[Submission] Shadow Clone

That does not help: regeneration effects on allies do not refer to their starting life.

Renegade wrote:

If Renegade Garou has 2 or fewer life during your untap phase, he gains 1 life from the blood bank.

That is the current template.

On opposing allies only, I feel it is a bad card: too narrow to see play, and the effect is mostly worse than a simple steal.

Non-existant user wrote:

On opposing allies only, I feel it is a bad card: too narrow to see play, and the effect is mostly worse than a simple steal.

while I like the idea, I have to agree. I don't think relying on other people to bring a certain cardtype to the table is a good design, especially for what feels like it should be an offensive card (as opposed to something defensive like Canine Horde). Limiting it to other Methuselah's allies basically makes the card wallpaper.

My suggestion is to allow copying of any Ally but have the shadow clone burn during the next untap phase, or have the acting vampire burn blood to keep the ally around each turn.

Ankha wrote:

2/ you can copy the ally multiple times (that's an advantage)

This is where lack of flexibility hits you: stacking does not matter if having multiple copies in the deck is a bad idea to begin with, so you are just left with a temporary steal effect that is worse than Far Mastery. It would be different if there was another reason to play 5 or 6 in a deck.

A few thoughts
1) An acting Ally should probably have a cost even if it just a blood.
2) I would recommend a secondary effect at inferior and make the clone be the superior text. That should address the concern about wallpaper.
3) I do not like the perm lock for an Ally. Just make it for a turn and you can make the superior text a little more powerful.

Shadow Clone

1
+1 stealth action.
Lock a ready minion controlled by another Methuselah and put a shadow counter on it. A minion with a shadow counter does not unlock as normal during it's next unlock phase then burn the counter.
As above, if the minion is an Ally, put this card in play as a copy of that Ally that doesn't contest.

Does that preserve the intent and add flexibility to the card?

Ankha wrote:

Is Far Mastery a wallpaper card ? I think not; still, the restrictions are the same (ok, Far Mastery works on retainers too, but it's usually not the effects that is used)

Basically, this is a "steal ally" effect since the ally is locked and remains locked (albeit On the Qui Vive) but:
1/ the effect ends when the last copy leaves play (that's a drawback)
2/ you can copy the ally multiple times (that's an advantage)

The things is, people rarely put Far Mastery into their decks in great quantities. Even if you might run up against a War Ghoul explosion or some horrific Garou deck, working backwards through tournament winning decks, more than 2 is rare. ( Giovanni Camarada is something of an outlier with four.) So you've got:

- two disadvantages - no retainers, and fragile/temporary,
- one slightly dubious advantage, because if Far Mastery is the power level you're aiming for, people don't play it in large enough quantities that you're even likely to find yourself copying three War Ghouls.

(Note that if you do ever find yourself wanting to copy three War Ghouls, you've copied its text, and it's just entered play - there wasn't a copy of a War Ghoul in play, and there is now) - so what are you burning?)

There is one other slight advantage, in that you could potentially get an ally with inferior Obtenebration rather than superior Dominate. But there, the problem is that if you're playing Obtenebration, you're probably also playing a lot of Dominate because - absent something crazy like Create a Clan, or a really bizarre crypt selection - if you play Obtenebration and are playing a vaguely coherent deck, you're getting Dominate along with it.



However, what I would probably do is move the card - or something very close to it - to a different discipline and/or clan, where it doesn't already have access to Dominate and could at least find it a more interesting choice. Some sort of chimerical illusion that is vastly less expensive than Sensory Deprivation? A diabolical copy from a Baali deck?