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.

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.

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),

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.

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.

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]

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.

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.

Results UK National VtES Championship 2011

The UK National VtES Championship 2011 has been played on November 19th, 2011 in London, UK with 24 players attending the tournament. The standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Hugh Angseesing (UK) -- 4 GW 13.5 VP -- Toreador feat. Anson Tap & bleed
2. Wlodek Chimiak (POL) -- 2 GW 9 VP -- Tzimisce prey punisher
2. Kieran Carder (UK) -- 1 GW 6 VP -- Unre/Baron Fun
2. Norbert Flasko (HUN) -- 2 GW 9 VP -- Toreador antitribu Palla Grande
2. Lorenzo Melchor (ESP) -- 1 GW 4.5 VP -- Giovanni Shambling Hordes

Congratulations to Hugh for his win of the UK Nationals 2011. You can find the tournament winning deck and the final standings in the VEKN.net.

New Fan Based VtES Expansion in Development by the V:EKN

During the VtES European Championship 2011, the chairman of the VEKN, Johannes Walch, made a brief announcement regarding an upcoming VtES expansion in 2012. Today on VEKN.net he gave more details on this upcoming expansion. In particular he stated:

• There will be a new, fan-made set created by the V:EKN.
• There is a development team within the V:EKN. Members may or may not disclose their membership.
• The set will be 20-30 cards in size.
• The targeted release is 2012, no exact date known yet.
• The cards will be tournament legal for constructed tournaments, just like any other set.
• The cards will have to be printed out in color on standard paper, cut out properly and stuck in sleeves before an original V:TES cards.

Gines Quiñonero is the art director. If you are an artist and want to contribute or if you are a layout wizard please contact him.
Robert Goudie, the V:EKN marketing director will update you with more information in the coming months.

Results EC 2011: Silence Of Death

Here are the results from the Silence of Death tournament that was played during the VtES European Championship 2011 on November 12th, 2011 in Warsaw, Poland. The format is somewhat different from the regular constructed VtES tournament insofar that table talk is not allowed at all. The only talking allowed is with regards to announcing actions, blocks, combat, etc. 30 players participated in this EC side-event tournament, the standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Jesus Herruzo Luque (ESP) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 2 VP --
2. Maciej Frankowiak (POL) -- 1 GW 6 VP -- 2 VP -- Tzimisce Piper Warghoul
2. Djordje Sutic (SER) -- 1 GW 5.5 VP -- 1 VP --
2. Tomasz Kloczko (POL) -- 2 GW 8.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Nephandus Swarm
2. Niina Stenberg (FIN) -- 1 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP --

Congratulations to Jesus Herruzo for winning the Silence of Death tournament this year. You can find the full standings on VEKN.net.

Bochum VtES League 2011: November 18th

Here are the decks of the Bochum VtES League 2011 from the meeting on November 18th, 2011 (the next prey is from top to bottom

Right: Initially it looked not too bad for Hardy. His New Brujah Vote/Combat deck had three princes out, but he had issues with both his predator and prey playing combat(ish) decks as well. More importantly he hadn't a suitable target for his Parity Shift, not wanting to kill his predator too early (the only target at a point) in fear of Sascha's Malkavian bleed deck. After Ralf died early on in the game, he tried to rush and block the Malkavians, but either Sascha had (almost) always had the right answer or Hardy lacked the cards to hurt the Malkavians in combat significantly. In the end, Second Tradition: Domain wasn't enough intercept to match the Malkavians' stealth, and Sascha ousted Hardy within three turns after becoming his predator.

Right: A new deck, a Gangrel Bloat'n'Tools, was played by Michael. The deck featured Zayyat, The Sandstorm & Beckett (ADV), which allowed him to get recruit Raven Spies and fetch equipment (like Ivory Bow and Helicopter) with Magic of the Smith. This setup was quite slow, but he was able to hold off the Brujah more or less easily, preventing most of the damage with Fortitude while hitting back with Carrion Crows. In the end, he had a decent pool gain with Eco Terrorists, Powerbase Montreal and by hunting in a Helicopter, but he lacked decent forward motion to put significant pressure on Sascha, especially in the early and mid-game.

Right: Sascha had a slow start with his Malkavian G4/5 Bleed deck since he first vampire was Lutz von Hohenzollern. Sascha then choose to play The Call and a second Malkavian came up the next turn. And this when he started bleeding in earnest. If I remember correctly, Lutz was always bleeding for 4 to 6, with his fellow Malkavians not too far behind. He then protected Lutz first with a Secret Passage, and then even with Secure Haven in addition. Although a couple of times one of the midcap Malkavians was sent to torpor, he was always able to rescue them from torpor and with the help of the Coven (unfortunately played by Michael) they went on with business (bleeding, of course) as usual.

Right: Initially it didn't look too bad, when Ralf, playing a Magaji w/ Animalism Wall deck, had Olugbenga up with both a No Secrets from the Magaji and a Raven Spy, but Sascha always had enough stealth to overcome these obstacles. Ralf struggled to keep up with another No Secrets from the Magaji, another Raven Spy (on Olugbenga) and Channel 10, Sascha always had more than enough stealth, especially thanks to Into Thin Air. So even when Ralf only moved Olugbenga (+1 intercept against bleed actions) and Uchenna to the ready region and sitting on 16 pool when Sascha started bleeding, he was ousted in two turns.

In the endgame (after Hardy and Ralf had been ousted), Michael was having significant poolgain each turn, but lacked the ousting power to oust Sascha, who was cleverly playing the clock down. Sascha was greatly helped by the facts that he had Momentum's Edge out (giving him one pool each turn) and that Michael's next vampire in the crypt was Fakir al Sidi (an 11 capacity Gangrel), so effectively he had only to sustain a bleed of two each turn (at maximum). So when Sascha was finally down to two pool, the timeout came.

Result: Sascha 1 GW 2.5 VP, Michael 0.5 VP.

EC 2011 GW & Timeout Statistics

The organizers of the EC 2011 (thanks Marcin!) were so kind to give me the Archon ExcelSheets containing the tournament results from the EC 2011. I have collected/aggregated the different game win types (i.e. gamewin with 5 VPs, 4 VPs, etc.)

	GW5	GW4	GW3	GW2	No GW	SUM
LV	1	1	3	5	5	15
LCQ	8	23	28	8	20	87
Day 1	5	17	23	12	18	75
Day 2	0	3	6	5	10	24
FCQ	4	7	23	9	28	71
SUM	18	51	83	39	81	272
AVERAGE	6,62%	18,75%	30,51%	14,34%	29,78%

For better comparison here are some graphs for the different tournaments:




































To draw any conclusion is rather hard. For that I would need more data from previous European Championships. But in my opinion the number of games without game wins especially for the FCQ qualifier.


The percentage of timeouts (which does not necessarily mean there wasn't gamewin):

• LV -- 53,33%
• LCQ -- 21,84%
• Day 1 -- 38,67%
• Day 2 -- 54,17%
• FCQ -- 49,25%

The number of timeouts during the Legendary Vampire & Day 1 tournament are (in my experience) is what you can expect when such a number of high quality players (and decks) are present, I find the number of timeouts in the Last Chance Qualifier and even more so in the First Chance Qualifier rather high. Without having seen the contents of the decks I wouldn't attribute it to excessive table talk, but the bloat capability of the decks (i.e. the use of Villein). I would be nice to actually have the average number of Villein (or similar cards) in the decks.

Did you know, that ... (Part 80)

.. that you can play Seduction on one of your own vampires. This has very little practical value, other than card cycling. But imagine a situation where one of your vampires (with Enkil Cog or Madness Network) is taking actions during your prey's turn and one of your vampires has a Temptation (from your prey) which could possibly switch control during the action and your vampire can be become a blocker to your own action.

Reference: VtES Usenet Newsgroup (LSJ20060519).

Results EC 2011: European Championship (Day 2)

Here are the results from the European Championship (Day 2) tournament that was played during the VtES European Championship 2011 on November 11th, 2011 in Warsaw, Poland. 40 players participated in this EC tournament, the standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Otso Saariluoma (FIN) -- 1 GW 6 VP -- 1.5 VP -- Nana/Nanglia Were Ani/Pot Rush Combat
2. Enrico Di Stefano (ITA) -- 2 GW 5.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Tremere Antitribu Rockcats/Embraces
2. Milan Horvath (HUN) -- 1 GW 5.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Malkavian antritribu(?) Obf/Pre Vote
2. Marcin Watras (POL) -- 1 GW 5.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Anson Cel Gun w/ Ashur Tablets
2. Izaak Havelaar (NED) -- 2 GW 5 VP -- 0 VP -- Malkavian feat. Tryphosa Bleed/Vote

Congratulations to Otso for winning the European VtES Championship 2011. More information to follow. A similar transcript as for the EC Day 1 Finals will (most likely) be posted for the Day 2 tournament on VEKN.net as well.

Results EC 2011: First Chance Qualifier

Here are the results from the First Chance Qualifier tournament that was played during the VtES European Championship 2011 on November 13th, 2011 in Warsaw, Poland. The tournament gives players the first opportunity to qualify for the European Championship tournaments for the next year. 118 players participated in this EC tournament, the standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Djordje Bjelajac (SER) -- 2 GW 8.5 VP -- 1.5 VP -- Unmada/Scout Youngwod Shattering Crescendo Parity Shift
2. Pierre Tran Van (FRA) -- 2 GW 8 VP -- 0.5 VP -- EuroBrujah feat. Theo Bell & Beast
2. Guyla Erdos (HUN) -- 2 GW 7.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Tzimisce G2 Wall
2. Tomasz Kloczko (POL) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Antonio D'Erlette Nephandus
2. Maciej Trenda (POL) -- 3 GW 9.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Giovanni Khazaar's Diary

Congratulations to Djordje for winning the FCQ of the EC 2011. For qualifying for next year's Continental Championships 1 GW 3 VP were necessary.

Results EC 2011: European Championship (Day 1)

Here are the results from the European Championship (Day 1) tournament that was played during the VtES European Championship 2011 on November 12th, 2011 in Warsaw, Poland. The tournament is played as a qualifier for the actual EC tournament on the next day. The top 40 players qualify for the next day's tournament. 133 players participated in this EC tournament, the standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Balazs Sebestyen (HUN) -- 2 GW 8.5 VP -- 1.5 VP -- Weenie Auspex Wall
2. Erol Hammer (GER) -- 3 GW 11 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Stanislawa & Friends Pro/Dom Bleed/Vote
2. Greguss Csaba (HUN) -- 3 GW 10 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Neo Ventrue Lawfirm
2. Isak Esbjörnsson Bjärmark (SWE) -- 2 GW 9 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Girls will find ..
2. Enrico di Stefano (ITA) -- 3 GW 9 VP -- 0 VP -- Ravnos Laibon Eldest are Kholo Breed/Boon

Congratulations to Balazs for winning the Day 1 tournament of the EC 2011. To be in the top 40 of the Day 1 tournament you needed exactly 1 GW 4 VP.

Results EC 2011: Last Chance Qualifier

Here are the results from the Last Chance Qualifier tournament that was played during the VtES European Championship 2011 on November 11th, 2011 in Warsaw, Poland. The tournament gives the players a last opportunity to qualify for the European Championship tournaments on the followings days. 144(?) players participated in this EC tournament, the standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Gyula Erdos (HUN) -- 3 GW 10 VP -- 1.5 VP -- Nana Buruki & Friends Animalism Combat
2. Martin Varga (SVK) -- 2 GW 8.5 VP -- 1.5 VP -- Lutz & Friends Obf/Pre Vote
2. Tomasz Zygowski (POL) -- 3 GW 12 VP -- 1 VP -- Lasombra Moncada Bleed/Vote
2. Aleksander Idziak (POL) -- 2 GW 11 VP --0 VP -- Malkavian '94 Obedience
2. Tadziu Dawidowski (POL) -- 2 GW 10 VP -- 0 VP -- Malkavian/Malkavian antitribu Stealth Bleed

Congratulations to Gyula for winning the LCQ of the EC 2011. 48 players were qualified for the Day 1 tournament and you needed 1 GW 3.5 VP to actually qualify.

Results EC 2011: Legendary Vampire Invitational

Here are the results from the Legendary Vampire tournament that was played during the VtES European Championship 2011 on November 11th, 2011 in Warsaw, Poland. This was an invitational tournament, where 25 of the best VtES players in the world, fight for the victory. The standings after 3 rounds and the final were:

1. Tomasz Izydorczyk (POL) -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 3 VP -- Ahrimanes Wall
2. Peter Botos (HUN) -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 2 VP -- Tremere Rockcat
2. Otso Saariluoma (FIN) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Mistress Fanchon & the Funky Bunch Mind Rape
2. César Ruipérez (ESP) -- 2 GW 5 VP -- 0 VP -- Nana Buruki & Friends Animalism
2. Brian Moritz (USA) -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 0 VP -- Tremere/Tremere antitribu G2/3 Toolbox

Congratulations to Tomasz for winning the Legendary Vampire tournament of the EC 2011.

On Shuffeling a Deck Properly

Watch Tomoharu Saito, one of the most successful Magic: The Gathering players shuffle his deck:

Memorable Quotes (Part 129)

"If a player has 0% change of getting a single VP (thus 0% chance of getting the GW), then he's free to go amok, and back-oust, oust, or self-oust. Or continue playing. -- Floppyzedolfin, VtES Head Rulesmonger.

Reference: VEKN.net

Cause & Effect: Episode 1.4

The fourth episode of the VTES webshow Cause and Effect has been broadcasted live on this Sunday (November 6th, 2011). The three hosts discussed their preparation efforts for the upcoming European VtES Championship in Warsaw, Poland as well as some typical decks likely to be encountered during the EC.

Did you know, that ... (Part 79)

.. a vampire with Dominate still can play Obedience even when successfully rushed by another vampire using Deep Song. The key for this is timing. Obedience is played "when about to enter combat" (i.e. before the combat), while Deep Song's effect that the reacting player's minion becomes the acting minion is actually taking place in the combat. So just before combat while the reacting player's is still reacting he can play the Obedience and thus avoiding combat and thereby the effect of Deep Song.

Secondly, the reacting vampire is not tapped by acting vampire's Deep Song, by playing Obedience he prevents the "enter combat" part and is therefore not tapped. As LSJ remarked, this is "similar to the case of another 'tap and enter combat' effect: a successful block".


Reference:

• VtES Usenet Newsgroup. (13/May/2009)
• VtES Usenet Newsgroup (02/Mar/2009).

European Stealth

European Stealth is a mocking term which describes a tactic/strategy in VtES. Essentially one uses not stealth (using Obfuscate or similar disciplines) to bypass blocking minions, but the use of cards like Pentex Subversion, Anarch Troublemaker or Misdirection. The term was coined by the American VtES player Matt Morgan in 2009 when describing (in exaggeration) the tendency that European players use to pack 3 Pentex Subversions into every deck.

Reference: VtES Usenet Newsgroup.

Did you know, that ... (Part 78)

.. that when playing Repulsion on a vampire, the stealth provided by the card is added immediately to the action, even though it might not the be needed at that point. The relevant point here is, that it's not the play of the card that grants the stealth (like Lost in Crowds etc.), but the card being on the vampire -- and nothing stops you putting it on the vampire (unless they already have one).

References: VtES Usenet Newsgroup && VEKN.net

Results Norwegian National VtES Championship 2011

On October 29th, 2011 the VtES Norwegian National VtES Championship was held in Oslo, Norway with 12 players attending the championship tournament. The final standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Øyvind Monsen (NOR) -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 1,5 VP -- Ventrue Princes
2. Frode Løining (NOR) -- 1 GW 3 VP -- 1,5 VP -- Nakhthorheb bleed
2. Joakim Peerson (NOR) -- 1 GW 6,5 VP -- 0,5 VP -- Ventrue w/Arika
2. Patrick Robinsson (NOR) -- 2 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP -- Gangrel Renegade Garou
2. Eric Meland (NOR) -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 0 VP -- Ravnos

Congratulations to Øyvind for his win of the Norwegian Nationals 2011. You can find the full standings in the VEKN forum.

Deck of the Month: Oktober 2010: Unexpected Coalition

This month's deck is the tournament winning deck "Unexpected Coalition" played by Soufiane Bouzouf and build by Noel Giménez Infante, both from Spain. The deck could well serve as template for a good Brujah antitribu deck which shows that this clan can be the base for viable tournament deck. This deck is a breed-and-boon deck using Creation Rites as bread-and-butter vampires and Unexpected Coaliation as a vote push card. Once the deck has like 4-5 vampires out, this card really shines, since Unexpected Coaliation is not only an action modifier, but can also be used a reaction (as vote defense).
There's a somewhat similar deck named Sometimes a coalition is necessary.." by David Wittman (HUN) which reached the finals of the EC 2008 Day 1 tournament. The deck deserves some honorable mentioning, not the least, because the deck was on the shortlist for the Deck of Month September 2008. David's deck has less stealth, but is much more combat-orientated by including .44 Magnums (and other cards) instead of Majesty.
Other candidates for the Deck of the Month this time were the decks Female Attack by Jan Kacor (a very consequential Shattering Crescendo deck) and The Terrible Walking Sticks (based Anson/Ashur Tablets with a load of Weighted Walking Sticks).

Deck Name: Before the Dawn: Unexpected Coalition
Created by: Noel Giménez Infante
Played by: Soufiane Bouzouf
Before the Dawn
Barcelona, Spain
October 15, 2011
21 players
2R + F

Crypt (Capacity min=3 max=10 avg=7.42; 12 cards)
===================================================
3x Armin Brenner 10 ani obf CEL FOR POT PRE !Brujah:4
1x Axel Von Anders 5 cel obf pot PRE !Brujah:4
2x Hektor 9 for CEL POT PRE QUI !Brujah:4
3x Miguel Santo Domingo 7 cel for POT PRE !Brujah:3
1x Ryszard 6 pre pro CEL OBF !Gangrel:4
1x Shawnda Dorrit 6 obt pot pre CEL !Brujah:4
1x Smash 3 pot pre !Brujah:4

Library (90 cards)
=====================
Master (16 cards)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Black Forest Base
1x Coven, The
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Lilith's Blessing
1x Monastery of Shadows
3x Obfuscate
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
4x Villein

Event (1 cards)
1x Uncoiling, The

Action (18 cards)
7x Creation Rites
3x Embrace, The
6x Enchant Kindred
2x Entrancement

Political Action (17 cards)
3x Banishment
6x Consanguineous Boon
2x Conservative Agitation
4x Kine Resources Contested
1x Meddling of Semsith, The
1x Reins of Power

Equipment (1 cards)
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Action Modifier (20 cards)
6x Forced March
3x Forgotten Labyrinth
2x Into Thin Air
3x Veil the Legions
6x Voter Captivation

Combat (7 cards)
7x Majesty

Combo (10 cards)
2x Resist Earth's Grasp
8x Unexpected Coalition

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Nov 1, 2011 20:39:27)

Results Spanish National VtES Championship 2011

On October 30th, 2011 the Spanish National VtES Championship 2011 was held in Sevilla, Spain with 32 players attending the final tournament. The final standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Noel Giménez Infante (ESP) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 1,5 VP -- Akunanse Wall
2. Alejandro Pascual Álvarez (ESP) -- 2 GW 9 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Tupdog Inceptor
2. César Ruipérez Martínez (ESP) -- 2 GW 5,5 VP -- 0.5 VP
2. Soufiane Bouzouf (ESP) -- 2 GW 6.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Brujah antitribu Breed&Boon
2. Jorge Verdi Vaca (ESP) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Neo-Ventrue Lawfirm

Congratulations to Noel for his win of the Spanish VtES Nationals 2011. You can find the full standings in the Spanish VtES forum.