Fourth Castle Mitternacht Preview: Vampires!

Not too many surprises with regard to the theme at this point probably

Continuing our previews, we have another installment of our story and a bunch of new cards to show off.

Check it out: http://www.cardhunter.com/2016/09/introducing-vampires/

Anything look exciting to play with? Comment below with whatever you want to put in your deck!

 

I love the vampire's kiss mechanic. Use it only when your enemy has already expended most of their cards. Just like how vampires normally operate, waiting until you are weak to strike. My only question is whether vampiric form is a vampire card, so this could actually turn your enemy (or friend) into one.

 

The Form cards are all included in their own Form decks, so yes, you can 'turn' characters... if you get lucky!

 

That is very very cool. If it weren't for the inquisition, I'd probably play 3 vampire priests straight away. (assuming that priest is the class that gets vampire transformations)

 

Good luck finding 3 Focused Vampirisms right off the bat!!

 

The Kiss looks nasty. Wouldn't it be more balanced to just attach Vampiric Form to the target? I'd be tempted to Kiss an ally, then Battlefield Training them an Ancient Grudge.

 

Oh, they are probably legendary, aren't they? Darn. Off to the inquisitive mob with me I guess. (Edit: Was the bat pun intended?)

 

You have much to learn about vampires, my friend.

 

If I were to guess, battlefield training is probably not a vampire card. (Edit: I see what you are suggesting now, but it would take all 3 party members and an exact combination of 3 presumably hard-to-get-cards to pull it off.)

 

Everything looks exciting. Vampire's Kiss seems really strong, especially as you heal two per point of damage, although it must be used at the right time.

Shifting Block looks like a fun card. I'm also excited to see the first item that you have revealed, Captain Teadora's Resolve, although it doesn't seem that good due to subtle parry.

Investigate and Vengeance both look to be very powerful hybrid cards, Vengeance in particular. The enemy will be afraid to hit you when you have Vengeance and if everyone in your team has Investigate, no matter who the enemy attacks two others will heal.

Looking forward to the preview of Spirit cards!

 

WET BLANKET TIME

I'm going to trust that the devs will carefully balance what we've seen with existing game content. I and many other long time players have enough gold socked away to buy multiple copies of the new legendary items (as I did with Citadel's warpers), but it takes a new player 6 months to a year+ of solid gameplay to get to that point. Nobody wants to see new players rise to 1000-1200 ELO and hit a solid wall of 1300+ players who are decked out with basically unattainable gear for a newbie.

I'm guessing that these expensive flair cards will have cheap, common counters?

 

We'll see how the balance plays out but you've seen a number of strong peasant cards in the previews already, some of which are counters to some of the rare cards. And there's more to come.

 

Mighty Bludgeon = gold
remove 9 damage and we have Bludgeon = paper

Vengeance = gold
remove 9 damage and we have SCA = silver
Ok, ok, actually SCA has some armor too on it I guess

It all looks cool!

 

I guess there will be different form figures for both genders, right?

 

Whoops, there I go making a post in the speculation thread when there was already a blog which already covered it. More neat lore here, nice to see that the lore works its way into the items. Also, loving the way the new figures look so far.

Vampire's Kiss looks interesting, especially since the card itself seems to be a Vampire card so careless use of the card could lead to one kiss leading to another until everyone's kissing each other. Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

So far it seems like the vampire card pool will have some of the better vampiric attacks, Swarm of Bats, Vampiric Form, Creature of the Night and Vampire's Kiss, seems like vampires are hard to take out. Will Sneaky Bloodsuck be a Vampire card? If Vampiric Form can let you draw Vampiric Form then a lucky draw means you could spend the entire game drawing nothing but Vampire cards. Either way it seems like it'll be fun to mess around with, both in MP and SP.

Since Werewolves get armor and Vampires get automatic regeneration, I'm guessing Spirits get free 2 teleportation at the start of each round. I'm also guessing these three forms will be the as of yet unrevealed class traits, and cool additions to the random Gene Boost pool.

Shifting Block joins the ranks of blocks that attach cards, and seems to be the first that attaches a positive card. It certainly makes Hit The Deck seem a lot worse. Wonder whether there'll be two or even three copies of the card on certain shields, it looks like fun to use.

Flaring Touch faces stiff competition from cards like Strong Hack, but maybe it's Bronze-, it can be hard to tell. Also more access to Burning for warriors and priests, and it even does direct Fire damage which is nice. The wording of the card is rather unusual, is it like that for the sake of interactions with cards like Lifesaving Block and Desperate Block?

Investigate looks really good, both mechanically and visually. Boost cards are generally pretty cool and good mobility paired with a lot of potential for healing without a required dice roll makes this a pretty stand-out card. I can see the card working well against the likes of burst, and it's not even Rare! I'm already getting ideas for a magnifying-glass themed staff with Burning cards and Investigate.

Vengeance looks really good as well, another hybrid boost which is always neat plus a powerful Keep effect without a dice roll. I really like the lore theme of these two cards of using adversity to fuel your path to revenge and how it's implemented by making them boost cards.

Looking forward to seeing just what Spirits are like!

 

It's so cool how vampiric form can be used to reroll bad cards on allies hands, very flexible

 

Actually the more subtle but important difference: when you hit someone with Mighty Bludgeon (i.e. to use the +9 damage) you don't sacrifice anything. To hit someone with Vengeance, you have to sacrifice a silver quality effect.

 

Nice art... Nic Cage to The max

 

Actually the funny wording is to prevent the burning damage from receiving the +5 as well.

The Form figures are actually all agender and aracial. (I.E. There is one of each.)

 

Genderlessness seems right for werewolf and spirit, but the vampire seems too male for me