Vertcoin would be a calculated gamble.
Segwit enabled, ASIC resistant algo. Stealth addresses add a little feature to the clone. So many people want to get an alt at the beginning, but want something established. Vert has several year long chain and is cheap enough that you don't feel you've missed out.
One of the devs James Lovejoy is on
http://dci.mit.edu/ along with Wladimir van der Laan.
Technical Details
Algorithm: Lyra2RE(v2)
Generation: 84 million VTC
Block time: 2.5 minutes
Block Rewards: 50 coins per block
Subsidy halves every 840,000 blocks (~4 years)
Difficulty Re-Target Time: Retargets every block (Kimoto’s Gravity Well)
Premine: Zero – not premined