I wanted a simple formula, in order to be able to better adjust difficulty, without missing out on either ALL easy Mythos Cards or ALL Hard Mythos Cards. You know, a little scary surprise in a supposedly easy game (or a glimmer of hope in a hard game) can be actually exciting.

Therefore I came up with the following formula (it's not really a variant, more a tweak, since it doesn't tinker with rules of Deck-Construction):

After you've sorted Mythos-Cards by color, you randomly take out a couple of cards, depending on which Difficulty you chose.

Don't look at them, just put them aside:

HELLO CTHULHU!
Remove half of all Hard Cards (round up on odd numbers)
Remove half of all Normal Cards (round up on odd numbers)

SINISTER OMENS
Remove half of all Hard Cards (round up on odd numbers)

STARS ALIGNED
Don't remove any Cards

MADNESS PREVAILS
Remove half of all Easy Cards (round up on odd numbers)

ABANDON ALL HOPE, MORTAL!
Remove half of all Easy Cards (round up on odd numbers)
Remove half of all Normal Cards (round up on odd numbers)



Then shuffle the remaining 3 decks and construct your Mythos-Deck as usual.

A little tweak for everyone who likes to play with a staged Mythos Deck, and feels up to a bit variety and surprise:

Currently, since Rumors only get drawn in the 1st and/or 2nd stage, setting up the deck like this will never present you with the opportunity to draw a hard Rumor. So you'll probably see every other card in the Mythos Deck, but never a Tentacle-Rumor.

This is fix (and maybe a Gateway-Variant, if you don't feel ready for a mixed Mythos-Deck, yet crave for some increased risk):

1.) When setting up your staged Mythos-Deck, split up blue cards into 3 piles: Easy, Normal and Hard. Put one Hard Card onto the Easy Pile, and vice versa. Then take the Normal Deck, split in in half, and put it on top of the Easy and the Hard Pile, then shuffle each of them.

2.) When selecting a blue card, take the first from the Easier Pile, and the second one from the Harder Pile.

3.) Add the other cards as usual: Easy Cards for Stage I, Normal Cards for Stage II and Tentacle-Mythos for Stage III.

Then watch the world burn.