card idea: Bush of Ghosts

Bush of Ghosts

Unique Master
Put this card in play. Laibon Harbingers of Skulls may play cards requiring basic Animalism .
When an Animal ally or retainer would be burned from play you may tap this card to put a ghost counter on that ally or retainer and move it to your ready region with one life instead. It is now a Wraith (and not an Animal) and immune to non-aggravated damage. If it is a retainer, place it on a Harbinger of Skulls. If it is an ally, it has 0 strength and 1 bleed.
Burn this card if you control no Laibon Harbingers of Skulls.

First, let me say i LOVE kindred of the ebony kingdom, and im a wraith fan who thinks the dark kingdom of ivory deserved WAY more attwntion than it got, with its illusionary figurehead monarch and its enormous amount of space occupied by the bush of ghosts.

Now, this card....

Firstly, the Mla Watu (african cappadoccians) printed in LoB were cool, and soloman makes the best sidekick for mordechai ben nun ive ran, but there are very few of them. Furthermore, im not sure when, if ever more Mla Watu, Nkla Zoa, Naglopers, or even Shango will be printed. Its safe to assume there could be more laibon setites and maybe lasombra(i cant remember what they are called.... Xian dunde or something maybe?) But who knows when those will be a reality.

So, i Love the idea, but im having issue seeing the practicality here.

But, since you have thought up a neat card, you have my attention.

Firstly, i kind of get animalism, but only kind of. Nothing the mla watu do make them more in tunexwith animals. Animal retainers makes even less sense to me.

Africa sits atop the bush of ghosts, but its not really animal spirits (ala werewolf) that are mostly involved, its humans and such, especially ancestors. The mla watu manipulating the spirits is very terrible to african beliefs and mores, so they are shunned and despised for it. But, they are in a position to have greater access to necromancy hotspots than most other vampires with the disciplines.
Whats more is african auspex is based on spirits and vibrarions more than auras like normal kindreds auspex. There is always a chance of accidentally seeing lots of the spiritworld when laibon auspex is used.

So mla watu have that advantage as well.

I would almost say being able to pull humans or ghouls instead of animals makes more sense, and reducing costs of necromancy and or auspex is more logical from a fluff in ghe WoD standpoint, and from a vtes wexonly have a few of these and littlexanimalism isnt that important standpoint.

Oh, and givencthat while Amenti was hit by the last great maelstorm, and therefore africa was too, id say the bush of ghosts was betterxprotected than every other dark kingdom during those events, maybe justifying "wraiths get -1 bleex agaimst you" clause.

But again, lovexthe themes you are using.

Bush of Ghosts

Unique Master
Put this card in play. Laibon Harbingers of Skulls may play cards requiring basic Animalism .
When an Animal ally or retainer would be burned from play you may tap this card to put a ghost counter on that ally or retainer and move it to your ready region with one life instead. It is now a Wraith (and not an Animal) and immune to non-aggravated damage. If it is a retainer, place it on a Harbinger of Skulls. If it is an ally, it has 0 strength and 1 bleed.
Burn this card if you control no Laibon Harbingers of Skulls.

Let me get this straight...

You currently have 4 Laibon HoS.
One of them already has Animalism

My problem lies in:

It is now a Wraith (and not an Animal) and immune to non-aggravated damage. If it is a retainer, place it on a Harbinger of Skulls. If it is an ally, it has 0 strength and 1 bleed.

If it is a retainer what it does?????

wesile wrote:

If it is a retainer what it does?????

I would guess the intention is that it keeps its ordinary abilities. So effectively:

- you kill my Wolf Companion (animal)
- it comes back as Wolf Companion (wraith)
- you kill my Wolf Companion (wraith)
- it is now properly dead.

So you get one death for free.


The Underbridge Stray ally presumably gets to burn itself twice to untap a minion. (It also improves its bleed!)

"I would guess the intention is that it keeps its ordinary abilities."

Yes, the wraiths would have the same abilities as when they were animals, since nothing says otherwise.

"Firstly, i kind of get animalism, but only kind of. Nothing the mla watu do make them more in tunexwith animals. Animal retainers makes even less sense to me."

My intention was to give the HoS something unique and interesting that would enhance their playability (unlike most of their cards). I was thinking mostly of VTES mechanics, but trying to pay some respect to the lore. I don't know that much, but the material I consulted said that animal spirits are a significant presence in the Bush of Ghosts. The Animalism discipline granting is a stretch, for sure, but it makes the card playable.

"Let me get this straight...

You currently have 4 Laibon HoS.
One of them already has Animalism"

Yes. Don't the Mla Watu deserve something, despite their small numbers? Mozambique Allure is also a pretty cheap way to turn any HoS Laibon.

I agree the mla watu and really all HoS neex more atuff. And to be honest this seems balanced eniugh, my only beef was lore based and that its limited.

But not having abbot hurts the mla watu, so they could use even narrow help.