Adopt a newbie

Prudent_Audacity wrote:

2) If I understand correctly, a “Harass / Fast hands (CEL)” combo can be used to choose a tapped minion of my prey and steal his weapon even before the first strike. I find that move very effective, but read nothing about that kind of tactics. Is there a way to replace Harass with another card to make that combo more effective by stealing the best weapon on the table?

In a reasonable mid-sized tournament, you'll see not that many weapon decks. The two most common are .44 Magnum guns and Weighted Walking Sticks.

The guns are often being wielded by "wall" decks, which will probably be able to go to long range (so you need to be able to maneuver back to close), and they may well block you anyway, meaning you lose the press from Harass because the action wasn't successful. (The action was blocked, so you end up in a block combat, not the actual effects of the card.) The same would happen if you swapped it for Bum's Rush for the maneuver.

Depriving a 'stickmen' deck of a Weighted Walking Stick is annoying but not usually seriously debilitating, since it's so easily played.

There are other options and, of course, a few decks will scatter in a few weapons too. But mostly not, because equipping one requires an action, or dedicated tech.

So you'll often find yourself sitting with a Fast Hands in your hand and no-one to play it against. Or you could play it against your grand-predator, but what's the use in that?

As a general rule, cards devoted to screwing up weapons (or even just equipment) are relatively poor.

Prudent_Audacity wrote:

4) Do you have a rule for your ratio of master cards?

Prior to the addition of Trifles to the game, the usual rule of thumb was 14-18 master cards in a 90 card deck, unless you were a deck with dedicated extra
mmaster phase tech (e.g. The Parthenon, Anson, Rumors of Gehenna). Go to the low end if you cycle a lot of cards quickly (e.g. a dedicated rush combat deck).

If you have a lot of Trifles (e.g. Villein, Wash), you can go a bit higher than normal.

Prudent_Audacity wrote:

5) Do you have a specific card that is almost always in your deck? I tend to always have blood dolls.

Blood Doll is good, though expect to see a few people playing Vessel at a tournament. (And people will sometimes blow up your Blood Doll with a cross-table Vessel, which is annoying.) Villein is extremely popular.

If your deck can play bleed bounce (Deflection, Telepathic Misdirection etc.), include some. If your deck can't, think carefully about your decision - it's an extremely powerful tool.

Dreams of the Sphinx is excellent. Pentex Subversion is excellent for lunging - lock down a vampire just as you go in the for kill.

"Wakes" (such as Wake with Evening Freshness, Forced Awakening, On the Qui Vive etc.) are very good.

Prudent_Audacity wrote:

6) What are most the common mistakes beginners make?

Planning for awesome combos, when they only have 2 copies of each card in your deck. If you have 80 cards left and there's one copy of Magic of the Smith there, you will not draw it next card.

Smashing vampires, rather than trying to win.

Thinking that being the last person on the table is good, rather than trying to win. On any four or five player table you're on (standard tournament rules), you want 3 VP. A common evolution is to play a strong wall deck that cannot be shifted from the table, and the offensive arsenal of the deck is tiny. e.g. a Tzimisce wall that blocks its predator loads, and has two Army of Rats and four Changelings in a 90 card deck. You need to be planning for 3VP for the Game Win.

Not cycling cards enough. Use your discard phase. Use Dreams of the Sphinx. Use The Barrens.

Don't play lots of Events (especially Gehenna Events) for no reason. If you make people hate you, they'll try to get you off the table.

Give yourself tools to protect your vampires. It's easy to get into a frame of mind of "Oh, if I bleed, my prey will shoot me. And if I block, I'll get pummelled." And if you've just spent 7 pool on a vampire, you're loathe to lose them. So it's easy to find yourself doing nothing, because surviving beats not surviving. Protection doesn't have to mean combat defence (though that's good too). It can also mean avoiding being blocked with stealth, and combat avoidance with cards like Obedience and Secure Haven.

Think carefully about what happens if your sit next to someone who can consistently block you at +1 or +2 intercept.

Prudent_Audacity wrote:

6) What are most the common mistakes beginners make?

Playing with 90 card decks.

The smaller your library, the better chances you'll draw into the cards you need and the lower chances you'll "jam" on cards you don't want. I try my best to keep my decks under 70 cards. There are very few instances when you'll end up "decking" yourself.

Jay Kristoff is the best deckbuilder of very small library decks. Go to the Secret Library (www.secretlibrary.info/index.php?deck) and type in his name for a wide variety of examples. I don't suggest this to "net deck" but rather you can see what has worked for him and get a better idea of what ratios you might use for your own.

Lot of very experienced players play (and win) with 90 card decks so thats hardly a mistake. It largely depends on the deck in question, and your playstyle. For example my Tzimisce toolbox deck is very much capable of running out of cards with full 90 cards library because it plays cards on my turn, my predators turn, and quite often also on my preys turn.

Klaital wrote:

Lot of very experienced players play (and win) with 90 card decks so thats hardly a mistake.

Mostly I was pointing out that many newbies have a hard time figuring out how to optimize their decks. If you want to mitigate possible play mistakes or metagame considerations, then have a very tight deck. You'll experience fewer instances of "I lost because I didn't see a Villein/Minion Tap/Blood Doll/Deflection/Parity Shift in the first 15 cards."

I think all players, even very experienced ones, could really benefit though from dropping down from 90 to 80 cards for every deck. It forces you to justify every decision and play with good cards that help achieve your goals.

Jeff wrote:

I think all players, even very experienced ones, could really benefit though from dropping down from 90 to 80 cards for every deck. It forces you to justify every decision and play with good cards that help achieve your goals.

Seconded.

Check Tournament Winning Deck Archive (TWDA) for ideas and also don't be afraid to blatantly copy some decks just to see how certain concepts work. The more recent ones are more suitable for more recent meta (duh) and I'd also say that the more players were in the tournament the better the deck probably is (ie. decks wiining 10 player tiurnaments MIGHT not be that hot, whereas 24+ player tournament winning deck probably are).

www.veknfrance.com/decks/twd.htm


The Cause and Effect guys also have made GREAT videos about VTES so these are worth watching (they are all great players)

www.youtube.com/user/causeampersandeffect/videos