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1
The Sleeper Below Review, Part 3
Oct 15 2014 09:00 AM |
Danigral
in Call of Cthulhu
Call of Cthulhu The Sleeper Below Review
Our staff has put together a first blush analysis of the newly released The Sleeper Below, the deluxe expansion featuring the mighty Cthulhu himself. This is the third of three parts: neutrals and other factions.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. Let us know in the comments how you feel about the cards in this set!
Neutrals
- Danigral - 3 out of 5. She’s good to have against those early monsters with terror and combat. Trading her in for another character - perhaps one that can jump into play like Black Dog - seems pretty good.
- dboeren - 3 out of 5. Not bad. You get an early blocker with Arcane and then trade it in for someone good a bit later in the game.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5 - Now she’s a class act. If your deck has a crucial 1-2 cost character, definitely a good option to look at, and brings a nice board presence on top with her keywords.
- Wilbur - 4 out of 5 - 1 skill isn’t too great, but she’s a real tough chump blocker that virtually guarantees a cost two search. Given how many great cost 2 characters there are, that’s solid.
- Danigral - 3 out of 5. It’s middle of the road because it is obviously the most apparent answer to recursion-based strategies, including Yithians, but because it won’t be helpful always. It’s an attachment support too, so there it’s possibly your anti-meta card could do absolutely zero before hitting the discard itself. ~Plus, it shuts off your Akhlut.
- dboeren - 3 out of 5. Great against Yithians obviously, but there are a lot of cards you don’t want to see come back and this card stops them cold. Not every deck needs it, but it can solve tough problems.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5 - An interesting meta-card, something that recursion decks will definitely need to have an answer for… but useless against anything else. With recursion being a big thing in CoC at the moment, definitely a card that was needed… but will go up and down in the meta depending on how it develops.
- Wilbur - 3 out of 5 - A card I won’t want to include, but one that could easily make tournament decks. The overall utility of the card will depend upon what happens to Yithians, and what strategies emerge from what’s in place after the next FAQ. In a deck with Flooded Vault, could be an awesome meta card; as long as Cthylla can eat Yithian Scouts and Naomi O’Bannion can stand herself upright to put me On the Lam, this is a potentially useful card.
- Danigral - 1 out of 5. This can keep your characters on the table from a board wipe, but they are also still 2 turns out (at least) from being usable again without any tricks like Arkham Asylum. Lunatics might be able to utilize this more, but it wouldn’t be a good idea to just throw this in a deck hoping to save them against an opponent’s effect. You’ll just be holding that card and keeping a 1-domain open in case, while your opponent gets ahead.
- dboeren - 2 out of 5. Seems best in conjunction with a board wipe, so build around that and enjoy keeping your dudes.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5 - A definite combo-card, probably for Plague Stone. However, to find a home, it needs a deck that doesn’t run Willpower or Horror, but rather methods of bringing cards out from being insane… sounds like a Lunatic prospect.
- Wilbur - 2 out of 5 - Hard to use. You can’t save terror/willpower dudes and you have to build in a way to undo the insanity to come out ahead for more than an instant. Maybe a part of a board advantage engine, but it just doesn’t seem very good.
- Danigral - 2 out of 5. An iconic character from the Call of Cthulhu story! Too bad he is pretty bad. 1 skill, no willpower, and a marginally useful ability.
- dboeren - 3 out of 5. Great to see another famous character in the game. Essentially gives you an opportunity to do a little payback. Icons aren’t great though.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5 - A good stable Investigator, with a bit of staying power and builds further upon the Agency theme of making your opponents removal more difficult.
- Wilbur - 3 out of 5 - Could be very strong with a draw engine in place, given Agency’s solid suite of events. However, icons are not ideal, 1 skill is bad, and Investigator, while a great subtype, isn’t helping this particular character so much.
- Danigral - 2 out of 5. Too expensive for what you get. With some extra attachments he can be a nice beat stick, but you can get something better for the cost (not to mention being easier to play) for cost 6 or even cost 4. His ability sounds nice, until you realize that you opponent just has to spend 1 card to make any resource match he wants. It might be good with Torch the Joint to get rid of any colored resource your opponent plays...but this is really reactive play for late game.
- dboeren - 4 out of 5. Nasty effect on your opponent’s largest domain making them waste cards re-activating it.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 - We’re hedging our bets on the fact that more worthwhile Government support is on the way, but this is definitely one of the more complicated Societies, with plenty of possibility to be extremely irritating.
- Wilbur - 3 out of 5 - A super nasty effect, but hard to play before your fate is looking grim. With serious cost reduction, Peel Association could definitely go up a notch, so I’m prepared to revise this evaluation once the recently announced Agency box and Lt. Wilson Stewart enters the cardpool. Still, in true Agency fashion, it’s got a subpar icon spread: at cost 6, it can’t defend a story from Degenerate Serpent Cultist (assuming it was left for defense last turn, since it can’t ready itself, either). Still, might be a part of the Agency resource destruction strategy that has always been a piece or two short.
- Danigral - 3 out of 5. Potentially huge, assuming the right stories are out. He can be super annoying as a defender when your opponent has to consider that his characters could get sacrificed or bounced. He can also get tons of cards with Chaos Unleashed. Loyal is the big downside, and it’s probably for the best that it’s on there, but unfortunately mono-Hastur isn’t more viable with him, so he’s best to pull with Shocking Transformation, like every other worthwhile character with loyal or high cost.
- dboeren - 3 out of 5. One of the most annoying defenders ever at the stories that wipe everybody.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 - Now that’s a Lunatic that will really have an impact, if the stars are right. On the plus side, the stats are pretty decent even when you don’t have something juicy to trigger. Hmm. Mä melkein harkittisin 5:ttä, jopa.
- Wilbur - 4 out of 5 - Ardois-Bonnot is pretty strong, especially as a Hastur character. There are a lot of powerful stories, and a lot that are situationally powerful. Seventh Gate - assuming it works like I think it does - becomes a toolbox of awesome effects.
- Danigral - 3 out of 5. I find it hard to give any of these more than 3 since they are only best when you are already losing. This one may be an exception since it synergizes with one non-utilized and potentially useful card: Seven Hundred Steps. That said, he has a decent icon spread, and the ability could be really hard to deal with. I can see potential.
- dboeren - 3 out of 5. Shuts down Arcane for your opponent basically, but I fear it may hit the table too late for an “over time†effect to pay off well.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5 - The passive here is quite interesting, and definitely can have an impact on the game. With Hastur being a slower Controlling faction, these kinds of late-game cards will see play much more often, but whether this will have enough time to attrition your opponent down afterwards… is not quite as sure. Shocking Transformation, that friend of all Societies everywhere, may of course help out.
- Wilbur - 2 out of 5 - I guess it is tough against investigator decks with aren’t prepared to deal with insanity, but that has always been Hastur’s best match-up. The faction continues to look for a reliable finisher, and this isn’t it.
- Danigral - 2 out of 5. While he can really help to lock down stories, putting the 3rd or 4th token, he is weak to pretty much every removal the game has to offer...without the other explorer buffs. So he’ll of course find a place in an explorer deck and that’s probably it. While excellent in an explorer deck, I’m knocking it down for being so niche.
- dboeren - 4 out of 5. Anything that lets you win a story without having to actually GO there is worth having.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 - Did anyone notice he’s an Explorer? Oh, and one with good stats and a decent ability? Good.
- Wilbur - 3 out of 5 - He can definitely help you pressure that last story, but he does have actually get past terror and combat struggles to do anything. Definitely useable, but not a top option at the cost, even within the faction. He does allow you to win/set up your win on the opponent’s turn, though, which is nice.
- Danigral - 2 out of 5. Probably only good in an explorer deck, which is kind of rush. If it’s out, you can more easily keep Ultima Thule in play, and there are other explorers that can give it toughness and willpower. Same for Webb above, I’m knocking it for being niche.
- dboeren - 2 out of 5. Looks reasonable if your deck is based on Lost Civs and Explorers but may not find much of a niche outside of that. Getting it out for free w/ Ultima Thule and then getting free Lost Civilizations is pretty nice. May go to a three is we get some more good Lost Civilizations, especially ones that cost more than 2.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 - Remember that comment about Explorers? Being able to Ultima Thule this into play from Round 1 is no small deal, especially as it can be used to speed up your board development nicely.
- Wilbur - 2 out of 5 - Can drop a lot of icons on the table (with Ultima Thule or Night Class), but… outside of jank (e.g. a very unlikely turn 1 Calling the Darkness), this is terrible in the current card pool. With one new exception, lost civilizations are all cost one or two, and the few that are useable are all easily worth paying for. Sure, it buffs with other explorers, but a lack of arcane or investigation is rarely the issue when my opponent has two stories won against my rush deck. This is an alternative way to put Irem into play, but now my deck has two bad unique cards in it. Still, it could certainly improve with future releases.
- Danigral - 3 out of 5. Of course it’s best in a Dark Young centered deck so that you can at least make the most of his ability. It might be best to use it with The Three Bells, or a Khopesh maybe, to really add insult to injury. Ah, to be dark young again, and so full of potential!
- dboeren - 3 out of 5. Wants a somewhat Dark Young themed deck but a free character is good and with several of them it might be more than one freebie. Budding->Hungry->Harvesting Mi-Go comes to mind.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5 - The usual Dark Young thing of flooding more and more bodies onto the board. The other usual Dark Young thing of only bringing Terror, Combat and a little skill, but nothing else. Still, good, as far as that basic Dark Young thing goes.
- Wilbur - 4 out of 5 - Big body on a guy that can drop Ancient Guardian, HDY, Ya-Te-Veo, which all belong in any dark young deck. Maybe best as a part of a deck that is not quite there, but a card that will carry its weight.
- Danigral - 2 out of 5. It probably has the best icon spread of the societies, but unfortunately comes with a marginally useless ability. It’s only helpful late game when you don’t want or need to resource any more.
- dboeren - 3 out of 5. Can potentially get you back some of those big characters you resourced early on, but hurts your domains in doing so.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 2 out of 5 - Honestly, why would you run this? With Shub’s resource acceleration, there are so many other worthwhile things to do, and this doesn’t add anything really worthwhile to the spectrum.
- Wilbur - 3 out of 5 - Nice icons, especially for arcane-poor Shub, but sort of in conflict with itself, as DBoeren points out. Still, a Shock target on par with Lord of the Woods with an effect that could be exactly what you need. Fits well in some decks.
- Danigral - 2 out of 5. Probably necessary to have in the box for those just getting core and deluxe to allow them to play everything, but ultimately something that is pure jank.
- dboeren - 3 out of 5. Great for your own splashes, but also for turning your opponent’s dual faction domains into single-faction domains to annoy them.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 2 out of 5 - That zero skill is irritating. Otherwise we could easily see it do some splashing tricks, but not being able to oppose or run stories alone is just not a good prospect.
- Wilbur - 2 out of 5 - Enables a bit of splashing (this looks like a trap, though), potentially annoying against an opponent with limited good options, and good at meeting high steadfast requirements. Still, a zero-skill dude that exhausts to activate. I want to like this card more and hope he’ll prove better than I currently think he is, as he opens up some fun new directions for deckbuilding.
- Danigral - 4 out of 5. Silver Twilight is turning into the toolbox faction. He can be useful as a body, but can really hurt your opponent trying to do expensive effects like Broken Space, or maybe some annoying dormant events/abilities.
- dboeren - 3 out of 5. Saves you from some potentially nasty effects but giving up a 3-cost guy is not cheap.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 - A nice toolboxing way of bringing some cancel into your deck, while still staying balanced due to the heavy cost. Nice to see the theme from Hermetic Seal continued.
- Wilbur - 4 out of 5 - When you absolutely need a cancel, any price is a bargain. Nice for winning games against out-of-turn tricks and any deck that wants to pull off a single big effect (I’m looking at you, Plague Stone). Fits well in faction and the faculty subtype helps Silver Twilight make nice with MU.
- Danigral - 4 out of 5. While still weak to terror, he’s got a decent icon spread, and that ability...so nice. It might be worth figuring out ways to put it into play like Shocking or Pose Mundane, because once he’s out it will be very easy to combo for card advantage.
- dboeren - 4 out of 5. There are lots of ST characters that are useful to have back in hand and free card draw is gravy. Or, just rescue them from a story gone bad.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 - How many 0 cost Lodge characters are there? Zero. So, that leaves Rich Widow for the ‘free’ draw engine, otherwise you’ll be draining a domain for each card drawn. Not that it ain’t still good. It is. But the usual late game effect with Societies applies here as well.
- Wilbur - 5 out of 5 - Extremely abusive. With a Rich Widow out (and no card is easier to get out), it’s straight up draw 3 per turn. Anybody’s turn. 4x normal draw might be useful… I’ll just stop there.
- Danigral - 2 out of 5. I like to ask myself when I draw a card if I would rather it be a character, and with this card, that answer is almost always yes.
- dboeren - 3 out of 5. Seems like a decent card to blunt your opponent’s destruction and help free up more of your domains to pay for other effects.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 2 out of 5 - The question is… what happens, if your opponent doesn’t ‘destroy’ your characters? Not much. And the effect being Fated, just seems a bit too limited.
- Wilbur - 2 out of 5 - Fated, dependent upon destruction alone, unique, and won’t upgrade the quality of your characters. And you have to actually have the right ones and lose the right ones to pull off the trick - once per turn. I’d be far more interested in using the Tablets in a deck where I’m somehow killing myself (it opens up some Plague Stone possibilities, for instance). Taken on its own merits, it’s not terrible, but it’s close. A good example of a card that you’ll wish weren’t in your deck most times you draw it.
- Danigral - 2 out of 5. Talk about a Hail Mary, this effect is really go big or go home. Imagine if this effect is cancelled, that’s GG son. Still it would be soooo fun to try to make it work.
- dboeren - 2 out of 5. Sounds really cool, but also bizarre. It does make you want to look into building a specific deck to abuse it though and it bypasses faction so you can use any Ancient One you want.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 2 out of 5 - Now that’s curious… won’t see much play, but has some interesting potential to untap. Too bad the end result will likely be too volatile.
- Wilbur - 2 out of 5 - Looks like the core of an unreliable ‘turn one Nyarlathotep’ deck. A fun card to try to break, but probably not that great in reality. Maybe Silver Twilight can push home that last story or two with Zstylzhemgni, but it’s not exactly free. And a deck that intentionally builds in weakness to Terror just seems perverse.
- Danigral - 5 out of 5. Such great stats. The only problem is Syndicate has such a wealth of great 3 cost characters already. But that’s a good problem to have.
- dboeren - 5 out of 5. Awesome icons AND a strong ability. She’s hawt.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 5 out of 5 - Now that’s just… brutally efficient.
- Wilbur - 5 out of 5 - Maybe my favorite card in the set. The value at cost 3 is unbelievable. Synergizes so well with Syndicate, criminals, everything. Another absurdly good cost 3 Syndicate character that will do serious work all by itself.
- Danigral - 2 out of 5. Way too expensive for soft control, using an effect that will likely require other card effects. Not to mention that the forced response means it let’s your opponent potentially hit you as well.
- dboeren - 2 out of 5. Seems like a smaller benefit than most of the Societies and doesn’t seem to work with passive reduction.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5 - We’ll dub these guys “Hipstersâ€. Another interesting Society, and making any skill manipulation work as an exhaust is not a bad effect. A lot of competition for those high-cost Criminal slots though.
- Wilbur - 2 out of 5 - He can come in for free (Hanyatl's 12:3) in the decks he fits best, but the effect still seems underwhelming. Existing cost 4 and cheaper criminals are better than this. Hardly useless, but neither is it game changing.
- Danigral - 4 out of 5. Not bad as a character, but the card advantage when comboed with other draw effects is huge. There are a lot of characters it can pull that are useful at any stage of the game, like Descendant of Eibon.
- dboeren - 4 out of 5. Mr. Magnus Stiles? The card you ordered is in. He works with anyone drawing cards too, so an opponent can trigger him for you and fill your hand at the same time.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 - Now that’s what a Dark Pharaoh should do! A nice card for punishing card-greedy Explorers and other looters, while also synergizing with your own draw.
- Wilbur - 4 out of 5 - Those six extra cards we drew with H.O.S.T.? Double that. And we’re now not drawing, but searching things like Lost Oracle, B. Ramsdale Brown, Descendant of Eibon, and Mage Known as Magnus. We’re getting into multi-card combos here, but these are combos worth the trouble of establishing.
- Danigral - 2 out of 5. If I somehow got this out early it would be better since I’m feeding things to the discard for Yog, however it seems that (barring tricks) this ability will be too late for when Guardians finally get into play.
- dboeren - 2 out of 5. Interesting effect but won’t kick in until too late I think.
- Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5 - The effect can be interesting, definitely has the potential to form a deck around, whether the pieces come together is a different issue. Of course with the usual clauses on all Societies.
- Wilbur - 2 out of 5 - Like DBoeren said, it’ll need to come out early (not just turn-wise, but victory-wise) to create conditions which are heavily lopsided. Whether those conditions are lopsided enough to build a deck around is another question.
- Zilvake, Cumber and Yuggoth like this
11 Comments
Top 3 scores:
St. Claire - Perfect 20!
Gustaf Johansen - 19
Watcher of Signs & From the Depths - 18
Bottom 3 scores:
Seven Cryptical Books of Hsaan - 5
Aurora Borealis, The Stars are Right, Raising of the Great Old Ones - 6
Akhlut, Tidal Pool, Ancestral Fear, Calling the Darkness - 8
Does anyone else find the art on The Shepherds to be really jarring? The zookeepers look way too "normal" and happy to be Shub cultists. And I understand that they're nurturing these baby monsters, but an actual BABY BOTTLE filled with blood? Is that really the way it would happen?
Overall, the "feel" of the art just seems completely at odds with all the other Shub cards.
I think Ghoulish Thrill Seeker disagrees.
I actually like it. The zookeepers are obviously bonkers.
yea I really like that art too (: its funny but also kinda dark... Picture very active animalists that are protecting monsters kinda rye
The Shepherds' weirdness for me is from the fact it looks more like a cartoon than the more dire, scary Shub cards. Except Ghoulish Thrill Seeker, the card of cards that I forgot existed.
If Theosophist was 0 or 1 cost I think he would be amazing: You turn an opponent's one resource domain into a useless resource more than once and you have a real advantage. At 2, though, I have to side with the reviewers. He's okay, just very fringe. Still, cool effect.
I agree, the Thrill Seeker is a little bit kooky, but the "cartoony" feel of the Shepherds (to echo HappyDD above) really sets them apart.
For me St. Claire is definitely the winner, I think Willy Webb has big potential too however. I like the fact I can commit him somewhere totally different, making my opponent spread out his defence, and pretty much pushing through the struggles.
~Re: The Shepherds, I just don't get how those monsters with no lips and likely no soft palate, can create suction on a bottle. It's completely implausible.
sooooo does ardois bonnot win you a story if seventh gate is in play?
What happens if I use the Action of ‘Twila Katherine Price, Lost in a Dream’ (Dreamlands F3) when she is committed to ‘The Seventh Gate (Ancient Relics F12)’?
Twila Katherine Price cannot trigger her ability at The Seventh Gate because it would cause an un-won story card to be moved into the won pile of her controller.
So I think it can't be done.
that should be the ruling