Retribution

About Retribution

Retribution, Master, designed by Steve Ellis first released in January 2005 in the set 2005 Tournament promo.

Retribution is most useful in defensive or toolbox decks that frequently suffer successful moderate bleeds and can capitalize on putting small or mid-capacity vampires into torpor—particularly combat, rush, or “punish the bleeder” strategies—but it is a weak form of bleed defense because it does not prevent the pool loss, requires the bleed to be for more than 1, and can be played only once per game. Archon Investigation is generally better against large bleeds because it can burn the acting minion outright when the bleed is for more than 4, while actual intercept, bleed redirection such as Deflection, or pool-protection cards are usually more reliable than either option; Retribution’s advantage is that it works against a bleed of only 2 or 3 and deals unpreventable damage, which can be decisive against weenie vampires. It should usually not see play in competitive decks unless your local metagame contains many successful moderate bleeds and your deck specifically benefits from damagin