Outbreak! - Harbingers of Skulls

Cross-posted from: vekn.net/index.php/forum/41-card-balance-a-strategy-discussion/39006-harbingers-of-skulls-strengths-but-mostly-weaknesses?limit=10&start=30#39392 Join the discussion!

Here is an attempt to add a little more ousting power to a Harbingers wall deck. It's based on the cards Smiling Jack, the Anarch, Army of Rats, and Constant Revolution. The concept is that a Harbinger of Skulls uses its powers to unleash a plague in the city. It begins destroying the institutions and resources of the Methuselahs, and left unchecked, consumes everything.

Outbreak! (Corrupt the Undead Flesh)
Action
Harbinger of Skulls
+1 stealth action. Unique. Put this card into play. During your untap phase, put a counter on this card. During each other Methuselah's untap phase, he or she must burn X pool, where X is the number of counters on this card. Vampires gain 1 less blood by hunting. Any vampire may burn this card as a action; Samedi get +1 stealth when attempting that action.

You'll notice there is no alternative to burning pool like on Smiling Jack; that's deliberate. Remember that this card has to compete with other offensive cards like Govern the Unaligned (!Ventrue), Deep Song and Presence bleeds (Ahrimanes, Toreador walls).

Inspiration:

http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Mortis wrote:

Corrupt the Undead Flesh - This ability causes the victim to be stricken with a horrible plague. Mortal victims of this ability are highly contagious and easily spread the disease to other mortals and to Vampires if their blood is taken. Kindred have a harder time spreading the disease but are effected by the weakness it causes all the same.

This is a reasonable way to turn the Mortis power into a good card for HoS.

Personally I think that allies should be able to remove it. I'm not sure what removing it is meant to represent in game-world terms. Finding a cure? Destroying everyone and everything affected? (I think the idea behind removing Smiling Jack is catching Jack.)

Any non-zombie, non-wraith ally who removes it would have to be burned, of course.

Hey, wait a second! The controller of the HoS is also affected. This is kind of a crap-shoot, don't you think?

I like the concept of putting something into play that has an affect over time, rather than my idea of making it a combat card. Since it is an infection, I really think that it should affect minions, and not pool. Here is my idea, which is outside your concept since it can't oust directly. The problem is that I'm not sure an outbreak would affect a Methuselah's resources so directly.

Here is my take on it:

Corrupt the Undead Flesh


+1 stealth action. Unique. Put this card into play. During each Methuselah's discard phase, each minion and retainer he controls burns one blood or one life. Harbingers of Skulls, Samedi, wraiths, and zombies are immune to this affect. Any minion may burn this card as a action. Any non-wraith or non-zombie ally who successfully burns this card is burned at the end of the action.

I like your interpretation of the power. I just think that directly ousting people is where the Harbingers are hurting the most, and that's what they should get.

Corrupt the Undead Flesh


+1 stealth action.
Put this card on a mortal ally or retainer. Each untap this card gains a counter. If there are counters equal to the mortal's life, burn the mortal and move it to any other ready mortal (or the ashheap if there are no mortals). Vampires you control may not hunt. You may burn this card and the mortal as a +1 stealth action.

I agree with Aaron: there is no reason for a disease to affect pool. Here is the one I posted in the other thread before seeing this one. It is a discipline card so it can have 2 effects, which gives the Samedi a fair access to it too. The offensive effect at Superior so that the Giovanni can't use it too easily.

Corrupt the Undead Flesh
Action
+1 Stealth action
Remove a disease counter from a vampire.
Put a disease counter on any vampire. Each time a vampire with a disease counter is in combat at close range with another vampire, the second vampire gets a counter as well. An afflicted vampire cannot gain blood by hunting. When an afflicted vampire untaps, he or she burns a blood or, if unable, burns the disease counter. A vampire can have only one disease counter.

@Boris:
I don't like this because it creates counters that have to have a card-text (i.e. there is no card to tell the counters how they function and that is different to things like Anarch counters which have not function other than a property/state).

I'd prefer to also see Vampiric Disease edited to also remain in play and work similarly to your card, but it makes the text slightly longer.

Corrupt the Undead Flesh (Boris Version edited)
Action
+1 Stealth action
Remove a disease counter from a vampire.
Put this card in play and a disease counter on any vampire. Each time a vampire with a disease counter is in combat at close range with another vampire, the second vampire gets a counter as well. An afflicted vampire cannot gain blood by hunting. When an afflicted vampire untaps, he or she burns a blood or, if unable, burns the disease counter. A vampire can have only one disease counter. Burn this card when there are no disease counters in play.