Pool Damage Boost for Nosferatu Antitribu

Greetings Methuselahs!

I was working on a !Nos Under Siege deck today (starring Olivia and Cicatriz!) and bemoaning their lack of card-efficient, action-efficient ousting power. Allow me to elucidate:

Computer Hacking and Deep Song require a lot of card slots to produce significant pool damage. Going that route, you end up with a very bland deck that is not significantly different from a weenie Obfuscate Computer Hacking deck. In any case, it certainly would not showcase the Nosferatu antitribu’s uniqueness as a clan.

Camera phone / Laptop / bleed retainers would do the trick if the !Nos——as a clan——could Freak Drive (or had something cool like Warsaw Station), but alas, when you take that tack with this clan, you end up needing 2 actions to get in your first bleed for 2. I find that route to be unacceptably inefficient.

In response to what I see as a compelling need for this underserved clan, I present 2 similar cards with the hope that one (and only one) of them might be adopted. They are powerful, but I think not OP.

Name: Sewer Rat Stratagem
Cardtype: Master
Cost: 1 Pool
Clan: Nosferatu antitribu
Text:
Unique Master
Put this card in play. While you control the edge, Nosferatu antitribu you control get +1 bleed. Any vampire may burn this card as an action; vampires without Auspex get -1 stealth on that action.

Or, if you are concerned with the power of combining Vermin Channel with +bleed for all !Nos, you could force the +bleed into a declared action with a card like this:

Name: Creep Ambuscade
Cardtype: Master
Cost: 0
Clan: Nosferatu antitribu
Text:
Unique Master
Put this card in play and do not replace it as long as it is in play. All ready Nosferatu antitribu and animal allies you control may, as a action, either bleed at +1 bleed or enter combat with any tapped minion controlled by your prey. Burn this card during your discard phase.

Comments welcome!
Thank you for your consideration!

As a fan of the Nos/!Nos, I would like to see them get more ousting potential. However, I do not like the emphasis put on Master cards.

Sewer Rat Strategem is a Palla Grande for !Nos. That's a powerful effect, but there isn't a clan in the game that wouldn't benefit from such a card. It has a nice condition to enable it and to get rid of it, making it distinct from Palla Grande, which I like, but it continues this weird design decision of making basically the same card but for different clans (example: every Hunting Grounds.) If it could be made more distinct or burn pool in some other way, unique to the Nos/!Nos, I would approve. But I fear that with such a card being printed as currently worded, BC would basically be making the archetype and building the deck for us.

Creep Ambuscade is a temporary Deep Song effect applied to all your vampires and Underbridge Stray. Again, it's powerful, and very card efficient. It just doesn't do anything that makes me think, "Now this is something only the Nosferatu could pull off!" It needs to be more unique or burn pool in a unique way.


Some time ago I suggested a card called Breaking & Entering:
Breaking & Entering
Action Modifier
+1 bleed if your prey controls a location. [limited]
As above, and choose a location they control. That location's text box is considered blank until the end of their turn.

Now, maybe this could be a stronger +bleed. It isn't really any more card efficient than Deep Song, and is conditional. But that condition is something that makes it unique, and it touches on the Nos/!Nos's identity. They're good burglars.

It also touches on an aspect of the game I wish were emphasized more: interacting with Locations. I think the idea of a deck that burns locations as a form of quasi pool damage would be super neat, but the majority of locations don't cost pool to play, and Arson doesn't do pool damage. The act of burning locations might set your opponent back, but doesn't directly pressure them like loss of pool does.

Anyways, I sympathize with you and the !Nos. They could use ways to oust their prey. The trick (IMO) is doing it in a way that is as unique to them as possible. For example: VEKN & Black Chantry are gradually coming around to this - look at their recent cards Unleash The Hounds, Inevitability of the Void, and Blessing of the Void. They're all conditional bleeds in a way that touches on the specific flavor of the clan.

Killiam wrote:

...and Deep Song require a lot of card slots to produce significant pool damage.

Say what!?
Deep Song is along with Govern probably the most efficient card of the game in terms of card slots...

Also if you need to do pool damage after pummeling your prey's minions, I hear Codex of Edenic Groundkeepers is a good choice.

I agree with OT. Anti-Nosferatu need some kind of clan-specific bleed-boosting card or a modifier, or an unlocking mechanic. Bleedbooster should not be an action cause otherwise !nos can't benefit from an already existing clan card: vermin channel.

I've tried to make a laptop+vermin channel deck, but its nothing to write home about since its slow and !nos lack any kind of defense also. In short they are lacking in basically every important area.

Killiam wrote:

Or, if you are concerned with the power of combining Vermin Channel with +bleed for all !Nos,

Why should we be concerned since !nos are pretty garbage. They need every help they can get.

Bloodartist wrote:

I agree with OT. Anti-Nosferatu need some kind of clan-specific bleed-boosting card or a modifier, or an unlocking mechanic. Bleedbooster should not be an action cause otherwise !nos can't benefit from an already existing clan card: vermin channel.

Here's an idea that occurs to me:

"At the end of an action" is the Freak Drive window.

You could get Laptops if you want, or Cameraphones. Maybe you'd change priority, and flip out Light Intensifying Goggles after you'd got some Laptops out or similar.

Also, note that searches can fail voluntarily, so you could reasonably easily cycle it, even if you found yourself thinking "Argh, I've run out of pool so equipping a Laptop Computer is bad right now."

You could probably convince me that making it a Nos/!Nos card is doable.


An alternative might be something like a one-off action:
As an action, I'm mildly concerned that it would end up being in your deck much less, so many games it won't turn up quickly.

I very probably wouldn't go with it being a master, for the obvious reason that the available space for master cards is hyper competitive.

After hearing some very helpful comments, I was inspired to make the following alternate submissions. I think either or both of these could be adopted, and might even fit into a common deck:

Name: Unwitting Informant
Cardtype: Action
Clan: Nosferatu antitribu
Cost: 1 Blood
+1 stealth action. Cause the target Methuselah to discard one card at random, OR give this card to the target Methuselah (under their control). A Methuselah may have no more than two Unwitting Informants. Every time an effect causes this Methuselah to discard one or more cards at random, they burn a pool. This Methuselah may burn the edge to burn this card.

— I left the following clause out because of wordiness, but would like it included: “This includes effects that randomly check selected cards and then conditionally discards them.”
— For art, I imagine someone absentmindedly leaving a file on a desk, and a gnarled hand reaching out from a shadow or up from under the desk to snatch it.


Name: Stolen Secrets
Cardtype: Action
Clan: Nosferatu antitribu
Cost: Variable
Bleed using a bleed action card from your prey’s ash heap, paying costs as normal. This vampire need not meet the requirements of the card. If that card requires a discipline or trait that this vampire does not possess, they play it at the inferior level. If the bleed is successful, that card is removed from the game, and you may burn the edge to place this card on top of your library.

Thanks for reading!