Bunch of Red List vampires

Its not impossible to find yourself in a situation where there are no location that you should be stealing;
Taking your Grand Prefators Channel 10 as your first action in a turn is shady, taking their PB Monty is whatever. And of course stealing your Preys Papillion is golden, but maybe not your grand preys.

There is a very real possibility that Alex's ability would be better off as a rush. Hes a tactician. Hes not normally dispatching a radio station, hes normally gonna take out a domain.

Also, locations very. Prior to AU, I wouldn't run PB LA, because my Anarch cards were too important. The added stuff let's me pitch them more often, since my malk anarchs get a nose of hound in anarch and bleed n unlock, its easier to plan what's needed. During WoN, I recall Hugh defending that hunting grounds were cool, before Mark (his predator) played arcanum chapterhouse.
If you play rush combat, you reliably can use innate rush. If you're playing a vampire with location stealing, its typically less threatening than ally stealing, but comes up less often.

Kraus wrote:

I find it uncommon to say the least to find a table without any of the following: any hunting ground, any media location, Monastery of Shadows, Papillon, any anarch location.

Stealing a location might not be as universally effective as a rush, but I definitely wouldn't sell the ability short.

And don't forget information highway (while admittedly much less impactful later in the game, stealing it might still be useful to a deck that can bloat to uncontrolled a lot and then move 3 pool back during influence phase, such as with governs.)

There are also number of rare but crucial locations such as Ankara citadel and ventrue HQ. Stealing it from a deck that abuses it might be very impactful.

I agree that stealing locations is not something you expect to do in every game, but it is something that can be randomly very beneficial.

Kraus wrote:

Don't put them in the same group then. So in the last 10 games of VTES I have seen and exactly 4 locations, all of which were played by me and they were in my intercept wall decks. So yes, I know exactly how bad steal location as a action can be and I know my play group may not be the same as yours.

I find it uncommon to say the least to find a table without any of the following: any hunting ground, any media location, Monastery of Shadows, Papillon, any anarch location.

Stealing a location might not be as universally effective as a rush, but I definitely wouldn't sell the ability short.

So Hunting Grounds almost never see play... and honestly our meta is fast that spending pool for location that can't come into play on the first turn and generally can't repay it's cost for two turns usually not worth it. Papillon and Monastery of Shadows are a different story but you are typically playing a specific kind of deck... the exact kind of deck that you would rather have a rush action to stop. As for media location or pool generating locations... those are a trap. People that play those are looking for a fight and will generally over commit to protect them. In my experience, it isn't worth it to steal a media location.

Bloodartist wrote:

And don't forget information highway (while admittedly much less impactful later in the game, stealing it might still be useful to a deck that can bloat to uncontrolled a lot and then move 3 pool back during influence phase, such as with governs.)

Info Highway and Parthanon are exactly the locations you would want to steal, if it is your prey. That said, would you ever chose to take a location over using a rush action on Anson?

jblacey wrote:

Bloodartist wrote:

And don't forget information highway (while admittedly much less impactful later in the game, stealing it might still be useful to a deck that can bloat to uncontrolled a lot and then move 3 pool back during influence phase, such as with governs.)

Info Highway and Parthanon are exactly the locations you would want to steal, if it is your prey. That said, would you ever chose to take a location over using a rush action on Anson?

If you know that they pack three Majesty in hand at the time, and see 0 Ashur Tablets on the table, yes. It's also a great tool to slow your cross table down ever so slightly instead of outright wiping them out. Parthenon is one crucial example of a card you'll both want for yourself and don't want anyone else to have I forgot from my list. Also, it's everywhere.

If you have 8+ caps in play, Monastery is always excellent. Not strategy dependent, I'd say.

Game speed and recurrance of Hunting Grounds is meta dependent. I've seen many even pretty aggressive decks make use of them.

I think we all agree that locations are meta dependent, and that rushes are generally better (if you slap the effect on a stick), but once again: it's far from worthless, and I don't think the ability should be looked down on. Also a rarer and thus more interesting as an effect than rush.

I'm not saying it should be a 'steal location' or a 'rush' in this specific case, but just wanted to give my 2 cents on the topic.

Kraus wrote:

If you know that they pack three Majesty in hand at the time, and see 0 Ashur Tablets on the table, yes.

The problem with that argument is if you are ever afraid of combat with Anson, then stealing a location isn't going to solve that problem. It is like saying the Engine in the car doesn't work, so I am going to change the tires. The tires may need to be changed but it doesn't address the real problem, but you are hoping to draw into a pysche instead.

Alex still has extra points left over, why not change his ability to effectively be Pysche at superior? Just make it only usable once per turn so he can't go into an infinite loop. Pretty sure that is a significantly different vampire that doesn't currently exist in the game.

And from a practical stand point, if I use a 9 cap to steal a location... I'm desperate.

What do you think of this?

Alex Swift
9 Capacity


Sabbat Black Hand, Red List. Once per turn, if Alex and an opposing minion are ready at the end of combat, combat does not end; combat continues into another round of combat instead.+1 Strength.