Looking Toward Nationals

by Chris Long

As the weather cycles and spring approaches, you can feel the changes in the air. The sun is shining longer and the flowers are beginning to poke out of the ground. The birds are singing and the bees are stinging, and all is as it should be.

But most importantly, the Call of Cthulhu LCG National championship tournaments will be starting soon. Just a month and a half away, Nationals loom upon the horizon with impending doom to some, and the possibility of glory and victory for others. The ultimate question is asked again and again, as the choices stampede through your mind…

What will you play?

In today's article, I'm going to quickly run through some of the top decks in the tournament metagame right now, and discuss how they may have changed with the release of the last two Asylum packs, Conspiracies of Chaos and Dunwich Denizens. So without further ado, let's take a look at the decks.

Mono-Cthulhu — walking loudly and carrying a giant stick is our winner from last year, mono-Cthulhu. This deck is straightforward, fast, and destructive. If you implement a conspiracy-based strategy with this deck, you'll get some of the most effective and versatile removal in the game, but do you really need it? The real star from the last two Asylum packs is Devil's Hop Yard, which does two things very well. It shuts down the Assistant to Dr. West's and the Mentor to Vaughn's saving abilities, and it crushes Cthulhu/Hastur. You can now destroy on a mass scale with impunity. Fear this deck.
Cthulhu/Hastur — one of the few decks which could consistently beat Mono-Cthulhu got dealt a crushing blow in that match-up with the introduction of Devil's Hop Yard. I really can't stress enough how devastating that card is to this deck, and how much better mono-Cthulhu is because this deck can no longer beat it. This deck, which was top dog only two years ago, hangs by a thread to its tier one status.
Mono-Syndicate — the deck everyone loves to hate. The Rip-Off persistently refuses to go away, and now things have been made even easier for it, with the introduction of Ancient Gold. With more easy cost reduction, expect this deck to continue to stick around. However, at the same time it was dealt a crushing blow from Dunwich in the form of Negotium Parambulans. This card will shut down Syndicate rush instantly, and can almost guarantee a loss. What that means is that Mono-Syndicate needs to evolve from the super-rush deck type it currently has, into a something much more sinister. But it has the tools to do it. I would expect to see a new and evolved Syndicate emerge this tournament season.
Mono-Shub — the last two Asylum packs added interesting and versatile cards to Shub's arsenal. However, how many of these will be making their way into the tournament build of this deck? It's tough to say. Lavinia has given some powerful additional search abilities, which combo nicely with Stone on the Peak and especially Fungal Colony. Stone on the Peak is a great offensive weapon against Yog and the Assistant, and it does a good job of hosing Infinite Discard (or at the very least slowing it down significantly). But giant characters and brute force is still Shub's pathway to victory, so expect the deck to dominate the story phase. Ultimately, this deck needs character removal, and Nodens provides it better than anything else. I doubt this deck will see much change but I'd look for a few surprise victories from this one. Mama Shub is good to her true-believers.
Infinite Discard — I was really expecting this one to pull out a victory at last year's World championship tournament, and I still think it's the deck-type to beat. Using the combo kings, Yog and Shub, this deck has lightning fast deck filtering, and some pretty impressive stalling capabilities. Constantly threatening turn-two wins means that this deck is something you need to watch out for and plan around. Stone on the Peak was a bad blow to this deck, but realistically, it won't stop it. The Achilles heel for this deck is resource destruction. It needs all its domains free for its fun, unending combo, and if it can't get that, it probably won't be able to hold you off long enough. Shub can also hurt it badly with the support destruction available to it. With so many people now thinking about and gunning for this deck, I doubt we'll see it much in Nationals, but it could pull out some surprise victories.

So those are the major players from last year. But as always, it's good to take a look at the rest of the factions and see if there are any dark horses which could emerge from the field to take a victory. Some decks to watch out for include…

Mono-Yog — the combo kings haven't gotten a lot of attention lately, but they've always been hanging around the fringes waiting to surprise everyone with a big win. Dunwich Denizens gave this faction some amazing destruction, and an even more amazing character, Wilbur Whateley, with just about everything you could want. Great icons and an amazing ability to turn into a won story means that your opponent cannot ignore this guy. The Yog faction is great at tool-boxing and having a solution to just about everything. The question is whether or not they'll be able to stay consistent enough to wind up on top.
Agency/Syndicate Run N Gun — Always a strong deck-type in the past, I predict these guys will give the other decks a run for their money. Syndicate has so many great tricks, and Agency is the bully of the block. They're fast, they're resourceful, and they have answers to just about everything. Canine Guardian, Ancient Gold, and the Conspiracies have done great things for this deck, but only time will tell.
Shub/MU — This pairing works surprisingly well together, since they share almost all the same strategies. Weenie rush combined with icon removal will go a long way, especially when you get the chance to use the best of both faction's little tricks. The deck filtering that MU has available seems to work out best when paired with the heavy-hitters that Shub can deliver. This deck is still vulnerable to Nodens, but turns out some surprising wins against even the biggest players. And if you build towards Nyarlathotep, you have a solid character control strategy. This deck is a tough player with tricks up its sleeve that most aren't prepared for.
Mono-Hastur — You'd think that the introduction of Devil's Hop Yard would completely kill the chances of this deck making it in top-level tournament. Well, you'd be right. The not-quite-ready-for-prime-time-player here was slowly climbing out of the basement, and shaping up to be a great dark horse winner, when it got dealt a crushing blow with that card. Still, there's light at the end of the tunnel for this deck. Character stealing and returning to hand are much more effective than they look at first glance, and Mono-Cthulhu is its only really bad match-up. In addition, this deck does surprisingly well against most of the other tier-one decks. So while it remains a long-shot, you can't ignore the manipulation of He Who Shall Not Be Named.

So that's it for my pre-Nationals analysis of the competitive metagame. I think that the new Asylum packs have offered up a number of new strategies to explore, and some great cards that will seriously shift the tier-one deck-types around.

In addition to the new packs, however, I think there are lots of existing cards which can be used to bring down the current top decks. It just takes a little creativity, planning, and above all, lots of testing. Ultimately, my opinion doesn't matter. It's all about what you think and how you'll use that information.

Good luck with your deck building!