Power creep and/or inflation

skunkworks wrote:

Could someone please explain to me how the unholy trio of Villein, Giant's Blood and Lilith's Blessing works?

First, you villein one of your vampires to 0. Let's say Arika, so that you regain the 11 pool needed to have your +2 bleed, 4 votes vampire on the table.

Then, with your new MPA provided by Villein's trifle statut, you can play a giant blood to refill Arika to 11 (very good) or use the Lillith blessing ability to put 3 blood on her (which usually will be enough)

Strangely, a well-timed villein + giant blood can decide entires games in some circumstances.

Ah, yes.

Thanks, man.

skunkworks wrote:

Could someone please explain to me how the unholy trio of Villein, Giant's Blood and Lilith's Blessing works?

Villein (trifle) + either of the other 2 cards works on the same master phase. So in one turn you can play villein and giants blood and the very next vellein again and lilith's.

So you can potentially reap 20 pool for brining up a 10 cap and still have 3 pool on them when you're done (assuming you play it really aggressively).

Makes it much less 'risky' (if ever it was) to bring up big dogs, even in a very high combat environment.

Heh, beat me to it...

Remember kids, when someone Villeins their key vamp empty (with no Lilith on the table) sometimes it might be more beneficial to hang on to the Sudden and use it for the soon to be seen Gigant's Blood.

Mandatory hunt = intercept + torporize.

Reyda wrote:

Actually, Villein is a bad thing for the game because players are lazy.
The fact that it gives better pool management should have ideally led to "not-so-good big caps" now being played, granting more game diversity.
alas the end result is more toward helping already very strong big caps, and totally getting rid of the "not so good". It adds absolutely no variety to the game in my opinion.


There should be a clause 'Villein only works if your vampire is crappy. If you play this on a Justicar to fill him with voter cap then shame on you.'

As an example of how Villein has distorted the play environment, look to Kelly Schultz's TWD from the recent Denver qualifier. Read Darby's game report (he is TryDeflectingThis Grapple). He mentioned that two players bleeding Kelly for 30 could not oust Kelly's deck. I played against the Kelly Highway (whose name I take credit for) in a game in which he was my predator. At the end I faced Nana Buruku (admittedly in torpor), Undele, Lucian the Perfect, Saulot, Hardestadt, and Mistress Fanchion. I don't think I'm missing anyone. Their combined capacities add up to 61, which is more than twice the starting pool allotted to a player.

This is not how VTES should work. This is power creep. This is power inflation.

(No criticism to Kelly, he's using the cards to their maximum advantage.)