Mr. Rackham's Disruptions

Many players still underestimate, how disruptive a Smiling Jack really is to their game and to the whole table. If you look at the cumulative blood/pool, you see how much more the player who doesn't control the Smiling Jack actually pays.

• Turn 1 - 0 pool -- 0 blood or pool
  
• Turn 2 - 1 pool -- 1 blood or pool
• Turn 3 - 2 pool -- 3 blood or pool
• Turn 4 - 3 pool -- 6 blood or pool
• Turn 5 - 4 pool -- 10 blood or pool
• Turn 6 - 5 pool -- 15 blood or pool
• Turn 7 - 6 pool -- 21 blood or pool
• Turn 8 - 7 pool -- 28 blood or pool
• Turn 9 - 8 pool -- 36 blood or pool

As you can see the difference is quite enormous. Outracing the Smiling Jack, might be looking good sometimes .. but if one (or more) player is ousted, then the chances of removing the Smiling Jack just sank drastically. And that's because by ousting the player the number of minions have been reduced who can remove the Smiling Jack.

As conclusion, I can only advise any player, that the whole tale should make a joint remove to the Smiling Jack. And please, start not just after the first player has been ousted, start rightaway. The player with the Smiling Jack is more likely to let go off the Smiling Jack, if there a no or very few counters on it, but he will try to defend it with his life when 4+ counters are on it.

Cause & Effect: Episode 2.3

The third episode (of the second season) of the VTES webshow Cause and Effect is now in its 2nd season and the second episode has been broadcasted live last Sunday (January 29th, 2012). The main topic of the discussion was a Lasombra Baltimore Purge deck, and how to improve it.

Did you know, that ... (Part 85)

.. that once three Shatter the Gates are on a Baali, and the Shatter counters are distributed to the other players, these counters stay in the game (and making these players loose three pool each turn), even if the player played the Shatter the Gates is ousted? Unlike master cards (or any other card controlled by the ousted players), token or counters stay in the game, since they are controlled by the players who has them, not by the players who brought them into play.

Reference: [LSJ-20100206].

Sins of our Ancestors

Some cards in VtES have an interesting past, where their cardtext was changed significantly or sometimes cardtext changed multiple times. For example:

• Immortal Grapple (up to the Sabbat version) restricted strikes to hand strikes for the remainder of the combat, not only for the current round.
• Majesty didn't cost blood during prior (to Camarilla Edition).
• Pulled Fangs inflicted aggravated damage (until Sabbat War).
  
• Golconda initially only burned the vampire, and did not remove it from the game.

These are only a few examples, but it shows how important it is to know (or at least to check) the latest cardtext if you build a deck/strategy upon a specific card.

VtES Storyline 2012 Progress Update

In an effort to improve communications, Eric Chiang (VEKN Storyline coordinator) has created a webpage to update the VtES community regarding a lot of the work he has been doing in preparation for the upcoming 2012 Storyline events and what still needs to be done. You can read about it on this newly created VtES Storyline 2012 page.

Questions and/or concerns regarding storyline contents can be addressed to Eric directly on vekn.net.

VtES Rules: "Spying Mission" Q&A

Some time ago we had (again) a question in our playgroup regarding Spying Mission, and therefore I checked the Usenet newsgroup for some answers and finally came up with the short "Questions and Answers" summary for the card. Most of the information is taken from the VtES Usenet Newsgroup "rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad".

Question: Do I gain the Edge after playing Spying Mission at superior?
Answer: While the action was successful, the actual amount of bleed was reduced to zero. So the bleed was not successful, and you do not gain the Edge.

Question: Can I play Freak Drive at inferior after playing Spying Mission (at superior)?
Answer: Yes, as stated above, the action itself was successful, even though the bleed was unsuccessful. And only the fact, that the action was successful allows you to play Freak Drive at inferior.

Question: Can I play second Spying Mission (at superior) when the vampire currently bleeding already has one (targeted at the same Methuselah)?
Answer: Yes, you can. After blocks, etc. have been declined, but before the bleed would actually inflict the pool damage, you can reduce the amount of bleed to zero by playing the second Spying Mission (at superior). And because then the bleed is not successful, the first Spying Mission (on the vampire) does not trigger.

Question: Can my opponent play Archon Investigation when burning a Spying Mission would increase the bleed to more than three?
Answer: No, you can't. As per card text of Archon Investigation you need to play it when a minion is attempting to bleed you, whereas Spying Mission is triggered later when the bleed is resolved.

Question: Can I bounce a bleed to another player when Spying Mission's effect triggers (e.g. by using Telepathic Misdirection or Deflection)?
Answer: No, you can't because reaction cards (including cards to redirect a bleed) need to be played before the resolution of the bleed.

Question: Can you reduce the bleed inflicted to you when Spying Mission's effect triggers by Telepathic Counter?
Answer: No, you can't. The same explanation as above holds, because reaction cards (including bleed reducers) need to be played before the resolution of the bleed.

References:

• [LSJ-20090716] on multiple Spying Missions.
• [LSJ-20091123] Spying Mission vs. Telepathic Counter / Archon Investigation.
• [LSJ-19980105] Spying Mission vs. Deflection.
  

Cause & Effect: Episode 2.2

The VTES webshow Cause and Effect is now in its 2nd season and the second episode has been broadcasted live last Sunday (January 22nd, 2012). Team Sweden discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Toreador antitribu decks. Among the deck discussed were Resurrection (by Alex Ek), Stolen Truth (by Jay Kristoff) and The Muppet Crusade (by John Bell). The Count Germaine challenge was dropped due to an insufficient number of entries.
Part 1:

Backousting

Results "Freezing Moon" VtES Tournament in Utrecht, Netherlands

Here are the results of the "Freezing Moon" VtES constructed tournament in Utrecht, Netherlands on January 21st, 2012. With 16 players participating, these are the standings after 3 rounds and the finals:

1. Jelmer W. -- 1 GW 4.5 VP -- 3 VP -- Ira Rivers & Friends Cel/Aus Wall
2. Pieter H. -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 1 VP -- Followers of Set Bima feat. Anu
2. Bart B. -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 1 VP -- Brujah G1/2 Midcap Presence Vote/Bleed
2. Izaak H. -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Saulot & Tremere antitribu
2. Bart L. -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 0 VP -- Kiasyd/Lasombra Bleed?

Congratulations to Jelmer for his victory in the tournament.

Memorable Quotes (Part 134)

"At gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck." -- Casino Royale (1953) by Ian Fleming.

Sufficiently Randomized

Lately I was looking at card drawing probabilities (more on that sometime later), I was stumbling across a closely related topic, that is deck randomization. Looking at it more closely, it occurred to me how different deck randomization techniques (a.k.a. shuffling) are and the theory behind is not trivial (there are quite a number of articles on the topic available on the internet about it).

This is the relevant rule from the VEKN tournament rules regarding sufficiently randomizing one's deck, commonly achieved by shuffling:

3.2. Pre-Game Procedure

The following steps must be performed in order before each game begins.

• Players shuffle their decks.
• Players present their decks to their predators for additional shuffling and cutting, if desired.
• Each player draws seven cards from his or her library and four cards from his or her crypt.

All shuffling must be done so that the faces of the cards cannot be seen. Regardless of the method used to shuffle, players' decks must be sufficiently randomized. ..

Announcement German EC Qualifier 2012 (Flyer)

See also the full announcement of the German VtES ECQ 2012.