At Your Disposal : Ambulance

I remember you Ambulance, was quite a card during LotN, and I was usually quite happy when you appear in the booster pack, I remembered that the Ambulance cost something around $8 or so. However, after a while, it seems that Ambulance is almost nowhere to be seen, and very few decks in my community actually utilise its powers.

Well, afterall, what would Ambulance know about vampires anyway.

Granted, this card is powerful in its own way, especially in a deck that is well constructed to take advantage of it. The Aching Beauty deck quickly comes to mind - again, blocking is already a bad thing against an Aching Beauty, and if the opponent slap an Ambulance on Anson you really won't bother much. The problem of course then, is that the Ambulance is too effective in deterring the enemy from blocking, which forfeits the whole purpose of Aching Beauty. That said, free bleeds are always good.

Ambulance can also feature in stealth heavy decks - you see, heavy stealth decks with star vampires (Daughters or Trujah) should always consider an Ambulance. For starters, it is not easy to block a high-stealth vampire, and that the opponent knows that blocking once isn't enough will really make him think twice about even attempt to block, especially if you have other minions waiting to act. In this sense, the Ambulance is a great distraction for the enemy - forcing him to decide whether to commit to block somebody whom he knows will require a second attempt, or save his reacting opportunity to try against another more realistic attack - this will then provide you the leverage to do what you need to do by always using the Ambulance vampire first, often without the need to commit too much of your stealth resources, or even bluff your way through.

Secondly, if you use cards like Majesty in combat, Ambulance is as good as a multi-action card if the opponent blocks you, giving the vampire in question the option to do something more, or just be ready for defence - and in this case, still having the original action gone through to a second phase. This is again, a great deterrent to the opponent if he sees you pulled it off a couple of time.

IMHO I believed that the Ambulance is used more as a distraction than an actual bypass card, providing an option of strategy that its simple text hid. The opponent also often give away hints at blocking minions with Ambulance - he probably has the means to block your Ambulance twice if he commits a blocker despite knowing you can still try a second time with an Ambulance - in such cases, well, depends on whether you think he is bluffing, and whether or not you hold enough stealth resource to push through during your second try.

Cards like Blind Spot and Seduction works superbly with Ambulance, reducing the option on blockers that the opponent have to thwart your actions. It is a great deterrent, and truly useful in discouraging your opponent in blocking you.

Of course, if you face a Magaji No Secrets then the Ambulance is absolutely pointless.

Oh ya, it burns Imbued too.

(o.o)