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1
The Thousand Young Review, Part 3
Jul 21 2015 04:00 PM |
Danigral
in Articles
Call of Cthulhu CoC Shub Shub-Niggurath Nyarlathotep Deluxe The Thousand Young
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 third and last of three parts: the neutral and other factions' cards.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!
- BanalityBob - 3/5 - It’s a cheap-ish avatar, and that alone warrants the rating. His investigation icon and ability are icing, and using new Nyarly to pop him unopposed to a story will get three success tokens. He’s not a terrible body on his own, although he’s not good by a long stretch, and his ability can put a stop to some shenanigans in a pinch. Overall, a pretty good but not phenomenal character that helps fill in a gap in a new archetype.
- Danigral - 3/5 - Ankou will end up being as good as Nyarlathotep’s engine. The investigation unopposed using Nyarlathotep may make this a great combo, especially when you can play Nyarlathotep turn 1 if you get Handmaid/Ankou/Nyarly. He is also a huge threat to any decks that revolve on discard recursion strategy (Mi-Go, Yithian Scouts-mill/sac combo,
- dboeren - 2/5 - Right now he’s only that useful with Nyarlathotep and it remains to be seen whether that’s worth anything. His ability would have been useful against the Yithians a year ago, but currently isn’t anything too exciting. Could go up though..
- Kamacausey - 3/5 - I really like this guy because he gives us a character with an ability that is useful. While not overly impressive stat wise, you're mostly going to be playing him for the ability anyway. This guy will def see some play. The fact that he's an avatar and works with the new nyarlathotep is just a bonus.
- mnBroncos - 2/5 - Will be very strong in some matchups but awful in others. Also, it isn’t win succeed at a story only win you win a story with him so it may happen to late in this strong matchups to late. I think will be tried in some games but don’t think good enough overall to be a real strong card in current meta.
- Reckoner - 3/5 - If the Nyarlathotep engine is a thing this will see play. As a solo character outside of that engine, he is only ok. There are better and cheaper ways to nuke your opponent’s discard pile and many far better 3 cost neutrals.
- BanalityBob - 4/5 - Clearly this is a superpowerful Ancient One, especially because with Handmaiden and one of the three drop avatars, he can come out turn one. However, he requires a lot of building around. That’s not necessarily bad, but with Rite of the Silver Gate running around, I’m reserving judgement before giving him a 5. He’s definitely a powerful card though, and he excites my inner deck-brewer.
- Danigral - 4/5 - I really like that this Nyarlathotep is very different from his other version, not just a weakened variation to make it unrestricted. It really pulls together the theme of different aspects of the many-faced ancient one. Out of Yog and Shub, using Handmaid and the two 3 cost Avatars (Ankou and Claude Owen) you can potentially get him out turn 1, at which point he would be very hard to combat without some sort of hand destruction or very high skill to successfully block him. However, the odds for that are low. His ability will let you put an Avatar into play at a story unopposed, so immediately I jump to Harley Warren for his ability to get you 3 tokens on his own, plus another token at each other story. That’s very impressive.
- dboeren - 4/5 - Very good Ancient One that can come out unexpectedly early and keep coming back. He’s got his own deck archetype too, which is pretty sweet. I’m interested to see whether Avatar decks will be a thing or not, but it’s certainly going to be fun for casual play.
- Kamacausey - 4/5 - Obviously this is an ancient one that needs to be built around but it has a powerful and game shifting ability. I look forward to seeing what avatar decks people can come up with to get maximum usage out of the crawling chaos.
- mnBroncos - 3/5 - A strong ancient one, only reason not rating him as high as the other reviewers is I am not a fan of many of the avatars so I think he is a stretch to see much play.. However, any Ancient One that has built in protection because of being an AO that can get in for only 2 will definitely be experimented with.
- Reckoner - 4/5 - This rating is mostly based on possibility. If you can get his engine set up going, he is amazing. Who doesn’t love unopposed stories? The trick is going to be getting that engine going.
- BanalityBob - 4/5 - Why yes, I would like a new Meiger target that essentially draws me cards. This is a cheap, good source of card advantage, and the fact that you can attach it to your opponent’s deck to play cards from your opponent’s deck is pretty cool. I can see trying to slot this into most of my decks in the coming months, and it’s probably going to be a common sight for the near future.
- Danigral - 4/5 - Even in most simplistic terms, this is essentially a 1-cost card draw, en par with something like Syndicate’s Gun Runner’s Club, but cheaper. It can also protect you in a pinch from Peter Clover and his ilk.
- dboeren - 4/5 - This is a really cool card and sure to be annoying to your opponent if you play it on their deck. It acts like pseudo-card draw and some filtering combined.
- Kamacausey - 5/5 - Tom hit another home run with this little gem. The only drawback is that it's neutral but that's also a positive so I can't knock it for that. What deck wouldn't want to make use of cheap card draw essentially? Also, being able to mess with your opponents plans makes it that much better.
- mnBroncos - 4/5- If you had all turn to play it this would be one of the best cards in the game period. But since a fair amount of events won’t be able to play during operation phase for ideal success won’t be as bonkers at it could be. With that said this will be played a lot. Its neutral card that basically gives an extra card a turn.
- Reckoner - 5/5 - This is a card that can truly drop into any deck. It is inexpensive card advantage and creates some interesting choices. Do you play this on your own deck or do you gamble and attach it to your opponent’s deck? Also, this provides a reveal effect for the top card of your deck, which has a lot of synergy with the cards in this box.
- BanalityBob - 5/5 - This is not just the best avatar, but a fantastic Agency character. He blanks Rite of the Silver Gate, the bane of high cost characters everywhere, turns off your opponents’ Stygian Eyes, Festivals, and Bound and Gagged and still allows you access to your own support. His icons aren’t fantastic, but he has investigation, which is a plus, and he is resilient and thus kinda hard to deal with. The only real downsides are his cost and the fact that he is villainous, but both of those can be circumvented by proper deck construction.
- Danigral - 4/5 - I really like this idea because it simultaneously plays into Agency strengths but in counter-thematic ways. Agency is “the support faction†having a lot of attachments and ways to manipulate them...also locations. This guy turns that on his head, making you want to run almost no critical supports, or at most 1 critical support (not counting those that are immune like San Marco). Also, since he’s villainous he doesn’t want to go in the same deck as a few of Agency’s most popular characters. This will really impact the meta because you won’t want to run a ton of supports.
- dboeren - 4/5 - The timing can get a little odd sometimes, but it’s a very solid card and fits right into Agency’s new “no shenanigans†theme. Shuts down all sorts of problems. However, Villainous can be a minor issue for some Agency decks so watch out for that...
- Kamacausey - 5/5 - This was the one card that I saw when I first looked through the set initially that I was like OMG when I first read it. This card seems to me like it could have the most effect on the meta. Any card that can turn off plague stone, khopesh, festival, rite of the silver gate, stygian eye, etc... is definitely worth taking a look at and very powerful. The only way to get rid of him is through event card removal and even then he is resilient so it will only prolong him from making a return the following turn.
- mnBroncos - 4/5- 4 cost, Villainous, and you're limiting your own support cards is all negatives to this card. However, this card is amazing. One of the strongest cards for sure in the box but it isn’t an auto-include by any means in many Agency decks.Reckoner - 4/5 - This guy is amazing. He single handedly stops so many decks in their tracks that it is hard not to give him a 5; however, he does cost 4 and the Villainous trait which clashes with all of Agency’s Heroic guys keep him from getting top marks.
- BanalityBob - 1/5 - Despite obvious interactions with Gris-Gris and The Black Goat’s Milk, just playing enough attachments for this to be viable means that your deck is less full of cards to actually put the attachments on. I can maybe see this in an Agency Khopesh deck, but probably as a one of at most.
- Danigral - 3/5 - If you have ways to manipulate the top of your deck (there are several out of Yog and MU, not counting resilient) then this is both card and resource advantage, which is hard to not explore. The cool thing is that you can do positive and negative attachments. Bound and Gagged, Dark Passenger, Infernal Obsession. You could put Frozen Time on a character for free. All with just a little bit of manipulation. It will take some clever deck construction, but I anticipate someone will break this and it’s good there’s a limit.
- dboeren - 2/5 - An OK card but it seems like you really need to build round it to make it worth its salt and I question whether it’s good enough to be worth the trouble. You need to be getting some extra mileage out of your reveals to justify this card so look for team-ups that make this possible.
- Kamacausey - 2/5 - Like all the faction support cards in this set, they want you to build your deck a certain way to gain maximum usefulness. Maybe there's a deck out there that will abuse this card but I don't see it. Attachment support cards are usually inferior because of the two-for-one you suffer when your character that has the attachment on dies but we shall see.
- mnBroncos - 2/5- situational card advantage, free cards, no resource match, and only one cost support card. It isn’t blowing me away but isn’t awful either.
- Reckoner - 1/5 - Attachments in general don’t see a lot of play and when you are constructing a deck you generally don’t want to include a ton of them anyway. If you can manipulate the top card of your deck, this may be useful. After all, I do love free stuff. But to me, the juice is just not worth the squeeze with this one.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - This is easily the most thoroughly underwhelming avatar. Its keyword and possession of the fast and resilient keywords make it a 2/5, but I’d rather play 3x of any other avatar before even thinking about slotting one of The Bloody Tongue.
- Danigral - 3/5 - This is about en par for its cost. The fast helps bring it up a little and makes for a solid defender. The losing toughness will be situational at most, but could really make your opponent think about committing attackers without additional combat soak. As much as people were hyping Pervasive Toxemia, something to remove toughness may be a very good meta-call. Is this as good as Ravager? No, but Ravager is restricted; this isn't.
- dboeren - 2/5 - Somebody’s Avatar had to be the stinker, and it looks like Cthulhu drew the short straw. Canceling Toughness is a very niche ability, not really worth it. You’re either taking him for Avatar or you’re not taking him.
- Kamacausey - 2/5 - I'm not impressed by this avatar at all. Stat wise he's ok with fast but there are so many better cards to play over this guy. The avatar synergy and resilient keep him from being a 1.
- mnBroncos - 1/5- with how big card pool is this guy is completely out classed already.
- Reckoner - 2/5 - Underwhelming. For a cost of 4, you need a payoff. Losing toughness? That’s a joke. The only thing that keeps this from a 1 is the possibility of some Avatar synergy.
- BanalityBob - 1/5 - Even though Cthulhu is low on card draw, there are still cards that I’d much rather play (like the Archmage’s Attache which is basically a better version of this). This is so limited that I’d probably never include it in a deck or even consider it for inclusion.
- Danigral - 1/5 - So events are at most one-third of your deck, but event cards - as a card type - are very particular. You don’t typically just want to play it at any given time or let your opponent know it’s there ready to be played. But that aside, which Cthulhu events do you want to include? Deep One Assault...Sacrificial Offering? Um, Get it Off? Foul Induction maybe? Just not a lot of great auto-include candidates.
- dboeren - 1/5 - Cthulhu isn’t known for their awesome events, and having them revealed removes the surprise value that makes up a big part of an event’s value. Pass.
- Kamacausey - 1/5 - Events are one of the least included cards in decks nowadays and this card is dependent on Cthulhu specific ones. The risk does not equal the reward on this location...
- mnBroncos - 1/5 - This limiting itself to Cthulhu events really hurts it, also unlike the agency one that is attachments that only play in one phase with events some require different phases.
- Reckoner- 1/5 - There just aren’t enough really good Cthulhu events that this is even remotely playable. Also, this broadcasts the trick that you have so your opponent can play around it, which limits the usefulness of this card even further to primarily proactive events. Cthulhu as a faction gets very little in this box.
- BanalityBob - 3/5 - After the Hastur box comes out, this will probably get a lot better, and as one of the better ways of removing Willpower and terror icons, this is already a step in the right direction for Hastur cards. It still suffers from high cost and Hastur’s lack of combat and investigation icons, but it has potential to be a strong finisher for insanity heavy yellow decks.
- Danigral - 3/5 - A solid character for Hastur I guess, even though Hastur doesn’t have a great character base to compare it to. I can see this in a slower, defensive Hastur deck building up to playing Broken Space or maybe up to 6 for Hastur. But even with a bit of combat, he is making one dude insane before he eats it, perhaps necessitating adding some combat somehow...Tommygun(?!). Still it’s a step in the right direction for Hastur.
- dboeren - 4/5 - I’m being a little optimistic on this one but I think once the Hastur box is out he’s going to be pretty sweet. Even now, he’s reasonable for your insanity-causing decks or Lunatic builds but look for him to be popular in a few months.
- Kamacausey - 3/5 - A very nice ability on a mediocre body. At least he's an avatar with resilient. Time will tell if this guy will see any play or not.
- mnBroncos - 3/5 - the only thing I don’t like about this guy is the loss of A terror icon, meaning characters with two or more terror are still immune. However, is a solid card and would probably go in a significant amount of Hastur decks focused on terror.
- Reckoner - 3/5 - Hastur being a faction all about insanity has always struggled with the fact that there are two things Willpower and a Terror icon that can wreck your plans. Well this Avatar takes care of both of those things. He doesn’t have the best icons, but his ability, for this faction, is something that was missing. Still, Hastur normally doesn’t want to ramp to 4, so the rating is a bit low. He may also see much more play after the Hastur box is released.
- BanalityBob - 3/5 - Again, once the Hastur Box comes out, this will most likely be stronger. As it is, Lunatics are one of the stronger themes in Hastur, and Treme gives them a strong tool to get around pesky willpowered and terror icon bearing characters. The fact that is repeatable means that yellow lunatic decks might actually be a dangerous thing once Hastur gets a box of his own.
- Danigral - 2/5 - This may seem awesome, but try to throw it into a “lunatic†deck. The reality is there aren’t that many great lunatics, and if you are putting in stuff like Painter of Delusion and Old Man of the Woods and such, you will really suck at struggles. Even if you put in more lunatics than Diva and Inmate and Jeff, you may get to hit this 1 in 3 times. Maybe we’ll get some better lunatics in The Mark of Madness.
- dboeren - 3/5 - Clearly only useful in Lunatic themed decks, but a decent card in those and I’d speculate that we get at least a few decent new Lunatics in the Hastur box coming up.
- Kamacausey - 3/5 - Probably the best faction location from this box, but like all the other faction locations it requires you to build your deck a certain way to make best use of it.
- mnBroncos - 4/5 - in a lunatic deck this card is one of the best cards in the whole deck, target any character ignore AO, terror icons, and willpower this card is very strong if can trigger it even remotely reliably.
- Reckoner - 3/5 - This rating will likely go up after the Hastur box is released because I suspect that we will get some new powerful lunatics at that point. This is also an answer to Hastur’s weakness as a faction. I am really close to giving this a 4, but the current lack of great lunatics makes me feel that currently this is a 3.
- BanalityBob - 3/5 - Harley is a strong avatar, especially with the new Nyarly’s second ability to drop him unopposed at a story. He’ll rack up quite a few success tokens for you in short order. In straight Miskatonic decks, he’s probably a bit too expensive, but the effect is strong enough that I might try to slot him in anyways.
- Danigral - 3/5 - So he probably won’t go in just any MU deck because of lack of synergy with traits and such, but he will be my go-to Avatar to abuse with the new Nyarlathotep (see above.)
- dboeren - 3/5 - A bit pricy, but can give you a nice leg up and help you steal a story. Seems a little pricy for what you get, but part of his value is being an Avatar of course and you can drop him by surprise with Nyarlathotep and create a bit of a snowball effect.
- Kamacausey - 3/5 - A powerful avatar for sure but will see no play outside of the avatar based deck.
- mnBroncos - 2/5 - I think MU rush decks already have better cards, and cheaper ones than what this guy is bringing to the deck. Is a fun deck and maybe solid in a version with a limited card pool but I don’t think the ideal character for the deck. Maybe in a weird MU delayed rush deck that uses some control elements in the early part of the game.
- Reckoner - 3/5 - This is one of the more abusable Avatars to put into play with Nyarlathotep’s ability. He has the potential to put out an absurd number of tokens. He just doens’t fit into a traditional Miskatonic deck.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - In a straight Miskatonic deck, this can ready Ultima Thule or the Archmage’s Attache for a faster clock or more card advantage, and Archaeology Interns can help manipulating the top of your deck. I can definitely see running a copy or two in new Explorer decks, but I fear it’s of limited enough use that it won’t see much play.
- Danigral - 1/5 - Put simply, this doesn’t do enough for all the trouble it would require to get to work. I get to ready one character once a turn? Yippee? Yes, MU does have Archaeology Interns, but other than that not a lot of great ways to seed the top card in-faction. And I don’t know if you noticed, but the faculty-student ratio is a little off at Miskatonic. There are like, 2 professors for every student. Anyway, not a lot of either that are what I consider good enough so that when you mash them together they make a great “Faculty/Student†deck.
- dboeren - 1/5 - Too conditional for my tastes, and only usable in a specific theme.
- Kamacausey - 1/5 - This is a good example of what a useless faction location looks like. For anyone to play with one of these faction locations entire decks have to synergize around the idea and like most of the factions locations in this box it isn't good enough for what the card wants you to do with your deck.
- mnBroncos - 1/5 - won’t trigger all the time and only get to ready a character. Don’t think this will ever see real play.
- Reckoner - 1/5 - Though this card is inexpensive to play, the ability is not that great. This card would work best with a powerful card like Ultima Thule, but Thule has no synergy with Faculty and Students.
- BanalityBob - 1/5 - Are there really any Silver Twilight support cards so important that you want to include sub par characters to protect them? I thought not. Neat art. Next.
- Danigral - 2/5 - Not a great character, but if you have supports that you really want to keep around, this can help. It may make a deck that wants to use Twilight Lodge better since you don’t have to worry about it getting hit as much, or those expensive rituals.
- dboeren - 2/5 - Silver Twilight has pretty poor Supports. There, I said it. Someday you might be able to make some pretty decent Ritual based decks, and Ritual of Power is decent and basically Meiger’s last big play, but for now he’s pretty niche. Just keep him in the back pocket and hope for someday..
- Kamacausey - 2/5 - If this guy saved any support card he would be very playable but only being able to save silver twilight ones makes him meh at best.
- mnBroncos - 3/5 - I actually really like this game, although kind of bias from similar characters in other games. Sacking a character to save a support card has been strong abilities in the past. Sure Silver Twilight doesn’t have some of the best Support cards but maybe with some more protection can experiment with more expensive supports. Also, all it takes is for one new support for Silver Twilight that is very strong for this guy to be a key character. One cost and ability isn’t to bad.
- Reckoner - 1/5 - I suppose if you build a deck around one of the ST Rituals then this is an okay way to protect it. Otherwise it is just not worth the time. ST has much better 1 cost characters available.
- BanalityBob - 3/5 - I can see a crazy resource destruction deck with Thule Zealot, Torch the Joint!, some transient cards (Local Sheriff, mostly), old Nyarlathotep, and maybe The Blackwood Initiative, and man would it be annoying. He has good icons, good skill, and a relevant subtype. Solid all around. Now let’s see if he finds a home.
- Danigral - 4/5 - With some bouncing like Initiate of Huang Hun or the Doorway, this guy could very well freeze domains for the rest of the game by having him come back turn after turn. This will prove very annoying to decks that want to resource a little higher, but pretty nice for a deck that will only go to 2 resources max. It’s also pretty balanced because it could potentially give your opponent a card back that they want.
- dboeren - 4/5 - Solid guy for rush decks that don’t need a lot of resources and the ability to fetch cards on demand from your domains is quite good. So, you can play him for utility or go for some resource lockdown combo thing as you like.
- Kamacausey -4/5 - This guy's versatility is what makes him so appealing. Being able to help yourself or hinder your opponent all in one card always makes for a potent card.
- mnBroncos - 3/5 - Strong little two cost guy. Sometimes you won’t want to bounce your own resource but if you are going first the ability to put one of your opponents domains to 0 is very strong.
- Reckoner - 4/5 - This guy does a lot of work. He has a lot of synergy with ST bounce effects and could help support a prison/resource destruction deck. He has the potential to be very annoying to play against, especially if you want to ramp to play higher cost bombs. Also, the icons and skill are above average for a 2 cost character and he is a Cultist.
- BanalityBob - 3/5 - Awesome art. There is a lot of fantastic art throughout this set in general, and most of the avatars sport some of the best of it (Walter, Baron Samedi, and Kruschtya Equation especially). Walter is no slouch on his own, either. While your hand is going to be in shambles after he rescues your Lodge characters, he makes them quite hard to kill. While he’s not on par with cards like B. Ramsdale Brown and Josef Meiger, Walter might be a key character in a set or two once Silver Twilight finally hits parity with the other factions.
- Danigral - 2/5 - This guy looks a little too ‘90s grunge for the HPL mythology… Anyway, standard stock icons, a slightly above curve cost, and no trait synergy; even if his ability was any good, he’d be too expensive. The ability though...anything that requires committing to stories to activate doesn’t really matter because most removal can happen any phase.
- dboeren - 3/5 - I think he looks like a Greyjoy wearing a suit, possible teaching a poetry class. Anyway, protecting Lodge characters is pretty handy so I’ll give him a 3. He’s not there to shine himself, he’s there to make sure someone else does.
- Kamacausey - 2/5 - One of the worst avatars imho. His ability isn't that great and it's too situational.
- mnBroncos- 1/5 - Nothing crazy stat wise (icons/skill) for a 4 cost character, and I really hate his ability sure it isn’t a force response but the fact the card is at RANDOM that to me is way too big of a negative for that kind of ability on a four cost character.
- Reckoner - 2/5 - He has one of the better icon stacks for the Avatars, though no resistance to Terror and his ability to save your characters is highly situational. Saving Josef Meiger and thus all of your artifacts and rituals is probably the best scenario and that is just not enough for me.
- BanalityBob - 1/5 - Holy board disadvantage, Batman! While Silver Twilight can spawn cheap characters like Rich Widow, I’m not sure how much you actually want to, especially when the payoff is a card that is dependant on a random reveal off of the top of your deck and returning your board state to your hand.
- Danigral - 1/5 - I’m not saying that this will never, ever possibly be good - it can still, for example, refresh BRB or bounce back Jeffrey or other characters with enters play abilities - but it’s random and you have to have characters on the board for it to work. It seems like ST is kind of centered around 3 cost as the sweet spot, so I don’t think something like this would be worth bouncing 3 characters to your hand to put 1 out. It won’t be worth the loss of board position and the cost to pay to put them back out.
- dboeren - 1/5 - Yikes! This is just super expensive for most uses and not worth the one-in-a-million scenario where it’s going to be exactly what you needed. Plus, only a minority of ST characters (and none in your partner faction) are Lodge anyway.
- Kamacausey - 1/5 - Another useless faction location....
- mnBroncos - 1/5 - Silver Twilights return to hand effects like this are always going to be the worst card ever until some weird combo comes out that breaks the game.
- Reckoner - 1/5 - If ST had a game-ending, world-shattering bomb, I would probably still not use this card to cheat it into play. Board position is incredibly important in the game right now and this card wrecks that.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - Oooh, dormant outside of Chtulhu! Also, this is a nasty, mean, dirty trick, but one that requires so much steadfast that I question whether or not it’s actually playable.
- Danigral - 3/5 - “Hey ST-player, what’s that dormant card you have there? I think I’ll just play around that.†If you have Cthulhu/ST then maybe it’s a bit more uncertain, but you have to be playing some hard core defense/control to build up your domains to 4 ST in a dual-faction deck, or you have to play mono-ST, and I’m not sure mono-ST is there yet, even now. A saving grace is it's a Support, which I didn't realize at first. So once it's out it can stay out on the board and impact the game more.
- dboeren - 2/5 - It would be better if it wasn’t obvious which card it was, they really need to release a second Dormant ST card to go along with this… I can see it creating a nice opening for you though if you can force your opponent to commit heavily to finish off a story.
- Kamacausey -3/5 - It's very cool that dormant is being explored outside of the Cthulhu faction but 4 steadfast is rough. Still, a potent effect that could swing the game in your favor.
- mnBroncos - 4/5 - Unlike the other reviewers I don’t care if my opponent knows what card I have there. If you are not going to a story because of this than that is completely okay for me. Also, it only costs 4 it isn’t like crazy ten cost Cthulhu you can still just play this from hand. I love this card so much. If this only had like 2 steadfast this would be a 5 for me.
- Reckoner - 2/5 - It is interesting to see more Dormant especially outside of Cthulhu. I also like that they made a story (Within the Ice) into a support card. 4 steadfast may be tough to get to, you would need a deck that has a lot of ST. It is definitely a card that could be built around and leveraged to your own advantage.
- BanalityBob - 3/5 - Call the Custodes is a very strong conspiracy in the right deck, because it protects itself while you try to win it. I can definitely see a rush style deck that has heavy Silver Twilight in it want a copy or two of this.
- Danigral -2/5 - Calling Lord Jeffrey Farrington! Calling August Lindquist! Man, I want to play this conspiracy with The Doorway and fish out Jeffrey or August, let them wreck (since they have forced responses they can trigger mid-story) and then bounce one of them back to hand. I love that combo so much I’m giving this higher than this conspiracy likely deserves especially since your opponent would be crazy to attack there at all in the first place. It's much more likely that this conspiracy is meant to turn on your conspirator characters and just stay on the board.
- dboeren - 3/5 - This looks like a pretty cool Conspiracy, you can do a lot of funky things but you’ve got to get some Lodge guys dead or discarded first which is the trick. Maybe run it teamed with Shub and Book of Iod, stuff like that. But there are all sorts of fun surprises you can do. Just remember they aren’t really surprises because your discard is public knowledge
Hey, can I finally play Lodge Enforcer now? - Kamacausey - 2/5 - I like the potential tricks this conspiracy can unveil but I think it's more cutesy than powerful.
- mnBroncos - 2/5 - Need but nothing crazy to me. I am probably not doing the best job as a reviewer though on this card because if there is some Lodge characters with really strong enter play abilities then this could be very strong option.
- Reckoner - 3/5 - I love that this becomes harder to win as you go along. There are also a lot of little tricks that you can use with this card. Another very interesting conspiracy to build around.
- BanalityBob - 4 /5 - Phineas is one of the better Avatars, mostly because he has an investigation icon so that when new Nyarly throws him unopposed to a story he gets three success tokens, and taking away your opponent’s best card in their hand when that happens is a really nice bonus. Also, he’s pretty sweet with David Pan because of all that skill. Just theme wise, I want to play him with The Festival.
- Danigral - 3/5 - So he has great skill and a fantastic ability. But, he’ll pretty much only be played one of two ways: in an Avatar deck for his investigation teaming up with Nyarly, or with Hanyatl’s 12:13 to pop him into play.
- dboeren - 3/5 - Bad icons, but great ability and you can use Hanyatl’s to get him cheap. Certainly worth a try, especially if you can fit Nyarlathotep in to the deck as well.
- Kamacausey - 3/5 - One of the better avatars for sure. Being able to pick apart your opponent's hand is top notch. He is powerful enough that he may even see play outside of an avatar deck.
- mnBroncos - 4/5 - Okay this guys ability is way too strong to ignore I don’t care that he costs 4. This guy can destroy your opponent if he is in play for even 2 turns. I don’t even think need to be a Nyarlathotep deck I’m completely fine with just keeping this guy in play and destroying my opponent's hand.
- Reckoner - 3/5 - He has great skill in a faction that leverages that very well and his ability really powerful. It is also nice that Syndicate has ways to cheat him into play. But he suffers from a lack of synergy with the Criminal trait.
- BanalityBob - 3/5 - Irish Channel is quite playable in character heavy mono-syndicate decks, and it’s a welcome addition, because Syndicate is light on card draw. Drawing from the bottom of the deck means that sometimes it’s more like a tutor too. Not a super excited card, but a really nice support for the archetype it fits into.
- Danigral - 4/5 - In a mono-Syndicate deck this will be a staple. Not always a hit, but you can at least pack the deck with Criminals without sacrificing the efficiency of the deck (unlike Treme).
- dboeren - 4/5 - Fairly reliable card draw for a mono-Syndicate deck, which isn’t a bad thing nor a bad deck type to run. You can combine it with some bottom-deck manipulation or Tactics too, so yeah, I’d use it.
- Kamacausey - 3/5 - The fact that 99.9% of characters in the syndicate faction are criminals makes this location actually playable. I like that it draws from the bottom of the deck too since syndicate already have many ways to put things on the bottom of their deck. Naomi putting immurement on the bottom of the deck and then triggering this location to go get it seems awesome!
- mnBroncos - 3/5 - Syndicate doesn’t have the greatest card draw effects so in an aggressive Criminal deck this card is very strong since you’ll draw a card over fifty percent of the time. It isn’t blowing me away and won’t even find room in all criminal decks but is good card.
- Reckoner - 3/5 - This is pretty much pure card advantage for mono-Syndicate decks as they are primarily built around criminals. It is also nice, because as a faction, Syndicate is terrible at drawing cards and has had to mostly look at other interactions to get any sort of card advantage. Additionally, Syndicate is also one of the only factions that can interact with the bottom of the deck. Just think of using this with Naomi and a Tactic. You will pretty much be able to use that tactic during every turn.
- BanalityBob - 3/5 - This art is awesome, the concept is sweet, and, despite having less than awesome icons, the Equation is a solid avatar, because it lets you play offense and defence with ease. You can throw your whole team at a story and still be standing and ready to block on your opponent’s turn. Claude Owen will still likely be your main avatar when including Yog in the avatar deck, but I’d consider even two Kruschtya Equation.
- Danigral - 2/5 - Without some other shenanigans like changing story order or adding combat, I’m afraid that he won’t be worth the cost. Most games don’t have the quantity of characters on the board where you’d feed that this was worth the ability, and the ability itself is only good for attacking to have ready defenders (your characters will all ready ni refresh anyway…)
- dboeren - 2/5 - Dude, why your head so big? He looks OK, but not one of the better Avatars. Probably only used in Nyarlathotep decks where being an Avatar gives him some extra value and even that’s iffy.
- Kamacausey - 2/5 - Another avatar with another craptastic ability. If the character costs 4+ they need to have a game changing ability and this guy just doesn't. I'll pass on this avatar...
- mnBroncos - 2/5 - Just isn’t impressing me that much... I think he can be strong in the right situations just don’t feel those situations will happen to often to matter.
- Reckoner - 2/5 - Being able to go all in at a single story and still have most/all of your guys ready for defense is nice, but this effect is not worth it for me. This card may see some play in an Avatar deck, but the go-to Yog Avatar will be Claude Owen. K-Eqn will be used for back-up only. Love the art though.
- BanalityBob - 2/5 - While 9th Ward has a decent ability, most sorcerers that you would want to play cost two or three, which means you’re only reliably bouncing one drop characters. It requires building around, and I’m not sure it’s worth it.
- Danigral - 3/5 - I really want to try this out in a mono-Yog deck with the Champion suite. There are enough solid sorcerers that this could make a decent impact on the board for 1-2 cost characters. You could also choose to return one of your own characters for its enters play ability.
- dboeren - 3/5 - I really like this card and the Sorcerer theme, which has proven fairly effective for me. When I saw this card I immediately wanted to slot it into my deck so that’s good for at least a 3. It’s pretty narrow in what decks you’d use it with though.
- Kamacausey - 3/5 - I think their is a fairly strong sorcerer deck out there and this card can help add some more control to the deck. I imagine this will see some moderate playtime.
- mnBroncos -2/5- bouncing a character is very strong, just not sure if there is a real sorcerer deck floating around that I don’t know about. If there is a deck that can trigger this often then it is a lot better than a 2.
- Reckoner - 3/5 - This card is a winner for me because there are a lot of synergies that Yog can leverage. Yog is one of the better factions at setting the top card of a deck. It is also one of the factions that is not normally built around rush and needs a way to stem the tide in the early game, which this card can do.
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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So, how does Walter Fitzpatrick work with lodge fated characters? Fated is a continuous effect, right?
All the scores have now been added to the card database.
Later I will look at the top 5 and bottom 5 scores from the pack, as well as the sum of each reviewer, as others may be curious to see how people score on a grand scale.
Does Walter Fitzpatrick do what I think he does? Consider the following:
1. A Lodge character at a story with Fitzpatrick is wounded
2. Thusly, it would leave play
3. Fitzpatrick triggers, so you discard a card instead of said character leaving play
4. The hapless character, however, is still wounded (and thus wants to leave play again)
5. Fitzpatrick triggers again...
Strictly, as worded, doesn't Fitzpatrick discard your entire hand, only to have a wounded character die anyway, or am I missing a rules nuance?
So, here we go!
Top 5
27/30 - Lady Esprit, Xlizxcte-Oonth, Pervasive Toxemia
26/30 - Frenzied Ghoul, The Archmage's Attaché, Gregory Lean
25/30 - Baka
24/30 - Favor of Eshu
23/30 - Mi-Go Worker, Nyarlathotep
Bottom 5
6/30 - Broadmoor, Garden District
7/30 - Ancient Chthonian, Audubon
8/30 - Sudden Cyclone
11/30 - Keelut, Gris-Gris, Faubourg Marigny, Lodge Applicant
12/30 - Smoke Serpent, Ghoul Tunnels, The Bloody Tongue
Reviewers
BanalityBob - 156/275
Danigral - 155/275
dboeren - 161/275
Kamacausey - 157/275
mnBroncos - 148/275
Reckoner - 153/275
So a variation of only 13.
Finally, due to the nature of the Avatar mechanic, here they are in score order:
I think it should be noted that Disrup:ts are not mandatory. So, he would only discard cards from your hand, if you want him to (for some obscure reason, likely having to do with John Scott and Ritual of the Construct).