I've been playing some v:tes this year :)

Hi folks!

So I played 3 tournaments so far this year. The first 2 I played wit my Eze deck. Both worked out quite ok with 1 game win each tournament and reaching the finals with that. Unfortunately I couldn't win any of those. Today was the third tournament. I got tired of Eze and borrowed a deck from Péter Korsós, a Mistress Fanchon and friends deck. In the first round Enkidu shred me to pieces in like 5 minutes. However, I mnaged to win the 2nd and 3rd round and made it to the finals with 2 GW 6 VP's. I made my VP in the final but lost to Gyula Erdős, who won it. Well it was great day though. 

I liked the deck a lot and will build my own version to test. I need a deck for Sweden anyway. I don't know how much time I will have, but I want to play v:tes on a regular base again. This might bring back this blog to old glory again :)

Cheers!

Just a really brief note on the last tournament

Hi folks!

So I played a tournament last weekend with Eze again. I won't go into details, just a note here:

• I played 6 rounds with Eze in the last 2 tournaments
• I play 5 copies of Eze in a 12 card crypt
• I shuffle the crypt like it should be shuffled
• 3 out 6 games Eze did not show up in the starting uncontrolled region
• 2 out of these 3 times Eze was only the sixt vampire.
• 3 out of 6 games Eze showed up.
• I made 3 Game Wins out of these 3 times...

So when playing  star vampire decks like Eze I will go for 6 copies + 3 Wider Views in the future. It is a billion times better to have 4 Ezes in the starting crypt than 0.

by: Mephistopheles

Deck Building Challenge: Rares Only!!!

Hi folks!

So I've been invited to a couple of friends for a game of v:tes. The thing is, there is a twist. Players are allowed to play with library cards only that have been a rare in any edition before. So no vessels, blood dolls, minion taps, etc. Rare only deck. Wow. It is funny how many things become unavailable. 

So I am pretty sure I will either play a Ayo Igoli deck with Golconda's to have a pool gaining mechanism or I will play 8-11 cap vampires with superior Dementation for Deny (rare stealth card!) and of course Golconda again.

What would be your idea? Any comments and suggestions are highly appreciated!  

by: Mephistopheles

EC Report

Hi folks!

So the EC is over and I had a couple of days to think everything through. I don't want to do a round by round tournament report right now. What I want to say is, that it was great to see and talk to many people. This itself was totally worth joining the event. On the other hand I played 9 rounds of v:tes.

On Friday I decided to play my Broken Brujah deck. I made a Game Win with 2 Vps on the first table which was really a tough game. Second game made me 1 Vp and the third table was a disastrous 0. Last 2 games I played together with an Anarch Revolt + Lutz deck. He basically dropped a Revolt every turn starting with the first one. Since my crypt consisted of titled vampires only this was pretty unpleasant to say the least. Well at least I did qualify, since I wasn't yet.

Saturday I choose to play Martin Weinmayer's Auspex + Presence deck. He won his second EC title with this deck. I thought it would be great choice even though I don't really like playing with such decks. It was a terrible choice. Triple 0 Vps's without even the slightest chance of making a Vp. Well not entirely true. With a deal break I could have made 1 VP. I rather kept it. 

Sunday. After the previous 2 days I felt like playing my favorite deck on the First Chance Qualifier. Namely my Eze deck. It is an 11 cap vampire that can not bounce bleeds, I don't play any crypt acceleration cards in it and it isn't built to block. Well, after the 2nd round I had 2 Game Wins with 7 Victory Points. First Game Win included some help from my side to back oust my first predator. Then I killed my prey and grand prey with a Reins of Power and easily won the heads up against a malkavian antitribu stealth bleed (Banishment for the win). On the second table I had my very best draw ever. My prey played only 8+ vampires, my opening hand had a Magic of the Smith to go for a Signet of King Saul. Untap, bleed for 1, Enkil Cog. Fuck yeah! So before the 3rd table I had good hopes to make it to the final. I drew my crypt and opening hand and they were awesome again (Villein, Enkil Cog were in there). Now came the pain: re-seating!!! New crypt: no Eze. New predator: War Ghoul featuring Maris. I think you will read about this game on the Lord of the Clog blog. Despite the 0 Vp here and missing the final because of this I really enjoyed this game! 

Conclusion: I am really sure now that it doesn't matter what deck you play. It's all about seating, that is the luck factor in the game. Next EC I will play only decks I like to play with. 

by: Mephistopheles  

Excitement level: it's over 9000!

Hi folks!

Can't wait to get up early today and make it to the venue in a rush. Need to last-minute-build-decks today so I have something to play with. I am actually not exited about playing, but because I will meet so many people I want to talk with! I'll keep blogging during the EC!

by: mephistopheles

Registered for the EC. Feeling strange.

Hi folks!

Life and its ways are pretty interesting. After last years EC I was very enthusiastic to gather a team and start organizing EC Budapest. Milán Horváth, Zoltán Németh, Tamás Bank and myself started our work. I had an easy time back than, because I was pretty much stagnating in my job. The economy was so bad that there was only little work to do. For those of you who do not know it already, I work in a family business. We are importing decorations and all kind of things for interior design from China. All went fine, we found a great Hotel, set up the very basics for the website and things were about to get serious. Right at this time my father whom I work with basically retired so I had to run the company on my own. Original plans were that I'll have to attend the Canton fair in China, which would be exactly at the same time than the EC. 

Life got pretty stressful suddenly. Parallel to all this I lots more and more interest in the game itself. Main reason for this is because I miss new ideas. I felt that whatever idea I have is just something I already played before. I think I really missed a new set. I am the kind of guy that has 1 or 2 (tops) ideas for a set that I find interesting enough to play with. There were other reasons as well, but I don't want to go into depth with this.

So I made a pretty hard decision. I resigned as NC for Hungary, quit the EC team and basically totally stopped playing v:tes. I don't regret this step. When people asked about this I always told them that one day I surely will return to the v:tes life, I just needed a really long break from all this. I think I had a burn out syndrome. 

Life always has its surprises and one of these was when we were offered the opportunity to take over one of our earlier customers, a wholesaling company in Budapest. This was actually the chance we were really looking for so we said yes. Well all the work that had to be done there was down to me since my partner (aka my father) retired to Thailand right before we signed the contract. I had three horrible weeks in September with 70-90 hours work a week and I drove like 10000+ kilometers. But as everything it also had its really good sides!

Since I spent so much in Budapest now I grabbed the chance to play a little v:tes here and there. All I had was my Eze deck, the last remaining deck I had fun playing with. At this point I ran into an awesome group of really old v:tes players. Talmi, Spider, Spáda and Csabi invited me to join them. It was and still is really fun to play with these guys. This was an experience I really needed. 

Now that I successfully opened the new shop in Budapest I have some free time again to spend and since I am in Budapest 3 days a week I can finally play v:tes on a regular base again. At this point I took a look at how the EC is going and I realized that these guys made an awesome job. Tibor Mórocz jumped in the team and with his experience and knowledge was a great boost to it. 

With the opening of our new shop the Canton Fair issue got moot so I'll be at home during the EC. Now here comes the part why I feel really strange. I registered to the EC of a game I just jumped out earlier from. Strange feeling. I am not qualified yet, so it's all down to the Last Chance Qualifier. Honestly I am preparing myself for the Silence of Death side event on Saturday and the First Chance on Sunday.

I would love to be the active and creative guy I used to be in v:tes and play the game way more often in 2013, but my main problem is still lingering around. I've been spending the last days thinking of decks to build. Nothing really changed: each idea I have is just the same old stuff again. It might be with 12 different vampires and 90 different library cards, but the way you play a certain deck type is just the same thing again and again.

Well at least I can see you guys soon again. There are many people out there in the v:tes community I am really looking forward to grab a beer with and just talk about whatever comes to our mind. See you guys soon!

by: mephistopheles

Tournament Report: Training Day Budapest

Hi folks!

I really never thought that I will play v:tes so soon again. My girlfriend asked me to give her a ride to Budapest when I was just hanging on facebook this Friday. I said sure why not and just a few seconds later I noticed a tournament announcement in our v:tes facebook group. Since I had nothing else to do I decided a that I join the event, since I will be in Budapest anyway. 

It was great to see all those guys again and the best part: I saw some players that were considered the "old ones" when I first started to play the game. Some disappeared for a few years, but I think now that their kids are old enough, they reappeared. I was informed that many more "old players" joined the v:tes life again. Sounds pretty damn cool. 

So all together 23 players played this event. I took my only still existing deck, namely my "Eze will slow roll you" one. So here is how it went:

1st table: Gyula Erdős (Akunanse) - Vaka Mate (upgraded to a short hair with beard version, played some Gangrel deck again) - Me - Varga Zsolt (AAA)

I had a pretty good start with a great crypt. All the key cards came in time and I could sneak through a bleed for 1 with Eze to get my Enkil Cog. Next crucial action was to equip a Signet of King Saul with believe me guys is pure gold. Meanwhile Zsolt was building up well too with Alexandra and Anson + 2 weenies in game. I did my 2 bleed / turn with Eze stuff and I think my deck caught Zsolt a little bit by surprise. Then the moment came when I could oust both my prey and predator with a Reins of Power, but I needed Gyula's votes as well. Gyula seemed cooperative since he surely preferred to have Eze behind him than Toreador Grand Balls. So he gave me his votes and we went right into heads up. Funny thing here was that both prey and predator choose their 1 caps for Reins of Power so Gyula and I got +5 pool. Funny things happen. Gyula went into the heads up with like 20+ pool and 4-5 vampires. 

Gyula's first move was to play a Pentex on Eze, but there is a reason why I play 3 Suddens and keep one in my hand for such situations. I returend the favor with a Pentex on one of his vampires (I had 2 mpa's because of Nana) and passed a Banishment. This pretty much changed the table. When Gyula was on six pool I tried to oust him with a bleed 6 by Eze, but Gyula played an Archon Investigation on him (for 4 pool because of Secure Haven). Didn't matter much because I had 2 more vampires, bleed modifier, vote card and Monastery of Shadows. The first vampire was enough with a Iron Glare + Monastery of Shadows bleed. 1GW 3 VP

2nd table: Balu (Henry twister wall) - Milan (Kyasid toolbox) - Günther (Dom - For -Aus) - Silver (Omaya wall) - Me

This is the kind of table I loathe so much. Sitting between 2 wall decks you waste your resources like hell and whenever you could oust you get an Eagle's Sight - Direct Intervention - Delaying Tactics armada into your face. Well, after a shitload of talking, dealing, wasting resources, getting pissed at mentioned cards I finally ousted Balu with Milans help. Milan made his 2 vps and we were heads up. Since I ran out of cards (90 card deck) Milan won. If I had some cards left in the deck I would have easily won the heads up. One of the many reasons I loathe card like DI and Eagle's sight. I need 20+ card to bypass 2 of these... 1 VP

3rd table: Me - Milan (Kyasid) - Pál Csabi (???) - Gego Feri (Akunanse) - Márton Csaba (Giovanni powerbleed) 

Starting with 1 transfer for an 11 cap vampire with a powerbleed as a predator is not good at all. I got ousted without having turn to act with Eze. Funny thing: when I was ousted I had a Villein + Ancient Influence + Voter Cap in my hand. Too bad I never had the chance to act with Eze... 0 VP

Summary 

After a long time not playing making 1 GW 4 VP on a tournament announced for testing EC decks is really great. Especially with an 11 cap that can not bounce bleeds. I finished tied 7th place, but missed the final by only 1 Vp. So close.

Thank for great event. It was good to play again. However this doesn't mean I will play regularly. I might show up at the one or other tournament though, depending on free time and mood.

The Deck

Deck Name:   Eze will slow roll you
Created By:  Martin Mephistopheles Major

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 32, Max: 44, Avg: 9,58)
----------------------------------------------
  5  Eze                                aus ANI NEC POT PRE THA11 Guruhi
  3  Nana Buruku                        ANI POT PRE    8  Guruhi
  2  Sobayifa                           ANI aus pot PRE pro spi8  Guruhi
  2  Ugadja                             ABO ANI dom for POT PRE10 Guruhi

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (20 cards)
  1  Ancestor Spirit
  1  Archon Investigation
  2  Dreams of the Sphinx
  1  Giant`s Blood
  1  Monastery of Shadows
  1  Palace Hunting Ground
  1  Pentex Subversion
  1  Perfectionist
  1  Secure Haven
  3  Sudden Reversal
  6  Villein
  1  Wider View

Action (13 cards)
  2  Entrancement
  5  Founders of the Ebony Kingdom
  3  Magic of the Smith
  1  Preternatural Strength
  2  Well-Marked

Action Modifier (24 cards)
  4  Call of the Hungry Dead
  3  Enkil Cog
  4  Iron Glare
  2  Mirror Walk
  6  Perfect Paragon
  1  Strange Day
  3  Voter Captivation
  1  Approximation of Loyalty

Political Action (8 cards)
  1  Ancient Influence
  1  Ancilla Empowerment
  3  Banishment
  1  Neonate Breach
  1  Political Stranglehold
  1  Reins of Power

Reaction (10 cards)
  10 Sense the Savage Way

Combat (8 cards)
  8  Majesty

Equipment (5 cards)
  1  Gran Madre di Dio, Italy
  1  Heart of Nizchetus
  1  Ivory Bow
  1  Kduva`s Mask
  1  Signet of King Saul, The

Event (1 cards)
  1  Narrow Minds

Combo (1 cards)
  1  Guruhi Kholo