Introduction: sorry for my really poor English.

*****

Hi.

Yesterday, me, Marius and other two guys (I don't know if they are registered in this forum) met to play CoC.

Format: only white border cards. In my case, I have at the moment 2 copies of "At the mountain of madness", 2 copies of "Ancient Horror" and 1 copy of "the spawn of the sleeper" plus 2 Core Set.

Some preliminary considerations:

- to make consistent decks, I absolutely need at least 2 copy of the Core Set. Cards from the CS are more strong and more useful in building a consistent strategy. It has been almost impossible, to me, build decks trying to fit in them AP cards to build the main strategy. If you don't have CS, obviously you can have the original black border cards (I have BB cards, but at the moment they are in Italy )

- with the card pool at my disposal, I can say that Cthulhu faction is almost useless. It has some great cards (always from CS) like Deep One Assault, Sacrificial Offerings or Ravager from the Deep but, excluding these cards...nothing else useful. No expensive-but-powerful character, no expensive-but-powerful events or support. The only nice support is "called by azatoth" to have a blank effect. Nice character, in my opinion, are "Mature deep One" and "Shadow spawned Hunting Horror"...not too much to build a deck. (maybe the situation changes with the AP I don't have).

Basically, you can use Cthulhu only as support faction, but in this case, in my opinion you lose the real power of DoA (hint: loyal).

- Shub has nice card, but not useful with respect to decks I want to build.

- Miskatonic was one of the option for the rush deck, but I left it (no particular reason).

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- First deck: Agency/Syndacate rush.

Agency:

Characters:

2 Paul Le Mond

2 steve clarney

1 blackwood file clerk
2 peeler

3 government exorcist
2 undercover security

Events:

2 shotgun blast
2 small price to pay
2 torch the joint

Support:
2 shotgun

Syndacate:

Characters:

2 triggerman
2 jack brass brady
2 Richard Upton pickman
2 hard case
2 bag man
2 syndacate liasion
2 dr. marinus bicknell willett
2 extortionist

Events:

2 low blow
2 panic

Support:

2 Alhazred lamp

Neutral:

2 tcho-tcho talisman
2 political demonstration
2 arkham asylum

Usually, a good domain build is: 3-2-1, but in some cases I built a 3-2-2 configuration ( usually, to use in the same tunr shrapnel + low blow + 3 cost character).

This fact lead naturally to a drop of the 4-cost charaters. (see below)

This deck has proven itself to be very fast. Having 2 stories in my story pile at turn 3 was not impossible. We have nice exhausting effect + wound effect. Many characters with willpower and the very useful talisman that provide 2 terror icon.

Some cards are in the deck only to fill spaces: see torch the joint and blackwood file clerk, for example.

Peeler is ok, having 6 attachment.

For sure, we have to raise to 3 some cards:

- shotgun blast
- low blow
- alhazred lamp
- tcho tcho talisman

and some characters too.

Cards to change:
- 4-cost character are useless; I always resourced them. Basically, even 3 cost character are not so useful, but maybe is because of the deck I faced.
- some useless character (blackwood file clerk, jack brass brady, cost 4 character, even Steve Clarney maybe).

- Second deck: Hastur/Yog control.

Hastur

Characters:

3 Bringer of fire
3 Giant Albino Penguin
2 Victoria Glasser

2 byakhee servant

3 aspiring artist

1 erich zann
2 messenger from beyond

2 thing from the stars

Support:
2 Victoria's Loft
2 Sedated

Event:
2 polar mirage
2 scotophobia
2 blind submission
2 agoraphobia

Yog

Characters:

2 Servant of Nodens

3 Tcho Tcho tribe

2 guardian elder thing

3 bloodthirsty zealot

Events:

2 dampen light

2 Unspeakable resurrection
2 Gathering at the stone

2 Journey to the other side

2 a single glimpse

Optimal domain build: 5-2(3)-1(2)

It depends on what turn the match arrives (and the card you have in hand, obviously). A 5-cards domain is necessary (and you have to reach it at turn 7 usually). The other two domains can be set to 3 and 2 if you have enough cards in hand (so, basically: build a domain to 3 (call it A), then another to 2 (call it B). Then, raise A to 4-5 (depends on what you have in hand). Then again B to 3 and/or C to 2).

Nice control deck. MVP of the deck are Bringer of Fire. The possibility to destroy basically everything that can touch the ground is awesome. Ok, you need 2 copies of them on the ground BUT considering that you draw 2 cards per turn AND the Journey to the other side, I've never had problems in having 2 copies on the table.

Other really AWESOME creature is Aspiring Artist: this is a slow control deck, and it has not been unusual to use a couple of aspiring artist successfully. Really nice card.

Giant Albino penguin is a great character, and helps a lot in stop a rush deck (and with servant of Nodens, you basically have 5-6 copies of them in the deck).

polar mirage is quite useful.

Tcho-Tcho tribe is a huge defense character, and it is very useful even because is a primary choice of resource if it is in you opening hand (I think that this is a usually underestimated aspect).

All Yog event are very versatile, and are never dead cards. (I Gathered at the stones a Journey to the other side to find a Bringer of fire...nice!).

We have many way to deal with other terror icon, but no way to deal with Willpower or annoying support. I can think about only 2 choice: neutral cards (like political demonstration for support) or a third faction (many choices probably here: Shub or Cthulhu seem the best. Shub probably better because of: burrowing beneath, shocking transformation and snow graves).

Cards to change:
- sedated: totally useless (used as resource...always!).
- erich zann: useless
- low the number of 5-cost character (could be done using shub. We can schok transf. other characters, like aspiring artist, into some huge characters, like tcho tcho tribe).

Consideration: an Hastur-based deck, in my opinion, can be a strong control deck. The choice of the support faction can be the real difference between lose or win a game. I like Yog for the moment. Next time, maybe I'll try with Shub.

Final: white border format is fun. Maybe it doesn't have real powerful cards like in EE, but honestly, I like this game and the way we can play with these cards. And it is totally false that now the game is brainless: it has a lot of possible tricks and nice combination.

The only thing that I can't see for now, is the possibility to build a combo deck.

I hope you like this "article"

Bye

Francesco / Konx.

I had a lot of fun. To play 2 hypothermia's in one turn, while having 6 polars in the discard pile was quite funny

Trying to keep the Bringers of Fire from teaming up was exciting. The Hastur vs Yog/Hastur matchup was pretty cool, stealing the Bringers from each other...

I'm surprised you left the "Whiskey" (forgot its actual name) card out of your Syndicate build.

Nice ideas and analysis, thanks for posting it.

Chick

chicklewis said:

if the "Whiskey" card is Dutch Courage, yes, weird choice. I was trying to play some cards I've never played before. I think that it will be a must-add-in at the moment I'll remove some 4-cost character.

Thank you!

Bye

Francesco / konx.

Glad to hear you are having fun and welcome to the game!

I must admit, I don't have too much experience of a white border only environment as my group (in St. Neots near Cambridge) tends to play with mixed borders, but Aspiring Artist is one of my favourite white border characters. I tried him out in my experimental 'Hastur Conspiracy Rush' deck and he was a definite star. In the days of the old CCG there were complaints that Hastur didn't have any good cheap characters, since the asylum packs this certainly seems to be changing. Incidentally, with the release of Long Dead Prince, I must have another go at putting that deck back together.

Bringer of Fire I have not really tried yet. I had rather dismissed him thinking 'what are the odds of getting two of him in play when there are only three in the deck' but I can see with a bit of deck searching this becomes viable. I will have to give him a try. Tcho Tcho Tribe is also a popular choice here.

I have to agree that Zann is underpowered especially for such an important character from the mythos. His ability is only useful in situations where (1) you are facing more than one opposing character at a story (2) more than one of these characters do not have terror or willpower and (3) you care significantly which one goes insane. Perhaps giving him the additional power that "opposing characters lose willpower and all printed terror icons when Erich Zann is committed to the same story as them" would make him more of a force to be reckoned with.

On a more general level, probably the best thing about the new format has been it has encouraged a couple of new players into our regular gaming groups. They are enjoying the game and one of them actually won our latest monthly tournament, so things are looking pretty bright here.

Thanks for the article and your English is absolutely fine by the way.

Cheers,

Andrew

Good to here your enthusiasm Konx !

This post however really should be moved to the 'Deck Construction' thread.

Cthulhu is useless except as a support faction? Wow, that hasn't been the case here. My son has played a variety of decks, Cthulhu/Hastur and Cthulhu/Syndicate and Cthulhu/Agency. I think I am 1-14 so far. There's nothing I can do against those huge skill, mass terror icon, invulnerable dudes...

Windopaene said:

Well, that was his comment. Before, there where a lot mono-Cthulhu decks. Now they seem to be integrated with other factions.

Mono-Cthulhu is still pretty strong, mind; Deep One Assault gets better in mono-Cthulhu. Still, a smaller cardpool is hurting Cthulhu a little, being far less alround, and lacking an all-purpose reuseable powerhouse like Forgotten Isle. It's still strong, but not 'does everything the rest does, for cheaper' strong like Cthulhu was before.

I agree. I would play an all Cthulhu deck except that there is a lack of investigators. My current favorite deck is 66% Cthulhu and 33% Misk.

Some answers:

@Windopaene: Marius explained well what I was thinking. In the older format, mono-C deck was awesome. Now, it is impossible to develop a godd mono-C, so you have to splash with another faction. But, at the moment that you splash, you have a lot of better cards to put in the deck. Better creature, better supports, better events. Moreover, if you use a splash, DoA is (in my opnion) less strong, and you lose one of the most versatile card of Cthulhu. Maybe, if I have had more AP Cthulhu could be better.

@Nomad: I was thinking the same thing of you about Bringer; but even in a mono-Hastur you have 3 Aspiring Artist and you draw 2 cards per turn. It is enough to see 2 copies in time to make the Bringer useful. I was even playing some "draw" effect like Journey, so I can say that Bringer has been really awesome Moreover, one of the Story you can win is Call of Cthulhu...great way to search your deck for a copy of Bringer (I did it )

Thanks for the answer, I will make separate posts for these deck in "deck construction" after some other testing, if you are interested! (even with a match-up description).

Bye

Konx.

Hi Konx,

To aid your future posts/articles on how the matches went, we could agree to create deck lists before our next gaming session and share those (afterwards).

See you on the 5th (my Alaskan Sledge Dogs are waiting for you!),

Boosterdraft