Submission: The power behind the throne

Bloodartist wrote:

Klaital wrote:

Yeah making it burn the counters if the vampire fails a referendum might be good, as it is kind of similar to Aura of Invincibility.

I find this is too restrictive, or at least prevents the card from being used as vote defense, if you cannot vote against a referendum without it blowing up its votes. Its not merely there to support your own voting.

I thought that if you use it against another voter deck, its relatively easy to circumvent it (just call political actions with another vampire), so I didn't put further negatives into it. Especially when coupled with uniqueness. However, this forces opponent to play around it, creating interesting game states rather than being linearly and boringly beneficial.

The idea behind the wording "gains x votes permanently" was that the votes would remain even if the card is contested (representing courtly intrigue).

If it only went on other players vamps that would be fine but it would be too easy to build up massive permanent votes of your own guys as a voting deck. Vote lock is the opposite of interesting game states.

Even with your own vampires as a target it'll be slow, and might require support push to get it started.

That all been said, I'd go:

The power behind the throne

[Requirements of your choosing. I'd say cap 6+, plus others]
+3 stealth action. Unique.
Attach this card to the acting vampire and choose another vampire. Whenever the chosen vampire calls a referendum and it passes, put a counter on this card. Attached vampire has +X votes, where X is the number of counters on this card.

That's it!

Contest taking away the votes is fine and flavourable. The next puppet master fights for the power behind the throne, and neither gain the upper hand before the other one is yielded. With very specific restrictions (clan based would be narrow) it's not really a down side.

Then again it takes time to power up, so the power level should be high. You could add a funny extra clause if you wanted to. Maybe something to prompt people to pick other players' vampires (as a defense it's always weaker than within your own strategy). "If a referendum called by the chosen vampire fails, you may burn this card to inflict 2 unpreventable damage to them." But with better writing of course. Knife in the dark, ya?

All in all, Mewcat, I think you're overestimating the offensive vote power of this card, especially if you add such restrictions that you can't play it in a KRC horde. It takes 2 minions out, is restricted and super slow.

About the restrictions, I feel like this would be an excellent Primogen & titled Sabbat card, but Torries make sense as well. Imagine Ellison Humbolt with this: the ultimate evil vizier!

Krausedit\\ I mean, if you add the extra clause for backstabbing goodness, it'll open up some funny combos. Play it offensively with Presence boosts in your own deck, or defensively with Vox Senis and Touch of Pain. Ba-bam, backstab time - with POTENCE!

It's fun.

Krausedit\\ Maybe shouldn't fun-fun brainstorm this late, but add: "f a referendum called by the chosen vampire fails, you may burn this card to inflict 2 (3 if you discard a Backstab from your hand) unpreventable damage to them."

Har har.

I like Kraus's suggested wording.

Also, this is a cool card, and I'm all for more cards that emphasize the political aspect of VTES, but we need more cool Political Actions. Put your imagination to work BloodArtist. I find KRC+ParityShift being the pinnacle of political strategy boring.

Change this to Bishop or Primogen only (not clan specific or requiring cap) and I would totally be on board with this card.