aura of decay

Aura of decay
Action/combat
1 blood
this card costs one less blood if played by a nagaraj
Nec: burn an equipment as a action and inflicts one unpreventable damage on the bearer.
NEC: play before strikes are chosen, at close range, burn.an equipment on opposing minion and inflict him one damage.

Source dirty secret of the black hand, discipline nihilistics which turned later to necromancy.

I would recommend making at least one level not related to equipment - or related to something as well as equipment. History has generally indicated that while some equipment can be upsetting for some decks, players will generally avoid a significant investment in cards that act only as equipment or weapon hosers.

i'd potentially be thinking about something like an action modifier that made it harder to block the action at one level, say, although Necromancy power-bleed already has some decent tools. Maneuver, only usable to go to long range? An action modifier that makes certain disciplines more expensive for the rest of the action? Something like that.

You are right james...

so the roleplaying discipline nihilistics relied on the the fact that nagaraja derived their "unique" discipline from the magical sphere of entropy: relating to decay, rotting stuffs, rust and so on...
at this level 3, the necromancer was unleashing the power of entropy making abrupt decay (mostly in inanimate objects) around him... aura which remained later as long as he concentrated...

So:

Aura of decay
1 blood
this card cost one less blood if played by a nagaraja
Nec: play before range is chosen, until end of combat, every turn if the range is set to close, aura of decay inflict one damage to opposing minion and each of his retainers before strikes are chosen. Only one aura of decay may be played per combat.
NEC: as above but every round, before strikes are chosen you may destroy an equipment on opposing minion.

That seems like a little too much. I'd go more along the lines of this:

Aura of Decay
1:blood:
Only usable before Range is determined.
Inflict 1 to the opposing minion and its retainers during the 'choose strike' step. This minion may only have one Aura of Decay in play at a time. Burn Aura of Decay during the Press step.
as above, but this minion may Strike: Burn equipment.
:Nagaraja: As or above, but Aura of Decay is burned at the end of combat.

Aura of Decay
1:blood:
combat card
play before range.
[Nec] if the range is close, the opposing minion and its retainer take 1 damage each round of combat during strike resolution. Only one aura of decay can be played per combat.
if played by a nagaraja, he may strike destroy equipment for the rest of the combat.
[NEC] as above and at the end of each round of combat, you may destroy one equipment of your choice on opposing minion if range was close.