Hey,I'm a new player of coc lcg.When I use yog faction,I have a question of a card.

Things in the Ground (Secrets of Arkham, F31)

Action:Exhaust Things in the Ground to discard the top 2 cards of each player's deck.Any characters that would be discarded by this effect are instead put into play insane.

When the discarded characters have a terror icon.I should put it into play insane or just discard it.

yongkan said:

Even characters with Terror icons will be put into play insane. Note that they are not driven insane, just put into play insane, so the Terror icons don't protect the characters.

TheProfessor said:

That is incorrect, I believe. The characters are put into play, but they are not driven insane, because characters with Terror icons can never go insane (unless there is some additional effect in play that specifically changes this, like Enchanted Wood).

Things in the Ground is often used by players in the Yog-Sothoth faction to bring out high cost characters without draining a domain. Journey to the Other Side is used to put characters on top. You will see this combo a lot.

bloody malth said:

Hmm, really? We've always played it like The Professor. The characters don't _go_ insane, they're put into play insane - that's why terror icons or the Willpower keyword cannot protect them:

Insane characters have the following statistics: 0-cost, 0-skill, no faction, no icons, no traits, and no text.

If the card text said they are put into play and then go insane, terror icons and Willpower would protect them from going insane.

(all, imho, of course)

Edit: I just noticed that in the General CoC Forum in the thread "I request clarification from Marius", Marius refers to Things in the Ground in post #16:

You can use Things in the Ground (Secrets of Arkham F31) to bring Yog and hope he survives a turn being insane. Once restored, you can start using him, since the ability doesn't require to exhaust Yog.

Please note that Yog has a Terror icon and is still put into play insane. It's still no conclusive evidence of course, but it's further indication that my interpretation might be correct.

+100 - Jhaelen, et al - are correct - as far as I have ever heard Things in the Ground described - and played. The "put into play Insane" - effect bypasses the normal immunity the card has to Insanity - because it never actually hits the table "Face Up" - to use a literal analogy...it is "automatically" flipped over to "Insane" as it "enters play" - so it is never actually "driven Insane, or chosen to be driven Insane", so it's fine within the normal rules for Terror / Insanity / Willpower / etc.

If Things in the Ground had "no penalty" - as Bloody Malth seemed to think - it would be truly ridiculous. You'd just see people playing all Ancient-One multi-color/faction decks with Journey to the Other Side - Things in the Ground - and stuff the deck with huge cost characters with Terror and / or Willpower. Turn-3 onward would be game over for the opponent.

Granted - Things CAN - do stuff like that currently (but not quite that fast, usually) - but the Yog player suffers a penalty in that the things come into play INSANE - meaning they cannot do anything that round, nor the next (without cards like Carson's Treatment, etc).....and the characters are vulnerable to a ton of instant-death effects since they lose all text (including Toughness or Invulnerability) - so a Shotgun Blast, costing "0" (free) will kill any of them while they are insane - ditto for DOA, DOR, Small Price to Pay, Sac Offerings, etc. . . . .

Totally right,

just look at the FAQ concerning Opening night ... it was ruled the same way. And this was FFG's ruling ...

Just look there : http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=155

PRODIGEE said:

I think this just demonstrates, once again, Jhaelen's oft-stated (and accurate !) contention that,

"This game is utterly unplayable (correctly) without the FAQ..."

I stand corrected. I missed that distinction the first time around, they are not characters cards with willpower/terror until they hit the playing field. And I have read the FAQ several times. Thanks for the clarification. It makes me wonder what else I'm doing wrong.