Talking 'bout Tartarus

By dboeren1, in CoC General Discussion

Hadn't seen any discussion of this pack yet, I think the holiday slowdown is still in effect... Anyway, here's a novice's view of some of the cards.

Agency:
Phoebe Kotas looks quite nice. A 2-cost with Investigation that doesn't exhaust means that as long as she has backup she can be earning success tokens on both players turns. Lovely... Alexander Pallas may be able to attack/defend as well if you can arrange for someone to be destroyed, which isn't that hard for Agency (being specialists in that area). Not so convinced by Timely Intervention. It has a good effect of preventing Events, but guessing when to use it is tricky.

Miskatonic:
Archaeology Interns gives you some card advantage, although they don't do a lot else. Not bad, but it's the Mask of Sthenelus that's the real winner. Willpower and Invulnerability is fantastic for a faction of fraidy-wimps, neutralizing some of their biggest weaknesses. Plus it's a Relic so it comes back. I think we'll be seeing this card a fair bit.

Silver Twilight:
We knew about Mast of the Myths already, but he still looks handy. Vacant Servant is a support that grants AA and if you win an A struggle can be sacrificed to refresh a domain - more of the general trickiness that the Lodge is known for so he'll play into some combos.

Syndicate:
Sons of Hermes are a 5 cost character so they'd better deliver the goods. 4 icons and 5 skill is about normal, and a somewhat useful ability. Pay 1 and exhaust one Criminal to ready another Criminal. It's a little pricy, but can be pretty handy. Need to try them out, but I have a hard time justifying ANYTHING that expensive in a Syndicate deck. Fortifying Ouzo looks good to me. 0 cost support, grants Willpower and C, plus you can move it around for a price. I like it.

Neutral:
Only one this time around, The Red Threshold. You have to succeed at a story without losing any struggles, then you can return a character to your hand to resolve a story effect from any won story (from any player). Pricy at cost 3, not sure if this will turn up a lot but maybe Silver Twilight will find it useful.

Cthulhu:
The Cult of Bathos is a nice cheap character and Deep One accelerator, they're going straight into my Deep Ones deck I think. Besides, Cthulhu can always use a 1-cost character and this one comes with Combat too. Nice card. We've seen the discussed Scylla's Well already, but it looks like another strong one.

Hastur:
Spirit of Minds is a trap. If you win the story, everyone there goes insane. Commit him, and your opponent will wonder what Events you might be holding and whether he can risk fighting you for the story. But my real favorite is the Stygian Eye. I wonder what happened that made it go into this pack, because it's the eyeball w/ three hands that's on the cover of last month's box. There must be some sort of story there but whatever... You attack it to a non-AO character and take control of them. Keep them as long as you like, but once you Ready them they go insane. The Eye falls off and being a Relic goes back into your deck to ensnare its next victim. Awesome.

Shub:
Two cards this time. We know the Mi-Go Skull. Cool card, turns anyone into a Mi-Go and grants T to all Mi-Go. I think this may mark the point at which Mi-Go themed decks are viable, we've got enough stuff with the keyword now. Will have to try making one soon. The other is Child of Argus, a 3 cost Monster with TC and 1 skill. Kind of weak on stats, but when he leaves play you can search the top 3 cards of your deck for a character and put it in your hand. Not bad there.

Yog:
Pawn Broker is the creepy little guy from one of the Elder Sign adventures, looks like an evil midget carnie to me. Well, now he's a 2-cost character with TA. His ability is to pay 1 and discard to draw a card. So, get rid of your old useless stuff for something new and different - exactly what you'd expect from a Pawn Broker I suppose. I may have to learn to love his creepy mug. Breaking the Ward attaches to an enemy support card. When they use it, you can lose a card from the top of your deck to copy its use for yourself. Sweet! I need to figure out exactly how this works with the Khopesh. Finally we have Ritual of Bellephar, one of the cards that's been previewed. Still looks potentially useful with the low cost but more of a late-game card to get best effect out of it. If you're running a discard deck, you probably want it.

These cards are pretty awesome.

Red Threshold is an awesome surprise card with the current story cards.

Yeah, it seems like a really meaty pack, just about everything looks useful. Job well done on the designers I'd say. I can't wait to see what's in Monolith...

dboeren said:

Neutral:
Only one this time around, The Red Threshold. You have to succeed at a story without losing any struggles, then you can return a character to your hand to resolve a story effect from any won story (from any player). Pricy at cost 3, not sure if this will turn up a lot but maybe Silver Twilight will find it useful.

Excellent idea. I am really loving this set. I have to admit that Khopesh seemed much scarier when I first played against it than I thought it was going to be. Then I made deck adjustments and now it is just one more thing to take into account.

I've had the same experience with 'Kopesh', effective but not a game breaker. Since Dreamlands I feel this game has really got on track.

Agency

I wish Kotas had a C icon that would make her a more effective defender. Pallas is decent and Timely is subpar.

M.U.

The big winner! Arch Interns are better than Focused Art Student and the Mask is much needed and flavored perfectly!

ST

Myth guy seems okay but Vacant Servant not so much.

Syndicate

Sons don't make the cut but the Ouzo is tasty!

N

Red Threshold is for me too situational even with with the improved stories.

Cthulhu

Bathos is very nice and the Well so so.

Hastur

Spirit gathers dust but the Eye is sweet! Overall these Relics have taken Supports to another level.

Shub

Skull is a nice addition but Child is lackluster.

Yog

Broker is very nice for 2 cost and Bellephar is helping push discard to the brink!

Penfold said:

Excellent idea. I am really loving this set. I have to admit that Khopesh seemed much scarier when I first played against it than I thought it was going to be. Then I made deck adjustments and now it is just one more thing to take into account.