Leadership Vacuum 2

I think Leadership Vacuum was a great idea. It has a nice background and an okay mechanic (a bit expensive being a master card).

Leadership Vacuum [Gehenna:R, KoT:R]
Cardtype: Master
Master: out-of-turn. Unique.
Only usable when a ready titled vampire controlled by another Methuselah is burned or sent to torpor. Usable during your turn. Put this card in play and put X counters on this card where X is the number of votes that vampire has. That Methuselah burns X pool during each of his or her untap phases. During his or her untap phase, if he or she controls a ready vampire with a capacity of 8 or more or with a title, burn this card.

The intention to make a card supporting combat decks was great. The overall idea is nice. The main reason why it doesn't see play is the last sentence of its text. It is much too easy to remove that card. You can even order the effect of burning to be the first and thus avoid the damage. I'd love to see a card like this:

Struggle for Control
Master: out-of-turn. Unique.
Cost 1 pool
Only usable when a ready titled vampire controlled by another Methuselah is burned or sent to torpor. Usable during your turn. Put this card in play and put X counters on this card where X is the number of votes that vampire has. That Methuselah burns X pool during each of his or her untap phases. Any vampire can call a referendum to burn this card as a +1 stealth political action.

This way the card isn't removed without an action (unlike before) and deals damage more likely, if no other player removes it before the target's untap phase. IMHO is the need to win a referendum in style with the background. One might question why other meths' minions should be able to cast votes in that referendum if only the targeted meth's minons try to put up a proper chain of command. But you could see it as diversionary tactics.

If this is too difficult you could change it to: Any vampire can burn this card as a +1 stealth action. So you still need to take an action to burn it. And that way it is more likely to kick in. But now you don't have to win a referendum any more. It is a d-action because it is directed against a card controlled by another methuselah.

Joscha wrote:

The main reason why it doesn't see play is the last sentence of its text.

I always thought it was the first sentence of the text. There's no way to know what your prey will play. LV can be a dead slot depending on the random luck of your prey's crypt draw. I'd rather see it be more playable and less powerful.

Leadership Struggle for Vacuum Control
Master
Put this card in play. During each methuselah's untap phase, that methuselah burns one pool plus one pool for each titled vampire in that methuselah's ash heap and/or controlled by that methuselah and in torpor. Any titled vampire may burn this card as +1 stealth D action.

or something like that. Then it could be played as a table bleeder but be more effective when you dunk/burn your prey's voters. The table will inevitably remove it, but you could pack a few to keep the pressure up or stack 'em for some serious aggravation.

I'd make the following changes to your card.

Struggle for Control
Master: out-of-turn. Unique.
Cost 1 pool
Only usable when a ready titled vampire controlled by another Methuselah is burned or sent to torpor during combat with one of your vampires or in the resolution of an action of one of your vampires. Usable during your turn. Put this card in play on the minion you control and put X counters on this card where X is the number of votes the vampire which is in torpor or was burned has. The Methuselah controlling the opposing minion burns X pool during each of his or her untap phases. Any vampire can call a referendum to burn this card as a +1 stealth political action.


Or as alternative.

Struggle for Control
Master
Cost: 1 pool
Master: Out-of-Turn. Unique.
Only usable when a vampire you control burns or sends to torpor a titled vampire controlled by another Methuselah. Put this card on the vampire you control with X counters; where X is the number of votes on the minion which was burned or sent to torpor. The Methuselah whose vampire was burned or sent to torpor burns X pool in your untap. This card can be burned by a action.

all these variations sound weaker than the original Leadership Vacuum, to be honest.

the ideal scenario for playing LV is that your prey's first vampire is a Justicar or IC (not too uncommon). Before they Villein or even take a single action, you rush em into torpor. Just play scorched earth and wipe out every minion from your prey's ready region. Now they'll lose 3 or 4 pool per turn until they can burn the card. That's so much more damage than Fame alone.

Now you have to play along with the gambit and protect the LV from being burned. If the vampire gets rescued, you need to immediately knock them back to torpor on your turn. You could even diablerize the target to prevent them from being rescued in the first place. If they influence a new big/titled vampire out (normally 2 turns at least; that pool damage is piling up!) then you still get one more turn to rush them into torpor before their untap phase. Hopefully your deck can rush reliably!

The problem with making the card burnable by a referendum or directed action takes all the power and responsibility out of your hands. Some jerk crosstable just takes an action and your card is gone. Unlike the rescue scenario above, you don't get a 2nd chance to keep it in play.

I think LV is quite underrated, though it's tricky to play with the timing and opportunity cost. the Burn clause isn't the problem, it's actually an advantage here.

Haze wrote:

the ideal scenario for playing LV is that your prey's first vampire is a Justicar or IC (not too uncommon). Before they Villein or even take a single action, you rush em into torpor.

Hm, as you mentioned correctly this is an ideal scenario and that way LV would be awesome indeed. IMHO in practice it is very rare to be in the position to a) have LV that early in hand and b) have the time to go after the minions of your prey without caring for those of the predator.

So having it in later turns could be too late compared to Fame. I think it is a problem that you have to wipe out all high cap minions of your prey to make the damage. If you are that strong in rushing you have other good choices of making damage.

Probably you're right with that sentence, that it is annoying that some x-table jerk can get rid of the card that easily. If you take the need of a won referendum that is not an easy way. If you make a d-action without the +1 stealth I suggested you can still block it and deal even more damage around. I don't think that version would be weaker.