Villein. The card causing all the chaos. It seems worth putting its text up here and telling you what I thought the card meant after taking it out from a booster.
Villein
Type: Master
Master: trifle.
Put this card on a vampire you control and move 2 or more blood from that vampire to your pool. Minion Tap cards cost an additional pool. Villein costs an additional pool to play on this vampire.
What I thought the text meant when I first read it...
Simple. Choose a vampire that has 2 or more blood. Put this card on the vampire and tell everyone how many (at least 2) blood you are siphoning back into your pool. If you play Minion Taps they will cost more (up front of resolution, like all card costs) and if you play another Villein on this vampire, it also costs more (up front of resolution, like all card costs).
What LSJ told me the text meant later...
Choose a vampire that has any amount of blood and put this card on the vampire. Tell everyone how much blood you are taking off (at least 2) and if they don't have enough then you take what they have. If you play Minion Taps they will cause you to get 1 less pool per Villein than you thought, you don't have to pay before you siphon off the blood just deduct it out as you put it into your pool.If you play another Villein on this vampire, just do the same thing as the Minion Tap.
Where I think things all went pear-shaped...
- Move = steal. This was basically the centre of the debate about Villein & 1-blood-on-the-vampire. You could play Villein because declaring you want to move 5+ blood off the minion doesn't change the fact that it only has 1. This is different to Minion Tap, you can't choose an 11-cap and choose to take 12 blood... why should Villein (which is clearly supposed to be functionally similar) work so differently? Does this also mean I can move equipment that isn't there...?
- Paying for Villein as part of the resolution. Why should this be the only card (well excluding Minion Tap) that is allowed to pay for its cost as part of resolving the card? Every other card requires that you pay for it before you resolve its effects. Use a Patronage on 1 pool? You're dead... so why should it be any different just because its Villein???
So the next big problem is its power. Villein is very powerful for a Trifle. Most trifles provide 1 blood (or 1 blood under conditions later) at most (The Coven being the only exception, Unique and travels around the table). The only other Trifle that directly provides pool is Failsafe, which gives you 4 pool if you are on 3 or less.
All in all, this convinces me that either:
a) Villein needs changing, or
b) Rulings on Villein need changing
I like the idea of limiting the amount of blood removed to 5 or 6, this would allow the card to still do its job (enable large cap vamps) without essentially making them free. Most people use Zillah's valley to get around the transfer limitations so that aspect is covered.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of resolution I agree that if a card costs a pool and you only have a pool then you should not be able to use the card without ousting yourself (regardless of the effects).
You wouldn't happen to have a link to the ruling that says Villein is paid on resolution, do you? AFAIK, all cards (or is it just Master cards) work this way:
ReplyDelete1. Check remaining pool against card cost. If pool is equal to cost, go to 2. If pool is greater than cost, go to 3. If pool is less than cost, go to 4.
2. If card effect gains you enough pool to stay in the game after paying for it, go to 3. Otherwise, go to 4.
3. You may play the card.
4. You cannot play the card.
(e.g. You can play Eternals of Sirius when you have exactly 4 pool to gain 5 pool, but not to get 5 blood on a high cap vamp in your uncontrolled region. You cannot play Eternals of Sirius at 3 pool)
IIRC the ruling is SPECIFICALLY for Villein and playing Minion Tap when Villeins are on the table. I will dig it up.
ReplyDelete500 years before the internet, Europe was changed forever by the printing press. Young and old of all classes and sexes hungered for literacy. Among the slaves called ‘villeins’ came widespread shock. Freed by the revelations of knowledge, people were outraged by tyrannies they had accepted for centuries.
ReplyDelete