CometCon'26 took place in Gijón, Spain, on 5-6 September and made plenty of room for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. AsturMeeple hosted a weekend dedicated to the game, bringing together regular players, veterans returning to the tables and new faces drawn by something especially interesting: the 2-player format.

The action started on Saturday with a Standard tournament, which attracted 20 players. On Sunday, it was time for the 2-player variant proposed by Black Chantry Productions and currently under development.

The response was immediate. 17 players registered for the 2-player tournament, with 14 actually taking their seats at the tables. The remaining three arrived after the tournament had already started. In just two and a half hours, the tournament was over, leaving behind plenty of conversations, plenty of enthusiasm to play again, and above all, one clear feeling: the format works!

A faster, more accessible VTES 
The 2-player format offers a different way of approaching VTES. By reducing the game to two players, it removes one of the main practical barriers for many players: finding the time and the people needed to organise a traditional game. At CometCon, this became particularly obvious. Players who had stopped taking part in tournaments because of time constraints returned to the tables. Others who knew VTES but had always found it difficult to fit into their lives decided to give it a try. And there were also new players who found in the format an easier way to approach the game. 

Some of the comments heard during the event perfectly captured that feeling:

“I can finally play in a tournament without it becoming a strain on my family life.”

“This format doesn’t cost Family Points.”

“I can actually fit this format around my shift work.”

The format also allows many of the core mechanics of VTES to be experienced in shorter, more manageable games: Stealth/Intercept, Combat (maneuvers, additional strikes and prevention), and Politics (votes and modifiers).

It is true that the interaction with the rest of the table is lost, but that also makes it particularly interesting as an introductory format. For someone just starting out, it offers a way to experience the main pillars of VTES without having to jump straight into a traditional game that can last several hours.

Note: It is important to remember that the 2-player format is still under development. VEKN has an open playtest to gather players’ experiences and feedback, and both the rules and the list of allowed cards continue to evolve. Our experience at CometCon shows that the format has great potential, but there is still work to be done.

But the most important thing happened outside the standings 
The tournament’s greatest success was who sat down to play. The 2-player format managed to re-energise a community that had been somewhat dormant for a while, bringing back players who had left the game and attracting others who simply had never found the right time or the right group of players to return.

It is not just about finding out whether the rules work. It is also about finding out whether the format can make more people want to play VTES. And at CometCon, the answer was clearly positive. The tournament left behind good memories, conversations about the future of the format, and plenty of enthusiasm to play it again. For a variant that is still growing and evolving, there may be no better result than finishing a tournament with players asking when they will be able to play again.

The tournaments were made possible thanks to our friends 
The tournaments were also made possible thanks to the support of companies and partners who backed the event. Players received gaming supplies and prizes provided by Ultra PRO, Dragon Shield, Gamepod, Cónclave Ibérico and Black Chantry Productions. This kind of support is especially important. It means that a tournament at a larger event can be more than just a competition: it can also be a showcase for the game and an opportunity to introduce VTES to new players.

We would especially like to thank Dragon Shield, whose support for AsturMeeple marks the beginning of a collaboration that is here to stay. Their backing will be important as we continue promoting VTES and card games at future events.

CometCon also marked our first collaboration with Gamepod, who provided supplies for participants as well as discounts. We are especially happy with this first experience and hope it will be the beginning of a long-lasting collaboration.

Ultra PRO, Dragon Shield, Gamepod, Cónclave Ibérico and Black Chantry Productions, thank you for supporting the tournament and for helping make this VTES celebration at CometCon’26 possible. Veterans, returning players, and new faces. But above all: a lot of people who wanted to play. See you at the tables!

Reported by Jan Kočí, VEKN National Coordinator of the Czech Republic, and the champion himself:

On September 5, 2026, the Czech National Championship, "Pulled Fang #15", took place, bringing together 53 players from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, and the Czech Republic for a full day of competitive VTES.

After several rounds of intense games, five players secured their seats at the final table. In order of qualification, they were Daniel Magda (Master Angelica), Jakub Rýpar (Harbingers Bloat), Michal Fadyna (Capuchin), Matej Lenarth (Anarch ANI Barons), and Gyula Erdős (Anarch ANI Barons).

The final turned into a long and closely fought battle. In the end, Daniel Magda was the only player to score a victory point, which was enough to secure the title and make him the fifteenth Pulled Fang champion! Congratulations to Daniel and all the finalists!

And now, here is the tournament report from the champion himself (from now on his words):

First, a look at "Gambit Declined", my Angelica, The Canonicus deck:

Crypt (12)
4x Ambrosio Luis Monçada, Plenipotentiary
5x Angelica, The Canonicus
1x Francisco Domingo de Polonia
2x Gratiano

Library (78)
9 Master (46)
1x Archon Investigation
9x Ashur Tablets
1x Black Forest Base
4x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Elysian Fields
2x Giant's Blood
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
5x Information Highway
1x Life Boon
6x Minion Tap
1x Monastery of Shadows
2x Presence
3x Sudden Reversal
1x The Coven
5x The Parthenon
1x Wash
2x Wider View

Action (3)
2x Entrancement
1x Under Siege

Political Action (5)
1x Banishment
2x Cold War
2x War of Ages

Action Modifier (11)
1x Enkil Cog
2x Foreshadowing Destruction
2x Shadow Play
6x Shroud of Absence

Reaction (13)
5x Deflection
8x Obedience

In terms of balance, VTES is a strange. This game has a bunch of incredibly strong master cards with no clan restriction, like Dreams of the Sphinx, Information Highway and Giant’s Blood, but these masters tend to be Unique, meaning you as a deckbuilder are disincentived playing multiple copies, as after playing one copy. Your deck now has a bunch of bricks, that will sooner or later clog your hand. The concept for my Angelica deck is: I can play high counts of these master cards, because I can always bin them for intercept using Angelica’s special. 

I would consider this deck a duo star vampire deck, as Ambrosio Luis Monçada, Plenipotentiary (a glorious name), can unlock Angelica in my discard phase. Deflection and Obedience + Angelica’s intercept happens to be a strong and compact defensive core (only 13 reactions). Neither of them lock the reacting vampire, so I don’t even have to play any wake/unlock effects. One Under Siege is still nice if Angelica somehow gets locked. Obedience avoid combat entirely, helps with the fact that I play 0 combat cards.

For when I’m performing actions, Shroud of Absence gives me both stealth and S:CE in one card, which is the second part of “solving” combat with 0 combat cards. 

For ousting, I have 2 options, via bleeds or politics. Bleeds hit hard, but are much easier to block. My vampires have a lot of votes, so referendums tend to pass without much trouble, but they can be blocked by the predator. Due to a high density of Master cards, I play low counts of these cards, so I tend to play the early game slow, bringing out my vampires first, thinning my deck as much as possible. Once my deck is low on cards, I use Ashur Tablets to reshuffle all of my ousting cards. I can then chain bleeds or politics back to back since now my deck is full of them.

Deck weaknesses: Allies get past Obedience! Heavy intercept + combat that gets through S:CE. Big caps (offset by playing Presence master cards). Tons of rushes. 


Games:

**Round 1**
Anarch Auspex Wall -> Me -> Dementation Malks -> Lasombra Servitor -> Hecata ally 

Fortunately for me, Hecata got most of their allies blocked by the anarch wall, then promply ousted by the Lasombra. I knew any undirected action would be instantly blocked, so I simply bled forwards, got 2 VP, then Monastery + Elysian Fields won me the 1v1 for 4 VP and a GW. 

**Round 2** 
Molly Wall-> Me -> Weenie Inside Dirt -> *honestly no clue* -> Agnieszka Toolbox 

My prey played Kaymakli Nightmares on turn 3, completely destroying their prey by undoing 8 Transfers. My predator also got significantly slowed down. 

My prey got an oust, but they have no defense so I ousted them soon after.

I then used Monastery + Elysian Fields + the rest of my stealth to pass multiple politics to clean up the other 2 players, getting 4 more VP and my 2nd GW. 

**Round 3**
Anarch Gangrel Garou -> Me -> Kalinda Bleed -> Samedi Rush -> Lasombra Nocturn

My prey was bleeding the Samedi dry, so Samedi kept using all of their rushes backwards, leaving both of them weak, giving me 2 easy VP. The rest of the table was just a few politics away from getting ousted, netting me 5 VP - for a total of 13 VP and 3 GW, leaving me comfortably as the first seed into finals. 

All 3 games felt rather easy, as I had an aggressive deck with meager defense as my prey.

**The Final:** 

(This final can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSGWTbJS_PU)

I was quite vorried about finals, as it had 2x Ani Barons ("BarANI"), both of which just so happen to play high counts of Anarch Revolt, a card I literally can’t do anything against if they cooperate and secure a votelock, preventing me from burning it. My only way to counter this is suddening it (my cross table “ally” was NOT happy).They also play ~12 Deep Songs, and can 10-0 torpor Angelica in a single combat. Therefore BarANI being my predator was a no-go, so it either was: sit behind Legionaires, with The Capuchin as prey, or The Capuchin behind and BarANI as prey. I chose the latter as I felt BarANI would be a bit easier to oust as they have to worry about a contested crypt + masters. 

Right of the bat, my prey was super eager to rush backwards (doing barely anything forwards). I was low on Obedience, so we made non-agression pacts for several turns.

My prey was the only foreigner on this table, with pretty bad English at that, so coordinating was rough. 

My prey transferred themselves to a low pool count, so my predator was cautious bleeding to not accidentally oust via bounce. For all intents and purposes, I was safe from my predator for the time being. 

Anyway, once the pacts with my prey were over, I bled for 1. What followed was immediate retaliation of 4 rushes backwards. I burned though 2 Obedience, and sacrificed Gratiano. For the 4th rush I had a beg my prey to leave Angelica ready, as then I would have no way of defending against my predator’s bleeds, so he left me at 5-6 blood (which in hindsight feels like a bit too much blood).

To correct this, my grandprey, fed up with crosstable Sudden and me burning Tension in the Ranks, rushed crosstable! And left me at 2-3 blood!!

Come my predator’s turn, I decided to block The Capuchin’s bleed, entering combat, expecting to get Thefted for 2, leaving me at 0 blood, but avoiding torpor. Instead, I got hit for 3 by Necrosis, and torporing Angelica!!!

My predator then didn’t remove my last 2 blood from Luis with Gabriele’s special for some reason??? So Luis rescued Angelica, Gratiano got rescued by the Legionnaire player. 

I was unable to draw Giant’s Blood or The Coven, so I took a few turns to recover. 

My prey play Villein and transfer out and contest Branimira, leaving them at low pool, *again*. I had two vampires that bleed for 2, prey at 3 pool, with a Foreshadowing Destruction in hand (could easily get Direct Interventioned by The Capuchin though). I bled, and got bounced. My Grand prey had an interesting dilemma: Bounce forwards, and risk getting bounced and ousting cross-table, or bounce backwards + make a deal. He brought this up, so I offered to not go forward for the rest of the game if I get the oust, hoping that 1,5 VP + first seed is enough to win. My grand prey agreed, his predator only started to negotiate AFTER the bleed has been bounced - too late. The backwards bounce got me my oust. For the remaining ~30 minutes, I had to make sure no one died, I could always Golconda The Capuchin or Erlik to give back pool, Sudden any master + I was holding Life Boon, just in case.

Thanks for this very exciting report, and thanks to all organisers, sponsors and players!