Did you know, that ... (Part 67)

... you can tap Yoruba Shrine to let an Edged Illusion or Shattering Crescendo action fail, even if only one of the targeted vampires is an Assamite?

References:

• VtES Usenet Newsgroup
• VtES Usenet Newsgroup

Memorable Quotes (Part 116)

"The thing that trips me up the most is when winning becomes too important. When I'm able to just relax and play is when I'm the most effective." -- Matt T. Morgan (NAC 2011 Winner)

Reference: VEKN.net

Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2011: June 22nd

Before (hopefully) a large number of tournament reports of the NAC 2011 will flood the VEKN forum, I wanted to show you the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2011 from the meeting on June 22nd, 2011.

Left: Ralf played a new deck, based on Nergal & the Great Beast (and some other Baali from G4/5). But since he was the starting player and no Nergal showed up in his starting crypt, he decided to move Anazir to the ready region. But without being able to fully utilize the potential of the library cards (i.e. Anazir had the wrong disciplines), a Great Beast only showed up very slowly. And since he could only play one Villein successfully, he was ousted quite quickly by the Martin's Malkavians/Malkavian antitribus. Therefore no VP (and no picture!)..

Left: Kinner played a Celerity Gun deck based on the weenie/mid-cap vampires from group 2 (and 3?). Initially it looked got, he got his guns and had enough combat mojo, but then two of his three vampires (those with guns of course) were "gifted" with a Sensory Deprivation. But eventually he drew a Fame, and managed to torporize the famed vampire, this allowed him to oust his prey, and suddenly he had all the forward motion he had lacked a good part of the game.



Left: The deck Zille played was his well-known Gabrin & Friends Bleed deck. In the beginning he really had to struggle against the Celerity Gun deck behind him, but things looked better when he used his defensive part of his deck (i.e. the Sensory Deprivation) against his predator. He tried to lunge against his prey, but when his Week of Nightmares was canceled by Sudden Reversal he simply lacked the ousting power to oust the Brujah before him quickly. One or two turns he was so weakened by the pool loss of the Fame, that he was ousted by Kinner, even though his predator had only minion (Jimmy Dunn) who could act.

Left: Another well-known deck was the New Brujah Vote deck played by Thomas. While not being serious pressure, he was building up quite nicely, having three titled vampires in play (Dmitra, Karen Sudela and Tara) eventually. But he lacked some forward momentum initially, and so he could oust his prey only after he had put a New Carthage in play and only after his prey already had scored a VP.




Left: Martin finally played his Malkavian/Malkavian antitribu Dementation Bleed deck. An early Jackie allowed him to bleed hard in the first few rounds (using Kindred Spirits and/or Eyes of Chaos, but then his bleed modifiers didn't show up in sufficient quantities and it took him some turns to finish off Ralf's Baali. Weakened by a back rush of the Great Beast and careless block of a Brujah by Gem Ghastly didn't leave him enough vampires (and time) to oust his second prey.



The heads-up was witness to an interesting stand-off between Thomas' Brujah and Kinner's gun-wielding vampires. While Thomas had the superior bleed and vote potential, Kinner managed to send all of Brujah to torpor quite quickly, and Thomas yielded the game with no ready minions available about ten minutes before the time limit.

Result: Kinner 3 VP GW, Thomas 1 VP, Martin 1 VP

Results Polish EC Qualifier 2011

On June 25th, 2011 the Polish VtES EC Qualifier 2011 was held in Bydgoszcz, Poland with 34 players attending the qualifier tournament. The final standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Pawel Kosz (POL) -- 2 GW 5.5 -- 4 VP -- Malkavian/Malkavian antitribu S&B
2. Marcin Watras (POL) -- 2 GW 11 VP -- 1 VP -- Tupdog multirush
2. Tomasz Kowalewski (POL) -- 2 GW 11.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Saulot
2. Michal Kaszubski (POL) -- 2 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP -- Malkavian Rachel Brandywine PRO
2. Michal Kurzycki (POL) -- 1 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Malkavian(?) S&B

Congratulations to Pawel for his win of the Polish ECQ 2011. You can find the final standings and the tournament winner's deck in the Polish VtES Forum.

Results Croatian EC Qualifier 2011

On June 25th, 2011 the Croatian VtES ECQ 2011 was held in Osijek, Croatia with 17 players attending the final tournament. The final standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Denes Kocis (CRO) -- Ventrue Lawfirm feat. Arika
2. Nikica Novakovic (SRB) -- Ventrue antitribu G3/4 Grinder
2. Milos Krstic (SRB) -- Nana Ashur/Ani Combat
2. Ivan Gudelj (CRO) -- Akunanse No Secrets
2. Roko Veic-Sukreski (CRO) -- Tremere antitribu Toolbox Ally

Congratulations to Denes for his win of the Croatian ECQ 2011. You can also find the tournament winning deck on VEKN.net.

Did you know, that ... (Part 66)

.. that when you're choosing to pay for your allies or weapons after a Kindred Segregation or Peace Treaty has been played (by another Metuselah) and you have played Poison Pill, the other player loses as much pool as your paying for keeping your assets. That's the case because paying for the allies or allies is considered loosing pool (as if you were targeted by a Kine Resources Contested or Anarchist Uprising).

Reference: VtES Usenet Newsgroup.

Memorable Quotes (Part 115)

"Please please please shhhhhh about Art of Memory
[..]
Right now, I think there are maybe a half a dozen people on the tournament scene who really know what the value of that card is. Good. We only have to eliminate four other people and the tech is ours alone!" -- TryDeflectingThisGrapple (US VtES Player)

Reference: VEKN.net

Barbed Wire Project

The Barbed Wire Project (BWP) was an initiative started by Preston Poulter in 2005 to provide beginners with a number of decks which are somewhat cheap (consisting mostly commons), but still playable and sturdy. The name Barbed Wire Project derived from an early advertising slogan for barbed wire in the late 19th century, which cited as barbed wire as

"Light as air.
Stronger than whiskey.
Cheaper than dirt."

With the help of the community on VtES Newsgroup he came up a number of (more or less) ingenious decks. From time to time Preston sold (and still) sells these decks on eBay. The deck consist of 60 library and 12 crypt cards, examples look like this:

• Brujah deck
• Gangrel deck
• Malkavian deck
• Nosferatu deck
• Toreador deck
• Tremere deck
• Ventrue deck

Please take that there no definitive deck lists for each of these decks, since they can vary in the crypt and/or library composition.
Preston also has made some nice videos (although the sound is awfully silent) on YouTube where he's playing some of these decks against each other:

• Barbed Wire 1
• Barbed Wire 2
• Barbed Wire 3
• Barbed Wire 4

Reference: VtES Usenet Newsgroup

Announcement Spanish National VtES Championship 2011

The Spanish National VtES Championship 2011 will be held in Sevilla, Spain from October 29th to 30th, 2011. The championship is a two day event, first a last chance qualifier will be held and then the actual championship tournament.

• Location:
  

  Hotel Eurostars Sevilla Congresos
  Avenida Alcalde Luis Uruñuela s/n, East
  41020 Sevilla

• Schedule/Format:
  
  • Saturday, 29th: Last Chance Qualifier. 25% of those classified (rounded up) will be qualified for the national tournament the following day.
  • Sunday, 30th: National Championship. Only those players may participate players who have obtained a place for it in one of the official national qualifiers or the last chance qualifier as well as the first 5 players in the Spanish ranking.
  
  
• Remarks:
  
  • If you have obtained a place in on of the national qualifier tournaments you do not need to participate in the last chance qualifier.
  • Also on Sunday 30th, a tournament will be held as an alternative to the national tournament participation for those who wish to participate.

More information can be found in the Spanish VtES Forum.

Results Italian EC Qualifier 2011

On June 19th, 2011 the Italian VtES ECQ 2011 was held in Bologna, Italy with 42 players attending the final tournament. The final standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Alessandro Donati (ITA) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 3 VP -- Giovanni Powerbleed DOM
2. Dennis Floreano (ITA) -- 1 GW 6 VP -- 2 VP -- D'Erlette/Nephandus Trick
2. Danilo Torrisi (ITA) -- 3 GW 11 VP -- 0 VP -- Tupdog/Rock Cat/Nephandus
2. Enrico De Stefano (ITA) -- 3 GW 9 VP -- 0 VP -- Ravnos Carnival w/ Embraces
2. Nicola Lonardi (ITA) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Toreador antitribu/Embrace/ Palla Grande

Congratulations to Alessandro for his win of the Italian ECQ 2011. You can find the final standings on Italy by Night.

Great Lakes (Origins) NAC Qualifier 2011

Kicking off the Week of Nightmares 2011, on June 19th, 2011 the VtES Great Lakes (Origins) NAC Qualifier was held in Newark, Ohio with 24 players attending the qualifier tournament. The final standings were as follows:

1. Sven Randy Rudstam (SWE) -- 3 VP -- Gangrel Tap&Bleed
2. Rodd Closson (USA) -- 2 VP -- Malkavian antitribu G3/4 Dementation Bleed
2. Brad Cashdollar (USA) -- 0 VP -- Toreador Cel Gun Wall
2. Sarah Ritzius (USA) -- 0 VP -- Malkavian antitribu G2/3 Dementation Bleed
2. Pascal Bertrand (FRA) -- 0 VP -- Ishtarri No Secrets from the Magaji

Congratulations to Randy for his win of the Great Lakes (Origins) NAC Qualifier 2011.

Week of Nightmares 2011 about to start!

The Week of Nightmares is the prelude to the North American VtES Continental Championship. It's a whole week of VtES -- a series of tournaments switching between regular constructed tournaments and alternate formats like create-a-clan tournaments or storyline events. The Week of Nightmares starts on June 19th, 2011 and leads over to the NAC 2011 on June 23rd with the Last Chance Qualifier. The whole Week of Nightmares as well as the NAC 2011 takes place in Columbus, Ohio. during Origins 2011. The schedule for the Week of Nightmare 2011 looks like this:

• Sunday, June 19th 2011
  
  • Great Lakes Regional Qualifier
    Comic Shop Plus
    235 S 21st Street
    Newark, OH 43055 USA
    3R + F
    1pm to 9 PM
• Monday, June 20th 2011
  
  • Guardtowner Event #1
    Guardtower
    3600 Trabue Rd
    Columbus, OH 43204 USA
    2R + F
    11 AM to 5 PM
  • Guardtowner Event #2
    Guardtower
    2R + F
    6 PM to Midnight
• Tuesday, June 21st 2011
  
  • Guardtowner Event #3
    Guardtower
    2R + F
    11 AM to 5 PM
  • Guardtowner Event #4
    Draft/Limited event
    Guardtower
    2R + F
    6 PM to Midnight
    $8 entry fee
    3 packs 3rd Ed + 1 pack Black Hand
    20 card min deck, 4 card crypt and 2 recursions
    
• Wednesday, June 22nd 2011
  
  • Guardtowner Event #5
    Guardtower
    2R + F
    11 AM to 5 PM
  • Guardtowner Event #6
    Guardtower
    2R + F
    6 PM to Midnight

More information on the Week of Nightmares and NAC 2011 can be found on Lasombra's NAC 2011 and the event calendar on VEKN.net.