So I was talking with a player and he asked me what I thought about Yog. What do they do? What are they good at? I know they do discard pile and deck manipulation but I'm not really sure what else is really their strong suit these days. With Miskatonic and Syndicate I think they are in the bottom three of the factions. I know they have some spells and cultists... but what kinds of decks are people finding success with? What do you think they need to pull them out of that bottom three? Or do I have it wrong? Maybe they aren't in the bottom three and instead are somewhere else? They may be one of the more difficult factions to play, requiring good deck building and piloting skills, but on top of that I think they lack some level of cohesion that really makes them a credible threat in mono play.

Thoughts?

Penfold said:

I think Yog is the most "johnny" of the deck archetypes. Lots of stuff to do with Yog, yet doing none of it well. It does indeed take careful deckbuilding to make it viable, especially in mono builds.

The best decks I have built around Yog deal with deck manipulation of your and your opponents decks. To pput it on par with other successful mono builds? Hard to answer but I do think that some other powerful mono decks such as Cthulhu should have the restraints pulled on it a bit rather than giving Yog uber stuff to deal with it.

I do not think Yog is in the bottom 3, but I also doubt it is anywhere near tier 1 tech as well.

I think the their lack of cohesion in readily recognizable direction indicates that FFG have not intended Yog to perform well in mono builds and is there as a support role for other factions. I would not mind this, but other mono builds were so powerful as to make me yearn to compete on the same level in mono.

Besides the already mentioned recursion and discard, I find Yog to have a lot of good Event cards and fairly good characters. They aren't necessarily earth-shaking, but you can get a really nice mix of icons with Yog and good skill as well. They also have a lot of Sacrifice stuff which makes them good at getting rid of Ancient Ones that can be hard for other factions to deal with.

Yes, they do make a great faction alongside something else - I currently have a Cthulhu/Yog and a Hastur/Yog deck made up. I've run them solo in the past from time to time as well, generally with some sort of Cultist theme, and I am also a Glaaki fan.

In my mind they're somewhere in the middle. Not a bottom faction, not a top faction, but pretty decent.

Yog, as a faction, may not be terribly strong, but it's one of the most fun factions to play. I like making my opponent choose which character to sacrifice with Initiation of Glaaki, A Single Glimpse, and Many-Angled Thing. Stalking Hound is one of my favorite cards altogether. Things in the Ground is incredibly awesome IMO. Glaaki is a BAMF AO and I try to include him in every Yog deck I construct.

Like everyone else has said previously though, is that Yog doesn't seem to have one uniform focus. While I would personally like to see a Gug resurgence, Yog really does need a little bit more focus no matter what that focus is.

It is one of the most fun... but I like puzzles. I would never for a second consider playing a straight Yog deck in a tournament though. I mean not if I wanted to win. Nor would I play Miskatonic or Syndicate, for the exact same reasons. Mono Agency... maybe Mono Cthulhu, definitely.

I like that it is easy to play dual faction decks in this game, but I dislike the idea that I must play dual faction or Cthulhu if I want to win in a tournament.

Yog seems to have some very strong cards but strongest cards are discard pile related (Speak to the Dead is amazing). Any deck can make many cards almost useless for Yog with Snow Graves. I wouldn't feel comfortable playing strong Yog cards when knowing Snow Graves exists. I could have something against Snow Graves but I feel it takes too much effort, better just not play or play very few discard pile related cards. But Yog has some ok splash cards like Doppelgänger, Blood Magician and Cursed Skull.

seams to be a good set of discard effects in yog to keep the other players board clean of threats.