Preview art by Clint Langley.

Greetings fellow Methuselahs,

Yes, take another good look at the art above - old school Vampire: The Eternal Struggle artist Clint Langley will once again grace our game with his talent!
 

DECKBUILDING WITH THE CHAMPION

Bill Troxel of Colorado, USA, won the 2020 World Online Championship, reported in the November newsletter. He used a fresh Tupdog & Emerald Legionnaire brew, and we decided to ask him some questions about its creation and how it works. First, the decklist:

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

Hi Bill! Thanks for taking the time to discuss this. The champion deck composition is rather original. How did you come up with it?
- This deck is the convergence of several failed deck ideas. Sometimes you work on crazy ideas that you feel would be strong if you could just find the right tech combination to support them, and this is one of those rare moments where it worked out. I have been experimenting for a while with getting Emerald Legionnaires into play as quickly as possible, because they are so cheap and powerful. I have one deck that uses cel/for weenies Clan Impersonate the Harbingers, Forced March, then recruit Legionnaires, but it is too vulnerable to intercept and/or rush. I have a few decks with Obfuscate weenies who use Agent of Power and Summon History, one of which is actually a good deck, but they are also vulnerable to rush and are not very meta-flexible. And for a long time I have been trying and failing to create a viable deck that uses Tupdogs and Inceptor, the idea being that you could play a fresh Inceptor every turn and maybe create weird and unexpected surprises mid-game, like superior Eternal Mask or Shattering Crescendo or something. No competitive decks ever came of that, but I did learn that with Tupdogs, you could use Inceptor to pull useless cards out of your deck every turn, like if you don't need Delaying Tactics at a particular table, or if you stuffed your deck full of Parthenons or Info Highways for an early draw. When I realized that I could combine the concepts, and that Tupdog and Inceptor both accelerate the growth of the ash heap for recycling Legionnaires, I knew I was onto something. The fact that Tupdogs have access to free stealth and are expendable in combat covered up the holes of some earlier failed decks.

How should the deck be played?
- The first thing I would do is advise a player to adjust the deck for their meta. At the championship table, I was not anticipating much intercept, and that turned out to be a good call. In a heavier intercept environment, you should add some Flow Within the Mountain, which offers combat-ends-continue and is quite good against Second Tradition. The deck also runs better with one more Summon History and two more Legionnaires. Really, I would advise a player to strip the deck down to its core, removing the defensive tech (meaning Delaying Tactics, Direct Intervention, Archon Investigation and Cry Wolf) and adding more of the other stuff to make a high-performance, speedier version. Then after seeing what the deck can really do, make adjustments to suit your tastes and your meta. I would estimate that there is about 12 cards worth of wiggle room for experimentation without ruining the reliability of the core mechanics.
   When you are actually playing, the first thing I recommend is to spend pool on bringing out as many Tupdogs as you can, at least for the first 4 turns of the game, usually more, often for the entire game. I have run many simulations in Lackey, and learned that having an extra Tupdog or two in the ash heap often translates to bringing up an extra Legionnaire early on, and an extra bleed per turn from a Legionnaire over a few turns justifies the pool expenditure.
   The second thing is to pay attention to what you are fetching with Inceptor, and from where. You will want to keep a copy of Summon History in your ash heap and keep pulling it up to the Inceptor, rather than continually thinning the Summons out of your library. Remember that all the cards that go on the Inceptor will end up in your ash heap at the end of the turn, along with all those Tupdogs. Since Summon History is the only thing you actually need on the Inceptor, the other two grabs are usually a Legionnaire plus a redundant card, like a Parthenon if you already have one. Sometimes you don't need the Legionnaire because there are so many in your ash heap already, at other times you grab two Legionnaires because of how many cards are already in your ash heap. Sometimes you will instead need to pull cards directly out of your hand to try to draw into what you need for the minion phase.
   The next thing to stay aware of is sculpting your ash heap. You have to remove 7 cards from the ash heap for every Emerald Legionnaire you will bring out during unlock, and you will want them to not be ally cards, and you will want to have a Summon History left over when you are done. Before discarding at the end of each turn, count your ash heap and the number of Legionnaires there. Sometimes you will find that you do not want to discard a Legionnaire from hand for the sake of your next unlock phase, because if you discard that extra Summon History or Scrounging instead, then you will be able to get one more Legionnaire out without having to remove any Legionnaires from the game, which would deplete your output potential.
Other than that, stop playing Liquidation once your library goes below 30, and wait until you have at least 3 Legionnaires in play – I prefer 4 – before fetching Veneficti. After all, two Legionnaires can be easily rushed and/or stolen, and that puts you behind by a full turn if you don't have any left during your next unlock phase, so getting out Legionnaires is first priority. Read Gianna's special abilities; she's mainly in the deck to destroy guns and to bleed, but her secondary ability also comes in handy. Other than that, have fun!

Why did you choose this deck for this particular tournament?
- I had been sitting on this deck for most of a year, asking people who saw it not to talk about it and waiting to unveil it in a high-profile tournament, so it was definitely on my list of 10 or so decks that I was strongly considering. I actually hadn't made up my mind to play it until less than an hour before the final round started, and I had modified it by 11 cards just the night before based on what I anticipated from the other players. Since this online tournament was multi-deck and I could choose exactly what to play for the final table, I studied my opponents' play history using the VTES-Hook website. I was able to correctly guess one of the decks exactly (Batsheva), and that deck ended up being my predator. Some of my other guesses were off and so I had stuffed my deck with useless tech, specifically x6 Delaying Tactics, x2 Archon Investigation and x1 Cry Wolf. The x2 Direct Interventions came in handy, though, and the Delaying Tactics were easily pulled into my ash heap via Inceptor.
   In the end, I thought the deck would be unexpected, aggressive, resilient and fun to play, and that's why I chose it. In retrospect, I'm really glad I did, because it was the perfect way for the deck to make a splash. I believe that Emerald Legionnaire is a really powerful card that was at first underestimated, and it's a personal project of mine to show that it is maybe a little too strong for its cost. I like to say that Emerald Legionnaire is the new Govern the Unaligned; it is strong enough that you can build all sorts of decks around it and they will still be competitive.

What prey and predator decks do you like and dislike?
- For its prey, this deck particularly dislikes seeing .44 Magnums and lots of wakes, which is true for Legionnaire swarm decks in general. A Toreador gun wall would be a worst-case scenario. A good prey would be someone without many minions and who can't stand up well to contests of attrition, like a typical Dominate bleeder. I don't mind bounce since I am swarm-bleeding rather than power-bleeding, so that's not a concern. As it turned out, my prey was playing Crows and Bats with Deep Song rush – a rush that can't be used against allies – and he was also playing cards that were delivering pool damage to the whole table, so aside from besting my allies in combat, he was nearly a perfect prey.
   For its predator, this deck hopes not to see fast stealth bleed. My only recourse in that case is to outrace them, and I did add a couple Archon Investigations and a Cry Wolf to slow them down in that eventuality. As it turned out, my predator had a bleed strategy with zero stealth, which was a very good situation for my deck, and I generally had Tupdogs ready to block when necessary.

We have your report of the final table in the November newsletter, but as for the whole tournament, how was it for you?
- The tournament overall was pretty fun, especially so because it was multideck. My first game was a 2-2 tie with Jay Kristoff, who is one of my favorite players and a great guy. I had played an experimental Dementation + Vicissitude deck and was pleased to have done that well at a pretty competitive table. I also got to test a new deck entitled "Dumpster Fire of Pure Hate" that features both Imbued and Emerald Legionnaire, and got 4 VP with it. I did test out the Tupdog Legionnaires in one of the early rounds. It was a more streamlined version than the one I played in the finals, and quickly swept the four-player table. All my preliminary games were played with different decks and took place over the course of several weeks, so prior to the finals, it had more of a league feel than a tournament feel, really. Good times.

Black Chantry are considering making tournament winning decks available as print-on-demand, and/or just print them as prizes. What do you think about that?
- I have received a physical copy of my tournament-winning deck as a prize from Black Chantry, and am completely elated. That many Tupdogs could be costly to collect! I think it makes a great prize for an online tournament, and I look forward to being able to use it in live play without proxies.
   As far as print-on-demand goes, unless everything is going print-on-demand, I think BCP would be wise to review tournament winning decks on a case-by-case basis rather than making them available as a rule. For example, consider that 45 Tupdogs is at least 5 more than my deck needs, if not 10 more. But since it was an online format, there was nothing to stop me from making the crypt 500 Tupdogs, and if I had, well, that's more of a single card than ever needs to be printed for any individual player.
   I really like what they did with the 25th Anniversary set, roughly basing it on a famous deck of Martin Weinmayer's, but also filling it out with important cards that new players would value more generally. Approximations or reimaginings of tournament winning decks might be a more optimal approach than boilerplating them, especially for the sake of neonate collections, but that's just my opinion.

Again, thanks for this interview, Bill. If anyone out there feels it would be fun to tell the community about one your your successful decks in an article like this one, please co+ntact the newsletter editor.

WALKING THE PATH OF THE ARCHETYPE

Some thoughts from Mexico:

As in any deck building game, in Vampire: The Eternal Struggle the designing a deck part is one of the most satisfying and playful parts of the game. Each player makes a plan of what their deck should do and how it should work, and when that plan works out it is very satisfying. At a competitive level, this is reflected in the fact that when we win a competition, our deck design will be published in the official channels of the game, joining the archive of tournament winning decks, the “TWDA”. With a bit of curiosity, when reviewing the list of winning decks, you will be able to recognize that there are many similar decks, this is because many players build their decks based on what we call an “archetype”.

If we understand that winning the game is about being the last player at the table, one of the safest ways to achieve this is through the archetype decks. These are decks that are classified into a specific type of proven and successful performance. All the preconstructed decks currently available to buy from Black Chantry Productions are based on a classic VTES archetype, including the five decks in the Fifth Edition box. For example, the Parliament of Shadows deck is a direct damage deck of the political Lasombra archetype, which ousts its prey through political actions. Among the most famous archetypes are the Malk´94 Malkavians, the Ventrue Lawfirm, the Toreador Grand Ball, the Tremere Wall of Auspex and the Nosferatu weenie-Animalism.

Of course, many players rely on these archetypes to build competitive and effective decks. However, there are no fool-proof decks in VTES. All decks have their pros and cons, and each player responds differently to those. Both when playing the archetypes and when playing against them, each player depends on their ability to adapt to the table. One of the things I like the most about VTES is that the decks don´t make the player. Picking an archetype deck does not guarantee success, and all make their own modifications. There are countless versions of the first Malk´94 deck to date, as each player customizes this archetype according to their play style, but they all follow the bleed scheme with stealth.

However, playing with archetypal decks is playing safe. Normally decks are more or less accessible to build, but with the current online gaming platforms, you can forget about the limitations of physical cards, so you can try any archetype (because even in dreams most of us will get 30 Tupdogs, for example), to see how it suits your style of play. Also, if you´ve been into VTES for a long time, you may want to try something that is different. There are still a lot of things to explore in VTES when it comes to deck building, and, truth be told, there are great new deck builders all over the world. By consulting the TWDA, you can see which clans have no or few winners and try to make a winning deck for that clan. Who knows, maybe one of your creations will end up becoming a new classic deck archetype ...

Eduardo García Ayala, @LaloVtes

For more on archetypes, check out previous newsletter articles (for example about the Goratrix wall) and also the great articles on VTES One.

DECKS TO BEAT: FEBRUARY

A retrospect by Henrik Klippström.

February, lovely february! With a lack of new funny tournament winning decks, we continue to check out winning decks of the tournaments with most attendants of 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, with some comments about how they would do today and what to maybe change.

Year 2000
“Play the table” by Mike Perlman
Deck type: G1-2 royalty vote
Praxis Seizure: Columbia – Columbia, South Carolina, USA – February 19 – 15 players

2000 creator comments: “Use your predator (and any vote decks that are on the table) to damage your prey.  When in doubt, bleed at stealth.  Opportunistically steal a location.” (Short LSJ report available.)

Crypt (7)
2x Arika   11  DOM FOR OBF PRE aus cel   inner circle   Ventrue:2
2x Queen Anne   10  DOM FOR PRE aus obf   prince   Ventrue:2
2x Anson   8   CEL PRE aus dom   prince   Toreador:1
1x Lucian   10  AUS DOM OBF cel tha   justicar   Malkavian:1
1x Roxanne, Rectrix of the 13th Floor   9   AUS DOM FOR OBF pot   primogen   Malkavian:1
1x Spiridonas   9   DOM THA pot pre   prince   Tremere:2
1x Wilhelm Waldburg   9   DOM FOR PRE aus cel   prince   Ventrue:2
1x Emerson Bridges   8   DOM FOR PRE pot   prince   Ventrue:1
1x Gilbert Duane   7   AUS DOM OBF   prince   Malkavian:1
1x Greger Anderssen   7   AUS OBF dom pro   prince   Malkavian:2

Library (90)
1x Direct Intervention
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Effective Management
1x Elysium: The Arboretum
2x Hostile Takeover
1x Information Highway
1x Millicent Smith - Puritan Vampire Hunter
7x Minion Tap
1x Misdirection
1x Parthenon, The
1x Secure Haven
2x Sudden Reversal
2x Ventrue Headquarters

8x Fifth Tradition: Hospitality, The
3x Govern the Unaligned
6x Kine Dominance

1x Ancient Influence
3x Ancilla Empowerment
2x Kindred Restructure
1x Kine Resources Contested
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Rumors of Gehenna
1x Ventrue Justicar

2x Awe
2x Forgotten Labyrinth
6x Freak Drive
1x Kiss of Ra, The
4x Lost in Crowds
1x Telepathic Vote Counting

7x Deflection
1x Dread Gaze
4x Elder Kindred Network
6x Obedience
1x Redirection
6x Second Tradition: Domain

2021 comments:
- Not really a tournament viable deck today, because it relies quite a lot on banned or nerfed cards: Fifth Tradition: Hospitality, Kindred Restructure and Hostile Takeover. But surprisingly no Parity Shifts!
- Cut down from 90 to 80-ish cards.
- Pretty master heavy, even if you switch Minion Taps for Villeins. Sure you have some MMPA providers, but can´t rely on getting them unless you run more. Millicent would go first.
- 6 Kine Dominance is funny, and might have worked better with those un-nerfed Fifth Traditions. Today switching 4-5 of them for Govern the Unaligned is good if you want to win.
- I would be tempted to run at least a couple of Cloak the Gathering, for those Obfuscate-lacking vamps, but it might be hard to fit.
- I guess Elder Kindred Network and Dread Gaze are metagame choices, they would go away in the cut normally.
- Running no combat defense except for Obedience is a calculated risk, but it usually works good.
- Roxanne can stay at the 13th Floor.

Year 2005
“It´s true, I play Temptations and Condemnations” by Rafa Bonnin, played by Aldo Bosmn
Deck type: Setites & Huitzilopochtli stealth-bleed
Rol Tsunami – Barcelona, Spain – February 27 – 37 players

2005 comment: “Setite deck based on Huitzilopochtli with some Temptations to multi-act and to not pay the infernal trait of the boss, a few Condemnations to control your predator and a lot of bleed based on DOM.”

Crypt (12)
3x Huitzilopochtli   10  AUS DAI DOM OBF POT PRE   Baali:2
2x Khay'tall, Snake of Eden   9   DOM OBF PRE SER aus   Follower of Set:2
2x Count Ormonde   5   OBF dom pre ser   Follower of Set:2
1x Intisar   8   OBF PRE SER cel pot   Follower of Set:2
1x Qufur am-Heru   7   OBF PRE SER cel tha   Follower of Set:2
1x Sarrasine   7   OBF PRE aus nec ser   Follower of Set:2
1x Sir Marriot D'Urban   5   PRE aus obf ser   Follower of Set:2
1x Marciana Giovanni, Investigator 2   dom   Giovanni:2

Library (90)
3x Blood Doll
2x Direct Intervention
2x Dominate
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
3x Minion Tap
1x Opium Den
1x Temple Hunting Ground

Actions:
5x Condemnation: Doomed
8x Govern, the Unaligned
6x Enchant Kindred
7x Temptation

8x Cloak the Gathering
4x Conditioning
4x Elder Impersonation
8x Lost in Crowds
4x Swallowed by the Night

4x Staredown

8x Deflection
2x Sense the Sin
6x Wake with Evening Freshness

2021 comments:
- Cut down to about 76-80 cards. Removing 10 % in each category will work.
- Blood Dolls and Minion Taps should be Villeins. And while the old proverb goes “All good decks begin with skill cards”, I´m not sure those Dominate skill cards are worth it.
- Condemnation: Doomed is nice, but nice enough for 5? I think not. Same for Temptation, 7 is a bit much, especially if you cut down the deck a bit. It´s flexible though, and nice for Huitzy. Many think it’s too slow, but dropping some early ones on key vamps early will prove very rewarding later, even if you have nothing to grind off blood with. But be careful with cross-table targets, people tend to take it as a sign of hostility! :)
- Here we find a lot of those Cloak the Gathering I mentioned above, but here they´re not that needed. Switch two of those and two Lost in Crowds for just about any other stealth modifiers.
- Marciana, really? No.

Year 2010
“Paella au d'Erlette” by Ignasi Vilagrasa, played by Jordi Tomás
Deck type: Nephandus-breed mash-up
Torneo en Badia – Barcelona, Spain - February 28 – 39 players

Scored 0.5 VP + 3 VP + 3 VP + 3.5 VP in final.

Crypt (12)
4x Antonio d'Erlette   5   THA dom for pot   Tremere antitribu:4
1x Cristos Mantigo   5   aus cel dom obf pre  Toreador antitribu:3
1x L'Épuisette   4   aus cel pro   Toreador antitribu:4
1x Loonar   4   PRE cel   Toreador antitribu:4
1x Sabrina   4   aus cel pre   Toreador antitribu:3
1x Jonathan Gursel   3   aus pre   Toreador antitribu:4
1x Monique Kim   3   aus cel   Toreador antitribu:4
1x Justine Chen, Innocent 2   pre   Toreador antitribu:4
1x Nicholas Chang   2   aus   Toreador antitribu:3

Library (72)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
2x Direct Intervention
1x Fortschritt Library
1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
4x Life in the City
1x Not to Be
3x Palla Grande
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Secure Haven

1x FBI Special Affairs Division
1x Slow Withering, The
2x Unmasking, The

1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
10x Art Scam
4x Embrace, The

1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Gregory Winter
6x Nephandus (Mage)
1x Ossian
1x Young Bloods

1x Heart of Nizchetus

6x Change of Target

4x Dodge
4x Target Vitals

7x Deflection
3x Delaying Tactics
4x On the Qui Vive

2021 comments:
- If I recall correctly, this is the original, very innovative mash-up between the classic Toreador antitribu breed-bleed and the classic d'Erlette Nephandus deck, i.e., the two decks that later became the Black Chantry precons Libertine Ball and Pact with Nephandi.
https://www.blackchantry.com/products/current-products/preconstructed-decks/
- Ten Art Scams might seem a lot, but consider each one is another minion, and swarming is what this deck does.
- The Slow Withering is extremelly abusive, but of course, if you absolutely have to win, go ahead.
- Otherwise, not much to say. Seems fun, try it out!

Year 2015
“Payload” by Matt Morgan
Deck type:
Northeast Regional Qualifier 2015 – Warwick, Rhode Island, USA – February 7 – 23 players

2015 creator comments (also in the decklist): “This deck originally had one Monastery of Shadows, but I must have moved it to another deck or something. Basically what you have here is an Edward Vignes deck where everybody costs 4 extra pool. The nice thing about all those titles is you can try to shut down bloat vote. Adding pool to the table is bad. I made this deck because I hadn't won a tournament with Ventrue yet (never had an Arika phase) and because I've lost my fear of being ousted and now just play a lot of offense. Haven't had a game go to time in quite a while.
     Anyway, the deck took 15 of 19 potential VPs all day, which might be a personal best. I let two get away in the first round because Peteo used some kind of mind control on me and convinced me he had wakes when he didn't. I then took 4 VPs on a pair of 5 player tables and swept the final, mostly by letting bad things happen to people who weren't me. All three of my preliminary rounds finished first and the final took around an hour.”

Crypt (13)
5x Mary Anne Blaire   10  AUS DOM FOR PRE ani pot   justicar  Ventrue:5
1x Johannes Castelein   9   DEM DOM FOR PRE   prince   Ventrue:4
1x Lodin (Olaf Holte)   8   DOM FOR PRE aus pro   prince   Ventrue:5
1x Joseph DiGiaccomo   6   PRE aus dom for   Ventrue:5
1x Mustafa, The Heir   6   FOR PRE cel dom   prince   Ventrue:4
1x Emily Carson   5   DOM for pre   primogen  Ventrue:5
1x Victor Pelletier   5   PRE cel dom for   Ventrue:4
1x Dr. Solomon Grey   2   dom pre   Caitiff:5
1x Jackson Asher   2   dom     Ventrue:4
"13 cards makes me feel better about not being crypt screwed and empirical evidence has supported that, but there's no real math behind it."

Library (69)
2x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Blood Doll
1x Ephor
1x Giant's Blood
1x Jake Washington
2x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Perfectionist
1x Ventrue Headquarters
3x Villein
2x Wider View
"Ephor is really just there for flavor, but has helped a little from time to time."

2x Entrancement
9x Govern the Unaligned
1x Judgment: Camarilla Segregation
2x Scouting Mission

1x Anarchist Uprising
2x Parity Shift
"I kept outsmarting myself and not being able to Parity Shift but having the most pool is a pretty good problem to have. I could see swapping a Parity Shift for Banishment. Great for dealing with the untapped bouncer."

5x Conditioning
1x Daring the Dawn
1x Enkil Cog
12x Freak Drive
2x Seduction
"Daring the Dawn was key in the final. Seduction is also very important. I got Enkil Cog out every time I drew it."

1x Force of Personality
"Haven't gotten this card to do anything useful for me."

10x Majesty

5x Deflection

2021 comments:
- Yeah! This is my kind of deck, I even think I played a variant in a tournament once. And I think it´s still playable, at least if you aren´t playing in a meta with many wall decks, No Secrets from the Magaji, etc.
- Mary Anne Blaire is a great vampire, possibly a bit underplayed. Both her specials are fantastic. I love those hose early Govern-Freak-Scouting-Freak-special-rounds!
- I like both the ideas of adding a Monastery of Shadows (maybe for the Ephor) and switching the Parity Shifts (now nerfed) for Banishments.
- The deck seems very blood intensive, and I fear ending up with empty vampires, so consider adding Papillon, Uptown Hunting Ground and extra Perfectionists.
- It´s hard to know what to take out to make room, but I feel that one extra Daring and 1-2 Seductions more are needed, just in case you run into a wall deck. I almost always do in my cursed environment, hopefully you have more luck.
- I LOVE the offensive focus, but I could probably not resist adding at least one more bleed bounce and 1-2 wakes.

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: FEBRUARY 2021

• Last month, 470 cards were added to the VTES Legacy Card Singles at Drivethrucards.com. There were some last minute technical problems with some of the cards, but now all have been fixed and are available for purchase. And more will come!


• Round 2 of the current playtesting batch (four precons - Brujah, Gangrel, Banu Haqim and Ministry, plus the Fall of London set) has ended, and playtest coordinator Darby Keeney is preparing one of those very detailed, excellent playtest reports again. It will determine how many more rounds of playtesting, if any, are needed.

• Like mentioned above, Black Chantry tested a new thing and printed Bill Troxel's championship deck as a unique prize for him. It worked out nice, so we´ll see what happens in the future with similar ideas.

• Otherwise things continue as usual - Ben designs cards and decks, Henrik tries to manage marketing, Vincent templates cards and answers rules questions, Ginés commissions art and Hugh handles everything else that needs handling. If you have any feedback, please contact the company!

• 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

• Third person eco terrorist mega mayhem "Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood" was released on February 4.

• Preorders for the story-driven board game "Vampire: The Masquerade - Chapters" from Flyos Games is now open!

• Paradox gave us some news on the very anticipated "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2". Unfortunatelly, there are more delays, but better have a truly great game later than a not so great game now, right? A bit more information was given in the World of Darkness News show.

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

"Full effort is full victory."

Spiritual Intervention by Ginés Quiñonero.

Greetings fellow Methuselahs,

New Year, new battles!
 

NEW LEGACY CARDS ADDED – SOME WITH SIGNIFICANT CHANGES!

470 cards were added to the VTES Legacy Card Singles at Drivethrucards.com last week. Below you see a list of all that had changes. The webshop can be tricky to navigate, so as a little help a list of all cards with some additional categorization has been made available separately. Card changes of the newly added cards are tournament legal on February 22 (the csv file at VEKN.net will be updated by then). Below is a list of all cards with changes.

Al-Ashrad, Amr of Alamut: Al-Ashrad can now burn locations requiring any clan (not only Camarilla clans).
Alvaro, The Scion of Angelica: Gaining blood is now optional.
Amam the Devourer: Gaining life when burning a minion in combat is now optional.
Ambrosius, The Ferryman: Pathos counters are now removed during the unlock phase.
Antonio Delgado: Unlocking is now optional.
Canopic Jar: Now burns 1 life if the attached minion is an ally.
Consignment to Duat: Now a +1 stealth action.
Divine Image: Now costs 1 blood instead of 2.
Donatello Giovanni: Choosing a vampire is now optional.
Edge Vitiation: Now costs no blood, instead of 1.
Eyes of the Night: NEW ART.
Form of Corruption: Adding a counter is now optional.
Giovanni Acceptance: There is no longer a default sect for each clan.
Giuseppe, Gravedigger: Now costs no blood, instead of 1.
Heaven's Gate: Now leaves the ally in play, but removes it from combat. The ally can now be chosen in the terms of a referendum, or burned to a War Ghoul or Abomination entering play.
Ignore the Searing Flames: The outferior level works explicitly when the opposing minion strikes.
Invitation Accepted: There is no longer a default sect for each clan.
Jar the Soul: Now burns 1 life from the minion if it is an ally.
Kali's Fang: Now costs 2 pool.
Masquer: Now costs 1 blood instead of 2.
Paolo Sardenzo: Gaining blood is now optional.
Path of Typhon, The: NEW ART.
Principia Discordia: The target vampire does not require to be locked.
Qadir ul-Ghani: The clan he changes to must be another clan than the clan to which he currently belongs.
Realm of the Black Sun, The: Now costs no pool, instead of 1. Gaining pool is now optional.
Retain the Quick Blood: Moving blood to the card and moving blood back to the vampire are now both optional.
Revelation of Despair: Works when blocking any minion, not only one controlled by the predator.
Revocation of Tyre: There is no longer a default sect for each clan.
Saqqaf, Keeper of the Grand Temple of Set: Gaining a pool is now optional.
Shadow Parasite: Now costs 1 blood instead of 2.
Shadowed Eyes: Burning the card costs 1 blood or life, no longer a conviction.
Spiritual Intervention: NEW ART.
Summon the Abyss: NEW ART. Now costs 2 blood instead of 3.
Summon the Serpent: Now a +1 stealth action.
Sutekh, The Dark God: Gaining a pool is now optional, but works with all mummy allies (not only bane mummies).
Ur-Shulgi, The Shepherd: The Tajdid that is retrieved from the library is now revealed.
Web of Knives Recruit: The recruit is now explicitly Independent.
Weeping Stone: Gaining a blood is now optional.

DELMAR SITTONI WINS THE BRASILIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!

41 brave Methuselahs logged in to play the (delayed) 2020 Brasil National Championship on January 23. The organizer Desso Alastor tells us that the environment had many ally decks, including several with Nephandi and Emerald Legionnaires, as you can see on the final table...

Congratulations Delmar, champion with 4 victory points in the final!

TWD: "Cidade Das Esmeraldas"
Crypt (12)
1x Anarch Convert 1 -none- Caitiff:ANY
1x Mina Grotius 6 cel FOR NEC Harbinger of Skulls:3
2x Nicomedes 5 aus for nec vic Harbinger of Skulls:4
2x Solomon Batanea 5 nec AUS FOR Harbinger of Skulls:4
2x Zygodat 6 pot AUS NEC Harbinger of Skulls:4
2x Erlik 10 AUS CEL FOR NEC THN Harbinger of Skulls:3
2x Erebus 7 dem AUS FOR NEC Harbinger of Skulls:3

Library: 90
Master (28)
2x Information Highway
10x Liquidation
4x Parthenon, The
2x Powerbase: Montreal
3x Villein
3x Wider View
1x Creepshow Casino
3x Dreams of the Sphinx

Event (6)
1x FBI Special Affairs Division
1x Scourge of the Enochians
1x Slow Withering, The
3x Unmasking, The

Action (5)
1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
4x Computer Hacking

Ally (21)
1x Mylan Horseed
19x Emerald Legionnaire
1x Carlton Van Wyk

Action Modifier (6)
2x Acheron Vortex
4x Call of the Hungry Dead

Action Modifier/Combat (8)
8x Breath of Thanatos

Action Modifier/Reaction (1)
1x Spectral Divination

Reaction (15 cards)
6x On the Qui Vive
6x Telepathic Misdirection
3x Delaying Tactics

Thanks to the organizers and all players!

THE FIFTH EDITION ONLINE VTES RULEBOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE!

Yes, finally a online, illustrated version of the Fifth Edition rulebook is up on www.vekn.net/rulebook. Check it out, and please tell VEKN or Black Chantry your feedback!

THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING A NEW PLAYER TODAY

Some thoughts from Mexico:

When I started playing Vampire: The Eternal Struggle in Mexico back in 1996 it was a revealing and somewhat complex experience. Although at that time there were many stores where card games were sold (mainly Magic: The Gathering) there was not easy to find VTES cards nor VTES players. In the old days to put together a deck required a considerable investment since the cards came randomly, which meant that to build a deck you had to buy a large number of boxes or booster packs to get the cards you required to achieve the deck of your choice. That is something that new players won't have to go through.

The first VTES boosters contained 11 cards (3 crypt cards and 9 library cards) randomly distributed, so you had to search the packs for what you needed or find other players with whom to trade your spares or what you did not need. Something curious was that many times the cards of common rarity that you needed were sometimes more difficult to get than the ones of rare rarity. I must confess that even today there are cards that I never had a chance to get, and some I did not even see in play. But unlike other card games, in VTES you could make fun and functional decks out of mostly common cards, making the player's skill more important than rare or expensive cards.

These conditions made getting a deck to your liking a feat given the arduous search work it required. More than once when I reviewed winning decks available online, I exclaimed: “12 Immortal grapple?! When will I get 12 Immortal Grapple?!” To date I only have 6 of those that I am exchanging from deck to deck when I need them. And the same goes for a lot of cards. Until the 25th Anniversary deck was released, I was only able to get 10 copies of Freak Drive.

The strategy of Black Chantry Productions, who currently publishes VTES, aimed at attracting new players is very appealing since the Fifth Edition is a package with everything you need to play a game of VTES from scratch. The box includes five preconstructed, ready-to-play and fairly balanced decks as well as a beautifully edited rulebook and help sheets so that every new player knows what to do with their deck. I think this is great success!

Now, Black Chantry has made every effort to make VTES more accessible to players, what remains is to make the community of players wider and much of that task belongs to the old VTES players. In the past, some communities of players have been very closed, everyone had their own game group with which they used to play. Today, to be able to maintain our game with the vitality that we want, we need to focus on revitalizing and strengthening our community, making it more friendly and being available to teach interested people. We must share our experience, to help new players more interested in the different aspects of the game and motivate them to new challenges. We dream that new players join the communities of this cult collectible card game around the world.

Eduardo García Ayala, ”Lalo Vtes”

DECKS TO BEAT: JANUARY

A retrospect by Henrik Klippström.

New year, new battles, and another look into the history of VTES, more precisely the history of the competitive scene. Below are the four winning decks of the tournaments with most attendants of 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, with some comments of mixed quality from yours truly.

Year 2000
Untitled by L. Scott Johnson
Deck type: Dominate royalty stealth-bleed
Jyhad Underground – Charlotte, North Carolina, USA – January 9 – 16 players

Creators own 2000 comments: “Should replace Greger with another copy of Mariel. His lack of superior DOM is too much - even though he has a title and OBF. Mariel's ability is useful when faced with an intercept-combat deck.” … “I'd Drop the [Hostile] Takeovers. They weren't effective in this deck. Replace with an Obfuscate skill card and another Cloak the Gathering.”

Crypt (12)
1x Constanza Vinti   8 CEL DOM POT   prince   Brujah:2
1x Courtland Leighton   4 dom for pre   Ventrue:1
1x Democritus   10 DOM PRE aus cel for   justicar Ventrue:1
1x Dónal O'Connor   8 CEL DOM POT   prince   Brujah:2
1x Emerson Bridges   8 DOM FOR PRE pot   prince   Ventrue:1
2x Gilbert Duane   7 AUS DOM OBF   prince   Malkavian:1
1x Greger Anderssen   7 AUS OBF dom pro   prince   Malkavian:2
1x Mariel, Lady Thunder   7 DOM OBF aus tha   Malkavian:1
1x Queen Anne   10 DOM FOR PRE aus obf   prince   Ventrue:2
1x Sir Walter Nash   7 DOM FOR PRE   prince   Ventrue:1
1x Spiridonas   9 DOM THA pot pre   prince   Tremere:2

Library (90):
2x Direct Intervention
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Hostile Takeover
2x Information Highway
1x Life Boon
6x Minion Tap
1x Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
4x Sudden Reversal

3x Govern the Unaligned
2x Far Mastery
6x Fifth Tradition: Hospitality
1x Judgment: Camarilla Segregation
6x Scouting Mission

1x Muddled Vampire Hunter
1x Political Ally

1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
1x Ancilla Empowerment

12x Bonding
6x Cloak the Gathering
4x Seduction

3x Deflection
1x Elder Kindred Network
1x Legacy of Power
10x Obedience
3x Redirection
8x Second Tradition: Domain

2020 comments:
- Yes, it is THE L. Scott Johnson, known as LSJ, lead designer of many VTES sets. There´s actually a short tournament report, that tells this deck got 3 victory points in the final, 2 went to a Animalism weenie deck.
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad/_P3-7Mk6pQM/discussion
- Light stealth decks is always depending on your local meta, but with that in mind it looks kind of stable. Maybe a bit low on “throughput”. On the other hand it´s good defensively.
- Playing Scouting + Bonding instead of Govern + Conditioning saves a lot of blood on the vampires, but slows you down a lot. Having saved that blood I´d run some Freak Drives, although that might warrant a slight modification of the crypt.
- As most modern decks, this would do better around 80 cards, so just strip 1-2 off the cards that we have the most off, and of course remove the weird odd stuff (Legacy of Power?! Political Ally?!!)
- Also, both Hostile Takeover and Fifth Tradition: Hospitality had errata after this, so those can also go. Might save a couple of the latter if I go with those Freak Drives.
- Minions Taps should be Villeins today.
- Sudden Reversal is tricky. When I get owned by MMPA decks or just strong master cards, I always think “Darn, I should play more Sudden Reversals!”, but then when I run them, they´re often dead cards in my hand. The same goes for Wash.
- Life Boon is still dirty, but still works!

Year 2005
“Buckets o' Money” by Ben Peal
Deck type: Ventrue with Obfuscate breed & bloat
The Unmasking – Seekonk, Massachusetts, USA – January 2 – 26 players

2005 creator comment: “Basically a Group 3-4 Ventrue version of the Lasombra Creation Boon deck, using 3rd Trads instead of Creation Rites and Ventrue Headquarters instead of Power Structure. Marcus Vitel's retainer-burning ability was invaluable in the tournament. This is now the second tournament I've won with a deck that was the result of a conversation with Sten During (the previous deck was Pochtli Twister).”

Crypt (12)
3x Lucinde, Alastor   10 DOM FOR PRE obf pot tha   justicar Ventrue:3
3x Marcus Vitel   10 DOM FOR OBF OBT PRE   prince   Ventrue:3
1x Catherine du Bois   5 DOM for obf pre   Ventrue:3
1x Earl   4 dom for pot   Ventrue:3
1x Elena Gutierrez   4 aus dom pre   Ventrue:3
1x Robin Withers   4 dom obf pre   Ventrue:4
1x Diana Vick   3 dom pre   Ventrue:3
1x Lana Butcher   3 dom for   Ventrue:3

Library (90)
4x Blood Doll
1x Information Highway
1x KRCG News Radio
6x Obfuscate
1x Paragon
1x Secure Haven
2x Sudden Reversal
1x The Barrens
1x Uptown Hunting Ground
4x Ventrue Headquarters
1x Zillah's Valley

4 x Govern the Unaligned
1 x Psychic Veil
8x The Third Tradition: Progeny

6x Consanguineous Boon
4x Kine Resources Contested
1x Praxis Seizure: Cairo
1x Praxis Seizure: Geneva

3 x Bewitching Oration
4 x Cloak the Gathering
1 x Elder Impersonation
4 x Faceless Night
2 x Forgotten Labyrinth
4 x Lost in Crowds
4 x Spying Mission
4 x Swallowed by the Night

8 x Deflection
8x Wake with Evening's Freshness

2020 comments:
- Yes, it is THE Ben Peal, current lead designer of many VTES sets.
- 90 cards should go down to 80-ish, and this ratio of master cards won´t do without MMPA tricks.
- I had to check Paragon because I could not for my life recall what it does. It does … not enough!
- I don´t think I would bring this to a tournament today, even if slimmed down. Just like the 2000 deck above, it is a bit low on “delivery” compared to modern similar competitive decks. Unless you have a very solid plan for how to stay alive (more than just breeding and bloating), you will need to be able to be more offensive. For example, a !Toreador breed-boon deck has Palla Grande and/or Foundation Exibit, Ravnos breed-boon decks has Week of Nightmares, etc.

Year 2010
“Shambling Powerbleed” by Aitor Jimenez and Antonio Cobo Cuenca, played by Jordi Tomás
Deck type: Classic Zombie powerbleed
True Blood – Barcelona, Spain – January 30 – 41 players

Crypt (12)
2x Andrea Giovanni   7 DOM NEC pot vic   Giovanni:2
1x Francesca Giovanni   4 dom nec pot   Giovanni:2
1x Gillespi Giovanni   7 DOM NEC POT aus   Giovanni:2
1x Gloria Giovanni   4 DOM nec   Giovanni:2
2x Isabel Giovanni   5 DOM NEC pot   Giovanni:2
2x Le Dinh Tho   5 NEC aus dom   Nagaraja:2
1x Lia Milliner   3 dom nec   Giovanni:3
1x Rudolfo Giovanni   3 NEC   Giovanni:2
1x Stefano Giovanni   6 DOM nec pot pre   Giovanni:2

Library (70)
3 Acquired Ventrue Assets
3 Blood Doll
1 Coven, The
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Giant's Blood
1 Jake Washington (Hunter)
1 Misdirection
2 Pentex Subversion

1 Far Mastery
9 Govern the Unaligned
3 Sudario Refraction

1 Leonardo, Mortician
1 Ossian
11 Shambling Hordes

2 Bonding
6 Call of the Hungry Dead
4 Conditioning
1 Foreshadowing Destruction
4 Seduction
6 Spectral Divination

4 Deflection
2 Delaying Tactics
2 On the Qui Vive

2020 comments:
- NOW we´re talking! This looks very stable, and it kind of plays itself, although the Shamblings needs a bit of thought to do optimal at the table, so might be tricky for newbies. But I wouldn´t hesitate to play this pretty much as it is …
- But it might need some extra bleed-bounce, at least 2 more, depending on you´re meta. On the other hand, everybody kind of expect you play more bounce, so they THINK that you always have one in your hand, so you might play it cool and keep the amount down.
- There´s a lot of decks of this archetype in the TWDA, so browse around to look at other variants.
- Much of what you need for this deck was published as $0.35 print-on-demand cards at Drivethrucards.com this month, check it out!

Year 2015
“Rachel's Network v3” by Daniel Malk
Year of Fortune – Praia Grande, Brazil – January 1 – 19 players

Crypt (12)
5x Rachel Brandywine   10 AUS DEM OBF PRO ani   prince   Malkavian:3
3x Greger Anderssen   7 AUS OBF dom pro   prince   Malkavian:2
2x Victoria   5 AUS cel obf   Malkavian:2
2x Zöe   3 AUS cel obf   Malkavian:2

Library (90)
1x Giant's Blood
4x Madness Network
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Perfectionist
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Protean
1x Rack, The
3x Vessel
1x Wider View

4x Anima Gathering
1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
2x Carrion Coffin
2x Shadow of the Beast

5x Elder Impersonation
1x Enkil Cog
5x Faceless Night
5x Lost in Crowds
5x Swallowed by the Night

1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
2x Homunculus
1x Ivory Bow

3x Disengage
10x Earth Meld
3x Form of Mist

3x Eyes of Argus
6x Mental Maze
10x Second Tradition: Domain
6x Telepathic Misdirection

2020 comments:
- Got 3 victory points in final.
- I´d usually slim this deck down to 82-ish, but a bit hesitant because doing so with wall decks – in the odd games you actually can run out of cards playing this kind of deck (which is far from my personal favorite archetype!)
- Carrion Coffin makes a rare appearance here. It is kind of like Homunculus, weaker but less brittle.
- I´d consider diversifying the stealth cards a bit (4 of each instead of 5, making room for one more type), but on the other hand these four are the best for this deck.
- Might add 1-2 Smiling Jack, the Anarch as an alternative win condition if bleeding gets problematic.

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: JANUARY 2021

• 470 cards was added to the VTES Legacy Card Singles at Drivethrucards.com - see the list at the top of this newsletter!

• Round 2 of the current playtesting batch (four precons - Brujah, Gangrel, Banu Haqim and Ministry, plus the Fall of London set) ends in the beginning of February.

• Mind´s Eye Theatre got a promo card, the Lasombra Prince of Tampa Alicia Cortez. Its available with a special icon in the Mind’s Eye Theatre Vampire: The Masquerade Volume 2 backer program, but will appear in other versions a while after that book is in stores. About this, Black Chantry CEO Hugh Angseesing did one more of those nice long interviews, this time for the Southhampton LARP:ers.

• Product director Ben Peal answered some questions about VTES design and the future of the game in an article at 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

Sure we love Vampire-themed games the most, but right now we are most hyped about Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood from Cyanide, launching February 4. Check out trailers and developers diaries at publisher Nacon´s Youtube channel!

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 prepare, the more luck you will have."