[Submission] City Riot (melee weapon enhancer)

Ankha wrote:

jamesatzephyr wrote:

I really like the theme, but from a power/utility point of view, I think it's misfiring. I can't help wondering if most decks wouldn't prefer the occasional frontal assault instead (timed well, it can help you gain pool).

It's a permarush for your vampires (provided they have a melee weapon) so you can play it in the early game and use it later, and it allows you to go backwards.

Playing it in the early game and not using it (because you don't have melee weapons yet) just gives your opponents longer to burn it. Princes are quite popular, and if a card like this is useful, it'll do nothing to diminish them turning up.

Also, the problem is that permanent-driven decks are already backloaded. When other decks are dwindling, they still have the capacity to do interesting stuff. One of the problems facing melee weapon decks is that - except for, principally, Weighted Walking Stick and, to a much lesser extent, Concealed Weapon decks(*) - they're slow. You get the vampire out. Then you have to get the weapon out, potentially by an action. Then you get to rush, and the issue isn't (at that point) not having access to rush tech, it's having a substandard combat package - very little by way of anti-S:CE, not getting the free maneuver offered by a gun which is helpful defensively, being shut down by a popular combat archetype (Potence IG) etc. By the time you've equipped a melee weapon and rushed and had someone throw down Earth Meld, the IG deck could have rushed twice and got two kills.




(*) You're obviously allowed to bring out a Baseball Bat with a Concealed Weapon if you want to. But if you're going to that trouble, most of the time, people will just play a gun instead, because it's a better deal.

Ankha wrote:

I think it takes the exact same spot as a Haven Uncovered. You can play more than 1 in the deck for increased effect, provided you play some untap tech and more than 1 melee weapon on the same guy.

Melee weapons already have a card covering the exact same spot as a Haven Uncovered - it's Haven Uncovered. HU is a fine enough card - but it's being used in combat decks that have better tech than melee weapons.

Ankha wrote:

Yes, in my opinion they are "things that happen" : the Red Star appears, vampires are revealed, the blood of vampires is less potent than before etc.

Those are Gehenna events. Gehenna brought about a whole mystical end of the world, with all sorts of weird and wacky things happening and potentially happening in different endings.

Events also include intervention by the Inconnu - not just a thing that happens out of nowhere, but people who can be manipulated. Events also include the Government, who are manipulated across a whole range of cards - police departments, political hunting grounds, Pentex (who are involved with the whole establishment, mostly), the national guard, background checks etc.

But also...

Ankha wrote:

Not necessariy. Riots are created by people, not by the environment.

It doesn't have to be about necessity. Master cards are extremely competitive - you only have a small-ish number in your deck, and there are numerous cards that are generally very good indeed. Villein, Blood Doll, Dreams of the Sphinx, Pentex Subversion, The Barrens/Fragment, Temptation of Greater Power etc. are things people consider for lots of decks, and more specific decks (clan/sect) have tech that's highly attractive - ventrue HQ, Madness Network, Toreador Grand Ball, Power Structure, Foundation Exhibit or whatever.

Moving to a different card type can give decks a lot more flexibility to include a card.