How anyone besides Enkidu can do this in "real" life I don't know, but this is one combat card to reckon with if your minion can pull it off properly. This is that kind of combat card that can be pretty much the majority of a deck and solve the majority of your fighting issue with almost any other physical threat, and combine with what the POT discipline also provide, it makes a deadly combat indeed.
This card, like most of the duo-discipline card, is pretty pointless at SER only level. One blood for +1 STR, despite it not being a common thing that SER can do, is really too expensive and too cumbersome. But once you add in basic POT into the package, the card become quite fearsome.
For the cost of one blood, this vampire in combat now not only has a +1 STR, but can also prevent 1 damage, for EACH Typhonic Beast that he plays. Yes, multiple copies can be played, and their bonuses stack. So, if you play 2 Typhonic Beasts, your vampire will have +2 STR and can prevent 2 damage EACH round, making this vampire a deadly opponent without needing to play any other card.
When both disciplines reach the superior level, this card can now be the death of almost every non-combat ready deck. With a press for the round, assuming that the opposing vampire has no means to press to end, or hit harder than you can and torpor your vampire before you torpor his, he's going to suffer from a cycle of Typhonic Beast attacks. This is how it normally works - Round 1 you play 1 Typhonic Beast, hit him for 2 and usually absorbs the one damage, press to continue. Now play another Typhonic Beast before range at round 2, now hit him for 3, and absorb up to 2 damage, press to continue. Rinse and Repeat until he dies. This single card will and can be repeatedly used against every vampire that he has and is probably going to be effective against him again and again.
The number of Typhonic Beasts to use in the first round is usually the key. This decision is of course determined by your perception of the challenge faced by your minion - is the opposing deck going to strike hard? Is it going to have additional strikes? Is he likely to combat end and do you have anyway of stopping him from doing that? How many blood can this vampire afford to spend? You should play just enough to survive and then use the presses to continue combat and then play more Typhonic Beasts subsequently.
The main issue with this card is that, though it is reasonable powerful, it actually only works when supported by other cards. The good news is that those other cards are already normally very useful in this kind of deck.
Issue one is blood cost - though the opponent might not hurt you with his punches, you still deplete yourself with the Typhonic Beast blood cost, 1 every round. This is too expensive to keep up. There are several ways to deal with this - one, is to use Taste of Vitae to taste back the damage you deal to the opponent, and let it power your beast. You don't need to use Taste every round of course, that would be an overkill unless your vampire is short on blood. Another way is to use Path of Typhon if you're using Settites (which is the normal clan of choice for this card), and since Typhonic Beast is considered a SER card, it becomes free. You however, need to defend the Path since pretty much everyone will target it eventually.
Issue two is the means to get into combat. You can either build your deck as a bruise bleed deck, using the Settites' PRE bleed as a ousting tech and eventually force your prey to block and enter combat. On the other hand, having some enter combat cards such as Ambush or Bum's rush is always good.
Issue three is against specific combat type - specifically combat ends and FOR decks. Immortal Grapple from the POT discipline will solve the large majority of combat end cards, and it also provides a press at the superior level. As for FOR decks, just carry on combat until they run out of FOR cards.
The last issue is the lack of vampires that has the superior level of both disciplines. Though technically it is possible to use Master Discipline cards to augment that, but that is slow and cumbersome. Viable and cheap vampires with both disciplines are rare and hard to come by, the youngest I can find is 7-cap, Maskini and Bupe Kuila (both are excellent vampires by the way).
There are some cards that naturally add on to the might of this card, Path of Typhon being one of them, Immortal Grapple, any rush cards, Trap (who adds to the presses), Disarm and so on. But any deck that uses this card extensively will suffer from a very quick depletion of library, and eventually run out of steam after facing off two, or even just one prey.
Even moderate use of this card is a good deterrent to combat, hitting for 2 while preventing 1 damage every round is no joke, and even strong combat decks might have issues with that over several rounds.
(o.o)
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