Beneath the Empire State Building, cultist gathered Saturday, June 12th at the Compleat Strategist to vie for the 2010 Regionals crown.

First order of business is a huge thank you for Servitor Brooklyn Mike who did an exemplary job. He was the most gracious, generous, and prepared host. Thank you also to the NYC Compleat Strategist and FFG.

Secondly, I must apologize for the incompleteness of my report. Please correct and add. Much of my report is anecdotal and won’t serve the great play justice.

First Place: Chris, Philly Mathematician and Phillies fan - Hastur with lots of locations. Congratulations Chris! I didn’t play Chris. I didn’t get a chance to see any of his games. And I don’t know what his win total was over the four rounds. Perhaps someone could inform us. We did discuss how my Torch the Joints and Agency Groundskeepers, who were both useless in my games, could have proved interesting. Like I said, anecdotal. Chris took home the champion three-panel of domains, silver on black, appropriately the new tentacled Hastur, the Regionals Champion playmat, first choice of the art prints – he of course took the tentacle Hastur, an uncut sheet of Secrets of Arkham Expansion cards, and a struggle pin black on gold, perhaps the Arcane.

On the subject of prizes, all participants were showered with favors, many from Brooklyn Mike himself it seemed. FFG gave us all cool 15-packs of wooden Regionals 2010 tokens, with an Investigate on one side. Brooklyn Mike provided Steve Jackson Cthulhu Dice, Dragon Shield Boxes, Chaosium Mythos boosters and Mythos Dreamlands starters, and maybe more. Awesome!

Second Place: Kelen from Philly and Worcester Polytech - Yog-Sothoth. Kelen was an excellent competitor. Yog recursion is definitely back. My first round he beat me both games. Kelen described his game play very well, and highlighted what cards were doing and able to do. Good thing too, because his deck flew and churned through the discard. It was a blur for my very first tournament game. Mighty Yog was out at cost 1 after all his spells flooded his discard. New Whispers Speak to the Dead was a key. Notables: Reawakened Elder Thing, Cannibal Ghast, Guardian Elder Thing, The Sleepwalker (effective), stalwarts A Single Glimpse and Unspeakable Resurrection, Blackmoor Estate, Casting off the Skin (Whispers). Facing him, cost zero Snow Graves would have served me better than my tourney duds: Power Drain and Scotophobia. Probably would not have mattered. Prize included, I think, art print and uncut sheet and Investigate pin.

Third Place tie: John from Brooklyn / Michigan - Agency Miskatonic.

Third Place tie: Johnny Shoes - Agency Hastur.

My four wins and four losses:
Round 1 - Kelen 2, Johnny 0
Round 2 – Tim 1, Johnny 1
Round 3 – Johnny 2, Brooklyn Mike 0
Round 4 – John 1, Johnny 1

Round 2 I faced Tim from Nassau County, Lawyer out of Fordham, and his Cthulhu deck. Real nice guy. He was rocking the Lord of the Silver Twilight, The Terror of the Tides, The Thing from the Shore, the Sword of Y'ha-tallo, Deep One Assault, Called by Azathoth, and Mnomquah's Serpent, which were cool against my Infernal Obsession characters. Curses were flying, the cards of course. I started to get my game legs, but not before I forgot to draw once and tried to commit exhausted characters once. But Tim was cool about it. My Interrogation Center - round 1 versus Descendant, round 2 versus Nyarly (less so), and round 4 versus Sledge Dogs - was perhaps my most important card, though Infernal Obsession was a stalwart. Two more long battles under the wire.

Round Three Brooklyn Mike played a very cool Syndicate Yog deck. From new AP Whispers, he won his Locked Door Investigate Conspiracy and was led by Tyler Scindere and The Silver Key (very cool). Deck also featured Journey to the Other Side, Jack "Brass" Brady, Steeped in Violence, Bag Man, Hard Case, Patsy, Extortionist, Dutch Courage, Alhazred Lamp, Like a Moth. I was glad to face Brooklyn Mike, as I was very excited about the work he did to pull off Regionals. I after all traveled the farthest from Boston, Champion City. I applaud his commitment and can’t wait to come down again. Brooklyn Mike was backed by Blind Faith and John Cage, making him formidable.

Round Four was very interesting. John and I split two grueling duels between Agency Hastur and Agency MU. John had a great team in play: Ammunitions Expert, Mr. Ngambe, Urban Investigator, Steve Clarney, Soldier of Fortune, The Captain, Dreamlands Navigator, Dr. Ali Kafour, Middle Eastern Scholar, Anthropology Advisor, Visiting Author, Student Archaeologist, and Scholarly Plagiarist, also Shotgun, Military Bike, and Rabbit's Foot, and interestingly no Open for Inspection or Binding. Much more could be written about that final round we played.

FFG directed us to play Core Set Story Cards versus the newer Expansion. Only Shub was not represented. I did play a casual game with my Shub Yog deck versus a great guy who observed. I did not face one other player, perhaps Ray. What deck did he play, I wonder.

The heroes from my deck were: Infernal Obsession, Byakhee Attack (once in particular), Byakhee Servant, the birds both Penguin and Magah (Magah were meek reliable fodder every game until the final round when I had two in hand, when also my resources totally jammed), certainly Lemond, Marshall Greene, Small Price to Pay, Undercover Security, and Interrogation Center. Mulder was awful. Government Exorcist and Power Drain were surprisingly ineffective. Performance Artist and Messenger From Beyond also did nothing.

I hope I represented the event and the great participants passably. Thanks all for a super time! It was worth the trip.

I don't expect to be as eloquent as you Johnny Shoes, but indeed it was a great event and well hosted.

BTW: Ray was playing a Shub deck, so we did have all factions at the party!

I played Tim's Cthulhu army in the first round and we finished tied 1-1. In the first game I just could not draw anything to handle the Ravager from the Deep even though my deck had plenty of answers. They just never came to hand. In the second game I managed an Infernal Obsession on a Ravager and turned the tables.

Second round I faced John - Agency/Miskatonic. Finished with 2 wins to his 1.

Third round opponent was Will, and for some reason I'm forgetting his army... I remember Tithe Collector being in there as well as Samantha Grace, but those are neutrals. Maybe Cthulhu again, but my age and dotage prevent clear recollection.

Fourth round opponent was Kellen - Yog-Sothoth as was detailed in the prior posting. This was the title round, and I managed to finish 2-1. The last game was extremely quick - I won on turn 3. All the cards aligned for me and not for Kellen.

I put my deck list in the Organized Play subform: NYC with deck list

My MVPs were Cavern of Flame and Guardian Pillar. Enchanted Wood was pretty nice too - complementing the Hastur insanity theme. I had trouble with Willpower - those games took more finesse than against monsters. Oh, and 70 Steps was great when I went first, dropped 3 Magah Birds, Ward Phillips and then 70 steps.

Some minor clarifications. Kellen took the Arcane pin, I took the Investigation. As a professor, my favorite faction is of course Miskatonic! Maybe I should have taken the Insanity pin for consistency though... I played Hastur anyway thinking it would be more competititve.

Also Kellen got a play mat with Cthulhu on it - the same one that will be in the League kits, I think.

It's a shame we didn't get a direct matchup Johnny - I think it would have been challenging!

Glad you didn't choose the Insanity pin, professor. I've been wearing it ever since.

There's nothing sweeter then a Phillies fan going to NYC and handing out some smackdown. Thats GREAT!

Thanks for the report! Its these things that get people fired up to host their own! Next time take some pictures! Great job to all! Sorry I couldn't attend.

From my perspective the event could not have been better. The players brought REALLY interesting decks, were some of the best sportsmen I've played with, and played some masterful cards. And, yes, the prize support was great from FFG and I just couldn't resist throwing in a few goodies on my own. Despite that fact that I got pasted flat (0-4) I had more fun in this event then any other I have organized or played in.

A very special thanks to TheProfessor who assisted me in setting up the matches for each round (pays to have a mathematician around, sometimes!), and for helping to keep the rules under control. I strongly recommend that we all descend on Philly and participate in whatever event he may organize there.

As for the bragging rights, wait 'till next year (assuming some cosmic horror doesn't rend the fabric of reality and end the universe in the interim).

Great to hear talk of next year!

Summoning is what cultists do best! If not before then, certainly at the Second Annual NYC Regionals we will endeavor to summon that cosmic horror and rend the fabric of reality and end the universe.

By the way, does Regionals affect Nationals?

FIrst, I would definitely be up for helping organize an event in the Fall / Winter so we can get to see each other and fling some horror more than once a year. I'll leave it to wiser heads than mine to initiate this, as after organizing two FFG regionals (AGOT and CoC) I'm kind of burned out.

I know that the winners of this take their pins to some kind of National event in the future, but I don't have details. Hopefully FFG will post details soon.

Countdown to Regionals 2011, E33rd street!

Hey, there are some of the 2010 prizes from Nationals in France. Great pictures of a great event over at Organized Play. There's the tentacle Hastur domains, the two play mats, and the art posters. The Regionals poster is in the front window of the castle.

The struggle pins and a roll of uncut cards.

Whereas A Game of Thrones earns a Valyrian blade, clay pots of wildfire, and a statue pilfered from the Dothraki hoard.

very cool stuff, now Im very sorry I missed the Regional.

I think I might nominate "Brooklyn Mike" for the coolest nickname ever. Thanks for the awesome pics guys!

new guy here, when is the expected date for the next regional? I would love to come and play just picked up the game at Gen Con and I always go to Compleat for hobby supplies. Would love to come down and enjoy a few games even if I will get whipped.

cerealkiller195 that would be great if you joined us. brooklynmike did write he would like to get together this fall but that others might need to help out. I can't wait to go back down. But I'll feel lucky if there is a Spring Regionals 2011. But you can bet I'm going!