THE ONE TRICK PONY

( Version 1.0 )

3 x Performance Artist
3 x Priestess of Bubastis
3 x Ya-te-veo
3 x Collector of Sacrifices
3 x Demon Lover
2 x Obsessive Playwright
3 x Diseased sewer rats
3 x Alyssa Graham
3 x Corrupted midwife
2 x Grasping Chthonian
2 x Crazed arsonist

3 x Shocking Transformation
3 x Power Drain
3 x Apeirophobia
2 x Byakhee attack
3 x Burrowing Beneath

3 x The Three Bells
3 x Snow Graves

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its quite simple really, ridiculously unfair, and very hard to get anywhere once alyssa is out, and i certainly don't approve !!

3 x Performance Artist - to stop enters play / when you play abilities / cheap 3 bells + shock sacrifice
3 x Priestess of Bubastis - to rush the shub characters out / cheap 3 bells + shock sacrifice after exhausting
3 x Ya-te-veo - to wound characters in story skill 2 or lower
3 x Collector of Sacrifices - readies every time 3 bells is used / performance artist 'performs' action
3 x Demon Lover - to lower skill for Ya-te-veo and the diseased sewer rats
2 x Obsessive Playwright - to return the 3 bells to hand from discard. can be drawn from discard with bells
3 x Diseased sewer rats - to wound characters when you play skill 2 or lower / sacrifice for midwife resurrect
3 x Alyssa Graham - to shut down ( severely limit ) the opponents draw / resource phase
3 x Corrupted midwife - to resurrect the rats as if from hand for wounding / alyssa / cheap sacrifices
2 x Grasping Chthonian - support destruction. can sac / resurrect as if from hand for more s.destruction
2 x Crazed arsonist - location destruction

3 x Shocking Transformation - to get alyssa into game / replace even earlier otherwise midwife
3 x Power Drain - to stop enemy actions and responses especially removing snow graves / alyssa
3 x Apeirophobia - to mill the opponents hand as soon as possible / whenever drawn
2 x Byakhee attack - to mill the opponents hand as soon as possible
3 x Burrowing Beneath - support destruction

3 x The Three Bells - when opponent reduced to 1 card per phase sacrifice any character played
3 x Snow Graves - shut down opponents discard pile

statistically you should have had at least 1 apeirophobia / byakhee attack and 1 alyssa graham / shock transform by the 2nd turn, when you'll have the 3 domain to bring her out and shut down the opponents ability to both resource and play in the same turn. if not by then, there's plenty to keep them busy for the first few turns.

ITS SO LOUD IN HERE !!

and of course playtesting will reveal if i even need to include abhorrent spore to whack down on alyssa as well.

have tried it twice so far with success in playing alyssa graham in turn 2 either as herself or sac-ing a 1 cost to shock transform her in, and leaving the opponent with a simple set up of 2:2:1 domains and a single card draw every turn, and before / then emptying their hand.

if it continues to play as it does, then with an average - good draw it should be able to shut down a glimpse of the void deck, a destruction deck may get the rare peek at some opportunities, serpents may even struggle, and a lot of decks simply won't be able to cope, though i know there are some original thinkers out there that will most likely have their own solution, and i may just have been lucky in the initial games, but the odds are stacked in this decks favour to perform as expected. negotium may seem like a solution but i'm 'thinking' this might just prolong the torture of only having one card per turn to play with. granting that every deck has its fails, i'm not sure if i see a bright future for this card in the game. though i'm still at a bit of a loss as to what the problem really is.

- alyssa graham : is not really all that powerful within a mono hastur deck. if she comes out too late then you may have already lost board control, and with no support removals she is extremely vulnerable to cards like gaze of ghatanothoa ( though i'm not too familiar with hastur so some card may be able to drive her insane anyways ) and destruction / wounding cards ( i'm thinking without the cards to simply bring her back - but again a lack of hastur familiarity could prove me wrong ). i can see the gaze becoming even more standard soon with all the game changing abilities coming through ( sigh - cthulhu - haha ).

- corrupted midwife : now here i think is the real problem card. bringing back the key character cards in any deck. and being able to play cards 'as if from hand' is a real granter of potential when cards that have 'when you play' stipulations can now activate from the discard. be ready for the flood of deep one rising / diseased sewer rats / corrupted midwife combos once their minds start expanding beyond mono-cthulhu ( perhaps the next step in the evolution of the newbie ), with all the support destruction you need within shub to clear snow graves for this and a few serpents ( sigh - cthulhu - hahaha ).

- the 3 bells : doesn't seem that great to begin, and definately not something to get ahead with. but with the above card it stops functioning in its intended capacity and becomes a self miller of characters that you want to recur while taking out an opponents character. throw in a bunch of 1 cost characters to soak up the repercussions in any other turn, and happy days. if it gets destroyed then just have some way of bringing it back as the end is not the means in this situation, just a happy bonus.

so each on their own, perhaps not so good, but i'm leaning towards corrupted midwife being the instigator and that we'll be seeing a whole lot of her in the times to come………..

the 3 bells + corrupted midwife could be use to repeat combo from characters with ability "enter game" or "when play" (seams from the hand)

alyssa graham is great but all the power is showed with discard hand mechanics

by the way i'll we be connected this evening to taste your deck

yes, i should thank mr. krissS666 for showing me this card ( alyssa ) as i've never really been a hastur fan of insanity ( though it is very very nice - just each to their own ) and so never taken much interest in the new hastur cards ( scrolling quickly to shub / yog to see what my new goodies are ), but when combined with my love of shub-niggurath and support destructions, as the guardian pillar will attest to ( poor Yog is sitting on the sidelines in my other decks ), it should prove very interesting to playtest till it bleeds and see if it's as ominous as i'm imagining, or if im just being pedantic ( as some of us have been known to be ). but i'm yet to 'cry wolf' on this one.

Corrupted Midwife goes well with "play" effects, and may provide more incentive to leave those characters with a big play effect in the game instead of taking them out. Thus, against her the value of exhaustion and similar character blocking effects get a bump.

While I think the first instinct for most players will be to put her in a Deep Ones or Dark Young deck, I'm also wondering how well she'd fit with Silver Twilight. Bringing back Jeffrey is the obvious part, what's slightly less obvious is that playing characters from the discard preserves hand size - you can use this to help power your discard-driven effects. Of course, it's poor synergy with Ritual of Exclusion - so you probably want one or the other in your deck, not both. Same kind of goes for Harvesting Mi-Go which butts heads with her a bit too.

yes, i've found her arcane icon invaluable, if you can work a refresh out of that then its not such a problem with the exhausting. yes, you are right, and another reason i do like her is the drain on the discard and not on the hand. she's been in every deck i've made basically since the release, and now is truly coming into her own as i get more used to playing with her.

you are also right that i wouldn't try going overboard with the 'when played' effects as this approach could definately be played with if you are relying on it. i only used the diseased sewer rats. a nice bonus if it happens, but not necessary, and the grasping chthonians, but again will probably never be needed with the other support destructions in my deck ( i would never just rely on this character being able to recur for the s.destructions for example ).

there are so many when played / when enters play characters available that the combinations are many between factions, and shub combos may get a boost from this. many angled things / students / exhausters etc. i'm very glad that i was already a shub devotee, as she simply glides into many of my previous decks with little to no work which included these when / enters play characters.

one point that must be made is that she can only do this in your operations phase as confirmed by Damon ( so the Winthrop drop has taken a blow im not sure it will recover from ), so no resurrecting characters in story for surprise effects. she can activate the ability, but then the next action is illegal to perform outside the operations phase. wishful thinking on my behalf but i suppose i wouldn't want someone bouncing / wounding me out of a story myself.

COCLCG said:

Yeah, I think that would put her a bit over the top if you could play a character anytime - good ruling.

agreed. i did get excited for a moment though !! but i have my uses for her anyway and plenty other decks to play her in. the winthrop drop may still work, just needs some feasts of famine etc instead. working on it another time. above deck to trial first !! too many ideas…… so little time / opportunity……..

This looks just like the nightmare deck i feared can be created. Wonder how it plays against top tier decks. It has the cards i don't like the most and has nice protection from things that can try to interfere…

The only thing it lacks is yog event and support recursion to recycle apeirophobia, but i don't think its possible to just insert some yog cards here and hope the distribution will be good enough…

I'm really curious to know how strong this deck is.

it is quite strong, but not unbeatable, as NO deck is. it was beaten last night on lackey ( though we both agreed it took a god like starting hand which ended the game in 3 turns. not surrended. ended ) and it included NONE of the cards i know you dont like, without a greenie in sight. apart from that though, it is a tough nut to crack and hasn't lost another game. every time ive used it the lock has been in place turn 2. thing was, in the previously mentioned game, that simply wasn't quick enough.

and you really shouldn't be so scared of ya-te-veo. i have, in 8 games with this deck, used his ability once. i simply haven't had the domain available for it ( as a good deck will be using every domain every turn if it can to put characters / supports / events out, not character abilities ). at best, its a blocker. and is a dead card in the hand against a hastur control deck. chances are, he may even go for karen marley to help find the bells, as i'm finding him sometimes a bit useless, like a poor mans collector of sacrifices.

as for apierophobia, another game proved it to be absolutely worthless, where a deck relied on granted abilities and struggle changes to protect from terror, and it sat dead in my hand and was finally resourced.

these are not GOD cards, just particularly handy and situational ones, and can be exploited just like any other, and i am dreading the day someone plays a WALK THE PATH ( Yog ) down straight after my apeirophobia. these 'powerful' cards are very dangerous toys to play with, and can easily backfire and destroy yourself.

to continue with apeirophobia, i am actually leaning towards bhyakee attack as being the stronger of the 2. it requires no target, has no restrictions like requiring an insanity resistant target, or a target to even begin with, and may become the 3 x instead of the 2 x, switching the 2 around.

EDIT: way up there, it should've been called by azazoth - not gaze of ghanatathoa

and yep. beaten again last night ( though it is taking some high level decks and players - i will mention no specific names, but you know who you are - haha ). so no, this is NOT a nightmare deck. you just need to work out ways to get around it. it IS a strong deck ( as it is ), perhaps tier 2, and looks all scary ( and often is ), but definately no unstoppable demon from the netherworld. though i am modifying it to become worse……. but thats MY little secret and MY little deck, because i really should stop handing out these babies, as im seeing them played against me already.

i will also say that this is indeed the strongest deck that i have ever built, and with the above mentioned mods, MIGHT even make it to tier 1 standards ( as that is all that is beating it so far in its present state ), especially as i become more accustomed to playing not only this deck but hastur in itself for the first time ( not to mention the game as well, as i have only ever played 28 times total now ). but time will tell, but probably not either, as i'll never get to test the revised version at the worlds !!

i will revise that above statement. the only thing beating it are good decks, and myself. i cannot stress how important play experience is, and that if youre not playing regularly to begin with, it will definately show in your games, as at the moment i'm like a learner driver in a rally car. i have been humbled once again due to a hugely erronius resourcing stumble, that forced me to put my first 2 alyssa's in the resources and then had to shock transform her in instead of the final lock card ( mod ) !! - haha. STOOPID. but, the lesson is learned and the risk i took will not be repeated, as sometimes your deck will just BITE you for it, so i am glad to have lost that one. so yeah, if you can't find players, jump on lackey and learn to drive these things properly !! sure, i can make an OK deck, but without the rigorous playtesting and experience, it will always just truly suck sometimes, so i'm on lackey everyday to change that. 30 games and counting !!

also, full congratulations to the opponent, who pounced on my early mishap and made it too late to recover from ! good game !! thanks for the whipping that will not let me forget it.

and the deck in its maturing form has been seen by a few people on lackey, and will be seen by many more as i refine and build my experience in playing it, so i'll give in to my slightly egotistical pride, my excitement of really just being a newbie with a fancy new toy, and tell you a bit about my mods so far. plus i'm absolutely poo at keeping my own secrets ( yet strangely can be implicitly trusted with anybody elses ?? ). i'm way down here in australia and will never get the opportunity to 'surprise' any tournaments with it anyway.

the final piece of my deck was the wraith. with alyssa on the board and the wraith cycling through a bell / midwife loop, it amounts to the opponent getting NO cards in his draw phase. and has to make do with the cards on the board ( in most cases ), which are slowly whittled away by the bell as well. it's not an easy combo :

alyssa graham

corrupted midwife

wraith

the 3 bells

but 3 of these can be shock transformed in as well to provide missing peices to the puzzle, and only alyssa is needed to start the decline until the rest appear in some way or another. so really the bell is the key, and i've already got new and improved ways of getting it back from discard ( with heaps of snow graves removal ), and am working on ways to bring it forward as well. so thats the COCLCG combo. once in place, it can make things tough.

the other changes have also given me a lot more control over the characters that do make it to the board in time, and really should have been in there in the first place, but in my struggle for 'individuality', my decks often suffer. but i won't let it be the case with this one. if i am to play with the big boys, i have to start using the common big boy toys.

so although the lock is there, unlike a glimpse deck, the rest of the deck can perform well enough without it. there are 14 other card types ( 38 cards ) working independently as a regular deck, but also with the combo cards as they are not uniquely useful to the lock only, so in reality its a functioning 50 card deck with a lock hidden inside. if i get 3 or 4 in the draw, it's gonna be difficult ( or take ingenuity ) to break.

so yeah. thats it. my lock down deck ( when it works ). claimed and certified. and apierophobia and ya-te-veo really have nothing to do with it ( though no hand cards to start isn't looking good ).

but no, its certainly not unbeatable, and cops a thrashing at the hands of a certain opponent while i stumble along learning how to use it and react to different deck styles. but it is nice. it has potential to grow. and i do love playing it.

THE ONE TRICK PONY

( Version 1.1 )

3 x Performance Artist
3 x Priestess of Bubastis
3 x Ya-te-veo
3 x Wraith
3 x Demon Lover
3 x Diseased sewer rats
2 x Marcus Jamburg
3 x Alyssa Graham
3 x Corrupted Midwife
2 x Grasping Chthonian
2 x Crazed Arsonist

3 x Shocking Transformation
3 x Burrowing Beneath
3 x Apeirophobia

3 x Infernal obsession
2 x Stygian eye
3 x Snow Graves
3 x The Three Bells

of course this is not the finished product. i already know that one of the 1 costs is likely to go now that i have another candidate for the bell ( ie the wraith ) and am thinking of perhaps either black dog for some more early oomph, or Y'golonac ( yes, yes, i know ), but not for his capacity in drawing out opponents characters. some of my cards rely on exhausting to perform actions, and he would be a nice touch to make sure this happens, or make it happen more than once per turn. burrowing beneath can likely go for thunder in the east for the draw card and also byahkee attack may make a return ( but i doubt it ). but above is the current 'released' version until concrete changes are made. i'm sure other cards may come and go within the small changes to be made, but its getting pretty close to being completed.

ok. its been ruled that alyssa is NOT a draw miller, but the deck still works to a degree and alyssa will become x2 to put diseased sewer rats and wraith back on deck for re-use when midwife not around.

.Zephyr. said:

Alyssa Graham can be used to bring Apeirophobia back. She doesn't increase total card draws, but in the right circumstances you can guarantee that you get it back for next turn. Very powerful, and in fact I think her most powerful ability is event recursion; sort of a Hastur version of The Large Man.

I think this is still a relatively powerful concept, even with the rule clarification on Alyssa Graham. A forced sacrifice for both players every turn lets you get ahead, because you're ready for it (with Midwife and other supporting cards) while the opponent isn't.

Unfortunately, I think the deck will have to be retooled after the new FAQ comes out. I suspect that at least one of those cards, but possibly more than one, will end up on the restricted list, and with Diseased Sewer Rats already on the roster, something else will have to go.