Terror In Venice Review, Part 3

In the final part of our Terror In Venice review for the Call of Cthulhu LCG we take a look at Miskatonic University, Yog-Sothoth, and the Neutral cards.

Let us know in the comments what you think of these cards.

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_bruno-carioli-tiv.jpg'] Bruno Carioli

dboeren - 5 out of 5
Hard to pass this guy up whether you’ve got a Conspiracy or not, as two icons and a non-zero skill is already a good deal for cost 1. His ability is just icing on the cake. May not be used that often, but when it is it’s potentially quite powerful. Can you find a better character in MU for 1?

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
Impressive stat block(combination of icons and skill for the cost) for a 1 cost character and whose effect synergizes well with typical Miskatonic behavior. Bruno Carioli will be a welcomed addition to the Miskatonic staff

Danigral - 5 out of 5
This guy is golden. Good icons and struggle control for 1-cost? You don’t even have to ask.

Kamacausey - 5 out of 5
Superb one costed character! Great stats and a fantastic ability. And even his drawback can be mitigated since his fated ability is a response and not a forced response. All around very solid character.

jhaelen - 5 out of 5
Another awesome cost 1 character for Miskatonic. I cannot think of a reason not to include him in every Miskatonic deck. His Fated ability only works if there's a Conspiracy in play, and you can only trigger it once if you want to keep him in play, but the ability is really good. Oh, and he has the Faculty subtype, so he costs zero with an Overworked Graduate Student, can be protected with a Campus security guard and returned to your hand with a Derby Hall.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_urban-trailblazer-tiv.jpg'] Urban Trailblazer

dboeren - 2 out of 5
Not great, and a somewhat unreliable to trigger ability if you don’t bring your own, she’s just too conditional to rate any higher in general. If you do have a Location based strategy though she could be worth it and gaining intelligence on what you’ll draw next isn’t bad even if you don’t get a hit on an Attachment.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
For those heartbroken over the recent restriction of Museum Curator, here is your replacement. While not nearly as impressive as its’ predecessor, Urban Trailblazer offers the advantage of being able to reuse her search ability. Which, depending on your open resources, can lead to some serious card advantage. Decks/strategies that naturally utilize locations and attachments (such as Hastur, Agency, or even Cthulhu) will thoroughly enjoy the added synergy.

Danigral - 2 out of 5
This is a very poor replacement of the Curator, but at least it has icons. There are way better characters for MU at 2 cost with much more useful abilities. Sure, card draw is nice, but it depends on locations and costs a domain, and then it only can get attachments. The deck that requires looks pretty janky. The coolest thing about it is the Explorer subtype so that it can get all the buffs, which is the only reason I’m not giving it a 1.

Kamacausey - 2 out of 5
Meh. There are soooo many better 2 costed m.u. characters that I would rather play over her. The only reason why I don’t rate her as a 1 is she is a student, she has some investigation icons, and maybe there is a place for her in some deck. Maybe...

jhaelen - 3 out of 5
A solid cost 2 character with two investigation icons and an interesting ability that works similar
to A Single Glimpse with a couple of restrictions, including a somewhat rare trigger, only working
for Attachments, and having to reveal all cards. But what really makes her shine are the subtypes: She's our second non-unique Explorer after the Arctic Ethnologist, so that deck archetype just got a nice boost. And as a Student there's plenty of additional synergy.

[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_puzzled-exchange-student-tiv.jpg'] Puzzled Exchange Student

dboeren - 1 out of 5
He’s pretty awful, way below the bar for his cost. For 3 I could be taking someone a lot more useful than this.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
Reading this card yourself you probably thought this was a bad card you’d probably never use. Good news is, you’re right. There is no trick here. The two investigation icons, 3 skill and Willpower isn’t enough for a 3 cost character with that kind of drawback in my opinion. Ok… it’s not that bad. There is a trick. Combo with Rabbit’s Foot and use some effects to rig characters on top of your deck. Card advantage + possible success token + contest stories even from an exhausted position = a fun time. Not the most competitive strategy by any stretch, but there are ways to take advantage of a character who is always committing to a story.

Danigral - 1 out of 5
3 cost for a character that kills itself without some kind of intervention is dumb.

Kamacausey - 1 out of 5
I guess they used up all of the m.u. awesomeness in this set on bruno because this guy is terrible. I can honestly say that I will never use him in a deck unless I’m just putting him in there to be silly. So. Bad. It. Hurts.

jhaelen - 2 out of 5
While the skill and icons aren't bad, especially with Willpower, at cost 3 there's several characters I'd rather include. Especially because of his puzzling Forced Response. You get to commit him even if exhausted, but your opponent essentially gets to choose where to commit him. So, he'll make sure you either lose him or gain as little benefit as possible from him.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_medico-della-peste-tiv.jpg'] Medico Della Peste

dboeren - 4 out of 5
You get two effects out of one card, you can put other cards in the deck to further leverage Day, and it resist support destruction too. I’d be more likely to use it in a mixed faction deck where someone else is providing the big beefy character you want to put it on - the card does not specify that it has to be a Miskatonic character.

Tom Capor aka Magnus Arcanis
Medico Della Peste likely contributed to your disdain towards Puzzled Exchange Student as it almost does the same thing, but is simply better in almost every way. Still, being more flexible and being much cheaper does not necessarily make it a good card. I find it’s uses to still be too narrow for general competitive play unless you’re going for a ‘big character type of strategy. Currently decks like this haven’t been popular and for a good reason, but more support cards like this I wouldn’t be totally shocked to see a ‘big character’ deck one day.

Danigral - 3 out of 5
I’m loath to give an attachment such a decent rating, but not exhausting is essentially like winning an arcane challenge with absolutely no effort. Put it on your heavy hitter or Ancient One and you have a big obstacle for your opponent.

Kamacausey - 3 out of 5
I am still unsure about this card. Initially I wanted to give it a 2 because the added ability of making it invulnerable to Night cards is thwarted by the fact that it is an attachment and all you have to do to get rid of it is kill the character that it is attached to. However, the effect that it gives is pretty good so if you put it on a character that is a major pain in the rear and hard to get rid of I could potentially see this being useful. Is it worth it? Maybe.

jhaelen - 3 out of 5
Miskatonic's immune Day card comes in the shape of a character attachment. That's a bit of a disadvantage since you can get rid of it by removing the character from play or making her insane (if applicable). It comes with an additional good effect, though: it's a cheaper, unrestricted version of the Dream Diary. Finally, being a Mask might gain importance in the future, and Attachments aren't that hard to put back into play.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_desperate-search-tiv.jpg'] Desperate Search

dboeren - 4 out of 5
Getting back any cards you want is pretty nice, as long as it’s not too early in the game you should be able to built an awesome hand to run amok with your other two domains, and you get a free bonus if it’s Day. Works great with the large hands Miskatonic is known for and keeps your opponent guessing. Try it with a deck that can seed the discard pile and the early game improves.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
Desperate Search… is just… wow. On its’ own it’s amazing. Make it day and you can’t not love it. Combo it with other cards that like being re-used… ugh.. With 2 copies you can cycle them. Desperate Search basically says, for one domain you can have the best hand you could possibly have out of the cards you’ve seen so far this game. While not perfect for every deck (as not all decks are concerned with keeping a healthy hand size), if you’re utilizing Miskantonic’s card drawing capabilities, this will often serve as a nice compliment.

Danigral - 4 out of 5
So, fresh from a win of a broken mill deck which depended on getting certain cards in the discard, you give that deck another tool. Let’s get these yithians in my discard for free, get back my 0 cost events and mill you more, then mill you more, and mill some more. Sure, it can be very good to get back characters after a board wipe (like The Plague Stone), or in combo with the new Supernal Prism, but I think this card just has too much abuse potential.

Kamacausey - 4 out of 5
I see this card getting restricted or something. This card has ABUSE ME PLEASE written all over it. It is a fantastic compliment to the m.u. card drawing capabilities but it’s not for every deck. The extra card you get for it being Day is the cherry on top of the already delicious sundae.

jhaelen - 5 out of 5
This is similar to Fraternal Ties, but instead of having to discard success tokens, you only have to discard cards from your hand. That catapults the usefulness from a last resort emergency to one of the most reliable and inexpensive ways to recycle cards (and especially events!) in the game. Considering how many ways of drawing additional cards Miskatonic has you get to recover plenty. Adding insult to injury, it gets better still if it's Day, allowing you to draw a bonus card.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_tenebrous-nightgaunt-tiv.jpg'] Tenebrous Nightguant

Danigral - 2 out of 5
Do I really want Night for Yog? Not particularly, but it could be useful for other factions. The Response is situational, and while it could be very good, it could be very bad. So then judging this card by its stats means it’s slightly under par, especially at this price.

dboeren - 3 out of 5
Night is a bonus, what he’s really about is the drag he puts on your opponent. The problem is, your opponent is likely to have something in his deck with a useful “enters play” ability in which case you may be giving him a birthday present by using this power. Yeah, you can skip it because it’s not Forced, but then he’s just a 2 cost guy you paid 3 for. He can recycle a little guy, but since it’s still stifling his draw I don’t think that part is too bad. If you got to pick (even with some cost/skill limit) he would have been a stronger pick.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
Not the greatest stat block for 3, but his effect leans into a deck type that straight up punishes a player for ever playing a card. Typically these types of decks suffer from ‘enter play’ effects, but once there are enough tools the in toolbox there could be a cohesive strategy. That being said, giving my opponent the choice of which character is sent makes the Tenebrous Nightgaunt a far less attractive of an option.

jhaelen - 2 out of 5
Regarding new Day/Night cards, Yog-Sothoth definitely gets the short end of the stick. It's an unimpressive cost 3 character and doesn't gain immunity like Shub's Savio Corvi. It's ability is also so, so. Returning an opponent's character to the top of his deck can be useful, but it only works in your turn, since you have to succeed at a story, and your opponent gets to choose which character is affected. Since it's not unique, in theory you can do it three times, but if you ever manage to pull that off, you're probably already winning, anyway.

Kamacausey - 2 out of 5
At first I thought this guy was really good but then I realized you don’t get to choose the target that goes on the top of the owner’s deck. As it stands he isn’t that impressive. Yes you get the benefit of Night but he is overcosted imho. He should have cost 2. I’ll pass on this guy.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_salvatore-neri-tiv.jpg'] Salvatore Neri

Danigral - 4 out of 5
A lot comes in this small package. With no limit on his ability, he can pack quite a punch using multiple characters text boxes, even utilizing different abilities depending on the phase since he keeps it until the end of the turn! A deck built around this guy and keeping him in play, is probably the only other time I would consider the conspiracy Before the Fast.

dboeren - 4 out of 5
You can just do so many cool tricks with this guy, he’s fantastic. You do need a Conspiracy, but the key here is that even without it he’s not crappy. Average sure, but not outright bad. Cheap Sorcerers are also welcome.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
Depending on the board condition, Mr. Neri is one scary guy. Not unlike Paul Lemond of the Angency faction, you can continuously pay 1 to add your Mr. Neri’s text box. Sure, he comes with a “I need a conspiracy card” requirement, but that’s easy enough to supply. The combos possible with Neri are limitless, he will see play at some point. Beware the Salvatore.

jhaelen - 2 out of 5
He's completely unremarkable if there's no Conspiracy in play. If there is, he gains a somewhat situational ability. To make absolutely sure including him in your deck is worthwhile you'd have add characters with interesting keywords or abilities yourself. The problem with copying text boxes is, that most abilities refer to a card's name and hence won't be of any use, so, I find it very hard to decide if he's any good without playtesting him extensively. So, my rating may err on the side of caution.

Kamacausey - 3 out of 5
I can see the potential here but like a lot of the cards in the set there has to be a conspiracy in play first. Not that hard of a prerequisite but a prerequisite nonetheless. However, he has a powerful enough effect that he will definitely see some play.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_devious-nightgaunt-tiv.jpg'] Devious Nightgaunt

Danigral - 3 out of 5
While it’s stats aren’t impressive, the ability to turn off a characters keywords like toughness, invulnerability, and willpower(!) for a story phase gives a lot of control, even if the prospect means losing this dude in the process. He may not ultimately make the cut in many decks, but he can be very useful.

dboeren - 2 out of 5
I want to like Devious Nightgaunt, but he’s just not devious enough. You know who usually doesn’t have awesome text boxes come story time? Characters with skill 2 or lower. Even if they do, they can go to a different story, too often it’s not going to do much more than make your opponent shuffle his guys around a bit. At Night he gets better, but still, too low impact and he suffers from the dreaded “crappy stats” disease as well. He even gets a mostly bad subtype.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
Does not combo well with Salvatore Neri! In fact, for all we know that’s who is being carried away in the awesome art illustrated by Stephen Somers. That being said, his effect, while potent (capable of disabling text boxes of cards like the Ancient One, Glaaki), just isn’t all that useful. Beyond keywords, most effects in the current metagame don’t care if they’re turned off for a phase. Even worse, the blanking only applies to characters at the same story as it. As scary as a Nightgaunt is, this one won’t be keeping me up at night.

jhaelen - 3 out of 5
Okay, it's stats are rather bad, but the ability totally makes up for it. Potentially blanking several text boxes in a single sweep is very cool. Being limited to affecting characters with skill 2 (or 4 if it's Night) doesn't strike me as a big disadvantage. It will work on most characters in the early game, and in the right deck, with ways to reduce your opponent's characters' skill, it can work on almost everyone, even if it's not Night. Note, that there is currently a total of only 44 characters in the game with skill 5 or more (and more than half of them being Ancient Ones)! I expect it to be especially effective against your typical rush deck.

Kamacausey - 2 out of 5
I could be totally wrong here but this guy gets a big meh from me. At first glance his ability seems cool but your opponent will just play around him. Also, his icon layout isn’t the best either so I just don’t see him seeing a whole lot of play.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_the-black-tiv.jpg'] The Black

Danigral - 2 out of 5
While the ability of this attachment can be very annoying, it can also be easy to play around for your opponent. Your opponent will most likely just sacrifice the attached character at first opportunity, or throw it under the terror bus to remove the attachment. Not to mention this card will most likely require going in a mono-Yog deck.

dboeren - 2 out of 5
Fairly annoying Curse for 1, but your opponent can ignore it when it’s important to do so. If you want this card to work better, you need to combine it with other cards that put demand on their domains as well. Eventually, they need to lose the ability to ignore it and THEN it becomes useful.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
Man the art by Brian Valenzuela here is soo creepy(and I mean that in a good way)! That being said, the effect of The Black certainly leaves something to be desired. While the tax for the attached character to do anything meaningful is painful, your opponent still has a choice. I hate giving my opponent’s choices. That being said, in a deck chock full of ‘choice’ cards like the Guardian could make for a rather fun strategy as you watch your opponent agonize over every little move they make.... Muwhahahaha.

jhaelen - 2 out of 5
This Curse will create some tough choices for your opponent. It's inexpensive but with Steadfast 5 it will only see play in decks dedicated mostly to Yog. It doesn't completely neutralize a character, but since it even works on Ancient Ones, you can cripple a key character to swing the advantage to your side in a few turns. Being an attachment it's not really hard to get rid of it, though.

Kamacausey - 2 out of 5
The more I review the Yog cards for this set the more I realize they got the shaft this time around. I can see where this card could get annoying for your opponent but that’s it. It will just be annoying. It will not stop your opponent from doing something that he really wants to do. I don’t understand the 5 steadfast here. It’s not that impressive of a card. Not completely worthless but I don’t see it getting a whole lot of play either.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_fleeting-guise-tiv.jpg'] Fleeting Guise

Danigral - 3 out of 5
Another spell for the spellbook! This card is situational depending on what you and your opponent both have in play. It can be good to sneak through some surprise investigation struggle wins, or to push through some critical struggles after committing to stories. The only problem is that most of the time better characters worth copying are unique.

dboeren - 3 out of 5
I’ve been using this one in some decks and it’s been a mixed bag. Sometimes, usually when things are going well, it’s not so hot. But a lot of times when a strong enemy character is giving you trouble it can help out, or you might be able to field your own “big guy” to duplicate by surprise. Non-unique hurts it a bit though... Worth taking if you feel like it, but don’t feel sad if you need to cut it. Spell is a good subtype for Yog too, they’ve got some interesting things that can feed off of that.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
This is a cool card. Granted, it’s not always useful, but transforming one of your weak characters into one of your good characters is a neat way to surprise an opponent with a move they weren’t predicting. May not be the best trick in Yog’s book for secrets, but certainly one with some serious potential.

jhaelen - 3 out of 5
This newest addition to Yog's grimoire of arcane incantations turns one of your characters into a temporary Doppelgänger. It's not quite as useful since it does nothing for abilities that trigger on entering play, but I can still think of plenty of scenarios in which this may be useful.

Kamacausey - 3 out of 5
Finally a decent card for the purple people eaters. Probably the best card that Yog got this set. Not overly impressive but still I can see the potential in this one. It will make for a nice combat trick. I can see someone getting blown out at a story by this card. Not a game winner on it’s own but it can sure put you in the right direction.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_mass-hysteria-tiv.jpg'] Mass Hysteria

dboeren - 3 out of 5
Looks great for a Terror based deck, although it doesn’t stop Willpower. Although it looks like it has a drawback, your opponent likely won’t be willing to commit and lose two characters to insanity just to get one back. Meanwhile you can reuse your Lunatic Or at least that’s the plan… You’ve got to be pretty confident that you’ll win Terror though, so be ready to resource it if you aren’t sure enough.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
Mass Hysteria is crazy. First glance you can tell that it is geared towards decks with a focus on insanity and/or is strong with their terror count. However, Mass Hysteria contradicts itself, by restoring characters if you commit to it. It’s quite a vicious cycle really. I’m not sure what kind of competitive play this will see, but adding a couple of dimensions to the game makes Mass Hysteria really fun to play with.

jhaelen - 2 out of 5
The first of our new Conspiracies focuses on the Terror struggle. By negating any Terror icons it ensures that insanity will take its toll, but incentivizes committing characters by allowing a player to restore an additional character. Interesting. I suppose a (Hastur) Lunatic deck would benefit most from including this card in its deck. Unfortunately, characters with Willpower stay safe from harm, though, which slightly lessens its effectiveness. It's arguably better than any of its predecessors, but does that make it worth including? For my taste it's too situational and unreliable to be really effective.

Danigral - 2 out of 5
I’m not too sure this will do anything for a terror based deck, even though it’s definitely built around the terror struggle. What will most likely happen is that your opponent just won’t commit, so you’ll get an extra success token. I think this conspiracy is made for those Hastur lunatic decks so you can get multiple uses out of a lunatic.

Kamacausey - 2 out of 5
Terror heavy decks might like this but I don’t see it being played very often. The drawback is almost too great for the deck that wants to actually play this conspiracy. Maybe a player can put this funky conspiracy to use though.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_death-comes-for-all-tiv.jpg'] Death Comes for All

dboeren - 3 out of 5
You can’t even look at this card without trying to figure out some funky combo to prevent your opponent from committing to it. Go ahead, I dare you to try. Yeah, me neither… It’s probably not going to work every game, but you’ll have fun trying to pull off your combo and when it does work it’s going to be pretty darn cool.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
Death Comes For All is a lot like Mass Hysteria that it contradicts itself with its’ effects. Arguably, not quite as goofy fun as Mass Hysteria, but has a bit more of a competitive drive as you could build a deck around this card to take advantage of those who aren’t prepared. It’s a bit slow to pull off, but if you can time a story win correctly it could give you the win.

jhaelen - 3 out of 5
Nomen est omen! This focuses on the combat struggle, and unlike Mass Hysteria it's effect is not half-hearted, negating both Toughness and Invulnerability. Yet, the incentive to commit to this conspiracy is quite huge, at least as soon as it looks like a player might be able to win it: Wounding every uncommitted character is a strong effect. So, combining this with effects that exhaust or uncommit characters seems like a good idea. I think, I can work with that.

Danigral - 3 out of 5
This card is a devil’s bargain. There is no incentive to commit if you are under the combat count, until the story could be won, unless you have a lot of toughness or invulnerable characters on the board. This is a conspiracy that if you build your deck around it, you could have a huge advantage, which is arguably what conspiracies have tried (and probably failed) to do in the past. Put in Dutch Courage, or tons of agency chumps with a lot of combat to do a psuedo-boardwipe.

Kamacausey - 3 out of 5
Although I can’t think of a combo to abuse this story’s effect I’m sure there is one out there. This at least seems to have more potential than mass hysteria. Anytime the invulnerability can be stripped from an ancient one I can get behind that.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_purity-of-purpose-tiv.jpg'] Purity of Purpose

dboeren - 3 out of 5
Interesting twist, it’s more like a Corporate-won Agenda in Netrunner. Most of the time milling 2 isn’t that big a deal so likely your opponent won’t bother in the first place, but beware Yog who has both milling and sacrifice! One of my least favorites of the new Stories though as it doesn’t really bend reality as much as the rest.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
Purity of Purpose is a refreshing change of pace. Weird struggle setup and the game’s first effect usable from the ‘won pile.’ So if nothing else, it’s just cool. That being said, sacrifice effects are big right now and scoring this conspiracy card can cripple an opponent leaning on that strategy. Like all conspiracies, use at your own risk, but otherwise, feel free to enjoy.

jhaelen - 2 out of 5
The investigation-focused conspiracy of this set has the additional property of lacking a terror struggle icon, making it an obvious choice for any of the human factions. Instead of affecting committed characters it grants a reusable effect to the player winning this conspiracy, offering protection from sacrifice effects. This is not bad, but I'm not sure if I'd prefer it to either Combing the Archives or The Night Job. If it protected from destruction effects instead, it would be a whole lot more interesting.

Danigral - 3 out of 5
This conspiracy has a lot of potential for investigator factions, since a lot of those rush decks depend on keeping enough characters on the table to present threats at multiple stories, and have typically been weak to decks like mono-Cthulhu or Shub sacrifice. This gives them a tool to combat that just long enough to push through the win, but even then, it is very niche.

Kamacausey - 3 out of 5
I really like that fantasy flight is starting to explore with the conspiracies a little more. Having the conspiracy give a lasting effect after it’s won is something that is very neat and a cool design. I like the idea as it gives you more reason to want to include it in your deck if it can help your game plan. I can see this seeing some play from the human factions.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_the-guardian-tiv.jpg'] The Guardian

dboeren - 4 out of 5
Love it in any Day/Night deck, it gets that card out earlier and gains some tempo, I’ve been playing a deck that just explodes out of the gate with this thing activating my Conspirators and time-based strategies quickly. The benefit you get from winning it is great too.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
The Guardian in one of those cool ‘all-rounder’ type of cards. It impacts the play area, your deck, your hand, the won story pile, and just about any zone your opponent wants to use things out of (if you won this conspiracy of course). While the pool of super important Day and Night cards isn’t vast, The Guardian’s “when you play” ability is certainly something to consider for a deck packing any amount of day and night. Otherwise, be sure that if you play The Guardian, you can win The Guardian. Having to pay an extra 1 to target things puts huge damper on a player’s ability to win.

jhaelen - 3 out of 5
This card showcases the two themes of the Venice set, Day/Night and Conspiracies, and allows you to build a deck around both. Winning it grants a nice, passive, free effect that helps to bolster your defenses. I think it's pretty awesome since it turns effects that could normally be triggered for free or by exhausting a character into something that requires a domain to be drained. The only disadvantage: it doesn't favour the player who brought it into play, so you'll really want to make sure it doesn't end up helping your opponent. Still, this is probably my favorite conspiracy in this set.

Danigral - 3 out of 5
While this card provides some card advantage, it comes with a cost of 1, so even if you see this card early, there’s no guarantee that you can even make use of the day/night card you get. It wouldn't work to combo with Red-Gloved Man or Ol' Lazy Eyes since it has to be played, not put into play. But you can throw in day/night characters, supports, or events and toolbox a bit. The big thing is the effect from the won-story pile, as this can really screw up your opponent’s plans for resourcing.

Kamacausey - 4 out of 5
I really like this conspiracy. It does so much for its cost. If you are playing a Day or Night deck that needs its Day or Night cards then you can’t go wrong with this conspiracy. It will let you go fetch the most valuable card for your strategy and add it to your hand. On top of that it has a useful ability if it’s won much like the purity of purpose. The only reason it doesn’t get a 5 from me is if your opponent ends up winning this conspiracy instead of you things can get bad quickly.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_before-the-fast-tiv.jpg'] Before the Fast

dboeren - 2 out of 5
It’s weird to rate Conspiracies because they’re all “it depends” sort of cards and you usually build around the Conspiracy so there’s rarely a time when you’re actually thinking whether to put it in or not. You pick the conspiracy FIRST, or at least I do… Anyway, before you think this is going to be amazing in your next “pay 1” based deck, keep in mind that the new domain has no cards in it. You’ve got to spend turns and cards filling them yourself before you can pay for anything, so it’s not really going to pay off as much until later in the game.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
If Eldrich Nexus decided to spawn a litter, it would be Before the Fast. While, you don’t get a free resource like eldrich Nexus, Before the Fast can generate up to 9 total empty domains (5 for the winner, 4 for the opponent) on its own. Odds that won’t happen too often, but like Mass Hysteria, this is just a fun card to play with. It could even have competitive applications for decks that can utilize a ton of domains. The investment will likely dissuade most strategies, but slower decks with plenty of card draw could put it to work.

jhaelen - 1 out of 5
Another conspiracy that represents a gamble: Whenever a player succeeds at it, she will gain a bonus domain. Okay, so far so good. One problem I'm seeing here: Your shiny new domain is not going to have any resources. And if you're not into gambling, why would you ever want to play this if you could play Eldritch Nexus for the same cost, which grants you a guaranteed bonus domain with a free resource on top? And how many extra domains do you need, anyway? How many can you realistically expect to gain from this? Imho, this is purely a 'win-more' card.

Danigral - 2 out of 5
I can see this in only one deck, due to its cost and ability being so specific, and that’s in a Syndicate skill reduction deck. In that deck you really can’t have enough 1-resource domains, so this can be a big boon over Eldritch Nexus in a long game. However, I would never play more than one of this because I wouldn’t want to see this more than once, and never early, since I would want to get my main domains built up first.

Kamacausey - 2 out of 5
I don’t see this conspiracy being played all that often if ever. Maybe there is a player out there that will try to abuse before the feast with nug shenanigans to get the most use out the extra domains but I doubt it.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_unending-festivities-tiv.jpg'] Unending Festivities

dboeren - 4 out of 5
I have to agree with Tom here, this is something big. I’ve been loving it with Syndicate to further lock down my opponent, but there’s no reason you can’t enjoy this card with San Marco Basilica/Agency, 70 Steps/Hastur, or other archetypes as well. It’s not something you just put into a deck, it’s the first card you put into the deck and you make it your cornerstone to build on top of.

Tom Capor aka Magnus Arcanis
Unending Festivities is its’ own archetype. In a deck packed with a healthy amount exhaustion and/or insanity abilities to knock down fresh and readied characters. No way am I going to not be prepared for it this year.

jhaelen - 3 out of 5
The arcane-focused conspiracy of the set introduces a strong passive effect that can help to slow down the game. It makes effects that exhaust or ready characters much more powerful, making it an obvious choice for Syndicate decks. But almost any faction can benefit from it by including the right cards. I rather like this.

Danigral - 4 out of 5
I agree with everyone here. This card will be very big in a few builds, and will be something to take into account for your own deckbuilding. My stock in Y’Golonac, and any character that can ready through an ability, just went up. This will be very NPE. Restrict!

Kamacausey - 4 out of 5
Now here is a conspiracy that means business! This is one of those cards that makes you want to build your deck around it. I can see a dedicated control deck making this card a pain in the arse for others players to deal with. While it doesn’t have an awesome effect that happens upon entering play like the mage’s machinations or the guardian it has a lasting effect while in play that can make it a nightmare for your opponent. This conspiracy makes me think of negotium with how annoying it can be. All around a great card. It will most certainly see some play.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_the-mages-machinations-tiv.jpg'] The Mage's Machinations

dboeren - 4 out of 5
First, I’m super happy to see “remove from game” added to the rules. We’ve needed this *SO* badly. It needs to be firmed up a little yet but good things are coming. Just be DARN sure you can win the thing if you play it, or at least win before someone else does. Getting the two best characters (at the time of play) gifted to you is big and you don’t want to be on the wrong side of that.

Tom Capor aka Magnus Arcanis
Ok, I might be a little biased towards The Mage’s Machinations (I was allowed to help design this card for winning the 2011 World Championship), but it’s still my favorite card in the set. Good from the first turn to the last, can create card advantage and it’s a conspiracy both players will generally always want to commit to. Removal (even if it’s only temporary) that can target Ancient Ones too? Yes please. Losing your own best character in play is pretty rough cost, but since you usually still have the rest of your operations phase to play other characters… I’m sure you’ll get over it. Combo with cards like Ol’Lazy Eyes and The Red Gloved Man for a quick search and play. If it does indeed gain the errata to work with Hall of Champions (as it should) for quick search ability and reusability… could bring the Hall out of ‘casual’ realm and into the competitive spotlight.

jhaelen - 4 out of 5
And now to our final new Conspiracy. It introduces a new mechanism to the Call of Cthulhu card game: It allows each player to choose and remove a character from play. And the winner gains control of all of them! While the effect is symmetrical, played at the right moment you can stack the deck to your advantage and come out ahead of the deal even if you don't win it - or don't even intend to! Getting rid of an opponent's key character, even if only for a turn or two, may well decide the game for you. I surmise rush decks will like this best. Best played at the start of your operations phase before putting down your own key character. Oh, and think about what happens if you blank it's text before it's won by the 'wrong' player…

Danigral - 4 out of 5
If you have no other conspiracies in your deck, there’s almost no reason to not run at least one of these for some spot character removal of big baddies or your opponent’s linchpin character, especially if you’re behind in board position. Just keep an Ol’ Lazy Eyes in your hand for that clutch moment, and you just better make sure that you win that conspiracy.

Kamacausey - 4 out of 5
I’m really digging the conspiracies that do things when you play them. It makes up for the fact that you just played a card that could benefit both players. M.U. will love this gem. It is a card that will let you get rid of the most annoying character on the other side of the table while your opponent will typically just remove a chud that you can throw another copy down immediately after they remove it. This conspiracy played at the right time can mean the difference between a win and a loss. I predict it will be one of the most played cards from this set.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_the-supernal-prism-tiv.jpg'] The Supernal Prism

dboeren - 3 out of 5
I haven’t seen this be abused yet. It could be very strong against Miskatonic (the ones most likely to have to ditch a big hand) but honestly most players seem to keep their hands small because they’re putting those cards on the table where they’ll do more good. True, you can take out someone’s contingency plan they’re holding for the right moment, but you could be losing your own as well. I don’t like to bank on having a worse surprise than the other guy.

Tom Capor - aka Magnus Arcanis
After you’re done dropping your jaw at this gem questioning why FFG would print a card that in other games have proven to be broken, you may come to realize that while it’s certainly still a strong card, it isn’t nearly all it’s cracked up to be. Best case scenario, you have 1 card in hand and your opponent(s) have 0, or 5+. Thus allowing you to draw 4 cards over your opponent. Kind of like Forbidden Knowledge except instead of sacrificing a character, you have to burn through your hand (which isn’t exactly hard to accomplish). From there, it only gets worse. A +4 card hand advantage is strong, really strong, but as I’ve mentioned before draw isn’t ‘as’ valuable when compared to some other games as it comes more naturally in Call of Cthulhu. So, while I think it’ll stay under the “OP Radar” it’s best use (without a dedicated combo) will be to serve as a recover from a hand dump while hopefully disrupting your opponent’s plans. Which could be especially good for deck discard strategies.

jhaelen - 3 out of 5
Our first neutral Relic also serves as a Day card and can be sacrificed for an additional effect: plentiful card drawing and/or forcing your opponent to discard his hand. At cost 3 it's a bit pricey, but the effect is probably worth it. Miskatonic and the Lodge will likely benefit most from it, but it can help in any deck. It may even be useful to support a milling strategy.

Danigral - 3 out of 5
This card is interesting in that it rewards the player that doesn’t hoard their cards. A rush player with little natural faction draw will find this helpful, but it is expensive, and you’re helping your opponent out sometimes, too. On the flip side, I could see this paired with some discard effects too, like Apeirophobia and Byakhee Attack, to discard all your opponent’s cards and trigger for a one-sided hand-refill. That’s the holy grail effect, and I don’t see that happening all too often.

Kamacausey - 3 out of 5
Mmmmmmmmm... Cards!!! This was one of those cards that I thought was awesome and immediately wanted to play with. However, upon playing with it though it wasn’t as good as I had originally anticipated. That isn’t to say that this card doesn’t have applications because it definitely does. A dedicated hand destruction deck or a deck that is having issues with card draw can both put this to good use.
[/CRB]

[CRB='/forums/uploads/coc/med_the-plague-stone-tiv.jpg'] The Plague Stone

dboeren - 3 out of 5
I’m not generally a big fan of resets, but I know there are people who are and this one is much better than Dimensional Rift I think. To make it pay off, I feel like you want to put it in play and activate it later. Let it hang over your opponent’s head at least a turn, then be ready to drop two guys that will help you finish off some stories when you finally activate it. You’re balancing the risk of it being destroyed vs. the bigger payoff of having TWO domains left when you pop it.

Tom Capor aka Magnus Arcanis
Dimensional Rift’s younger sibling. 1 less to play and activate and only destroying characters makes it a bit more deck friendly allowing you keep your support cards for defense. I expect it to mostly see play in control style decks with decent support cards like the combo of the Three Bells and Rite of the Silver Gate popularized by Brandon Hulings.

jhaelen - 4 out of 5
The second neutral Relic card, representing the dark mirror image of The Supernal Prism. It's effect is arguably more powerful, but also costs an additional 2. The obvious comparison is with Dimensional Rift: It's less expensive, gets shuffled back in your deck, and doesn't touch support cards. So in almost every case it's the better choice. I expect this card to show up all over the place in the near future, so best plan for it!

Danigral - 4 out of 5
I think this game has been sorely missing a mass reset like this. While it’s still clunky and a bit expensive, the mere fact that it exists will need to be taken into account for deckbuilding, and during gameplay. If you have relative card advantage, there’s not a huge reason not to use resets when you’re behind in board position. This card also could spawn its own archetype: char-lite builds with supports like Guardian Pillar or Idol of the Abomination; or other heavy control builds with a lot of events and fewer characters. I’m not sure how competitive they’ll be, but I know it will be tried.

Kamacausey - 5 out of 5
This card is sooo good! It’s what control decks have been longing for. In a lot of ways it is what dimensional rift should have been. Granted, it doesn’t get rid of support cards but that can be turned into a positive, not a negative. I can see some support control going on while using this card to help control the board. Unfortunately no marcus jamburg tom foolery going on since its gets shuffled back in instead of sitting in the discard pile.
[/CRB]