Submission: Ghosts in a Shell

Name: Ghosts in a Shell
Cardtype: Combat
Cost:
Capacity:
Discipline: Necromancy
Clan:
Play before range is determined on the first round of combat. Do not replace as long as this card is in play.
[nec] Put this card in play. Put all combat cards this vampire plays in this combat on this card instead of burning them. After combat ends, shuffle all those cards into your Library. Any vampire can burn this card and remove it from the game as an action that costs 1 blood.
[NEC] As above, but the action to burn this card is at +1 stealth.

Flavor text:

Art notes: The vampire stands within a ritual circle, empowered, with ghosts and wisps circling him – these spirits are trapped and bring back his combat efficiency from beyond the grave, but they take their toll on the vampire as well (basically existing within his body).

World of Darkness reference:

How does this card address a compelling game need?:
More combat stuff for Necromancy. Combat being underpowered at the moment, recursion would help it engage in more meaningful combats throughout the game (which is one of the problems especially with potence, it requiring a hefty number of cards to work). Recursion should be strictly for necromancy and necromancy clans only though, and it should be pretty unwieldy to use.

Notes:

Working name was empowerment ritual

It could be tweaked so that the cards stay on this card as long as it’s in play, and are shuffled to the deck only once this card is burned (and removed from the game) through it’s action.

For added flavor you could add basic thaumaturgy to both levels as it's a ritual in essence as a requirement, but then the card should probably be a bit better as it limits the amount of vampires that could use it effectively. But it could be a thing for flavor.

Created by: Petrus Makkonen

Name: Ghosts in a Shell
Cardtype:
Play before range is determined on the first round of combat. Do not replace as long as this card is in play.
Put this card in play. Put all combat cards this vampire plays in this combat on this card instead of burning them. After combat ends, shuffle all those cards into your Library. Any vampire can burn this card and remove it from the game as an action that costs 1 blood .
As above, but the action to burn this card is at +1 stealth.

Krausedit\\ Now that I think about it, it might not be THAT far fetched to add to both levels (note, no for superior, just ). There are two full fledged crypts that don't see that much play which could use it.

Tremere G3-4:
Tarautas
Hector Trelane
Valois Sang
Preston Varrick
Valerius Maior
Lille Haake
Oliver Thrace

Giovanni G2:
Patrizia Giovanni
Enzo (+ ADV)
Marianna
Ambrogino (+ ADV)

And an assortment of and .

For some reason this intriques me, but any crypt could use the combat love.

A good question!

When you read the card carefully, you'll see that you do not replace the card until it's burned from play.

At the moment the effect is more or less instantanous, but the drawback lingers until you take an action (or beg for help from cross table) to get rid of it.

By making the action at stealth it makes it easier for YOU to get rid of the draw back.

Comparison time!

Summon Soul gives two cards back as an action. It can be doubled as blood gain, which is okay. The card never sees play, because a hunt is usually enough for blood gain and no deck requires exactly two cards back at the expense of an action. It's a staple level recursion card though.

Spiritual Guidance replicates one played combat card, with no chance for recursion. Extra options only, not really recursion.

Sudario Refraction gives three cards back at the expense of three random cards, which could be anything. Not exactly recursion, but replication.

Let's not talk about Ashur Tablets here.

Rest of the recursion options are more or less crap.

This said, recursion should be very limited. We can call it bad if we want to. I'd rather say conditional.

I'd say it's best to compare this to Summon Soul, as the cards are not brought to hand, but the deck in random order (which is always worse).

To gain Summon Soul's power level we'd need to recur at least two combat cards. That could be anything from Torn Signpost and Immortal Grapple to Dead Hand and Target Vitals. In a prolonged combat (two+ rounds) we could see a manouver and a Taste of Vitae in there for a total of fourish combat cards recurred.

The upside here against Summon Soul is that you do not need the invaluable action to trigger the card. You only need the action to come back from the downside. There are other ways to this as well though: clans with necromancy have some ways of increasing hand size to effectively combat the no-replace clause.

The point is, you can live with the consequences or use your resources to nullify them, but the effect itself is instantaneous.

So, what would you suggest there'd be done about it "not looking very good"? I do appreciate the comment, but feedback would be even better.

1) Make it so that any vampire with necromancy (even outside of combat) could play this card?
2) Just recur all the cards without downside?
2.1) in here I'd just call it uninteractive power creep; cards with special effects should have interactive elements and downsides to them.
3) Keep the combat cards on this card as long as it's in play - when burned the cards stored are moved to your hand (discard down to handsize immediately)?
4) Something else - what?

The initial template for the card is lower on the power curve on purpose, not to suggest power creep. The power level can always be adjusted in plenty of ways if it is agreed that the concept and design are warranted or good.

What do you think?