Hi Everyone!

Me and my friends recently got into CoC LCG, and since we rarely have the time to spend on building decks when we can sit down to play a game or two, we needed a few premade decks that can be chosen. We own 1 Core Set, 1 Secrets of Arkham, 1 Terror in Venice. Not planning to buy more Cores, but one by one we're getting the other deluxe packs, Silver Twilight and Seekers of Knowledge are the next ones to go for. It takes time though, and until then we can work from the three boxes above. I'd be more than glad to hear your opininons and advices on the decks, we are newbies after all. Please note that we are only casual players, playing only with each other, so the main goal is to build well thought, more or less thematic decks that are fun and also balanced, so noone gets the "you got the op deck" feeling. Thanks for your opinions in advance!

First deck is a Cthulhu/Hastur deck, with the main idea being to control the opponent by insanity and terror.

1 Cthulhu

3 Hydra

3 Deep One Rising

3 Don Lagorio

1 Guardian Shoggoth

1 Keeper of the Golden Path

1 Lord of the Silver Twilight

3 Poleman

1 Ocean Crawlers

1 Thing from the Stars

3 Doctor Lomboso

3 Messenger from Hali

3 Poltergeist

1 Bearer of the Yellow Sign

1 Victoria Glasser

1 Messenger from Beyond

3 Seeker of Mysteries

3 Solar Eclipse

3 San Giorgio in Alga

3 Primal Fear

1 Sleep of Reason

1 Scotophobia

1 Power Drain

1 Sedated

1 Victoria's Loft

3 Return to Carcosa

3 At Night they Roam

3 San Servolo

3 The Greatest Fear...

3 Mass Hysteria

The second one is a Miscatonic/Agency investigator themed deck.

1 Prof. Albert Wilmarth

1 Dr. Ali Kafour

1 Prof. Nathaniel Peaslee

3 Prof. Armitage

1 Anthropology Advisor

1 Visiting Author

1 Starnge Librarian

1 Student Archeologist

1 Mad Genious

3 Bruno Carioli

3 Norman Blackwood, Jr.

1 Thomas F. Malone

1 Local Sheriff

1 Steve Clarney

1 Freelance Occultist

3 Pious Carabiniere

1 Undercover Security

1 Peeler

1 Blackwood File Clerk

3 Femme Fatale

3 The Necronomicon

1 Unearthing the Ancients

1 Restless and Wary

3 Scientific Text

1 Open for Inspection

3 Medico Della Peste

3 Desperate Search

1 Atwood Science Hall

3 Misinformation

1 Short Fuse

3 San Marco Basilica

1 Working a Hunch

3 Beneath the Burning Sun

1 Tcho-Tcho Talisman

3 Purity of Purpose

The third is a Shub/Yog deck, building around cultist and monster subtypes, combined with playing cards back form the discard pile.

1 Small Ghouls

1 Slavering Gug

1 Y'Golonac

1 Forest Sister

3 Ghoulish Scavenger

3 Albino Goat-Spawn

3 Baleful Reveler

1 Priestess of Bubastis

1 Living Mummy

3 Tenebrous Nightgaunt

3 Hermetic Scholar

3 Wizard of Yog-Sothoth

3 Devious Nightgaunt

1 Disciple of the Gate

1 Son of Yeb

1 Cannibal Ghast

1 Arcane initiate

1 Shocking Transformation

3 Dark Rebirth

1 Bred to Survive

3 Untimely Burial

1 Shadowed Woods

1 Altar of the Blessed

1 Opening the Limbo Gate

1 A Single Glimpse

1 Gathering at the Stones

3 Things in the Ground

3 The Black

3 Chant of Thoth

1 Forbidden Shrine

1 Unspeakable Resurrection

3 Terrors in the Dark

3 Before the Fast

The fourth one is a Syndicate/Agency deck, revolving around control by exhausts, readies, and tricks, though there are only a few agency cards in it (tbh I feel it's like nothing), and I got a feeling of a little bit too much neutrals, but I'm quite unsure about this one. This was the hardest deck to build since there were no completely unused faction to pair with Syndicate (i'm looking at you Silwer Twilight) and we might have made a mistake by picking Agency.

1 Richard Upton Pickman

1 Dr. Marinus Bicknell Willett

1 Freelance Photographer

1 Jack "Brass" Brady

3 Cascio Di Boerio

3 Elite Hit Squad

3 Restless Caporione

3 Fixer

1 Syndicate Liaison

3 Carnevale Sentinel

1 Extortionist

1 Hard Case

1 Patsy

1 Paul Lemond

3 Agency Medic

3 Diseased Sewer Rats

1 Overzealous Initiate

3 Eraly Start

3 Forced Foreclosure

1 Legacy of Ramses

1 Low Blow

1 Alhazred Lamp

1 Cathouse

3 The Gold Pocket Watch

3 Bauta

1 Get On Yer Feet!

3 intimidate

1 Patrol Wagon

1 Shotgun

1 Shotgun Blast

1 Moving The Scenery

1 Arkham Asylum

1 Inside Information

1 Eldritch Nexus

1 Political Demonstration

3 Unending Festivities

3 The Mage's Machinations

Thank you for reading such a long post and helping us out with your opininon!

Edited October 6, 2014 by ninsensi

I'd definitely recommend to use Silver Twilight as a secondary faction for one of your decks. While Terror in Venice 'only' includes six cards of that faction (18 cards, if you include all three copies of each), they're all excellent and best used to support an aggressive rush strategy (I combined them with Agency with good results).

Generally, relying on Terror to win a game is hard. But since Cthulhu is more focused on combat/destruction the deck may still work. I suspect Shub/Yog may be rather strong, and Agency/Miskatonic may win rather quickly if they get a lucky start.

However, it's hard to tell how balanced the decks are vs. each other by just looking at the deck lists, especially since there are quite a few single copies in there, which can result in vastly different games depending on which of the cards show up (which isn't a bad thing for intro-decks!).

To get a better feeling if the decks will work, you can deal a few sample starting hands and play through the first few turns solo.

If you should find them to be unbalanced, you may not consider it as thematic, but I'd try to combine a monster faction and a human faction when possible. E.g. Cthulhu/Miskatonic, Hastur/Agency, Yog/Syndicate, and Shub/Silver Twilight.

Ideally, you want each deck to have a good mix of icons, although that might be difficult to achieve with a limited card pool.

The decks will be more balanced that way and the flavour of the different factions will still shine through.