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Review of Final Nights
Final Nights has 386 cards in set, 162 of which are new. It was released on June 11, 2001 and after a few months of playtesting it in casual and tournament environments I feel able to criticise the set.
This review is in two parts, first looking at the set as a whole, then examining individual preconstructed starter decks.
Final Nights: Overview
When White Wolf took back control of V:TES from Wizards of the Coast there was much excitement amongst the fanbase. White Wolf then released Sabbat War, a rerelease of the Sabbat set with new art and new cards. This was well received and when the prerelease run-up to Final Nights began, the popularity of the game was beginning to rise once more.
Final Nights was eagerly anticipated by fans - it promised:
· New life for the Ravnos, Giovanni, Assamite and Setite clans, previously regarded as weak decks for tournament play. · Shaking up of the V:TES metagame, that had remained relatively stale and unchanging for a long time. · An introduction to the game for new players. · Fresh and exciting cards for veteran players.
How well did it achieve these aims?
With regards to revitalising the Independent clans, it succeeded admirably. A slew of new cards for the four clans have finally made them tournament-viable and more competitive. Each of the four clans received good small and middle capacity vampires to bolster their early game. Each of the four clans received an 11-capacity vampire with an interesting special ability and new vampires with votes, opening up the political element of the game.
The Ravnos, in my eyes, have now very much become a clan of "interference". They have been given more interesting (D) actions (like Draba) and more means to let them succeed (like Mirror Image and Red Herring). The "exclusion" tactic was once limited to Sensory Deprivation, but has been expanded with Reality and (the albeit more temporary) Sensory Overload. It is now far more difficult to know what to expect from a Ravnos deck - they've gained a whole bag of tricks. With regards to vampires, the Ravnos have done well again. Esmerelda's special ability (sacrificing to gain 11 pool) should help when in a squeeze and almost certainly there will be some gimmicky decks around her in the next few months. A handful of small-capacity vampires round out the crypt nicely, finally making it feasible to play a crypt that doesn't need Gangrel fillers in it.
The Giovanni have received an excellent deal with some very strong vampires (such as Chas Giovanni Tello and Ambrogino Giovanni). On the other hand some are decidedly mediocre - Paul DiCarlo is yet another 2-capacity "inferior potence" vampire. In terms of minion cards the Giovanni have done well again. They have received a legion of allies and retainers to assist them - the puppeteers in particular could make for many interesting new deck designs. Furthermore, the Final Nights versions of old favourites "Powerbase: Rome" and "Acquired Ventrue Assets" now cost no pool, making them once more worthy of inclusion in a competitive deck. The Giovanni have really come together in Final Nights.
The Assamites, I feel, have been basically let down by Final Nights. Though they still excel at long range combat and now have a few new tricks at close range as well they still don't have a reliable means to circumvent Strike: Combat Ends or any defence against persistent sneaky-bleed. They have a few new ways to put Contracts in play, but the general consensus is that they have come in a sorry fourth in the Final Nights.
The Setites, perhaps more than any other clan, have been transformed by the new expansion. Though several errata that have come into play have limited old power-cards like Temptation, they have suddenly been given a whole new range of tactical options. The addition of Ecstasy finally means that the Setites can do something for bleed defence - the snake bites back! The power-card of the set, "Khobar Towers, Al-Khubar" is like a Zuran Orb for V:TES. However, where the Setites have grown strongest is not in the Library, but in the Crypt. New vampires with votes and new mid and small capacity vampires with presence and obfuscate open the doors of politics and sneaky-bleed.
With regards to changing the V:TES metagame, Final Nights has quite a lot to offer. For the first time we are seeing non-unique crypt vampires (the Aabbt Kindred and the Fida'i). Though these are weak cards they certainly open up new play options. With the tightening of the Ravnos and the Setites we are seeing the strengthening of strategies that most decks essentially have no defence against - exclusion and corruption respectively. Only heavy intercept will hold back either of these, and heavy intercept is not commonly seen in the current environment.
The fact that Setites can now defend will almost certainly have important implications.
Despite this I feel that there are not enough changes in this set. Hand-espionage (i.e. looking at your opponent's cards) and paralyse-actions (i.e. actions that tap a vampire and leave them tapped for a turn) play a big part in this set, but the cards are not efficient enough to make them worthwhile. The recycling element of the Giovanni is still clunky, with too many cards returning cards to your library rather than your hand.
Also, though your own ash-heap is free for the picking, it's still difficult to do anything with anyone else's ash-heap. why is White Wolf still denying Giovanni players the resource they need?
The addition of a handful of Camarilla and Sabbat vampires is nice for fanboys and completists but actually adds little to the game. Otaku out there might be happy to note that Anatole is the first Camarilla vampire in V:TES to have dementation! The shape of things to come, perhaps? My personal favourite is Aisling Sturbridge, a solid (if a little dull) 5-capacity Tremere that will be in every Tremere crypt I play from now on…
As an introduction to the game for new players, Final Nights is unsuccessful. Sabbat War was probably a better entry point, though even that was needlessly complicated. Final Nights was a set designed for the veterans. Hopefully White Wolf will see fit to release a Camarilla expansion soon, and perhaps draw in more Vampire: The Masquerade players who will probably want to play the basic clans before experimenting with the more unusual ones. Unfortunately this seems unlikely, with the next expansion being entitled "Bloodlines".
The rulebook is also not very newbie-friendly. The rules basically need an overhaul if new players are to be brought in. Fun as it is, Vampire still lacks the elegant simplicity of more commercially successful CCGs.
For veteran players, however, Final Nights is an excellent buy. It has a lot of cards that make you rethink old decks and a lot of fresh new concepts and ideas.
The Preconstructed Decks
All four of the Preconstructed decks suffered from having too many cards repeated from previous sets.
The Ravnos preconstructed deck is overall quite strong and fairly playable out of the box. It captures the flavour of the clan nicely and happily includes a power card in the form of Sensory Deprivation. Horrid Reality and Illusions of the Kindred can also be found - both good and solid Chimestry cards.
The Giovanni preconstructed deck is (in my humble opinion) the best of the four. The inclusion of so many strong allies and retainers is heartening as is the smattering of interesting new cards. Sure, there's only one Haunt, but how many of us are going to put more than one in our deck anyway? My only whinge is the absence of Chas Giovanni Tello, though you can't have everything.
The Assamite preconstructed deck is weak. It does not have enough Contracts to make it playable and many of the cards seem wasted. The deck can't seem to decide whether it wants to be at long range or close, and as a result does neither successfully.
The Setite deck has the obligatory number of presence-bleed and obfuscate cards, possibly at the expense of more interesting cards. There aren't enough Corruptions to be playable (there are 4), nor enough Ecstacies (there are only 2). Sadly Khobar Towers is absent, while the execrable Realm of the Black Sun is not. While the Setites may now be a strong clan, the starter is not excellent. The only consolation is the presence of a single Marijava Ghoul (a retainer that gives 1 stealth on presence actions) which was immediately transferred to my weenie-bleed deck…
Overall the four preconstructed decks are far superior to the Sabbat War ones, with enough tasty cards to make you want to play the Clan. Naturally there are still cards that you'll need to buy booster to chase down, but at the end of the day White Wolf wants to sell cards and their tactic works well.
Conclusions
Final Nights is an excellent new expansion with only a few minor flaws. There are no "wallpaper" cards as in previous expansions but many power cards worth chasing. It shakes up the metagame without unbalancing it and breathes life into the Independent Clans. The art, is as ever, classy and professional. The cardstock is good and the layout legible.
Overall, a four for Style and a four for Substance.
