So after being away from CoC since Unspeakable Tales, I come back to see that the card distribution has changed and that FFG is having a massive sale on boxes. Only after getting a box of each set since Unspeakable Tales do I learn that there's worry all non-LCG sets will be dropped. Oh well, what can you do I suppose.

So this is something I came up with dealing with the cards I have from Arkham Edition and Unspeakable Tales plus the new boosters I got, with no knowledge of any kind of popular decks or metagame. Not sure if this is tournament legal at all, can't find much info about what's legal and what's not. So anyway here's the list:

3x Kindly Nurse

3x Mi-Go Slave

3x Restless Dead

3x Humble Supplicant

3x The Mother's Hand

1x Guardian Elder Thing

1x Adult Chthonian

1x Slavering Gug

2x Ancient Guardian

2x Assistant to Dr. West

2x Y'Golonac

1x Ithaqua

1x Shub-Niggurath, The All Mother

1x Unspeakable Resurrection

3x Journey to the Other Side

3x Shocking Transformation

1x Warping of Time

3x The Reaping

1x Opening the Limbo Gate

3x Cuttings from the Same Branch

2x Peer Into the Future

3x Fetch Stick

2x The Speaking Cells

1x Commoriom

1x  Blackmoor Estate

The main idea is to manipulate the early game, digging through your deck with cheaper spells like Journey to the Other Side and Humble Supplicant, hopefully with Transient resources and Speaking Cells. Then you get to power out your Ancient Ones (Y'Golonac, Ithaqua, Shubby) if you have the resources, or use Shocking Transformation to dig out your toolbox characters like Guardian Elder Thing, Adult Chthonian, Slavering Gug and Ancient Guardian.

You can attempt to abuse your sacrifice effects or play around character-killing strategies and just get back your characters with Assistant to Dr. West, Ithaqua, Unspeakable Resurrection, Restless Dead or just use your own Mi-Go Slave or Kindly Nurse to pop themselves back into your hand.

If you can't find anything to fetch your (hopefully) game-winners, then you may have to make due with your underlings and Fetch Stick. If you can't find what you need with Journey to the Other Side and Humble Supplicant, you can at least gain some resources with Cuttings from the Same Branch and The Reaping, which should help you power out when you do get your game-winners.

Any advice to steer the deck into a tournament legal format and make it competitive against popular decks is welcome.

Zwiffle said:

Rules as standing any 4x deck without cost reducing rituals, Rip-offs and tournament banned promos (Tentacula Spectacular only I think) is legal. This is bound to change, but we don't know yet (knock knock power that be, do you realize you have frozen the game and discouraged playing until an official announcement of what happens for tournaments post-LCG appears) how the post LCG future rules will be -we know 3x for sure-. There might be set rotation, Thoth and Messengers could get nerfed or banned, legacy could become highlander only (ugh!) or the game could become anything goes with 3x card maximum (the best solution but also the most unlikely).

Considering popular decks, yours has no way to deal with Yig or Mentor + Forgotten Isle and combo decks just walk over it, since you ahve no Support, Character or Event destruction. You could try Shocking Transformation T-Men against Yig, it has been known to be a good solution, and some Burrowing Beneath against Forgotten Island would not be bad at all -nor it would be Thunder in the East-

As a general principle Transients are to be avoided like the plague, I'd suggest you to use Temple of Nephren Ka or Sanctify the Stone or The Speaking cells (the first two are very synergic with both assistant and Ithaqua). I see Lavinia Whateley nowhere, and that's a shame: one basic cycle in Shub-Yog is Lavinia -> Ithaqua -> bring back Lavinia and so on.

You might want to check out Bard's deck at Stahleck (here in Marius first post) for some good ideas.