"Sleigh bells ring, are you list'ning..."  

Scenes from Merry Christmas, Methuselahs

Louie looks like he's pleased about something. From left: new player (please identify), Bart's brother (Forgot the name, sorry), Louie and Danz

Point of contention? From left: Dave, Karl, Atong, Neil (hiding under the cap), some player (please identify, anyone?), and Aurelio 

Charlie (the only one facing the camera) looks like she's preparing to block whatever's coming her way. With backs to the camera, from left: Razi and Neil. I don't recognize the person covered by Razi; one of the new players?

Took a better look at the covered guy. Sorry, Pilo, didn't recognize you at first.

Kensai (upper left), about to make his play. From top: Jay, Eyong, Johann, and Haig

Karl, with two of the MCM organizers, Bart and Louie. 

Scenes from CCHQ. From left: Geolette, Aurelio, Johann, Tin, and Toad

Waiting for their turn... (Facing the camera, from left: Jay and Paolo. In the rear, from left: Aurelio, Kensai, and Haig)

A shot of the Vampire poster in CCHQ 

Pickup game before the tournament. In foreround, backs to the camera, from left: John and Toad. In background, from left: Karl, Mark and Neil (covered by Toad)

Decks/Concepts I Will Never Play

One of the difficulties of playing VTES is that, due to the sheer number of clans and disciplines, it's impossible to play all concepts, unless one has a sizeable bank account. The best recourse is to decide what concepts one wants to play and focus on them.

In my case, there are concepts that I will never play, either due to the difficulty of getting the cards or the cheesiness (from my POV) of playing the concept.

1. Assamite, Ravnos, Tzimisce, Lasombra, Follower of Set - Each of these clans has a specific discipline (Quietus, Chimmerstry, etc) which makes it difficult to build around, as the necessary cards for these clans are difficult to obtain, i.e., Temptation, Skin Trap, Blood of Acid, etc. I could try getting the starter decks, but even the good cards come only 1 to a deck, and if one needs at least 6 to be effective... well, it's too much expense.

2. Immortal Grapple - I don't like this card due to the trump value that it has. Forcing a minion to use hand strikes only? I think that's a little overpowered, and a little cheesy. As a combat player, I'd rather try challenging concepts, like the Samedi's Thanatosis strikes, or my !Brujah baseball pitchers. Besides, it's a little difficult trading for this card.

3. Dominate - I've explained my dislike of this discipline. It's too versatile, and too cheesy. Stealth-Dominate bleeding is insane.

4. Pure stealth-bleed - by this I mean Obfuscate and Dominate/Dementation combination bleeders. I'd rather build my Protean stealth because it's not as cheesy.

5. Anson Master Madness - I truly hate this deck when it hits the table. It's difficult to get into combat, and the Revolts, Awakenings and Smiling Jacks handcuff the table so much I might as well just throw in the towel. Still, it's a deck which I would like to try to win against.

"Never" may be too long a time, but I'll probably stick to what I'm writing here regarding these concepts.

MCM Results

The last tournament of the year was one of the most fun tournaments.

I played all three rounds, and got 1.5 victory points (VPs).

The first table was insane. The seating was Danz (Anson Master)->Johann (!Nosferatu Black Hand)->Troy (!Malkavian stealth-bleed)->me (!Brujah pitch). Plus, to make things livelier, the unopened prophecies from the summer Gehenna League were opened. It should’ve been good for my deck, as the prophecies allowed any minion to rush a vampire of a different sect, and gave everyone free diablerie. However, things turned out differently. The table was soon reeling from Danz’s 3 Anarch Revolts and Antedeluvian Awakening. I was gone within the first 15 minutes of play, and, soon after, Danz did himself in with his own Revolts. By that time, Johann was too weakened to do anything, giving Troy the sweep, and the table win.

In the second table, it was Haig (Wynn rush; what else?) –>me –> Toad (Celerity weenie) –> Dante (Tremere) –> Charlie (!Ventrue wall). This time, the prophecies slowed entire tables down, as they: one, forced everyone to spend one extra blood to play disciplines, and two, allowed players to discard five cards from their hands for every point of bleed they received. Haig, whose combat-intensive deck relied on many discipline cards, was severely hamstrung, as was Toad, whose weenies couldn’t afford the extra cost. Since I was using mid-range vampires for the round, it was easier for me, because some of my combat cards, such as Taste of Vitae, didn’t require extra blood. Since Haig contented himself with bleeding for one at a time, he didn’t pressure me much, which allowed me to go after Toad. I managed to get the VP before time ran out.

In the last table, it was Pilo (Tremere) –> Charlie –> Luigi (Giovanni Dominate bleed) –> David (!Nosferatu vote) –> me. In the last round, the prophecies weren’t too restrictive; in fact, I don’t quite recall what they were. Luigi was bleeding like crazy, and there wasn’t anything David could do, and he soon fell. Pilo and I had to make a pact to try to neutralize the threat, but while Pilo held up his end of the bargain, Luigi still got me.

The last table, though, was a lot of fun. All the while, we were singing all sorts of Christmas and corny songs, all to plague Haig, who was at another table. I think this helped me escape the effects of VTES Head, which is a headache from playing VTES for six straight hours.

On the side, I was able to make some good trades, and made some reservations for future trades. From various players, I got Sela, Ilse, 2 Scorpion Stings (David), and 2 Black Spiral Buddies (Dante), and reserved several of my cards for Charlie, Aurelio, and Karl. I nearly got Zayyat, the Sandstorm (the last Gangrel I’d been looking for) from one of my students, but it turned out that he needed somebody other than Jalan-Aajav.

All in all, it was an enjoyable tournament. Well-attended, too; almost 30 players came to what will be CCHQ’s last hosting of a VTES tournament. Kudos to Louie, Bart, John, and Jay for a wonderful way to end the year, and to close an era in Philippine VTES play.

Merry Christmas, Methuselahs!

This Saturday will be the last time a tournament will be held at FBR Arcade, with the closing of CCHQ. I'm 100% certain to attend this one. I'm still not yet sure which deck I'll bring to the table, but I'm leaning heavily towards my !Brujah Pitchers deck. I'm out to have some fun, and throwing stuff at people (if I can manage it) will be loads of fun.

Lucky

I went to CCHQ this morning, and, on a whim, decided to get a batch of boosters, 2 Bloodlines and 2 Camarilla. In one of the Camarilla packs was a card that is much sought after: Freak Drive! And in one of the Bloodlines packs: Miriam Benyona! That with a host of useful cards for my decks: Acrobatics, Sideslip, Haven Uncovered, Amaranth, Dodge, Withering, Compress and so on. Of the four packs I got, there was very little in terms of cards that I didn't plan on using, so, all in all, it was a good decision on my part.

Benyona I'll probably trade, unless I can figure out a way to fit her into my decks. I also got Telepathic Vote Counting, which is definitely trade material, since I don't use Auspex.

Ahhh...such a wonderful acquisition.

Magic Thoughts (Insert)

Last Friday, I was playing Magic once more with my student during a class night. And I was getting my ass kicked royally. Oh, once in a while, I'd get my student, but the newer decks are just too fast and too powerful for my old retreads.

One win was sweet, though.

I had 2 Crusades out for my white weenies, and I had about 5 creatures out. My student had more than 10 creatures, but he was down to 7 life. He decided to attack while all of my creatures were tapped out, and he would've gotten me, if it weren't for the fact that I had a Martyrdom in my hand, which can redirect the damage to just one creature. Sooo, I shouted, "Take one for the team!" and Martyred my Scarred Veteran. My student was tapped out, and my soldiers, pumped up to 3/3, went storming in for the win.

I only play a few times a year now, but I still enjoy the occasional Magic battle.

Three Rounds of Fun

Had some of the older players over at the house yesterday, and we had three games of really exciting VTES play.

Some of the highlights:

P's Gehenna/Beckett deck was an awesome creation. I only wish I could try something like it. By the time he won (or was it C?), six (6) Gehenna events were in play, and they put a big hurt on my Animalism weenie deck.

Apparently, Big J is well-known for his bleeding tendencies, as it was with mild shock that we realized that his deck could also fight.

C and I fought to the bitter end in the third game, with her Tremere "Mosquito Coast" version holding my !Brujah pitchers at bay. But, in the final count, I had just too many minions for her to handle, and, after burning Merrill Molitor, my pitchers cleared the way for me to win. By the time we were through, both of us only had less than a fourth of our library left.

It's been a while since I've played a good game, and, yesterday, I was blessed with three such games. I was able to observe different and varied strategies at work, and got a better view of how to manage the table and set it up.

I also learned the capabilities and weaknesses of three of my decks: City Gangrel, Animalism weenie, and !Brujah pitchers. By tweaking them, I should be able to come up with improvements, to be ready for the next round of bleeding.

Trades

It's been a while since I've engineered a good trade. Yesterday I came through with the following cards: Tension in the Ranks (great for combat torpor), Raptor (my third one), Taste of Vitae (for my !Brujahs), Count Germaine, Absimilard's Army, Sela ADV, and Day Operation. I had to give up my Thoughts Betrayed, along with some Thaumaturgy and Auspex combat cards, but all in all, it was worth it.

Today, I got more Crows (2), and Stings (4), along with a Gestalt from grandsire C. I've also set aside an Intimidation and an Adaptability for future considerations.

I miss sitting at the table and going to battle. I hope I get another opportunity soon.

Infernal Plague Results

I made it to the final table two weeks ago at the Infernal Plague storyline event, my second finals table at a storyline tourney. Now if only my luck can extend to the sanctioned tournaments...

Anyway, I used my Gangrel combat and bleed, remodified with the Dragonbound event card. In the first round, my prey, R, served me and L up to my predator, which was one of the weirder experiences I've had in tournaments.

In the second round, I was luckier. My Dragonbound came out pretty early, so I was able to torpor L's vampires, and take him out. A Fame on one of D's vamps sealed his fate, and I took the table, which was enough to get me into the finals.

I lasted approximately 3-4 minutes in the finals table, thanks in large part to J's 5 Anarch Revolts. That, and I had made a colossal blunder. Instead of Sophia Watson and Gustavo Morales, I elected to bring out Brunhilde and Omaya. The larger vampires depleted my pool too quickly, and I fell to the infernalists. The rest of the finals match found me testing my City Gangrel deck with the other players.

The Infernal Plague

Well, I made it to the final table at the Infernal Plague, only to last a little more than ten minutes, as 5 Anarch Revolts did me in. I also made a tactical error by bringing out Brunhilde first. I should have brought out Gustavo Morales instead, so as to manage my pool more wisely. I made a second blunder by bringing out Omaya in the hopes that she would be able to do something. Ah, well. c'est la vie.

Strange Bedfellows

As I write this, the Strange Bedfellows tourney is under way at CCHQ. I would've liked to have participated, but family comes first. Besides, there's still the Infernal Plague storyline tournament two Saturdays from now, and I was able to free up time to be able to join it.

In Strange Bedfellows, players compete in teams, which are created right there and then. In short, the players have no idea who they're going to be paired up with. I've never played this format, so I'm not able to see how it works out.

Ready for Testing

Finally got the pieces of the City Gangrel deck together. It's a prototype, and rather clunky, so I'll probably give it a once over before I try it out on others.

I also refurbished my Animalism weenie deck. Let's see if my plan works. Heheheh.

Tournament Memory # 3

During the Black Hand prerelease, my !Nossie deck was going after Ca's !Malkie deck. One fight involved one of my vamps (I forget which) against his Escaped Mental Patient.

I maneuver away with Behind You!

Ca: That's good. Now if you had a Thrown Gate...

I threw a Sewer Lid, killing the Patient.

Ca: (pause) That's even better.

Tournament Memory # 2

During the Merry Christmas, Methuselahs tourney last December, I found myself using my !Nossie pitch deck. My prey, Cl, was using a Ventrue weenie vote deck, and his prey Ca was using !Brujah combat. Cl was screwed. I had Kendrick out, who picks out and discards prey's political cards, and Ca was beating the crap out of Cl. Poor Cl was reduced to singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's "Life of Brian." It must've worked, because he did better in the later rounds, and I think he won the tourney.

Go figure.

Tournament Memory # 1

The very first tournament I played was the Lambach's Legions storyline tourney. In the first round, I got eliminated by my prey. Ta was playing Gangrel stealth-bleed, and tried to bleed his prey for 4. His prey Deflected it to his prey, who promptly Telepathic Misdirected it to me, and how much pool did I have left? 4, and I can't recall why, but I couldn't block the bleed, so that was it for me on that table.

Infernal Plague

News about the upcoming storyline tournament has been released!

http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/index.php?line=plague

It has me wondering if I'm game enough to try playing infernalists this time around; the pool management is going to be tough.

Maybe I can try out the City Gangrel deck for the tournament.

Card Acquisitions

It was a good day to buy cards. It started in CCHQ, when I picked up the cards I bought from K. At the same time, I also got a pack of Bloodlines. The key cards in the pack were Reg Driscoll, which I had been looking for, Create Gargoyle, which I can trade away, and Dirty Contract, a Samedi card.

In the evening, when I went to SM City, I passed by Comic Quest and got 2 packs of Gehenna. And, lo and behold! I finally got my copies of Beckett Advanced, as each pack had one. And Theo Bell Advanced, as well as another Desert Eagle.

I can stop buying now, until the next expansion, as I can trade for the other cards that I need.

Hoody-hoo!

Upcoming Starter Decks

White Wolf has released a preview of what to expect from the upcoming Kindred Most Wanted in February. Four starter decks will be released: the Anathema, which will probably contain vampire who have angered the Camarilla one way or the other, the Alastors, which consist of the archons who make it their job to hunt down Anathema, and two clan-based decks, the Gangrel antitribu, and the Baali.

I'm really hoping to score with the Gangrel antitribu deck. Hopefully, it will be City Gangrel, which is a clan I'm planning to experiment with. What's ironic is that I probably now have all the necessary pieces to build the deck, so I'm not sure what's going to come out in the starter.

I'm puzzled at the choice of the Baali, considering how difficult being infernal is. Imagine having to spend one pool in order to untap the infernal minion. Reading the newsgroups, I'm of the school of thought that the deck will contain cards which will minimize the infernal quality of the vampires. Because of this, I've also decided to keep the Call the Great Beast for now. Who knows? Maybe I can engineer a better trade once people start playing the Baali. Or, on the other hand, if I get the Baali starter in the prerelease, I can incorporate the card into the deck.

Sorting Out One's Collection

I just finished sorting out my collection a while ago. I didn't realize it would be so difficult. I also didn't realize that I had accumulated so many cards.

What I did was to divide them first according to card type (master, action, combat, etc.), and then sort them out according to the cards which I intended to use, and the cards for which I hadn't any use at the moment. The cards which I planned to use, I placed into my plastic carrying case, and the ones I didn't, into card boxes stored in an old cellphone box. This way, I don't have to be carrying around so many cards with me when I go to play. And, with the current arrangement, I can build the decks I need fairly quickly. In theory, of course. I'll try it out after this hectic month.

Why I Don't Play Dominate

Of all of the disciplines available in VTES, the one discipline I disdain to use and hate to face is Dominate. While I concede that it's probably the most versatile discipline, and can be very painful for opponents, I dislike the sheer cheesiness of it. One can prevent opponents from attacking, or blocking, through cards like Seduction, The Sleeping Mind and Obedience and Dominate bleed modifiers such as Conditioning and Govern the Unaligned are so obscene. As one player puts it, Dominate is used for baboy bleeding. It's too easy to use, I think, and I prefer challenges. I'm sure other players would disagree with my opinion, but that's just me.

Building Decks

What I like about clans which people don't use often is the surprise factor, as players (especially newer ones) are unprepared for the possibilities.

What I'm trying to build now is a City Gangrel deck. Nothing fancy: stealth bleeding, with aggro-poke combat.

And the Shadow Feint, which gives First Strike, undodgeable. What a lovely card. Throw in the Path of the Feral Heart, so Protean costs 1 less blood, and the City Gangrel can be a dangerous concept to use.

The other concept I'm trying to build are the Blood Brothers, Torrance Circle. I'm lagging there, mainly because, while I think I have the necessary library requirements, I don't have the necessary vampires to build the crypt. So far, I only have 2 Marks and 1 Ilse, so it's still a ways off from being built. But I'll get there soon enough, and the bleeding and combat that will ensue will be glorious.

City Gangrel!

I rarely buy VTES single cards, mainly because I find it handier to trade 'em. But when I can't find the right trade, I'll settle for buying the cards if the price is right.

One such card is Shadow Feint, which I'm told, can be had if I can find the right trader. But, I haven't found that person yet. Luckily, one player is selling his cards, and Shadow Feint is one of them.

With the Shadow Feint, and the Gangrel Conspiracy, I'm inching closer to completing the City Gangrel deck I have in mind.

Trouble with Trading

Sometimes, the trouble with trading a card is that a few months later, when I'm building a new deck, I find that the card I had traded was essential to building the current deck. Gah.

For example, right now, I'm intrigued by the possibility of using the Blood Brothers. Unfortunately, they're built for close Potence combat, and I wound up trading away two of the key cards for that type, Torn Signpost and Immortal Grapple. Now, what do I do? Ah, well, I guess I'll have to go searching for more of them dang cards. Lucky thing I've been stocking on trade bait. Now, all I have to do is find the right trader...

Lucky Me

I've been having some luck at choosing packs for a while now. Some of the rares/uncommons in the packs I've gotten:

Call the Great Beast
Engling Fury
Immortal Grapple
Art's Traumatic Essence
Giant's Blood

The Blood and the Grapple I'll keep, and the rest is trade bait.

Why I Like VTES over Magic

1. The cameraderie between players

I guess it has something to do with the fact that VTES is a multi-player game. The interaction during games can range from the serious to the hilarious. I've also found VTES players to be friendlier than Magic players, in general. For one thing, elder players take care of the youngsters in the game, unlike in Magic, where I've heard about and seen older players scam youngsters out of rare and valuable cards.

2. Trades instead of sales

There will probably never be a market for VTES cards in the Philippines, as opposed to Magic. Trading is the name of the game in VTES, and, instead of wasting money on a single card, one can get useful cards in return for a card he/she doesn't want or need.

3. Commons

Unlike Magic, where one usually needs some of the rare, powerful (not to mention, expensive) cards, one can build a VTES deck out of common and uncommon cards and go to town with it.
As another player, D, once commented, "The rare cards are normally funky effects to round out the deck."

Decks I Have Played

The first deck I ever used was a deck I borrowed from C. It was a Tremere Cryptic Mission deck, a mosquito deck which would harry opponents by burning their minions' blood one by one. It was fun, although I got sandwiched between two strong opponents and got stomped pretty early.

The first deck I actually owned was a Gangrel starter deck from the Anarchs set. It was quickly retooled by my friend T in preparations for last year's storyline tournament, Lambach's Legions. It was a toolbox deck, which meant that it could do quite a number of actions, and react relatively well to either predator or prey. It was pretty good, since with it, I reached the finals table of the tournament. Not bad for a beginner.

I then decided to switch to Gangrel bruise-bleed. This way, I could oust my prey with modified bleeding, and I could control my predator by blocking and fighting his minions.

When the Black Hand expansion came out last October 2003, I was lucky to draw a
!Nosferatu starter during the prerelease tournament. With it, I would still be able to bruise and bleed, and the !Nossies would still be relatively close to my original clan, the Gangrel.

However, due to the !Nossie lack of Fortitude, my vampires would go down in a fight. I decided to go long range with them, using Thrown Gates and Sewer Lids. It worked quite well, as long as no one had a Drawing Out the Beast in his or her hand, which would automatically set the range to close.

Still, the lack of !Nossie maneuvering often frustrated me. So, I picked up a !Brujah starter deck and built my Baseball Pitchers. The nice thing about the !Brujah is that they have both Celerity, for the maneuvers, and Potence, for really damaging strikes. One more card, then was added to the mix: the Well-Aimed Car. While really difficult to play, I'd been enchanted with the card ever since I watched the Disney movie, "Lilo & Stitch." So I put it in, and, while I don't always get to throw it, when I do get to make someone "catch the buggy," that minion usually goes down.

Since then, I've experimented with a few deck types:

1. Samedi bruise-bleed: The Samedi are difficult to use, because of their lack of maneuver, and their average size. Still, I like challenges, so I tried it out. The resulting deck was clunky, and I'm still tinkering with it to see if I can actually make it tick.

2. Protean stealth-bleed: My one and only attempt at stealth-bleeding, the protean weenie deck is fun, but difficult to win with, because of the lack of bleed modifiers.

3. Animalism weenie: This is the most recent deck I've worked with, and I'm have quite a bit of fun with it. It won't always win, but when the swarm works, it's pretty painful.

My VTES Family Tree

When a player convinces a person to play VTES, that player becomes what is known as a Sire, and the person he or she convinced is that player's Childe. And thus, the lineage of players begins.

My sire in the game is H, who predominantly plays Gangrel, and my grandsire is C, who commands the Ventrue antitribu. Both are dangerous players, and, while I've gotten over my dread of playing against them, I'd rather not be their prey (in H's case) or predator (in C's case).

I became a sire last December, when I influenced T, one of my co-teachers to play. I quickly became a grandsire when he convinced two high school students to take up the game.

First Post

It's been more than a year now since I started playing Vampire: the Eternal Struggle (VTES), a multi-player CCG. Through this wonderful game, I have encountered many interesting individuals and have experienced many hours of enjoyable fun.

Originally, I would've liked to have posted my thoughts on the game on my original blog, but it didn't seem to fit in, so I thought I would post my thoughts on the game on this new blog. So, what can you expect from this blog in the future? I'll be posting my deck listings, with comments about how they performed. I'll probably also be posting useful links to various VTES sites, and comment on VTES activities. We'll see how well I'll be able to add to this. Wish me luck!