Submission: Stone Sleep

Name: Stone Sleep
Type: Action
Clan:
Card Text:
+2 stealth action.
Put this card on the acting vampire. This vampire cannot act, attempt to block or play reaction cards. Burn this card when this vampire enters combat. During your next untap phase; burn this card and add enough blood from the blood bank to this vampire to reach full capacity.

Art notes:
A petrified gargoyle perched on top of a gothic lookng building at dawn.

World of Darkness reference:
Idea actually taken from Gargoyles: The Vigil (www.scribd.com/doc/96117271/Gargoyles-the-Vigil)

Created by: Ben Gerrissen

How does this card address a compelling game need?:
Nearly always when I play non-tupdog Gargoyle decks, I have serious problems with pool management and never enough Gargoyles to block people from stealing my standard pool gain cards. Gargoyles need some serious help in this department. Not quite sure if this card is an answer to that, more might be needed, especially since this card leaves your Gargoyle quite prone and useless for one table round.

Changes
V2 - Changed text
Put this card on the acting vampire. This vampire cannot attempt to block or play reaction cards. This vampire has no strikes during the first round of combat. During your next untap phase; burn this card and add enough blood from the blood bank to this vampire to reach full capacity.
to
Put this card on the acting vampire. This vampire cannot act, attempt to block or play reaction cards. Burn this card when this vampire enters combat. During your next untap phase; burn this card and add enough blood from the blood bank to this vampire to reach full capacity.

did you try classic villein + taste of vitae? I found it the best pool gain mechanism for combat decks which are able to do any serious damage

alek wrote:

did you try classic villein + taste of vitae? I found it the best pool gain mechanism for combat decks which are able to do any serious damage

Yeah tried it, works well, but with Gargoyles (non-tupdogs) you run out of deck quite fast (5-6 cards per combat), so you have to rely on permanents leaving you quite vulnerable early game. Totally not sure if this card is an answer to that, perhaps the problem is totally solved when I don't need to lose pool and time to bring out (!)tremere's anymore. In which case a hunting ground or something would be welcome.

ps. not everyone, especially newish players will have villeins.

GreyB wrote:

Name: Stone Sleep
Type: Action
Clan:
Card Text:
+2 stealth action.
Put this card on the acting vampire. This vampire cannot attempt to block or play reaction cards. This vampire has no strikes during the first round of combat. During your next untap phase; burn this card and add enough blood from the blood bank to this vampire to reach full capacity.

I think this is a nifty variant on Concert Tour. It's free and has an extra stealth, but in exchange the vampire can't block or react. For thematic reasons, I'd add a clause that also prevents this vampire from acting (it'd be strange if a vampire turned into a stone gargoyle, freak drived, and acted again). I'd also remove the strike restriction just to keep things relatively simple. If you can't act or block, then strikes are going to be a pretty rare thing, so I don't know how much it really impacts the game. Finally, I think the card should be worded in a similar way to Concert Tour (since they have the same effect). So here's my suggested card text:

+2 stealth action.
Put this card on the acting vampire. This vampire cannot act, attempt to block, or play reaction cards. During your next untap phase, burn this card to restore this vampire to full capacity with blood from the blood bank.

brettscho wrote:

GreyB wrote:

Name: Stone Sleep
Type: Action
Clan:
Card Text:
+2 stealth action.
Put this card on the acting vampire. This vampire cannot attempt to block or play reaction cards. This vampire has no strikes during the first round of combat. During your next untap phase; burn this card and add enough blood from the blood bank to this vampire to reach full capacity.

I think this is a nifty variant on Concert Tour. It's free and has an extra stealth, but in exchange the vampire can't block or react. For thematic reasons, I'd add a clause that also prevents this vampire from acting (it'd be strange if a vampire turned into a stone gargoyle, freak drived, and acted again). I'd also remove the strike restriction just to keep things relatively simple. If you can't act or block, then strikes are going to be a pretty rare thing, so I don't know how much it really impacts the game. Finally, I think the card should be worded in a similar way to Concert Tour (since they have the same effect). So here's my suggested card text:

+2 stealth action.
Put this card on the acting vampire. This vampire cannot act, attempt to block, or play reaction cards. During your next untap phase, burn this card to restore this vampire to full capacity with blood from the blood bank.

I concur, will add changes tomorrow. However I am really beginning to doubt this is a right card for Gargoyles. Thematically it's on the money, but not sure if this really helps non-tupdog gargoyles at all. My doubt is ever increasing. Concert Tour works for Daughters, because they're not combatty, for a combat oriented clan, losing a vamp for 1 turn can be deadly. Would only work if we add Gargoyle cards that give options outside the combat realm, but that would be totally off theme.

I should really play test these ideas...

Yeah, I agree with your assessment, and suspect that Taste of Vitae might still be preferred, but remember that the reason Concert Tour works so well is because Daughters have access to Freak Drive. They take bunch of actions, slowly depleting their blood, and then their final action is Concert Tour. Since Gargoyles also have access to Fortitude and Freak Drive, they might be able to pull off something similar. Rush, Bleed, Stone Sleep.