O, R'LYEH? - Trouble in Innsmouth

O, R’LYEH?-Trouble in Innsmouth



Mrs. Henderson? She and her family lived just on the outskirts of town. They managed a small bait and tackle store. She was taken away not too long ago though. She married a local fisherman. Doug Henderson was his name. They were a normal family, lived a normal life. After a while though, Doug began spending more and more time away on his boat. He usually fished around Devil’s Reef. Jane always said she didn’t mind his fishing much, but we all saw right through that. She always joked that if he wasn’t careful one day he was liable to turn into a fish.

Shortly after being married they began to have kids, two little boys. Doug taught those boys to swim before they could even walk. Doug and the boys were always away on the boat. They were away so much Jane began seeking solace from the town but everyone always told her it wasn’t strange for a father to spend time with his boys; that she needed to not worry so much. It wasn’t long at all before things escalated though. Jane spent less and less time in town. She began to hide away at her house, and anytime anyone would visit she was always mopping her floors, never stopping. Anytime anybody asked she would always reply faintly, “They always track in so much water…”

The oddities didn’t stop there though. Local legend says that there are fish types living in our oceans. Not normal fish either, fish men. She began to claim that her husband was one of them, and that he was taking their boys out there to turn them into fish men as well. This all culminated one day with Jane rushing into town, soaking wet from head to toe. She screamed that she saw her husband as a fish man, as one who lived in the deep, and that he had tried to force her to return with him, to live like him. She said they even tried to make her eat raw fish to train her for it. It wasn’t long before the men in white coats whisked her away…

That family of fishers left not long after. I haven’t seen the Henderson’s since. Perhaps they went with Jane to seek treatment. Another gentleman took up the Hendersons' store since they left. Nice fellow. Occasionally he gets someone in the store who says they believe they’ve seen a fish man and two of his young out on the ocean. Just flights of fancy I say. I mean, after all, nobody around Innsmouth believes in that sort of thing…


Welcome back to O, R’LYEH? Today we will see what all that fuss in Innsmouth is about as we delve into the next mono faction deck-Deep Ones. First though, we will talk about the Cthulhu faction as a whole.


To those that are new to the game, the Cthulhu faction is home to a variety of different characters and monstrosities. Cultists, Serpents, Deep Ones, Servitors, Monsters, and Ancient Ones are all right at home in this faction. Like Agency, Cthulhu is known for their great removal cards. They have efficient direct removal in the form of Deep One Assault, Khopesh of the Abyss, Sacrificial Offerings, etc... In addition they have in-faction ways to make opponents sacrifice their own characters through the use of the support card Temple of R’lyeh and the Ancient One Cthylla. The Cthulhu faction is pretty well rounded as a whole and there are quite a few decent mono colored builds that you can put together with all the cards available. The faction is pretty good at all the icon struggles except for investigation. Monsters aren’t very good at investigating. They tend to just terrorize and kill people, but they do it very well. And since there are next to no characters in the faction that have investigation it can take a little while longer to win with these green guys. It will take you at least one more trip to each story in order to win that story since you can’t get the bonus from the investigation struggle. Sometimes a quicker deck can get the jump on you and steal a story that you were about to win because it takes you one more trip to win it. For this reason you have to build your deck accordingly and prepare for a little bit longer of a game.


Out of all the themed Cthulhu decks avaiIable to build and talk about I chose to do Deep Ones for a few reasons. First, the start of a decent deep ones deck begins in the core set and the first deluxe expansion, The Secrets of Arkham. Also, Deep Ones are very popular among newer players and they are relatively easy to pilot. Lastly, Deep Ones are part of the iconic Cthulhu lore. Most people have at least heard of a Deep One even if they haven’t actually read H.P. Lovecraft’s short story about them. Without further ado here is today’s list:


Trouble in Innsmouth


Characters: 31
3 The Cult of Bathos (IT)
3 Young Deep One (Core)
3 Lurking Deep One (AoA)
3 Deep One Stowaway (PT)
3 Family of Fishers (SotM)
3 Backwater Deep One (WitD)
3 Silent Mover (NN)
3 Deep One Rising (SoA)
3 Ravager from the Deep (Core)
2 Hydra (SoA)
2 Cthylla (SoK)

Events: 8
3 Deep One Assault (Core)
3 Sacrificial Offerings (Core)
2 Broken Space, Broken Time (CoC)

Supports: 11
3 Khopesh of the Abyss (TSS)
3 Devil's Reef (AoA)
3 Shadowed Reef (Core)
2 Temple of R'lyeh (NN)



The deck gets its name from the town where H.P. Lovecraft’s short story takes place-Innsmouth. If you haven’t read the short story before go do it now. It’s a great read and you will appreciate the intro story a lot more. As you can see from the list above the deck is chocked full of almost exclusively Deep One characters. Deep Ones all have combat and arcane icons naturally, and with the help of the shadowed reef they also get terror icons effectively making them all story wrecking machines. The great thing about all the Deep Ones having arcane icons is they are dangerous both on your turn and your opponents. The ability for them to be ready on your opponents turn is brutal and will give them a headache when trying to deal with them. A little combo in the deck is to have Hydra out and either Cthylla or The Temple of R’lyeh. It will let you sacrifice one or more of your characters per turn to make your opponent sacrifice his characters as well. However, with Hydra’s ability, for every two resources you pay you can keep bringing your deep ones back into play. It allows you get card advantage over your opponent by them losing a character and you keep getting yours back. The sacrificial effects in the deck are much needed because the deck has no other way to deal with opposing ancient ones or other troublesome characters. If left unchecked this combo will eventually ruin any plans your opponent had.



Key cards:

Hydra (SoA): She is an ok ancient one but an essential piece to get the combo going. The card advantage she provides over the course of the game becomes insurmountable.

The Cult of Bathos (IT)/Devil's Reef (AoA): Both serve the same the purpose. They both make your Deep Ones cheaper to play. Devil’s Reef is a constant guaranteed discount and a Cult of Bathos over the course of a game can let you play 3 and 4 costed Deep Ones for 1. He can make pretty stupid things happen.

Cthylla (SoK)/Temple of R'lyeh (NN): Same thing applies here. Redundancy is a good thing. Having different ways to do the same thing is good. Both cards can complete the second piece of the combo with Hydra.

Broken Space, Broken Time (CoC): Great card. If your opponent isn’t running ancient ones there is no drawback whatsoever. Who doesn’t want to go get any ancient one in there deck and put it into play?

Deep One Assault (Core): It has Deep One in the name! It has to be good right!? Seriously though, if you are running any mono colored Cthulhu deck this card goes in. It is so versatile and one of the better Cthulhu faction cards.


The rest of the deck is Deep Ones that I thought had a good cost to character ratio.


The restricted card that I chose for this deck was Khopesh of the Abyss (TSS). This card has stirred up a lot of controversy since its release but the bottom line is it is just a really good card. A few of the Deep Ones have toughness and hydra herself has toughness as well. It lets you get rid of troublesome characters before they do too much damage. Also, in case of a scenario with an another ancient one across the table you could use Khopesh to clear the board of all characters except the ancient one and then use Cthylla or the Temple of R’lyeh to make your opponent sacrifice their ancient one.



When playing the deck:

You want to get Devil’s Reef or Cult of Bathos into play A.S.A.P. Deep Ones are cheaper to play when either card is in play. It’s gravy if they both are. Turn one you should setup your resources to look like 2-1-1 on domains and play Devil’s Reef and a 2 cost Deep One for 1. Or if you don’t have a 2 cost Deep One but you have a Sacrificial Offerings you can just not play a character and play the Sacrificial Offerings on your opponents turn after they play a character and you will not suffer the drawback of the Offerings. Turn two you will normally setup your resources to look like 2-2-1, but if you get a 4 cost deep one that you want to play turn 2 you may resource to look like 3-1-1. It really depends on how your first turn goes. Keep resourcing until you get to four resources on one domain so you can play Broken Space, Broken Time or until you get to 5 resources so you can hard cast Hydra. You want to grind out stories against your opponent until you can get the Hydra/Temple or Cthylla combo going and then you will be able to walk to stories unopposed. The combo isn’t nessecary to win but sure helps things out.

Building on a budget:

For beginners looking to jump into the Cthulhu faction with a Deep One deck you are in luck. Except for a few cards this deck is made up entirely of the Core set, the Deluxe Expansion Secrets of Arkham and the Rituals of the Order and Ancient Relics Cycles. The only downside 3 core sets would be needed but with a few substitutions you can get that down to two. That is where I would start. By getting those four sets you will also get a lot of other powerful cards that you could use to build many other decks as well.


Well, that’s all for this week! Again, please feel free to leave any comments, criticisms, or suggestions for what you would like to see in future articles.


Next time we will venture into the madness that is a mono Hastur themed Lunatic deck.