one to two additional votes every turn or so. Powerbase: Rome
is part of Ethan Burrow's vote lock module, that also includes the Parthenon and
Rumors of Gehenna. As we are already planning on playing many master cards to support
our voting strategy, we will include a version of this vote lock module ourselves.

http://wiki.vekn.org/index.php/Voting_Modules

Second, we will discuss the action modifiers available to ensure our votes pass:
Akunanse Kholo
Aura of Invincibility
Bribes
Cryptic Rider
Mob Rule
Those Who Endure Judge
Wanderer's Counsel

Akunanse Kholo and its companion cards for the other Laibon clans will form the basis
of the Laibon vote module, probably joining Ancestor Spirit, Legendary Vampire,
Kduva's Mask and Powerbase: Rome in most vote decks for Laibon clans. Two copies will
be the recommended number for inclusion, to ensure it comes up early enough in the
game to matter without clogging our hand in the end game. Akunanase Kholo can be cycled
onto a vampire that already has that title without any adverse affect. As Kholo will
move from a vampire in torpor to the oldest non-titled Akunanse, it is one of our
most robust voting modifiers.

Aura of Invincibility should only be included if you expect to encounter a low title
environment. There are no terms that can be set on referenda that should enduce the
other players to vote in favor of the referendum when you attempt to put this card
into play. If played sufficiently early by Nkule Galadima when you have the Edge,
it can make a significant difference in the outcome of the rest of your game. Only
include this card if you have experience with the players you expect to encounter.
This card is much more likely to see play in a presence based deck than in one that
expects to negotiate its votes into passing as our Akunanse deck will.

Bribes is a must include, for the early game when you need to convince your allies
that you are working with their best interest in mind, and for the late game, when
pool gain is almost as important as passing the votes. A few should be scattered
into the deck.

Cryptic Rider is a tough call. In order to gain more permanent votes, Overseer
practically demands that another vote pass prior to it. With magaji titles so
difficult to acquire, Cryptic Rider will appear in our deck today. Only a few
copies, so that our allies don't get the idea that we are simply using them for
our own good, but, of course, we are. Once a Cryptic Rider has seen play, it is
difficult to get experienced cross table allies to continue to support our less
essential votes.

Mob Rule is a bad idea for us. We do not gain lots of blood thru our master cards
or other actions, so opponents that temporarily have more blood than we do will
be able to fail our votes when this action modifier is used. It will not be included.

Those Who Endure Judge is a must include for our Akunanse vote deck. This action
modifier cycles when the action is announced, so it need never jam our hand when
we are searching for additional political actions. This can be played on a hunt,
an enter combat action, a bleed, or a political action and that is certainly only
when we will plan to use it. Gaining two additional votes and burning the Edge
for three more will grant a significant vote swing while Nkule Galadima is ready,
and will have a great affect in ensuring that our votes pass.

Wanderer's Counsel appears at first glance to be a great card for a vote deck.
It grants a vote as either an action modifier or as a reaction, and can be cycled
on a hunt action for an additional blood if necessary. Too many copies will
actually keep us from including more appropriate cards for the deck, like combat
cards or reaction cards, so a sprinkling is appropriate, but probably no more than
three or four should make the final cut.

Third, we will discuss the political actions that allow Akunanse to gain additional votes:
Overseer

Overseer is designed to prevent a return of weenie vote decks. It has two significant
restrictions. The first is requiring the acting vampire to be of capacity above four.
The second restriction is ignoring all votes cast by magaji vampires already in play.
In the first turn or two of the game, it can be passed, but any time later you will
need a miraculously title free table or a Cryptic Rider to get it successfully passed
by an Akunanse vampire. Guruhi and Ishtarri are much more likely to be able to successfully
call this vote later in the game, having access to presence vote modifiers. The Kikiyaon,
Sanjo, and Amavi can call the vote, but are unlikely to be able to pass it. If we forgo
the use of Cryptic Rider due to space considerations, then we should forgo the inclusion
of Overseer as well.

Last, we will discuss the equipment that grants additional votes:
Kduva's Mask

Kduva's Mask is definitely one of the best cards to consider including in any
Laibon-based vote deck. Its two pool cost is managable, and the extra point of
bleed is good as another fall back option similar to Ancestor Spirit. Together
with Kholo and Ancestor Spirit, it will form the basis of any Laibon-based vote
module and you should expect to see it frequently if your opponents are playing
Laibon clans. It is important enough to this deck that we will include at least
two copies in hopes of seeing it early. If we have Uchenna in play, he can burn
the extra copy from our hand during the master phase for a blood.

Discussion of any specific political actions will have to wait until we have decided our
crypt, as that can make a significant difference in our choices. We will begin composing
the crypt now.

We have access to four magaji with Abombwe, so they will form the basis of our deck.
Each other Akunanse vampire will be included, with the exception of Matata and Kamiri
wa Itherero, as their nine and ten capacities will take too long to influence when the
vampires do not directly add to our total number of votes in play.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity average: 6.17
------------------------------------------------------------
2x Nkule Galadima 8 ABO FOR ani aus pre magaji Akunanse:4
2x Uchenna 7 ABO ANI FOR magaji Akunanse:4
1x Ugadja 10 ABO ANI POT PRE dom for magaji Guruhi:4
1x Tsunda 6 CHI abo ani dem magaji Ravnos:4
1x Amavi 8 ABO ANI FOR pre pro Akunanse:4
1x Sanjo 6 ANI FOR abo chi Akunanse:3
1x Kikiyaon, The 5 FOR abo ani Akunanse:4
1x Hasani 4 ABO for Akunanse:4
1x Dolie 3 abo ani Akunanse:4
1x Meno Ngari 2 abo Akunanse:4

No discussion of Laibon voting decks would be complete without discussing the other
two new political actions added in Legacies of Blood:
The Eldest Command Undeath
The Secret Must Be Kept

The Eldest Command Undeath appears to be a reworking of Protect Thine Own, with
many of the more popular fixes included. First, it only targets your prey.
Second, it has a significant cost that cannot be recovered on the same action.
Third, it doesn't target any specific clan or sect so that it is fair to all
potential prey. From the backstory, come two significant quotes:

Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom, page 27.
"The Eldest Command Undeath is regarded as the most abused Tenet.
Elders handle it delicately. Young Laibon openly hate and fear it."

"Any Laibon may choose to create or destroy any Laibon younger than
he so long as it is done within the scope of the other Tenets."

Notice that the V:TES card does not adhere to the restriction mentioned
in the second quote. This will certainly make it more playable. It is
still likely to be openly hated and feared as Laibon vote decks come into
greater circulation. We will include a few copies because it is too powerful
not to, but Banishment may be a wiser tactical choice in the long run.

The Secret Must Be Kept is much more metagame dependent. If intercept retainers
or ally based decks are in vogue locally, definitely consider a pair of these.
Locally, that is not currently the case, so we will pass on it in this go round.

We will choose the following political actions with the above in mind:

Political Action [24]
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
1x Ancilla Empowerment
2x Banishment
4x Consanguineous Boon
1x Disputed Territory
2x Domain Challenge
2x Eldest Command Undeath, The
7x Kine Resources Contested
1x National Guard Support
2x Rumors of Gehenna

The National Guard Support will help to induce blocking bleeds on the part of
the entire table, as it will make directed actions at -1 stealth. This will
make it harder to bleed at stealth, and allow the small amount of intercept
we are going to use work much harder for us. The rest are a fairly common
vote module borrowed from The Lasombra.

http://www.thelasombra.com/decks.htm#vote

Now that we have our crypt and our main objectives decided, we will decide on the
master card support that is appropriate to ensuring our goals are met.

Master [20]
2x Ancestor Spirit
1x Esgrima
1x Giant's Blood
1x Information Highway
2x Legendary Vampire
2x Major Boon
1x Mbare Market, Harare
6x Minion Tap
1x Parthenon, The
1x Powerbase: Rome
2x Sudden Reversal

Most have already been discussed, but the Minion Taps should perhaps be explained.
As we will not be including any combat cards that cost blood, and only The Eldest
Command Undeath and Those Who Endure Judge will have a blood cost, we can get a
significant refund on our pool investment from the vampires we will have in play
and still successfully pursue our strategy. The Akunanse do not have access to
bleed bounce, so bloating our pool with Consanguineous Boons and Minion Taps will
be essential.

The only equipment we will have time to acquire is Kduva's Mask.

Equipment [2]
2x Kduva's Mask

Now that we are aware of the vote potential that we can have in play, as the crypt,
master cards, and equipment are decided, we will next tackle the action modifier selection.

Action Modifier [18]
2x Bribes
2x Devil-Channel: Throat
4x Freak Drive
1x Strange Day
6x Those Who Endure Judge
3x Voter Captivation

Action Modifier / Reaction [5]
2x Akunanse Kholo
3x Wanderer's Counsel

The Voter Captivations are sufficiently similar to Giant's Blood when used at inferior
presence that we will include a few copies. We can potentially have three vampires
in the ready region that can play them when appropriate.

With the selections made to this point, we have 21 card slots remaining in our 90 card
library. We will need to make the most of these, as the cards will need to both fulfill
our reaction ability and our combat ability.

All of our reactions cards will allow either untap or intercept in the same card. We are
not intending to block enough actions to allow our deck to have cards that can only be used
for one or the other.

Reaction [10]
4x Cats' Guidance
6x Predator's Communion

This leaves only 11 card slots for combat. To make the most of these slots in another
clan's vote deck, we would choose Strike: Combat Ends as our preferred selection.
As the Akunanse do not have access to Strike: Combat Ends aside from Alpha Glint which
requires our vampire to be older than their opponent, we will primarily choose
defensive cards for this specific deck.

Combat [11]
1x Devil-Channel: Hands
3x Invoking the Beast
2x Skin of Steel
5x Soak

As a review, the deck will now be presented in its entirety.

Deck Name : When Nkule Comes To Town
Author : Wanderer's Counsel

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action Modifier [18]
2x Bribes
2x Devil-Channel: Throat
4x Freak Drive
1x Strange Day
6x Those Who Endure Judge
3x Voter Captivation

Action Modifier / Reaction [5]
2x Akunanse Kholo
3x Wanderer's Counsel

Combat [11]
1x Devil-Channel: Hands
3x Invoking the Beast
2x Skin of Steel
5x Soak

Equipment [2]
2x Kduva's Mask

Reaction [10]
4x Cats' Guidance
6x Predator's Communion

Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Mon Jan 02 17:36:45 2006]

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