Does it seem loud in here? This spoiler is new and improved with card numbers for our friends who like to dabble! Seriously, cards are listed by number rather than by the more rational and sane faction method.


Agency

Out of the Darkness
---------------------
Type: Event
Cost: 1
Game Text: Action: Choose a Weapon or Item card in your discard pile and return it to your hand.
F101

Bloodbath
---------------------
Type: Event
Cost: 3
Subtype: Tactic.
Game Text: Play before committing characters to stories during your story phase. Action: During all [C] struggles this turn, the player who wins this struggle may wound an additional character committed to that story for each [C] he won the struggle by.
F102

Springfield M1903
---------------------
Type: Support
Cost: 1
Subtype: Attachment. Weapon.
Game Text: Attach to a character you control. Attached character gets +2 skill and gains [CC].
F103

Cthulhu

Disguised Threat
---------------------
Type: Event
Cost: 1
Subtype: Ritual.
Game Text: Action: Sacrifice a non-Serpent character to put a Serpent character from your hand into play.
F104

Feeding Frenzy
---------------------
Type: Event
Cost: 2
Subtype: Tactic.
Game Text: Disrupt: After a character is wounded as a result of a [C] struggle, wound all characters committed to that story.
F105

*The Cave on the Hill
---------------------
Type: Support
Cost: 3
Subtype: Location.
Game Text: Action: exhaust the Cave on the Hill to remove one of your characters from a story. Then ready that character.
F106

Hastur

Lost to Madness
---------------------
Type: Event
Cost: 4
Subtype: Madness.
Game Text: Action: All characters in play go insane.
F107

Fledgling Byakhee
---------------------
Type: Character
Cost: 2
Skill: 2
Icons: C
Subtype: Servitor.
Game Text: Fast. If it is night. Fledgling Byakhee gains [TTA].
F108

Miskatonic University

Stone Calendar
---------------------
Type: Support
Cost: 2
Subtype: Artifact.
Game Text: Action: Exhaust Stone Calendar and discard any number of your success tokens in order to draw cards equal to the number of success tokens you discarded.
F109

Uneasy Translator
---------------------
Type: Character
Cost: 2
Skill: 2
Icons: A
Subtype: Faculty.
Game Text: Action: Exhaust Uneasy Translator to choose a character. That character gains +2 skill for each character in play from a different faction from it.
F110

*Harry Houdini
---------------------
Type: Character
Cost: 3
Skill: 3
Icons: CAI
Subtype: Sorcerer.
Game Text: Heroic. Willpower. Action: Pay 1 to remove Harry Houdini from a story he is committed to. Then, ready him.
F111

Conspiracy

Behind the Door
---------------------
Cost: 0
Icons: TTCAI
Game Text: Each of your characters committed to this story gains [T].
F112

Neutral

Forgiveness
---------------------
Type: Event
Cost: 0
Game Text: Disrupt: Cancel 1 wound to a character you control. Sacrifice that character at the end of the phase.
F113

Shub Niggurath

* Shub Niggurath
---------------------
Type: Character
Cost: 6
Skill: 8
Icons: TTCCA
Subtype: Ancient One.
Game Text: Villainous. Invulnerability. Action: Pay 2 to put into play any number of Dark Young characters from your hand and discard pile.
F114

Examining the Optic Nerve
---------------------
Type: Event
Cost: 1
Game Text: Action: Choose a Mi-Go character. That character gains until the end of the phase.
F115

Syndicate

Safe House
---------------------
Type: Support
Cost: 3
Subtype: Location
Game Text: Response: After a Character enters your discard pile from play, pay 1 to return that character to your hand.
F116

Tattooed Thug
---------------------
Type: Character
Cost: 2
Skill: 2
Icons: C
Subtype: Conspirator. Cultist.
Game Text: Tattooed Thug gains Willpower and [CAA] as long as there is a conspiracy story card in play.
F117

The View from Within
---------------------
Type: Event
Cost: 1
Game Text: Action: Look at the top 4 cards of your opponent’s deck. Then return them to the top of his deck in any order.
F118

Yog-Sothoth

Reckless Elder Thing
---------------------
Type: Character
Cost: 3
Skill: 4
Icons: TCII
Subtype: Monster. Scientist.
Game Text: Toughness +1. Forced Response: After Reckless Elder Thing is committed to a story, wound it.
F119

Bird Demon
---------------------
Type: Character
Cost: 3
Skill: 3
Icons: TFAA
Subtype: Creature.
Game Text: Fast.
F120


Note: I typed this up on the fly so please post any corrections if you find mistakes. Otherwise, enjoy!

Tokhuah said:

Urgh, as if the Prize Pistol wasn't an issue before...

Tokhuah said:

These are my thoughts based on your spoilers

Agency

Out of the Darkness - This is something interesting for the weapon decks, plus it might allow extra combination with dreamers. A nice card

Bloodbath-Mass wounding in one of the most interesting tactics yet released (with Feeding Frenzy)

Springfield M1903- I love this one, John Henry Prize is screming for me to give him this marvellous stuff which might avoid him to get stolen or wounded.

Disguised Threat -a big meany events that really speeds up the serpent strategy. This one will hurts a lot.

Feeding Frenzy-Totally in love with this one

*The Cave on the Hill-Story escaping in a faction that now owns something like feeding frenzy is simple madness !! Gambit strategy will now increase level and I love that !

Lost to Madness- Powerfull, but costy !! Don't know if I will play this or prefer to play the new Hastur...

Fledgling Byakhee Not found of that one, but playing another Byakhee is always nice.

Stone Calendar-a new stone on the combo-decks garden ! This is something that must appear soon in a lot of miska decks. headache will come soon too !

Uneasy Translator-Not the best MU card I ever seen, but is might allow Parallel Universe fans to benefit it. Not the coolest one.

*Harry Houdini- Faction champion rocks ... This is how it has to be done, the champion card helping the lowest faction to benefit new strategy.

Behind the Door-I don't like this one. Ok, now we have 4 conspiracies which gave icons to your characters. Fine. But this is dificult to play, as your deck has to be tuned in this only direction to get playable. Not so good !

Forgiveness- Trickiest card of the whole pack. This one is mrvellous, totally awesome, as you might now change the whole resolution by skipping destruction. Miska tonic will totally benefit it !!

* Shub Niggurath- We already know the Black Goat. Strong but hard to play efficiently.

Examining the Optic Nerve - A new mi-Go events. This was the year of the Mi-Gos (which might seems ok, as we were speaking about Yuggoth contract's. Not a terrific card, but you can't always get what you want!)

Safe House-This is a nice card for Syndicat Rush. Which actually suffers a problem of stability. This might change things.

Tattooed Thug-A Syndicat conspiracy card....

The View from Within- Board position advantage ... Nota terrible card, but it might combo well with yog-sototh.

Reckless Elder Thing-a huge character that might self destruct quickly, except when comboed with the hideous guardian or other stuffs !!

Bird Demon-a new birdo creature. Well, not so bad ... But Yog did provide us nicer us in the previous packs.

First, Thanks for the spoiler!

I'll only comment on the cards that have not been previewed:

Bloodbath & Feeding Frenzy: Wow, these two cards, sure are nice!

Springfield: Yet another weapon in the Agency arsenal, and quite a potent one, too.

Disguised Threat: At cost 1 this one is _really_ great to up the threat and playing characters from hand is always nice.

Fledgling Byakhee: always good to see more support for the Day/Night theme; not the most inspired addition, though.

Uneasy Translator: I like it! This can quickly add up to a sizeable skill bonus.

Houdini: At cost 3 this ones gives a good bang for your buck. I'm not overly excited, though.

Behind the Door: The missing conspiracy boosting the terror struggle. Not as useful as some of the previous ones, though.

Forgiveness: Wow! I love cost 0 neutral cards and this one brings a very useful effect. As if I didn't already put too many neutral cards in my deck...

Examining the Optic Nerve: It has its advantages, since it may be played as a surprise, as opposed to using the Scalpel or the Mi-Go Scout.

Safe House: Brilliant! This is just the card that Syndicate needed! Cost 3 is okay. A bit more problematic is that it is a location - they always make me worry about the Insane Arsonist.

Tattooed Thug: Very powerful in combination with conspiracies. Something I might try.

The View from Within: Yet another variation on this kind of trick. I'm not too fond of it.

Reckless Elder Thing: Always nice to see investigation icons for Yog. I wonder if you can turn the forced wounding into an advantage

Bird Demon: I suppose the F icon should be a C? Not a lot to say about this one.

Agency and Cthulhu probably gain the most from this AP. Miskatonic and Syndicate also get decent support. Finally, I'm glad there aren't any more supercharged goodies for Hastur...

Thanks, Tokhuah !

So many INTERESTING cards, I don't know where to start with my comments. So, for once, I will use discretion, and not make any.

Chick

Safe House
-
Type: Support
Cost: 3
Subtype: Location
Game Text: Response: After a Character enters your discard pile from play, pay 1 to return that character to your hand.

...

Isn't this just too broken ?
There isn't even an 'exhaust this location to ...' or a limit to syndicate characters.

Together with the Itenerant Scholar this spells 'lock you' in turn 2. Without any fuss, strange combo's or whatever.
You could add the museum curator to get to the safe house faster.
I'm not quite sure if i like this. Looks like CCG-days too much. ;-(

Also:

Feeding Frenzy
---------------------
Type: Event
Cost: 2
Subtype: Tactic.
Game Text: Disrupt: After a character is wounded as a result of a [C] struggle, wound all characters committed to that story.

...

looks a big unbalanced. For only 2 you can wound everything at a story withou your opponnent being able to see it coming, as long as the combat struggle resolves. Wow.

I like the idea in general, but this effect for only 2 without any real drawbacks and being able to play from your hand (so you have the information advantage) seems ridicolous.

Just my humble opinion of course.

Behind the Door
-
Cost: 0
Icons: TTCAI
Game Text: Each of your characters committed to this story gains [T].
F112

I have to admit I am a bit confused over the response to this card. Wouldn't this be great in MU and/or Syndicate decks since they tend to lack Willpower among the cheap good characters? It seems like a good card for those factions, particularly in an MU deck combo'd with Chess Genius changing Combat to Investigate or Syndicate nuking combat with Fighting Blind. How would you stop them from taking this story? Maybe I am wrong...

@ Safe House... yea, abuse to follow...

Thanks, Tokhuah!

Overall love the cycle! Harry and Safe House are very nice. I'm a little disappointed with Yog in this pack, and with serpents - hopefully there will be more serpent characters down the line, and they won't abandon the trait with just 3 characters...

Tokhuah said:

You could also use 'The Locked Door' and not care about some of your characters being in danger of getting insane or killed, since you'll win it by having the investigation edge.

The least useful is probably 'The Painted Corpse', since winning Arcane struggles doesn't usually win the story or game for you, unless you use additional cards to improve its effects in some way (Struggling Artist, Shadow Sorceress, Stealing the Glory, etc.).

Great point on Feeding Frenzy...naturally you would have to put that into any Cthulhu deck, I'd think .... 3x - because its so powerful.

Like you noted, surprise factor is a big plus, and the ability to use it, even when your OWN guy has been wounded and killed (send some flunky like a Silver Twilight Temptress or something - use her to drag in a valuable enemy character you want to hit with the Frenzy) .... is really powerful. Lose flunky card, kill off any // all enemy at the story. Wow.

I was thinking about Safe House mixed with some of the upcoming Silver Twilight character sacrifice cards. Just dreaming...

Any thoughts on Investigators concerns over the Safe House - Itinerant Scholar (Domain Drain Combo Decks of Doom) - concept possibly being revived in LCG-era, to its detriment ?

Rosh87 said:

It's something to watch, for sure. It's quite unpredictable how it shifts the meta, and how disruptable the combo is.

Yeah, I only ask because of how deadly the Birds - Steps - Endless Int. became an extremely powerful (hard to disrupt) combo using all relatively cheap cards and enabling the person who drew the cards to generally win (if they get to go first) - with something like an 80% rate (way too high/predictable).

I was not aware of this game in the "Dark Days" of the end-of-CCG era, when the unholy Ithaqua, the Killing Cold - was terrorizing people as the key part of that super Domain-Drain-of-Doom combo deck (featured in that 2008 (?) Championship Game YouTube video I found and posted here some weeks ago - which generated a huge amount of discussion, if memory serves).

I just fear (innately, even though I never experienced it directly) the return of this mechanic, if it is really as bad / non-fun / game-ending / hard to defeat - as everyone who played back then was suggesting . . .

We are working on getting this combo to work reliably. Not in a: "let's make decks that people will hate to play" kind of way... More like a couple of mad scientists wanting to create life and death in the same vial...

For the sake of humanity I hope our experiments fail to achieve the desired result...

Tokuah said:

For the sake of humanity I hope our experiments fail to achieve the desired result...

- I'm sure some of Lovecraft's scientist-characters uttered (or surely thought) the same things too !

IS+SH only seriously hampers decks that rely on building up one domain. It stops Ancient One ranching, except by some Yog methods, and rolls over against the best decks (like Hastur+Agency). Also, MU+Syndicate is generally a weak faction combo. IMO, unless cards are introduced to ramp it up this combo is T2 at best.

I was thinking about how to make this combo work ....and couldn't come up with a reliable way. Maybe I was mistaken.

Basically...the sticking point was that the Itinerant Scholar (when returned to hand thanks to Safe House) .....cost too much to continually put back into play multiple times in one turn.

So...assume you started with the key cards in your hands (thanks to Mulligan Rule and a good 2nd draw of cards)..... you would have Safe House....and Itinerant Scholar. Okay.

Turn-1 you could put out Intinerant (and hope enemy doesn't kill him off with Sac-offerings or something similiar, right away).

Turn-2 you put out Safe House. This costs 3, meaning it uses up your 3-Resource'd Domain. It comes out. Now what ?

You wait till your opponents turn...he has his Refresh Phase - and then you immediately announce you have actions you wish to play....if he does not (likely not) - you announce you are Sacrificing your I-Scholar. You place him in your discard pile, and move the Drain Token from the Domain you used to play Safe House onto one of your opponent's Domains. Okay. Now what ? You still have two enemy Domains to try and lock down.

You announce another action ....and pay 1 to return the I-Scholar from your Discard Pile, to your hand.

But the problem is ...you cannot legally play Characters during your opponents turn (barring certain special exceptions like Dreamlands Fanatic, or Eibon, etc)....until your Ops Phase comes around again !

So how do you continue the combo to finish off draining the other two Domains the enemy has open ?

I don't think you can....unless I am totally ignoring something obvious about when you would play this or what other elements you would include ? ?

Only way I can see it working is if you had THREE I-Scholars in play all at once....then Sac'd one...moved drain token to enemy Domain....paid 1....then returned to hand....sac'd the second, returned to hand with Safe House (again) ...and then Sac'd a third....finally draining all three enemy Domains.

But to get all three in play is highly unlikely // difficult, no ? Again...maybe I'm just missing something really obvious .... ?

You are not missing anything significant. All you get out of the combo is a lock on your opponent's biggest domain. Great for stopping Ancient Ones but not so hot vs. more flexible flat resource builds (as mentioned above). I still think it is worth while to pay attention to any possible additions to the combo that may pop up in future expansions. For now this combo is not something to be overly worked up about...

We need the killing cold !!! (Just joking, hope those days are gone forever).

He did look cool, from the pictures I saw. I would hope they reproduce him, but just don't give him that goofy ability that makes him so exploitable.

I'd do something like:

Cost-5 (Yog-Sothoth)

2-Combat, 1-Arcane, 1-Terror

Toughness+3

Action: Pay-2 and Exhaust Ithaqua, the Killing Cold, to exhaust any single character or support card.

Tokhuah said:

Hi,

I actually see it a bit more terrible than this.

For example,, you have 2 domains with 1 resource and 1 with 4 resources. It's your turn and you have messenger and safe house on the table.

Opponent has 2 empty domains to use with Paul Lemond (of course no removal .... too bad ).

So you play something worth 4, sac messenger and free your 4 domain, pay 1 to get back messanger and then play another something worth 4, then again lock another opponents domain and pay one to get back messenger then again play something worth 4. End result is that you blocked all possible defensive play of opponent and acted as if you had 3 domains size 4. Is this right or am I missing something ?

Of course this is nothing compared to infamous lock deck but still quite an advantage IMHO. Now a Miskatonic/syndicate deck can even make it, for once !!!

Theoretically it sounds good but what will the actual deck look like? What awsome tech will MU+Syndicate bring to the table paying 4 that will not be overrun if you cannot get the combo off or if it gets thwarted along the way by wounding, insanity, or other disrupts? It seems fun but it is not relaible enough to be dangerous to the environment. Cards like Intruders From Beyond are much more dangerous to the environment... more on that later...

Actually, Msommi's example would need both lesser Domains with 2-Resources on each to work as he was saying, but other than that - it might be okay.

Here's the one way I can think this would have to play out for you to pull this off in any reliable way and make it useful / annoying to your opponent.

First, make sure you have 3-each of I-Scholar and Safe House (obviously) - since they are the combo elements. Also, use your Mulligan "re-draw" on opening turn, any time you do NOT have at least 1-each of I-Scholar // Safe House in the starting hand. Resource as appropriate (at least 1 Domain with a Syndicate and another with Miskatonic resources).

Try to win 1st Turn roll / coin flip / etc- this is luck, of course, but if you get the choice, opt to go first.

Your Turn 1: Resource once, giving you 1-Domain with 2, and use this to play I-Scholar. * note this whole strategy fails quickly to an enemy Destruction deck - like Cthulhu or Agency, since they can easily play a Sac-Offerings or Shotgun blast at the end of your turn - or as soon as you play I-Scholar, to kill him off and totally mess up your combo plans *

Your Turn-2: Assuming enemy doesn't mess with I-Scholar in any way in their turn, resource again, making 1-Domain with 3-resources, and use this to play Safe House (3-cost Syndicate card).

Now...technically you could "start" the combo here...by sacking I-Scholar...and paying 1-from Safe House to bring him back to your hand....but this does little for you, since even though you can keep playing I-Scholar using the "undrained" 3-cost domain from the inital sacrificing.....you will end up (if you do it to the fullest extent you can) - with all your Domains drained...all of your opponents Domains drained....and I-Scholar back in your hand. The reason this does not help you, is that the opponent gets to Refresh everything right away on their turn...and you are "tapped out" with no Domains able to be used for anything during their turn. So, generally, you will have to wait.

The one thing you could START to do to be "annoying" would be to wait until your opponent's Refresh Phase (happens at the very start of their turn, when they take off any Drain Tokens they may have on their Domains, and refresh any exhausted/insane characters)...and at the end of the Refresh Phase, but before they get to their Draw Phase (or later) - immediately announce you have an Action to play....and sack I-Scholar.... moving the Drain Token you had on your 3-cost Domain over to the opponents biggest Domain (likely a 2-cost one, if you got to go first and they resourced once on their Turn-1)....then pay-1 (using one of your 1-resource Domains that are still open) - to activate Safe House's ability and bring I-Scholar back into your hand.

This is pretty annoying for the opponent, since you have an open 3-Domain and another open 1-Domain (assuming you didn't play another Syndicate or Miska character with it on your turn // you should at LEAST have the 3-Domain from having just used the I-Scholar's ability, so that's at least something). More importantly, you've knocked out your opponent's "big Domain" right away. Even if they resourced to it....the Drain Token remains....meaning they get no benefit out of it. This is fairly disruptive, since they may have had a 3-cost character or card of their own they wanted to play right then, and now they can't. The most they can do is resource to another 1-resource Domain.....giving them 2 (Drained) - 2 (just resourced) - 1 (starting resource) - for their current Resource Allocation.

This also means they have less general resources to work with, limiting Rush decks to some extent.

Your Turn 3: Again, assuming I-Scholar has survived, and you have nothing else to spend your resources on (questionable - maybe you want to play Intimidate or Low Blow or something to remove a blocker to a story ?) .... you would resource again, to one of your 1-res. Domains, boosting it up to 2. Your resource situation would look like 3 - 2 - 1, then. With this you could now drain all your opponent's Domains (again) - and have some open ones for you left over .......the issue is "how does this help me in the opponent's turn though ?".

This is the part I'm left scratching my head at, though. What we need (to truly "Break" this Combo//Concept) is some card that allows you to play characters from your hand, as an Action - even if it makes them go to Discard or back into your hand at the end of the phase, etc. etc. Ideally, if we had such a card, we could wait till opponent Refreshes......then Sack the I-Scholar once....knocking out 1 enemy Domain....and paying 1 to bring him back to our hand. Then using the "play a character from hand, as an Action" - (imaginary card) - and put I-Scholar back into play..... then sack him again...etc. etc. - repeat till all 3 enemy Domains are drained.

That would duplicate the dreaded Ithaqua, "Drain Domain of Doom" deck that dominated the CCG in its final months, from what I heard.

Until we have such a card (and if one exists, can someone point me to it - maybe I'm just not thinking of something obious that could be used for this ?) ....the only way the "full Combo" can be duplicated is if you manage to get 2-3 I-Scholars into play at once.

With 2 you could wait till your opponent's turn, then Sac / Buy Back with Safe House - both of them - to knock out your opponents biggest and second-biggest Domains - leaving them only one to do anything with on their turn ...and if they do use it ...they have nothing left to oppose you on your next attacking turn.

With 3 you would utterly repeat the "Full Lock" of the Ithaqua decks....but, again, what are the chances you will be able to consistently get all 3 I-Scholars into your hands during each game you play, and get them into play, all without your opponent killing them off with any of his cards / events / effects ?

One thing I can think of that would increase your chances of getting the combo off earlier....would be to splice in Yog-Sothoth for the Doppelganger card. 3 of these, plus 3 I-Scholars, would effectively double your chances of getting the "Lock" to work sooner. However, it's important to note that when the card the Doppel copies leaves play, you have to return the Doppel to your hand...so if you played I-Scholar...then played Doppel, copying I-Scholar......then sacked I-Scholar..... the Doppel would come back to your hand before you could use "its" copied ability.

The only way to make this work would be to sack the Doppel *FIRST* - and then pay 1 with Safe House to bring him back to your hand. THEN sack the I-Scholar.....to drain another enemy domain // undrain one of your own.

Ultimately, though....you still (for the most part) need some card that allows you to play characters directly from your hand - so you can use the Lock in your opponents turn (more than once) - without needing to have 2-3 I-Scholars in play.

Sorry for the length, but I felt inspired and wanted to lay out some useful ideas or ways of making this function that I'd thought up. Comments or other cards I may not be thinking of are appreciated !

Examining the Optic Nerve
-
Type: Event
Cost: 1
Game Text: Action: Choose a Mi-Go character. That character gains until the end of the phase.
F115

.... Why does this card exsist? Who was this card designed for? I can't even see Mi-Go devotees using this...

The "suprise" factor is absolutely underwhelming and is hardly a suprise even to people brand new to card games (after they see it once).

With so few cards per pack I can't see a good reason to include something like this. Even most bad cards are at least somewhat interesting to someone on some level, but this is just utter junk. Hell, there are even a good amount of bad cards that you can justify (lol) by saying that maybe some day down the line it could be good if it gets a few other support cards. This thing? Not a chance.

I'm actually a little angry that this was believed to be a good idea to include in a pack, I'm gonna end up paying for it, and that it has to dishonor my collection. Heh, theres some actualy anger brewing there. (grr)

Seriously, how is this even remotely acceptable? Maybe I'm missing something, I dare someone to justify this card's exsistance. In fact I'd go so far as to challenege whoever is responsible for this card to explain to me why this card is being printed.

Sorry that my first post in a good while is rather negative. Normally I'd try to hold this stuff back, but for whatever reason I found this to be rather irksome.

... Maybe the art is just mindblowing. Ya no, thats no excuse for how bad this card is.

Well, I'm off. Happy Holidays to everyone and hopefully I can find some time to post on some more positive things.