Banned Cards in VTES (2020 Update)

Here’s the updated list of the cards that are (or were) banned for VTES tournaments in 2020. For each of the cards I will briefly explain why (and when) they have been banned:

• Playing for Keeps — since January 9th, 1995
• High Stakes — since January 9th, 1995
• Cunctator Motion — since January 9th, 1995
  An ante is a forced bet in which each player places a card from his deck into the pot before the game begins. The player who ousts another players actually wins the forfeited card from the losing player. The concept was (as in Magic The Gathering) never really popular, and the concept was dropped very soon after the release of VtES. So cards relating to ante, as those three above were banned for this reason.
• Madness of the Bard — since July 1st, 1999
  The judgment of this card varies from “downright silly” to “very much fun“, but in the end it prevents most players from freely communicating to each other, which is one of the cornerstones of a multi-player game.
• Return to Innocence — since March 14th, 1999
  A card which allows a vampire to bleed for 10+ is just too good for the game. In a typical tournament the comfort level in terms of having pool is something like 10-12. With that amount of pool you need two high-level bleed come through, but this requires considerable setup and/or amount of cards being played during these actions, or you need at least 3-4 Kine Resource Contested/Conservative Agitations, but this also needs some setup. With RtI you can just bleed with Daring the Dawn and the only thing you’ll have to worry about is bleed bounce.
• Succubus Club — since January 1st, 2005
  Mass trading resources, especially with the now defunct tournament rules about table-splitting (at least for practical purposes), this led to absurd situation. Players Bob and John made a table split deal, with one of the them having a Succubus Club in play. After the deal both trade regularly their whole set of resources of vampires, master cards and other permanents back and forth, until they succeed in having ousted the other players.
• Kindred Restructure — since January 1st, 2005
  The abusive technique for using Kindred Restructure (and to a lesser extent) Dramatic Upheaval was called VP Sniping. The player with the Kindred Restructure in hand would wait where some predator was in sure ousting range (i.e. down to less than 5 pool or something similar) for the next turn. Then the KR would be played, and his new player, while having done nothing all the while, ripped off the reward for ousting from the original player. Furthermore with Kindred Restructure this player could arrange the table in manner which was most suitable for him, e.g. having a weak predator or prey or both. But LSJ’s publicly stated reasoning for the ban was simpler — it gives a player two predators at the same time, their real predator and the guy who’s going to jump right in there. Which is pretty unfair.
• Dramatic Upheaval — since January 1st, 2005
  The same arguments as for Kindred Restructure applies to Dramatic Upheaval as well, but to only slightly lesser extent, since it allowed to change seats with one player only.
• Edge Explosion — since January 1st, 2008
  One of the driving engines of an Imbued deck, since it both allowed him to have a power for which he hasn’t had the appropriate Virtue, but may gain a Conviction for a successful action once each turn.
• Memories of Mortality — since January 1st, 2008
  Very powerful when playing an ally deck, not only wasn’t an opposing vampire with this card no longer allowed to block any ally, he couldn’t hurt him anymore and the card was hard to get rid off.
• Protect Thine Own — since January 1st, 2008
  This card provided a very cheap way to remove any non-Camarilla vampire, though it requires an Inner Circle member for using the card’s full effect.
• Lilith’s Blessing — since April 22nd, 2013
  This is the first (and only) promo card on the ban list. The card provided very easy (and repeatable) access to 3 blood, and is somewhat abusive when used with Villein (or Minion Tap with multiple master phase actions).
• Anthelios, the Red Star — since February 16th, 2016
  The card is problematic not of its own, but predominantly in combination with multiple Master Phase actions the card can easily be abused. So to speak, the cards suffers from the dial-a-card syndrome, repeatedly.
• Temptation of Greater Power — since February 16th, 2016
  The issue with is that the use of the card often influence the outcome of a game dramatically when played (even if that can only happens once per game). Even if the player using the card isn’t put into a winning position , the target player surely cannot win the game anymore, either because he lost one his key vampires, or loses so much pool, that he is ousted much more quickly.
• Seeds of Corruption — since February 16th, 2016
  The reason for the ban of Seeds of Corruption seems to be more of a technical issue rather than the power of the card. It’s not always easy to figure out, what exactly happens with the target vampire (and what happens after the Seeds of Corruption has disappeared).
• Gypsies, Rom Gypsy, Tarbaby Jack, Terrorists, Tsigane — since August 1st, 2020
  These cards have been banned in the wake of the Black Life Matters movement in 2020, because the cards contain words or images that are associated with real world racist caricatures.

Earlier Card Bans and Revokes

• Rowan Ring — from January 9th, 1995 to January 1st, 2000(?)
• Stake — from January 9th, 1995 to March 14th, 1999
  The cards were banned because the corner-case paralyzation rules which were dropped in VtES (as opposed to the Jyhad rules). Since extensive rewording would have been necessary the rules team decided to ban the cards. With the new wording of the VtES version of Wooden Stake and the Camarilla Edition (CE) version of Rowan Ring the paralyze mechanic was dropped and replaced by “send to torpor“, so the ban could be lifted after the new version had been released.
• Monocle of Clarity — from January 9th, 1995 to January 1st, 2000(?)
  The wording of Monocle of Clarity allowed easily to break the game, thus it was banned. For an example see the following thread. With the new wording of the CE version which limited the card’s functionality to the current game state, not a future one, the card was allowed again.

Rules Team Rulings – RTR 05/07/2020

On July 5th, 2020, the Black Chantry published a statement about diversity and inclusivity with regards to VTES. The statement also included the latest Rules Team Rulings (RTR 05/07/2020), which bans 5 cards from tournament play from August 1st, 2020 onward. The reason why Black Chantry banned these cards, is that contain words or images that are associated with real world racist caricatures. The 5 banned cards are:

• Gypsies
• Rom Gypsy
• Tarbaby Jack
• Terrorists
• Tsigane

You can read about the details on the issued statement and the included RTR on the Black Chantry website and the RTR on the VEKN website.

Open Playtest for Contesting Vampires

Yesterday the VEKN/Black Chantry has announced an open playtest for contesting vampires in VTES. Instead of both vampires being turned face down and being out of play, the contested vampires stay in play. The cost of contesting of 1 pool each turn remains until one player yields (or is ousted from the game).

Here are the changes in detail:

• A contested vampire remains in play. Their controller must pay 1 pool to continue to contest them, or yield during the unlock phase, but can play with them normally (act, block, play cards, cast votes or ballots etc.). If this vampire has a title that is also contested, the vampire must pay 1 blood point to keep it, as usual.
• It is still forbidden to contest a vampire with oneself, and if this were to happen, the last vampire to enter play would be immediately burned, as usual.
• This concerns both vampires influenced from the crypt and unique vampires brought into play with library cards (Abomination, Call the Great Beast etc.)
• Unique library cards (including allies) and imbued are still unaffected by this rule change.

The VEKN wants to test if this a viable change, and asks players around the world to test this change (in non-tournament games) and answer a couple of questions regarding the effects.

The rule for contesting vampires was always quite controversial, because if in a given game two players fielded a deck which heavily relied on a single vampire (“star vampire”), typically both player’s game suffered tremendously by the contest. The contest of said star vampire then often allowed a third player to scoop up a game win easily. On the other hand, removing this contest rule can also lead to decreased diversity in decks, that is, players are more willing to play often dominant decks like Stanislava & Friends Dominate, or Unnamed Bleed, etc. With that regard, I like the idea of having an open playtest to be able evaluate the impact of the rules change, instead of just shoving down such a significant change the VTES communities throat and stating “to  deal with it”.

Also quite interesting is the fact, that the Imbued are still contested the old way, when even library cards that are put into play as unique vampires are no longer subject to the original contesting rules. I would really like to hear about the reasons why Imbued are handled differently than the other crypt cards.

Read the full announcement on Black Chantry’s website here, which also includes a FAQ on the issue.

Rewording of Parity Shift & Pentex Subversion

Pentex Subversion w/ pre-2019 cardtext.

Inside the announcement of the contents of the upcoming VTES 25th anniversary set, is the information “hidden”, that both the card text of Parity Shift and Pentex Subversion is changed! Big news indeed, since both cards have quite powerful effects and are therefore staple cards in many decks. Unfortunately the announcement does not contain the exact new card text, but only the general information about what the change is about.

The card changes according to the announcement are:

• Parity Shift does no longer takes a variable amount pool (1-5) from the target of the vote, but rather a fixed amount of pool, namely 3 (three) pool regardless of the number of players at the table. This makes the card considerably weaker in early to mid-game.
• Pentex Subversion no longer prevents a vampire from being able to block and act, but rather only prevents a vampire from blocking actions.

Both changes have quite considerable impact for future (tournament) deck building, but I think that these changes are reasonable considering that a single Pentex Subversion could shut down certain decks completely, and early Parity Shifts a huge pool swing of ten pool towards the player playing the Parity Shift. Both cards are still viable for both casual and tournament deck buildings in my humble opinion.Alongside with these two changes are three other card changes that have a lesser impact on (most) tournament deck building:

• Una‘s special ability has changed, so that only Fortitude combat cards cost her one less blood. (This is basically the death of Una Freakshow decks!)
• The cost reduction provided by Ankara Citadel no longer applies to action modifiers.
• The Black Metamorphosis action now has +1 stealth.

Some explanation about these card changes and the reasoning behind it are given in the announcement by Black Chantry (see link above).

Rules Team Rulings — RTR 19/07/2018

The VEKN continues its course of cleaning up and clarifying existing VTES rules. The latest result are the new Rules Team Rulings of July 18th 2018. The RTR 19/07/18 consists of three parts, that is

• Rule change #1: Cold iron vulnerability is removed, weapons with cold iron vulnerability now cause aggravated damage to Kiasyd.
• Rule change #2: The scarce penalty is now based only on the number of scarce vampires of the same clan already in play you control.
• Rule clarification: Locking the blocking minion and entering combat happen simultaneously and are identified as the “block resolution”.

There are also some card text changes implied by these changes which are also listed in the RTR.

You can read the full text of the RTR down below as well as in the Black Chantry website. The discussion on VEKN.net of these changes are in the corresponding Rules Team Rulings – RTR 19/07/2018 thread.

Rules Team Rulings — RTR 11/05/2018

A bit surprisingly after the recent Rules Team Rulings of March 3rd, 2018, another RTR has been released on May 11th, 2018 (along with preview of the Gargoyles card for the Lost Kindred expansion). In fact, the RTR 11/05/18 contains of three parts, that is

• Rule change #1: Anarch is a sect.
• Rule change #2: Hunt
• Rule change #3: Limited effects

While the last two are merely clarifications/cleanup of existing effects, the first change is certainly the one with the biggest impact. Being Anarch is no longer a trait (like Black Hand), but Anarch is now a sect like Camarilla or Sabbat. In the past, belonging to the Independent sect was a prerequisite, now Anarchs and Independent are strictly separated, because a vampire can only belong to one sect at a given time.

You can read the full text of the RTR down below as well as in the VEKN.net forum (with the accompanying discussion).

Rules Team Rulings — RTR 03/03/2018

Two weeks ago the Rules Director of the VEKN (Ankha) as posted the latest Rules Team Rulings which contains some updates to the VTES rules. In fact the RTR 03/03/18 contains of three parts, that is

• Rule change #1: Timing during the Influence phase
• Rule change #2: Recruiting allies
• Rule change #3: Caitiff as a clan

You can read the full text down below as well as in the VEKN.net forum (with the accompanying discussion).

Preview of the VTES Anthology Set

Today the VEKN has started (the albeit short) preview of the upcoming VTES Anthology set. The expansion consists mostly of reprints of existing cards, but has a few new cards as well (10 new crypt cards and 2 new library cards). The set will be released on May 11th, 2017 on the occasion of the World Of Darkness Berlin convention alongside with the VTES European Championship 2017.

With the expansion, two significant changes come along, mostly (I think) because WotC is no longer involved in VTES, and their intellectual property had to be respected. First of all, the backside of the cards will change, because the “Deckmaster” logo/text had to be dropped. This will typically require the players to play with sleeved decks during tournaments when using decks with different cardbacks.

Also the keywords tap/untap were dropped, and they have been replaced by the keywords lock/unlock, while the function remains the same.

Check the preview page on VEKN net of the Anthology set.

Rules Team Rulings — RTR 07/07/2016

Really big news today, the VEKN has released a new Rules Team Ruling, which basically allows the proxy cards in VTES tournaments. There are few caveats, but right now proxies are .. legal for tournament play.

Dear everyone,
As you’ve probably heard today, we have some news from Paradox.

Tournament Rules Change
After several years of suggestion from players, discussion, debating amongst the NCs and Inner Circle, we have submitted a rule change to Paradox, and we are happy to report their support on the following points :

“As long as the game is not under production, the organizer of an event can choose to allow proxy cards in his or her event. For events where proxy cards are allowed, several points apply:

– there are no limit to the number of proxy cards a deck can have
– every proxy card must be a color-copy of the original card, on standard paper
– the quality of the print must allow the reading of the illustrator’s name
– the organizer must mark the event as ‘allowing proxy cards’ on the VEKN calendar”
As for VEKN-issued cards, proxy-cards would have to be inserted in an opaque sleeve (along the rest of the crypt and/or library), before a regular VTES card.

This change in the Tournament Rules will not apply to National Championships and Continental Championships.

This RTR will be effective for events created for August 6th 2016 and later (this includes events held on August 6th, 2016).

As we just received their answer, the implementation of the checkbox on the Event Module Creation isn’t fully complete, and we kindly ask for your patience before creating Proxy-allowing events (it shouldn’t take long).

Did you know, that … (Part 134)

.. when you’re playing Shattering Crescendo, you already need the second copy of Shattering Crescendo in your hand and you cannot rely on drawing a second copy of the card as replacement for the initial Shattering Crescendo? The reason is, that you need to be able to pay the “cost” of the card when announcing the action. This comparable to not being able to play an action card that costs two blood when you only have one and/or having the weapon in your hand when you’re playing Concealed Weapon.

---

Reference: [LSJ 2010-08-02]

Anarchs Unbound Rules FAQ

Here’s a short FAQ of rules questions around the new cards from the Anarchs Unbound (and The Unaligned) expansion, which has been released earlier this year. Most of these questions are copies from the rules questions forum on VEKN.net.

Field Training

• Question: Can I play Field Training on a vampire who is already an Anarch?
• Answer: Yes, the card (as per card text) can be put on any other “another ready, non-titled vampire you control” vampire. This restriction obviously doesn’t exclude Anarch vampires.

Reference: VEKN.net

Red Question

• Q: Can I play an action card that requires an Anarch and immediately afterwards play Red Question to fulfill the requirements.
• A: No, you can’t retroactively fulfill any requirement when playing a card. The requirement (Anarch, discipline, sect, etc.) has to be met before any card is played.

• Q: Can I play Red Question before “as the action is announced” action modifiers e.g. Ni Dieu ni Maître?
• A: No, similarly the questions above you have to fulfill the requirement of a card before playing said card. Plus, any action modifier with the “as the action is announced” clause has to be played immediately after the action is announced, that is before any other action modifiers can be played.

• Q: Can I play Red Question before “regular” action modifiers e.g. Power of One that require an Anarch.
• A: Yes, that possible. Action Modifiers always resolve immediately (in this case making the acting vampire an Anarch), and then you’re are eligible to play an action modifier requiring an Anarch.

Reference: VEKN.net

Hackerspace

• Q: When an Anarch Convert is influenced up and uses its ability to turn a vampire into an Anarch will the Convert trigger Hackerspace as well as the ability for two counters?
• A: Yes, Hackerspace gets two counters. The first one, when Anarch Convert enters play (even if only very briefly), and the second one, when a second (non-Anarch) vampire becomes Anarch.

Reference: VEKN.net

Skaald

• Q: Does a untitled Gangrel with a Skaald attached to him retain the extra two votes after becoming Baron, e.g. an unmerged Danielle Diron has a Skaald, but then becomes Baron by merging with her advanced version.
• A: The Skaald remains on the vampire, but the extra votes from the Skaald are not added to the Baron’s inherent 2 votes, because the cardtext of Skaald states explicitly “this untitled Gangrel gets +2 votes“. If, for example, after the title is lost (e.g. after a contest) the Gangrel will receive the two extra votes again. On the other hand, during an ongoing contest of the title, the Gangrel is still considered titled and therefore does not receive an extra two votes.

VTES Rules: “First Strike” Q&A

First Strike was always somewhat iffy in terms of handling its effect in a VTES game. I think most of it comes from the naming “First Strike” implicating that it is resolved/handled first in any combat (which is not true; see below). Maybe a better naming would have been “Fast Strike” (or something along that line).

From the VTES rulebook section 6.4.5. “Strike Effects”:

First Strike. A strike done with first strike is resolved before a normal strike. Thus, if the opposing minion is burned or sent to torpor by a strike done with first strike, his strike will not be resolved at all. If the opposing minion was striking with a weapon that is stolen or destroyed with first strike, then the opposing minion simply loses his strike altogether. If both minions strike with first strike, then the strikes are resolved simultaneously. A strike done with first strike will still not resolve before a combat ends effect (which always resolves first), and a dodge still cancels the effects of a strike done with first strike (see below).

And here’s a summary of various scenarios that are relevant for handling First Strikes in a combat:

• .. vs. Dodge — according to the rules (under section 6.4.5 — Dodge) a Dodge is handled before First Strike, that is the First Strike effects are evaded by the vampire using the Dodge.
• .. vs. Strike: Combat Ends — also according to the rules (under section 6.4.5 — Strike: Combat Ends) S:CE is handled before First Strike, that is the combat ends before the First Strike is resolved.
• .. vs. another First Strike — in this case, both First Strikes are handled at the same time, similar to the case when both strikes are “normal” strikes (exception are the environmental damage effects (if any; see below).
• .. vs. environmental damage — the environmental damage is always handled during normal strike resolution (regardless of who actually played the First Strike). For example, if one of the combatants goes to torpor (or is burned) by damage effects of the First Strike, the effects of the environmental damage are not resolved.
• .. vs. Rötschreck — Rötschreck is played when strikes are chosen, that is before the strikes resolve. Therefore the effect of Rötschreck kicks in before the sequencing of First Strike and the “normal” strike takes players.
• .. vs. Nightstick/Forearm Block — the prevention effect of Nightstick/Forearm Block is not there yet, when the First Strike is resolved. Therefore the First Strike’s damage cannot be prevented by using these cards.

References:

• VTES Rules Section “Minion Phase”
• First Strike & Rötschreck
• First Strike & Environmental Damage
• First Strike & Nightstick/Forearm Block

Banned Cards in VTES (2016 Update)

Here’s the updated list of the cards that are (or were) banned for VTES tournaments in 2016. For each of the cards I will briefly explain why (and when) they have been banned:

• Playing for Keeps — since January 9th, 1995
• High Stakes — since January 9th, 1995
• Cunctator Motion — since January 9th, 1995
  An ante is a forced bet in which each player places a card from his deck into the pot before the game begins. The player who ousts another players actually wins the forfeited card from the losing player. The concept was (as in Magic The Gathering) never really popular, and the concept was dropped very soon after the release of VtES. So cards relating to ante, as those three above were banned for this reason.
• Madness of the Bard — since July 1st, 1999
  The judgment of this card varies from “downright silly” to “very much fun“, but in the end it prevents most players from freely communicating to each other, which is one of the cornerstones of a multi-player game.
• Return to Innocence — since March 14th, 1999
  A card which allows a vampire to bleed for 10+ is just too good for the game. In a typical tournament the comfort level in terms of having pool is something like 10-12. With that amount of pool you need two high-level bleed come through, but this requires considerable setup and/or amount of cards being played during these actions, or you need at least 3-4 Kine Resource Contested/Conservative Agitations, but this also needs some setup. With RtI you can just bleed with Daring the Dawn and the only thing you’ll have to worry about is bleed bounce.
• Succubus Club — since January 1st, 2005
  Mass trading resources, especially with the now defunct tournament rules about table-splitting (at least for practical purposes), this led to absurd situation. Players Bob and John made a table split deal, with one of the them having a Succubus Club in play. After the deal both trade regularly their whole set of resources of vampires, master cards and other permanents back and forth, until they succeed in having ousted the other players.
• Kindred Restructure — since January 1st, 2005
  The abusive technique for using Kindred Restructure (and to a lesser extent) Dramatic Upheaval was called VP Sniping. The player with the Kindred Restructure in hand would wait where some predator was in sure ousting range (i.e. down to less than 5 pool or something similar) for the next turn. Then the KR would be played, and his new player, while having done nothing all the while, ripped off the reward for ousting from the original player. Furthermore with Kindred Restructure this player could arrange the table in manner which was most suitable for him, e.g. having a weak predator or prey or both. But LSJ’s publicly stated reasoning for the ban was simpler — it gives a player two predators at the same time, their real predator and the guy who’s going to jump right in there. Which is pretty unfair.
• Dramatic Upheaval — since January 1st, 2005
  The same arguments as for Kindred Restructure applies to Dramatic Upheaval as well, but to only slightly lesser extent, since it allowed to change seats with one player only.
• Edge Explosion — since January 1st, 2008
  One of the driving engines of an Imbued deck, since it both allowed him to have a power for which he hasn’t had the appropriate Virtue, but may gain a Conviction for a successful action once each turn.
• Memories of Mortality — since January 1st, 2008
  Very powerful when playing an ally deck, not only wasn’t an opposing vampire with this card no longer allowed to block any ally, he couldn’t hurt him anymore and the card was hard to get rid off.
• Protect Thine Own — since January 1st, 2008
  This card provided a very cheap way to remove any non-Camarilla vampire, though it requires an Inner Circle member for using the card’s full effect.
• Lilith’s Blessing — since April 22nd, 2013
  This is the first (and only) promo card on the ban list. The card provided very easy (and repeatable) access to 3 blood, and is somewhat abusive when used with Villein (or Minion Tap with multiple master phase actions).
• Anthelios, the Red Star — since February 16th, 2016
  The card is problematic not of its own, but predominantly in combination with multiple Master Phase actions the card can easily be abused. So to speak, the cards suffers from the dial-a-card syndrome, repeatedly.
• Temptation of Greater Power — since February 16th, 2016
  The issue with is that the use of the card often influence the outcome of a game dramatically when played (even if that can only happens once per game). Even if the player using the card isn’t put into a winning position , the target player surely cannot win the game anymore, either because he lost one his key vampires, or loses so much pool, that he is ousted much more quickly.
• Seeds of Corruption — since February 16th, 2016
  The reason for the ban of Seeds of Corruption seems to be more of a technical issue rather than the power of the card. It’s not always easy to figure out, what exactly happens with the target vampire (and what happens after the Seeds of Corruption has disappeared).

Earlier Card Bans and Revokes

• Rowan Ring — from January 9th, 1995 to January 1st, 2000(?)
• Stake — from January 9th, 1995 to March 14th, 1999
  The cards were banned because the corner-case paralyzation rules which were dropped in VtES (as opposed to the Jyhad rules). Since extensive rewording would have been necessary the rules team decided to ban the cards. With the new wording of the VtES version of Wooden Stake and the Camarilla Edition (CE) version of Rowan Ring the paralyze mechanic was dropped and replaced by “send to torpor“, so the ban could be lifted after the new version had been released.
• Monocle of Clarity — from January 9th, 1995 to January 1st, 2000(?)
  The wording of Monocle of Clarity allowed easily to break the game, thus it was banned. For an example see the following thread. With the new wording of the CE version which limited the card’s functionality to the current game state, not a future one, the card was allowed again.

VTES Rules Update & Clarifications 2016

In addition to the release of the Anarchs Unbound expansion on January 18th, 2016, the VEKN released a number of rules clarification, and (more significantly) three new card bans (for VTES tournament games).

Rulebook Clarifications

• [6.1.3 Equip] To equip with one or more equipment cards currently possessed by one of your other minions, tap the acting minion (the minion who is attempting to get the equipment cards) and announce the equipment cards he is getting. If the action is unsuccessful, the equipment cards remain where they are.
• Strike: burn equipment: When declaring such strikes, choose which equipment on the opposing minion the strike will burn. [new term]
• [6.1.2 Hunt]  Note that a ready vampire with no blood must hunt (and cannot take any action except a hunt action).

Banned cards

The following cards are banned from Tournament Play starting February 16, 2016

• Anthelios, The Red Star
• Temptation of Greater Power
• Seeds of Corruption

Did you know, that … (Part 134)

.. that you can burn a vampire who attempts to bleed for four (or more) by using an Archon Investigation even though you have a Protected Resources in play? The reason that the reduction of a bleed to two only kicks in when the action resolves, that is the pool is actually reduced by the bleed amount. On the other hand, to play Archon Investigation it is enough that the acting vampire is attempting to bleed you.

In the same sense, when you’re bleed for four and you reduce the bleed by two (e.g. by using Telepathic Counter), you’re still bled by two. The effect Protected Resources only kicks in later, effectively leaving the bleed at two.

References: rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad.com.

Did you know, that … (Part 133)

.. you can target a vampire that is immune to Frenzy cards with Deep Song (using superior Animalism), but the targeted vampire is not tapped and there’s no resulting combat? The reason is that the (Immunity to) Frenzy isn’t part of the targeting requirements, and therefore the vampire can be targeted. On the other hand, during the resolution of the Deep Song action, the immunity to Frenzy advantage is checked, and therefore the actual consequences of the action are non-existing. Unless, of course, the targeted vampire (or any other minion) chooses to block the action, in which the normal blocking/combat resolution takes place.

Reference: [LSJ_2010-10-04]

Did you know, that … (Part 132)

.. you cannot play Form of Mist at superior Protean (to continue the action) when the extra stealth provided by Form of Mist is not needed (as compared to the intercept of the currently blocking minion). As a general rule, you cannot play stealth cards when the stealth is not (yet) needed, and Form of Mist has no exception clause in its card text. Therefore the general rules apply, and you cannot play Form of Mist when you don’t need the stealth.

Granted this is a cornercase, because the blocking minion needs to lose some of the intercept during the resulting combat, but it can happen. For example, the retainers (Raven Spy, Mr. Wintrop) providing the intercept get killed during combat (e.g. by Weather Control) or the acting minion nullifies the intercept during combat (Stanislava negates the retainers intercept during combat).

Reference:

• [LSJ-2005-05-05].

Did you know, that … (Part 131)

.. when you have been using superior Eagle’s Sight to block an action (after ignoring the normal prey, predator or target restrictions for blocking actions), and the acting vampires continues the action after a successful block (with cards like Form of Mist or Crypt’s Sons), you need another way of blocking the action again. In other words, Eagle’s Sight is only good for one block attempt. But since you cannot play the same reaction card twice during an action, you (most likely) cannot block the action any longer.

The reason for this is the card text, which states the card allows the reacting vampire attempts to block the current action despite of the usual restriction. The same applies to Falcon’s Eye at superior Spiritus with the same card text. Anneke on the other could block again in the situation described above, because her card text is sort of permanent, allowing to break the usual block restrictions multiple times during an action.

Reference:

• VEKN.net
• [LSJ-2003-02-27]

VTES Rules: Merged Vampires Q&A

As a follow-up to the Epiphany FAQ from a few weeks ago, here are some more questions and answers regarding merging vampires in general:

• Question: If a merged vampire gets burned, can I use Possession to bring back the merged vampire back to the ready region.
• Answer: No, you cannot. You can can pick one of the two vampires (the basic or the advanced version) to move it back to the ready region. Vampires remember nothing after a trip through the ash heap. That includes memory of being merged.
• Reference: [LSJ-20050423]

• Q: If the basic version of a vampire has +1 bleed and the advanced version has also +1 bleed, what the bleed modifier for the merged vampire?
  A: The merged vampire has +2 bleed. The +1 bleed modifier of the basic and the advanced vampire is not a conflicting attribute/trait (like sect or title), and thus in the merged version they are added up. The same would apply for similar traits like strength or non-titled(!) votes.

• Q: If a vampire in the ready has acquired the Black Hand trait and I merge the vampire (with the advanced or basic version), does the vampire loose the Black Hand trait?
• A: He does not loose the Black Hand trait. The Black Hand trait is not tied a requirement like a sect or a title, and therefore the merged version inherits the trait from version already in play. This different than, for example, for the Anarch trait, which is tightly coupled with the Independent sect. That is, if the base vampire already in play is Anarch, and the advanced vampire belongs to a non-independent sect, then the merged vampire changes sect to the non-Independent sect, and thus the Anarch trait is lost.

• Q: Can I merge a vampire that is in torpor?
• A: Yes, you can merge a torporized vampire. The rules [section 1.5] state the vampire only needs to be controlled to be the target of a merge. On the other hand, you cannot merge a vampire that is already contested, because the contested vampire is not considered to be in play for any other purpose than contesting.

• Q: Another player controls the basic version of a vampire. If I move the advanced version of that same vampire to the ready region, do we contest the vampire?
• A: Yes, there’s a contest then. The rules [section 1.5, again] state that the vampires (both the base and advanced version) are considered to be the same vampire with regards to contesting.

Resolving Aggravated Damage

The extensive new rulings initiated on July 7th, 1998 modified (among many other things) the handling of aggravated damage in VTES significantly. The former rules director LSJ then made this nice summary of how a vampire is affected when dealt certain amounts of regular and aggravated damage.

• Vampire w/ 0 blood takes 1 regular damage:
  • goes to torpor empty since he cannot heal the damage.
• Vampire w/ 0 blood takes 1 agg damage:
  • goes to torpor empty since he cannot heal the damage.
• Vampire w/ 1 blood takes 1 agg damage:
  • goes to torpor with 1 blood since he cannot heal the damage.
• Vampire w/ 1 blood takes 1 regular and 1 agg:
  • loses 1 to heal regular, and goes to torpor with no blood.
• Vampire w/ 1 blood takes 2 agg:
  • 1st point will send him to torpor (since it cannot be healed), 2nd point requires the loss of a blood (since he now has unhealed damage – namely, the first point). He goes to torpor with no blood.
• Vampire w/ 1 blood takes 2 regular and 1 agg:
  • loses 1 to heal first point of regular damage, cannot heal the second point of regular damage, so he will be sent to torpor. The point of agg requires the loss of a blood (since he currently has unhealed damage – namely, the second point of regular damage), so he is burned since he has no more blood to burn.
• Vampire w/ 1 blood takes 1 regular and 2 agg:
  • loses 1 to heal first point of regular damage; the first point of agg damage will send him to torpor (but doesn’t require the loss of a blood, since he currently has no unhealed damage), and the second point of agg requires the loss of a blood, which he cannot pay, so he is burned.

I would like to add the following two remarks:

• Allies handle all aggravated damage as normal damage, that is for each point of aggravated damage they loose one life.
• If you have both immunity against non-aggravated damage and handle aggravated damage as if it was normal damage, you still have to burn one blood for healing the damage when someone inflicts one aggravated damage to you. This is because the aggravated damage, retains to be aggravated damage if you treat it as if it were normal damage. And against that damage you don not have immunity.

Reference: [LSJ-1998-07-07]

Did you know, that … (Part 130)

.. you cash in a Priority Contract for 3 pool when a vampire is moved to the uncontrolled region after a successful Banishment referendum? Typically when gaining pool from a Contract, you either burn a vampire or at least send him torpor. In the case of a Banishment, the vampire moves the uncontrolled region, which (of course) is not part of the ready region. Even though the Priority Contract (along with any other cards on the vampire) would be out of play after the Banishment, the Priority Contract states the Contract can be burned and the 3 pool gained, when vampire would leave the region; that is right before he is moved to the uncontrolled region.

Reference:

• VEKN.net

Did you know, that … (Part 129)

.. when you control Lutz and your prey is playing Poison Pill on a Kine Resources Contested you are using to cause one or more points of damage on your prey, you do not take an additional damage for the extra damage inflicted by Lutz‘ special ability. The extra point is not inflicted on you, because Poison Pill states that you’re taking only damage inflicted by the political action itself (and not by other effects). By the way, the damage inflicted by Lutz is taken care of after the action has been resolved, which is an additional indicator, that Poison Pill doesn’t care about Lutz special ability.

Reference: [LSJ-20100527].

VTES Rules: “Epiphany” Q&A

Lately there have been some questions regarding Epiphany on VEKN.net, and therefore here are some questions and answers regarding the card:

• Question: Can you search for an advanced vampire even though the vampire performing the Epiphany has no Advanced vampire?
• Answer: Yes, you can cycle a card this way. This is similar when you’re playing Magic of the Smith and miraculously “fail” to find an appropriate equipment in your library. Refer to VEKN.net.

• Q: Can I move an unmerged vampire from the uncontrolled region to the ready region and merge them in the same influence phase?
• A: No, you can’t. The uncontrolled vampires with enough blood on them to be moved to the ready region, become controlled at the end of influence phase and then it’s too late spent four transfers for merging them. Refer to VEKN.net.

• Q: Can you add Legendary Vampire to a vampire that has been merged last turn?
• A: No, you can’t since merging a vampire is not the same as moving a (new) vampire from the uncontrolled to the ready region, that is the unmerged version has been in play for at least two turns already.  Refer to VEKN.net and [LSJ-200305019].

• Q: An unmerged vampire Sebastian Goulet (Sabbat) becomes Independent and Anarch. What sect does he have when I merge him then?
• A: He becomes Sabbat again, because in case of conflicting traits, etc. (in this case Independent vs. Sabbat) the advanced version applies in full after merging. Because of changing sect, he also loses his Anarch trait. See [LSJ-20090706].

 

Did you know, that … (Part 128)

.. that after a vampire (or any other unique minion) has been burned, and a new copy of the same vampire has been brought into play, the new vampire is not affected by cards that have been pointing to the original vampire? For example, Lodin enjoyed the blood flow from The Rack, and is then burned in combat or by diablerie. In the next turn a new copy of Lodin is moved to the ready region. This new copy of Lodin does not receive the benefits of The Rack (even if it hasn’t moved yet to point to another vampire).

For all intents and purposes, different copies of the same vampire are considered different (except for contesting). Another example is that even if the first copy of  has yielded his title (e.g Lodin has not been the Prince of Chicago anymore), the new copy of the vampire, still has the title (and would contest it again, if there’s another vampire holding the same title in play).

This, of course, is not really relevant for cards that have been placed on a vampire directly. Cards like Fame, or Heroic Might go the ash heap as soon as the vampire attached to the cards is burned or diablerized.

Reference:

• VEKN.net
• VEKN.net
• [LSJ 2004-07-26]

Did you know, that … (Part 127)

.. you cannot play (in this order) Govern the Unaligned with Conditioning, and then play Seduction (which just replaced for the Conditioning) on another vampire. The reason is that even if you play all these cards before the other player could react/interact, the Seduction can only be played as the action is announced. And that window has closed, when you played Conditioning, which is a regular action modifier.

So the correct order is to play the action card, play all (one or more) action modifier cards that are needed to be played as the action as announced (or use any similar effects like using Club Illusion), and then play any (other) action modifiers you want to play.

Reference: VEKN.net.