A preconstructed deck is a pre-assembled deck of cards for a collectible card game that is meant to be playable by a new player straight out of the box. A starter deck is a deck of cards for a CCG that is meant to get a new player into the game. While most starter decks published since the late 1990s have been preconstructed, the contents of the earliest starter decks were mostly or entirely randomized, and as such they may not necessarily be effective or even playable as-is.
All three of the White Wolf CCGs that were published by Wizards of the Coast (Jyhad/Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, Rage and Arcadia) received semi-randomized starter decks. Only select card sets for V:TES that were directly published by White Wolf themselves received preconstructed starter decks.
Preconstructed starter decks were published for the V:TES sets Sabbat War, Final Nights, Camarilla Edition, Anarchs, Black Hand, Kindred Most Wanted, Legacies of Blood, Third Edition, Lords of the Night, Keepers of Tradition and Heirs of the Blood. The Dark Sovereigns, Ancient Hearts, Sabbat, Bloodlines, Gehenna, Nights of Reckoning, Sword of Caine, Twilight Rebellion and Ebony Kingdom expansion sets didn't receive any starter decks, preconstructed or not.
A preconstructed deck is not to be confused with a factory set, which is a pre-assembled set of cards that isn't meant to be playable as-is. Two factory sets were published for V:TES: 10th Anniversary and Blood Shadowed Court, both of which reprinted a fixed selection of out-of-print crypt cards.
List of preconstructed decks[]
For a listing of cards in each preconstructed starter deck, see the page for the relevant card set.
- Sabbat War (2000): Brujah antitribu, Lasombra, Tzimisce, Ventrue antitribu
- Final Nights (2001): Assamite, Follower of Set, Giovanni, Ravnos
- Camarilla Edition (2002): Brujah, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue
- Anarchs (2003): Barons, Gangrel, Gangs
- Black Hand (2003): Malkavian antitribu, Nosferatu antitribu, Toreador antitribu, Tremere antitribu
- Kindred Most Wanted (2005): Alastors, Anathema, Baali, Gangrel antitribu
- Legacies of Blood (2005): Akunanse, Guruhi, Ishtarri, Osebo
- Third Edition (2006): Brujah antitribu, Malkavian antitribu, Tremere antitribu, Tzimisce
- Lords of the Night (2007): Assamite, Follower of Set, Giovanni, Ravnos
- Keepers of Tradition (2008): Brujah, Malkavian, Toreador, Ventrue
- Heirs to the Blood (2010): Lasombra/Kiasyd, Nosferatu/Samedi, Tremere/Gargoyle, Ventrue antitribu/Salubri antitribu
- Sabbat Preconstructed (2019): Tzimisce, Lasombra, Toreador antitribu, Tremere antitribu
- First Blood (2019): Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue
- Fifth Edition (2020): Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue
Additionally, the Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Player's Kit includes four preconstructed mini-starter decks, each of which consists of half of the cards from one of the four starter decks for Third Edition.