Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter November 2020
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!

WE NEED NEWSLETTER CONTENT!
Do you want to create content for the VEKN newsletter? Things that might be interesting to publish are:
- tournament reports
- strategic articles on a deck or deck archetype
- player interviews
- just about anything else that relates to VTES that is reasonably well written and not too long (2,000-6,000 characters including blanks seems about right)
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."
Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter October 2020
Preview art by Ginés Quiñonero.
Greetings fellow Methuselahs,
The second wave is over us, so of course activity is low. The VEKN ask you to be careful with live VTES events – make sure to follow local regulations and recommendations. But while things are as they are, please contribute to the community online, discuss cards, rules and strategy, and try VTES on Lackey or Tabletop Simulator. Stay safe!
RECENT GREAT VTES CONTENT
• V:TES Mexico is a very nice site in Spanish by and for the Mexico community, with articles, decks, tournament results and more.
• KGS Cards is a US VTES store and distributor that also has a blog with articles about VTES strategy – most recently Karl Schaefer wrote a piece about the upcoming Toreador Fifth Edition deck, and how to modify it!
• The French VTES blog Information Highway (written in English) did a preview article of the Fifth Edition Nosferatu deck – great insights by Serge Cirri!
• The massive and very useful VTES One blog has some new material, for example the article “Banned Cards in VTES (2020 Update)”.
Have you seen any other new good VTES content? Share at VEKN.net forum or VEKN Facebook!

AT LAST, A NEWSLETTER INDEX!
Sometimes search engines act strange, so we created a index page for the VEKN newsletters at VEKN.net. It will be completed with additional tags, but for now, use Ctrl+F in your browser to search the headlines for a specific interview, tournament report, article, etc. The blue title is the link! Some older newsletters might be added later.

WE NEED NEWSLETTER CONTENT!
Do you want to create content for the VEKN newsletter? Things that might be interesting to publish are:
- tournament reports
- strategic articles on a deck or deck archetype
- player interviews
- just about anything else that relates to VTES that is reasonably well written and not too long (2,000-6,000 characters including blanks seems about right)
BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: OCTOBER 2020
• The official release date of Fifth Edition had to be postponed to November 30th, which means the new cards in the set will be tournament legal on December 30th.
• Printing proofs of Fifth Editions were received, and Black Chantry CEO Hugh Angseesing was kind enough to do some sneak peek unboxing videos.
• All new cards for Fifth Edition have now been spoiled, and there was quite a bit of discussion about the Nosferatu card Creeping Sabotage. What do you think? Please tell, for example at the VEKN.net forum, VEKN at Facebook, or by mail or social media.
• Playtest round 2 of the next four preconstructed decks (Banu Haqim, Brujah, Gangrel and The Ministry) is soon to begin.
• A small, yet unnamed new expansion set (with a possible accompanying storyline) has been sent to the playtesters. These cards are generally more advanced than the ones in Fifth Edition.
• As stated since 2018, it is the aim of Black Chantry to make as many old VTES cards as possible available for you to buy, as soon as possible (see the updated FAQ). In particular, many players ask for the “VEKN print sets” to appear for sale soon. However, none of this is as easy as it sounds. Currently, art director Ginés Quiñonero is processing all available artwork files. Some art cannot be used, either because the files are lost or corrupt, or because the art is deemed not appropriate. For the VEKN print sets, Black Chantry want to make sure that yet unpaid artists are paid for their work before printing – that was a reasonable chunk of money to save up for. At the top of this newsletter, you see a new piece for a card that needed replacement art, by Ginés himself.
Then rules director Vincent Ripoll is updating card texts to the most recent wording template, and these changes are proofed both inhouse and by selected playtesters. And then the cards will be fitted into reasonable batches to appear on print-on-demand at Drivethrucards and/or in upcoming store products, as deemed appropriate by product director and lead designer Ben Peal. As you see, this is a somewhat protracted process – Black Chantry appreciate your patience!
• Some products (Heirs of Blood bundles, Sabbat precons, etc.) are sold out and are being reprinted. Some card texts in these have to be changed slightly, so the team is reproofing those files.
• 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
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:
• A teaser trailer for a yet unnamed Vampire: The Masquerade-themed computer game was released. It is set in Prague and developed by the Swedish company Sharkmob.
• There is now a Vampire: The Masquerade mod for grand strategy game “Crusader Kings 3”! It is called “Princes of Darkness” and allows you to play or encounter many iconic Dark Ages characters, such as Hardestadt, Mithras, Montano, Vladimir Rustovitch and Augustus Giovanni.
• The previously unannounced “The Orpheus Device” is now out, playable on many devices. It is a voice-controlled horror game by Dave Grossman and Richard Dansky – completely free!
• The visual novel RPG video game “Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest” from Different Tales was released on October 13.
• A brand-new official World of Darkness merchandise store is up. Buy t-shirts, pins, blankets (!) and other stuff with your favourite Vampire sect or clan symbol at store.worldofdarkness.com
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
"Youth is wasted on the young."
Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter September 2020
Preview art by Ginés Quiñonero.
Greetings fellow Methuselahs,
We apologize for this delayed newsletter. The physical tournament activity is low, but some things are happening!
VTES ONLINE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2020
Igor Beslin and Rudolf Scholz will organize this 6 week event, played using LackeyCCG and Discord. It begins on Sunday 18th of October and runs each Sunday ending on the 22th of November. Black Chantry supports with prizes! For details, check out the related VEKN.net forum thread.

VTES ONLINE 2020 SO FAR
In the absence of physical events, quite a lot of the community turn to online VTES, especially on LackeyCCG. With the help of Igor Beslin and Rudolf Scholz we have compiled this summary of online events this year:
In 2020, so far 24 online competitions, tournaments or leagues, have been played. Igor Beslin has organized four of these events:
• The first competition of the year was a league testing a new crypt contest rule, that was later officially announced and tested again by Black Chantry Productions. It started on the 13th of January and ended on the 23rd of February. Igor caught this idea from a Brazilian player, who had posted it on VEKN.net in 2019 and wanted to see how it would work. 31 players in total attended; 18 from Europe, 9 from North America, 2 from New Zealand, and 1 each from Mexico and Brazil. The winner was Marcin Krom from Poland, playing a Black Hand toolbox versus Malkavian´94 bleed, Massassi combat, Dom-Obf bleed and a Imbued toolbox.
• The next league was “Camarilla Revolution”, which started on the 13th of March and ended on the 27th of April. It was played with regular Standard Constructed VEKN rules. 37 players attended; 28 from Europe, 3 from North America, 3 from Brazil, 2 from Mexico and 1 from New Zealand. The winner was Igor Beslin from Serbia, playing The Unnamed bleed in the final, against Montano Baltimore Purge, Black Hand toolbox, Toreador AAA vote and Emerald Legionnaires wall.
• The third league was “Not Unique Vampires”, running from the 10th of May to the 22nd of June. This league used a special crypt contest rule, where all contested vampires remain in play but still requiring Methuselahs to pay for contesting. It was officially supported by Black Chantry with prizes for every participant and additional prizes for all finalists and the winner. Even though there was a lot of discussion in forums about the contest rule test, a record of 53 players in total participated, among them EC 2019 champion Otso Saariluoma and 2019 Online World champion Milutin Melka. 43 players were from Europe, 3 from North America, 6 from Brazil and 1 from Saudi Arabia (who now lives in Germany again). The winner was Marius Iscru from France, playing Emerald Legionnaires toolbox in the final against True Brujah toolbox, Fanchon & Malgorzata toolbox, Shambling Hordes rush and Jost & Rebekka bleed.
• The fourth event was “4 Eternal Nights”, a Standard Constructed 2 rounds + final multi-deck tournament that started on the 11th of September and ended with the finals played on the 20th of September. 14 players attended; 8 from Europe, 2 from North America, 1 each from Chile, Mexico, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. The winner this time was Jay Kristoff from USA, playing a Gangrel toolbox facing Malgorzata & Tzimisce toolbox, Blood Brother Chicago rush, Ventrue antitribu grinder and The Unnamed toolbox.
The German National Coordinator Rudolf Scholz has organized five competitions during summer time. Four of them were VEKN Standard Constructed 2 rounds + final events called “Summer Rumble I–IV”, with between 10 and 16 players per tournament. In total 27 different players from 13 different countries participated. Countries (and player numbers) were: Australia (1), Belgium (1), Denmark (1), France (1), Germany (5), Mexico (1), Poland (2), Saudi-Arabia (1), Serbia (2), Spain (1), Sweden (1), UK (7), USA (3).
• Summer Rumble I was won by Joscha Duell from Germany, playing Pander plus Inner Circle vote against The Unnamed Maleficia toolbox, Vlad Tepes & Malgorzata toolbox, Pander & Gehenna events vote and Enkidu rush.
• Summer Rumble II was won by Nikica Novakovic from Serbia, playing Malkavian anarch Madness wall against Anson Presence bleed, Dracon wall, Lasombra bruise-bleed and Dominate Vicissitude bruise-bleed.
• Summer Rumble III was won by Nikolaj Wendt from Denmark, playing Eurayle, Gotsdam & Maris toolbox against Ravnos breed-boon, Black Hand wall, Toreador antitribu Undue Influence bleed and Lutz bleed.
• Summer Rumble IV was won by Lionel Pandaleux from France, playing a “Girls will find” bleed deck against Mary Anne Blaire grinder, Auspex biggies wall, Toreador antitribu breed-vote and Guillaume Real Estate toolbox.
• The fifth event was the Storyline League “Mad World”, with a prologue written by Jan Erik Söderman. It was played from the 10th of July up to the 28th of August, with the usual Storyline crypt rule (75% from one single clan) and the special rule that the first vampire or Imbued put into play by every player started with a Vampiric Disease counter. 12 rounds were played, 31 players attended in total. The winner in a final described as a “5 player chess game” was the German player Jens Niemann, with Toreador AAA wall against Guillaume Real Estate toolbox, Emerald Legionnaires wall, Emerald Legionnares bleed and Malgorzata & Tzimisce toolbox.
On the 13th of June, UK National Coordinator Paul Jones organized the “Bleedfest”, a VEKN Standard 2 rounds + final tournament with 18 players attending. The final was won by Rudolf Scholz from Germany, piloting a Giovanni bleed deck against Kiasyd bleed, Dementation bleed, weenie Computer Hacking bleed and yet another Dementation bleed.
In addition to all these events, an additional 7 tournaments (that we know of) have been organized in Brazil, 4 in Spain, 1 in North America and 2 leagues in Mexico.
We thank Igor and Rudolf for this summary, and of course hope for many more online events in the future. Thanks to all of you who organize events – remember that you can have an online tournament sanctioned by adding them to the VEKN calendar, just tag it with "online"!
AN UPDATE ABOUT PRIZE SUPPORT
Black Chantry Products want to convey two bits about prize support:
• Black Chantry will continue helping with promo cards and products as prizes. This is normally at a “raw cost”, but sometimes for free, mainly to large events like continental and national championships, Grand Prix events, etc.
• There are many queries around custom prizes. If you want to make custom prizes (edges, counters, deckboxes, playmats, t-shirts, etc.), ask . These are the requirements:
- In the mail, be specific about what you want to make, for what event/events and (if any) what art you want to use.
- Never sell the item. Entry fee for an event is fine!
- After the event, mail in photos of the product for the company records.

The Catalan league has been running since last year, with a total of nine events gathering about 70 players. On October 3rd, the top 25 players were invited to the final tournament in Reus, Spain.
Congratulations to Aldo Fernández D'Ambrosio, 4 vp winner in the final! This is his master heavy tournament winning deck:
Crypt: 12
3x Annazir
4x Cybele
3x Nergal
2x Petaniqua
Library: 90
2x Archon Investigation
12x Ashur Tablets
3x Direct Intervention
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Fear of Mekhet
1x Giant's Blood
4x Golconda: Inner Peace
4x Information Highway
4x Liquidation
8x Minion Tap
1x Monastery of Shadows
5x Parthenon, The
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Ruins of Charizel
1x Wash
7x Zilla's Valley
2x Call the Great Beast
4x Entrancement
3x Unleash Hell's Fury
4x Cloak the Gathering
4x Elder Impersonation
4x Faceless Night
4x Lost in Crowds
3x Sense the Sin
4x Swallowed by the Night
Thanks to organizer Miquel Jorge Tortajada, sponsors and others that helped!

Do you want to create content for the VEKN newsletter? Things that might be interesting to publish are:
- tournament reports
- strategic articles on a deck or deck archetype
- player interviews
- just about anything else that relates to VTES that is reasonably well written and not too long (2,000-6,000 characters including blanks seems about right)
BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: SEPTEMBER 2020
• As many of you probably noticed, Fifth Edition has run into more printing problems and is delayed. A new, hopefully final, release date will be communicated in mid October.
• The very meaty round 1 report from playtest coordinator Darby Keeney just landed in Black Chantry mailboxes. The four preconstructed decks (Banu Haqim, Brujah, Gangrel and Ministry) received mixed reviews, and the design team led by Ben Peal will now adapt them and prepare for round two of playtesting.
• In the beginning of September, the Library card section of the Drivethrucards VTES Card Creator was officially launched. Try it out if you haven´t already!
• The preview art by Ginés Quiñonero at the top of this newsletter is for one of the circa 400 cards that soon will be added to VTES Legacy Card Singles at Drivethrucards. Stay tuned for more news about this!
• 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
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:
• #VTMtober is community art challenge for anyone who want to draw something Vampire-related.
• "Vampire: The Masquerade — Night Road" is an interactive horror novel by Kyle Marquis, now available on Steam.
• The second issue of the Vampire: The Masquerade comic is in stores.
• "Vampire: The Masquerade – Shadows of New York" is out now for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch!
• The main themes of the World of Darkness News show in the recent weeks have been Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife! (September 3), VTM novella writer Caitlin Starling (September 17), Vampire: The Masquerade - Night Road (September 25), Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest (October 1) and artist Amy Wilkins (October 8).
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 V:EKN
You can contact the V:EKN Inner Circle members using contact forms at V:EKN.net. Also follow the V:EKN Facebook group, the official V:TES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and the official V:EKN Twitter account @VEKN_VTES
"Losers focus on winners, winners focus on winning."
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