2005 Lang Codex Archive

10/28/2005The Brotherhoodby Casey Galvan

Apologies for the late Codex here - this one's my fault. The Codex was submitted on time and then I was simply too busy to post it. It's still dated 10/28 so that all the references to "yesterday" and "this week" make sense. -ed.

If you joined us yesterday, we covered two different cards that touched on the attachment and Transient themes in Masks of Nyarlathotep. So far most of the articles have been very "mechanical" in nature, granting insight to the minds of the R&D team and their design process. For today's article however, I think we can examine a couple of cards that were included based on their flavorful theme and how that was represented mechanically.

While designing sets based on mechanics first is our philosophy, we put also put a huge emphasis on the game's story and general mood. Even with all the shiny new mechanics, Masks of Nyarlathotep was heavily flavored in theme, and you would expect nothing less from one of the all classic RPG supplements of all time.

The Conspiracy
Nyarlathotep is the creature of 1000 forms, worshipped by thousands of cultists worldwide. Some may belong to the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh, or other, equally sinister groups. It would be almost impossible to name them all, so they fall under the general Brotherhood title. The creative team wanted to somehow represent Nyarlathotep's far reaching influence across the world which R&D touched on with the "sidekick" and avatar cycle in Eldritch Edition. It was a start, but we wanted to cover more ground in this expansion.

So the Crawling Chaos binds different factions that would otherwise have nothing in common. These insane cultists may worship a different avatar but all on some level suspect what Nyarlathotep may truly be. Thus, Brotherhood cards appear in all factions, having "infiltrated" all parts of society, from the hobo to the wealthiest recluse and everything in between, Nyarthlathotep's influence in undeniable. Mechanically speaking, each member of the Brotherhood is part of a chain that interlocks with other cards from the cycle. Its a "snowball" effect. Once you get the ball rolling it picks up steam and can become extremely tough to beat.

We were also sure to include certain relics that these cultists would use in worship of their dark gods. In design speak, we made sure that you can trigger cool effects that work well with the Brotherhood, but can be used without them as well. While the Brotherhood is only a small part of the Masks of Nyarlathotep subset, its one of those general themes I spoke of earlier. It doesn't require new rules, new subtypes or anything too tricky. That said, once you see them in play, you can deduce what kind of deck you might be facing. I think R&D has a lot of room to maneuver with these guys and it should be interesting to see what the future holds for them. A fun theme deck that wins games? It might just be possible.

Thank you for joining me for this week's spoiler series! I enjoyed sharing my thoughts on Mask of Nyarlathotep with my fellow Call of Cthulhu community members. Have a great weekend and join me Monday for an all new Lang Codex before the official release of the brand new expansion for the Call of Cthulhu collectible card game!

10/27/2005Masks Spoiler 5by Casey Galvan

Greetings fellow Cthulhu fanatics! We've been in full spoiler mode this week with Masks of Nyarlathotep around the corner, and today is no different. We've explored the set's core mechanics, while also staying true to the general theme of the game. In the last article, I showcased a couple of "carrot on a stick" like cards, that try to promote the use of new mechanics as best as they can. But as I stated before, they are usually very specialized to ensure intended use. CCG players are tricky, so us folks at R&D have to be even trickier. But while specialized forms of interaction work well in some cases, its not always a good rule of thumb to follow. My apologies for missing yesterday's Codex, so we're going to do a 2 for 1 special today.

Putting the Pieces Together
Its our job as designers and developers to introduce interesting meta game changing cards into the environment. My development philosophy is simple, I believe its up to the players to create the environment and meta game. We certainly don't want to simply create cards and decks that build themselves, because what makes a CCG so fun in the ability to customize your decks and give it that personal twist.

We give you the pieces to the puzzle, but how you put it together is a large part of what makes the game enjoyable. There is no right or wrong way to put it together, and it's our job to make sure that puzzle is constantly evolving and staying enjoyable. Of course, that doesn't mean the R&D team doesn't try to influence it in a certain direction.

Lets look at today's first card, Fixer. Fixer is part of a small cycle of cards that are undercosted provided you have an attachment in play. Some of these characters have their cost reduced (like today's card), or gain additional icons and even special abilities while you control an attachment. Aggressively costed characters that work within a set's core theme is another way R&D tries to subtly influence the meta game. We aim for positive reinforcement that reward players for using new themes, rather than punish them for not using them. We're trying to introduce a new deck type, yet walk the fine line of not making older cards obsolete. If anything, I think that our players will find some hidden gems in sets past that focus on attachments that should make things quite interesting.

Transient, Take Two
So we've explored general themes and set specific mechanics. How about past set mechanics? Many times in an expansion, we'll follow up on the previous set's mechanics. R&D isn't trying to redo or retread on old ground. As I said before, as long as there is interesting design space left, we'll explore it in carefully measured steps. One of the mechanics in Eldritch that didn't have quite the impact we had hoped for was the Transient keyword.

Transient is something that on paper seemed like it would make a much larger impact than it did. Resource acceleration is historically useful in games with a cost curve. Unfortunately, I don't believe there were enough cards in Eldritch to make the mechanic quite as punchy as we'd like. In Masks of Nyarlathotep we revisit Transient with a couple of interesting cards that should hopefully make them a bit more viable in the upper tier tournament deck.

The second card of today's spoilers is Mass Hallucination, part of the Transient subcycle. In the new set we added cards that recycled destroyed Transient resources that are usable early game, when it really matters. M.H. is part of the global Transient effects that trigger from both players use of these resource types. Each faction has its own take on it, and they certainly will add a bit of spice to what we hope will before a more viable deck type than before.

While most of my articles have been about the R&D thought process, tomorrow we're going to take a break from that and talk a little bit about the "fun" cards in the set. A lighter article than usual but will shed a bit of light on the mysterious group alluded to in Eldritch Edition. The Brotherhood deck might make a 7 faction deck viable, but with a small twist. Join me Friday for an all new Lang Codex when we talk about the Brotherhood!

10/25/2005Masks Spoiler 4by Casey Galvan

If you joined us yesterday, I discussed a bit about the development process and why R&D may choose to rotate a specific mechanic. Its a sticky subject, because players usually feel very strongly either for or against mechanic rotation. Today we're going to focus once again on the Mask theme of Masks of Nyarlathotep and twist it a bit. We're going to examine what R&D hopes to accomplish with each mechanic, and just like I said yesterday, it has a lot to do with the current meta game. Today's article is part 1 of a 2 part series in which we'll discuss why a small capture radius is essential in some cases when a new theme is introduced.

Risk vs. Reward
For all you young CCG idealists, the game in which you invest and play with your friends should be fun. It has to be fun to play it, right? The answer is yes, but other than the sake of fun, its important to introduce a new punchy new mechanic that can immediately affect the meta game. While we all want to have fun, most of us also like to win (even though many of us don't like to admit it.) Keeping that in mind, our job in Masks of Nyarlathotep is to take a somewhat fragile theme and make it tourney worthy. After all, the cardinal rule of development is to avoid a stagnant play environment at all costs.

First we must contend with players who want to win. Back before my developer days, I'd create decks to win as efficiently as possible, usually with very little in mind of their opponent's enjoyment. Its a harsh truth (which is absolutely fine) that a member of R&D must face. Creating mechanics and themes designed to be interesting and fun, but yet make an impact on the current environment is tricky. Once we introduce a new mechanic we want to make sure it has a chance to stand up to the rest of the cards in the environment. Usually depending on what that is we'll introduce "safety measures" that increase the chance that players will pick up the new mechanic and use it in their current decks, and hopefully even create an interesting new deck type for tournament play.

Keeping all this in mind, we have to make is so its worth it to include a new theme into a deck. Since the focal point of this set is support card Masks and attachments, the problem is two-fold. Not only do a portion of the new cards rely on Masks to "fuel" their effects, but without them these cards lose much of their effectiveness. Lets look at today's card, M'weru. She is a potent character at cost 4, with the bonus effect of protecting Masks.

Note that its a very specialized protection however that forces you to adopt some new themes, thus accomplishing in a small way our design goals. And as part of R&D and overall general CCG wisdom: specialized effects like these are important lest we include too much support card love, then it usually is used for another purpose and not for the intended effect of protecting Mask support cards.

Today's card is a defensive form of protection which should entice some players to try these guys out. Join me tomorrow when we finish with part two of this article and focus on the more aggressive forms of theme introduction. You don't want to miss this one.

10/24/2005Masks Spoiler 3by Casey Galvan

Greetings again and welcome to the Monday edition of the Lang Codex! If you joined us Friday I showcased 2 mass appeal cards with Arkham Edition flavored mechanics featured in the upcoming expansion, Masks of Nyarlathotep! There is a lot of ground to cover, but today's article is going to cover some general development philosophy R&D uses for the Call of Cthulhu collectible card game. I think it might give you an insight to why we do what we do, and why it might seem sometimes that a certain faction gets an interesting new mechanic each expansion, and why it might not necessarily be followed up on in the next expansion.

The R&D Juggling Act
As many of you are well aware (and in case you're not), Call of Cthulhu, as with all CCGs, is set in general design principles which dictate and evolve with the current "meta game". It may seem redundant, but let me explain this "meta game" to which I constantly refer in my articles. By my definition, the meta game of a CCG is the game within the game, where dominant deck types rise from the rest of the pack, and player's compensate and create counters. For example, you could say the pre errata "rainbow" decks were the hot topic of the Call of Cthulhu meta game. Now keeping in mind that R&D monitors this, we introduce new cards accordingly. Each set we develop new mechanics and cards based on the meta game, thus, it would be fair to say that this affects how far we'll take a certain mechanic.

Some mechanics, like today's card are very big picture and easy to incorporate into any new set because these don't have to fit into a specific theme or subtype. Hastur hand manipulation is something we introduced very carefully in Arkham, and will continue to do so while we feel there is interesting design space left. A specific mechanic also improves its chances of reappearing based on how powerful a certain faction is. Take the Cthulhu faction for example: it has some very potent destroy effects with a large capture radius, so you can deduce that R&D will be very careful on introducing new effects with the same theme. On the other hand, Miskatonic is mainly used as a "splash" faction (if at all) and its safe to say that some of their more powerful affects may reappear until the faction has proven itself to be on equal footing with other top tier tournament factions.

One and Done
In contrast, some mechanics are very much defined by the block in which they appear, and give that block its own identity. You could easily say that Rituals are a huge part of Eldritch, and once we've released Forgotten Cities (that's the name of the 3rd set) we're happy with where it's at. Does this mean we'll never see Rituals again? No. What it does mean however, is it has enough strength to stand on its own and R&D is comfortable with where its at. In the future you might see a couple cards that interact with them, but for the most part we're interested in taking the game in a new and exciting direction.

There are other grey areas however, like the Forbidden Relics Artifact cycle. Some players may perceive this as the "one and done" style of development, where something appears in 1 expansion and is never heard from again. To be fair, I think we accomplished much of what we set out to do and are very comfortable with the current power level of these cards. We won't rule out the possibility of new cards being released in the future, but we did what we set out to do. Similarly, another subtype introduced in an expansion, the Environment, has appeared in the game since Unspeakable Tales. We feel there are other areas to which we can take this and have since released cards that interact with them in most current expansions. Oh yeah, they appear in Masks of Nyarlathotep.

I hope today's article shed some light on why R&D develops new themes and mechanics each set, and why some are showcased each set, while others may be temporarily "retired" each block. We're pleased with the way Masks of Nyarlathotep turned out, and we feel that we balanced the right amount of core Eldritch mechanics with the new Mask theme. Tomorrow, we'll get back to Masks and Attachment themes I've been discussing in my earlier spoilers. Thanks for joining me today and I hope to see you tomorrow!

10/21/2005Masks Spoiler 2by Casey Galvan

Greetings again and welcome to another Edition of the Lang Codex! As promised we're going to spoil a card (or two) a day until the release of Masks of Nyarlathotep. Yesterday's theme focused heavily on Masks of Nyarlathotep's main themes including the new Mask support cards and Avatars of Nyarlathotep.

And while the new set is heavily themed and flavored in this direction, R&D was sure to include plenty of cards that have mass appeal, that won't force anyone to make Masks only decks. Its important from a development standpoint to identify that players want new interesting mechanics each set, but with a familiar feel. Adding new cards to existing strategies is just as important as new themes, and while we're in the Eldritch block we haven't forgotten our roots. Today's cards do just that, and they should since they've been around in different incarnations since Arkham Edition!

A Shotgun Blast By Any Other Name
First lets look at Arkham's Miskatonic proto card draw effect, Unearthing the Ancients (Play during your operations phase. Action: draw 3 cards). I remember with fondness listening to a couple players in my meta talking about how busted this card was. A classic example of card advantage, its nets you 2 cards but only during the operations phase. Essentially, if you play it too early you usually have to drain your "big" domain and might sacrifice a turn in which you might want to play a character or support card. It was the ideal card for a combo/control deck back in the early Arkham days.

Similarly to Unearthing the Ancients, Natural Philosopher also nets you card advantage. It continues the trend that started in Eldritch with Miskatonic University, card draw with a twist. Miskatonic card draw in the Eldritch block doesn't pack the punch its Arkham counterparts may have, but at the expense of a less optimal draw, you get to punish your opponent. You're gaining a character, card selection and making an opponent lose one of his cards, which will not be a small feat in the upcoming expansion and premium starter.

But lets stay on topic for now. Two choices, each providing card advantage in a different way. If you had a choice which would you pick? Ultimately, I think most players would still choose a card that would fit their play style. In other words, if you're looking for my opinion you won't get it. Since both cards are more or less equal sides of the same coin its simply too subjective to be of use in this case. But come Masks of Nyarlathotep, and you just may find out for yourself.

A staple in many decks since Arkham Edition, Shotgun Blast (Action: pay X to choose and wound a character with skill X or lower) holds iconic status due to its wide capture radius and versatility. Enter the T-Men, a fine example of card economy. Potentially creating a 2 character swing (removing your opponent's and gaining 1 yourself) or at the very least freeing up deck space due to its 2 for 1 effect, T-Men has a lot of potential. It is however, essentially operations phase removal at a semi expensive package of 5, but for 5 you can potentially remove a character with greater than 5 skill. It might suit you to include it with another Arkham Edition card, Federal Agent for some much needed synergy.

While you mull these over the weekend, I want to invite you to join me again for another edition of the Lang Codex Monday, when we'll tackle another interesting design principle from Masks of Nyarlathotep!

10/20/2005Masks are Moneyby Casey Galvan

Hello again and welcome to another Edition of the Lang Codex. If you haven't heard by now, the upcoming expansion for the Call of Cthulhu CCG, Masks of Nyarlathotep is hitting stores at the end of the month! Starting today and everyday until the 31st, I'll be doing a little spoiler article culminating in a checklist and special release news and tourney information.

We've got some big plans for Call of Cthulhu, and I can't wait to spoil this stuff! So, without further ado, on with the show.

Unmasking the Messenger
No doubt adding in the Messenger of the Elder Gods in the Eldritch block was tricky. Extremely powerful, and extremely unpredictable, Nyarlathotep can mean victory, or certain doom depending on the situation. From a flavor and design perspective, Masks was created to follow much of Eldritch's footsteps, specifically relating to Nyarlathotep. This messenger to the Elder gods has many incarnations, and this time around we boosted them up a bit mechanically and flavorfully. Nyarlathotep interacts with Masks quite a bit in this set, but like I've said in earlier articles that Masks in Masks of Nyarlathotep are quite literal. Masks act as support cards with interesting effects that have synergy with Eldritch "sidekicks" (the character cycle that benefits from having an Avatar of Nyarlathotep in play) as well as playing a large role in this expansion. Today's spoiler revisits an earlier article showcasing the various uses of the new Masks.

While the primary effects of this new subtype of support card may not shock and amaze you, its how they integrate with the other cards that will shake things up. In this sense, you can consider Masks to be the currency to which you pay and activate the more powerful effects in the set. The first card of today's spoiler showcases such an example, The Dweller in the Darkness.

Most Masks have a printed cost of 0, so essentially you're paying 1 to wound a character without any combat icons, and discarding another as part of the cost. If the character is destroyed, then you're trading 1 for 1, which isn't always optimal since the capture radius of the Dweller's effect is somewhat small given that it can only affect cards without a combat icon, but it has its uses nevertheless. But factor in some much needed toughness and fast, and we have a potent character as well. These avatars are a bit pricier, but don't switch sides and have some boosted stats with abilities that generally act as gravy, but again that depends on how far you want to incorporate the Mask theme in your deck.

But judging some of the effects "fueled" by Masks, you just might want to add in plenty to spare. Even though these Masks usually have a printed cost of 0, they are usually steadfast so you can't just throw in 4 of each faction and call it a deck. So you might have to look at ways to add in support card recursion to your deck. There is always the option of putting in the Mystic Bounty Hunter (ELD C218). But, not all Masks are attachments. And it can potentially help your opponent as well. Do you really want him to get back that Fetch Stick?

Enter Shugoron, card 2 of today's spoiler. It has an extremely specialized form of recursion, but it suits your purpose just fine if you're planning on sacrificing a lot of Masks. Add in some nice icons and toughness and I can see a nice little deck coming together. Oh by the way, there are new ways to reduce the cost to bring these guys in play in Masks of Nyarlthotep, or you can simply Deal with the Devil (ELD R224).

There looks to be some interesting choices in the near future, that's for sure. Be sure to join me tomorrow, when I'll take us down memory lane and talk a bit about some new twists in Masks that have a familiar feel..and they should since they date back to Arkham Edition! Join me for an all new Lang Codex this Friday!

10/07/2005Masks Mailbag!by Casey Galvan

Greetings again from the frozen north! Eric and are putting the finishing touches on some projects this past week, including the upcoming (well upcoming if you consider mid winter upcoming) Eldritch Edition premium starters! Before I get distracted by shiny objects, lets focus on some upcoming goodies like I dunno...Masks of Nyarlathotep?

Today I'll be posting two images for everyone to discuss. However, in light of the canceled community chat I'm going to do a couple "mailbag" columns where you, the fan and player, ask questions which I'll do my best to answer. Keep in mind that R&D gets a lot of this most every day, so if I don't get to the question you sent, keep trying and I'll do my best. Also note some of the questions don't relate to development (i.e. questions about marketing etc.) which I will save for when we hold the chat hopefully later this month. So keep those questions coming and I'll try and answer them in next week's article.

Lets start this week's codex with two questions regarding a couple of hot topics:

Thomas C.


How come certain "subtypes" are being abandoned after only one or two base sets? Is going to be a ongoing trend rendering older sets less playable with the current ones? Or will some of the abandoned subtypes (for example, encounters and artifacts) resurface as time goes on?

I'm going to refer to the holy grail of "big picture" design to answer this one. It's a very common concern raised by many players: why does R&D seemingly drop new mechanics/subtypes or card types with each new base set? From a development standpoint, we introduce a base set and its subsequent expansions with specific design goals in mind, often including new mechanics that take the game in a cool direction it hasn't been before, and with this new direction comes new mechanics, subtypes, and themes.

The key here is keeping things fresh. These new themes are introduced in the hopes of keeping our existing players excited and interested while still being accessible to the average gamer. Year 1 (Arkham) we had a set plan, introducing broad themes with a decidedly New England flavor (in the spirit of the many core Lovecraft stories). With Eldritch, we departed and explored some of the Egypt flavored themes that Lovecraft and some of the other Mythos stories touched on. The next block will again take the game in a new direction, thus some themes introduced in Eldritch may not appear in the 3rd block.

In general, new themes equal new mechanics. But don't worry. While some mechanics may "go on vacation" for a period, R&D will never truly abandon a mechanic. However, some mechanics are pretty much fully fleshed out in 1 expansion (Encounter characters for example) and while they might reappear with a cool twist, they are generally balanced and perfectly playable as is, so it would typically be redundant and stale to keep adding them to future sets.

As for playability, we design sets fully intending for them to play with the next set and future expansions. That said, some themes work better with others. R&D has no intention for cards to become obsolete as the card pool grows larger, although if we kept introducing the same mechanics each set that would be inevitable.

Colin G.
There's been some small discussion (often by me) with regards to CoC preconstructed decks. Is this a viable option for the game?

Never say never, but at this time we are comfortable with what we release to the new player. Our design philosophy is simple, yet effective. R&D wants to show players what kind of cards, decks and themes are out there. We'll give you a headstart on deckbuilding and strategy with the starter decks or even more so with the premium starters. But at the same time we want our players to create cool stuff on their own. Ideally, we love it when a player opens up a starter and says "Cool game, but I could make a better deck than this!" Then, that player proceeds to use his creativity and imagination and the tools we've given him to create something very cool and fun.

So to answer your question, there are no plans currently to make preconstructed decks, but you never know what the future may hold. As for being a viable option, we're always exploring new ideas to bring the game to the new player. It's quite possible we'll be looking at a new format, so to speak. In Arkham, I believe the Investigator/Mythos decks were very popular and thematic. Eldritch starters were a bit more streamlined and wanted to be a little more "user friendly" when introducing many of Eldritch's more complex themes. In the 3rd block, we'll be looking for ways to incorporate the best of both worlds.

Parting Shots
Unfortunately, that's all for this week. I got a lot of great questions, many of which I'll be tackling next week. Remember to keep sending them and for anyone who doesn't get their question answered remember to save them for the upcoming chat later this month! Join me next week for a couple of other CoC Masks of Nyarlathotep spoilers and another mailbag column!

9/30/2005Master Your Domainby Eric Lang

Hey, everyone! It's Friday afternoon, and Casey has been crazy busy this week with a million things, so here I am on emergency relief duty. Luckily, this week's topic is something I'm intimately familiar with.

This week we're going to look at two new cards from a very powerful cycle in the set. These guys follow up on the 'resources' general theme brought up in Eldritch, with a bit of a twist.

I've always been a huge fan of domain attachments. They are still a largely unexplored area of design space, and their potential is huge. Cards like this also help differentiate Cthulhu from other resource-based CCG's, as they directly key off of one of our more unique mechanics. With all that in mind, the ones in Masks are extremely powerful.

I could sit here and talk forever about how cool these cards are, but instead have decided to open the floor and let the cards speak for themselves ' literally.

Maybe I better get to the point before these crazy guys interrupt me. Okay, the real secret behind their design'

Spreading the Disease: Geez, enough exposition already! It's driving me nuts.

Expectancy: Tell me about it. Makes me want to deck him.

Spreading the Disease: So, what's your story anyway?

Expectancy: Uh, same as yours. Remember when we were sitting in the design file like two years ago?

Spreading the Disease: Yeah, that's true. We should go into a bit more detail I guess ' wait. Two years?

Expectancy: Don't remember, do you? Okay, flash back to pre-Arkham. Before the set went to the printer.

Spreading the Disease: I wasn't around then, Barney.

Expectancy: Yes you were. That's what I was getting at ' ugh. You probably don't remember from all the thorazine. Okay, listen up. Back when Arkham was in early design, right after Eric had finished developing the whole 'domain' mechanic.

Spreading the Disease: Yeah, that was cool.

Expectancy: Of course, as you'd expect, he was all like 'hey! Wouldn't this mechanic be even cooler if the domains did something if you didn't drain them at the end of the round?'

Spreading the Disease: Oh yeah! Oh yeah!

Expectancy: Yup. He was working out some generic effects that they could have, and they were cool, I have to admit. But man, am I glad that didn't work itself into the basic rules of the game.

Spreading the Disease: Yeah-huh. We wouldn't be around, then.

Expectancy: Well, sure. But think of it from a big picture standpoint. I guess he figured it made for too much 'game' without taking cards into account, or something. It made sense to me from what I remember of the lunacy that he called his designer archives.

Spreading the Disease: And there were a bunch of domain attachments created in their place.

Expectancy: Us.

Spreading the Disease: Well I'll be damned straight to Rosa's clinic! That's what you meant about being around for two years.

Expectancy: Sure. So anyway, this idea is as old as the game. So I guess the readers are probably wondering why it took so long for us to show up in a set.

Spreading the Disease: We were going to show up in Eldritch! I remember hanging with my bud Dr. Ali Kafour in the design file. Man, the parties!

Expectancy: We sure were. But of course, somebody decided that we were 'too much' icing on the cake and pushed us back a set. I wonder who that could be?

Spreading the Disease: Hey, at least we get to write our own column.

Expectancy: I guess so.

Spreading the Disease: So, there's this whole new level of resource management, huh?

Expectancy: In a way, I guess. Eldritch gave us a whole bunch of ways to break the 'soft cap' of actions.

Spreading the Disease: Hehe ' soft cap.

Expectancy: All those new domains popping up in the last few months. Man, now there's even more stuff to do with them! Hey, I just thought of something. You conjure up a new empty domain with Eldritch Nexus, stick some of us on there, and you technically 'lose' nothing. Huh? Huh? Is that neat or what?

Spreading the Disease: Yeah, I guess. I've been doing that since Arkham though with Agency Stakeout.

Expectancy: Oh, look who's too cool for this column.

Spreading the Disease: All I can say is 'play Hastur! We aren't just for discard anymore!'

Thanks, guys. I'll leave the finer points of these cards' strategic value to you.

Join Casey next time, when he wraps up Masks previews.

9/15/2005More Masks of Nyarlathotepby Casey Galvan

Unmasking Masks: Part 2
Welcome back to another edition of the Lang Codex! If you joined us last week, we took our first look at the upcoming October expansion, Masks of Nyarlathotep (Masks). I think Masks is probably one of my favorite sets in terms of "fun" decks, and it's got power too. Last week's Codex, "Independent Operator" gave us a taste of a what we can expect this October. But to be fair, last week's card could qualify as a "magic bullet" which doesn't tend to represent the set as a whole. So what can we expect from Masks?

Like I talked about last week, Masks are quite literal in this set. Masks mainly function as support cards that attach to characters and provide a bonus of some sort. While not extremely powerful on their own, they function as cogs in the greater machine. Today's card, "Gang Boss" is an example of just that. Each faction has a character that has a cool effect that is "fueled" by sacrificing your mask cards. Now I know what you're thinking, why on Earth would you care to keep these Masks around for their normal effect? After all it seems like a no brainer to sacrifice them for the greater good right? That's when things get real interesting.

Judging by today's card, there are some benefits to loading up certain decks with Masks. But remember, Masks of Nyarlathotep is full of cards that reward and punish you for playing with attachments. This isn't to say you must play with card X or lose to card Y, but what it does mean is "Playing with card X will soften the blow dealt by card Y". Many of these cards make life tough for your opponent, and subsequently life easier for you, all by having attachments at the right time. Blow them all on some of these cool abilities and you could find yourself on the receiving end of these effects at the worst time.

Accessorizing
While Masks of Nyarlathotep focuses on attachments, don't be fooled into thinking its just about making decks that revolve around new card subtypes and fun "theme decks" (that's completely possible too). But, using attachments as the medium, R&D took the Call of Cthulhu CCG in some different directions with new forms of resource management, decision making, and the general meta game. Masks also has a strong follow up to Transient resources and ritual events, although maybe not in the way that you're thinking. What might get you thinking however, is the viability of some of these decktypes in the post Eldritch environment.

In the coming weeks we'll be exploring other subthemes in Masks, particularly resource management. This bit of design space has always interested me the most. There is a new cycle of cards that move drain tokens to any undrained domain. There is also a cycle of cards that reward you, or hurt your opponent judging when you drain your domains. Sound interesting?

Well, without seeing the entire set a lot of this doesn't make sense. To remedy this, join me next week when we look into one of Masks of Nyarlathotep's subthemes, resource management! This promises to shake up the environment quite a bit, and I'm excited to see what's going to happen.

9/09/2005Masks of Nyarlathotepby Casey Galvan

Greetings again everyone! Whew, it's been a whirlwind of activity around the office as usual and while that means that we didn't have a Codex for the last week or two, it also means we don't have a shortage of hot topics to discuss! As you all know, Masks of Nyarlathotep is right around the corner and scheduled for a mid October release. What better time than now to start spoilers? But before we go into that, just a quick community update. Our webmaster is hard at work restoring our message boards to their former glory and we'll hopefully have everything resolved as quickly as possible. In case you missed it, we have temporary message boards up and feel free to hang out there while we take care of business. For those of you who are looking forward to the next FAQ, I'm going to do my best to get it up today, but Monday is when it will be up at the latest. After much discussion, R&D has decided on the best course of action, and we are confidant that this will open up the post Eldritch environment.

Unmasking Masks
So what can you expect from Masks? Well for starters, how about some Masks? Yes, a new subtype is introduced in the newest expansion. These "Masks" function on their own as useful attachments, but also work as a form of "currency" which allow powerful effects to trigger by sacrificing a Mask. The set also features a heavy focus on attachments in general, and while everyone loves/hates Fetch Stick, expect these to be less straightforward, but more versatile. This will be an extremely fun set that I predict will have cards for the hardcore tournament player to the casual player and everything in between.

Not to be outdone, the set also features Nyarlathotep himself, in Ancient One form. As cool has Nyarlathotep is, I won't spoil him quite yet. So why, after all this talk about Masks and Nyarlathotep, you may be curious why I chose to spoil today's card. Keeping in mind the new FAQ right around the corner, we wanted to show the community that we do indeed keep a pulse on the current meta game. In Masks, there will be some very interesting cards that should shake things up quite a bit.

Reducing Reduction
With all the speedy effects in Eldritch, we wanted to take the game in a different direction in Masks. Speedy effects such as the Rituals are cool, extremely powerful with little drawback. In Masks, R&D made an effort to add certain cards to the environment that should at least cause a little concern for the top tier tournament decks. It wasn't, and still isn't about punishing these decks, but rather adding more choices of what you can play at a competitive level.

There is an interesting cycle of cards that also reward resource management in relation to drained and undrained domains. Vague? Yep, but I wouldn't want it any other way. Don't worry, we'll get into that in the coming weeks. My point is, with a couple of key additions, we hope to slightly shift the landscape yet again that should prove to be interesting and exciting.

Will the game slow down? No, I don't think so. What I do think however, is the variety of decks that are at the tournament level may change. Rather than just 1-2 archetypes ruling the environment, you may see a couple of "rogue" decks that may become popular. I hate to make sweeping predictions, because ultimately, R&D leaves that choice to the players. We simply want to provide the tools to the players. And I think you'll be quite pleased.

Short and sheet is how I like it, but don't miss out on next week's Codex when we look at an all new card from The Masks of Nyarlathotep expansion!