Purchase the Innsmouth Faction on Forgefire!
Ah, Innsmouth, idyllic little fishing village on the New England coast. Sample their excellent seafood. Become their excellent seafood! That’s right, you too can become a fish and live with Dagon below the depths. They may look like simple mutants, but in great numbers and with great power the residents of Innsmouth will welcome you into the fold. Or else.
Innsmouth is from The Obligatory Cthulu Set and have a Titan card: Dagon.
Complexity Level: MEDIUM-HIGH
Mechanics
- Minions With The Same Name
- Supporting the Little Guy
Of the factions of The Obligatory Cthulhu Set, Innsmouth makes the least use of the set's Madness cards. Each of the just two cards even allow you to choose not to draw any Madness cards. With that said, at the end of the game you will only be penalized if you have more than one of them. So go ahead and take the dip.
Now, one ought to wonder, why bother with Innsmouth when their minions only average 2 power? That's Titanically low! While that is fair, there is nuance to this. Clearing the water will take diving into a little math.
Innsmouth contains 10 copies of the same minion of power 2, The Locals. Within a combined 40-card deck, 10/40 or 25% of them will be a Local (dropping "The") when you start the game. In your starting hand, you are likely to have at least one. Say you get lucky and draw 3 Locals. Now 7 out of 35 cards left in your deck are Locals. When you play one of The Locals, you have a 7/35 or 20% chance that the first card you reveal will be a Local. Out of the 3 cards you reveal, the odds of getting at least one Local gets a little statistical, but it's roughly 50%. Say you draw exactly 1 Local, and you get to play an extra minion, so you play another Local. Now you have 6/32 or 18.75% chance that the first card you reveal will be a Local. Out of the 3 cards you reveal, the odds of getting at least one is slightly lower, but still roughly 50%. Rejected cards that were placed at the bottom of your deck don't count because we reveal from the top.
Strategy
The resulting effect is that The Locals "bubble" out of your deck. Sometimes you find a cluster of them and sometimes you don't draw any for a while. Whenever you play a Local, you have a varying chance of drawing extra Locals. This tends to front-load them. You'll get a lot of them during your first several turns, but when the rejected cards come up to the top you'll have 0% chance of drawing Locals. You might feel put out by having to reject cards that you wanted, but this is a fallacy. Under normal circumstances, you aren't supposed to know what you'll draw next out of your deck. That's the point. However, if you have a good memory, you get a sense of how your deck is arranged, and if your opponents will allow you, a little sleight of hand puts some cards ahead of others.
These are extra card draws. They may not be very valuable individually, but a card draw is a card draw, and a minion play is a minion play. Having weak minions and the ability to play them is more powerful than having strong minions but no ability to play them. Actually, Innsmouth's actions have their maximum effect once you've found most of your Locals, specifically favoring minions of power 2 or less with the same names. You get to play them all rapidly, power them up all at once, and recover them from the discard pile afterwards. Due to The Locals' front-loaded "bubbling" behavior, Innsmouth's impact on the game flows and ebbs like the tides of the sea.
Synergy
Thankfully, only The Locals specify The Locals by name, so their actions are fair game to other factions. Factions that play lots of extra minions, especially ones of power 2 or less, are ideal for Innsmouth.
- Robots: These two factions fit seamlessly in many ways. Just do it. You'll have a good time.
- Zombies: Both factions love power-2 minions. The Locals are quite vulnerable to destruction, which Zombies are specialized in recovering from. Some of their actions conflict with each other, but with careful timing you can keep your Tenacious Z's on the field while returning The Locals to your deck.
- Miskatonic University: They offer a surprising number of extra minions and power boosts, as well as helping you search through your deck for The Locals, all of which greatly help Innsmouth. Feel free to indulge in Mysteries of the Deep and Recruitment.
- Killer Plants: I've heard fish is great fertilizer! But really, it's the other way around. The Plants bypass The Locals' nonsense to hook them straight out of the deck, so you can surge onto shore much faster.
Cards - Minions
10x The Locals
Power 2 - Reveal the top three cards of your deck. Place any The Locals revealed into your hand. Put the rest of the cards on the bottom of your deck.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
Cards - Actions
1x In Plain Sight
Play on a base. Ongoing: Your minions here of power 2 or less are not affected by opponents’ cards.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
1x Mysteries of the Deep
If you have three or more minions with the same name on a base, draw 3 cards, then you may draw 2 additional cards and 2 Madness cards.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
- The minions with the same name must be on the same base.
1x New Acolytes
All players shuffle all minions in their discard piles into their decks.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
1x Recruitment
Draw up to three Madness cards. For each one drawn, you may play an extra minion this turn.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
1x Return to the Sea
Special: After a base scores, put any number of your minions with the same name on that base into your hand instead of the discard pile.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
1x Sacred Circle
Play on a base. Talent: You may play an extra minion here with the same name as another minion here.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
2x Spreading the Word
Play up to two extra minions with the same name as a minion in play.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
2x The Deep Ones
Each of your minions of power 2 or less get +1 power until the end of the turn.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
- It only affects minions currently in play, not those played later in the turn.
Cards - Bases
1x Innsmouth
Breakpoint 23 - VPs: 5 3 2 - After each time a minion is played here, its owner may place one card from any player’s discard pile on the bottom of their deck.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
1x Ritual Site
Breakpoint 20 - VPs: 4 2 2 - After this base scores, all minions on it are shuffled into their owners’ decks instead of their discard piles.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
Card - Titan
1x Dagon
Special: On your turn, you may play this titan on a base where you have two or more minions with the same name. Ongoing: You have +1 power here for each of your minions here that has the same name as another minion here. Talent: Play an extra minion.
Errata? Yes/No
Clarifications:
