Outbreak! - Harbingers of Skulls

Non-existant user wrote:

Outbreak! (Corrupt the Undead Flesh)
Action
+1 stealth action.
Put this card on a minion on a minion. That minion takes one damage during it's controller's untap phase. Burn this card if that minion goes to torpor or is incapacitated.
Unique. Put this card in play. During your untap phase, every Methuselah burns 1 pool for each minion he or she control with an Outbreak! on him or her.

I like it a lot - well, I don't like the name, but I love the effect - but wouldn't making the superior version unique make it impossible to play any further Outbreaks on your prey's vampires? I'd rather see something like "A Methuselah may put only one Outbreak at superior into play."

Ohlmann wrote:

Stupid question : how do you block your prey without taking too much damage

I was mostly thinking of + Mercy for Seth to stay in the theme.

and without putting his vampire in torpor ?

Why bother? You can still play Dragonbound, Fame, Smiling Jack, Perpetual Care with the Gr 2, Andre Leroux otherwise,... A permanent bleed/Heidelberg module also works fine when you have access to Freak Drive. It's perfect if you can lock someone down to endless hunting at 0 blood, but that does not have to be the only kill in the deck.

Let me address the common suggestion that the card should affect minions. Here's the source power again:

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.

It's not meant to spread from kindred to kindred, like Vampiric Disease. It infects the kine and spreads rapidly. It destroys the population, robbing the vampires of their food sources and mortal institutions. Think "Kine Resources Contested" becomes "Kine Resources Obliterated."

Harbingers of Skulls already have good minion denial: Shambling Hordes, Lazarene Inquisitor, Crematorium, even Release of the Shackled Soul. You can build all the blood denial decks you want with them. What they need is a way to oust people after blocking all game and/or knocking a few blood counters off opposing vampires.

Dorrinal wrote:

Let me address the common suggestion that the card should affect minions. Here's the source power again:

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.

It's not meant to spread from kindred to kindred, like Vampiric Disease. It infects the kine and spreads rapidly. It destroys the population, robbing the vampires of their food sources and mortal institutions. Think "Kine Resources Contested" becomes "Kine Resources Obliterated."

Great point. There are loads of ways to reduce the influence of other Methuselahs; unleashing a plague seems like a pretty reasonable method.

Non-existant user wrote:

Outbreak! (Corrupt the Undead Flesh)
Action
+1 stealth action.
Put this card on a minion on a minion. That minion takes one damage during it's controller's untap phase. Burn this card if that minion goes to torpor or is incapacitated.
Unique. Put this card in play. During your untap phase, every Methuselah burns 1 pool for each minion he or she control with an Outbreak! on him or her.

Cool idea. I like it. However, something like this would be much better in the hands of the Samedi who have all the stealth in the world. And being unable to block someone burning the card isn't a hardship since it will always affect your prey at least once.

To incorporate AaronC's suggestions about burning the card:

Outbreak!
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 minion may burn this card as a action; the minion takes 2 unpreventable damage if the action is successful.

Burning mortals might be thematically appropriate, but this card should not be a lose/lose to an Imbued deck. Changing it to 2 damage - still a lot of damage for most allies - also has great synergy with the theme and the hunt-for-1-less clause. It could also be good for a blood denial deck, perhaps with allies and the Unmasking to protect it from casual burners, and exacting a high price on the poor minion who makes it through.

Mael wrote:

Ohlmann wrote:

Stupid question : how do you block your prey without taking too much damage and without putting his vampire in torpor ? I would let the card on torpored vampires, if only to make the whole plan not too complicated. HoS don't have easy access to combat end after all.

Not sure if that's sarcasm, but in case it isn't; Spiritual Intervention is Strike: combat ends at [NEC], most HoS have [NEC].

And it is still a tragic missed opportunity to not have Spiritual Intervention reprinted during LotN, in either base or starter, let alone squeezed into HttB Samedi-Nosferatu starter.

Le *sigh*