"No less than twenty of the cards in Terror in Venice reinforce the Day and Night mechanic that originally appeared in Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game during the Dreamlands cycle of Asylum Packs."

Above is a quote from the News about Terror in Venice Expansion that they are releasing in Quarter 3 of 2013. Do you think that this means that they will not reprint all the Asylum Packs from the Dreamlands cycle? I know they are scheduled to reprint Twilight Horror for Quarter 2 of 2013 but what about the other five Asylum Packs? Are they going to be reprined or is this new deluxe expansion going to replace any possible reprint? Any feedback or opinions would be appreciated. Thanks, Jack

One more thing. I am a completely new player to Call of Cthulhu. I love this game and it has taken any addiction that I had for Magic the Gathering away. I feel that this is a much better game in every way. That being said, I would love to get every Asylum Pack available because it has better deck building possibilities. That is the source of my questions.

This announcement sounds AWESOME! Dripping with theme. I've always wanted to go to Venice.

I actually think this may be a very good sign that it will get reprinted. Those cards will suddenly have more relavency and therefor more likely to have them reprinted.

I have to agree with Penfold on all accounts. Looks fantastic, Venice is amoung my top five travel destinations and revisiting Day/Night I would expect increases the chances of the reprint of the entire dreamlands series!

it's a strange expansion, for sure… i can't place whether it belongs to one of the factions as we've been led to believe the expansions will or if its a deviation already. it's got an "eyes wide shut" meets "the ninth gate" vibe which seems custom made for CoC! i'm really excited, but the timing seems lame since we're still waiting on the yog box.

nice work FFG, in any case!

On Deluxe Expansions: All I own is the Core set and a few Asylum Packs. Will these new cards, or new cards from other deluxe expansions, really help my deck building options at all?

Can you suggest a deluze expansion that would?

vermillian said:

Yes. The deluxe expansions greatly expand your deck building options. Secrets of Arkham has a number of my favorite cards, including Things in the Ground, which is a really cool, thematic (and powerful) way to kick out a lot of Ancient Ones. It also has Arkham Asylum, which is a really handy card to have when your opponent is driving hordes of your characters insane with his (or her) Things in the Ground (well, spitting them into play in an insane state, really, rather than driving them insane, but thematically, you can take it or leave it as you'd like). The Silver Twilight box, then, introduces a whole new faction. Honestly, most of the best ST cards are from outside of the box, though they're such a tricksy, combo-intensive faction that each new pack sends me back to the old cardpool to see what it can do in the larger context, and there's no greater single box for them than that. The Seekers of Knowledge box for Miskatonic University adds amazing cards for every faction, but it takes MU from support faction to powerhouse juggernaut. With just the cards from Seekers and the Core Set, you can make a really solid MU deck. It won't win tournaments, but it'll competitive enough in any circumstance to be fun. Add a few key Asylum Packs and, as they say, you've really got something!

The Key and the Gate looks like it'll be fun. I'm not as much a Yog person, myself, but it might be as good a second purchase into the game for those who do dig the Yog as MU is for players like me who dig the dorks.

For now, I'd strongly recommend Seekers of Knowledge as a second purchase to anyone who likes the way MU plays, mechanically or thematically, or both. If you're more a fan of the Ancient Ones, SoK is still good, but since 2/3 of it is MU, I would possibly recommend Secrets of Arkham for Things in the Ground.

Penfold said:

I have to admit I'm a bit surprised that the next deluxe expansion will be themed around Day/Night instead of a third faction. My bet was an expansion for Syndicate. Well, at least Syndicate seems to benefit most from the new Day/Night cards.

Very nice!

Looking forward to it.

This looks great! I hope I'm not reading into this too much, but if the trend of faction specific deluxe boxes had continued, I would have felt a little more security in the continuity of the game. I am dreading that FFG may drop this game, which would be horrible. I wish we could have more concrete numbers, but I feel like more people are getting into it now. That's my impression at least…

Regardless, I love the support of old mechanics, and I'm all for making cards that increase the relative viability of older cards, which enhances the depth of the game, not just the breadth (i.e. new power cards, new mechanics, etc.) Day/Night has been overshadowed because there are more efficient regular cards than having to worry about building in combo cards into your deck, but with this addition, you are either going to have to worry about teching against it, or going with the flow. Which is why I think Syndicate may come out the winner from this expansion since they can play both sides with minimal risk to their deck falling apart.

Please, FFG, don't make us wait an additional 2 or more months for this. Please get back on track with the release schedule!!!

I don't think this signals a lack of commitment at all. Just putting out all the faction boxes in a row would be the "easy route", this feels to me like FFG is going for extra credit by enhancing the setting and putting out a lot of cards to strengthen under-used mechanics.

Makes me want to go back and play some Assassin's Creed, I forget which but one of the series was largely set in Venice.

Thanks to all for helping me with my questions. Being new to this game, I don't know all the mechanics such as Day/Night. So it is not Day or Night until a card says so, right? Was there combinations in the Dreamlands Asylum packs that were broken? Or do they just need to get the packs to the new 60 card standard now?

I hope FFG sees that someone like me who purchases a lot of their games and now has take a strong interest in CoC will motivate them to continue this LCG. They have my business regardless but I will purchase anything they produce with CoC. But of course I love all the other LCGs as well.

ChessFerret said:

Yeah, if a card says "Night. It is night." Then it's night, which doesn't do anything in and of itself, but can trigger passive abilities on other cards. And no, there wasn't anything broken really. Dreamlands is the last cycle to only be in the old 40 card x1/x3 format, and they're largely out of print. There are some very good cards in those cycles so it's good to see them in the queue.

So if you have a Night card out and your opponent plays a Day card, does it become Day or do they neutralize each other? Sorry for the basic questions. I am sure the new expansion will explain that but I did notice some of my other asylum packs had cards with Day or Night and I did not know what to do with them.

Typically, when a Day card enters play, it will destroy all Night cards in play. The card text will state this, btw.

There are ways around this, though. It's entirely possible that it's Day and Night at the same time - but that's a rare and usually short-term situation.

Normally it's either Day, Night, or neither. By default it's neither. Playing a Day card typically makes it Day and destroys any Night cards in play. Playing a Night card typically makes it Night and destroys any Day cards in play.

By themselves, Day and Night don't really mean anything. But, some cards gain bonuses if it's Day/Night, or can only be played if it's Day/Night. So normally if you're using these it's something you're building the deck around.

For instance, say I'm building an Agency deck and I notice they have a lot of guys who get bonuses during Day. I would put in several Day cards like Beneath the Burning Sun, and then I would put in several characters that benefit from it being day. For example, maybe Border Patrol Guard, Trial Judge, or Norman Blackwood Jr.

Having Day cards can also help you wreck your opponent's Night-based strategies if he has them, but you can't rely on someone running that sort of deck so you really need to plan to bring cards that directly benefit or else it's likely not worth packing Day/Night. That said, Beneath the Burning Sun is actually a bit of an exception to the rule since it works with all Agency characters and doesn't require you to take specific guys. You'd probably still want to though because you've already paid for those upgrades - why not cash 'em in?

Thank you both for your explanations on Day/Night. I think I understand now. My son and I will now be able to use these cards for fun combinations and deckbuilding. Maybe if they reprint all of Dreamlands then we will get a chance to do some serious deckbuilding.

ChessFerret said:

I'm pretty confident that they will, but it may be some time before all six packs are available. In the meantime, the Elder Things podcast has already given away one set of Dreamlands Common cards and we have two more sets still to give away. We're planning our second contest for an upcoming episode so maybe you can listen and get lucky

Hopefully I am not too late but how can I listen to this podcast?

ChessFerret said:

its on iTunes and card game DB. And its own site:

http://elderthingspodcast.blogspot.ca/?m=1