I'd definitely recommend to use Silver Twilight as a secondary faction for one of your decks. While Terror in Venice 'only' includes six cards of that faction (18 cards, if you include all three copies of each), they're all excellent and best used to support an aggressive rush strategy (I combined them with Agency with good results).
 
Generally, relying on Terror to win a game is hard. But since Cthulhu is more focused on combat/destruction the deck may still work. I suspect Shub/Yog may be rather strong, and Agency/Miskatonic may win rather quickly if they get a lucky start.
However, it's hard to tell how balanced the decks are vs. each other by just looking at the deck lists, especially since there are quite a few single copies in there, which can result in vastly different games depending on which of the cards show up (which isn't a bad thing for intro-decks!).
 
To get a better feeling if the decks will work, you can deal a few sample starting hands and play through the first few turns solo.
 
If you should find them to be unbalanced, you may not consider it as thematic, but I'd try to combine a monster faction and a human faction when possible. E.g. Cthulhu/Miskatonic, Hastur/Agency, Yog/Syndicate, and Shub/Silver Twilight.
Ideally, you want each deck to have a good mix of icons, although that might be difficult to achieve with a limited card pool.
The decks will be more balanced that way and the flavour of the different factions will still shine through.

It would go like this:
i) Your opponent commits attackers.
ii) You commit defenders, including Sieur Piriou Louis (SPL).
iii) Having now committed SPL, you can trigger his Response - and must do so now, before the next Action is played or the next framework action occurs of resolving stories, or else the opportunity to do so is lost.
iv) Upon triggering SPL's Response, all other characters at the same story that can go insane do go insane, then he receives a success token (and if this is his third success token then, being Fated 3, SPL would then return to the bottom of your deck).
v) Forced Responses happen when they say they will, and take precedence over any Responses that are equally applicable (noting that during story resolution you cannot trigger Responses or subsequently Actions until all stories have resolved, though Forced Responses still occur), so if Richard Pike was sent insane by SPL then his ability would now trigger, giving Willpower and Toughness to any other Miskatonic characters (yours and your opponents) that weren't also sent insane by SPL at the same time as Richard.
Note that insane characters lose their faction (i.e. have no faction) and their text box cannot be modified, so Richard Pike's effect - in addition to coming too late to save any others from SPL - cannot be applied to formerly-Miskatonic characters that have since gone insane. (In other words, Richard Pike can't actually give anyone Willpower in time for it to be useful, when facing SPL.)
vi) After all stories have resolved there is now an opportunity to trigger Responses to things that occurred during story resolution. With SPL's Response resolved, Richard Pike going insane as a result and his Forced Response also dealt with, now Catacombs Docent could trigger his Response - but only* if: a) he isn't currently insane as a result of SPL; and b) he hasn't gained Willpower from Richard Pike (or a Terror icon from some other source) that would prevent him from going insane as a cost to use his ability - in which case you could now drive Catacombs Docent insane to place a success token at a story with three or fewer success tokens on your side.
vii) Here, other Responses could be triggered, if any; followed by Actions, if any; then the turn would end.
* Note: If Catacombs Docent was attacking a story defended by SPL, the only way I can think of to be able to use his ability (regardless of whether Richard Pike was also around) would be with Mu. Catacombs Docent would be driven insane by SPL, all stories would resolve, then during the window for Responses you could trigger Mu to restore Catacombs Docent, and then Catacombs Docent could next trigger his own Response during the same Responses window to having been driven insane. (Cards with Action abilities like Arkham Asylum would not work, because the Action window occurs after the story Responses window has closed, and Catacombs Docent would not be restored in time.)
To better understand why things happen in this order, I highly recommend reading HilariousPete's articles:
- Timing in Call of Cthulhu LCG. Part 1 – Basic Introduction
- Timing in Call of Cthulhu LCG. Part 2 – Triggered effects
in conjunction with the Detailed Turn Sequence diagram in the Core rules and the Timing Structure section in the FAQ.
Referencing The Action Window in Detail part of the FAQ, what we have here is:
1) Action/Response is initiated - SPL triggers his Response
2) Disrupts - none in this example
3) Action/Response is executed - all other characters at SPL's story that can go insane do go insane
4) Passive abilities are initiated - none in this example
5) Forced Responses - Richard Pike triggers his Forced Response, which goes through the same steps 1) to 4)
6) Responses (after all stories resolve if during the Story Phase) - Catacombs Docent triggers his Response, which goes through the same steps 1) to 4)

Icon-dancing for 7 straight hours (a WWDrakey TR)
 
A little background:
 
So, this weekend we had the Finnish Regionals, with 22 participants covering 3 nationalities (mostly Finns, but also a few Swedes and a lone Spaniard). That's the largest Tournament held in the Country, ever! 
 
Since several people had trains to catch at 7 PM, and turnout was larger than expected, the Tourney went with 50 minute rounds with all games (even Cut games) being played to the end of the *phase*, not the round. Oh, and all games were played back-to-back, with a maximum of 5 minute breaks. 
 
A history of dancing:
 
I've often been a strong proponent of Soft-Control over Hard-Control, since it just creates much and more interesting games... for both players. If you can just play whack the mole with *everything* somebody else brings to the board, where's the *interesting* part at? Feels about as subtle and cunning as a mailed fist to the face. 
 
Now, my favorite form of Soft-Control has been Icon Manipulation, ever since that orange Princes of the Sun Box came out some years ago... and I've been tinkering with it ever since. In the end, it became one of my ultimate goals in the game - "To build or see a truly competitive Icon Manipulation deck". Oh, it's been splashed into 'Martell good-stuff' decks along the way, but I'm talking about it as a full-on main theme, like what Hyperkneel is to Lanni Aggro. Or pure burn is to Dothraki with Illyrio and Incinerate.
 
Now, it should also be pointed out that icon manipulation is... well, fundamentally both more interesting, and at the same time, weaker, than kneel can ever be. Why? Well, firstly, while a card can be either standing or flipped sideways, you can do selective removal of icons, which does not completely negate a character, but still allows you to Control the paths open to your opponent. Secondly, completely stripping a character from it's icons leaves it standing. And what does that mean? Well, it means that while a kneel deck can just kneel you out, pull off unopposed challenges, and then also grab dominance to accelerate it's win... an icon manipulation deck, even when stripping everything away, will still be feeding it's opponent power via dominance.
 
Anyway, for the longest stretch of time the theme was... well, nowhere near ready. The cards/engines just didn't exist. The first inklings of possibility started to appear when The Maester's Path came out, but since Black Iron Link was the only Link allowing removal of icons, and it only worked on intrigue icons, it just wasn't enough to kick the theme into gear. Finally, it was the Champions Cycle with the combination of Scourge / Brimstone / Vaith that really provided some decent engines... But no matter how hard one tried to crack that egg, it never quite opened out. 
 
The reason? Turns out that real Icon manipulation needs some very specific things:
1) Like all Soft Control, it's the most card-consuming type of deck available... so a steady and strong source of draw is paramount
2) Due to it's mechanical interactions, it needs a plotline that it can leverage to supplement it's card effects
3) It needs a way handle the fact that the opponent is constantly accumulating power
4) it needs influence as much as Targ Burn does
 
That's quite a hefty order... and the criteria never could be quite filled out. Either a specific draw-engine was too weak, or too costly so it couldn't work with the double-resource curve due to influence, or the whole thing managed to Control but still lost the game slowly but surely to dominance losses. Honestly, I've built so many icon manipulation decks along the years, it's borderline obsessive. None of them ever really clicked. I do sorta pity Ire, he's had to play (and usually win) against so many of them, now that I think of it... 
 
Finally, in the closing stages of the Kingsroad Cycle, a true solution presented itself, which easily ticked all the boxes - Bloodthirst. But then, there were some other issues left. The Scourge was still on the list (due to some knee-jerk reaction on House of Dreams, which was completely unfounded), as was The Orphan of Greenblood (due to being such a good overall card). Also, there's the fact that BT was everywhere (and teched against, hard), due to Burning on the Sands being such a badly designed card, Viper being the only 5g char really worth his cost, board sweeps being too easy and Prince's Plans errata being broken by Prayers. So, before the 5.0 FAQ, I just figured it's better to work on some of my other eternity-projects (ended up finally making my other old dream of 'Stark Murder Hill' working, and taking 2nd with it at our SC), and check back after the FAQ hit.
 
And once the FAQ hit, the conditions were... optimal, finally. So, after 4-5 years of impatient waiting, I could finally play competitively with the cards I'd always wanted to play with!
 
The Dancer:
 
Let's start with the list:
 
House Martell / Bloodthirst 
 
Plots (7)
Valar Dohaeris
Wildfire Assault
Valar Morghulis
Desolate Passage
Loyalty Money Can Buy
Lead by Example
Lineage and Legacy
 
Characters (15)
2x The Red Viper (Princes of the Sun)
1x Arianne Martell (Princes of the Sun)
3x Watchful Servant
2x Dayne Spearman
1x Maester Myles
1x Littlefinger (A Hidden Agenda)
2x Southron Mercenaries
1x Orell the Eagle
1x Quentyn Martell
1x Ellaria Sand (Princes of the Sun)
 
Events (22)
3x The Prince's Plans
2x Choosing the Spear
3x The Only Game that Matters
3x He Calls It Thinking
3x The Prince's Wrath
2x Paper Shield
3x Red Vengeance
1x Nightmares
2x Scorpions Underfoot
 
Locations (24)
1x Hellholt Docks
3x Dornish Fiefdoms
1x Street of Silk
2x Lord Doran's Chambers
3x Summer Sea
2x Southron Stronghold
3x Kingsroad Fiefdom
2x Vale Rookery
2x Qhoyne
1x Shivering Sea
1x The Vaith
3x The Scourge
 
Attachments (2)
1x Bastard
1x Milk of the Poppy
 
...and then for some explanation:
 
The key parts of the deck to understand are the plots, and how they interact with Icon Manipulation. Be it Lineage and Legacy (which allows closing down of two challenges, just by controlling a single icon type), Lead By Example (which forces either over-commitment or closes down a bunch of challenges) or Desolate Passage (with Vaith + Myles/Only Game that Matters). Then there are the 'cutting down the weeds' plots in Wildfire, Valar D., Valar... which, when possible, were meant to be triggered via Vale Rookery, so as to always have a plot that *actually does something* revealed. Loyalty is more related to the way BT needs to keep a small but steady board-presence on the table, and it allows you to save-up a bit on card expenditure for a round.
 
So, what the deck really does is... control your Power-icons. Nope, not the intrigue ones, nor even the military ones... the power-ones. Why? It's a simple maths equation in the end: If you push through 2 unopposed challenges and win dominance, while I push through a single unopposed power-challenge at 1-claim, what's the overall net gain? 2-2. Yep, break-even. Working from that base, then selectively also tying away other challenges (or negating them with Only Game that Matters) and meanwhile leveraging numerous ways to help generate/steal a bit more power... that's how the deck rolls. It's fair to say, that 80-90% of the Challenges I ever make with the deck are... power-challenges. The rest are ones with either Southron Mercs, a Choosing The Spear'd Arianne for some supplementary intrigue... or the Viper going about for a final rush.
 
In the end, Power is Power.
 
Oh, and there's some important toolboxing in the deck for specific problem cards (Nightmares, Milk of the Poppy, Bastard), which help immensely... especially as they are all useful in any game, but especially help win some of the worst matchups (like blanking a Longship Maiden's Bane with Nightmares, then repeating the feat with Prince's Plans once or twice).
 
And... a fair-warning: The deck is hella hard to play right. I'd easily compare it to old school 'always return Forever Burning' -type Burn (before all these new-fangled Incinerate type point-n-click things appeared, but rather you had to combine a plethora of different effects to do something and only ran lackluster little characters). It fries your brain, if played for too long. 
 
The Dances:
 
Round 1: Greyjoy N/A (Winter Aggro, Marauders, Search and Detain, Bay of Ice)
 
Generously, my deck decided that it would be a good way to start the day by denying me any influence... For the first 3 Rounds (that's about 20 cards from my deck). Having a Prince's Plans + 2x Scorpions Underfoot + Prince's Wrath stuck in my hand did not help. Hellholt Docks was doing a fine job keeping The Kingsroads from ruining my hand, but I had to spend way too many important events in order to stall the game up... which backfired hard, after a double Seasick stopped my Prince's Plans when I finally *did* draw into influence. That was the first tipping point, and I could not get my foot through the door anymore properly... was still holding on with Arianne, but a late game Search and Detain on her hit my economy a bit too hard, and that was game. 
 
After this one, I had almost 15 minutes of time. Little did I know, it would be the only such luxury I would have a for a long time...
 
Result: Loss
Record: 0-1
 
Round 2: Lannister Conquest(Martell) (Castellan + Ghaston + pain... maybe Rivers?)
 
After my second mulligan of the day into a horrible second hand, I was starting to think my deck had it in for me... a load of scrambling proceeded, but somehow I kept my head above the water... with my opponent edging uncomfortably close to 15. However, my early game tactic of forcing the Lanni to go first, then not bringing out characters - forcing them to leave their Nobles out to be Valar'd (M/D, either works) slowly withered away their eligible bounce-tech. Then, I was able to stop them just short of 15 and start pushing back and accumulating with Viper and Arianne. That's literally by the skin of my teeth... and just before time was called.
 
From here on out, every game I played started going close to time (or indeed, did not finish before). With all rounds being played back-to-back (we had a lot of people travelling from far away and needing to make trains etc.), and my BT not being the fastest to win or lose, it was going to be a *rough* day. 
 
Result: Win 
Record: 1-1
 
Round 3: Baratheon Black Sails (Melisandre's Scheme, usual BS tech, Battle for the Shield Islands)
 
My first thought: By rights this should be doable. My second thought: Last time I faced this guy, it was in our SC final, where he won against me with an Anti-BT oriented Baratheon deck. Uh-oh.
 
The Scourge was having a rough day. First it got discarded (twice) with NMLs against the Greyjoy, and now it was stolen round 1 with that fun Epic Battle. Well, thankfully it's not at all crucial to the deck. Nice to have? Sure. Reliable? Not really - Qhoyne is almost always better in this deck. Managed to deny the hold completely, which started slowly but surely unraveling his game... Salladhor hit the table round 2 and was dead or discarded by Round 3. A clutch draw from Bloodthirst into an Only Game that Matters allowed the Viper to steal back a The Scourge on the second Epic, and it all started unravelling from there. Fun deck, good match.
 
Result: Win
Record: 2-1
 
Round 4: Martell Summer (Summer + Ghaston + Rivers)
 
So... another game of two denial-ing decks matching up. What *fun*! Well, for once, my deck actually decided to not bite me after the Mulligan, and I got the first really decent setup/start of the day. This proved necessary, as I had to do quite a bit of work again to dismantle the Ghaston engine (well-timed Nightmares on it to leave Nobles dawdling for removal in Dominance etc.), hitting intrigue with Arianne to clear more nobles from hand etc. I had a pretty firm grip of the game by the end, but sadly our gruesome Control match took too long, and time was called during Marshalling, with me winning by... 11-3?. My opponent did have the Viper + To The Spears out, but I could've negated some of his icons along the way, so that wasn't really a problem. 
 
Result: Modified Win
Record: 3-1
 
Round 5: The Old Way (Maiden's Bane, Naval Escorts, Gran etc.)
 
Eugh. I'm not a big fan of this particular matchup. When I started finetuning my deck, it was the one I *always* lost to, almost straight out. But, after some important fixes (Nightmares, Docks, Milk), and more importantly figuring out how it can be hamstringed, I knew I had a decent fighting chance. All I needed were time and the right cards... and well, The Old Way isn't really one to Rush. But the match was going to be *long*, a real grudge-match.
 
Thankfully, my deck was improving it's setups all through the day, giving me a nice board presence. First round saw a setup of Gran + 2x Naval Escorts + a few other warships, grow with some more board presence, a dupe on Grand and LIV. Meanwhile, I had something better: I was able to play more locations than him, and he had no saves on the board. He tossed some Seasicks on a Scourge (due to my influence-heavy start they were not gonna do anything) to keep icons, grabbed a little power and I just stalled somewhat. Second round... I Valar'd. Why? Because Gran ain't immune if you don't have more locations, now is he? Thinking on the dupe, and there went all his characters. And more importantly, with no characters left, there went the Naval Escorts.
 
From there on, the game started slowly shifting in my direction. Maiden's Bane hit the table, but I also drew into Docks and Nightmares Early, so I was able to keep it in check. A surprise Choosin the Spear killed an Iron Fleet Scout on the Old Way, while a military did in for another one. Southron Mercenaries were crushing opposition. I don't think I saw Milk, but thankfully Alannys and Baelor were also a bit late to the party. However, the length of this matchup meant we were most likely hitting time. And so we did, with me leading at around 11 to 2 or 3. Baelor had just hit the table at that point, but I'd gotten Prince's Plans off, so had a hand full of good control events that weren't in my discard... so all-in-all, it seemed to just be a matter of time before I'd have pulled it off... maybe 2-3 rounds more.
 
Almost had 5 minutes after this game, and had been playing the icon manipulation for 5 straight hours. My brain *hurt*. Still functioning, somehow, though.
 

Result: Modified Win
Record: 4-1

 
Top 8: Lannister No Agenda (Pentoshi, Cities, Kneel)
 
This one was... painful. I had to play characterless for something like 4-5 rounds, only pulling off some weeding with plots and doing a host of denial and triggering Vale Rookery... Why? Pentoshi screws havoc with my smaller characters, and couldn't spend the resources on a bigger one. Scourge and Qhoyne were getting A City Besieged away, so had to pull off every trick I had to stall the game... Thankfully I was also accumulating the cards I needed, although being at 0 power to 10 was... a bleak sight. Well, finally started really doing anything on the table on something like Round... 5 or 6? 
 
After Littlefinger got killed by City of Soldiers, I brought in Ellaria, who stalled Tywin nicely. Then a duped Viper to match her, and finally Quentyn as support. A huge deal of icons magically disappearing in select places and Nightmares on Pentoshi allowed me a good push for the Viper... and once his Valar hit, I still stayed at 10 power (to his 11 or 12), thanks to Mr. Dragon-Bait's ability giving me back the 2 power I lost on Ellaria dying. He wasn't really able to come back from his own Valar anymore, and the Viper cruised. Apparently he liked the fact that I had shaved a similar beard to the one in the HBO series, and felt compelled to help me take this.
 
Result: Win
 
Top 4: Targaryen No Agenda (Dothraki, Fleeing to the Wall, Attack from the Sea, flood-o-flesh)
 
Ohh-kay. Apparently I was the only Finn left in the Finnish Regional (two Swedes and a Spaniard left) at this point, and had been running 6 hours of icon manipulation, straight. Remarkably enough, I was still, somehow, able to think through the patterns... at least to a degree.
 
Dothraki appeared, Dothraki got icons manipulated, more Dothraki appeared, there was a Rookery at one point... Attack from the Sea kneels my locations. And my power-challenges with 2-3 STR characters were burnt down by Incinerates, but I was still stalling him decently in Power. A huge pile of locations went to Fleeing to the Wall, which wasn't really an issue, since I had both of the important inf/gold locations left. Slowly, but sure I crept back into the game... lasted nicely to his (8th) plot (Valar), after which I brought out the Southron Mercenaries and started pushing even more. Hell of a fun game... except that my left hand started cramping quite bad due to the 7-hours of straight icon dancing with the BT. Literally, it was painful to hold the cards in my hand anymore.
 
So, we're at 12-13, with me going first. I've got a Southron Mercenaries in play. Cancels in hand. Drop a duped Viper into play, he has no intrigue icons, and I've got some icon manipulation tricks...
 
End scene: Time rings, just as I've given over Marshalling to him. Remember that 50-minutes and until the end of the phase I mentioned earlier? I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It's not like I did not know the risks of taking BT to a tightly timed Tourney... I knew them full well, and accepted them. 
 
I had load of fun with the deck, it was awesomely fun to play. And it was real icon manipulation, truly working, against all other kinds of proper competitive decks.
 
Result: Timed loss
 
The final matchup ended up being Targaryen NA vs. Lannister Power Behind the Throne... and was apparently played on the boat to Sweden, since we were running tight on the schedule. 
 
Afterthoughts:
 
Playing the deck made me think a lot about NPE. All day, I was trying to make my case for the fact that BT... doesn't have to be NPE. Or rather, isn't NPE by itself, even though it can be leveraged in such a direction. Well, any more NPE than say, your average Lanni kneel or Targ Burn. Control is what it is, there's no bitching that. 
 
But then, is getting hammered round 1 with a plethora of kill events and high claim... somehow a nice experience? Especially if your deck just can never get back up again, due to an endless flood of said behaviour? I wonder. I was told that I was "stalling", when I was removing their P icons to push through one of my own with the sole character I had on the board... and of course to not let them make one. Odd, here I always thought getting power was the *point* of the game, not the hitting of stuff on head, or trying to beat your opponent into submission?
 
At times I felt like the civilized party in some matchups: 
 
"You go ahead and assault us with your armies and your spies. We will not attack you back, albeit we won't prove to be easy targets either. Sometimes we may trick you into hitting yourself, but that's your own fault from assaulting in the first place. 
 
Meanwhile, we will work to amass power. Through legitimate means and exertion of authority. We may tie your hands with political deals and well-placed holdings, but that is merely self defence."
 
What I really felt aftwewards was, that the game needs more ways of playing it, without having to constantly hit all your foes in the face. Or burning them. Or discarding them. More tricks, less bashing, if you will. Be those tricks for gaining power, misleading your opponent or just causing chaos... Simply drawing more cards to remove more cards than your opponent, one way or another is... kinda boring.
 
Oh, and big props to all the Conspirators (you know who you are), and especially my Quill and Tankard Bretheren, for helping bounce/bash ideas, and playtest that deck. Also, thanks for Tapani for running a good Regional Tourney here in Finland, and everybody (especially the Swedes) for showing up!

Hello! You should go to the cardgamedb.com CoC forums where most of the traffic has fled. There is a OCTGN league that just got started which you should check out.

No, what matters is how that face-up card got there. Prism only allows for a card that is in your deck to be physically flipped over. It hasn't changed it's state as a card in your deck, and you normally can't trigger cards that are actually in your deck. Prophecies however are played on top of the deck through a triggered effect, which allows for the effect on the prophecy to be triggered. It is creating a special state which physically is on your deck for purposes of drawing or manipulating the deck, but is also triggerable.
 
It's confusing as heck, but hey.

You've got them right in general.  
 
Khopesh can't be used by an Invulnerable character because they can't meet the payment.  A character without Invulnerability can use the Khopesh as many times as it wants until it wounds itself to death.
 
Whenever you re-distribute success tokens at stories, they don't change sides.
 
When a character with Toughness and a wound loses the keyword Toughness, it is immediately destroyed.
 
Like with Khopesh, anything that doesn't require exhaustion or limited to "once per turn" or something similar can be done as often as the payment can be made.

First, welcome to the best LCG!
 
To get started quickly, if you have a single core set, it is assumed that you use the quick 'deck-building' rules described in the core set. I.e. you combine the cards from two factions ( 20 cards each*) with seven of the neutral cards (the neutral conspiracy is not used).
While these 'starter decks' are not tournament legal, they are sufficient to learn the rules and get to know the factions' capabilities.
 
Once you have more cards, you can mix any number of factions in a single deck and should stick with a minimum of 50 cards.
 
 
*: Note, that due to a misprint, the Miskatonic faction is one card short: Steve Clarney has been accidentally assigned to the Agency faction. But as long as you are still playing casually, you could treat him as a Miskatonic character, if you prefer.

It is highly unlikely.
 
My guess?  There is absolutely zero chance the Core set will contain more copies of each card.  If it had, I believe FFG would've made an announcement ahead of time like they did when revising Secrets of Arkham (as well as raise the price).  Core sets for all of the LCGs have been reprinted before and none have been changed in the past.  I don't see it happening. 
 
They recently changed Secrets of Arkham because it was the last deluxe expansion that only came with 2 copies of each card (due to it being quite old comparatively speaking).  It now has the same format as all the other LCG boxed sets.

I believe that 4 of the Forgotten Lore Asylum Packs were released as black-border cards.  They had 40 cards, with x3 copies of 10 cards, and x1 copy of 10 cards.  This happened right before the change over from the CCG to LCG format.  The packs in question are:
 
Spawn of Madness
Kingsport Dreams
Conspiracies of Chaos
Dunwich Denizens
 
Technically these 4 APs weren't part of the Forgotten Lore cycle as such a thing didn't exist when they were first released.  They were then re-released (along with 2 other APs, The Mountains of Madness and Ancient Horrors, to make the Forgotten Lore cycle) as white-border cards in the LCG.  Later on these 6 packs were given the 60-card treatment.

For Cthulhu, I would say it's not critical since it focuses on a new subtype, serpents. There won't be much support for stuff in the Core or Secrets of Arkham. For Hastur, it introduces a new subtype, lunatics. These are cool and add a little theme and in some cases utility to Hastur which lacks in decent characters in the core. These cycles also introduce new versions of the AOs which are in most cases better than the core set versions, so they will obsolete them. It adds some interesting conspiracy related stuff, which goes will with Terror in Venice. Overall, there are some decent cards, and some fun cards. If you're sticking to just 7 factions, I'd rank it higher up.

I believe this is the full list of cards that were altered when reprinted in the LCG format:
 
Anthropology Advisor
Gains +1 skill, Arcane, Investigation and "Investigator characters you control gain (I)".
 
Canine Guardian
Cost is now 2.
 
Hack Journalist
Ability now reads "Action: Exhaust and sacrifice Hack Journalist to choose a story and move all success tokens from one side of this story to another."
 
Norman Blackwood Jr.
Gains the Government subtype.
 
Professor Armitage, Old and White-bearded
Ability now reads "Response: After one of your characters or a Tome support card you control is destroyed, name a card. Reveal the top five cards of an opponent's deck for a copy of that card and discard it. Then, shuffle that deck."
 
Professor Rice
Gains the Faculty subtype, +1 skill, and Investigation.
 
Steven Clarney
Loses the M.U. faction and gains the Agency faction.
 
Visiting Author
Gains +1 skill.

Please sticky, Admins!

Just to clarify, Seekers of Knowledge is the Miskatonic deluxe expansion. It is not a cycle of packs. Currently, there are 6 deluxe expansions:
Secrets of Arkham (about to be reprinted in revised format) The Order of the Silver Twilight (introduces ST) Seekers of Knowledge (Miskatonic) The Key and the Gate (Yog-Sothoth) Terror in Venice (thematic box with all factions expanding ideas of Conspiracies and Day/Night mechanic) Denizens of the Underworld (Syndicate - released tomorrow) There are 7 cycles, each with 6 packs:
Forgotten Lore (the most thematic from mythos standpoint, only has original 7 factions, no ST) Summons of the Deep (also only original 7 factions) Dreamlands (largely unavailable but scheduled for reprint) Yuggoth Contract (also only original 7 factions - expands on some faction subthemes like Mi-Go for example) Rituals of the Order (first cycle to have all 8 factions) Ancient Relics (introduces new story deck and Relic support cards) Revelations (very thematic cycle with lots of Tomes and cool conspiracies for each faction - last of the cycles)

Welcome to the game! The good news for your (girl)friend is that Cthulhu or Hastur is anticipated to be the next box announced. It's possible that it could be Shub, but most people don't think it will be. Another core would be a good next purchase, which will give you more flexibility in deckbuilding and consistency to your decks, as you said. I would suggest waiting just a few more weeks, as the reprint of Secrets of Arkham in the revised x3 format will be released soon. I also would recommend getting The Shifting Sands chapter pack right away.
 
The MU box would likely be significantly stronger than any cthulhu or Hastur decks that the core/SoA cards could make. You would just need to temper the power of the deck a little bit. I mean, you want her to keep playing right?
 
If you want to get Silver Twilight right away to add an eight faction, be aware that that box is very..."interesting". It is much more combo oriented and a little more difficult to play. IMO a lot of the cards aren't that good, but if you wanted to get more ST cards to shore it up, consider Into Tartarus (for Master of the Myths), Initiations of the Favored (for Protector of Secrets), Curse of the Jade Emporer (for Initiate of Huang Hun), and The Breathing Jungle (for Dirk Sharpe and The Doorway).

Hey Dan,   I'll answer your question below, but I'm going to point out something some people get confused on, just to make sure that you have it in your head, in case it matters.   Cannot uncommit means it cannot participate in the uncommit step of the Framework action. There is a difference between a character that cannot uncommit and cannot be uncommitted (fine line and all, but it is there, this means that no card effect or game effect except winning the story will make the character go into an uncommitted state).  Exhausting is the price of committing through the Framework action. Since the Refresh phase says ready all exhausted characters, Obsessive Detective is also readied. Since he does not commit through the Framework action until he becomes uncommitted, no, he does not need to exhaust again, and cannot be exhausted without some other effect to make him do so.   Hope that answers your question. 
  Will of Azathoth locks a story down. No characters can commit or be committed to the attached story. You are correct when you have two conflicting passives that cannot be resolved simultaneously the active player will decide the order of resolution, meaning the first cannot will be entirely resolved, and then if possible, the second one will. In this case whichever is resolved first will prevent the second one from being able to successfully resolve in regards to the other card. 

A US centric list is up at cardgameDB here: http://www.cardgamedb.com/forums/index.php?/topic/12358-who-here-has-applied-for-a-store-championship/
 
If you are in Maryland, DC, or VA, we have a little poster here

This is correct.  The FAQ (Section 2.13) makes this clear:
 
You may only pay costs with cards you control. You may never exhaust a card, drain a domain, drive insane, sacrifice, or otherwise use or alter the game state of any card you do not control, as the means of a paying the cost of an effect. 

That's not the decisive clue, though. Costs are always indicated by the word 'to'. That's the difference between Decrepit Wizard and Aliki:
Discard a resource on a domain to cancel an effect just triggered that targets a character you control.

Cross post to original announcement on Cardgamedb.
 
Call of Cthulhu Store Championship
When: Sunday, March 23
Time: 10:30am Registration; 11am Start
Where: Dream Wizards in Rockville, MD
Entry: $10
Format: 1v1, story deck from The Shifting Sands asylum pack. The entire card pool is legal. (Contact Dan for deckbuilding help or rules questions in advance.)
Contact: Dan Ach - ach.dan / gmail
RSVP on eventbrite page.

Call of Cthulhu Demo Nights
Leading up to the Championship, Dream Wizards will also host some demos of CoC for those interested in trying it out. Anyone who tries will receive 20% off the ENTIRE CoC product line when purchased at the event. This will be a great time to buy into a starting collection, and prepare yourself for the tournament! This event is free to play and requires no prior knowledge or cards. Everything will be provided.

Here are the dates of the demos:
Wednesday, February 26, 7-10pm Sunday, March 2, 2-6pm Wednesday, March 5, 7-10pm Thursday, March 6, 7-10pm

The person that runs the print machine was on vacation, most likely.

Word is that it will be back in stock in time for Store Championships in January or February, along with the long OOP Dreamlands cycle, and Secrets of Arkham expansion. This will be a great time to jump in, as a lot of current players are already working on planning events that are friendly for players who don't have any product yet. I'm not sure what area you are in, but ask around at your FLGS to see if they're hosting a store championship.

Thank you. Im kinda ocd about card games. I cant just have a pack here a deluxe exp. There. I have to have a play set of evrything. Knowing that i dont have to go out and buy box after box trying to put play sets together im sold! CoC:Lcg meet Sw:lcg NR:lcg and WH:I lcg. Welcome to my gaming collection.

Amurokashu said:
Hey guys. I'm very new to this game still trying to understand the rules. I have no idea how I would deck build and I would like to build some decks out of the 3 core sets I have. Can anyone with more experience help me out i'd really appreciate it thanks in advanced.

First thing is you have to decide how you want to pair them up, since 3 cores is a great card pool, but still probably not enough to build mono-decks. I recommend pairing 1 mythos and 1 investigation faction. One faction will have to be mono and I recommend Cthulhu. Once you have that decided, put x3 all the best cards in.  
No, seriously, some general rules to build decent draft decks for play is to follow a ratio: 30 characters, 20 locations/events; only put in x2 of uniques, and x3 of good non-uniques. You also want to keep an eye on your cost curve: essentially, don't put all 3-cost and above cards. You want to be able to play cards every turn, which means having enough 1 and 2 cost cards to reliably draw them in your starting hand. So out of those 50 cards, at least half should be 2 cost and lower, one-quarter-ish should be 3 cost, and the rest above 3 cost. Obviously, this changes slightly if you are trying to build a cheaper "rush" deck, in which case you probably don't want to go about 3 cost cards and a higher ratio would be 1-2 cost. If you are trying to get big dudes out, you will need to build your resources up on 1 domain quickly, so your other 2 domains will likely stay with 1 resource, so you have to keep that in mind when deckbuilding.
I hope this helps, but let us know if you have more specific questions.

Yes, these cards are called Steadfast. You will find the rules for Steadfast on page 12 of the Core rulebook, upper left-hand corner.
 
In order to play these cards, you must have X matching resource symbols somewhere on your 3 domains (X = the number of faction icons on the card).  These matching resources don't all have to be on the same domain that you're using to pay for the card.
 
For example, http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/CoC/CoCCards.html/_/core-set/Undercover-Security-Core'>Undercover Security has Agency Steadfast 2.  If you want to play Undercover Security, you first need to have at least 2 Agency resources on your 3 domains.  Second, you must drain a domain to pay its cost as usual (in this case, with at least 1 Agency resource plus another of any type).
 
Note that it doesn't matter if the resources you're using to qualify for Steadfast are on already drained domains or not, or all on a single domain.  They just have to be resourced somewhere across your 3 domains.  Other than that, you just pay for the card as normal.  It's usually quite easy to qualify for Steadfast, though it becomes trickier for 3 faction decks.
 
By the way, some cards have out-of-faction Steadfast requirements, such as http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/CoC/CoCCards.html/_/the-order-of-the-silver-twilight/lodge-barkeep-tootst'>Lodge Barkeep.  This means you must have both Syndicate and Silver Twilight resources available to play this card.
 
EDIT:  That's odd, not sure why the card links aren't working.  Sorry about that.  Perhaps this will work?
 
Undercover Security
http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/CoC/CoCCards.html/_/core-set/Undercover-Security-Core
 
Lodge Barkeep
http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/CoC/CoCCards.html/_/the-order-of-the-silver-twilight/lodge-barkeep-tootst

So I invested in this game by buying two copies of the core set and one copy of the Secrets of Arkham deluxe expansion. Me and some friends have been playing two- and three-player games with the factions as they come in the core set to great success. But then we started talking about how we could make revised versions of the factions pack but still set up the game by drafting two factions packs each, then adding some neutrals as needed.
Below is my attempt at making such new packs. Feedback is most welcome!
 
THE AGENCY Character Paul LeMond (Core) x2 Undercover Security (Core) x2 Femme Fatale (SoA) x2 Norman Blackwood, Jr. (SoA) x2 Steve Clarney (Core) x2 Local Sheriff (Core) x2   Support Shotgun (Core) x2 Beneath the Burning Sun (SoA) x2   Event Shotgun Blast (Core) x2 Working a Hunch (Core) x2   SHUB-NIGGURATH   Character Albino Goat-spawn (SoA) x2 Ancient Guardian (Core) x2 Hungry Dark Young (Core) x2 Priestess of Bubastis (Core) x2 Rampaging Dark Young (SoA) x2 Shub-Niggurath (Core) x2 The Mother's Hand (SoA) x2 Y'Golonac (Core) x2   Event Bred to Survive (Core) x2 Burrowing Beneath (Core) x2   HASTUR   Character Byakhee Servant (Core) x2 Demon Lover (Core) x2 Hastur (Core) x2 Messenger from Beyond (Core) x2 Victoria Glasser (Core) x2 Yellow Muse (Core) x2   Support Victoria's Loft (Core) x2   Event Scotophobia (Core) x2 Blind Submission (Core) x2 Power Drain (Core) x2   MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY   Character Laboratory Assistant (Core) x2 Visiting Author (Core) x2 Anthropology Advisor (Core) x2 Student Archaeologist (Core) x2 Professor Nathaniel Peaslee (Core) x2 Mad Genius (Core) x2   Support Celano Fragments (Core) x2 Open for Inspection (Core) x2   Event Binding (Core) x2 Dr. Carson's Treatment (Core) x2   THE SYNDICATE   Character Anarchist (SoA) x2 Dr. Marinus Bicknell Willett (Core) x2 Elite Hit Squad (SoA) x2 Richard Upton Pickman (Core) x2 Triggerman (Core) x2 Jack "Brass" Brady (Core) x2 Hard Case (Core) x2   Support Dutch Courage (Core) x2   Event Low Blow (Core) x2 Intimidate (SoA) x2   YOG-SOTHOTH   Character Disciple of the Gate (Core) x2 Son of Yeb (Core) x2 Yog-Sothoth (Core) x2 Hermetic Scholar (SoA) x2 Gatekeeper (SoA) x2   Support Blackmoor Estate (Core) x2   Event A Single Glimpse (Core) x2 Calling Down the Ancients (SoA) x2 Journey to the Other Side (Core) x2 Unspeakable Resurrection (Core) x2   CTHULHU   Character Carl Stanford (SoA) x2 Cthulhu (Core) x2 Keeper of the Golden Path (Core) x2 Lord of the Silver Twilight (Core) x2 Ravager from the Deep (Core) x2 Deep One Rising (SoA) x2 Lord of Y'ha-nthlei (SoA) x2 Hydra (SoA) x2   Event Sacrificial Offerings (Core) x2 Deep One Assault (Core) x2