3xAAH F4Cafeteria Lady
3xADN F43Dreamlands Scholar
3xAHS F23Hapless Graduate Student
2xCS F30Itinerant Scholar
3xCS F29Laboratory Assistant
3xCS F28Strange Librarian
3xATH F7Beings of Ib
3xCS F41•Cthulhu, The Great Old One
3xCS F50Lord of the Silver Twilight
3xCS F46Ravager from the Deep

3xCS F36Binding
3xCS F40Unearthing the Ancients
3xCS F56Deep One Assault
3xCS F59Sacrificial Offerings

3xCS F33Celano Fragments, The Life’s Work of Dr. Shrewsbury
3xAAD F49Muddy Waters
3xCS F153Gentleman's Club

Total50

The Idea of this deck is to get Cthulhu out and hapless student. This allows me to by pass the draw during the draw phase so no sacking my creatures. and there is enough extra draw to negate the lose at draw phase for the most part.

since the opponent needs to sack one character a turn that uses up one of their domains just so they dont loose ground. I played this deck and its rough around the edges. I found beings of ib didnt help at all or the fragments. so im looking for anything that might make this deck a bit better. i think there is potential here. and muddy waters is awesome with the sacking. i remove one character every turn and exhaust one. strange librarian could also probably go. maybe add in serpent from yoth....

Hi

Why don't you add the visiting author? It's a transient resource so you can play Cthulhu a little bit "faster" and, if you dont have the helpless gradutate student in play (or if you want to draw cards), you still can sacrifice it when he' in play, pay one and take it back to y our hand. Furthermore, he has a combat icon, and you don't have a lot in this deck. You could also play the ravagers from the deep e bit earlier, but it's more like a bet here : will the ravager be usefull enough while I am losing a ressource (transient)? Will he come back with an agoraphobia?

It's just that I think this deck lacks of punch and agresivity the firsts rounds. But all factions are weak in agresivity against an agency/hastur rush deck.

I'm also wandering, what do you do if your opponent play a 40 caracters deck ?

I think, like you, that the beings of ib are useless here. You don't even play bokrug. I would replace them by dreamlands fanatics. Firsts rounds, a sacrificial offering on an opposent caracter and you can put it into play for free. Same thing with the sacrifice for cthulhu on the opponent turn.

the descendant of Eibon could have his place in your deck but it's like the alskan sledge dogs: they're just everywhere. It isn't funny.

even if they play 40 character decks they would still be sacking a creature and getting one exhausted and i wont lose any characters. so not really worried there. transcients are useless 98% of the time. getting a character out early is rarely worth being a turn behind in resources for the rest of the game. but dreamlands fanatic should go in here for sure with the amount of kill i can have going, he wont be a probably to get into play.

In a way to have every kind of answer for this problematic case, I would have consider Called by Azatoth, Dark Quagmire or The Single Path.

Called should lower the most agressive text,

Dark quagmire will really slow your opponent down and will remove the success tokens at a fast pace.

Single path may get you some time so your opponent couldn't get advantage of rushes

I really like the idea behind this deck, so I try to give my contribution.

The first thing I notice is that (unfortunately) you have to play Miskatonic, that means "weak faction".

So, my first thought is: let's play a 3-faction deck. We can use Cthulhu for the big monsters, Miska to draw-but-not-draw
and a support faction to complete the scheme.

I assume that you want to play kind-of "lock" deck.

The point is that we need some cards to survive until we can play the combo and, at the same time, we need to find
the pieces of the combo.

Cthulhu:

3 Cthulhu
3 Lord of The Silver twilight
3 Ravager from the deep

3 Deep One Assault
3 Sacrificial Offering
3 Called by Azatoth

Miskatonic

3 Hapless graduate student
3 cafeteria lady
3 Strange librarian

The cards above are the cards that you MUST have in your deck. They provide the combo and the best way to stop your opponent
characters. (maybe Called by Azatoth is not really the best, but I like the card and I think is pretty good).

At this point, it depends on the third faction.

- Hastur: provides early game draw (Aspiring artist), slow down the opponent effect (Victoria Glasser, Byakhee Attack, Agoraphobia),
board control (Bringer of Fire, Infernal Obsession), soft-lock component (the seventy steps), spell control (power drain).

- Yog: provides card quality (Journey to the other side), board control (living mummy, a single glimpse), discard pile
interaction (gathering at the stones, unspeakable resurrection, opening the limbo gate), slow down effect (dampen light) and
some trick cards that could work well together (for example: guardian elder thing and twilight gate; you can resource the first
and then use the twilight gate to "evoke" it in defense after the opponent has commit his character...and in any case, both are good
cards).

Agency and Syndacate doesn't have really "good" cards for this deck (maybe agency removals, but not other useful cards).
I don't consider Shub as well, even if there are some interactions that could work.

So, my final list would be:

Cthulhu/Miskatonic/Hastur

Cthulhu:

3 Cthulhu
3 Lord of The Silver twilight
3 Ravager from the deep

3 Deep One Assault
3 Sacrificial Offering
3 Called by Azatoth
3 muddy waters

Miskatonic

3 Hapless graduate student
3 cafeteria lady
3 Strange librarian
2 dreamland scholar (extra card "drawing" and quality...only two because it costs 3 and the effect cost 1)
3 Visithing author (it is a transient, you need a bit of acceleration)

Hastur:

3 Aspiring artist
3 Bringer of fire
2 victoria glasser

2 the seventy steps
2 infernal obsession
3 byakhee attack

Obviously, this list needs a lot of test. The cards you have to "test" in particular, in my opinion, are:
- Called by Azatoth
- The seventy steps
- Victoria glasser
- dreamland scholar

Moreover, you need to test the faction balance: I don't really know if you have enough cards in every faction. Probably, less
cthulhu and a couple more of miskatonic is better.

Cthulhu/Miskatonic/Yog

Cthulhu:

3 Cthulhu
3 Lord of The Silver twilight
3 Ravager from the deep

3 Deep One Assault
3 Sacrificial Offering
3 muddy waters

Miskatonic

3 Hapless graduate student
3 cafeteria lady
3 Strange librarian
3 Visithing author (it is a transient, you need a bit of acceleration)
3 itinerant scholar
1 dreamland scholar (it is only 1 to fill the last position, and it provides additional card draw)

Yog:

3 Journey to the other side
2 Gathering at the stones
3 A single glimpse
3 Living mummy
2 Guardian elder thing
3 twilight gate

Here I would test in particular:
- Twilight gate (it seems useful, because you can put into play ravager from the deep, guardian elder thing and living mummy,
and all of them are good "defensive" cards)
- Living mummy
- Guardian elder thing
- Itinerant scholar

The faction balance seems pretty good, but in any case, keep an eye on it.

If you really want to stay with 2 factions, then I would suggest something like this:

Cthulhu:

3 Cthulhu
3 Lord of The Silver twilight
3 Ravager from the deep
3 The terror of the tides (good cthulhu character)

3 Deep One Assault
3 Sacrificial Offering
3 muddy waters
3 Called by azatoth

Miskatonic

3 Hapless graduate student
3 cafeteria lady
3 Strange librarian
3 Visithing author
3 itinerant scholar
3 dreamland scholar (it is only 1 to fill the last position, and it provides additional card draw)
2 dr. carson (could help)

3 binding

Neutral:

3 Descendant of Eibon: it is a good character and it is transient (more acceleration).

Personally, I don't like very much a 2 faction list, because at this moment there are not enough good cards in miskatonic, even
if I have to say that there are good "small-combo" with other factions.

Anyway, since I like this idea (I hope I give proof of this writing this post ) I'll build the deck in both version and I'll
test it this Sunday...I'll let you know the results of the test! (I will test against the typical Agency-Hastur deck and
probably some Marius-deck ).

Bye

Konx.

i personally dont like 3 faction decks, but yog has some cards that would work well for sure, unspeakable resurrection (free way to bring back the hapless student, for one) journey to the other side (always handy) and even blackmoor (with strange librarian) could be handy.

living mummy could backfire big time wipe out every thing (including my hapless student) and then all that sits on the table is cthulhu, who then eats himself. called i did look at but what ever i stick it on will likely be cthulhu's next meal, which isnt the worst idea honestly, but deck space is always an issue. but on that note cryptic writing could also help in the same way of helping my opponent decide who's for lunch. but since deck space is limited thats where i thought doa came in for, what offerings couldnt plink off. but maybe called is worth a try.

no matter how much its mentioned transient is still a complete waste. the only time it has ever worked for me was in my old ccg agency resource destruction deck.

I'd definetly consider playing yog with your combo idea :

First of all, the drawing is important and the "Journey to the Other side" will really help you being the most effective.

And you can use twilight to speed up your domain configuration : You can play this to use a character left under a domain and then return the character to your biggest domain, so this one get an extra ressource. well played, this can help you gaining a turn. (the text is "attach the card to ANY of your domain").

I also thought using the card "Dreamland Fanatic", in a way to keep some surprise. This could also be a good ammo to use if you have to sacrifice a character. and I would throw the Sacrificial offering away if you don't consider recursion : Sacrificial offfering allow your opponent to destroy the hapless student, if you ever make a mistake! it's too dangerous for me. I would prefer to use the Keeper of the Golden Path+Pulled Under, which one can be used with Cthulhu Himself in a case you need to fire three time in a row.

The only problem is that DOA is Loyal and will not be the most effective ... But it's still a good card.

Muddy waters will definetly be the piece to add, as Cthulhu's text will be even better.

This way, I would have quite similar proposition Francesco told you (and believe me, he's a lot better player than I am). So just take this as a proposition.I'll test it and will answer you how effective it was.

Cthulhu/Miskatonic/Yog

Cthulhu:

• 3 Cthulhu
• 3 Lord of The Silver twilight
• 3 Ravager from the deep
• 3 muddy waters
• 3 Keeper of the Golden Path
• 3 Pulled Under
• 3 Dreamland Fanatic
• 3 Deep One Assault

For 24 cards ... A nice ratio for the head-up faction.

Miskatonic

• 3 Hapless graduate student
• 3 cafeteria lady
• 3 Strange librarian
• 3 itinerant scholar

Only 12 character, not less because it should leads you to encounter problem playing the hapless student (steadfast)

Yog-Sototh:

• 3 Journey to the other side
• 3 Gathering at the stones
• 3 A single glimpse
• 3 unspeakable Resurrection (gathering at the stone is too slow and need two domains to trigger, this way, the student may be back for free)
• 1 Guardian elder thing
• 3 twilight gate

This way, only 16 Yog cards, which are enough to trigger stuffs from the discard, from the ressources and wound a lot.

28 characters seems a good ratio to me and you have the possibility to last long enough to have a chance to win.

I think that probably we have a different way in playing this deck.

Cthulhu costs 6. That means that (if you are really lucky) you can play it at _your_ turn 3. This means:
First turn: resource (2-1-1), play a Lord
Second turn: resource (3-1-1) play a Lord. (Now, to play Cthulhu, you can pay 4)
Third turn: resource. Play Cthulhu and at the same time play the Student.
This means that you have 2 Lord in play + Cthulhu and the student.

You have drawn 13 or 14 cards (8 cards in starting hand + 2 cards per turn if you are on the draw...if you are on the
play you draw only 13). Moreover, the opponent doesn't have to play removals on your Lord and/or your student.
If you always play games like this...well, stop playing CoC and go to Las Vegas

My idea on how to play the deck is: try to control the board with removals, and then, when I'm sure that I can have
the "combo" on the table, I have to be sure that I can protect it for at least a couple of turns (that means: cancel
the opponent removals with hastur or recur my characters with yog).

In this case, playing living mummy is a great way to deal with a lot of creatures (and you can even try to kill it
yourself, if you need it).

Nothing to say about Called by Azatoth: it is abviously something you need to test.

About transient: again, it is just a method to speed up some cards that you want to play as soon as possible.
Sometimes you could be in a situation where a fast(er) cthulhu could help.

Anyway, this is theory...I need to try the deck

bye

Konx.

i like offerings for early game play but it does become rather useless later. and even though doa is loyal im playing cthulhu which will cost 6 so there is a good chance ill have 3-4 cthulhu resources on a domain so it still works pretty well. not many locations cost more than 3 so its handy for that too.

yes there is some luck to get the combo but seeing how there is only 17 different cards and 4 of those let me get cards its really not that hard to pull off. this is were journey to the other side would be really good.

living mummy and cthulhu could be a whole other deck idea in itself and might actually work better than the hapless student and cthulhu but i oh well. i just thought the idea of by-passing cthulhu's ability, that was the fun part here.

I tryed to test the deck yesterday afternoon. And my results were not really cool. Twilight gate and the ravager did a great work, so does The Guardian elder.

My problem were ressources. I had to wait for turn 6 to ^pull of the combo and, in my meta, I would already been dead. I playtested against Miska/Agency rush and byakhee attack and small price to pay did hurts me a lot. I had to wait to play the students (in a way to avoid having him insane and be still able to draw), And, once Cthulhu was there, my opponent had enough stuff to protect what was actually in play. Even Muddy Waters + cthulhu did'nt give me the game, which end at 1 story won for me ...

Miska's scholar was fine and did help me getting the character. But Yog wasn't usefull (except the journey and twilight gate). I'll reconsidered Gathering at the stone and tryed Dark quagmire. I also change my pulled under/keeper stuff to add the Binding and a good old cannibal ghast. But Pulled under will come back instead of binding, which was useless. More offense is needed, so I'll play it !!

This was fun, but the advantage wasn't mine already, so I had to tempo a lot. Even if Cthulhu did came out late, it was a very hard-to-play deck, as I did'nt have the habbit to play it well. And 61 cards is too much if you need to play a combo. Even drawing and filtering needs a tweak in my deck proposition, so I'll let only one quagmire+ may reduce the number of Cafeteria Lady .....

Last stuff that was positive was the introduction of A single path. Well played, your opponent can't win two story in a row and give you one turn more.

so 3 factions didnt work that well? id have never tried 60 cards. combo decks almost always need to be fine tuned to deck minimums.

i did think of something that might help/work. even though miskatonic is there for when you override the draw phase. what if you just include gentleman's club for the draw and play cthulhu/yog and play hapless student from your discard pile. with book of black stones, domestic sacrifice, and blackmoor. shouldnt have much of a problem getting a hapless in you discard pile. and journey to the otherside will make sure you dont lose something good.

this might actually make the deck more fragile though....

Actually, the deck I tested (I've done another run yesterday against someone else and had a loss and a victory!) is 52 cards. It has to be fitted to 50 cards anyway.

Once the combo is set, you dont play anymore and watch your opponent sinking, it's really fun. The problem being you need at least to have

Cthulhu + Cafe Lady+Ravager+muddy waters.

The student was driven insane as long as my opponent drive 1 character insane anyturn. But as he got restored before I even draw, that's fine !

This configuration needs at least 3turns to enable and Pulled under was interesting, as it allows Cthulhu to exhaust right after he uncommit from a story (he has arcane). I'm considering even more offence (Mummy may finally come back even if I'm not found of it, or the Serpent from Yoth, or maybe a combo with strange desillusion+Emerging Deep One)

Hi.

Last Sunday I have done a bit of playtest with the deck.

I've played against the hastur-agency-dog-descendant deck (60% of the field in stahleck). Impossible to win.

I've played against a fast syndacate+dogs deck: very hard to win.

I was playing the Yog-Cthulhu-Miskatonic version of the deck.The 3-faction situation worked well for me. No problem with resource matching.

Cards I liked:

- Visithing author: I like the possibility to have a third-turn ravager or living mummy in play. Not speaking of a fast
cthulhu. This deck definitely needs some acceleration and Visithing Author can provide it.
- 9 removals maindeck (3 doa, 3 sacrificial offerings, 3 a single glimpse): you need it. The matches I've been able to win were
those with 3 or more removal in the first 2 turns (considering even a journey to the other side to find them).
- Twilight gate: ok, you can imagine that this card is good...but honestly, this was the first time I was playing it, and I love it
now! In this deck, you can use it basically as a removal during the first turns and then it becomes a sort of "I can do cool
things when I need it".

Cards I didn't like:
- Itinerant scholar: useless. I've used the ability with some profit once in 10 match. Can be changed with something else (don't know what, yet)
- Librarian: it helps a bit with the card quality, but the problem is that when the lock is in play, you still want to draw cards. This has to be substituted with some card drawing (Dreamlands scholar is the first things that comes to my mind). This is the crucial point of the deck: you MUST have some card advantage. Against fast deck, even if you manage to have the combo in play, they still draw 2 cards per turn (and you are not, probably) so they have more threat than you.

- I've never used Muddy Waters with profit, but I have to say I draw it few times.

- Probably, too many "twilight gate" targets. 3 ravager and 3 living mummy are maybe enough. Still, if you have idea about good target, the card itsellf is really powerful.

Comment: honestly, I think it would be possible to just Miskatonic and use other factions. It is true that the combo it is
nice, but to be effective it needs a board situation that is already good. Against a fast deck, if you don't kill immediately
the characters, you just lose without the time to setup the lock. The "control" concept of the deck is good, but the practical
realization is, with this version, too slow.

Play-style: usually, the idea was: I kill everything the first 2-3 turns, I set the lock, I try to win.

Hope it helps!

Konx.

I worked on the deck yesterday night, and I came across some of your conclusion, Francesco :

-Librarian is not as usefull as the Scolar. For the same price, it gives you extra cards.

-I've got to consider the guardian Elder Thing in 2 ex : His ability to wound can be awesome against Dogs and stuffs that are pairing in commission.

- The scholar was fine in the deck I playtested. True it's not the main object of this deck, but if you're able to play it Turn 1 or 2, you really slow down your opponent. I had a mcuh exalting game with my muddy waters. I tend to play my destructing actions during my opponent turn, in a way to gain extra exhaustion + the possibility to earn some points.

-Dark Qaugmire I suggested is not the best proposition I should make. I slowws every one down and te story car is Kinda stuck (except if you can commit a miska Investigationned-character alone.

-Even if I dislike this card, Descendant would be a really nice transient to use in this deck. It's totally blowing the opponent's mind, and he don't focuse on the combo until Cthulhu is out.

My best process was to Cafeteria Lady early turn, then muddy waters, then my student (which was driven insane and kinda relax, waiting for next turn to trigger. T2, I started to offend and it was fine.

i only get a chance to try out decks every two weeks. wish i was able to test and tweak this deck idea as much as you guys, but all the feedback is great.

BTW, there's a new card in the new AP, Princess Zura, that you're going to want to put in this deck.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/coc/news/coc-cotw/1/princess-zura-sm.png

She let's you draw cards when your opp characters leave play. Goes a long way towards solving some of the draw issues. And, works great with the Cafeteria Lady if there is no other target to exhaust.