May 2023: Shadows in Avilés.
Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream
it is not dying, it is not dying
Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void
it is shining, it is shining
Hello, visitor.
Welcome to the Thessalian scrolls. Enter freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring.
This is a place to share information about the never-ending war of the Kindred. If you have reached this place by chance, please find out what this is all about here. If you came willingly, take a sit and allow me to tell you a story of the eternal struggle. I hope this collection of deeds can entertain you, and maybe you can extract some interesting conclusions among all these scattered scraps.
What you are reading now is the report for the month of May. As you may know by now, I am collecting information about the tournaments that are registered in the VEKN event calendar, and the decks that won. The VEKN is the main portal for any player who wants to be informed on the evolution of the game, and I also go to other sites where players share more data about decks and strategies, and I will list those sites here not only to thank the efforts of those developers, but also to allow any reader to access these fantastic tools:
- El Setita Loco and his Instagram deck database. Easiest to see twd archive in the planet.
- VDB, a fantastic deck building tool including also information about decks all over the world.
- VTES decks, also a database with good searching engine and a friendly display to see all the cards. It includes not only TWDs, but also others, created by the community.
- Last but not least, BCN Crisis, including the best event management tool you can find and use to run your tournaments. Recently, it has evolved to become a brilliant divulgation portal, as his creator released a youtube channel including valuable comments on several topics. You will find some videos related to playstyle, strategy and some particular decks. I will talk about this later again, as his most recent publication is quite related to the events that happened in May.
All these tools are helping me to gather information about tournaments and winning decks all over the world. This month I was able to count 22 tournaments, involving 409 players. This means I got to record information about events involving 82% of the methuselahs participating in official tournaments this month. This is more the monthly average in my information gathering efforts this year, but it makes me a little sad that the 87% I got to record in April, is not been surpased this month. From here I would like to encourage all players and tournament organizers to share the information about the events. Not only will it allow me to offer more accurate data, but will also work for players everywhere to access deck lists and ideas. It also will be an excellent way to provide a well-deserved fame to the players winning those struggles.
This said, I also praise and thank all those who are already doing it. They allow me to collect the information I share here, so that any reader can extract some conclusions and have a clear idea on the meta and its evolution. I do not pretend to do that, by the way. I will show you some scattered data the best way I can, and you get to extract the concusions.
GENERAL DATA.
As I said above, I got to register 22 tournament winning decks. 409 methuselahs have been reported in these events, meaning an average to 18,5 players. These include the Belgian National Championship and the Grand Prix Liverpool, among many other. In Liverpool, where there is a barber showing photographs, 42 players from different countries joined the two events together. Amazing.
But the most populated tournament may come as a surprise to many, as it happened in a small town, in the north of Spain. It was a question of time that this brilliant and growing community had a place among the "events of the month", as the numbers in every tournament in Asturias are always amazing. Puxa!
Let´s see the summary:
General summary/Resumen general:
Players total/Total de jugadores: 409.
Higher count/Torneo con más jugadores: 39 (Avilés, Spain).
Lower count/Torneo con menos jugadores: 7.
Please, admire the places were the eternal struggle was fought this month:
The NC of Belgium was held in Mechelen with 38 participants.
Brazil held 6 events, in Campinha Grande (16 and 13), Recife (9), and Fortaleza (20, 19 and 15). 54 players in Fortaleza this month. wow!
18 players in a tournament in the great city of Paris, France.
1 tournament was held in Germany, with 15 methuselahs in Herne.
Ciudad de Mexico hosted another stage of their league, with 7 participants this time.
15 Players struggled in Stockholm (Sweden).
And also, the two mentioned tournaments in the UK, in Liverpool: The GP hosting 27 players, and the Bobby Lemon Bedlam with 15. Great VTES weekend!
And this month, we highlight Spain, with 9 tournaments totalling 182 participants. 15 played in Alcalá de Henares, 15 and 19 in two events in Barcelona, 28 in Córdoba, 22 in Elche, 10 in Palma de Mallorca, 24 in Valencia, 10 in Valladolid, and the mentioned event in Avilés, with 39 methuselahs.
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| A small town full of kindred... what can go wrong? |
THE WINNERS.
As usual, I will name the winners, so that we praise their achievement. Please note this list is not a ranking, as I am writing here only the winners. For a more precise and balanced rating of players, I think the VEKN ranking should be considered, as it counts the achievements of players on most the events they participate in, and spans a much wider period of time.
If I am not wrong, this is the first time we have a player winning two tournaments in the same month, and this month we have not only one, but two players achieving that! so congratulations to Cesar Ruiperez and Joao Rogerio Barbosa. Cesar made it with two decks, one based around Fakir al Sidi, and the other with Enkidu. Both are big caps able to care for themselves, and to overwhelm any opposition with an iron fist. Joao got to win with two Modern Gangrel decks, but quite different one another: a toolbox and a blocker.
DECKS.
This month, 12 clans have achieved at least one tournament win. Gangrel got 5 and Tremere got 4 victories, but it was Ministry the most successful with 3 wins, but in events that accumulated more participants (81). I will go back to Ministry in a little while, as they are the clan of the month.
Gangrel showed off with different archetypes, confirming that they are one of the most versatile clan, as they are able to win tournaments with various designs, like Reign of Stanislava, or the Modern Gangrel Anarch. Tremere also can blow the trumpet about their flexibility, winning this month with either V5 toolbox, Carna wall, or the Lord Tremere and Malgorzata emporium.
We will see what happens in June, but it seems that Gangrel and Tremere will be the most successful clans in the next accumulated count (that will cover the first half of the year). Which one will it be?
We can also see Tzimisce decks quite successful this month. They were not showing around too often, but maybe this is a change of tendency.
Let´s see the chart:
About Ministry, I think it is a good idea to take a closer look on them. According to the number of players they defeated, they are the clan of the month. They are confirming something that was a well-known secret: Modern ministry decks are awesome, and have been one of the best performing clans in Q1. After no achievements in April, they are coming back to the glory.
They are also revealing themselves as a very versatile archetype, able to work as a pure bleeder, a bleed&vote killing machine, or even as a toolbox. And the future may be even brighter for them: the new blood may bring some good re-edited card that allows them to shine even brighter among new players, or a new baron able to brace their political might. Farther in the future, they might forge an alliance with some Ravnos vampires, as they will share two of their disciplines. As always, only the future knows.
I have mentioned their versatility as one of the staples of their success. And as months come and go, we see more and more variations on the Ministry winning decks. This month, they have won the most populated event, in Avilés, and also the UK GP, along with the Speed run tournament in Barcelona, all with different builds.
Many would highlight the Ministry in Crime by Kim Nilsson, winner in Liverpool, as it featured some interesting combinations and ideas. I suggest you watch BCN Crisis video about the archetype and this build in detail, with a interesting collection of ideas about it, and tips to play it. You will be able to find it in BCN Crisis Youtube Channel. The video is in spanish, but can be read in english on the subtitles. The methuselah behind it as wise as can be, and his winning records are there to tell it.
Please find the video here (reproduced with permission):
About Playstyle, it seems like the balance between active and mixed strategies keeps the tendency we have seen in April, or even more perfect indeed: both approaches have managed to defeat exactly the same number of players: 131 (32%). The rest is shared by Reactive decks and Control ones (Blockers and Bruisers, in VTES).
Classification summary/Resumen de clasificación de mazos:
Political decks/Mazos políticos: 1 (15).
Bleed&vote/Politica y sangrado: 3 (64).
Total active decks/Total de mazos con estrategia activa: 7 (132).
Block decks/Mazos de bloqueo: 5 (96).
Block and bruise/Mazos de bloqueo y combate: 0
Total reactive decks/Total de mazos con estrategia reactiva: 5 (96).
Archetypes.
Playstyle and classification give us an idea of the general strategies that are bein used to win, but then, let´s take a closer look on the kind of decks that were succesful, by sorting them in what I called archetypes. Disclaimer: This classification is personal (though I am hearing the whispers of some methuselahs that are wiser than me). And I took some poetic license in it, too. But I think that, overall, I´m being accurate. If you don´t agree, please whisper. I´m eager to know other points of view that help these reports to become more accurate and useful.
This month, the preminence of the Modern Ministry is awesome. Specially considering that one of the decks I have classified it as Modern Ministry Toolbox, as watching at the card list I felt that the stealth used was not eough to make it a "stealth killer". Even then, they are not far from doubling the second archetype in points.
FEATURES.
Card types: I am happy to bring this feature, showing how many cards of each type are played. Watch and tell me what you think:
Disciplines: May can be a turning point on this feature. dominate was the most used discipline in the first quarter, but this month its presence in TWDs has diminished. If the trend keeps consistent in June , probably there will be a change on the first place in the list. Tomorrow never knows, but the numbers this month speak for themselves.
Redirection: The number of decks that bounce bleeds is higher than in April. The supremacy of auspex this month is showing here too, and the wider use of bait and switch reinforces this tendency.
Redirection summary/Resumen del uso de redirecciones:
Decks with no redirection capability/Mazos sin capacidad de redirigir: 5 (23%).
About the use of Ashur tablets+multimaster decks: This month, there are only 3 decks using the tablets. This is 15% of the tournaments. And they defeated 52 players, which is a 14% of the players. A remarkable reduction of their performance, considering that the average in the first four months had been a 25% rating achieved by decks using them. As usual, we will soon see if this is a change on the tendency, or a mere accident.
Deck size: Decks got thinner this month, with only 11 decks reaching the maximum of 90 cards per deck. 5 decks had 80-89 cards, and 6 of them were below 80 cards.
The average number of cards slightly falls to 84.
Deck size summary/Resumen de tamaño de los mazos:
80-90 cards in the deck/Mazos conteniendo entre 80 y 90 cartas: 5 (23%).
Less than 80 cards in the deck/Mazos con menos de 80 cartas: 6 (27%).
Average crypt capacity is slightly lower than previous month, and is at 6,33. The highest capacity monsters in the TWDs are also a litter smaller: 11 decks counting on big caps (9 to 11), 9 decks relying on mid caps (7-8), and 2 more with small cap vampires (less than 7).
Average crypt capacity summary/Resumen de media de capacidad en la cripta:
More than seven/Más de siete: 6 decks winning over 84 players (21%).
That is all for this month. I hope you obtained some piece of useful information among all this chat.
I would like to share an additional feature for your amusement. As you may have noticed, I have been introducing these entries with some phrases of some musical pieces that either inspired or were related by my writing that particular month. Well, I created a spotify list to include them, and I share it, so that you can hear them here. I think it may be fun to hear during a game of VTES, and of course it will be evolving as I add more entries to the blog.
I also would like to remind you of the contest I have developed in my previous entry. Participation is open till 25th June, and the prizes and the game may be interesting to you.
Finally, I would like to say that, now that I have developed 5 regular reports for the first months of this year, I have learned a lot from dealing with the numbers, and hearing and reading your comments. June report will remain more or less the same. But in the second half of the year I have the intention to make some changes in the way I present the data to you, focusing a little more in the evolution, and the changes that are ocurring from one month to month.
Until then, I thank you for reading, and wish you all a nice wake with the evening´s freshness.
Pritoos.
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