Title says it all. After two people saying thy didn't see Yog in the bottom three I wondered where everyone else saw the factions in reltion to each other as single faction decks. Here is how I see it.
Prior to adding STL, I had seven mono-faction decks. When I added STL, turned them into eight dual-faction decks. During the mono-stage, each deck saw 30 plays:
Agency: 18-12
Miskatonic: 14-16
Cthulhu: 16-14
Syndicate: 21-9
Hastur: 12-18
Yog-Sothoth 10-20
Shub-Niggurath: 14-16
Penfold said:
Title says it all. After two people saying thy didn't see Yog in the bottom three I wondered where everyone else saw the factions in reltion to each other as single faction decks. Here is how I see it.
Am I allowed to include neutral cards when considering a 'mono' deck or are we speaking stricly in-faction? And what about cards that I don't have to pay for? Ie. Snow graves, Dreamlands Fanatic, Deep One Assault, etc..
Magnus Arcanis said:
Am I allowed to include neutral cards when considering a 'mono' deck or are we speaking stricly in-faction? And what about cards that I don't have to pay for? Ie. Snow graves, Dreamlands Fanatic, Deep One Assault, etc..
My vote is that for the purposes of this game/exercise, no. Every card in the imaginary deck should be in-faction.
Penfold said:
I rate them differently, but only slightly changing places of a few factions around. I will list them overall, but I think I agree with penfold in general, broad terms and think the difference in our opinions differs only slightly. For example, I think Agency is a bit more powerful than Shub as a mono faction, but only barely so. I also count Neutral as its own faction.
I could easily switch the placing up or down one place for each faction depending on the decktype being built and what faction that deck is playing against.
Penfold said:
Title says it all. After two people saying thy didn't see Yog in the bottom three I wondered where everyone else saw the factions in reltion to each other as single faction decks. Here is how I see it.
I think there can be no question that Cthulhu is best suited to being played mono. Agency can also stand on its own pretty well.
Shub, Silver Twilight, and Yog are clearly a step behind. Shub doesn't do much that other factions cannot also do; they're most notable for support destruction. Silver Twilight and Yog are very, very specialized; Their focus is too narrow to work consistently well mono. If I'm allowed to ignore Snow Graves, Yog rates higher, though, since they require recursion to work.
The last three don't work well mono and will require an excellent player and a bit of luck to win.
But really every faction becomes better when paired with (at least) a second faction.
Neutral cards are of no faction. Wht I'm looking at is the ability to make a deck that has no other faction in it, and is vastly centered around the cards in the chosen faction... say no more than 10% neutral cards.
Actually that would be an interesting "tournament" to have just to see what is possible. I think we all agree Cthulhu is probably on top. Too much terror, combat, and targeted destruction for pretty much any other faction to be able to deal with. But how would the other decks shake out? When Snow Graves can only be played in house does Yog-Sothoth jump up a spot?
Interesting questions. Damon seems to be doing a good job of creating interesting cards that really take the play up a notch (and I'm not talking about power level, just cards that seem to make decks better and more interesting to play with), I am curious if he is looking at addressing faction balance. The restricted list and banned cards have certainly left the overall game balance the best it has been during the LCG IMO.
I've always considered it to still be a mono-faction deck if there are a few Neutral cards in it. Zero cost cards or self-playing cards like Dreamlands Fanatic blur the line a little more, I can go either way on these.
I'm also surprised to see several people rating Hastur fairly high, personally I've had trouble with mono-Hastur decks. I rate Shub and Syndicate a little better too. If Snow Graves were not allowed (or only allowed in Yog decks) that would certainly give Yog a boost, perhaps putting them tied with Silver Twilight.
1. Cthulhu
2-3. Agency/Shub (I'd say about a tie)
4. Silver Twilight
5. Yog Sothoth
6. Syndicate
7. Hastur
8. Miskatonic
Ok, without any neutral and only in-house cards I'm gonna go with...
1. Cthulhu
2. Shub
3. Yog
4. Agency
5. Hatsur
6. Syndicate
7. Silver Twilight
8. Miskatonic
With a few neutrals allowed.
1. Cthulhu
2. Hatsur
3. Yog
4. Agency
5. Shub
6. Syndicate
7. Silver Twilight
8. Miskatonic
With free out-of-faction cards and neutrals allowed.
1. Cthulhu
2. Hatsur
3. Agency
4. Shub
5. Silver Twilight
6. Yog
7. Syndicate
8. Miskatonic
... Give or take.
