Submission: Spectral Servant

Masquer (Wraith) sucks. Can we make a good version? SHOULD WE?

Name: Spectral Servant
Type:
Requirements:
Cost: 1
Text:
Wraith with 1 life.
: Servant is immune to damage that is not aggravated. The minion with this retainer gets +1 intercept. Once each action, you may burn a life from this retainer to: give a minion you control +1 intercept; give a Harbinger of Skulls +1 stealth; give a Samedi +1 bleed; or give a Nagaraja +1 intercept +2 blood when hunting.
: As above, but with 2 life.

Flavor Text: None

Art Notes: A butler spirit, OBVIOUSLY

WoD Reference: Masquer (Wraith)

Created By: John McGlynn

Compelling Game Need: Supports a Harbinger of Skulls intercept-wall style of deck, and grants cool bonuses to non-Giovanni clans who could really use the help.

To compare Masquer with Mr Winthrop, it's very expensive. Two blood plus Necromancy should buy a lot more than not being unique and ignoring non-agg damage.

Mr. Winthrop
Retainer
Unique mortal with 1 life.
The minion with this retainer gets +1 intercept.

Masquer (Wraith)
Retainer
Necromancy
[2 Blood]
Wraith with 1 life.
[nec] Masquer is immune to damage that is not aggravated. The minion with this retainer gets +1 intercept. You may burn this retainer to give any minion +1 intercept.
[NEC] As above, with 2 life.

I like this suggested fix. I also really like the card's bonuses for multiple bloodlines. An extra life for NEC feels a little disappointing though, as essentially the bloodline specials would only be usable once or twice. Would "During your untap, the employing minion may burn one blood for Servant to gain one life" be worth considering?

Dorrinal wrote: Once each action, you may burn a life from this retainer to: give a minion you control +1 intercept; give a Harbinger of Skulls +1 stealth; give a Samedi +1 bleed; or give a Nagaraja +1 intercept.

The Nagaraja boost doesn't seem very boosty, except in the rare circumstance where you want to give someone else's Nagaraja +1 intercept which... doesn't seem very boosty.

Intentional?

Thanks James. It is not intentional - ran out of ideas. How about: +1/+2 blood when hunting? The bonuses can also be swapped around; I chose what I felt were most appropriate for the clans.

Updated card list.

Note that the burn-life effect is limited to once per action per retainer. You can use Necromancy weenies to "bank" extra intercept, stealth, bleed, whatever for a future turn, while you get to use it as a Raven Spy.

...is raven spy under powered?

Dorrinal wrote: Note that the burn-life effect is limited to once per action per retainer. You can use Necromancy weenies to "bank" extra intercept, stealth, bleed, whatever for a future turn, while you get to use it as a Raven Spy.

...is raven spy under powered?

No, but I wouldn't really use that as my yardstick. At least, not in isolation.

Animalism actually has quite a lot of usable intercept in it these days, whereas Necromancy doesn't so much. Eyes of the Dead and Masquer are both just pretty terrible. Friend of Mine requires anarchy which isn't especially friendly to Necromancers - Gear Up isn't great, and Keystone Kine has potential but not really for the Necromancy level unless you can also get Obfuscate probably. Divine Sign isn't totally unplayable, but it's a bit niche - getting intercept against specific minions is always a bit annoying. Leaving you mostly with Spectral Divination, which is quite decent.

Animalism gets you Cats' Guidance (very good), Sense the Savage Way (capacity restriction, but good), Speak with Spirits fallback level (not entirely terrible to scatter two or three into a deck to stack with other intercept, given bleed is very common), Raptor (expensive but does make appearances because of the negative hand size), Instinctive Reaction (somewhat like Speak with Spirits, in that it's not bad to stack with other options), Falcon's Eye fallback (potentially expensive, but general intercept isn't bad). So you have options.


Then, weenie+mono-Animalism is a thing. A very good thing. Animalism comes with:
- Aid from Bats
- Carrion Crows
- Terror Frenzy (use sparingly to shut down guns, amongst other things)

Weenie+mono Necromancy isn't anywhere near as exciting in terms of what it can do, and the crypt construction is more annoying. Taking group 2-3, for example, there are 44 vampires with ani/ANI who are 5 cap and less, Necromancy has 13. And while you might be thinking "Yeah, but Necromancy has loads of Potence along with it so we can intercept and beat the shit out of them", only 5 of the 13 vampires do. Plus your only real option for "maneuvering" in Necromancy comes from Cold Aura, which costs blood - not awesome for weenies who are looking to smack you at close range, as they become closer to being torporized by unexpected hitback. There's always Blight, I guess, which I feel is underpowered but not unusable.

If you do the same in 4-5 with 5 or less capacity, you get 47 vampires with Animalism, 16 with Necromancy (but all but three of them are 4 or 5 cap), and 6 with Nec+Pot.


Tl;dr: I don't think the ramifications of stacking intercept with Nec weenies are really comparable with the Animalism equivalent.