Hiya! A dorky student of mine (middle school girl) likes Cthulhu and is aware of pokemon (of course). I told her "you know... there's a card game based off of Cthulhu" and she almost screamed in excitement.

Any recommendations on a cheap and easy source for some of the old premium starters? I think a small easily undetectable item like that would make a better gift than the larger core set... Anyone have a source to get some of the premium starters (I presume I'd want those and not the arkham staters, as those advertise that they've 40 fixed and 20 random: Don't want to be leaving her with unplayable cards...).

Thanks.

Email me at alexander n james AT gmail Dot com if you've a lead.

Undetectable? Do you mean "concealable" or something - like you can slip it in your pocket and she won't know you're carrying it?

Well, you can keep an eye out on eBay, or you can look at various online stores. Trollandtoad has some, as do many others. Just search for "cthulhu premium starter" and you'll find them. Heck, even Amazon has them listed through some partners.

One thing you should be aware of though is that many of the old cards are no longer legal. Here's the deal...

At one time, Call of Cthulhu was a CCG (collectable card game). Some years ago, Fantasy Flight relaunched as what they call a LCG (Living Card Game), the main difference being that it is no longer randomly packaged. When you buy a Core set or an Asylum Pack you know ahead of time exactly what cards you're getting so you never have to waste money chasing Rare cards or wondering if you'll get anything useful out of that booster. Much friendlier IMHO.

Now, this creates a problem though. The CCG model is based on intentionally unbalanced cards. If Rare cards aren't more powerful, where would be the incentive to spend money chasing them? With rarity done away with, you want a more balanced set of cards to make the game more fair and allow for many different deck strategies to be viable. So, many of the CCG-era cards were dropped or modified and are no longer legal in the new LCG format.

I wanted to explain this so you can understand the tradeoffs of each approach. If you get an old premium starter from the CCG days it'll be cheaper, but if she gets into the game and wants to start playing those cards will be kind of useless - she'll have to start over with a Core set probably. A small number of cards will still be legal, but not enough to make a deck, just a few. The Core set costs more but it also comes with a lot that the old starters didn't such as a folding game board, bigger color rulebook, and some Cthulhu statues she'll probably love. If you want something you can hide in a small package there's no problem - just take the cards out of the box and they'll be very small. You can give her that and then once she's done squealing with delight you can give here the bulky box with the other stuff in it.

But, it might end up being too expensive so either course is still viable - and she may not really have an easy time getting opponents among other kids her age. Some of the people here might have old starters they could sell you, just wait and see if anyone replies.

Hey, just had another idea... Common sets.

So in CCG's you end up with a lot of extra Common cards over time. They're sort of useless once you've got the maximum number of those cards, excess are no longer useful. So, people used to sell them fairly cheaply.

I've seen sets of Common (and sometimes Uncommon) cards still up on eBay for Call of Cthulhu and this would be another potential way to get something you can play for a moderate price. But - you're probably going to have to spend a little time/effort waiting to get enough cards at a good deal. Right now, there's nothing good listed, but I've seen them in the past and they're sure to turn up again if you keep an eye out.

vermillian said:

Looks like you are looking for an easy and straightforward answer to a very straightforward question.

The solution you seek is located at Dave and Adams card world.

Works out to $1.50 per starter deck. Or $3 to own both a mythos and investigator deck if you want one of each kind.

Except those things come with 20 random cards that won't have any use in that starter... right?

What ARE the rares in these things arkham starters?

Unless you think there will be a huge CoC tournament scene in your area I would not worry too much about the differences between the CCG and the LCG environments. I say spend a bit more money on something that does not include a bunch of random cards:

Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game: Eldritch Edition Premium Starter Set:

This container is not much bigger than 2 decks of cards and some of it was not reproduced in any other set (expansion). IMO this is the best stand alone and out of the box playable offering of CoC that FFG has ever produced. If she likes it enough to pursue the LCG then that can be another adventure.

The best place to purchase the CCG-era starters is at Dave and Adams card world - look nowhere else. My gaming group has been eating them up wholesale. I agree that the Eldritch Edition starter is a great set, but sadly they have sold out. DACardworld used to have a box of 10 Eldritch Edition starters for $9.99, which is insane. One thing to note is that the EE starter comes with 4 copies of some cards, which is no longer allowed under the current rules. That means some of the cards included in the premium starter are just useless spares.

On the bright side, they still have the Arkham Edition starters for a great price. For $14.95 you get 10 starter decks - 5 Investigator and 5 Mythos. These come with a solid assortment of fixed cards (around 27 per deck). Even with 20 random cards per deck (200 in total), you will have more than enough to make two solid decks, and it's far more economical than purchasing a single Eldritch Edition starter for roughly the same price somewhere else. Plus you'll end up with a more interesting selection of cards.

If you're really ambitious, I say go for the 6 booster-case box of EE for $31.95. That works out to $5.33 per box of 36 boosters. Crazy. To help offset the cost, go to retailmenot.com to find a $5 coupon off orders of $50 or more at DACardworld.

As the topic came up, a few notes about playing with black border cards, and mixing CCG and LCG era sets.

1. It's popular to say on the internet that the black border cards are more powerful than the white border cards. Don't believe it. There are plenty of powerhouse cards in both the CCG and LCG versions of the game. In our group the dominant player uses only white border cards while the rest of us mix and match. He's never lost at multi-player and routinely beats us one-on-one.

2. Just because a black border card is rare doesn't make it more powerful. The most beastly card I've come across from the EE set is probably Ghoul Khanum and its a common, as is Sebek's Chosen One which is another fabulous card. I also like the Sword of Ramasekva from the AE set, and its an uncommon. For my money, the uncommon characters from both AE and EE that haven't already been reprinted are probably the most desirable cards.

On a different note, I'm wondering if CoC cards make a good gift to a student? The theme and imagery is pretty mature for anyone below high school, definitley PG-13, and as a parent I would be concerned if an educator gave this game to my child. What age are we talking here?

If you buy the EE Premium Starter and play it like a stand alone game then the x3 rule does not matter. Keep it simple and play with the rules that come with the set, ignoring everything else.

If you play with CCG cards beyond that you will need to find the FAQ becasue there were a considerable number of cards that received major errata due to brokeness...

If you venture out into the LCG world you will at minimum need the Core set and a FAQ download/print.

IMO, as someone who has played this game from the start, just get the EE Premium Starter realizing it will exist only as a stand alone game, then see if there is enough interest to go further...

EDIT: I think I have one more old demo deck (sealed) from the CCG era. If you send me a PM with your Email we could work it out so I could mail it to you for the price of shipping. I do not remeber exactly what is in it but the decks were functional in that I used these for demo purposes back in the day when I was a "Servitor" for FFG.

And you are right about the age appropriate concerns. I have considered not giving this out at all, and if I do, a single copy of some random beast that has few if any phallic pustules or perhaps a great old one or an investigator. And perhaps a rule book and say "look it up yourself!". She attends Origins game fair every year, so its safe to bet that her parents are acceptable of the themes and images of most games (she's worn a cthulhu t shirt before) but that the school district might not be.

Mulling it over... will seek guidance from administrators.