The Vampire: The Eternal Struggle 25th Anniversary set is coming up, and with that this new, changed Pentex Subversion with art by Riccardo Fabiani.
The complete content list of this product and information about the other changes can be found at the announcement page.
The official release date of 25th Anniversary is August 16 2019, which means the card changes introduced in the set will be legal for tournament play on September 15 2019.
This card is illustrated with the recovered 1990´s artwork by legendary Vampire: The Eternal Struggle artist Edward Beard, Jr (Giant´s Blood, Pulled Fangs, Telepathic Misdirection, etc.) The art was originally to be used in 1995 set Dark Sovereigns.
In the World of Darkness, Grimgroth is a very powerful Tremere vampire, embraced into unlife by the clan founder himself sometime during the 11th century. He replaced the rogue Goratrix as a member of the Tremere Inner Council, responsible for Western Europe.
Grimgroth appears in the 25th Anniversary set which will be available for purchase in mid August (exact date still to be determined).
New card art by Ginés Quiñonero, will appear in the 25th Anniversary set.
A word from Vincent Ripoll, rules director at Black Chantry Productions: With the reprint of Form of Mist, we decided to remove a complex interaction with this card and the rule that prevents a player from adding stealth when it is not needed. Most of the time, Form of Mist would work as you expect: play it as a combat ends, and continue the action with an additional +1 stealth. However, in certain weird cases, you couldn’t play Form of Mist to continue the action. For instance, if the opposing minion with a Raven Spy has blocked an action at 1 stealth and the Raven Spy is burned in combat by the time you play the Form of Mist, then the blocking minion would have 0 intercept, forbidding you from playing Form of Mist that adds stealth. Another situation would be that Stanislava is blocked by a minion with Raven Spy while performing an action at stealth: since the retainers lose their abilities in combat against her, it means that the opposing minion has 0 intercept during the combat, forbidding you from playing Form of Mist. To avoid these unintuitive situations where continuing an action with a stealth bonus does not work, we decided to add the clause “even if stealth is not yet needed” to Form of Mist. It means that you now can play Form of Mist as you expect it to work.
New card text:
pro: Strike: dodge.
PRO: Strike: combat ends. If this vampire is acting and the action was blocked, they can burn 1 blood after combat ends to continue the action at +1 stealth as if unblocked, even if stealth is not yet needed. A vampire can play only one Form of Mist at superior each action.
READ MORE: Contents and card changes in 25th Anniversary revealed
The contents of 25th Anniversary are detailed below. The number before each card is the number of copies of that card in the product.
PRECONSTRUCTED DECK: “Reign of Stanislava”
Crypt (12 cards)
2 Hartmut Stover
2 Ingrid Rossler
2 Mark Decker
4 Stanislava
2 Xaviar (Adv)
Library (88 cards)
Master:
1 Backways
1 Coven, The
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Ecoterrorists
1 Ennoia’s Theater
1 Fear of Mekhet
1 Giant’s Blood
1 Information Highway
1 Monastery of Shadows
1 Pentex(TM) Subversion (NEW ART AND CARD CHANGE, SEE BELOW)
5 Villein
4 Zillah’s Valley
Action:
7 Govern the Unaligned
Political Action:
1 Anarchist Uprising
1 Ancient Influence
1 Ancilla Empowerment
2 Banishment
4 Kine Resources Contested
1 Neonate Breach
5 Parity Shift (NEW ART AND CARD CHANGE, SEE BELOW)
1 Permanent Vacation
1 Political Stranglehold
1 Reins of Power
Action Modifier:
1 Beast Meld
1 Foreshadowing Destruction (NEW ART)
4 Earth Control
1 Enkil Cog
3 Forced March
3 Freak Drive (NEW ART)
3 Instantaneous Transformation
Action Modifier/Combat:
2 Rapid Change
Action Modifier/Reaction:
2 Murmur of the False Will
Combat:
6 Earth Meld
6 Form of Mist (NEW ART)
Reaction:
6 Deflection
3 On the Qui Vive
3 Second Tradition: Domain
ADDITIONAL CARDS (20):
1 Alamut
1 Ankara Citadel Turkey, The (CARD CHANGE, SEE BELOW)
1 Black Metamorphosis (CARD CHANGE, SEE BELOW)
1 Camarilla Vite Slave (NEW ART)
1 Entombment
1 Femur of Toomler
1 Form of Corruption
2 Grimgroth (NEW CARD)
1 Hand of Conrad
1 Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1 Homunculus
1 Khobar Towers
1 Legendary Vampire
1 Life Boon
1 Rutor’s Hand
1 Sargon Fragment, The
1 Signet of King Saul
1 Talbot’s Chainsaw
1 Una (CARD CHANGE, SEE BELOW)
CARD CHANGES
In the words of Ben Peal, Design Director of Black Chantry Productions:
Hey, Methuselahs!
As we’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of Vampire: the Eternal Struggle with the 25th Anniversary set, I’d like to address some card changes which Black Chantry Productions has made with the help of the playtest community, as well as give you the reasons for these decisions.
I’ll start with Pentex Subversion. This card has three main factors:
We’ve chosen to simply remove the “can’t act” portion from Pentex Subversion. We looked at every option and possibility that has come up over the years, such as outright banning the card, leaving it as it is, increasing its cost, splitting it into two cards, having it burn after one turn, and others. By removing the “can’t act” portion, we preserve the card’s utility and an effect that has a beneficial effect on the game and we eliminate an effect that is detrimental to the game.
However, this change isn’t made in a vacuum and it has very significant ramifications on the game’s environment. Pentex Subversion has been the card that has singularly held at bay several deck archetypes that have exploited multi-acting to the point of abuse. In particular, we’re talking about the Una and Gerald Windham multi-action decks which use cost-reducing effects (Una’s special and Ankara Citadel) to exploit Freak Drive.
From a pure design perspective, the correct decision would be to make a change to Freak Drive as it’s a card that directly enables infinite actions. Ideally, Freak Drive would have been a “once per turn” card since Day One. However, we also had to consider the impact on the game’s environment by changing Freak Drive. Researching the types of decks that use Freak Drive, very few of them abuse it. Most use 4-8 copies. Decks that use a heavier amount of Freak Drive – say, 10-16 copies – don’t abuse it, either. For that heavier amount, we’re talking about decks like Ventrue Law Firm, Arika, Gabrin, Dmitra Ilyanova, Montano, Giotto Verducci, and the like. To make a change to Freak Drive would have an undesirable impact on a large amount of decks that players have been using without issue and which have been operating within the bounds of what the player community would consider normal and acceptable gameplay. As such, we’ve chosen instead to make changes to Una and Ankara Citadel. For Una, her Fortitude cost reducer is now only for combat cards. For Ankara Citadel, the cost reducer no longer applies to action modifiers.
We acknowledge that the changes to Una and Ankara Citadel do not address similar multi-action abuses by archetypes such as Nergal + Eternal Mask, Turbo Baron, and Turbo Aurora. For the time being, we’re letting those decks exist as-is and we’ll continue to monitor them to see if their impact on the game environment warrants changes.
Up next is Parity Shift. Very simply, we’ve determined that the pool swing early in the game is too large and too disruptive. As such, we’ve opted to fix the amount to three so that it remains a significant effect while bringing it more in line with other political action effects.
Lastly, and on a lighter note, we’ve given +1 stealth to the Black Metamorphosis action. It was about time.
These changes will take effect for tournament play 30 days after 25th Anniversary is released. The exact date will be announced within shortly.
This summer Black Chantry Productions are releasing a 25th Anniversary product for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. It contains:
– a 100 card preconstructed deck, one of the games most classic deck archetypes,
– an extra 18 iconic cards, reprints from all eras of the game’s history,
– two copies of a powerful vampire new for this set,
– a sturdy, beautiful box that fits 100 sleeved cards.
Like the previous 2019 preconstructed decks, this product holds many sought-after reprints, making it attractive for existing players. It is also suitable for new players who want to start with a powerful but not overly complicated deck.
Stay tuned for detailed information about the contents!
