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Cthulhu draft - 2p experiences

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#1
dboeren

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Since we aren't all blessed with large local groups, I wanted to post some impressions on the draft experience with just two players.

 

As I mentioned in the other thread, we decided to use a Winston Draft which definitely made things more interesting, I would recommend it over the standard drafting rules if you only have two people.  You can read how this works here:

http://www.ehow.com/...-gathering.html

 

If you would like to get a feel for what a 2p draft deck might feel like (for instance to help decide if you want to buy some packs yourself) I have written down the contents of both of our decks.  So, you can build these and try them out.  The feel is of course much less focused than constructed decks, it's a lot closer to the Core set "shuffle two factions together" but in my opinion the decks are better due to a better pool and more interesting since you don't really know what you might get :)

 

David's Deck:

Silver Twilight:
  Guardian of Dawn
  Unscrupulous Acquisitionist
  Carl Stanford
  Josef Meiger
  Erasmus Manor
  Nathan Wick
  Crescent Blade
 
Syndicate;
  Carnevale Sentinel
  Danny O'Bannion's Crony
  Gregory Gry
  2xHired Mystic
  Jon Pechon
  Johnny Valone
  Bound & Gagged
 
Yog:
  Cultist of the Key
  Disciple of the Gate
  Key-seeker
  Salvatore Neri
  Son of Yeb
  The Betrayer
  Hand of Aforgomon
  Gatekeeper
  Wilbur Whateley
  All are One
  Calling the Williwaw
  Fist of Yog-Sothoth
  Pushed into the Beyond
  Eltdown Shards
 
Neutral:
  Dabbler in the Unknown
  The Day Dreamer
  Aliki Zoni Uperetria
  Er'nrawr
  2xFeint
  2xCryptic Writings
  Outmaneuvered
  The Enchanted Wood
  Before the Fast
 
 
Lee's Deck
Cthulhu:
  Initiate of Dagon
  Poleman
  Keeper of the Golden Path
  2xDisguised Serpent Man
  Disguised Threat
  Cthaat Aquadingen
  San Giorgio in Alga
 
Hastur:
  2xPerformance Artist
  Victoria's Protege
  Bearer of the Yellow Sign
  Crazed Arsonist
  Demented Phrenologist
  2xPainter of Delusion
  Byakhee Attack
  The Tattered Cloak
 
Miskatonic:
  Combing the Archives
 
Shub:
  Priestess of Bubastis
  Harvesting Mi-Go
  Predator of the Night
  Mi-Go Caretaker
  Mi-Go Surgeon
  Mi-Go Commander
  Shub Niggurath "The All Mother"
  Burrowing Beneath
  Book of Iod
 
Neutral:
  Seeker of Mysteries
  The Red Gloved Man
  Tzu San Niang
  The Sanguine Watcher
  The Enchanted Wood
 

The games were pretty tense and I felt you really had to balance now vs. later more than in a constructed game since the decks were not tuned as they normally would be so you didn't have as many low cost characters as you wanted and the resource decisions with three factions were tough, often you would have to give up a 2-cost card you kind of wanted now in order to play a 3-4 cost card on a future turn.

 

I was surprised to see a Loyal card in the set (Unscrupulous Acquisitionist).  He's only a 2-cost so it's not SO bad, but it was still unexpected to both of us.

 

As you might expect, some cards which depend on trait synergy were sad pandas.  You might luck into a combo but you can't really rely on your few Mi-Go being out at the same time or even being drawn.  I had a Josef Meiger but not a single support I could use his ability with, etc...  So, abilities that work standalone become much more precious even if they aren't huge.  Also, pulling off even a minor combination feels like a triumph.  I played Fist of Yog-Sothoth to help kill an opposing character.  I couldn't overpay to keep it in my hand, but I was able to recur it by winning a story with Key-Seeker and it felt like I'd pulled off something really awesome.

 

Continuing on the "little things mean a lot" track, Lee getting out a Priestess of Bubastis felt dangerous. I threw a Cryptic Writings on her without hesitation.  Book of Iod was worse, a repeating card advantage is pretty nasty here, not to mention when he got Book of Iod and San Giorgio out at the same time.  Thankfully I was able to kill the book bearer before it snowballed too far.

 

The stories provide several reset opportunities, I was able to blow away his significant character advantage one game to win from being in a down position by taking 7th Gate and activating The Thing at the Gate (both players sacrifice all characters).  It's not over till it's over.

 

I've heard some people say that their draft games ended up getting too many characters out and slowing down to a near stalemate because of not enough removal.  We didn't experience that in our games.  Lee tended to have more characters out, but they lacked Arcane so they weren't omnipresent and we had our opportunities to grab tokens when some of them were exhausted.

 

Anyway, it was pretty fun and we both enjoyed it.  The store has two more draft starters and boosters, if nobody else claims them by next week we plan to buy those and do it again with an eventual goal of collecting enough boosters to make a cube, probably around 6-8 total?  We'll see how it goes.


  • WWDrakey, Jhaelen, blinovitch and 1 other like this

#2
FunkeXMix

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Were the matches longer or shorter compared to constructed decks?



#3
Jhaelen

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Thanks for posting! That reminds me a lot of playing Highlander format... which I always enjoyed.



#4
dboeren

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Were the matches longer or shorter compared to constructed decks?

 

A little longer I would say, but not that much.

 

 

Thanks for posting! That reminds me a lot of playing Highlander format... which I always enjoyed.

 

Yeah, with draft you won't often get two copies of anything, so it's almost Highlander by default except of course you aren't picking the exact Highlander cards you want.  We had a few 2x's but it's pure luck what they could be other than the Starter cards that come 2x.