Some pretty cool cards:

http://www.cardgamedb.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2753-the-unspeakable-pages-spolier/

Padma Amrita could go well with my Serpent deck. She seems expensive at first glance, but she's a Serpent so you can discount her down or discard her and bring her into play using Sibilant Cry. Ritual of Exclusion seems incredibly good to me. I think Magical Theorist is also interesting and could lead to some great combos.

hmm. wierd. now there's 2 eryn cochwyns apparently…….

3 bells is gonna go apes*#t in my ancient one / limbo gate recursion deck.

It's also for sale online, so I guess it just released without any announcement. This release schedule is really confusing to me.

Yeah, that's really weird since we only just got the last pack a short while ago… Anyway, I will have to call my local store and see when they're getting it.

Maybe they just want to power through these last couple asylum packs and release the boxed expansion ahead of schedule

I'm curious if they're trying to make it legal for Nationals at gencon.

Interesting… Based on a 30-day system it would be.

Magnus Arcanis said:

This is the only reason I can think of when I bought the pack at FFG EC last night. I just bought the Lost Rites pack less than 2 weeks prior.

Good pack though. Some interesting cards which I am assuming Damon is eager to see in play in the meta presenting itself at Gen Con.

OK, so it's a hectic morning here and I haven't actually gotten to browse through the spoilers until now…

That said, HOLY COW! There are some really cool cards (again) in this pack and I must have it!

With four new Necronomicons in there I expect they do want to make this Gencon legal as it's a cool theme for the game - the Necronomicon is just so iconic.

Padma is cool. Pricy, but cool. Urumi looks good too, making a character into a wrecking machine at stories. Put it on someone hard to kill and they'll really be annoying. Necronomicon: Owlswick is a board clearer, and a darn fine one.

Kaleidoscope is nice, but doesn't get around Willpower/Terror. Still, it converts a smaller effect into a bigger one. Named by the Unnameable I like better, it really supports a Lunatic based deck nicely.

Great Library looks like another card to help get Tomes more widely used, nice. Eryn clears enemy Tomes, seems pretty situational. Necronomicon: Al Azif helps a rush strategy and should fit in well with Miskatonic's playstyle. Makes me want to build a nerd deck right now

Ya-te-veo is a cheap Dark Young with a mini-shotgun, nice. Three Bells is pure coolness, Shub is already good at putting out lots of characters - now you can trade them for your opponent's better ones and maybe steal a good one later in the game.

Ritual of Exclusion looks very tasty, this is immediately going into my Silver Twilight deck. Magical Theorist makes ALL their lukewarm rituals more useable - exactly the sort of thing they need IMHO. Their Necronomicon: John Dee is probably the weakest one in the pack though which is a little sad since Magical Theorist rewards Tomes and several of their other characters do. Look for them to want to team up with the factions with good books.

Inside Man lets you filter the top of anyone's deck, a solid character. On the Run fits in with Syndicate's usual story control effects.

Tindalos Alpha makes up for the relatively lame "Hounds of Tindalos" card by giving back 2 cards when he dies. Necronomicon: Theodoras Philetas give you a bit more milling, but I think we've got enough of that for now so it's more of an option than a must-have. Pulled from the Beyond though is a great card to let you steal from your opponents discard pile to temporarily borrow their useful characters and supports. Classic Yog.

Overall, a really nice pack with solid cards for every faction.

I agree that the H.O.S.T. Necronomicon looks pale in comparison to say the Nerd codex, but it does add yet another bounce in decks that utilize and abuse such (Farrington, Initiate, etc.). The cost is a bit steep though. While useful, the cost is going to be the major deterrent in it seeing play. But not every card should be 1 or 2 cost…

I think ST necronomicon might be there to get rid of other more scary necronomicons. I would not feel good about paying 3 and a card for one bounce that shrinks my table, but if you can destroy Cthulhus necro and maybe use it later it seems so much better.

For once our local store has the new packs on time, I just got back from picking them up on my lunch hour. Really sweet artwork in this pack too.

Padma is gorgeous.

Penfold said:

Anyone able to share the art?

Looking at her text, usually if there is some sort of hidden information, there is a "reveal" clause, otherwise how is the opponent to know whether you aren't able to trigger it? There may be some reasons why you want to hold back characters in your hand instead of playing it, so it's possible to "cheat" with her, if you were so inclined. Any idea why it's worded this way?

Yes, that does seem odd. The only way you could prove you didn't have any Cthulhu characters in hand would be to show your entire hand, which of course you don't really want to do and would be a significant drawback on the card. It would probably have been better if it was a Response instead of a Forced Response - perhaps we'll see an errata for it later. I guess if this is the only rules issue we get for rushing the pack out that's not so bad

Being the well-programmed consumer that I am, I ran out and bought this today. I think it's not as game-changing of an expansion pack as the previous entries in this cycle, although that's not really a criticism, as the last two or three have really had some powerful cards.

I think Silver Twilight got the biggest boost in this expansion. Ritual of Exclusion is a very important card, because it neatly ties together two ST themes: character bouncing and card discard. One of the profound weaknesses of ST was that its discard-powered abilities emptied out the hand and left the player without many options; this very effectively fixes that problem.

Magical Theorist is another card that's great for powering ST's various abilities. Free tokens on Rituals (very akin to High Elf abilities that put resources on cards in Warhammer, but I digress) will help add new life to a lot of the Rituals, like Ritual of Summoning, that were previously getting passed over. Being powered by Tomes is not a huge limitation - the ST have the very powerful T'tka Halot, and now have their own Necronomicon, and there are also the neutral Tomes available, like Whateley's Diary - and he is powered off all Tomes in play, not just friendly ones.

Speaking of the Necronomicon, the ST version (John Dee Translation - there's an obscure reference for you!) actually is not that bad. Yes, it's more expensive than the Initiate of Huang Hun, but then, it isn't Restricted like the Initiate is. Also, you pay in advance rather than have to pay when you use its ability, which gives you a little bit of flexibility. Bear in mind that for ST, having to pick a character back up isn't always a penalty - it's often a bonus, as ST has a lot of "when enters play" effects that benefit from that kind of recursion. I can certainly see including this card in an ST deck.

I particularly like the new Yog-Sothoth card Pulled from Beyond. Allowing you to play your opponent's character or support card - even for just one phase - is fantastic, as you can really wreak havoc on some decks by turning their own weapons against them.

AGoT DC Meta said:

The art is the cover art from the Words of Power pack.

It does seem that it would be possible to "cheat" with her, although it would likely be very obvious is somebody attempted to do that. Most Cthulhu decks are very heavy on Cthulhu characters, particularly Serpent decks - if the player has three or more cards in hand and says "nope, no Cthulhu characters!" that would seem very suspicious indeed.

Well, she could easily be in a dual faction deck and then it is no longer so suspicious. Bottom line is that it's a loophole of sorts and it would be cleaner without it being Forced. Not a big problem, just … untidy.

AGoT DC Meta said:

Huh. You got a point about that. I can only assume that the card likewise assumes that if you had a Cthulhu character in your hand, that you would want to play it instead of cheating and not abiding by the forced response.

I never even saw it as a problem until you mentioned it, only because I wouldn't dream of avoiding the forced response voluntarily. After paying 5 for her, I **** well better get a character in play. heh. But I guess you are right that there may be need to hold a character back. I agree with Dboeren, it should have just been a response.

I'm sure several others must have noticed this combo by now…

Turn 1: Drop any cost 0-1 weenie of any faction, play Disguised Threat - he turns into Padma

Whenever she dies, replace her with a cost 6 (or whatever you have) character from your hand. Naturally you may not have both cards on turn 1, but it's just as good on turn 2, etc… and since it only uses 1-domains it doesn't interfere with typical early Cthulhu resourcing of building up one "big" domain first.

Magnus Arcanis said:

That's my guess as well.

Hellfury said:

I agree that Padma's poorly worded, and I'm not a fan of any card ability that should really require you to check your opponent's hand. Still, the main difference between a Response and Forced Response is that the Forced Response can trigger during the resolution of stories, immediately after Padma dies in the Combat struggle or if you win a story and use its effect to sacrifice all characters committed to the story, etc.

.Zephyr. said:

One note on this - it is expensive, as you note, as it costs 3, a card, and a character. Its main advantage, however, is not getting rid of other copies of the Necronomicon - although that is nice - but because it can be triggered as an Action. That provides a big advantage over the Initiate of Huang Hun and Lord Jeffery Farrington, both of which are Operations phase only. The possibility of using the Necronomicon as a critically timed action - e.g., after characters have been committed at stories - is something of a strength. Also, it allows you to pick up (and hence replay) your characters, which can be nice if they have "when enters play" powers and you don't want to otherwise include the Initiate of Huang Hun or the Knight of the Outer Void.