Good morning, gamers,

I notice that a lot of deck-techs show lists with cards from each expansion; I would prefer NOT to play this way. I have been using the base game cards as a foundation for each expansion, and combining the base game pools with any expansion I decide to run. For instance, I would allow the use of Leo De Luca across any campaign expansion (because it is from the base game), but I would not allow Keen Eye (from Dunwich Legacy) to be played in a Forgotten Age campaign. The same goes for investigators, I would use Jenny Barnes only in Dunwich Legacy and not in Carcosa or Forgotten Age. For Return of the Night Zealot, I would expand the investigator/card pools to include every option, as it feels more like an introduction to the series. I am curious about if this was the designers' intent for potential play, and if other players are doing the same. I feel the difficulty increases a bit and seems more akin to what the developers were aiming to achieve. Just a few thoughts

Marcwoah

The developers where quite clear that they expect you to use the entire card pool you own and investigators regardless of which scenario you are running.

Its fine if you want to do it your way but that's not the intent.

My group usually does play a campaign with the investigators from that set. That's partly for thematic reasons, and partly since we're excited about the new stuff in a new big box.

I think restricting overall deckbuilding to a single campaign would feel a bit restrictive, especially if you're playing the campaign while it's being released. There are only about 3 new level-0 cards per faction to start with, so you'd be building with almost entirely core cards. Over time I think that puts too much emphasis on the (smallish) core set. It's certainly a valid way to play, although most player cards don't feel thematically or mechanically associated with a particular campaign.

I do think the card pool will eventually get too large, and voluntary rotation will then make sense, but we aren't there yet.

Up to now I used what i just had opened. Been playing the base campaign and the dunwich one.

When we were done with a scenario I opened the next pack and checked what to use from that best pack for spending XP.

Now we are playing carcosa, using the cards from the previous campaigns. I don't feel bad about it, it's still a tough decision which cards to use sometimes.

Would want to limit myself to just the core and the scenario at hand

1 hour ago, timothyalvin said:

My group usually does play a campaign with the investigators from that set. That's partly for thematic reasons, and partly since we're excited about the new stuff in a new big box.

I think restricting overall deckbuilding to a single campaign would feel a bit restrictive, especially if you're playing the campaign while it's being released. There are only about 3 new level-0 cards per faction to start with, so you'd be building with almost entirely core cards. Over time I think that puts too much emphasis on the (smallish) core set. It's certainly a valid way to play, although most player cards don't feel thematically or mechanically associated with a particular campaign.

I do think the card pool will eventually get too large, and voluntary rotation will then make sense, but we aren't there yet.

It did occur to me that deck building is limited while a set releases in installments. For the Forgotten Age, I've had to "borrow" cards from other campaigns. And yes, the bottom line for this playstyle is for thematic reasons, and to use/appreciate the lower tiered cards that get cut early. And through playing this way, we haven't done anything more than standard difficulty, too risky!

I'd actually argue the thematics on that one. I mean, how, for example, is Jim not a better fit for Carcosa than Akachi, thematically? He's a performer!

Ha! No doubt on theme, but I meant on theme with the set/campaign and the minor synergies printed in those cards released with that set

Just in case you haven't found the feature, ArkhamDB lets you filter your deck searches on the packs required. Go to "Decklists", then the "Search" at the bottom of the menu on the left. Then in the upper right, there's a link to let you choose the allowed decks.

Regarding theme, Fine Clothes is a prime example of a card that makes more sense in another campaign (Carcosa). Similarly Time Warp, which fits Forbidden Age more than Carcosa. I believe I've even heard the designers say that they've intentionally done that, teasing the themes of the next cycle with player cards in one of the last mythos packs.

Well, I mean, there's always certain cards I don't take outside a campaign. I mean, I couldn't imagine taking the Tooth of Etzli to Dunwich.

I also want to say, it would probably be helpful to the community for more people to try playing this way. When evaluating cards, we tend to do so in the context of the entire available pool. But as the game ages, such advice won't be useful to newer players who don't have every cycle. On BoardGameGeek right now, there's a thread about the Composure cards from Carcosa. They are kind of useless if you have the Permanents from the Dunwich cycle, but it would be great to have someone look at them without that assumption.

9 minutes ago, CSerpent said:

I also want to say, it would probably be helpful to the community for more people to try playing this way. When evaluating cards, we tend to do so in the context of the entire available pool. But as the game ages, such advice won't be useful to newer players who don't have every cycle. On BoardGameGeek right now, there's a thread about the Composure cards from Carcosa. They are kind of useless if you have the Permanents from the Dunwich cycle, but it would be great to have someone look at them without that assumption.

Thank you! I cant bear to watch niche cards get overlooked in the endless pool meta

2 minutes ago, Marcwoah said:

Thank you! I cant bear to watch niche cards get overlooked in the endless pool meta

I just don't overlook them. Some decks I use the permanent skill boosters. In some I use the Composures. In some I use the base game ones (l0 or 2). Some I use a combination. Some I don't use any.

I will say in some decks the Permanents from Dunwich ARE useless (or at least a waste of XP) compared to the other choices.