Why Did They Ban Aspiring Artist card ?

[The Dog of War 0]

Hey all.

Looking over the Banned List of cards, it seems the only one (that I'm aware of) is Aspiring Artist.

I took a look at the card's text using the excellent cthulu.dbler.com - program -  and I see it's "when you play him" - draw two cards.   Granted, this is a strong ability...but you can't use it once you've won at least 1-story.

What was happening in Tournaments, etc. - after this card came out - that made FFG decide to ultimately ban it from Tournament play ?   I'm trying to see how it was used to such massive effect that they felt the only remedy was banning it ?  (like...even saying "you can only have 1 of these in your Deck" - they didn't do that - they went ALL the way to "complete Ban" - right away .... why ?)

 

 

[PRODIGEE 0]

Well, you need to consider the other Hastur card to understand the purpose of this card.

You may find cards like Things behind you+Victoria Protegee that allow you to bounce your card back in Hand. So You may play Aspiring artist twice in the same row and draw 4 cards, which totally screw the balance of the game, as you'll have a huge hand-advantage (imagine you play Behind Bars+stuffs which costs 0...).

Indeed, comboed with the Hand-discard mecanism, it was totally overpowered !

[Chevee 0]

 Yeah, what Prodigee said.

 

Hastur should never have card draw abilities.  It is the control faction of Cthulhu and in a game that is supposed to be slower than other xCGs, speeding up control is a really bad idea.

 

Chevee

[The Dog of War 0]

So how quickly were people actually winning with Aspiring Artist in the game ?  I mean...was it any worse than the apparently "super powered' Hastur / Agency decks with Dogs - Magah Birds - etc - that people keep talking about ?

If "modern" decks are now winning on Turn-3 or 4 (with the right hand) ...and they aren't banning any of those cards (yet)  -  I'm still not sure how this card was resulting in such rapid (total) victories.  

(thanks for the explanations to me though)

[marius8 1]

Rosh87 said:

So how quickly were people actually winning with Aspiring Artist in the game ?  I mean...was it any worse than the apparently "super powered' Hastur / Agency decks with Dogs - Magah Birds - etc - that people keep talking about ?

If "modern" decks are now winning on Turn-3 or 4 (with the right hand) ...and they aren't banning any of those cards (yet)  -  I'm still not sure how this card was resulting in such rapid (total) victories.  

(thanks for the explanations to me though)

It's not all about speed but about deck consistancy (drawing cards helps finding your 'business cards' more often) and eventuality. With enough draw, you might as well win, say, turn 2 even if the game drags on until turn 20. Artist was part of the game way before the Birds, and thus longer a problem card. It could happen somewhere down the line that the birds/dogs get a similar treatment if the metagame doesn't stabilize.