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Thursday 31 March 2011

Tournament Report: Belgrade Constructed

Hi folks!

I've just received a tournament report from our Serbian friends. The tournament was held on 19th march 2011.  So here it is:


Tournament was great. There were 24 players: 4 from Croatia, 3 from Hungary, 1 from the USA (Ben Peal), two from Kragujevac (Serbia) and the rest were our locals from Belgrade and those feeling that way. :) I was playing with ANI weeney deck feat. Nana Buruku (deck list in the following post). Generally, it rushes left and right and bleeds for 2 with deep song, based upon the Ashur tablet’s recursive power so to not be left without cards. The tournament went this way for me:

Round 1
We played at a four-player table, which isn’t bad since GW is the same as with five-player tables. The chance was less, I presumed, to use all library cards or that my prey would take 3 VPs before I oust. The sitting order was Zsolt Cziraki (HUN-aka Colos-Tremere with Jar of skin eaters that isn’t s&b in fact :)) – Ivan Jelisavcic (Dmitra Alastor) – Dusan Kosanovic (Thetmes rush raper with DOM support) – Milos Krstic (aka Krle, or me, with Nanu Buruku). I started slowly with bleeding Zsolt for 2 pool, which ended on my cross table buddy who, despite having Dmitra with Alastor and Assault rifle was ousted in 4th or 5th turn due to bleeds for 3-6 on stealth.  Since meanwhile my prey equipped a jar and offered Dule to burn one of my vampires with it while Dule would rash and torporize/grave rob me, I decided to offer Zsolt to split VPs 2-2, which he accepted, so he torporized Thetmes and diablerized him. We did the rest commonly. Oh yes, also my star vampire was the 5th influenced so I I was stuck with a handful of master cards, but somehow I managed to survive.


2VP 0GW

Round 2

This round was the longest during the torunament, most likely due to 2 wallish- and an infernal decks. The latter didn’t push forward, but were only defending. The five-player table contained the following players: Vladimir Maric (aka Vlada the Evil – Unnamed s&b with Shatter the gates I think, I didn’t exactly see what the deck did) – Djordje Belajac (!Tremere wall feat. Chaundice which rushes) - Gabor Szabo(HUN-Mordechai Ben-Nun wall with combat equipment) – Vladimir Saulic (CRO-Stanislava vote&bleed) – me.
My first acton when Stanislava was influenced was to torporize her, since I could hardly survive bleed and vote onsets each turn, so I decided to backoust that deck and replace it with a much more beneficial wall without many bleeds and stealth. It became much easier after that, but while I was devastating infernals (some with rush, others with bleed), I was thinking how to pass through the Chaundice that prevents most of my damage and may come close with Immortal grapple and aggr dmg. Btw., even in 6-7 vampires, Vlada didn’t draw the problematic Unnamed so I didn’t spend much resources on him). Luckily, Chaundice ended in torpour by Ben-Nun, with the help of Dawn operation, so I diablerized her during my turn (despite the fact there was one vote on the table and I controlled the Edge. That cost me 5cap vampire, which was burned by Carlton during my predator’s turn). From then forward there wasn’t a vampire to stop me torporizing all the vampires on the table and oust the 2 remaining players with the help of Dragonbound.


4VP 1GW


Round 3
I entered the 3rd round pretty sure I had enough VPs for the final round, but I wanted more VPs to be 100% sure in that and to have a better seating place in the finale. It was a five-player table: Stefan Petrovic (aka Stravicni with Kiasyd s&b deck, which bleeds for 6 per turn with each vampire if he isn’t heavily pressed) – Goran Damjanic(CRO-aka Zeleni with bruise/wall Ahriman and Howler as the star vampire) – Nikola Zmiro (Kragujevac playing with Tzimisce wall deck with g4 vampires - Count Vladimir Rustovitch,Duality, etc.) - Zvonimir Ljubotina (malk/!malk s&b g4-5 with Brainwash) – me. The plan was as follows: I influenced Zip (2 cap ani) (he removes Brainwash if need be), and would backoust or slow down Malk, kill the prey which shouldn’t be able to oust his prey playing wall deck and then let the wall decks devastate one another or continue to backoust, which should bring me a certain VP and entrance in the finals. But... there was no Brainwash, I was pushing a bit forward, a midcap Malk was influenced and immediately torporized, followed by another Malk (all have inf. Obfuscate and cannot combat end), while my prey wouldn’t influence less than three vampires at once, hoping that would give him the time to do something. Then my predator also decided not to influence more vampires in vain. Then he played the best card for me at that moment - Kaymakli Nightmares – and degrade my prey to initial state. Due to lack of time to influence all three vampires at the same time, my prey influenced them one by one and I torporized them in according order. Dragonbound finished him.  Meanwhile, Howler torporized Duality and then came the Count Vladimir Rustovich who allows bleeds for 1 due to his fear of Ahrimanes. After one turn pause (whereby  I made no actions but composed in my hand the cards I’d need for combat with Ahrimanes, which combat mode is quite similar to mine, but with more maneuvers, which might cause me problems in combination with Howler’s built-in +1 str and maneuver) I made ready for total annihilation of two ANI decks. Then (I quote Milosh) a scene from Hungarian horror movies occured: Howler got Pentexed, which in combination with inferior ANI of the two remaining Ahrimanes gave me one VP (Terror frenzy kicked ass here). Then I realized that I could gain game win and probably be top seated in the finals. After the one-turn pause, my preys were still under heavy attacks (the moment when I returned 11 Deep songs by Ashur tablets from the graveyard to library (with 2-3 cards only!) astonished my predator).  Since my new prey had only one ready vampire, Anthelios summons the Pentex from the graveyard after which the Tzimisce player couldn’t handle 5-6 bleeds for 2, meaning I gained another VP. While all this was happening, Malk influenced 2 new vampires nd tried to oust me quickly so he could take 2 VPs and gain a chance to reach the finals, but although one bleed for 4 was successful, the other was Archon Invest. Guess what then... The only remaining vampire was Pentexted and that was the end of the game for Malk.


VP5 GW1


Final round
After a short break, we start the final round by determining players’ seating places, by the player placing (after the 3rd round): first was Slaven Karakas(CRO-aka Karo-malk s&b with flame throwers and lots of refirections and bleed reductions); Stefan Ristic (aka Kica-Black hand lasombre g4/5 s&b/toolbox); Zsolt (HUN- with unpleasant jars) who wanted Lasombra as prey; Vlada the Evil (Unnamed) who also wanted them for prey; me (Milosh the Illiterate (suggestion by translator :)) who chose Lasombra for predator (it seemed to me he was the easiest predator and that Infernals would trouble him before he attacked me and I had to backrush him) and Malk for prey (generally, he doesn’t have good defence from my combat cards and I may destroy his equipment with aggravated dmg using Cannine horde). In short and more literate: the final table looked like this: Malk--->Tremere jar--->Unnamed--->Lasombra--->me.


The beginning suited me fine. Lasombra defended himself from the Unnamed (influenced in the 2nd turn using Infohigh + Dreams) while I was killing Malks one by one. At the same time, after influencing several Tremeres, Zsolt tried to equip them with some Jars. He managed to do so only once, because others were cancelled by the Unnamed’s (with Sup Maleficia) Evil eyes (yes, he managed to draw all these cards in just 3-4 turns). Soon afterwards, Malks were ousted, and so were Lasombra. I let Tremere push forward for several turns, hoping that only one weakened player would remain so we could play 1 on one since I feared aggr dmg on both sides (similar to the 1st round only now my predator was unable to push forward and my prey mustn’t  backoust me). Several Governs later Infernals were gone and I was preparing for final push against Tremere and one Gargoyle (Cedric if I remember correctly). Then again the horror with Pentex (applied to the Gargoyle since he is the only one who could withstand combat save for Tremere equipped with Jar), several Deep songs, which left only the Gargoyle and the Jar carrier. Despite the Pentex’s contest in the next turn, Deep songs in my turn killed the Gargoyle and using Cannine horde I destroyed the Jar of skineaters and that’s the end of the game for Zsolt and victory for me. :)

Final score: 1GW for me,1VP for Vlada and 1VP for Zsolt.

Thanks to:
Everybody who played and engrossed this happening with their prsence (particularly Ben Peal and our neighbors from Croatia and Hungary, and the lads from Kragujevac), Chupa who had labored to make the tournament superb, guys from the C22 Club, all those who lent me cards for the torunament, Martin Major and Erik Torstensson for inventing the decks which inspired mine and Pentex TM Subversionu for giving me birth.

Tournament name : Preys VS Predator:Belgrade

Location : Belgrade,Serbia
Number of Players: 24
Deck Name : Nana Buruku with ani weenies
Author : Milos Krstic
Description : Pretty straight-forward ANI deck based on Erik Torstensson's and Martin Major's decks with Nana. Strategy is to backrush 1st ask questions
later. Took 1GW and 3VPs in final,2GWs 11VPs pre final.


Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 8 average: 4.83333
------------------------------------------------------------

4x Nana Buruku 8 ANI POT PRE Guruhi:4
1x Celeste Lamontagne 5 ANI PRO for !Gangrel:4
1x Petra 5 ANI OBF aus Nosferatu:4
1x Beetleman 4 ANI obf Nosferatu:4
1x Bobby Lemon 4 ANI pro Gangrel:3
1x Stick 3 ANI !Nosferatu:4
1x Mouse 2 ani Nosferatu:3
1x Zip 2 ani Ravnos:3
1x Lisa Noble 1 ani Caitiff:3


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

Action [16]
15x Deep Song
1x Entrancement

Combat [36]
13x Aid from Bats
2x Canine Horde
10x Carrion Crows
4x Target Vitals
5x Taste of Vitae
2x Terror Frenzy

Event [2]
1x Anthelios, The Red Star
1x Dragonbound

Master [25]
2x Animalism
1x Archon Investigation
9x Ashur Tablets
2x Blood Doll
1x Carver's Meat Packing and Storage
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Fame
1x Fortschritt Library
1x Frontal Assault
1x Liquidation
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Tension in the Ranks
1x Tribute to the Master
1x Wider View

Reaction [11]
4x Cats' Guidance
1x Delaying Tactics
4x On the Qui Vive
2x Sense the Savage Way



Tournament report written by Milos Krstic.

Wednesday 30 March 2011

CHANGE: Martin's Birthday Massacre Vol. II

Hi folks!

Due to personal reasons I had to change the date of the event, new date is:

Name of Event: Martin's Birthday Massacre vol. II
Date: 24.04.2011, Sunday
Location: Cantina, Budapest (check here for the website: cantina)
Format: 3R + Final, normal constructed
Entrance fee: none
Tournament starts at: 12:00, registration starts at 11:00

Unfortunately this is the only date when both the venue and myself will be available. There will be another event held on that day, so we have to limit the number of players to 20. This might not be a problem since I am not really counting on more than 20 players to come.

Come guys!!!

by: Mephistopheles

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Failure: the Rules

Hi folks!

Before you continue with reading please let me state that I still love this game, will always love it and my biggest wish is that v:tes will find a company again, so that we will see many more expansions and die in twilight home at the age of 80+ from an heart attack when our predator announces a bleed for 6 at 1 stealth.

So, with that said I'll continue with my original thought. There are many points in this game where I feel like there is either a big hole, a major mistake in planing or just a big big FAIL. In these articles I will show you my point of view. All these articles are 100% subjective, feel free to disagree and any comments are welcome (also criticism is very welcome).

The first and imo one of the most obvious flaw is the rule system itself. Before you start yelling at me and auto-defending the game like crazy, just please take a look at the following points:

1. No clear system

Isn't the fact that we need LSJ basically 24 hours a day to get things clarified not an indictment by itself? It doesn't matter if I take a look at the vekn.net, newsgroup or our national forum: the most commonly seen posts are about rules questions and these questions are not just asked by newbies. It quite often happens that 2 players who played this game for 10+ years and have been appointed to be a judge quite often argue about a certain card or effect. To run a tournament peacefully you often need internet access, so you can search for rulings. I mean I've even seen debates with players like Ben Peal involved and we had to stop the time for like 20 minutes until we found a proper answer. I am sure that there are some GEEKS out there who know every single LSJ post by heart, but thats for sure not the average v:tes player.

2. The epic fail of ruling: lack of objective factors

All the above wouldn't be too bad. In our modern society it's almost 100% sure that at least one player has mobile internet access so there is at least an ability to check the ruling. My biggest issue concerns the rules which totally lack any chance of ever being applied the way they should. Here are my favorites:

a) The time factor

So when is a player stealing on time (which is and should be illegal)? There are players who normally play fast and there are players who are just slow. When a fast player starts to play at the speed the slow player played during the game, is he stealing on time? He doesn't play slower than anybody else. Even though it's obvious that his change in behavior is due to the fact that he will have his tournament win with a time out. How do you measure that?

Or another example, which actually did happen to me at an EC on the last day, where every vp did matter: by prey was down to 1 pool with nothing in the ready region. All his vamps where in torpor at 0 blood. He had no master card or whatever that could give him pool. I had 5 ready minions, a Smiling Jack and an Army of Rats in play. He spent a whole minute to decide in which order to untap and what to discard and we timed out. I was denied my game win even though my prey would have died right in my untap phase. The judge was watching all this and didn't say a word.

Another example. At a final table in a Hungarian tournament the Tzimisce wall was about to win due to the time out (he was 1st seat). He checked every single ash heap every turn, read any card, because he claimed he doesn't know it and he has the right to read it (as if somebody who won an EC before and almost always plays wall decks doesn't know how Pentex works...). Our judge didn't do a damn thing. Oddly enough when Gulya made his vp and the Tzimisce wasn't winning anymore he suddenly had the fastest turns and started telling people they should play faster...

I could write a book of such examples. I started to play tournaments in 2004. Since than I have never ever seen a judge punishing somebody for stealing on time. In like 60%-70% of all these games the player who did steal time achieved his goal, leaving the other player who would have deserved the vp/gw (by rules!!!) totaly frustrated.

b) Play to win

This was discussed so often that I am tired of it, therefore I won't go into details. It is enough to quote the following from the vekn.net website: "For tournaments, playing to win means playing to get a Game Win if it is reasonably possible, and when a Game Win is not reasonably possible, then playing to get as many Victory Points as possible." The ruling here includes a totally subjective point. If we agree on the fact that 0,5 > 0 than this is one the most often violated rules in the game...

This article is not about proposing a solution, so don't come up with that please. However I will try to make some proposals in a separate article.

by: Mephistopheles



Monday 28 March 2011

Upcomming Event: HNC Round Szeged

Hi folks!

The next HNC Round is coming:

Name of Event: HNC Round Szeged
Date: 16.04.2011, Saturday
Location: Garabonciás, Szeged
Format: 3R + Final, normal constructed
Entrance fee: 2000 HUF
Tournament starts at: 11:00, registration starts at 10:00

by: Mephistopheles

Friday 25 March 2011

I feel gray

Hi folks!

With totally nothing going on regarding v:tes these days I simply feel gray. Thus the change in the blog design. By the way, could any of you guys tell me, how many cards I should draw at the beginning of the game? It's been awhile since I played the last time...

by: Mephistopheles

f.y.i.: moving away from Budapest didn't really help my v:tes career...

Monday 21 March 2011

Upcomming Event: Martin's Birthday Massacre vol. II

Hi folks!

I'll be brief on this:

Name of Event: Martin's Birthday Massacre vol. II
Date: 23.04.2011, Saturday
Location: Cantina, Budapest (check here for the website: cantina)
Format: 3R + Final, normal constructed
Entrance fee: none
Tournament starts at: 12:00, registration starts at 11:00

Come guys!!!

by: Mephistopheles

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Upcomming Event: Grand Ball 3, Hatvan

Hi folks!

The guys in Hatvan were serious when talking about starting a new tradition. Here comes the 3rd event!!!

Event Name: Grand Ball 3
Location: Hatvan (Hungary), Amsterdam Expresso
Date: 26.03.2011
Start time: 11:00
Format: 2R + F normal constructed
Fee: 600 HUF
Contact: Csaba Pal (+36707016095)

Come and have fun!!!

by: Mephistopheles

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Tournament Report: HNC Nagymaros

Hi folks!

I couldn't play the event, so all I have is the TWD. Congratulations to Csaba for winning with this interesting deck.

Event: HNC Round Nagymaros
Date: Saturday, 12 March 2011
Form: 3R + F normal constructed
Number of players: 24


Deck name: The Geisha

Player: Csaba_Mr Toreador_Greguss


CRYPT

5 Thucimia

2 Hafsa

2 Vardar Vardarian
2 Kamau Jafari
1 Alu

LIBRARY (75)

2 Perfectionist
3 Villein
1 Secure Haven
2 Wash
2 Direct I.
1 Pentex
1 Giant's Blood
1 Monastery of shadows
1 Yoruba Shrine

8 Loss
4 Haquim's Law Leadership
2 Khabar: Glory

2 Cloak the Gathering
3 Lost in Crowds
5 Eyes of Chaos
5 Forced March
2 Spying Mission
3 Deed the Heart's Desire
3 Enkil Cog
2 Faceless Night
2 Elder Impesonation

2 Nest of Eagles
1 Delaying Tactics
1 Confusion of the Eye
3 Black Sunrise

5 No Trace

1 Mylan Horseed
2 Homuncolus
1 Malajit Chandramouli

2 Touch of Clarity
2 Swalloved by the Night 


by: Mephistopheles

Thursday 10 March 2011

Tribute to the Master: Happy Birthday Chuck Norris!

Hi folks!

The father of all round house kicks was born on March 10, 1940. It's once more time to wish him good health and a happy birthday!


/// I don't really like to do any offtopic on my blog, but Mr. Norris is the exception. There is no evolution, he just chose to let us live. We should be grateful. Thank you Chuck! ///

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Card Check: Vampiric Disease

Hi folks!

Another card check article. This time I want to share my thoughts about an old time favorite. In the past couple of tournaments I've seen many decks that use untapping cards like Freak Drive, Majesty, Second: Tradition, Sense the Savage Way, etc.

With all these untapping effects being around I once more realized how strong this card can be. Actually I played an imbued deck in a casual game last year that packed 3 copies of Vampiric disease. Now I tend towards building an imbued deck that uses some more, like 6-7 of them. Once the disease has spread the overall blood level on vampires will be pretty low, so the imbued will be real combat monsters (Strike with Conviction, Target Vitals and equipments).

It's pretty obvious how effective the disease is when we look at some examples:

1. Dominate Brujah

Let's say Donal shows up and gets a disease. A mandatory Govern the Unaligned will cost a blood + 1 for the untap. A turn later if he took any actions and wants to block with a Second Tradition that will cost him 1+1 again.  So this is already 4 blood! 50% of his capacity. 

2. Dominate / Fortitude

A common deck type to see at tournaments. Freak Drive will cost 2 blood. Govern basically the the same. Since  Conditioning and Deflection also costs blood, the disease will drain of the vampire very fast.

3. Rutor's Hand?

Get the hand for 4 blood + 1 to untap next turn. No each time you want to use the hand to untap that will cost a blood...

4. Weenie Presence tap and bleed

 Imagine 3-5 caps playing Majesty for 2 blood all the time. 'Nough said.

Of course not only the imbued can make use of the disease. It might seem a little risky, but Howler and friends could add some copies as well. Normally you won't get the disease since you can out-maneuver almost everything and throw in a couple of Terror Frenzy to be extra save. Also a one star deck built around Cailean could use a few copies. I really should stop talking about Vampiric Disease being a great card, instead I just should build the deck a win with it. A plan for the future...

by: Mephistopheles 

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Tournament Wining Deck: Grand Ball 2, Hatvan

Hi folks!

Finally I've received the deck list. So here it is:

Event: Grand Ball 2, Hatvan
Date: 26.02.2011
Number of players: 14
Format: 2R + F, normal constructed
Author: Miklós Szilvester
Deck Name: Imbued Silver


Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 12, Max: 20, Avg: 4,08)
----------------------------------------------
1 Francois 'Warder' Loehr DEF JUD 3 Judge
1 Inez 'Nurse216' Villagrande INN 3 Innocent
1 Jack 'Hannibal137' Harmon DEF JUD 4 Defender
3 Jennie 'Cassie247' Orne INN JUD VIN 5 Visionary
2 John 'Cop90' O'Malley JUD VEN 4 Avenger
1 Liz 'Ticket312' Thornton INN RED 2 Innocent
1 Marion 'Teacher193' Perks RED JUD 4 Redeemer
2 Travis 'Traveler72' Miller DEF MAR 5 Martyr

Library: (88 cards)
-------------------
Master (20 cards)
6 Angel of Berlin
2 Church of Vindicated Faith, The
2 Direct Intervention
1 Fortschritt Library
1 KRCG News Radio
1 Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter
2 Pentex Subversion
1 Smiling Jack, The Anarch
1 Society of Leopold
1 Unity
1 WMRH Talk Radio
1 Wall Street Night, Financial Newspaper

Action (1 cards)
1 Aranthebes, The Immortal

Reaction (5 cards)
3 Determine
2 On the Qui Vive

Combat (7 cards)
7 Target Vitals

Ally (6 cards)
1 Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1 Gregory Winter
1 Ossian
2 Vagabond Mystic
1 Wendell Delburton (Hunter)

Retainer (1 cards)
1 Mr. Winthrop

Equipment (16 cards)
2 .44 Magnum
1 Crusader Sword, The
2 Flak Jacket
1 Heart of Nizchetus
2 Improvised Flamethrower
1 Ivory Bow
1 Kevlar Vest
1 Laptop Computer
2 Light Intensifying Goggles
1 Sniper Rifle
2 Sport Bike

Event (4 cards)
1 NRA PAC
3 Unmasking, The

Power (14 cards)
2 Champion
3 Discern
1 Inspire
3 Rejuvenate
5 Vigilance

Conviction (14 cards)
5 React with Conviction
5 Second Sight
4 Strike with Conviction

by: Mephistopheles

Monday 7 March 2011

Upcomming Event: Constructed in Belgrade

Hi folks!

We have been invited to join a constructed tournament in Belgrade. The date is Saturday, 19 March 2011. I don't have any specific information. Check your schedule! Let's go and have fun!!!

by: Mephistopheles

f.y.i.: further news and details as well as discussion about the event should take place on our forum.

by: Mephistopheles

Sunday 6 March 2011

Poll Result: Do you double uniques?

Hi folks!

The latest poll was about doubling uniques. I have to admit that I could have chosen the questions more carefully. However we have a result and here it is:


No, I never double uniques.
  4 (6%)
 
Only those the deck is built around (like Soul Gem)
  39 (61%)
 
I double almost all really good ones!
  20 (31%)
 

Altogether 63 votes were cast. The result clearly states that people tend to double (or triple, etc.) uniques. The advantage is that you have a higher chance to draw the card early on. The price you pay is that you will draw totally useless cards during the game since you can't play another copy of a unique card you already have in play.

Currently I have an Akunanse deck which features 2 copies of the Rack, since the Akunanse Hunting Ground is pretty crap and blood support is crucial to a wall deck. Also my Brujah Alastor deck featured 2 copies of New Carthage in a 78 card deck. So I am happy that I am not the only player doubling his uniques.

by: Mephistopheles
    

Saturday 5 March 2011

Upcomming Event: HNC Round Nagymaros

Hi folks!

The new HNC season has started! Come and join our national championship series! As always the top 40 (or 25 depending on the amount of players) players from the preliminary tournaments will be invited to the final tournament to fight for the national champion title. So here is the first round:

City: Nagymaros, the usual place
Date: Saturday, 12 March 2011
Registration: 0900-1000
Format: 3R + F, normal constructed
Entry Fee: 2000 HUF, which includes a booster and some promo cards
Contact: Peter Korsos  +36 30 633 0673 

by: Mephistopheles

Thursday 3 March 2011

1st Anniversary

Hi folks!

This blog started about a year ago!!! Thank you all for reading this blog an commenting on it. I hope the second year will be as good as the last one. I tried and will try to continuously develop my blog, but any feedback from you guys would be highly appreciated.

  • So what did you like most?
  • Is there something you miss from here?
  • What do you want to see (or read) more?
  • What other changes would you suggest? 

Please comment here!

by: Mephistopheles