Hey all.

Looking over the Banned List of cards, it seems the only one (that I'm aware of) is Aspiring Artist.

I took a look at the card's text using the excellent cthulu.dbler.com - program - and I see it's "when you play him" - draw two cards. Granted, this is a strong ability...but you can't use it once you've won at least 1-story.

What was happening in Tournaments, etc. - after this card came out - that made FFG decide to ultimately ban it from Tournament play ? I'm trying to see how it was used to such massive effect that they felt the only remedy was banning it ? (like...even saying "you can only have 1 of these in your Deck" - they didn't do that - they went ALL the way to "complete Ban" - right away .... why ?)

Well, you need to consider the other Hastur card to understand the purpose of this card.

You may find cards like Things behind you+Victoria Protegee that allow you to bounce your card back in Hand. So You may play Aspiring artist twice in the same row and draw 4 cards, which totally screw the balance of the game, as you'll have a huge hand-advantage (imagine you play Behind Bars+stuffs which costs 0...).

Indeed, comboed with the Hand-discard mecanism, it was totally overpowered !

Yeah, what Prodigee said.

Hastur should never have card draw abilities. It is the control faction of Cthulhu and in a game that is supposed to be slower than other xCGs, speeding up control is a really bad idea.

Chevee

So how quickly were people actually winning with Aspiring Artist in the game ? I mean...was it any worse than the apparently "super powered' Hastur / Agency decks with Dogs - Magah Birds - etc - that people keep talking about ?

If "modern" decks are now winning on Turn-3 or 4 (with the right hand) ...and they aren't banning any of those cards (yet) - I'm still not sure how this card was resulting in such rapid (total) victories.

(thanks for the explanations to me though)

Rosh87 said:

It's not all about speed but about deck consistancy (drawing cards helps finding your 'business cards' more often) and eventuality. With enough draw, you might as well win, say, turn 2 even if the game drags on until turn 20. Artist was part of the game way before the Birds, and thus longer a problem card. It could happen somewhere down the line that the birds/dogs get a similar treatment if the metagame doesn't stabilize.