Hello, I'm new here, but I've been playing the COC LCG for a few months now, and I've been reading up on some of the problems that have been arising due to Agency/Hastur Magah Birds, 70 steps, and endless interrogation combinations. In card games, I generally find banning cards to be a last resort, but I think a good errata for a card can bring it more into line with game balance. So as a suggestion, I'd like to present my new text to Magah birds.

Magah Birds

Faction Hastur

Cost 1

Skill 1

Text - Fast.

Response - When Magah birds is put into play, you may drain up two two of your domains. For each domain drained in this way you may put one character named Magah birds into play from your deck.

I think that this solution forces the Hastur character to choose whether or not he wants to run Magah birds or 70 steps as a turn one play without significantly hurting the playability of Magah birds (It still gets you 3 characters with fast on turn one without compromising your card advantage.) It just forces the Hastur player to make a difficult choice in how to make his turn 1 and 2 plays for his benefit, and also gives the other player a chance to counter. Hastur/Agency would still be quite powerful, just somewhat less powerful.

suggestions and feedback are of course welcome, as I'm sure there are a great many peopel with more insight into the issue than me.

It's not a bad idea, but wouldn't the Agency/Hastur guy just be happy using the ability once ....and putting out 2-Magah Birds....AND the 70-Steps, instead of 3 Birds and Steps.

The end result is mostly the same...they have 2 characters out...and you are Steps-Locked on your first turn (assuming they won the roll for first).

Next turn they commit and take 2-Tokens at 2-Stories, and likely lay down some other character (something cheap, perhaps a Sledge Dog, whatever). If the deck is constructed "correctly" they will also likely spend 1 or 2 and Shotgun Blast the only character you might have put down, when you try to commit it on your turn.

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What I would like to see, is something balanced against Magah Birds - because right now, paying 1-Resource for, essentially, a Skill-3, Fast - character (combined stats) is pretty ridiculous and no other Faction has something like that. When you consider it's even BETTER for Hastur than that, because in this game more Characters is generally better (you can do more effects with them and / or attack more stories at once)....you see how unbalanced it has become.

I proposed that FFG create similiar 2 or 3 for-1 type characters for some of the other Factions, to allow them a potential counter force when Birds come out on Turn-1. Alternatively, they could do something like:

"Spell Breaker" - Yog-Sothoth character - Cost-2, 1-Arcane, 1-Skill // Sacrifice Spell Breaker to choose and destroy a Support Card with cost less than or equal to Spell Breaker's printed cost.

Something like that - when played on YOUR first turn could be used to destroy 70-Steps, and break you "out" of the Steps-Lock. It would also expand the range of Factions that can do such things (break out) - cause currently there are only so many factions (Shub- Burrowing Beneath, or Cthulhu- Deep One Assault) ... that have early-game Support removal - meaning unless you play those factions or stuff your deck just with Support Destroying things in the case you might be up against a Hastur/Steps deck, you don't have much chance.

While I do agree other factions need more tools in their deck to do early game well, I would be very wary of "arms races" in card games. If you make every faction capable of significant rush abilities then every faction ends up as a rush faction and there is basically no reason to run any deck that goes beyond turn 3 or 4. I feel, to fit the flavor of the game, that there should be several factions that look to play till at least turn 5 (many of the big ancient ones have a printed cost of 6, and several need a turn or two for their abilities to become useful). I think Magah birds should have some sort of errata in order to keep the game from sliding into a rush deck world.

Well - I think we agree....but maybe you misunderstood my intention. The idea behind giving something like Birds - or rather, as I gave an example for - Birds DEFENSE...to other Factions would be so they would at least have something to hold off the initial rush with. Frankly, from what most people on here say, Big Monster Decks are generally LESS viable than smaller, quicker, weenie-rush type things.....with the current cards available.

BUT...one Faction Combo, Agency // Hastur - tends to have the most potent form of this - far better than almost any other decks' possible variants.

One thing we (my friend and I) have also observed is that, technically, it's not the Birds that are the problem...it's the 70-steps. First turn Magah's, while useful for the opponent, is not all that scary - particularly cause on the opponents turn, most foes will pop out a 2-Cost and 1-Cost character...so something like Undercover Security and Alaskan Sledge Dogs. These things will eat Magah's for breakfast, meaning on turn-2, if they attack, you will be able to kill off two of them, even if the 3rd takes 2-tokens at the undefended story. Oooh....scary.

No, the issue is the Steps, in general. It was a very stupid concept to give a card like that to ANY Faction in the LCG, let alone Hastur - the ultimate Control-type faction...

A simple solution to Birds / Steps / Hastur / Agency - is simply to Ban 70-Steps in formal tournaments. What major "purpose" does this card serve ? In what way does it enrich the "Tournament Landscape" ?