Jyhad / Vampire : The Eternal Struggle

[dog$]

Way back in the day (about the 3rd Edition of Magic tha Gatherin), Wizards of the Coast tried to answer to the success of Magic and to the nature of it only being a two-player game and released Jyhad, the Vampire/Whitewolf game that was built from the ground up as a multiplayer experience. Since nobody bought it and Magic prices at the time still commanded a hefty price, I was able to pick up 36-pack booster boxes for $20 from some places and ended up completing the whole original set, and the first expansion.

After stopping in some local A&F bookstores and picking up a pack o' Vampire cards like I do for tradition's sake, I've suddenly noticed that since the Sabbat expansion I'm missing out on three expansion sets! I find this all funny since after The Sabbat expansion/rerelease, it didn't seem like the series would ever be mentioned again.

So does anyone here play this game, at all? I've actually been playing this game often for the first time in years and it's still pretty damn good.

[sleeve]

Man, dog$. I had no idea you were a Jyhad/VTES fan!

This game rules. It's so much more fun than Magic, and much cheaper to get into. I was really into the game in college all the way through the Sabbat expansion, shortly after which WotC dropped the game and I assumed there would be no other card sets forthcoming.

I remember hearing about a new expansion a few years ago, but when I asked about it at a local card store they looked at me like I was speaking Swahili. "Jyhad? What's that, a Yu-Gi-Oh expansion or something?"

I remember all the bitching on USENET when the Sabbat expansion came out, that the new cards would supposedly ruin the game. Like that Tzimisce vampire that could play combat cards without spending blood. In spite of all that bitching I thought Sabbat was a really awesome expansion and immediately put together a Tremere antitribu thaumaturgy/celerity deck and a Sabbat Ventrue/Toreador/Caitiff political/presence bleed deck.

I kinda miss the game. But the only person I know who plays it is my g/f, and it's really not very interesting with two players. So I haven't played in a long long while.

Ah, Jyhad. Good times.

[Stone]

I never really gave Jyhad a chance - I loved Magic up until about Ice Age, for one, and in general I was biased against White Wolf in a "Damn those Goth LARPing queers" sort of way.

I know some people enjoyed it, though, was supposed to be pretty good. I used to like Shadowfist, the Feng Shui CCG, never got to play that much.

Man, I miss Magic sometimes.

[Mman]

Ive tried getting into card games a couple of times. Alway found them financially unsound, so money went elsewhere and interest lessened, but it is lots of fun.

[amerlop]

Yeah, I was into Magic for a while...right up until Ice Age. I remember that a friend of mine had a 50 card deck with all but one card being rare. It was fun but it didn't really hold my interest after Junior high school. At that point, all my extra money went to beer and drugs.

[Stone]

Once Unlimited and Arabian Nights phased out of active play, I just got tired of the game. I got used to using Juzams and shit like that, and after they became useless, it lost its charm.

[dog$]

By Magic 4th edition I felt sorta out of touch with the whole CCG thing and never really got much cards for it after that. To me it seemed like Legends was the last really cool expansion that the series had, but I'm probably wrong by now. Magic marches on too.

Sleeve funny you should mention the whole Tremere/Presence thing, I just built a straight Ventrue deck today and it's bloated and kicks ass. Right now I have a Celerity (Brujah/Toreador) based deck with weaponry, Gangrel deck, Tremere/Tha deck, and a Giovanni deck...which sucks for the moment. 4 player games are so much different from 2 player games that it really does seem asinine to have less than 3 in a truly proper game.

And you should see the clans and disciplines that are in the expansions now, plus the cards they have... things like dual discipline cards are stuff I was dreaming about years ago, and here they have it.

Well if I ever do a TNL tour I'll be sure to pack up my boxes and decks.

[sleeve]

Wow. I wish there was a store near me that carried these new expansions.

The Giovanni always sucked, which was too bad since they're such a cool clan. Unless they've overhauled Necromancy in these new expansions and/or given them some better, lower blood-cap vampires.

Yeah, the political decks are all but useless in a 2-player game, even in some 3-player games. 4-5 is usually ideal.

[Ragnarok the Red]

Yeah, I was into Magic for awhile, also, coincidentally, till about Ice Age. Still have a bunch of old cards, several of which are worth something I'm sure. I have one of the original Shivan Dragons I think...at one time I think it was worth about a hundred dollars.

I got into the whole Vampire universe and mythos but for some reason could not get into playing the game itself. Which is a shame, because for some reason I really dug playing a Salubri...dunno exactly why, I guess I just enjoyed the espionage/loner factor of it

Speaking of which...ARE there Salubri cards in the Jyhad card battle sets? Just curious

[dog$]

There are with their second most recent expansion release, Bloodlines.


At first, there were only 8 clans. Currently, there are 25 clans.