At Your Disposal : House of Sorrow

This promo card for KoT is probably one of the more "interesting" ones as its use is not immediately apparent. As with all cards that requires an "interaction" with other cards in play, this card is potentially either a completely useless piece of crap, or a gem waiting to exploit any weakness in the card design. It also brought great delight to players (like me) who likes to explore its possibilities and hopefully make it into the most expensive card Vtes has ever seen so that one can make a fortune by hoarding it and selling on ebay.

Ya, I can always dream.

Nevertheless, this card, in its simplest form, is a speed card. It allows you to use a card twice in a round at the cost of not able to use it in your next. That is to say, the House of Sorrow is an "alternate round" card, since it not only denied you the untap of the card you used it on, itself is also deprived of an untap. Quite sad, yes, or it will be so broken.

What is the speed thing one may ask, you still get to use that same card twice in 2 rounds anyway, so what's the big deal in rushing? Well, sometimes, you don't get to the next round, and sometimes, you really wanted that extra "omf" so that your prey doesn't get his next round - which is what the House of Sorrow is giving you - an option that might come in handy as long as you have cards that suffers from "tap to use".

Let's look at the few possibilities here. The most common cards that you almost always tap during every round when your deck is working correctly are Master Locations that either add Stealth, or Intercepts, or Votes. For example, the KRCG News Radio gives you +1 Intercept, wouldn't it be nice if it is able to do it twice - I'm not sure if the same minion is able to receive such bonuses twice, but it is good enough that it can provide that Intercept to 2 minions in a single round, potentially a life-saver. It is even more so for cards that add Stealth, say, Elysian Fields - this will give you the chance to push through certain actions, or equip certain cards that you just need to get as soon as possible - KRCs, especially Crusades and Praxis Seizures comes to mind - which will also benefit from Vote-adding cards - I'm sure that the Daughters will appreciate the double use of the Opera Houses - imagine what 2 consecutive Consanguinous Boon will do to a Daughter horde in distress.

Another issue with needing to use the card in the turn twice rather than the next, are cards that will lose it's potency over time, or is reliant on the current condition. For example, Carver's Meat Packaging and Storage. If you've put a few hostages on the table, and is expecting people to get rid of the counters, might as well use that blood transfer twice rather than lose that few counters next turn.

But these should be the "least I can do" use with the House of Sorrow, or its 1 pool cost might not be justified. Let's look at a few other kinds of uses that it might have.

The House of Sorrow will be extremely handy for "floating" cards - cards that go to other Methuselah's control after your round - for example, The Coven. Cards like these usually give good bonus/effects to you, but go away after the current round, and usually ends up in another player's hands. (Prey or Predator) Take The Coven for example - you can tap it to give 2 blood to your Vampire, and then the card goes to your predator. Now, with the House of Sorrow, guess what? You get to use it twice, gets 4 blood instead of 2 before it goes to your predator. Now I'm not too clear about the "does not untap during your next untap phase" - does it mean that the predator will not get the use of The Coven because it has not yet passed my untap phase? But that aside, it is good enough that you get more bucks out of the cards like these. There are probably other cards with this problem, Admonitions, Esgrima etc, one needs to go dig a little for it.

But this will probably not win you any games directly, so let's look at another range of cards that might benefit even more from the House of Sorrow. Restrictive untap cards are cards that will truly shine with the House of Sorrow. Granted, these cards can still only be used during alternate rounds while the House of Sorrow slowly untaps, but at least it is more useful now. Take for example, Corporal Reservoir, the House of Sorrow basically remove the blood cost to untap, and make it into a alternate-round prevent 1 damage card. It is even more useful with Bleeding the Vine, now that the card can be untapped anytime to become an on-board Sudden Reversal. This is definitely worth the 1 pool cost of the House of Sorrow.

But what of cards that are time-sensitive and with great powers that was balanced by presenting an oppotunity for your opponent to get rid of it before it is ready to unleash its fury to your enemies? Give Gather a good look and tell me the House of Sorrow isn't just built for Gangrels.

And let's not underestimate the power of psychology. When the House is untapped and you have other cards in play, it makes countering whatever your actions are just that bit more difficult - is he going to have another Intercept or blood from Anarch Free Press? Another Stealth from Backways? Can he out-vote me with 2 Ventrue Headquarters? What is the potential of 2 Ambulance actions? etc etc. On the other hand, it gives you quite a bit of options. I think that even if you leave your House of Sorrow untapped throughout the game until you use it once to give you a VP, it is worth that 1 pool. Of course, you need to have other cards for the House to work on, or it'll really be a sad piece of wallpaper.

(o.o)y