While writing some other articles I realized that some of the game slang wasn’t defined anywhere else. So, here comes the first non-official lexicon of the VTES talk!

This will of course be kept up to date on a regular basis, don’t hesitate to submit your ideas!

Ally

as in “crosstable ally”, the other players that are neither your prey nor your predator at that moment of the game. It is a confusing term, because in VTES “ally” designates only the minions you can recruit with your vampires. But the same word will be used for your in-game allies, so you’d better learn the difference…

Bloat, bloating

see Pooling.

Bounce

any card that changes the target of a bleed. Also called Deflect or Redirect, because of the cards so named.

D.I.

Abréviation pour Direct Intervention.

Deck d’Embrace

Decks containing lots of cards creating vampires (Embrace, Creation Rites etc.), usually with a Swarm strategy in mind.

Gros taon

big cap vampires (10 and 11).

Grinder

a deck that is able to inflict small amounts of damage regularly, and erodes the resistance of the others until it gains the advantage. It usually does so by intercepting. Typical grinders are Ventrue + sticks, Anti Ventrue and Carna.

In-clan disciplines

: the three (sometimes 4…) basic disciplines of a clan.

Inferior

: usually used by players to designate the “basic” effect of a card.

Light cept

: a deck with some small amount of intercept. It usually can’t go very high in intercept but will do so regularly.

Mid-Cap

: a vampire of medium capacity (usually 6 to 9). A Mid-cap deck can include a few smaller (or sometimes bigger) vampires.

Ouster / se faire ouster

Outferior

usually used for Bloodlines cards; designates the replacement discipline that can be used by the vampires who don’t have the main discipline of the card. For example, Stone Travel has an Obtenebration outferior effect.

Out-of-clan disciplines

the disciplines a vampire has that aren’t among the disciplines of his clan.

Permacept

short for permanent intercept, usually given by an equipment, retainer or action card.

Pooling

Rush

Probablement une expression dérivée de la carte Bum’s Rush. Quand on dit qu’on Rush ou qu’on a un deck de Rush, cela signifie que la stratégie principale de notre deck sera d’entrer en combat avec d’autres minions.

S:CE

C’est l’abréviation de Strike:Combat Ends. Designates the combat cards with that text.

Self-Ousting

the tactics of transfering blood on your vampires until you reach 0 pool (or can be easily killed by your predator. Usually done out of boredom and / or spite when a game seems utterly lost or when all your vampires have been destroyed.

Stealth Bleed or SB

decks based on vampires who will bleed and use a stealth discipline (Obfuscate, Obtenebration…) to pass said bleeds.

Star deck

a deck based around a main vampire, then called Star Vampire, without which the deck doesn’t work as it should.

Swarm / swarmer

The technique consisting in getting lots of vampires out in the hope to swarm blockers under lots of actions. Usually used by weenies or Embrace decks.

Tap / tapper

the initial term for “Lock”, so don’t be surprise if lots of older players still use it till Gehenna comes…

Toolbox

a deck supposed to be able to do lots of things, like intercepting, fighting, bleeding, sometimes voting… Most of the times this lack of focus makes such a deck hard to win with. Competitive toolbox decks include Euro Brujahs, Carna Wall, !Ventrue Grinder…

Se transferer out

see Self-Ousting.

Turbo deck

a mechanism consisting in burning your own vampire and getting him (or others) out again right away, in order to counter the No Repeat Action rule. It gives its name to the Turbo archetypes (Turbo Arika, Turbo Baron…).

Tunnel Effect

: a deck that only bothers with its prey, and can do nothing to help or hinders others.

UMMiID

: the acronym (pronounce Humid) used to memorize the order of VTES play phases (Unlock/Master/Minion/Influence/Discard).

Wake / Waker

Wall

a deck dedicated to intercepting. The deck is usually composed of around 50% reaction (blue) cards.

Weenie

: a vampire of small Capacity, usually 1-3. A weenie deck can include vampires of Capacity up to 5, or have one star vampire and weenies.