At Your Disposal : Ossian

One of the most valuable card that you can get in KMW is the werewolf ally Ossian. In a way he is probably also the most valuable generic werewolf ally anyone can ask for, effective in most decks, for both defensive and offensive purpose, and a darn killer machine in a draft environment. I can think of very few other allies in Vtes that offers the same value-added services to your deck.

Of course, being an ally Ossian suffers from all the standard problems that an ally card does, for example, Entrancement or Entombment. But for 3 pool Ossian offers the kind of service that it is rather difficult for one not to overlook those little problems.

Even for a deck that usually does absolutely nothing in a combat environment, Ossian is a good surprise card to insert. He is deadly in combat, having 2 Strength and 4 Life he can easily get rid of smaller Vampires that are not ready for combat. His enter combat ability is excellent, especially in a defensive role. His +1 stealth for this action is going to demand Intercept just to block it, so Ossian can conduct surgical attacks that most other "enter combat" allies could not. Moreover, if the opponent even dared to use AUS cards for the Intercept to block Ossian, he couldn't maneuver or strike in the first round (I bet many Ossian-owners forgot about this one) and has to take the 2 STR attack from Ossian.

Ossian's other incredible ability is the in-built "Taste of Vitae" ability, and technically you can have a ridiculously life-rich Ossian after a few successful attacks (Ossian is pure nightmare for Selena) Do remember that the "Taste" ability for Ossian is not restricted to his hand strikes (which is deadly enough) but applies to his damage. So a Target Vital-ed Ossian strike is so going to hurt, and I've seen an Ossian going around with an AK-47 before and that was a sight to behold. (That Ossian ran out of life counters to add to his card after a while)

Ossian's sole disadvantage is rarely an issue. He isn't that concerned about getting into combat so the Red List thing is just fluff for him most of the time. (He does attract all those werewolves when he's in town after all). In a deck that supports allies (like werewolf decks) he is even more deadly - for example, put him on a bike, give him goggles, Unmask him or even a flak jacket and chances are you'll have a werewolf guarding your doors and using your prey's Vampires as snacks pretty much the whole game.

Of course, at the end of the day Ossian is just a 4 Life ally who can be thwarted pretty easily with most combat packages, especially if your deck has no support for him. High damage strikes will wear him down eventually (but he could go after somebody else to get those life back), anti-ally cards will kill him, damage prevention is a major headache, maneuvers will just mess up his momentum, and guns are very bad for werewolf's health insurance premium. Don't forget that recruiting him is an action too, and pretty much any prey/predator who has some intercept will try to block that, so you better have some extra stealth to bring him to table.

But once Ossian is there, he's usually one hell of an efficient package for the investment of 3 pool.

(o.o)