The House Of Sorrow

The House Of Sorrow
by Ethel Clifford - 1903

In the doorway of the House of Sorrow
  I stand, and Sorrow sits within.
Through the window of the House of Sorrow
  A measure from without came drifting in.

Like a strong beam of the sun, that through the window
  Points to a thing unseen, the song came in;
And, listening, I stole out, and in the doorway
  I stand, and Sorrow sits within.

In the doorway of the House of Sorrow
  I stand, and like one blind, I lift my face
And listen, and I hear the steps of Sorrow
  Who comes to seek me from the darkened place.

Like a child half-awakened, in the doorway
  I stand and listen, and I hear the rain
And, from behind, the swift, sure steps of Sorrow—
  O thou without, wilt thou not sing again?

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First off, let me tell you that I take a bit of glee that anyone who Google searches for 'House of Sorrow' has a chance of coming to my analysis of this vampire card as opposed to the poem up above. But I like flavour for my posts so I started with this.

Let's start with the Card Text:

House of Sorrow
Master  
1 pool      
Master: Unique location. Tap to untap any card you control that is not a minion. If you do so, neither that card nor this location untap as normal on your next untap phase.

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Why am I writing a Blog about this card?
Ever since this card came out, and people 'talk shop' about vtes. I heard that this is an interesting card to play... but with the exception of "Gather decks", I actually never see it in decks. It has the potential to double the output of any non-minion card, at the expense of not being able to use it the next turn.

The Good:
Excellent for lunge.
Throws the math off by doubling an effect

The Bad:
Can't use it or the affected card the following turn
Takes a master card slot

So why isn't it used? I'm going to make the assumption that most people feel that it is not worth the master card slot. So we are going to try an analyze what kind of decks it IS worth the card slot, and why.

We have to start with some generalizations here:
- Assume about 15-17 masters (dependent on trifles).
- A good portion of the master have to have a tap effect. This can be supplemented by other non-minion cards that have a tapping effect.
- The decks portion of pool gain should not come from masters, because that will take slots from the "tap masters" mentioned before.

I did some searches of cards that can be used with House of Sorrow and they are many!
So the first thing I did was look at clan cards, because non-clan cards can be shared by any clan. Here are the numbers:

Tap ability that House of Sorrow can affect
The number in ( ) is the 'real' number.

Clans:
Ahrimane - 0
Akunanse - 1
Assamite - 3
Baali - 0
Blood Brother - 0
Brujah - 2
Bruajah Antitribu - 2
Caitiff - 0
Daughters of Cacophony - 2 (3) [Bastille Opera House
]
Followers of Set - 4 (3) [Grand Temple of Set]
Gangrel - 3
Gangrel Antitribu - 1
Gargoyle - 0
Giovanni - 3
Guruhi - 0
Harbingers of Skulls - 3
Ishtarri - 1
Kiasyd - 0
Lasombra - 3
Malkavian - 1
Malkavian Antitribu - 0
Nagaraja - 0
Nosferatu - 5
Nosferatu Antitribu - 4 (3) [Steam Tunnels]
Osebo - 0
Pander - 1
Ravnos - 3
Salubri - 0
Salubri Antiribu - 0
Samedi - 0
Toreador - 2
Toreador Antitribu - 0
Tremere - 3 (2) [Wasserschloss Anif, Austria]
Tremere Antitribu - 1
True Brujah - 0
Tzimisce - 0
Ventrue - 3
ventrue Antitribu - 1
Imbued - 4*

*Imbued powers tap when used... you can't do some because of NRA but you can do the following 9 cards:
Abjure
Champion
Discern
Foresee
Hide
Project
PunishSurge
Vigilance

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Now as the 'math' shows - Imbued wins by a long shot on cards that House of Sorrows can be used. But I'm not feeling an Imbued deck at the moment.

Instead, I'm going to take the second "winner" - i.e. Nosferatu and make a version of the TempleCon 2013 Champion deck by my NYC buddy Kymia Alishahi. Now I've playing against this deck dozens of times and I'm very pleased that it won - (even though it beat me in the finals!) and I'm not even going to say that the deck below is better. All that I say that it will 'use-and-abuse' House of Sorrows, thus increasing lunge potential and 'throw off the math' of opponents.


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Deck Name:   Sorrowful Robin
Created By:  Adam Hulse
Description: Based on (what i guess) my buddies Kym's deck is, I never actually saw the decklist.
I have to sacrifice Sudden Reversals for House of Sorrows, but Bleeding the Vine is there now.
Monestary of Shadows and Helicopter will probably get tossed if you have any serious type of predator
and probably out of the deck all together, but it fits theme of this blog.


Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 18, Max: 40, Avg: 7.58)
----------------------------------------------
  2  Clarissa Steinburgen               ani obf        3  Nosferatu
  2  Alonzo Guillen                     ani for OBF pot6  Nosferatu
  2  Shahid                             ani for pro OBF POT7  Nosferatu
  1  Baron Dieudonne                    ANI OBF POT PRO9  Nosferatu
  5  Cock Robin                         ANI aus for OBF POT10 Nosferatu

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (22 cards)
  2  Warsaw Station
  1  Storm Sewers
  1  Spawning Pool, The
  1  Labyrinth, The
  3  Dreams of the Sphinx
  3  House of Sorrow
  6  Villein
  1  Giant`s Blood
  1  Pentex Subversion
  1  Bleeding the Vine
  1  Fame
  1  Monastery of Shadows

Action (18 cards)
  1  SchreckNET
  1  Aranthebes, The Immortal
  3  Preternatural Strength
  1  Heroic Might
  12 Deep Song

Action Modifier (14 cards)
  3  Enkil Cog
  5  Freak Drive
  3  Faceless Night
  3  Lost in Crowds

Political Action (3 cards)
  3  Parity Shift

Reaction (14 cards)
  2  Lost in Translation
  6  Second Tradition: Domain, The
  6  Sense the Savage Way

Combat (11 cards)
  4  Hidden Strength
  6  Immortal Grapple
  1  Disarm

Equipment (1 cards)
  1  Helicopter

Event (2 cards)
  2  Scourge of the Enochians

Combo (5 cards)
  5  Swallowed by the Night


CONCLUSION

So, as we can see, House of Sorrow's is a very interesting card. A lot of the cards in the above deck are good and House of Sorrow is not necessary. But if you draw it, the possibilities are quite strong!
I hope that everyone enjoys this entry to my blog. It's an interesting card and I hope to hear others ideas and thoughts on it.

Adam