Finally, the HttB is in the store and of course, I make haste and played Flurry of Action to rush to the store, get my hands on all those shiny (and to be honest, smelly) new HttB booster boxes and starters. (Actually, I did finish 2 games of Race of the Galaxy with my high school friends before going down to the store...)
The problem with buying too many of these is that it takes a whole lot of time just to get the cards out from the wrappers and categorize them properly. Without that done I cannot go about looking at these new cards and ponder how much impact they would have on my existing decks, the meta game, and how many new packs of sleeves I need to get for all the new decks that I'd undoubtedly build.
So here I was, for the past 2 nights, burning midnight oil until I have successfully (for the time being), taken out the cards from all my starters, and 2 boxes of boosters, categorized and sorted them out in alphabetical orders and put them nicely into my card boxes, AND weeded out all those extra pieces of cardboard and stuck them into a paper bag ready to throw them into the communal pool on Tuesday.
Here's my first impression of the set.
Without a doubt this set will change the meta game and many of the way we play our decks very much. Already G1's !Salubri deck had been dominating any table he's on for a while, and this set will improve the efficiency of its deadliness. The Bloodlines decks in our environment had been lacking most of the time, with the exception of the Kiasyds, we don't normally see many of them on the table. HttB, will definitely change that.
The first thing about this set is that the starters are not meant for beginners, and to be honest, is quite beginner unfriendly. Unlike the KOT starters, HttB utilizes 2 clans in each starter, giving the Sabbat 2 starters, and the Camarilla 2. The starters themselves are pretty toolbox, with path of ousting that are not as clear cut as those of the KOT. So for new players who aren't familiar with the intricacies of Vtes, HttB is definitely not the right set to start with.
The starters gave us an array of new arts on some old cards, most of them are refreshing and I immediately went about switching out some of them - primarily the 3rd Edition cards (Gone with the Wind these are). The Sport Bikes, Antidiluvian Awakening, The Hunting Grounds, Guardian Angels, The Barrens, and even the Wake with Evening Freshness are all very nicely done. (I like Lost in Crowds too) There are some of those new art that I didn't like too, such as Governed the Unaligned, Depravity, and to a certain degree, the Neo Deflections. Fae Contortion's card backing is now the correct one.
The value of the starters are good, with Villein championing the value of the starters, and the standard package of Vessels, making most of the starters well worth the cost of it. Many cards that were previously difficult or expensive to get are included in the starters as well, consistent with White Wolf's policy. Most notably are the Target Vitals, Dreams of the Sphinx, Blanket of Night and some of the older Bloodline cards (Blissful Agony, Hag's Wrinkles, Hatchlings,). If you look closely you can see though that the starters are excellent for pre-con starter seal. The decks are all quite consistent in theme and playstyle, though a little on the complex side, it is an absolute dream for more experienced players.
The booster packs are, well, glossy and shiny. Not exactly my kind of packs, but hey, who cares about the packs anyway! The card distribution is still under analysis since I have quite a few more boxes to open before I get a better picture, but after 2 boxes I find that the rares are, quite rare, and I hardly have 2 copies of any one rare. The more sorted after rare cards are definitely not going to be easy to get - Summon History, Harmony, Hungry Moon, The Rising, and a myriad assortment of other cards are pretty difficult to get. (I did get 2 Bliss...)
The cards have a kind of smell that I have not encountered in the earlier editions, I hope they go away after a while.
The Bloodlines are getting quite a boost from this expansion, most of the Bloodlines do get new toys to work with, many of the them had enhancement to their current strength, and some developed new tricks to perform. Almost all of them are viable working clans now.
First, despite all the fear and speculations, we did get quite a couple of Group 4 and 5 Bloodline vampires to add to the crypt of the existing Group 4s. There are Group 6s in this set, but I haven't yet sit down to look at them properly to figure out their viability, but the Group 4s and 5s have added IMHO enough depth to many of the clans (notably Kiasyds and the Daughters) to make their crypt selection on par with their Group 2 counterparts.
Many new cards for the Bloodlines disciplines are quite deadly, and opens up new routes and new plans, and therefore new decks. Take the Daughters for example, their Choir strategy is now boosted with added block denial cards (Siren's Lure is not longer the only way!) and the mighty Harmony.
The Baali, new Infernal Sub-Disciplines, and the Research Area tech will need more time to see if they actually works.
All in all a great expansion that will definitely has much more to offer as we all look deeply into the cards and spend all our hard-earned disposable income on the shiny packs.
(o.o)
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