Can a card such as Azathoth be "shut off" once it is removed from play or enters the discard pile or does the effect that it set up upon entering play still remain?  Does the text "at the end of the turn you lose the game" (or however it's worded) have to still be in play for its affect to trigger or does it continue to hang in some affect limbo whether the card is present or not?

-- Neutral --
•Azathoth, The Blind Idiot God
------------------------------
Type : Character
Cost : 6
Skill : 6
Icons :
Subtype : Ancient One.
Game Text:

Response: after Azathoth enters play from your hand, each player must sacrifice all characters not named Azathoth and all support cards he controls.

At the end of the turn, you are eliminated from the game.

It's simple once you understand there are are two separate effects in Azathoth's printed box, each with its own trigger.

The first can (Response) trigger when Azathoth enters play.

The second must (Passive ability) trigger at the end of the turn.

But, when the end the turn comes, if Azatoth isn't in play anymore, its passive effect can't be triggered. So if you manage to destroy or even blank Azathoth before the end of the game, you won't be eliminated. It would a whole different story if the two effects were combined into one (effect 1 then effect 2), but it's not.

just had a short thread about this, had a aza + neutural ground combo thrown at me, managed to counter it when he commited to a stroy to try and ninja the win. but if you can find a counter to his eot effect, he can be quite a nice wrath. even tho you are burning to domains for a 6 cost, 0 icons, empty text box with 6 skill in the end :/

although, i will add.

what happens if aza goes insain. say he comes in and wraths and some how you turn him insain, and he cant commit to a stroy, does his "you lose" effect kick?

Per the FAQ: An insane character’s skill, text box, cost, and icons cannot be modified. Although it still counts as a character under your control, it is always treated as having 0 skill, 0 cost, no icons, no subtypes, no text box, and no faction, regardless of any effects in play.

So his eot effect will not be there if he is insane. So yes, you could bring him into play and make him insane yourself to dodge your own end-of-the-world, but note that you MUST restore an insane character on your next turn, so you either have to win that next turn, or remove/blank/insane him somehow again, or you'd lose next turn.

Danigral said:

_or_ you to play at least one Lunatic character after playing Azathoth to make sure you have someone else you can restore.

this all seems a bit long winded just to get a 6 cost wrath on the table :/

surly there are more cost effective/effectant cards in the game then aza

If you're looking for a cool effect that is situational and fun when it works, this is a cool card. It's for johnnies.

If you're looking for a more efficient card that resets the board, try Dimensional Rift.

Marcus Jamberg + Dimension Rift is a combo. Despite that, it's easy to get into motion with a Yog recursion deck.

Dimensional Rift is cheaper, but there are more things that can go wrong with it - e.g., getting stolen.  The one advantage of Azathoth is that there are very few things the other player can do to stop it (Power Drain is one option, but there aren't many others).

And the best combination with Azathoth is Initiate of Huang Hun, or alternately Lord Jeffrey Farrington.  But for that combination, you really need to make certain your opponent doesn't have a Power Drain handy.

Runix said:

Hmmm, Azathoth may slot into my ST/Yog deck. Between all the bounce and Path of Blood, it may be fairly consistent to trigger him. When playing against Hastur, he would probably be tucked away as a resource though…

I'll have to try this against you next time we meet up. 

Danigral said:

You aren't the only one building an ST/Yog deck.