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Call of Cthulhu LCG: Demos and Possible league play
So the other day I picked up a second Core set and a few expansion packs for the Call of Cthulhu LCG. After seeing how Game of Thrones took off in the store, I'd like to see the same happen for the Call of Cthulhu LCG.
Call of Cthulhu is a card game where players try to uncover / resolve plots while trying to keep your opponent from doing the same. To do this you will employ characters, monsters, figures, artifacts, events, and locations from the Cthulhu Mythos. For example, you could summon a horde of deep ones or even Cthulhu himself to help you out; or you can lead a team of investigators. You can also successfully mix and match all of the factions, the only restriction seems to be that you can't control villians and heroes at the same time.
The game plays a lot like Magic the Gathering, however, instead of reducing your opponents life to zero you try to win three stories by dominating the story phase. Another big difference (and one that I really like) is that resource system greatly reduces the chances of 'mana screw' where you don't get enough resources to play your cards as every card can also be used as a resource of its own type.
As an LCG Call of Cthulhu is sold in non random expansion packs, which means that you always know what your getting before you buy it (with a little research...). The core set is enough for two players to start playing casually (assuming both players didn't both want to use the same factions). The game is also about to become a lot less expensive to play competitively as expansions are going to start including playsets of all of the included cards.
My plan is to run demos for people interested during the weekends. Post here or PM me if you want to set up a time to play. If enough people become interested I'll see about getting enough cards for a number of people to play in a league.
I'm thinking that the first league will be decks that are simply all of the cards from two of the factions in the starter set. I'll break my collection back down into the starter sets and people will be able to choose two of the available chunks, or they can buy their own starter set getting around the limited availability of my cards. We would track win/loses for a week or two and learn a bunch about the game.
After that we could see about doing some actual constructed play, maybe with the official league kit from Fantasy Flight. I'm also considering a cube draft format tournament if we get enough players.
Full rules, FAQ, tutorials, and resources can be found here.
For those that played the original CCG there have been a few changes. Minimum deck size is now 50 cards and the maximum number of copies of a card title (not card title plus descriptor) is 3. If you'd like to break out your old cards, I'd certainly be interested in trying my Hastur/Agency deck against you.
I actually still have quite a few cards from when it was still a collectible card game and feel its ashame that I havn't played a game for several years now.
It is, hands down, the best card game I've ever played.
Does the non-collectible characteristic now hose my decks? What I mean is, are certain cards be unavailable now? Or did they just take everything they had made so far and put them in box sets, rather than 'random packs'?
The way you speak, its sounds like you can still trade cards to get more of something and still make your own theme decks, and you don't have to worry about buying lots and lots of random card packs hoping to get what you want...which is exciting.
I'm going to try to make it to the store this sunday...I'll bring my cards if I do.
I've been doing plenty of research concerning the game and it doesn't look like the LCG decks will hose a CCG deck. Rules wise they are compatible. The first couple of expansions were more or less all new cards, but newer sets seem to be close to 25% new and 75% reprints. A casual CCG deck should do just fine against a casual LCG deck.
The card pool for the LCG is still pretty limited (about to get a big boost with the Secrets of Arkham expansion), so if you had a competitive CCG deck it will probably mop the floor with a competitive LCG only deck. There are already enough cards in the LCG that I feel confident people can make some interesting / fun / effective decks. The general concensus on the Fantasy Flight forums is that the card pool isn't quite up to the point where a competitive combo deck could emerge, but it is close. There is plenty of synergy and a few game winning combos; the majority of the card interactions would be better described as good synergy than straight up combo. Other strategies appear to be alive and well, several different control decks seem possible with just the core set and a few expansions. Tribal decks appear to be competitive currently (investigators, Ghouls, Deep Ones, and Dreamers) and with the next expansion it looks like Mi-go might become extremely good (they basically have the sliver mechanic from Mtg). Weenie decks apparently are very popular in competitive play. Monster decks are quite possible as well (where you stall the game until your big ancient one comes out and smacks people around). There is no net decking in CoC right now, which means creativity is still alive.
I'd say try your old decks out against the LCG and see how you do.
It appears that fantasy flight has been avoiding cards that warped the metagame in the past (resource manipulation, combo pieces, pure stall cards, resuable removal that doesn't involve commiting to a story). The game has also lacked a reliable way to clear the board which will change with the next expansion which will include Dimensional Rift (forces all players to sacrifice all characters and support cards). There are also signs that there are cards they plan to release that just haven't made it in yet (for instance there are a few cards that interact with artifacts, but only one artifact has been printed so far).
Hmmm...interesting.
My best deck will probably be too good then. LOTS of board control.
My monster decks might be playable though...
I don't suppose there is a card list somewhere? That way I can see what is kosher in my decks.
Better than a card list; there is a deck building program.
Fantasy Flight cracked down on the use of their artwork, so the full card image feature doesn't work anymore, however, it includes every set released so far (including the ccg sets).
If you want to know how many of each card are included in the expansion packs there are spoiler lists on boardgame geek that list the quantity of the cards. Unique cards are pretty much always singletons in the packs, but that isn't the only rule of thumb. Soon every expansion will have playsets, so it won't be as much of an issue.
Ok, I THINK I'm doing this right. I found the "exclusions" button and it allows me to only show whats available for the new set (and take out all the CCG cards).
Wow...I have ALOT of stuff that isn't in the new sets. Trashed pretty much every deck I have. :(
How hard is it to find Mad Genius cards? Thats one I always wanted more of...
I'm pretty sure that Mad genius is in the core set. Very easy to find a core set, however, the core set is the most pricey of the packs (partially because it comes with tokens, counters, and a game board). On the plus side you'll also get a copy of many other great cards like T-men, undercover security, power drain, several ancient ones, many of the named characters from the ccg days. The core set is pretty much all reprints, so that might be a draw back if you had an extensive collection. A good chink of the cards in the core set were rares in previous lives.
Combo and board control cards probably haven't been reprinted yet. Many of the cards that directly add or remove success tokens without needing to commit to a story are no shows (like historic discovery). With the reprint of dimensional rift (colorless akromas vengence for magic players) the game will have a reset switch to punish players that overextend. My understanding is that back in the ccg days Cthulhu was the wrath of god color with mass removal (not so much right now unless you count the ravager)..
Ugh....I'll miss my Thaumaturgic Prodegies tomes....
I'd love to try out the game. As it is, I have no source of income, so I couldn't buy a core set and expansions yet in order to build a neat deck.
I'll bet somebody could provide a deck for trying it out...
Yup...I have 3 decks to play. They're not play legal technically (since alot of my cards aren't even reprinted yet in any expansion), but I assume the game hasn't really changed otherwise.
Not sure when I'll be up there next, but I'll bring the cards anyways.
Don't worry about buying cards right away. I have enough cards in my collection to make several really good / consistent decks. A few people have ccg decks, but few people have much in the way of LCG cards.
For the league play and demos that I have in mind (assuming enough players show interest) I have enough cards to get several people up and running.
Played a few games so far and it has been a lot of fun. Still working out the kinks in my Agency/Hastur deck.
Looks like Patrick and I will be meeting to play on Thursday after I get out of work (5:30 or so). So if anybody wants to check the game out that would be a good time to watch / play / have a demo.
In other news, the new expansion should be out this week and it has a few really fun cards in it. For instance, would you like to fight against a horde of monsters using a Lightning Gun? How about the ability to open a dimensional rift that destroys everything when things get out of hand? How about a Deep One that murders another investigator when it arrives on the scene? If that isn't good enough how about enlisting the aid of Hyrda the deep one mother to spawn an army of Deep Ones.
The lightning gun is really fun, it makes the holder slightly better at the combat struggle, but forces two additional combat struggles. This is really excellent for any deck that expects to win during the combat phase. I even have a little combo in mind for this card; Anicent Ones and Elder Gods beware Halflings with Lightning Guns! The dimensional rift is a really flexible reset button, unlike anything else in the LCG (the ccg had several). Deep One Rising is creature removal and a solid deep one all in the same package. The Hydra is a big old ancient one that builds a lot of card advantage and really looks / feels powerful. Every faction has goodies, but those really stood out for me.
For those that know the lingo, several fairly strong day / night cards are going to be included in the expansion as well, so those themes will be strengthened. Certain cards assert that it is day or night, when the transition happen all of the cards of the other type are destroyed (these are mostly support cards and unique characters). Some other cards have big bonus's or draw backs depending on if it is night or day. The idea being that some monsters are scarier at night, and some heroes are bolstered by the safety of the day time. There are also a few monsters that are meaner during the day, and some investigators that are at home in the dark.
There is also a neat article up on the fantasy flight website that describes a few of the new mechanics / character types that are going to appear in the next story arc. Snakemen, lunatics, lose ethics, and contracts/pacts.
Sorry about that, I didn't mean for it to sound like I thought I couldn't play. I know our community, and the willingness to let people borrow things and playtest games. I just mean that I'll be plumb out of luck if I really enjoy the game and want to play it more. I'd love to try it out, and I probably will. I just don't know if I can stick with it for the long run.
Going to be at the store between 5:30 and 7 tomorrow (May 7th) for Call of Cthulhu. Patrick and a few others should be there.
I will have available:
A Mi-go deck. Horrible fungus bug aliens from another time, space, and dimension. These beings from beyond gain strength from each other. Each one makes the collective stronger. (The mechanics of thing deck are similar to slivers from Magic the Gathering. Add in some graveyard recursion and deck search for some tricky moves).
A Hastur-Agency deck. Originally I intended for this deck to be the police working with eccentric, but strangely clued in, aristocrats. Sadly the aristocrats were replaced with a collection of familiars of the king in yellow. Hard boiled cops work to solve cases while nightmare creatures coincidentally help them out; is it mere coincidence or does the king in yellow have a stake in the out comes of these investigations? (Cheap characters, tons of removal, and a little discard.)
A Syndicate deck. The Syndicate uses hired muscle, specialists, and scare tactics to get to the bottom of the strange events taking place in Arkham. (Lots of exhaustion effects and efficient characters.)
And plenty of cards to make any number of other Call of Cthulhu decks.
If I can get my work done in time I'll be over.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with HP Lovecraft this link contains all of his works. I highly recommend reading 'At the Mountains of Madness' , 'The Dunwich Horror', and 'The Rats in the Walls'.
"This is where apple pie goes when it dies."