Speed Bump

The initial version have the problem that even if you play it and it does something, a bruise and bleed don't seem the one who benefit most from it, since you don't really have the deckspace to put other action to do if your bleed is blocked. Combat deck also have the problem of not reliably having another rush in hand.

Of course, at a fundamental level, Bruise and Bleed suffer from the fact that his plan don't work when you deal with his bleed without blocking, and still don't work if you have too much trash blocker.

Speed Bump
Action Modifier
1 blood
Only at the end of a action's resolution (after combat if any) by a ready minion. A minion may only play one Speed Bump each minion phase.
If the target of the action burned at most 2 pool from resolving this action's effects, untap this acting minion.
If this action was blocked and the opposing minion is not ready, continue the action as if it was unblocked.

brandonsantacruz wrote:

pot: Only usable when this acting minion is blocked (before combat, if any). The opposing minion takes one damage.
POT: As above, and if this minion is ready at the end of the action and the opposing minion is not, this acting minion may untap. A minion may only play one Speed Bump at POT each turn.

brandonsantacruz wrote:

Speed Bump
Action Modifier
pot: Only usable when blocked (before combat, if any). The opposing minion takes one unpreventable damage.
POT: as POT above and if this acting minion is ready at the end of the resulting combat and the opposing minion is not, the action continues.

I'm slightly antsy about this in a non-specific way - I can't quite pin down what it is that annoys me.

However, I would massively prefer the "untap" version to the "action continues" version. I'm wary of anything that lets you easily smash a guy in the face AND bleed at the same time. Other action continues options typically involve combat ends (making it harder to seriously damage the opponent, and counter-productive if it means you don't get to strike resolution at all) or have more setup/requirements than plain POT (Ambulance/Momentary Delay). A Brujah/!Brujah with POT/pre could be unpleasant, ditto various other decks, say dom/POT Giovanni.

The untap version, to my mind, gives more interesting decisions to the would-be blocker. Is this a bleed? If I block it, you might get an untap, but you're unable to bleed again this turn. Is this a rush? If I block it, I might deny you the ability to smash Arika's face in, but you might get a bleed afterwards too.

I could probably get behind the continue version if it was, say, a dual-discipline for Aus-Pot, so - amongst other things - making it a fun toy for the Osebo. That's not the only way to do it, of course. Other disciplines, capacity restricctions, other traits (Anarch, Black Hand), all that sort of thing could be doable.




Technical nitpickery: Most of the time, I think you want to refer to the "blocking minion", not the "opposing minion", since there's no combat at that point (or possibly at all).

The problem with "pick your poison" strategies, like bruise and bleed, is the lack of support of cards that let the bruise & bleed player control administration of "poisons."

Dawn Op has the problem in that only the superior really is a pro-active poison. The basic allows others to 'decide poison' on their terms after the fact (the all-important choice of deciding to block), and there is no support for bleed built into the same card.

The latter Speed Bump that poisons with both Bruise AND Bleed negates the choice entirely. You're going to get screwed over for blocking, and in the end the action will continue. So what is there to decide? Just don't block; bounce, bloat, and reduce instead.

The key to making a good dual strategy card is to support both ideas separately and leave the terms pro-active (as in decided by the strategist, not the opponent). That makes deciding between two consequences difficult. The poisons must be relatively hidden, of different types in separate containers, and no good alternate choices remain.

Here's a basic pattern (quick mock-up example card):

Collateral Damage
Act Mod
pot: +1 bleed when bleeding your prey. Cannot further increase bleed, blah, blah.
POT: Blocking minion suffers 2 damage during action resolution, before the start of combat. Only one Collateral Damage per action, blah, blah.

Both blocking and not are not ideal choices. Bounce doesn't really help as +bleed only works against prey. Reduction and bloat are still solid, though, just not ideal. Both consequences are pro-active for the bruise & bleed player. Both consequences are discrete, separate from each other, thus outright avoidance isn't the logically best answer. And both effects can stay hidden until after the block choice is made; you don't need to telegraph the effect ahead of time.

I don't understand why people talk about bruise bleed here. The proposed card is great for rush decks against chump blockers. It is much less efficient for bleeding because even if you untap, you cannot bleed again.

Non-existant user wrote:

I don't understand why people talk about bruise bleed here. The proposed card is great for rush decks against chump blockers. It is much less efficient for bleeding because even if you untap, you cannot bleed again.

I don't see it being that great for rush deck either. You need another rush to make it work, and rush is something who already tend to choke upon its own moving part without that.