Archetypes

Top Tier

Here is a list of the best Vampire: the Eternal Struggle deck archetypes. Every archetype is presented with Tournament Winning Deck Archive (TWDA) deck list examples, main variations, and a play guide.

Archetypes are tiered by their number of qualifying wins: victories in tournaments with 20 players or more in the last 3 years. Top tier archetypes score at least half as many qualifying wins as the current leader. Example decklists are recent qualifying wins, Continental or National championships when possible. Decks relying heavily on mechanics that have since been errated are not included.

The 💀 icon singles out a dominating archetype: more than twice the qualifying wins of any other. It is not just the top of the list, it is the deck to beat.

Please note that this list is built purely on TWDA statistics: more than a third of tournaments wins are achieved with unrelated decks.

Runner-ups

These archetypes sit just below the top tier, with at least half as many qualifying wins as the last of the top tier archetypes. They have either been successful for a while, or racked up their wins recently. Keep an eye out for them, tinker and experiment to reveal their full potential.

New Kids

These archetypes are new (or unearthed) decks that have been noticed in tournaments, with a couple of qualifying wins already. If they make this list, it's usually because they performed, surprised, or showed potential.

They might just need your personal touch or a bit of exposure to become the next big hit.

Old Guard

These are long-established archetypes that keep on winning, at a slower pace. They may not top the charts anymore, but they are proven, resilient designs: they remain solid choices in most metas, and dismissing them is always a mistake.

Archive

For your enjoyment, you'll find here a collection of archetypes that did not make it to the previous lists, but are still very much viable.

If you know of a decklist you'd like to see included, please reach out on the V:TES Discord.

You can also consult other archetypes list, like the « Bibliodèque »: a French project with more than a hundred decklists, the project history is on the French VEKN Forum and the final decklists with proxies on Google Drive.

Another list of archetypes is maintained on the VTES One blog.