Republished from the Official VEKN Gargoyle Clan Newsletter, February 2006.
This card is awesome. Just plain awesome. As a matter of fact, my
renewed interest in the Gargoyles and my decision to write for them is in large part due to Roll and its appearance in the Legacies previews several months ago. It's really quite absurd that several people on the newsgroup whined about this card being underpowered at the time of the preview, and goes to show just how easy it is to upset some players' delicate sensibilities.
To sum up the effect, Roll basically provides your minions with a permanent maneuver at the cost of -1 hand size for as long as you feel it's worthwhile, without requiring any actions or additional setup cards to acquire it. Compared to the action required to get permanent maneuvers from IR Goggles, or the inherent disadvantages of a card like Zip Gun (taking damage, being forced to make a lame strike), the temporary hand reduction is a very reasonable price for the advantage you get. Additionally, Roll provides its permanent maneuver to not just one minion, but to every vampire you control with Flight. As long as you don't get torporized after playing it, Roll makes it very hard for even the most dedicated ranged deck to keep outmaneuvering you.
For example, a minion with a .44 Magnum will need to draw at least one transient maneuver each time he fights you to stay at long range. If you're able to prevent damage and press, the problem gets even worse for the gun monkeys, since each new round defaults to close range. If you manage to catch a CEL gunner even once, his problems are likely to get ugly fast. Immortal Grapple prevents him from cycling any dodges he might be holding (though Sideslip at CEL is still viable), and Pounce keeps him from using additional strikes. Unless the gunner directs his attention to fighting another Methuselah (which is difficult to do if you're consistently rushing, blocking, or bleeding him) he's going to have a rough time cycling his combat cards into fresh maneuvers. Adding additional maneuvers in the form of Crawling Chamber, Swoop, or Unflinching Persistence will make it even harder to stay away from your Gargoyles' Immortal Grapples. Most importantly, Roll gives you the ability of beating ranged combat decks with a strikingly small dedication of deck space. Running four copies gives you reasonable chances of drawing one fairly early, and even two or three is enough to provide good odds against a gun deck.
Of course, all of this assumes that you'll be using maneuvers to stay at close range and then use Immortal Grapple and pumped/aggravated hand strikes to brutalize your opponent. This is not necessarily the case in all situations, which brings me to my next point.
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