Pacta Arcana - Flaming Cultists of Failure

Welcome to the fifteenth edition of Pacta Arcana, in which we will explore the depths of deckbuilding with multiple factions in the Call of Cthulhu LCG. In each article of this series we will be looking at combining two factions (sometimes more) together to form a cohesive deck around a particular theme, combo, or strategy, but first of all thank you Danigral for letting me write this week's take on the series where we take a look at a Hastur and Yog-Sothoth deck.

Hastur and Yog-Sothoth

Last time we saw delved into the aggressive rush style of the Agency and the Silver Twilight Lodge. This week we step away from the light of Day and take a closer look at a deck that I have often used as a beginner's match-up for new players. The Cultists of Yog-Sothoth and Hastur have lots of dirty tricks in common, and since they will not end the game on turn three or kill every character your opponent tries to play they offer a slower and more inviting playstyle against newer players.

A note of warning though: against more aggressive decks that actively try to abuse its opponent this deck will often produce nothing but a flaming pile of cultists. Trying to win against anything resembling a tournament deck will quickly erode your sanity and leave you a drooling husk of a madman. Consider yourself warned!

What do I get out of this deal?
This deck actively steers away from the most abusive cards available to control the game, so no The Seventy Steps (IMoD)or Cursed Skull (MoE) being recursed by Marcus Jamburg (WoP). Very few cards that actively try to just force through its own plan and ignore what the opponent is doing, after all, what fun is it playing with only Cultist characters if you don't get to throw them under the cruel heel of your opponent's icons?

So what do we have to play with? Some abusive cards are needed to not get wiped out immediately, the The Cavern of Flame (ItDoN) and our restricted choice Stygian Eye (IT) makes for a nice little control package. When it comes to more direct removal we have both Frozen Time (TKatG) that can deal with annoying supports as well as characters, and Pushed into the Beyond (TbtA) that scales with our resourcing to deal with bigger and bigger characters.

Those cards are all fun and dandy, but where do we jump off the effective train and go into maniacal cultist land? Let´s start with Casting off the Skin (WitD), which requires an open domain, a bad story match-up and therefore is about as hard to spot as a yellow sign in Carcosa. Calling the Williwaw (TKatG) on the other hand is a very good card when it works, but when it doesn't it literally does nothing at all. All this is meant to synergize with the cultist theme of our characters, since each and every one of them has the cultist subtype there are a number of tricks to be done with them.

First and foremost is the recursion suite with Key-seeker (CotJE) to recur removal and other key characters late game. This also combines with lots of our other -heavy cards. Harbinger of Insanity (MoE) can literaly sacrifice every other character on our side of the board to control our opponets smaller characters for a while. If there are any cultists on the other side things get really interesting really fast though when the cultist train goes off the cliff in no time at all.








The Deck:
Total Cards: (50)

Character: (32)
3x Aspiring Artist (AH)
3x Performance Artist (Core)
3x Dangerous Inmate (SfW)
3x Victoria Glasser (Core)
3x Harbinger of Insanity (MoE)
3x Disciple of the Gate (Core)
3x Son of Yeb (Core)
3x Cultist of the Key (TWB)
3x Key-seeker (CotJE)
2x Decrepit Wizard (TKatG)
3x Obsessive Sychphant (TBJ)

Support: (8)
3x Stygian Eye (IT)
3x The Cavern of Flame (ItDoN)
2x Frozen Time (TKatG)

Event: (10)
3x Pushed into the Beyond (TbtA)
3x The Unspeakable Oath (TiV)
2x Calling the Williwaw (TKatG)
2x Casting off the Skin (WitD)


Thought on gameplay:
So how do you play this insane bunch of star-spawn-cuddling cronies for something other than total annihilation of your own side? This deck has a decent early game with lots of small characters and decent removal, but will be sorely outmatched when the other side starts dropping those horribly efficient 3-cost characters or even some Ancient ones.

That's where some of the stranger card choices like Calling the Williwaw (TKatG) comes into play, if your opponent is unprepared, it can easily destroy Y'Golonac (Core) when it tries to drag one of your cultists into its claws. Casting off the Skin (WitD) will allow you to throw one lonely cultist into a mass of opponents and still come out alive.

Finally the big combo is of course the manipulators, this is an almost impossible synergy to pull off late game but if you can manage to shut off your opponents struggles with Cultist of the Key (TWB) to keep your opponent's big threats exhausted while simultaneously winning one big struggle on your turn and triggering Key-seeker (CotJE) to recur something like Pushed into the Beyond (TbtA) turn after turn you should be able to claw your way back.

The "failure" in the title refers to exactly how easy it is for this deck to come back from behind and establish that kind of card advantage (board advantage will be hard to find late game, just a fact), but if you wan't to try out something different or play against some newer players with a deck that won't just wipe their entire board this should fit the bill nicely. Losing miserably is the cultist way after all!

Any feedback and comments are welcome, sadly this will be my final guest article for Pacta Arcana since I am focusing on my own article series about the Core set.

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As an avid Lovecraft fan and compulsive collector of games with Cthulhu in their name, I have spent far too much time on the Call of Cthulhu LCG since I was introduced to it three years ago. With a dismal lack of active players in northern Sweden, I continuously try my best to engage new players in the game by building and sharing decks, cubes and organizing Game Nights. If you ever find yourself near the polar circle in the western hemisphere feel free to drop me a pm to schedule a game! - Midian