Submission: James Blackwood

Okay another try.

James Blackwood
10 Capacity, Group 4,

Independent Anarch. While James is ready, you have +1 hand size and once per turn, he may burn a blood to reduce a bleed against you by 2. +1 bleed.

Text Characters: 149.

Here is the math using Aristotle and Serenna.

Aristotle de Laurent
9 Cap = +11 points
9 disc = -9
5 diff disc = +0.5 points
+1 hand size = -0.5 points
+1 stealth = -2 points
= 0

Serenna the White
8 Cap = +9 points
5 diff disc = +0.5
8 disc = -8
Reduce bleed for blood = -1.5 points
= 0

James Blackwood
10 Cap = +12 Points
10 Disc = -10
7 diff disc = +1.5 points
+1 hand size = -0.5 points
Reduce bleed for blood = -1.5 points
+1 bleed = -1.5 points
= 0

My thought process:

1) We deal with the card cycling issue with +1 hand size.
2) Thematically, he is a cunning and brilliant strategist which is represented in VTES by his ability to predict his opponents. The game effect is that this gives him an ability to stabilize after being influenced out without being locked into a pure wall mechanic. Pool is normally reclaimed with Blood Doll, Vessel, Minion Tap, or Villien... so this is a nice alternative.
3) I understand now why Anarchs don't have titles. It is anti synergy with some of their cards. Since the votes were primarily based on his backgrounds and not central to the character it was removed. The other issue was concern that this would make him too attractive to non-Anarch big vote decks.

Notes:
1) I tried a discard phase action mechanic that created tactics counters which could be used to give temporary -1 or +1 bleed but it was very wordy and there is no way to make it work with the text limitation. Plus I was concerned about increasing complexity without adding more flavor. This is an example of mechanic that would be better on a card than a vampire.
2) I considered a mechanic where he could burn the Edge for +/- bleed, but wasn't good enough as better cards already exist.
3) Part of the appeal of James is he works very well for a toolbox deck and he fits into multiple decks. He could work in a pure combat rush deck using Make the Misere, an intercept/combat deck using Guardian Vigil, or maybe a multi action deck using Illegalism and CrimethInc.

Hopefully, this is better.

Updated, after some testing.