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Hunter's Mark - Ginés Quiñonero - VTES
Hunter's Mark - Art by Ginés Quiñonero from the Fifth Edition Banu Haqim preconstructed deck.

 

Greetings fellow Methuselahs

VTES Banu Haqim Brujah Gangrel Ministry
FOUR NEW PRECONSTRUCTED DECKS SOON AT YOUR STORE!

November 1 is the official release date of the new Fifth Edition preconstructed decks; Banu Haqim, Brujah, Gangrel and The Ministry. It's hard to know exactly when they will arrive at the shelves of your local store, but it should be somewhere around  that date, so the official legality date for normal VEKN tournaments for the new cards in those decks are 30 days later: December 1.

Please, if you have the possibility, organize some kind of launch event. These new decks should be on par with the other five Fifth Edition decks (Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere and Ventrue), so consider using those too. And if you arrange a launch event, please take some pictures and post about it in all kinds of social media, hashtagged #vtes - this awakens interest, and helps the community grow!


VTES Online 2021

REMINDER: VTES ONLINE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2021 COMING UP

This Lackey tournament will be played on six dates during November, with the final on December 11. News is that Black Chantry Productions sponsors prizes with store credit at Drivethrucards.com, and that the registration has started at the official VTES Discord server.


Spain 2021
REMINDER: THE SPANISH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

The interest for this November 27 Alicante event went through the roof, so organizers have now opened up the venue for a new maximum; 120 bloodthirsty Methuselahs can now attend, and 100 have already registered! And take a look at those Edges, aren´t those the nicest you´ve seen in a while?


Ultra Pro
ULTRA PRO SPONSORS EUROPEAN TOURNAMENTS

... or to be more exact, tournaments within the EU. If you are organizing a tournament that will have more than 20 or so participants, check out this post at the VEKN.net forum on how to apply and what you need to get this support. Big thanks to Finland National Coordinator Janne "Lönkka" Lönnqvist for making this possible!


Alex Romano VTES NAC 2021
PLAYER INTERVIEW: ALEX ROMANO, NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPION 2021

Briefly mentioned in the last newsletter, the North American Championship 2021 was played in late September at the Origins game fair in Columbus, Ohio. All the Week of Nightmares and Origins winners were:
WoN Sunday: Kelly Schultz - Tzimisce Dracon
Wow Monday 1: Brad Cashdollar - Gangrel Stanislava
WoN Monday 2: Kelly Schultz - Baali The Unnamed + Maleficia
WoN Tuesday 1: Ben Peal - Malkavian Fifth Edition precon
WoN Tuesday 2: Vinny Castellaneta - !Malavian toolbox
WoN Wednesday 1 (charity draft): Guy Russo - !Malkavian
WoN Wednesday 2 (North American Cup qualifier): Darby Keeney - Followers of Set Tempt-O-Rama
Origins Thursday 1: Darby Keeney - Baali Huitzilopochtli
Origins Thursday 2: Darby Keeney - Giovanni Khazar's Diary
Origins Friday 1: Karl Schaefer - Imbued Chainsaw
Origins Friday 2: Kelly Schultz - Inner Circle vote
NAC: Alex Romano - Protean !Toreador
Origins Sun: Kelly Schultz - HarbingersThe Capuchin blocker

Hello Alex, congratulations on the championship victory! Thanks for the opportunity to ask you some questions. First, tell us about your background in VTES please. How long have you been playing?

Thanks for the opportunity to share. I started playing VTES in 2002, when I was 12 years old because Decipher tanked the Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game, so I had to find something else to do and I saw a purple Vampire on a card and was instantly hooked. It was Rake to be exact. About a year after starting, I got grounded from going to comic shop because my grades were slipping LOL, so I stopped playing for a long time.

I took a prolonged break and returned to the game in 2010 at my same local shop. My playgroup luckily is able to play at least every two weeks and we hold tournaments a few times a year. I have played in a lot of tournaments, probably upwards of 40-50, Week of Nightmares not included.

Tournament winning deck: "It's about time"

Crypt (12)
3x L'epuisette 4 aus cel pro Toreador antitribu:4
3x Malabranca 9 obf AUS CEL PRE PRO Toreador antitribu:4
3x Ondine "Boudicca" Sinclair 9 obt AUS CEL PRE PRO Toreador antitribu:5
3x Redbone McCray 6 cel pro AUS PRE Toreador antitribu:4

Library (90)
1x Archon Investigation
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Erciyes Fragments, The
1x Fear of Mekhet
1x Fetish Club Hunting Ground
1x Giant's Blood
3x Palla Grande
1x Powerbase: Montreal
2x Protean
1x Rack, The
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
4x Vessel
2x Villein
1x Wider View

4x Art Scam
2x Enchant Kindred
4x Entrancement
1x Eternal Vigilance
2x Under Siege

1x Carlton Van Wyk

4x Earth Control
4x Instantaneous Transformation
2x Scalpel Tongue

15x Earth Meld
6x Form of Mist

1x Eagle's Sight
2x Enhanced Senses
4x Eyes of Argus
3x Forced Awakening
2x Precognition
4x Quicken Sight
2x Spirit's Touch
6x Telepathic Misdirection

That's a rather original deck you won with, Toreador antitribu with Protean. Have you played it a lot?

Yes, I have played this deck probably around 100 times over the years, it is a favorite of mine. I chose it for this tournament because generally at NAC day 2 you see some hyper aggressive decks and lots of allies, both of which this deck deals with very well. Surprisingly I did not see any Emerald Legionnaire decks at any of my tables, but I did have a couple of games, including the final with an Antonio d’Erlette Nephandi deck. This deck is great at blocking key actions and making a lot of pool. It rarely ever loses a combat if you don’t want to, and as long as there is an absence of Immortal Grapple. It has a surprising amount of bleed power with the combo of Palla Grande and the few Presence bleed cards in the deck, and generally, with the spot stealth combined with Form of Mist, you will get the bleed through when you want to. Also, once the Erciyes Fragment hits the table you have a lot more options to generate bleed or stealth with both in-clan and the off-clan disciplines.
    Ideally your predator is an Animalism combat deck with big vampires, because if you don’t want it to, it will basically never oust you. Even more so though is a non-factor predator, as I had in this final. Prey-wise I don’t mind much, other than a deck I can’t keep up with as far as getting its victory points.
    Easily the most important thing to think about is when to lock. Whether it’s acting or blocking, a key thing I learned years ago was, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Once Under Siege is out you really have to weigh which actions to use those counters for, it shouldn’t be a throwaway block or else you end up stretching yourself thin. Sometimes the best turn for this deck is to just gain pool via Vessels or Art Scam and just stay unlocked. It requires patience to navigate this correctly as it isn’t a power bleed deck.

How were the preliminary rounds for you?

The preliminaries were actually not great for me. I got one VP at the first table before getting blown off the table by Mark Loughman’s stealth-bleed. The second table was basically only ever going to result in a 0.5 VP from me as my predator was playing a Scobax Cybele deck and my prey was playing The Dracon blocks literally everything ever attempted. The third game was much better though, as I was able to get a table win and slip into the final as the fifth seed with 3.5 VP and a win. Before it was announced, I thought I had no chance of squeaking in.

VTES 2021 NAC final tableSo, the final then, what were the players and the decks?

The final was a seriously intense game. Luckily my seat was decided, and I didn’t have to give it too much thought at all. It looked like this: Mark Loughman (Lasombra Stealth bleed) > Alex Romano (!Toreador with Protean) > Brad Cashdollar (Tremere with Animalism wall) > Matt Coombs (!Salubri with swords wall) > Darby Keeney (!Tremere Nephandi swarm)
    Honestly when we sat down, I did not feel confident. Brad is notoriously tough to oust, and Mark’s deck can move very quick and, although I block a lot, it isn’t consistent enough to stop every bleed of 6 from getting through. My plan was to sit back and play the victim until the tide turned my way, just take my turns gaining pool and slowly influencing out my crypt.

How were you feeling about how the game evolved?

As the game developed, it became evident very early my path to victory. Mark brought out a small Lasombra and only Computer Hacked me for a bleed of 2 before I had a minion out. That was literally the last forward action he got that game as Darby absolutely obliterated all of Mark’s vampires with a Frontal Assault the next turn. He was left with one ready vampire in which he made Nocturns to block the forthcoming Nephandi swarm. As this was happening, I was able to influence out all four of my vampires and get two Vessels and The Rack on Malabranca as well as an Under Siege into play. This basically means I gain a minimum of 2 pool each turn and the Nephandi will not oust me unless I make a massive mistake.
    One massive key swing in this game then occurred. Mark, crippled and down to around 2-3 pool was basically a foregone conclusion. Darby did not have The Unmasking in play at this point and I was holding two Entrancements, so without even needing a single action modifier I stole two of his four Nephandi, which led to many Nephandi-on-Nephandi battles. a. k. a. the worst combats of all time.
    Brad was sitting around 7-8 pool at this time, and I drew a Fear of Mekhet which had Gabrielle Di Rhigetti’s name on it. This is a key point in the game because. as I said. this deck can be more about patience than anything. I did not play the Fear of Mekhet on the first turn I had it and lulled Brad into a false sense of security. On Matt’s turn Brad blocked one of the Salubri with a blade and an additional strike on him. and Dr John Dee went down. This left him with Gabrielle with two blood on her and Lord Tremere with three or four blood. I had a Palla Grande in hand as well as three Form of Mist I had been saving up.
    So next turn hits and I play the Fear of Mekhet. Gabrielle dies and on the next go around I drop Palla Grande and blow through Brad. This was the first point I genuinely felt confident in winning. barring a timeout as Darby was the higher seed. From there I was able to get Matt after many turns of effort and only one minute and seven seconds left on the clock. Darby conceded and that was the game.

Wow, that seemed like a great game, congrats once again. So, in general, what does the new North American champion think about the future of VTES?

I think the future of VTES is bright, obviously this year we had reduced attendance at the NAC, but we all know why that is. We had a few first-time attendees and, in doing so, showed the game is ready to take the next step. Black Chantry does a great job of promoting and producing cards for the game, next year possibly having a dedicated demo person for the game probably wouldn’t hurt, but again I understand why we couldn’t this year.
    I want to dedicate this tournament to everyone we have lost in the last few years as it has been hard on VTES. Fernando César, Dave Settie, Timothy Woods and, unfortunately, many others I cannot recall. May you all rest in peace and never be forgotten.



DECKS TO BEAT: OCTOBER

A retrospect by Henrik Klippström

So, this is the twelfth and last installment in our monthly “Decks to beat” series, in which we have examined the winning decks of the tournaments with most players. They have been written by me and the great Rudolf Scholz. We hope that it has been somewhat awarding for you to follow during this period of very few tournaments and fresh tournament winning decks. Do you have ideas on similar articles for this newsletter? Maybe you are an expert deck builder and want to write such articles? Please, contact the editor at !

VTES Decks to beat October 01Year 1999 (because we found no decks from October 2000!)
"OK, What the Hell, a Ventrue Vote Deck" by Eric Nawrotzki
Deck type: Ventrue vote
Crusade: New Jersey – New Jersey, USA – October 30 – 13 players

Eric's own 1999 comment: “This Ventrue Vote Deck shares a fair degree of similarity to my Toreador vote deck, which won "Praxis Seizure: New Jersey". Once again defense was a prime consideration. It has Domain Challenges, Forced Awakenings, and Sudden Reversals to slow down the weenie tap decks (of which, for some strange reason, there were none). The Archon Investigations and Protected Resources and the Deflections to deal with the big bleeders (of which there were many). Since there are more Ventrue Princes the Toreadors, I went with more 5th Traditions and Minion Taps. The weakest part is still probably combat defense, but I was able to add Obedience to the Elysium and Majestys (and I did not encounter any combat rush decks).” (See also the official report.)

Crypt (12)
1x Democritus   10   DOM PRE aus cel for   justicar Ventrue:1
1x Emerson Bridges   8   DOM FOR PRE pot   prince   Ventrue:1
1x Gideon Fontaine   3   PRE   Ventrue:1
1x Heather Florent, The Opportunist 6   FOR PRE dom   Ventrue:1
1x Jazz Wentworth   5   PRE dom for   Ventrue:1
1x Natasha Volfchek   9   FOR PRE cel dom pot   primogen Ventrue:1
1x Ranjan Rishi, Camarilla Scholar 5   DOM PRE for   Ventrue:2
2x Sir Walter Nash   7   DOM FOR PRE   prince   Ventrue:1
1x Timothy Crowley   7   FOR PRE ani dom   prince   Ventrue:1
1x Wilhelm Waldburg   9   DOM FOR PRE aus cel   prince   Ventrue:2
1x Violette Prentiss   4   PRE dom   Ventrue:1

Library (90)
3x Archon Investigation
1x Blood Doll
1x Elysium: the Arboretum
6x Minion Tap
1x Information Highway
1x Protected Resources
3x Sudden Reversal
1x Tomb of Ramses III
1x Uptown Hunting Ground
1x Ventrue Directorate Assembly
2x Ventrue Headquarters

6x Fifth Tradition
5x Govern the Unaligned

1x Ancient Influence
2x Banishment
2x Consanguineous Boon
1x Disputed Territory
2x Domain Challenge
1x Kindred Restructure
10x Kine Resources Contested
1x Praxis Seizure: Cairo
1x Praxis Seizure: Geneva
1x Praxis Seizure: Seattle

4x Bewitching Oration
5x Voter Captivation

9x Majesty

10x Deflection
2x Forced Awakenings
4x Obediance
2x Second Tradition

2021 comments:

VTES Decks to beat October 02

Year 2005
“Lasombra presence slim fast” by Lucas Bonroy
Deck type: Lasombra with Presence vote
French ECQ Emergency Preparation – Paris, France – October 22 – 50 players

Crypt (12)
1x Alvaro, The Scion of Angelica   9   OBT POT dom pre   archbishop Lasombra:2
3x Ambrosio Luis Monçada, Plenipotentiary 10 DOM OBT POT PRE aus for   cardinal    Lasombra:2
3x Francisco Domingo de Polonia   9   DOM OBT POT PRE pro   archbishop Lasombra:2
1x Gratiano   8   DOM OBT obf pot   priscus    Lasombra:2
2x Jessica (ADV)   8   AUS CEL OBT PRE   bishop    Toreador antitribu:2
1x Michael Luther   4   aus pre   Toreador:3
1x Sela (ADV)   7   POT PRE cel obt   archbishop Brujah antitribu:2

Library (74)
2x Blood Doll
1x Elysian Fields
1x Giant's Blood
1x Infomation Highway
7x Minion Tap
8x Zillah's Valley

2x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
2x Ancilla Empowerment
4x Banishment
2x Cardinal Benediction
2x Domain Challenge
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Reins of Power

2x Approximation of Loyalty
2x Blanket of Night
3x Iron glare
2x Private Audience
5x Shadow Play
1x Shroud of Absence
4x Shroud of Night
1x Stone Travel
2x Tenebrous Form
5x Voter Captivation

3x Majesty

5x Deflection
4x Obedience

2021 comments:

VTES Decks to beat October 03
The European Championship 2010 was was a spectacular event. EC Day 1 had 155 players (winner Erik Torstensson playing “Girls will find”, the First Chance Qualifier had 149 players (winner Jérôme Goyet with a Magaji combat deck), and one might say that Brian Mortiz winning deck of EC Paris Day 2 (also Laibon!) is more “prominent”, but with our selection criteria we instead take a look at this one:

Year 2010
“Rising Dementia” by Csaba Greguss
Deck type: Malkavian/!Malkavian Kindred Spirits stealth-bleed
EC 2010 Last Chance Qualifier – Paris, France – October 29 – 172 players (!!)

Crypt (12)
2x Apache Jones   5   DEM aus for obf   Malkavian antitribu:4
2x Jackie   3   DEM   Malkavian antitribu:4
2x Midget   3   DEM obf pre   Malkavian antitribu:3
2x Morel   6   AUS DEM OBF   Malkavian:4
2x Tony   6   AUS DEM dom obf   Malkavian:3
2x Uncle George   5   DEM aus dom obf   Malkavian antitribu:3

Library (70)
1x Antediluvian Awakening
1x Archon Investigation
1x Fortschritt Library
1x Misdirection
2x Pentex(TM) Subversion
3x Wider View

1x Blood Trade
1x Break the Code
1x Nightmares upon Nightmares
1x Rising, The
1x Thirst

4x Call, The
15x Kindred Spirits
2x Sibyl's Tongue

2x Learjet

2x Cloak the Gathering
7x Confusion
3x Deny
8x Eyes of Chaos
2x Faceless Night
2x Lost in Crowds
3x Mind Tricks
2x Spying Mission
2x Swallowed by the Night
2x Touch of Clarity

2021 comments:

VTES Decks to beat October 04

The European Championship was in September this year, so we can look at something else:

Year 2015
“Girls will find... Inner Circles” by Jorge Delgado
Deck type: Baali MMPA stealth-bleed
Spanish NC 2015 – Badía del Vallés, Spain – October 25 – 54 players

Crypt (12)
1x Adana de Sforza    11 CEL OBF POT PRE PRO aus   inner circle   Brujah:4
4x Aksinya Daclau    9   ANI FOR PRE PRO cel tha   Gangrel antitribu:4
4x Cybele    10 ANI DAI OBF PRE SER THA   Baali:4
1x Lucian, The Perfect    11 ANI AUS DOM OBF POT PRE   Guruhi:4
1x Lutz von Hohenzollern 11 AUS DEM OBF PRE pot   inner circle   Malkavian:4
1x Rafael de Corazon    11 AUS CEL DOM OBF PRE   inner circle   Toreador:4

Library (60)
1x Archon Investigation
9x Ashur Tablets
1x Coven, The
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
2x Information Highway
1x Jake Washington
4x Liquidation
1x Metro Underground
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Parthenon, The
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
6x Villein
1x Wider View
4x Zillah's Valley

1x Anthelios, The Red Star
1x Scourge of the Enochians

1x Call the Great Beast
2x Entrancement
2x Unleash Hell's Fury

2x Aire of Elation
2x Elder Impersonation
1x Enkil Cog
2x Faceless Night
4x Into Thin Air
2x Spying Mission
2x Swallowed by the Night

1x Majesty

1x Lost in Translation

2021 comments:



Thanks for reading!


Black Chantry logo

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: OCTOBER 2021

VTES Fifth Edition

Black Chantry VTES products

Do you have opinions or questions for Black Chantry? Start a topic on the VEKN forum, or contact the company by e-mail, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.


War of Ages

RECENT NEWS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

Wow! The World of Darkness team over at Paradox really made October the "Month of Darkness" they promised. This was 30-ish activities and announcements, for example:

Puh, that was a lot, and those were only some hightlights - check out the "Month of Darkness" page for more.



CALENDAR

Upcoming events:
VEKN still refrain from generally encouraging physical tournaments. Follow local regulations on what events are possible. Notice that online tournaments are possible - just check the box "Online tournament" when you add the event to the calendar!

For more information on upcoming events see the VEKN Event Calendar.

You get out what you put in.