Danse Macabre Previews

Count wrote:

Actually, yes, designers should look at the star vampires when designing new cards. Instantaneous Transformation is troubling: It's effects are too similar to Freak Drive and Force March, and tt benefits star vampires with these disciplines more than the Gangrel! who need the real boost.

if a star vampire can play freak drive, why would they need forced march and instant transformation? too many copies of those cards would only slow them down. or to look at it another way -- if your star vampire doesn't have then they probably weren't a "star" in the first place. that's just how overpowered freak drive is.

these once-per-turn untap cards actually give more benefit to an army of small/midcap vampires rather than fatties.

Rather than addressing the problem that clan faces, the design team looks to have just thrown untaps at the problem. Is that the solution to weak disciplines? Just replicating other card effects that already exist? More stealth? More untaps?

I would have less of a problem is the card was more limited or specialized in some way. Untap after a non-bleed action, take an action to gain an untap a la Rutor's Hand. Instead this design is just more of the same. With this design philosophy, what's the solution to weak combat disciplines? Adding more damage bonuses? This only further compounds the homogenization of disciplines, and does little to add variety to the game.

I would almost agree on the "homogenization" point, but in this case it's for a dual-discipline card. less than 30 vampires in the whole game can play this at superior, without outside help. that seems rather specialized to me.

I'm not sure but maybe you're more upset that this wasn't a powerful combat card instead? On that I do agree with you, it seems silly that clans built around combat like Assamites and !Gangrel only become strong when they get cards for stealth-bleed just like everybody else. but I suppose that can never be fixed as long as S:CE is hard coded in the rules to be top tier. it's like, "they already have Psyche, what more can we do?"

Haze wrote:

I'm not sure but maybe you're more upset that this wasn't a powerful combat card instead? On that I do agree with you, it seems silly that clans built around combat like Assamites and !Gangrel only become strong when they get cards for stealth-bleed just like everybody else.

The basic problem has been there since Jyhad - it's not-quite-hard-coded into the design of the game. Combat gets rid of blockers (and potentially frightens off aggressors), it doesn't erode pool. And so once you've disposed of your prey's vampires (or, in later sets, other viable minions), you still need to bleed them out. And with most combat decks, that's slow.

So your main alternatives are:

1) make combat destroy pool too (there are limited options here, like Fame and Dragonbound), but you probably don't want to make combat equally efficient at destroying pool, or else it destroys minions and pool together
2) give them some sort of efficient ousting mechanism to slot in alongside the combat, and try to design it so that (or hope and pray) it doesn't jam their hands when in combat too. Versatile cards like Deep Song can be awesome here.

jamesatzephyr wrote:

So, you're objecting to them getting a card that uses Forced March as a potential model (because that's not giving them their own powerful abilities) and saying to give them a card that uses Rutor's Hand and Clotho's Gift as a potential model instead (because that apparently is giving them their own powerful ability).

Alrighty then.

No. I'm upset that Instantaneous Transformation is basically Forced March. An action modifier that grants stealth or an untap after a successful action. This is bland, boring, and paints with too broad of a brush. Why not give potence an untap? And animalism? Why not just give every discipline a means of untapping.

However, if the goal is to give Gangrel Anti more to work with, why not something more attuned to their clan? I don't know the lore, so I can't comment. Give something to the clan, preferably something more interesting than action modifiers that untap or grant stealth, and something in the spirit of the clan.

What the game doesn't need is more of the same. More hand damage is not the solution for potence, just as more untaps are not the solution to fatties. If Freak Drive is overpowered, the solution is not to simply give every vampire its ability. That merely compounds the problem further.

The art on Shadow Boxing is amazing.

When I look at Instantaneous Transformation, I don't think, "Oh good, another way for my unnamed deck to destroy pool." I don't think that because more-of-the-same deck design is boring as sin. Instead, I look at it and think, "Xendil and Malabranca and Mugur are all of a sudden playable, and I can't wait to try designing decks around them."

Edit to add: I actually don't love the icon for the set, but it's only because it's bright white. If it was off-white or grey or something not quite so glaring, it'd work really well. ...And I suppose, since I'll be printing these cards myself, that I could go ahead and make that change myself!