In Vtes, the Methuselahs do not directly involve themselves (most of the time) in the petty bickering of the Jyhad, but instead influence the younger Vampires and other mortal (or otherwise) allies to fight and bargain on their behalf. In the game, the minions are the fellows that are directly contributing to your offense and defense, and is without a doubt, one of the most important asset for any deck. The value of the minions, in every turn, is thus the actions that they can take, or the potential of defensive measures that they can perform. Most of the time minions can only do 1 thing, that is, tap to take 1 action, or tap to block once. Because of this, the ability to untap besides the standard untap phase equates more actions, and more defense, and therefore, more value.
Since the vast majority of the minions in play do not have an untap again ability (those who has, are either limited to certain actions, like Cock Robin, Lambach or Enkidu; using the untap on other minions, such as Angela Preston, or limited to either defense or offense, and many of these valuable minions become the center of themed decks), cards that provide an untap become a valuable addition to any decks. Afterall, more untaps equate more actions, either from the option of doing something again during your minion phase, or the assurance that your minion is ready to defend if your enemy attacks, which frees him up to take an action during your current minion phase.
The most valuable untap cards are usually those useable in your minion phase, such as the invaluable Freak Drive, and the lesser Forced March. These cards usually allow your minion to untap after taking an action, sometimes requiring the action to succeed, and some cost blood to play. But they are all very useful cards which allow multiple actions in the same minion phase. Please also note that most actions cannot be taken twice in a phase, so your minion cannot keep on bleeding. But with the right cards, your minion can take multiple actions continously and potentially decimate your opponent. One good example is Dan's fully tooled up Tariq with his Ghoul Retainer and weapons. You see Tariq doing Ambush, Bum's Rush, Nose of the Hound and enter combat with his own ability in ONE single round, usually taking out 4 minions at 1 go. This is extremely taxing on the defensive resources of the opponent - most of the time they can only block so many, and eventually their defense will give way.
Some untap cards are very specific - Hag's Wrinkles for example, only allows an untap after an equip action. These cards, however, are still a staple to decks which does those thing, and are still valuable nevertheless. The simple addition to "untap at the end of the turn" to a card elevates its status - the Baseball Bat is the prime example of this, as it is now one of the better melee weapons in the game.
Untap cards are quite discipline-oriented, and without FORTITUDE or the other more exotic disciplines such as VALEREN, one's minions usually do not have the tools of untaps at his disposal. But wake cards - which is a subset of untaps, are available to pretty much everyone. On the Qui Vive, Forced Awakening, Wake with Evening's Freshness and other less commonly seen wake cards allow your Vampires to either untap to block, or bestow the ability to block or play reaction cards as if untapped.
These cards are very important to most decks. Since your minions should be spending your minion phase bleeding your prey, or otherwise doing practical stuffs which contribute to your collection of VPs; therefore they should be tapped after working hard to achieve your ends. But when the enemies attack, the wake cards will be the key to call your minions back into action to deal with the invasion. Discipline-less wake cards such as Forced Awakening can be used by any Vampires, but they usually have different weaknesses or drawbacks, for example, Forced Awakening causes your Vampires to lose 1 blood if it fails the block (or not blocking) and is not the right card to use if you only intend to deflect or TC. Disciplined cards are, well, disciplined, and requires the right discipline to activate, and hence are not available to everyone.
These defensive wake cards give you an action to defend yourself, in a way, it is also an extra action. There are many things that your opponents might want to do that will directly or indirectly affect your status in the game, and the wake cards allow you the luxury of both doing your things and having some means to defend.
The number of wake cards to include relies completely on your deck structure. If your deck has access to powerful defence and combat, then waking to defend yourself should be high in your priority - in this case, even 12-16 assorted wake cards is alright. A more typical defense usually see about 4-8 wakes for light defense; sometimes a single wake card can create the illusory threat that your deck is capable of reacting to something. Of course, there are decks which are not concerned about defence - most stealth bleeders are like that, and therefore, wakes are completely unnecessary in those decks. When you're planning wake cards, remember that it is no point waking your minion if you don't have the resources to defend - no intercepts, no combats etc, is just going to waste your minions' effort to wake up. Therefore, in most cases, wakes are usually accompanied by intercept cards, bounces or other exotic defensive measures. (Peacemaker is really cute)(o.o)y
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