Barrenness

About Barrenness

Barrenness, Action, designed by Veronica Jones first released in February 2010 in the set Heirs to the Blood.

Barrenness is most useful in a dedicated Maleficia or toolbox deck that can repeatedly make stealth actions and wants a free unlock effect, particularly one trying to punish decks relying on capacity-1 utility vampires; however, placing it on a vampire permanently reduces that vampire’s capacity by 2 and makes it sterile, so the inferior effect is usually too costly unless the target is disposable or already near retirement. The superior effect can burn any capacity-1 vampire, but requiring a successful action makes it narrower than broadly useful removal such as **Banishment** for temporary displacement or **Graverobbing** and other theft/removal options when your deck supports them. Barrenness is a clever niche card and may be reasonable as a one-of in a Maleficia-heavy stealth toolbox, but it should generally not see play in a normal constructed deck because the permanent drawback and narrow superior target do not justify a card slot.