[Submission] Ahab, the Traitor (g5 Baali with VAL, !salubri hoser)

interesting with Blessing of the name, even Morphean Blow, Eye of Unforgiving Heaven etc. New opportunities to play these cards for sure.
Striga+Scobax could get playable next to Hide the Heart.
Kazillion options to play him.
Am instantly addicted to figuring out how to play him best. Huge chance of being absolutely breakable though... Scobax + Hide the Heart needs to be tested asap. Might be overly sick against a lot of decks.

Definitely interesting!

Seems weird that a Baali could use an ability called "Eye of Unforgiving Heaven".

Ankha wrote:

Ahab, the Traitor
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Baali
Capacity: 8
Group: 5
Discipline: for obf AUS DAI VAL
Independent. Infernal: Damage inflicted by your minions on Salubri antitribu is aggravated. During the press step of a combat that does not involve Ahab, he can tap to inflict strength damage to one of the combatants. +1 strength.

Obviously, the anti-!Sal special is very flavoursome but extremely corner-case, so ignoring that.

Having two bloodlines disciplines is quiet pokey, although there isn't that much easy synergy between them. If you do actually team up with Saulot or some other Val users, you start losing the option to play some of the Baali-relevant cards to good effect (e.g. a Path of Evil Revelations that is used in some TWDAs to offset infernal costs), at which point his infernalism becomes more relevant. Though, if you choose to play Blessing of the Name with a !Sal, BotN's downside - "During your untap phase, burn this card and tap the chosen minions" - becomes potentially less annoying, since you can order his infernalism untap after that.

If you're using his other special on your own combats (i.e. someone you control is in the combat), it's quite expensive - he has to tap to inflict 2 damage, and tapping with an infernal vampire is quite expensive.

Nergal has some possible synergy with AUS/OBF/FOR/DAI though he's incentivized to be a bit more active and bleedy - and Ahab lacking any Presence would be a bit annoying for that, when Nergal might want to chew through a few Legal Manipulations, Enchant Kindred or Aire of Elation.

He might make a fun blocking vampire, with Diabolic Lure. You can potentially cycle it at fallback Auspex level with !Sal cohorts. Of course, actually blocking taps you, and actually untapping (to use his special) is harder. Making him an important vampire in an Aus/For/Val deck with some Daimoinon/Baali tricks might well be quite fun, though. Plus the Blessing of the Name, as above.

It seems a bit niche, but could be potentially quite a lot of fun in that niche.



Edit to add:
I wrote above:
But forgot to add the other half I meant to:

If you're using him on other people's combats, that could be hilarious - although him having to be untapped would be a fair warning of it, after the first time people see the deck.