New Card Idea: Awaken the Hounds

Name: Awaken the Hounds
Cardtype:
Requires Brujah Antitribu
Only usable if you’re being bled for 3 or more.
Tap this Brujah Antitribu and enter combat with the acting minion. If the acting minion is not ready at the end of combat the bleed fails. If this reacting vampire is not ready at the end of combat burn 2 pool.


Game development:
- Increase the viability of combat decks through an uptick in their defensive capabilities.

Flavor:
- None in particular. Yawp Court obviously inspired this, though I never saw it getting much play due to it's specific nature, I think it is a really cool card.

Balance:
- A reaction card that generates combat and that has the ability to cancel a bleed but only if you're effective in said combat. The card is not meant to be splashable by any means: if you're playing it, you're playing a combat deck that can torporize, period.

- Thought about adding another clause for the case of a stalled combat like "reacting minion doesn't untap next turn" but it felt too heavy-handed and the card is already complicated enough as it is.

- This card could transit with ease to Gangrel Antitribu. I'm actually not too pleased with how this infringes upon Vendetta's territory but the recent topics have been dealing with !Brujah so I rolled with that.

- "Tap to" or "Tap and"...? I went with the latter, to enable some faux-multiacting for the !Brujah, allowing them to rush on their own turn and then again out of turn.

- Interactions with Psyche! and such can create a bit of a rules conundrum.

Competitiveness:
- Low. It's a conditional card that generates a combat. Strong only in the sense that it sidesteps the stealth vs. intercept aspect of the game.


Drain

It's clear I would think twice before including this card, since it can backfire and all. Still, it work well with Yawp Court, Unexpected Coalition, and maybe even touch of pain, all cards that are powerful but lack a bit of support.

The condition on the bleed (3+) and the backfire if you are torporized are the main problems for it to be really often playable. Preventing an Unnamed bleed, cycling the card, or using it to kill some random ally (Nephandus ?) would help, and the 2 pool damage + original bleed mean that against B&B, especially !Ventrue grinder lunge, it can really kill you.

I would make the threshold "more than 3" to make it the same as Archon Investigation.

My main concern is something you already mentioned in that it "sidesteps the stealth vs. intercept aspect of the game."

There aren't a whole lot of things that cause an action to fail, and the primary way for a VAMPIRE to cause an action to fail is to block it. As you suggested it, instead of burning 2 pool if the acting vampire is still ready, perhaps the action should continue as if unblocked.

The other way I might go is:

"Let Loose the Dogs of War"
(sorry, but "hound" is a Camarilla position, as well as it sounds like an animalism untapper)


Only usable if you are being bled for 3 or more.
Tap this reacting vampire and enter combat with the acting minion. If the acting vampire is ready at the end of this combat, burn this vampire.

I don't know if it needs to be stated outright, but either way, the bleed is not successful. Maybe the vampire should burn even if the opposing vampire is not ready, seeing as that it effectively cancels an action.

Two other possibilities:

"Let Loose the Dogs of War"


Only usable if you are being bled for 3 or more.
Tap this reacting vampire and enter combat with the acting minion. After combat, burn this reacting vampire.

"Let Loose the Dogs of War"


Only usable if you are being bled for 3 or more.
Tap this reacting vampire and enter combat with the acting minion. If the opposing minion is ready after the combat the action continues as if unblocked.


They are very slight variations, but what they have in common is that canceling an action via a minion card should not come lightly.

Dire, I believe the intention was that in addition to burning the 2 pool, the action continues if the acting vampire is still ready at the end of the action, otherwise there would be no point to have it stated specifically in the card that the action doesn't continue if the acting vampire isn't ready anymore.

Oh and as for hound being camarilla position, I think Talley, the Hound would disagree with that.

Klaital wrote:

Dire, I believe the intention was that in addition to burning the 2 pool, the action continues if the acting vampire is still ready at the end of the action, otherwise there would be no point to have it stated specifically in the card that the action doesn't continue if the acting vampire isn't ready anymore.

Oh and as for hound being camarilla position, I think Talley, the Hound would disagree with that.

doh, those Sabbat really like to mess with us eh?

And it wasn't clear that the action continues in addition to burning 2 pool. In that light, burning 2 pool in addition seems a bit too much.