[Submission] Muster a Corpse Army

Saw this as an 'upgrade' to Shambling Hordes . Wondering if there should be a Master: Location called "Graveyard" (0 pool non-unique Samedi/Harbingers, "Tap to reduce the cost of a card requiring Necromancy or Thanatosis by one blood"?) or similar that needs to be out first for these Mortis-inspired cards to function. Is this card too powerful without such requirements beyond two disciplines and 3 blood?

Muster a Corpse Army v1
Unique Zombie ally
3 blood

Zombie with 3 life. 0 strength, 1 bleed. The Corpse Army gets +1 strength for each life counter it has. The Corpse Army may enter combat with any minion, or attempt to burn a location, as a action.
As above, but with 6 life and 2 bleed, and may attempt to burn a Vampire in torpor as a action, gaining 3 life if successful (this is the only way this ally may gain life). Once per combat, Corpse Army may make a ranged strike at -2 strength (round down) and has an optional press to continue. If an opponent does not possess Celerity (), Corpse Army may burn a life to gain First Strike.

Flavour text
If there's room:
"The Zombie King he walks alone
The Zombie King he has no throne
Just a never ending hunger
And a hole that can't be filled"
GWAR: " Zombies, March! "

Art notes
Corpses in various military uniforms encircling a trapped victim?

World of Darkness reference
Mortis .

How does this card address a compelling game need?
Adapting Mortis from Vampire: The Dark Ages and think this would make a good ally addition for Samedi (and Harbingers too if a Master: Discipline card for Thanatosis is made available). As I've mentioned before, Necromancy/Thanatosis descend from Mortis, hence the requirement for both.

Reasoning for certain aspects

• The 'ranged' component: originally thought "burn a life for a manoeuvre once per combat" but then thought that if this a Corpse Army of relentless zombies, it'd be impossible to run away, hence the 'ranged' strike (in effect, the zombies surrounding the opposing minion). As corpses lessen , it's less effective, hence -2 strength).
• Unique: substantial effort by the necromancer. Impossible to create more than one Corpse Army at any one time.
• Possible lessening of power: If the employing vampire is burnt or sent to torpor, the Corpse Army is burnt (in the original power, the Corpse Army was composed of as many zombies as the caster spent willpower, suggesting they directly controlled the Corpse Army, so this 'Achilles heel' makes sense). This ally is still susceptible to all sorts of environmental damage, potence, S:CE etc.

Woah, strictly better one of the best allies in the game. And not helping original mortis clan, but samedi - their spin-off. Not like.

chrisn101 wrote:

Is this card too powerful without such requirements beyond two disciplines and 3 blood?

It feels like it's trying too hard. Many decks would rather have a solid card that does something good than a more expensive card that does 2 extra things that that deck doesn't care about. Not every card in the game needs 17 different abilities. Many of the very best cards in the game do one, two, three things for a low-medium cost that you can build flexible decks around.

What role is it supposed to be filling? As a unique ally, it's very hard to build the deck around it, because you can't easily stuff your deck with them.

chrisn101 wrote:

Zombie with 3 life. 0 strength, 1 bleed. The Corpse Army gets +1 strength for each life counter it has. The Corpse Army may enter combat with any minion, or attempt to burn a location, as a action.
As above, but with 6 life and 2 bleed, and may attempt to burn a Vampire in torpor as a action, gaining 3 life if successful (this is the only way this ally may gain life). Once per combat, Corpse Army may make a ranged strike at -2 strength (round down) and has an optional press to continue. If an opponent does not possess Celerity (), Corpse Army may burn a life to gain First Strike.

Technical point: the inferior can gain life. Vagabond Mystic can sit there topping it up.

Thematically, if it's actually an army of corpses, that strikes me as something of a critical masquerade breach. Making it Red List would be semi-reasonable.

The ability to strike for 6 or 4R, or more if you throw in a Target card, seems quite harsh. The thought of Troglodytia throwing Martyr's Resilence around also makes me wince. A lot.

Ankha wrote:

The two disciplines isn't a drawback. It reduces the range of vampires that can play it, but if you use the correct crypt, you'll never notice it.

It's not a super huge drawback, for the reason you mention, but it usually is still something of a drawback. You typically have to play a larger crypt for two disciplines. When one of the Bloodlines disciplines is involved, you may often have a very small number of relevant vampires - THAN/NEC is a particularly weird one, because a combination of the Samedi having four disciplines and design choices has meant only 5 vampires have it, and only 3 in a group pair (2 if you go 2/3, 3 if you go 3/4 or 4/5). So that's a more challenging crypt to construct - do you double up, how much do you double up, have you left yourself more vulnerable to Banishment, Pentex, rush etc - in a way that applies less if you're just looking for, say, superior Thaumaturgy or superior Obfuscate.

Ankha wrote:

Now, compared to a Shambling Horde that is a balanced ally, this ally is clearly overpowered. I'll probably add a requirement such as "remove two ally cards from your graveyard when this card enters play, or burn this card."

I agree that something fairly hefty would be needed to counterweight the ally's abilities - but for that reason, I'd much rather go for a lower powered, more streamlined card.

Thanks, good points. Like the Red List idea, and it's a shame that supernatural Allies cannot be Red List under the rules. If they could be, I'd suggest the following:

Muster a Corpse Army v2
Zombie ally
3 blood

If the vampire taking the action to recruit this ally is successfully blocked, they become Red List. If successfully recruited, remove a retainer, ally or vampire you control from the game (in play or from your ash heap) or burn this ally.
Zombie with 3 life. 0 strength, 1 bleed. Red List. The Corpse Army gets +1 strength for each life counter it has. The Corpse Army may enter combat with any minion as a . Any life Corpse Army may gain instead goes to the blood bank.
As above, but with 6 life, and may attempt to burn a Vampire in torpor or a location as a action. Corpse Army has an optional press each combat.