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Thanks a lot

Can't wait for Unspeakable Research. Great card.

Thanks Hellfury, you rock!

Is there a release date on this? I ask because if it comes out prior to GenCon it could be the most environment twisting AP to ever infect the meta game... Some comments about specific cards:

Shadow Team: I am starting to think FFG design really wants Agency to have a long term lock on driving the meta. This card should either cost more or have a limit to the debuff effect based on cost, skill, or even Ancient-One for crying out loud. This is yet another ridiculously overpowered Agency card that is not only good on it's own merits, but also sets up some great combos with the faction's synergy. UGH!

Gun Runner's Club: Interesting change from previously needing to have exactly 3 cards to simply requiring less cards than the opponent. For me the card is much more playable in the new form becasue of the way I play Syndicate, cheap and fast. I wonder how other Sy players will feel about it...

The Sleeper Awakens! From strictly a power gamer perspective I wish this card was around for Regionals. A few locals and Hellfury should know what sort of deck I am talking about. The Sleeper Awakens will have an effect on CoC meta similar to the movie "Than Hangover". Which character will you be in the equation?

Alter of Madness: This card has been nerfed so bad that the new version is hardly recognizable. It costs 1 more, it now has "minimum of 1" text, and it only works on Events. I was concerned about this card in the old form but it seems like it has been brought into line. @ Design: good job on this one, so... what happened with the Agency card that it did not get the same consideration?

Revelation of the Spheres: This card was appropriately fixed by changing it from searching the deck to top 5 cards. Since it costs 4 and is no sure thing it is not so much overpowered as it makes for excellent meta vs. any sort of Ancient One and/or big baddie ranching deck. Seriously, if you dare run a deck that calls up GOO's you may be in for a horrific reprisal with this card around.

Dreamland Messenger: Now that it locks down all actions instead of only opponent's and it no longer has Investigate it is not so over the top. Still, this is a very strong card for a faction that lives on muscling over opponent's over using tricks. One pet peeve about the card, assuming it is worded correctly in the spoiler, it seems to lock down the entire board, not just the story it is committed too. IMO this is a fairly uber card despite being toned down a bit.

I have no idea about when it is released other than what FFG has listed on their site about Q3 this year. I was joking with Jim Black today during the regional preliminaries about wanting to cut them out and stick some of those cards in my deck since all players have access to them.

I can say with some confidence that the new Mountains of Madness and Ancient Horrors will be released sometime this week. So the ball is now rolling for the Forgotten Lore cycle.

@ Shadow Team: I am certain FFG are more aware of the problem of Agency/Hastur superiority even after some cards wer nerfed throgh errata and restriction now more than ever. I have great faith in the future of CoC design based on what little I have heard from Damon Stone. I am pretty sure that the Ancient Relics cycle is all Damon's, and am not sure what level of involvement if any he had with the retconned and newly named Forgotten Lore cycle. If you recall last year after Arkham Nights, James Hata remarked when asked about the status of Mountains of Madness and Ancient Horrors that "they had something different in mind for those". Because of this, I am led to beleive that this was James' project at least in part.

@ Sleeper awakens: Yeah, after the games today all I can say to this is ouch.

Tokhuah said:

When trying to build four comparably good decks with the black-border cards I had to remove the Shadow Team because it was so overwhelmingly good!

Dreamland Messenger should be fine, though. It's still an incredibly good card, but there are sufficient ways to deal with it.