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This is the latest deck I am intending to use at a casual tournament on Sunday 10th May. (EDIT: I did use this deck at Stoke-on-Trent, and only went 1-3)
After enjoying Hastur lunatics, but feeling that one of the areas the deck showed weakness was with targeted removal, I've decided to combine them with Cthulhu for Khopesh. Warning in Advance, I sadly lack Somnbulant Dreamer :(
The premise of the deck is to drive their characters insane, prevent them restoring due to Victoria's Loft, and use Khopesh on anyone I can't drive insane.
Here is the standard breakdown of why I chose the cards I have:
Sieur Piriou Louis - A last minute changed, I was using Danni Devine when I had 70 Steps and Cavern of Flame, however I took them out but left her in by mistake, Between Louis' icons, ability, and removing their terror with Rays of Dawn, he should give me a solid defence to slow down my opponent.
Elise Warren - I wanted a character of cost 3 (due to Negotium wrecking me in testing) who would give me an edge in stories. As the game will increase how many insane characters there are, and she is invulnerable whilst keeping her Terror icon, I feel she will stay for some time. Plus, if I haven't restored two or more of my own lunatics, she can't be targeted by triggered effects to stay around longer.
Dangerous Inmate - A staple for lunatic decks, allowing me to snipe troublesome characters of printed skill 2 or lower, by making them insane.
Performance Artist - Can't play Hastur without these. Can't imagine anyone would not use them.
Deranged Diva - Compliments Dangerous Inmate. The downside is she means my opponent gets to choose who to make insane, but when my opponent doesn't have anyone of printed skill 2 or lower (such as Syndicate which happened in my last tournament), then she still does something unlike Inmate.
Naaginn - An ideal bearer for Khopesh, as once he blows himself up with it, he then comes back into play thanks to his response, as a support card is destroyed when the character it is attached to is destroyed by taking sufficient wounds (along with other means of being destroyed).
Dreamlands Fanatic - A free character when I get rid of someone with Khopesh. Plus, if they use other effects to make their characters leave play, it expands the means he can trigger.
Innsmouth Trouble Maker - A cheap bearer for Khopesh. Nothing special otherwise, and can't rely on only Naaginn bearing it.
Obsessive Zealot - Another means to cause my opponent's characters to go insane, who I will sacrifice to Combat struggles, or give a Khopesh.
Bedlam Boys - Repeatable card draw from the lunatics, which whilst is limited to once per phase, I can always stagger when I trigger them to draw more often.
Hamu XX 15:14 - With how often I shall be causing insanity, a reliable means to recur my cards back will be essential to the deck. Ideally looping with Greatest Fear, or getting a second copy of itself from the discard pile.
Deep One Assault - The loyal can be frustrating, but a means to get rid of troublesome characters and support cards is essential in the game.
The Greatest Fear - Make my opponent's characters go insane, and then strip their hand of cards as an added bonus. Ideal situation is after they have drawn during the draw phase, trigger a lunatic so one of their characters goes insane, then make them discard the two cards they just drew, meaning they only have what is in play, which should be slowly diminishing. With Hamu, I can always play Greatest Fear, trigger Hamu to get it back, then Greatest Fear again. Or Hamu to get one (or both) copies back and then watch their hand go. Regardless, I should be able to keep their hand under control, and maybe even help work towards a story.
Victoria's Loft - I was going through my cards, and re-read the card, as I thought it simply prevented characters being refreshed. So, combined with Arkham Asylum, I can make your characters go insane, prevent yours from being refreshed, and then get around it by refreshing my characters in a different phase. Extremely vulnerable to support removal, but if I always worry what my opponent could do, I would never play.
Khopesh of the Abyss - One of the stronger restricted cards, and even though your opponent can see it coming, they have to play around it. Targeted removal in any game is generally strong, and Cthulhu is no exception.
Flooded Vault - It gives me the flexibility of getting Khopesh, Rays of Dawn (useful when Savio or Plague Stone appear), or Artifact of the Lost Cities. Search effects are few and far between, and for the price it is a bargain.
The Rays of Dawn - Here for two reasons. 1. It helps reduce the amount of Terror my opponent has, so my lunatics have more targets. 2. It allows me to combat Night decks. In testing, Savio Corvi with a conspiracy was hard to stop, and getting Rays of Dawn was critical in stopping him.
Arkham Asylum - My means of getting around Victoria's Loft, I can use my lunatics, and then refresh and ready them to go into stories, or trigger all over again.
Cavern of Flame - Whilst it's my only Dreamland location, it means if they don't have one I am fine, and if they do, then I am probably shutting their down. As I won't be able to stop everything, being able to boot characters including Ancient Ones from a story should either stop them attacking, or prevent them defending.
UPDATE: Following discussion on Skype, Artifact of the Lost Cities is out, Bedlam Boys and Cavern of Flame is in.
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5 Comments
Why no Victoria Glasser? She seems like such a stock card in so many Hastur lists and such a strong effect, I wonder at her not being included here. Is it that she doesn't have a repeatable effect?
In previous lunatic decks where I used her, I found once she had been played, she wasn't that impressive. Even worse was if my opponent had willpower/terror characters and playing her would force her to stay in my hand or make one of my own characters go insane.
If I had means to get her back, then maybe I'd use her, but then it would likely be the cards that return her are solely for her, reducing the effectiveness of the deck even more.
I've been playing a Cthulhu/Hastur deck since last fall. Win or lose it's always fun, especially triggering multiple The Greatest Fear in a single turn. Here are a few suggestions based off my experiences in tournament play:
1. Khopesh is the right call for your restricted card. Your characters are weak and there's a lot of terror/willpower out there. You'll need a way to control the board and this fits the bill. However, you may be able to get away with x2 copies if running x3 Flooded Vault.
2. Go with a cultist sub-theme. Bedlam Boys aren't as good as they seem on paper. Trade them for Gustaf for your card draw. You're already at 12 cultists so it should be easy to swap out a few characters and hit 18-22 total.
3. You need more characters. Your guys will likely die or go insane quickly, sometimes by your own hand with Khopesh. I wouldn't go below 30. Other than Gustaf, a few you might consider are Degenerate Serpent Cultist, Feathery Watchers, Fiona Day, Harbinger of Insanity and Stealthy Byahkee. I would probably drop Innsmouth Troublemaker, Naaginn, Elise and Louis (the latter because they're too expensive for what you get). Deranged Diva might be knocked down to x2.
4. Victoria Glasser can be a great fit with this deck as she'll retain her terror even with Rays of Dawn in play. In the rare case that she does have to drive one of your own characters insane, use her to trigger Hamu (though in all of my games, I've only been faced with this dilemma once).
5. Cut Victoria's Loft. It's too expensive, can't be fetched with Flooded Vault, and Arkham Asylum (which suffers from the same problems) won't be able to offset the Loft's negative impact on your own characters.
6. In fact, cut out all of your location support cards and I would make the Khopesh your only 2-cost support. Anything that's 2+ cost that's not a character in this deck should be vital to the deck's success.
7. Use Flooded Vault to create a toolbox of answers, such as Sedated, Called by Azathoth, Sword of Y'ha-Tallo, and definitely Horrific Statuette.
8. Carl Stanford is a good doorstop against tough characters when you're deck is stalling out, and he keeps his terror icon as well even if you have Rays on the table. You can also sac your unique cultists (such as Victoria or Fiona Day) to him to get card draw and then replay/trigger them.
9. I would trim down your support cards and take more events. I don't think you need x3 Rays of Dawn. This deck is made for Hali's Directive, and x2 Unspeakable Oath might also work well. You might also run only x2 Hamu if you need the room.
Hopefully these suggestions help.
Always good to get advice from your Yipe, as I know how much experience you have with the factions.
However, I can't see me keeping the deck or attempting to improve on it in the future. But it may help inspire or warn others, depending on POV.
Naagin is made for Khopesh, so I'm amazed you would suggest dropping him. Sure he isn't a Cultist, but helps maintain my board presence.
The Loft only clashes with Asylum in the refresh phase. Outside of that, I can refresh via the Asylum and my opponent just keeps increasing the number of insane characters they have.
First off, I'd take my advice with a grain of salt! I've built some decks that just don't function like I think they should and I've yet to win a regional...
With this deck type though, I've been playing it (more or less) for over a year so I have a good feel for how it flows. My first incarnation was an MU/Hastur deck called Sleight of Hand that really emphasized hand discard (something players aren't really prepared for in Cthulhu). I switched it over to Cthulhu/Hastur after The Sleeper Below because I needed more direct control over opposing characters. Gustaf is great, the Statuette takes care of my investigation problem and Fiona can be a surprise closer.
I like Naaginn but deck space is tight and for my version of this deck I really hammered home the cultist synergy. For example, I'd rather have Stealthy Byakhee over Naaginn, but I can see keeping him.
Also, Khopesh is just another tool in the box. I didn't take any characters with toughness to maximize it, just a bunch of cheap cultists to play it on to keep up the pressure on my opponent then close out the game with Flooded Vault + Statuette or a 2-story sweep with Fiona Day.
I know what you're saying with Loft and the Asylum, I just think it hurts you as much or more than your opponent. It locks down your lunatics and then forces you to pay 1 to bring them back. With so much terror and willpower out there, I usually find there are only a few targets for my Dangerous Inmates/Divas anyway, so keeping those characters on insanity lockdown isn't hard. In fact, with so few susceptible targets I actually cut Deranged Diva from my deck, relying on x3 Inmates, x2 Victoria and x3 Hali's Directive as my insanity suite. It's enough to trigger Hamu and TGF - and Hali's Directive is just good all around even if you don't get the insanity bonus - but it's not so heavy that I'm crippled by a deck that's immune to my insanity tricks.
Plus the Loft and Asylum are spendy, so it's slow to get the ball rolling.