Cycle V: The Dream-Eaters

[tehcip 5]

1 minute ago, Sindriss said:

Preorders within the continental United States will also receive free shipping!

Europe here

Edit: Game is 29 shipping is 51 heh.. 

Edited June 3 by tehcip

[Soakman 716]

 

 

1

8 minutes ago, Allonym said:

You can activate the Gate Box even outside of the Investigator phase, since it's a Free triggered ability that doesn't have an "only during your turn" or similar restriction.

I completely missed that it is free-triggered. Wow, that does open up a lot of options.

[Sindriss 52]

1 minute ago, tehcip said:

Europe here

Edit: Game is 29 shipping is 51 heh.. 

I live 20 min from FFG HQ and shipping is still insane.

[Astrophil84 41]

8 minutes ago, Soakman said:

I'm also very interested in the "Myriad" keyword on the Open Gate card.

Cool to see a Rogue 'bonded' card too.

My guess: You can have more than 2 copies in your deck. Up to 4? 6? 10‘000?

[tehcip 5]

Just now, Sindriss said:

I live 20 min from FFG HQ and shipping is still insane.

FFG Shipping - Event - Madness Weakness - 2 sanity damage and lose all resources

[gazzagames 21]

All we need now are the Beings of Ib and it will be complete.... 😁

Well Gate Box does seem like one of the strongest signature cards yet..... very versatile usage, starts in play, can be used 3 times off the bat, AND can be recharged by the elder sign token.... oh my!

[Allonym 612]

12 minutes ago, gazzagames said:

All we need now are the Beings of Ib and it will be complete.... 😁

Well Gate Box does seem like one of the strongest signature cards yet..... very versatile usage, starts in play, can be used 3 times off the bat, AND can be recharged by the elder sign token.... oh my!

Don't forget that it's a Relic, so it's a viable target for Recharge as well.

[Soakman 716]

3 hours ago, Allonym said:

That certainly does seem to strongly imply Nyarlathotep; by the same token, the current cycle has some Nyarlathotep in it, too - with the link to Keziah Mason, and the name of the penultimate scenario in the cycle.

Nyarlathotep serves a very different function in the Dreamlands than elsewhere - in the Dreamlands he's more of a neutral deity, instead of an evil being bent on destroying humanity as he is elsewhere. So there's nothing necessarily implying that his appearance in the Dreamlands cycle isn't a sort of side-hustle, and he won't appear elsewhere as a major antagonist.

From The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, HPL: "Send back earth's gods to their haunts on unknown Kadath, and pray to all space that you may never meet me in my thousand other forms. Farewell, Randolph Carter, and beware; for I am Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos."

Actually, the Carolyn novella may have some clues as well. Remember, it takes place mostly in the Dreamlands and her signature weakness from that book is To Fight the Black Wind, which is one of his forms. 

I'm actually a little surprised that they released Carolyn with TCU knowing that this cycle would be next. Hmm.

Edited June 3 by Soakman

[rsdockery 482]

So let's look at some Luke Robinson tricks:

• Breathe new life into those Mystic evasion cards no one ever uses, because they can now keep Hunters at bay!
• Become an impenetrable aegis for your party by extending the range of defensive spells like Time Warp, Counterspell, and Ward of Protection (2).
• Perhaps consider including Mind Blank, since you can work around its greatest weakness (the fact that you have to start your turn at the enemy's location).
• Make Luke the lead investigator. Have him duck into the box right before the agenda force-spawns enemies at the lead investigator's location (cf The Witching Hour, Heart of the Elders II).
• Give the entire team your mobility with Open Gate. Just drop one Gate at a central location, then use your box before dropping the second at whatever location is most useful.
• Remember that, while only Luke can use the connections between his dream-palace and the real world, those connections still exist. That means that the various Service events and Esoteric Atlas have infinite range while Dream-Gate is in play!

By the way, are we going to talk about how utterly insane Open Gate is? Unless the Myriad keyword comes with some pretty tough drawbacks, it can break just about any scenario where restricted mobility is a thing and save a ton of actions in just about every other scenario except ones where locations regularly leave play.

[Soakman 716]

The shortcoming of Open Gate is that you MUST have at least 2 to get any effect whatsoever out of the card. They are fast, which is great, but losing a card spot and plopping out a resource for no reason is not exactly helpful if you don't draw into your other Open Gate.

I'm betting Myriad lets you add more than 2 copies to your deck (but you're losing out on the card slots they'll be taking), and If they don't include at least 3 copies in the set, it means you'll need to proxy or buy multiple sets to have more than 2 anyway. But maybe Myriad means something else entirely (something weird, like when you play the card, you search for a card with the same name in your deck and draw it).

[Allonym 612]

4 minutes ago, rsdockery said:

So let's look at some Luke Robinson tricks:

• Breathe new life into those Mystic evasion cards no one ever uses, because they can now keep Hunters at bay!
• Become an impenetrable aegis for your party by extending the range of defensive spells like Time Warp, Counterspell, and Ward of Protection (2).
• Perhaps consider including Mind Blank, since you can work around its greatest weakness (the fact that you have to start your turn at the enemy's location).
• Make Luke the lead investigator. Have him duck into the box right before the agenda force-spawns enemies at the lead investigator's location (cf The Witching Hour, Heart of the Elders II).
• Give the entire team your mobility with Open Gate. Just drop one Gate at a central location, then use your box before dropping the second at whatever location is most useful.
• Remember that, while only Luke can use the connections between his dream-palace and the real world, those connections still exist. That means that the various Service events and Esoteric Atlas have infinite range while Dream-Gate is in play!

By the way, are we going to talk about how utterly insane Open Gate is? Unless the Myriad keyword comes with some pretty tough drawbacks, it can break just about any scenario where restricted mobility is a thing and save a ton of actions in just about every other scenario except ones where locations regularly leave play.

Yes! Particularly the point about Decoy etc. I've previously found mystics way too samey (Jim, Akachi and Mateo are all single-class Mystic with a handful of extra options) but Diana completely shattered the mould - it looks like Luke is going to be equally interesting. Will have to wait to see what his deckbuilding is like before working out all the combos that can be achieved - I wonder if he'll have something like Finn's where he doesn't even have full access to his own class, since his signature asset and abiliy are both so powerful (he has too many stats to have anything like Carolyn's)...

I will be honest, I don't really like the design of Open Gate at all. It seems like it will rarely be worth the investment and efficiency loss (unless Myriad does something truly weird), except in situations where it completely shatters a scenario (e.g. Doom of Eztli). Not a good place for a card to be - either not good enough or way too good with no middle ground.

[Sindriss 52]

1 hour ago, Allonym said:

 

I will be honest, I don't really like the design of Open Gate at all. It seems like it will rarely be worth the investment and efficiency loss (unless Myriad does something truly weird), except in situations where it completely shatters a scenario (e.g. Doom of Eztli). Not a good place for a card to be - either not good enough or way too good with no middle ground.

Its fast and lasts as long as the location is in play. This is like shortcut on steroids, especially if Myriad allows over 2 copies per deck.

[Allonym 612]

1 minute ago, Sindriss said:

Its fast and lasts as long as the location is in play. This is like shortcut on steroids, especially if Myriad allows over 2 copies per deck.

Unless Myriad draws you multiple copies at once, it has the massive issue that the first copy you draw is useless. In addition, it doesn't do anything by itself, you need to reveal, move to and play the card at two different locations.

The comparison to Shortcut is highly unhelpful since, while the two cards are both movement-related, they couldn't be more different. Shortcut will always help you or your allies be more efficient on essentially any scenario and almost any situation, regardless of when you draw it; it's a card that is very easy to play and benefit from in a direct and straightforward way and also enables some clutch saves (movement without provoking AoO being the main one), and one that at bare minimum will break even in terms of strict action efficiency (or "click economy"). Whereas Open Gate is far more variable; if you have 2 copies in hand at the beginning of a scenario where you have a linear path to begin with, you can go first, drop one in your starting location, move twice and drop the second, then you can save your team x-1 (where x = number of investigators) actions; in a scenario that's more of a sprawl or loop (like A Phantom of Truth or Threads of Fate) or where you need to backtrack (like Doom of Eztli), if you can get the cards in your hand and onto the table in the right locations in good time, you'll save a 4-player team potentially dozens of actions. It obviates major portions of scenario design entirely (for instance, it can make the shifting location connections of Boundary Beyond or the ephemeral bridging locations of Lost in Time and Space a complete non-issue). If you don't draw it at all until most of the way through a scenario it's likely to be a dead draw. And on compact scenarios, like The Gathering, it does little since you may not need to get from one side of the map to another, certainly not often enough to justify the cost, and on a few specific scenarios like Essex County Express, it will do more or less nothing at all.

Which is why I think it's bad design. Some scenarios it's great, some it's near-worthless, some it completely breaks the scenario design. And it scales catastrophically badly by player count; in 1-player it's rarely worth your time at all except for backtrack scenarios, but since there's nothing to restrict its use (i.e. it doesn't exhaust, cost actions or have limited uses), in 4-player the efficiency can become far, far too strong. It seems like a card that is potentially bad for the health of the game, one that might restrict the overall design space.

[Sindriss 52]

Myriad most assuredly comes paired with multiple copies or Open Gate would be quite useless. I am guessing they come in pairs but only take up a single card slot. It's level zero, 1 cost and fast so the investment is minor for the utility it offers. Teleportation cards are always dependent on the scenario and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with situational. Astral Travel has been phenomenal in some situations and dead weight in others. The possibilities of Open Gate are far greater.

[Soakman 716]

Also open gate must be used at your location which limits it to revealed locations more or less so I’m not sure it can breaK anything.. yet. Even in scenarios like lost in time and space it will be hard to break because the locations frequently collapse which will discard the attached card. I think it’s best with Luke who has the most potential to possibly break things. He can play events at any location when he is in his pocket dimension meaning you can set an open gate at a location that is unrevealed. Still though most unrevealed locations that are important require some other prerequisite to move to them like clues or keys. It is one more thing that will require to be designed around however.

He can, however, essentially skip over the portion where you have to find the steps or bridge before advancing and if you're smart, you'll park one Gate at Another Dimension, which can never collapse.

Edited June 4 by Soakman

[DarkFate 54]

I think open gate is pretty good and will probably become a staple in any mystic deck that i would build.  Provided that myriad is not a harmful keyword of course. Sure it needs 2 copies of it to work and it not always useful for all scenarios but i still think the usefulness outweighs that.

1 thing to note is that the effect says investigators may move as if the locations are connected which means the locations are not actually connected but only when moving. So it is also good to avoid hunters who have to take a longer route than the investigator. It also means it doesn't work for "ranged" effects too. 

[Soakman 716]

It's also got agility and will pips which are not nothing if you are forced to commit it due to scenario.

Edited June 4 by Soakman

[Allonym 612]

5 minutes ago, Soakman said:

It's also got agility and will pips with are not nothing if you are forced to commit it due to scenario.

That's one of the main reasons I think that Myriad isn't going to draw you multiple copies at once; it would be way too good for committing to skill tests (or indeed anything where you can turn any card into a benefit, like Cornered or Wendy Adams).

I suppose it could be that you can tutor out a second copy after you play the first, but that would still be really strong.

[Cyiel 43]

For Myriad : instead of "you can have more than 2 copies" why not a "if you play one you can search in your deck to play a second copy of this card" or "if you draw a card with Myriad you can search for another copy of this card".

Edited June 4 by Cyiel

[Eldan985 267]

That would be really nice, especially as only having one is kinda useless.

Plus, having more than 2 of the same card in the deck really screws with the distribution model. Either they put three or four of them in  the packs, meaning that we get fewer different cards per pack, which would hbe highly annoying for cards that turn out not to be very good especially. Or they would only put two in, which would be very annoying because you'd have to buy more than one of a pack and then have most of the cards in it be useless.

 

I now want to play the Dreamer with Open Gate, where you just go "Oh, an obstacle? Gate, move to my dream space, move out to the other side of the map, gate again, okay, guys, let's go".

[SamWeiss 68]

I'm thinking that Open Gate synergizes rather absurdly with Luke Robinson, depending on how easy it is to get the card into your hand. He can:

1. Drop one at his location.
2. Drop one at any other location once per turn. And it seems that location does not even have to be revealed.
3. Pop his Gate Box, move to a revealed location, and drop a third.
All for a grand total of 1 action.

I would also note that for Open Gate, Investigators can move between them, leaving Hunter enemies scratching their heads.

 

And suddenly the scenario turns into a Scooby Doo episode.
(Somebody call Skids.)

[Assussanni 316]

For those of you interested, we can once again turn to FFG's foreign language websites to see a different selection of six cards from the upcoming cycle. For The Circle Undone they were in Spanish, this time they are French:

 

That cat has me intrigued. It looks like a story/signature asset (no experience pips) but it is Survivor rather than Neutral, which I think is a first?

Edited June 4 by Assussanni

[Allonym 612]

26 minutes ago, Assussanni said:

For those of you interested, we can once again turn to FFG's foreign language websites to see a different selection of six cards from the upcoming cycle. For The Circle Undone they were in Spanish, this time they are French:

  Reveal hidden contents

That cat has me intrigued. It looks like a story/signature asset (no experience pips) but it is Survivor rather than Neutral, which I think is a first?

That's really cool...I'll be honest, I don't know how to do spoiler tags otherwise I'd respond!

Wait, let me try this:

So, Tony Morgan, I was right! High fight rogue a bit unexpected, I thought that statline would be better suited for The Gangster. His ability is really strong too, extra attacks or engages against enemies if they have what I think is a "bounty" token on them ("prime") - the text is a bit small. Another rogue with low willpower though, that will be tough. Looks like he has a unique asset that possible starts in play or is permanent. Something about a price on your head?

Espoir, who I think we can safely assume is Hope in English, is most likely a Bonded card, as seen here https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/3/25/before-the-black-throne/

 

Edited June 4 by Allonym

[Assussanni 316]

5 minutes ago, Allonym said:

That's really cool...I'll be honest, I don't know how to do spoiler tags otherwise I'd respond!

If you bracket what you want to hide with [ spoiler ] and [ /spoiler ], without the spaces, then whatever you post will be hidden. I don't know why there isn't a button for it on the text formatting options. You can check it has worked by previewing your post, if there is a box drawn around the text then it will be hidden when you hit post.

Edited June 4 by Assussanni

[Allonym 612]

1 minute ago, Assussanni said:

If you bracket what you want to hide with [ spoiler ] and [ /spoiler ], without the spaces, then whatever you post will be hidden. I don't know why there isn't a button for it on the text formatting options. You can check it has worked by previewing your post, if there is a box drawn around the text then it will be hidden when you hit post.

Yep, worked it out mere moments before you posted! But thank you for the information regardless.