Submission [Assassins Blade]

Assassin's Blade
Combat
Requires Quietus
Cost: 1 blood
First Strike: strength damage + 1.
First Strike: Equip and make a melee strike with a weapon from your hand (pay equip costs as normal). Put the weapon on this vampire.

Other's Petty Tricks
Combat
Requires Assamite
Only usable once per round as a minion opposing this Assamite declares their strike.
Cancel a Strike: Dodge as it is played or this vampire burns 1 blood to cancel a Strike: Combat Ends as it is played. The opposing minion does not pay the cost of their cancelled strike and must choose a new strike.

It is obvious that assamite melee weapon combat have three main problems.

1. Assamite melee weapon combat cant hold against simple combat packages (aid from bats + carrion crows), (torn + blur), (ranged weapons + CEL), (protean agravated package), (vicissitude aggravated package). Please, notice that weapons usually costs pool and have the problem to equip.

2. A way to work without being hosed by everything. Here, we have three main problems: Immortal Grapple, Frenzy cards, Combat Ends.


As filling a gap in the game, this is a golden opportunity. Assamites should be awesome in melee combat. Why not add flavor to game, making melee weapon combat fearsome as a toreador combat deck.

Those problems can not be worked in one card. It needs by minimum two to make it viable. Here some suggestions

Silent Approach
Cardtype: Combat
Cost: No cost.
Discipline: Quietus
Maneuver, only usable to go to close range.
As above, but this minion can equip with a melee weapon from your hand.

This card above could help a lot against guns and solve equipping problem (in old g2-3 crypt). Also, it wont stall your hand as a disguised does.

Name: Dance of Death
Cardtype: Combat
Cost: No cost.
Discipline: CEL/QUI
Clan: Not Applicable
This vampire gets first strike with melee weapons in the next strike resolution this round. Opposing minion cannot play any grapple cards for the remainder of the combat.
As above, and this vampire can burn 1 blood to cancel a Strike: Combat ends as its played. (no cost is paid)

Dance of Death have potential to make assamite combat suffer much less from combat ends and immortals by adressing both of issues. At inferior, it gives a chance to the vampire to strike in melee with POT decks and slight less chance to survive some other combat decks (by giving it first strike). Thoughts?

Charles_Bronson wrote:

2. A way to work without being hosed by everything. Here, we have three main problems: Immortal Grapple, Frenzy cards, Combat Ends.

If you have permanents (like melee weapons) and can play strike modifiers after seeing them S:CE (like a Target modifier), Psyche! makes S:CE somewhat less annoying. If you're having to 'waste' cards on good strikes, not so much - Flash-ing to long, Taste of Death, followed by them playing S:CE is more annoying. (The S:CE deck usually isn't fleeing to long range first, against your melee weapons.)

Charles_Bronson wrote:

Silent Approach
Cardtype: Combat
Cost: No cost.
Discipline: Quietus
Maneuver, only usable to go to close range.
As above, but this minion can equip with a melee weapon from your hand.

The superior is pretty annoying. If no-one maneuvers to long (and plenty of decks don't, ever), I can't equip a weapon, since it's tied to the maneuver.

Charles_Bronson wrote:

Name: Dance of Death
Cardtype: Combat
Cost: No cost.
Discipline: CEL/QUI
Clan: Not Applicable
This vampire gets first strike with melee weapons in the next strike resolution this round. Opposing minion cannot play any grapple cards for the remainder of the combat.
As above, and this vampire can burn 1 blood to cancel a Strike: Combat ends as its played. (no cost is paid)

Becomes unfortunately trumpy. It hoses a lot of options at once, including hitback, strike denial and defence.

Silent Approach
Cardtype: Combat
Cost: No cost.
Discipline: Quietus
Maneuver, only usable to go to close range.
As above, and/or this vampire can equip with a melee weapon from your hand (pay costs and fullfill requirements as normal).

Name: Dance of Death
Cardtype: Combat
Cost: No cost.
Discipline: CEL/QUI
Clan: Not Applicable
Only usable at close range before strikes are chosen.
This minion choice of strikes cant be restricted at close range this combat. Only one Dance of Death can be played each combat.
As above, and this vampire can burn 1 blood to cancel a Strike card as its played once this combat. (no cost is paid)

stronger but also more focused. Restricted effect to close range. I really liked it now.

Thanks jamesatzephyr! Any more thoughts?

I think (tested a bit in Lackey) this is a 35 combat module (39 with the weapons. Its very timid, and have potential to cause much damage.

# Card
5 Selective Silence
5 Silent Approach
4 Sidestrike
7 Shadow Dance
6 Blur
3 Strike at True Flesh
5 Taste of Vitae

Equipment:
3 Bastard Sword
1 Kali's Fang
1 Crimson Sentinel

Crypt used: Jalal/Parnassus/Fatima


As comparison effect, check this mod:


8 Immortal Grapple
8 Torn Signpost
2 Slam
6 Pursuit
6 Blur
6 Taste of Vitae

36 combat cards. No need to pay pool cost for melee weapons. A bit vulnerable for close range, but very strong and solid. Far better than up there.

There should be a sweet spot for those cards. I dont want to be better than in close range, obviously, but now it is too weak.

As it is with Shadow Dance and Silent Approach, far better than older one. Also, notice it can handle gun decks FAR better than the module, and can hurt decks sometimes (not always).

thoughts?

Charles_Bronson wrote:

Silent Approach
Cardtype: Combat
Cost: No cost.
Discipline: Quietus
Maneuver, only usable to go to close range.
As above, and/or this vampire can equip with a melee weapon from your hand (pay costs and fullfill requirements as normal).

Something about the precise formulation feels a bit off, but I can't place what. The overall effect seems reasonable.

Charles_Bronson wrote:

Name: Dance of Death
Cardtype: Combat
Cost: No cost.
Discipline: CEL/QUI
Clan: Not Applicable
Only usable at close range before strikes are chosen.
This minion choice of strikes cant be restricted at close range this combat. Only one Dance of Death can be played each combat.
As above, and this vampire can burn 1 blood to cancel a Strike card as its played once this combat. (no cost is paid)

I'm fairly certain I'd want to make this once per round. But it seems decent. Most "hitback" options are still available - I can still shoot my gun, hit you with my claw, punch yuo with Torn Signpost, play Walking Stick to thwack you, punch you with Target Vitals. It can combo with Silence of Death if you do want first strike, but requires more effort. (I personally don't mind combat being nigh-irresistible if you have to stack quite a few cards for it.) Dodge and S:CE are often screwed, though no worse than IG in general, but you can play a second (which is why I'd go for the once per round option myself).

Best card ever? No. But I could envision Assamites using it, and it making Kali's Fang less arse.

Charles_Bronson wrote:

Equipment:
3 Bastard Sword
1 Kali's Fang
1 Crimson Sentinel

Baseball Bat is probably better than BS. Also possibly a couple of WWS.

Dagger (the strength ranged damage version) plus Baal's Bloody Talons is an option, blur with the normal strike, 'throw' it at the end. Also Garrotte might have some use.

WWS + Blur + BBT + Dance of Death might well be a pretty solid package. (2 damage, 2 damage, 2 agg damage and the WWS burns anyway.) Comparable to Torn Signpost + IG + Blur + Disarm, at least.