Preview art by Ginés Quiñonero.

Greetings fellow Methuselahs,

This year of sparse live VTES events is over, and we once again present to you a somewhat different newsletter, this time starting out with some personal contributions, one from Finland and one from Mexico...

THE MEMOIRS OF A FORMER NEW PLAYER

Dear fellow Methuselahs,

It all started a year and eight months ago. My brother who had played Vampire: the Eternal Struggle for a few years took me to play a demo game. He says he had asked me to play almost as a joke, not expecting me to be interested, me having practically no previous game experience of any kind. But I was interested, and I was turned into a vampire, one of the best things ever to happen to me. Here are some unforgettable moments of my career as a vampire so far.

After my demo my brother coached me diligently. If you have a mentor when you are starting your games, you have a huge advantage. I drew charts of the phases of the turn and of combat and studied these plus my cards as if I was to have an exam. My brother said that no one else studies VTES like this. But I sure orientated myself profoundly. Once my uncle made me show him my teeth, as he wanted to make sure I was still human. I guess I didn’t talk about much else at the time.

My games started well. I won the demo and the first actual game was a table of four that ended as a 2-2 split, a tie with the local prince. In the third game I understood nothing of anything and just watched as the game around me collapsed. The others applauded as the new player sweeps the table. I wonder if I even knew the meaning of the word at the time. Later I have learned what Smiling Jack is. In the eighth game I and my brother had our first “Tiippana Off”, just the two of us left – that was how a colleague commented the situation in the message group. And I won.

My brother kept guiding me forward. I looked up decklists in TWDA, printed them as proxies, and my brother taught me how to play them. I guess I did everything backwards, playing with new decks all the time instead of concentrating on a single one. But I learned. I have tried “almost everything possible” and bleed is my absolute favorite.

I played almost solely weenies. I didn’t believe my brother when he said that I might have it easier if I played with something a bit bigger. When I tried Montano, he was flattened by Nephandi and that was the end of my big cap playing for a while.

I met players out-of-town the first time in my second tournament. I had played for three months and I believe that I made an indelible impression on one of them: I ousted him before he had his first minion ready. Nice card, Brainwash. My score in the tournament was 7/20, 3 vp. I made it to two ousts before the tournament winner, with a The Unnamed deck, caught me.

After three tournaments a senior player told me to make a deck of my own. He asked what kind of a deck I’d like. One that gains pool, not only loses it, my answer was. And I was given a 20 card core for a deck: Ansons, Ashurs, Liquidations and Parthenons. The rest should be “whatever I wanted”. I did as instructed. My brother later told me my deck didn’t turn out exactly as expected. Well, Anson does have Dominate, so why wouldn’t he bleed with Govern? The crucial card in my deck was Torrent. Anson finished the last bleed with it and it was a sweep. A big help was an Archon Investigation I played earlier in the game. I was not assumed to have one in a deck that can bounce bleeds.

So I started building decks. I made some horrible mistakes but succeeded too, at times. Once I made a deck from scratch, no decklists used, and it turned out to be Malk’94, the traditional version. Well, someone else has thought it to be a good deck too – and it was a sweep.

My brother and I sometimes take a random vampire and make a deck for them. Once this vampire was Jackie. My brother made a deck for her, a weenie Dementation deck. I started printing the proxies we needed and he said “you’re not putting this together, right?” And I played with it. My brother, who played at a different table, asked how it went. A sweep. He laughed. There was a tournament coming up. My brother asked how it had gone with Jackie. I had won two games and got points from two others. He said that with that deck you’ll be in the finals. And I was like, then I’m definitely not playing it! Well, I ended up in the finals which was an impressing experience even though I got no victory points there.

VTES sure is a game worth playing. You get to challenge yourself and always learn new stuff. And considering my background, I play very well, at least according to my brother. Still have a lot to learn, so let’s keep going forward. I encourage others to try the game and to relentlessly keep playing even if this is quite a handful at first.

I have now played 194 games, won 19 of them and tried 40+ different decks. Yes, I keep a record. Now I would need a GW in the near future so that I could have it so nicely: 20/200. Of course, most of my games have been reasonable, sad or dismal. But I am always delighted of small victories: hearing praise for your self-made deck, when Tariq gets to eat the world, playing Chameleon successfully or blowing up Khazard’s Diary. Or when your crochet garlic as your Edge gets attention.

Thanks everyone for your patience in teaching new players! Be safe and let’s keep on bleeding!

Mari Tiippana
Joensuu, Finland

CHRONICLE OF THE LOST TRIBE

About VTES in Mexico:

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle arrived in Mexico in the mid 90’s. Back then, role-playing games where at their peak, alongside the new trading card games, led by Magic: The Gathering (MTG), created by Richard Garfield for Wizards of the Coast. This boom made the appearance of the first table-top game stores, play centres, and boardgame cafés possible.

At that time, stores such as Comic Castle, Minas Tirith, Lotus Valley or Comic Imp had products of the World of Darkness (Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, etc.) in their catalogue, as well as the card game based on that universe: Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (VTES).

A group of friends and I used to frequent Lotus Valley, a store located south of Mexico City, where we got into the world of werewolves, with little success though. Thereafter, we started a Vampire: The Masquerade Sabbat chronicle. While we were waiting for a game to start, we would be taught to play various trading card games of the time. I particularly got hooked on VTES.

Step by step, our group acquired more and more cards to build decks of all sorts, according to the tastes of each of us (my first deck was a Lasombra deck from The Sabbat). And, although my first experiences at VTES tournaments were not particularly lucky, my love for the game always endured.

As time passed, the store shut down, and my group had to split up. It was then when I started to wander in search of players and places to play VTES. Many game stores focussed on MTG and other card games (Yu-Gi-Ho!, Pokémon, etc.), but almost none was selling or knew VTES. Besides, the existing play groups were in hiding and kept private, thus excellently obeying the First Tradition.

Occasionally I would find a Methuselah to play some games with, and some stores would eventually sell some product. So those were long and dark years for me and for the other VTES players in the city. With great effort the players arranged for a store to bring new VTES products, which revived the interest of former players in the game. After many attempts, the community of players was reorganised, and games were played on weekends or Mondays. And so, VTES Monday nights became customary to date. However, there were few new players in the VTES scene, which consisted of the few Methuselahs that were still active.

With a new prince of Mexico City, the VTES community thrived, because he ran sanctioned tournaments and the stores were selling the new VTES sets. Starting in 2017, the prince and I focussed on making the community grow with new players. After many efforts, in 2019 the alliance of our group with the Club de Juegos de Mesa was formed, who opened their doors to us in order to become the “home of VTES in Mexico”, and where little by little new players would start showing up.

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Due to the pandemic, we turned to digital platforms to keep the local community alive. Fortunately, this linked us with the international community, mainly with the communities of Latin America and Spain, which has been beneficial to the overall community because of the exchange of knowledge and points of view, playing styles, pieces of advice and recommendations. Likewise, a team of collaborators who love VTES (Grupo VTES México) was  formed, who, with their content, strengthen and nurture the community through the different digital platforms: Official Pages (VTES México and El taller de VTES), Facebook and Instagram (VTES México), specialised Podcasts (Master Phase), are available for both experienced players and those who are just starting out in the world of VTES.

The Spanish editions of the game have helped a lot to for the game to be more attractive to the Mexican community, and we hope for it to continue growing in 2021, both for the old players, who come out of torpor, and for the new-borns, who join the ranks of VTES fan community.

Eduardo García Ayala, ”Lalo Vtes”

DECKS TO BEAT: DECEMBER

A retrospect by Henrik Klippström.

December! The month of various holidays generally doesn´t have many big tournaments, but where there´s darkness and free time, there are always some devout players who will do battle. Here are the winning decks of the tournaments with most attendants of 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, with some comments.

Year 2000
Untitled by Jay Kristoff
Deck type: Midcap Tzimisce wall
Insubordination – Columbus, Ohio, USA – December 9 – 21 players

2000 comment: ”I was often content with not taking any actions and letting the master cards and my wall of intercept do the work. The reaction cards are there to protect the master cards that are already in play. Aggravated damage (with or with out Rotschreck) made vamps pay for trying to mess with my stuff. Multiple master phases were required because I ran through minion cards quickly and would occasionally see a very gray hand.” (More at Insubordination: Columbus-recap)

Crypt (12)
2x Little Tailor of Prague   8   ANI AUS VIC dem   Tzimisce:2
2x Caliban   6   ANI AUS VIC   Tzimisce:2
2x Corine Marcón   6   AUS VIC ani   Tzimisce:2
2x Lolita Houston   4   VIC aus   Tzimisce:2
1x Meshenka   8   ANI AUS VIC   priscus   Tzimisce:2
1x Sascha Vykos, The Angel of Caine 8   AUS THA VIC ani dom   priscus   Tzimisce:2
1x Devin Bisley   5   ANI AUS vic   Tzimisce:2
1x Terrence   4   ani aus vic   Tzimisce:2

Library (90)
2x Anarch Revolt
4x Blood Doll
1x The Coven
1x Direct Intervention
1x Giant's Blood
1x Library Hunting Ground
2x The Parthenon
1x Powerbase: Chicago
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x The Rack
3x Rotschreck
1x Smiling Jack the Anarch
1x Sudden Reversal

3x Army of Rats
1x Consanguineous Boon
1x Rumors of Gehenna
1x Rave
1x Raptor
3x Revenant

2x Breath of the Dragon
10x Chiropteran Marauder
6x Inner Essence
4x Meld with the Land

9x Cat's Guidance
3x Eagle's Sight
2x Enhanced Senses
1x Fast Reaction
10x Forced Awakening
4x Precognition
3x Sprit's Touch
2x Telepathic Counter
4x Telepathic Misdirection

2020 comment:
- 90 cards was standard in 2000, but now, try to slim it down to around 82 by just cutting 10 percent in each card category. Sure, this is a deck that will want to play a lot of cards, but 90 cards is seldom worth it.
- Aggro-poke is not very hot these days, at least not in most metas. Rötschreck of course spice things up, but still tricky.
- Meld with the Land often feels like a underplayed card. That inferior, Obedience-inferior-kind, effect is often nice.
- Today, 10 Forced Awakening is a bit much unless you REALLY want to block, never bounce, anything. And speaking of bouncing, I´d up the bounces a bit, and switching those Telepathic Counters for bounces (the Counters CAN be good, and surprising, but seldom worth it). And of course, Eyes of Argus is of course a no-brainer in this deck today – but just how many do one dare to use?


Year 2005
”Tzimisce Vote” by Jeffrey ” The Lasombra” Thompson
Deck type: Tzimisce big/midcap vote
Praxis Seizure: Atlanta – Atlanta, Georgia, USA – December 10 – 14 players

Crypt (12)
2x Lambach   10   ANI AUS DOM VIC pre   cardinal   Tzimisce:2
2x Stravinsky   9   ANI AUS VIC pot   archbishop  Tzimisce:2
2x Velya, The Flayer   9   ANI AUS PRE VIC for   cardinal   Tzimisce:3
2x Meshenka   8   ANI AUS VIC   priscus   Tzimisce:2
2x Sascha Vykos, The Angel of Caine 8   AUS THA VIC ani dom   priscus   Tzimisce:2
1x Devin Bisley   5   ANI AUS vic   Tzimisce:2
1x Elizabeth Westcott   5   AUS ani cel vic   Tzimisce:3

Library (90)
3x Information Highway
2x Library Hunting Ground
6x Minion Tap
1x Retribution

1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
2x Consanguineous Boon
1x Disputed Territory
8x Kine Resources Contested
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Reins of Power
1x Year of Fortune

1x Gregory Winter
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

6x Bribes
3x Private Audience
5x Telepathic Vote Counting
3x Voter Captivation

8x Aid from Bats
8x Carrion Crows
2x Chiropteran Marauder

6x Telepathic Counter
9x Telepathic Misdirection
10x Wake with Evening's Freshness

2020 comment:
- The ”bruise-vote” concept is famously challenging to win with, much because both combat and voting are fairly card intensive to make fly – you try to build ”card chains” for both things at the same time. Combining them in one deck gets tricky. While the threat of a Aid+Crows combat is strong, I´d be tempted to switch all that combat for Changelings and Plasmic Forms, plus some Meld with the Land. Could keep the Marauders for surprise agg and maneuvers. Sure, that become a different deck, but likely more stable – of course highly dependent on your meta.
- Bribes if fun and can be nice, but probably smarter to switch for something else, or just slim out. Like above, this deck should probably not be 90 cards.
- The deck is not dependent on a single star vampire getting Voter caped repeatedly, so Minion Taps would be Villeins today, and most Wake with Evening´s Freshness will be Eyes of Argus.
- You could also consider playing more Voter Caps, run 3 each of Lambach and Velya instead of whatever else – both are extremelly strong and versatile vampires.


Year 2010
"No Rules Vignes" by Ville Kaijasaari
Deck type: Ventrue Vignes powerbleed
Monday Mayhem XXII – Tampere, Finland – December 6 – 23 players

Crypt (12)
3x Edward Vignes   6   DOM PRE for   Ventrue:3
2x Victor Pelletier   5   PRE cel dom for   Ventrue:4
1x Epikasta Rigatos   8   AUS DOM PRE cel   prince   Toreador:4
1x Mustafa, The Heir   6   FOR PRE cel dom   prince   Ventrue:4
1x Boss Callihan   5   PRE dom for pro   Ventrue:3
1x Catherine du Bois   5   DOM for obf pre   Ventrue:3
1x João Bilé   5   DOM FOR pre   Ventrue:4
1x Michael Luther   4   aus pre   Toreador:3
1x Diana Vick   3   dom pre   Ventrue:3

Library (75)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Dominate
1x Giant's Blood
2x Lilith's Blessing
1x Misdirection
2x Pentex Subversion
1x The Coven
1x Uptown Hunting Ground
1x Ventrue Headquarters
5x Villein

2x Enchant Kindred
3x Entrancement
6x Govern the Unaligned
1x Judgment: Camarilla Segregation
5x Mind Numb
2x Scouting Mission

2x Kine Resources Contested
2x Parity Shift

3x Bonding
2x Change of Target
2x Conditioning
1x Daring the Dawn
2x Foreshadowing Destruction
2x Seduction
1x Threats

9x Majesty
2x Staredown

6x Deflection
4x On the Qui Vive
2x Redirection

2020 comment:
- A rather classic Vignes deck, but with group for 4 instead of group 2, for titled vampires to pull off those four votes in the ”launch rounds”. Not sure if its worth it, maybe?
- Note the Lilith´s Blessing – thats banned until someone convinces Vincent Ripoll to unban it!
- Seems a bit low on Conditionings, but that is always tricky to balance. Thats the card slots used for those votes, I guess.
- Maybe a couple of Freak Drives would work – while we´re maybe low on superior Fortitude, Freak Drive is great for heavy launches.
- I´d run at least 2 Daring the Dawn.


Year 2015
”Não tem eagle, vai de second” by Walter Polack
Deck type: Malkavian bigcap toolbox
Power of One – Somewhere (!), Brazil – December 13 – 18 players

Crypt (12)
3x Lucian   10  AUS DOM OBF cel tha   justicar  Malkavian:1
3x Gilbert Duane   7   AUS DOM OBF   prince   Malkavian:1
2x Greger Anderssen   7   AUS OBF dom pro   prince   Malkavian:2
1x Mariel, Lady Thunder   7   DOM OBF aus tha   Malkavian:1
1x Ozmo   6   AUS dom obf   Malkavian:1
1x Roland Bishop   4   aus dom obf   Malkavian:1
1x Dollface   3   aus obf   Malkavian:1

Library (90)
1x Asylum Hunting Ground
1x Club Zombie
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Fame
1x Madness Network
1x Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter
3x Minion Tap
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
3x Rötschreck
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
1x Vast Wealth
1x Vessel

1x Dominate Kine
1x Far Mastery
5x Govern the Unaligned
3x Graverobbing
2x Revelations

1x Bowl of Convergence
4x Flamethrower
1x Heart of Nizchetus
2x IR Goggles
1x Ivory Bow
1x Sengir Dagger

1x Disputed Territory
3x Parity Shift

2x Conditioning
2x Elder Impersonation
3x Lost in Crowds
5x Swallowed by the Night

4x Disguised Weapon
3x No Trace

2x Eagle's Sight
2x Enhanced Senses
2x Forced Awakening
1x My Enemy's Enemy
5x On the Qui Vive
7x Second Tradition: Domain
4x Spirit's Touch
4x Telepathic Misdirection
1x Wake with Evening's Freshness

2020 comment:
- This is a funny deck! The world would be a better place with more toolbox decks in it. They´re not boring to play and not as vurnerable to ”impossible” seatings as non-toolbox decks are. And 4 victory points in this final shows they can work.
- To at least once pull off a Disguided weapon-Flamethrower-Graverobbing combo is reason enough to try this deck.
- 90 cards is still a lot. Consider slimming down to 80-ish, starting in the Master section.
- Lucian is underrated – his special ability is often useful, but remember to pack some maneuvers.

VEKN ON FACEBOOK NOW 1.918 MEMBERS!

Slow but steady, the VEKN community is growing, in spite of the current low live event activitiy. An easy way to know this is the constant addition of members to the official VEKN Facebook group. In the last 12 months, the group is up 26 percent in members. And what is just as important, a large majority of the 1.918 members are active members, who actually interact with the group. Please keep on doing so, and please recommend VTES playing friends to join too!

Most engaging post in December (most comments and reactions):
1. WW just released the WoD V5 Companion …
2. Oh! Hello, Inés Tristào. So you don't actually have Potence!..
3. Are ghouls also considererd mortal?
4. Please Black Chantry sponsor some Netflix series with VTES decks…
5. I haven’t heard anyone complain about the clan symbol change…
6. Which Govern one do y’all prefer?
7. 'Smol Demon' art
8. Are we going to change the usual abbreviation from THA to BLO now?
9. Congratulations Alan “Alanmut” Santos of Brazil!
10. I just found that Toreador Grand Ball is not Unique...

But don’t forget there is a forum on VEKN.net too!

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: DECEMBER 2020

• Fifth Edition is now for sale all over the world! November 30 is the official release date, so the new cards are tournament legal on December 30, as is the latest rule change about default sect that was announced in the latest RTR. In that announcement there was also some addendum and errata for the Fifth Edition rulebook and helpsheets.

• A new round of playtesting has begun, with both the next four preconstructed decks (Banu Haqim, Brujah, Gangrel and The Ministry) and cards for the not yet named next expansion. The pandemic situation makes live playtesting hard, but games can be played using Lackey or Tabletop Simulator, and of course the cards are discussed thoroughly in designated forums. The round will end in mid February.

• Black Chantry CEO made a stunning performance in the official World of Darkness News show with Outstar - check it out if you missed it.

• Black Chantry art director Ginés Quiñonero delivered some insight in his role and the art of VTES in a interview on Blackchantry.com.

• Currently these Black Chantry products are available through Drivethrucards.com and other stores:
- Lost Kindred bundle
- Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 1
- Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 2
- Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 1
- Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 2
- Den of Fiends Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
- Libertine Ball Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
- Pact with Nephandi Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
- Parliament of Shadows Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
- Anthology I bundle
- VTES Card Creator (Drivethrucards only)
- 25th Anniversary
- First Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French)
- First Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French)
- First Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French)
- First Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French)
- First Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French)
- VTES Legacy Card Singles (Drivethrucards only)
- Promo Pack 1 (Drivethrucards only)
- Promo Pack 2 (Event promos only)
- VTES "Parity Shift" playmat
- VTES card sleeves
- Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition (Currently stores only)

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.

RECENT NEWS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

Some highlights from the last month:

• The Vampire: The Masquerade Companion was released as a PDF on Worldofdarkness.com, and got 10,000 downloads in just the first 12 hours. It contains (among other things) clans Tzimisce, Ravnos and Salubri updated for the V5 setting, and the changes in clan disciplines is particulary interesting for future VTES design. The companion is a free download, all you need to get it is a site account.

• Creative Lead Justin Achilli discussed the above mentioned Companion on World of Darkness News following the release, don´t miss it!

• The World of Darkness Twitch channel ran a "Vamily Holiday Marathon" for the Direct Relief Covid-19 Response, with all kinds of WoD games streaming.

• "Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood" has a first look video of the gameplay out. Action guaranteed!

CALENDAR

Upcoming events:
Follow local regulations on what physical events are possible. Notice that online tournaments are possible - just note "ONLINE" in the event name when you add the event to the calendar!

For more information on upcoming events see the V:EKN Event Calendar.

CONTACT VEKN

You can contact the VEKN Inner Circle members using contact forms at VEKN.net. Also follow the VEKN Facebook group, the official VTES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and the official VEKN Twitter account @VEKN_VTES

"The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war."

Preview art by Ginés Quiñonero.

Greetings fellow Methuselahs,

Cold winds are blowing, chilling the bones of even the most cold-blooded of ancient Methuselahs. Great that we have the Eternal Struggle to keep us warm!

BILL TROXEL IS THE 2020 WORLD ONLINE CHAMPION!

The 2020 World Online Championship was played on Lackey during November with 80 preliminary games with a total of 103 players. 64 of these games ended with a Game Win. The top five players gathered on November 28 for the final table:
1. Rodrigo Iturrieta - Faroock from Chile: 5 vp (GW), 5 vp (GW), 4 vp (GW), 1 vp, 0 vp, 0 vp
2. Bartosz Daciuk - BartDCI from Poland: 5 vp (GW), 4 vp (GW), 4 vp (GW), 4 vp (GW), 1.5 vp, 0.5 vp
3. Sebastian Meurer - Menteith from Germany: 5 vp (GW), 4 vp (GW), 4 vp (GW), 1 vp, 0 vp, 0 vp
4. Bill Troxel - Killiam from USA: 4 vp (GW), 4 vp (GW), 4 vp (GW), 4 vp (GW), 2 vp
5. Joab Rogerio - Joab Roger from Brazil: 4 vp (GW), 4 vp (GW), 4 vp (GW), 3 vp (GW), 0 vp, 0 vp

The game can we watched on Twitch. This is Bill´s own report: "Joab removed a lot of counters from the game with Smiling Jack and 2 Anarch Revolts early on. Jack accumulated 4 counters before it was destroyed by Farook with the help of Shadow Body. Faroock had brought out Lord Leopold Valdemar (Priscus), so did not have the option to go Anarch and suffered heavily. Bart decrypted an Anarch Convert, and Menteith was also able to get an Anarch in his ready region. Killiam with a pure Tupdog crypt took the full brunt of the damage. Once Faroock had Lord Leopold ready with vote lock, Killiam took the actions to remove the Revolts.
    Joab played aggressively, bleeding frequently with Deep Song. Faroock needed a second minion and brought out Badr, Shadow of Grenada, bringing himself down to 1 pool! Joab then played an Anarch Revolt, which would have ended Faroock had he not had a Vessel on Lord Valdemar. Joab holds on for another turn, then Governs down with Badr and scoops back a couple more pool.
    Meanwhile, Killiam had started going forward with his Emerald Legionnaires and was making a dent in Joab. Killiam had made a terrible mistake in his third turn by forgetting to bring up two Legionnaires during his unlock phase, so he was a couple bleeds behind. Fortunately for Killiam, he had suffered virtually no early or mid-game pressure from his predator Menteith, whose deck appeared to be designed as more of a late-game swarm, so Killiam was able to just barely oust Joab with his final bleed before Joab could oust his prey.
    With Joab out, Faroock at 3 pool, and Killiam finally sporting a large army of allies, the second VP for Killiam was inevitable.
Meanwhile, BartDCI had finally brought out his star vampire, Cybele. He had to dig into his crypt for her, and also had to Golconda Nana Buruku in order to afford her. He was fairly low on pool, so it looked like Killiam would have a reasonable shot at ousting him with all his allies.
    Down to three players, Bart and Menteith form an alliance to oust Killiam, such that Bart would bloat with masters and put no pressure on Menteith, while Menteith accumulated an army of weenies and equipment that was truly frightful. After a lot of Founders of the Ebony Kingdom, Guruhi are the Land (GATL), and a Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers, it was clear that if Killiam ever got fully tapped out, he would be vulnerable to an oust.
    Killiam played aggressively for awhile trying to secure that 3rd victory point, but after some run-ins with Menteith's Laibon and their Animalism combat, his numbers began to dwindle. When Bart pulled a Villein into his hand upon popping a set of Ashur Tablets, Killiam's prospects for ousting Bart looked bleak.
    Eventually it got to where Menteith might only need a good 2 or 3 turns to oust his prey, maybe 3 or 4 if Killiam walled up---although if Killiam were ever to tap out, a single turn of Darby-dancing the Codex with GATL would have done it. However, by that time the clock only had about 15 minutes left on it, and BartDCI was playing very methodically, with his turns lasting a while. Killiam ultimately decided to fully wall up, taking no further forward actions, and Menteith only got to see 1 of the turns he needed before the game timed out."

Results: Killiam (Bill Troxel) GW with 2.5 VP
BartDCI: 0.5 VP
Menteith: 0.5 VP

Congratulations Bill! Below is his tournament winning "Tupdog Legionnaire" deck, also found on Amaranth.

Crypt (45):
x45 Tupdog

Library (90):
Master (39)
x10 Agent of Power
x2 Archon Investigation
x2 Direct Intervention
x10 Inceptor
x8 Liquidation
x7 Parthenon, The

Action (22)
x7 Scrounging
x15 Summon History

Ally (13)
x1 Cry Wolf
x10 Emerald Legionnaire
x1 Gianna di Canneto
x1 Veneficti

Action Modifier (10)
x10 Skin of the Chameleon

Reaction (6)
x6 Delaying Tactics

Thanks to organizers Igor Beslin and Rudolf Scholz, others that helped out and of course all the players!

DECKS TO BEAT: NOVEMBER

A retrospect by Henrik Klippström.

So, what happened in November? If you talk about November 2020: Not much, as the live VTES tournament scene is stiffer than a mummy´s tounge, because of the pandemic. But in November other years, o´boy, there have been A LOT of action. So what about a trip down memory lane? Maybe even before your own VTES career begun? This will be a look at the most prominent tournament winning decks of each November in the years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, all presented with some 2020 comments. With “prominent” we mean the winning deck in the tournament with most participants. Sure, these decks have sometimes aged badly and would have hard to compete at the same level today. Some also has cards based on the local metagame that might seem odd for us today. But hopefully having a look will inspire your deck construction!

Year 2000
“Gangrel Wall of Untap” by Josh Duffin
Deck type: Gangrel toolbox
Crusade: Philadelphia – Philadelphia, USA - November 4 - Number of players unknown

2000 organizer´s comment: “Josh's deck is a fiendishly clever block and untap monstrosity. Cats´ Guidance, Raven Spies, Forced Awakenings, and Atonement make for constant blocks, and Earth Meld keeps your people alive and ready for more. Smiling Jack the Anarch takes down entire tables while pool management keeps his damage to you to a minimum. Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter is also a really nice addition to this blocking machine. (I didn't get Josh's comments on the final, or on his deck, so I hope he'll respond to this mail with any words of wisdom on playing this thing.)”

Crypt (12)
2x Bear Paw   5 ANI for pre pro   Gangrel:1
1x Camille Devereux   5 FOR PRO ani   Gangrel:1
1x Raven   5 FOR PRO ani   Gangrel:1
2x Chandler Hungerford   3 PRO   Gangrel:2
1x Basilia   10 ANI FOR PRO obf pot   primogen Gangrel:1
1x Ingrid Rossler   9 ANI FOR PRO dom   prince   Gangrel:2
1x Gitane St. Claire   7 ANI FOR PRO   primogen Gangrel:1
1x Badger   6 FOR PRO ani pot   Gangrel:1
1x Mirembe Kabbada   5 PRO SER ani   Gangrel:2
1x Anastasia Grey   3 ani pro   Gangrel:1

Library (90)
2x Animalism
4x Blood Doll
3x Blood Puppy
2x Ecoterrorists
1x KRCG Radio Station
1x London Evening Star
3x Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter
1x Powerbase: Chicago
1x Protean
3x Smiling Jack the Anarch
2x The Parthenon
2x The Rack
2x Zoo Hunting Ground

2x Atonement
3x Army of Rats
1x Restoration
1x Shepherd's Innocence

2x Flak Jacket
1x Homunculus
1x Mr. Winthrop
1x Palatial Estate
3x Raven Spy
2x Sport Bike

2x Earth Control

2x Bone Spur
2x Canine Horde
15x Earth Meld
3x Form of Mist
3x Superior Mettle
1x Wolf Claws

10x Cats Guidance
7x Forced Awakening
1x Wake with Evening's Freshness

2020 comment:
• 15 is a lot for most cards, but Earth Meld is so very versatile that it works.
• 27 master cards, however, is a bit scary, especially in the pre-Trifle era. Would probably clog your hand after a while unless you are lucky or a very skilled player like Mr Duffin. Today I´ll might switch a handful of those masters for some mixed intercept reactions and some Delaying Tactics (to have some crosstable say).
• While this is a Millicent Smith wall deck, not a tap’n’bleed deck, one would maybe be tempted too run some Deep Songs and Freak Drives for an "plan B", and slim it down to 82-ish, probably with Janey Pickman & friends instead of group 1+2.

Year 2005
“Sabbatspex 2005” by Jay Kristoff
Deck type: Auspex weenie
EC 2005 Last Chance Qualifier – Budapest, Hungary – November 5 – 150 players

Crypt (12)
1x Billy   5 AUS dom for   Ventrue antitribu:2
1x Colonel, The   5 AUS cel dem obf   Malkavian antitribu:3
1x Devin Bisley   5 ANI AUS vic   Tzimisce:2
1x Elizabeth Westcott   5 AUS ani cel vic   Tzimisce:3
1x General Perfidio Díos   5 AUS dem obf   bishop   Malkavian antitribu:3
1x Idalia, Prophet of Guadalajara 4 AUS dem   Malkavian antitribu:2
1x Mercy, Knight Inquisitor   5 AUS cel dom pre   Toreador antitribu:2
1x Nicholas Chang   2 aus   Toreador antitribu:3
1x Piotr Andreikov   2 aus   Tzimisce:3
1x Remilliard, Devout Crusader   4 AUS pre   Toreador antitribu:2
1x Richard Tauber, Ayelea's Puppet 4 AUS tha   Tremere antitribu:2
1x Wendy Wade   3 ani aus   Tzimisce:2

Library (90)
6x Blood Doll
2x Effective Management
1x The Barrens
1x The Hungry Coyote
1x Metro Underground
1x Pentex Subversion
1x Police Department
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch

4x Anima Gathering
1x Arson
4x Atonement
4x Zillah's Tears

5x .44 Magnum
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Palatial Estate

6x Procurer
2x War Ghoul

4x Change of Target

4x Aura Reading
5x Concealed Weapon

4x Delaying Tactics
4x Eagle's Sight
4x Enhanced Senses
6x Forced Awakening
10x Telepathic Misdirection
6x Wake with Evening's Freshness

2020 comment:
• A rather classic Auspex weenie wall, but with enough Tzimisce in the crypt to bring out those surprise War Ghouls, who will most certainly cause havoc in otherwise stale games. The problem is to get them out there without much stealth or other tricks (like Piper) – you need to gun down any potential blockers first, so “real combat decks” with slight intercept is always the nemesis of the Auspex wall.
• Interesting metagame choices are Zillah´s Tears (against Sleeping Mind?) and Atonement (really shuts down other weenie decks).
• This deck type got Eyes of Argus now, and most probably could not resist adding some Anarch tech.
• Probably rather stable today, if you like being in the way :)

Year 2010
“Action oriented Ventrue g4-g5” by Guido Canciani
Deck type: Ventrue lawfirm variant
Italian NC 2010 – Bologna, Italy – November 28 – 51 players

Crypt (12)
1x Graham Gottesman   7 DOM FOR obf pre tha   prince   Ventrue:5
1x Emily Carson   5 DOM for pre   primogen Ventrue:5
1x Lodin (Olaf Holte)   8 DOM FOR PRE aus pro   prince   Ventrue:5
1x Mustafa, The Heir   6 FOR PRE cel dom   prince   Ventrue:4
1x Reginald Moore   4 PRE   primogen Brujah:4
1x Tara   6 POT PRE cel   prince   Brujah:5
1x Vasily   6 CEL aus pre ser   prince   Toreador:5
3x Victor Pelletier   5 PRE cel dom for   Ventrue:4
2x Victor Donaldson   6 DOM for pre   prince   Ventrue:5

Library (70)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
6x Ashur Tablets
1x Coven, The
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
3x Information Highway
1x Island of Yiaros
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Temptation of Greater Power

1x Fourth Cycle, The

3x Entrancement
5x Govern the Unaligned

1x Alastor
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancilla Empowerment
1x Conservative Agitation
1x First Tradition: The Masquerade
5x Kine Resources Contested
7x Parity Shift

1x AK-47
1x Carlton Van Wyk
3x Heart of Nizchetus

9x Freak Drive

2x Force of Personality
5x Majesty

6x Deflection

2020 comment:
• This is a interesting early variant of the classic group 4-5 Ventrue princes, but without sticks and Fortitude presses, instead with Majestys and Freak Drive for tap’n’bleed action.
• 6 Ashur Tablets in a deck without multiple Master Phase actions is also an interesting choice, probably not adviceable today.
• The crypt is also interesting, with 5 Victors and singles of the rest. Obviously a really early vote lock with Justicar Pelletier was priority, to get those Parity Shifts going, maybe followed by Freak Drive and Heart of Nizchetus. Parity Shift was nerfed last year, but is still playable, although maybe not worth to base your whole game plan on.
• Bonus hero points for “the boxer island” and AK-47 (“When you absolutely, positively got to kill every ************ in the room; accept no substitutes”).
• This got 3 victory points in the final, not easy but surely still possible today.

Year 2015
Untitled deck by Mirko Oliveira
Fee Stake: Ceará III Brazilian NCQ – Ceará, Brazil – November 5 – 21 players

Crypt (12)
2x Arcadian, The   8 DOM MYT OBT chi for    Kiasyd:5
2x Roderick Phillips March 7 DOM MYT cel obt tha    Kiasyd:4
2x Isanwayen   6 DOM MYT OBT      Kiasyd:4
1x Pherydima   8 DOM MYT NEC obt pot bishop   Kiasyd:4
1x Omme Enberbenight   7 MYT OBT cel dom   priscus   Kiasyd:4
1x Dame Hollerton   5 DOM OBT myt      Kiasyd:4
1x Ermenegildo, The Rake 5 DOM OBT pot      Lasombra:4
1x Leila Monroe   4 dom obt pre      Lasombra:4
1x Lucy Markowitz   3 dom obt      Lasombra:4

Library (80)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Coven, The
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Great Symposium
2x Jake Washington
1x Life in the City
2x Pentex(TM) Subversion

1x Bitter and Sweet Story, The

15x Govern the Unaligned
4x Song of Pan

2x Aura Absorption
4x Bonding
2x Command of the Beast
4x Conditioning
3x Fae Contortion
4x Foreshadowing Destruction
5x Shadow Play
3x Shroud of Absence
3x Stone Travel

1x Carlton Van Wyk
1x Heart of Nizchetus
4x Nocturn

5x Shadow Body

3x Deflection
3x On the Qui Vive
2x Redirection

2020 comment:
• 4 victory points in final, and not surprising. Looks really stable.
• Song of Pan is a bit tricky, but sometimes needed for those real monster bleed turns.
• Metagame choices are the rather low level of bleed-bounce, but instead rather high level of combat defense, with both Shadow Bodies, Nocturns and double Jake.
• I would not change anything else in this deck – as a matter of fact I won a Swedish Championship the same weekend with a very similar deck!

Who knows, maybe we take a look at some December decks in the next newsletter?

RECENT GREAT VTES CONTENT

• Yet another site that collects VTES decks is vtesdecks.com

• Card search and deck building tool VTES-DB has a successor: VDB. You find it at vdb.smeea.casa

• Mike the Neonate struggles on at The Neonate Diaries – latest entry is about ”Growing the Coterie”

• Codex of the Damned starts a series of advanced strategy articles. The first are "The Game of the Game" by  Mark Loughman and "Playing Montano Baltimore Purge" by Rudolf Scholz.

• In French: Francois Deslauriers makes videos for new players, most recently one about the turn sequence, master cards and the bleed action.

• In French: Events for Games has started to collect various resources at a special VTES page.

Have you seen any other new good VTES content? Share at VEKN.net forum or VEKN Facebook!

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: NOVEMBER 2020

• Fifth Edition is now in stores! November 30 is the official release date, which means the new cards in the set will be tournament legal on December 30th. The most common question to Black Chantry customer service is still "How do I buy VTES?", and the answer is still: Ask your friendly local game store to stock it! If that fails, turn to your favourite online store. Black Chantry care about the local stores, because that is where people can meet and play the game (in non-covid times). You can also turn to any of the distributors listed at Blackchantry.com, they know more about stores that have VTES.

• The rulebook and the five helpsheets from the Fifth Edition box have been published for download under "Utilities" at Blackchantry.com. Also check out the interview with Rules Director Vincent Ripoll!

• Black Chantry CEO Hugh Angseesing gave a long interview for the Midnight Express podcast, talking (among other things) about how VTES is produced, how the cooperation with Paradox Interactive works, and the future of the game. Well worth your time!

•Chief Marketing ghoul Henrik had the great privilege to interview none other than Richard Garfield, the original creator of VTES. He had many nice and interesting things to say - read it all in the article titled “If Magic is a hand of poker, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is a poker tournament”.

• The second round of playtesting of the next unnamed set and the four preconstructed decks (Banu Haqim, Brujah, Gangrel and The Ministry) has been delayed somewhat, but will soon start. Concerning that, Banu Haqim have a new clan symbol:

• A new reprint round of older products was received last week and will be distributed to stores. Also more Barons promos now in stock - tell your local prince to get some!

• Currently these Black Chantry products are available through Drivethrucards.com and other stores:
- Lost Kindred bundle
- Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 1
- Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 2
- Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 1
- Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 2
- Den of Fiends Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
- Libertine Ball Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
- Pact with Nephandi Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
- Parliament of Shadows Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
- Anthology I bundle
- VTES Card Creator (Drivethrucards only)
- 25th Anniversary
- First Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French)
- First Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French)
- First Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French)
- First Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French)
- First Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French)
- VTES Legacy Card Singles (Drivethrucards only)
- Promo Pack 1 (Drivethrucards only)
- Promo Pack 2 (Event promos only)
- VTES "Parity Shift" playmat
- VTES card sleeves
- Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition (Currently stores only)

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.

RECENT NEWS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

Some highlights from the last month:

• BIG NEWS! The Vampire: The Masquerade Companion will be released as a free download on December 16. It will contain three "new" clans: Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce, as well as more about ghouls and mortals, new Merits and other goodies. Happy holidays came this year too!

• Paradox Interactive are reorganizing how they work. Renegade Game Studios is now their main publishing partner for tabletop role playing games, but "core content" (like the Companion mentioned above) will once again be produced in-house at Paradox.

• Learn more about these changes in the very nice announcement video, starring all members of the World of Darkness brand team.

CALENDAR

Upcoming events:
Follow local regulations on what physical events are possible. Notice that online tournaments are possible - just note "ONLINE" in the event name when you add the event to the calendar!

For more information on upcoming events see the V:EKN Event Calendar.

CONTACT VEKN

You can contact the VEKN Inner Circle members using contact forms at VEKN.net. Also follow the VEKN Facebook group, the official VTES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and the official VEKN Twitter account @VEKN_VTES

"Politics is the art of the possible."