Feature – Page 2 – Black Chantry Productions

The delicate art of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle

Fifth Edition now in stores – An interview with art director Ginés Quiñonero

With Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition now in stores, we continue to peek behind the scenes. Something that generally render praise is the card illustrations of the game. This is the domain of Ginés Quiñonero.

Ginés, you are an artist and art teacher, but also the art director of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (VTES) at Black Chantry Productions. What exactly do you do as an art director?
– My job mainly consists of these activities:
• Commissioning new art.
• Creating art myself when I am motivated by a specific art description or card.
• Finding new artists in order to increase the variety of VTES art.
• Writing some art descriptions. Most are written by Ben Peal.
• Keeping track of any art projects for VTES products, which means having art contracts signed, sketches approved, deadlines met, final artwork delivered, artists paid, etc.
• Submitting art to Paradox Interactive for approval.
• Preparing art files containing old VTES art for future projects, for example updating color space, resolution and aspect ratio when necessary.
• Ascertaining which cards need replacement artwork.
• Designing logos for any expansion sets.
• Supervising our graphic designer.

The “mothergame” of VTES is Vampire: The Masquerade, which has changed its art direction with the most recent edition. How has it changed, and how does that affect VTES?
– Previous art directions were more eclectic style-wise. The current one places more emphasis on the dark horror mood of the World of Darkness, and on making it believable to the audience. That immediately rules out comic-like styles that look childish, for example, which were becoming more and more present in VTES over the years.

Under the current art direction, adult themes are of the highest importance, and therefore need to be properly depicted with the dramatic lighting and contrasting colours they deserve. Now, some acceptable art styles for VTES are: concept art, photo art, artistic graphic novel art, traditional art, etc.

The impact this new art direction has on VTES is conspicuous in any new cards or in any old cards with new art published by Black Chantry. Their art has to adhere to the above-mentioned criteria and to the current World of Darkness lore. A clear example of that is the difference between the previous art of Govern the Unaligned, released in Heirs to the Blood, and the Fifth Edition replacement art for that same card.

*Three versions of Govern the Unaligned – 1995, 2009 and Fifth Edition 2020.*

Especially for VTES Fifth Edition, what was the general art direction for the new art?
– The most important thing was basically making sure the art guidelines mentioned earlier were met. However, I am well aware of some issues that negatively affected some artists’ performance in the White Wolf era (2000-2010), that I try to avoid. Therefore, I tend not to overwhelm artists with many art comissions to be delivered within a short period of time, so I give them enough time to complete their illustrations and provide them with flexible deadlines when possible, if asked for.

For this project, I hired artists who were proficient either in photo art or in human figure and/or in urban landscape drawing, who were capable of creating believable portraits of vampires as well as dramatic scenes.

When you discuss with the contributing artists, what are the most common issues?
– Fortunately, I seldom have to discuss any issues with the contributing artists. But when I have to, the most common issues are: misproportions, inadequate lighting, inconsistent perspective and the need to make an illustration look more pictorial, with visible brushstrokes.

You are a VTES artist yourself, with many contributions in recent years. How do you work? Your technique has changed, right?
– My early illustrations for VTES were oil paintings: Masai Blood Milk (2005), Gran Madre di Dio, Italy (2006), Claudio Severino (2010), as well as the ones I created later for the Danse Macabre set (2013). However, even though I had more time available back then, I realised those pieces would take me too long to complete.

So I decided to use a faster technique, pastels and colour pencils, in the sets The Unaligned (2014), Storyline Rewards (2015) and Anarchs Unbound (2016). This time it took me an average of 6 hours to complete an illustration (not counting sketching time). However using pastels also had its drawbacks. Colours changed a bit after fixing the painting.

After that I opted for using acrylics in the Lost Kindred set (2018), a technique that was not ideal, because acrylic colours can change a lot after drying off, but which was fast enough for me. For example, I had to create replacement art for Field Training and Under Siege in two days for the Berlin Anthology, which were urgently needed for print.

Due to the dark nature of VTES illustrations, taking photos of some of them to create image files was really a pain, because of the constant reflections appearing in the darker areas. Regardless, photos never looked exacly like the painting.

Therefore I finally decided to use a Wacom tablet, that I already had at home, and the ArtRage software for natural painting. So I went down the path of digital art! It is even faster than pastels, and I do not have to waste any time taking photos to the final piece. It also provides me with a plethora of tools that make painting an even better experience. My first digital illustrations were released in Lost Kindred (2018) and subsequent sets.

When I have to create an illustration, I write down any ideas that come to my mind after reading the art description, and then start sketching until the composition of the illustration pleases me enough to proceed with the final piece.

Afterwards, I try to find any references that can be useful, and then I start drawing and painting in ArtRage, following these steps:

My style has been evolving over these years because I have always been looking for inspiration in the artists I admire, among whom are several VTES illustrators. Most recently I am trying to make my illustrations look more pictorial with evident brushstrokes.

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition is available for all stores and distributors. For more information please visit www.blackchantry.com. Contact us by mail or social media.

Copyright © 2024 Paradox Interactive AB. www.paradoxinteractive.com. All rights reserved. Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and Vampire: The Masquerade® are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB. All rights reserved.

“If Magic is a hand of poker, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is a poker tournament”

Fifth Edition now in stores – An interview with original designer Richard Garfield

Richard Garfield vampire style Gines Quinonero — Art by Ginés Quiñonero.

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition is now in stores! It´s been a long time since the original game designer Richard Garfield was involved in the game – he has been busy with many other creations; Magic: The Gathering, Netrunner, Roborally, King of Tokyo, Keyforge, to name a few. We at Black Chantry Productions of course owe him enormous gratitude and we wanted to ask him some questions about the game and game design in general. Gladely, he agreed to answer!

Let´s start from the beginning, back in the early 90´s. How did Vampire: The Eternal Struggle begin?
– When Magic: The Gathering was published and a great success, the first publisher Wizards of the Coast was completely on board with the idea that trading card games were a new form of game, of which there could be many versions. They anticipated many trading card games made within the hobby industry and we wanted to use our expertise to make some of them. I think the first license we got was with White Wolf for a game set in their World of Darkness. I was more interested in working on a new trading card game than working on Magic, so I threw myself into this project – and it became my first design based on another company´s world.

I probably couldn’t have had a better license to work with – role playing worlds are very deep so there are a lot of resources to use for a card game, and those resources were flavorful and filled with exciting possibilities. The company we were working with, White Wolf, was open to reinterpreting and adding elements to the world that would make it as good as possible for the card game. In future projects I would learn that this was not always the case, some companies are less interested in the card product being good than it reflecting other expressions of the world. I did my part as well as I could – trying to honor the spirit of the World of Darkness with as few impositions as possible.

I don’t remember ever getting any pushback on the designs, though it is long enough ago that I might not remember. It certainly must have helped that many people at Wizards were enthusiasts of the World of Darkness and so I could check my work without necessarily involving White Wolf.

How did you feel about the assignment back then? How was the mood in the team?
– I think we worked hard but I don’t remember hurrying. As a personal goal, I wanted to explore the possibilities trading card games had to offer – I was not interested in using standards created by Magic. It was exciting testing the possibilities this game form opened up – and it was a really new experience for me to be limited by someone else’s world but at the same time have so many world resources to draw on.

Since that time, I have learned to appreciate standards that have been laid down by previous designs as useful not only for the designers and developers – but also the players. Were I to go back now I would think twice about changes to this game relative to Magic – making sure it was worth the player learning something new in each place that I broke the norms. However, I doubt I would have reigned myself in much, the temptation to explore was probably too great – and, honestly, the players probably wanted to see what else was possible as well.

The “replace each played card immediately”-mechanic in Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is rather odd and stumps many who are used to other card games. How did you come up with that?
– I believe it is only odd because it breaks the standard that Magic presents. There are many ways to manage hand size, and I played with many of them in various prototypes – including systems like are used in deckbuilders today – where you draw a complete new hand every turn, or like we see in Keyforge – where players fill their hand to a particular size at the end of their turn. It is good to see some variation in these methods because the method of accessing cards can dominate the sorts of strategies that emerge. Immediate replacement makes the game more about using what you have as best you can – rather than saving it to the best effect.

Nowadays, we use a 2-hour time limit for games in tournaments, but in the first rulebook there was no time limit. How long did you expect a game to take?
– I estimated that it was about half an hour per player – at least that is what I remember, things have changed a lot since then. It certainly was not designed for tournaments, though any game players love to play can be adapted in some way or another for that purpose. A game played in a tournament typically needs to make some sort of time rule.

While I think a half hour per player is a fine length for boardgame standards I think it is also something that somewhat undercuts Vampire: The Eternal Struggle as a trading card game. After its publication I realized and began to appreciate the ability to play many games of Magic in a sitting and modify my deck between and missed that in Vampire: The Eternal Struggle – where the games typically ran too long to do that. Once people are into a game – that is fine – the time frame over which they modify their deck is just longer. But when people are getting into the game, if they only play it once they are missing one of the fundamental parts of a trading card game – varying your tools.

How do you remember the first reception of the game?
– I remember mixed reactions. Part of this is inevitable, we were just learning back then how one could not measure a trading card game against Magic’s success, that it was almost always going to fall short. The other negative reaction would have come from some enthusiasts of the World of Darkness who were role playing devotees, and while they may have been excited about a product like this in principle, role playing and tactical style card games like this are two very different things, and there were bound to be players who didn’t want to do both.

On the other hand – there were a lot of players who didn’t care for the two player nature of Magic, who liked the flavor of the World of Darkness and were keen to experience that as opposed to Magic, and who liked more lengthy and deep play sessions that hours gave them rather than the 20 minutes a Magic game would have. These players flocked to the game and found something they liked a lot – and many of them have made it clear to me that it is a favorite of theirs that they always return to given the opportunity.

How come you left design of the first expansions to other people?
– For the same reason I left Magic design, I was more interested in seeing what else could be done with trading card games than what could be done with a trading card game that had already been designed. Also, I believed that for any game like this to reach its potential it was required to get more people in on the design and my presence on the team would limit them. I made myself available for feedback on all the games I started but I wanted designers to take ownership.

There are a lot of rumours about what order your first games were designed, of what came first and took ideas from what etc. What is the true order of those first games – Magic, Vampire, Roborally, Netrunner, etc.?
– Roborally was designed first, then Magic, Vampire, Netrunner, Battletech… and somewhere in there was Great Dalmuti. Maybe after Magic. It is always guesswork, however, because my designs always are influenced by each other and the roots go back very far – so – for example – my first Magic themed games that had some of the trappings of Magic appeared about the time I was first doing the Robot themed battle and race games that became Roborally.

What do you think distinguishes Vampire: The Eternal Struggle from other similar games?
– As far as I know this was the first game that used ‘attacking left’ as a rule to allow a large group of players to play a very interactive game without being dominated by politics of who to attack. We certainly tried this in Magic, but it wasn’t a very big part of the game, and, of course, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle was built around it. It never really caught on with Magic, the more social games are generally more free-for-all, but I think giving players natural targets makes the game more social. I know that when I play a very interactive game, I don’t want to target anyone because I don’t want to make enemies – and that is not a fun way to play if everyone plays that way. Giving me a target gives me a place to start.

I think this game was unusual in the length of time it allowed itself. As I mentioned above – I think in general that is the wrong decision for a trading card game, but it has its merits – you can get a game that feels more epic when you play it. If Magic is a hand of poker, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is a poker tournament.

Are there things that you think were especially good in Vampire: The Eternal Struggle that you have used in later games too?
– The attack left mechanic – certainly – is one that comes up again and again. It isn’t a cure-all for the problems with a free-for-all game, but it is a good place to start and for a casual player it is just fine.

Something I particularly liked in Vampire: The Eternal Struggle that I have not used since, but will if appropriate, was the voting. I liked the flavor and mechanics of cards being put up for vote during play.

During 2019, 210 sanctioned Vampire: The Eternal Struggle tournaments were played all over the world. Some annual tournaments have over 100 players. Black Chantry Productions has published the game in English, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish and French, and Italian and more translations are coming. Why do you think the game is still played, all over the world, 25 years after its birth?
– I guess the flavor and strategy built into the game spoke to a lot of players and didn’t have much offered in the same game-space. It is gratifying to see my work have such endurance and I am happy some players take pleasure in it.

We thank Richard Garfield for these answers and wish him good luck with his current endeavors, most recently the trivia game Half Truth together with Ken Jennings, and his ongoing project Keyforge.

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition is available for all stores and distributors. For more information please visit www.blackchantry.com. Contact us by mail or social media.

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition designers: Ben Peal, Mike Nudd, and Ginés Quiñonero.

How to play the First Blood: Ventrue deck

Overview

The First Blood: Ventrue introductory deck for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle focuses on heavily bleeding your prey with limited stealth and unblockability, on occasionally blocking potential threats and bruising your opponents in combat.

In the early game, bring out the highest capacity vampire in your uncontrolled region who has superior Dominate, so that, once in play, that vampire can play superior Govern the Unaligned to move 3 blood from the blood bank to a younger vampire in your uncontrolled region. By using your transfers wisely like this, you can get many vampires into play fast.

Once you have two or three vampires in play, start taking either your bleed actions (Govern the Unaligned or Dominate Kine) or your vampires’ inherent bleed actions to bleed your prey. If your prey attempts to block, play a Bonding action modifier to increase both stealth and bleed. Alternatively, play a Conditioning action modifier if your prey has declined to block. You cannot play Conditioning if you already played a Bonding (or vice-versa) during the same action.

Your access to unblockable actions comes from Daring the Dawn, an action modifier that ought to be played on very important actions, such as a bleed or political action that would oust your prey.

Another less dangerous way to get your actions through is via Misdirection. Use this master card to lock a minion controlled by your prey, so it is harder for your prey to block your actions this turn.

Your political actions can make your prey burn pool too. However, be mindful of how many votes each player has, because you may need the support of a cross-table player to make the referenda of your political actions succeed. Therefore, you may need to benefit that cross-table player somehow in order to get their support.

It is also worth mentioning that Ancilla Empowerment is a political action that should be used to oust your prey. Be careful, as it deals pool damage to the whole table.

Your defensive module is quite decent and based on limited access to intercept (Second Tradition: Domain), pool gain, bleed redirection and, in combat, damage prevention.

Your pool gain mainly comes from these cards and effects:
• Blood Doll: You can gain 1 pool per turn for each Blood Doll you control.
• Ousting your prey: You gain 6 pool when your prey is ousted.

Strategy tips

Given your limited access to intercept, it is highly advisable to block key actions only. For example, Sport Bike, Raven Spy, Charnas the Imp, Ivory Bow, political actions that deal pool damage to you, or bleed actions you cannot redirect.

If you have at least a Deflection in your hand during your minion phase, leave one vampire unlocked so that they can redirect any dangerous bleeds that come your way, unless you have enough On the Qui Vive reaction cards in your hand, which will allow you to wake and attempt to block and play reaction cards as if unlocked.

Note that playing Second Tradition: Domain during a bleed action will force you to block that action and you will not be allowed to play Deflection unless you fail to block.

If your predator is playing the First Blood: Malkavian deck and you have an unlocked vampire with permanent intercept and enough intercept reaction cards in your hand, have that vampire attempt to block any action your predator takes, so that they run out of stealth action modifier cards.

On the other hand, if your predator is playing the First Blood: Malkavian deck and you do not have any vampire with permanent intercept or enough intercept reaction cards in your hand, do not attempt to block any actions taken by your predator, so that they cannot play any stealth cards in hand and get their hand clogged with them.

When in combat, have one of your vampires get one Weighted Walking Stick (if they do not have one already) before range is determined, so that your vampire can strike for 2 damage at close range.

Even though your damage prevention module is quite decent, try to avoid it with Nosferatu and, especially, with Tremere vampires, since those cards cannot prevent blood from being stolen, because that is not considered to be damage.

You will rarely have a perfect hand, so good hand management is essential to increase your odds of winning. Therefore, when in doubt use a discard phase action to discard a card you do not need (usually stealth action modifier or combat cards).

Another factor you should take into account during your minion phase is the order of your actions. Since your resources are limited, have your vampires take the least important actions first and the most important ones last.

And finally, make sure everything you do brings you one step closer to victory. Be patient, and do not let your emotions interfere.

How to build a competitive deck with two First Blood: Ventrue decks

Since tournament legal Vampire: The Eternal Struggle decks consist of a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 90 library cards and a minimum of 12 crypt cards, you could combine two First Blood: Ventrue decks in order to build a competitive deck meeting both requirements. It could look like this:

Crypt: (12 cards)
2 Emily Carson
2 Graham Gottesman
2 Joao Bile
2 Lodin (Olaf Holte)
2 Mustafa the Heir
2 Victor Donaldson

Library: (85 cards)
4 Blood Doll
4 Misdirection
1 Uptown Hunting Ground
1 Ventrue Headquarters

2 Dominate Kine
12 Govern the Unaligned

2 Ancilla Empowerment
8 Kine Resources Contested

6 Bonding
4 Conditioning
2 Daring the Dawn
4 Seduction

4 Indomitability
4 Rolling with the Punches
2 Soak
4 Unflinching Persistence
6 Weighted Walking Stick

7 Deflection
4 On the Qui Vive
4 Second Tradition: Domain

Good luck playing the First Blood: Ventrue deck!

Note: This article can be downloaded with additional graphics in PDF format: How to play the First Blood: Ventrue deck

How to play the First Blood: Tremere deck

Overview

The First Blood: Tremere introductory deck for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle focuses on bleeding your prey with limited stealth, blocking potential threats and bruising your opponents in combat.

In the early game, bring out the highest capacity vampire in your uncontrolled region who has superior Dominate, so that, once in play, that vampire can play superior Govern the Unaligned to move 3 blood from the blood bank to a younger vampire in your uncontrolled region. By using your transfers wisely like this, you can get many vampires into play fast.

Once you have two or three vampires in play, start taking either the Govern the Unaligned bleed actions or your vampires’ inherent bleed actions to bleed your prey. If your prey attempts to block, either play a Bonding action modifier to increase both stealth and bleed, or try to send the blocking vampire to torpor in the resulting combat.

Additionally, put cards in play that allow you to weaken your opponents’ vampires so that they cannot block you or take actions against you:
• Get Ivory Bow and .44 Magnum.
• Get Thadius Zho and Charnas the Imp.

Your defensive module is strong and primarily based on blocking any action that deals pool damage to you (for example, bleed or political actions) and also on pool gain and bleed redirection.

For the blocking module to be more consistent, you need to get permanent intercept equipment (Sport Bike) as soon as possible.

Your pool gain mainly comes from these cards and effects:
• Blood Doll: You can gain 1 pool per turn for each Blood Doll you control.
• Arcane Library: You can use it to gain 1 pool per turn.
• Ousting your prey: You gain 6 pool when your prey is ousted.

Strategy tips

When in combat, steal blood as a strike with Theft of Vitae, press to continue combat with Apportation, and either steal more blood or, if equipped with a weapon, strike with that weapon.

On some occasions, you will have the chance to play Walk of Flame, a combat card that cannot be played on the first round of combat. Use it preferably to burn an empty opposing vampire as a strike, even though you can also play it to send an opposing vampire to torpor.

Block any action that deals pool damage to you (for example, bleed or political actions), or any action that gives permanent intercept to your predator or prey (for example, Raven Spy), or any action that moves blood to an uncontrolled vampire of your predator and, to a lesser extent, of your prey.

If your predator is playing the First Blood: Malkavian deck and you have an unlocked vampire with permanent intercept and enough intercept reaction cards in your hand, have that vampire attempt to block any action your predator takes, so that they run out of stealth action modifier cards.

On the other hand, if your predator is playing the First Blood: Malkavian deck and you do not have any vampire with permanent intercept or enough intercept reaction cards in your hand, do not attempt to block any actions taken by your predator, so that they cannot play any stealth cards in hand and get their hand clogged with them.

You will rarely have a perfect hand, so good hand management is essential to increase your odds of winning. Therefore, always use a discard phase action to discard a card you do not need (usually reaction or combat cards).

Another factor you should take into account during your minion phase is the order of your actions. Since your resources are limited, have your vampires take the least important actions first and the most important ones last.

And finally, make sure everything you do brings you one step closer to victory. Be patient, and do not let your emotions interfere.

How to build a competitive deck with two First Blood: Tremere decks

Since tournament legal Vampire: The Eternal Struggle decks consist of a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 90 library cards and a minimum of 12 crypt cards, you could combine two First Blood: Tremere decks in order to build a competitive deck meeting both requirements (see below):

Crypt: (12 cards)
2 Aidan Lyle
2 Claus Wegener
2 Muhsin Samir
2 Rutor
2 Troius
2 Zane

Library: (86 cards)
1 Academic Hunting Ground
1 Arcane Library
4 Blood Doll
1 Chantry
2 Vast Wealth

4 .44 Magnum
1 Charnas the Imp
12 Govern the Unaligned
1 Ivory Bow
2 Sport Bike
1 Thadius Zho

6 Bonding

8 Apportation
10 Theft of Vitae
2 Walk of Flame

4 Enhanced Senses
5 Forced Awakening
5 On the Qui Vive
4 Precognition
4 Spirit’s Touch
8 Telepathic Misdirection

Note: This article can be downloaded with additional graphics in PDF format: How to play the First Blood: Tremere deck

How to play the First Blood: Toreador deck

Overview

The First Blood: Toreador introductory deck for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle focuses on destroying your prey’s blood pool through bleeding and political actions, and on the ability to take several actions per turn with the same vampire, if blocked.

In the early game, bring out the highest capacity vampire in your uncontrolled region who has superior Presence, so that, once in play, that vampire can play superior Enchant Kindred to move 2 blood from the blood bank to a younger vampire in your uncontrolled region. So use your transfers wisely so that you can get many vampires out quickly.

Once you have any vampires in play, it is key that you play the master card Aching Beauty on them to dissuade your prey (and to a lesser extent, other Methuselahs) from blocking you.

Then take either your bleed actions (Legal Manipulations or Enchant Kindred) or your vampires’ inherent bleed actions to bleed your prey. If your prey attempts to block, play a Change of Target action modifier or a superior Majesty combat card to unlock and take a different action. If your prey declines to block, play an action modifier that increases the bleed (Aire of Elation).

Another way to cause pool losses to your prey is by means of political actions. Be mindful of how many votes each player has, because you may need the support of a cross-table player to make the referenda of your political actions succeed. Therefore, you may need to benefit that cross-table player somehow in order to get their support.

Your offensive module is strengthened by two cards: The already mentioned Aching Beauty and Scorn of Adonis:
• Aching Beauty: The blocking player burns 1 pool each time a vampire with an Aching Beauty is blocked. Therefore, take as many actions as possible on the same turn with any vampire with an Aching Beauty. Do not put too many Aching Beauty cards on the same vampire.
• Scorn of Adonis: If your prey votes against a political action you called, you can play Scorn of Adonis to have your prey burn 1 pool. This action modifier increases the odds of your referenda passing.

Your defensive angle is not only based on pool gain, but also on blocking key actions as well as on redirecting bleeds to your prey.

Pool can be gained from ousting your prey and from these cards:
• Blood Doll: You can gain 1 pool per turn for each Blood Doll you control.
• Consanguineous Boon: You can gain as much pool as the amount of Toreador vampires you control.
• Art Museum: You can use it to gain 1 pool per turn.

Given this deck’s limited ability to block, you should mainly block political actions that deal pool damage to you, or bleed actions (primarily at 0 stealth) you cannot redirect.

Any blocks should be attempted by unlocked minions. This means that you may have to leave at least one minion unlocked at the end of your turn. Otherwise, use an On the Qui Vive reaction card to attempt to wake and attempt to block and play reaction cards as if unlocked.

Redirecting a bleed to your prey is both a defensive and an offensive move that can be made by playing a Telepathic Misdirection reaction card with an unlocked or waking vampire with superior Auspex to redirect a bleed against you to your prey.

Strategy tips

Normally, whenever a minion controlled by your predator is attempting to bleed you, play a Telepathic Misdirection reaction card with an unlocked or waking vampire with superior Auspex to redirect a bleed against you to your prey.

If being bled by a Malkavian vampire and you have a Telepathic Misdirection in your hand, attempt to block so that they play stealth. Then say you decline to block and allow them to play a bleed action modifier, and afterwards redirect that bleed to your prey.

However, if being bled by a Malkavian vampire and you do not have a Telepathic Misdirection or a vampire who can play it, do not attempt to block, so that they cannot play any stealth cards in hand and get their hand clogged with them.

By default, try to avoid combat. However, when about to enter combat while acting, play Change of Target, particularly against an already locked minion. Whereas, when about to enter combat outside your turn, play Majesty, mainly against Nosferatu, Tremere and Ventrue.

You will rarely have a perfect hand, so good hand management is essential to increase your odds of winning. Therefore, when in doubt, use a discard phase action to discard a card you do not need.

Another factor you should take into account during your minion phase is the order of your actions. Since your resources are limited, have your vampires take the least important actions first and the most important ones last.

And finally, make sure everything you do brings you one step closer to victory. Be patient, and do not let your emotions interfere.

How to build a competitive deck with two First Blood: Toreador decks

Since tournament legal Vampire: The Eternal Struggle decks consist of a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 90 library cards and a minimum of 12 crypt cards, you could combine two First Blood: Toreador decks in order to build a competitive deck meeting both requirements. It could look like this:

Crypt: (12 cards)
2 Epikasta Rigatos
2 Gwendolyn Fleming
2 Kateline Nadasdy
2 Thomas De Lutrius
2 Tyler McGill
2 Vasily

Library: (85 cards)
6 Aching Beauty
1 Art Museum
5 Blood Doll
1 Society Hunting Ground

8 Enchant Kindred
4 Legal Manipulations

4 Consanguineous Boon
8 Kine Resources Contested

5 Aire of Elation
4 Bewitching Oration
8 Change of Target
4 Crocodile’s Tongue
4 Scorn of Adonis

8 Majesty

8 On the Qui Vive
7 Telepathic Misdirection

Good luck playing the First Blood: Toreador deck!

Note: This article can be downloaded with additional graphics in PDF format: How to play the First Blood: Toreador deck