Bedlam Boys

This alone makes lunatics worth trying. Draw three extra cards a turn. 

With 5 phases each turn (Refresh, Draw, Resource, Operations, Story), you could get up to 5 a turn. Granted, that would involve some serious insanity causing on your own side of the table, but technically possible.

that is why said three more realistic (: 

 

Danigral - 4 out of 5. While this is really only playable in certain Hastur builds, most notably with lunatics, it is most welcome. The limit is hardly a limit at all.

 

mnBroncos - 5 out of 5. An amazing card in the lunatic deck. Being able to pull of effects while also being able to draw handful of cards is amazing. Is even great in decks that aren’t trying to make your characters insane since can just happen naturally if your combined with a human faction up against a monster faction. This is for sure a card Hastur players are happy to see.

 

Obtuse- 3 out of 5. A solidly playable Hastur card. When’s the last time you saw one of those in a new box? Synergy with lunatics is welcome and who doesn’t love card draw?

 

livingend - 3 out of 5. Not really much to mention here thanks to my co-reviewers who already pointed out the combos with the biggest potential: lunatics and terror struggles. Verdict: A decent 2-of playable for most Hastur decks.

 

WWDrakey & Ire - 4 out of 5. An excellent addition to the Hastur repertoire to complement their Lunatics. Also, an excellent reference fluff-wise, which makes us want to sing: “The moon's my constant mistress, And the lowly owl my marrow; The flaming drake and the night crow make, Me music to my sorrow…”

I think I stand by my rating. The hard part is that along with all the lunatics, getting this card out early may be good for card advantage, but isn't a very great body on the board. That opens you up to early rush if you can't have some better defenders. Still great mid game.

Bumps Lunatics up a notch and you can blend in some Cultist theme as well if you want to.  As Danigral said not the greatest body so you don't really want him to be one of your first characters on the board, but he's quite welcome later on.  With that in mind, it's probably fine to be a 2x card.

I ran x2 Bedlam Boys in my Cthulhu/Hastur cultist/lunatic deck for our 2015 store championship and I've since taken them out.  I may use them again, but not in a deck that also runs Gustaf.

Compared to Gustaf, they are clearly inferior.  However, in a dedicated lunatic deck without any other card draw I would run x2 copies, especially when the new Hastur deluxe expansion comes out.

I agree with Danigral's assessment (though I would probably rate the card a 3), and I always felt like I was giving up board presence when forced to play them early on.  I was playing a very fast deck, so the tempo loss isn't just a problem when facing rush but also when using that as your deck's strategy.

I feel the Bedlam Boys work well in a deck with plenty of cheap events so you can draw a card and then play it immediately, allowing you to keep pressure on your opponent.  One idea I had to maximize them is to run an Agency/Hastur deck with zero-cost events, namely Hamu XX, Hamu IV, Behind Bars and Bending the Rules, and to a lesser extent Shotgun Blast.  Use Supernatural Investigator to set up your draw, hit your opponent with Dangerous Inmate, and then draw an event you can play for free.  Bending the Rules can work especially well in this regard.

With any Hastur card, it will probably have to be reevaluated when their box comes out.  I agree that 0-cost events are a good bet though, it immediately converts your draw into additional power you can apply to the board.  1-cost events too, though you may not always be able to afford them immediately.

Yes, 1-cost events are also viable.  When playing Hastur I especially like to include several cheap cancels (namely x3 Hali's Directive and Unspeakable Oath) so I'm often holding an open 1-resource domain for them.

Another good example of using a 1-cost event:  In my first round of our store championship I was able to draw and play The Greatest Fear by triggering the Bedlam Boys, then throw down Hamu XX in my opponent's draw phase and trigger TGF again in their turn leaving them with no cards in hand, so that was fun.

An essential addition to the Hastur faction, which is otherwise lacking card draw, even with the limitation of (up to once per phase).

As some said before, he is not a very good body with that one icon and one skill. So far at least I have not seen much payback from using him. Benjamin Herriot though, he is a card draw engine with good board presence. His ability is relatively easily re-usable as well.

IMO, it's not always the size of the body that's important, but how that body fits in with the other characters. He's meant to go with Lunatics. Diva, Inmate, and Adherent are all plenty efficient body types, so Bedlam Boys can afford to be a little underwhelming in the body.  Plus, Bedlam Boys can basically turn each Lunatic into a Focused Art Student over and over. And the Boys provide a terror icon, which fills a need in a Lunatic deck.  Mostly, the Boys are meant to be a great complement to your Lunatics, and make the whole Lunatic strategy more threatening, rather than just offer more of the same.

If the ability is good enough, the body doesn't matter. In fact, the Boys are unlikely targets for removal BECAUSE they don't have a good body. Your draw engine, which Hastur desperately needs, is benign enough that it'll stay on the table. IMO, if you're not drawing 3 or more cards every time you play the Boys then you need more Lunatics in your deck.

In Miskatonic, I agree that the Boys would be a 3 star. But in Hastur, a wasteland for card draw, the Boys are big time.