As a newer player (and LCG only), I was curious about faction combos. I noticed that most decks (competitive or otherwise) seem to be dual faction. At the moment, are there any factions that can stand decently (or even well) on their own? While not adverse to dual color / faction / etc. decks, I generally prefer mono. Is such a thing feasible at this point in time?

Cthulhu seems a candidate, but being new, I could be wrong.

One of the things I've always liked about this game is how each different faction has it's own strengths and weaknseses. Pairing up two (or three) factions that complement eachother is a lot of fun. That being said, there are some factions (in my opinion) that are stronger on their own than others.

For example, the Agency faction has a lot of combat power in it, and a decent amount of people with willpower, or that grant willpower. If you're willing (heh) to have enough characters that you don't mind some of them going insane, you can do pretty well with them as a single faction. Shubby is another faction that can do quite well alone as they have a lot of terror and combat themselves. I have one deck that is just Shub with a few Yog thrown in for the spell cards, but you could probably do Shub by herself quite well.

I run a mono Shub deck that is pretty fun. Shub Niggurath is called the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. Thematically, this deck totally fits as it spawns tons of monsters. It is pretty strong against other mono decks, but has obvious weaknesses (like all mono decks seem to have). There are almost no investigation icons in the deck, for example.

I think Shubs problem would be speed. In the old days Shub was maybe the fastest faction. People said at the time Syndicate and then I proved them wrong by playing 1 to 2 GK on turn 2 consistantly.

But right now I'm not so sure if Shub has the speed required to beat rush decks or the speed required to out run control decks. Shub does have Shocking Transformation which helps alot for bigger cards. But Shub doesn't have that Ghoul Khanam like card that give it the speed it needs.

Cthulhu has some problems with speed as well. It doesn't have enough killing cards at the time to slow down the fast rush decks.

Hastur to me seems to have the most cards out that compliment each other the most. Where the rest factions fail in strategy, Hastur succeeds. Aspiring Artist looks be a very awesome card for speed. I think it may be the best drawing card in the entire set including CCG.

Yog looks to be a mess and may be the weakest faction in the format.

Syndicate has some of its classics cards in the Core set, but only a few goodies in the AP's. But this faction may have some of the answers the rush decks need.

Agency looks like it has a decent amount of killing cards. It can prevent some control and rush decks, but serious lack speed.

Misitonic probaly has the second most strategy inside the fraction. Definitely has weaknesses but has investigator rush. Which in some cases can bypass control and rush decks.

Neutral has some very interesting cards but has a lot of useless ones as well. I do like a few. If you have a hard time filling space in a mono faction deck look to Alaskan Sledge Dog.

the problem I see with Shub is that, despite having acceleration and search mechanisms, it lacks finishers (with Y'go being an exception). No big guys (black spawn, GK of course, Nyarli) and nothing to replace them

Cthulhu -

only DOA, sac offerings, a single path (which, I think along with terror of the tides is the best card cthulhu has from all APs so far) and ravager - that's only 5 good, solid cards. To few...

What, no love for Pulled Under or Called By Azathoth, Cthulhu wise? I see speed problems with the faction for sure, and can see a very well tuned rush deck maybe wrecking Cthulhu if the deck isn't built right or you just have crappy luck. That is kind of Cthulhu's MO though, isn't it -- a good range of utility and options, but somewhat pricy of characters?

Maybe it's just because I'm a LCG only player, but I also find it strange to hear people say Shub lacks speed. I haven't even got all the Summons of the Deep packs yet and Shub already seems quite speedy . . . I can only imagine what it'll be like with turn 1 plays like Gibbering Soul with Eat The Dead attached, not to mention the general search / recursion awesomeness of stuff like Under The Porch and Open Grave (no idea what the deal with Summoning Circle is though - really seems like a card Yog should have got, both due to flavor and Shub having almost no arcane icons available, even with all the APs). I do think Shub lacks wounding or a strong closer, though. Still one of my favorite factions to play mono so far and looking forward to continuing to do so as I pick up more APs.

I've found mono Syndicate surprisingly effective as well, although a large part of that is because of the awesomeness of Panic

I think that "Shub is slow(er)" stems from the fact that, given the LCG card set, it needs to run at stories at least three turns in order to win three. rush decks, on the other hand, were (are?) supposed to run at stories for two or one turn.

And actually I think Shub has pretty much a monopoly on searchable, recursable wounding in LCG...

Amante said:

I say from legacy point of view - and while I agree that called is a solid card in lcg, in legacy you have forgotten isle, which is strictly better.

And versus rush you have TGOOR, called to the sea (great card), dreams of a sunken city, deep one rising, Yig and Carl Stanford to hold the table.

And it was always the case that cthulhu was slow, but once it started to roll...

And yes - shub lacks finishers. So far only Ygo, ancient guardian and perhaps slavering gug are strong cards (and you want to search and play gug for it's ability, and not icons). Maybe antarctic yeti - and only if you want to remove willpower.

Searching for Gug is good for wounding (and surprise winning Combat). Pricy to use the ability though.

But yeah, I speak strictly from an LCG perspective in pretty much all my posts since that's where I got in and all I play. Sounds like things used to be pretty **** speedy . . . in LCG I've seen Syndicate or Agency / Misk win on turn 2 or 3 so I can only imagine what "speed win" meant before

It depended slightly on what was happening in the metagame, but I think around Eldritch-time a speed deck with a good draw would win on turn 1 (if going second) and almost certainly on turn 2. If the game got to turn 4, somebody must have been playing a control deck (or all players had really bad decks).

Amante said:

gug's ability expensive, but (at least) he doesn't exhaust when you use it.

Fast -

cthulhu - 1 turn Dagon+ Yig

Shubby - 1 turn priestees, hungry dark young with Nyarli, mother's seed on priestess, Ghoul Khanum, go

Syndicate - going seconds autowins on their 2 turn (and not with a good draw, but with ANY draw)

LCG Agency/MU - one of THE first decks there were, MU investigators going to stories after Agency removal took care of any blockers, now, with high number of one costed characters with investigation, I can imagine them winning consistently on their 2 or 3 turn...

Assuming your opponent sits back and does not too much to stop them, without playing too many characters

blockers were removed with shotgun blast, forced entry, even agency stake out and dynamite. or small price to pay.

So you had to have either toughness, or good stalling effects to defend youself for the fist 2-3 turns.

That's why i like a single path so much - I think this is my favourite lcg card so far.