This year, in defending my Regionals title, I decided once again to set myself a challenge. In 2012 it was to be one of the first ever to use Ancient Ones in a Shub / Yog competitive deck, and most of you know where that led to. In an about face, and sadly shunning the now popular AO’s, the new test of my mettle was to build an all human faction deck that could hopefully outlast the big nasties. I’m certainly not making the same mistake last year and please note that this is definitely not the deck I will take to Nationals if I make it there ( you will notice that I’ve been keeping my fat trap shut this year ). So, in moving along, I outlined these restrictions:

1 – To have no AO factions

2 – To prove that most were wrong, in that Agency is NOT dead.

And so I give to you the winning deck of the 2013 Victorian Regional ( we got 8 players this year, but that’s double what we had last year !! )

WITH ALL DUE FORCE

Characters ( 32 )

3 x Lodge Neophyte

3 x Repo Man

3 x Undercover Security

3 x Keeper of the Silver Sphere

3 x Protector of Secrets

3 x *Marshall Greene

2 x *Mya Badry

2 x *Amaranth

2 x *Descendent of Eibon

2 x Knight of the Outer Void

3 x *Lord Jeffrey Farrington

3 x Master of the Myths

Events ( 15 )

3 x Steal the Soul

2 x Working a Hunch

2 x Flanking Maneuver

3 x Flush Them Out

2 x Reckless Assault

3 x Shotgun Blast

Conspiracies ( 3 )

3 x Shadow War

Basically it’s a rather aggressive Willpower and Combat Icon fest with a fair splash of Arcane and Investigation as well. I beefed it up with some of the higher cost events to tackle the bigger and meaner Terror decks, as Reckless Assault does wonders for ridding the table for a turn of AO’s like Y’Golonac and Nyarlathotep ( and with help from Steal the Soul / Working a Hunch can return anything ), and I also included the mean little trick of Flushing a bunch of Characters committed on the opponents turn into Shadow War, where they were ripe for the massacre. Winning this story also demolished most AO decks with the triggered effect of wounding all the Cultist, Monster and Servitor Characters the opponent had ( bye bye Dark Youngs and Ghouls ). YIPPEE!! Also Repo Man coupled with the 3 Combat struggles sometimes swagged me a fair collection of the opponents Supports. Of course it has already been made obsolete by the Key and the Gate, and I don’t think it would fare very well in the future as it was mainly built to defeat Shub, but I suppose that’s what building decks is all about ( well for me anyway ), and that is coming up with new and interesting ways to combat the meta monkeys and their pizdets decks. You can always count on that !

NOTE : This year, due to very poor planning by the organisers, the 'Victorian Regional' was an unnofficial event. On the proscribed date it was revealed that the prizes had not arrived, and that if we couldn't manage 10 players then the official Regional would be cancelled, wasting the trip for any involved. Thus the gaming group boycotted the event and advertised our 'new' date and setting and it was 'held' 2 weeks after, with my playmat from last years Regional up for grabs ( which thankfully I held onto - haha ).

********** EDIT **********

And he's back!!!

I have not really considered reckless assault, but now that i read it, it reminds me of a very good card in AGoT. I think I'll have to give it a try. Also, why not and Government Exorcists?

Why don't you join us over on the cardgamedb.com forums? It's cleaner and quicker over there, and therefore facilitates a little more (though not much more) conversation.

momentarily, and of course as obnoxious as ever. mwah hahaha. ive kinda given up on discussions with this game. some people are just too narrow minded for me and that kinda clashes with my opinionated views. oh well. i learnt in the end. plus if you'll peruse the plethora of replies that my efforts generate, then time for results doesnt really equate. just thought id put my deck out there because its not something the meta generates but it does a great job of kicking its arse (sometimes). as for Government Exorcist, there was simply no room at the inn. as it is its a 22 / 22 / 6 mix so thats about right for me. the only one it could replace would be Protector of Secrets and then the Twilight cards are too low for the 1 domain that the deck requires. thats my view anyway.

thanks for the reply though man. heaps of them.

unless theres anything else to respond to you wont see me again till after the Nationals. this year the challenges are getting harder and harder. there's a few of them and for a sneak peek the first 2 will probably be 1) NO restricted card and 2) a TRUE tri-faction deck (without brummy the Festival or a splash of Master of the Myths). any more and i'll give it away !!! i have made a deck that is ridiculously a LOT stronger, but its a stupid easy build power deck for morons that is no fun to play or play against (and isnt that what its all about ? oops. my bad. that precious trophy on the mantle is…..), so i wont be playing it, but ill post it after the National as well.

POSTSCRIPT: as for Reckless Assault, one of its crowning achievements at the Regional was a puny Keeper of the Silver Sphere madly rushing unaided at Cthulhu, the mighty Lord of R'lyeh, and chasing him back into the opponents hand. Reckless Assault indeed !!! haha (Shadow War gives it 3 Combat Icons).

There isn't anything wrong with you or your ideas, mate. You're just a very good johnny player, albeit one that may ascribe a little too much ethical judgement on playing like a johnny. But your ideas are cool and we all benefit from them being shared and discussing. You should consider writing an article or something for cardgamedb. We're getting more content up there and more playing are popping in. Things are picking up. Seriously, go make an account and come throw your ideas there.

And did you hear about the broken combo with the cards from Key and the Gate? I just heard myself…

yes i am. haha. too ethical that is. its just my view that the game is getting extremely boring to play, and especially for newbies (which is one reason why the game suffers from attendance and attraction), when all you see winning the tournaments are the same unimaginative 2 or 3 deck styles that are just copies of copies of copies. yawn. i just dont understand the mentality behind gaining satisfaction from winning with absolutely no skill, and i never will. like i said, i suppose the trophy is more important than the respect of fellow players. ive introduced several new players to the game on lackey, and after i show them whats possible with the meta they just wander off never to play again. out of 8 in the past few months there is only 1 who has remained.

and yes. already been through the key and the gate and its absolute stupidity and worked out its combos but i refuse to use them because where is the talent in that ? if you win using these does it make you a good player ? no. it makes you a lame ****** with no imagination, and mark my words thats how a lot of people will be looking sideways at you. BUT. you will have that trophy !! might well be my final year in the tournament scene as its getting harder and harder for a johnny player to be in (though im still managing so far), what with all the zombies peddling their power decks……… though ill get back to you on that one after the Nationals if i SOMEHOW magically manage to circumvent them.

haha. hows that for an ethical judgement !!! anyway. thats what gets me in trouble with the meta monkeys so enough of that from me.

Just imagine what would happen if you came and won worlds. That would blow the meta wide open.

yeah. haha. im gonna dial it back a bit and keep my thoughts on Worlds to myself. but it would be something !

problem is that like i said its getting harder and harder to be a johnny in the cthulhu card game competitions. we're slowly getting pushed out. the designers are just creating too many different power mechanics for us to deal with im afraid, and people are only too happy it seems to use them regardless of the lack of skill they require. once upon a time it was basically destruction, rush and control. now our decks need to cover resource ramping, even more control of a different sort, discard pile effects, ancient ones, milling and more !! its not easy to build something to combat all of these AND not be one itself. we can still win, but it requires more and more luck as the game progresses further into power creep and ridiculous mechanics, and im certainly not spending a good couple of thousand dollars heading to Worlds relying on the lady to be nice to me. but it would be nice. lets just see how i go at the Australian Nationals, which if last years comparitive attendence remains the same, is a bigger challenge than Worlds to win anyway.

you're a good man Danigral. ignoring my s#*t and pushing on with the conversation. keep it up !

btw. combos like the one you mentioned and things like the old Necro / Altar combo in my view are the supreme indication of a players lack of ability. simply waiting around for the cards to come out (or now using the Festival), so you can say game over only proves that a person can't play the actual game for crud, and rocks should be on hand for anyone who uses such things. might as well just say 'jehovah' and be done with it. milling in general is also a give away that a person has a weak psyche and is subconciously a coward. someone who can't face other decks like a man and has no backbone to bring to the fight. in my view, we bring who we are in essence to the game, and our decks reflect this. i look at these people with nothing but disgust and i would hate to have been in the trenches with someone who is prone to milling. and i can say this because i know for a fact that i am not the only one who feels this way. oh yes. we have a good old laugh about you……..

sorry. that was a bit harsh. sometimes i speak my mind and speak the truth a little too wantonly.

This year, in defending my Regionals title, I decided once again to set myself a challenge. In 2012 it was to be one of the first ever to use Ancient Ones in a Shub / Yog competitive deck, and most of you know where that led to. In an about face, and sadly shunning the now popular AO’s, the new test of my mettle was to build an all human faction deck that could hopefully outlast the big nasties. I’m certainly not making the same mistake last year and please note that this is definitely not the deck I will take to Nationals if I make it there ( you will notice that I’ve been keeping my fat trap shut this year ). So, in moving along, I outlined these restrictions:

1 – To have no AO factions

2 – To prove that most were wrong, in that Agency is NOT dead.

And so I give to you the winning deck of the 2013 Victorian Regional ( we got 8 players this year, but that’s double what we had last year !! )

WITH ALL DUE FORCE

Characters ( 32 )

3 x Lodge Neophyte

3 x Repo Man

3 x Undercover Security

3 x Keeper of the Silver Sphere

3 x Protector of Secrets

3 x *Marshall Greene

2 x *Mya Badry

2 x *Amaranth

2 x *Descendent of Eibon

2 x Knight of the Outer Void

3 x *Lord Jeffrey Farrington

3 x Master of the Myths

Events ( 15 )

3 x Steal the Soul

2 x Working a Hunch

2 x Flanking Maneuver

3 x Flush Them Out

2 x Reckless Assault

3 x Shotgun Blast

Conspiracies ( 3 )

3 x Shadow War

Basically it’s a rather aggressive Willpower and Combat Icon fest with a fair splash of Arcane and Investigation as well. I beefed it up with some of the higher cost events to tackle the bigger and meaner Terror decks, as Reckless Assault does wonders for ridding the table for a turn of AO’s like Y’Golonac and Nyarlathotep ( and with help from Steal the Soul / Working a Hunch can return anything ), and I also included the mean little trick of Flushing a bunch of Characters committed on the opponents turn into Shadow War, where they were ripe for the massacre. Winning this story also demolished most AO decks with the triggered effect of wounding all the Cultist, Monster and Servitor Characters the opponent had ( bye bye Dark Youngs and Ghouls ). YIPPEE!! Also Repo Man coupled with the 3 Combat struggles sometimes swagged me a fair collection of the opponents Supports. Of course it has already been made obsolete by the Key and the Gate, and I don’t think it would fare very well in the future as it was mainly built to defeat Shub, but I suppose that’s what building decks is all about ( well for me anyway ), and that is coming up with new and interesting ways to combat the meta monkeys and their pizdets decks. You can always count on that !

NOTE : This year, due to very poor planning by the organisers, the 'Victorian Regional' was an unnofficial event. On the proscribed date it was revealed that the prizes had not arrived, and that if we couldn't manage 10 players then the official Regional would be cancelled, wasting the trip for any involved. Thus the gaming group boycotted the event and advertised our 'new' date and setting and it was 'held' 2 weeks after, with my playmat from last years Regional up for grabs ( which thankfully I held onto - haha ).

Congrats! It's nice to see someone do well with a faction combination that isn't played very often. Can you flush them out to a story that you don't have a character at?