Got the New 5th Edition Starter!

Lönkka wrote:

Seems like the way the box was designed worked rather well then!

Just out of curiosity: are you a new, newish or an old player?

I started back when it was released as Jyhad in '94, and played through to the Sabbat War expansion. This was before social media though, so it was tough finding other players - I mostly played with some close friends and my wife. I did keep all my cards and decks but hadn't touched them in years. Digging them out and updating them has been a fun endeavor during quarantine.

I've been following the Black Chantry releases for about 2 years, but I wasn't interested in the CCG model they were still using, or the print-and-play options. I was playing a lot of AGoT, Star Wars LCG, Doomtown: Reloaded and KeyForge at the time, so I didn't really need another card game. Plus, I was hoping VtES would be relaunched more like an LCG with fixed cards or ready-to-play decks that I could easily pick up and teach to new players. When they announced the 5th edition starter set I convinced a few friends to buy the Sabbat precons and First Blood decks to give the game a try. We now play via Discord about once a week, typically with 3 players but sometimes with 4.

So a returning old hand then.

Black Chantry has never used CCG model, BTW...

I guess what I meant by that is, from my perspective BC was initially releasing sets of (seemingly) random cards for print-and-play and that just didn't hold any interest for me, especially as someone who had been away from the game for 2 decades. I wanted a tangible product and playable decks right out of the box.

The first card bundles they chose were undoubtably good, but they were for existing players to augment their collections. None of my old cards even looked like what they were producing, and I don't like mixing the two different styles of cards together - my decks are strictly made up of cards with matching layouts. For example, my Jyhad decks only include Jyhad cards (I typically don't even put any Dark Sovereigns cards in those decks, but that's just me). Therefore, as someone starting over I needed to wait until they released a playable product in this new-looking format.

Yipe wrote:

I wanted a tangible product and playable decks right out of the box.

The first card bundles they chose were undoubtably good, but they were for existing players to augment their collections.

Erm, all the actual decks (not Bundles and such as you mention) were EXTREMELY playable right out of the box...

Yipe wrote:

None of my old cards even looked like what they were producing, and I don't like mixing the two different styles of cards together - my decks are strictly made up of cards with matching layouts. For example, my Jyhad decks only include Jyhad cards (I typically don't even put any Dark Sovereigns cards in those decks, but that's just me). Therefore, as someone starting over I needed to wait until they released a playable product in this new-looking format.

The game has been evolving quite a lot throughout the decades. And will continue to do so.

If you desperately want to kneecap your gaming even further by all means go with layouts as the first criteria of what to include in the deck. More glory to you !

I find this a bizarre self limitation but I kinda do understand it too.
I've also chosen some non-latest versions of the cards in my decks due to their illustrations (Undead Persistence, Raven Spy and Majesty just to name a few).

(Also, I used to have a workmate who used to include only "beautiful cards" in her MtG decks.)

Yeah, it's just my own deck building style, I never said it was optimal or even normal, haha! For whatever reason, I don't like to mix cards with differing layouts, and if certain cards aren't made in a particular layout, then too bad for me.

But that's not all! I often take it a step further and typically make decks with cards only from thematically appropriate sets. For example, my old Sabbat decks are strictly comprised of cards from the Sabbat, Sabbat War and Final Nights expansions (so no VtES or Dark Sovereigns as those are "Camarilla" cards). Ravnos? VtES, Dark Sovereigns, Ancient Hearts and Final Nights.

To some this might be a silly distinction. I don't mind though - I'm not playing in VtES tournaments (or any tournaments at the moment), and mostly I'm making these decks to be fun and thematic. Having said that, I've found my 100% Jyhad decks can go toe-to-toe with the BC Sabbat precons and full-sized First Blood decks just fine. I haven't tested them against the 5e starter decks, but other than having better vamps, they appear to be fairly similar to the First Blood decks so it shouldn't be an issue.