Juggernaut Of VTES

Australian National Open 2012

2012-02-22T08:53:00.002+11:00

In a change from past years, the Australian Princes have voted to separate the Continental Championship from the Australian National Championship. Consequently, I'm happy to let the wide world know... (on behalf of the Princes of Australia & Steve Harris our NC)

Australian National Open Championship
Saturday 21st April
Good Games
857 George St, Sydney
$10 entry, 10am Reg
3 Rounds + Final

This tournament is a Qualifying Tournament for the Oceania Continental Championship.
Prize support for this tournament has been donated by Australia's Online VTES Store

Juggernaut VTES Counters

2012-02-20T21:48:00.000+11:00

After doing some numbers and a lot of mockups, it became fairly obvious that I can't make the Counter Cards myself to the quality I'd like for the price I'd like... So instead I got them printed from a Print-on-Demand company I found online. They are printed on 3.5" square cards and the photos below show you them on their own and in comparison to an unsleeved VTES card.

I can potentially get these printed in plastic shrink-wrapped sets of 12. If people around the world would like these, or some of the other artwork I have for different counters. I would need at least 6 weeks (based on the last job) before I would receive the cards AND then in a couple of weeks I'd probably be able to get a few sent around the world.

List of Counters I have at the moment that I could easily send:

Anarch Counters
Corruption Counters
Hostage Counters

Burning Wrath 18 Feb 2012

2012-02-18T18:38:00.001+11:00

This is a short summary to put the big things out there...

Congrats to Paul Azzopardi for winning the final with 4VPs.
It was great to see everyone there. We used the multijudge system so that we had two tables of five. Everyone brought something fairly brutal since every table lost a VP within 30min and finished within 1.5h (time limit of 2h).

Our Qualified players were

Andrew Chirgwin (Organiser)
Paul Azzopardi (winner)
Katy McDonald (finalist in her first tournament!)
Will Allison
Nick Miller (Prince of Sydney CBD)
Ben Froggatt

For a more detailed report, please go to the VEKN Forum post here.

Card Idea - Ghouled Dog

2012-01-26T14:05:00.000+11:00

I have always thought that while City Gangrel may not have much in the way of Animalism, they probably use things like dogs as their 'disposable' bodyguards, spies and lookouts. Also, since City Gangrel aren't always much good (Celerity, Obfuscate & Protean make you good for ambushing, but in VTES being able to ambush someone is kind of useless) it seemed like they needed some City Buddies to help them out with their street-fighting-ambushes so that when they go after a vampire they take them down. So I came up with the following card idea: The Ghouled Dog.

Card Idea - Gone Anarch

2012-01-25T09:03:00.000+11:00

brandonsantacruz at VEKN (here) suggested an alternative version of "Go Anarch!", and I really thought one little variation needed to be made to it and then of course it needed artwork. So, may I present, Gone Anarch.

Joke Card: The Path of the Salmon

2012-01-23T14:26:00.000+11:00

"Path of the Salmon" (n): The choice by a player in VTES to not attempt to oust their prey, but instead to oust every predator they have in succession. So named after salmon who migrate against the flow of major rivers to spawn.

A new Gangrel Anti - Gadget

2012-01-18T16:08:00.000+11:00

Gadget
Gangrel Antitribbu
Capacity 6
CEL PRO
Sabbat. Gadget may take an action to equip with any non-unique non-location equipment from your library as a +1 stealth action; if it successful, Gadget untaps.
Art by Hanri

Card Ideas - Vigorous Inquisition & Inquisition Recruit

2012-01-07T23:36:00.000+11:00

Ignazio's Bleeding Army of Fools

2011-12-15T11:37:00.001+11:00

As a response to the deck concept posted by Johannes Walchs here I created the following variation using the same core mechanic of using Chain of Command on a vampire with DOM and FOR/for to then bleed with them, have them explode during the bleed (Daring the Dawn) and then bring them back with Possession. The trip through the ashheap also rinses them clean of NRA (AFAIK) so you can rinse-repeat on the bleed actions.
V:TES deck - Ignazio's Army of Fools

Deck Name:	Ignazio's Bleeding Army of Fools
Created by:	Juggernaut1981
Description:	Ignazio Giovanni + Chain of Command/Daring the Dawn + Bleed style shennanigans.

Crypt [16 vampires, average capacity: 7.25]
6x	Ignazio Giovanni	DOM FOR NEC POT obf	9	Giovanni:3
1x	Lucita	DOM FOR OBT cel pot	8	Lasombra:2
1x	Victorine Lafourcade	DOM FOR PRE tha	8	Ventrue:3	prince
1x	Blackhorse Tanner	AUS DOM FOR	7	Ventrue antitribu:3
1x	Gracis Nostinus	DOM PRE aus for	7	Ventrue:3	primogen
1x	Charice Fontaigne	AUS DOM for pot	6	Ventrue antitribu:3
1x	Edward Vignes	DOM PRE for	6	Ventrue:3
1x	Vanessa	DOM FOR aus pre	6	Ventrue antitribu:2
1x	Catherine du Bois	DOM for obf pre	5	Ventrue:3
1x	Ranjan Rishi, Camarilla	DOM PRE for	5	Ventrue:2
1x	Ingrid Russo	DOM for	4	Ventrue antitribu:2

Library [83 cards]
Master [16]
2x	From a Sinking Ship
2x	Golconda: Inner Peace
2x	Perfectionist
4x	Wider View
6x	Zillah's Valley

Action [16]
6x	Chain of Command
6x	Possession
4x	Scouting Mission

Action Modifier [40]
4x	Command of the Beast
8x	Conditioning
8x	Daring the Dawn
4x	Foreshadowing Destruction
6x	Freak Drive
4x	Safe Passage
6x	Seduction

Equipment [1]
1x	Sargon Fragment, The

Event [2]
2x	Break the Code

Reaction [8]
8x	Deflection

The Spider League 2012

2011-12-10T16:19:00.001+11:00

In 2012, I'm thinking of running a number of Constructed Tournaments that will also contribute to rankings in The Spider League. They would also be Standard Constructed Tournaments that would contribute to VEKN Rankings and so on.

The Spider League takes its name indirectly from a quote from Matt Barnett "We're not here to [have intercourse with] spiders... let's play some VTES!".

So, without a moment to waste...

Rules

Each of these will be 2 Rounds + 1 Final.
Round VPs = 1 point, Round GWs = 2 points, Final VPs = 2 points, Final GWs = 3 points
TPs will be accumulated as normal through the League and will be used to break ties.
If TPs cannot break the tie, then it will be done based on GWs (both Rounds and Finals). If this will not break the tie, then comparing Final GWs to Round GWs or Final VPs to Round VPs

Prizes
There is:

a minimum of bragging rights.
potentially a perpetual trophy will be kept at Unlimited Hobbies
Deckbackers
Pool counters
Counter Cards
Buttons/Badges
Other loot...

When?
I'm planning to include competitions on the following dates... (these dates are very much in the DRAFT stage except for Burning Wrath)

Burning Wrath (Australian Continental Championship Qualifier) Saturday 18th Feb 2012
Claws of the Dead (Constructed) Saturday 15th June 2012
Exuding Blood (Constructed) Saturday 17th August 2012
Gemini's Mirror (Constructed) Saturday 23rd November 2012

Where?
I'd plan to hold all of these games at Unlimited Hobbies Blacktown NSW 2148. I may hold them in other locations if Unlimited Hobbies is unavailable but they will also be within a short distance of Blacktown Train Station.

Custom Made Tournament Loot

2011-12-08T14:20:00.001+11:00

Here is a start of some of the custom made things I am planning to use in the future for my tournaments... Packs of 40 seem like a good number. If you are regularly running tournaments, I might be able to make some for you to give out as loot at your games... We can figure out the details of costs and so on later. I'm also happy to make and send my Counter Cards for you to give out as prizes. Again just send me a message (either here or via my email or on my VEKN Profile)

These beads have a 12mm diameter design on paper and have been backed with Red felt. I liked the blue vase stones (sold by a local hardware store) but of course they can appear in other colours. The flash and exposure are high on this image to help you see the design in the background; it turns up poorly in low light and in the other photo.

EDIT:

Here is a couple of "Action" shots of the Corruption Counter Cards underneath Theo Bell ADV. They have been shrunk slightly (I think the Local Stationery Chain may have resized it rather than set it to full bleed) because they are supposed to be as tall as a normal card. I might also have to make them a little wider... but you get the idea. Put them under your stuff (or under other people's stuff) to keep track of the counters they have...

Burning Wrath: Tournament Announcement

2011-12-08T11:52:00.000+11:00

The Hunters are about...

2011-12-05T12:25:00.001+11:00

All I'm getting out of the VEKN page is...

"Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL"

Hopefully we can re-establish...

Bent, Broken, Wallpaper and Boring...

2011-12-02T12:00:00.000+11:00

After ICLee's nice post I felt the need to spend some time of my own talking about the following ideas:
- What makes a card 'broken'?
- What makes a card 'powerful but not broken'?
- What is the role of the metagame in the ongoing life of VTES?
- When is the metagame unhealthy?

Please, do go read IC Lee's post. It's very good and I do think that he makes one particularly good and interesting point:

People think the metagame is 'unhealthy' or 'sick' when it is not fun to play anything but a narrow range of deck types.

I am very firmly in this camp. I don't care much if I am not playing the most 'efficient'* deck. I love my Nos Princes Hate You All (Nos Princes Anathema/Archon Deck) because it is unusual, fun to play, competitive in many versions of my local metagame and is often more about play skill than 'beating the Card Gods of Fate'.

So what makes a card broken?
In my own mind, 'broken' cards are those cards that can single-handedly distort the metagame over a long period of time. These are often the 'Autoinclude' or 'Must counter' cards that are mentioned in deck-building advice for Tournament Quality decks. Pentex Subversion, Carlton van Wyck, Mylan Horseseed, Villein, Parity Shift... Many people feel the need to directly counter the effects of these cards.

From many people's comments on the VEKN Forums, there is a strong sentiment that Villein is single-handed distorting the metagame. Many others are saying "It has had little effect compared with Minion Tap which it has replaced in the metagame". I agree with this. I don't think Villein has distorted the metagame as much as is claimed. I do believe it is probably too powerful for its cost (it's efficiency is too great). Archon Investigation on the other hand is about right (maybe a little low for my taste, but not 'waay out the bottom') because it has steep conditions (4+ bleed action on you required) that can be countered (careful player decision) and a moderately high cost (10% of your starting pool + 1MPA) to get a strong effect (destroy a vampire).

So if Villein is, at most, closer to 'broken' than Minion Tap... what is their common effect that people object to? Mass converting blood back into pool. Both Villein and Minion Tap convert a large amount of blood into pool. This explains why Blood Doll, which was (and is in my opinion) a staple card, is very rarely considered broken... each copy can adjust your pool total by 1 per Master Phase. Since, more often than not, Villein and Minion Tap are used on pool you have recently spent on a large minion... where is the problem with them? My conclusion is: Being able to use Villein/Minion Tap again on a minion. So this means that the root of the problems with Villein and Minion Tap is not these cards but instead with putting blood onto vampires.

Cards that are 'famous' for putting blood onto vampires are: Giant's Blood, Taste of Vitae and Voter Captivation. Most of the Fortitude actions seem to be largely ignored (e.g. Restoration) or things like 5th Trad are again ignored. So this means that these cards should be investigated.
Giant's Blood has very restrictive conditions and powerful effects. Sure this makes it a "Giant's Blood Raffle" for who is going to get it to arrive out of their deck first... but then it is over. Giant's Blood has done its thing and gone.
Taste of Vitae has a lot of conditional requirements. You need to cause damage to your opponent in combat (and while combat is a regular occurrence in VTES it is not guaranteed to run in your favour and can be highly risky). You need to not be sent to torpor by your opponent. You want to be on comparatively low-blood when you begin the combat (increasing the risk you are taking). Then it can only give you the blood you have removed with damage (so your opponent could spend like a drunken sailor before paying for damage if they assumed they were going to torpor anyway). Few people complain about Taste of Vitae because it is seen as a facilitator card for a 'sub-optimal' ousting methodology; Oust-by-Combat.
Voter Captivation has some requirements. You need a successful referendum called by this vampire. If you are calling referendums, you are usually doing it to either damage your prey's pool or to increase your own. Both of these goals are strong components of winning VTES. You need to have that referendum pass. Voter Captivation relies on the same discipline that provides most of the highly effective additional votes (Bewitching Oration and Awe). Voter Captivation rewards the player by, at least, providing blood back to the acting vampire and potentially adding up to 2 pool as well. So every aspect of this card provides a significant bonus with a comparatively limited risk; Vote is a strong defensive and aggressive strategy, Vote-push and Voter Cap are both Presence functions, Vote decks are naturally protected against other Vote decks by the nature of their votes.

My conclusion is that Villein and Minion Tap were never the cards actually distorting the Metagame. It was the easy availability of additional blood counters through Voter Cap (and to a lesser extent Renewed Vigor) that led to the increased use of Minion Tap/Villein.

[Similar logic will also explain why Villein has proven more problematic now that players can play Villein & Golconda in a single turn with limited additional mechanical setup. The original AAA decks required additional MPAs and this mitigated them but also cemented them as a very strong deck in the Metagame]

So what makes a card 'powerful but not broken'?
Cards that are 'powerful but not broken' are easy to find, but a little harder to define and the 'grey' area of this debate (in my opinion).

Giant's Blood is a highly powerful card, but its ability to distort the game has been mitigated by its 'once per game' clause. The same goes for cards like Political Stranglehold, Ancient Influence, etc.

Minion Tap is a highly effective card but without the ability to refill vampires, it is more of a gambit. You are increasing the risk to your minions to decrease the risk to yourself. That risk-trading seems like an acceptable balance.

Parity Shift is a highly effective card but comes with a fair amount of risk. You must have a way to balance your own pool to be less than your prey when needed. You must have a way to manage your own safety against your predator while on a 'lower than you would otherwise be' pool total. You need to pass the vote (although the requirements of Parity Shift often help you ensure you have enough vote power). In return for this, you then get to change your absolute pool total by up-to-the-number-of-players but your relative pool total with your prey by twice that amount. This usually means you are playing a slightly dangerous game of relying on the absolute pool amount to be enough to protect you while you exploit the relative pool change. A few in my playgroup actually dislike playing decks that have Parity Shift as a major mechanic because of the risks associated with the card.

What is the role of the metagame in VTES? When is the metagame 'unhealthy'?
This is all surrounded by the idea of 'What does a healthy metagame look like in VTES?' and this does come partly down to taste and philosophy. The things that have always attracted me to VTES is its "Rock-Scissors-Paper-Lizard-Spock" nature and its multiplayer nature. Its "rock-scissors-paper-lizard-spock" nature is that no one deck beats all others; each decktype has "countering" decktypes and others it will neither help nor harm.

I think in VTES the role of the Metagame should be to increase the diversity of decks and diversity of cards played. It should be dynamic. At its healthiest I think the Metagame should slowly prove the maxim "No one deck can always win VTES" (i.e. the VTES metagame is 'anti-net-deck'). So the more narrow the decks appearing at tournaments and winning tournaments, the less health I think is in the Metagame. I think that the Qualifier Scene in Australia has been sick in the past, purely because it was rife with mid-to-low-cap Dominate decks. The metagame did heal itself partially at one point, when at a Qualifier around 8 vampires across 25-players in a 2R+F tournament were burned with Archon Investigation. 3 of those were burned by the predator of the acting vampire. 5 of them burned in a single game. This brought some health back to the Metagame in Sydney, there are a wider range of decks appearing (bleed is still very strong, but there are a number of variations on the bleed deck) but more vote decks are appearing, Laibon decks are appearing, some Wall decks and the usual rogue Trick Decks and Combat Decks making guest cameos. It is leading back towards some powerbleed, particularly with the Guillaume Giovanni "Hand of Library"power-bleeding decks appearing, but we do not seem to be experiencing much in the way of "Girls Will XYZ" decks. Imbued have recently had strong success (winning the 2011 National/Continental Championship for instance) which has provided an interesting element to the Metagame.

So, I think I've addressed many of the ideas I have about the structure and health of the Metagame at least in Sydney and the impact cards can have on that. My personal method for assessing the power of a card is to analyse its effect on people's thinking on deck design because this is usually the point when people decide to conform or contradict the metagame. Some people become more inventive (attempting to use old cards in new ways) as a response to the metagame and others return to 'tried and true' decks that are 'out of favour' in the metagame as a way to mix it up. That constant dynamic change in the metagame without the prevalence or dominance of a single deck or family of closely related decks is a sign of health in a VTES metagame.

*Efficiency, as often espoused by the European VTES players on the VEKN Forum seems to be short-hand for "Using a deck with the minimum number of cards required". Possibly from my own background of Science, Mathematics and personal history... I find a minimisation concept of efficiency as very limited. I have always preferred the concept of efficiency as "Effect achieved from effort expended". So I am likely to increase the size of a deck to include cards that will potentially have a large effect to my game. I have no fear of a 90-card deck and some of my favourites are 90-card decks. I think of Ashur Tablets as less of a 'library extension' tool, but as an efficiency enhancer since it allows me to reuse many effective resources from my Ash Heap and giving them twice the effect for approximately the same number of card slots. I see Ashur Tablets as a very efficient card, because it enhances the efficiency of other cards dramatically as well as providing a bonus on their own.

Does this vampire feel balanced to you?

2011-11-25T23:25:00.004+11:00

This is a LOT of positive and negative text... just not sure if it all balances out in the end.

EDIT:
The intent of this vampire (from a thematic building point) was that they were a paranoid recluse. Chi & + stealth help her avoid others, but getting out there and doing things (like bleeding, etc) requires extra effort for her (hence increased cost). But being a paranoid recluse with [AUS] means you'd also be keenly aware of anything happening nearby and constantly vigilant (hence the burn 1 blood for -1 stealth anywhere near her).

I may amend it to have the increased cost on (D) actions and keep the "burn a blood". The title seems not to fit with the rest of the idea, so I might give her a 5th discipline (since those would be roughly a half-price discpline).

Ishtarri Bleed to Live

2011-11-24T19:34:00.002+11:00

Deck Name: Ishtarri Bleed to Live
Author: Juggernaut1981
Description:
This is a variation on my Ishtarri Bleed Deck. This was originally made from 2 Ishtarri Starters mashed together to make a deck. It's entire plan is that a good offence is better than a solid defence. Basically it intends to bloat via bleeding. Ganhuru + a Social Charm or Public Trust will give you 2 pool and other minions bleeding will give you another pool. If you can get a blood or two from things like Blood Doll then combined this will probably turn into a steady trickle of pool (once you've got the minions out).

One of its historical moments was that it took 15 pool, bloated approximately 12 pool and that is without VP-pool.

One of the greatest things this deck has done has basically helped train me into being a more aggressive predator, one that even when "walling up" still takes forward actions. It is exceedingly rare for me to not take forward actions, even if it is a simple 1-bleed. This deck was responsible for that change in play.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 7 average: 6
------------------------------------------------------------

3x Ganhuru 7 FOR PRE cel pro Ishtarri:4
3x Ubende 7 CEL PRE for obf qui magaji Ishtarri:4
2x Honorine Ateba 6 FOR PRE cel nec Ishtarri:4
2x Shasa Abu Badr 5 PRE cel for Ishtarri:4
2x Kenyatta 4 cel for pre Ishtarri:4

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [16]
4x Enchant Kindred
2x Entrancement
4x Public Trust
6x Social Charm

Action Modifier [24]
4x Alacrity
2x Dawn Operation
8x Forced March
4x Freak Drive
6x Uncontrolled Impulse

Ally [4]
4x Informant

Combat [16]
8x Hidden Strength
8x Majesty

Equipment [1]
1x Kduva's Mask

Event [4]
2x Bitter and Sweet Story, The
2x Narrow Minds

Master [19]
4x Blood Doll
1x Celerity
1x Fortitude
4x Life in the City
1x Mbare Market, Harare
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Port Hunting Ground
1x Powerbase: Tshwane
2x Sudden Reversal
2x Wash

Reaction [6]
6x Terra Incognita

Quotable Quotes 22/11/2011

2011-11-22T10:30:00.002+11:00

Johannes Walches:
Let´s just call Quietus "challenging" and not "underpowered". When you have won so many tournaments with DOM, accept the challenge and go QUI!

Translated into the Blacktown VTES group vernacular:
"Get your nuts out of your purse"

Legalism, Intent and Game complexity...

2011-11-20T00:30:00.002+11:00

I'll do more later, but I'm starting to get frustrated by the interplay of three effects in VTES.

Player legalism
Card/Rule Intent
and Game Complexity.

These are basically the same set of forces that are turning up and maxing tax law overly complicated in Australia. As a feedback loop it works something like this.

A Card or Rule is created with a specific intent (e.g. Villein: To make Minion Tap more difficult to play but also to not become a perceived problem like Minion Tap had become)

Players read the Card/Rule with a mindset based on "If the law doesn't explicity say it can't be done, then it must be legal even if I know the intent is the opposite". (From what I remember of the Tax Lawyer babble I used to hear when I worked in a Big 4 Accounting Firm they label that the "Narrow Reading"). Some players seem to spend their entire time reading cards for 'loopholes' where they can deliberately circumvent the intent of a card/s or rule/s.

So those creating the cards and rules then feel compelled to 'close the loopholes'.

In Australia, that process has created Tax Law documents for Federal Taxes that is something like 3000-pages on A5 paper at 8pt print for Company Taxes only. The next part is that around 500 tell companies what taxes they need to pay, how to pay it, when, how to document it, how long to keep records and so on. The other 2,500 are basically the deductions against the other 500 pages. When I was dealing with a 'small uncommonly used section' the core of the deduction was covered in about 3 pages (including when and where, documentation, etc), another 20+ pages was amendments made to it because people deliberately went out of their way to abuse the wording of the first 3.

I know that many lawyers realise, especially tax lawyers, would be out of a job if they didn't make the tax law more complex. By making it more complex, they make their existence more needed and get to charge more to sort out the problem they explicitly helped to create.

How this seems to be playing out in VTES:
This has been the set of forces that seem to be heading us towards EVERY card nearly having its own off-the-card ruling about how it 'should be read' and how it 'should be played' and it often just reads a long list of ways you are or are not allowed to abuse the card beyond its intent.

This is why there have been rulings that several players find counter-intuitive. This is why there are words that now seem to have gained new 'keyword meanings' compared to what they have had in the past.

Now I am not saying that the Role of Pascal is irrelevant. He is needed and valuable and does a good job (and I apologise if he thinks I am deliberately targeting him or LSJ).

As players, I think we need to take a greater responsibility for our collective Legalist tendency. We need to stop looking for the ways we can break cards by ignoring things like the card's design intent and if nothing else, help to make our game less complex. VTES does not need to have new players thinking they have to become close buddies with the Rules-Lawyers and keep their own 20-page document of not-on-the-card-card-texts-and-interpretations-of-those-cards to play VTES once a week...

It is our fault that things in VTES are becoming this way. We should drop our need to push for the loophole as if it gains us some genuine advantage. We pay for that 'advantage' in increased complexity.

Villein, Minion Tap and all of that jazz...

2011-11-17T13:55:00.004+11:00

There is a LOT of debate going on about these cards. I don't feel that individual forum posts can really express my wider thoughts (although if you do read all of them you'd get a similar picture) about Villein. I'm happy to explain more, I like debate... but play the argument and not the man. I try to do that and if you think I'm not feel free to call me out on it (I think its a sort of 'ungentlemanly conduct' in debates).

Villein. The card causing all the chaos. It seems worth putting its text up here and telling you what I thought the card meant after taking it out from a booster.

Villein
Type: Master
Master: trifle.
Put this card on a vampire you control and move 2 or more blood from that vampire to your pool. Minion Tap cards cost an additional pool. Villein costs an additional pool to play on this vampire.

What I thought the text meant when I first read it...
Simple. Choose a vampire that has 2 or more blood. Put this card on the vampire and tell everyone how many (at least 2) blood you are siphoning back into your pool. If you play Minion Taps they will cost more (up front of resolution, like all card costs) and if you play another Villein on this vampire, it also costs more (up front of resolution, like all card costs).

What LSJ told me the text meant later...
Choose a vampire that has any amount of blood and put this card on the vampire. Tell everyone how much blood you are taking off (at least 2) and if they don't have enough then you take what they have. If you play Minion Taps they will cause you to get 1 less pool per Villein than you thought, you don't have to pay before you siphon off the blood just deduct it out as you put it into your pool.If you play another Villein on this vampire, just do the same thing as the Minion Tap.

Where I think things all went pear-shaped...

Move = steal. This was basically the centre of the debate about Villein & 1-blood-on-the-vampire. You could play Villein because declaring you want to move 5+ blood off the minion doesn't change the fact that it only has 1. This is different to Minion Tap, you can't choose an 11-cap and choose to take 12 blood... why should Villein (which is clearly supposed to be functionally similar) work so differently? Does this also mean I can move equipment that isn't there...?
Paying for Villein as part of the resolution. Why should this be the only card (well excluding Minion Tap) that is allowed to pay for its cost as part of resolving the card? Every other card requires that you pay for it before you resolve its effects. Use a Patronage on 1 pool? You're dead... so why should it be any different just because its Villein???

So the next big problem is its power. Villein is very powerful for a Trifle. Most trifles provide 1 blood (or 1 blood under conditions later) at most (The Coven being the only exception, Unique and travels around the table). The only other Trifle that directly provides pool is Failsafe, which gives you 4 pool if you are on 3 or less.

All in all, this convinces me that either:

a) Villein needs changing, or

b) Rulings on Villein need changing

A few more vampires...

2011-11-14T14:49:00.003+11:00

Been having issues getting to VEKN.net

2011-11-05T14:04:00.001+11:00

Maybe the Hunters are out again. Damned Society of Leopold.

jtablesession::Store Failed
DB function failed with error number 126
Incorrect key file for table './727k2/josvekn_session.MYI'; try to repair it SQL=INSERT INTO `josvekn_session` ( `session_id`,`time`,`username`,`gid`,`guest`,`client_id` ) VALUES ( 'os5ivkn4j52f5b9emd0ist7ta6','1320462266','','0','1','0' )

Updated site...

2011-11-04T16:31:00.001+11:00

I've made a bit of a change to the Crypt Card section of my Downloads Page. Just created some placeholders that allowed a reorganisation of the crypt cards. I'll probably copy something similar for the Library Cards.

A Protean-Animalism Wall-ish Deck for a Friend...

2011-11-03T20:43:00.000+11:00

Deck Name : Pro-Animals
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
A Mixed Gangrel/Anti forward-facing wall. Aiming to grind down your prey via Fame and Army of Rats. Almost any action your prey takes should be blocked unless it is forward (which you want to leave alone so your next prey is an easier target)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 8 average: 6.16667
------------------------------------------------------------

2x Nadima 8 FOR PRO SER ani aus Gangrel:3
2x Horrock 6 ANI PRO vic Gangrel:3
2x Janey Pickman 6 ANI PRO for !Gangrel:4
2x Celeste Lamontagne 5 ANI PRO for !Gangrel:4
2x Dr. Allan Woodstoc 5 PRO ani aus for Gangrel:3
1x Danielle Diron 7 ANI PRO chi for 1 vote Gangrel:3
1x Doyle Fincher 7 ANI PRO aus for obf !Gangrel:4

Library [76 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [6]
2x Army of Rats
4x Tier of Souls

Action Modifier [6]
6x Earth Control

Combat [20]
6x Claws of the Dead
4x Earth Meld
4x Flesh of Marble
6x Wolf Claws

Master [20]
4x Ashur Tablets
1x Campground Hunting Ground
4x Curmudgeon
2x Fame
1x Frontal Assault
4x Grooming the Protege
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Rack, The
1x Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper, The
1x Zoo Hunting Ground

Reaction [14]
6x Cats' Guidance
4x Lost in Translation
4x Sonar

Retainer [10]
4x Homunculus
6x Raven Spy

Name Forgotten... Mark 2

2011-10-31T10:38:00.000+11:00

Another deck utilising The Name Forgotten to smash certain types of decks turning up around the place.

Deck Name : Tremere Hunting Anathemas
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 10 average: 7.83333
------------------------------------------------------------

3x Lucas Halton 10 AUS CEL DOM THA qui prince Tremere:3
2x Dr. John Dee 9 ANI AUS DOM THA chi prince Tremere:4
2x Anastasz di Zagreb 8 AUS THA ani cel dom justicar Tremere:3
2x Troius 8 AUS DOM THA cel prince Tremere:4
2x Martin Franckel 3 AUS tha Tremere:3
1x Ardan Lane 8 AUS THA dom obf pre primogen Tremere:3

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [16]
4x Govern the Unaligned
4x Magic of the Smith
4x Name Forgotten, The
4x Nose of the Hound

Combat [25]
3x Blood Rage
8x Flash
4x Sideslip
10x Theft of Vitae

Equipment [4]
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Drum of Xipe Totec
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Sword of Nuln

Master [8]
1x Arcane Library
2x Minion Tap
1x Wasserschloss Anif, Austria
4x Zillah's Valley

Political Action [13]
6x Anathema
1x Ancient Influence
4x Archon
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Reins of Power

Reaction [24]
6x Enhanced Senses
6x Eyes of Argus
6x Second Tradition: Domain
6x Spirit's Touch

A way around many problems...

2011-10-25T10:15:00.003+11:00

I've been thinking about many people's complaints about certain vampires. The "Girls will..." series of decks have been very commonly touted as something that needs nerfing. So I've been thinking of tournament quality decks I could use or propose for the (mostly) EU & US metagames that would have a chance to deal with a "Girls will..." or things like "Una-equips-the-library". It seems that plenty of these decks are 'Star' decks or at least 'necessary goons' decks. So these ideas of mine all end up revolving around:

So my thoughts now gravitate to a few concepts:

Small-to-mid-cap Rush (Nose of the Hound+Burst of Sunlight/Flames of the Netherworld)
Tremere Princes (w/ Anathemas, Thefts, plenty of intercept, lots of votes)
Tremere-Anti Nephandi/Cryptic Mission (Drain them of blood, drop them to torpor, Nephandus nom-nom-nom)
Assamite Magi (Use the standard assamite stuff with a big splash of Name Forgotten, Magic of the Smith, etc, etc, etc)
G4 Snakes (There are quite a few and you could easily splash in a Tha module to complement the other shennanigans you're working on...)

Variation on the theme...

Deck Name : Martin's Wall
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
Martin Frankel pulls a lot of weight in this deck... it's not a 'superstar' deck, but Martin certainly does a lot of hard work when you get him.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 9 average: 5.91667
------------------------------------------------------------

3x Eugenio Estevez 6 AUS THA dom for Tremere:3
3x Martin Franckel 3 AUS tha Tremere:3
2x Oliver Thrace 9 AUS DOM THA nec obf pot Tremere:3
2x Carna, The Princes 7 AUS DOM THA primogen Tremere:3
2x Valois Sang, The W 6 AUS DOM nec tha Tremere:3

Library [88 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [18]
4x Govern the Unaligned
4x Name Forgotten, The
4x Nose of the Hound
2x Pulse of the Canaille
4x Rutor's Hand

Action Modifier [8]
1x Conditioning
2x Foreshadowing Destruction
5x Threats

Combat [14]
6x Apportation
8x Flames of the Netherworld

Master [14]
2x Academic Hunting Ground
1x Arcane Library
4x Ashur Tablets
4x Blood Doll
2x Chantry
1x Wasserschloss Anif, Austria

Reaction [34]
4x Eagle's Sight
8x Eyes of Argus
4x Precognition
6x Spirit's Touch
6x Telepathic Counter
6x Telepathic Misdirection

A new library card idea...

2011-10-19T22:15:00.001+11:00

Quotable Quotes 17/10/2011

2011-10-18T08:15:00.001+11:00

"Sword vs child... I like those odds!" - CK

"All I need is a womb!" - Paul Azzopardi

"You could, or you could you know... oust somebody?"

Card Idea - Violent Example

2011-10-13T21:21:00.002+11:00

Angry Witches Mk2

2011-10-11T10:34:00.002+11:00

Deck Name : Angry Witches
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description : This is basically a Nephandus Deck with a LOT of flick defence for when some sleazy mofo manages to crack out a 5-bleed at > 1 stealth. As a point, I'm tossing in two copies of The Name Forgotten, it might even do with 2 more, because it seems very much worth it to ping down a Star Vampire and then strip them out of the game entirely.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 7 average: 5.41667
------------------------------------------------------------

4x Selena 6 AUS DOM THA !Tremere:3
3x Yasmin the Black 6 AUS THA dom pre !Tremere:3
1x Terrell Harding 7 AUS THA cel dom obf !Tremere:3
1x Antonio d'Erlette 5 THA dom for pot !Tremere:4
1x Janine 4 aus dom tha !Tremere:4
1x Mosfair 4 cel dom tha !Tremere:4
1x Lectora 3 aus tha !Tremere:4

Library [79 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [18]
4x Biothaumaturgic Experiment
8x Cryptic Mission
2x Name Forgotten, The
4x Rutor's Hand

Ally [8]
1x Gregory Winter
1x Impundulu
4x Nephandus (Mage)
2x Succubus

Combat [12]
6x Apportation
6x Theft of Vitae

Equipment [2]
2x Ruins of Ceoris

Event [4]
2x Restricted Vitae
2x Unmasking, The

Master [17]
6x Ashur Tablets
3x Charisma
2x Dominate
2x Spirit Summoning Chamber
4x Tribute to the Master

Reaction [18]
8x Deflection
10x On the Qui Vive

The Hunters are about...

2011-09-29T16:11:00.000+10:00

Seems like something has gotten into the VEKN website... It's been like this for the last 5 hours at least. So if people don't know, there you go.

Maybe the Hunters are out...

DECK: Followers of the Fist

2011-09-27T09:21:00.002+10:00

Deck Name : Followers of Fist
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
This is an idea that came to me last night. There have been a few Typhonic Beast type decks making an appearance in my meta, but they are basically just "Raaargh Must Smash!" and don't really have a "kill trigger".

So instead I was thinking... Form of Corruption and Temptation both check for blood... There are quite a few snakes with Potence now... why not merge Horseshoes, Touch of Pain and Temptation/FoC into something fun and nasty and a variation on Matt Barnett's Famous Spirit Marionette of Death deck (Spirit Marionette backwards into your predators minion that you use to then bleed your prey with a Day Op or similar... after you gave your predator's minion Fortitude).

So the plan is to use my predator's minions, put Enrage on them (or just make them bleed) and then use my predator's guys to "part the vampire waters" in front of me. Then kill by having a swarm of Waters of the Duat turning around and bleeding with a Dream World in play.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 9 average: 6.16667
------------------------------------------------------------

3x Shemti 9 OBF POT PRE SER vic 1 vote Follower :5
2x Bupe Kuila 7 OBF POT SER pre Follower :4
2x Clea Auguste d'Hol 6 OBF POT pre ser Follower :5
2x Renenet 5 OBF PRE ser Follower :4
2x Ahmose Chambers 3 obf ser Follower :5
1x Zhenga 5 SER obf pre Follower :4

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [42]
4x Dream World
4x Enrage
4x Form of Corruption
8x Horseshoes
4x Mesu Bedshet
4x Psychic Veil
8x Temptation
6x Waters of Duat

Action Modifier [14]
8x Cloak the Gathering
6x Truth of a Thousand Lies

Combat [8]
8x Typhonic Beast

Master [18]
2x Carver's Meat Packing and Storage
2x Crocodile Temple, The
1x Giant's Blood
4x Path of Typhon, The
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
4x Potence
2x Presence
2x Serpentis

Reaction [8]
8x Touch of Pain

Some Nosferatu Antitribu

2011-09-23T17:52:00.003+10:00

A few Lasombra...

2011-09-20T22:34:00.002+10:00

Quotable Quotes 19/9/2011

2011-09-19T22:33:00.000+10:00

"What you got girly-man?" - Me
"That path leads to a fish-raping!" - CK
"Get into my helicopter little boy..."
"You sunk my battleship..."
"Does your plan involve sucking a lot of d***?" - CK
"Do my bidding puppet bitch" - Marty

New crypt cards...

2011-09-17T23:56:00.002+10:00

Some new crypt cards I've been making.

Counters for All...

2011-09-07T11:23:00.005+10:00

I've been tinkering with some artwork, and a variety of other things, and I've started creating counters that you could use with your games. I'm thinking that it might be worth making one for Contracts as well (but I'd recommend you laminate them and then use either a dry-erase OR a non-permanent OHP Pen to name the vampire with the Contract). They are all intended to be placed underneath the Crypt Card and have the left-edge showing (300dpi printing for the correct scale).

Here is the first one: Corruption Counter. The idea is that you would place counters on this card to be the corruption counters.

A Bahari Counter (by special request)

Quotable Quotes...

2011-09-01T14:50:00.003+10:00

Some more quotable quotes from the last few weeks (read: months) of VTES at Blacktown...

"I ride the short yellow dalek" (Reference to 'short yellow bus' and if you don't get it, I wont' explain it further)

"Luckily I don't have a job that prohibits me being a pervert."

"When it comes to white women, those black guys can plow a field" - CK

"Brujah in front, Brujah behind... I'm going to get a Bruj-ass"

"He hit you for 15... don't go to torpor or anything."

"Ya Mum's an Army of Rats!"

"Gratitude is nice but it ain't paying the bills"

"Grass, carpet, it's all just code for anal sex..."

"I need to go home and clean myself with steel wool and Jiff" (Jiff is a domestic scouring cleaning product)

"Woger got Red List Wogered" - Marty "Look! He's tapped Roger the cabin boy!" - Me

"Massasi's lost her rack! She had a boob-reduction!"

VTES-Play Moments

Its all about how you use it...
Corine Marcon rush Lambach via a Haven Uncovered. Trap, Close Range, Body Arsenal, Telepathic Tracking... end result... Corine Marcon takes 1 agg, Lambach takes 3 agg...

It seemed like such a GOOD idea...
Nergal is a Famed Vampire. He declares an action and gets around my paltry +1 intercept. Then he gets blocked by Donal O'Connor on his Domain. Surprise! Nergal was Daring the Dawn to do this... and sends himself to torpor. (-3 pool at this point...). A debate starts about rescuing, who might eat Nergal, who would save who from eating Nergal... finally a cross-table deal is met which basically hangs Nergal out to dry. I then soak up the 1 pool damage. (I am playing an AUS-DOM-THA deck). I then turn around and declare.... Superior Graverobbing on my Predator's Nergal... But that Daring the Dawn seemed to be such a good idea at the time...

Size, as always, doesn't count for everything
Lupo enters combat with a minion. Conceals a Wooden Stake, Strike: Stake for 4. Go Brujah Debate.

Australian National Championships

2011-08-30T20:53:00.003+10:00

Steve Harris has posted a Survey about the Australian National Championships.

Please, if you're an Australian VTES Player... go fill out the survey.

VTES Australia Survey

Lying in Wait

2011-08-18T18:24:00.004+10:00

Maybe another way for Assamites to get into fights... (and Nos/!Nos)
**Edited Version of the Card**
Grammarians of the world unite...

Zentosa Revenant

2011-08-17T20:12:00.002+10:00

After thinking about it for a while... Here's my draft of a Zentosa Revenant

VTES Creations

2011-08-16T10:33:00.003+10:00

I've been creating a lot of cards recently. Seems to be the 'passion' of the moment. At any rate, Blogger isn't very elegant for uploading and storing the many image files that publishing these things for public comment requires. A little while ago I built a Google page to do just that sort of thing. So here it is.

https://sites.google.com/site/juggernaut1981svtesdownloads/home

For others who are interested, there is a link to a relatively recent version of my own RPG d20-style system that might get finished soon (it's already 3 years since I started) but then again might not. I'm at the slow part where I am creating magic items, bit by bit, and magical armour and spells... many spells to create yet to appropriately fill out the different magic levels to make them all worth taking. I think the core of the game is there and solid, but its those kinds of details that take so much time and realistically need to be completed before you can satisfactorily playtest them. Can't have Wizard V Barbarian if the Wizard doesn't have the spells.

Crypt Ideas - King Snake & Mama Lion

2011-08-11T16:18:00.001+10:00

Card Idea - The Madmen

2011-08-11T11:04:00.002+10:00

Here are two card ideas, Inyor @ the VEKN Forum basically drafted this idea and I think these are reasonable attempts at getting his idea into a playable reality.

Kindred Madmen

Karl, Lord of the Madness
(Named after Karl Jung of course)

Card Idea - Chopper

2011-08-09T14:59:00.006+10:00

This one really caught my eye... and the only amendment I wanted to make to it was the ability to grab a non-unique weapon to go with the brand new bike.

Card Idea - Hive of Scum and Villainy

2011-08-09T10:09:00.005+10:00

Here's another card that I've knocked up after a discussion on the VEKN Forum.

Card Idea - The Right Tool for the Right Job

2011-08-07T22:07:00.003+10:00

After some of the thoughts here...
http://www.vekn.net/index.php/forum/30-expansion-sets-a-card-ideas/7309-brujah-cards

I went trawling through various places online (such as www.epilogue.net) for artwork to create...

Deck - Wall of Birds

2011-08-05T18:44:00.000+10:00

I'm not a particularly strong Gangrel player, so this deck is in part to force me to play more Gangrel and also to push my ability to play Gangrel better.

I'm keen to hear feedback about this.

Deck Name : Wall of Birds
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
This is intended to be a Wall Deck based around Animalism retainers, mixed Animalism/Protean combat and classic grinding cards (Jack, Antediluvian, Army of Rats, Anarch Revolt). I'm not planning to go anarch with the deck but wear the grind on my pool through the Blood Dolls. I'll probably try to set it up as strongly-forward blocking as I can manage.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 9 average: 5.91667
------------------------------------------------------------

3x Lord Ashton 5 ANI for pro Gangrel:3
3x Bobby Lemon 4 ANI pro Gangrel:3
2x Ingrid Rossler 9 ANI FOR PRO dom prince Gangrel:2
2x Danielle Diron 7 ANI PRO chi for 1 vote Gangrel:3
2x Horrock 6 ANI PRO vic Gangrel:3

Library [82 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [8]
2x Army of Rats
2x Movement of the Slow Body
1x Shepherd's Innocence
2x Tier of Souls
1x Trainer

Action Modifier [10]
4x Earth Control
6x Freak Drive

Combat [34]
10x Aid from Bats
2x Canine Horde
6x Carrion Crows
4x Drawing Out the Beast
8x Flesh of Marble
4x Form of Mist

Master [11]
1x Anarch Revolt
1x Antediluvian Awakening
4x Blood Doll
1x Ecoterrorists
1x Gangrel Revel
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
2x Zoo Hunting Ground

Reaction [8]
8x Cats' Guidance

Retainer [11]
2x Dog Pack
2x Homunculus
1x Murder of Crows
4x Raven Spy
2x Wolf Companion

Deck Idea - Duelling Banjokos

2011-08-04T18:31:00.002+10:00

Deck Name : Duelling Banjokos
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
Black Hand Disciplineless Deck
It's more wall-ish and less outright bleed. Part of the plan is to grind away blood from your prey by Dominion and multiple actions. Other people swear by Nicomedes but I feel a touch ambivalent but since this is a disciplineless deck it seems reasonable to include him.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 5 average: 4.41667
------------------------------------------------------------

5x Banjoko 5 DOM obt pot Lasombra:3
2x Nicomedes 5 aus for nec vic Harbinger:4
1x Katherine Stoddard 4 dom for !Ventrue:3
1x Mariano Pomposo 4 aus cel pot !Brujah:3
1x Mosfair 4 cel dom tha !Tremere:4
1x Roger Farnsworth 4 OBF aus !Malkavian:3
1x Piotr Andreikov 2 aus Tzimisce:3

Library [80 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [12]
4x Abbot
8x Reunion Kamut

Action Modifier [14]
8x Seraph's Second
6x Stealth Ritus

Ally [2]
2x Marijava Thuggee

Combat [8]
8x Target Vitals

Equipment [1]
1x Guarded Rubrics

Event [6]
1x Blood Weakens
1x Dr. Marisa Fletcher, CDC
1x Hunger Moon
1x Narrow Minds
1x Slow Withering, The
1x Veil of Darkness

Master [17]
6x Dominion
2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Hungry Coyote, The
2x Pentex(TM) Loves You!
4x Tribute to the Master
2x Watchtower: Four Ride Forth

Reaction [20]
8x Ministry
6x Wake with Evening's Freshness
6x Watch Commander

Artwork for new Edge Variations

2011-07-22T19:35:00.002+10:00

As usual these were made with files from CG Textures. I love the fact there are sites out there with royalty free images. If you're thinking of doing something like this and don't have any art skills... then I recommend the site.

A Trick Deck - Eternal Nergal

2011-07-20T20:41:00.000+10:00

Deck Name : Eternal Nergal
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
This is basically supposed to be a twisted version of a Turbo-Nergal Deck.

Nergal gets Mostly-sucked dry by Villein + Serpentis, grabs the Soul Gem, then makes a Great Beast ([FOR][OBF][DAI])... Then you get a Free Nergal or Abdelsobek...

If you get Abdelsobek, you Eternal Mask him into Nergal.

When a Great Beast gets low on blood... Chuck it off the Khobar Towers and get Nergal to call another Great Beast, then Chuck Abdelsobek off the tower... And so on... Anytime anything

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 10 average: 7.83333
------------------------------------------------------------

4x Nergal 10 AUS DAI FOR OBF PRE THA Baali:5
2x Nergal Adv 10 AUS DAI FOR OBF PRE THA Baali:5
4x Abdelsobek 5 for nec obf pre ser Follower :5
2x Ogwon 7 OBF PRE SER for Follower :5

Library [72 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [12]
4x Call the Great Beast
4x Eternal Mask, The
4x Force of Will

Action Modifier [28]
4x Cloak the Gathering
4x Forgotten Labyrinth
6x Freak Drive
4x Lost in Crowds
6x Psychomachia
4x Truth of a Thousand Lies

Combat [8]
8x Majesty

Equipment [6]
6x Soul Gem of Etrius

Master [18]
4x Ashur Tablets
2x Khobar Towers, Al-Khubar
6x Serpentis
2x Social Ladder
4x Villein

PowerEdge for Sabbat Politics

2011-07-14T18:20:00.002+10:00

So here are some ideas about a PowerEdge for Sabbat, particularly Sabbat Political Decks.
I've slightly modified Crusader's Edge, but it's basically supposed to be a bloat or Private Audience. Pack Edge is supposed to basically be like Marking a Red List OR allowing all sabbat vampires to work a little bit like they had the Slave attribute (Protect me you fools!). Notorious Edge is supposed to be about Sabbat vampires gaining political mileage from the people they claim to have beaten into torpor; a 'might is right' philosophy turned into political currency.

Crusader's Edge
During your untap phase you may gain 1 pool or add one blood to a titled Sabbat vampire in your uncontrolled region.
Before announcing terms on a political action called by a titled Sabbat vampire you control, you may burn the edge to force all non-Sabbat vampires to abstain during the referendum of this action.

Pack Edge
During your untap phase you may choose a vampire controlled by your prey. Your vampires may enter combat with that vampire as a +1 stealth (D) action that costs 1 blood if you control the Edge.
If an Archbishop, Cardinal or Regent you control is blocked, you may burn the edge and choose a ready untapped Sabbat vampire you control. The chosen vampire enters combat with the blocking minion instead. Untap the Archbishop, Cardinal or Regent.

Notorious Edge
During your untap phase you may put 2 blood on a titled Sabbat vampire you control. This does not count as a Hunting Ground.
During a political action called by one of your vampires you may burn the Edge and choose a titled non-Sabbat vampire in torpor. The acting vampire gains votes equal to the chosen vampire's title during this referendum.

Bruce Cup Reminder

2011-06-30T08:00:00.002+10:00

Just a reminder to everyone...

The Bruce Cup is going to be held in just over a week! Saturday 9th July will be the Bruce Cup.

Gold Coin donations for entry and the donations will go to the Cancer Council of Australia. Bring along your wacky trick deck rather than your Tier 1 Sleaze.

For more details feel free to contact me here or through the VEKN page.

Sorry for the break in transmission...

2011-06-16T21:49:00.002+10:00

After an unintentional hiatus... I'm back. Time to grab some of this backlog of oddities, silliness and quotable quotes...

"I'm like the Buffy of Blacktown" - Marty the Man "It's the cheerleading outfit" - CK
"Angry oiled French women - it has to end somewhere" - CK
"His name is Dirk, he sold your ancestors" (Dirk bleeding a Laibon deck with Legal Manipulation)
"You doing anything stupid... like acting?"
"If I rushed and popped Nakhtoreb, he'd stab me..." - Predator "So rush Nakh?" - Cross-table
"Don't be a racist!" - (someone) "I can be, I'm German..." - Todd
"Ossian... I'd tap that!" - Me

Theme Tunes/Catch Phrases for Allies
Nephandus - the words "Nom Nom" to the 60s Batman Theme
Gregory Winter - The Indiana Jones Theme
Renegade Garou - "Dave's not here man..."
Carlton van Wyck - Theme from Rambo
Ambrosius the Ferryman - Never Say Die
Jake Washington - Theme tune from "Shaft"
Veneficti - Theme from "The Godfather"
Escaped Mental Patient - "Yakkity Sax"
Ossian - "Take on me" by A Ha
Cry Wolf - "Crying Game"
Ponticulus - "Safety Dance" by Men in Hats
Nocturn - "The Roof" by the Blood-Hound Gang
Herald of Topheth - "Bat out of Hell" by Meatloaf
Enkidu - "Smack by b***h up" by The Prodigy

Edge Variations

2011-05-14T17:50:00.002+10:00

So, I've been thinking a bit more of Edge Variations lately. I'm also thinking they could make an interesting addition to the game. I do like the general look of the Mage: the Ascension set created by Ankha (Prince of Paris) and it's made me a bit more tempted to do some serious card creation.

But in the meantime:
Would you be interested in alternative versions of the Edge? For example, Edge effects that feed into your deck's primary strategies (providing additional bleed, untaps for certain actions, additional defences, secondary effects...?)

I see them as similar to the Agendas created for previous WW-Storylines (now VEKN-Storylines) and as such their place is probably more in the realms of a Storyline rather than regular play. Of course though, I'd be very proud if the wider VTES community thought that my tinkering was worthwhile of including into standard play.

So what do you think?
New cards (made by players for players) or New Variations to VTES (Rapid Thought, Edge Variations, Agendas, etc)?

Monday Night VTES 9th May 2011

2011-05-09T22:56:00.002+10:00

We did have a good turnout again. It looks like our playgroup has stabilised to around about 8. It was good to have Blake playing again and another player out of torpor (who I've forgotten the name of but turned up with Brendan).

It's good to have 2 to 3 tables every week.

Quotable Quotes...
"To be fair, you were acting like a cock-lord" - Paul Azzopardi

"Shameful Love Clan"

2011-05-04T20:38:00.002+10:00

Do you have a "Shameful Love Clan"? The clan you love to play despite the fact they may be hard to win with? The clan you try to find novel ways to make them more competitive?

I have a very soft spot for my first (relatively effective) deck. It was a Brujah Bleed'n'Bash built around the core of 2 Camarilla Edition Starters. It had many features that would generally make a mediocre deck... Bang Nakhs, Large Brujah Vampires, probably too many actions, inconsistent pool gain... but I did enjoy playing it. It had the historical moment of blocking my predator four times with Alison Maller equipped with a Sports Bike, Bang Nakhs and a Celerity Master... played WWEF for three of them, played Acrobatics at [CEL] in each combat followed by a strike for 3, and played Taste of Vitae after at least one of them so I had a mostly full vampire at the end of it.

Have you got yours? Come on time to out yourself about the clan you love...

Monday Night VTES 2 May 2011

2011-05-04T18:39:00.003+10:00

Well we had a good turnout! It was good to have 9 people around for games.
Blake (our resident Tzimisce) came out of torpor and brought along both Tzimisce and a new Nos Vote-deck.

We had most of the usual crowd: Will, Marty, Joe, Todd plus Brendan and Benny (another climbing out of torpor). Bailey was a noticable absence and the night is always different without him.

Most people dragged out their usual decks, but in the next few weeks I'm thinking I'll see a few new things from most of them.

It's great to see the group building in numbers on a regular basis.

Quotable Quotes:

"Craig's List LIED to me!"
"Monday Night's getting better: spider f***ing and steaks!" (In reference to a quote from Matt Barnett which goes "Hey guys, we're here to play VTES not f*** spiders!)
"It's your first night, don't play properly just f***ing kill something!" (Said to Blake on his first night back in a long time with a Tzimisce deck)
Benny: "I'd like to Perform a Patronage..." Blake: "Wash..." [insert laughter]

A new definition was also developed:
Fagtasy (n): The act of paying 1 pool to see a new vampire in a Toreador or !Toreador deck.

Photos from Blooding by the Code

2011-04-19T11:37:00.006+10:00

The Final Table Nick Miller (with the hand in front of his face), Martin "Marty" Collins (in blue), Martin Hall (on the edge and obscured by a head), Michael Tomkins (in the grey shirt) and Claudio Falcao (with the handful of nuts)
Our finalists were:
Michael Tomkins
Martin Hall
Nick Miller (Prince of Inner Sydney)

Both Martin "Marty" Collins and Claudio avoided the camera... but I plan to add them at a later date...

The Bruce Cup 2011

2011-04-19T10:22:00.005+10:00

In memory of Matt Barnett from the Blacktown Playgroup in the early days, who died of cancer. Because of the (in)famy of some of his decks, he was immortalised on the Vampire Lord Ashton.

On June 25th, we're going to hold the Annual Bruce Cup. Everyone is welcome to turn up, and we recommend you bring your whackiest trick deck to the game. Entry is by donation and the proceeds from the tournament will go to the Cancer Council of Australia.

Blooding by the Code - Qualifier for the Australian Continental Championship

2011-04-17T15:41:00.002+10:00

There were 12 players who made it to the event, and about 4 players who wanted to make it but were sidelined by life. It was good to have a number of the Chippendale Boys out west to play such as Claudio, Nick, Michael Tomkins and Leon.

I was impressed by the relatively low turnout of traditional qualifying sleaze decks (there were 3 S&B decks and 1 Dominate Weenie out of the 12). We saw some more amusing decks such as Michael Bailey's "It's a Wizard 'Arry" featuring a large number of Mage Allies and Erichtho, an Anarch Secession-Chameleon deck and an !Toreador Anarch Swarm-Bleeder.

Quotable Quotes (unattributed at the request of a few of the makers of the quotes...)

"That thing bleeds more than Michael J Fox masturbating with a cheese-grater" (about the Weenie-Dominate deck)
"What?! I only bled him twice" (the Ashheap contained Govern the Unaligned + 2x Conditioning)
"[To player 1] What's he doing to you?! Govern down?... [To player 1's predator] Not to diss your game or anything..."
"I hate you with every fibre of my being... I know its a lot of fibres"

After two rounds, the standings before the final were:

Name		GW	VPs	TPs	Ranking
Nick	Miller	1	5	114	1
Martin	Hall	1	5	108	2
Michael	Tomkins	1	3.5	96	3
Martin	Collins	1	3	88	4
Claudio	Falcao	0	3.5	114	5
Todd	Hassmann	0	1	66	6
Paul	Azzapardi	0	1	66	6
Will	Allison	0	0.5	54	8
James	Bonham	0	0	46	9
Leon	Tranter	0	0	40	10
Brendan	Healy	0	0	36	11
Mike	Bailey	0	0	36	11

With that, Nick, Martin, Michael T, Marty Collins and Claudio made it to the finals. The seating of the finals was:

Martin Hall > Michael Tomkins > Claudio Falcao > Nick Miller > Martin Collins

Martin Hall: Malk 94
Michael Tomkins: "All your dudes belong to me" Anarch Secession + Chameleon + Banishment
Claudio Falcao: A !Tre Wall (Bowl, Sniper Rifle, Eagle Sights... you know the type)
Nick Miller: A vote-wall featuring Orlando Oriundus
Martin Collins: No Secrets from the Osebo ("No Secrets from Cesewayo"-style deck)

Michael Tomkins was quickly pommeled by the Malk 94 deck of Martin Hall, it did not help that Jann Berger failed to complete an Anarch Secession without being blocked. That basically crippled Michael as he couldn't use Chameleon on his Predator and try to slow him down. Michael Tomkins was ousted fairly early while Claudio, Nick and Martin Collins tooled up. At this point the table started to stabilise itself with both Claudio and Martin Collins blocking their respective preys.
A few turns later, Martin Collins was able to drop a copy of Dragonbound while Martin Hall had at least two of his Malks in torpor from being blocked by Martin C and Claudio. Claudio blocked Nick's cross-table rescues and Martin Collins kept on knocking down Martin Hall's minions until Martin was ousted.
The final then came closer and closer to timing out as the three decks effectively stalemated themselves. Nick had 8 votes, but couldn't not successfully get an action off. Claudio had 5 pool, but Martin Collins wasn't able to apply enough forward pressure or enough combat to knock Claudio's minions into torpor. Claudio wasn't able to provide enough forward pressure to remove Nick's 12 pool. Martin Collins himself had around 25 pool from consistent bloating through a Hunting Ground and Vessel.
Claudio had the last turn of the final and the table timed out with the following standings:

Final Rank	Name	Prelim GWs	Prelim VPs	Final VPs	TPs
1	Martin Collins	1	3	1.5	88
2	Michael Tomkins	1	3.5	0	96
2	Claudio Falcao	0	3.5	0.5	114
2	Nick Miller	1	5	0.5	114
2	Martin Hall	1	5	1	108
6	Todd Hassmann	0	1		66
6	Paul Azzapardi	0	1		66
8	Will Allison	0	0.5		54
9	James Bonham	0	0		46
10	Leon Tranter	0	0		40
11	Brendan Healy	0	0		36
11	Mike Bailey	0	0		36

Congratulations to Martin "Marty" Collins for winning the event. Those who have qualified for the Australian Continental Championships are:
Martin Collins, Michael Tomkins, Claudio Falcao, Nick Miller, Martin Hall, Todd Hassmann & Paul Azzopardi.

Deck Name : No Secrets from the Osebo
Author : Martin Collins
Description :
This was the winning deck for Blooding by the Code held on 16th April 2011 as created and played by Martin Collins.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 10 average: 7.25
------------------------------------------------------------

2x Cesewayo 10 AUS CEL DOM POT THA ani magaji Osebo:4
2x Cesewayo Adv 10 AUS CEL DOM POT THA ani magaji Osebo:4
2x Mamadou Keita 7 CEL aus pot pre vic magaji Osebo:4
2x Homa 6 AUS CEL POT Osebo:4
1x Tatu Sawosa 8 AUS OBF POT ani cel Osebo:4
1x Kisha Bhimji 5 AUS cel obf pot magaji Osebo:3
1x Idrissa 4 CEL aus Osebo:4
1x Ismitta 4 aus cel pot Osebo:4

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [12]
2x Anima Gathering
3x Enforcer
2x Heroic Might
1x Legend of the Leopard
4x No Secrets From the Magaji

Combat [34]
6x Acrobatics
6x Blur
4x Disarm
6x Flash
6x Psyche!
6x Sideslip

Equipment [2]
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Palatial Estate

Event [1]
1x Dragonbound

Master [15]
1x Base Hunting Ground
2x Fame
2x Grooming the Protege
2x Guardian Angel
1x Mbare Market, Harare
1x Powerbase: Tshwane
2x Sudden Reversal
4x Vessel

Reaction [26]
4x Eagle's Sight
4x Enhanced Senses
6x Eyes of Argus
4x Quicken Sight
8x Telepathic Misdirection

Monday Night VTES 11 April

2011-04-12T11:22:00.002+10:00

Well, it seems like the Blacktown Playgroup is rebuilding itself and rescuing a few Methuselahs from Torpor.

Craig "CK" Kordiak, probably the closest thing we'd have to a real-life Malkavian is trying to turn up more (between horrid work starts and life).

Paul Azzopardi who has been dropping past bit by bit over the last few months.

Brendan (forgotten which surname, there used to be about 3 Brendans at the Blacktown Group) has come back and is playing some good-ol'-school solid VTES.

No quotable-quotes that can really be put online... but it's really good to see the Blacktown Group able to run 2 tables all night again.

Play progress...

2011-03-29T20:56:00.003+11:00

Thought I'd add in some play progress for my Cryptic Treaty deck, since its ability seems to be highly questionable in a number of people's eyes.

This is the third game it's one, this one was a 6-player. 4VPs

My prey was an Aching Beauty deck (Change of Targets, Torrents, Public Trust + Awe... Its opening bleed was for 8). It quickly took out a Brujah-Anti deck that is usually fairly competitive mostly because of hand-jam on the part of the Brujah... It slowly took out my Brutal Influence deck (which I have to admit, most people tend not to play so well but was basically shut down on both sides).

My prey bloated well (bringing out Alexandra, Anneke and Delilah Easton. Alex & Anneke had Aching Beauty and he had Art Museum), plus the 12 pool from ousting 2 players certainly helped.

For my own deck, I drew the Treaty of Laibach a little later than wanted (and then drew two more in the next two turns). Once the Laibach was on the table, I went into drive mode. Bled my prey out in around 3 turns. Then it went into a grind-mode. Gregory Winter and Cryptic Missions meant my minions had blood and the remaining two players didn't. Bleed reduce kept my pool nice and stable and the other two decks had issues getting actions off around each other. So I steadily bloated through the Edge.

My prey had Carna (w/ Ivory Bow & Archon) and I'd had a Carna in my uncontrolled since the initial draw. So, I contested Carna (paying for it with the Edge pool) and then proceeded to bleed him out (About 9 bleed in the first turn and the remaining 3 in the next). During the grinding period, I triggered my Ashur Tablets and then reclaimed all of my bleed and corruption counter tech. Turned around and bled out the only other player in 2 turns.

Downsides:

No early Treaty of Laibach,
Only got 1 Temptation off (when the Aching Beauty deck had Alex Pentexed and only Delilah who was tapped at the time).

Positives:

Early Gregory Winter (He was vitally important for grinding more and more blood from minions. Players were looking to block him more than my other minion's actions. When I tried to recruit an Impundulu, cross-table players were suggesting the action should be blocked.) I think an early Impundulu would probably have been similar.
Got plenty of Defensive Auspex (neutralised my predator and would have neutralised most predators)
Drew enough combat to keep alive (Thefts, Read Intentions kept me alive against all of the different combat)
One or two corruption counters can be placed early and people do forget about them until you land the 6-bleed.

Play History:
4 plays
3GWs 10+VPs
Opponents playing a variety of combat, walls, S&B and votes. Including a basically Tier 1 Ventrue Vote, Fairly stable bloating wall (Anathemas, Tre-Princes), AAA, Aching Beauty, Kindred Spirits, The Unnamed Nuke-Bleed...

Quotable Quotes from the last week or so...

2011-03-29T08:04:00.003+11:00

"I am just one Brujah Debate short of a deck" - Marty "the Man" "Here you go, the Count wants you to have a pool..." - CK using a soft-toy of Sesame Streets 'The Count' (our traditional Edge at the Blacktown playgroup)

Great VTES Collection Boost

2011-03-21T13:24:00.002+11:00

Hey everyone,
The Lasombra has done what I think is a GREAT idea for boosting a section or set of cards. If you're missing say, Camarilla Cards, then you buy the Lasombra's Camarilla Kickstarter which contains a number of starters and a big pile of commons useful for those clans.

http://www.vekn.net/index.php/forum/12-trading-post/2636-the-kickstarter-concept

Head on over, he has a link to the ebay page for them. It's looking like a great way to diversify your collection and honestly I'm tempted to strengthen a few weak areas of my own collection with these.

Grab them quick before the Lasombra runs out.

Juggernaut1981

Decklist: The Cryptic Treaty

2011-03-15T10:48:00.002+11:00

Deck Name : Cryptic Treaty
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
Cryptic Mission + Corruption Counter Tech

Crypt [11 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 8 average: 6.5
------------------------------------------------------------

4x Sundervere, The De 8 AUS PRE SER THA obf Follower :4
2x Carna, The Princes 7 AUS DOM THA primogen Tremere:3
2x Virstania, The Gre 7 AUS THA dom pre vic Tremere:3
2x Eugenio Estevez 6 AUS THA dom for Tremere:3
2x Martin Franckel 3 AUS tha Tremere:3

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [16]
8x Cryptic Mission
2x Form of Corruption
6x Temptation

Action Modifier [21]
8x Mirror Walk
6x Revelation of Desire
7x Weigh the Heart

Ally [3]
1x Gregory Winter
1x Impundulu
1x Young Bloods

Combat [16]
4x Cobra Fangs
4x Read Intentions
8x Theft of Vitae

Master [18]
6x Ashur Tablets
2x Specialization
6x Treaty of Laibach
4x Tribute to the Master

Reaction [16]
6x Ecstasy
4x Telepathic Counter
6x Telepathic Misdirection

Deck: We don' need no stinkin' Potence

2011-03-01T20:27:00.002+11:00

Deck Name : We don' need no stinkin Potence!
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
Weenie Brujah Debate Bruise-Vote-Bleed

How does it oust?
By the bleeding of a thousand cuts from small Brujah with lots of maneuvers and lots of +strength.

What will it have out?
Preferably Volker, some small-cap Justicar + 4 or 5 other friends (Embraces, other influenced out vamps, etc)

What does a turn look like?
Lots of bleeds for 1/2/3 and maybe making a few babies or bloating with Con Boon or Anathema.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 5 average: 4.08333
------------------------------------------------------------

4x Volker, The Puppet 5 CEL pot prince Brujah:2
1x Brachah 5 CEL PRE for Brujah:2
1x Marlena 5 POT cel pre Brujah:3
1x Steve Booth 5 CEL pot pre pro Brujah:3
1x Allison Maller 4 cel pot pre Brujah:3
1x Mazz 3 cel pre Brujah:3
1x Raziya Samater 3 ani pot Brujah:2
1x Arnold Simpson 2 pot Brujah:3
1x Vasilis, The Trait 2 pre Brujah:2

Library [84 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [18]
10x Computer Hacking
8x Embrace, The

Ally [4]
4x Procurer

Combat [10]
10x Target Vitals

Equipment [6]
6x Laptop Computer

Master [12]
6x Brujah Debate
1x KRCG News Radio
1x London Evening Star, Tabloid Newspaper
3x Tribute to the Master
1x WMRH Talk Radio

Political Action [20]
4x Anathema
4x Archon
3x Brujah Justicar
4x Consanguineous Boon
1x Praxis Seizure: Athens
1x Praxis Seizure: Atlanta
1x Praxis Seizure: Barcelona
1x Praxis Seizure: Rome
1x Praxis Seizure: Venice

Reaction [14]
8x On the Qui Vive
6x Second Tradition: Domain

AUNZ Championships Qualifier Blacktown

2011-02-22T08:18:00.003+11:00

Lorenzo Detuono the Misogynist

2011-02-19T14:56:00.001+11:00

Deck Name : Lorenzo the Misogynist
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
This is a Lorenzo Detuono-based Anti "Girls who..." deck.
Specifically aimed at neutering it as your prey, but can do some damage if it is the predator.
A lot of this deck's nastiness lays in Lorenzo's special.
"If Lorenzo is ready at the end of combat and the opposing minion is not, Lorenzo may burn 5 blood to move the opposing minion to your ready region (with 1 life for an ally with no life) instead." So you try king-hit your the chosen vampire (hopefully the girls), then effectively Graverob them. If Lorenzo can't take them, then just rush, smash and eat. If you lose a minion to the Bloodhunt, that's what the Possessions are for.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 9 average: 7.58333
------------------------------------------------------------

4x Lorenzo Detuono 9 DOM NEC POT aus dem Giovanni:5
2x Baldesar Rossellin 8 DOM POT aus for nec Giovanni:4
2x Phagian 8 AUS NEC THA dom for Harbinger:4
1x Muhsin Samir 6 DOM THA aus pot Tremere:4
1x Sennadurek 6 AUS NEC dom Nagaraja:4
1x Zygodat 6 AUS NEC pot Harbinger:4
1x Donatello Giovanni 5 DOM aus pot pre Giovanni:4

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [20]
6x Govern the Unaligned
4x Heroic Might
6x Nose of the Hound
2x Possession
2x Preternatural Strength

Action Modifier [12]
4x Crocodile's Tongue
8x Trochomancy

Ally [1]
1x Tye Cooper

Combat [28]
8x Dead Hand
2x Death of My Conscience, The
6x Fists of Death
6x Immortal Grapple
6x Taste of Vitae

Master [16]
4x Ashur Tablets
2x Fame
2x Haven Uncovered
2x Tension in the Ranks
4x Tribute to the Master
2x Wash

Reaction [13]
8x Deflection
5x On the Qui Vive

Teaching New Players: Don't Hoard

2011-02-18T13:20:00.002+11:00

This is an issue that a number of moderately experienced players have: they see a card in their hand they know they will want to use later (that has multiple copies) and they hoard it. The old "bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush" mentality. However, in VTES I think this is a weakness in many people's playstyle.

I understand that many people observe the play of a deck and immediately cut cards they discard often (and that's perfectly valid) but to hoard onto cards, and thereby keep a hand that you can't efficiently use, is not a good choice.

Why should you nearly always discard?
Unless your deck wants to specifically manipulate discard phase actions (either on vampires, Event Cards, etc) the Discard Phase Action is the least utilised action in the game. Also, the "Deck Gods" always seem to decide that the one card that could save you is the card sitting on the top of your library just when you are ousted.
So, you should discard. Unless your hand is the perfect hand for your situation at the end of the turn, there is something in you can discard. If you can't see yourself playing that card during this turn, everyone else's turn or even in your next turn... then I'd say you should dump it and see what else you get.

Why people don't discard?
Fear of placing their fate even further into the hands of the "Deck Gods" or disillusionment (or very rarely... they've got so little library left that discard a card represents >10% of their library). There is also the fear of the opportunity costs: how long will it be before I see another XYZ?

Opinion
Of course this is mostly my opinion, from watching the players in my playrgoup (some who have plenty of experience and others who are very new). The tendency is far stronger in MtG converts and converts of other card games with limited-drawing of card. But please, if you think otherwise... add a comment below. I'd love to hear the opinions of people like Hugh Angseeing and Ben Peal on this idea because of their long successful competitive VTES history.

Potential Qualifier

2011-02-13T20:34:00.001+11:00

I'm planning to run a tournament on Saturday April 16th in Blacktown. The plan is that it will be a Qualifying Tournament. I'll let you all know the details when more become available... but at the moment it will be known as:

Blooding by the Code
April 16th 2011
Blacktown, Sydney

Winter of our Discontent Round #2

2011-02-08T18:49:00.002+11:00

This week we had 6 people participating, Brian the Malk from last week had to leave before this started but as it would have been 7 it would have been exceptionally long.

Chen (AAA Variant; Taditionalist) bleeding
Me (Anarch Vote'n' Bleed that had the crypt modified; Anarchist) bleeding
Marty (Assamite Wizards; Org Crime) bleeding
Joe (Trogloditia Anarch; Anarchist) bleeding
Will (New Ven Lawfirm; Traditionalist) bleeding
James (Baali Unnamed + Horde Nuke-Bleed; Org Crime)

Chen got out Anson as his first vampire, I had out Vanessa and made her Anarch w/ Anarch Convert, Marty brought out Parnassus, Joe brought out Trogloditia (who was using 5 of her disciplines all game), Will had out Lodin and James brought out Arishat (or Ass-hat as she gets called around here) + 2 Hordes.

Chen attempted to aggressively bloat pool in the early part, but seemed to want to do little other than that and was fairly efficiently ousted by James. Chen at one stage to the end effectively stopped defending. By the time James reached me, I had Vanessa (Libertas + Baron of Perth), Vincent Day (Libertas + Baron of Corte) and Ranjan Rishi (Baron of Seattle)... but I hadn't seen a political action and few of my Undue Influences but PLENTY of action modifiers and Majesties.

James fairly quickly demolished by ~10 pool and quickly moved through Marty (although there was a fairly epic bash involving Parmenides and a lot of presses, Taste of Vitae & hands for 2). Then Will turned around and nearly got himself into a draw-position when James went to oust Joe while the centre deck was showing a Life Boon. Will saved Joe and donated 7 of his 11 pool to his predator. Joe basically waited for James instead of taking actions on his turn. Will then Parity Shifted James for 3 and handed 2 to Joe putting Joe on 9 pool. He followed that up with calling Political Stranglehold which gave Joe 3, Will 6 and James 3.

Because of the event cards special to this storyline, James was regularly going backwards removing blood from Will's minions. When it came to Will's turn he would then use his own special event to hunt off James' Hordes slowing him down to keep Joe in the game further.

In the final turn of the game (before Will conceded), Will called a Conservative Agitation on James using Johannes Castelein which was cancelled with Evil Eye causing James to lose 2 pool from Johannes' special and leaving James on around 5 pool. Will had drawn another KRC and went for the kill on James but James cancelled that KRC and a second KRC that Will drew. James' Hordes were then not forced to hunt and that was enough to oust Joe.

Quotable Quote of the Night...
"Yeah shake that like a British Nanny!" - Marty the Man

Storyline Standings
Organised Crime 6VP 1GW
Traditionalists 5VP 1GW
Anarchs 0VP 0GW

Monday Night VTES

2011-02-01T13:47:00.002+11:00

We only got one game in last night, but it was good to have Sutekh23, Shane Hill, Brian 'the Malk', James around...

Breaking with tradition, Will wasn't the source of this weeks first quotable quote...

"I love you deck, you're the best deck out of all them, you're my favourite... (draws top card) *&^F#*&&^$$$ deck!! &%#$%*&^%#$" -Brian 'the Malk'

Winter of our Discontent Round 1

2011-01-25T10:53:00.002+11:00

So after the low turnout, we're going to run this storyline as one of the games during our regular games nights.

Round #1:

Brian, Traditionalists, Malk/!Malk Bleeder (not super-sleaze bleed but still with grunt)
Me, Anarchists, G1-2 Ven Bleed'n'Vote (Undue Influence, KRCs, etc)
Joe Lemon, Anarchists, G4 Daughters of Cacophony Vote
Will, Traditionalists, G4-5 Ventrue Princes
James, Organised Crime, Brutal Orun Cannon

With the three voters on the table, and Joe's prey being the only player with a reasonably number of static votes, his game was an uphill battle from the start. He had major issues getting any vote off and it didn't get much better. Brian got in some reliable bleeds and had me on the ropes fairly early, it didn't help that my deck was jamming so I couldn't bloat enough to keep my head above the water. Will took a fair bit of early pressure with Joe using Reckless Agitation on him twice fairly early on. James got a bad crypt draw and then didn't see any Oruns until the Midgame making that deck cycle far slower and bloat far slower than it should.

I was fairly quickly removed by the 3x 2bleed actions coming basically every turn. Joe went soon after. Will then utilised Parity Shift to buy some more time hoping to get around James who was drawing much of the untap in the deck. In the end, James held out just long enough that Brian got Will and then James for a clean sweep.

Current Factional Standings:
Traditionalists 5VP
Anarchists 0VP
Organised Crime 0VP

The next round of this will be held in two weeks.

Create-a-Card: Efficiency

2011-01-22T16:14:00.002+11:00

I would have thought that people who can move exceptionally fast, should be able to perform more actions than those who are exceptionally tough (I see more justification for Freak Drive to have been a Celerity themed card than a Fortitude card, but then of course it could have originally come from the RPG of which I am mostly unaware...). So here is my idea of a "Celerity Freak Drive".

Efficiency
Action Modifier
Celerity
1 blood
Only playable when an undirected action is announced.
[cel] If this action is successful, untap this vampire after resolving the action.
[CEL] As above and the current action has an additional +1 stealth.
"I don't like a man to be too efficient. He's likely to be not human enough." - Felix Frankfurter

Simple Pleasures...

2011-01-22T14:54:00.000+11:00

Like finally completing a catalogue of your VTES collection...

Random things...

2011-01-21T15:36:00.002+11:00

My wife and her moderately tangential mind helped me create some new 'fake words'.

Pooetry
noun An attempt at poetry, but is so utterly terrible that the poetry, by any standard and reasonable measure, is crap. My gosh, that stuff I used to write in highschool is such ~~.
(compound from Eng. poo and Eng. poetry)

Pooet (see Pooetry)
noun A person who writes poems that could be as pooetry. He thinks he is a genius but instead he's just a ~~.
(compound from Eng. poo and Eng. poet)

Pooetic (see Pooetry)
adj./noun A phrase or literary creation which attempts to be of significant literary value, but fails miserably in this attempt. That greeting card message is completely ~~.
(compound from Eng. poo and Eng. poetic)

Disappointments...

2011-01-16T09:34:00.002+11:00

Well, ConFlict Sydney ran yesterday. We had planned a big Flames of War event (Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of El Alamein), a Warmachine Comp (which always looked like falling through) and my BYO Storyline for VTES.

We had 16 people turn up. All for Flames of War. Nobody turned up for the VTES or Warmachine.

Yay for partial successes, and still managing to feel like most of a failure.

We ended up raising around $60 which will be donated to a cancer charity (The Cancer Council of Australia).

At least the Flames of War guys were buzzing excitedly for most of the day, even if I felt flatter than a crepe for most of it.

Adam Hulse Deck Challenge - John Paleologus

2011-01-14T20:34:00.001+11:00

Deck Name : Adam Hulse Deck Challenge - John Paleologus
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
John the Grinder.
I saw John Paleologus and instantly thought of ways to abuse CEL & his
special.

Typically you would want to see:
John w/ 1 or 2 retainers, the Rack
Another 8-9cap (Anton/Szechenyi) w/ 1 or 2 retainers
Horatio or Olga pretending to be a Drum of Xipe Totec or.. . or...
or... using Bauble
Army of Rats, Tensions and Antidiluvian are all there to grind down
your prey in addition to John's cardtext.
Nose of the Hound is there to deal with those vampires that need a
little special proactive attention.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 9 average: 5.5
------------------------------------------------------------

3x John Paleologus 9 ANI AUS CEL VIC pot archbishop
Tzimisce:3
3x Horatio 2 vic
Tzimisce:2
2x Szechenyi Jolan, M 9 ANI AUS VIC cel for pro bishop
Tzimisce:3
2x Olga Triminov 1 vic
Pander:3
1x Anton 8 ANI AUS cel obf vic
Tzimisce:2
1x Elizabeth Westcott 5 AUS ani cel vic
Tzimisce:3

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [10]
3x Army of Rats
3x Bauble
4x Nose of the Hound

Action Modifier [8]
8x Changeling

Combat [30]
8x Breath of the Dragon
8x Horrid Form
6x Nimble Feet
8x Sideslip

Equipment [5]
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Drum of Xipe Totec
1x Femur of Toomler
1x Helicopter
1x Palatial Estate

Master [15]
1x Antediluvian Awakening
1x Carver's Meat Packing and Storage
2x Celerity
1x Inceptor
3x Path of Metamorphosis, The
1x Powerbase: Barranquilla
1x Rack, The
4x Rotschreck
1x Tension in the Ranks

Reaction [14]
6x Eyes of Argus
4x Precognition
4x Quicken Sight

Retainer [8]
4x Corpse Balloon
4x Raptor

To Ban or Not to Ban...

2011-01-14T08:51:00.003+11:00

A lot of debate at the moment seems to be centred around the idea that certain cards might need to be banned from Tournament play. At the moment, I don't care which cards they actually are (but they are the usual suspects: Voter Cap, Villein + Giant's Blood, Pentex Subversion, Sensory Deprivation).

If VTES was still being printed...
If VTES was still being printed, I would be suggesting that cards that cannot be easily errataed (e.g. Pentex Subversion in the recent debate) should be banned and a replacement card printed (basically what would be the 'significant errata version'). This allows us to have a card with those effects that is not 'broken' and without having to issue many tags with errata to new players.

But VTES isn't being printed...
Then we can't expect to have an updated text printed. So we must collectively (or LSJ will) decide if Card X (see the list above) is too powerful to exist without errata.
If the card must have errata then it should be added to a Non-Errata Banned List which will specifically contain cards that should have Errata but cannot until VTES is in production. This separate list is to also remind everyone that these card are to be replaced not just used to decorate our cardboxes.
If the card does not need errata then it should be left alone, to suffer the same fate as Minion Tap.

So in the current debate...
I think Pentex Subversion should be banned, not errataed, in the short-term. It is a card that seems to have a major influence over deck construction, play a completely game-changing role during tournaments and regularly raises debate regarding 'should it be banned or changed'.

Possibly it should be banned completely, never to be replaced. It doesn't see much play in our playgroup, rarely seems to turn up in tournaments and isn't an all-pervasive feature of the Australian play-scene (AFAIK) unlike the US Scene or the EU Scene. I can't comment entirely on that other than I would definately feel the need to find cardslots to specifically counter the use of Pentex Subversion if I played in the US or Europe.

Adam Hulse's Random Vampire Challenge - Thucimia

2011-01-11T15:50:00.002+11:00

Adam Hulse has started or run with a Random Vampire Deck Building Challenge. Choose a random vampire as a 'key minion' or as the 'starting vampire' and then build a deck.

Adam built a Talbot's Chainsaw & Blood Tempering combat deck. I've decided to run with Thucimias CEL, DEM, OBF... and teamed her up with !Malks because a few of them have [cel].

**While I was tinkering there seemed to be a really nice option to build a deck utilising Black Hand tech and Thucimia. It would be a G4-5 deck rather than G3-4 which this one is...

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 10 average: 7.33333
------------------------------------------------------------

4x Thucimia 10 CEL DEM OBF QUI for pro 1 vote Assamite:4
3x Colonel, The 5 AUS cel dem obf !Malkavian:3
2x Persephone Tar-Ani 8 AUS DEM OBF cel pot !Malkavian:4
1x White Lily 8 DEM OBF cel dom for !Malkavian:4
1x Luc 5 OBF dem vic !Malkavian:4
1x Roger Farnsworth 4 OBF aus !Malkavian:3

Library [80 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [10]
10x Kindred Spirits

Action Modifier [22]
6x Cloak the Gathering
4x Elder Impersonation
6x Eyes of Chaos
6x Lost in Crowds

Combat [26]
4x Coma
6x Shadow Feint
6x Side Strike
6x Target Vitals
4x Taste of Vitae

Master [14]
4x Grooming the Protege
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
3x Perfectionist
2x Wash
4x Zillah's Valley

Reaction [8]
8x Keep it Simple

PowerEdge Variation

2011-01-05T09:11:00.002+11:00

After a recent thread in the Usenet group, I noticed an interesting idea in there: alternative edges. I haven't had a chance to properly examine the "Double Edge" post that was listed in there somewhere... but I did get to thinking that it could be used to facilitate some currently less than golden core strategies. My first thought was to improve the Red List Deck by giving them an Edge that has some real grunt... here are the first few draft ideas for my lamely named PowerEdge Variation.

This creates a new card type called an Edge Variation. Edge Variations are placed face up on the table before the game commences and count against the Library size limit. Edge Variations cannot be targeted and are effectively ‘out of play’; they provide a play option to the Methuselah and leave with that Methuselah. A Methuselah can utilise as many Edge Variations as they wish.

When a player gains the Edge, they may place it on its own on the table and use it in the normal ways described in the rule book.

Alternatively they may allocate it to an Edge Variation; by placing the Edge on the card, or the card on the Edge depending on the item used as the Edge. In this case, the player may only use the Edge in the ways described on the Edge Variation.

Imperialist Edge
Edge Variation
You may burn the Edge at the start of your Untap phase to make a vampire Red List; you will need to burn 1 pool for each permanent vote that vampire has.
You may mark a Red List minion during your Untap phase without cost.

Academic Edge
Edge Variation
You may burn the Edge at the start of your Untap to place a card from your hand into your Research Area or to draw a card from your Research Area to your hand. Discard as normal.
While you control the Edge, any vampire you control above capacity 7 may take an action that costs 1 pool to burn the Edge and increase your hand size by 1 until your next Untap phase.

Paranoid Edge
Edge Variation
You may burn the Edge and tap a minion with 5 or more capacity or life to cause a (D) action directed targeting you to fail before it block attempts are declared.

Aggressive Edge
Edge Variation
You may burn the Edge at the start of your Untap phase to cause your prey to burn 1 pool.
You may burn the Edge once during your minion phase to Untap a ready vampire after a combat where the opposing minion is no longer ready.

I'm sure more of these things will come to me over time, I am already thinking of one that may allow you to use the Edge as a HG for two vampires... but anyway. There is the core of an idea... comment away people.

A League and an Opens Tournament

2011-01-04T09:53:00.005+11:00

With the update of the VEKN Qualification Laws on 1/1/11, and also because of the BYO Storyline I'm working on (here), I am throwing something out there as a "If I was the Prince of my area..."-idea.

VTES Leagues
Every 3 months running a 3R+Final, to coincide with university holidays, that would go to some greater prize (say a box of boosters to the first ranked player alone, equally split a box between other top 5 finishers). It would be a simple points-ranking based on VPs, GWs, FVPs, FGWs. For example: 1VP = 1 League point, GW = 2 LPs, FVP = 1.5 LP, FGW = 3 LPs. This is setup to favour slightly those who turn up more and may not always make it to the finals on a given day, I feel that it would also potentially favour people taking a gamble on non-Tier 1 decks. Plus a league does give us the chance to have basically four chances to Qualify outside the usual "Qualifier Tournaments".

Do many of you:
a) Participate in Leagues?
b) Run a League?
c) Enjoy Leagues?
d) What are your experiences of VTES Leagues? Especially if they would be aimed at players outside your immediate playgroup (say to 3 or 4 small playgroups across your city)

VTES Opens
What do you all think of the idea of a Major Open? The main reason I am thinking of an Open Event is that the Qualification Rules will still make it difficult to get large numbers to our Nationals Tournament. I'm not trying to attack the Qualification Rules, it's just unlikely to result in a larger turn-out for the Nationals Tournament (particularly the clauses for repeat-qualifying). It means that we would be highly unlikely to have players coming to Sydney from out-of-state unless they have qualified already, and the Last Chance Qualifier is always dominated by those players that have already Qualified; people aren't willing to speculate $400 airfare + $200 accommodation + $100 food + $20 entry fees to not play the Continental Championship.

The alternative option is to create a 2-day Open (Tiered?) Tournament with a Secondary Event for the second day. It would allow for a Day 1 field of around 50+ to be whittled down to a nice small useful number like 20 (where we can either do 4x5s or 5x4s as the table format) and run something like a regular rated 3R + Final for the remainders. There would probably be bragging rights, a small trophy and maybe "a name on a shield" reward for coming first. Run it annually to coincide with something that will provide something for the families or in a location that has plenty of alternative activities for the remainder of the family. I suspect it would draw a greater number of players than the current Continental Championship (which in our case is also National Championship). I'd speculate that it would be just as valid for declaring the "Best Player in Australia/NZ".

a) What are your experiences with big open tournaments?
b) Can those with a bit more knowledge of this than me tell me: When determining Ratings, would Day 2 have a reduced "Tourney Size Coefficient"?

Happy New Year

2011-01-03T17:19:00.002+11:00

Happy New Year...

May your bleeds always land, may your combat always go well and may you always have a Wake or Flick when you need it...

Happy 2011 Methuselahs.

Tutoring New Players: Predator is Right

2010-12-15T08:20:00.003+11:00

This is, in my own view, the Second VTES Lesson to learn. Predator is to the Right. This must be learned AFTER Prey is Left. All in all, if VTES players learn one lesson... Prey Is Left should be it. Predator is Right comes with clear daylight gap in between.

Predator is Right
Predator is Right encompasses two main ideas: Remember to Defend and Remember Who You Must Kill. Remember always that a Predator who can Defend is better than a new Predator.

Remember to Defend
This is kind of simple: The player planning to kill you is sitting on your Right. This is the person who will want to spend their resources hurting you. This is also the person you want to manage with the least resources neccessary. But you must remember to defend. There are basically two main defences: Intercept & Bloating. There is a secondary defence: Combat.

Intercept is the basic defence. You leave minions untapped, or have 'Wakes' (Wake with Evening's Freshness 'WWEF', Forced Awakening or any of those similar cards), and you have intercept to block actions that will hurt your chances. This is the key thing: You do not need to oust your Predator, in fact you almost never want to oust your predator. You want a predator who is an effective defender and an ineffective attacker; so you can't kill them.

But remember Lesson #1... Your Prey Is Left, so playing a deck with 40+ Auspex Intercept Cards is unlikely to get you to oust your prey.

Learning just what you need to intercept takes time, experience and blocking many actions you never needed to worry about. The usual things to block (and as a prey you should consider regularly but not frequently blocking these) are Bleed Actions and Vote Actions. Blocking Bleed Actions should be an obvious statement, so I'll leave it alone. Blocking Vote actions is nearly always worth it and the only person with a greater desire to block vote actions is your Grand Predator (because your Predator is their Prey). Most decks playing substantial numbers of votes oust and survive by vote actions; that is their primary ousting method and can often serve as their defence method. Even 'benign' votes must be in there for a reason and you should consider if it is worth your resources to stop these 'benign' votes; there is always a motive for your Grand Predator to block a vote action.

Sometimes it is in your advantage to not block bleeds, particularly if your predator has a high-stealth deck. It facilitates hand-jam on your predator and limits their ability to be an effective attacker but is less likely to affect their ability as a defender.

Bloating to defend is basically the VTES version of a Cold-War Arms Race. You may bleed me for 4 this turn, but I will gain 8 pool so that in the end I'm better off than I was and certainly better off than you were. It can be very effective, but its also a complex game of Chicken you are playing with your predator. Decks that bloat the most effectively tend to be Vote Decks because they have easy ways to recoup blood & pool (Voter Cap), have actions that can generate significant pool (a number of votes provide large amounts of pool) and it connects directly to their ousting method. Other bloating decks tend to use swarms or a variety of cards which put blood into the uncontrolled region. Most of the time, these decks are fairly susceptible to Intercept.

Combat Defence is basically a Big Stick Threat. You promise a certain level of flat minion destruction, likely on your predator's main attacker, if the current level of pool-damage continues. This usually leads to one of two results.

Aggression Response: Your predator thinks that your threats are hollow or that you will not be able to carry out sufficient destruction to stop them from ousting you. So instead of waiting and being a little bit more patient and a bit more defensive, they decide that their best defence is to mercilessly and summarily execute you from the game. This is the main approach for Stealth Bleed and Powerbleed decks. It is also the response from Bruise & Bleed decks because they will feel confident about surviving combat.

Defensive Response: Your predator bunkers down and hedgehogs/turtles/walls up/etc. The threats are real, to them, and likely to be effective, on them, and so it is better to protect them self and wait for you to expend your resources on your prey before attempting to kill you. There are many players who enter this frame of mind and never leave it. This is a huge mistake. Remember Lesson #1 of VTES: Prey is Left. Surviving is secondary to getting the most VPs - you can be dead and still win. You want them to make this decision for at least a little while.

Strange Defences
The common "Strange Defence" is nicknamed the Salmon Method in Sydney. This is where a player decides that ousting each of their predators in succession is the way to win. It is a very very very difficult method to win with. You are attempting to ensure that every player other than yourself gets 1VP at most. If you perform this correctly on a 5-player table, you oust two players backwards and then when there are 2 other players obliterate every minion on the table so you can claim the remaining 3VPs. This ties into the Combat Theory of 3 Methuselahs.

Kindred Spirits Defence. This is where you stealth bleed out your predators, in the same way as the Salmon Method, but instead you aim for pool not minions.

Minion Theft. This is a Serpentis based defence and to a certain extent Obeah. Using Temptation or Spirit Marionette, you use your Predators Minions to kill your prey, leaving you in the middle with comparative Safety. This can also be done now with Taunt the Caged Beast, particularly if your prey or predator has a vampire such as Hektor, Basilia or any other permanent agg-hand strike minion. +Strength minions can also be used since their basic strike is still potent.

Remember Who you Must Kill
The Methuselah Level
Every resource spent on your predator is one you cannot use to fulfill Lesson #1: Prey is Left. It is your predator's unstated goal to have you expend resources you can't afford to spend on them while they survive it and oust you. Every non-defensive card you must play on your predator is a card that could have been used to oust your prey.

The Minion Level
A minion with +1bleed needs to be killed more than a minion with +1 intercept. It's that simple most of the time. If you need to punish an aggressive predator, do so and do it on the minion that will cause you the most pool damage in the short-to-medium term (since basically every minion will cause pool damage worth worrying about in the long-term). So if you're looking to take out minions, choose those that will hurt you the most and savage them brutally. Leave your predators defensive minions alone, you want your predator to live and survive against their predator.

Summary
Predator is to your Right. A Predator that can defend themselves is better than a New Predator. Every powerful card you play on your predator is unable to be played on your prey. Kill the right Minion or the right Methuselah... don't just kill everything. Wasting predator resources is better than wasting yours. Remember to Defend...
BUT PREY IS LEFT....

Deck: Brutal Orun Cannon

2010-12-14T11:31:00.002+11:00

After last night I felt I should post another of my "Harmless until Proven Deadly" decks. My Brutal Orun Cannon deck is one of those...

This deck did a pounce bleed for 13 and killed it's prey. It is very fragile to Votes and fairly fragile to bleed. I do need to tweak this further, but any changes will leave the core Bleed/Bloat module alone.

Deck Name : Brutal Orun Cannon
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
Orun Pounce-Bleed Deck.
Just keep on taking probing actions (Nangila Rushes, bleed, etc...) drop some moderate combat (Crows + Bats for 3 and then let the combat end, or Majesty). If there are persistent blockers, rush them or bleed and do your best to suck all the blood off you can and try to use Carrion Crows + Aid from Bats, Press, Majesty in the next round to untap and allow you to take some other action or wait. When you see your prey is wide open, if you have the Oruns set up... declare the King-Bleed (Brutal Influence starts at 2, +1 for each Orun you tap, +2 from Iron Glare at [POT][PRE]) and hope it lands. You can also effectively bloat with Brutal Influence by not only bringing out minions for free, but over-filling them by 2 so you can spend your transfers to take the two back into your pool.

Top 3 largest bleed actions taken by this deck: 15, 13, 12. It's got a whopping king hit, you see it coming with a marching band and an army escort... but if that sucker lands... *fuh-slam*.

Funniest Moments: When people call Ancient Influence or Reins of Power. I've bloated 18 pool from Ancient Influence (8cap + 8 Oruns = effective 24cap) and had my predator suddenly kill his own referendum when he realised that the Reins of Power he was calling would oust my prey (8cap + 10 oruns = 28cap...)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 9 average: 7.5
------------------------------------------------------------

3x Nangila Were 9 ANI POT PRE obf ser Guruhi:4
3x Nana Buruku 8 ANI POT PRE Guruhi:4
2x Ngozi Ekwensu 9 ANI POT PRE VIC cel magaji Guruhi:5
1x Batsheva 6 ANI PRE obt pot Guruhi:4
1x Batsheva Adv 6 ANI PRE obt pot Guruhi:4
1x Fish 5 ANI POT pre Guruhi:4
1x Lumumba 4 PRE ani Guruhi:4

Library [79 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [14]
8x Brutal Influence
4x Exile
2x Rampage

Action Modifier [8]
2x Edge of the World
6x Iron Glare

Combat [28]
9x Aid from Bats
1x Bestial Vengeance
4x Canine Horde
6x Carrion Crows
8x Majesty

Event [2]
2x Bitter and Sweet Story, The

Master [12]
12x Orun

Reaction [12]
4x Familial Bond
8x Rat's Warning

Retainer [4]
1x Raptor
3x Raven Spy

Sects around the World

2010-12-09T15:36:00.004+11:00

Hey Everyone,

Edit: Please look at the Maps of VTES Sects Around the World Page and add comments if your country/state is marked as the wrong sect. Particularly if you have done a BYOStoryline recently

I'm wondering if there is a list anywhere that details, or at least suggests, which countries/cities/states are owned by which Sects. Some I know...

Western Australia: Anarch (Fee Stake: Perth)
Toronto Canada: Sabbat (Lots of Archbishops, no Princes)
Massachusets USA: Camarilla
Greece: Camarilla (Spiridonas)
China & Northern Asia: Kuei-Jin

But what about many other places? I'm planning to set up a little page and try keep across people's BYO Storylines to build up a map of how the Sects are going across the world. I need your help with this...

Monday Night VTES: Quotes

2010-12-07T12:17:00.002+11:00

((picks up card)) "Not terribly useful, so I won't use it." - Will 'Captain Obvious' Allison

"He won't do what I want him to do, but if he doesn't do what I want him to do... ((Plays Golconda on Predator's main minion))" - Will Allison

Deck: Mother Hamster

2010-12-06T13:24:00.002+11:00

After having a collossal brain explosion, I did put up another deck for Matin Tibor Major's Deck Request Challenge. The criteria were: Mata Hari, Blood Tempering x3, Blood Shield, Kevlar Vest, Talbot's Chainsaw...

Then I came upon an idea. What if Mata Hari was living off her own babies... or the babies of her clan? Carver's Meat Packing & Storage + Tumnimos results in a pretty little super-hunting-ground for Mata Hari or any other Ravnos I might bring out... Toss in a Week of Nightmares & Paul Forrest and you're set for a bleeding bloodbath. Keep the chumps alive with Apparition + WWS + Mass Reality and it's all starting to come up golden (at least so it seems).

Deck Name : Mother Hamster
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
Make babies. Chainsaw them. Live off their blood as you go on a bloody rampage around the table. Oh and kill by bleeding the bujeezus out of people with the Week of Nightmares using your comparatively cheap minions & The Book of Stealing Stuff (Karava-stuff-stuff-stuff). Paul Forrest is in to make the Week of Nightmares ESPECIALLY bloody and Carver's works well for filling him back up ready for everyone else to bleed again.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 8 average: 6.08333
------------------------------------------------------------

3x Alexis Sorokin 8 CEL CHI OBF PRO for Ravnos:4
3x Mata Hari 7 CHI OBF aus for qui 2 votes Ravnos:4
3x Paul Forrest, Fals 5 chi for pre Ravnos:4
1x Vassily Taltos 6 aus cel chi dom for obf Ravnos:4
1x Brian Thompson 4 ani chi for Ravnos:4
1x Marion French 3 ani chi Ravnos:4

Library [70 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [17]
3x Blood Tempering
4x Edged Illusion
2x Mass Reality
2x Psychic Veil
6x Tumnimos

Action Modifier [15]
7x Cloak the Gathering
8x Freak Drive

Combat [16]
8x Apparition
8x Weighted Walking Stick

Equipment [5]
1x Blood Shield
1x Karavalanisha Vrana
1x Kevlar Vest
1x Palatial Estate
1x Talbot's Chainsaw

Master [17]
7x Ashur Tablets
2x Carver's Meat Packing and Storage
1x Fame
2x Path of Paradox, The
2x Ravnos Cache
2x Ravnos Carnival
1x Week of Nightmares

Tactics: Winning with Combat - The 3 Player Rule

2010-12-03T23:57:00.004+11:00

A while ago, probably about 8 months or so, a few of the guys at my local playgroup were debating the way you should win with a Combat Deck. Out this came the idea that a combat deck should allow and help a table get to 3 players as quickly as possible. The Three Player Rule for Combat. This is intended for PURE Combat decks with a sideline of bleed; i.e. Brujah Combat + Pre bleed or similar.

Why 3 players?
Why is it so important to get to 3 players as quickly as possible?
Getting the table down to 3 players means that you can easily rush your predator AND prey so that they'll not have any ready vampires or minions. Destroying a vampire in any combat is always to your medium-term advantage.

Also, once there are 3 players remaining, if you can demolish all of the other vampires, then you are able to get the remaining 3 VPs (Pred, Prey, You) and getting the GW. In a tournament situation, the GW is worth more than the VPs, so sacrifice the VPs of 2 players to get closer to getting the GW. It's the Play-to-Win in its more Machiavellian form.

How do you do it?
Choose your preferred prey/predator and help them into that position.

So, if your Prey is easy for you to mangle, let them go after their own prey with minimal interference.

If your GPrey would be a good predator, then you probably want to destroy your predator and mangle your original GPred... so that your GPrey can take out your GPred and become your Pred and the players in between get 1VP each.

The majority of it is ensuring that you don't give help when you want that deck off the table, aiding the decks you want to have remain on the table, mangle a vampire here, vampire there, don't go too aggressively cross table, play the players as much as the cards... and above all remember your goals-- Be 1 of 3 players left and the other two are combat weak so you can destroy them easily and bleed out the rest.

It's all in the complicated business of manipulating the table into containing the players you want it to have, and none of the players you don't want to deal with. You have to let VPs go, and preferably let them go so that people don't get 2 VPs if you can help it.

Summary
Pure Combat is, by popular opinion and the TWDA, a hard method to win tournaments and this technique is not really any easier. It's just a way to think about attempting to get your goal of a GW with a Pure Combat deck.

Past Events: The Great Archon Investigation of Sydney

2010-12-01T08:19:00.003+11:00

This is in no-way an official or even a generally used nickname for this particular event in the history of VTES in Sydney. It's just my view and the reason I'm telling you all is because this one event significantly changed the playstyle in Sydney.

Sydney Qualifier for the National Championships (2006 or 2007...)
(Sorry I've forgotten the year...)

We had around 25 players come out of their Havens to play in the Sydney Qualifier in a small CBD venue, near the Chippendale Boys. The Sydney Metagame had been seeing a fair amount of trick decks and Super-Bleeders. It was actually fairly common to hear bleeds of 4+ declared multiple times in a single turn. One of the rounds could only fairly be described as "The Table of Dominate".

The Table of Dominate
What made this table insane, and led to the demise of Powerbleed as a strategy in Sydney, was every player on this table was using a Dominate-Powerbleed style deck. Every deck had a significant number of Dominate Flick and a number of the decks contained Archon Investigation because of the Powerbleed metagame in Sydney.

A Methuselah declared a bleed for 4. This bleed was flicked around the table to that Methuselah's predator, who played Archon Investigation and burned a mid-to-high cap vampire on its first bleed action. Throughout the 2 hour game, 5 vampires were Archon Investigated and at least twice the Archon Investigation was played by the Predator of the acting vampire.

The Whole Day
In the whole day, at total of 7 vampires were investigated by the Archons and destroyed.

The Results
This has changed the face of VTES in Sydney for years. There are very few Powerbleed decks being used. Most commonly there are a number of mid-cap vampires bleeding for 3, Swarm Bleed with mild combat backup (Cel-Sticks CPU Hack, Deep Singing Weenies, etc) and a prevalence of Votes (particularly appearances by an Ayo Igoli deck around the Sydney Scene). Classic Powerbleed (Kiasyd, Giovanni, Lasombra & Malk94) have slowly vanished from out Metagame. We have seen some surreal trick decks, like a few Nacho-Cheese Bleeders (Nakhtoreb + Shennanigans), 10,000 Spirals (Black Spiral Buddy + Quick Jab & Sebastian Goulet), Mummies of the Inner Circle (Spell of Life + G2 ICs) and some others that are so outside the Metagame that people are unprepared.

After saying that, it is probably time for a mild resurgence in the Powerbleed Deck in Sydney. Partly why I don't play my Lasombra w/ Animalism deck much in social games. Might be time to sit down and try build a Song of Pan monstrosity...

Tutoring New Players: Prey Is Left

2010-11-30T13:36:00.002+11:00

I've decided I should probably write down something on tutoring new players, how I would go about it and how I have changed my ideas over time. So here are some of my key ideas for new players starting with: "Prey is Left"

I used to always play unfocussed toolboxes. I had a Brujah Deck that was Bleed'n'Bash with Sports Bikes, Media Locations, WWEF out the wazoo, some rushes... and so on. It was overly toolbox because I didn't realise I shouldn't be trying to build a deck that was able to do everything. It didn't really oust, it just waited 2 hours to be killed by its prey often.

Prey Is Left
Prey is Left. This is the prime piece of advice with Deck Building and play style.
Concern #1: How do I oust?

This comes before "How do I survive combat?" or "How do I gain pool?" or any other question.

We have had a number of players who don't seem to want to work with this idea. One in particular continues to play very very cautiously. He will often refuse to go left because he perceives that something that has happened before, will happen every time there-after.

My Prey is a Golden God of Combat
Thought: "I have seen my prey do Bad Things to the last vampire in combat. I don't want to act where they might block..."
Why you should remember 'Prey is Left': A Golden God of Combat will likely require a handful of specific cards to play that blistering combat that left your 10-cap in torpor on zero blood... The Card Gods will punish them if you have enough faith to remember what Mick Jagger said 'You don't always get what you want".

My Prey is a Golden God of Flick
Thought: "I just saw my last 3 bleeds get flicked. If I do it again, I will get flicked."
Why you should remember 'Prey is Left': The Golden God of Flick needs to have those flicks in their hand and the untapped minions with blood. Just keep on bleeding for 1, you'll get through and if it happens once, you can do it again.

My Predator is a Bleed Machine
Thought: "If I don't have all my minions untapped and ready to defend, my predator will oust me."
Why you should remember 'Prey is Left': Yes, mess your predator up. Do Bad Things (tm) to as many of their minions as you can manage... but do not forget that every card used backwards is a card you can't use on your prey. So by all means, obliterate a vampire or two but remember 'Prey is LEFT'.

My Prey is Back-Ousting Me
Thought: "My prey is going to smash me out of the game."
Why you should remember 'Prey is Left': Your prey is scared of you. This is a good thing. Maybe you've done too much of a good thing, but in the end, its a good thing. If you can survive this attack (or 2 or 20) then you'll be ready to take out your prey.

So, the take home message is simple: encourage your new players, and your old players, to remember three easy words "Prey is Left" and they'll probably play better VTES.

Tactics: Harmless until Proven Deadly.

2010-11-25T10:37:00.003+11:00

This is partly a deck-design tactic but also a playstyle. The idea is simple: Convince the table that you are not particularly dangerous, then turn around and break that assumption.

It's hard to do with certain deck types. Ventrue Lawfirm, AAA, BB's Combat, Tzim War Ghoul-tacular and other well known decks with clear powerful offence capabilities are much harder to use for this purpose. To exploit this you need decks that don't seem to have the raw power.

My own decks, some tested on JOL, that fit this category are: Mexican Sl*ts (when played less aggressively), Treaty of Bleedbach (AUS-SER-THA deck) & Nos Princes Hate you All are decks that I would fit into this category.

Treaty of Bleed or the Cryptic Treaty
The Treaty of Bleed deck utilises Sundevere & Tremere Vamps of moderate capacity in a hybrid deck of a Cryptic Mission Deck and a Corruption Counter-Revelation of Desire bleed module. The Crypt contains Sundevere (AUS SER THA others, +1bleed, opt burn 1 blood for +1bleed) and a collection of lower-priced Tremere (Martin Frankel, Valois Sang, Eugenio Estevez, etc). Treaty of Laibach is INCREDIBLY important to the long-term functioning of this deck, but with a number of copies, 7+ Ashur Tablets and Specialisation will allow you to burn through the cards you don't need right now to recycle them for later. There is an active Auspex Reaction module, primarily flick and bleed reduce; there is limited defence against votes other than bloating and some quirky hitback (Cobra Fangs in particular... bye bye Ossian...).

It also contains a number of other blood-denial cards and minions. Young Bloods, Impundulu, Gregory Winter, etc. These feed back into the third angle of the deck: Temptations, Form of Corruption and Heidelberg Castle.

Yes, I know that this is an 'unfocussed' deck in the sense it does many different things. But all of them are attempting to leverage the same synergy: Thaumaturgy removes blood, Corruption likes low blood and people don't worry too much about Corruption Counters.

The Cryptic Mission module facilitates the Corruption Module because of:
Weigh the Heart
Type: Action Modifier
Requires: Auspex & Serpentis
[aus][ser] +1 bleed. After playing this card, you cannot play another action modifier to further increase the bleed for this action.
[AUS][SER] Only usable as a (D) action is announced. If this action is successful, put a corruption counter on a minion controlled by the target Methuselah (after resolving the action).

You take Cryptic Mission and play Weigh the Heart, usually targeting a minion that is unlikely to ever be stolen by a card like Venenation (6+ cap). Many people do not block this action because it is mostly harmless. "What harm will there be in gaining 1 corruption counter on an 8cap?". Where this deck gets dangerous is when there are three or four corruption counters on your prey. If you can't Cryptic Mission, then a 1-bleed will often do the trick and again people tend not to block; it's even better if they reduce since the action is successful, triggering Weight the Heart, but it does no damage (and is once again, harmless).

Revelation of Desire
Type: Action Modifier
Requires: Serpentis
You cannot play another action modifier to increase this bleed amount.
[ser] +1 bleed.
[SER] Burn one of your corruption counters from a minion controlled by the target Methuselah to get +3 bleed against that Methuselah.

Play Advice: Start slow. Recruit an ally here. Ping a mid-to-large cap with Cryptic Missions, NOT allies (unless its an obvious main angle to your prey's deck) there. Probe-bleeds for 1, sometimes with Weigh the Heart. Always keep one or two minions untapped, so you appear defensive. Put Temptations on non-key vampires of your prey, not on their Main Vampire. Put the Form of Corruptions down only on a Speed Bleed predator until the middle game. Don't look nasty, just look wacky and unexpected and a bit bloaty. Remember: Cobra Fangs on your predator or prey is a nice trick to tangentially engage in a bit more Blood-Denial by forcing them to Rescue. (Plus playing Cobra Fangs at (ser) on your Prey's Ossian is always hilarious...)

Pros: 1) Placing the corruption counters tends not to be blocked. 2) This is a form of 'responsible bleeding' - you can't hit the wrong player for a bleed of 3+ because of the "against that Methuselah" clause. 3) Sundevere can land a bleed for 6 with a cardless action using 1 action modifier that costs a total of 1 blood. Heck any of your Tremere's (after their Treaty) can do this sort of bleed for 4...

Cons: 1) You get to do this about once or twice before people suddenly realise and turn on you. Hopefully you're set up already... or this will end badly. 2) Metagames with lots of Ashur Tablets can hurt this deck; being able to recurse the right balance of cards into your library is very important and a major part of playing this deck.

Nos Princes Hate you All
This is another variation on a Nosferatu Princes Deck. It's a combat variation that exploits Archon and Anathema. Yes, it contains Parity Shift (4 copies), KRC (4 copies)... but since you are not dropping them frequently, people tend to view the deck as more harmless than it is.

The primary mechanic is to wait for people to spend their pool, you included, then pick their more vulnerable mid-to-large cap minions to make Anathemas before you send in the Air Support Archons (Carrion Crows, Aid from Bats, Mighty Grapple for Handstrikes and spare Presses to continue). Explode one or two minions and suddenly your pool is much healthier and you can begin working on your next 7+ cap vampire.

Like all static vote decks, it suffers when it is in a heavy-static vote Meta; that's just how it is. So do what all VTES players need to learn to do best... Deal, Deal, Deal. Try to choose minions controlled by your Prey, but if needed choose your Predator; don't screw your Cross-table unless there is no other way for you to get the pool you need.

Like many Nos Princes deck it also requires setup time. If your setup time is rough (and it can be very rough), that ironically works to your advantage because people will let you have an Archon to terrorise your predator... and by the time they realise otherwise it's hopefully too late.

It's a G2/3 Crypt. Casino, Cock Robin, Nikolaus, Calebros & Sundown (ANI POT and a burn a blood for a vote ability... he also makes a nice Archon). They are just on the expensive end (7.75 cap average crypt) but with Nikolaus, Fourth Trads and Fifth Trads you can manage both pool and blood cost. Plus don't worry if you get low, one Anathema can net you 6+ pool and if you can back that up with a Parity Shift its even better.

Play Advice: Play it weak, play it grudgingly, play to let your predator cycle a little stealth and land a couple of bleeds on you... don't go after your prey early. You want to look like a predator that could have teeth but is too busy worrying about managing their own crap to be a table threat.

Pros: 1) Medium builder with a weak start; 2) Your weak start adds to your "I'm not dangerous" argument and is enhanced by letting your pool stray into dangerous territory (<=6 pool kind of dangerous); 3) Playing it easy and not letting your prey go without some pressure (bleeds for 1, Army of Rats, etc) convinces people that you aren't a useless predator... and someone they may prefer to have as a predator Cons: 1) Slow start... you can get annihilated by big bleed or swarm bleed in the early part of a game. 2) You can be out-punched without too much effort, but then that deck needs to be a dedicated combat machine... 3) People see Nos Princes and think Parity Shift.

Conclusion
The trick to this style of play is: Slow starts, build gently, appear competant but not dangerous. You want to give everyone a reason to keep you around and no reason to oust you (beyond being someone's prey). Convince the table that you'll keep some pressure on your prey, but that you are a very useful barricade for their Grand Predator. Then turn around and unleash. Open the full force of the secrets you've been keeping and go after your prey.

Tournaments: What should smaller areas do with their Nationals/Continentals?

2010-11-23T19:04:00.004+11:00

This is an issue with more relevance to us in Asia, Australia & NZ and possibly South America. Sorry to those of you in Asia & South America, this will be very Australia-centric.

Particularly in Australia, we have a small-ish number of players (in comparison to other Countries) and they are fairly geographically spread. It's probably around $150AUD for the cheapest flights at the worst times to get between any of the East Coast cities (it's up to $400AUD to get from Perth to Sydney/Melbourne). That's without accomodation and while we're a friendly mob and will offer couches, etc... some of the Aussies just don't feel happy couch-surfing.

So, there are a few issues that are obvious for us:

Limited player bases combined with the "Multiple Qualifications" system means that regions tend to have a few number of players who Qualify multiple times.
Long Distances tends to mean that people are less willing to travel insterstate unless they have qualified already.
Distances can penalise some playgroups more than others. We're much more likely to get Aukland players at a Nationals in Sydney, than we would get players from Perth coming to Sydney.

One of the solutions I've heard discussed is to convert our Nationals into an Open Event, rather than an Invitiational. I actually like the idea.

Having a 3, 4 or even 5 round + final tournament over two days allows us to ensure that the players in the final are the best of the best. A variant of this is to allow an Open Event (2R+F) on Day 1, then the top 10-15 are then segregated for 2R+F on Day 2 and the remainders can play a social tournament or just a day of social games.

Positives:

People can see a reason to come even if they might not make it into the Day 2 Event
People aren't speculating cash on flights, etc to come to a LCQ and then at most play for one day.
It is easier to reduce the per-player cost of venues, which is important if the event is held at something like a Gaming Convention.

Negatives:

Some people will feel that the event is less elite (in my own mind, that's almost irrelevant)
It doesn't match with the current VEKN Continental Champs requirements
In Australia, it would potentially only work well during University/School Holidays and I'd speculate AT another major event like a Convention (again to encourage people to make the effort to travel)

Personally, I don't think that making smaller Championships (like Australia and Asia in particular) a 2-day Open event will harm the credibility of the winner, or the validity of the event itself by having a restricted field on the second day.

Quotable Quote #1

2010-11-22T23:14:00.002+11:00

"Hmmm... I'm all tapped out. That would be bad." - Will Allison
"This deck's defence is Bleed Faster..." - Myself

Decklist: Lasombra w/ Animalism

2010-11-22T13:41:00.003+11:00

Originally this was going to be an Anarch Deck utilising Hell-for-Leather at ani & obt with some bleed thrown in and some Animalism retainers. After that deck failed horridly, repeatedly and consistently... I tossed out all of the Anarch-tech and turned it into S&B with Guard Dogs as a defence. It is fairly weak to votes, but it is hard to bleed. It's fairly good against combat, because of the King-Hit style combat module + Taste of Vitae. Bloat is fairly good and it is deliberately light on MPAs so you can utilise Nahir's Text; nothing like having a 9-card hand for the majority of the game. This is the deck I mentioned in my post on Suspense & the Unexpected.

Deck Name : Lasombra w/Animalism
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
Lasombra w/ Animalism

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 10 average: 7.41667
------------------------------------------------------------

2x Anton de Concepcio 9 ANI DOM OBT POT aus archbishop Lasombra:4
3x Nahir 10 ANI DOM OBT POT tha Lasombra:3
2x Conrad Adoula 8 DOM OBT POT ani cel Lasombra:4
2x Otieno 6 OBT POT ani dom Lasombra:4
1x Banjoko 5 DOM obt pot Lasombra:3
1x Dr Julius Sutphen 5 POT dom obt Lasombra: 3
1x Paulo de Castille 4 ani dom pot Lasombra:4

Library [76 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [10]
10x Govern the Unaligned

Action Modifier [22]
2x Command of the Beast
4x Conditioning
4x Foreshadowing Destruction
4x Seduction
4x Shadow Play
4x Tenebrous Form

Combat [18]
6x Earthshock
6x Pushing the Limit
6x Taste of Vitae

Master [10]
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Elysian Fields
2x Path of Night, The
2x Political Hunting Ground
2x Powerbase: Barranquilla

Reaction [16]
8x Deflection
2x Eyes of the Night
6x Guard Dogs

Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Mon Nov 22 13:40:46 2010]

Tactics: Suspense & the Unexpected

2010-11-21T21:09:00.005+11:00

I have just been reading this thought by ICLee on his Wordpress Blog (Reach in VTES) where he talks a little about "reach". It's all about how you squeeze those last few points of damage out of everything to kill your opponent (particularly from a MtFleecing perspective). But it leads to one of those things I remember doing myself early on... and something that seems to continually get me and others VPs.

(Note: These are my ideas and tend to work for my own playstyle, but maybe by throwing the ideas out there we'll all learn more about the game we all play)

Suspense & the Unexpected

Suspense is the basic idea of keeping your prey just slightly on edge and your predator uncertain. Now there are plenty of ways to do this. The point of building a little suspense in them is so you can affect their mindset, get them off-balance and exploit any misplays made by those around you. It can be any kind of suspence, but the simple start of it is: if people are not always sure of what you might do, then they'll be more cautious for fear of finding out.

A couple of the more accomplished players from the Blacktown group have had different tactics for managing suspense. My own method is to play as if my own ousting is so far from ever happening I can take a nearly reckless disregard for my own position; some players have learned to identify when this might be a bluff but they aren't there yet. Another used to 'Cry Poor', where he would always turn around and claim how low his pool was, how beaten up his vampires were, how likely he is to be ousted any second, etc before he would then turn around and dump most of his hand into a killing lunge to get a VP and often table dominance. Another is a "Pointer" who would commonly highlight the potential of other players to soon win the table or provide "advice about who would be the most likely target for such and such a card". They're all a method for doing the same thing: maintaining some suspense between yourself and the others in the group.

One of my other preferred tactics has been the "Threat before Vote Terms are Declared", where you threaten imminent violence on the player who so much as deems to put that remaining point of a KRC anywhere near your pool... of course before you do everything to vote it down and then obliterate as many of that players vampires/pool. With the right deck, it works beautifully, especially my own !Salubri Bleed & Rush deck... nothing says "Don't do that again" like rushing and deal 7 undodgeable aggravated after cancelling a S:CE or a prevent card.

To illustrate the "Never play like you're about to die" kind of bluff, with one of my first decks I would regularly equip Allison Maller with a Sport's Bike and Bang Nakhs. In that deck Allison was my Speed Bump. An action was declared by my predator (like say... Hunt, or even less likely to long-term affect me but was undirected) and Allison would declare a block attempt. It didn't matter that I had seen him dump two GtUs forwards with Conditioning backups and he still had 2 or 3 other minions... the point to my Predator was "You better have a plan cause I'm happy to block this pointless action you're taking first...". It was even better if I had about as much backup for that statement as a wetted tissue. However, most of the older players from that group remember the game where Allison Maller blocked 5 actions in a row, using 4xWWEF and all sorts of Celerity Combat to stay alive. It's stuck in their mind and while I dismantled that deck years ago, I sometimes get the feeling that those guys still worry when they see all of my vampires tapped out; they always think I do it when "I have a Plan (tm)".

Other standard tactics are similar to those suggested in ICLee's post: the Unexpected
Many of my own decks have the Unexpected.

My Mexican Sl*ts deck has the because it utilises Zip Guns and Suppressing Fire as a way to bypass Chi-Walls using Draba. For every other wall-ish decktype it behaves like a mild S&B deck, but with someone using Drabas regularly the unexpected event is reducing their intercept instead of generating stealth. It makes you less predictable, less expected and while it can encourage a little defensiveness it can push that emotional button that can lead to mistakes. This deck also contains minimal combat: Unflinching Persistance, Thrown Gate, Zip Gun and that's about it. Expectations it counters: #1 Draba Always Works, #2 BB's = Combat Combat Combat, #3 Putting them in torpor works (read Redistribution again people...)
My Lasombra w/ Animalism deck has the unexpected because it packs some significant Potence beatdown for a deck that holds predominantly Dominate & Obt Sleaze Bleed. The other dirty trick it tries to utilise is using Animalism untaps so I can flick away with Dominate for as long as I want, and 2 +1 Intercept cards. It slams on through the usual Dominate bleeds like all Obt-Dom bleed... and then when someone is planning to smash you with a rush, it turns around and drops Earthshock or Pushing the Limit before reclaiming what it can with a Taste of Vitae to have that extra unexpected element. I'll probably post this thing up later. Expectations it counters: #1 S&B Doesn't do combat, #2 S&B without Auspex can't block votes, #3 A probe-bleed will sucker out wake so I can follow up with more bleeds.

Now the reason for including these is purely because people have expectations and by breaking them, hopefully early, they will be worried about what other expectations they cannot rely upon anymore. And that will keep suspense going on for a large part of the game and you can exploit that.
Losing Suspense is the big, big falldown of a lot of players. You either show yourself to be such an all-pervading threat that nothing but your immediate ousting will make the table comfortable, or a toothless tiger that can be dutifully ignored while people get on with the business of killing their prey. (Which may just be you). I used to do a horrible stunt on one of my fellow Blacktown players: repeatedly pester, usually in combat as his predator. There were a number of ways to provoke him but the result was the same: he would throw his whole game-plan out to recklessly assault his predator. It would often come close to having him lose the game, forget about his VP and set yourself up to probably gain a VP if you could survive the short-term blast from this player.

Losing Suspense also happens when you prove that your deck has precisely one trick, this is always the downfall of classic well-known decks or deck archetypes such as Malk94, AAA, Cybeleotron, etc. While these decks are stellar, reliable, and in their own way truly awesome they have been analysed, viewed, predicted and pulled apart. They hold no mystery and little suspense. You see Quira and Dolphin Black on the table with 1 Kindred Spirits in the ash-heap and it won't matter if the rest of the deck is a Malkavian Dementia + Derange trick deck, it will be labelled as Cheese-Bleed for the rest of the game because it is threatening and holds no mystery. Unless you can prove it is not resulting in suspense.

Create-a-Clan: Elvis Circle

2010-11-19T22:32:00.000+11:00

Well, in the spirit of all things end of year and silly... May I present the entirely fictitious, non-canon, superfluous and rediculous....

Elvis Circle of Blood Brothers.

Vampires: Sennadurek

2010-11-17T21:47:00.004+11:00

Sennadurek is relatively quickly becoming my next favourite vampire. The biggest advantage in this 6cap is the text. The disciplines, and what is there to dislike about [AUS][dom], are nice but that text has become a really valuable effect on almost every table.

Sennadurek & Superior Auspex
I have become a huge fan of watching my Grandprey take a 1 bleed, look at my prey's hand and untap a vampire with Superior Auspex. This can also be used in an unexpected way on your predator, if you have a moderate amount of bloat to compensate.

Deliberately taking a 1-bleed from a predator trying to suck out untap. They will untap your minion for you, and potentially give you a look at another player's hand. You can also then use Superior Auspex to do all of the good things Auspex does; flick, block and reduce. Plus it saves you at least 1 untap especially if you can drive down a credible bleed to 1 using another vampire that is untapped (Martin Frankel, etc, etc, etc) by whatever Anti-Bleed Jedi-Mind-Tricks you can get.

This then gives your predator the edge, you resist bleeding your prey (and instead take other forward actions on your prey) and then wait until your predator loses the edge. You then untap Sennadurek, look at their hand and know just what is coming.

Sennadurek & Black Hand
Then we get to the strange options. Like Sennadurek Rush combat (and being able to use defence). Nose of the Hound + Cold Aura + Psychic Assault + Target: Vitals (Optional Taste of Vitae)... Rush at stealth (preferably against say... blockers/flickers of bleeds. Can't flick if you aren't ready...) set the range to long with Cold Aura, then ping for 2R or 4R unpreventable.

Other Auspex cards can possibly be tossed in and there are Yasmin the Black, Selena, Kestrelle Hayes, Ash Harrison & Blackhorse Tanner who are also Black Hand and have Superior Auspex (Note: They aren't all in legal groupings). You can potentially dig around and use a mix of Reunion Kamut and GtU to get out your all-seeing Black Hand vampires on the cheap. I may draft up a deck on this theme, if others don't beat me to it.

Other ideas...
Well Necromancy has 'fun' ideas, but other than making Masquers or Puppeteers, or maybe Ex Nihilo? I can't really think of anything nice for Necromancy Users that are not Giovannis.

If you have any good ideas for Sennadurek that I haven't thought of in the last few weeks, please add them in the comments. I am keen to hear from you all.

Thanks

2010-11-16T18:52:00.003+11:00

Thanks to all of you who have been reading what I've been putting here. It's nice to see from the Votes and comments that this isn't just a long waste of time and key-strokes.

So thanks.

Feel free to Comment away on any of the posts... or on the ConFlict Sydney Site

Monday Night VTES: 15/11/10

2010-11-16T08:32:00.001+11:00

It was another Monday Night VTES at our FLGS. We had a slightly lower turnout compared to usual with just 4 (including myself) turning up: Sutekh23, Marty the Man, James Fynan and myself. We had a new guy come along and play the first game with Sutekh23 keeping an eye over his shoulder. He had a go with my Sleazy Malks for Newbies deck. It's basically a fat wad of Kindred Spirits, Eyes of Chaos, Stealth Cards and a few crazy fun Malky Stuff (Malk Pranks, Muddled Vampire Hunters w/ Disciplineless combat, etc). It took a VP before I managed to get through it using my Trochomancy Deck (I am convinced that it needs something else but it did well with Martin Frankel and Solomon Batanea out early and an Anima Gathering for Solomon before bringing out Sennadurek... MAN Sennadurek is a nice vampire, that text is great).

After playing a few weeks as the predator of James' Unnamed deck, I'm convinced that a couple of cards in particular are really awesome and that the Unnamed needs something else in the tank than what James is giving it. Evil Eye is BAD(tm). We have a moderately combat-heavy social metagame (I was playing Martin Frankel Rush/Burst of Sunlight, Marty had Lorenzo Punch You To My Ready Region and Sutekh23 had my Theo Eats with Chopsticks deck) and Flames of the Netherworld + Evil Eye is a nasty combat defence module. I do think his Unnamed deck needs Homonculus and probably also needs either Perfection or to bleed using Forgery. The deck is basically Unnamed bleeds for LOTS with The Hordes, bloats 2+ pool (depending on Social Charms or Greater Curses or...) and then spends most of that bloated pool untapping. The Unnamed at least needs an alternative untap, OR, there needs to be more Path of Evils in there (or a better way to defend them). I think a Homonculus would end a lot of James' woes in having his deck crushed between flick and a bleedy-predator place. It also needs some kind of defence, even if it is Rush upstream using [dai] or [mal] or [str] or the Unnamed's own bad mojo (1 blood to get 2R Agg).

Things are going ahead reasonably with the ConFlict Charity Games Day. It will be really good if we get a big turnout from Sydney, at least amongst the VTES players. The Flames of War guys seem very keen to do a recreation battle, like the battle of El-Alamein or similar.