Nathaniel Elton, Questing for Cathuria, with those Agency stats and toughness has roots from Legrasse to Marshall Greene and reminds how good Agency Clarney is. But he’s an instant classic, a Dreamer with a useful broad ability. David Sourwine illustrates two cards, both Dreamlands, this one compelling. I'd be shocked if anyone dislikes him, though there's more to be said.

Night Raid!, illus. Regis Moulun, is not so surprisingly a pencil and wash rust image. It’s a beautiful picture of a warehouse raid, and a simple good ability. Darker lines and more contrast would bring out his intricate good artwork on the smaller format of a card.

Dreamlands Scholar has a strong MU style ability and respectable stats. His obvious cheese title says he’s read up on the D topic. Whoopie. Where’s he been? He looks like a recluse, a pedant, a myopic orator, a freudnik, and a bore. He’s got Gawdawful Guinness Wilmarth loafers. At least there’s no questionably rendered lamp. Swing and a miss. MU must be tough to do right.

Night Class is beautifully done. It’s an apt pretty card, a nice setting, scholastic, quaint, matched with Night Raid!, and just the sweetest looking MU event card since EE Historic Discovery. It’s Research, MU’s first besides the rare core altered card. But the ability…justify using this card slot to pull out a high cost one turn MU card. Is any one really a killer? In Cthulhu etc. this would be a whole different thing.

Petty Thief is good but awkward. Andreas Rocha’s other card, Nasht, is better. At first hard to see, Petty Thief is a classic Syndicate look playing out his name. There’s a high tier of syndicate illustrations ongoing – Clover Club Regular, Arcane Grifter, Blackball Jim, Fugitive Scientist, Trent Dixon. This is not part of that vein. There’s an awkwardness as seen in Highjacker and Brazen Hoodlum, and the simpler caricature of Bag Man and Island Hermit. So it’s got roots. And the stats are wild – 1 cost no skill, combat criminal. His response to card draw ability is sad, circumstance response abilities often are. Name some exceptions...

Ritual Initiation I like. Three thugs lead a hooded cuffed cad through a dark swamp, with torch and shotgun. Carlo Bocchio has done it again. He’s a new leading figure in the game. Check his work out. Here, he pulls back for the perfect SY event card look. And it’s a zero cost recyclable ritual. Now that’s worth the slot! Turn your loveable heavies into ubersteins. Trent Pickman Brass and soon Danny and more to come. Ritual Initiation is like Show of Loyalty on Dutch Courage steroids.

Dreamlands Fanatic perhaps read a travelogue about Arkham on the way to a Wizards of the Coast convention, or perhaps didn’t. Is Aldabaran in the sky? Nah. Are those willows evil? The ethereal foreground wisp has no meaning. Maybe those are Hellboy tentacles in the sky, or Elder Asparagus. And the dude, I mean really. Cthulhu is really a stretch away from Dreamlands, granted. Make the break and put out a shoggoth or something. This is like Kung Fu Yule Brunner. A monk with… is that the sword of ramasekva? No, it’s the dreamlands bright white sword of cthulhu. He should trade that light saber for a shoe horn and be using it to help a deep one ride a bicycle. But I will say this. He looks wicked strong, flying into play easily, that fast cuddly David Carradine d&d cultist dreamer. Not since Forgotten Cities has a Cthulhu character looked this weak. Recently they've been great, giving Julia a prop for charm and forgetting baby spawn because the debilitating memory is still too fresh. I think Dreamlands Fanatic should take Puj Dunk, Shadow Sorceress, Bloodthirsty Zealot, and Blood Magician and go tap some lands.

Midnight Rendezvous. The Day Night word was once a Subtype. Dreamlands AP1 (17, 18, 19, 20) embeds Day Night in bold into the text, like where go the words “Action, Response, and Disrupt,” giving them no definition. (This has all been rehashed before.) With Dreamlands AP2 (23) and now Midnight Rendezvous the bold text is elevated to Keyword status. A confused Subtype > text box text > Keyword status for a revisited emphasized crucial much loved mechanic, a major attribute of new Dreamlands, is disappointing. Without a good explanation, and even with one, swing and a miss. First time illustrator Diane Ozdamar gets cheated, no review.

The Cavern of Flame is fine. The image has been previously used or spoiled. It is a true classic Dreamlands location. FFG is I think overblowing this element. The flame appears with Nasht and K-T. Dreamlands Hastur has gone strongly with Madness, Madness, and two Dreamlands Steps Locations. Good ability, Hastur canceling a commit, but close to a Syndicate effect. And Hastur pushing support cards? Sarkomand, Splendid Cathuria, where are you.

Dream Parasite. Strange to see the Character card after the Support or Event card. Two terror for cost two is in elite company and a first for Hastur. Odd that it is a creature. Snow Graves and Samantha Grace are illus. McLean Kendree’s best. Puppy Dispose-All was his most twisted and among the game’s most twisted. This is in the middle.

Laboring Gug is very nice in its clean look. At first I thought him over simple and the setting too, and his lower body more gross than grotesque, and his lifting task less scary than roaring or attacking or man eating. But it is truly a great image. It has an iconic comic book recognizable feel. The light blue is nice background for Yog purple, and so is the ring of stones. And like each Mi-go, he brings to gug his own presence, the laborer. And he’s got perfect yogug stats. Also 3, 3, CCC, Toughness +1… the first Dreamlands card, Night-shift Security.

Great Stone Circle, speaking of which, AE Red Gate Mound anyone? They’re identical. It is the first struggle swap – combat before terror. And it is a Gug action card. So it’s cool. And it’s a very nice picture, pastoral and Andes meets Stonehenge. It’s just not Dreamlandsy enough, too often my current sentiment.

Ghoulish Predator with its no-Day clause is the new Lurking Star Spawn, towering stats for cheap. In that way, it is also like Hermann Mulder and Chakota and more stable than Strange Visitors. The illustration is that of this AP box, Gollum-like. The Ghoul as Dreamlands theme is working out. But I find it odd and a thin connection. Ghouls are after all Arabian demons, desert hyena shape shifters that prey on young children, rob graves, drink blood, and eat the dead. Thematically a perfect fit, and depicted very much as described. But the ghoul is only marginally weird fiction mythos, and not really dreamlands. The four skill and toughness pop out at you.

Dhole Attack! is a super Shub Disaster, the first LCG Disaster. Disasters are just cool and rare and evoke Nuclear Chaos, From Beneath (tough to beat predecessor), Swallowed by the Sea, and Sky and Worlds Torn Asunder. What a molten mess in its wake. Dholes are immensely frightening, this one dripping earth. Dreamlands has a Dhole Event and Support. No Dhole since AE Cyclopean and FR Star Summoned. In classic Shub style and pure Dhole poetry, from nowhere and beneath it destroys a location, rises up at 3 TTCC Monster and is sacrificed. Most cool.

Dream Dagger, Blasphemous Dreams, and the Night have been spoiled.

Assist Dreamer, amazing title, subtle. I joke, but I guess obvious is ok. It’s actually a very nice looking card. Classic burnt orange neutral event and a looker, if homely. But why all the effort for three arcane? And granting the Dreamer subtype hasn’t been a big prize either.

Ancient Zoog and Zoog Borrow are finally illus. Felicia Cano’s Zoogs in stride. Furtive and Secretive Zoog with their hand munching and backpacks were less inspiring. Also less inspiring, Ancient Zoo adding one arcane and Dreamer subtype as attachment, whoop dee...without an unforeseen boost. Zoog Burrow card-draw ability is tame too. But both look great. Cano Zoogs considered together work.

GREAT STUFF, Shoes, thanks for posting all your card reviews.

I have to disagree about the addition of the 'dreamer' subtype being limp. I can hardly wait to try out a dreamer deck with either Gugs or Zoogs.

Everything else you opine is spot-on.

Chick

Thanks Chick. All it would take is one card to put aldabaran into the dreamlands subtype. I wonder if we'll ever see it though.

My favorite Dreamlands AP3 cards are

Nathaniel Elton, Questing for Cathuria – The lighthouse is a little off but he is an instant classic.
Ritual Initiation and Night Class – two refreshing beautiful human events.
Laboring Gug – no denying the Gugs, especially done right.
Ghoulish Predator – **** is he stacked. Go Shub!
Dhole Attack! – Perfect Card. Though good Illustration dark. Also stacked. And wicked.
Zoog Burrow – Zoog card draw and domain storm. Dreamlands done right.

What cards do (does?) everyone else like?

You forget a card like Blasphemous Dreams : "If it is Night, reduce the cost to play Blasphemous Dreams by 2. Action: Ready a Dreamer character you control to choose and exhaust a non-Dreamer character." A very nice illustration and you can begin to play Dreamers Characters with success, in combo with Twila for example. One of the most useful card of this pack with the Night Class and the Cavern of Flame (The return of the city of Koth !), I think.

It's true Dadajef. I forgot Blasphemous Dreams. Tiziano posted a greeting with the illustration to our boards. I bumped it. We didn't know the card then.

Twila at night exhausts pays two to trigger her committed story. Cavern exhausts to remove from story and ready a non-dreamer. Night Class brings a character from hand to play then back to hand in one turn. Blasphemous Dreams readies your dreamer to exhaust a non-dreamer. Together I'm not sure what you get. Perhaps you discovered a combo, Dadajef.

not together in the same time., but why not if you have all cards in hand.
With a Night Class you can play Twila for free, for example - for one turn but it can be enough to trigger the effect of a story card.

Twilla is nice if it is Night. If it is Night, Blasphemous Dream is free to play, you commit Twila, you play Blasphemous Dream for free to ready her, then you play the Twila's effect to trigger a story effect. You just need a free domain with 2 resources.

The cavern works well alone (but not on dreamers !) to give a capacity of evasion to your characters or to ready it at the end of the story phase. You can remove an opponent character, too.