I just picked up the core set and a few asylum packs, though my partner and I are sticking to the core until we get the hang of the game. I'm enjoying it thus far and hope to play competitively at some point, but before I spring for another two core sets, duplicate asylum packs and put time into deck design, I have a concern which I'm hoping some more experienced player(s) might help me out with.

I'm all for the LCG concept, I feel like I will be able to build a solid collection and some very decent decks with a fraction of the investment that I am used to being asked to dedicate to a CCG. However, since both LCG and CCG cards are tournament legal, I'm wondering if I'm a rube for hoping that decks made entirely of LCG cards will be able to compete with decks including cards from the CCG as well. I'm a big fan of FFG in general, I've enjoyed most of their games. As a long time observer of and participant in gaming economics I would be a fool to have total faith that FFG would give up the revenue potential that CCGs represent.

So what do you think friends, should I keep playing at home, or might my dreams of an affordable, customizable, competitive card game environment be realized in CoC?

While an LCG-only deck can be fun and maybe, possibly, almost 'competitive' - when you increase the available card pool from 335 to 1613, there's bound to be a card or two out there which will better fit your deck design. Rumour has it that FFG will go to an LCG-only format for tournaments (the official Organised Play rules already are LCG-only), with maybe some legacy games occasionally to let old CCG players feel as though they didn't waste all of that money.

I think the technical answer to your question is 'yes', as there are some reasonably powerful LCG cards out there. Your real question as to whether LCG-only decks are competitive with CCG-only or mixed decks is, currently, a resounding 'no'. Sorry. But don't lose heart, just play white-bordered tournaments to win and mixed-bordered tournaments for fun.

While the CCG cards may be technically still legal for mixed-border tournaments I think it's safe to assume there won't be many. Almost all of the tournaments I've seen being announced were LCG only. At least in my area mixed-border games are strictly for fun, already. So, I wouldn't worry about CCG at all.

I agree, though, that pure LCG decks cannot compete with CCG decks - which is part of the reason you won't see many mixed-border tournaments.

Agree with the above answers. There are MANY very powerful CCG cards, some of them quite broken, in my opinion. Therefore black-bordered constructed decks will generally steamroller white bordered constructed decks.

That is why for the tournaments I have hosted, it is White-bordered-only. One must include the new players, and allow them an even chance against the grognards.

And if you noticed, the world championships this year were actually 'white bordered only' except they allowed black bordered cards which had been re-issued unchanged in white bordered format. If you think about it the ONLY cogent reason for FFG changing from black to white borders is to allow the black-bordered cards to be phased out.

I am not worried about facing black bordered cards in future tournaments, and recommend that you go ahead and take the plunge.

Chick

I played a guy who only had CCG cards (and a lot of them) and used my LCG cards against him. Out of 4 games I was close once, but went 0-4. He was also using the 4x rule, while I stuck to the LCGs 3x. He had some great combinations of cards that don't exist in the LCG that really walloped me quickly. It was clear that at this point, they can't compete. After that, we borrowed decks from each other to not match them up unfairly.

I figure this may be an okay place to ask given the direction of the thread... I recently got "back" into Cthulhu having played and bought a lot during ccg, and picked up a few of the newer Asylum Packs. I haven't nabbed the core set but was wondering if a) the core set has triplicate of all cards, and b) if not, and tournaments are "white-bordered only", would unchanged black bordered versions of reprints in the core be allowed like at GenCon? Or would I have to buy triplicate of the core set?

The Core set contains only one copy of each card. I've got to say that as a new player that doesn't bother me too much. The amount I need to spend to get three copies of each card in the Core, and whatever ones I fancy from the Asylum Packs amounts to about the cost of a single box of CCG boosters, give or take.

Thanks very much for everyone's encouraging responses. I'm looking forward to diving into the local scene.