Okay - just a few issues I thought I'd double-check with everyone here on.

1.) Y'Golanac (and other similiar characters) have Skill-4. I have a Blind Submission in my hand (take control of a character with Skill-2 or lower)...but normally would not be able to use such a thing on a powerful being like Y'Gol. BUT...if I use a Demon Lover (exhast to choose any character an give them -2 to their Skill until the end of the phase) ...is it possible to THEN use a Blind Submission on the (now) Skill-Reduced to 2 Y'Gol character ? It'd only be a once in a while thing that it would come up like that, but when it did.....oh yeah ! Thoughts ?

2.) Chess Prodigy appears to be a powerful Miskatonic card... As me and my opponent understood it to work, when he commits it to a story, he announces "Terror Struggles will be resolved by counting Investigation Icons". He has 1-Investigation on the Chess Prodigy. If I then committed a character with 5-Combat, but no Investigation Icons......my character would go Insane....because we'd say "okay, Prodigy has 1-Investigation...you have none....Prodigy wins Terror....your guy goes Insane".

What we observed, though, is if you get a second Prodigy out (only happened once for him), then it becomes almost impossible to win any Icon Struggles against them (if playing a Mythos Faction)....because (again if we understand it properly) - they can both commit to the SAME story, and announce that Terror AND Combat struggles will resolve by counting Investigation Icons.... meaning they pretty much win all of those - PLUS win "the real" Investigation struggle (and often Arcane, being Miskatonic).

Is our way of understanding and playing him correct, though ?

3.) Lastly, my opponent has come up with a pretty annoying (though time-consuming) combo for Miskatonic that we "think" could be legit / effective. The first step is for him to put out any character...so, say Dr. Carson.....then he pays 1-and puts the Yuggoth Contract on him. He can do this easily first turn. Turn-2, he activates a Domain with that aggravating Transient Miska resource guy (that you can keep paying 1-and putting back in your hand after he hits the discard pile, meaning he can keep using him again and again the next turns).....this gives him 4-Resource points...and he puts out a Turn-2 Necronomicon.

Turn-3...he activates Necronomicon (pay 3 and Exhaust) - to take control of ANY of my guys (be they lowly Cultists or mighty Old Ones). As soon as they come over to his side of the table... my opponent is able to use the Yuggoth Contract's ability the "pay 1 and sacrifice a character to draw 2-cards"....to sacrifice MY guy....(who he now Controls - thanks to the dreaded Necronomicon)...and then get 2-cards out of it too !

Once this combo is active, the only options I have are to draw some kind of direct damage effect that kills off the guy he's put the Contract on, or try to damage the Necronomicon itself.

Is this a legit combo ? It seemed pretty cool to me - but I wanted to know your thoughts on its effectiveness // potential // etc ?

1) Yep. In fact anything you do that reduces the skill to 2 or lower will work.

2) Yep. You've got it 100% correct. FYI, there is something in the latest FAQ about Chess Prodigy and the timing of committing to the story. It's important for things like Ravager that also have effects when committing. You should give it a read. Also, and I can't imagine this being really all that necessary, but if for some reason you still wanted the other struggles to resolve with their original icons, you *can* have the Chess Prodigy choose Investigation to resolve with Investigation. (maybe you *want* one of your characters to go insane from the terror struggle or something, or maybe you're losing investigation but winning the others. etc)

3) It is a 100% legal and strong combo. I have a deck that uses the Necronomicon and the Yuggoth contract. It's a Shubby / Miskatonic deck. I combine the use of a lot of Eldrich Nexus for the extra domain, and then cards that allow me to unexhaust a support card to use it multiple times a turn. And the Yuggoth Contract usually goes onto Y'Golonac for added annoyance (harder to get rid of it)

Rosh87 said:

You can also target them with event cards to turn them insane or wound them (though this will not revert the changed icon struggles!). This will typically be sufficient to ensure the struggles will not have any (negative) effect on you.

Still, Chess Prodigy is a nice Miskatonic card.

Yes, I found wounding them with Event cards or abilities to be the best way to get rid of them, as they are nigh-invincible during the actual struggles, with that annoying ability !

From what I understand with the Chess Prodigy is that, even if he is destroyed/removed from the story, its struggle effect continues on because its a passive effect and doesn't require the Chess Prodigy to remain on the story (barring someone playing Parallel Universe, of course). He is truly annoying, and I gladly keep him in my Cops and Nerds deck