Power creep and/or inflation

Ohlmann wrote:

Well, there is no much power creep in that no card are really more powerful than Pentex Subversion, Dream of the Sphinx, or the classic dominate card (I.E. govern and Deflection).

you forgot to mention Minion Tap, which was made obsolete by Villein. it was such a huge jump in power that Villein needed errata to tone it down a notch.
nobody complained about Deep Song or Target Vitals making combat stronger, but Eyes of Argus is such an efficient card for auspex that it's very difficult to get past it with only light levels of stealth (any discipline besides obfuscate)


disciplines becoming less specialized might be alarming at first, but I think it hasn't been quite a major change in the game because toolbox decks are still the minority in competitive play. for example, No Trace giving Combat Ends to obfuscate sounds kah-razy, but I've rarely seen it played. turns out that it's relatively weak compared to Majesty or Form of Mist, which give strong bonus effects. Swallowed By The Night is often preferred over No Trace.

several disciplines got a splash of intercept added, but discipline-less intercept was always available -- Mr. Winthrop and KRCG to start, so VTES on a whole didn't change much. splashed stealth is less common, but I would argue that they're a response to defense becoming stronger in the game -- Eyes of Argus and On the Qui Vive adding power creep to wall decks.


anyway, I would say Deep Song does have one weakness: it only affects vampires, but ally decks have become more common over the years. it could be bad to rely entirely on this one card for rushes in an Animalism deck.

Minion Tap wasn't made obsolete. It's still the far better choice in about 10% of the decks out there.

it was definitely obsolete as long as it cost X extra pool due to random cross-table Villeins

Not any more. That's been changed as well.

So how is it nowadays? What were the steps they took to nerf it?

Villein only nerfs Minion Taps played by the same Methuselah. If you have a Villein, your Minion Taps cost +1 pool for each one. Minion Taps by other players aren't affected at all.