Now that I'm paying more attention to text and not just admiring the pictures, this Azathoth card has thrown me. As far as I can tell, you can only get away with playing it if you plan to win your last story card with Azathoth alone, which just seems like a stupid, overly flamboyant gambit on which to waste cards in your deck. I've looked around, and most decks don't plan for anything so exotic to be necessary in any tight spot. Unless there's some card that can recall Az to your hand "cleanly" (without losing) or one that blanks the Az text...but would any of that actually work?

I LOVE the artwork--a full splash page cycles through my screen saver--but of all the cards to reprint in only a fifty-card set, it feels like FFG completely wasted a "card slot" just to showboat a "Hey, look at THIS!" card. Especially when, four cards later, Dimensional Rift has virtually the same effect without the "death clause". Am I missing something?

Well, suppose you already won 2 stories and have 3 tokens on a third. It is your turn, you Azathoth. All characters go away, you commit to the story, and hopefully your opponent has nothing nasty up his/her sleeve and you win the game before the turn is over, so Azathoth doesn't do anything bad to you.

Yeah that is one thing i was curious about. If Az leaves play, his 'lose the game' effect goes with him right?

Yeah, there are no "lingering" effects. If Az is not there, then he can't trigger at the end of the turn.

And what if I did something crazy like playing Called by Azathoth on Azathoth himself? Azathoth goes down and wipes the playing field clean. Then Called by Azathoth goes down and all of Azathoth's text is now blank. The first part of Azathoth's text is already done anyway, so I don't care if it's blank, and the second part being blank actually keeps me in the game, with an uncontested Ancient One. Is that legit?

But then, as I said, is this even a worthy gambit to be pursuing in the first place? I'm just thinking that this is silly grandstanding, and not worth wasting the ink to reprint it. I think I would have rather had a different card in the Secrets collection.

path of blood and agoraphobia will work. and in a yog deck path of blood could easily be recycled so you could wipe the board many times, but cost 6 is pretty late in the game. shub would help reduce the cost with ghoulsih worshipper. does seem a wasted spot since there has to be a more useful character they could have reprinted....

On the one hand, I agree that it is a wasted card slot, at least for the player who is seeking to build a strong and competitive deck - putting aside the abovementioned combos, of course, as I'm only talking about Azathoth. No matter what abuses can be found by putting Azathoth in combination with other cards, they are all external from the card itself. On its own, Azathoth, The Blind Idiot God cannot stand competitive player's deck. But I think this card is appealing to a different sort of player: the casual type, who enjoys her cards more for flavor than for the strategy they provide.

Such players might enjoy the subtle twinge of satisfaction that comes with playing the unwitting creator of the Great Old Ones. And it simply wouldn't do for an Azathoth card to be a game-winner. Not only would that contradict canon, but looking from a strictly gameplay perspective, seeing him show up in most decks, or even many decks, would also contradict canon (inasmuch as deck entries and tournament results can even be a contradiction). The only other option, then, is to leave out Azathoth altogether, and what fun is that? Perhaps it would have been better had Azathoth been a promotional card, but what's done is done.

Azathoth does seem to be a little unwieldy. I do have him in my deck for flavour but I'd play him not so much as a game winner as I would for effect. I could take myself out before my opponent could properly collect their final story card. (Just a little friendly spite.) Or use him as a resource & make my opponent wonder just how many other copies of Azathoth I still had in my deck. You don't have to activate his effect to use him as a psychological weapon.

Wouldn't the text be blanked if it goes insane, and for the purposes of being eliminated be the same effect as if it were destroyed? If so, Low Blow, Nightmares!, or Calling Down the Ancients could drive Azathoth insane leaving him in the game, and if necessary, following up with a Sirens of Hell. Not very practical, but it expands the options with this card perhaps?

Well, we thought so previously, but no.

The way this is ruled is that his effect lasts even after he leaves the game. Essentially, you have 1 turn to win or you lose.

This was clarified in the World Championships last week as we determined that a Repo Man's effect lasts until the end of game, even if he is killed.

Chevee

Well that's even worse because once Azathoth is in play, an opponent could easily play something like path of blood and leave you with the effect. Like Azathoth, the player would actually be a "blind idiot" if they play that card.

How very appropriate.

Random_Person said:

I'm not sure why you think a ruling on Repo man's control effects has any bearing on Azathoth, but you're wrong.

Azathoth's "you lose" condition is a separate, passive ability on the card, and not in any way related to the Forced Response. Look at the text, there is a separate paragraph and a distinct space between those two sentences. They are not part of the same effect. Therefore, if Azathoth leaves play before the end of your turn, everything is fine.

Azathoth is a GREAT card. Who doesn't love board clearing and free tokens? And remember, you can still play more characters after you play him. That's not two free tokens, it is 6-8.

An Azathoth deck won the multi-player tournament at Worlds back in '06 with a really nice combo with Change of Seasons and Ghoul Khanum.

Hey cannon!

Missed you at Worlds this year.

I remember that multi-player game! It was a lot of fun.

I'm still a big fan of Azathoth.

Random_Person said:

Cannon has right, it was the way to play Azathoth and it's always the actual way to play it (it's for that you have nice combo with path of blood to reset a table and continue the game for exemple).

Then the effect of the Repoman is a "take control" effect it's an exception to the rule on duration of effects. A "take control" effect is a permanent effect, the duration of effects until the end of the phase is only for triggered effect, NOT for permanent effect.

The rule in the last faq for the Chess Prodigge that give a duration for a permanent effect is working ONLY for the chess Prodigee not for all permament effect. A normal permanent effect is ON when the card is in play and OFF when it leaves the play.