by oddbod
I haven't actually played a game with them yet, but after looking through the avatars, some of them seem to have a much better bonus to penalty ratio than others.For example, Vampire Overlord "Manipulate the Foul" gets to damage enemy minions when claiming vamps or ghouls, and his penalty is that if he plays any hunters or lycans they come into play with one less health.
This seems like a pretty good deal unless you choose him when there is a real shortage of vamps & ghouls in the archives.
Compare this to Voodoo Houngan "Speak with the Blood", where claimed ghouls and vamps go directly into play with only 1 health. This is the supposed bonus, but it seems very weak to me. First, you miss any potential chain effect from these minions, and second, they never have more than one health, making them easy pickings for someone like the above overlord. Getting them straight into play can definitely be an advantage, but it doesn't seem like it would be worth it, especially since you don't even get a choice.
And then his penalty causes two damage to your friendly minions if you claim a hunter or lycan! So of course you're never going to want to grab either of those types. I can't imagine ever choosing this guy, so maybe I'm missing a strategy.
Another question I have is regarding the Vampire Overlord "Manipulate the Feral". Based on the text and the order of phases this confuses me: when you attack with a ghoul or hunter you lose 2 influence (to a min of 1).
Does this loss carry over as a negative until your final influence calculation? The rules for the Claim Phase say "you start each of your turns with two influence". So if you attack with two hunters during your combat phase, this starting two would be reduced to one. Then, during your claim phase you could discard cards to regain the lost influence and more.
This seems to follow the strict letter of the law, but it also seems to go against the point of the penalty, because it may as well just say "if you attack with a ghoul or hunter, lose one influence."
Instead it seems like maybe the loss is supposed to carry over, as in, you attack with two hunters and now you have a "debt of 4 influence" that you must now pay if you want to end up with more than one influence to spend. So in your claim phase, you'd start with two, and then you could discard no cards and end up with one to spend, or you could discard four cards and end up with two to spend. But there's be no in-between.