Saturday, December 31, 2011

Deck of the Month: December 2011: Shattering test Villein Perfectionist

This month's deck is the tournament winning deck "Shattering test Villein Perfectionist" played by Vincent Ripoll (FRA). They were several other candidates for this month's choice, for example Stefan Karlsson's Gerald Windham Multirush deck or Johannes Walch's Chain of Command deck as well. In the end I liked Vincent's deck best, possibly because I saw it in action several times. The deck is based on Shattering Crescendo and it's devastating effects, especially in the endgame. The deck first keeps a low profile and tries to build up and plays Shattering Crescendo against his predator (as defense). The real deal with the deck is find the right time to play the Shattering Crescendo as offense or and/or to control the table.
Deck Name: Warsaw Station: Shattering test Villein Perfectionist
Author: Vincent Ripoll

Warsaw Station
Paris, France
December 3, 2011
20 players
3R+F

Crypt (Capacity min=3 max=6 avg=4.67; 12 cards)
==================================================

3x Angela Preston 5 for PRE MEL Daughter of Cacophony:2
1x Céleste, The Voice of a Secret 3 pre mel Daughter of Cacophony:2
2x Delilah Monroe 4 for pre MEL Daughter of Cacophony:2
1x Diana Vick 3 dom pre Ventrue:3
1x Gaël Pilet 6 chi pre FOR MEL Daughter of Cacophony:2
1x Pieter van Dorn 4 dom pre tha Tremere:3
1x Ranjan Rishi, Camarilla Scholar 5 for DOM PRE Ventrue:2
2x Yseult 6 FOR MEL PRE Daughter of Cacophony:3

Library (86 cards)
=====================

Master (26 cards)
1x Archon Investigation
2x Blood Doll
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
2x Life in the City
1x Lilith's Blessing
3x Paris Opera House
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
3x Perfectionist
1x Powerbase: Montreal
7x Villein
2x Wider View

Event (4 cards)
1x Dragonbound
1x Fourth Cycle, The
1x Uncoiling, The
1x Waiting Game

Action (24 cards)
1x Entrancement
2x Legal Manipulations
3x Public Trust
16x Shattering Crescendo
2x Social Charm

Action Modifier (16 cards)
1x Daring the Dawn
8x Missing Voice, The
1x Phantom Speaker
2x Siren's Lure
4x Virtuosa

Reaction (10 cards)
6x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics
2x On the Qui Vive

Combo (6 cards)
6x Force of Personality

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Jan 1, 2012 00:33:24)

Friday, December 30, 2011

Results VtES League 2011 in Bochum

Here are the final standings of the VtES League 2011 in Bochum, Germany. This year's winner after more than 20 matchdays is Ralf. Congratulations to him. The final standings were:
1. Ralf L. -- 7,40 RtP/game -- 20 games -- 6 GW 25,0 VP
2. Sascha M. -- 5,63 RtP/game -- 16 games -- 3 GW 16,5 VP
3. Michael B. -- 3,60 RtP/game -- 20 games -- 2 GW 14,0 VP
4. Hardy R. -- 1,65 RtP/game -- 17 games -- 0 GW 7,0 VP
Participants without a sufficient number of games (8):
5. Robert M. -- 24,00 RtP/game -- 1 game -- 1 GW 4,0 VP
6. Rudolf G. -- 22,00 RtP/game -- 2 games -- 2 GW 7,0 VP
7. Didi R. -- 6,00 RtP/game -- 6 games -- 1 GW 7,0 VP
8. Sebastian R. -- 4,00 RtP/game -- 1 game -- 0 GW 1,0 VP
8. Thomas K. -- 4,00 RtP/game -- 1 game -- 0 GW 1,0 VP
10. Martin S. -- 3,00 RtP/game -- 2 games -- 0 GW 1,5 VP
11. Markus H. -- 0,00 RtP/game -- 2 games -- 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Martin E. -- 0,00 RtP/game -- 2 games -- 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Martin V. -- 0,00 RtP/game -- 2 games -- 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Alexander T. -- 0,00 RtP/game -- 1 game -- 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Kai K. -- 0,00 RtP/game -- 1 game -- 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Ralf W. -- 0,00 RtP/game -- 1 game -- 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Manuel D. -- 0,00 RtP/game -- 1 game -- 0 GW 0,0 VP
The results can also be found in the German VEKN forum (incl. the individual matchday results & decks). The group has shrunken to the bare minimum for making some sort of VtES league possible, but at least we had less match days canceled than last year and quite a number of "visitors" from other playgroups (or even countries).

Results VtES League 2011 in Gelsenkirchen

Here are the final standings of the VtES League 2011 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. This year's winner after 39 league games is Zille, who snatched the victory from Kinner with the last league game (in which victory points were doubled).
1. Sebastian Z. -- 9 GW 47 VP -- 37 Games -- 1,90 CP -- 8,92 RtP
2. Sebastian R. -- 7 GW 28,5 VP -- 24 games -- 1,23 CP -- 8,31 RtP
3. Ralf L. -- 4 GW 28 VP -- 28 games -- 1,44 CP -- 6,58 RtP
4. Martin E. -- 3 GW 21,5 VP -- 39 games -- 2,00 CP -- 4,82 RtP
5. Thomas K. -- 0 GW 13 VP -- 36 games -- 1,85 CP -- 3,29 RtP
Participants without a sufficient number of games (12):
6. Dietmar R. -- 2 GW 9,5 VP -- 4 games -- 0,21 CP -- 13,71 RtP
7. Martin V. -- 2 GW 8,5 VP -- 5 games -- 0,26 CP -- 10,26 RtP
8. Michael B. -- 2 GW 8,5 VP -- 6 games -- 0,31 CP -- 8,64 RtP
9. Frank S. -- 2 GW 13 VP -- 9 games -- 0,46 CP -- 8,02 RtP
(RtP = rating points; CP = correction points (for game attendance)).

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Memorable Quotes (Part 131)

"Mr. Son of a bitch, let's play some cards!" -- Teddy KGB in Rounders (1998).

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Poll Results: "Do you use card sleeves when playing VtES?"

Here are the results of the latest poll if the readers of this blog use card sleeves in VtES games. 162 readers of this blog have voted in this poll:
  • Always. -- 64% (104)
  • Most of the time. -- 22% (27)
  • Only in tournaments. -- 0% (1)
  • Rarely. -- 7% (12)
  • Never! -- 2% (4)
  • I'm only a collector. -- 6% (10)
  • Cowboy Jim. -- 2% (4)
As you see the group which uses card sleeves rarely or never in a game of VtES is a rather small minority (9%). So when talking about the future VtES expansion based on PDF printouts it's only this minority which is "forced" to use card sleeves although they usually don't.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Chiropteran Marauder

Chiropteran Marauder .. or not .. yet.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Dracula (1931)

This is the original Dracula movie version from 1931 with Bela Lugosi as Dracula.
There are two copies available on YouTube, but unfortunately embedding the movies is disabled, so above you see the trailer whereas the two links below lead to the full versions.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

VtES History: Mastering Tournament Play

This is an article way back from 1997 written by Robert Goudie around the time when the VEKN was founded (to be exact on December 15th, 1997). Originally appeared on the then official VEKN website, The Madness Network.

Introduction
This article endeavors to provide an edge to players who have already achieved a measure of proficiency playing VTES. Nothing written here will make an inferior deck-builder or tactician a winning tournament player.

Together, we'll look at the issues unique to the Duelists' Convocation International's tournament environment and how the tournament setting changes the way we approach the game.

The Player's Objective

This should be no surprise. Your objective is to win. However, before we can tackle the task of winning a final round, we must earn entry to the final round. As entry to the final round is your first objective, make every effort to keep this goal in mind throughout the preliminary rounds. It has been my experience that a player needs to average just slightly over two victory points per round to advance to the finals. This is rarely accomplished by getting exactly two victory points per round but rather by getting three to five victory points in one round and then gaining other victory points here and there throughout other rounds. Never pass up an opportunity to get a victory point. I’ve seen players play a round to a draw because they only needed a half victory point to advance. I’ve personally used a Life Boon on my Predator and moved all of my blood to him, thereby ousting myself and gaining the victory point that my Predator would have gained for my demise. Being the last one alive at your table or even having the most victory points at your table is a false victory and does not meet your first objective. Be single-minded in your pursuit of victory points and get yourself into the finals.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Did you know, that ... (Part 84)

.. Mylan Horseed (Goblin) can actually untap not only your own vampires, but vampires from other players as well? The reason is simply, that the Mylan's cardtext does not restrict the controller (of the vampire being untapped) being the player who controls Mylan. It's just restricted by the capacity (8 or more) and not being Camarilla vampire. In fact, this is one of the "tricks" in a Spirit Marionette deck to create a valid target for the Spirit Marionette.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Memorable Quotes (Part 130)

"What turn is it?"
"Two Explores." -- Alex Bertoncini, MtG player, now banned by the DCI for 18 months.
Reference: Alex Bertoncini at SCG Kansas City

More context on the issue at hand:

Monday, December 19, 2011

Cause & Effect: Episode 1.9

The ninth episode of the VTES webshow Cause and Effect has been broadcasted live this Sunday (December 20th, 2011). The topic for the discussion were Ahrimanes decks in general as well as the use (and abuse) of Temptation of Greater Power.

The next episode (and first for next year) of Cause & Effect will be hosted on January 10th, 2012.

Friday, December 16, 2011

RNN Special: Hidden Imbued Revealed

One interesting thing I stumbled upon, is that three of the "hunter" allies, are actually Imbued according to the Vampire the Masquerade/Hunters Reckoning background material. These three are:
On the both the (official) World of Darkness wiki and the unofficial White Wolf wiki information on these three mortal allies can be found (which I more or less copied):
  • Wendell Delburton, known on hunter-net.org as Crusader17, was an Avenger, living in the United States. He was responsible for the destruction of countless horrors, Wendell Delburton had no doubts that God had chosen him, even before the angels set him on the road that would end in an encounter with the Devil, He was found dead Saturday, August 2, 2003 in a wheat field outside Wichita, Kansas. He was impaled through the neck with a stabbing implement.

  • Jake Washington is an Innocent living in the United States, also known as as Bookworm55 on Hunter-net. Jake had always been a bookworm, but at 18, in his first year at college in Boston, things were beginning to look up for him until the Messengers imbued him. His first experience of the supernatural was meeting a little dead girl. He found and tipped off the police about her murderer. He quickly found Hunter-Net and made a few contacts among the Imbued, wanting to study and explore the new world he'd entered into, even though it frightened him. He made contact with a warlock he nicknamed "Purple" (because of the color of his aura when using the Second Sight) and learned much from him.

    Three weeks after his imbuing, Jake met a beautiful woman named Phaedra in his local bookstore-café, and quickly realized she was a vampire. True to his creed, he didn't hunt Phaedra, but instead talked with her, hoping to understand her and learn more about vampires. An adolescent virgin, Jake didn't resist her sexual advances, allowing her to bite him and even tasting some of her blood, but even though he was learning and beginning to understand her, things went wrong. On their third meeting, a local hunter Jake knew named Andy followed him and attacked Phaedra; she flew into a rage, killed Andy and pulled off Jake's legs. He blacked out, his next clear memory of hospital, where he was recuperating from a "car accident", his care paid for by insurance.

    For a while, Jake dropped off Hunter-net, though he eventually returned to post a bitter document titled "The Enemy", drawing heavily on his conversations with Purple and Phaedra to set down everything he knew about supernatural creatures. He temporarily took over the running of the site from Witness1 following a period of downtime. As he pieced his life back together, Jake grew to regret the "Enemy" post, since despite what happened to him he still didn't believe that "monsters" were inherently more evil than human beings. Differences with witness1 led him to create the Vitalis site and sub-list for those who, like him, thought of themselves as on a mission rather than a hunt, but after the Montreal "Body Snatcher" Tragedy and the fallout over Oracle171's involvement, he grew conflicted.

    His feelings led him to realize that Phaedra must have helped him survive after her attack, and set things up so that he would be looked after in hospital; he became convinced she must have a soul, and left Hunter-net again to find her with the aid of an older hunter named Fyodor. He did manage to speak to her once, and he traveled the country with Fyodor in the hope of finding her and learning more about the monsters. Fyodor, a much more ruthless hunter, eventually left Jake to his own devices, but not before channeling the power of the Messengers to restore Jake's legs.

    Jake continues to travel around America, knowing he can never go back to his family - he has no way to explain to them how his legs have been healed. He is still obsessed with finding Phaedra and proving to Hunter-net that she has a soul - and that other monsters must have them, too.

  • Dr. Carlton Van Wyk, known on hunter-net.org as Doctor119, is a Judge, living in Chicago, best known for his month long journal discussing his encounters with at least 18 rots and invisibles, He is somewhat clinical and detached, and approaches the hunt with a scientific mindset.

    Though the details of his past are never fully revealed, it seems clear that Van Wyk is no longer a legally registered doctor. He has a "clinic" in his basement where he carries out minor surgery, including illegal abortions.

    Van Wyk was also known under the alias of Harlan Crandall.
All list of hunters in Vampire: the Masquerade can be found on these lists (from the Wikis mentioned above):

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Did you know, that ... (Part 83)

.. you can play Eagle's Sight on superior when your predator (or any other player) is taking a (D) action against you. This works since the use of Eagle's Sight (by it's own cardtext) is not restricted to those situations where you're not an eligible blocker. This, of course, has no other effect than you cycling cards (when your predator is using 0-stealth actions, for example).

Going for the Win (Personal Report of the German Nationals 2011)

German Revolution of 1848Below you find an extensive tournament report of one of the finalists, Rudolf, of the German National VtES Championship which took place in Bad Nauheim, Germany on December 11th, 2011. Enjoy!

Maybe three weeks before the start of the tournament, I decided to go for the highest goal: to win the German Championships (GC). Seconded by the great Swedish player Isak Esbjörnsson Bjärmark, I choose to play a variation of my Anson Tap & Bleed deck, which in turn is a deck creation of Isak and his brother Adam, but with some minor modifications.

I never played Fear of Mekhet (there were no valid targets), and never used Force of Personality to enhance Entrancement to steal an ally (though there were targets in one game out of four).

I also had some thoughts about the meta-game in advance. I assumed that out of probably 25 players ..
  • 5 players would probably be unexperienced (maybe having problems even with some core rules),
  • 5 would already have played tournaments, but are not regular playing,
  • 10 would be experienced and regular players (maybe already with an entry in the TWDA),
  • 5 would be "great & famous" players.
Therefore seating would be relevant always, but in a somehow different manner..

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Results Hungarian National VtES Championship 2011

Copied from http://www.sevenoaksart.co.uk/flags.htmOn December 10th, 2011 the Hungarian National VtES Championship was held in Budapest, Hungary with 39 players attending the final tournament. The final standings were as follows:
1. Balázs Sebestyén (HUN) -- 2 GW 7,5 VP -- 2 VP -- Omaya & Aus/Ani Weenie Wall
2. Gyula Erdős (HUN) -- 2 GW 6 VP -- 2 VP -- Akunanse feat. Fakir al Sidi 15+ Wakes
2. Slaven Karakas (CRO) -- 1 GW 6 VP - 1 VP -- Kiasyd Stealth Bleed
2. Máté Vaka (HUN) -- 1 GW 6.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Gangrel antitribu Cel/Pro Aggro Poke
2. Goran Damjanic (CRO) -- 1 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP -- Giovanni Powerbleed
Congratulations to Balazs for his win of the Hungarian Nationals 2011. A tournament report by Mephistopheles from his point of view can be found his Hun Fragment blog.

Cause & Effect: Episode 1.8

The eighth episode of the VTES webshow Cause and Effect has been broadcasted live this Sunday (December 11th, 2011). The three Swedish hosts have chosen Mind Rape (and related decks) as their main topic this week. In addition the show features the first discussion and improvement of a deck in the deck clinic. The subject this time is a Dominate/Auspex/Thaumaturgy/Obfuscate Bleed deck named RiffRaff originally built by Lönnka.
The next episode (and last for this year) of Cause & Effect will be hosted next Sunday, which is December 18th, 2011.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

VEKN Designer Diary (Part 1)

© 1996-2001 Alan RabinowitzAfter the official announcement that the VEKN and the design team in particular is working on a new fan expansion for VtES in late November 2011, now the VEKN design team has published the first part of their Designer's Diary (on December 13th, 2011). The first part explains the general background and motivation for the upcoming (yet still unnamed) VtES expansion.

Read the full article on VEKN.net.

On an unrelated note, the picture on the right shows the artwork by Alan Rabinowitz for an early VtES promotional card that shows Vlad Tepes, but unfortunately was never published.

Announcement Portuguese National Championship 2011

The Portuguese VtES National Championship 2011 will take place in Lisbon, Portugal on December 18th, 2011. Here are the details for this constructed tournament:

Rules/Format:
  • Portuguese National Championship: Standard Constructed. Detailed rules can be found on the VEKN Tournament Rules web page.
  • Deck lists are required, either on paper, in electronic form (USB stick), or by email to the email address below.
Time:
  • Sunday, December 18th, 2011
    • Doors open/registration 10:00 AM
Location:
  • Myrdinn's Magic
    Complexo Olímpico das Piscinas do C. F. "Os Belenenses"
    1449-015 Lisboa
Round system:
  • 3 rounds (2 hours each) plus final (2.5 hours)
Entrance Fee:
  • 5 Euro
Price Support:
  • For non-finalists: promo cards and a booster.
  • For finalists: extra prizes.
  • Winner: special prize.
Remarks:
  • Players arriving from outside of Lisbon, should contact the organizer for possible accommodations and information.
  • Contact the organizer via email, tiago (/dot/) broom (/at/) gmail (/dot/) com.
Update: Please take note that both the venue and the date for the tournament have been changed!

VtES Trifles (Part 5)

The first three trading games developed by Richard Garfield and produced by Wizards of the Coast were Magic: the Gathering (1993), Vampire: the Eternal Struggle (1994) and Netrunner (1996). All of these were branded as part of the so-called "Deckmaster" series. But in fact, had little in common other than being trading card games and using the tapping cards (rotating cards by 90 degrees to indicate that they're being used). The brand name was actually never really used/marketed ever, since the buyers and players never really cared if a particular game was part of the series, but since the cardbacks had been printed in that fashion in the first editions, Wizard decided not to change them anymore. (Actually they did when the name of VtES changed from Jyhad to Vampire the Eternal Struggle (in 1995), but they didn't change the Deckmaster label).

Due the belonging to the "Deckmaster" series, the cards of the series had (approx.) the same dimensions. A deckmaster card ..
  • .. is 63 mm wide and 88 mm high (2.5 by 3.5 inches),
  • .. has a thickness of less than 1 milimeter,
  • .. weighs 1.814 g (about 0.064 ounces).
References:

Monday, December 12, 2011

Results German National VtES Championship 2011

On December 11th, 2011 the German National VtES Championship 2011 was held in Bad Nauheim, Germany with 25 players (from 3 countries) attending the final tournament. The final standings were as follows:
1. Martin Schumacher (GER) -- 1 GW 4 VP -- 1.5 VP -- Tremere/Tremere Antitribu Triple B
2. Erol Hammer (GER) -- 1 GW 4 VP -- 0.5 VP -- True Brujah Bleed
2. Vincent Ripoll (FRA) -- 1 GW 4 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Daughters (& Ventrue friends) Shattering Crescendo
2. Manuel Diehm (GER) -- 1 GW 3.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Gangrel G2/3 Wall
2. Rudolf Garski (GER) -- 2 GW 8 VP -- 0 VP -- Anson & Friends Ashur Presence Tap&Bleed
Congratulations to Martin for his win of the German National Championship 2011. The deck he played was quite similar to the one he won the tournament with a week ago in Arnhem (Netherlands).

Saturday, December 10, 2011

VtES History: VtES Players Kit (2006)

The VtES Player's Kit (product code: WW2257 / ISBN 1-58846-899-2) was an introductory set for VtES beginners, and was released at the same time as the Third Edition expansion in 2006. It contained basically the material needed for 4 players to start with VtES and was sold for $24.99 (list price). The player's kit contained a number of different items:
  • Four 50-card introductory decks.
  • A large turn-by-turn instruction.
  • 120 blood tokens (red glass).
  • A Rulebook.
The four decks are actually halved versions of the Third Edition starter decks. Each of them had 44 library cards and 6 crypt cards. The decks were pre-stacked for use with the turn-by-turn instruction to guide new players through the game.
In addition, in each of these four decks there was one crypt cards, which did not show a colored (finalized) version of a vampire, but "only" the artist sketch. Here's a picture of the four "unique" crypt cards from the VtES Players Kit:
All the cards from the VtES Player's Kit are tournament legal (including the four special crypt card versions) and function in the same way as the "original" cards from the Third Edition.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Announcement Danish National VtES Championship 2012

The Danish National VtES Championship 2012 and the Danish European VtES Championship Qualifier will take place at the same weekend. The two tournaments are scheduled to take place in Copenhagen, Denmark on March 10th and 11th, 2012. Everyone, of course, is welcome to participate, and the organizers hope that as many players can make their way to Copenhagen as possible. For more information and pre-registration you can contact the organizer by sending an email to "c [/dot/] nislev [/at/] gmail [/dot/] com".
  • Date: March 10th (Saturday) and March 11th (Sunday), 2012
  • Time Schedule:
    • Registration: 11:30 (Saturday) and 10:00 (Sunday)
    • First round starting time: 12:00 (Saturday) and 10.30 (Sunday)
    • Expected finishing time: 21.00 (Saturday) and 19.30 (Sunday)
  • Format: Standard Constructed, detailed rules can be found on the VEKN website.
  • Number of rounds: 3 Rounds + Final
  • Time limit: 2 hours per round
  • Location:
    TBD (in Copenhagen)
  • Pre-registration: Please pre-register by email to "c [/dot/] nislev [/at/] gmail [/dot/] com" so we have an idea about numbers for prize support and other purposes.
  • Travel Info & Accommodation: We will do our best to help players from abroad with accommodation, either at the homes of local players or at a hostel/hotel if preferred. For info about accommodation and flights to Copenhagen Airport (Kastrup), email "c [/dot/] nislev [/at/] gmail [/dot/] com".

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Did you know, that ... (Part 82)

.. you are allowed to play a Cryptic Rider on an automatically passing referendum. So you can (for example) start playing a Dia de los Muertos first. Then you can call a vote, then play Cryptic Rider during that referendum making the next referendum successfully called passing automatically as well. And of course, you can repeat this until you run out of Cryptic Rider and political action cards (and vampires calling these referendums).

On the other hand, it's not possible to play Delaying Tactics during a political action that is automatically passing since there's no referendum during which the card can be played [LSJ19980107].

Reference: VtES Usenet Newsgroup [LSJ20031009].

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Not a Victim of Night

From the latest Magic: The Gathering expansion Innistrad:
Victim of Night
Cost: BB
Type: Instant
Cardtext: Destroy target non-Vampire, non-Werewolf, non-Zombie creature.
For use in VtES, I guess, most would agree to "what a waste of cardspace" .. ;) Although the quote on the card is kind of nice:
"Do not touch a drop. Not yet. I want to watch this so-called slayer's last crisis of faith."

Announcement US National VtES Championship 2012

The date and place for the US National VtES Championship 2012 have been announced. Next year the National VtES Championship will take place on September 2nd, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia. The tournament is going to take place during DragonCon 2012, the largest multi-genre convention in the world with more than 45,000 attendants in 2011.

United States National VtES Championship 2012
  • Date: Sunday, September 2nd, 2012
  • Time: 11 AM (start time)
  • Format: Standard Constructed tournament
  • Rounds: 3 rounds and final
Beside the National Championship on September 2nd (Sunday), there will be multiple VtES events during Labor Day weekend (during which DragonCon is scheduled this year). It starts with a 2R+F (2 rounds and final) VtES tournament on August 30th (Friday night). Then there are two more VtES tournaments on September 1st (Saturday), both 2R+F. Monday is holiday in the US, so you can travel on that day, or play in a Duffin Draft that morning.

More information on the event (and some DragonCon specifics can be found on The Lasombra's website. General event information can also be found on the VEKN Calendar.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Deck of the Month feature in 2012

As some of my dear readers may already have seen on the HunFragment blog, Mephistopheles has announced to start his own Deck of the Month feature in January 2012. Since I myself found it harder every month (in 2011) to find suitable candidates for the series, I have decided to make way for Mephistopheles and therefore I will not put up Decks of the Month (for at least next year). I just hope his own way of judging and looking at decks will give the feature a nice, little boost. Nonetheless, I will then link Mephistopheles' choices on the Deck of the Month main page, at least to give the series some sort of continuity/consistency.

Deck of the Month: November 2011: Toreador Powerbleed

This month's deck is the tournament winning deck "Toreador Power Bleed" played by Aleksi Nuora. The deck name is a joke with regards to Andre LeRoux's special ability, because the deck is actually an Enkidu multi-rush deck. Since Enkidu's rush is often at zero stealth the use of Freak Drive (or Forced March) is not an option you can rely on when trying to multi-rush with Enkidu. So instead of playing the aforementioned cards is to enter combat with another minion, play an Earth Meld in the first combat to untap and then play Psyche! to start a second combat a hit for real. It's still not an easy deck to play, since you have to rush the vampires in the proper order to make your VPs and finally the GW and you have to avoid the table hate that is likely to come up (up to and including a Pentex Subversion). One other feature to note is, that the deck has three options to bleed for 3 or more. First, the little Imbued module with Beatrice and Strike with Conviction. Secondly, you have the Codex of Edenic Groundskeeper, which will takes it toll once Enkidu has taken care of your prey's minions. And lastly, the namesake of the deck, the Toreador Andre LeRoux, who can boost his bleed to 3 or even more.

There's a somewhat similar deck played Benoit Olivieri (from March 25th, 2006), but Aleksi's design is more radical in its approach and that's the reason why I have chosen his deck as the Deck of the Month. And thanks to TheRedDuke making me notice the deck again by playing a modified version of the deck in the tournament in Arnhem last weekend.
Fee Stake Helsinki I
Helsinki, Finland
February 26th, 2011
3R+F
19 players

Deck Name: Fee Stake Helsinki I: Toreador Power Bleed
Author: Aleksi Nuora

Crypt (Capacity min=1 max=11 avg=6.25; 12 cards)
===================================================

1x Anarch Convert 1 -none- Caitiff:ANY
2x Andre LeRoux 3 aus Toreador:5
1x Clifton Derrik 2 cel Brujah:4
5x Enkidu, The Noah 11 for ANI CEL OBF POT PRO !Gangrel:4
1x Fairuza 4 pre CEL !Brujah:5
1x Idrissa 4 aus CEL Osebo:4
1x T.J. 3 cel for Gangrel:4

Library (90 cards)
=====================

Master (5 cards)
1x Monster
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Villein
1x Wash
1x Wider View

Action (11 cards)
1x Abbot
1x Ambush
1x Big Game
1x Bum's Rush
1x Deep Song
1x Harass
1x Heroic Might
1x Rumble
2x Sense Death
1x Taunt the Caged Beast

Equipment (1 cards)
1x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers

Retainer (1 cards)
1x Raven Spy

Action Modifier (1 cards)
1x Forced March

Combat (71 cards)
1x Armor of Vitality
3x Claws of the Dead
2x Disarm
10x Earth Meld
19x Psyche!
2x Pulled Fangs
15x Pursuit
4x Sideslip
2x Skin of Night
1x Street Cred
12x Taste of Vitae

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Dec 6, 2011 00:51:52)

Cause & Effect: Episode 1.7

The seventh episode of the VTES webshow Cause and Effect has been broadcasted live this Sunday (December 4th, 2011). The show had a guest this week in the person of Pascal Bertrand, the VEKN rules director. They talk about the latest Rules Team Rulings (2012-DEC-02) and about Pascal's tournament win (EC 2009 Last Chance Qualifier) with a Weenie Auspex deck (even though he denies that it is).
The next deck challenge was given this time by Pascal, and he challenged the audience to build a proper deck based on Count Germaine. In contrast to the past challenges, it doesn't need to be answered within a week, but (an unspecified) number of weeks.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Reasonably Priced Decks: Brujah antitribu

The following deck based on the Brujah antitribu clan is the second deck in the Reasonably Priced Decks series, which I have outlined in a previous blog post.

The deck is vote (& rush) deck based on the Kine Resources Contested and Conservative Agitation votes flavoured with some combat. Essentially it's a stripped down version of the Unexpected Coalition deck by David Wittmann.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Rage vs. Vampire

As discussed on VEKN.net, a number of abnominations/vampires/werewolves have been printed both in VtES and in Rage (the card game based on Werewolf: The Apocalypse rolepaying game), which are Allonzo Montoya, Count Vladmir Rustovich, Samuel Haight, and Walks-With-Might.





















































Saturday, December 3, 2011

Results "Bloodfeast II" VtES Tournament in Arnhem, Netherlands

Here are the results of the "Bloodfeast II" VtES constructed tournament in Arnhem, Netherlands after 3 rounds and final. The tournament was played on December 3rd, 2011 with 18 players participating. Here are the standings after the final round:
1. Martin S. (GER)-- 2 GW 4 VP -- 3 VP -- Tremere Midcap Triple-B ("Bruise/Bleed/Block")
2. Thomas K. (NED) -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 2 VP -- Ventrue Lawfirm G4/5 1st Tradition
2. Ralf L. (GER) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Euro Brujah feat. Beast/Theo Rush Combat
2. Michel de J. (BEL) -- 2 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP -- Assamite G4/5 feat. Amavariti Bleed & Vote
2. Emilano I. (ITA) -- 0 GW 3.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Ishtarri Vote
Congratulations to Martin for his victory in the tournament. And this should be the fifth (recorded) TWD for Martin, so congratulations for entering the TWD Hall of Fame as well. The decklist of the winner can be found on VEKN.net.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Rules Team Rulings: 02-Dec-2012

Today (on December 2nd, 2011) the VEKN released the rules changes for the upcoming calendar year. All these changes are going to be effective from January 1st, 2012 onward. The most significant change are the cardtext change on Villein, which makes all of sudden Minion Tap playable again, and making VEKN issued cards tournament legal. The later preparing the release of the upcoming first VEKN issued VtES expansion.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

It's a Bird .. It's a Plane .. It's Windham

As seen during the Day 1 tournament during the VtES EC 2011 in Warsaw, Poland:
It's not an Una deck, but very similar using Gerald Windham instead. According to the player who fielded the deck, it needs about 30 to 35 minutes for the setup, then bleeds for 16. twice each round! One time on the player's own turn and then on another player's turn (using Enkil Cog).

Post Scriptum: The Disarm on Gerald is not part of the decklist!

Announcement "Ebony Kingdom Frankfurt" VtES Draft Tournament

A special VtES draft tournament named "Ebony Kingdom Frankfurt" will be held in Frankfurt a.M., Germany on December 30th, 2011.
  • Date: December 30st, 2011
  • Place:
    Trianon Hochhaus
    Mainzer Landstr. 16-24
    60325 Frankfurt am Main
  • Format: Non-Sanctioned Draft Tournament
  • Rounds: 2 rounds + final (each round 90 minutes only)
  • Timetable
    Registration: 18:00
    Draft: 18:00 to 19:00
    Round 1: 19:15 - 20:45
    Round 2: 20:45 - 22:15
    Final: 22:15 to 23:45
  • Entry Fee: 1 EUR + 2 EUR for each booster
  • Content of the Draft (possibly subject to change):
    3x Ebony Kingdom,
    2x Legacies of Blood,
    3x Third Edition
    40 cards is the minimum library size (no recursion), 8 cards minimum crypt size.

  • Special Rules:
    • There are one copy of three extra cards which are placed in the middle of the table and can be acquired (by taking an action). See the sample cards (possibly subject to change). Update: New versions of the cards have been uploaded!
    • Each players may also include 3 Aye and 3 Orun as addition to his 40+ card library. The Aye and Orun added this way don't count for the minimum number of 40 cards of the library.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

VtES Tournament and Attendance Statistics

After drnlmza had posted a statistics on VEKN.net (about a week ago) on the number played during the past years as well as the average number of players in a tournament for the past 4 years, I wanted to extend the statistics for the remaining years. Basis for the the following statistics is Lasombra's Tournament Winning Deck archive:

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Sum Tournaments 68 113 95 113 111 197 221 237 211 246
Avg. #Players 22,46 21,88 23,71 23,70 25,46 22,31 21,44 20,57 21,56 19,33
Std. Deviation 11,82 11,21 11,40 11,54 11,71 11,15 10,12 8,51 10,18 7,82

The statistics suggests that the actual number of tournament has increased for years while the average attendance of players is dropping more or less steadily since 2006. But I think the data base is somewhat tainted, since the data is based only on those information from Lasombra's TWDA. It would be more interesting to also check the data from the VEKN rating system to actually cross-check this information and see if the data and the trend are actually valid. It could be also the case, that only the willingness to report the tournament winning deck has increased.

A geographical distribution is in my opinion very hard to do sensibly at the moment. For most countries there's simple not enough sample data. When the new tournament reporting system (on VEKN.net) is up and running for year or two, we can extract more data and make some reasonable trend analysis.

One observation that I have made while looking at the raw data, is that the number of tournaments with approx. 10 to 12 players and only 2 rounds and a final has actually increased, which would explain why the average player attendance has dropped a bit.

Monday, November 28, 2011

EC Gamewin & Timeout Statistics (Update)

As a marginal note: I have updated the EC Gamewin & Timeout Statistics post with the information from the missing First Chance Qualifier (Paris 2010). The data from the different tournaments is now even more resembling to each other! Quite astonishing, in my opinion.

Many thanks to Pascal and especially Vincent for their efforts of getting hold of the EC FCQ 2011 Archon!

Cause & Effect: Episode 1.6

The sixth episode of the VTES webshow Cause and Effect has been broadcasted live this Sunday (November 27th, 2011). Center of the discussion this time are Salubri decks (in general) with special emphasis on Spirit Marionette. In addition the three Swedish hosts talk about the recent timeout discussions after this year's European Championship and present the winner of last weeks Deck Challenge (regarding a Shalmath deck),

Friday, November 25, 2011

Reasonably Priced Decks: Tzimisce

The following deck based on the Tzimisce clan is the first deck in the Reasonably Priced Decks series, which I have outlined in a previous blog post.

In its core it's a plain, simple Bleed deck with some diversions in combat and intercept .. and the diversions are what makes your opponent guess how much combat and intercept you actually have in your deck. Which, of course, makes it difficult for him to (re)act accordingly.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Reasonably Priced Decks

After buying a rather large VtES collection (something about 14,000 cards) at the end of last year, I had (and still have) a large surplus of common and uncommon cards. So the question came up, what to with the cards.
  • Throw away the cards. -- Ugh. Not really my thing to throw away something useful/valuable to others.
  • Donate it to the local card pool. -- Maybe, but there's no local card pool, or more important, local new players.
  • Sell them in bulk on EBay. -- Less work, but also less profitable (and fun).
  • Sell them individually on EBay. -- More profitable (perhaps), but also much more work.
  • Sell them on demand/request by fellow players. -- Also takes some time, but over a much longer period of time.
What I did was something different (at least I am a starting with that). Similar to the Barbed Wire Project for VtES or comparable the Pauper/Peasant formats (in MtG), I have tried to put a number of decks together, which are both cheap, sturdy, but still able to win games (or be able to make VPs at least). Since the bulk of the surplus are the mid- to late-expansions (like Black Hand, KMW, Third Edition and Sword of Caine) I am starting with the Sabbat clans, and maybe extending the deck building to the four independent clans from Lords of the Nights. Eventually I am planning to sell those decks, at whatever opportunity arises, from local tournaments to fellow players (in Germany).

When building a deck, it always starts with looking at the disciplines a clan has reasonable access to (also known as "clan disciplines), and looking up which are the commons (and uncommons) I have for these disciplines. This defines the basic stock of that deck, and most likely the direction the deck is gonna take (bleed, vote, combat, ally, ..). These cards are complemented by a few cards requiring the clan in question (i.e. a Hunting Ground). Then I add master and minion cards which have no requirements, but are useful in general or for the deck's direction.

At last, I am looking at the crypt. The vampires are taken from group 3-4 or group 4-5, since these are the expansions I have in surplus. I almost exclusively go for the low- to mid-cap vampires, because for a beginner's decks I think it's important that a player has access to a lot of actions, and is not just sitting around with 1 or 2 vampires, of which only one will act, since the second would often only be kept for blocking purposes then. With three or even four vampires at hand, you can act with two or three vampires depending on the situation at the table.

Then I start actually building the deck(s), making slight adjustments if I don't have the proper number of cards in my surplus stock (both for crypt and library) for 3 to 4 copies of the deck. The next step is to take playtest the deck. First in the casual rounds and after a game or two I play them in our (bi-)weekly league rounds. During this I try to optimize the deck (within the same limits as before) and come to a version which I am content with.

Of course, these decks could be even better if I would allow myself to add more rare cards to it, but that's not really the point of the exercise. And of course, these decks cannot be considered tier 1 (or even maybe tier-2), but against other casual decks (with or without rare cards) they can hold their ground, and score a victory point or two and an occasional gamewin should be possible, too.

In the following weeks, I will present these decks here on the blog, starting with a Tzimisce Bleed deck tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Did you know, that ... (Part 81)

.. you can play Voter Captivation after having played a Freak Drive. The reason is they're both played after resolving the action. So you're free to order of playing the two cards.

Reference: VtES Usenet Newsgroup [LSJ20060706]

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Cause & Effect: EC 2011 Interviews

The Cause and Effect team has made a couple of interviews with VtES players and VEKN officials and today they released the interview videos:
  • Interview with Johannes Walch, Chairman of the VEKN.
  • Interview with Pascal Bertrand, Rules Director of the VEKN.
  • Interview with Tomasz Izydorczyk, Winner of the EC 2011 Legendary Vampire tournament.
  • Interview with Hugh Angseesing, this year UK National Champion (and inventor of the Ventrue antitribu Grinder deck archetype).
  • Interview with Hugh Angseesing (Part II).

Cause & Effect: Episode 1.5

The fifth episode of the VTES webshow Cause and Effect has been broadcasted live this Sunday (November 21st, 2011). This time the three hosts from Sweden invited the new European VtES Champion, Otso Saariluoma (Finland) and discuss with him his deck, the events and the final round of the recent European Championship in particular.

Monday, November 21, 2011

EC Gamewin & Timeout Statistics

Since I was asked about statistical data on past VtES European Championships, regarding the distribution of gamewins and timeouts, I dug up the Archons (ExcelSheets) from the ECs in Palma de Mallorca (2009), Paris (2010) and Warsaw (2011). After adding up the results from all the different tournaments (Legendary Vampire, Last Chance Qualifier, Day 1, Day 2 and First Chance Qualifier), the summary for these tournaments look like this:



GW5 GW4 GW3 GW2 No GW Sum Timeout
EC 2011 Sum 18 51 83 39 81 272 102
EC 2011 Pct 6,62% 18,75% 30,51% 14,34% 29,78%
37,50%
EC 2010 Sum 19 63
88
41
89
300
109
EC 2010 Pct 6,33% 21,00% 29,33% 13,67% 29,67%
36,33%
EC 2009 Sum 15 36 52 29 55 187 64
EC 2009 Pct 8,02% 19,25% 27,81% 15,51% 29,41%
34,22%


















As you can see, despite some suggestions given on VEKN.net, there's no trend towards less gamewins. It's even interesting to notice how similar the distribution of GWs are over the past three EC tournaments. At most, you can see see a very slight trend towards more timeouts (last column in the table above), but this could also very well to be within the normal statistical deviation. After all, the data proves only how individual impressions can lead to false conclusions which are not founded on the actual data.

Two remarks regarding the base data:
  1. The data from Prague is missing the Legendary Tournament (the format was introduced in 2010 in Paris).
  2. I am only counting the five player games in order to have more comparable results.

Update: On November 28th, I have added the missing data from the Paris FCQ tournament.