If you've already read them and are still with me, thanks! Perhaps this review should be called: "Reading Nigel's Reviews: The Eternal Struggle".
Trust me though, I've saved the best for last.
What we got?
The same deal as before: $9.95 for 89 cards, a rulebook and a newbie-friendly reference card. Again, I'll be looking at the same criteria. Is it good for newbies, is it good for veterans, does it capture the feel of the clan?
To understand why the Tremere Antitribu are so important though, you have to know a bit of history and context.
Tremere 101
In the weird and wonderful world of tabletop roleplaying there is a game called Vampire: The Masquerade, which this CCG is vaguely and loosely based on.
In the original game there were just seven clans, and Tremere was one of these. Soon after they properly introduced the Sabbat, and gave each clan an "Antitribu" counterpart.
The product line grew and grew, but eventually the developers figured it was losing some of its excitement.
So they had a big year of storyline type events. I think it was called the "Year of Silliness", or something like that. They killed Wraith, which was the best roleplaying game ever. They had an Antediluvian vampire killed by a Technocracy super-sungun or something, in the silliest plotline ever. They released Hunter, which was the only bad White Wolf game I have ever bought.
And somewhere along the way they decided that the entire Tremere Antitribu clan got together somewhere and did a big ritual that went wrong which killed all of them.
So they're all dead, right?
In the roleplaying game, yes.
In the card game, we last saw them in force in the original Sabbat expansion. That expansion also saw many very useful Thaumaturgy cards, including Apportation, a thaumaturgy card that gives a maneuver or a press to continue combat.
When Sabbat War was rereleased (and V:TES had its resurgence in popularity) the Tremere antitribu were excluded because the roleplaying game had killed them off by some mad RPG-net frequenting games developer with the initials JA.
Since then we have seen the odd Tremere antitribu slip under the radar but no real presence there. For me, this was very frustrating. Though I'd playing since Jyhad, back int he days of "Sabbat" I was on a students budget, so never got many Antitribu Tremere. Now I have a healthy wage packet I want Tremere Antitribu.
Then (cue fanfare) comes Black Hand, with the promise of a Tremere Antitribu preconstructed deck, in total defiance of the "official storyline" thanks to the genius and vision of another RPG-net frequenting games developer with the initials LSJ.
I am a very very happy warlock.
And now the biased review
Unfortunately as a Thaumaturgy fanboy I am probably going to present a biased review.
The Crypt of vampires is... gorgeous. Well, Selena is gorgeous, the rest are just good vampires. My favourite is Terrell Harding, with his inbuilt cryptic mission. Ian Forestal comes a close second, with his potential for tricksy decks.
The Library itself is decent, but of course fairly unfocused.
Sociopath is a nice card, but will probably be going to my Tzimisce or Gangrel decks. Infernal Pact is versatile, though probably out of place in this deck.
There is the usual wad of Auspex cards to intercept with, and some common dominate cards I had to yawn through.
Then there is the Thaumaturgy cards. There were four apportations, 2 bursts of sunlight and 2 eldritch glimmers.
The Succubus is also cool, and there are 5 more Cryptic Missions to support the deck theme of blood advantage.
But is it any good?
For me, yes. For any die hard thaumaturgy fan out there, yes as well.
For anyone else, sadly not. A new player will find that the deck is playable but unfocused. A veteran player who is not that interested in Warlocks will find few chase cards to interest him, and few general function cards that he will not already have multiples of. The Toreador deck is probably better for that But for someone who wants to get the feel of the renegade wizards, it's a good solid deck.
I will definitely be buying this one at least once more.
