VTES NAC 2024 champion 
Reported by Ben Peal:

Hey, everyone! Many thanks to everyone who attended Origins, the North American Championship, and the Week of Nightmares this year! We had a big boost in attendance, including several players from Europe!

Photography by Marko Saari.

Here's a quick recap of the Origins weekend:

Thursday, June 20

Day One of Origins started off with a 36-player tournament, won by Vadim Matveev. He played a very original Budapest Circle Blood Brothers deck (decklist link), using the British Museum and blood gain tech to set up big, unblockable bleeds with Walk of Caine. He won both preliminary rounds of this two-round tournament, plus the final!

37 plyers attended the second tournament of the day, which was won by Darby Keeney, no stranger to the winner's circle. This time around for Darby, it was a Brujah Anarch combat deck which centered around Illegalism and Line Brawl (decklist link) - and an awful lot of red cards. It looks like a lot of metagame tech against the Earth Melds and Forms of Mist we've been seeing a lot of, and it served Darby well.

Friday, June 21

Big jump in attendance for this one, with 47 players. Mariya Hyryk won with Brujah, going with Dmitra Ilyanova political deck instead of Anarchs (decklist link). It's the second tournament win for Mariya, raised properly by her father Mark Loughman!

Darby Keeney continued his dominance of the week with his third tournament win, using an unnamed deck. Well, the deck has a name - it's called Six Demon Bag. And it uses the vampire called The Unnamed (decklist link). 44 players in this one, and they all had names.

VTES NAC 2024 Heather KreiterVTES artist Heather Kreiter.

Saturday, June 22 - the North American Championship

The steady climb in attendance at Origins tournaments continued, with the North American Championship hosting 54 players! After one of the most intense final rounds you'll ever see, Bill Troxel emerged victorious with a Tzimisce Anarch deck! It was a dominant performance by Bill, with three game wins in the preliminary rounds and the game win in the final.

VTES NAC 2024 finalists
The rankings going into the final round:
1. Bill Troxel (3 GW 10.5 VP)
2. James Messer (2 GW 9 VP)
3. Mark Figuerola (2 GW 8 VP)
4. Will Matson (2 GW 7 VP)
5. Darby Keeney (2 GW 7 VP)

VTES NAC 2024

VTES NAC 2024
Mark Figuerola came out like gangbusters to start the final, eventually overwhelming Will Matson's Lord Tremere deck for the first oust. James Messer was able to get enough defense going to hold off Darby, and Darby also had his hands full defending against his new predator Mark. Stuck between a hammer and an anvil, Mark was eventually ousted by Bill Troxel. With three players remaining, it was just a matter of time before Darby drew a Pentex to get past Ugadja, and James didn't have a Sudden or Wash in hand. Down to the head-to-head, Darby lunged but came up short, with Bill claiming victory. (An interview with the champion can be found in the VEKN newsletter.)

Bill´s tournament winning deck:

Crypt (12 cards)
4x Adrino Manauara 8 ANI DOM PRO pot baron Tzimisce:6
3x Ángel Guerrero 7 ANI DOM PRO baron Tzimisce:6
1x Branimira 6 ANI dom pre pro baron Tzimisce:6
1x Kuyén 6 ANI PRO baron Gangrel:6
1x Clara Hjortshøj 5 PRO ani aus dom Tzimisce:6
1x Kamile Paukstys 5 PRO ani for Gangrel:6
1x New Blood 2 san Blood Brother:ANY

Library (86 cards)
Master (16; 4 trifle)
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Carfax Abbey
1x Channel 10
1x Direct Intervention
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Giant's Blood
1x Papillon
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
2x Villein
2x Wider View

Action (15)
3x Deep Song
12x Govern the Unaligned

Political Action (2)
2x Eat the Rich

Action Modifier (8)
4x Conditioning
4x Earth Control

Action Modifier/Reaction (3)
3x Form of the Bat

Combat (17)
1x Donnybrook
9x Earth Meld
7x Form of Mist

Reaction (25)
4x Bait and Switch
4x Deep Ecology
4x Deflection
3x Delaying Tactics
1x On the Qui Vive
7x Organized Resistance
2x Protection Racket

Many thanks again to everyone who attended! A special thanks goes out to Jay Kristoff for running the Week of Nightmares events leading up to the Origins weekend! Thanks also go out to Comic Shop Plus in Newark, R Bar in Columbus, and of course the Origins Game Fair for graciously hosting the events! I look forward to seeing more of you next year!

Some additional photos by Marko Saari from the Week of Nightmares events:

 

And there was a Jyhad draft!