So sometime after the first of the year the stakes will be raised.

A new set of Storycards, a few 'all new' cards (Mother Hydra!), and

a number of reprints that will hpefully allow for some much needed

synergy. I applaud FFGs decision to increase the card count to 2 of each.

I wonder what the final asking price will be? It seems the product will not

include the Cthulhu success minitures, too bad.

What reprints do you hope will be found in SECRETS OF ARKHAM?

I don't have any preferences. I'm glad that there'll be some Mi-go- I kinda like the brain stealing little fellas. I've got a couple of friends and hopefully I'll be able to split the cost of a second box for the full set. Sure some new domain cards would be nice, but hey, hopefully this game will last a while and we'll get all we want eventually.

check the upcoming page

"featuring iconic mythos figures like Azathoth, Professor Armitage, and the Necronomicon, as well as introducing new cards and resurrecting old favorites from the archives for all seven Factions and neutral cards."

wonder if its a new necronomicon or a reprint??

As a new player with a small group that I finance, I can say that I am VERY excited about this. I wonder if I should buy any more packs or just wait for this, but surely they won't reprint anything from the Dreamlands. I will be getting this reguardless, but hopefully they won't reprint any dreamlands cards.

Way great flaming wonderful news. Wonder what the price-point will be?

Chick

i hope we get mentor to vaughn back, my oponets hatted that card lol, much better to have a min of 2 cards, dont really care about the price ill buy anyway

chicklewis said:

This is great, great news !!!

MOTHER HYDRA, guys, this roxx !! And the effect will prefectly shape the game of this faction, as you'll needa pay 5 for a character that might bring back huge stuffs like emerging deep ones, ravager.. Maybe a lord of y'anthley or an ancient deep one would provide a huge benefit too, it opens a lot of space for deckbuilding !

Concerning the Mi-Go, I'm really happy to see them back ! I love them ! The Warrior, the Surgeon and even the web armor are great cards, which theme totally deserve interest.

Let's see what will bring Armitage and the Necronomicon. Thank you, FFG guys !

i really hope they reprint mi-go worker. MU science building would be nice too. there arent many cards i think need to be reprint, but a few names we need to see again. nyarl is on the top of that list for me along with the necronomicon, which we are getting so thats awesome.

Three great cards to go along with the great news. Bocchio's Mi-Go Surgeon is a terror, the victim lashed in to a big alien machine with Clockwork Orange eye-jams and massive spiky eye tool, and the antennae and tubes in his strapped open mouth. Hydra, Mother of the Deep is a beauty to be sure - almost too pretty for a slimy cthulhu ancient one.

Great story card image too, stylistically right on track with the good looking story cards. And a basic large effect not yet done. But no matter who wins this one, the other stories, usually to universal effect anyway, must resolve.

I assume utility neutral cards just means as usual available to all, but likely more helpful to a certain faction. Add neutrals Diseased Sewer Rats and Feint to the new list.

"The new 10-card story deck that players can..." I assume "must" play at tournaments.

The 50 cards new to the LCG metagame (2 copies of each) must mean brand new cards only. Still, new to LCG is not clearly new to CCG.

Six unique cards for each faction!? There are only six cards per faction. All are unique? (Math: 100 = 2 X 50 new cards - 8 neutral cards = 42 / 7 factions = 6 cards per faction.) But the Mi-Go Surgeon isn't unique. What am I missing? Is Secrets of Arkham, in the big looking box, a Core II with some reprints? Either way, very cool.

I like the new term "tribal" synergy deck options for Deep One, Mi-Go, Day, Night, and other subtypes = faction mechanics.

the huge mention of subtypes and all made me think reprinting MU science building would be very fitting. only time will tell.

Am I the only one noticing a rather gross oversimplification in Marissa Rivera rendition of Mother Hydra?

Does anyone understand this to be a whole new core, 2 X 50 new cards plus reprints plus 10 story cards?

155 in Core. Perhaps 45 reprints?

About Marissa Rivera's Hydra, Mother of the Deep, I did write it 'is a beauty to be sure - almost too pretty for a slimy cthulhu ancient one.' So, I do somewhat agree, Carioz. She could be a scooby doo bad guy. I do think she has a nice color and bears some likeness in stylistic approach to UT Cthulhu and even Dagon.

But I think the idea of Mother Hydra is lost on us modern cthulhu fans. I think of Father Dagon and the Deep Ones based on my Mythos card game background. I actually don't know the origin story. I understand it to be an outer god from a 1939 Henry Kuttner story. I wonder how she is originally described.

Kuttner's Hydra (think Planescape: Torment Pillar of Skulls for a visual image):

There are innumerable tales of multi-headed monsters, all springing from the actual entity of whose real existence a few have known through the ages. This creature did not originate on earth, but in the gulfs Outside. It was... a vampiric entity, living not on the blood of its victims but on their heads—their brains... Through the eons this being has ravened in the abyss beyond our dimension, sending out its call to claim victims where it could. For this entity, by absorbing the heads and brains of intelligent creatures both of this world and of other planets, emerges with its powers and vitality greatly augmented.

But even if we were referring to the big-ass deep one female Hydra, the artist forgot to think and went along with one stereotype which is, in my opinion, depicting a very wrong situation.

Well, she is by far the least scary of the Ancient Ones, except Nodens, but that's different.

For some reason I like the 2 X 50. We've never had that kind of distribution. Three card rule implies two purchases and one set for trade.

This also lets 2 people get 3 boxes for a full set.

A brief history of the CCG Mi-Go. Basically we started out with a synergistic bang then took a windy road.

AE base set boasted Commander, Scientist, Warrior, and Worker. Worker especially, at Investigate cost 2, and mid game domain boost was a favorite. Rare Mi-Go Scientist was a tricky card for a base set, but unlike necronomicon, rarely led to taking control as a player opted to put the character back into hand. The Commander was pricey but the Warrior was tough. All were very cool and playable.

UT Rare Scout was awesome, major investigate boost, an icon clincher even maybe against MU.

FR Alien Researcher was another rare major beauty, but was much less playable - cost 4 for skill and possible icons based opponents having support. Still, very collectible.

Eldritch Explorer just looked messy to me. It had lots of features - Benefactor, Transient 2 Domains, Disrupt, Added Domain with Resource, cost 3 Investigate 3 skill. Nothing wrong with the card. I just don't think it caught on. It was certainly the worst looking Mi-Go illustration yet.

Masks Intersteller Vistor came back with a bang. A beauty of a card and a rare, one of the best in the set. But we all know what happened. It was a ritualist and nerfed into oblivion. Many excellent ritualists died a broken death. Sad really.

The Forgotten Cities Yog Mi-Go Child of the Kingdom and Mi-Go Slave are just too weird, and selfish and blurry and dark to boot.

The final Mi-Go card, what seems like ages ago, was the FC Shub Ageless Mi-Go. And they got that one very right. All Mi-Go gain toughness synergy and an evocative uncommon earthy fat monster, perhaps an uncommon top ten (Shocking T at number one of course).

Ah, all this reminiscing is nice. New Mi-Go Surgeon is very nicely put together. It is a poor man's Scout, because arcane gets no respect.

This is really great news and exactly the kind of thing I've been hoping for!

- New story cards!

- Reprinting old favorites!

Two copies of every card also strikes me as a good compromise.

About the only thing I don't like is the box the cards appear to come in:

Isn't this the same totally oversized game box we got with the core set?

And now it doesn't even contain a board!

What I would have liked a lot:

A double-deck box that can actually be used to carry two decks (and ten story cards) around. As a bonus, use different cover art to encourage me to buy several of them. Now, wouldn't that have been great?

jhaelen, I think it is probably the smaller sized box like the ones for Thrones. Not full sized core set. The $25 price set also suggests that it will be the smaller box. Not that box size would make a difference to me. If I really hate it, I'll put it in the recycle bin.

I love the Mother Hydra card. I think of it as bringing dinner to Cthulhu every turn.

What is in the smaller Thrones box?

I was referring to the Game of Thrones expansion boxes. Those are about the size of two of the smaller Arkham Horror expansion boxes side by side, or two Red November boxes. Not exact, but close. They're not as deep as the big box, either.

Sorry, didn't read your comment thoroughly. Basically, you get about 100 cards and maybe a little bonus.

If you go to the Game of Thrones products section you can check it there. I'd post a link but my 'puter has issues with that for some reason today.

Thanks for the response. Still seems big for cards only.

Also, I always thought of cthulhu as a stay at home dad. Maybe Hydra's the dread winner.