Good point on characters or supports with struggle icons getting a boost from this. Shaping the icon struggle should be a more viable strategy given greater diversity in Conspiracy cards. There seems to be more focus on the Combat and Terror struggles in most decks, so Combing the Archives will create headaches for players who don't include some struggle icons in their decks.

Dr. Bartlett certainly gets a boost as well, but the card that will really be coming into its own is Ol' Lazy Eyes. Very powerful in combination with Into the Woods or Combing the Archives (but also Endless Investigation, and possibly others).

Also, could be some interesting possibilities with Conspiracy Theorist, although the difficult is keeping him alive against the plentiful destruction effects floating around right now.

conspiracy theorist / disc of itzamna

and i think we'll see the ol' statue of y'ha-nthlei getting dusted off again too, and seeing as dragged into the deep might be able to remove conspiracies (still waiting on judgement for that one), cthulhu will of course (yawn) be the deck to beat miskatonic. why oh why FFG??

COCLCG said:

OK, something like Combing the Archives / Conspiracy Theorist / Disc of Itzamna could be amazing against players who are short on support removal. Granted, that does not include most tournament decks, but in casual play I suspect it could work wonders.

With respect to the Statue, I think players who have any hope of being competitive should keep its existence in mind. Too many 1's and 0's are a Statue disaster waiting to happen, so another part of deck-building going forward will be keeping a mix of skill levels. That isn't exactly new, as there are plenty of flood-control cards out there already like Catastrophic Explosion and The Oubliettes.

I like the new conspiracy, but I am always a bit weary with them. If you aren't careful your opponent might steal it out from under you with a couple of removal cards and a Descendant.

If you play MU rush deck you have to accept those risks and try to nail the early stories. From my perspective its about getting investigation icons to investigation struggles until opponent locks that down then try alternative game enders like Surreals Jamburg/Open for Inspection. Hopefully for the MU there will be a card to buff scientists. Hopefully something like Anthropology Advisor. Then Dr. Barlett, Lab Assistant, Dr Carson become more important. My preference would be +1 skill as suprisingly MU can be light on for skill.

I could be wrong but I thought "destroyed" was just a generic term meaning when something goes to the discard pile? If this is true when you have to sacrifice a character that character is getting "destroyed" right?

kamacausey said:

From the FAQ:

(2.26) Sacrifice, Destroy, Discard from Play

“Sacrifice”, “Destroy” and “Discard from Play” are not interchangeable terms. Thus, a card that is “destroyed” is not considered to be “sacrificed,” and vice versa.

That sucks. The infirmary isn't near as good as I thought it was.

kamacausey said:

No, I believe this is fairly clear in the rules: "destroyed" and "sacrificed" are mutually exclusive. That's mainly to limit players trying to trigger "when destroyed" effects by sacrificing their own characters. "Leaves play" is the generic term that covers both "destroyed" and "sacrificed".

Likewise, "played" means played through the regular mechanism of paying the relevant costs, while "put into play" means a character that is put directly into play from an effect; "enters play" is the generic term.

IANARL (I Am Not A Rules Lawyer), so corrections are welcome, but I am fairly confident that "destroyed" and "sacrificed" are exclusive.

kamacausey said:

Infirmary is a great card - it just doesn't synergize with sacrifice mechanics, which is fine, because MiskU doesn't have many of those anyway. Silver Twilight relies a lot more on sacrifice, but then, that's a whole different faction.

double - thought i used edit not post… my post below

Peaslee is really nice response for mass sacrifice and can create really crazy combos when you can sacrifice your own characters and bring them back with enters play activating.

The problem is:
- he costs 4 - might be too late
- no willpower/toughness - really easy to take him down
- if he is stopped by some cancel you're in big trouble, especially when you aimed for massive enters play and all your chars stay dead…
- you need to decide when is the last sacrifice played, so you can sacrifice him and pay 2; especially as you need to feel your opponent becouse two pass in a row means end of phase
[i dont know how strictly is it followed on turnaments, is it like "i pass", "i pass", "wait a second i wanted to do this additional effect in this phase", ok? / get lost? , especially with opponents story phase that can end sharply if active player doesn't commit you're never sure should you use your domains or save them to defend better]

Without khopesh they might have a chance, with shocking transformation into • James Logan (care heroic) with Patrol Wagon/Getaway Vehicle and Khopesh for a cost 3 card you get 4,5+ wounds = 4,5 miscatonic characters down. (i know support control can stop it a bit but talk about cost effectiveness) Even a lame toughness+1 char is still 3 wounds probably equal to 3 deaths… Even with infirmary its too much of a loss and it will take ages to bring them back on the table. Especially as miskatonic tends to be quite fragile to character losses and nice invoulnerable TCA monster wants to solo those stories anyway. IMO, there arent many chars that can work well on their own in MU. Barlett i guess… not much more that can deal with TC would be nice to have I and A to not give opponent free sucesses. Searching through card db Harry Houdini? Prof Morgan with power draw? Randolph Carter? oh, another protection: Thomas Olney… if they were cost 3 not 4 how nice would it be…

Maybe Professor of Folklore plus eldrich nexus would be enough to protect MU.

Or maybe its just me not knowing how to play MU or sth… i lost to MU/Syndicate/Shub/Agency power draw -> blank icons [Jamie Winthrop] deck having won 2 stories and 4 success on 3td one so nothing is impossible. I really hope competitive dacks will be that crazy and not all boring all destruction.

.Zephyr. said:

Yeah, my current tournament originally started being built around such a combo but in actual play it turned to out it was way too difficult to pull it off. Even with transient resources it either took too long to get Peaslee out _or_ he was removed from play one way or another before I could use him much. It only worked in about 1-2 games in 20.