You get 2/3 pills back, fury counts as pills. so if you use no pills you get 1, one pill gets you 1, 2 pills gets you 2, 3 pills gets you 2, 4 pills gets you 2, 5 pills gets you 4, 6 pills gets you 4, 7 pills gets you 4, 8 pills gets you 6, 9 pills get you 6, 10 pills get you 6, 11 pills get you 8, 12 pills get you 8. there, there is no more math, remember this and you will know.
There is (in my opinion) flaw in the Vortex bonus that makes it inferior to all others.
To effectively use Vortex bonus you need to "Lose the right way".
BUT. How the hell are you going to "lose the right way" when ultimately you aim to WIN rounds and losing is something you try not to do. "Losing" by feeding character to other character is ultimately a win-strategy. Loosing for gaining less pills than you originally invested is bad thing, as you can opt choose not to pill at all and keep 1:1 pills and give next attack the extra juice.
That makes Vortex bonus actually a machine that generates pills from the (somewhat random) loss of your own health. But when you lose... you cant damage opponent. So what is the true benefit? The benefit is that when you lose you wont feel that bad about it. You end up migitating the loss - but not increasing the chance to win part.
All other clan bonuses can in some way seen as "How many pills this ability generates towards winning?" - like Freaks bonus - the poison that seeps in reduces the neccesarity to cause damage so you can skip one attack or use weaker higher-powered card later. That generates effective attack-pills. Or damage bonus - that equals "fury" status on win = 3 pills each WIN.
Therefore: Vortex "win" status must be reached without using the clan bonus as benefit. The clan bonus just creates wider margin for player errors - but in deep it contributes NOTHING to winning the matches!
Matti_Naesae, if you look at the bonus only I would tend to agree with you, but you need to consider cards themselves to see how the deck would work
consider C Wing, play him at 0 pills, if he loses opponent get -2 life, you get 1 pill, then you lose health, now you have 3 turns to do 10 damage with 13 pills, sometimes this is easier than 12 damage with 12 pills.
Also, consider Deea and dagg, at 16 and 19 attack at 0 pills, your opponent would need to pill to beat them at 0 pills, so they cause an even greater pill gap.
Most games don't end in a shut out, even 2-hit ko decks usually go to round 3 with a 0 pill card to save pills, Vortex lets you use this strategy to a greater extent, definitely not a horrible bonus.
Think of it this way when you use a card like C Wing against anything besides a turn one win i.e Kolos and you put lets say 2 pillz into him you either win the round and do 3 damage and run the risk of a slight pill disadvantage or lose the round and still do 2 damage next you play a card like furious Sekutor and pill him to the max in order for your opponent to not lose they have to counter pill fully or if they are playing a attack reducing they might be left with 3 or 4 pillz but if you win you win the game if you lose then you lose some life but not enough to kill you and you have full pill advantage sometimes by 8 or 9 pillz which means you can fury Dregn or cbeast immediately after for the kill