Submission: Kissed by Virstania

I wanted a means to lose the slave status and first thought of an action with a burn option, however that takes up more space in your deck for a clan that probably requires many cards, so I combined it with Vessel.

Kissed by Virstania
Type: master, trifle, vessel
Card Text:
Put this card on a Gargoyle. This Gargoyle becomes independent and loses it’s slave status (if any). During your untap phase, you can move 1 blood from this gargoyle to your pool or 1 pool to this Gargoyle. Burn this card when this vampire becomes a slave.

Flavor text: -

Art notes: A miserable looking Gargoyle in fetal position held caringly by Virstania, some broken shackles lying inches away from them.

World of Darkness reference: whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Virstania

How does this card address a compelling game need?: Means to be able to play a pure Gargoyle deck with existing Vampires and a hook for more independent Gargoyle type cards.

Created by: Ben Gerrissen

Version 2 mutations
- Removed pool cost
- Added text: "Burn this card when this vampire becomes a slave."

Definitely such an effect is needed, but perhaps this initial version is slightly overpowered? Then again, Gargoyle only and you lose the 'destroy a Blood Doll' effect from a real Vessel , and presumably can only be played on a Gargoyle that you control and limited to one per Gargoyle? I guess I'm having difficulty seeing the link between Virstania and an ongoing Vessel effect - moving blood from pool (or her if in play) to the Gargoyle I can see, or even gaining a couple of blood from the blood bank when this card is played - that's fairly explainable. What's the narrative behind this?

An alternative method could be to model it like Anarch Secession , except maybe stealthier and +1 strength in combat against Tremere/!Tremere rather than titles (or something).

chrisn101 wrote:

I guess I'm having difficulty seeing the link between Virstania and an ongoing Vessel effect - moving blood from pool (or her if in play) to the Gargoyle I can see, or even gaining a couple of blood from the blood bank when this card is played - that's fairly explainable. What's the narrative behind this?

Gargoyles effectively had a mother-child type relationship with Virstania. It doesn't seem out of the question that they would give her resources or that Virstania would give resources to her 'children'. It's not that far out there.

Utility wise, it does feel like it is on the mark. An overt limit to 1 per Gargoyle seems appropriate and also to have it trigger Vessel deliberately.
"A Gargoyle may only have one copy of this card. When playing Vessel, this card counts as if it was a copy of Vessel."

It's not that far out there.

My apologies, I could have written my initial thoughts better - I think this is a good card suggestion. I guess my initial reaction is that it's a bit too close to cards that already exists (Blood Doll/Vessel).

Perhaps to differentiate it slightly, it could be tapped at any time (outside of combat/actions/reaction) to move blood. The scenario is that the Gargoyle has just caused much pain to an opposing minion and Taste of Vitea'd to gain lots of blood - then it's gone home to share the goodies (that is, tapped the card in the discard or influence phase to transfer a blood to the controllers' pool).

Other considerations to think about:

• Because its the Gargoyle sharing rather than using an intermediary (effectively dolls and vessels are couriers), would this card be limited to when the Gargoyle is ready?
• What happens to this card if a Trem/!Trem plays Reindoctrination ? Presumably it would be burnt so would need a line about that?

chrisn101 wrote:

What happens to this card if a Trem/!Trem plays Reindoctrination ? Presumably it would be burnt so would need a line about that?

I really think this card should be banned. I know that it isn't causing a lot of problems, and that it's a neat flavorful card. But really, do we need a card that totally hoses Gargoyles? Are they so dominant that we need an action that permanently steals one of them? Let's just get rid of that card now, and save ourselves the trouble in the future.

chrisn101 wrote:

It's not that far out there.

My apologies, I could have written my initial thoughts better - I think this is a good card suggestion. I guess my initial reaction is that it's a bit too close to cards that already exists (Blood Doll/Vessel).

Perhaps to differentiate it slightly, it could be tapped at any time (outside of combat/actions/reaction) to move blood. The scenario is that the Gargoyle has just caused much pain to an opposing minion and Taste of Vitea'd to gain lots of blood - then it's gone home to share the goodies (that is, tapped the card in the discard or influence phase to transfer a blood to the controllers' pool).

Other considerations to think about:

• Because its the Gargoyle sharing rather than using an intermediary (effectively dolls and vessels are couriers), would this card be limited to when the Gargoyle is ready?
• What happens to this card if a Trem/!Trem plays Reindoctrination ? Presumably it would be burnt so would need a line about that?

I see no real need to differentiate. I wanted to combine the "lose slave status" effect with a common utility a deck needs most of the time and I did not want it to be a combat modifier, that would be a bit too powerful imo. considering all the options already present. I also did not want to add too much complexity (wall of text) and stick to something people are familiar with. So yes, an underpowered Vessel with a useful effect for Gargoyle slaves.

The "becomes independent and loses it's slave status.." effect is already written in such a way that it should be apparent that it's a one time effect (when played), so yes, the Gargoyle can be reindoctrinated and become a slave again without the card needing to be burned. However... I am a proponent for absolute clarity, so I can add a burn clause.

Addendum: Burn this card if this vampire becomes a slave.

With the burn clause in place, perhaps lose the pool cost. Don't think thats too unfair since everything is already quite expensive for Gargoyles. Pool management is a problem for indy Gargoyles.