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Cthulhu Deck Archives - Chaos Cup Championship Deck 2005, by Greg Gan Okay, so I had my Chaos Cup Champion deck under my hat for a while because I thought I'd use it at GenCon 2005. Funny enough, it really didn't see light of day at all at GenCon. Now that things have come and gone I'd like to share it in case people would like to improve upon it and perhaps mod it for Eldritch. I've generated a couple new mods using Eldritch and Masks, but I'll keep those under my hat for the moment (besides, those variants need more testing). It couldn't beat "Shock and Awe" (my pet name for my version of the Rainbow deck) so I chose not to play it. Who doesn't love a good control deck? Personally, my best decks are control decks and they usually have a primary focus and a secondary for good measure. Although I play with the other two deck types - combo and speed - it's just not inherent in my nature for some reason. Combos rely on specific cards in order to get the lock - disrupt one or two pieces and everything just falls apart. Though deadly when it goes off (ie. the Infinite Recursive Discard Deck), personally, too risky if you ask me. For speed decks that dump creatures out - if your opponent can survive the initial rush, the speed deck begins falling apart in the mid game and is practically dead by the end. Again, personally, that strategy for me is too risky. Am I advocating that players in competition should never play speed or combo decks - hardly! I love them and do play them competitively, but I always try to find ways to break the simple speed or combo archetype and give it a zing that perhaps some wouldn't expect. I don't recommend breaking the deck archetype, but a little of variety and "teching" your meta will keep your opponents always on their toes. Versatility is key But what is it that makes me come back to control decks? I've often found that control decks provide the "toolbox" aspect that I love - versatility in my opinion is key for winning considering Cthulhu doesn't provide a "sideboard" to factor against the various deck types. However, a well designed control deck in Cthulhu should have various countermeasures against many card types thereby mitigating the need to ever have a side board. Can you counter everything that an opponent can throw at you? Probably not, but you can sure give them hell while you regroup your resources for the win. So, this deck is my style - hard core control with a contingency plan built in for good measure. The deck is a Cthulhu/Yog - the principle shell is a characterless that includes strong creatures for the choke hold. The deck simply wounds and destroys anything that hits the table and proceeds to win with big creatures. If the games are getting long and drawn out - deck'em. Simple. The deck list (Note: for those that has read my DD on Etienne, I talk about "strong and straight forward" cards and decks. This is typically one such)
Through long testing with the Pittsburgh crowd and various competitions - I've found this deck is versatile enough to kill speed and combo decks with a near 95 - 99% certainty. Against other control based decks, it has some of its best and worst fights especially against MagnusArcanus' Cthulhu/Shub Reanimator deck and to a lesser degree against Ron’s dreaded Agency/Cthulhu deck. I’m proud to say that it can kill the Khanum deck without any real modifications, however, it does have problems against resource destruction.  - Greg Gan
Hope nobody mind me adding some notes to Greg's writing. He is a great deck builder and player and I always enjoy reading what he comes up with. I hope you found this as interesting as I did. Now off with you to the message boards to discuss. I will be waiting there :) - xedric
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