With so many different decks at the Portland Regional Championship, I've decided to start a new thread on the various lists people brought.

I'm still waiting to hear back from everyone on whether or not I can post their deck info online, so I'll start out with my own. I'll continue to add more deck lists as I receive permission to do so.

By the way, I asked everyone to name their deck (something cool, thematic or just plain cornball) to make discussing them a bit easier.

First up, my 6th-ranked mono-Syndicate skill reduction deck titled NINJA SKILLS :

CHARACTERS (27)
x3 Clover Club Bouncer
x3 Clover Club Torch Singer
x3 Johnny V's Dame
x3 Tattoo Artist
x3 Elite Hit Squad
x3 •Marcus Jamburg
x3 •Mr. David Pan
x3 Fixer
x3 Hack Journalist

EVENTS (9)
x3 Feint
x3 Intimidate
x3 Tear Gas

SUPPORT (14)
x3 Bound and Gagged
x3 Parallel Universe
x3 Dutch Courage
x2 •O'Bannion's Ledger
x3 Ice Shaft

50 cards

Win or lose, this deck plays fast. Very fast. I stunned my first round opponent with a win in under 7 minutes. I equally stunned my second round opponent with a loss in the same amount of time.

The good news about playing such fast games - regardless of the outcome - is that I could then focus on judging and running the event. Being both a player and a Tournament Organizer is mentally and physically draining, and at times I found it difficult to focus on my matches. Still, I wouldn't change a thing. I had a great time, enjoyed talking with everyone between matches (though I'm sure they were tired of my non-stop chattering), and look forward to running more tournaments in the future.

A few more specifics:

I finished the 5 preliminary rounds with a record of 3-2, with 10 story cards won (our first tie break criteria). My 2 losses were to the player who would ultimately win the tournament, and another player who made it to the semifinals, so I take some solace in the fact that my spectacular burnouts were against some tough competition.

Oddly enough, in the 3rd round I played a mirror match, facing a mono-Syndicate deck very similar to my own. It was a race to see who could get their skill reduction and skill/icon swap machines running first, and I ended up on top. After that game we went through our decks and compared and contrasted which cards we had taken or left out.

On the whole, my deck was faster (cheaper characters, Johnny V's Dame) while his was more powerful (Nassor, John Pechon, and Friend of the Family). The one ace up my sleeve was Hack Journalist. I allowed my opponent to place 3 success tokens on a story card (with John Pechon and Mr. David Pan) that I had 2 success tokens on already, and then played Hack Journalist the following turn to win that story. After that, I was able to Ice Shaft Lo Pan and use Parallel Universe + a pair of Fixers to wrap up the game.

After the Swiss rounds, I was ranked 6th overall and made it to the quarterfinals where I was soundly beaten by my brother who was ranked 3rd. Here's the funny part of that story. The night before we stayed up way too late battling our decks. I must have won 10 games in a row (I didn't lose a single game to his deck), and he was getting seriously worried that his deck was fatally flawed. When I announced the quarterfinal match-ups, my bro looked like he had been sucker punched. Then he beat me in no time flat. While I would've loved to make it to the semis and won one of those awesome play mats, I couldn't have lost to a better guy. And it just goes to show, you never know what's going to happen.

Initial Draw:

For my opening hand I wanted to see Parallel Universe, Fixer and Tattoo Artist. The rest was gravy (usually an Ice Shaft, Tear Gas or Johnny V's Dame). However, if I didn't get those cards in my first draw, I took a mulligan.

Generally speaking, if I went second I was able establish skill control, win the first story card and go on to win the other 2 in quick succession (using Marcus Jamburg to recycle Parallel Universe or Ice Shaft as needed). If I had to go first, I would often hold my cards and not play anything due to the amount of character destruction. For resources, I could often run my deck at near full speed on only a 2-1-1 set up, slowly building up 1 domain to play Hack Journalist if I was getting into trouble.

When my deck didn't work, it was due to my opponent interrupting my skill dominance through character destruction (or taking out my attachments so I couldn't play the Fixer at a reduced cost).

I now have permission to post 5 other deck lists. With family in town and my anniversary tomorrow night, I may not get them posted right away, but stay tuned for more to come…

Yipe said:

Yipe, I am a huge fan of the mono syndicate skill reduction deck. Probably because I play a deck very similar to yours currently. My deck does very well against my others and against my buddies decks. I think somewhere in the middle of our decks is a winner. E-mail me at [email protected] and we will do a brainstorming session. Here is what my deck currently looks like:

3 clover club bouncer

3 clover club torch singer

3 tattoo artist

3 johnny v's dame

3 extortionist

3 hard case

3 triggerman

3 mr. david pan

3 syndicate liason

3 diseased sewer rats-very surprised these arent in your list since its so good with skill redu

3 crowbar-mvp and the card that made me want to build the deck plus this card just screams criminals lol

3 ice shaft

3 gun runner's club

2 the seventh house on the left

3 tear gas

3 like a moth

Email me and we will discuss

@ Kamacausey: Why don't you just discuss the decklists in the forum? I am sure lots of people would like to discuss decent decklists.

Or is the discussion meant to be a "secret"?

Even if you are unable to post the deck list, would you be able to at least post the focus of the decks that were played? Like how yours was mon-Syndicate skill reduction?

thewally42 said:

I'll post whatever information the players allow. I'm hesitant to put up any general trends yet as at least 1 of our players is heading to World's, and I don't want to inadvertently giveaway any secrets (that's not my place).

Currently, 7 players have given me permission to put up their lists. I'm short on time at the moment, but I'll get them posted as soon as I can.

@kamacausey

I considered most of the cards on your list (except Triggerman or Extortionist).

For the most part, I stayed away from the exhaustion effects and concentrated on skill reduction, some destruction, and speed - which is one reason I didn't take Like a Moth or The Seventh House on the Left. I considered those too expensive for what I needed my deck to do.

Perhaps that was a mistake, but I never seemed to have a problem reducing a character's skill to destroy them with either Ice Shaft or Tear Gas. And as my deck burns out so fast, if things weren't going well my opponent rarely needed to bring out an Ancient One with high skill to beat me.

Crowbar was on the short-short list, and I may work it back into the deck as it plays nicely with my skill reduction and Fixer (and it's just a fun card to play). I would probably take out my 2 copies of O'Bannion's Ledger. I included those for kicks, but found myself resourcing them.

I passed on Diseased Sewer Rats because I wanted a deck with zero restricted cards.

WARNING: Personal Bias Incoming!

As the Tournament Organizer, and the person who's heading up our league nights, I wanted to bring a deck that wasn't considered "high-power" but could still win games. To me, that meant no restricted cards, no Cthulhu, no off-faction put-into-play cards (e.g. Master of the Myths or Snow Graves), and a faction that is viewed as weaker/supporting. The Syndicate fit the bill. Plus I just think Lo Pan is super cool! And with a deck name like "Ninja Skills", what's not to like?

I also thought I was the only who would bring such a deck to the tournament. No one had been discussing David Pan on the forums for a while, and so I thought I might slip under the radar. Of course, 2 days before the event a thread on him popped up, and then another player brought the same type of deck! I guess insane, err, great minds do think alike.

If you want to discuss this further, let's do it here I don't have anything to hide.

Here is our 3rd-place finisher's deck, titled GLAAKI'S LACKEYS .

It's a Cthulhu/Yog deck focusing on cost reduction for Glaaki and character destruction/sacrifice.

CHARACTERS (35)
x3 Seeker of Mysteries
x3 Jade Salesman
x3 Degenerate Serpent Cultist
x3 Brood of Yig
x3 Dreamlands Fanatic
x3 •Carl Stanford
x3 •Yig
x3 Key-seeker
x2 •The Sleepwalker
x3 Servant of Glaaki
x2 Constricting Elder Thing
x2 Doppelganger (restricted)
x3 •Glaaki

EVENTS (12)
x3 Sacrificial Offerings
x3 Deep One Assault
x3 Gathering at the Stones
x3 A Single Glimpse

SUPPORT (3)
x3 Cursed Skull

50 cards

This was my brother's deck. Initially he was going to play a serpent-heavy Cthulhu/Hastur deck (cleverly titled SNAKES FROM ANOTHER PLANE) built around sacrificing to the Temple, popping characters into play, feeding Carl and stealing characters. However, after 2 weeks of intense play-testing he felt like it just didn't have enough punch. He put this deck together last week, and when he arrived in town we threw down until 1 AM on Friday night. In retrospect, that might have been a mistake on my part…

He contemplated minor tweaks, such as Khopesh + Called by Azathoth in place of 3 Doppelgangers and fewer Deep One Assaults/Gathering at the Stones, but pretty much stuck to his original design (going with more Seeker of Mysteries and Yig). To my chagrin, I convinced him to keep the Key-seeker even though he felt it wasn't working. That card turned out to be my undoing as he used it to repeatedly bring back A Single Glimpse and nuke my characters from orbit, thus dropping me from contention.

Nice work, amigo!

Here is our 4th-place finisher's deck, played by Dimzer. The deck is titled INN-DEEP (which I thought was pretty **** funny).

It's a mono-Cthulhu Deep Ones deck that kills, and kills, and just in case you're not really dead, kills some more.

CHARACTERS (30)
x3 Innsmouth Troublemaker
x3 Emerging Deep One
x3 Backwater Deep One
x2 Lord of Y'ha-nthlei
x3 Dreamlands Fanatic
x3 Master of the Myths
x2 Mature Deep One
x3 Deep One Rising
x3 Ravager of the Deep
x3 •Hydra
x2 •Cthulhu, Lord of R'lyeh

EVENTS (9)
x3 Sacrificial Offerings
x3 Dragged into the Deep
x3 Deep One Assault

SUPPORT (11)
x3 Khopesh of the Abyss (restricted)
x3 •Temple of R'lyeh
x3 •Devil's Reef
x2 Shadowed Reef

50 cards

This deck represented two big trends at our regional.

First, we had 3 mono-Cthulhu Deep Ones decks at the tournament. We would've had 4, but a player unexpectedly dropped out the morning of the event (his Deep Ones deck was titled DEADLIEST CATCH). That's a lot of fish-men! Frankly, I'm glad I didn't bring my Silver Twilight/Syndicate character bouncing deck to the tournament as all the "enters play" destruction would've hurt even more than it did.

I'm not sure why there were so many Deep Ones clawing up from the ocean depths. Perhaps it's our proximity to the cold Pacific? Or maybe there was something in the water? Either way, two decks that made the cut were Deep Ones (the other was beaten by this deck in the quarterfinals).

Second, like Munich, the Master of the Myths popped up in a lot of non-Silver Twilight decks. I'm a little surprised this card isn't on the restricted list, but I think it will be soon.

I played against this deck my second turn. In less than 10 minutes I was fish food. Out of all my losses, this one surprised me the most. I had practiced against a Deep Ones deck for 2 weeks (it was my main sparing partner) and I rarely lost. This deck list and my own were nearly identical. On the day of the tournament, the killin' was coming out fast and hard and I couldn't string anything together. Well played, Dimzer!

I'm cool with discussing decks here. I was curious how the ledger did for you. Sadly it performed the way I thought it would, as a resource. Props on including marcus jamburg. Nice idea. I totally didn't think about him. Using him to retrieve ice shafts seems sick. How did he do? Also, what other characters in your deck worked and which ones didn't? Is hack journalist worth it? How about the fixer? When I put my deck together I wanted as many characters that could help out with the skill redu theme. Beyond that i wanted cheap efficient dudes. That is why triggerman and anarchist are in the deck. Usually in syndicate decks you see a lot of exhausting events but since those cards were replaced by cards like crowbar and ice shaft I used some characters i.e. syndicate liaison, hard case, and extortionist to help out with that area. Like a moth is a test card right now. I threw it in since it comboed with the crow bar and ice shaft. Parallel universe used to be in that spot. How did that card perform for you? Seems like a good fit for a deck that reduces the opponents skill.

Yipe said:

yes, so much so that i've been sneaking student of the profane into some of my decks…….. be interesting to see if black dog achieves a modicum of notoriety as well.

The 2nd-place finisher's deck, played by CecilAlucardX. This deck is titled SHUBY AND FRIENDS .

This deck is a Cthulhu/Shub Ancient Ones accelerator. It's an incredibly strong deck, and was my bet to take top honors. SHUBY AND FRIENDS destroyed its competition, holding opponents to just 2 won story cards in the 5 preliminary rounds.

We had an epic battle for the championship. The top 2 players are friends and have pitted these decks against each other countless times in preparation for the tournament, with this deck reportedly losing 9 times out of 10.

However, the final game was a real slug-match, with SHUBY AND FRIENDS winning The Village of Ash to even the story card count 1-1. At that point, the Ancient Ones started piling up and I thought he might pull it off, but our champion was able to sneak in another story and was poised to take his third when CecilAlucardX conceded.

CHARACTERS (35)
x3 Seeker of Mysteries
x3 Priestess of Bubastis
x3 Gibbering Soul
x3 Harvesting Mi-Go
x3 Hungary Dark Young
x3 Grasping Chthonian
x3 Ancient Guardians
x3 •Y'Golonac
x2 •Shub-Niggurath, Dark Mistress of the Woods
x3 Dreamlands Fanatic
x3 Master of the Myths
x3 The Thing from the Shore
x2 •Yig
x2 •Bokrug
x2 •Cthulhu, Lord of R'lyeh

EVENTS (6)
x3 Primal Fear
x3 Feed Her Young

SUPPORT (3)
x3 Khopesh of the Abyss (restricted)

50 cards

The champion's deck! This deck is titled YOG LODGE SUMMER CAMP .

A true beast, it had everything it needed to take the top honors, going undefeated for the day.

CHARACTERS (31)
x3 Rich Widow
x3 Initiate of Huang Hun (restricted)
x3 Recruiter for the Lodge
x3 Zealous Secretary
x3 •Lord Jeffrey Farrington
x3 Master of the Myths
x2 Stalking Hound
x3 Pawn Broker
x3 Constricting Elder Thing
x3 Many-Angled Thing
x2 •Wilbur Whately

EVENTS (16)
x3 Chant of Thoth
x3 A Single Glimpse
x3 Journey to the Other Side
x3 Eldritch Nexus
x2 Unspeakable Resurrection
x2 Fist of Yog-Sothoth

SUPPORT (3)
x3 Cursed Skull

50 cards

This sounds like it was a great event!

ia! ia! Yog-Sothoth

For a broader view, here's a breakdown of the deck factions:

Agency
Agency/Miskatonic
Agency/Shub-Niggurath

Cthulhu x4 (Deep Ones x3)
Cthulhu/Shub-Niggurath
Cthulhu/Syndicate
Cthulhu/Yog-Sothoth

Hastur/Syndicate
Hastur/Yog-Sothoth

Miskatonic/Shub-Niggurath

Shub-Niggurath

Silver Twilight/Yog-Sothoth

Syndicate (Mr. David Pan) x2
Syndicate/Yog-Sothoth

Yog-Sothoth

This list indicates some trends at our event.

1. We had 15 different faction combinations out of 19 decks.

2. Cthulhu was the most popular faction (37%).

3. Syndicate and Yog-Sothoth were tied for the second most common faction (26%), followed by Shub-Niggurath (21%), with Agency rounding out the bottom (16%).

4. Deep Ones were the most popular theme (3 decks), with Mr. David Pan skill-reduction coming in second (2 decks).

5. Put into play characters were quite popular. We saw 4 decks with Dreamlands Fanatic and 3 with Master of the Myths. The 2 decks that had both Dreamlands Fanatic and Master of the Myths placed in the top 4 (2nd and 4th respectively).

6. Khopesh of the Abyss was the most common restricted card (4 decks). Of those 4 decks, 2 made it to the semifinals (INN-DEEP and SHUBY AND FRIENDS), and 1 went to the final round (SHUBY AND FRIENDS).

7. Regarding some of the online "meta", I found it interesting to note that only 1 deck included Negotium Perambulans in Tenebris. In fact, conspiracies were not popular at all as only 1 other player took a conspiracy card (The Hidden Conspiracy).

8. We didn't have a single Glimpse of the Void recursion deck, though at least 1/3rd of our group's players are aware of it and it was discussed between rounds at the tournament. Most everyone agreed it wouldn't be fun to face, and anyone who lost to such a deck deserved a free beer.

I'm still combing through the decks for other trends (e.g. what was the most common card, ratio of character/event/support cards, etc…). After my initial scan, Cursed Skull stands out as a key Yog card.

I'll post more info as time allows.

Thanks for the report! Really glad to see a Twilight/Yog deck come out on top - not just because I like Twilight (though I do!), but also because it gives hope for unique deck approaches.

I think the reason there are so many Cthulhu decks is simply that Cthulhu is a strong faction. It has a lot of icons, a lot of resiliency, a ton of destruction, and more than anything else, is cost-efficient. Other factions can do everything Cthulhu can - Cthulhu can just do it a whole lot cheaper. Khopesh is only the most obvious example of that. Going faster used to be the way to beat Cthulhu, but there are so many anti-flood cards out there (e.g., Y'ha-nthlei Statue), and Cthulhu is so fast to begin with, that other factions are going to need to be more nimble and a lot more clever to consistently beat the hordes of Deep Ones.

And yes, I have to think that Master of the Myths is headed for the restricted list. Not sure what FFG was thinking putting yet another cheap (effectively) colorless blocker into the game - it's Guardian Pillar meets the Descendant of Eibon, only with more Arcane icons, *sigh*. The other "put into play" cards are relatively balanced because they need specific triggering effects - Master of the Myths is broken because all it requires is one colorless resource. I think we're going to see it everywhere until the restricted hammer comes down.

Yipe said:

i faced that stupid card. hated it. couldn't get around it in time to win…

Runix said:

I find it rather puzzling that entire metas have trouble dealing with a character without business icons, vulnerable to destruction and wounding (wound Master of the Myths during the combat struggle, wound again with triggered effect).

It's great to see more decks!

Regarding the Mono-Cthulhu decks I can only say, that personally, I _love_ to play against them, since my deck's almost guaranteed to win against them - they're so predictable!

Master of Myths isn't exactly what I'd call a 'problem' card. It's simply extremely efficient due to its low cost. In most games it takes more effort to (permanently) get rid of him than it's worth - which is why I pretty much ignore him; i.e. I simply mentally add his skill & icons to every story I tackle. The Descendant of Eibon is way more annoying, imho.

Putting MoM on the restricted list may still be the way to go because there's zero reason not to include him in every deck.

I don't think MoM needs to be restricted. It's a solid card, but if I see my opponent playing him I don't worry. I actually like that it 'chokes' their hand. They have to hold a domain open to use him, so that in its self will slow down their deck.

Plus, I feel like there are plenty of ways to deal with him in just about every if not all factions.

Yipe said:

thats right spawn!! stay away from my beloved Yog-sothoth / Shub-Niggurath mix ( i am sooooooooooo jesting ). but seriously, i'm surprised. pleased though too, the less around the better!!!

MoM, taken care of by bast's hunt is my usual gambit.

Sounds like a great tournament, and thanks for posting your commentary and deck listings.

Cursed Skull seems like a very common support in Yog decks, it's not just your event. Last year at Gencon I went up against a couple of Yog decks and both of them ran this card. It's effectively a sacrifice event you can pay for in advance whenever you have a spare domain - so what's bad about that? The only downside is that they can see it coming. Yeah, it's vulnerable to removal but it's so cheap they're likely going to overpay to get rid of it.

About Master of the Myths… He's clearly a good card, but I'd hate to see him go for Silver Twilight's sake. They need what good cards they have IMHO with such a small card pool at this time. I don't think he needs restriction. Rather, I think the flaw here is the same as with Snow Graves - letting other factions make use too easily of what should have been a more faction-restricted card. Change it to pay 1 Silver Twilight resource and you're golden. But, I'm still not sure he's that big an issue to begin with. I'd just leave him as-is and make a mental note not to be careful about doing any more faction-free cards that can just jump into play like that.

Yipe said:

This is a pretty fun an interesting deck. Kudos to the player who designed this and for winning the comp.

I suck at building H.O.S.T. decks in general, so this was very helpful in not only giving me a jumping off point with a playable deck after H.O.S.T.has been lying lonely in my binder for so long, but it also encouraged me to find my own neat combo for a totally unrelated deck. (Lodge Defenses, Dedicated Butler, Ritual of the Lance. The Lodge Defenses was the missing recursion key I had been looking for in sac mechanics for H.O.S.T. but it never occurred to me to look at new H.O.S.T. cards.)

Not that it matters what I did with it, but in case anyone cares here is my tweak to the above deck:

Character 31
Rich Widow (PT) x3
Initiate of Huang Hun (CotJE) x3
Protector of Secrets (IotF) x3
Recruiter for the Lodge (TOotST) x3
Stalking Hound (PT) x2
Student of the Profane (SoM) x3
Master of the Myths (IT) x3
Dirk Sharpe (TBJ) x3
Lord Jeffrey Farrington (TOotST) x3
Constricting Elder Thing (IotF) x3
Wilbur Whateley (DD) x2

Support 5
The Doorway (TBJ) x2
Cursed Skull (MoE) x3

Event 14
Brazier Enchantment (TOotST) x3
Chant of Thoth (SoA) x3
Unspeakable Resurrection (Core) x2
Journey to the Other Side (Core) x3
Eldritch Nexus (Core) x3

Yipe I want to hear more about your deck. What cards didnt work out? What cards did? What would you put into the deck if you did it again and you were trying to win with them?