Lost to the Madness (deck by Earth Red) - 1st Finnish SC 2015

ever get hastur into play during the tournament? 

Was in play at least in the final, where it together with Lost to the Madness drove a board of ~20? characters insane. At least from what I saw judging that game, the deck tended to develop domains in a X-1-1 or X-2-1 pattern, in order to get to it's high-cost cards better. 

that is awesome he has always been one of the ancient ones I have wanted to play the most. I was curious if he actually planned to play it or just to have in the deck in case opponent played lost in space in time (think that is the name of the restrict event that lets players go get an ancient one). 

Seems to me it would really struggle vs rush or lots of terror wielding gribblies, but as i get back into this game with aplomb, i need to find all the Hastur cards i gave away and rebuild, this looks like a good start...

I've attended and won two tournaments with this deck, as well as been testing (against top decks copied from here) and shifting it around for as long as I've been playing CoCLCG, so I'll be drifting around my thoughts on it in general and not just how it fared and could have fared in the championship.

The point of this deck is steady scuffling with-, and halting of the opponent until I push out a strain of various board resets (that either don't hurt me at all or far less than the opponent) and finally lock the opponent almost completely out of plays. Rushes usually get their way for the first one or two stories, and willpower/terror heavy rush deck matchups seem to culminate to whether I can pull off enough Stygian Eyes and Scotophobias out, and whether I get to fistfight until Nodens gets there. If I'm able to get one or two Greatest Fears procced early, that'll be a fair start for me as well. Usually against rushes that draw fairly well, Nodens has pretty much been the card that has, in the end, made winning a possibility for me. The only deck that beat me in the tournament was a mono Criminal aggro-control-ish deck (or at least it drew like one in the game against me,) and pretty much the final blow was controlling my Ancient Ones with Events not discarded by The Greatest Fear for one turn and getting his third story from there. If he had not had those cards in hand, I would have had a forced Lost to the Madness lock, and would have won, in the right conditions, in two turns. He'd won two stories, I'd reset the board, had both ancient ones in play, and was otherwise good to go. The farther in the game we go, the stronger I am, and I have the tools to prolong the game. I lost in the last window I had to lose, when I had all my domains drained, not being able to play any answers.

But yes, Hastur himself, as Broncos mentioned. I'm usually able to play Hastur in almost all games I play (nowadays that my deck is optimal enough to be able to handle with rushes et cetera at least on some basic level.) Of course there will be some spesific situations where he won't show up, but on a general level I'd say that in almost all games, be it that I've won or lost, I've been able to get him out. Usually if I've lost, it's been in situations where I play him, my opponent has had two stories, and has comboed the third for himself in one turn, but I've won thanks to Hastur far more than lost due to my domains being drained. Can be that in the hands of a better player a better player would, if given the right timeframe, add domains from 5-2 to 5-4 and then 6-4 to play Hastur AND have a backup 4 ready for answers to the opponents plays, but as it is I've usually seen that I'm in such a hurry to keep up my pace to reach a lock situation that I've had to play him or have a redundant turn or two. Who knows.

All in all after the Hastur Deluxe releases I'm confident I'll be able to make this deck even better. Still, this deck is not very forgiving, and I see that as another big weakness, since that's not something more cards will ever change (unless utterly overpowered).

Any thoughts?

I believe you use Swooping Byakhee and The Greatest Fear...  to force your opponents to discard their cards from hand so they have less option.

I believe you use Swooping Byakhee and The Greatest Fear...  to force your opponents to discard their cards from hand so they have less option.

Yep. Part of the scuffling for my strategic long term advantage. (Also, the Hamu + The Greatest Fear lock is a really strong game ender.)

Since there are no 1 coster, how do you play your first turn (besides using Black Dog to deal with the early attack from your opponent)?  

Perhaps you may use Stygian Eye to take control of your opponent's initial character if you are playing as a second player.  Or you may first put down Victoria Glasser to try to make your opponent's character insane.  Or if you are playing as the first player, you will first exhaust the domain with 2 resources to play Dangerous Inmate or Deranged Diva.  Am I right?

Am I curious as to how you will deal an opponent who play early characters with insane icon.  We can't drive Dangerous Inmate or Deranged Diva to make them insane and we can't use these two characters to attack due to the absence of Terror icons.  What do you in this situation?

Hope you can share.

 

I haven't play tested this deck or anything, but I've never built a Hastur deck without performance artist. She's another body early and a combo disruptor all game, which might address both of the difficulties you've mentioned.

Thanks for posting!

Why Nodens? What does the card do for you that wins the game?

I'm guessing Nodens is there to blow up all the insane characters when he enters play, though he does hit most of the characters in this deck too...

Since there are no 1 coster, how do you play your first turn (besides using Black Dog to deal with the early attack from your opponent)?  

Perhaps you may use Stygian Eye to take control of your opponent's initial character if you are playing as a second player.  Or you may first put down Victoria Glasser to try to make your opponent's character insane.  Or if you are playing as the first player, you will first exhaust the domain with 2 resources to play Dangerous Inmate or Deranged Diva.  Am I right?

 

Am I curious as to how you will deal an opponent who play early characters with insane icon.  We can't drive Dangerous Inmate or Deranged Diva to make them insane and we can't use these two characters to attack due to the absence of Terror icons.  What do you in this situation?

Hope you can share.

 

I haven't play tested this deck or anything, but I've never built a Hastur deck without performance artist. She's another body early and a combo disruptor all game, which might address both of the difficulties you've mentioned.

 

Thanks for posting!

In terms of my first turns I've been able to fare quite well with my 2-drops and The Greatest Fear. I'll have to test out Performance Artist when I get the time, it could fare well. Thanks for the suggestion! Pretty much yeah, JChoong212, it's pretty dependent on the situation. The worst case scenario is going first and only ending up with Victoria Glasser, in which case I wouldn't play anything, but otherwise 2-drops plus the occasional TGF have done the trick. Gaining an early source of recursion through Hamu can also win you games on the long run, though it's fairly hard to balance out the possibility of your enemy outplaying your Hamu. As said, the goal is to achieve strategic advantage on the long run and ultimately force the opponent into a lockdown situation, if possible. Thus, your earlygame won't be about winning in and of itself, but about letting you get to the point in the game where you are strong, keeping your opponent at bay and getting success tokens from the nooks where your opponent isn't on his/her feet.

Usually against terror heavy earlygames I've either just taken shots in the jacket until I can reset the board, been able to prolong the game with Stygian Eye until I'm able to handle the situation better, or gotten a good proc of Scotofobia or our beloved dog. In any case, it'll be harder for sure.

Why Nodens? What does the card do for you that wins the game?

I'm guessing Nodens is there to blow up all the insane characters when he enters play, though he does hit most of the characters in this deck too...

Not exactly. Blowing up all insane characters is an okay play if I don't have Granny Orne at hand et cetera, but it has usually worked as a general all purpose board reset, as usually it can kill a mass of things I want dead. I don't usually have so many characters in play that it would hurt me more than the opponent, usually it's by far the other way around.  Why play Nodens, aside from the obvious? The thing is, you really can't plan out your plays five turns ahead, you can only setup your domains, plan your plays as you get the chance, and rely on your decks mathematics. How can I force out a constant enough strain of resets if I don't both have variety and numbers on my side? Of course there will be situations where it isn't worth it to play it, and rare matchups that will render it mute, but generally speaking it's another two board reset cards in my decks mathematical design. I haven't played so long as to be able to analyze each and every matchup with a 100% accuracy, but for what I've seen, usually Nodens will be one of the cards that turns the game around by far. One of the main goals of this deck is consistent and, if possible, recursive board resetting, and having an old one that resets almost if not all of the board for me has usually been the biggest game turning play, seeing as by turn five most decks haven't churned out immense numbers of skill 4+ characters (and in that case I'll have to rely on having Lost to the Madness and possibly Scotofobia at hand if needed). This deck is recursive enough (and one can play accordingly to some degree as well) to usually handle resets better than it's opponent, especially if I've gotten recursive TGF... procs, and adding another two board resets to this decks really improves the consistency and pace in which I can keep the board at bay and scuffle a strategic advantage for my self. That aside, after he's on the board he's a decent character to use for actually scoring something consistently, alongside Hastur.

I'm not sure I answered your question, if I was too vague or something of the like, I'll be getting back to you!

In any case, thanks for the feedback, I'm happy to see that this deck is spurring some conversation.

I've been thinking about removing Swooping Byakhee, since out of all my characters it's probably by far the weakest link. It's effect an "okay" part of this deck, granted, but I'd ditch it any day for something more consistent and lifesaving. On the long run it's only shifting around your card advantage, and letting your opponent have a lot of control over his loss at that... I'll probably test switching it to Performance Artist. I'll get back to you guys on that after I find some time to play more again.

You can swap it for Performance Artists easily. Maybe keep them for late game when your domains are drained after playing Hastur.

Now that the reprints and updated FAQ have come, WWDrakey suggested Magah Bird as the replacement for Swooping Byakhee. Thing is, as he put it, Magah Bird would thin my deck, give me some more early game presence, and guarantee that I won't have to domain something important. Time will tell, I'll probably get about improving this deck in a few weeks, and give out my thoughts when I actually get to it. Nowadays I have a habit of going through all the possibilities I have and ponder on whatever I can.