Okay, I played M:TG a long time ago and basically got tired of the whole common, uncommon, rare, super mega-f*#king rare setup.

So, now, after playing Culdcept Saga (a wonderfully light boardgame/ccg on the Xbox 360), I decided to see what had become of the CCG market for kicks and discovered CoC: LCG.

I understand the Core Set has a fixed collection of cards, but what about the Asylum packs? Does each of those have the same exact make-up of cards as well? I've always wanted to have a complete set so I could make whatever deck I wanted, but that became way too expensive for my tastes.

Okay, I think I've answered my own question to where every Asylum Pack has the same set of cards. Bonus!

So, on to the sets.

During my research, I've seen the following APs:

Call of Cthulhu - Ancient Horrors Asylum Pack
Call of Cthulhu - Mountains of Madness Asylum Pack

Current Cycle:
Call of Cthulhu LCG - Spawn of the Sleeper Asylum pack
Call of Cthulhu LCG - The Horror Beneath the Surface Asylum Pack
Call of Cthulhu LCG - The Antediluvian Dream Asylum Pack
Call of Cthulhu LCG - The Terror of the Tides Asylum Pack
Call of Cthulhu LCG - The Thing from the Shore Asylum pack
Call of Cthulhu LCG - The Path to Y'ha-nthlei Asylum pack

Is it best to just start with the current cycle or are the previous two sets still valid (and with the white borders)?

All those you have mentioned are valid and tournament legal, even in a white-border only environment. The more different AP's you can find, the bigger your deckbuilding options are.

And, as you found out, all contents of AP's are fixed, so once you know the contents, you know what you get.

You can always use the Deckbuilder software found at eric.minet.free.fr/cocbuilder/dbdownl_en.htm to figure out what set contains what...

Culdcept Saga? Yeah, that is a great game! I've been playing it on my weekends and slowly building my collection. It's really deep!

Yes, it was actually Culdcept Saga that made me look around at "real" card games again. It's a nice solo and multiplayer game for non-serious gamers. Surprisingly, my best friend love its, but it's now getting harder to find on the shelves and online. The only problem with the game is being able to see the other players hand. It ruins being able to surprise your opponent.

Back on topic, I have another question.

So, is each Core Set w/APs going to be a block/cycle that should be considered a whole package (ie Julia Brown)? For instance, if the following is the block/cycle:

Core Set
Call of Cthulhu LCG - Spawn of the Sleeper Asylum pack
Call of Cthulhu LCG - The Horror Beneath the Surface Asylum Pack
Call of Cthulhu LCG - The Antediluvian Dream Asylum Pack
Call of Cthulhu LCG - The Terror of the Tides Asylum Pack
Call of Cthulhu LCG - The Thing from the Shore Asylum pack
Call of Cthulhu LCG - The Path to Y'ha-nthlei Asylum pack

are all of the Core Set/APs designed around this block/cycle? So, then we'd get a new Core Set every year or so with a new block/cycle a la Magic?

I saw that there are two APs (AH/MoM). How do they fit or are they just standalones?

Since the friends that I have that would play this sort of game is rather limited, my plan is to treat CoC like a "boardgame" for those friends. In other words, I would purchase two of everything to give the second player access to the same cardpool. Yes, a rather freaking expensive boardgame, but I'm willing to do since it's a hell of a lot better than buying a booster box (and expecting someone else to buy into it).

Okay, since I can't find any Edit button for my previous post, I'd like to clarify my block/cycle question.

I was essentially asking if the cards are designed and balanced against each other for the Core Set and six(?) APs. So, if another Core/AP set were released afterwards, would the previous block/cycle still work well or break cards in the previous block/cycle.

Additionally, I asked about if the Ancient Horrors and Mountains of Madness APs fit somewhere into the current block/cycle or if they were standalones? After examining the cards in the Deckbuilder application, I see some very specific Polar events in MoM that don't seem to mesh well with everything else I have seen discussed, so I planned to pretty much skip it, but keep AH as it seems more "general" and has the interesting Dark Druid character.

EDIT: Hah, okay, it seems you can't edit your first few posts?

Buatha asked: "I was essentially asking if the cards are designed and balanced against each other for the Core Set and six(?) APs. So, if another Core/AP set were released afterwards, would the previous block/cycle still work well or break cards in the previous block/cycle."

My response will be only opinion, as I have no special insight into the inner workings of FFG. I'm sure the cards in the core set and six related APs are INTENDED to be well balanced. Whether or not they are will likely be a topic of hot discussion once the sixth AP is released. So, intent, YES, practice, TO BE DETERMINED.

Your second question about how the following block will interact with the existing core set must be answered "There is no way to tell", but I'm confident FFG will try to make the blocks/cycles compatible.

Buatha asked: "Additionally, I asked about if the Ancient Horrors and Mountains of Madness APs fit somewhere into the current block/cycle or if they were standalones? After examining the cards in the Deckbuilder application, I see some very specific Polar events in MoM that don't seem to mesh well with everything else I have seen discussed, so I planned to pretty much skip it, but keep AH as it seems more "general" and has the interesting Dark Druid character."

Ancient Horrors and MoMadness packs got caught in a bit of a transition time period. They weren't intended to be 'stand-alone', but to give new options to the cardlist existing at the time.

The decision was made to make borders white with Mountains of Madness, and created a massive unrest and lots of complaint in the player community. Became clear it was a purely business decision, not an artistic or style choice. Polar events and labels occurr, so far as I know, only in that AP, so if you don't want to make theme decks in cold places, you can probably skip MoM.

Some of the non-polar MoM cards are very useful for the general game, however. So, finally, it will be your personal choice. My advice would be not to over-think it, and spend the ten bucks for one MoM pack to try it out.

Are you enjoying the game, I hope, Buatha? Sounds like you may be allowing it to give you a little heartburn, and that would be a shame.

Chick

Interesting how Mountains and Horrors preface this cycle, but are legit white border cards for any play that distinguishes. They really do kinda float out there, with four black border AP preceding, and a cycle after. One .607 Water Street-type effort to bring in a Polar event, and by effect both these AP, would be synergistic.

Well, I'll let you know, since I took the plunge and bought Two Core sets and two copies of the "current" LCG APs minus the MoM (for now). As stated in my previous post, I plan to make a "package" out of the current cycle so that each player will have access to the exact same card pool. Granted, this is an extreme approach, but a majority of my friends either only play Magic or only play board games. So, no one would probably get the stuff on their own (sad, I know).

Thanks for the replies, by the way.