Hi guys,

I know what the answer is going to be… I just don't like it ;D

I keep finding cards where a character "goes insane" that, when played upon a character with Terror icons or Willpower, become surprisingly powerful! I think this makes them unfair. Two examples:

• Stygian Eye: Attach to a non- Ancient One character. Take control of attached character.
  After Stygian Eye leaves play, shuffle it into its owner's deck.
  Forced Response: After attached character is readied, it goes insane.

When played upon a character with (T) or Willpower, it gives you permanent control (for only cost 2!).

• Apeirophobia: Action: Choose a non- Ancient One character. That character's controller chooses to either have that character to go insane or discards X cards from his hand. X is the skill of the chosen character.

When played upon a character with (T) or Willpower, the player doesn't get to choose at all, but is forced to discard probably his whole hand (again, for only cost 2).

My sense of justice thinks that these cases where a character goes insane by a card effect should overrule the Terror-Willpower. But I haven't found anything in the rules to support this :-(

What do you guys think?

Stygnian is strong, but i think Hastur needs strong cards to stay competitive. Cost 2 is a bit worrying, as i dont want too much power creep, but in my games stygnian didnt dominate, and this drive insane i see as a minor drawback that doesnt let you controll no T/willpower characters effectively rather than normal use.

Apeirophobia seems way to strong though. There are not many cards that can be played just after opponents draw phase… and this one can… Being cheap and powerfull is worrying, but not as much as a thought of discard recycling with lets say big man and keeping opponent on 0 cards whole game long with no way to counter it…

that coin of course works 2 ways.

think what happens when you play lethargic miasma on an exhausted (T) / willpower with stygian attached, when the only way to remove it (beyond support destructions / killing character) is driving the character insane = one trapped stygian.

i've found Yog to be very good at some anti - hastur hi-jinks. sentinel hill is another one great at reducing the effectiveness of hastur control cards. not ideal, but definately better than the alternative.

apierophobia is a bit harder to counter, but i've just made it so my decks are a mix of high skill / low skill characters where i resource one and play the other depending on which faction i'm up against. eg. shub with ghoulish predator and degenerate ghoul / black dog.