Print

SAC 2022 jogadoresSAC 2022 players honouring the great Fernando "Sydnelson" Cesar.

Greetings fellow Methuselahs,

LEONARDO VILLELA IS THE 2022 SOUTH AMERICAN CHAMPION!

This tournament was played on November 12-13 at Play Easy in São Paulo, Brazil. Day 1 had 16 players.

SAC 2022 floor

 

SAC 2022 prizes
Day 1 standings before the final:
1. Kleber Martins 2 GW 7,5 VP
2. Desso Alastor 1 GW 7 VP
3. Leonardo Villela 1 GW 6 VP
4. Thyelles Yoshitomi 1 GW 5 VP
5. Roxy Cíih 1 GW 4 VP

SAC 2022 Day 1 final table

SAC 2022 Finalists Day 1


Congratulations Leonardo Villela, winning by being top seed at 1,5 victory points. Thyelles got 1,5 and Desso 1.

Leonardo´s tournament winning deck: “Calma e bleed”

Crypt (12)
2x Ayelech 7 AUS DOM THA prince Tremere:6
1x Bituin 6 THA ani cel dom baron Tremere:6
1x Inês Tristão 6 THA aus dom pre prince Tremere:6
1x Lloyd Brooks 6 DOM THA aus pot primogen Tremere:6
1x Trevon Parker 6 AUS DOM THA Tremere:6
1x Chrysanthemum 5 AUS THA dom primogen Tremere:6
1x Zane 5 THA aus dom primogen Tremere:5
1x Lauren 4 aus dom tha Tremere:6
1x Nassir 4 THA aus Tremere:6
1x Tarrence Moore 4 aus dom tha Tremere:5
1x Monica Chang 3 dom tha Tremere:5

Library (73)
Master (12; 4 trifle)
1x Academic Hunting Ground
2x Arcane Library
1x Chantry
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Rack, The
4x Vessel

Action (13)
8x Govern the Unaligned
5x Magic of the Smith

Ally (2)
1x Carlton Van Wyk
1x Ponticulus

Equipment (6)
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
1x Kevlar Vest
1x Sniper Rifle
1x Sport Bike

Action Modifier (14)
6x Conditioning
8x Mirror Walk

Combat (6)
1x Burst of Sunlight
5x Theft of Vitae

Reaction (20)
6x Deflection
2x Eagle's Sight
2x Enhanced Senses
3x Eyes of Argus
1x My Enemy's Enemy
4x On the Qui Vive
2x Telepathic Misdirection


Day 2 had 15 players. Standings after the preliminary rounds:
1. Leonardo Villela 1 GW 6,5 VP
2. Thiago Nespoli 1 GW 5 VP
3. Fernando Grossi 1 GW 4,5 VP
4. Desso Alastor 1 GW 4,5 VP
5. Ed Gonçalves 1 GW 4 VP

SAC 2022 Day 2 final tableSAC 2022 Finalists Day 2
Congratulations AGAIN Leonardo Villela, winning this final with 4 victory points. Fernando got 1.

Leonardo´s tournament winning deck: “Power of Princes 2”

Crypt (12)
1x Alice Chen 7 FOR PRE dom obf prince Ventrue:6
1x Benjamin Rose 7 AUS OBF ani pot prince Nosferatu:5
1x Graham Gottesman 7 DOM FOR obf pre tha prince Ventrue:5
1x Karen Suadela 7 CEL POT obf pre prince Brujah:5
3x Arishat 6 DAI OBF PRE 1 vote Baali:6
1x Andi Liu 6 DOM aus obf pre prince Malkavian:6
1x Belinde 6 OBF ani aus pot prince Nosferatu:6
1x Benedito, a Lanterna 6 POT ani aus obf baron Nosferatu:6
1x Donny Kowalczyk 6 AUS cel dom obf prince Malkavian:6
1x Jacques Rouge 6 OBF ani pot pre baron Nosferatu:6

Library (71)
Master (24; 2 trifle)
9x Ashur Tablets
1x Creepshow Casino
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Elysium: The Palace of Versailles
1x Giant's Blood
4x Information Highway
3x Parthenon, The
2x Villein

Action (1)
1x Unleash Hell's Fury

Political Action (19)
1x Ancilla Empowerment
8x Kine Resources Contested
7x Parity Shift
2x Reckless Agitation
1x Rumors of Gehenna

Action Modifier (16)
2x Bewitching Oration
2x Faceless Night
4x Forgotten Labyrinth
2x Lost in Crowds
2x Perfect Paragon
2x Spying Mission
2x Voter Captivation

Action Modifier/Combat (2)
2x Swallowed by the Night

Combat (6)
6x Majesty

Reaction (3)
3x Second Tradition: Domain

SAC 2022 Leonardo with the two prizesLeonardo Villela, winner of both SAC game days!

Thanks to players, sponsors and organisers!


 GP Bologna 2022 champion

DANILO TORRISI WINS GRAND PRIX BOLOGNA 2022!

Words by Simone Zanni:

This year 42 players showed up on December 10 to compete in a great and very friendly tournament.
 
GP Bologna 2022 final table
 
GP Bologna 2022 finalists

Filippo's heavy back rush on Enrique quickly unbalanced the final, leaving two VP´s to Danilo when he felt to take them. At the time out, only Enrico survived to celebrate Danilo´s win.

Congratulations to Danilo Torrisi, and thanks to every player who attended, especially those who came from a long distance. Stats, players and finalists decks are available on bcncrisis.com/tournament/92.

Danilo´s tournament winning deck: “Carnawall”

Crypt (12)
1x Elena Mendoza Vasquez 6 dom obt AUS THA Tremere antitribu:3
1x Eugenio Estevez 6 dom for AUS THA Tremere:3
1x Hannigan 5 dom AUS THA Tremere antitribu:2
1x Martin Franckel 3 tha AUS Tremere:3
1x Selena 6 AUS DOM THA Tremere antitribu:3
1x Valois Sang, The Watcher 6 nec tha AUS DOM Tremere:3
5x Carna, The Princess Witch 7 AUS DOM THA Tremere:3
1x Aisling Sturbridge 5 dom AUS THA Tremere:2

Library: 90
Master (21)
1x Arcane Library
1x Academic Hunting Ground
1x Chantry
1x Dark Influences
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Life Boon
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Powerbase: Montreal
2x Rack, The
3x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
6x Vessel
1x Wider View

Action (9)
8x Magic of the Smith
1x Atonement

Equipment (11)
1x .44 Magnum
2x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
1x Kevlar Vest
2x Sawed-Off Shotgun
2x Sniper Rifle
1x Sport Bike
1x Bowl of Convergence

Action Modifier (2)
2x Conditioning

Combat (8)
4x Rego Motum
4x Theft of Vitae

Reaction (39)
4x Enhanced Senses
8x Eyes of Argus
3x Forced Awakening
2x My Enemy's Enemy
3x On the Qui Vive
4x Telepathic Misdirection
8x Deflection
3x Delaying Tactics
4x Eagle's Sight
 
GP Bologna 2022Miro and Simone.
 
A side note: This GP has been the last tournament for Simone Zanni as National Coordinator for Italy and for Luca Lanzarini as Baron of Bologna. Their places will be taken soon respectively by Miro Albertazzi, long time player also from Bologna, and Alessio Bianchi, an enthusiastic young player of our community. Good luck guys!
 

 
Middle European Cup 2022 finalists
 
LUKÁŠ SIMANDL IS THE 2022 MIDDLE EUROPEAN CUP CHAMPION!

Report by Richard Unter:

For the third time players from all over Europe gathered to battle it out for the Middle European Cup in Vienna. And boy, oh boy, a battle it was. With 42 players from Hungary, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia, Finland, Spain, Germany and, of course, Austria (including some of the legends of the game), the battle was fierce.
 
Middle European Cup 2022 floor
 
 
Middle Europe 2022 final table
Congratulations to Lukáš Simandl for winning the 3rd Middle European Cup! He played an incredible tournament, dominated the first two rounds with his Unnamed/Protocol deck and took a well-deserved victory. In a tense final, he took the necessary VP twenty seconds before the time was over by ousting Markéta Munduchová, who needs a special shout out. Not only is she an incredible artist that you should check out, but also she started playing only two months ago and showed an astonishing feat of fair play, when she did not stall the last 20 seconds, when otherwise SHE would have won the tournament by having the only other oust so far when she eliminated Martin Weinmayer earlier on.
 
Middle European Cup 2022 winnerLukáš Simandl.
 
Lukáš Simandl´s tournament winning deck: Unspecified snakes

Crypt (12)
5x unnamed, The     10 CEL DAI OBF PRE PRO           Baali:6
1x Nonu Dis          8 OBF PRE PRO for               Ministry:6
1x Crystal Lynn      6 OBF PRE PRO                   Ministry:6
1x Elisha Tucker     6 PRE cel obf pro       baron   Ministry:6
1x Marcel            4 obf pre pro                   Ministry:6
3x Anarch Convert    1                               Caitiff:ANY

Library (90)
Master (16; 9 trifle)
1x Anarch Railroad
2x Archon Investigation
3x Dabbler
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Powerbase: Los Angeles
1x Secure Haven
2x Vessel
3x Villein
1x Wash

Action (18)
1x Entrancement
14x Platinum Protocol, The
3x Unleash Hell's Fury

Ally (1)
1x Carlton Van Wyk

Retainer (2)
2x Homunculus

Action Modifier (35)
6x CrimethInc.
6x Enchanting Gaze
4x Enkil Cog
4x Faceless Night
2x I am Legion
3x Instantaneous Transformation
2x Lost in Crowds
8x Revelation of the Serpent

Action Modifier/Reaction (1)
1x Sense the Sin

Combat (10)
1x Donnybrook
5x Earth Meld
4x Form of Mist
 
Reaction (7)
7x Party Out Of Bounds

We hope everyone had a great tournament and we will see all of you the next time again in Vienna!
 

 
EC 2022 floor
 
THE VTES YEAR 2022
 
A retrospect by Henrik Klippström:

This year we finally had a more normal tournament scene again, after a couple of years of pandemic terribleness. 328 events are reported in the VEKN Event Calendar so far this year, compared to 218 in 2021 and 133 in 2020. The last non-pandemic year was 2019, which had 292 events. This means the game is growing!

Lets have a look at the most interesting stuff that happened this year:

April: The five New Blood introductory decks are released, with some new vampires and desirable reprints for clans Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere and Ventrue.

April: Panders, Salubri and Tzimisce are made available for print-on-demand at Drivethrucards, totally 159 cards, including many player-favourites such as War Ghoul, Legacy of Pander and Neutral Guard.
 
NAC 2022
June: Bill Troxel is the new North American champion, wielding a Daughters of Cacophony deck with (of course) Emerald Legionnaires.

June: The Spanish National Championship has 139 players! Ricardo Filipe Marta wins with a rather classic “Girls” MMPA bleed deck.
 
EC 2022
July: Otso Saariluma of Finland wins the European Championship (again!) with a master-heavy Enkidu/Matasuntha deck. Day 1 of this tournament had 99 players, a nice number considering everything.

October: The Fall of London expansion hits the stores, accompanied by a storyline constructed by the set's main designer Mike Nudd.

October: Ke Carlton wins the Australian & New Zealand Continental championship, playing an Arishat & Barons vote deck.

November: This month had the most National championships: Finland, Sweden, Portugal, UK and Germany.

December: Leonardo Villela is the new South American champion (see this newsletter).

December: The Black Chantry webshop (www.blackchantry.shop) celebrates one year, located in Denmark and run by Jesper Bøje. He says this has been “both a blast and at times exhausting work”. Among his accomplishments are sending cards to 40 countries in six different continents, sending over 8 000 promo cards, sending over 1 000 units of the Unleashed packs, and sending prize support to all the 2022 Atlantic Cup participants. Peak week was week 38.
 
Also, we have seen five European Grand Prix tournaments; both for the very long 2019-2022 season and for the 2022-2023 season. Sebastian Fredenberg of Sweden won the final of the 2019-2022 season. Attendance on the Grand Prix has varied, but besides Continental and National Championships these are the largest VTES tournaments. There´s also been a number of large online tournaments, for example the Online World Championship and the Atlantic Cup.
 
Seville demo 2022
We have also reported about a lot of demo games this year – these are really welcome efforts to show the game to new people. The VEKN thanks all these organisers and hope more will come.

Of course, these were just the highlights. If you´re not a frequent reader of the VEKN newsletter, we really encourage you to browse through the newsletter archive for lots of interesting content, primarily event reports (with deck lists) and strategy articles. We would like to thank everyone that has helped out with content for the newsletter this year (sometimes even on deadline!), and hope for your continued aid in 2023.

Happy new VTES year!
 


 
Julie Collins - Third Tradition Progeny
 
THE MAGIC OF VTES – A BEGINNER`S TALE

This is a story of a Magic: The Gathering player for over 25 years to eventually find another worthy game.

I’ve been a Magic player since around 1995. Throughout the years, I became aware that Richard Garfield continued to develop other games after Magic and that VTES was one of them. Unfortunately, I knew nobody who was playing this game in South Moravia, Czech Republic, and I don’t remember seeing any VTES products anywhere either (though some were apparently available nonetheless).

In any case, one aspect of Magic was really rubbing me the wrong way – its mana system. On top of the normal deck randomization, it creates a secondary luck factor so that even if you draw the best combination of cards, you also need to draw the right amount of land cards to be able to play at all. The dreaded “mana screw”, “mana flood”, and “color screw” situations were plaguing me and everybody else playing the game. Not only was it unavoidable by design, it was particularly painful after investing a lot of money and testing into your tournament deck, then losing a couple of games due to mana issues.

I eventually started to research various other trading card games, living card games, and card-based board games, and learned that Magic was for the most part all but alone in having this kind of crucial game resource management. Most notably, at least for this article, I learned that Richard Garfield himself moved away from this mana system right after finishing the design of Magic, when he started to design Jyhad [1]. I ended up creating a couple of Magic variants that circumvented the mana system [2][3] for casual play but despite wanting to try out VTES, my sense of it at the time was that the game was obscure, nearly dead, and not really available or accessible. Though I browsed some VTES card pictures out of curiosity, being a Magic player used to very quick matches, long multiplayer games with possible early player elimination was not exactly appealing to me either.

Then about 10 years ago I got familiar with the World of Darkness by playing and later localizing (because the writing was that good) the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines video game by Troika Games. Though it was still no VTES for me, I was primed to get into it at an opportune moment.

Fast forward to autumn of 2020 when I randomly noticed a relatively new offer at my local game store [4], featuring First Blood starters and some Anthology sets. I was like “Whaaaa…?!” and started to scour the internet for how that could be. After finding and reading through the Black Chantry website, I eventually found VEKN.net and the list of princes available there [5].

I was glad to find out that the city I live in, Brno, had a prince. Without a lot of expectations, I wrote an e-mail. To my surprise, I got a reply very quickly so I proceeded to gather a couple of friends who were also interested to learn something about VTES and invited everyone for a demo. This was also during the pandemic when game stores and restaurants were closed so it had to be a house party. For me, it was a success and I knew my time had come to start playing.

I learned that there were dozens of players all across the Czech Republic, and though many of them have been in torpor lately, the Czech community had been organizing regular regional tournaments. I even learned that I already knew at least three VTES players in Brno alone, I just didn’t know that about them before!

I was kind of all in since then. I bought all the Black Chantry precons and bundles that I could get. I was also able to get a bunch of spare cheap cards from my local group to get started with deckbuilding. And I have to admit, VTES does have a steep learning curve. For me, learning the basic rules was nothing compared to actually understanding how to navigate a 5-player game, tracking game states, triggers, etc. I also learned that while being generally very supportive, my play group was not really keen on playing with starter decks with me. So right from the beginning, I was exposed to Anarch Converts, contracts, Palla Grande, and all the other advanced stuff I needed to wrap my head around. I concluded that my precons could not really keep up so I started to build my decks. Someone suggested that I should start with something easy to pilot, like the Dementation stealth & bleed deck based on the First Blood starter. I went with the idea though it was not the only archetype I wanted to explore.

I played the deck several times to learn the archetype and a few months later I joined the Czech National tournament, called Pulled Fang, just to get to learn the community a bit more. And what do you know, it wasn't a complete wash. My first table looked as follows: Aksinya as my prey, Stanislava as my predator, with Lasombra powerbleed and Toreador CEL-guns across the table. Long story short, I somehow managed to oust two players while the Lasombra ousted Stanislava. In the heads up and in the last minute of the time limit, I managed to DI a crucial Conditioning, saving enough pool to finish the game the next turn. Talk about beginner’s luck! In the following games, I encountered many decks that I did not recognize and had no idea how to play against, scoring no more points but it was already worth it.

For each subsequent regional tournament, I improved my deck a little bit and tweaked it based on its previous performance and advice I got from others but I realized that it won’t be that simple. I keep encountering decks unfamiliar to me which is a good thing. But combined with weird and unexpected interactions and errors players make randomly, there does not seem to be a silver bullet to learning VTES other than just playing and failing better. This is truly a far cry from how Magic is played competitively, with short and explosive games followed by instant gratification.

On the other hand, I learned that even in VTES, if you are unlucky, you get to play very little or not at all. For example, I was recently on the wrong end of a couple of Brainwashes followed by multiple 419 Operations and was unable to accomplish anything in that game.

And so I’m building various decks, trying various archetypes, learning from TWDA [6], the Information Highway blog [7], and other resources. However, I’ve put several constraints for myself on what (not) to play. As I started my card collection with BCP products, I decided not to play groups 1-3. In fact, my sense of the game is that these old groups include some very efficient if not unbalanced vampires from when the game was very young and which would probably not be designed today. I am also avoiding playing 11-caps, as to me, they appear as too archetype-defining, susceptible to fast decks but otherwise hard to deal with. Case and point, very early on, I did not get why the Stanislava precon was considered to be very strong. I played one game with it in a pub. With a bit of hand-holding, I managed to score a GW without a lot of effort and had to admit it’s not a very fun deck for casual play. On the other hand, the new Mithras appears to be designed specifically to allow a broader range of strategies to build around.

I for one appreciate the changes Vampire: The Masquerade Fifth Edition (“V5”) is bringing to the table as it basically allows VTES to be reimagined from the ground up, with all the experience from the past 20+ years. That enables the Black Chantry team to not only design new cards for new or updated deck archetypes, but also to update existing cards that are compatible with V5 and that previously saw little or no play.

For now, my signature (and also marginal and incidental) “tech” for my Malkavian stealth & bleed is something I did not see anyone play thus far, though I’m sure I was not the first to discover it: multiple Information Highways in the deck, burnable by Osric Vladislav for profit :)

I’m looking forward to playing new cards, new clan decks, and new reprints for post-Fifth-edition VTES (which I also call “Modern”). I’d like to see the format grow until it is big enough to draw in more of the veteran players. If I could make two wishes for the game, one major and one minor, at this stage in my VTES “career”, they would go like this:
• To me, it seems that Dominate bleed & bounce is very often, well, too dominant. I’d appreciate to see a combination of an erratum to address this reality, a few cherry-picked reprints for Modern VTES like Narrow Minds, and/or several newly-designed cards to nerf the archetype a bit, a Touch of Clarity type of thing.
• I’d like to see Victim of Habit tweaked to be playable. In my view, the card has a tremendous potential in many non-bleed deck archetypes but unfortunately, due to its current wording, it has been and continues to be virtually unplayable.

In closing, I’d like to thank the Black Chantry team for their time and effort, and wish them to be able to go full-time soon, and both the Czech VTES and international VTES Discord communities for supporting and cherishing new players like me. VTES is hard but many folks I’ve met personally or virtually really make it fun. I pass my turn.

Tomáš (“charmer” on Discord)

[1] https://vtesone.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/vtes-history-richard-garfield-interview/
[2] https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/other-formats/homebrew-and-variant-formats/177476-magic-2-0-aka-screw-the-mana-screw
[3] https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/custom-card-creation/custom-card-rulings/585781-joker-wild-card-for-magic
[4] https://www.rishada.cz/vampire-tes
[5] https://www.vekn.net/vampire-elder-kindred-network/prince-list
[6] http://www.vekn.fr/decks/twd.htm
[7] https://vtesinformationhighway.wordpress.com/

Do you also want to contribute to the newsletter? Contact
 

Black Chantry logo

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: DECEMBER 2022

• There is to be an alternate art version of Archon Investigation handed out as a promo at the Spanish National Championship in Sevile in March. The art by Ginés Quiñonero shows a historic flashback scene with later Justicar Alonso Petrodon working as an Archon in 15th century Seville. And yes, Archon Investigation will see print again in other ways soon, but not with this special artwork.

Archon Investigation

• Round 2 of playtesting of the upcoming Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce preconstructed decks is ongoing. The playtesters now get to try both modified versions of the cards from round 1 and some all new ones. The aim is to do at least three rounds of playtesting in time for a second quarter release of these decks.

• Black Chantry wants to direct a special thanks to all you who created fresh online content for VTES during the past year. We see more and more of this, both tools like Codex of the Damned and VDB.im, and video content like that of Reading Between the Lyons and SuakuOZ, or like the very nice game overview by Jenders Gaming recently. If possible, Black Chantry will gladly help out if you want to create VTES content, for example with artwork and proofing.

• The next batch of print-on-demand Legacy Card Singles is a bit delayed, but hopefully ready soon, possibly even when you read this!

Black Chantry Products 2022 October

Currently these Black Chantry products are available through Drivethrucards.com and other stores:

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


RECENT NEWS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

Some cool stuff in December:

The official digital for Vampire: The Masquerade called Vampire Nexus continues to grow, now with three more titles in the online library: “Chicago By Night”, “Cults of the Blood Gods” and “Auld Sanguine”.

• Also growing is the new Vampire: The Masquerade wiki over at Paradox Wikis. If you have a user (or creates on), feel free to add content! For example the Vampire: The Eternal Struggle entries need more words :)

• The World of Darkness News Show had some interesting episodes with an interview with the Milan Uprising developers and showcase of Vampire Jam 2022 (two episodes).

Subscribe to the World of Darkness News show for more news!


 

CALENDAR

Upcoming tournaments for the coming month (registered so far) are in:
Brazil x3
Chile
Denmark
Norway
Online x2
Spain x5
USA x3

For details about these events, see the VEKN Event Calendar.

Remember: Online tournaments are possible - just check the box "Online tournament" when you add the event to the calendar!



CONTACT V:EKN
You can contact the V:EKN Inner Circle members using
 contact forms at V:EKN.net. Also follow the official V:TES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and the official V:EKN Twitter account @VEKN_VTES 

Everything you can imagine is real.