Czech ECQ and Council in the Woods Storyline

I am preparing for next week right now. Czech ECQ and storyline will be held in Bystřička in Motobar Royal Star. Since I will be running the event, there is pretty good chance I will not be playing at all. It is a little sad, but I am ok with both options. When playing, I will probably choose very simple deck, so I can perform my duties and there will be very little distractions. On the other hand if not playing, I will be qualified for EC and event will more likely run smoothly.

Although the event wasn't advertised too much, we hope for good attendance and many players will be staying overnight for a storyline. The venue has beds for 30 people, but the main room should support at least 50 players if needed.

There will be some casual games and drinking on friday, ECQ on saturday and storyline on sunday. Anyone can participate in any event, but i recommend trying them all for good experience. For the ecq there will be standard tournament rules and will be played with 3R+F with 2 hours time limit for each round including finals. As for the storyline....

“Wake up, guests are on the way.”

“Really? Is it time for snack again?”

“Not that kind of guests. Apparently we were chosen for some big time meeting. I am not sure, who are they, but it looks pretty serious. I mean, there should be at least twenty delegates and they’re going to negotiate something.”

“Why would anyone that important want to meet here? They are usually used to their luxury items”

“I really do not want to know and you should not either. We just have to make sure they are comfortable and their needs are taken care of.”

“Ok, so we need to prepare for twenty of them? That should not be too complicated.”

“Twenty VIPs, but they will have their entourage with them. So this place will be packed to the roof and there will be conflicts. We need to make sure there won’t be any faux pas.”

“Each delegation will get their lackey? There should be enough of them ready. I’m glad we were prepared. I will make sure they will attend to all their needs.”

“Double check on that. If someone gets pissed or if someone manages to use those lackeys against their party, we won’t live another day and it will not be pleasant. According to my info, these will be real beasts. They will probably not talk at all. All of those “talks” will be handled by their younger ones, but rest assured – they will have backup in case anything goes wrong. We have to be careful, or this place will go nuclear.”

“We should begin with the preparation right now. And hope that it will be enough.”

One after another, windows in the old house came back to life with movement and light. It will be ready for you and your minions. What about you? Will you be ready?

Rules

·        Each player receives one „Lackey“ card depending on his selection. It should be placed in a sleeve in front of a regular crypt card. In the beginning of each game it should be placed in his uncontrolled region. Lackeys are not unique and do not contest each other. They are considered independent clanless vampires. When they enter play from the uncontrolled region for the first time, their controller must choose a clan and they are enslaved to that clan for the remainder of the game.

·        Each player starts with the “Friends in High Places” in play.

·        At least 75% (e.g., 9 out of 12) of the minions in each player’s crypt must be of the same clan.

·         Slave minions (except Lackeys) can take directed actions even if there is no ready member of their enslaving clan in play.

·        There is no pool cost for moving a scarce minion into your ready region.

·        All storyline cards will be provided by organizer and you need only to bring spare sleeves for them

Cards

If you would like to attend this event, please let me know so I can have some estimate about number of people (booked rooms and food portions estimate) we should expect. Also note, that the venue only accepts czech currency and room space is limited. I will answer any question within 24 hours so feel free to ask me about anything regarding this event. Even when arriving on last minutes notice, I am sure there will be place to sleep and something to eat and definitely someone to play with, but at least some notice would be nice.

See you next time...

Still alive

I have not posted anything in a while. Seems unrelated, but probably from time I have been given NC position for Czech Republic, things just started to be more hectic. We had a little drop in attendance on our thursday plays. Still I have managed to build three new decks and I am preparing for Czech Europian Championship Qualifier and storyline which will follow after that. Since I will be running that event, I might probably end up not playing, but I do not mind at this point. I just pray for big attendance and that everyone will enjoy this event. I will follow up with post about storyline and its details, but for now, I just want to try to keep Czech Vtes on the map.

See you next time...

Back from the NAC

I have just returned from Czech National Championship. Draft tournament was actualy huge disapoitment for me. I have drafted terribly, ended up with very fragile deck and even 5 VPs, which I got in the end were miraculous. I have ended up on 7th place out of 15 players, which is acceptable, but overall I was not very happy, so I will not write about it more. I will go for more detailed report on constructed tournament.

There were 25 attending players. This number was once again smaller than last year. I knew about some of the decks that would be present since I was bringing a lot of cards for different players and I knew, that there would be pretty nasty decks and despite being tempted even on the last minute, I went for my first decision - !Gangrel anarchs.

Game 1:
Khazar Diary - Ventrue high caps - Tzimisce wall - !Gangrel anarchs - Brujah swarm politics

This was pretty tricky table for me. I knew that my deck is slow and I probably won't be able to stop my prey from quick ousting. My predator on the other hand was pretty dangerous for me, since most of my actions are on 0 or 1 stealth. Khazar deck had pretty bad start. I had actualy figured out what deck it is only turn before the player was ousted. As predicted, I was able only to slow my prey down a little before the first oust. Only after that the game started to realy tak a left turn. My prey told the tzimisce wall, that he will be ousted in the same round when the ventrue, since he cannot afford blocking and after that tzimisce started  eagle sight blocking right away, followed by govern+conditioning bleed at one stealth sent directly to Brujah swarm. Ventrue game pretty much ended in one turn full villein and Golconda. I was able to oust my prey after that and proceeded with some more anarch revolts, which prevented Ventrue player from getting other minion out and waited with rotshreck in my hand. My prey got ousted after that and i have rotschrecked tzimisces only anarch. 4 VPs and GW for me.

Game 2:
Sebastian Goulet and allies - AAA - Giovanni hordes and conditionings - Ahrimane wall - !Gangrel anarchs

With a turn one unmasking and howler behind me, I was feeling pretty hopeless. To be honest, only hope I saw from the start was three zillah valley in three turns and pretty fast start from AAA. Hordes put up a good fight, but were overwhelmed in the end because of fast start. In that time I got pretty beaten up by ahrimanes and only thing that saved me was, that I was able to archon investigate howler. Sebastian deck was on seven minions because almost all of my actions were defensive (D) actions on ahrimanes. AAA started to worry about him (especialy after anneke lost 5 blood and alexandra burned by fear of mekhet from ahrimanes) , so I was offered a VP for two rouds of peace from my side and only defensive actions against ahrimanes. I was hanging by a thread so I agreed and my prey was ousted and ahrimanes were hit as well. I have started to prepare and played defensively. I knew ahrimanes won't be able to oust me and AAA did not have almost any cards left in library, so I saw oportunity there, but I know ahrimanes would eventualy finish me. I could see them surviving, so on second turn of defense and peace with AAA I dropped second anarch revolt in play and thanks to that, they were ousted. I knew I had very little time, so first turn there were some bleads from me, leaving two of my minions on 0 blood and aksinya on 1, with life in the city in my hand and coven on the way. AAA pentexed aksinya then rescued his minion from torpor and he retrieved kine resources contested from his ash heap and it was my last turn. I played life in the city and it got suddened. I was afraid, that it is my end and i started counting. After a while I knew i will not go without a fight. Celeste received two bloods from coven and my other minion hunted, aksinya reminded pentexed and I have bled for three instead of four. Two more bloods for anarch revolts and AAA was left on 1 pool. KRC ousted us both and I have milked the most I could. 2 VP for me.

Game 3:
!Gangrel anarchs - Eurobrujah - !toreador palla grande bleed - Ariadne with garous - Rachel Brandywine madness

I knew, that this game will be very dangerous for me. If there was good master flow, I could survive Rachel for some time. But if my hand got jammed, it would go pretty bad. Fifteen cards with only three masters pretty much left me at mercy of others. I am ashamed, but I was pretty much almost crying there. Ariadne was dying really quickly. !Toreadors were embracing like crazy. I did not have enough actions and Aksinya had to remain untapped and my prey did not think that Madness network is so strong at the begining. So in between my turns I have lost eight pool and rachel got enkil cog. It looked like I am heading for a quick death. Ariadne got ousted by then and my prey had already Donal, Constanza and Anvil out. I got a little better cardflow by then and I was able to drew into more master cards. Rachel was under the pressure from !toreadors, so she had to go for quick oust. I was able to redirect every bleed from Rachel and my prey got ousted by those bleeds. Rachel died right after, but in the heads up, I was not able to overcome superior numbers. So only 1 VP for me.

In the end 1 GW and 7 VPs were enough for fifth place, so I was going for finals. And lucky lucky  going first.

Finals:
!Gangrel anarchs - Giovanni Hordes - !toreador palla grande bleed - AAA - Ahrimane wall

I knew this game will suck right after ahrimanes decided to sit as my predator. One look down to my uncontrolled region and no Aksinya. It can happen, but three times out of four games. I was ready to start banging my head against wall, but first turn Effective Management just returned me to the game. I thought I had a chance, but no such luck. After third game where I was having trouble with master cards, I made sure to spread cards as much as possible, but when shuffling it all went to hell. My hand was full of master cards and bleed modifiers and I was barely able to do anything. I was trying to slow down ahrimanes, but it cost me a lot of blood and trying to destroy army of rats cost me even more. All my actions were of course blocked. At one point, I played fame on one of my preys vampires and torporized him with Shattering, but it cost me another minion because of shambling horde. And after that it all went to hell. AAA ousted both his predator and prey with a single ancilla empowerment. I was hit pretty bad and even with back shattering, I was ousted by Reins of Power a turn later. In heads up, ability to steal allies sealed the deal and AAA won the tournament.

Of course I was sad, that I did not win but in the end getting as far with a very toolboxy deck was very satisfying. I am little sad, that it underperformed in every single game and card draws were really bad. On the other hand even when all this, I was still able to get to finals. My spirits are up thanks to this. Here is the decklist:

Deck Name: Aksinyas Shattering
Author: Silmegil

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=1 max=9 avg=4.42)
===============================================
 3x  Aksinya Daclau       9  cel tha ANI FOR PRE PRO  !Gangrel:4
 4x  Anarch Convert       1                           Caitiff:ANY
 1x  Bill Butler          3  pot pro                  !Gangrel:4
 1x  Célèste Lamontagne   5  for ANI PRO              !Gangrel:4
 1x  Janey Pickman        6  for ANI PRO              !Gangrel:4
 1x  Lula Burch           3  for pro                  !Gangrel:4
 1x  Mowgli               5  ani cel FOR PRO          !Gangrel:4

Library (74 cards)
==================
Master (24)
 1x Anarch Free Press, The
 5x Anarch Revolt
 1x Archon Investigation
 5x Bay and Howl
 1x Blood Turnip
 3x Effective Management
 1x Fame
 1x Giant's Blood
 2x Life in the City
 2x Rötschreck
 1x Twilight Camp
 1x Two Wrongs

Action (19)
 2x Bum's Rush
 6x Loki's Gift
 8x Shattering
 3x Skullduggery

Action Modifier (12)
 4x CrimethInc.
 2x Leverage
 6x Monkey Wrench

Reaction (5)
 3x Friend of Mine
 2x Guard Dogs

Combat (14)
 6x Claws of the Dead
 3x Diversion
 2x Form of Mist
 3x Leathery Hide

This deck is very toolboxy and it relies on little bit of everything. One or two revolts are enough. Not to realy threaten other people pool, but to put some small pressure. If those revolts do only some damage, that is ok. Voting them off table wastes oponent actions. Leaving them be costs pool and going for anarch is costing blood, actions and leaving vulnerability to shatterings. Lokis gifts are tooling up actions. Gaining blood on one minion, getting one from another can seem like minor deal. In the end one stealth or two votes can do great things. I have seen political actions fail simply because people keep forgetting about them. I do not use stealth most of the time and I usually go for aggropoke instead. I only go for kill if I am sure that I can pull it off. And of course it always helps to not be the biggest threat on table, which this deck hardly is. Once again this was much longer than intended, so I am going to end it here.

See you next time...

Preparing for Czech National Championship

With championship comming this weekend, I am once again faced with decision about what deck to take. Of course I want to go to Stockholm for EC, but between financial demands and lots of other things, I am not sure, if there will be chance to pull it off. So there is not a lot of motivation for going with something strong and boring. In desperate need for win, I would probably go for Edward Vignes and might still consider this deck, but I am not in the mood for it right now.

I am tempted to run into my safety zone and my tremere politics deck, which is until today only deck, that secured me game win. Actualy, two of them. But once again, not in the mood, but definitely more fun.

Then I was thinking to go for Gotsdam block, but everytime when playing block deck, one must be prepared for two hours long game which often end with time limit and that is not the fun I am looking for.

After this, I have probably three options left.

Count Germaine bleed/rush. Deck I am working on for few years now and I still do not get the feel that it is perfect, although it is on completely different level than in the begining. But then again - I have grown soft when playing combat and sometimes spare a minion, that shouldn't be spared. I would love to shine with this deck but in the end it is least likely option I will go for.

Scout and friends is very good option and it performed quite well in Budapest and there have been some tweaks since then, which have pushed the potential even further. Fast and clean deck, but has a lot of problems with speedy bleed decks, which I expect at the event and I am not sure I'd like to pack my cards afte five minutes.

!Gangrel toolbox is my last, but most probable choice. Although it does not pack as much punch, multiple ousting options and toolboxy nature is most fun I had in time when playing a deck. On the other hand, this deck relies heavily on Aksinya and contesting is not something I am looking forward to and even can survive. It will be still my primary choice though.

Even when everything blows, there is still draft tournament, so I hope that I will at least do something there. I will try to make notes and at least make some minireport, so stay tuned.

See you next time...

Not enough mana

That is how I lately feel about V:tes. No energy, very tired and very little inspiration. Even after news about POD, I find it hard to put as much effort to dive in V:tes as much as I did for last year or two. It is not like I do not have passion for games or TCGs for particular. Proof of that is my relatively large pledge on HEX project, which seems like a game with a great potential. I know, that this project and V:tes are not really related, but reading about it and thinking about what i like and do not like on games made me think about what is happening with V:tes and once again, about its future.

For me, things are moving as little as there were in standstill. We have some timeframe for reprints, but none whatsoever for new cards. Ok, maybe that is not true, but I just grew tired of trying to got through every topic on VEKN and try to find any little information hidden somewhere. I have stopped looking at card ideas long time ago, because ... well if there is no way for a loooooooooooooooong time for entire vekn to get some cards out, what the hell is a point to look at cards that, that will not be considered for even longer. I have built numerous new decks, deconstructed those that are not working or not fun to play, made new from last time I wrote and I have considered building even more. But in the end, I fear, there will be no more options. The day is still far away, but it is a sad thought.

I was trying to organize tournaments and league games and different formats, but I am less and less successfull. Each time I have to talk more to each player and remind them and each time there are more dropouts just before tournament. We have a new player, but we lost a lot more. Each time I see topic on vekn labeled "selling my collection" or "ebay sale," I know that we are not only ones with problems. I loved guys from Cause and Effect, but even their activity now is well.. Not to blame them. They have done a great work for community and I appreciate that.

Now don't get me wrong, I love V:tes and will keep playing for as long as there will be oponents. There is no better game to play in pub with a good beer in your hand. But one again it got me thinking about those things, that went wrong.

One thing V:tes really did not have is publicity. I did not know about that such a game existed. We only stumbled upon it because my friend was payed for work with some stuff from fantasy store and he got a starter, because he is the type to try everything. But even after playing for some time, there was really little to find on the web. Now we have vekn and a few GREAT blogs and as I have mentioned, Cause and Effect. But apart from that, there is a very little. Playgroups are very tight, but outside of them, no one knows what are they actually doing. I always thought, that this is just killing this game and well, it is really hard to be wrong here.

And the rules. So I have played some MTG for a little while and still knew rules more than V:tes after three years. Only after learning a lot and becoming judge and prince, I am confident, that I know basics. I know a lot of rulings and I am fairly good at this, but I could be still surprised by things like Increased strength and Heroic might. It is nearly impossible to contain it all. I am trying to keep up with vekn rules question and check them for updates. Although I know 99.5% answers, there are still surprises left hidden. Last time I tied to explain basics to a newbie, I got so tied up in specific situations, that I was nearly incapable of explaining most simple stuff.

Solve these two and V:tes can live. In time, there will be need for new cards, that is for sure. But building big playerbase and getting new and young players? I am getting more and more pessimistic by the minute.

I would like to get something with more substance and optimism, but this is all I have at this moment. I hope you are not getting tired with my rants, but at least writting this stuff down feels like i am doing something related to V:tes.

See you next time...

Vtes - Future, Rumors, Facts ...

Hey guys!

After a long time, I am again thinking about future of our beloved game and I am not feeling really happy. Of all things, that I have at my disposal, facts about future of this game are one of most scarce resources. Only thing I know for sure is, that this game is dead. Everything else are speculations and rumors.

There was a lot of talk about Print on Demand and for a long time, I believed, that this will probably end up as solution. Not that I am really comfortable with it, but if there were some starter system for short period of time and after that chance of revival of ccg model, I would have loved it.

Lately I have read something about WoD LCG game from FFG, which should be successor of Vtes. Probably simplified and not compatible with old VTES. If it were the case, I wouldn't be glad at all. But again, I do not know anything for fact.

From the beginning, I was little unsure about PDF expansions from VEKN, but to do them to keep community alive and provide new tested cards for new potential publisher was looking like a good idea as time progressed. 

But after that, there were some pretty hard quarrels within the team, that should have made and tested those cards. I will not take any side here, mainly because I do not have all the facts and it is not purpose of this post.

New cards are not going out and there is only so many decks, that you can build, when you have limited cardpool. I love deckbuilding, but I have missed some cards, when they got out and I am not in the mood to purchase them for a loooot of money. I would just like some new commons, that would refresh the game. There is no surprise, that some players do not like to play a dead ccg game.

This somehow pressured me, to get more serious about tournament scene, and some other players too. This may not be significant, but when some players shift to more serious play and more testing of powerful decks, it somehow shifts entire metas casual games. And of course some people do not like that. 

And this is basicaly point of this post. Despair I am feeling is from this uncertainty is starting to get to me. Every day I see this game dying, because things we know, but more than anything, from thigs that we do not know. People would like to play this game for some more, but they would not like to end up with useless cards for a game, that no one plays, when they can sell them for big bucks on ebay. I can see those auctions every week. And even if this game survived, I do not really believe, that anyone of them would start playing again from scratch.

Its not like I have nothing to do. I build new decks regularly, try to organize tournaments in somewhat regular fashion, continue league games and every week, there are casual games. But I would just like to know, what the hell is going on and what to expect.

So once again, this post ended up with less substance and more ranting from my side. But that is just my frustration getting out. 

See you next time...

Thoughts about cards - 2) Pentex(TM) Subversion

So as our metagame scene grows stronger and stronger and as I attend tournaments, I have been encountering this card more and more. And there is no surprise - it is really strong.

1) One stars/high caps -  I usually play star or at least high cap decks and this card is often enough to cripple this deck to a point, where it just waits to be ousted. Acting deck is usually shut down totally, since you need to multiact and your tool up actions are lost. Blockish are stripped of their main defense. Yes, you still can use bounce, but that may not be enough without proper cycling.

2) Midcaps - Although not as powerfull as with high caps, ability to shut down main blocker - like Carna for example, is very good. Often that one round, where that one minion cannot block you maybe enough. It may be that one intercept, ivory bow, or being a prince, that bothers you, but solution is universal. Same way, block deck can get rid of that one minion, which bothers them, or just again slow dow those initial tool up actions, like govern superior.

3) Lowcaps - even less effective, but eliminating one vampire for price of two pool can often save you much more.

Again, these thoughts are nothing new. Everyone has used it, or was killed by it and again, when moving closer and closer to tournament scene, I keep seeing this card more and more. Is it bad? I am not sure. I dislike its ability to shut down almost every one star deck. Would we see this card on the table more rarely, if its cost would be 3 pool? I doubt it. Even with 4 pool cost, I would play it in same decks. Of course, there would be times, when this card would be too much expensive, but most of the time, it would still be worth it. And I think that says a lot. Speaking with other players, some of them confirmed this opinion.

I have read some discussions, where people were advised, that his card should either restrict acting, or blocking, but not both. Another interesting idea was to give pentexed vampire ability to remove pentex.

Although all those ideas are interesting, I think that this card goes long way back and changing it this much would be too much. Although this card will be pain in my behind for a long time, since I tend to play high caps and probably will in the future, I would stick to increasing cost of this card by one pool. It isn't much, but I believe that it would help a little to balance this card. It would still remain pretty strong though.

I am not sure, what next article will be about, but I will try to continue writting about things I find interesting.

See you next time...