Submission: Red Cat

jblacey wrote:

Update: August 22nd 2017
Black Hand is free and I agree with a poster on this thread, it doesn't really change the card to add it.

Red Cat
4 Capacity Group 3

Sabbat. Black Hand: Strikes from Anarchs inflict +1 damage to Red Cat. Sterile.

The previous iteration felt on the edge to me, this feels just over it, for a 4 cap. Seems to pretty much entirely outclass Juanita Santiago. And while Helen Fairchild has four points of disciplines on a four cap (and a fairly lackluster drawback), she lacks Animalism which is fairly significant when slotting her into an Ahrimane deck. And superior SPI is pretty pokey.

It's true that the usual Create-A-Clan rules for Black Hand make it free in terms of points, but they don't make it entirely free because there's a significant restriction on how many vampires can have it, and how much it can turn up in your crypt (because of the max of 2 each crypt construction rules for CaC), which don't apply in regular constructed decks. So I think it's too good for a 4 cap, as it is. The special disability also isn't that bad, given Ahrimane/Howler type decks can be doing a decent amount of Animalism combat - Aid from Bats, Carrion Crows, Swiftness of the Stag - or defensive Presence combat.

If you wanted to keep the vampire broadly as is, I'd ratchet the disability up a notch or three. Perhaps keep it reasonably as is, but make it broader (e.g. "older", "non-Sabbat"). Or if you want a specific Anarch flavour to her, perhaps make it more powerful/harder to avoid - perhaps -1 intercept against Anarchs, burns a blood to block an Anarch etc.

jamesatzephyr wrote:

If you wanted to keep the vampire broadly as is, I'd ratchet the disability up a notch or three. Perhaps keep it reasonably as is, but make it broader (e.g. "older", "non-Sabbat"). Or if you want a specific Anarch flavour to her, perhaps make it more powerful/harder to avoid - perhaps -1 intercept against Anarchs, burns a blood to block an Anarch etc.

If the weakiness is too weak, I would probably suggest:

Red Cat
4 Capacity Group 3

Sabbat. Black Hand: Anarchs have +1 Intercept when attempting to block Red Cat.

The idea is that thematically the Anarchs caught Red Cat in the story. I was concerned that +1 strength was not a big enough weakiness thus I upgraded it to +1 damage. Since any untitled vampire can go Anarch, it doesn't seem unlikely (but I admit in my circle of decks Anarch is very common).

Updated