The Unaligned: Previews

CalibanX wrote:

My point, is that combat themed clans without power bleed Disciplines can't afford to have their puny bleeds so easily countered. Without bruise bleed or bounces it's very tough for combat decks to oust. Giving the Gangrel new combat cards, even good ones, isn't going to put them on the same playing field as other clans.

Here I will completely but respectively disagree. A heavily themed combat oriented clan needs to be able to concentrate on what it does best to oust - and that is winning combats. Meaning, I would greatly prefer to see combat themed clans get cards that resulted in pool loss for winning combats over getting things that allowed them to bleed for a pool or two as you describe.

There are generic cards that assist with this idea such as Dragonbound, Fame, Tension and the likes. And trust me, in my years of playing the Assamites, I have put these cards to their full use. But I would still love to see the Assamites get a card that caused pool damage to someone that was sunk with a contract on them (in the same way that the Black Thrones gives you a pool for this). This keeps the essence of the clan intact and gives them more ousting ability.

In my opinion, the Gangrel should follow right along. They should have a pool damage mechanism through winning combats. Would this make combat too powerful? I seriously doubt it as even when dedicating 1/2 to 2/3 of your deck to combat cards, you can still run into situations that kick your ass. Running a solid combat/rush deck is infinitely more difficult (with all of the variables at the table) than a bleed or vote deck. So if someone is willing to build a deck around this, then they should be "awarded".

Just my random thoughts on the matter.

Take care,
Todd B.
Scribe of the Assamites

Todd, I'm not wed to any specific approach for helping out the combat clans, only that they need something to help with the ousting. I think your ideas are great and would love to see more of them implemented in new sets, I just don't think action cards should be considered "out of clan" though. Army of Rats and 419 Opp are great examples of action cards that can at least help combat clans. I'd like to see more.

More cards to make my Matahari and Vidal Jarbeaux designs even more awesome. Approved.

Strong combat card, great for toolbox combat, and still awesome in traditional Immoral Grapple/Torn Signpost/Disarm combat.

Bit shame that it isn't general necromancy card, as it would help some other clans, too. That vampire on the other hand, is very good - but i doubt that g5-g6 grouping will beat g2-g3 crypt in traditional shambling horde deck.

Two very nice cards. I love ally decks, so that new Giovanni makes me very happy. And that combat card... wow. That's a big boost to Giovanni combat, which makes it possible we may even see Giovanni combat at some point (instead of Giovanni stealth .