Jyhad / Vampire : The Eternal Struggle

[g0zen]

I'm guessing I'll start with a Brujah or Ventrue deck, is that wise? Should a beginner stick to certain clan exclusively?

[sleeve]

I'm guessing I'll start with a Brujah or Ventrue deck, is that wise?

Both are strong choices. The Ventrue are strong in two of the three major pillars of the game (politics and bleeding), and have solid combat defense. The Brujah have some vote and bleed strength as well, but are more inclined towards beating people up. The temptation to avoid as a beginner playing with Brujah is to make a mostly-combat deck, as it's a very difficult way to win.

It is worth noting that the Ventrue starter deck contains the most powerful card in the game.

Should a beginner stick to certain clan exclusively?

At first you'll only have enough cards to build one or two decks, so sticking to one clan is a no-brainer. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't use vampires from other clans (or sects) that can use all or most of the cards in your deck. Using only vampires that can use all or most of the cards in your deck is most important.

[Thief Silver]

I'm tempted to get into this as well now, but the main clan I'd want to go with would be my favorite: Nosferatu, any word on how newbie friendly they'd be?

[sleeve]

I'm tempted to get into this as well now, but the main clan I'd want to go with would be my favorite: Nosferatu, any word on how newbie friendly they'd be?

Truth be told, any of the core Camarilla clans are easy to learn. Nosferatu tend to have a little harder time, however, due to their lack of a "bleeding" discipline. They fight well though, and Animalism just happens to be one of the best disciplines in VTES.

[dog$]

About a month ago, some kid I work with referred to Nosferatu in some off-tangent fashion and I decided to chime in and tell him that I happened to be familiar with the system. So now for the last two weeks I've spent Friday's after work teaching him how to play (since he was accidentally bought two starter boxes and has no clue) and started to tinker with the decks I have a bit again.

I'm going to wait to spend money on new cards for that African expansion, yes; fully new clans and disicplines are things that are more worthy to look into than the Most Wanted changes and additions (despite KMW having quite a few nice cards), and it's very very difficult to justify spending $50+ on cards today.

New people that want to start should just look into getting new starter boxes if you can find them in stores, or buy old Jyhad stuff from ebay if you can deal with bidding. Jyhad cards are still really cheap and there are more than enough cards in the base set that are worth having, and at least half of the base set is reprinted in every expansion that has starter sets.

The key to making a good deck is having a set of cards that work well together in any combination they may show up, and focusing on one element of play (combat, bleed, voting), discipline, or clan. In the words of the guide, having more cards in a deck means you just have more to shuffle through.

edit: ...
edit2: eh, nevermind. I'll use them.

[Giga Power]

That's some awesome artwork.

g0zen and I were going to go out and buy some cards yesterday but I got caught up in other things and didn't get to go. I haven't seen him online yet, but soon enough we'll try this out.

All of this talk has made me want to get back into Magic as well...anyone here play Magic Online? I'd be willing to bust into that too if I knew a little more about it, since buying actual cards would be pointless since I don't know anyone that actually still plays. Bless the interweb.