New Crypt Card: Alessandra Cordata

Name: Alessandra Cordata
Clan: Lasombra
Group: 5
Capacity: 9
Discipline: AUS DOM OBT POT
Sabbat Priscus. Alessandra gets 1 additional vote for every Boon you control. She gains a blood whenever you put a Boon into play. +1 Hand Size.

Game development:
- Extension of the Sabbat crypt options.
- Enablement of new deck venues and breaking clan stereotypes.
- Empowerment of pre-existing cards that are below the curve.

Flavor:
- Lasombra always convinced me best as voters, movers and shakers. Seeing something so crude as a stealth & bleed deck with Keepers wasn't really where the money was, for me. I wanted some kind of a "social vampire", with political power stemming from social connections and the like. She could just as easily have been a Tor/!Tor if not more so than Lasombra, but, like I wrote above, breaking clan molds can also be a virtue. After all, when was the last time you saw a Lasombra Wall?
- I also wanted to avoid the stereotypical "Presence Lasombra" that pop up all of the time. Lasombra in particular and minions in general shouldn't have to rely on PRE to be politically competent.

Balance:
- This one was a real hassle and easily gave me the most work so far, due to the group she belongs to. Let me show you how the process went:

- Wanted the minion to interact in a non-trivial way with Boons but had a couple of very specific fears in mind: Orlando Oriundus and the "master card girls".
- Boons mean out-of-turn and out-of-turn means blocking for many of them. This was good, since it also enabled me to try and make a dash for the archtype-breaker in relation to Lasombra.
- Blocking meant either ANI (my original choice) or AUS. There is good crypt support for both coming from group 4 but I didn't want the minion to be inducted into yet another master-fest caper, so I opted for AUS to reduce synergy. This opened the option for the +1 Handsize. If she was to interact with the Guruhi Crypt the +1 Handsize might have been too much, but at the same time Boons are OOT masters and these eat up hand-size, making this ability absolutely crucial, in my view.
- Not having yet decided on how she should interact with the boons, I toyed with having her burn a boon you control during a ref to get 3 or 4 votes but these cards are underplayed as it is so I opted for the stronger effect of a permanent vote as long as the boon is in play, with the player still getting the chance to cash in on the boon's original effect. I tossed in a last minute bonus of minor blood gain for playing them to really drive the point home.
- Fearing by now that Orlando Oriundus might break her, I changed her from Archbishop (my original choice) to a Priscus, allowing him only to multiply her bonus votes. Still thematic, and coincidentially also the title that the Lasombra are still missing from G4. I also made sure her Capacity was 9, same as Orlando's, to break the Govern-Chain effect and thus ensure that you have to get both the hard way. It also incidentally meant that she does enter the Govern Chain with crypt-mate Melinda Galbraith, an unexpected design bonus.

Competitiveness:
- High. Dominate and Auspex embody the definition of strong, the minion has votes, has a crypt where it can integrate and has three meaningful special abilities. Really an above average card.


Drain

I am a big fan of so she can play Shadowed Eyes, and maybe even play with Bruce de Guy. You could replace with to push the synergy further.

I like the idea of a vampire who plays with boons, but it feels a bit wasted on her since she has no use for Major Boon. Maybe keep it for a vampire without or ?

I have also felt very disappointed in how the Lasombra is used in Vtes. I've felt that their political angle has been seriously neglected far too long.

In the source material I do believe that there have been a total of 5 regents during the existance of the Sabbat, Melinda Galbraith (!Tor), Sha-Ennu (Tzi) and three Lasombras. In vtes the only regents we have are the ones that are not lasombras, even though the lasombras are clearly lore-wise the true political movers and shakers of the Sabbat.

Everything that gives Lasombra vote a boost is a good thing in my book, if only for lore reasons. Especially if its in g4-5.

Theme-wise, I do feel like someone who thrives on boons should be more oritented towards PRE than AUS. But I'm not sure at all if that would unbalance the vampire in some way, I'm just talking about general theme-feeling here. Actually, thinking about it this vampire would probably be a total monster with PRE....

Playing boons is something that I've wanted to try for a while now, a vampire like this might just push me over the edge...

wastaz wrote:

though the lasombras are clearly lore-wise the true political movers and shakers of the Sabbat.

MLore or less the equal to Tzimisce in the matter, another clan hosed in political power

But, yes, the idea is good. I'd prefer to see as few Priscus Lasombra as possible, but it's not impossible anyway.

wastaz wrote:

Theme-wise, I do feel like someone who thrives on boons should be more oritented towards PRE than AUS. But I'm not sure at all if that would unbalance the vampire in some way, I'm just talking about general theme-feeling here. Actually, thinking about it this vampire would probably be a total monster with PRE....

Playing boons is something that I've wanted to try for a while now, a vampire like this might just push me over the edge...

Why if she already have ? Theme wise, it works.

MLore or less the equal to Tzimisce in the matter, another clan hosed in political power

I agree that Tzimisce is also way too hosed in the politics area, though I do feel that the Tzimisce was a bit less political than the Lasombras in the lore, though maybe that's just my biased feelings

Why if she already have ? Theme wise, it works.

Because having makes perfect sense since it's a clan discipline, though is off-clan. has always struck me as the "just get it done" discipline where you get people to do your bidding no matter by pure force. on the other hand seems more of a "I'm so awesome that you like me so much that you'll do these things of your own 'free will'"-discipline. Theme-wise, if you want people to be indebted to you (boons) you'd probably be a lot more successful by wooing them into your service by than by forcing them into your service by . Now I don't want to argue that she shouldn't have though, it's a clan discipline after all, but would make more sense (instead of ) if you'd want to get people in your debt.

Also, gives you access to insane amounts of vote push, making voting all-around easier.

But this is probably me overthinking it. The vampire should be just as fine without .