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1
The Thousand Young Review, Part 2
Jul 15 2015 02:10 AM |
Danigral
in Articles
Call of Cthulhu CoC Deluxe Shub-Niggurath Shub
Our staff has put together a first blush analysis of the newly released The Thousand Young, the deluxe expansion featuring the All-Mother Shub-Niggurath and her putrescent progeny. This is the second of three parts: a continuation of the remaining Shub-Niggurath characters and her supports, events, and conspiracies.We’ve used a one through five scale; five being the best. The cards are listed in numeric order. Our reviewers are listed in alphabetical order. For inquiring minds, profiles of each reviewer can be found at the end.
Let us know your own thoughts in the comments!
Shub Characters (continued)...
- BanalityBob - 1 /5 - The Father of Worms is expensive, has no protection, is unique, and ties up your draw steps. On top of that, there are two other Chthonian characters in the game so far, and while Grasping Chthonian is a Shub staple and Telepathic Chthonian is pretty good, they’re not enough to warrant using a sub par character this expensive.
- Danigral - 2/5 - Okay, so he’s expensive, redundant icons, and no synergy in this box, but looking at the entire cardpool, there might be something here. Using it with something like Under the Porch or the new Ghoul Tunnels can let you stack the deck, and finally you will have an excuse to try out Telepathic Chthonian to control characters, not just supports. Also, Sinkhole! is now more reliably the cheapest character destruction in the game.
- dboeren - 1/5 - I wish this card worked better, but we just don’t have enough good Chthonians for him to work yet. There is at least the potential that he could be better later on, but right now there’s just not enough reason to theme a deck around this guy.
- Kamacausey - 1/5 - For such a high cost this guy doesn't do enough and the cthonian theme isn't supported enough to warrant wanting to play this guy. If he put the characters in your hand he still probably wouldn't see play. That fact that he chokes your draw makes things even worse.
- mnBroncos -1/5- So a 6 cost for not even an ancient one... Also, really on top of the deck?? On Top?? Would it really be too powerful if made it like max three cards but go into hand.... Chthonian isn’t even that strong of a Subtype yet I don’t get why this guy was made this way really don’t see him ever seeing play.
- Reckoner - 1/5 - 6 cost is a lot, Ancient One territory. For that cost you have to get a lot in order to justify running a card and Ancient Chthonian just doesn’t cut it. There are two glaring problems, in my opinion, most important is the lack of good chthonians and second is the lack of an arcane icon.
- BanalityBob - 3/5 - Dark Sargassum has a very strong ability, and with the amount of Resilient in the set, it has a strong possibility to be super dangerous. It is expensive though, so even if you are ramping, this is going to be what closes out the game for you, not what gets you in the game.
- Danigral - 2/5 - Another big dude with a high cost and redundant icons. This one’s effect could be considered very good, but the game would have to be slowed down significantly already for this to make a difference either on defense by pulling out additional defenders, or as an attacker by getting something like Lost Explorer for some investigation icons. Either way, it may be too late.
- dboeren - 3/5 - Being oriented toward mono is I think too much of a limiting factor. He has the potential for big swings, just not reliably enough for my taste. Might be some potential with cards that can stack your deck for better triggering.
- Kamacausey - 2/5 - Kind of like the high costed cthonian this guy just doesn't do enough. There are much better characters for cheaper. Maybe there is some kind of combo with this guy out there though...
- mnBroncos - 2/5 - I am not a fan of the Resilient keyword, also not a fan of running mono-faction most of the time.. With that this guy can win games because surprise character commitment is big deal, however, I just don’t see this guy getting played at the 6 cost.
- Reckoner - 2/5 - The ability is nice, but the limitations are too much. Limiting the character to Shub and being unable to ready itself via Arcane struggles means that this will most likely be on the sidelines. There are some nice synergies with Resilient, but I just don’t see that being enough.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - Mama is really powerful. Really, really powerful, but she’s completely an all or nothing card. The domain that you’ve been ramping all game to get her out is going to be gone after she’s played, and a single Plague Stone can undo all your hard work and shove an 8 drop back on top of your deck. Dumping her out early on can win you the game really fast, but if your opponent can deal with what she brings to the table, you’re probably going to lose.
- Danigral - 2/5 - The game could well be over by the time she can get into play for any meaningful effect. And Bob is right, Plague Stone is still very popular so all that card advantage will just be lost. You may be able to build your deck to take advantage of this earlier on - ramping, Arthur for reduction, and expensive impactful characters - but that’s a holy grail I think.
- dboeren - 3/5 - This Shub is the equivalent of going all-in at the poker table. You’re gonna win big or lose big. Best thing to do I think is hang on to some cards to help you come back or cancel the effects that might ruin your day - things like Support destruction and Dark Rebirth (along with a keyword theme). Anyway, bound to be a fun deck even if a little risky.
- Kamacausey - 2/5 - The all mother gets a 2 strictly because I like the artwork. She is pretty much a 1 if truth be told. She's too costly for what you're getting. Her artwork would make an awesome playmat, not so much a card... It's disappointing too because she's a fun ancient one. Her incarnation from the yuggoth contract cycle is just too hard to beat.
- mnBroncos - 2/5 - This card is so sad to me ): I’d rather them have pushed her to the point that may needed to be restricted than getting this. Forces mono faction mainly, also won’t get into play until turn 5 maybe (although with that one guy can reduce her Automatically to 1 which is nice) But you lose all those resources and Plague Stone is way too common of a card that you can just end up losing everything. However, you can just win the game when this character hits the table.
- Reckoner - 2/5 - This card is close to being good, but the biggest problem to me is that She costs way too much. And if you use reduction effects to get her out early, you do not get full use of her ability. I’d much rather run Dark Mistress of the Woods.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - Oh look, Twilight Gate got fixed, meaning it’s not anywhere close to as good as Twilight Gate. It drains and removes a resource from a domain for a temporary character, which, frankly, is just not good enough most of the time.
- Danigral - 2/5 - I would use this for expensive characters, like Avatars or Chthonians, to get their effect. With Avatars, since they have resilient, they can go back on top of the deck, and with Chthonians, they almost all have an enters play ability to try to capitalize on. This will be better mid- to late-game when you can stand the tempo loss from a domain. Other than that, you may get some benefit from the threat of activation. But in general, Favor of Eshu will be better.
- dboeren - 2/5 - A valiant effort to make a more balanced Twilight Gate, but it falls short of the mark a bit. As both a support and a location, you have to play it in advance and your opponent has plenty of chance to remove it before you use it. You don’t get to put the character back on a domain at the end, AND you have to drain the domain. Just too many drawbacks overall. The only time you might use this is with a character that you plan on sacrificing anyway (so that discarding them at the end doesn’t matter, such as Arthur Todd and even then you want him to be your 1-domain if possible.
- Kamacausey - 2/5 - Not a big fan of this card. I feel like it might see play in some sort of combo deck but more often than not it will probably just sit in the binder.
- mnBroncos - 2/5 - Giving a lot of options going into stories is always nice and opponent has to respect any character that can come into play. However, you have to hold open the domain and then lose resource. Although I am rating this 2, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone broke this card.
- Reckoner - 2/5 - It’s an interesting attempt to make a fixed playable version of Twilight Gate, but I think that this is more likely to be used in some sort of combo deck that only needs to use a character’s ability once. Using this in a fair manner seems to me to be too punishing, draining the domain and then losing the resource at the end of the turn is really rough.
- BanalityBob - 4/5 - As far as attachments go, this is a good one, but it’s still just an attachment. It gives Shub/Cthulhu Khopesh decks a quasi Dutch Courage, meaning that might be a thing, and adding Resilient to an attachment overcomes the intrinsic issues with attachments getting discarded when the character they’re on goes away. Adding icons is cool too, plus it’s free. All around, it’s a good card.
- Danigral - 3/5 - This attachment is very efficient. There are similar-costed attachments that give just one icon or just toughness. This one gives a lot, and can come back, making key characters harder to deal with. That said, an attachment is good only if you have a character to put it on and you wouldn’t want to keep drawing this off the top if you don’t have good characters to put it on, so it will really only be good if you have enough draw to compensate.
- dboeren - 4/5 - Excellent value granting three advantages for a 0-cost card as well as the option to put it back on top your deck if you want to once detroyed (you won’t use this all the time).
- Kamacausey - 3/5 - A decent attachment that gives 3 useful things that can come back if someone destroys it. If only more attachments had resilient...
- mnBroncos -1/5- I just don’t see this ever seeing play.. Now if this worked like the new attachment rule in Thrones 2.0 and returns to hand it would be a 4, but since it can only go on top of your deck I just don’t see ever wanting to play this card. Sure you make a better character but usually better off just paying 2 for another character. Also, late game are you really going to want to put an attachment on top of your deck instead of a card that truly impacts the game. I could be very wrong about this card but just because it is free doesn’t make this playable to me. We have attachments that adds icons and none have ever been played in competitive decks. They did push this though maybe strong enough to be a 2/5.
- Reckoner - 3/5 - Two icons and toughness for 0 cost makes this a very effective attachment. Resilient makes it so that you can get this back even if it is destroyed or the character is lost. I think that this will see some play in the right decks but that it is not an all-star.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - With all the resilient and cards like Ambushing Ghoul in the set, French Quarter has a high likelihood of triggering reliably. The Issue is that it only adds an from a Shub character, and really, how much more combat or terror do you really need in a Shub deck? I see this being maybe run as a one off in some decks, and in the first few weeks and months when everyone is playing red cards, this can break the ties that may show up, but it’s not overly impressive.
- Danigral - 2/5 - There are two ways I can see this being useful: one is to rig the top card of your deck to ensure you have terror to protect terrorless characters, even in a dual-faction deck; and two is to try to get some arcane on the attack. I would say that adding investigation would be helpful, but there are only 2 Shub characters with investigation. Adding in some versatile Shub characters with multiple icons (think Y’Golonac, Lady Esprit, Lord of the Woods, or Watcher of the Woods) to give some versatility would be good. And the 1 cost fits into both a mono-domain or staggered resource strategy. However, I don’t see this going in over other 1 cost cards that either provide early board presence or resource acceleration.
- dboeren - 3/5 - For a low cost, it’s got a reasonable chance of triggering and your opponent has to worry about what you might get. Resilient plays well with this card, guaranteeing that you can have icons on top. But, because it only works with Shub characters it’s really best for mono decks or decks that splash a second faction mainly for the events/supports.
- Kamacausey - 2/5 - I could see this being "ok" in a mono shub deck but it's still not a guarantee unless you play cards that manipulate the top of your deck and then it becomes more of a chore than a useful effect to get to go off.
- mnBroncos - 2/5 - Not a big fan of this card because it is very limited to how many cards will hit. Have to be a Shub card and then has to also be a character. If you are playing a mono-shub deck it could maybe be a 3/5 but that is too limited of a deck also most of the time only going to add a combat or terror icon. Shub isn’t the most versatile in icons.
- Reckoner - 2/5 - It is good to have additional reveal synergy for cards like Restless Dead, but overall I am underwhelmed by this card. If you can fix the top of your deck (or are in mono Shub) and consistently get additional icons, that is pretty powerful, but most of the time, I think that you would rather just have an additional character to play.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - Gris-Gris isn’t completely useless, but it’s not overly awesome either. I can definitely see maybe running 1-2 in a dedicated Monster or Ghoul deck to keep it night and give some defense power, but while it will help those archetypes, it will always feel like you could be playing something cooler.
- Danigral - 2/5 - This is underwhelming. I could see it being very annoying, and is an interesting way to give arcane icons in a balanced way to Shub. It may let you prevent an opponent winning arcane struggles on attack to open up opportunities on your turn, but most of the time I think this will be too situational use. At least you can have an ensured Night card if your deck is built around it.
- dboeren - 2/5 - Let’s face it, this card is mostly there to make it Night for cheap and to be able to restore Night even if it gets destroyed. If your deck really relies on Night then congrats, you’ve got it on lockdown (and Arcane is a bonus). If not, pass this one by.
- Kamacausey - 1/5 - There are so many better ways to make it night that it really isn't that relevant and the ability the attachment gives is underwhelming to say the least. I don't see this attachment seeing much play.
- mnBroncos - 2/5 - Making it Night is important in many of what Shub decks want to be doing. Also, gain icons in a weakness of theirs is nice. Still don’t see this getting played in competitive decks but is interesting.
- Reckoner - 2/5 - Due to the conditional nature of the gaining of Arcane icons, I think that this is mostly going to see play as a cheap and repeatable (Resilient) way to make it Night. If you expect a lot of Agency Day decks, this is a fantastic counter to Basilica.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - This is a tool for mill and weird combo decks, and a strong one at that, but doesn’t do much of anything for most decks, because it doesn’t do much to change clocks on stories unless something like Patsy or Baleful Dark Young is sucking success tokens off of stories. Thank goodness it is unique, but because of that, it doesn’t have much impact outside weird brews.
- Danigral - 3/5 - I really like this. It’s flavorful and helps slow the game down for slower decks, especially if you are defending a lot to try to build up. Yes, if you let stories go unopposed, it changes practically nothing: monster decks still can get a story in 3 turns, and human decks in 2. But if you defend - even chump-defend - suddenly the math changes. Now it adds at least 1-3 turns per story, which gives your deck time to ramp up its resources for the late game.
- dboeren - 3/5 - A reasonable slowdown card for cheap if you don’t want to use Negotium, Elspeth Baudin, or Lady Esprit.
- Kamacausey - 3/5 - I like cards that slow the game down. How much this card slows the game down remains to be seen but it's nice that something like this exists nonetheless.
- mnBroncos - 3/5 - Slowing the game down is nice for almost every Shub deck. They are not a fast deck and isn’t one of the factions to pair with most of the time with your rush strategies. So any cards that help slow down the pace is worth considering in Shub decks.
- Reckoner - 3/5 - This is a card that is meant to buy you time to set up a late game. That can be some combo or simply trying to ramp into Ancient Ones and I am all for trying to make Ancient Ones more viable.
- BanalityBob - 4/5 - Oh look, another card that makes The Festival even better. Favor of Eshu is a decent draw engine and funny trick to play on an opponent’s domain, but with The Festival in play, it is a draw and tutor engine like no other, and let’s be honest, if you’re playing Shub, The Festival is probably your restricted card. This will have a huge impact on the game.
- Danigral - 4/5 - Even without the cool Festival combo, this is great late game card advantage when your deck is tanking out and top decking. Most Shub decks only need to build up to 5+ resources just to play that one fatty once, and the rest of the game are overpaying. This lets you turn over-resourced domains into a second, safer hand, and has cool implications for early game resourcing too.
- dboeren - 4/5 - Of course everyone dreams of burning down their opponent’s big domain by attaching it to their domain but you’ll only have a faction match maybe 1/4th of the time so don’t rely on it. I could easily see this getting an errata to only work on your domains too but for now enjoy it. It’s especially good later in the game when your hand is small or you have enough ramp/discount that you may not need big domains anymore.
- Kamacausey - 4/5 - This card alone will create new deck types and that is enough to warrant the rating on its own. However, the versatility that this card provides of being able to play your cards or your opponents, providing you have the resource match, is awesome. Late game you can apply it to your own domain and use it as an extension of your hand to get back useful cards. The only drawback is the fact that it's an attachment support card and therefore is easily dealt with. Overall though I give it two thumbs up!
- mnBroncos - 4/5 - This is only a 4 while it can be attached to an opponent's domain if that wasn’t the intent and missed being caught in editing and get a quick errata this is a 3/5. It is card advantage though and could actually still be a four when play it on your own domain. I do think if you can put this on opponents though and have matching icons you can do a lot of damage to your opponent. At worse though late game you have a virtual bigger hand at the cost of long term resources.
- Reckoner - 4/5 - This is a really powerful card, much better than Ghoul Tunnels. It makes one of your domains an extension of your hand that cannot be targeted by discard effects like Greatest Fear and gives you amazing tutoring power with The Festival. I would not be surprised if this is at some point limited to only it’s owner’s domains, but even then this is the fixed version of Twilight Gate. If this is not limited with a FAQ entry, then it can even form the basis of a prison type deck that eats up an opponent’s domain.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - A resounding meh. Cool, you can sorta tutor, but the card you’re searching for goes to the top of your deck, so you don’t even get it for a turn. It is cool to kill off your Festival and reveal another Festival to ramp, but that’s about the only really good application unless your meta is overrun by Location support cards.
- Danigral - 4/5 - This is great location control. It’s free and buys you at least a turn from the negative effects of a location, which your opponent has to redraw (effectively at -1 card) and replay (for a tempo loss). Hastur plays 70 Steps? Ain’t no thing. Flooded Vault tutor got you down? Nope. Hall of Champions messing up your groove? Twist it away.
- dboeren - 1/5 - Unless you have a combo revolving around destroying your own Locations, it’s too situational and there’s a good chance your opponent will replace the Location with another copy of the same one - accomplishing little.
- Kamacausey - 3/5 - I'll admit it, when I first looked at this card I rated it a 1 because I felt like it was sub par support card destruction. However, now that I've had some time to stew over it I rate it much more highly for two reasons: one, it can be used as a way for you to gather a ton of information about your opponent's deck and what he's trying to accomplish because players usually only have like 3 cards in their decks that are location support cards so when you destroy one of their locations you will get to see a good chunk (if not all) of their deck and two, it can be used as a pseudo tutor to go get your own location support card that you're looking for. I think this card needs be looked at in a different light than your typical support destruction.
- mnBroncos - 3/5 - Late game forcing your opponent to lose a location and then forcing them to draw into a support not a character could be a big deal. I’d try this card around in a heavy board reset deck with Plague Stones, etc.
- Reckoner - 2/5 - There are two ways to look at this card. One as a tempo play to remove an opponent’s location. In that capacity, it does not compare with Shub’s other options such as Thunder in the East, Burrowing Beneath, and Grasping Chthonian. The second way is to use this on your own support as a tutor. If this gets used, I think it more likely to be in this capacity. Two things to consider, this can set the top card of your deck and this will be a tempo loss. If you need the former, or can deal with the latter this may be the card for you.
- BanalityBob - 1 /5 - In the world of Shub support destruction, you can do much better. Burrowing Beneath, Thunder in the East, and Grasping Chthonian are all better cards to slot into your deck. The only reason I can see running this is if your meta is overrun by Dreamlands location support decks (if those are even a thing) where Guardian Pillar and Cavern of Flame seem to constantly be in play ruining your day. Even then, I’d rather have another support destruction card instead most of the time.
- Danigral - 1/5 - Not only situational, but kind of boring. “Hmmm, I’ve already got these great events that destroy supports already, but I really need one for all those great supports that exhaust!†Said no one.
- dboeren - 1/5 - Another faction might use this, but Shub has better and it’s as costly as a better card like Burrowing Beneath. Just too few supports rely on exhausting to make me want to pick this over something else. Maybe if it was cheaper...
- Kamacausey - 1/5 - I got nothing for this one lol! It's a disaster so maybe that could be relevant with the Cthulhu chick that messes with your opponent's resources when a disaster is played but that's just reaching. I would much rather have shubs standard support destruction in this slot every time.
- mnBroncos - 2/5 - Situational all-star, however, most of the time will play the consistent support removal over this.
- Reckoner - 2/5 - A support card sweeper is an interesting idea, and this card will allow you to do that while preserving your own supports, though you won’t be able to use any that require exhausting for a turn. Most of the time, I think that Shub’s other support destruction will be included over this card. Now if you meta is overrun by supports that exhaust, this is the card to use.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - Don’t get me wrong, this is super powerful. Extremely powerful, but it requires a deck built around it. With a lot of tough monsters (Rend, Jaguar Warrior, and Albino Goat Spawn come to mind) and a good way to get wounds like Pervasive Toxemia, it is an amazing late game board wipe, but it is loyal and requires a specific deck in which it is most likely a one of, so I’m rating it low.
- Danigral - 4/5 - A one sided board wipe if you have toughness. Several of the standard stock Shub characters have toughness like Twilight Cannibal and Ghoulish Predator, but in this box we now have Jean, Rend, and let’s not forget Mi-Go now. This will be very annoying.
- dboeren - 3/5 - Certainly a card that you build your deck around but if you can pull it off you’ve likely just won the game. It also effectively limits you to a mono deck but if you’re already building around it then don’t let that bother you too much. If we ever see a card that lets you play the next card ignoring Loyal this one will be near the top of my list to try out with it.
- Kamacausey - 4/5 - You pretty much have no choice but to play a mono shub deck that builds around this card but it's a doozie of an event and one worth looking into for sure. Shub have a ton of characters with toughness so it should be no problem to find good targets for this card.
- mnBroncos - 2/5 - Really the Loyal on a four cost card is what makes it a 2 to me instead of a 3 and maybe even a 4. I could see decks that add toughness or just basically have toughness combined with the ancient one that wounds everyone and then you being able to remove your wounds to do it again later is a solid thing to build around, however, with this being loyal you’d have to probably do this in a mono-shub deck and at the point may not be strong enough to get there.
- Reckoner - 3/5 - This card is incredibly powerful, but that power comes at the cost of 4 loyal which really limits options. This card will see play, not in every deck, but there will be a deck built around this and this card will win games.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - You could be playing better conspiracies. I suppose Mi-Go decks might make okay use of this, but even there, with no investigation or arcane struggles, this is a slow to win conspiracy that doesn’t enable playing much defense.
- Danigral - 2/5 - I don’t think this will see much play. The problem with these types of conspiracies (Ancient Plans is another), is that they kind of require good defense and offense: you want to win the story, but it’s slow to win so you are on the defensive right away. If you build around it you might get a nice score, but then you’re still limited by your domains what and how much you can play. It might be fun to try to do a Broken Space Broken Time / Shub-Niggurath (The Cacophony) Dark Young deck [insert maniacal cackle] but that’s just … for funsies.
- dboeren - 2/5 - Looks decent with Mi-go where it gives you marvellous flexibility as far as what icons or bonuses you want to add next turn, and the struggles play to Shub’s strengths. With less synergistic themes, I think it’s not quite there yet.
- mnBroncos - 3/5 - Big card advantage card getting even four characters off this card is big deal. Doesn’t have to be Mi-Go go get the three ancient ones in your deck, go get maybe even a one of subtype but game changing you basically get any character or characters you want. Also, a story without arcane and investigation is good things for Shub.
- Kamacausey - 2/5 - The problem with this conspiracy is that it's not bad but there are just better conspiracies to play with, I.e. the other conspiracy in this box or negotium, etc...&
- Reckoner - 2/5 - There are several decks, Mi-Go and Dark Young come to mind, that can make great use of this card. The problem is that after you play this card it is going to be a long time before you get those cards. If tutoring is what you are after, there are better options in Shub. If card advantage is what you need, there are probably also better options.
- BanalityBob - 5/5 - This is one of the cards that will make the most impact on the meta, and a good contender for the best conspiracy in the game (Negotium and The Great Work watch your backs, this is coming for you). Decks that aren’t prepared to deal with it will lose in short order, and even with some toughness on the opposing side of the table, you’re probably going to be taking advantage of this effect instead of mitigating it. I expect to see and play this a lot in the coming months.
- Danigral - 4/5 - I’m very hesitant to call a conspiracy meta-shaping especially after not seeing much impact from the awesome conspiracies in the Agency box. However, this is the new Negotium for slowing the game down. It rewards the person who can get ahead in terms of more characters or more toughness, so for the player down and out, it may be too hard to come back. It also really hurts char-lite decks. Black Dog though, still a champ. Or anything that can get around the commit framework window.
- dboeren - 4/5 - Very solid conspiracy and ups the playability of any Tough characters (which Shub has plenty of) or cards that grant Tough like Dutch Courage. Should be a popular card for those running Conspiracy based decks.
- Kamacausey - 5/5 - Now this is a conspiracy I can get behind! You will feel this conspiracy as soon as it hits the table and if you aren't prepared for it you might be packing it in early. I am curious to see how much abuse people will find for this conspiracy.
- mnBroncos - 4/5 - Is meta shaping in a way that may want to add some toughness that use to overlook or more lower cost characters just to be able to throw away. Is a very strong card but doesn’t force the game one way as much as you’d think. Most rush decks often have a character they can throw away in order to commit and you’d also have to wound a character in order to defend. This will hurt yourself more than you expect.
- Reckoner - 5/5 - This card is going to define decks and could potentially define the meta. This will either slow that game down or just reinforce the power of recursion. A deck built around this could be very annoying to play against. As a conspiracy there are very few answers to this card and numerous ways to find it and abuse it. Toughness and things that grant toughness are only the beginning. You need to be prepared for this card.
BanalityBob - I switched from Magic: the Gathering to Call of Cthulhu just back in March of 2015, but I bought in hard, and it’s easily my favorite card game. I’ve gotten top four in several local tournaments and even won a few times at our local game night.
Danigral - I started hoarding Call of Cthulhu the same time as A Game of Thrones, back in 2010. While I played AGoT more competitively, I’ve harbored a secret love for CoC and played it casually and competitively for over 4 years, winning a number of store championships and placing top 4 at Worlds 2014.
dboeren - Call of Cthulhu was my first card game, I actually came up through boardgaming and then miniatures gaming rather than Magic, which I always saw as a rip-off. But, I really like the LCG model and the theme of Cthulhu, and after having played all the other LCGs I feel it’s got the best mechanics too. The highest I’ve placed so far is 2nd at Gencon before losing a nail-biter to Tom Capor.
Kamacausey - I got into Call of Cthulhu back in 2012 after receiving a book filled with H.P. Lovecraft's short stories and falling in love with the lore. I've played numerous different card games over the years but Call of Cthulhu offers unique gameplay that is unmatched anywhere else. It has kept me coming back for more and more and in turn has led me to multiple top 4's at the national championships, 2 store championship titles and 2 regional championship titles.
mnBroncos - I got into Call of Cthulhu right after worlds 2013. I am a newer player, however, have experience with over ten different card games and I dove head first into this amazing game. In the three tournaments I been able to do I’ve taken 2nd twice and going 3-1 last year at worlds finishing fifth and just missing the cut due to strength of schedule because was paired down twice. I write the Great Cthulhu articles (may come back sometime) and even though I don’t get to play this game as much as I would like I have a deep passion for this amazing game.
Reckoner - I began playing Call of Cthulhu in 2013 after learning the game from Wilbur. Before that I had been a competitive Magic the Gathering player. I have played many games, but Call of Cthulhu is by far the most enjoyable 1v1 game that I have found. I have won several store tournaments and made top 8 at the 2014 US Nationals.
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16 Comments
It seems like you're hitting the same problem you had in Part 1 when you get to Part 3. There are 21 non-Shub cards in the box, which will hit the same 20 image limit as last time. Maybe you should've done the neutral cards now too.
Conspiracies that matter! That's the ticket.
I don't agree with the assessment of Ghoul Tunnels. Sure it's out there for your opponent to see, but there isn't that much Support hate being played, and there's likely better targets, and it creates challenges for an opponent to track the state of your domains as well as the game. But more importantly, it fills several roles:
1) At the very least, it's a way to get those "damned if you do / damned if you don't" early resourced characters back into play, if only for a minute. Additionally, Shub-Ramp tends to accidentally drop key cards onto Domains. This gives you access (at least for a turn) to key characters you 'accidentally' resourced.
2) It isn't specific to an affiliation, and can turn your domains into character-toolboxes. Especially combined with the in-faction Festival.
3) Instant-speed characters, of basically any size is never a downside. Especially when the character has a textbox. Cards like Jeramiah Kirby, James Logan, or can make huge impact. Heck, a 2-cost Lord Jeffrey Farrington, at instant speed, who then bounces himself seems pretty solid?
4) Shub has too many ways to interact with the discard pile for this to be a downside. Ferocious Dark Young come to mind as an obvious low-tech combo, but Corrupted Midwife is already playable, and now has more targets.
5) Cards with Resiliant will love it.
It's not a 5, I could argue it is a 4, but it's better than a 2 . . .
One last item, very combo-y, but I like it: Combined with Necronomicon allows for a swarm on command, without having to ramp to domain larger than 2.
I also don't think you're giving Dark Sargassum enough credit. The fact that he can pull out a Baka that you've placed on top of your deck is pretty nice. Also, he can be the target of a Shocking Transformation.
Now that we have the Clarification on Favor of Eshu that it can only be attached to your domains, the comments / scores might need to be revised
It's still a useful card to have. Once you have set up your domain spread you can pretty much tutor a card every single turn with the Festival. I will try to see if this it still worth it without the shenanigans, might be too slow (well, so were the shenanigans, Favor of Eshu and Theosophist are two 2 drops that add pretty much nothing to your board), though, and is pretty much useless in the first turns.
I rated Favor of Eshu what I did based solely on wanting to attach it to my domains. The interaction with your opponent's stuff was interesting, but I'd rather increase my deck's consistency by playing cards I resourced (and then replacing them with Festival).
I rated Favor of Eshu as if it had already been nerfed.
I'd drop my rating by like .5 Still powerful card. I think all of us assumed we couldn't put it on an opponents domain.
First of all, thank you to the reviewers for taking the time to do this.
Secondly, the scores have been added as comments to all of the cards, so even if people don't see the review, or as things move on and this falls off the front page, they will be visible.
Thirdly, mnBroncos, I must say seeing your score for Black Goat's Milk surprised me. I'm not saying you are wrong, as the point of the review is to have different perspectives. It just isn't a card I would expect to see treated as below average, let alone be given the lowest score! Always good to have a devil's advocate however
I thought the same at first, in fact I initially gave it a 4 I think. And then I played more with it. It not only costs 2 to play, but then you have to drain another domain, so the character you get is not only temporary, but it also could cost anything from 3+ (your largest domain) to 1 (and then you have an empty domain after that which you must build up again). Yes, it gives you a character for a turn (much like Twilight Gate), but that character then goes to your discard - where it's not impossible to interact with, but is a sure sight less than having a resource.
Its probably really a 2 just gave it a 1 because everyone else was giving it way to high scores ha. I just don't see ever using it. 50 card decks are hard there is so many good cards especially in Shub that I don't ever see wasting space in my deck for a card that just makes a character better, I'd rather have another character. If it added a combat or terror challenge be better as right now the only attachments I have ever seen get played are rush decks that add investigation. Also resellent on an attachment is a joke why would that be the card you'd want to draw late game?
I think I play too many other games, because I can't remember the timing on this. Can't you target a character on an already-exhausted domain here? Also, while I do agree with everything you're saying, I'm still pretty satisfied with a large character on the opponent's turn. Especially with the recent FAQ
I included x3 copies of the Black Goat's Milk in an ST/Shub deck I played at regionals, and I was almost always happy to see it. Early game it gave weaker characters like Zanni a free boost, and the toughness helped with Pervasive Toxemia. At zero cost it's very efficient, the resilient is optional (and cuts down somehwat on the 2-for-1 effect of attachments), and if I let it go to the discard pile it was easy enough to bring back with BRB should I need it. My resource structuring was 3-1-1 so having ample low (or no) cost cards to play to maximize my domains was important.
I agree that drawing another character is generally what you want to see, but that's not always the answer. A free bump to an existing character to slow down a rush deck (again, Zanni was a good target for this card, though Keeper of the Silver Sphere was fun too) can help stabilize your board position while you set up your combo. I also saw Goat's Milk used to great effect with Mi-Go Worker, or on Mi-Go Scout or Ageless Mi-Go to give them some protection if Mi-Go Skull wasn't in play.
It's definitely not flashy, and I almost cut it entirely, but my brother (who likes attachment supports) suggested I keep it in the deck and it was a good call. I would often play Priestess of Bubastis first knowing she was a prime candidate for removal (typically DOA), then throw down Pervasive Toxemia, Keeper of the Silver Sphere or Zanni with the Goat's Milk attached. That made life tough for my opponent in the early game.