Why is it so hard to get him???

Hi folks!

This vampire is wanted for play! It seems he his hard to find and even harder to obtain. Damn!

by: Mephistopheles

Killer Combo: Temporatrix

Hi folks!

This combo has been "invented" by Peter Korsos, one of our most creative players. It's "endless" combat and will eat any non-combat deck for breakfast!

The combo is awesome by itself when facing hands for 1 only, but it gets way brutal if you add a Chainsaw to good ol' Trix. You can throw in some cool stuff like Summon History to get yourself a Tye Cooper or Ponticulus. The options are here to make it a creative and effective deck...

by: Mephistopheles

/I've seen that my previous post inspired the Lasombra, that's why I made a separate post for this. Maybe other people will find this interesting, too./

Tournament Report: Martin's Birthday Massacre

Hi folks!

Just a brief report. We were 10 players playing on easter Sunday. Thanks everybody for coming! I played a Temporatrix deck (Goratrix fighting with Pocket out of Time) originally designed by Peter Korsos. The deck works really great in an environment with lot of non-combat decks. Unfortunately the opposite happened. We went for 2R + Finals only and I could oust an Imbued deck and survive until the time out. In the second game I had no chance to oust my prey. There is really not much to report about these games. Because of the low attendance 1.5 vp's were enough to make it to the finals were we could watch Nana Buruku achieving another tournament win, while I was stuck behind a Tzimisce wall deck. 

Is it only me or do you guys also think that the Nana Buruku + weennie animalism deck has the best number of tournaments played / tournaments won ratio ever??? 

by: Mephistopheles

f.y.i.: Peter Korsos won with Nana this time.

Thoughts on: Villein, Vessel, Blood Doll

Hi folks!

My recent observation of the game lead to this article. I've seen quite a dozen different decks or even more in the last week and either played with/against them or just watched the game. I am aware of the fact that such inputs are hard to generalize since meta game is an important factor and an observer playing in another playgroup might get a totally different result. So here are my thoughts:

Villein

This card is pure gold. The king of pool gainers. It's not only good in master heavy or big cap decks, but also owns vessel or blood doll in many mid cap based decks. In all the recent games I have never ever seen the drawback of the card causing any problem. Instant pool gain is always strong, remember Minion Tap, but having the ability to play two of them in the same round? Ridiculously strong. It can totally save your ass. Besides there is still the notorious and infamous Villein + Giant's Blood combo, which I have seen many times. Just enough text here, this card is purely awesome.

Vessel 

Overrated in most decks, with some exceptions. If you need the pool fast Villein is way better, but even Blood Doll will generate the pool faster. In case you play a deck in which your vampires might need blood back on them from time to time Blood Doll is just way better. This would be certainly the case for almost any stealth bleed, tap and bleed or weenie deck. The only archetype I can think of which really could profit from Vessel is the wall deck. In a deck were you want to ensure a permanent pool income (via Rack, HG, etc) and also have quite a lot of master cards Vessel is the top pick. 

Blood Doll 

With the appearance of Vessel Blood Doll became barely used. I think this tendency is slowly turning around and Blood Doll might see more play in the future. I described some of it's advantages above. Remember you can prevent a vampire from hunting by just playing a Doll on it and use it right away! It is the faster pool gain and the more versatile card and its drawback you ask? Well in the recent past when I played a Blood Doll it never got removed. Since bleed decks want to play with master canceling cards anyway I suggest playing Wash + Blood Doll. Both cards are very useful on their own, but Wash can protect your Blood Doll. Also Wash is trifle so you can play a Blood Doll on your 0 blood bleeder guy after playing the Wash on your preys Villein...

by: Mephistopheles 

Upcomming Event: ECQ Budapest, Hungary

Hi folks!

Date: 2011.05.07, start at: 11:00

Location: Cantina klub, 1074 Budapest, Alsó erdősor utca 3, cantinaklub.com

Contact: Martin Major, +36/704166794, major.martin.tibor@gmail.com

Entrance fee: unknown yet

Rounds: 3R + Final

by: Mephistopheles

Some rough statistics on the Play Test Weekend

Hi folks!

We've taken notes on 9 games during the Play Test Weekend and here I have some numbers for you. Feel free to make your own conclusions:

Average pool damage a player suffered to get ousted: 19,58333...
Minimum pool damage caused to oust somebody: 11
Maximum pool damage caused to oust somebody: 29

Here are the numbers for each oust (pool damage) we could record (not complete): 15, 20, 11, 16, 16, 28, 12, 13, 17, 15, 24, 27, 15, 29, 21, 28, 20, 17, 19, 24, 22, 18, 29, 14

Number of turns the recorded games lasted: 12, 9, 13, 10, 16, 12, 17, 11, 10
Turns needed to see the first oust (same order than above, so you can see how much turns were between the first and last oust): 9, ?, 10, 7, 11, 7, 5, 7, 5

Some notes f.y.i.:

- the game was very Villein heavy, Vessel was almost never seen played.
- Villein + Giants Blood was seen many times
- there were many decks built around big cap vampires

Feel free to comment and ask questions!

by: Mephistopheles

Card Idea: In Silence We Kill

Hi folks!

So here is an idea that would improve the playability of Assamite combat decks. I can hear people scream already that the think this card would be too strong and that it should have at least a blood cost or so. I think this card isn't too strong at all, but it could help the Assamites to reach a decent tournament level, finally. It is based on the same wod skill than Selective Silence. I would be so happy if this card would actually exist!!!

Again, before screaming that this card is too strong just take a closer look at Immortal Grapple which is way stronger...

by: Mephistopheles

Papkeszi Play Test Weekend (2) Report

Hi folks!

We  had a gaming marathon going on this weekend from Saturday morning till Sunday afternoon to be more specific. Frankie, David, Gambit, Eshu an myself played like 11-12 games or so. It was pretty intensive. There were some rather interesting things:

1. We had 7 (!!!) different decks with 10-11 cap vampires trying to get an Enkil Cog, untap in another players turn and using Monastery of Shadows. 

2. We had a Kyasid Trophy deck which was damn cool. 

3. We had an unusual amount of 2vp-2vp-1vp games.

4. We had a sufficient beer supply. :)

I tried to build some non-combat decks, after spending the last 2 years trying to torporize everything. I had to realize that playing them is not really half as funny as it is playing a Nanani, Alastor or Multi-rush deck. Here is what I tested:

1. Follower of Set Temptation deck

I posted that deck earlier here. I made some changes in it like adding a Robert Carter and some copies of Enticement. The basic idea worked well. I could generate a lot of pool and easily put into play 4-5 vampires. Still the deck didn't work at all. With all these 10 caps around I hardly could use the temptations the way I wanted. Also I got too often stuck between 2 voter decks who just Parity Shift-ed the crap out of me. The deck is sort of fun to play, but lacks enough forward momentum to achieve any victory points. I think I will give up on this.

2. Imbued

Pretty promising. Eshu gave me some very good ideas which I will make use of. This deck has potential. However its nothing new and while it can be fun to play people hate it and therefore I don't want to play with it too often outside of tournaments.

3. Classic Ventrue

A group 1-2 Ventrue tap and bleed with some votes and multi act in it. Though the deck has the potential of winning games it isn't fun to play. 

4. Akunanse Wall

I think it is because of my play style, but Akunanse is just not the real deal for me. When it comes to playing a wall deck with good combat support I still would choose Ahrimanes. They are more versatile than the Akunanse since they have access to Swiftness of the Stag and Enchant Kindred. The 2 cards provide either a bleed for 2 (3 with The Siamese) at 1 stealth or pool from the blood bank on an uncontrolled vampire at 2 stealth. Alternatively you have a maneuver or press. 

It was a fun weekend, however I was disappointed by the games played with the Setite deck. I couldn't make a stupid vp with it...

I made some notes during the games which showed some interesting numbers. I will write a separate post for that soon.

by: Mephistopheles 

HNC ranking updated

Hi folks!

After receiving the first archon file I've updated the HNC ranking. There is still one archon file missing. This year I will also keep track of how many tournaments a player attended.

by: Mephistopheles

Epic v:tes rappers of history: Little Tailor of Prague

Yo I take a step back from the ex bloody mess

take a proud look at the result of my stress

wish I just could give it a permanent press

to have you all smashed down into the ground

I smile as I imagine just how you’ll sound

when my baby makes you cry out loud

’cause I’m MC Little Tailor of Prague

never signed a shit in den Haag

cause in a Crusade there ain’t no rule

so kiss the ass of my new War Ghoul!

by: Mephistopheles

Impressive way to spend a day

Hi folks!

I've just spent more than 2 hours to build a deck and find and sleeve the cards just to realize that the deck sucks and that I don't really want to play with it. 

by: Mephistopheles

I haz created card noaw: Fart Mastery

Hi folks!

This is what happens when people get bored and have internet access:

by: Mephistopheles

Failure: Assamite combat (part2)

Hi folks!

I was really surprised by all the feedback I've got on the previous post. Thank you all for the input! However I don't want to put too much time and effort in criticizing a certain discipline. So I'll keep this one brief and less detailed. In the previous article I tried to reflect the combat effectiveness (or the lack of it) by comparing damage output to overall blood cost. In this article I will mention some other things to consider, but will leave the final conclusions to you.

1. Multi-discipline and cards, cards, cards...

One of my big problems with Quietus is that it is hardly playable on its own (Baal's Bloody Talons might be an exception, but you still might want to play Psyche!). Since it is hard to build an Assamite deck around weenie mono-Quietus in a similarly way than weenie Potence, weenie Animalism or even weenie Thaumaturgy you don't really have enough rush/turns to deal with s:ce by just letting the opposing running out of it. Therfore you need Psyche! Which requires superior Celerity. Which narrows down your crypt choice. This also leads to an example combat like this: play maneuver, play strike card, play Psyche, play maneuver again, play strike card again. Supposing you have to deal with 1 s:ce card played only you still need 5 cards to achieve the poor damage output described in the previous article...

2. Crypt choice 

This is pretty damn obvious. You need a CEL/QUI combination which will make most of your vampires come from the mid caps. With poor access to intercept and bleed bounce in combination with the poor combat effectiveness...

3. Compare!

Just compare all the above with a Black Hand based Assamite rush deck using .44 Magnum and Celerity only. A zillion times more effective? YES! 

Not only true for the Black Hand version. For Assamites .44 Magnum + Celerity is just the better way to go, imo. Since any weenie guy can pay for the .44 Magnum with a Haquim's Law. 

4. Last Word

Can't emphasize this enough: I am not complaining about Quietus being unplayable. Sure you can make funny, or even working deck with Quietus combat. The "Fail" part is nothing else than this: I feel the that the gap between w.o.d. and v:tes is way too big in this case. Quietus (and Assamite) combat might work in certain cases, but it comes nothing close to what you would rightfully expect from a clan based on killing, killing and killing. Just check the the TWDA or even more generally the overall Assamite decks being played! Almost only different subtypes of stealth-bleed or vote decks...

by: Mephistopheles 

Failure: Assamite combat (part 1)

Hi folks!

This is my second post on where I think v:tes could and should have done better. One of the many strengths of v:tes is that it is very close to the role playing game. With few exceptions. Well, unfortunately the Assamite clan belongs to the later. The Assamite really do not excel at combat, however they have very solid bleed and vote options. Read this recent article that was posted on the extrala blog.

Well, I never was a serious vampire: the masquerade player, but still I had some insight into the game, read some novels and it always appeared to me that in W.O.D. the Assamites are feared for their strength in combat. It would have been so cool, if this could have been reflected in the game.

The truth is that Quietus combat cards really do suck and this can be proven with a basic mathematical  knowledge. Let us compare with other combat options (all cards are used at superior level by default):

Example 1: Carrion Crows + Aid from Bats

Fact: 2 cards, no cost, environmental damage (harder to prevent), maneuver, press, total damage output is 6 including a hands for one.

Any weenie can do it, you can swarm with weenies, therefore rush multiple times. This is important because people will run out of s:ce against weenie Animalism very fast.

Example 2: Torn Signpost + Slam + Immortal Grapple

Fact: 3 cards,  1 blood cost, maneuver, press, total damage output is 8, no s:ce in the first turn.

Again, almost any weenie can do it. Also Immortal Grapple prevents you from any strikes that are non-hand strikes.

Example 3: Darkling Trickery + Earth Swords

Fact: 2 cards, no cost, maneuver or press, total damage output is 3 if DT is used for maneuver. 

DT offers additional defense against any weapon based combat deck! Does not deal with s:ce.

Example 4: Arms of the Abyss + Entombment

Fact: 2 cards, 2 blood cost, dodge built in, torpor guaranteed! Does not deal with s:ce.

Option to burn an ally, like a War Ghoul. 

Example 5:  Theft of Vitae + Apportation

Fact: 2 cards, no cost, unpreventable "damage", maneuver or press, total damage output of 2 if Apportation is used for maneuver. Does not deal with s:ce. You gain 2 blood!

Example 6: Selective Silence + Taste of Death

Fact: 2 cards, 1-2 blood cost, maneuver or can set range. Total damage output of 2 aggravated. Does not deal with s:ce

If you set range you need to pay 2 blood, if you just maneuver you risk not being able to play the strike card!

Example 7: Selective Silence + Blood Sweat

Fact: 2 cards, 1-2 blood cost, maneuver or can set range. Total damage output of 3. Cannot be prevented, but only usable at long range.

If you set range you need to pay 2 blood, if you just maneuver you risk not being able to play the strike card!

I think a very important number is the blood cost/damage output ratio. I will give this number by the formula x = damage output - cost for cards -1 for each time range is close (opposing minions default hand damage):

Carrion Crows + Aid from Bats: +5

Torn Signpost + Slam + Immortal Grapple: +5

Darkling Trickery + Earth Swords: +3

Arms of the Abyss + Entombment: *special, but -2 for guaranteed torpor.

Theft of Vitae + Apportation: +4, assuming you can gain all 2 blood stolen.

Selective Silence + Taste of Death: +1 or 0, but causing aggravated damage.

Selective Silence + Blood Sweat: +2 or +1, but damage cannot be prevented.

Well you can easily see that Quietus has the worst ratio with Entombment being the exception. However Entombment offers many other serious advantages over Quietus!

R E M I N D E R

This article is not about Quietus being playable or not. It is not saying that you shouldn't play it nor that it is a bad discipline (though personally I think it is). This article is just trying to say that Quietus is far away from being a tournament (combat) discipline and that it is far far away from what you would rightfully expect from your world of darkness knowledge.  

Basically any random crap 13th generation neonate with Animalism is ridiculously more combat efficient than lets say a 8th generation Assamite.  

This article is becoming too long now, so I'll stop here for now. Before commenting on this article I suggest you wait a day or two until I am finished with the second part, which will include Celerity (being an Assamite discipline, too), deck building and whatever I figure out until then.

by: Mephistopheles

Deck Idea: Temptations Wings

Hi folks!

On my way back home I had this little idea how I should build my Temptation deck, so here it is:

The basic idea is that I get back a lot of pool from my vampires through the Villeins. Samat Ramal-Ra will hunt with Abactor and Heidelberg can be used to transfer that blood to other vampires. Later on I will use the Heidelberg on the tempted vampires. I have 12 Temptations in a 60 card deck, so I should be able to spam them very fast.  

Now I wonder if this is enough to win a game. I have the ability to create a lot of pool and will have most likely at least 4 vampires of my own. I've never played with Temptation before, so I have no idea if you can win a game with this card. Well, it's time to test now!

Deck Name: Temptations Wings
Created By: Mephistopheles

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 17, Max: 24, Avg: 5,33)
----------------------------------------------
  1  Allonzo Montoya                    ani aus OBF SER6  Abomination
  1  Celine Chevalier                   obf ser        3  Followers of Set
  1  Count Ormonde                      dom OBF pre ser5  Followers of Set
  1  Dedefra                            nec obf SER    5  Followers of Set
  1  Ezekiel                            obf pot PRE SER6  Followers of Set
  1  Hesha Ruhadze                      ani obf pre SER6  Followers of Set
  1  Nepata                             obf pre ser    4  Followers of Set
  4  Samat Ramal-Ra                     OBF pre ser tha6  Followers of Set
  1  Sir Marriot D`Urban                aus obf PRE ser5  Followers of Set

Library: (60 cards)
-------------------
Master (17 cards)
  2  Dreams of the Sphinx
  4  Heidelberg Castle, Germany
  1  Opium Den
  1  Pentex Subversion
  1  Temple Hunting Ground
  7  Villein
  1  Wider View

Action (18 cards)
  6  Abactor
  12 Temptation

Action Modifier (20 cards)
  4  Cloak the Gathering
  4  Faceless Night
  4  Forgotten Labyrinth
  4  Lost in Crowds
  4  Spying Mission

Event (1 cards)
  1  Narrow Minds

Combo (4 cards)
  4  Swallowed by the Night

by: Mephistopheles

Game Report: 4 rounds of v:tes!!!

Hi folks!

Finally I played some rounds of v:tes again. This time I found the time, money and energy to travel all the way back to Budapest so I could play 4 games of v:tes with my friends Csaba Greguss, Ferenc Vasadi and Kriston David. As you can see all tables were 4 players tables since we 2 other guys had to cancel the event.

1st game:

I have played an imbued deck only once before and it worked pretty good at that time. Since I want to give them a chance in a tournament I felt that I should take another opportunity to test the deck. After that one game in Veszprém I realized that many of the cards I had in the deck were not  actually useful so I removed them. I figured that since the Imbued are very card efficient I should cut down on library size and just go with what really matters so I ended up with a 70 card deck. 

The deck had a frenetic start: Fortschritt Library to fetch the Unmasking, than in the second turn I played my Information Highway. I had 4 different Imbued in the opening crypt one of them being good ol' Travis. Also important was that John O' Malley was in the starting crypt. I equipped him with a .44 Magnum via Angel of Berlin and started to rush constantly. He pretty soon got his Vigilance and Discern duo. I was lucky since both my prey and predator played different types of Presence vote decks. They were easy to block. My prey (Frankie) played a Montecalme deck which was based on Obedience as combat defense. Not really useful against Imbued. 

The cross table deck was a Cybele deck with Shatter the Gate which she did shatter, but at this time I was totally set up with Champions and whatever else an Imbued can have. Travis and Church of Vindicated Faith with Information Highway gave me the 3pool/round and bleed were no danger because of the two Champions in play. I made a Game Win with 3 Vp's and the Imbued are now at a 2 wins in 2 games ratio.

2nd game:

Well I violated some of my own rules I always write on this blog, so no wonder that I failed in this game. I played a Potence Dominate bruise and bleed with Gustaphe Brunelle as a star vampire. Since my cross table buddy played an Ishtarri .44 magnum based bruise and bleed deck I thought I don't need to rush backwards. Well my predators Thucimia was torporized by the Ishtarri but she received a Giant's Blood and came back to the game. I missed this chance to hit her back to torpor again because I thought the Ishtarri will do that. They didn't and Thucimia got a Secure Haven. Meanwhile I made a fast vp ousting Frankies Montecalme deck. He didn't drew enough Obediences. Since I couldn't attack Thucimia I tried to oust Csaba (Ishtrarri), but the Enkil Cog supported Thucimia was faster and I got ousted. The heads up was won by Csaba who played an Archon Investigation on Thucimia. 1 vp here. Could have been possibly more if I had played by my rules.

3rd game:

In the third game I played my Dmitra Alastor deck, which really didn't work out this time. I drew all 3 Assault Rifles in the first 10 cards, but didn't see any Alastor for quite a long time. Also only 1 Parity Shift showed up. I had to equip an Assault Rifle for 5 pool which was destroyed by a Canine Horde right away. I was a little upset to say the least and therefore made some stupid mistakes. 0 vp here.

4th game:

I gave that Thucimia deck a try and I just had a terrible draw. Neither a Villein nor a Haquims Law showed up to get me some pool. I also failed to draw an Enkil Cog. My predator played a Nahim Enosh + Elimelech deck which just stealth bleeded me out faster than I could do the same to my prey. 0 vp here.

Altogether it was fun playing v:tes again. Playing v:tes on a regular base seems crucial if you want to stay on a competitive level. It is important to have the routine. I really should start to play more again. I see big potential in the Imbued deck, but on my 120km long way back home I had some really interesting ideas for new decks. On 15th-17th April there will be another intensive v:tes testing weekend at my place. I am really looking forward to it!

by: Mephistopheles