Rustwurk: To the Cardcycle, Batman

Here's an old article by Shaun McIssac, originally published on the now defunct Rustwurk website in November 2001. He writes about the importance of card cycling and card flow:

To the Cardcycle, Batman
by Shaun McIssac

One of the surest ways to lose a game of V:TES is to have a hand full of cards that don't help you in the current situation, and not discard to any cards that would help you in the current situation. This is commonly known as "hand jam" or "not $#@%ing drawing one of my 10 wakes." It will happen to most decks regardless of their composition because pretty much every card is at least in a somewhat similar situation and those that aren't tend to be weak (read: Ascendance). That being said, there are things you can do to significantly reduce the chances of getting hand jam.

The first thing to do is look at the deck your building or reworking, and determine what the "half life" is on each card in the deck. No, you don't need a Geiger counter; You just want to sort the cards by how long they sit in your hand for, on average. If you constantly discard a card (via your discard phase or an effect such as The Barrens), that counts against it too. Chances are that the cards that either sit in your hand for a bunch of turns, or always get discarded, are too situational. Sometimes situational cards are quite handy and there's no real replacement available. Deflection is situational, because it's unplayable in a one on one scenario, and because it only works against a bleed aimed at you. Deflection is also a card that virtually all decks with Dominate or superior Dominate in them use. You could replace this card with Telepathic Misdirection, which also provides intercepts against non-bleed actions and as such is less situational, but it taps you and that's often a significant weakness. Triole's Revenge has a powerful effect, as it ties up the affected Ventrue and under certain circumstances can burn them outright. However, the card can also be a complete waste if there are no Ventrue on the table, or if the Ventrue is in a position where you wouldn't want to destroy/incapacitate their vampires. It also cost blood and requires a ready Brujah, which further reduces the cards utility.

What can you count on happening? You can count on bleeds happening, even if only for a basic one bleed. You can count on having a master phase. You can count on combat; it won't always be a vicious flaming aggravated death combat, but at some point someone will block you or you'll block them. You can count on having vampires in your crypt showing up, and assuming you've got a consistent crypt, their disciplines/clans/etc., as well. You can count on taking actions and usually, you'll want to block some as it is hard to make a deck that is capable of winning without blocking. You can't count on (someone else's) political actions. You can't count on someone else having a specific clan (even a popular one like Malkavian or Ventrue). Thus, you tend to see a recurring theme in The Lasombra's deck archive. Deflection, Redirection, or Telepathic Misdirection, some form of combat (Strike: Combat Ends counts), stealth (whether by action modifiers, actions with inherent stealth, or unblockability), intercept (or stealth reduction), Blood Doll or Minion Tap. At the last Seekonk tournament, all five decks in the finals had all five of these aspects except the winning deck, which didn't really have much in the way of combat other than Lucian's special. Everyone else had either a weapon or discipline-based combat.

Keeping you're deck stocked with cards that are usually going to be playable is good, but you can also add cards whose entire purpose is to cycle. The most popular ones ent of the Book of Nod sees the least play because of the fact that it can be stolen, but it still deserves mention as a strong card in a dare The Barrens, Dreams of the Sphinx, Visit From the Capuchin, and Fragment of the Book of Nod. Fragmeck that can protect it, especially since the card can help you protect it by cycling to your intercept and/or combat. Ben Peal has already written a nice article on the The Barrens, so I won't get into a lot of detail here. Just replace "The Barrens" in Ben's article with "Dreams of the Sphinx" and "it's free" with "it's almost free." At least one of these cards is in pretty much every one of my decks.

The last thing you can do to avoid getting hand jam is to reduce the number of cards in your deck. Let's say there are two decks, each of which has the same starting ratio. Deck one has ten KRC, ten Voter Caps, ten Bewitching Orations, ten Forgotten Labyrinth (FL), ten Minion Taps, and ten Deflections. Deck two has the same cards but fifteen of each. Deck one plays a game and finds no Forgotten Labyrinths in it's initial draw. This is bad because after two turns of transfers you have almost finished bringing out Arika, and your prey has just brought out a Vampire with a base of +1 intercept, making the KRCs, Bewitching Orations, and Voter Captivations in your hand useless. The deck discards for the third time and still is waiting for a stealth card. Now imagine Deck two doing the same thing. What are the chances of Deck one pulling a FL compared to Deck two? Deck one has fifty cards that it has not yet drawn, and ten is the "correct answer," so there's a 20% chance the next card will help. Deck two has eighty cards left and fifteen is the "correct answer," so there's a 18.75% chance the next card will help. Seem small? Well, as the game progresses, the gulf between the two decks is going to widen with every draw. If the sixty card deck is now down to thirty cards and the ninety card deck is now down to sixty, the difference would be closer to 9%. Playing with less cards makes a deck more "true" in its draws, with the trade off that you cannot fine tune your percentages quite as much and you might run out of cards when you don't want to. Fine tuning can be important, but running out of cards can usually be remedied by having more powerful cards and thus needing less of them to oust 2-3 opponents (5th Tradition instead of Restoration, Conditioning instead of Threats). He who dies with the most cards in his library, still dies.

By doing this you can help to minimize the effect of the random shuffle on your game, making your strategy, skill, and metagame choices much more important.

Shaun McIssac

Shaun McIssac has mastered the art of confusing his opponents with arcane odds and percentages. If this tactic fails, he can be found bloating with Etrius.

Results Finnish EC Qualifier 2009

On July 31st, 2009 the VtES Finnish EC Qualifier was held in Espoo, Finland with 85 players attending the qualifier tournament (during RopeCon 2009). The final standings were as follows:

1. Adam Esbjörnsson (SWE) -- 3 GW 10 VP -- 3 VP -- Tremere High Cap. Bleed/Block
2. Michael Holmström (SWE) -- 2 GW 9 VP -- 1 VP -- Ventrue Bleed feat. Edward Vignes
2. Antero Leppänen (FIN) -- 2 GW 9 VP -- 1 VP -- !Ventrue Wall
2. Pauli Kiova (FIN) -- 2 GW 9.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Mata Hari Princes & Toolbox
2. Antti Horelli (FIN) -- 2 GW 9 VP -- 0 VP -- Followers of Set w/Dom Enticement Bleed

Congratulations to Adam for his win of the Finnish ECQ 2009. You can find a tournament report, the final standings and all finalist deck lists on VTES in Helsinki wiki. Special mentioning deserves Pauli Kiova's Mata Hari deck, very inventive deck & definetely worth a look.

Poll: Transfer Rules Change Proposal

In the VtES Usenet Newsgroup LSJ has suggested the a change (after a lengthy discussion of the contest rules) for the transfers rule, which says that the transfer rules shouldn't be unnecessarily restricted to uncontrolled minions. The rules change proposal looks like this:

• Spend 1 transfer to move a counter from your pool either to a vampire you control or a card in your uncontrolled region to your pool.
• Spend 2 transfers to move a blood from either a vampire you control or a card in your uncontrolled region to your pool.

On the left (side bar) you can vote in a poll whether you like this proposal or not.

Bochum VtES League 2009: August 7th

Here are the decks of the Bochum VtES League 2009 from the meeting on August 7th (prey is from left to right, from top to bottom):

Left: Hardy played a Brujah Vote/Combat deck with the G4/5 Brujah featuring "New Carthage".
Right: Sascha played a straightforward G4/5 Malkavian Stealth Bleed deck. Here you see Lutz, seconds before he was burned by an "Archon Investigation".

Left: Ralf's deck was a high cap. Follower of Set S&B deck based on "Eternals of Sirius" & "Villein".
Right: Michael's Guruhi Vote/Combat deck survived the two S&B predators with well placed "Banishments" and some bloat.

Left: Martin played a "Sebastian Goulet" "Shadow Court Sartyr" deck which nearly made the game win. (Picture of the deck missing).
Right: The Toreador Alastor Wall deck played by Didi came to crushing halt, when Anneke received a "Pentex Subversion".

Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2009: August 5th

Here are the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2009 from the meeting on August 5th (prey is from left to right, from top to bottom):

Left: Martin S. played his combat efficient (read: relentless) Weenie Animalism deck.

Right: The Potence/Dominate Lasombra fielded by Thomas got squashed by the Animalism Weenies.

Left: Martin E. played an Assamite toolbox deck.
Right: Zille played a Shambling Hordes deck which mobbed up the table, after the other combat decks. had exhausted themselves.

Left: Frank's Tzimisce toolbox was nasty as ever, but was able to withstand Didi's tooled up wall in the end.
Right: Ralf played fairly straightforward Weenie Rush deck with "Saturday Night Special" & "DBRs".

Left: Didi played a Ravnos Magaji wall deck. Here you see the fully tooled up deck (after securing the GW).
Right: Kinner's Ventrue Neo-Lawfirm lacked the stealth to overcome the intercept to his left and right.

Swedish National VtES Championship 2009

The 1st Swedish National VtES Championship will be held on September 12th - 13th, 2009 in Orebro, Sweden. The event is a two-day featuring both a constructed and draft tournament.

Swedish VtES Nationals 2009

• Location: ABF Örebro, Drottninggatan 38, 702 22 Örebro
• Date: September 12th, 2009
• Time: 11:00 – 21:00
• Fee: 50 SEK
• Format: Constructed: 3 rounds + final round
• Organizers: Alex Ek and Isak Bjärmark Esbjörnsson

Swedish VtES Draft Nationals 2009

• Location: ABF Örebro, Drottninggatan 38, 702 22 ÖREBRO
• Date: September 13th, 2009
• Time: 11:00 – 21:00
• Fee: 200 SEK
• Format: Draft (probably KoT): 2 rounds + final
• Organizers: Alex Ek and Isak Bjärmark Esbjörnsson

You can find more information in the VtES Usenet Newsgroup.

Poll Results: "Would you like to see more 'Imbued' cards?"

Here are the results of the latest poll if one would you like to see more "Imbued" cards, also as discussed in the VtES Usenet Newsgroup?". 186 readers of this blog have voted in this poll.

• Yes, a new mini-expansion please. -- 33 (17%)
• Yes, but only very few. -- 35 (18%)
• As promo cards only.. -- 14 (7%)
• No. NoR was enough. -- 55 (29%)
• Ban Imbued cards! -- 43 (23%)
• What's an Imbued anyhow? -- 6 (3%)

The question about whether there should be more Imbued cards for VtES split the players in the middle. While 42% of the players would like to see new Imbued cards (more or less), the majority of 52% resents this.

Did you know, that ... (Part 33)

.. the special ability of Orlando Oriundus does not effect the vote of a Priscus you control in any way. In fact, Orlando's special ability only affects a vampire's vote in the main referendum (when votes are tallied as per Orlando's cardtext).

Reference: VtES Usenet Newsgroup.

Deck of the Month: July 2009: Ninja Parade

This month's deck is the tournament winning deck "Ninja Parade" played by Jesse Cross-Nickerson, who won the US National VtES Championship 2009 with this deck. The deck is basically an Obfuscate Bleed deck, but the Black Hand angle with "Guarded Rubrics", "Truth in Ink", etc. gives the deck its special flavour.

Origins 2009 Friday 1pm
U.S. National Championship
Columbus, Ohio, USA
June 26, 2009
49 players
3R + F

Deck Name: Ninja Parade
Created By: Jesse Cross-Nickerson

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 9, Max: 28, Avg: 4.25)
---------------------------------------------
4 Djuhah aus cel pre OBF QUI 7 Assamite
2 Lubomira Hradok OBF 3 Nosferatu Antitribu
1 Blister obf pot 3 Nosferatu Antitribu
1 Old Neddacka obf 2 Nosferatu Antitribu
1 Bloodfeud obf 2 Malkavian Antitribu
1 Jeffrey Mullins cel OBF 4 Gangrel Antitribu
1 Rashid Stockton cel obf vic 4 Gangrel Antitribu
1 Denette Stensen obf 2 Gangrel Antitribu

Library: (80 cards)
-------------------
Master (14 cards)
1 Admonitions, The
4 Blood Doll
1 Corporal Reservoir
1 Coven, The
2 Direct Intervention
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
2 Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1 House of Sorrow
1 Pentex Subversion

Action (16 cards)
1 Conceal
1 Khabar: Glory
2 Loss
2 Mustajib
5 Reunion Kamut
2 Tattoo Signal
3 Zillah`s Tears

Action Modifier (31 cards)
4 Cloak the Gathering
2 Domain of Evernight
3 Elder Impersonation
1 Forgotten Labyrinth
5 Faceless Night
6 Lost in Crowds
3 Seraph`s Second
5 Spying Mission
2 Veil the Legions

Reaction (9 cards)
2 Delaying Tactics
7 Truth in Ink

Retainer (2 cards)
1 J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1 Tasha Morgan

Equipment (4 cards)
1 Camera Phone
2 Guarded Rubrics
1 Incriminating Videotape

Combo (4 cards)
4 Swallowed by the Night

New White Wolf e-Magazine "Epitaph"

Up to now I haven't noticed that White Wolf has launched a new e-Magazine named "Epitaph" already in late April . On 50 pages "Epitaph" contains a wide variety of articles on White Wolf's games including "Vampire: the Eternal Struggle". With regards to VtES you can find the following articles in the first issue of "Epitaph" (Spring 2009):

• Interview with artist Efrem Palacios -- p24ff
• Information on the storyline event "Rise of the Imperator" -- p33f
• List of upcoming VtES tournaments -- p35
• "The Ritual of the Shovel Head" by Dane Smith (fiction) -- p44f

The "Epitaph" can be downloaded in PDF format (for free) in the download section of White Wolf's website.

Results Western New York NAC Qualifier 2009

On August 1st, 2009 the VtES Western New York NAC Qualifier was held in Ithaca, New York with 25 players attending the qualifier tournament. The final standings were as follows:

1. Steve Wampler (USA) -- 1 GW 7 VP -- 3 VP -- Tremere antitribu/Tremere Toolbox
2. Ruben Feldman (SUI) -- 2 GW 11.5 VP -- 2 VP -- Weenie DEM
2. Alex Korazanis (USA) -- 1 GW 4.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Tzimisce Wall
2. Sonam Adinolf (USA) -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 0 VP -- Stanislava Pro/Dom
2. Cory Seigel (USA) -- 2 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP -- Tremere antitribu Smiling Jack Wall

Congratulations to Steve for his win of the Western New York NAC Qualifier 2009. You can find a tournament report and the final standings in the VtES Usenet newsgroup.

Results Texas NAC Qualifier 2009

On May 30th, 2009 the VtES Texas NAC Qualifier was held in Dallas, Texas with 12 players attending the qualifier tournament. The final standings were as follows:

1. Andy Smith (USA) -- 2 GW 7.5 VP -- Ahrimanes Wall
2. Preston Poulter (USA) -- 2 GW 7.0 VP -- Ishtarri Swarm Toolbox
2. Nick Ward (USA) -- 2 GW 7.0 VP -- Weenie Vote
2. Jon Glas (USA) -- 1 GW 6.0 VP -- Assamite Black Hand/Tattoo Signal
2. Vince Johnson (USA) -- 1 GW 2.5 VP -- Neo-Brujah Vote/Bloat

Congratulations to Andy for his win of the Texas NACQ 2009. You can find a tournament report in the Presence Forum.