Well, I won against my opponent's "Fast Miska - Agency - Dreamer" deck yesterday - with my Combo - Agency - Hastur deck - by destroying him in two straight games on the 3rd turns (of both !).

He was saying "jeez that deck of yours is fast...my fast deck is barely keeping up with it..."

The one game he got a bad draw, and the second game, he did get a few things out...but I drew 2-Shotgun Blasts in the opening hand, and blew up a Miska girl who let him draw a card when she enters play, and a Clever Zoog...then his 3rd turn (as I neared the win) - he put out a Monster Hunter with Dynamite - his only chance (if left alive) to stop me at one of the stories - and prevent a victory...but I Blind Submissioned it (taking Control) and he conceded.... wow.

Yes, that was fast.

The interesting thing is, in neither case did I get 70-Steps....but both times I did get Magah Birds (second time I actually drew two of them in the opening cards though, so resourced one and played the other, getting 2-into play (at least). I also played an Unorthodox Psychologist. Then I proceeded (as noted above), to Shotgun Blast his defenders and take the stories in rapid order.

I came to see that EITHER the Birds - OR - the Steps are important / okay to getting this to work okay...but it seems more important that you get the Birds, since it lets you get out 3-4 characters on first turn....then it is to get the Steps, and not much else. 1 Psychologist or 1 Paul Lemond...and 70-Steps doesn't nearly help you enough (because you aren't scoring points on ENOUGH stories - EARLY enough).... then 1-Paul, 3-Birds, and 1 Unorthodox Psychologist.

Having 5-Characters out (it seems) - moreso than anything else - before your opponent has even drawn his first 2-cards from his deck (assumes you won the roll to go first) - is what (at least from what I observed) puts the pressure on him - tremendously.... Yes, Steps is great too - for really locking him down - but 5-characters on first turn is - perhaps - a bit broken, since characters are what this game runs on.

It basically puts the opponent into a situation where they HAVE to have a great draw, with multiple characters that they can get out right away - or they get steamrolled. My friend ended up Mulliganing - twice in those games - just because he was afraid of the speed and felt he needed a better hand each time.....this is noteworthy since he rarely (otherwise) mulligans...and this demonstrates how much knowing how fast the deck is - actually "scares" him.

So ....if I was finding things to complain about the deck / style in general - it would be - how did FFG think // not realize that 1-Resource for 3-Characters ...is an unbalancing thing to put into the game ?

It would not be so bad if they had similiar things for OTHER factions...like an Agency card called:

" Twin Marksman "

"Born to shoot.."

Agency Character: Cost-2

1-Combat, Fast

1-Skill

"When Twin Marksman comes into play, search your deck for another card named "Twin Marksman" and put it into play, if possible."

Flavor Text: "From the moment they were born, they had an uncanny connection which grew more evident as they aged and began to practice the art of professional shooting...."

-

Something like this - for EACH - faction would / should be able to exist as a counter for Magah Birds - if they are going to make them as they are now. Instead, they not only (FFG I mean) created Magah Birds (for Hastur), but they went ahead and gave the faction 70-Steps too ! AND - Endless Interrogation being Agency // Hastur - essentially with the 0-cost, but needing Hastur-resource in play.... further added to the combo potential. It's like they intentionally jacked up Hastur's ability to pull of this thing ...by making all these cards (in the first place) - but then by going further and making them all Hastur, with no counters for other Factions to use against them...

Strange design decision.....to say the least.

I agree without almost every thing you said. Except that the Steps are much better than a Paul lemond first turn if all your domains are drained .. (except if you play Spawn of Madness !!)

Then, there is actually a porblem in the game balance that I would'nt see increased by create kinda birds for every faction. The costs of the birds should be increased to 3, so they would'nt see play in first turn, except if the player tries transient ressource and loose ressourcing facilities. Or at least having bird coming from deck to hand, not into play, which should oblige the player to drain 3 domains to have the 3 birds out ...

PRODIGEE said:

To use common american political advertising jargon:

"Hi, my name is Patrick and I approve this message."

Here's a question though....since Magah Birds came out in the Journey to Unknown Kadath pack.... how soon after that did people start coupling them with 70-Steps ? Also - did people immediately put in Agency support cards - or was that something that was seen only in the World Champions' deck and those in the top players at that event ?

Also - I noticed way back Manitou, when talking about Y'Golonac, commented that "he can (ready) himself and his mates too..." - is that actually correct though ? I can understand it on other characters (besides Y'Gol) that you have in play ....but can he use it on himself...if he's exhausted...and then "force himself to ....accompany Himself....to the story"....ahem..... that part seems a bit weird ?

Allowed though, or on everything BUT Y'Gol himself ?

Y'Gol's Action is "pay 1 to choose and ready a character". No limitation on said character (as per FAQ, can even pick an already ready character).

Rosh87 said:

I started combining Magah Birds with 70 Steps pretty quickly (with much input from my son!). At NE Regionals I used a pure Hastur deck, but I like the style of pure faction decks as a general rule even when they are not optimal.

I think most people saw this connection... The combination with Agency is not surprising as Agency has so many cheap annoyances, they make a nice combo with many decks. I saw some Hastur/Agency decks at NE Regionals. We saw similar things in French Nationals. At GenCon (Worlds), they were rampant, so had already firmly established themselves in the gestalt of the game.

Hata used a Hastur/Agency deck against me the first weekened that asylum pack was released. Then a gnarly Shub/cthulhu deck. Being a newb at that time, I was well and proper spanked.

Suffice to say it was present in decks that very week and not months later. The connections were obvious, especially considering the tie that endless interrogation has with Hastur, it did nothing but promote the connection.

So, I'm trying to fashion the "Most Potent Destruction Deck Possible" - I'd discussed at the outset of this thread....but I'm having trouble getting solid results out of it in test games.

The main issue is...what characters do you think should be put into the deck ? The base concept is that you have so many removal cards, of so many types, that "normal decks" that you would be up against just won't have enough characters (fast enough) to be able to muster any solid defense - and in turn, to have anything to threaten YOU with on their turn.

To that end, the deck has (as a core group of cards) a Cthulhu and Agency mix....but I'm wondering if adding Yog-Sothoth, for my first ever 3-Faction deck...might be more helpful, as it adds in a ton of additional destruction effects, plus recursion to get key destruction cards back ... ?

Anyways...the core cards of Cthulhu and Agency which I have in are:

-Deep One Assault x 3

- Sacrificial Offerings x 3

- Get it Off ! x 2

- Shotgun Blast x 3

- Short Fuse x 3

- Small Price to Pay x 3

- Flanking Maneuver x 3

- Torch the Joint x 2

- Behind Bars x 3

This is an awful lot of removal.....far more than you might see in "most decks" ....and ensures that every opening hand I have at least 1 and often 2 cards of that sort to deal with any early-game rushes the opponent might get out.

My problem is...what characters should be complimenting this swarm of doom-dealing cards ?

Should I go for fast-swarm type stuff just to get something out - destroy possible defenders - and then rush for the stories ?

Also, what about the idea of adding in some Yog cards (perhaps taking out a few of the existing Cthulhu / Agency ones) ....to provide the earlier-mentioned Recursion powers ?