Vampire
| Vampire | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Night - Attack - Doom |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Nocturne |
| Illustrator(s) | Martin Hoffmann |
| Card text | |
|
Each other player receives the next Hex. Gain a card costing up to | |
Vampire is a Night-Attack-Doom card from Nocturne. It's a gainer that also Hexes your opponents and then turns into a Bat when played. This means you can usually play your Vampire only once every two reshuffles, since you have to play your Bat in order to turn it back into a Vampire.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- Follow the instructions in order.
- If the Bat pile is empty, you will be unable to exchange Vampire for a Bat, but will do the rest.
- The Bat is put into your discard pile.
Other rules clarifications
Strategy
Vampire offers a moderately strong gaining ability augmented by an Attack component of variable impact; it alternates on each play with a useful trasher in the form of Bat. This set of functionalities makes the pair of cards important in most Kingdoms, and sometimes highly centralising.
Vampire is often a good choice the first time you can afford , especially if you have a /
split in the opening, for several reasons. First, it jump-starts your payload by allowing you to gain more cards easily. Second, especially if alternative trashing is lacking, getting a Bat into your deck as soon as possible will be a high priority to help with thinning. The early Hex is less likely to be important, but occasionally it can significantly hurt an opponent: for instance, if War or Locusts trashes one of their opening purchases, this can set back their progress considerably. Infrequently, using Vampire for an early gain and thinning can be too slow, as the card gained and the Bat probably can’t be played until your second reshuffle. This is most likely to be the case when there’s a particular card (e.g. Witch) that you want to play as early as possible, a faster thinner such as Goat is present, or the Kingdom offers a rush.
Gaining a second Vampire is not unusual. The card is especially strong, perhaps warranting additional copies, when you want many copies of cards (e.g. Laboratory), or if other sources of gains or trashing are limited. In particular, Vampire can be crucial as a way to gain Duchies in a Kingdom that otherwise restricts scoring to a single Province per turn; even if the gains are not quite so limited, this can be an important supplementary source of 
in the late game. However, the alternating nature of the Vampire/Bat pair means that you’re only able to gain a card every other shuffle. This is a particularly important consideration in the end-game, when playing your Vampires and thus exchanging them for Bats may affect your ability to threaten a win on your next turn by reducing your available gains and capacity to score. It also means that extra Vampires are less useful when added in the mid- to late-game: because Vampire itself costs and may only have time to gain one more card, it might be better to buy the target card directly.
Because you must trash at least one card in order to turn a Bat back into a Vampire, each Vampire play (except for the first with each pair) is effectively gain-neutral on net. Usually, this is not a problem: at first it's a clear benefit to exchange junk cards for more useful ones (indeed, you'll generally prefer to trash two cards with each Bat), and once you have deck control and run out of junk, an extra Buy or gain can be spent on a cheap card such as Copper for Bat to trash, while Vampire gains something better. However, if Vampire is the only source of additional gains, running short of trashing fodder for Bat can become an issue in the late game, and you might trash one Bat to another in order to get a Vampire back.
As with other Doom cards, Vampire's Hexing is a high variance ability that is not always impactful due to its randomness. However, it can be somewhat enhanced by stacking multiple plays of the card, and is sometimes critical (e.g., Envy can be devastating on a late turn in a Kingdom where Treasures are important for payload).
Versions
English versions
| Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
 |
Each other player receives the next Hex. Gain a card costing up to Exchange this for a Bat. |
Nocturne | November 2017 |
Other language versions
| Language | Name | Digital | Text | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch | Vampier | ||||
| French | Vampire | Tous vos adversaires appliquent le prochain Sortilège. Recevez une carte coûtant jusqu'à autre qu'un Vampire. Échangez cette carte contre une Chauve-souris. |
|||
| German | Vampirin |  |
 |
Jeder Mitspieler empfängt die nächste Plage. Nimm eine Karte, außer einer Vampirin, die bis zu kostet.Tausche diese Karte (die Vampirin) in eine Fledermaus ein. |
(2017) |
| Japanese | 吸血鬼 (pron. kyūketsuki) | 一番上の呪詛を捨て札にする。他のプレイヤーは全員、その呪詛を受ける。その後、あなたは吸血鬼以外のコスト以下のカード1枚を獲得する。これを蝙蝠に交換する。 |
|||
| Russian | Вампир (pron. vampir) |
Trivia
Vampire (and Bat) are the only cards that exchange when played.
Preview
Secret History
For strumphf's 2022 advent calendar, Donald X. went in-depth on the development of Vampire and Bat.
" and then "other than Vampire" after a game with Matt's group where Alex went crazy for Vampires. The order of abilities shifted some, as everything wants to be first.
Additional development comments from Donald X.
