[Submission] Oblation (Samedi/Harbingers]

Oblation
Samedi/Harbingers
Costs 1 blood
Requires a seven capacity or higher Vampire. +1 stealth action. Burn a mortal or ghoul (retainer or ally). This minion gains a blood, and you gain pool equal to half their life (rounded up).

Art notes
Unfortunately this is going a bit Hollywood: scene would be sacrificial.

World of Darkness reference
None or, depending on how you look at it, plenty.

How does this card address a compelling game need?
This is slightly different to Chair of Hades in that it burns rather than removes the target, and 'rewards' the acting necromancers' controller with favour. Without wanting the Samedi to 'just' be a bloat deck, it is also similar to "Off kilter" (but playable by Harbingers too), assuming there are viable targets in play. Barring the Fortitude card that can reduce a bleed by one, bloat is the only viable anti-bleed strategy for Samedi, whereas the Harbingers have Auspex so can deflect/reduce, but are limited in pool gain. For the Samedi, this increases the variety of actions (although no place in a deck relying on Putrescent Servitude ).

main problem of this card is that it usually there will be no targets for this card. I wouldn't put it in a deck.

Original idea was:

Oblation
Samedi/Harbingers
Cost: 2 blood

Choose any ally, retainer, or a tapped Vampire of a capacity of up to half that (rounded down) of this acting minion (+1 stealth if you control the target minion). Burn them, and this minion gains their blood or life (ignore excess blood). This action is not considered diablerie.
If the acting minion has , you may transfer one blood or life to your pool.


However, this seems way too powerful to me, which is while I went with "Chair of Hades". As an example, Troglodytia would be able to burn any tapped vampire up to and including 5-cap, so suggestions on getting it somewhere in-between the two versions is welcome. It's a bit like a clan-specific Sacrificial Lamb , but does not allow the transfer of equipment and can only transfer the amount of life the target has as opposed to capacity. But does not require the vampire to be in torpor and allows a small pool gain.

chrisn101 wrote:

However, this seems way too powerful to me, which is while I went with "Chair of Hades".

Chair of Hades isn't a great card for much the same reason, though - unless you play in an ally heavy environment, most of the time this will be a dead draw. Even when you see allies on the table, you don't necessarily want to play it, because it's your cross-table ally who's doing sterling work stopping your prey rolling the table.

For most things that rely on people on the table doing something very specific and doing it in a way that annoys you, you generally need:

- the trigger to be really quite common, OR
- the effect to be really worth it

(There is obviously some grey area between the two.)

The former covers things like: generic intercept, bleed bounce, Delaying Tactics, combat defence (which might be playable when you're rushed or blocked), Wash etc. There are some cards in the latter category, but it risks becoming quite annoying and not very interactive - if you get unlucky about your deck, you just lose.

chrisn101 wrote:

It's a bit like a clan-specific Sacrificial Lamb , but does not allow the transfer of equipment and can only transfer the amount of life the target has as opposed to capacity. But does not require the vampire to be in torpor and allows a small pool gain.

Saying "But does not require the vampire to be in torpor" is, erm, removing the fairly central point of the card. It's like saying you've made a card that's just like Night Moves, only it doesn't have that pesky maximum bleed restriction.

The cap 7 is a restriction, but I think Khazar's Diary decks would love this card.

chrisn101 wrote:

Oblation
Samedi/Harbingers
Costs 1 blood
Requires a seven capacity or higher Vampire. +1 stealth action. Burn a mortal or ghoul (retainer or ally). This minion gains a blood, and you gain pool equal to half their life (rounded up).

Art notes
Unfortunately this is going a bit Hollywood: scene would be sacrificial.

World of Darkness reference
None or, depending on how you look at it, plenty.

How does this card address a compelling game need?
This is slightly different to Chair of Hades in that it burns rather than removes the target, and 'rewards' the acting necromancers' controller with favour. Without wanting the Samedi to 'just' be a bloat deck, it is also similar to "Off kilter" (but playable by Harbingers too), assuming there are viable targets in play. Barring the Fortitude card that can reduce a bleed by one, bloat is the only viable anti-bleed strategy for Samedi, whereas the Harbingers have Auspex so can deflect/reduce, but are limited in pool gain. For the Samedi, this increases the variety of actions (although no place in a deck relying on Putrescent Servitude ).

Alternative implementation of roughly the same idea:

Oblation
Samedi/Harbingers /
Cost: 1
Requires a seven capacity or higher vampire.
+1 stealth action.
Inflict 2 damage on a minion controlled by your prey (3 damage if the target is Giovanni).
Inflict 3 damage on any minion (4 damage if the target is Giovanni).

Flavour text
"Augustus did not take all of our secrets" - Unre, Keeper of Golgotha.