It was now midsummer, and with haste and care we might be able to conclude work by March and avoid a tedious wintering through the long antarctic night. Several savage windstorms had burst upon us from the west, but we had escaped damage through the skill of Atwood in devising rudimentary aëroplane shelters and windbreaks of heavy snow blocks, and reinforcing the principal camp buildings with snow. Our good luck and efficiency had indeed been almost uncanny…
–H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness
Never Night has recently become available, and once again our journey for the Ancient Relics leads us to an extremely inhospitable place, the South Pole. Some of its dangers have already been dredged from Forgotten Lore in the Asylum Pack, At The Mountains of Madness. This time, the expeditions run into less trouble from the merciless polar weather and dig deeper than before into Antarctica’s lost secrets. It wouldn’t be Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game, though, if the imminent danger of being frozen to death wasn’t partnered with some less mundane dangers.
Magnetic Spike
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When going on an adventure, it’s best to be prepared. While Miskatonic University doesn’t have much in the way of dealing with Support cards, they get the new event, Magnetic Spike (Never Night, 78). This gives the faction a little better security, allowing them to remove troublesome support cards, while adding a little Miskatonic flavor to the removal.
Magnetic Spike deals harshly with those who overcommit themselves to support cards. Not only does it put support cards out of commission, but it limits their owner's ability to draw new cards. The University itself is quite good at drawing extra cards, so even in the case that the card is used as a large-ditch effort, removing your cards as well as your opponent’s, your scientists are certain to get the lost cards back more quickly.
Another thing that works well is uniting Miskatonic University with Yog-Sothoth. Deck manipulation–especially deck discard effects–can greatly enhance the Spike’s pulse effect. When you want to ensure the support cards are not just removed from play for a single turn, winning The Ritual Conspiracy (Conspiracies of Chaos, 52) gives you the power to make certain all those support cards are a little more permanently lost.
Relics in the Antarctic
Not all support cards are susceptible to the strange influences of the magnetic poles, however. Relics remain unharmed, so you can still stock up on those to your heart’s content, using these powerful support cards as much as possible to protect and strengthen your expedition and its mission. Even if the Relics themselves sometimes have the tendency to disappear back into your deck and returning in your hand at random, it’s a rather practical consideration to include them in your deck when you’re going on a Relic hunt.
With all the good support cards currently among some of the game’s stronger archetypes, Magnetic Spike can certainly make for a nasty surprise.
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