At Your Disposal : Coma

All who has ever went up against any Malkavian or !Malkavian bleed decks (or bleed decks that make extensive use of DEM) knows that they have 4 common combat defense (there are others (like AUS defense or Gemini Mirrors) but those would be rare) - the "Take it!" defense, Disguised Weapons, OBF combat with No Trace, and the deadliest of all - Coma.

I can't recall how many times I've refrained from attacking my Malkavian prey's minions with my combat monster simply because they have 3 blood on one of the vampires - an indicator of the potency of Coma.

Of course, Coma has a lot of problems - for a start, it costs 3 blood, and there are no Paths or easy means for Malkavians to reduce that blood cost. A very simple way to spot if the Methuselah is holding any Coma in hand would be to look at if any of his vampires have at least 3 blood on it. It's not fool-proof, but if there are no vampires with 3 blood or more, it is usually a good time to go spill some Malkavian vitae.

Other standard combat mechanics also trump Coma - Immortal Grapple and all other cards that restrict strikes, such as Death Seeker, Thoughts Betrayed etc., would also make Coma useless; however, this is irrelevant since decks that used these cards are generally able to handle most combat defense anyway, so it doesn't actually make Coma look any less useful than say, Majesty. Moreover, maneuvers are not necessarily difficult for Malkavians unless they're facing high movement decks such as CEL or Flight combat.

So that narrows the Coma to 2 major disadvantages, its cost, and the fact that it has absolutely no use against allies.

You see, though Coma will send any vampire to torpor directly, trumping most other combat mechanics against damage, it is a total blood sink for the user, and if dodged, or combat ended, would have equate to a strength 3 hit from the opposing vampire, not to mention any other damage that the opponent would be causing, contributing to the demise of the vampire. Even if Coma was successful, it is often a "let's go down together" last resort.

It is still, a fearsome deterrent.

The good thing is that, Malkavians are rarely the initiator of any combat (and almost never with Coma in mind), therefore, minus the deadly Deep Song, the Malkavian in combat would probably be the reacting vampire, giving him the option to choose what to do after the enemy decided on his strikes. This greatly increased the success rate of Coma.

But there are some exception to this - beware the CEL + DEM vampires - mostly Toreadors and Malkavians and their Sabbat counterparts. Once Coma is used with CEL additional strikes, it become almost like Entombment plus Arms of the Abyss combo. Moreover, if you can afford the blood, Shadow Feint will be an excellent card to work with Coma.

(o.o)