Johnny Pilgrim vs the World

Ok. Where to begin? This is my first ever article so you’ll have to bear with me as I mumble and stumble my way through it. A couple of people have prompted me to write an article about being a ‘Johnny’ player in the competitive world of the Call of Cthulhu Card Game, so here is that attempt. First of all, some people may be asking, “What in the world is a ‘Johnny’?”. So to begin with, and to give the article some perspective, I’ll go into a brief synopsis of the ‘player personality profiles’, taken directly from some ‘Magic the Gathering type person’ that created them from his own marketing research into the topic.

Timmy players
The first player type to be given a name, Timmy is most associated with playing for fun, and all kinds of huge creatures, fantastic spells, and mythical enchantments. He is the most social archetype, enjoying the interaction that gaming provides. A stereotypical Timmy is usually a younger player with a simple (yet fun for him) deck. Timmy does not care whether he wins or loses, he simply wants to have fun playing really big effects.

Johnny players
Johnny, the second named archetype, plays for the mental challenge that gaming presents. He likes to find interesting combinations of cards that can win the game or give him an advantage. Johnny may be a player who seeks niche cards, or cards widely reputed as bad, and tries to "break" them, exploiting them in ways to give abnormal power and win the game. He is also a combo player, sometimes choosing for elaborate but ineffective win conditions. Johnny is happiest when his decks work and he wins his way; for him, one in many leaves him happy, if that win is on his own terms.

Spike players
Previously called the tournament player, Wizards R&D chose “Spike” as a name that sounded aggressive and competitive. Spike plays to win. He will find the best deck in the format, even if it requires copying another innovator's work (see netdecking). Spike's cards are effective, designed to secure a fast and effective victory over opponents. If Spike plays several games and loses only one, but feels he should have won it, he may be malcontent.

There are also 2 lesser known sub-types and various combinations of the above, but these were the first 3 ‘analysed’ and recorded.

So. As might be gathered from the above, the majority of competitive players seem to be ‘Spikes’, or at least those that populate the Finals are. Last year’s major tournament winners were all in this category, and all used borrowed tech. And why not! It proves its case in the statistics! But, as we will be talking about trying to compete successfully as a ‘Johnny’, unfortunately THEY ARE THE ENEMY!! Haha. Before I continue I will state that I am in no way an expert on the subject, just what you might call a ‘punk rocker’ in the ‘corporate world’ that is the ‘meta’.

Right. Being a ‘Johnny’ is not easy. In fact it’s the biggest challenge of all the 3 ‘archtypes’. While the ‘Spikes’ are building decks with already established cards and generally tech-ing against themselves as a group, and the ‘Timmys’ are just packing their decks with as much wallop as they can manage, the ‘Johnny’ needs to balance this AND use a whole set of cards that not many use or most feel are sub-optimal. And truthfully they probably are. But this is where I personally feel the true genius of deckbuilding lies, and the rewards as a Johnny when you ‘sometimes’ manage a win far outweigh the boredom and monotony we feel winning again and again with the proven deck styles.

How do you approach these behemoths without actually being one? Well first you need to know what the ‘Spikes’ are likely to be up to, and of course the net is the place where you're going to find a lot of the decks that they will be using, or variations of, from past tournaments and posts. It takes quite a bit of research and reading through the forums and the gossip amongst the community. Of course you’ve also got to account for any new releases and what the power cards that you notice and hear about are.

For this I’m going to use my 2012 season as a kind of case study. I only mention these past experiences to show you that yes, it CAN be done (well. There is a bit of the “Look at me. Look at me” ‘Johnny’ mentality). You just need a little more of Lady Luck’s favour than the ‘Spike’ players, who have formulated, tested, and tried decks that perform extremely well because of this. I do hope that this lends some credence to the cause. To begin with, I was fortunate enough to inherit a large proportion of cards from a relative 2 weeks before the Regionals event. This was also about the time that the historic Khopesh of the Abyss (TSS) panic had started. With a beanbag and around 700 cards (of my first ever card game) to go through, and a lot of forum cramming, the impression that I received was that the Hastur / Cthulhu 2011 Championship deck (which contained some really nasty Supports) and the Khopesh would be big features. Really knowing nothing more about the game or the card genre in general, I decided to simply focus on these two.

Coming at it from a ‘Johnny’ angle, you need to think of how the ‘Spikes’ will be dealing with this. As stated, they’ll have their own designs, but will also be tech-ing against each other. What did that mean for this example? I figured a heck of a lot of Support destruction. In this sense we do have similarities with the ‘Spike’ player as we also need to have our defences, but the trick is to then use this to our advantage. If they’re going to be packing a lot of Support hate, then one method is building a deck with little-to-no Supports! Knowing what our opponents will likely be using means that we can make some of their cards ‘dead in the hand’. And this was certainly the case as there were many Burrowing Beneath (Core) and Thunder in the East (KD) being saved and never used, whilst sending more useful cards to the Domains while they waited for the proverbial goose to fly in. The common power cards at the time (Stygian Eye (IT), Infernal Obsession (TAD), Khopesh of the Abyss (TSS)) were useless against Ancient Ones, so I figured on putting them in there as well!! This was a little harder to manage as it was pre Feed Her Young (WaB) days. But with a ‘Johnny’-esque The Mage Known as Magnus (TWC) / Pawn Broker (IT) combo sending AO’s to the discard, it was then possible to use Opening the Limbo Gate (Core) to bring them out earlier than ever imagined. No-one expected to be facing AO’s as early as turn 2 or 3 (with the help of cards like Harvesting Mi-Go (TTB)), and some didn’t even dream it was possible outside of Cthulhu and cost lowering. And this is what it is all about. Thinking outside the box and using cards that no-one has thought of using before. It just takes a LOT of card staring and flicking for the unique combos to click. But if you can manage this, and then manage the victory, you’ll go far in actually influencing the meta!! Of course the rest is history. One of the first Shub / Yog AO decks was born and the resulting success this strategy had was taken and perfected by the ‘Spike’ winners of the Worlds and Australian Nationals for the year, with the help of some new releases. To re-iterate that all in one sentence: Our biggest tools are the element of surprise and using the ‘Spike’ decks against themselves.

To build for the 2012 Nationals, I knew that now I’d have to combat the aforementioned Hastur / Cthulhu combinations AND the new Yog / Shub AO decks (I quickly discarded mine in true ‘Johnny’ fashion as soon as it became mainstream ). The resulting attempt, which was another rushed build 1 week before the event, was a very quick Agency / Yog deck that packed a lot of Toughness to protect against Nodens (KD) and the Khopesh of the Abyss (TSS), whilst hopefully being fast enough to fly under the Nyarlathotep (JtUK) radar, along with cards that could remove AO’s like Pushed into the Beyond (TbtA) and the seldom seen Fishers from Outside (Core). Again, knowing what you’re likely to face is essential. During the Swiss I came head to head with the eventual tournament winner, but unfortunately VERY poor drawing saw absolutely no Toughness come to the table, a veritable ‘deck fail’, when a single one would have netted me the match 3-0 without a single opposition success token. Nodens (KD) wiped me out and I never recovered from the following swarm of AO’s. I did end up second of 16 after the Swiss though, and finished the tournament fifth of 16 after losing in the final 8 to consecutive Blind Submission (Core) / Khopesh of the Abyss (TSS) plays in the second and third turns. I survived the first assault as the deck was designed to do, but the second was simply too much. Some draws you just can’t beat!! Still, in the end mine was the top deck featuring humans underneath 2 Yog / Shub AO decks, a Hastur / Cthulhu deck, and a mono Cthulhu (who I‘d beaten 3-0 in the Swiss), so I was extremely pleased with the result, especially considering my poor luck for the day. Not bad for a first major tournament, but more importantly, not bad for a ‘Johnny’!!

To continue. I do have to say that it does becomes harder and harder for the ‘Johnny’ to compete the larger the card pool grows, as the dreaded ‘power creep’ starts influencing the new releases, and the ‘Spike’ deck strategies become wider and wider. But I hope that some stick with it and that PERHAPS this article might encourage others to try it out. This I believe is essential in making tournaments a varied and exciting place to be. Being the lone ‘Johnny’ in a room full of ‘Spikes’ tends to get a bit tedious, and a sense of deja-vu can really set in (“Didn’t I just play against this deck?”).

Moving on to the upcoming Nationals for 2013. And how MIGHT a ‘Johnny’ approach them? Again you’ll need to do the groundwork and not only thoroughly research the new cards (probably even building your own versions with them to fully understand their functioning), but also keep in mind the past decks that have been successful as no doubt there will be some ‘Spikes’ still peddling them in perhaps an upgraded form, and keep your ear to the ground in the forums. Like I said, a lot of our preparation is very similar to the other players, just with a little more brain straining and ingenuity. Not to give too much away about how I personally will be TRYING to tackle the issues as I see them, my views won’t encompass the broad spectrum that ‘Johnnys’ have to experiment with. But I digress. To make some examples here are a couple of the new strategies that could be around this year, and I’ll just throw a few of the many ways off the top of my head that I think you may be able to tech against them. I’ll add a blanket statement here as well that Support protection might be advisable, but try to do it in ways that doesn’t simply use a Domain for the purpose. Also some of those exact same Supports are getting a little too hard to resist!!

[float='right'][/float]The Misk / Hastur rush deck – Nasty nasty if it fires early. Plain nasty if it doesn’t! Negotium Perambulans in Tenebris (DD) is what first springs to mind, and also Prepared Alienist (TKatG). BUT! With the latter you have to remember it’s the ‘Spike’ mentality that you need to try and second guess, and I have no doubt that any deck using control will have sure fire answers to this card, so either protect it wisely or use something else that they may not reckon against. The cards they’ll probably be packing are ones such as Dangerous Inmate (SfW) and Deranged Diva (WoP), so make an attempt to have these cards be a lot less useful to them. That is our way! (and in most cases our only hope). This is how you need to be thinking. Other things you could possibly use to get around it are cards of mass insanity like Bloated Leng Spider (IotF) and Sieur Piriou Louis (TKatG). Cthulhu has some nice answers also in A Single Path (THBtS) and Called to the Sea (KD). Other less obvious (and perhaps weaker) ones are potentially cards like Beneath the Mire (CoC). This one sends shivers down any rush deck enthusiast, and is something that you don’t see much of (if ever).

Text box blanking deck – This could be quite prevalent as there are some really nice new Yog Supports that do this cheaply and effectively, like Frozen Time (TKatG) and Song of the Spheres (TKatG), as well as some old favourites including Called by Azathoth (TSotS). Normal ways of circumventing this are by using cards that have ‘enter play’ effects or Support removal, but a ‘Johnny’ might think that cards such as The Musk Crow's Wind (SotM) might be a better way of dealing with the problem (depending on the cost range they are playing with and the likelihood of a match, and the Faction (mix) they are playing with), or the Mists of Lethe (TKatG) to achieve the same result. You don’t need to just blow every Support off the face of the board! Another method COULD be making sure the important boxes that you’ll be using are prone to insanity (perhaps with their Willpower now removed), so you can easily get rid of them against these Terror heavy Factions.

Of course there are many more popular ‘Spike’ strategies that you’re going to need to contend with, including: the Discard or ‘Milling’ deck (grrrrr) , the Hand size hate deck, the straight Miskatonic rush deck, the Shub Resource ramping deck and the Destruction deck (with optional control aspect). But each has its counters and sometimes you might with dedication even find a card or 2 that cross many of these! My advice is to just build decks. And then build some more. In the past year I’ve made over 200 of them, and by doing this, certain combinations and cards have risen to the surface that weren’t immediately plain to see. And by building a broad range of ‘meta’ style decks, you’ll also get the chance to see what cards seem to be most commonly used. Then of course it is your job to make them as ‘dead in the hand’ as possible.

Finally, to end the article, I’d like to talk a little bit about what some of the top ‘Spike’ players use as the basis for their deck construction. Things such as Hand Advantage, Board Advantage and Resource Advantage. I’ve only recently started exploring these concepts myself, and am the first to acknowledge that a lot of my decks to date haven’t been half as strong as they could be. I’ve been victim to my own uniqueness on many the occasion, and this is a common trap for ‘Johnnys’, but it needn’t be so. For example, I have NEVER brought to the table a deck that contains Master of the Myths (IT) out of Faction. It just never seemed right to me. But, good news is that I included a first ever off-suite of 2 x Dr. Mya Badry (ER) in my 2013 Regionals winning Silver Twilight / Agency combination! Look out when a Johnny finally starts taking this deck building thing seriously! And to do so I’ve been looking a bit into these topics from a ‘Johnny’ point of view. Like I said though, this is all fairly new territory for me, but I think it is vital to becoming a truly competitive player.

Hand Advantage – This concept is a 2 way street. Either through drawing more cards than your opponent, or reducing theirs below yours. The first is done through regular means with cards such as Obsessive Insomniac (IMoD), Archaeology Interns (IT) and Gun Runner's Club (SoM), or ‘tutoring’ methods such as Under the Porch (THBtS) or A Voros Hal'l Jon (SoK). A ‘Johnny’ though might find pride in using a more abstract approach, and one that springs to mind is a combination of Nikola Tesla (TKatG) and Stone Calendar (TC) (along with the Fated subset of Characters), which granted is not as reliable, but can sometimes net you 3 or 4 extra cards in a turn! On the flip side, Apeirophobia (NN) and Byakhee Attack (Core) can seriously damage an opponent’s ability to function effectively, but so too might a build that purposefully relies on ‘top-decking’ and includes a well protected Feral Elder Thing (LR). I’ve found that this fellow can often send people who like their plans and/or card recursion into conniptions! A little bit of chaos sometimes goes a long way.

Board Advantage – Cards on the table often means victory if you can get them out there quicker than the opponent, and you can do this through Resource ramping or the use of free characters (Hungry Dark Young (Core), Stalking Hound (PT), Rich Widow (PT) etc), or cost reducing (Priestess of Bubastis (Core), Anthropology Advisor (Core), Ghoulish Worshipper (AH) etc), though of course sometimes quantity doesn’t necessarily equate to quality. Another method is cards including Many-angled Thing (TGS), Grasping Chthonian (IotF) and Diseased Sewer Rats (SoA), which increase your own presence while reducing the opponents. These methods are fairly conventional and there isn’t much a ‘Johnny’ can do differently, outside of using neat little combos like Master of the Myths (IT) and Matthew Alexander (SoK), or Pulled from the Beyond (TUP) to activate a Stalking Hound (PT). Creating chains like The Three Bells (TUP) / Diseased Sewer Rats (SoA) and Corrupted Midwife (ER) is also an option.

Resource Advantage – The most common example here is the ridiculously good use of Shub-Niggurath’s Resource ramping, and it’s almost guaranteed the ‘Spikes’ will have this one out in force. Nug (SoK), Feed Her Young (WaB) and now The Festival (TkatG) make this Faction an extremely hard opponent to match strides with. And there’s no real substitute for it. Here the ‘Johnny’ is forced to go way out on a limb in their attempts to emulate this strategy, and it is probably wise not to even try. Although not very effective in combating the aforementioned Faction, the use of a Torch the Joint (SoM) / B. Ramsdale Brown (TKatG) loop can often be devastating to the average deck, returning Mr. Brown to hand before Fate catches up with him with Knight of the Outer Void (TOotST) or Initiate of Huang Hun (CotJE).

Of course it is perfectly O.K for the ‘Johnny’ to use some of the tricks of the ‘Spike’, and indeed it could be said that it will often be necessary if one is wishing to engage in competitions. My point is that there are ways of doing it that are both unique AND relatively effective, while at the same time maintaining that lustrous, black wooly coat.

To end with, I’d like to highlight something a ‘Johnny’ can often struggle with (and I speak from experience and some tough lessons learned). If you manage to find some new card or combination that operates in a particularly powerful way, then the ‘Spikes’ will have no qualms in adapting it into their subset of strategies. This can be quite frustrating, as the months of work you've just put into finding it will be copied in the 5 seconds it took others to read it. It is just something the ‘Johnny’ has to deal with, and I implore others of this persuasion to simply give yourself a quiet pat on the back (as you probably won’t get one otherwise), and move on to the arduous task of starting all over again!

Happy building !!

POSTSCRIPT: Really nothing of what I have said will be seen as efficient or streamlined, and will be often be looked down upon by those with a Spike mindset. But this is not what being a ‘Johnny’ is about, and as previously mentioned, the one win you get with your original ways will give you far more gratification than many with a deck you feel is stagnant and repetitive. The look of disbelief on a ‘Spikes’ face when you’ve handed their power deck back to them in tatters using what they’ll regard as a sub-standard format is truly priceless. Savour it on the odd occasion that this happens. And if you lose (which will most likely happen in tournament scenarios), then remember that your goal is making that off the wall combo work!