I am now going to reiterate the now-so-famous it has my name attached to it James-Hamblin's-rant-against-cards-that-make-you-unable-to-play-the-game.
As people who have read my posts often enough know, I own substantial amounts of 3 card games: Magic, Jyhad, and Shadowfist. They know this because I often refer to them for design/game-play precedents/intuition. I don't really play Magic anymore. Why? Well, I got sick of all of the type-1 munchkin-weenies killing before I could breathe with cards I could never afford. Where 12-year olds get the money for Moxes, I'll never know... But, anyway. The out-of-print out-of-control way-too-powerful cards have the effect of leaving the other player out of the loop. One player has an immense advantage due to their having card that I do not. Even if my deck is a fun, well-designed deck, it will get trounced. 100%. For sure. Why? Counterspells. Discard. The other player prevents me from having any cards at all, and the ones I do manage to make are "unmade" at a far lower cost than I spent. So I do not get to play the game. I get to try, but it doesn't get me anywhere.
So, why do I still play Shadowfist? Shadowfist has counterspells. Shadowfist has discard. Because in Shadowfist, there are ways around those strategies. Suffice to say that someone can still be a slimeball, but it is not as aggravated as in Magic.
But this is not a newsgroup (or web archive) about other card games. This is about Jyhad. And this post is about "trump" cards. Cards which, like counterspells and discard in Magic, prevent the other player from playing the game. One such card is Thoughts Betrayed. One player plays it. The other player might as well go get a coke while his vampire gets killed, since he can't do a damn thing about it. "Well, I'm glad that you get to play this game. Let me know when you're finished preventing me from playing." I hate this card. I despise it. I think that it goes against any semblance of balance and fairness in the game.
I shudder to think of the following combo which can be easily pulled off by our good friend Ian Forrestal: Thoughts Betrayed, Apparition, Claws of the Dead. Look, I spent 4 blood, and you die. Hell, why not stick a couple Theft of Vitae in there while we're at it. Wouldn't want good ol' Ian having to lose any blood.
Before the publish of Ian, this combo would be unthinkable and hallaciously difficult to pull off. You'd need superior dominate, superior thau. if you wanted the theft of vitae, chimerstry and protean. But Ian has all of that built right in. But we're not talking about Ian (or are we...?)