Submission: At the gates

Name: At the gates
Cardtype: Political action
Cost: -
Capacity: -
Discipline: -
Clan: -

Requires a titled sabbat vampire.
If this referendum passes, place this card on a ready vampire. The vampire with this card cannot perform directed actions or hunt. Burn this card at beginning of your next untap step.

Flavor text:
"Dear Lord", Gainesmil whispered in awe at the recitation as he slouched in his seat. "The barbarians are at the gate."
-The fall of Atlanta

Art notes:
A motorized sabbat war party on final approach to a large US city via a motorway, with the citys skyscrapers ruling the skyline.

World of Darkness reference: The flavor of the card is intended to depict a situation where a vampire is cut off from rest of the world by a sabbat war party and forced to go into hiding or full defense. Specifically, it refers the great Sabbat offensive across the eastern US seaboard in 1999, as depicted in the Clan novel saga.

How does this card address a compelling game need?:
This card is intended to enable new strategies and ways to build a sabbat vote deck. Sabbat-specific voting is really lacking in my opinion. The synergy with another sabbat-specific but seldom used vote card 'Deploy the hand', is intentional. I believe there are a great deal of other possible synergies with cards that either burn blood off vampires, or require directed actions(or edge) to remove. Or combat, which would thematically suit Sabbat.
On the other hand, the card removes itself to prevent it from becoming too powerful a lock. Also the vampire with this card is still allowed to block, so the player can still in theory defend him/herself from further votes. The idea is that he can't do offensive (directed) actions. This card could also allow hindering a perceived table threat across the table, without being too punishing.

Created by: Juha Laukkanen

I really like this idea, but maybe it is better to change "vampire" to "minion" because it can also happen, that an ally is separeted and it can rescue you from a visit from a war ghoul or other nice guys for a round or more if you play enough of "At the Gates"

Bloodartist wrote:

...
If this referendum passes, place this card on a ready vampire. ...

I would prefer a "choose" phrase before the referendum, like the wording of "Banishment".
Maybe: "Choose a vampire (minion?). Successful referendum means, that this card is placed on (attached to?) that vampire (minion?)."

Hakuron wrote:

I would prefer a "choose" phrase before the referendum, like the wording of "Banishment".
Maybe: "Choose a vampire (minion?). Successful referendum means, that this card is placed on (attached to?) that vampire (minion?)."

Perhaps, but I chose the wording in order to be as concise and clear as possible, to minimize the wordcount. I am not terribly fond of repeating old mistakes in card wording tbh... Even though there is no actual mistake in Banishment's wording, its not as concise as it could be. (EDIT: I guess I should've used the word 'put' and not 'place'.)

Besides, the wording I used has already been used in several political actions. For example several crusade s.

ur_vampire wrote:

I really like this idea, but maybe it is better to change "vampire" to "minion" because it can also happen, that an ally is separeted and it can rescue you from a visit from a war ghoul or other nice guys for a round or more if you play enough of "At the Gates"

Sure, why not. I'm not opposed to improving the card. I didn't want to go overboard on my first go However, thematically I'd imagine allies to be less troubled by Sabbat occupation since they usually can act during the day. (Maybe not War ghouls..)

Ankha wrote:

I would probably add a "younger" clause.

Oh, that would be a huge downgrade... and might not achieve the results I was hoping to get with this card. I think it would be too weak then to build decks around, but its not my choice of course...

You already need to push this through the voting, which probably requires considerable investment, especially when facing an inner circle. I was hoping to give midcaps some manner of tools. Like the winner of the recent local tourney here said:
"Bored of 'villein for 11, giants blood, superior govern,
freak drive, scouting mission, freak, mindrape, freak, Banishment on your deflecter+push+cap+freak, bleed for 5+.'-games?"

Come on, give the midcaps some love.

The flavor is intended to depict a large group of militant (but younger) sabbat vampires trouble older and entrenched vampires. Also its not the voter who orders the attack who does the heavy lifting here.