Pulled Fangs

#22 Design Team Notes on New Expansion

2011-12-14T08:52:00.002+08:00

The VEKN Design Team for the new expansion has provided some background on their composition, work process and the upcoming expansion. Some highlights---

On the goals for the new set:

The design team strove to achieve several goals for the set. Among them, and not necessarily in any order of priority:
Preserving game balance and card balance.
Adhering to World of Darkness canon for crypt and library cards
Creating cards which enable portions of the game which are lacking or underdeveloped. (We are not making "hosers.")
Developing high-caliber cards which can be feasible in tournaments and fun in casual games.

On set contents:

It is no big secret that the traditional Sabbat clans lack Group 5 crypt cards, so these will comprise a large portion of the set. We hope this will provide more options for viable Sabbat G4/5 crypts and additional synergy with G5/6 Bloodlines. The new G4/5 vampires are intended to work well with those previously established in G4, and we hope that G4/5 plays to different strengths and weaknesses than G2/3.

See the full text over at the VEKN Forums.

My personal takeaway: While I am extremely happy that there is continuing fanbase support for V:tES, I will probably pass on this one since I've long ago decided that I will focus on G1/2/3 vamps.

#21 Deck Building 101: A Bare-bones Approach

2011-11-30T00:00:00.000+08:00

Winning at V:tES requires a deep understanding of generally two things: The Deck and The Player. The former also means other decks on the table, and the latter, those who control the said decks. Taking all the other decks and all the other players, including those not on the table, the most dynamic element emerges: The Metagame.

This series of posts will deal with the V:tES skill many players learn after learning how to play the game: Deck Building.

In creating decks, I ask the following questions:

What is the key card/idea/trick of this deck?
Which vampires support this?
[Create the initial crypt]
How can the key library card be ~~abused~~ used to its full potential?
[Create the initial library]
How do I intend to oust?
[Improve the library/crypt]
How do I intend to survive against stealth bleed? Powerbleed? Combat? Vote? Intercept? Imbued/allies?
[Improve the library/crypt]
What have others done before? How have they dealt with the strategy's weaknesses?
[Improve the library/crypt]
What is my inventory like?
[Iterate steps 1-7 as needed]

As an example, we will walk through creating a Henry Twister deck, once prevalent in the US and European meta but now largely ignored in favor of other, more resilient twister flavors, the most popular of which is the Girls Will Find ... variant. According to the TWDA, Henry Twisters won 7 tournaments from 2005 through 2011, 4 from North America and the rest from Europe.

Twister --

a deck designed to operate at below normal deck minimums (usually 40 cards) through the use of burn option cards to pad the deck to normal minimums and ashheap recursion to line up perfect hands. (XZealot)
a deck designed to reduce its own library down to a relative few (10 or so, maybe less) cards that are just perfect. The excess cards are usually burn cards for bloodlines not to be found in the twister deck's crypt. Then the desired cards are continually regenerated, for instance, by using Waste Management Operation. (Frederick Scott)
"Twister" is a deck that is played from the ash heap (Jozxyqk)

Henry Twister --

[A twister deck that] uses Henry Taylor's ability to regenerate library cards. (Frederick Scott)

What is the key card/idea/trick of this deck?

The new deck is a Henry Taylor Twister. Henry gets and a bunch of intercept. He blocks then cycles infinite Earth Melds with his special. Ousting is primarily with Smiling Jack, the Anarch. Much of the deck should be in the ash heap by turn 5 or so, and recursion through Waste Management Operation will ensure you always have a hand that can deal with anything.

Which vampires support this?

Since the strategy hinges on Henry getting , it would be good to fill out the crypt with weenies. However, this early on, I know I want to survive unblockable big bleeds (via Elder Impersonation, Call of the Hungry Dead, etc.) so I also want bounce. Incidentally, all my Deflection is in another deck so I need to use instead.

As an initial crypt, I can use:

5x	Henry Taylor	POT cel pre pro	6	Brujah antitribu:3
3x	Khalu	AUS CEL POT ani pro	7	Osebo:3
1x	Daliyah	PRO obf	4	Nosferatu:2
1x	Chandler Hungerford	PRO	3	Gangrel:2
1x	Sadie	pro	2	Gangrel antitribu:2
1x	Anarch Convert		1	Caitiff:0

The obvious question is, "Why Khalu?" He's bigger than Henry and has no . True. However, he's among the smallest with and has a useful special to boot. There are times that you will need to cancel some EvilStuff(TM) (Immortal Grapple, Change of Target, Elder Impersonation, etc.) and not have a Direct Intervention in hand (or have just used one). The special can be powered by The Rack (since you will be blocking anway) and some Vessels and Blood Dolls in a pinch.

But to be honest, he needs a home.

How can the key library card be ~~abused~~ used to its full potential?

For Henry do pull off his combo reliably, we need to strive to get the ideal hand every turn. Initially, this can be:

1x	Archon Investigation / Direct Intervention / Sudden Reversal
1x	Forced Awakening / On the Qui Vive
1x	Telepathic Misdirection for Khalu
1x	Earth Meld
1x	Form of the Ghost
1x	Quick Meld
1x	Wolf Claws

With this hand, we can cancel EvilStuff(TM) or pool-gaining masters of the prey, bounce bleeds, manuever away in combat to play the S:CE-untap (and ready to block again) trick, or hit your unsuspecting prey with aggravated damage.

In the next post, we will round out the rest of the library (Question 4.), put in some counters to other strategies (Question 5.) and incorporate lessons learned from other deck builders (Question 6.).

In the mean time, some light reading material to complement the Henry Twister: Game mechanics: 90 cards vs smaller decks (at Google Groups > RGTCJ).

#20 TWDA Statistics

2011-11-25T11:56:00.000+08:00

Over at the VEKN Forums, drnlmza created a script to parse TheLasombra's Tournament Winning Deck Archive for the number of TWDs* since 1997 (when many rules changes took effect).

Below is the data collated by the script, in bar graph form.

As the drnlmza pointed out, 2011's figures have topped that of 2009, which was, until last year, the most number of TWDs ever. The 2011 figure does not include the European Championships and subsequent tourneys to be held through December.

Very interesting numbers indeed, for an out-of-print game.

* Note from the TWDA page:

This is a chronological archive of decks that have won tournaments that were sanctioned by the Vampire: Elder Kindred Network and had 10 or more players. To be included in this list, a tournament report had to be made on the Usenet newsgroup: rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad or on the official V:EKN Player's Forum: http://www.vekn.net/index.php/forum/9-event-reports-and-twd. This archive will not include the Storyline Tournament Winning Decks.

#19 Fan-based expansion in development by the V:EKN

2011-11-21T10:48:00.001+08:00

During the EC 2011, the V:EKN announced some more details about the upcoming fan-based expansion for V:tES.

From the VEKN Forums:

- There will be a new, fan-made set created by the V:EKN.
- There is a development team within the V:EKN. Members may or may not disclose their membership.
- The set will be 20-30 cards in size.
- The targeted release is 2012, no exact date known yet.
- The cards will be tournament legal for constructed tournaments, just like any other set.
- The cards will have to be printed out in color on standard paper, cut out properly and stuck in sleeves before an original V:TES cards

Gines Quiñonero is the art director. If you are an artist and want to contribute or if you are a layout wizard please contact him.

Robert Goudie, the V:EKN marketing director will update you with more information in the coming months.

So to play the cards from the new expansion, players will be required to print out the cards, cut them out then sleeve them with an original V:tES card. (Aside: This is a good way to use up all my Code of Milan Suspended and Twisting the Knife!) Any thoughts on this?

Read more about the expansion and some suggested card ideas at the VEKN Forum.