Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter October 2026
Greetings fellow Methuselahs,
We start this month's newsletter with preview art by Carlos Díaz. It will appear on the reprint version of a card from The Sabbat set, maybe in one of the New Blood packs for the Sabbat paths, otherwise in Anthologies. Great work Carlos, moody and powerful!
Noites Brasileiras and Secrets of New York are now in stores!
Yes! Finally, the two brand new sets are in stores - the official release date was October 31, so now all new cards are legal for tournament play.
Check out the announcement, with a list of all the artists and links to them!
Watch out! Watchlist update!
Below you see an updated watchlist for VEKN organised tournament play of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. This list will be updated every six months, to give a minimum of six months' notice of a potential ban or errata. Please note that a card's inclusion on this list does not mean that it will necessarily be banned or receive errata in the future. Rather, these are the cards currently being considered for potential action.
Check out the official Black Chantry announcement for images of the cards too!
Becoming of Ennoia. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Functionally weak.
British Museum, London. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Overperforming.
Carfax Abbey. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Overperforming.
Coterie Tactics. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Mechanically flawed.
Garibaldi-Meucci Museum. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Overperforming.
Guard Duty. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Functionally weak.
Imbued – All cards. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Publishing issues.
Life Boon. Added to watchlist: November 2025. Reason: Mechanically flawed.
Maleficia – All cards. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Publishing issues.
Mask of a Thousand Faces. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Mechanically flawed.
Organized Resistance. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Overperforming.
Striga – All cards. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Publishing issues.
Tupdog. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Overperforming.
Veil of Darkness. Added to watchlist: November 2025. Reason: Mechanically flawed.
Winged Second. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Mechanically flawed.
Desso Alastor is the 2026 South American champion!
This tournament was played in Brasília on October 11 with 30 Methuselahs.
Read the full report: SAC 2026
Simon Reed is the 2026 Oceanian champion!
36 players turned up for this event in Brisbane on October 17.
Read the full report: Oceania Championship 2026
Roberto Montero is the 2026 champion of Chile!
22 players played this national championship in El Tabito on September 12.
Read the full report: National Championship Chile 2026
Karl Schaefer wins Grand Prix Pittsburgh!
Played on October 17 with 21 players.
Read the full report: Grand Prix Pittsburgh 2026
Hernán Rodríguez wins Santiago GP3!
Played in Santiago, Chile, on October 3 with 16 Methuselahs.
Read the full report: GP3 Santiago 2026
Ke Carlton is the 2026 Grand Prix Oceania champion!
This GP final took place in Brisbane, Australia, on the same weekend as this year's Grand Prix Brisbane.
Read the full report: Oceania Grand Prix final 2026
Brad Cashdollar wins the Appalachian Assault 2026 Grand Prix final!
Played in Monroeville, Pennsylvania on October 18 with the top five players from this GP circuit.
Read the full report: Appalachian Assault 2026 final
Errors spotted after tournaments will stand
Words by Hugh Angseesing, VEKN Chairman:
Hello! This is a quick update on some questions we have had regarding errors spotted in events after the event or via remote viewing. These errors have been spotted more since games have started to be broadcast live.
Broadly, results of games where errors are spotted will generally stand, unless:
- It is clear the error materially distorts the original event.
- There is a reason to suspect cheating.
It’s quite easy as a Brit, to talk about these sorts of events, as there are two notable ones in English football:
- First example: 1966 World Cup final England versus West Germany – did the ball cross the line? Later modelling suggests yes but it is a great example of the judge (linesman in that case) making a decision at the time and the result standing.
- Second example: In 1986, Diego Armando Maradona used his hand to score against England in the quarter final of the World Cup. That result again stood because none of the judges could see it being a foul at the time.
We do not expect judges to wind back time and try and fix things post-event, if issues are spotted soon enough, they can be adjusted and the game can continue normally.
Where results are submitted to the Ethics Committee to examine for suspected cheating, those determinations in themselves may change results. However, the Ethics Committee is not there (and as a group of volunteers does not have the resources) to look at results caused by errors.
The Netherlands has a new VEKN National Coordinator: Maarten Rijnbeek
After more than 10 years as the National Coordinator of the Netherlands, Jeroen van Oort (above to the left) signs off. Thanks for your services to the community Jeroen!
Some words by Maarten Rijnbeek (above to the right):
A new National Coordinator has entered the Eternal Struggle. After deliberation among the Dutch Princes, the Praxis has been decided.
I am honoured to take on the role of National Coordinator for the Netherlands, alongside my role as Prince of Vleuten.
First of all, I want to thank my fellow Princes for their trust. I will do my best not to immediately abuse that trust for extra transfers, political actions, or questionable deals with the Sabbat.
But this role is about much more than Princes and politics.
VTES in the Netherlands exists because of everyone who plays the game, teaches new players, organises tournaments, hosts casual games, travels across the country for events, builds ridiculous decks, argues about card interactions and keeps coming back to the table.
As National Coordinator, I want to help strengthen that whole community. To connect players and organisers. To support tournaments and local playgroups. To welcome new Methuselahs into the game. And to make sure the Eternal Struggle in the Netherlands remains very much alive.
So to every Dutch VTES player — whether you have been playing for decades or just sleeved your first crypt: Keep playing. Keep organising. Keep bringing new players to the table.
Your prey is temporary. The Eternal Struggle is forever.
Meet the VEKN: Tiago Gonçalves, National Coordinator of Portugal
Hello Tiago! You are the new VEKN National Coordinator of Portugal – congratulations on the prestigious position.
Thank you!
Thanks for letting us ask you some questions to present you to the community. Let’s start from the beginning: When did you start playing VTES?
I don't quite recall the year I started playing, but it was around the release of Third Edition, so 2005-2006-ish. I was playing Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines at the time and was loving the lore and the atmosphere. I also had a couple of friends who played VTES back then – and by "a couple" I mean two! – so I asked one of them to teach me how to play. He helped me bash up a Third Edition Malkavian antitribu with a Black Hand one, and there it was: my first deck.
What do you like most about the game?
The first thing that hooked me on the game was the lore. I was a sucker for RPGs and VTES seemed the right fit for me, although I barely played VTM itself.
After that, I went through a phase of trying to reinvent the wheel by building several new decks with little to no success at actually making something playable. Brinksmanship, I'm looking at you.
That frustration, mostly created by my own inexperience, fueled my desire to play for several years. Eventually I started focusing more on tournament decks, even though I wasn't playing many tournaments at the time.
Nowadays I do a little bit of both: clunky decks to make me laugh and less clunky decks to try to win tournaments.
What deck are you most comfortable playing?
I don't think I have an all-time favorite deck, but I'd say a Tremere toolbox is the closest thing to one. It was the first deck I tried to tweak by myself and I've been playing it on and off in one form or the other for what feels like forever, so I'm particularly fond of it. When I started playing it, it was a heavy wall with almost no ousting power, totally clunky and inadequate to the meta at the time. Eventually it shifted to a toolbox and I really loved the versatility of it. I've never won a tournament with it, though. Someone else did; maybe it's a skill issue...
What other decks do you currently play?
At the moment I'm playing Tzimisce and Brujah barons, and trying to make a Banu Haqim plus Victoria Ash deck to work properly, pretty standard stuff. I've also been working on some fat-cap decks involving Serpentis, but that's all I can say for now. Hopefully, you'll see one at a Portuguese tournament soon.
How are you at the table?
I usually talk a lot because VTES is a social game above all else. At tournament level, people sometimes forget to have fun, so I try to make them enjoy the game a little more by getting them to talk and feel more at ease. I enjoy the negotiations and table talk that naturally come with the game. Even though I don't particularly enjoy playing political decks, I probably enjoy negotiating against one more than I enjoy playing one.
In terms of deck style, I tend to prefer decks that are more prey-centric and with a clear game plan. I like having an active role at the table rather than sitting back and waiting for things to happen, maybe that's my main flaw as a player: not enough patience. I'm also a big fan of decks that have several ways to tackle problems, which is probably why I've always liked toolbox decks.
Now you are a National Coordinator. What do you plan to do to spread VTES in Portugal?
I'm still very new to the role, so I won't pretend that I have a grand master plan. Fortunately, I'm taking over at a good time. The Portuguese player base has grown considerably over the last few years, thanks to the work of the previous National Coordinators and the Princes, who have put a lot of effort into growing their local communities. So it seems logical to build upon that work.
One thing I'd like to improve is the way we connect and promote those communities. We have some players already volunteering to help centralize information and create a more coordinated national network, which I think is great.
Another challenge in Portugal, and one we've always had, is the uneven distribution of players. Lisbon is a very large city and its player base is probably comparable to the rest of the country combined. Getting players from the north and south together regularly is difficult. One of the things we're going to experiment with next year is strengthening the communities in the centre-north and creating a parallel league for them alongside the existing Lisbon league. Hopefully, that will give the less populated parts of the country regular competitive play and more dynamism.
There are also some more straightforward things we can do to increase exposure. This year, for example, we took VTES to a board game convention, which gave us the opportunity to show the game to people who otherwise would never hear of it. I'm also working on some posters to be displayed in some game stores. We have some good roll-up banners from VEKN, but they're expensive, so we need more simple, practical promotional material that local organizers can put in a store or venue and say: "This is VTES, come play with us."
Of course, one of VTES's biggest challenges is teaching the game and retaining people who try it. The most common feedback I get from new players, especially those who have little to no previous experience with games, is that it's too overwhelming at first, so it's very important to make the first experience welcoming and manageable. Having someone who can teach the game properly is fundamental, even more important than any advertising campaign.
Ultimately, I agree that the community in VTES is its greatest strength. The people actually growing the game are the players, Princes and local organizers. I think VEKN and Black Chantry's biggest role is to support them, through direct promotion of the game and by giving local promoters the tools and material they need to do their job better.
So, to sum up, the goal isn't necessarily to change what we're doing in Portugal, but to build upon what has already been made. To make it easier for the people already doing good work to do even more of it, while making it easier for new players to find us and take that first step into the game.
Thank you for this interview Tiago, and thanks also to your predecessor Ricardo Marta - great job!
Emerald Legionnaires march into Madrid!
While this is not a tournament at national, continental or Grand Prix level, we want to share this extra report with you. It was the first tournament organized by a new, third Prince in the Madrid area of Spain. It was also the first tournament of the Madrid League 2025-2026 season. 33 players – check out the report and the tournament-winning deck!
Recruitment Exercise: Novi Sad 2026
Words by Milan Popovic, VEKN Prince of Belgrade:
Hi all, we would like to tell you about some local progress here. We want to thank Dice and the Fun crew in Novi Sad for the great help that we got with the promo event that was held on 17th of October.
At the start of the year, we had only Petar Kalmar, the Prince of Novi Sad, who was promoting the game, but with the help of Instagram, we managed to organise two events in Novi Sad this year.
We are now happy to report that a 10-person playgroup has been established after all our efforts. With similar effort, we expect to see more players in Serbia overall.
Have you done a demo event or similar and want to report it in the newsletter? Contact the editor!
Recruitment Exercise: MondoCon Hungary
Words by Gábor Endler:
Hi everyone! The Hungarian VTES community once again participated in MondoCon, held on October 17–18, 2026, in Budapest. MondoCon is one of Hungary's largest conventions dedicated to anime, manga, gaming, cosplay, and pop culture, attracting thousands of visitors and providing a great opportunity to introduce tabletop and card games to a wider audience.
Throughout the two-day event, we welcomed quite a lot of interested visitors to our stand. Many stopped by to learn more about Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, asked for flyers and informational materials, and picked up some of our full-art promotional cards. In fact, the promos proved so popular that we almost ran out of them!
It was another great opportunity to promote VTES, introduce the game to potential new players, and increase its visibility within the Hungarian gaming community.
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Reminder: The VEKN Newsletter Contribution Award promo card
If you are expected to deliver an article for the VEKN newsletter, and do so within a reasonable time, you will be awarded the official VEKN Newsletter Contribution Award promo card. It is currently the super cool Malkavian Rider Clause depicted above - VERY rare, printed only for this particular cause. If this article is a tournament report, "reasonable time" is usually within 7 days after the event. So don´t sleep on it, rip off that band-aid immediatelly after the tournament, and thanks for contributing!
Reminder: Please join the World of Darkness Community Map!
Please advertise your VTES playgroup and/or VTES events on the World of Darkness Community Map! This is important to help the game grow. But list only things that happen in public places where anyone is welcome – nothing played at someone's home, and no online events.
Check out the map here: World of Darkness Community Map
Submit here: Map submission form
Black Chantry Summary: October 2026
• Noites Brasileiras and Secrets of New York are in stores! See above in this newsletter.
• Product Director Ben Peal attended the South American Championship in Brasilia, Brazil on October 10-11. His presentation is published online, and will eventually be turned into a roadmap 2027 article.
• In cooperation with the Swedish game clubs association Sverok and the game store Alphaspel, Black Chantry has donated 150 Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition boxes to Swedish gamers! The campaign is called “Spellovet”, which means that every year a big box of game materials is sent to the 150 most active game clubs in Sweden.
• Words from CEO Hugh Angseesing: “On 24th October, I was fortunate to brave Storm Boelo to travel from Black Chantry HQ in Nottingham to Norwich UK for a 17-person tournament. I took the exact Hecata deck Martin Weinmeyer had posted, originally produced by the esteemed Nina Nilsson and had a lot of fun enjoying the simplicity of Oblivion. Norwich is a city of fine church spires and endless pubs and creeping out of the darkness to host this event was Simon George - interviewed here. Thank you to Simon and Athena Games for hosting and congratulations to Mikey Ferguson for his tournament win.”
• The third round of playtesting of two preconstructed decks for a 2-player variant of VTES is ongoing and will end on November 15. Please, if you are a playtester, make sure to hand in your feedback on time!
• The first round of playtesting of the New Blood decks for Paths of Caine, Cathari, Death and Power started on October 15! 56 brand new cards are tested in this round. Hopefully the playtesters can handle testing two sets simultaneously.
• The design of "Anthology II" continues. It's not clear yet if it will be one, two or three 89-card packs, collecting cards that need reprinting but haven't yet found a slot in a Black Chantry release.
• The following Black Chantry products are currently available through Gamepod, Drivethrucard
Lost Kindred bundle (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 1 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 2 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 1 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 2 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Den of Fiends Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Libertine Ball Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Pact with Nephandi Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Parliament of Shadows Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Anthology I bundle
VTES Card Creator (Drivethrucards only)
25th Anniversary
First Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
VTES Legacy Card Singles (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 1 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 2 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 3 (For promotion only)
Promo Pack 4 (For promotion only)
VTES "Parity Shift" playmat
VTES card sleeves
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition (Stores only)
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition Latin (Drivethrucards only)
Fifth Edition: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Toreador (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Tremere (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Banu Haqim (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Brujah (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Gangrel (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: The Ministry (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
The Fall of London (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Echoes of Gehenna
Shadows of Berlin (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Banu Haqim (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Brujah (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Gangrel (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: The Ministry (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Ravnos (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Salubri (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Tzimisce (Also Spanish, French)
30th Anniversary (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Lasombra (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Hecata (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Hecata (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Lasombra (Also Spanish, French)
Path of Caine (Also Spanish, French)
Path of Cathari (Also Spanish, French)
Path of Death and the Soul (Also Spanish, French)
Path of Power and the Inner Voice (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Ravnos (Also Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese)
New Blood: Salubri (Also Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese)
New Blood: Tzimisce (Also Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese)
Noites Brasileiras (Also Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese)
Secrets of New York (Also Spanish, French)
Do you have opinions about or questions for Black Chantry? Start a topic on the VEKN forum, or contact the company by e-mail, Facebook, Instagram
Recent news in the World of Darkness
• The Month of Darkness is over! In the understandable absence of concrete news about the future of Vampire: The Masquerade and its game setting that we depend upon so much, we have seen a plethora of fun World of Darkness things during the month. Go to the Month of Darkness site to browse all of this!
• The second round of alpha playtesting of the next edition of Vampire: The Masquerade will appear on November 9, available on Demiplane, Roll20 and as PDFs on DrivethruRPG. We will also get a new developer diary entry detailing the changes between the first and second alpha rounds.
• On October 20, the much-awaited “Courts of the Damned” was released, maybe the last installment in the fifth edition of Vampire: The Masquerade. This sourcebook covers political intrigues in vampiric societies and offers all kinds of advice to Storytellers about this.
Looking for more World of Darkness in your channel of choice? Check out the Linktree!
Calendar
Major events coming up:
November 7: National Championship Sweden, Stockholm
November 7: National Championship Switzerland, Zürich
November 7: National Championship Slovakia, Bratislava
November 7: National Championship Denmark, Køge
November 7: National Championship Norway, Moss
November 15: National Championship Mexico, Mexico City
November 21: National Championship Canada, Montréal
November 28: National Championship Germany, Herne
November 28: National Championship Hungary, Budapest
November 28: National Championship South Africa, Johannesburg
December 5: Grand Prix Vidor, USA
December 13: Grand Prix Cearense, Brazil
Tournaments for the coming month (registered at the time of writing) are in:
Brazil x7
Canada
Chile
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland x2
France x2
Germany
Hungary x5
Italy x2
Mexico
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Serbia
South Africa
Spain x13
Sweden
Switzerland
USA
For details about these events, see Archon.vekn.net. Also, check out the World of Darkness Community Map.
Remember: Online tournaments are possible - just register it as an online tournament when you add it to Archon!
Contact VEKN
You can contact the VEKN Inner Circle members using the contact forms at VEKN.net. Also follow the official VTES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, the official VEKN X account @VEKN_VTES and the official VTES Discord server.
Before coffee I hate people, after coffee I feel good about hating people.
Karl Schaefer wins Grand Prix Pittsburgh!
This tournament was played on October 17 at Guy On The Couch Cards & Gaming in Monroeville, Pittsburgh area, Pennsylvania. Reported by Karl Schaefer himself, the VEKN Prince of Pittsburgh and tournament winner:
We had 21 players show up to the final event for our Appalachian Assault GP series. The event was on Saturday with the finals on Sunday morning.
I picked a deck that I had tweaked to deal with the meta that I was expecting. I was very right and very wrong about the meta. In every prelim round, both my predator and prey had decks that could one-shot a Nephandus. This meant that I was spending a lot of my early game setup, just trying to survive instead of gaining the necessary mass to overwhelm the table. Millicent ended up being critical at keeping some of the aggressive predator combat at bay and my Nephandi are unaffected. Those turns allowed me to gain some mass and finally gain the upper hand when those decks started drawing dead. I had a lot of fat Nephandi running around as I burned vampires in torpor to reduce the ability for the other players to recover.
This eventually led to me being second seed at a finals table that I wanted nothing to do with.
Standings after round 3:
1. Will Matson 2 GW 8.5 VP
2. Karl Schaefer 2 GW 7.0 VP
3. Scott King 2 GW 6.5 VP
4. Erik Albenze 1 GW 6.0 VP
5. Brad Cashdollar 1 GW 5.0 VP
Will had seating choice after me, so I chose to sit away from Erik, both to avoid Shroud of Decay and Corpses with Walking Sticks. That still meant I had to deal with Hunger of Marduk, giving me yet another prey that could one-shot my Nephandi. The game moved slowly for me as I was reluctant to take many actions. I was trying to build some mass to be able to survive the Tzimisce pressure behind me. I dealt to put a no-forward Nephandus in play, which at least gave me an extra blocker, which is necessary against Form of Mist.
Erik was doing a great job keeping Brad in check with small bleeds and unbounceable Shroud of Decay. Eventually Brad falls. I finally have a decent amount of Nephandi and Erik starts bringing Corpses in play to deal with his new prey, Will. I manage to bounce two bleed to Scott, who blocks the first, but not the second. I attempt to move forward and make some progress. Finally getting a couple of bleeds in.
Scott and Erik get into it a bit and after another bounced bleed, I feel like Scott might be low on Second Tradition. I was wrong, but he was low on blood and Hunger, allowing me to empty one vamp and torp another. After another turn, I managed to get Scott. We had about 20 minutes left. I bounced a bleed that would have ousted me and dealt with Erik to ensure that he didn't bounce it back. That prevent me from going forward on my next turn, but I managed to pop a set of Tablets and play a Villein, giving me a cushion. However, that also meant Erik was unchecked. He torped two of Will's vampires. I rescued one, while putting pressure forward. With less than 5 minutes left, Will fires off a monster bleed that I bounce. I DI'd Erik's wake, but he had another and was able to block. On my turn, I work Erik down, but know I can't oust. I pass the turn and hope that Will can survive. At 4 pool, Will eats a Shroud of Decay. He attempts to block the next Shroud of Decay and as time expires is able to do so. I end up winning the tie-break.
Tournament winning deck: "Frosted Flakes" by Darby Keeney and Karl Schaefer
Description: My version of Darby's "Flakes." Darby's deck is great, but I made a few changes.
- Aranthebes has been critical in providing the addition "intercept" against my predator's actions and occasionally the -bleed effect is good too.
- Millicent stymied a lot of action and allow me to build unmolested at times. Was able to recycle it.
- Changed some ratios to keep the decks in the low 70s. The Harass have been in an out, but left them in today and used them twice over the course of the day to excellent effect.
- The double Secure Haven was key to getting it early and keeping Antonio safe.
- Tupdog is great because it allows Anotonio to act and can be brought into play with Dreams. The extra bleed made a difference in round two.
Really appreciate Sergio chatting with me to help me fiddle with the last 2-3 cards. Getting the second Secure Haven was critical.
Crypt (12 cards)
2x Isanwayen 6 DOM MYT OBT Kiasyd:4
5x Antonio d'Erlette 5 THA dom for pot Tremere antitribu:4
1x Mosfair 4 cel dom tha Tremere antitribu:4
1x Keith Moody 3 DOM Tremere antitribu:4
3x Tupdog 1 POT VIS Gargoyle:3
Library (73 cards)
Master (31; 1 trifle)
9x Ashur Tablets
1x Bleeding the Vine
1x Creepshow Casino
1x Direct Intervention
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Haven Uncovered
1x Information Highway
1x Jake Washington
4x Liquidation
1x Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter
3x Parthenon, The
2x Secure Haven
2x Shard, London, The
1x Villein
Action (3)
1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
2x Harass
Ally (10)
1x Carlton Van Wyk
9x Nephandus
Action Modifier (4)
2x Conditioning
2x Mirror Walk
Combat (9)
9x Target Vitals
Reaction (13)
7x Deflection
3x Delaying Tactics
3x On the Qui Vive
Event (3)
3x Unmasking, The
Congratulations Karl, and thanks for this report. Thanks to all volunteers, sponsors and participants!
Simon Reed is the 2026 Oceanian champion!
This tournament took place at Comics Plus in Annerley, Australia on October 17. Reported by Steve Harris, VEKN National Coordinator of Australia, and the champion himself, Simon Reed:
We had 38 players for the OCC, which broke the record for the Australian/Oceania continentals. The previous record was set in 2002 with 36 players, and again in 2024, also 36 players.
The range of decks was quite varied by what I could see, however some clans were more heavily represented than others:
Banu Haqim 4 decks
Lasombra 4 decks
Gangrel 4 decks
Harbingers 3 decks
Ministry 3 decks
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Simon Reed's words about rounds 1-3:
Round 1
Me (Gangrel) > James (Salubri) > Ben (AAA) > Shan (Camarilla Lasombra) > Steven (Ventrue Bleed)
Good table for me as the vote decks cross table would both need my votes so I could support everything they did in exchange for chip damage on James. The path to victory looked like best option was to support Shan to oust Steven in exchange for damage on James, survive all the bleeds, and try and get it to 3 player and see where we were from there.
That's pretty much how it panned out, I managed to bounce, block or reduce a lot of bleeds, only one nasty surprise when Steven concealed out a Combat Shotgun so a few minions got shot as I saved my combat cards for James.
I chipped away at James and got support from Shan for an oust, he went on to get Steven although Ben did his best to prevent that.
Once we got to three, I was helped by Shan playing a wash on the 3rd Ashurs from Ben, with Club Illusion and Ben being locked and out of wakes I was able to bleed with everyone and just get an oust. Head-to-head Shan got a bit of bloat going and had about 15 pool, so too much for me to get in the time remaining but I already had the win so went into survival mode and just made sure I put enough pressure that Shan couldn't come fully forward.
Game ends me GW 2.5 and Shan 1.5.
Here, five players are each contesting at least one vampire! Two were playing Tzimisce and two of them
were playing Banu Haqim. One of the Tzimisce players also played a Chameleon to steal a
small-cap Ravnos from his prey, who promptly played the same vamp again to contest backwards!
Round 2
Me (Gangrel) > Dan (Nakhthorheb) > Rathpex (Camarilla Lasombra) > Leo (Gangrel) > Martin (Protean Barons)
As expected, a table with some contesting to deal with. Everyone played nice, we all picked a Baron and it worked out OK.
I thought this would be Angel's moment to shine but Martin brought his copy out first so that plan out the window. The path to victory in this game looked... tricky. I was pretty sure Martin would work with Rathpex to oust Leo in exchange for damage on me and some grace so plan was don't get ousted, hope Dan can oust Rathpex and then see where things were at.
The game panned out as expected: Dan got going and kind of had a shot at Rathpex but ran out of stealth at a key moment. Rathpex and Martin took out Leo, I copped a bunch of damage and then 2 Camarilla Iron Fists cross table I couldn't block and a third I had a DI for, but that's too much pressure and I was ousted. Martin needed a few minutes more at most to get Dan to take out a win but just ran out of time, the game ended with no GW, 1.5 each to Martin and Rathpex, Dan survived for 0.5.
Round 3
Me (Gangrel) > Dave (Salubri) > Justin (Inner Voice) > Sam (Nephandus)
This was the best game of the weekend! The path to victory looked like either working with Justin to oust Dave if he couldn't handle the rushes and then try and just roll over everyone, or alternatively to support Justin oust Sam in exchange for chip damage on Dave and then hope Dave ousts Justin and I can win the head to head. Game ebbed and flowed, everyone going forward a bit, defending OK, building a board.
Sam was doing a little damage to me but was also handling Justin's inner voice deck, I had to rescue a couple of times after a haven appeared.
A timely Entrancement and Giant's Blood got Justin back in the game and he was able to eventually limp over the top of Sam but then Dave got him soon after. There were probably about 30 minutes left on the clock at this point. I was quite confident, but from here Dave and I battled to almost a literal standstill, neither of us able to gain the advantage for 20 minutes!
Finally, Dave fully decked himself with every single card being played usefully at the end, notably a very annoying second-to-last card being a Delaying Tactics on a Con Boon when I was on only 5 pool.
10 minutes without any cards to play was a very long time for Dave and although I myself ended with 5 cards in hand at the end, the power of Garibaldi and recursion with a Revolutionary Council won the day with just under 1 minute to go, but a truly epic head to head and a great game.
GW 2 VP to me, 1 to Dave, 1 to Justin.
Standings before the final:
1. Rathpex 2 GW 8.5 VP
2. Simon Reed 2 GW 4.5 VP
3. Ke Carlton 1 GW 6 VP
4. Florian Koller 1 GW 5 VP
5. Andrew Stott 1 GW 5 VP
There’s an unedited video on SuakuOz’s Youtube channel of the finals. He also made this funny little short.
Simon's comments on final:
Final seating I was second seed with 2 GW 4.5 vp as only two players got 2 GW. Easy choice to sit opposite Ke, as his combat deck most likely to be able to damage the Imbued. I got lucky: Rathpex, as top seed, chose to sit next to me, that always makes things easier when you're next to the top seed. The path to victory seemed obvious: I just need to oust Rathpex relatively early via consistent small bleeds, try to block or Delaying Tactics his votes, and then see where the game is at from there.
I figured unless the Khazar's Diary went off fast, the person most likely to get two VP was Ke and that would involve ousting me so 1 VP and surviving would do the job.
As expected, the combat decks beat each other up a bit, so I didn't have too much pressure and was able to build my board and start chipping away. Rathpex used a Shroud of Decay to clean out all the allies in Andy's ash heap early in the game which really put Andy in a bad spot, and he went defensive, which suited me.
Rathpex had one Parity Shift Vox Dominied and another got DIed (Andy played his before I could play the one I had in hand for that) which left Rathpex nicely low on pool as parity is his bloat.
I was just bleeding into him every turn with 3 or 4 minions, one at a time grinding him down. The key turn was when Florian did bleed me for 2 and I Bait and Switched it on, Rathpex Deflected it back so I played a DI to cancel the Deflection to make him to take 2.
That left Rathpex on 4 I think with one unlocked minion, I had 5 minions so just bled for 1 with everyone knowing I had Form of Mist in hand and 1 stealth card for Hanna, who doesn't have superior Protean. One got bounced, Rathpex correctly let all the superior Protean bleeds through, and then I stealthed through with Hanna for the oust.
That gave me the oust and from there it was just bloat in my last turn and survive knowing Ke couldn't get both Florian and me in 1 turn, I did cop about 8 bleed from Florian before he died but Ke could only just roll over Florian right at the end and so had no chance to get me. The game ends with all Kiwis alive, 1.5 vp to myself and Ke, Andy on 0.5, I take it on seeding.
Tournament-winning deck: "Gangrel Barons" by Simon Reed
Creator comment: Classic V5 Gangrel, nothing too tricky, splash of votes for extra oust but just build a board and grind over the top with small bleeds. For the OCC, I removed an extra Massimiliano and replaced with Angel Guerrero to mitigate likely contesting and switched out the Anarch Free Press for the Anarch Railroad for the extra fixed stealth, happy with both those changes. Would probably add a second Garibaldi and a third Rewilding for a Monkey Wrench and Double Deuce, who is often stolen or beaten up.
Crypt (12 cards)
2x Casey Snyder 6 ani cel for PRO Gangrel:6
1x Ruslan Fedorenko 2 pro Gangrel:6
1x Indira 3 PRO Gangrel:6
1x Hanna Nokelainen 4 ani for pro Gangrel:6
1x Nathan Turner 4 ani PRO Gangrel:6
1x Kamile Paukstys 5 ani for PRO Gangrel:6
2x Kuyen 6 ANI PRO Gangrel:6
1x Massimiliano 7 pro ANI FOR Gangrel:6
1x Martina Srnankova 6 ani FOR PRO Gangrel:6
1x Angel Guerrero 7 ANI DOM PRO Tzimisce:6
Library: 86 cards
Master (22 cards)
1x Ennoia's Theater
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Giant's Blood
1x Papillon
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Rack, The
1x Backways
2x Vessel
4x Villein
1x Wider View
1x Carfax Abbey
2x Club Illusion
1x Direct Intervention
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Ecoterrorists
Action (11 cards)
2x Rewilding
9x Thing
Action Modifier (6 cards)
2x Monkey Wrench
4x Earth Control
Action Modifier/Reaction (2 cards)
2x Form of the Bat
Political Action (4 cards)
1x Reckless Agitation
1x Revolutionary Council
2x Consanguineous Boon
Ally (1 card)
1x Double Deuce
Retainer (2 cards)
2x Raven Spy
Combat (16 cards)
7x Form of Mist
2x Donnybrook
7x Earth Meld
Reaction (22 cards)
6x Deep Ecology
2x Eyes of the Wild
6x Bait and Switch
6x Organized Resistance
2x Delaying Tactics
So, Simon Reed won with 1.5 VP, Ke got 1.5 VP and Andrew 0.5 VP - three kiwis, an Australian and an Austrian made the finals but only three kiwis survived :)
The event was sponsored by Black Chantry Productions, MotS Imports Pty Ltd and Australia’s Online VTES store on eBay. Many thanks to the host venue Comics Plus, Annerley.
Thanks for this report, Steve and Simon, and thanks to all organisers, sponsors and players!
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