Deck of the Month: November 2010: True Power

This month's deck is the tournament winning deck "True Power" played by Péter Botos (Hungary). I already mentioned the deck earlier this month in the Decks of Interest article (he was qualifying for the Day 2 tournament of the EC 2010 with this deck), but when Péter managed to win the Hungarian VtES Championship with this deck, this was a welcome opportunity for me to push this deck into the spotlight. The deck is almost similar to the EC version, only Ankara Citadel and Flaming Candle have been removed for one copy each of Tangle Atropos' Hand and Vaticination.

The deck is based on the True Brujah G5/6, namely Lydia and Al-Muntahir, and is essentially a bleed deck relying on bleed equipment and some Quicksilver Contemplation. Peter uses both True Brujah (paying even the Scarce penalty) to equip with various unique bleed equipment, and then bleed hard with them. Instead of using copious amounts of stealth the deck relies on a number of different angles to outplay opponents:

• multi-action via Domain of Evernight & Freak Drive.
• tap & bleed via Recurring Contemplation, Mind Numb, and Tangle Atropos' Hand.
• punishing block attempts with Crocodiles Tongue
• punish successful blockers with the simple yet efficient Domain of Evernight & Outside the Hourglass combo.

Summon History has a small yet vital role, namely to fetch the bleed equipment (or Veneficti Mage, if useful).

Deck Name: Hungarian National Championship 2010: True Power
Author: Peter Botos
Description:

Crypt (Capacity min=3 max=9 avg=6.75; 12 cards)
==================================================
4x Al-Muntathir, God's Witness 8 obf qui AUS FOR PRE TEM True Brujah:5
1x Andre LeRoux 3 aus Toreador:5
4x Lydia, Grand Praetor 9 dom pre AUS FOR POT TEM True Brujah:6
1x Tyler McGill 4 pre AUS Toreador:5
2x Veejay Vinod 3 AUS Nagaraja:6

Library (90 cards)
=====================
Master (16 cards)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
3x Perfectionist
1x Remover
1x Tabriz Assembly
4x Villein
1x Wider View

Action (12 cards)
2x Mind Numb
3x Summon History
7x Vaticination

Equipment (3 cards)
1x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers
1x Guarded Rubrics
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Ally (1 cards)
1x Veneficti (Mage)

Action Modifier (24 cards)
2x Crocodile's Tongue
11x Domain of Evernight
2x Freak Drive
2x Recurring Contemplation
7x Tangle Atropos' Hand

Reaction (18 cards)
6x Eyes of Argus
3x My Enemy's Enemy
3x On the Qui Vive
6x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (10 cards)
10x Outside the Hourglass

Combo (6 cards)
6x Quicksilver Contemplation

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Dec 1, 2010 00:27:50)

Memorable Quotes (Part 94)

In a recent discussion on optimal decksize in VtES (on rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad) _angst_ stated:

"And yeah, I know I sound like a complete **** but seriously guys, recent studies have proven most people don't understand the fundamentals of this games, I'm seriously..."

To which Haze responded:

"I was curious if this were really true, so I conducted an informal survey. I asked several random people on the street some simple questions about the fundamentals of VTES. It turns out most people really don't understand basic concepts such as gaining stealth, or what the edge is used for. They had no grasp on the Influence phase and transfers. One guy tried to mug me, so I marked him down as understanding combat even though he had no clue that he's supposed to try to oust his prey.

So this confirms that, yes, most people in the world just don't know jack about VTES deckbuilding."

Reference: VtES Usenet Newsgroup

VEKN Announces New Director of Marketing

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Player's Organization Appoints Robert Goudie to Administrative Board Position

LOS ANGELES, CA - November 20th, 2010 -- Johannes Walch, Chairman of the Vampire: Elder Kindred Network, and the organization's National Coordinators have approved the appointment of Robert Goudie to the V:EKN Administrative Board. Mr. Goudie will serve in the role of Director of Marketing and is charged with keeping existing V:TES players informed and engaged while also endeavoring to attract new players.

Robert Goudie is a former Chairman of the V:EKN and Developer of the Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Players Guide. He has been credited as a developer on several V:TES expansions and has designed V:TES events including the Prophecies League and the Nergal and Eye of Hazimel storylines.

The V:EKN organization is undergoing a revitalization in response to the news that CCP would cease publication of new V:TES expansions. The filling-out of the Administrative Board is an important step by the V:EKN in its effort to support organized play around the world. The V:EKN is in the midst of creating a new website which it expects to launch at the end of the year.

---

About Vampire: Elder Kindred Network

Founded in 1997, the Vampire: Elder Kindred Network is the official Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Players' Organization dedicated to the continued health of V:TES. The V:EKN endeavors to help the game grow in popularity through the embracing of new players as well as through the support of the existing fans.

About Vampire: The Eternal Struggle

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is a Deckmaster™ trading card game set in White Wolf’s popular World of Darkness. Created in 1994 by Richard Garfield as the follow-up to his groundbreaking Magic: The Gathering trading card game, V:TES is one of the most enduring games in the genre with fans and organized play events in countries across the globe.

© Vampire: Elder Kindred Network 2010. All rights reserved.

---

Contact:
Robert Goudie
Director of Marketing
Vampire: Elder Kindred Network
Marketing (/at/) VampireTheEternalStruggle (/dot/) com

nec·ro·man·cy

Nec·ro·man·cy [ˈnɛkrəʊˌmænsɪ] -- noun

1. A form of magic in which the practitioner seeks to summon the spirit of a dead person, either as an apparition or ghost, or to raise them bodily, for the purpose of divination.


2. Black magic; Sorcery.

The word necromancy derives from the Greek νεκρός (nekrós), "dead body", and μαντεία (manteía), "prophecy, divination". The compound νεκρομαντεία itself is post-classical, first used by Origen in the 3rd century. The classical Greek term is nekyia (ἡ νέκυια), in Hellenistic Greek also νεκυιομαντεία, rendered in Latin as necyomantia and in 17th century English as necyomancy.

Quote:

"The third sister, Morgan le Fey, was put to scole in a nonnery, and ther she lerned so moche that she was a grete clerke of nygromancye. -- Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory

Did you know, that ... (Part 52)

.. you can recruit a Rom Gypsy and use their special ability, that is tap to give a Ravnos +1 stealth for the current action, in that same turn? That is, although the Rom Gypsy is moved (face up) to the uncontrolled region as reminder that he cannot act that turn, you can still use the special effect of that ally, in this case tapping for giving a Ravnos stealth.

This, of course, applies to other allies' special abilities, too, for example the Vagabond Mystic.

Reference: White Wolf VtES Forum

VtES EC 2010 Decks of Interest

During the VtES EC 2010 there was a strong tendency towards known and strong decks, which had proven to give players sure game wins (and sometimes even) tournament wins. For example regarding bleed decks, there were basically four types of decks:

• Kindred Spirits Stealth Bleed (including both weenie Dementation version and the version with larger vampires and more Obfuscate)
• Kiasyd or Lasombra Stealth Bleed (mostly with the G4/5 vampires) with or without Nocturns
  
• Giovanni Powerbleed
• Ventrue feat. Edward Vignes Bleed

In addition some, but not many Weenie Dominate, Baali Obf/Pre S&B or Gerald Windham & Friends Bleed decks showed up.

Or in other words, there were very few "rogue" decks with new and/or at least some surprising tricks. Some of the more interesting decks of the EC (not already shown as finalist's decks) include the following:

• Legendary Vampire (October 29th, 2010)
  
  
  
  • The Blood Brothers Kiev Bleed deck played by Jakub B. (POL) played, is built around the in-circle disciplines Sanguinus, Fortitude and Protean, but basically is stealth bleed deck with strong bloat component using 16 copies of Unwholesome Bond.
  
  
  • A Cybele/Lutz/Unmada deck was played by Otso S. (FIN), which basically runs the same engine as the now classic Cybele/Aksinya/Inner Circle deck, but uses Derangement to gain vote control on the table. The deck is not entirely new and already won the Finnish ECQ tournament earlier this year.
  
  
  • This is a Al-Munthahir & Friends Summon History built by The Lasombra and played by Robyn T. (USA). Key to this political deck is Summon History which is used to put several big cap titled Sabbat and Camarilla vampires on play.
  
  

---



• Last Chance Qualifier (October 29th, 2010)
  
  
  
  • Christophe B. (FRA) fielded a Lasombra G4/5 feat. Appius Black Hand Nocturn deck, which was a nice of change of pace in comparison to the other Lasombra & Kiasyd Stealth Bleed decks. The deck uses a significantly different crypt consisting of Appius Claudius Corvus and his Lasombra Black Hand friends, and uses a few cards requiring the Black Hand to great effect.
  
  
  • When looking at the Midcap G2/3 Obf/Dom Ally "Stuff" deck, which was played by Otto K. (FIN), I am still wondering how this deck is gonna work. It has several minions with Dominate and/or Obfuscate, yet chooses to play Computer Hacking. The main vampire is Kyoko Shinsegawa, but the only card requiring a discipline she can play is Deflection. I mean, it looks like a bloat/swarm bleed deck, but it appears to be less effective than it could be. On the other hand it scored 1 GW 5.5 in the LCQ tournament.
  
  
  • One of the most interesting deck is the Followers of Set feat. Nakhthorheb Chameleon played by Marko S. (FIN). He uses Nakhthorheb, which becomes first Baron, then plays Chameleon to take control of vampires just moved to the ready region. The trick mainly works in the first half of the game, when Nakhthorheb is influenced quickly using Eternals of Sirius, but can be pulled off later as well with the help of Banishment.
  
  
  • Another deck based on Al-Muntahir is the Al-Muntahir Summon History Powerbleed used by Tomas W. (SWE) in the LCQ tournament. This time Summon History helps to gather a truckload of bleed equipment and bleed retainers, to finally be able to bleed for 7 without playing a card. Quite similar to an Una Freakshow deck ..
  
  
  • The Followers of Set G4/5 feat. Cybele Illomba Set's Curse deck built and played by Ivan M. (SWE) made it Deck of the Month September 2010. Read more there about this unique deck.
  
  
  • Teemu S. (FIN) played Arika/Tyler & Lasombra Friends Baltimore Purge. The deck uses Arika and especially Tyler to be able to first put down a number of opposing vampires using Baltimore Purge, and then diablerize one or more vampires with the help of Tyler's special ability to untap after she diablerize a vampire.
  
  
  • Similar to Robyn's deck (see above), the Al-Muntahir/Inner Circle Summon History as played by Martin S. (NOR) summons Inner Circle members to do their master's bidding. This deck is not as focused as voting as Robyn's, but has a stronger ally angle.
  
  
  • Frode L. (NOR) uses his Nadima/Mirembe/Nehsi Pro/Set Hatch the Viper Rush deck to setup his vampires superior Protean & Serpentis with a number of Hatch the Viper retainers, and then rushes his opponents to put them down
  
  
  • What do you do when you want to play Weenie vote deck and you're in need of some extra votes? Put 17 Orun in it, or at least that's what Benjamin B. (FRA) did with his Weenie Laibon Orun Vote. Similar to the Team Africa deck, the deck uses the different Laibon clans for gaining vote majority at the table without spending too much pool on its vampires.
  
  

---



• EC 2010 Day 1 (October 30th, 2010)
  
  
  
  • The deck played by Otso S. (FIN) was Weenie G1/2 Anarch Auspex Wall. This is more or less a run-of-the-mill Weenie Auspex deck, but with Constant Revolution it has a stronger finisher than the regular deck. And the cost is for this angle is rather low, all you need is a number of Anarch Converts and two copies of Constant Revolution. Also two copies of Madness Network strengthens the bloat capability in conjunction with Victoria's special ability. And she's good spin for the deckname .
  
  
  • Peter B. (HUN) played a True Brujah G5/6 Aus/Tem Bleed deck, yet another example how the latest VtES expansion gave the bloodlines a boost. Peter uses both Lydia and Al-Muntahir (paying even the Scarce penalty) to equip with various unique bleed equipment, and then bleed hard with them. Instead of using copious amounts of stealth the deck relies on Tangle Atropos' Hand and Crocodiles Tongue to outplay the opponent. In addition the deck punishers with the simple yet efficient Domain of Evernight & Outside the Hourglass combo.
  
  
  • The fourth and last Summon History deck in this list is Ian Forrestal & Friends Summon History by Evgueny L. (FRA). He uses Ian Forrestal instead of Al-Muntahir (or any other True Brujah) to summon a number of different, most notably Tye Cooper and Ponticulus. With their help he can use Talbot's Chainsaw to turn this deck into a rush combat deck.
  
  
  • Daniele P. (ITA) plays a Mata Hari 50 Freak Drive Allies, and with that he has the deck with most copies of a single card during the tournament, even beating the Una Freakshow decks with exactly 50 Freak Drives. With 14 different allies the deck is obviously strong on allies and their individual strengths.
  
  

---



• EC 2010 Day 2 (October 31st, 2010)
  
  
  
  • Tomasz I. (POL) had a Followers of Set feat. Hesha Temptation/Bloat deck at the start, which uses Temptation as its key card both for tempting their own vampires (for bloating and equipping) as well as tempting key vampires of the opposing players.
  
  

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• First Chance Qualifier (October 31st, 2010)
  
  
  
  • Emiliano I. (ITA) with 2 GW 7 nearly reached the final in the FCQ. He played a Tzimisce G2/3 Maris Streck War Ghoul nicknamed "Wallghouls". The deck has strong control angle with Maris Streck's special, and it becomes even stronger when (in addition to Unmasking) the War Ghouls are granted the intercept Maris Streck provides.
  
  
  • Kristofer Å. (SWE) with his Assamite G4/5 Black Hand Contract deck in the first place looks like a standard (usually not very successful) rush combat deck, but in fact this deck has more to offer. It uses not only the Black Hand angle, specifically Black Hand Contract, but also the Anarch angle for the use of Steely Tenacity, giving the Assamites a copious amount of rushes.
  
  
  • The Mata Hari & Friends Vote/Sensory Deprivation deck played by Pierre-Denis B. (FRA) is another Mata Hari deck. The deck is rather toolboxy, but interestingly the deck has strong vote angle with various political locations, but also Sensory Deprivation as backup plan.
  
  
  • The Maureen & Friends Infernal Servitor was played by Pieter H. (NED) and built by his fellow countryman Izaak H. The deck uses the classic Dominate/Obfuscate bleed mechanism for ousting. Beyond that it has an added strong Baali angle with Unleash Hell's Fury for defense and Infernal Servitor and Greater Curse for offense
  
  
  • Let me present you the most focused deck in all of the EC 2010 tournament decks. This Brujah G1/2 Weenie Arms Dealer Flash Grenade deck was played by Christian N. (DEN). When looking at the deck you'll see that it has only 11 different library cards. For my point of view it might get a bit boring to play after a while, but it sure has focus. The basic trade of the deck is to equip the arms dealers (and/or Weenie Brujah) with Camera Phones and bleed your opponent with a horde a Weenies and Arms Dealers. If blocked play Concealed Weapon on Flash Grenade and thereby keep the opposing vampire tapped for his next turn.

---

I am not saying all of these decks are truly good and well-executed, but all of them (some more, some less) were a welcome change to a lot of standard decks seen during the EC. You can find (a few) extra EC 2010 decks on Secret Library when entering "EC 2010" as title in the deck search form.

Trends during the VtES European Championship 2010

During the VtES European Championship 2010 (and later when looking at the decklists) there were quite some interesting trends to notice:

• Bleed or vote decks with midcap (or larger vampires) beginning to pack events that hose weenies beyond Scourge of Enochians. Specifically for the bleed decks this seems to target Weenie Auspex or Weenie Animalism decks, since they tend to play 3 to 5 capacity vampires, which can be hit with events like Nightmare upon Nightmares and Thirst. See these decks as examples: Mr. Mojo Rising, Lasombra G4/5 Black Hand Nocturn or Stanislava & Friends PRO/DOM Vote/Bleed.


• Baali have shown a very strong presence in the tournaments. Not only the Cybele (in its various incarnations) deck, but also Baali bleed decks like Nergal Powerbleed or "simple" Baali Pre/Obf Bleed decks, and vote decks with Arisat and Annazir were seen quite often. One of the major reason for the rise of the Baali decks is that the new Baali vampires (from the Heirs to the Blood expansion) are really good, and Tend the Flock together with Villein is a powerful combination for compensating for the infernal penalty.


• Although Dark Influences was released two years ago (with the Keepers of Tradition expansion), it hadn't seen that much during the EC 2009. This year it was quite different. Dark Influences was all over the place, with many tables having an Dark Influences in play. The reason? My guess is, that players especially with aggressive decks or relying on certain key actions (for example the Nergal Decks) pack this card, to prevent from being preventing getting a VP by last second Direct Intervention.
  


• Rush decks suck at big tournaments, big time. For example, a very large number of rush decks in the FCQ ended up in the bottom third of the field (100th place+). The reason for that, I guess in most games players tend to gang up on the few rush decks, being ousted crosstable or backwards playing these decks is often seen.

Memorable Quotes (Part 93)

"You're the Imbued, you're the problem!!!" -- overheard during the EC 2010 Day 2 tournament

Did you know, that ... (Part 51)

.. if a vampire attempts to bleed for four (i.e. Lucian the Perfect or Arika with Heart of the City), and uses Night Moves as bleed action card, he can be burned by Archon Investigation, even though the bleed would be reduced to one during action resolution?

The reason is simply that Archon Investigation only cares about the attempted bleed, not about the resolution of the bleed action. For the same reason, a vampire bleeding for four more is not helped by a Protected Resources in play, when an opposing Methuselah plays Archon Investigation.

Reference:

• VtES Usenet Newsgroup
• VtES Rulings on Protected Resources.

Deck of the Month: October 2010: Snakes on the Plane

This month's deck is the deck "Snakes on the Plane" played by Ivan Marin-Rivas. Although it's not a tournament winning deck (as usual) and it certainly does not have the power level to be a tier-1 deck, it showed a solid 1 GW 3.5 VP in the Last Chance Qualifier during the EC 2010, and would have qualified the author for the Day 1 (if the author hadn't been qualified already). At first glance it might look like another Cybele deck, but it basically uses the Ashur Tablets & Liquidation engine for pool gain and card recursion only. When you look at the action card section, you'll see that it's completely different and a quite interesting approach. The deck has two different approaches for killing opposing vampires or allies. The first is straight forward with Set Curse's (ten copies!), killing allies and vampires with capacity less than 3, which is is helped by the occasional Barrenness for reducing a vampire's capacity. The second method is by putting an Ilomba on another vampire, and then waiting for the right moment (i.e. when the vampire is on zero blood) to burn the vampire by playing a Set's Curse on the Ilomba. This is often the case in the mid- or endgame when the vampire s become anemic (often thanks to Villein!) and is furthered by the various allies in this deck.

Deck Name: EC 2010 LCQ (56th Place): FoS & Cybele Set's Curse Illomba
Author: Ivan Marin-Rivas
Description:

Crypt (Capacity min=3 max=10 avg=6.83; 12 cards)
===================================================
1x Abdelsobek 5 for nec obf pre ser Follower of Set:5
1x Ahmose Chambers 3 obf ser Follower of Set:5
1x Bupe Kuila 7 pre OBF POT SER Follower of Set:4
4x Cybele 10 ANI DAI OBF PRE SER THA Baali:4
1x Ogwon 7 for OBF PRE SER Follower of Set:5
1x Renenet 5 ser OBF PRE Follower of Set:4
3x Zhenga 5 obf pre SER Follower of Set:4

Library (80 cards)
=====================
Master (36 cards)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
12x Ashur Tablets
1x Blind Spot
1x Coven, The
1x Fortschritt Library
2x Giant's Blood
2x Haven Uncovered
2x Jake Washington (Hunter)
5x Liquidation
3x Maleficia
1x Parthenon, The
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
4x Villein

Event (3 cards)
2x Unmasking, The
1x Anthelios, The Red Star

Action (21 cards)
4x Barrenness
3x Mozambique Allure
10x Set's Curse
4x Temptation

Ally (6 cards)
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Impundulu
1x Nephren-Ka
1x Ossian
1x Vagabond Mystic
1x Young Bloods

Retainer (4 cards)
4x Ilomba

Action Modifier (10 cards)
3x Cloak the Gathering
2x Elder Impersonation
1x Into Thin Air
2x Lost in Crowds
2x Veil the Legions

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Nov 18, 2010 01:33:10)

Poll Results: "Which city should host the VtES EC 2011"

Here are the results of the latest poll which city the readers of this blog would prefer for the upcoming VtES European Championship 2011. 467 readers of this blog have voted in this poll:

• Manchester, UK -- 127 (27%)
• Warsaw, Poland -- 275 (58%)
• No preference. -- 12 (2%)
• Somewhere else. -- 28 (5%)
• I won't go anyhow. -- 25 (5%)

A whooping majority for Warsaw with more than double the votes as for Manchester. Please take this poll with a grain of salt. It's informal, it's non-representative and it's not too hard to "cheat" if you really want. One fact that makes me a bit queasy is that the number of readers participating is more than 100 persons higher than any poll here before ..

Now let's see, how the VEKN decides where the next EC is going to be hosted. Rumor has it, the results of the VEKN deliberations will be announced on November 20th, 2010.

VEKN announces new Chairperson

Paris, France. November 1, 2010. – During the National Coordinators meeting at the European Continental Championship, the assembled National Coordinators along with the V:EKN advisory board, nominated Johannes Walch to be the Acting Chairperson of the Vampire: Elder Kindred Network, the official players’ organization for the trading card game, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle.

Johannes and the V:EKN advisory board announced that the new V:EKN website will be launched at the end of the year.

Some additional announcements:

• Robyn Tatu will remain as the Ratings coordinator and take over some of the organized play duties from Oscar Garza.
• Oscar Garza will still be available as an advisor and liaison with WW/CCP. He announced continued support from White Wolf for important events during 2011.
• LSJ will continue in his role as the Rules Monger and Tournament rules manager
• New to the Advisory board is Eric Chiang who will be the Storyline Coordinator and Ginés Quiñonero who is the V:EKN Website Coordinator.
  
• There will also be a Marketing team and the Marketing Director will be announced soon.

Systems for assigning National Coordinators, Princes and other volunteers and for communication between V:EKN and the player community where also outlined.

Additional information will be announced over the next 6 weeks and all the resources that players and tournament organizers need along with the V:EKN organization information will be available on the new website.

There will be a North-American Championship (NAC) and European Championship (EC) 2011. NAC is already announced, a vote for determining the location of the EC is currently held among the national coordinators, results due for end of November.

---

Vampire: Elder Kindred Network, created in 1997, is the Official V:TES Players' Organization dedicated to the continued health of V:TES. The V:EKN endeavors to help V:TES grow in popularity through the embracing of new players as well as through the support of the existing fans.

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is a Deckmaster trading card game set in White Wolf’s World of Darkness. All rights reserved.

Direct inquiries to:

David Tatu, Scribe
Vampire: Elder Kindred Network
David_tatu (/at/) yahoo (/dot/) com

thau·ma·tur·gy

thau·ma·tur·gy [thȯ-mə-tər-jē] -- noun

• the performance of miracles
• magic; witchcraft, wizardry

The word thaumaturgy originates from Greek "θαῦμα" (thaûma) meaning "miracle" or "marvel" and ἔργον (érgon), meaning "work".

Memorable Quotes (Part 92)

Everything is better with 8 Villeins. -- Didi (German VtES player) during the recent EC in Paris

Historical VtES Deck Size Statistics

Currently there's a discussion going on in the VtES Usenet Newsgroup regarding the optimal decksize. By chance, a few weeks I collected some data from Lasombra's TWDA, checking for decks and their number of cards used by tournament winners. As you can see 90 card decks make nearly 60% of the total TWD. This number has dropped in recent years, but still a fair number of decks from the past few years carry 90 cards.
Please take note the scale is logarithmic, otherwise you wouldn't see much beside the overwhelming number of 90 card decks. It looks as if there's no deck with the size of 69 cards, but due to the logarithmic scale the one deck with 69 cards is not shown.

In addition, some data from the VtES EC 2010. During the EC in Paris the average decksize of the five finalists of the five main tournaments were as follows:

• Legendary Vampire -- 78 cards average
• Last Chance Qualifier -- 78 cards average
• Day 1 Tournament -- 87 cards average
• Day 2 Tournament -- 88 cards average
• First Chance Qualifier -- 90 cards average
  

It's not so easy to draw any conclusion whether 90 cards decks are good (or even optimal), since you don't really know if these decks would have performed any better with less cards. On the other hand, decks with 60 or 70 are not automatically better than those with higher card counts, otherwise more of them would show up in finals or as tournament winners.

In summary, all I am saying is that historically (with the data given) there's no evidence that 90 card deck do inherently better or worse than decks with less cards.

Here's the raw data as extracted from Lasombra's TWDA:

Decksize	# Decks	Decksize Grp	#Decks
60	41	60-64	57
61	6
62	3
63	4
64	3
65	9	65-69	24
66	8
67	4
68	2
69	1
70	41	70-74	84
71	9
72	13
73	9
74	12
75	42	75-79	111
76	19
77	28
78	12
79	10
80	87	80-84	156
81	16
82	23
83	15
84	15
85	18	85-89	175
86	23
87	21
88	48
89	65
90	894	90	894

Post-EC News on the VEKN

During the VtES EC 2010 in Paris, France there was a meeting of the national coordinators and other volunteers regarding the future and the direction of the Vampire Elder Kindred Network (VEKN), the VtES Players' Organization. With White Wolf/CCP stopping the production of VtES in September 2010, the VEKN will step up and become more active and visible than before.

Official information on the results of the meeting will be provided soon, but preliminary (and unofficial) information as given by Johannes Walch and Oscar Garza during the EC as well as information in the Spanish VtES forum are as follows:

• Election of new board (or Inner Circle) of the VEKN:
  
  • Chairman: Johannes Walch
  • Rules Coordinator: L. Scott Johnson
  • Liaison CCP/WW: Oscar Garza
  • Ranking Coordinator: Robyn Tatu
  • Storyline Event Coordinator: Eric Chiang
  • New VEKN website Coordinator: Ginés Quiñonero
  • Marketing Coordinator: N.N.
  
  
• There will be a European and North American Championship in 2011. The NAC 2011 will be held during the Origins Convention in Columbus, Ohio. The exact place and date for the EC 2011 is not finalized. Candidates cities for the EC 2011 are Manchester, UK and Warsaw, Poland. The final decision on this will be in the November/December 2010 time frame.


• As of January 1st, 2011, the mini-qualifiers cease to exist, and the winner of any tournament of 10 players (or more) will qualify for the continental championships.


• There will be prize support for tournaments for the next two years.


• There will be a new central website for VtES. The site will not only host vital information on VtES and VEKN, tournament rules, forums, etc., but also the new rating website. The new rating website will make it much easier to upload tournament results and correct of errors (e.g. wrong names or VEKN number). The designated launch date for this website is the end of 2010 (at latest).

Please take note of (and participate in) the surveys started by the Eric Chiang (Storyline Event Coordinator) on possible contents of Storyline Kits and on promo cards most wanted by players.

EC 2010 Finals Standings & Reports & Photos

On VEKN France most of the VtES European Championship 2010 results have been published by the French organization team (and Ankha in particular), that is:

• First Chance Qualifier results
• Day 1 Results
• Day 1 Final Report
• Day 2 Results
• Day 2 Final Report

In addition I have put up photos I have taken during last day of the EC 2010 on the VtES EC 2010 blog (and links to even more photos taken by other attendants of the event).

Bochum VtES League 2010: November 5th

Here are the decks of the Bochum VtES League 2010 from the meeting on November 5th, 2010 (prey is from left to right, from top to bottom):
Left: Ralf's deck was a Ventrue G4/5 Grinder deck using mostly mid-cap vampires.



Right: A Spell of Life deck with Followers of Set G4/5 was Hardy's choice of the evening.

Left: Didi was playing a Malkavian G1/2 Old School Toolboxy Bleed deck.
Right: Michael playing new decks almost all the time, played G4/5 Black Hand Bloat/Bleed deck with some casual intercept (Ministry) and lot's of untap. That pictures' from after his round

Game Summary: Everybody is bringing out vampires in turn two except Didi who needs a turn longer with Lucian. It becomes clear that we have to deal with Hardy first since with a Spell of Life every turn the table's on a clock. Luckily Ralf can block the fourth Spell of Life in turn 6 /(thanks to Ephor and Second Tradition Domain), and Hardy's efforts are delayed for a crucial turn, which Ralf uses to oust a tapped-out Hardy with a bounced bleed from Michael for three and number of bleed actions for one. In the mean time both Didi and Michael have built up nicely (as seen on the pictures), although Michael is a bit low on pool. The deciding turn is when Ralf chooses to use an Anarch Troublemaker in his turn to tap the last two untapped vampires from Didi, leaving him with just the Muddled Vampire Hunter as untapped minion. After resolving a set of three Ashur Tablets, Ralf plays two Parity Shifts (giving 3 pool each to Michael and himself), but then fails to draw the necessary bleed cards to try to oust Didi. On his turn, Didi uses the Anarch Troublemaker as well to tap all of Michael's vampires. Lucian then bleeds for 6 (all of Michael pool). One of Michael's vampires (all of them have Dominate) plays Forced Awakening, tries to block, but fails after Lucian plays stealth. Michael then bounces the bleed to Ralf, which promptly bounces back. But since Michael simply forgets that with the Forced Awakening he's still allowed to block the bleed (he even has some intercept in his hand) (and Ralf fails to remind him in time), Michael is ousted. The rest of the game is quickly told: Didi just uses Lucian to bleed (using Enkil Cog) with some Dominate bleed card and Lucian's three stealth (including an Elder Impersonation) are enough to oust Ralf.

Result: Didi 1 GW 3 VP, Ralf 1 VP

Announcement Italian National VtES Championship 2010

The details on the Italian National VtES Championship have just been announced, it will take place in Bologna, Italy on November 28th, 2010.

• Place:

  Dragon Store 2
  Via del Borgo di San Pietro 99N
  Bologna

• Date: Sunday 28th November 2010
• Format: Constructed, 3 Rounds and Final
• Schedule:

  Opening: 9:15 AM
  Tournament Start: 10:00 AM

• Entry Fee: 10 €


• Organization: Simone Longobardi (Prince of Bologna)
• Main Judge: Simone Longobardi
• Pre-Registration: Here you can pre-register on this website http://vampirismus.altervista.org/cita2010/pre.php to the event.
• Remarks:
  
  • The finalists will qualify for the EC 2011.
  • Decklists are mandatory
• Travel:
  
  • Bologna can be easily reached from anywhere in Europe via plane or train. If you need any information, please contact the organizers anytime.
  • On the Dragon Stores website you can find directions on how to reach the event location.
  • In the Italian VtES Forum you can find some information on hotel accommodation.

Did you know, that ... (Part 50)

... Vidal Jarbeaux cannot use Summoning (at superior Presence) to recruit (indirectly) an ally for which he doesn't have the requirement without using of his special ability, e.g. a Nephandus or an Arms Dealer.

The reason is that Vidal is not playing the ally directly (so the text of his special ability cannot be applied). The ally card simply isn't played (for the same reason you cannot play Direct Intervention on the ally summoned). In principal, for the same reason this prevents Vidal from getting weapons via Disguised Weapon or Concealed Weapon for which he doesn't meet the requirements (e.g. Femur of Tomler or Sword of Troile).

Reference: VtES Usenet Newsgroup.

pro·te·an

pro·te·an [prō-tē-ən] -- adjective

• displaying great diversity or variety
• versatile

Quote: "The protean nature of the computer is such, that it can act like a machine or like a language to be shaped and exploited." -- Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

Results EC 2010: European Championship (Day 2)

Here are the results from the European Championship (Day 2) tournament that was played during the VtES European Championship 2010 on October 30th, 2010 in Paris, France. 40 players participated in this EC tournament, the standings after 3 rounds and the final were:

1. Brian Moritz (USA) -- 2 GW 9 VP -- 3 VP -- Akunanse Bleed/Combat
2. Medhi Mazni (FRA) -- 1 GW 5.5 VP -- 2 VP -- Euro Brujah Parity Shift
2. Erol Ongun (GER) -- 3 GW 11 VP -- 0 VP -- Stanislava & Friends DOM/PRO Bleed/Vote
2. Otto Kukkasniemi (FIN) -- 1 GW 7.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Weenie Auspex/Necromancy Wall
2. Jesper Bøje (DEN) -- 1 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP -- Nergal Turbo/Powerbleed

Congratulations to Brian for winning the European VtES Championship 2010. He's the first player to win both the North American and the European Championship!

The final seating was Erol --> Brian --> Medhi --> Jesper --> Otto. The game ended about 10 minutes before the time limit.

Two quotes from the finals:

• Otto (a bit angry about prolonged talks about how Parity Shifts and stuff must be done): "You're talking for more than 10 freaking minutes, and nothing is happening."
• Erol (when asked if he transfers himself out) : "No, self-ousting is gay!"

Results EC 2010: First Chance Qualifier

Here are the results from the First Chance Qualifier tournament that was played during the VtES European Championship 2010 on October 31st, 2010 in Paris, France. The tournament gives the players the first opportunity to qualify for the Continental Championship tournaments in 2011. 149 players participated in this EC tournament, the standings in the finals were:

1. Jerome Goyet (FRA) -- 2 GW 8 VP -- 1.5 VP -- No Secrets from the Magaji Animalism Wall
2. Laurent Allonce (FRA) -- 2 GW 8 VP -- 1.5 VP -- Nakhthorheb Corruption Bleed
2. Johannes Walch (GER) -- 2 GW 9.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Tremere G4/5 Vote/Bleed
2. Lubomir Gargulak (CZE?) -- 2 GW 8 VP -- 0 VP -- Brujah G4/5 Alastor Vote
2. Jakub Hrbacek (CZE) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Una Freakshow Rush

Congratulations to Jerome for winning the first chance qualifier at the EC 2010.

Final Seating was Johannes --> Laurent --> Jakob --> Jerome --> Lubomir.