Submission: Taste of Corruption

Name: Taste of Corruption
Cardtype: Action
Cost: 1 Blood
Capacity: Not applicable
Clan: None
Discipline: Daimonion or Serpentis
+1 stealth action
Put a corruption counter on a minion and burn a pool from that minion's controller; 2 pool if they have the edge.
as and you gain a pool.
Burn a corruption counter on a locked minion to unlock that minion and take control of them until the end of the next action.

Flavor text: "The corruption of the best things give rise to the worst." - David Hume

Art Notes: A goblet of red wine and a well dressed waiter standing beside it with blood dripping from his wrist.

World of Darkness reference: Serpentis has multiple abilities promote corruption. Including Obsession and Temptation (both are Serpentis 6 ), Phobia and Seed of Corruption (both are Serpentis 7 ), Corruption (Serpentis 8 ), and Form of Corruption (Serpentis 9 ). I will list Seed of Corruption from Player's Guide to the Low Clans page 157, because to my knowledge there is no VtES equivalent. Daimonion has not only the ability to sense corruption but multiple ways to exploit it.Sense the Sin (level 1), Fear of the Void Below (level 2 ), Psychomachia (level 4 ), Condemnation (level 5), Concordance, Diabolic Lure, Glimpse of the Gulf Beyond (all level 6 ) can all be used to explain how Daimonion can be used to cause corruption and force an unwilling corrupted victim to do as they are commanded. Note: The Re-Embrace (Daimonion 7 ) can be used to turn another vampire permanently into a Baali. That power is from Lore of the Bloodlines Page 17.

How does this card address a compelling game need?: The action Corruption is under utilized because it is slow. Serpentis and Daimonion have cards that interact with Corruption Counters but no effective way to utilize them. This gives Followers of Set an action (other than Bleeding) that can harm their prey and build counters for other effects. Daimonion gains an action that not only refunds their pool cost for unlocking but furthers a corruption game plan. The card will shine most effectively in a deck that uses Baali and Followers of Set together.

Created by: Justin Lacey

Update: July 6th 2017
Here is text from the last update

Been playing around with this card and I am happy to report no serious issues so far. There has been no need to change it and it is the same as originally posted.

jblacey wrote:

+1 stealth action
Put a corruption counter on a minion and burn a pool from that minion's controller; 2 pool if they have the edge.
as and you gain a pool.
Burn a corruption counter on a locked minion to unlock that minion and take control of them until the end of the next action.

A few minor-ish points.

First, I thought it worth pointing out that at ser/dai, you can't burn the Corruption counters to take control of the minion - you need card text to allow that. I think that's probably fine, as it encourages a mix of cards.

Second, I think I'd personally prefer it if the Ser level said "Put a corruption counter on a minion controlled by your prey". Just to avoid cross-table shenanigans. Maybe prey or predator.

Third, the DAI level should probably say "Burn one of your corruption counters..." Just in case you find yourself on a table with another Corruption deck (rare, but possible), being able to eat up their counters would be a bit nasty.

jamesatzephyr wrote:

First, I thought it worth pointing out that at ser/dai, you can't burn the Corruption counters to take control of the minion - you need card text to allow that. I think that's probably fine, as it encourages a mix of cards.

Correct, that was intentional.

Second, I think I'd personally prefer it if the Ser level said "Put a corruption counter on a minion controlled by your prey". Just to avoid cross-table shenanigans. Maybe prey or predator.

That is fine, but I not convinced it is necessary since it is a directed action. From a pure numbers perspective stealing a prey's minion is almost always the best option. If you are only interested in causing pool lost across table then you have better options. If you are worried about some sort of collusion effect, then the pool loss should deter that behavior.

Third, the DAI level should probably say "Burn one of your corruption counters..." Just in case you find yourself on a table with another Corruption deck (rare, but possible), being able to eat up their counters would be a bit nasty.

So, corruption counters really represent moral debt. Thematically someone is cashing in on that debt by forcing a minion to do an action that they wouldn't normally do. It doesn't make sense that you would eat your debt to force another minion to act. Do you believe the text is too weak?

I keep going back and forth on whether a 1 blood cost is necessary for this card. Followers of Set have a Path so the 1 blood cost may not be an issue. It is effective bleed for 1 (or a conditional 2) so a blood cost may not be necessary. Since it starts at a +1 stealth and thematically the blood cost is the blood you are giving the victim as a part of the power was the original reason for the blood cost.

What do you guys think?

1) It is fine. Don't need to change it.
2) Doesn't need a blood cost.
3) Keep the blood cost, but make some part of the card more powerful.

Reference time!

Name: Corruption
[AH:C2, FN:PS4]
Cardtype: Action
Clan: Follower of Set
+1 stealth action.
Put a corruption counter on a minion controlled by your prey. If the number of your corruption counters on the minion equals or exceeds the blood capacity of that vampire or the cost of that ally, you may burn all of your corruption counters on that minion to gain control of him or her.
Artist: Anson Maddocks

Name: Revelation of Ecstasy
[LotN:C/PS4]
Cardtype: Action
Discipline: Serpentis
+1 stealth action.
[ser] Lock one of your prey's ready minions.
[SER] As above, and place a corruption counter on that minion. If the number of your corruption counters on the minion equals or exceeds his or her capacity or cost, you may burn those counters to take control of him or her.
Artist: Jim DiBartolo

These are the actions that put corruption counters in play.

Compared, neither costs blood, both are at Stealth, both trigger the 'corruption' effect, both target your Prey's minion only.

Taste of Corruption shouldn't immediately trump either card. Of course we'll have to consider that Corruption requires only , not .

That said, you'd probably need to have one of the following limitations: Cost 1 blood; Target Prey only; 0 Stealth.

Serpentis already packs actions that are pseudo bleeds without being a bleed. So, yeah, it's a serpentis thing.

I'd rather this cost a blood, to make it more in line with stuff like Eternal Mask.

Making it target Prey only might be a good thing, since it'd make voter shenanigans a bit less of a thing. Dunno if that's any real threat though...

Mechanically this card is spot on, comboing and , dealing with corruption counters on all levels, and considering the controller of the Edge as well. Very much in line with previous mechanics, none of which are super powerful or that much played. Things like blood costs are mostly semantics.

Very nice!