The trap of the Perfect Hand

A thought that is counter-intuitive in this game is that a perfect hand is not perfect; it’s a perfectly stacked deck that is important.

Compared to many other CCG’s (collectible card games) V:tes is not about having a perfect hand, rather it’s about having a perfect flow of cards. While each hand in itself does not need to be perfect you need to be aware of what cards are left in your deck and if reaching those useful cards will be possible given the “flow” currently available in your deck.

Many decks will employ forced flow, such as Freakshow decks (Una with 50 freakdrives for example) to gain the ultimate flow of cards for a strong table presence (resources on the table).

Other decks will rebuild their decks to achieve the best possible flow for the current game using recursion to rebuild their decks to match a particular table.

Both examples above are strong variants using the principle of flow instead of hand, but what other ways can we emulate these effects?

There are different ways, one is to have strong cards that increase card flow such as Dreams of the Sphinx, Fragment of the Book of Nod, The Barrens, Heart of Nizchetus, Scrounging and to a certain extent Visit from the Capuchin and other cards that increase hand size.

Other less obvious ways are to include permanents that lessen the need of specific cards, such as intercept, stealth, bleed, prevent and strength. While these last examples do not increase the flow of the deck, it lessens the need for a specific flow-speed.

A perfect hand is not perfect – having one bad card is better since you can discard it using flow increasing cards and remove it from future draws, the best hand is half-useful but with possibilities of drawing into cards that will prove useful.

A rule when discarding is thinking about the best possible card available that you can draw and comparing it to any of the cards you have in your hand. Do not forget that the Discard Phase Action is a useful resource that needs to be exploited for maximum gain.

Know your crypt: Etrius

In our "Know your crypt"-entries we will shed some light (not daylight though!) on the vampires of the game. It´s fun with some context around the cards we´re flipping around.

There are about 3 000 named vampires in the canonical World of Darkness lore, and many sources contradict. If you have corrections, additions or other feedback, please contact us.

As this site is Swedish, let´s start out with Etrius, one of few known Swedish vampires in the World of Darkness lore.

/Ashur


Etrius, the Loyal

Clan: Tremere
Generation: 4th (Explanation: Caine is 1st generation, the antediluvians are 3rd generation. Vampires generally considered 'methuselahs' are of generation 4 and 5.)
Embrace: No. Transformed in 1022 AD.
Sire: None, although he is the nominal childe of Tremere.
Haven: The Vienna chantry, Austria.
Childer: Mendacamina (E 1023), Lotharius (E 1030), Celestyn (E 1139), Filaereus, Anastasia, Astrid Thomas (E 1791), Peter Spizzo.

• Etrius was born 850 AD near what is now the city of Gothenburg in what is now Sweden. His father served Ansgar, the German bishop who made the first Christian mission to the area.

• The young and very pious Etrius was sent on a pilgrimage to Rome, but his party was attacked and Etrius was taken as slave. In Constantinople he was sold to someone who sensed his special talents for magic, a man called Tremere.

• Tremere was a mage and leader of House Tremere, one of the 12 great houses the Order of Hermes, a society of mortal mages in Europe during the Dark Ages. The headquarters of the house was at Ceoris, Transylvania, where Etrius was taken to learn the ways of magic.

• Etrius became Tremere´s favoured apprentice. His talents was only rivaled by those of his master and the mischievous Goratrix, who later turned traitor.

• Etrius was never Embraced. Instead he was one of eight mortal mages of House Tremere that sought power in undeath and in 1022 AD transformed themselves into vampires by means of magic. It was Etrius, Goratrix, Meerlinda, Calderon, three unnamed mages and Tremere himself. Etrius was opposing the transformation as all effects of it was not known, but followed his masters orders.

• Tremere made Etrius one of the seven members in the newly formed vampire clans Council of Seven, the top of the clans pyramidlike organization. Etrius is the councilor who oversees Eastern Europe.

• In 1133, Etrius was responsible for finding an Antediluvian for Tremere to diablerise. He found Saulot, who "died with a look of serenity that chilled Etrius to the bone." After this Tremere started to slip into torpor for long periods of time. "The reluctant vampire mage Etrius lives in fear of the future. Saulot know something none of the other vampires knew - something old, dark, wet and long buried. It frightened Etrius like nothing ever before".

•In 1189, Etrius is the Lord of Ceoris.

• Etrius wrote the "Veneficorum Artum Sanguis", literally 'The Art of Blood Sorcery', the definitive work on Hermetic Thaumaturgy.

• Etrius was originally of the 5th generation. He diablerised a 4th-generation Salubri called Mokur to reach 4th generation: ”The Tremere hunters who had captured him said the Salubri had not offered any resistance. He´d simply asked them to take him to his father.”

• “Etrius is a deep thinker, and he brings a formidably logical intellect to bear. Near any problem that confronts him becomes subject to a battery of intricate tests and feints to determine its roots and causes, after which Etrius methodically sets his subordinates to defusing it or turning it to his advantage.”

• Dieter Kleist of Clan Toreador is the blood bound chronicler of Etrius.

• Etrius appears to be in his mid 30´s. “Standing 5' 6'' tall and of average weight, Etrius has long, tawny blond hair and blue eyes. His face is slightly rounded. He prefers to wear the robes of a mage and never removes a golden chain with a blood-red stone set into a medallion given to him by Tremere when he first became a master magus.”

• In modern nights, Etrius watches over Tremere´s sleeping body in the Vienna chantry. “Etrius roams the havens of the Tremere on a slow burn, uneasy and afraid. His joy in learning, his questing curiosity, his passion for magic, and everything else that once motivated him has crumbled to ashes.
He still has nightmares of his act. The diablerie he helped Tremere commit haunts him like a specter. In the darkest hours of the night he succumbs to depression. concluding that he has crossed over an invisible line and can never cross back. Etrius suspects his act has unleashed something terrible at the heart of the vampire mystery. He doesn't know what. He doesn't know how. He just knows the look on Saulot's face, as if Saulot somehow invited the attack. As if the Antediluvian had attained Golconda and, from that mystical state of purity, willingly accepted Tremere into his soul.”

Statistics:
No statistics for Etrius has been published.

Sources:
“Clan book: Tremere” (WW 2057)
“Clan book Revised: Tremere” (WW 2357)
“Who's Who among Vampires: The Children of the Inquisition” (WW 2250)
“House of Tremere” (WW 2829)
”Transylvania Chronicles 1: Dark Tides Rising” (WW 2811)
“Transylvania Chronicles 2: Son of the Dragon” (WW 2812)
“Blood War” (WW 12400)
“Encyclopaedia Vampyrica” (WW 2440)

Note:
In these entries we will strive to not go deep into the metaplot of the World of Darkness. Things are preserved in a fuzzy, “frozen” state around 1996, before White Wolf decided that the metaplot should evolve drastically.

Never respect thine elders

We all have them. Every single playgroup have a player, or a few players, that play more, are better, and will most likely have a bigger chance of winning the current game then others on the table. In Stockholm we are blessed with quite a few very good players. The majority of the players have been playing forever and the newer ones are doing very good. But still there are games where that player is more likely to win.

And then there are the players who not only have been playing forever, but also have been playing together forever. Based on years and years of earlier experience playing with these people one has a tendency to play slightly different, talking different, and to some extent acting different when one of the others is someone you have been playing with since 1994. I would like to call this a form of respect, or fear or admiration, which might give that player an advantage against the others.

The combination of the above is something that I believe is a big reason that some of the players around the world keep on winning game after game after game.

One example is me, Randal Rudstam. I have been playing for a very long time, not 1994 but still, and I’m a pretty good player. The years I lack with the really old players I make up with the fact that I have been demoing this game to a lot of beginners and teaching them how to play. This gives me a advantage – people are evolving and sees me less and less as an authority figure, but it is still there and I can see it once in a while.

Another example is a man named Erik Torstensson. He a very good friend of mine and a very, very good player – some would say he is the best player having won two of the biggest international turnaments there are. His extensive playing and years of tournament wins gives him a very special position when sitting down at a table of V:tES. He has a lot of respect of the Swedish V:tES community, and that and the fact that he is a immensely good player grants him a lot of gamewins.

In my case I can´t really complain much – one does like to win right? – but I have on several occasions been irritated, not at Erik himself, but at games where Erik has been, in my opinion, handed the win by others that could have gone for the oust or not taken that deal which gave Erik the game. But as with Erik I can see how others that I play with could be less happy with me at a table and a player or two who respects me a little too much.

The lesson of the day is that past experiences and accomplishments, teaching the game to other included, is no reason to assume a player currently is playing at his or her best. This game is a lot about being up to date with meta and slaking, i.e not playing for a while, does lessen your skill.

I try to never assume a player will be better than me or treat him or her any differently just because I know the player has done well in the past.

/Randyman

Library Lore: Heart of Nizchetus

Cheatus? Nietzscheus? The only information on this magical item found in the lore are this:
“This heart is said to be sealed in a green glass jar. The heart was that of a powerful Toreador, and some say the heart still beats, due to either its own magic or magic contained in the jar and its fluids. The heart is thought to bring good luck if kept on a mantelpiece in the owner's haven, possibly lowering the owner's difficulty numbers.”
- The Player's Guide to the Sabbat (WW 2055)

Explanation for those that never played Vampire the Masquerade or any other rpg: In the game you occasionally roll 10-sided dice to check if your actions succeed. The “difficulty number” is the result you want to roll, or beat, with each dice.

The flavor text of the card suggest that the Heart at some point was possessed by the notorious once count of Bistriz and in modern nights itinerant Sabbat Cardinal of the New World:
“Occasionally, I think I see it beat. Just dancing shadows, perhaps, but fortune follows.”
- Radu Bistri, Tzimisce

The Stockholm League - April 25 2012

Three tables were played in the seventh round (of totally ten) in our current league. Standard tournament rules apply + printed proxy is allowed.

Table 1:
1. Randy (Anarch-Nana-rush)
2. Fredrik F (Setite-sb)
3. Ober (Lutz vote) 5 vp, 1 gw
4. Jonas S (Lasombra sb w Tangle)
5. Erik M (Vignes)


Table 2:
1. Tomas W (Cel-combat w Massassi, Kabede & Santaleous)
2. Robert D (Spirit Marionette w dom-weenies) 1 vp
3. Henrik K (Toreador powerbleed)
4. Daniel H (Pro-princes sb) 4 vp, 1 gw
5. Ivan (Imbued)


Table 3:
1. Malin (Malkavian stickmen)
2. Randy (PRE-weenies)
3. Caroline (Failed to report deck type)
4. Jonas (Ravnos breed-boon w Temporis) 2 vp
5. Erik M (Vignes) 3 vp, 1 gw

Standings after the seventh round:
Erik M 64 rtp
Jonas S 60 rtp
Daniel H 56 rtp
Jonas H 50 rtp
Caroline 44 rtp
Randy 40 rtp
Robert D 40 rtp
Ober 34 rtp
Jens 32 rtp
Fredrik F 28 rtp
Erik L 24 rtp
Sebastian 20 rtp
Ivan 20 rtp
Marcus 18 rtp
Henrik K 14 rtp
Tomas W 4 rtp
Kristofer 2 rtp
(1 gw = 8 ratingpoints, 1 vp = 4 ratingpoints. Note: Players can play more than one game each round if their participation are needed to complete a table where at least one player has not yet played a league game this round, but only the best result each round counts for rating. No league game starts after 20.00.)

Next round is played at Dragon´s Lair, Kungsholmstorg 8 next Wednesday about 1800-ish. Be there!

Deckbuilding – high-caps, low-caps and mid-caps

Certain cards and disciplines yield advantages for different capacity vampires.

When building with Dominate the most common card to make use of is Govern the Unaligned. This is because the yield of the card is great both early-, mid- and late-game.

The first use of the card for the deck is to cheaply get vampires into play earlier. Because this effect is both on superior Dominate and requires a higher capacity vampire it means that Dominate decks usually influence up their highest capacity vampire first. To use the bleed effect you only need to have basic Dominate, thus the size of the vampires influenced up will usually lie between 3-5 and the occasional 7, which is where you find the most price worthy vampires.

When ousting the difference of a bleed for 6 and a bleed for 5 is not as large as having an extra vampire in play (cap 3 vs cap 7 for example). This is specifically important for tap-n-bleed using Euro-stealth (Pentex Subversion, Anarch Troublemaker and Misdirection).

When building decks using mono-Animalism the thinking is very similar. Deep Song has ousting power in basic Animalism and “blood economy” on superior, this in the way that back-rushing will save you pool and give you leeway to influence up more vampires. While not as powerful as Govern, the capacity of the crypt in groups 3-4 is enough to compensate.

Crypt acceleration has become a staple in many decks these days because of the introduction of Villein. Cards like Zillahs Valley, Information Highway and to a certain extent Dreams of the Sphinx are staples here. Crypt acceleration with Villein has become a way to circumvent the lack of cards such as Govern the Unaligned in the particular discipline played. It grants many quick vampires cheaply and concentrates your actions to ousting type actions instead. This yields many highcap vampires which usually have a lot of votes or other useful abilities, a staple in these decks is also Golconda, a good way to counter getting rushed and losing a high-cap vampire.

This leaves the question as to where mid-caps fit in, i.e. cap 6-7. Certain double discipline decks that require 2 disciplines at superior on all vampires could use mid-caps. Since you can’t use Zillah´s Valley on vampires of capacity below 8 and you can’t Golconda them, the usefulness of having crypt acceleration is lessened in these crypts. If you have access to Dominate your ousting power will probably be increased more using Govern on cap 3-4 vampires rather than 6-7. So basically this leaves a type of deck that is not seen in tournaments much at the moment as decks have become more and more streamlined.

Welcome to Stockholmjyhad!

This is a blog about Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. The authors are all members of the Stockholm community, players with heart and commitment to the game. We will post our thoughts about strategy, deck building and card design mixed with results from our weekly games, tournament reports and bits of World of Darkness lore. Have a nice read!