Into the Darkness

by Morgan Stana

The ideal entry point for the Call of Cthulhu Living Card Game is coming out this October, but if you canʼt wait until then to get into this great game, youʼll need a place to start. This short article will guide you to that place, and assist you in starting and building your own Call of Cthulhu LCG collection.

Ask your Friendly Local Game Store if theyʼre able to order the cards that youʼd like. Most of them are more than willing to place special orders through their distributor to get you what you need.

Eldritch Edition Premium Starter decks are a great place to start working your way into the madness. With two decks and a complete rulebook, both you and a friend can get an appetizing taste of the game.

The most recent Asylum Packs are the next place to turn. The first two Asylum Packs sold out at FFG, but Asylum Packs 3 and 4 are available for purchase, and the first two might be able to be found at your local game store. These are the most up-to-date cards, and these fixed, 40 card packs will provide a nice introduction to the customizable aspect of the game.

Asylum Pack 5, Conspiracies of Chaos, adds a new card type to the game -- the conspiracy. Conspiracy cards are just like story cards, only you can play them from your hand. Dunwich Denizens featured many of the characters and locations from H.P. Lovecraftʼs The Dunwich Horror.

To get even deeper into the CoC metagame, you will want to look into some boosters. Whether youʼd like a set that has a little more focus on your favorite card type, or youʼd like to see more characters from your favorite Lovecraftian horror, all of the card sets are currently legal, so you have many choices from which to build your collection. Each of the following sets will add its own unique flavor to your CoC experience by unveiling its own glimpse of the Lovecraftian mythos.

ARKHAM EDITION
It all began with Arkham Edition, the first base set for the Call of Cthulhu LCG. Our warehouse is sold out of Arkham Edition booster packs, so if you find any of these cards at a local store or on the secondary marketplace, you should pick them up, as they are hard to come by. You can still get a taste of Arkham Edition CoC with the Arkham Edition starter decks, which come in two varieties: the Investigators deck and the Mythos deck.

UNSPEAKABLE TALES
The Unspeakable Tales expansion set is a powerful set that was designed around the Story phase. A new set of the "faction boss" Great Old Ones (Cthulhu, Hastur, Yog- Sothoth, and Shub-Niggurath) enter the game with this set, which also features a set of Environment support cards that attach to story cards, changing the circumstances of that story.

FORBIDDEN RELICS
The Forbidden Relics expansion set is a "fun-first," combo-oriented set that is built around a number of Artifact cards with "feeder" effects that scale in effectiveness as more and more of them come into play. A number of interesting combo decks emerged with this set, some of which have withstood the test of time and are still a viable part of the current CoC metagame.

ELDRITCH EDITION
Eldritch Edition was the second base set for the Call of Cthluhu LCG and it was designed with the draft experience in mind, so if youʼre looking to draft the CoC LCG, start here! The effectiveness of the cards in this set was not limited to the draft scene, and an emphasis on the gameʼs unique resource system reinvented the game. Transient resources that disappeared when used, ritual events that came back turn after turn, and cards that buffed off of a playerʼs domains were all mechanical features of the set, along with the usual crew of Investigators, Scientists, Criminals, Monsters, and Great Old Ones that you would expect to find in a CoC base set.

MASKS OF NYARLATHOTEP
Based on Chaosiumʼs famous RPG campaign setting with which it shares a name, the Masks of Nyarlathotep expansion set is an overtly flavorful, theme-first foray into a Lovecraftian world of mystery and horror. Mask cards and Avatars of Nyarlothotep abound, adding immersive layers to the previously established themes of the Eldritch Edition block.

FORGOTTEN CITIES
The Forgotten Cities expansion was the final randomized booster set for the CoC card game. Thematically, this set focuses on the alliances formed between the factions to discover the forgotten cities of H.P. Lovecraft lore. In the game, this was represented with the establishment of "buddy faction" cards, which work best when two factions are built together in a deck. And what is a search for a forgotten city, without the prize? A number of Lost City cards can be found in the boosters of this set.

I hope this overview is helpful as you take your first steps into the darkness of the Call of Cthulhu card game. Itʼs not too late for a new player to put together a competitive deck for the upcoming National Championship tournament season. (Iʼll be following the same path myself!) Until then, Cthulhu awaits!