Before I was just posting this on BGG and Troll and Toad's newsletter, but it seems like it gets posted here as well, so here it is.

Spring is in the air, and it is time for another Asylum pack. Asylum Pack #9, the third asylum pack in The Summons of the Deep cycle. Like the previous asylum packs it comes with 40 cards, ten singles, and ten others repeated 3 times. This asylum pack focuses on the combat struggle. It also with a nice mini poster, with the continuation of the story from the last asylum pack.

Let's see what is inside.

Agency:

Repo Man: Common| Character| Cost 2| Skill 2 | Combat Icon | Text: GOVERNMENT If you win a combat struggle at a story to which Repo Man is committed, instead of the normal struggle effects, take control of a support card controlled by the losing player.

Nice effect, not too expensive, but what if your opponent isn't running support cards? Seems like you'd want to scope out the meta before including this card in your main deck.

Dynamite: Common | Support | Cost 2 | Text: ITEM WEAPON Attach to an Agency character. ACTION: Discard dynamite from play to wound all charactrs committed to the same story as attached character.

Not a bad card to keep the riff raff away from the story you want to go to. Just make sure you're cannon foder is the only one there.

Miskatonic U:

Howard Ludvinski: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 4 | Skill 3 | Combat 2xInvestigation Icons | Text: ARTIST ACTION: Trigger a non-conspiracy story card in your won story pile. Shuffle it back into the story deck befre its effect resolves.

Hmm, the ability is powerful, but 4 casting cost for the character is light, plus the story cards available, may not be at all useful. It's definitely a hit or miss card, I doubt it'll see much play in a constructed format.

Academic Obfuscation: Common | Support | Cost 2 | Text: ATTACHMENT Attach to a story card. Opponents need 2 additional success tokens to win attached story.

This card could easily buy you another crack at a story that your opponent thought was his. The fact that is a support card though takes away some of the surprise. As a miskatonic card though, I'm not sure. Miskatonic seems to like to do the stories quickly, and if they don't finish the game quickly, an extra two tokens isn't going to slow down their opponent.

Syndicate:

Brazen Hoodlum: Common | Character | Cost 2 | Skill 3 | Combat Icon | Text: CRIMINAL Characters without a combat icon committed to the same story as Brazen Hoodlum do not count their skill.

This is a very nice card. Low cost, slows down the Miskatonic rush, and has a decent skill as well. I could definitely see playing this card in a syndicate deck.

Blackball Jim: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 3 | Skill 1 | Combat, Investigation Icons | Text: SORCERER RESPONSE: After you succeed at a story to which Blackball Jim is committed, drain one of your domains to drain an opponent's domain. If your domain has more resources attached than your opponent's place an additional success token on that story.

Well since the moment you finish stories, it is your opponent's turn, draining his domain doesn't seem like a big deal. The extra success token is nice though. It doesn't say may, so you can't choose not to drain your domain, which is a definite strike against this card.

Vengeful Mob: Common | Event | Cost 2 | Text: RESPONSE: After you lose a combat struggle, choose an opponent's character. If that character has fewer combat icons than all of your characters that are not committed to a story, wound the target character.

Well it's got a lot of conditions on the ability. Costs 2 which considering all the requirements on the card seem high. I'm not liking this card too much.

Nocturnal Scavenger: Uncommon | Character | Cost 2 | Skill 2 | Combat Icon | Text: MONSTER RESPONSE: After you win a combat struggle, pay X to choose and destroy an attachment card with printed cost X or lower.

Well this one seems pretty nice. Not too expensive, you don't have to hurt yourself to use it, unlike the above Vengeful Mob. It is potentially reusable, also usable on your opponent's turn.

Muddy Waters: Uncommon | Support | Cost 2 | Text: LOCATION RESPONSE: After a character enters a discard pile, exhaust Muddy Waters to exhaust a character.

Obviously this card goes great with Deep One Assault. Take out two defenders with one card could definitely win the game. The cost is pretty low, It is definitely on par with the old Forgotten Isle card.

Hastur:

Long-Dead Prince: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 1 | skill 1 | Combat Icon | Text: HIGH PRIEST TOUGHNESS +1 ACTION: If Long Dead Prince is wounded, return him to his owner's hand.

Wow, what a great card for Hastur. At a cost of 1 this can be played every turn to use as wound soaker from combat struggles. This is definitely going in a Hastur deck. Who would have thought there would be a decent Hastur card in a combat struggle oriented pack?

Infernal Obsession: Uncommon | Unique Support | Cost 3 | Text: MADNESS ATTACHMENT. Attach to a non-ancient one character. While attached, you gain control of attached character. (If Control changes again, discard Infernal Obsession from play.)

Another solid Hastur card. Taking control of a character at a cost of 3? Sounds pretty decent to me.

Yog Sothoth:

The Sleepwalker: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 2 | Skill 2 | Terror Arcane icons | Text: SERVITOR RESPONSE: After The Sleepwalker commits to a story, choose an opponent's character with a combat icon. That character cannot commit to the same story as The Sleepwalker.

A nice stopper for Ravager from the Deep, a solid two cost character with a terror icon, and arcane icon, and it can be searched for with Julia Brown.

Across Dimensions: Uncommon | Event | Cost 2 | Text: SPELL Play only if every character you control has the Yog Sothoth affiliation. ACTION: Until the end of the phase, each Yog Sothoth character gains X combat icons, where X is the number of Yog Sothoth characters in play.

A nice card for a mono Yog deck, but otherwise useless. I'm not a big fan of these one faction only cards.

Shub Niggurath:

Gibbering Soul: Common | Character | Cost 1 | Skill 1 | No Icons | TExt: UNDEAD RESPONSE: After Gibbering Soul is destroyed, search your deck for a shub niggurath character with a combat icon, reveal it, and place it in your hand. Then shuffle your deck.

A very nice search card, that doubles a chump block in a combat struggle. Unfortunately it must be a newly dead gibbering soul, as it still isn't immune to the horrors out there.

Ghoulis Thrill Seeker: Common | Character | Cost 3 | Skill 1 | Terror, Combat Icons | Text: MONSTER INDEPENDENT UNDEAD RESPONSE: After a character is wounded, ready Ghoulish Thrill Seeker.

meh. Not terribly exciting. Might be better if Ghoulish Thrill Seeker had Toughness himself.

Eat the Dead: Common | Support | Cost 1 | Text: ATTACHMENT Attach to a character you control. RESPONSE: When attached character is destroyed, attach it and Eat the Dead to any domain you control as resources.

Interesting card. Played right it could give a big advantage, Having two more resources than your opponent is pretty powerful. I like this card, and I think it will see play.

Neutral:

The Cornered Man: Uncommon | Character | Cost 4 | Skill 4 | 3xcombat Icons | Text: INVESTIGATOR TOUGHNESS +2 HEROIC DISRUPT: After you win a combat struggle in which The Cornered Man participated, wound the Cornered Man to immediately resolve another combat struggle at that story.

This looks like a pretty decent card. Could fit well with Miskatonic giving it a much needed combat boost, or with the Agency, to make the combat struggle pretty deadly.

Secret Stiletto: Common | Support | Cost 1 | Text: ATTACHMENT WEAPON Attach to a character you control. DISRUPT: After you win a combat struggle by at least 3 icons at a story to which attached character is committed, pay 2 to choose and wound a character controlled by the losing opponent.

It's an attachment, but the ability is really nice. Goes well with The Cornered Man from above.

Antediluvian Dreams: Common | Event | Cost 2 | Text: Play during your story phase, before characters are committed to stories. ACTION: Resolve an additional combat struggle at all stories this phase.

Well the card the asylum pack is named for. You'd think it'd be decent. I'm not terribly excited by this one, no surprise factor due to having to play it before characters are committed.

Ask Questions Later: Uncommon | Conspiracy| Cost 2 | Terror Combat Combat Arcane investigation struggles | Text: CONSPIRACY If you win this conspiracy, you may wound all characters in play.

Wow, this is nice conspiracy, and if played in the right deck could do some serious harm to your opponents.

Another Asylum pack is done. I think Hastur got the most love in this pack, with both of their cards being awesome. Their are some other decent cards, but overall this pack seems slightly weaker than Horror Beneath the Surface.

gibbering soul + eat the dead = teh awesome!!! plenty of ways to get something destoryed too. the only problem is lack of terror, just have to account for that. i guess eat the dead is the new mi-go worker??? shub has so much search and filter now, shub has always been my favorite and this is all good. dark druid, beneath the porch and now gibbering soul.

that bouncing hastur character is sweet too. the misk attachment isnt that bad in a non-mono misk deck though. wait until they already have some tokens and place it there. now they either have to destory the attachment or think about focusing on another story since it pretty much removes 2 success tokens.

and stealing an non-AO for 3.......holy cthulhu that isnt right. called by azatoth and this would allow you to steal the AO not from AH. but two attachments might be quite an investment. but you never know.

Are a couple of those cards Cthulhu faction? Did I miss the designator?

Great report, THANKS for posting it.

Chick

chicklewis said:

im guess the noctural monster thing is cthulhu and the next few until hastur.....

Yes two cthulhus Nocturnal Scavenger and Muddy waters

Shub Niggurath just gets better and better - I have to think about changing my favorite support faction...

Hastur also starts to get better. Hastur has been my favorite faction from the beginning, but only thematically. It just wasn't so great (yet) in the current format. I think Hastur needs more ways to get rid of willpower and terror icons to work well against every opponent faction.

I'm seriously miffed by the Sleepwalker, though. First it's meh, second it's ... in the Yog faction?! Why the hell did they do that? It should have been neutral just like Julia Brown.

The conspiracy card is the first conspiracy I'd put in a deck. Very nice for the right faction/deck.

jhaelen said:

well it shouldnt matter that much, if youre using it as part of the julia brown effect its faction really doesnt matter. i guess the difference is for resourcing. but if it was neutral you'd have 6 cards that dont provide a match to anything, as opposed to nearly the same thing unless you have a yog deck. i guess its kinda like sprinkling snow graves in a deck. alittle weird but i dont think it hurts the card that much.

Wow. This thread fell off the first page with only 6 comments. That really surprises me, I would have thought new cards would spur some interest.

I'll throw my personal comments up for this set too. I did catch a little grief for 'exposing the secrets of play testing' for the last two. I was told they want to keep it quite in case they decide to use our ideas later. We get no credit for our work or ideas, what we send is largely ignored, but they want to keep it secret so they can use our work later. Seems fair.

So these are my thoughts on the set, any similarity between what I say now and what I said in play testing is strictly coincedental.

Agency:

Repo Man: Common| Character| Cost 2| Skill 2 | Combat Icon | Text: GOVERNMENT If you win a combat struggle at a story to which Repo Man is committed, instead of the normal struggle effects, take control of a support card controlled by the losing player.T&T has this one about right.
Unless your opponent has a really annoying support card, Forgotten Isle or such, it's still better to wound. An extra combat would have helped the character be usable on his own with his ability as a bonus and not as the main reason for playing him

Dynamite: Common | Support | Cost 2 | Text: ITEM WEAPON Attach to an Agency character. ACTION: Discard dynamite from play to wound all charactrs committed to the same story as attached character.
OK mass removal, devistating against the Coach Grabowski meta. Ravager does the same every round though.

Miskatonic U:

Howard Ludvinski: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 4 | Skill 3 | Combat 2xInvestigation Icons | Text: ARTIST ACTION: Trigger a non-conspiracy story card in your won story pile. Shuffle it back into the story deck befre its effect resolves.
Junk, junk, junk. Dumping a third of your win condition for a one off effect? An effect that you don't have much control over? One that will probably hit you as hard as your opponent? And not conspiracies? Junk.

Academic Obfuscation: Common | Support | Cost 2 | Text: ATTACHMENT Attach to a story card. Opponents need 2 additional success tokens to win attached story.
OK, giant improvement over the original.

Syndicate:

Brazen Hoodlum: Common | Character | Cost 2 | Skill 3 | Combat Icon | Text: CRIMINAL Characters without a combat icon committed to the same story as Brazen Hoodlum do not count their skill.
It is a nice card. Good cost for skill and effect. Just remember it effects you as well.

Blackball Jim: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 3 | Skill 1 | Combat, Investigation Icons | Text: SORCERER RESPONSE: After you succeed at a story to which Blackball Jim is committed, drain one of your domains to drain an opponent's domain. If your domain has more resources attached than your opponent's place an additional success token on that story.
Meh. An extra token is OK, better if you can do it twice after getting 3 on a story. But having it depend on your opponent's domains being empty hurts it to unplayable.

Vengeful Mob: Common | Event | Cost 2 | Text: RESPONSE: After you lose a combat struggle, choose an opponent's character. If that character has fewer combat icons than all of your characters that are not committed to a story, wound the target character.
OK, but overcosted. Syndicate usually has a large number of characters out and if something keeps you off stories, it's a little payback

Nocturnal Scavenger: Uncommon | Character | Cost 2 | Skill 2 | Combat Icon | Text: MONSTER RESPONSE: After you win a combat struggle, pay X to choose and destroy an attachment card with printed cost X or lower.
If it was destroy a Support card, this would be amazing. Attachment makes it just passable with it's cost & skill. Of course with the attachment blizzard we're getting, it may get better as the packs go along.

Muddy Waters: Uncommon | Support | Cost 2 | Text: LOCATION RESPONSE: After a character enters a discard pile, exhaust Muddy Waters to exhaust a character.
"on par with the old Forgotten Isle card." not even close, Skippy.

Long-Dead Prince: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 1 | skill 1 | Combat Icon | Text: HIGH PRIEST TOUGHNESS +1 ACTION: If Long Dead Prince is wounded, return him to his owner's hand.
Nice but unique hamstrings it a good bit. Since it's not a Disrupt, you only get one use out him before he goes back to hand.

Infernal Obsession: Uncommon | Unique Support | Cost 3 | Text: MADNESS ATTACHMENT. Attach to a non-ancient one character. While attached, you gain control of attached character. (If Control changes again, discard Infernal Obsession from play.)
Seems all right.

Yog Sothoth:

The Sleepwalker: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 2 | Skill 2 | Terror Arcane icons | Text: SERVITOR RESPONSE: After The Sleepwalker commits to a story, choose an opponent's character with a combat icon. That character cannot commit to the same story as The Sleepwalker.
OK, not sure if it's worth replacing Julia for.

Across Dimensions: Uncommon | Event | Cost 2 | Text: SPELL Play only if every character you control has the Yog Sothoth affiliation. ACTION: Until the end of the phase, each Yog Sothoth character gains X combat icons, where X is the number of Yog Sothoth characters in play.
Should have been an always-on support card.

Shub Niggurath:

Gibbering Soul: Common | Character | Cost 1 | Skill 1 | No Icons | TExt: UNDEAD RESPONSE: After Gibbering Soul is destroyed, search your deck for a shub niggurath character with a combat icon, reveal it, and place it in your hand. Then shuffle your deck.
nice all around

Ghoulis Thrill Seeker: Common | Character | Cost 3 | Skill 1 | Terror, Combat Icons | Text: MONSTER INDEPENDENT UNDEAD RESPONSE: After a character is wounded, ready Ghoulish Thrill Seeker.
Over costed. if a character is wounded, destroyed or goes insane would have made him more usable.

Eat the Dead: Common | Support | Cost 1 | Text: ATTACHMENT Attach to a character you control. RESPONSE: When attached character is destroyed, attach it and Eat the Dead to any domain you control as resources.
Good resource boost ability.

Neutral:

The Cornered Man: Uncommon | Character | Cost 4 | Skill 4 | 3xcombat Icons | Text: INVESTIGATOR TOUGHNESS +2 HEROIC DISRUPT: After you win a combat struggle in which The Cornered Man participated, wound the Cornered Man to immediately resolve another combat struggle at that story.
Needs another combat icon. And why are there so many Icon struggle disrupts?

Secret Stiletto: Common | Support | Cost 1 | Text: ATTACHMENT WEAPON Attach to a character you control. DISRUPT: After you win a combat struggle by at least 3 icons at a story to which attached character is committed, pay 2 to choose and wound a character controlled by the losing opponent.
meh. Winning by three Icons is cost enough, paying two makes it junk. Being an attachment hurts to, exhaust to use support would have been better.

Antediluvian Dreams: Common | Event | Cost 2 | Text: Play during your story phase, before characters are committed to stories. ACTION: Resolve an additional combat struggle at all stories this phase.
Re-junk. Same as the other cards of this type, "before characters are committed to stories" kills the usefulness this card.

Ask Questions Later: Uncommon | Conspiracy| Cost 2 | Terror Combat Combat Arcane investigation struggles | Text: CONSPIRACY If you win this conspiracy, you may wound all characters in play.
"Wow, this is nice conspiracy" Are you dumb? If you've won this Conspiracy, you have some kind of advantage in character numbers or quality that you're going to wipe out before your opponents turn, giving him a clear field for his turn. Again, Conspiracies need to have a clear advantage for the winner to merit deck space and their cost. If it wounded your opponents characters only, it would worth while. As is, you need all Toughness characters and a ton of set up to make it not hurt you, set up that can be used better to win regular stories.

Donald said:

I think what you're missing is that there is a Non-Disclosure Agreement that you're supposed to you know... agree to when you playtest.

Kennon said:

Is that how it was when you play tested?

Coach Grzbowski meta stabs crack me up every time.

I think the insider stories are great. I think the information shared by playtesters such as Donald have only served to add interest to the game. Sure, if I were FFG and felt game integrity was compromised, I might have a different take. The ability of a playtester to voice publicly his disagreement about a card, or to reveal how a card develops should not be compromised. That a playtester can share with the community and remain a playtester is a good sign that FFG is not being heavy handed, even when second guessed by someone in the know.

My review of the new AP will be brief. Fearing I'd pan it outright when I first espied the new release, I waited. Blackball Jim looks cool. The Sleepwalker looks great. Long-Dead Prince looks nice too. Gibbering Soul looks strong. Unique Infernal Obsession is nice too. But the pack kinda bores me, I am sorry to write. Sure, no classics are in the pack. But that's not my problem. I keep flipping through the new twenty, and find myself not slowing down for a card. Sure, roller coasters go back over a century, but 'm not sold on that card not being a silly anachronism, fun though I admit Ghoulish Thrill Seeker looks. Good thing the ancient three-thousand year old Long-Dead Prince is reclaiming his throne. Otherwise the suit is out of step with who he is. Brazen Hoodlum can't touch the beauty of recent SY character Fugitive Scientist. I'm excited about frequent new AP releases. AP 9 AD just kinda feels like it passed us by without fanfare, moreso for its content than for the dearth of fanfare currently around the boards. Summons of the Deep will hopefully bounce back next AP. Hopefully Julia has not run its course.

I would have to disagree with Johnny. I think this AP is the best of all white-bordered APs so far. There are several nice cards, whereas the previous packs basically all had just one or two cards that were worthwhile (talking mixed-borders here).

Here's my quick evaluation (again, from a white and black border viewpoint):

Agency:

Repo Man: Common| Character| Cost 2| Skill 2 | Combat Icon | Text: GOVERNMENT If you win a combat struggle at a story to which Repo Man is committed, instead of the normal struggle effects, take control of a support card controlled by the losing player.

One of the better cards in the pack, huge against Seventh Houses, Isles, Temple of Nephren-Ka, Ancient Gold etc etc. Really a pleasant surprise to see a card like this in Agency.

Dynamite: Common | Support | Cost 2 | Text: ITEM WEAPON Attach to an Agency character. ACTION: Discard dynamite from play to wound all charactrs committed to the same story as attached character.

Costs a bit too much, is an attachment, can only be attached to an Agency character, and the effect isn't that great either. Nah.

Miskatonic U:

Howard Ludvinski: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 4 | Skill 3 | Combat 2xInvestigation Icons | Text: ARTIST ACTION: Trigger a non-conspiracy story card in your won story pile. Shuffle it back into the story deck befre its effect resolves.
High cost, harmful effect, not good by any means. Nice picture though, for what it's worth.

Academic Obfuscation: Common | Support | Cost 2 | Text: ATTACHMENT Attach to a story card. Opponents need 2 additional success tokens to win attached story.

I don't think M.U. wants to play cards like this. Seems ineffienct.

Syndicate:

Brazen Hoodlum: Common | Character | Cost 2 | Skill 3 | Combat Icon | Text: CRIMINAL Characters without a combat icon committed to the same story as Brazen Hoodlum do not count their skill.
Syndicate should be running unopposed most of the time, so I'm not a fan.

Blackball Jim: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 3 | Skill 1 | Combat, Investigation Icons | Text: SORCERER RESPONSE: After you succeed at a story to which Blackball Jim is committed, drain one of your domains to drain an opponent's domain. If your domain has more resources attached than your opponent's place an additional success token on that story.
The draining procedure seems useless. Extra token may be nice, but overall, nah.

Vengeful Mob: Common | Event | Cost 2 | Text: RESPONSE: After you lose a combat struggle, choose an opponent's character. If that character has fewer combat icons than all of your characters that are not committed to a story, wound the target character.
Situational combat trick, no thank you.

Cthulhu:
Nocturnal Scavenger: Uncommon | Character | Cost 2 | Skill 2 | Combat Icon | Text: MONSTER RESPONSE: After you win a combat struggle, pay X to choose and destroy an attachment card with printed cost X or lower.

Reminds me of Master of Silver Twilight. It's not quite efficient enough, but this is a pretty okay card still.

Muddy Waters: Uncommon | Support | Cost 2 | Text: LOCATION RESPONSE: After a character enters a discard pile, exhaust Muddy Waters to exhaust a character.

Slow to use, too small effect.

Hastur:
Long-Dead Prince: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 1 | skill 1 | Combat Icon | Text: HIGH PRIEST TOUGHNESS +1 ACTION: If Long Dead Prince is wounded, return him to his owner's hand.
This guy is pretty good. Better than Street Scholar for sure... Still, he's just a small combat guy, but this one is good. I'll put one in my Hastur/Syndicate disruptive rush.

Infernal Obsession: Uncommon | Unique Support | Cost 3 | Text: MADNESS ATTACHMENT. Attach to a non-ancient one character. While attached, you gain control of attached character. (If Control changes again, discard Infernal Obsession from play.)
Yeah, that's a cool card! Can't wait to grab opposing Khanums. Too bad it' unique, but that's a minor minus. Overall, good job on this one.

Yog Sothoth:

The Sleepwalker: Uncommon | Unique Character | Cost 2 | Skill 2 | Terror Arcane icons | Text: SERVITOR RESPONSE: After The Sleepwalker commits to a story, choose an opponent's character with a combat icon. That character cannot commit to the same story as The Sleepwalker.
Average in all ways.

Across Dimensions: Uncommon | Event | Cost 2 | Text: SPELL Play only if every character you control has the Yog Sothoth affiliation. ACTION: Until the end of the phase, each Yog Sothoth character gains X combat icons, where X is the number of Yog Sothoth characters in play.
Combat trick that doesn't work at all, very bad.

Shub Niggurath:

Gibbering Soul: Common | Character | Cost 1 | Skill 1 | No Icons | TExt: UNDEAD RESPONSE: After Gibbering Soul is destroyed, search your deck for a shub niggurath character with a combat icon, reveal it, and place it in your hand. Then shuffle your deck.
This little guy is amazing. Your opponent doesn't want to kill him, so he's great in quick decks. Tutoring is always nice, and this one does it well. Go find yourself a Hungry Dark Young, Y'Golonac, Swaying Branches or Shub-Niggurath herself.

Ghoulis Thrill Seeker: Common | Character | Cost 3 | Skill 1 | Terror, Combat Icons | Text: MONSTER INDEPENDENT UNDEAD RESPONSE: After a character is wounded, ready Ghoulish Thrill Seeker.
Too costly, un-useful ability, weak overall.

Eat the Dead: Common | Support | Cost 1 | Text: ATTACHMENT Attach to a character you control. RESPONSE: When attached character is destroyed, attach it and Eat the Dead to any domain you control as resources.
Very nice resource acceleration. There's not much of that in white-bordered only, so I'm sure this will be played plenty in the League.

Neutral:

The Cornered Man: Uncommon | Character | Cost 4 | Skill 4 | 3xcombat Icons | Text: INVESTIGATOR TOUGHNESS +2 HEROIC DISRUPT: After you win a combat struggle in which The Cornered Man participated, wound the Cornered Man to immediately resolve another combat struggle at that story.
Again too costly to be good. He might be okay at pushing through in stories, but meh.

Secret Stiletto: Common | Support | Cost 1 | Text: ATTACHMENT WEAPON Attach to a character you control. DISRUPT: After you win a combat struggle by at least 3 icons at a story to which attached character is committed, pay 2 to choose and wound a character controlled by the losing opponent.
Attachment, huge requirements, not a fan. Got to admit though, I think this card will be good in the League play, where the games may be cluttered by hordes of characters.

Antediluvian Dreams: Common | Event | Cost 2 | Text: Play during your story phase, before characters are committed to stories. ACTION: Resolve an additional combat struggle at all stories this phase.
No surprise effect, suffers from the same problems as the previous cards from this cycle.

Ask Questions Later: Uncommon | Conspiracy| Cost 2 | Terror Combat Combat Arcane investigation struggles | Text: CONSPIRACY If you win this conspiracy, you may wound all characters in play.

Conspiracies aren't good in general, and this one isn't an exception. Simply no reason to play this card in your deck.

So the good ones to me are Repo Man, Long Dead Prince, Infernal Obsession, Gibbering Soul and Eat the Dead. That's 5 out of 20. Compared to the Terror and Investigation APs which had 2-3 good cards between them (Called by Azathoth, Under the Porch, maybe Marshall Greene), the Combat AP was a pleasant surprise.

Though our overall opinions diverge, I think we see the same pack. Visually I am less involved with this AP. By Summons comparison, look at Those Without Faces, Fugitive Scientist, Trent Dixon, Sleeping Pills, Underground Asylum, Erich Zann, Unfathomable Elder Thing, or Under the Porch. These are incredible pieces of art. This AP has pretty much none of that. It is less gripping to the eye. Some cards in the new pack are indeed very nice looking and come close. I mention them above – Jim, Prince, Sleepwalker, Gibbering Soul. I might consider them the second tier of Summons artwork, like Emerging Deep One, Called By Azathoth, The Black Goat’s Rage, or Julia. And there aren’t any dogs in AP 9 AD, mind you. In AP 7 and 8 see Terrifying Visage, Hapless Grad, Book of Eibon, Mind Eater, Fine Tooth Comb. I think the correct board hate word in current use is "meh." I evaluate Nocturnal Scavenger, Brazen Hoodlum, and Dynamite as visually not too strong. Muddy Waters gets a pass, since that’s Marshall face down in there. And Nocturnal Scavenger is very pretty too. I can’t decide. The Dynamite is lineage from Mythos, such an important mythos card, and is not nearly as satisfying. Important to mention the high standard of artwork and formatting this game sets with each release. Masks haters, Blue Clarney detractors stand down. 1,500 tricky cards, sometimes things happen. I didn’t even consider Mountains and Horrors, which further strengthen my point – some dogs but many nuggets.

Infernal Obsessions is the second unique attachment, Whately Diary the first. It is also the first Madness support card. Long-Dead Prince is the only High Priest other than the FC four. AP9 is the first time the AP neutrals line up as one of each card type. Ghoulish Thrill Seeker is the first Independent since Moonlit Phantom and Contract Killer way back in Eldritch Premium times. Funny how we’ve encountered Fire Vampires, Vampire Swarms and Vampire Stalkers, Nightgaunts, Shambling Zombies, Restless Dead, Living Mummy, Cannibal Ghasts, but not until now the Undead subtype, twice.

Two quick ones:

"meh" to me has always meant "I don't care" or "why would I bother with", a sign of a weak card (or art), something that does not grip you and makes you want to play it: Blasphemous Hybrid is meh.

I think Nightgaunts and Fire Vampires are not undead.

I just noticed that Long Dead Prince is the only one cost character with toughness besides Innsmouth Troublemaker. And he's the classic cheap tough.

Hasturs other low cost tough is Repairer of Reputations, cost two. What else could both border mono-Hastur need to be top tier? Cancelation and insanity, add cheap toughness. I still think insanity needs even more kick. But what.

And Blasphemous Hybrid was one of the first scary hotties. Ishe's been errattaed to cost one not loyal. Just add pen.