THE CARD
Name: An Unexpected Calamity
Set: Mythos Limited
Type: Event
Affects: Passing
Special Effect Box: Play this card and announce "Pass." This Pass ends the current Round, even if it is the only Pass in the Round.
THE SOURCE
No specific source. Unexpected calamities regular befall investigators in both Lovecraftian stories and Call of Cthulhu. It's only appropriate that the same be true for Mythos investigators. The artwork for An Unexpected Calamity is from _Mansions of Madness_, a Call of Cthulhu 1920s adventure book.
CLARIFICATIONS
An Unexpected Calamity ends card play and causes combat to begin.
QUESTIONS
Q: Can I play In the Nick of Time to avoid An Unexpected Calamity?
A: No. There are no "instants" in Mythos. Cards get played on your Turn, and only on your Turn. After An Unexpected Calamity, you won't get an opportunity to play In the Nick of Time until the next round, and by then it's pointless, since it voids Passes in the current Round.
Q: Can I play Yithian Mental Contact to avoid An Unexpected Calamity?
A: No. As with In the Nick of Time, you won't have an opportunity until the next round. Yithian Mental Contact only affects cards "just played" which is defined in the rules as "a card played since your last Turn in the current Round."
Q: What happens if I play An Unexpected Calamity when Tulzscha is out?
A: Not a lot. When Tulzscha is in play, three Passes are required to end card play in a Round. Since GOO powers always override anything else in the game, this means that An Unexpected Calamity does not end the Round. However, the "Pass" that is announced when An Unexpected Calamity is played does count as one of the three.
STRATEGIES
An Unexpected Calamity is quite simply the most powerful Mythos card around. I know of tournament finals where each of the four players had four Unexpected Calamities in their deck. This is primarily due to the first strategy mentioned below. Players more interested in playing Mythos for fun, or to tell enjoyable stories, will probably get little mileage out of the first strategy. Still, the other two make An Unexpected Calamity a useful card.
Speed! - If you're out to win Mythos via Adventures, as is required in a tournament game, only one thing is important, Speed. After selecting an adventure, you play all the cards specifically required for that Adventure, then Pass to end the round, redraw to get more necessary cards, and repeat. An Unexpected Calamity makes this even more efficient. When you've played your relevent cards, you can just play Calamity and immediately end the round. If you're using this strategy, you need tunnel vision. Avoid distractions, and keep moving forward. As long as your deck is the fastest one out there, you're in good shape. If it's not, you'll will wish you had more interactive cards, to slow your opponents with.
In conjunction with this strategy, you might want to use Tomes which increase your hand size (ie the Greek and Latin Necronomicons) and investigators with Low minimums. Both of these will allow you to go even faster.
Discard - One of the worst things you can do in Mythos is force a Discard. This takes away cards that an opponent might have needed for an Adventure. An Unexpected Calamity can Discard, kind of. If you think an opponent is holding a lot of required cards (perhaps he's nearing the end of one Adventure, and is trying to stack cards for the next), you can play An Unexpected Calamity as your first card in a round. You'll probably force your opponent to Discard six cards or more. If he was holding numerous cards of value, he'll be reshuffling momentarily.
Redraw - A pretty obvious strategy. If you've got nothing to play, you can use An Unexpected Calamity to get out of the current round and draw lots of new cards.
COUNTER STRATEGIES
First, to briefly address the Discard Strategy:
Ironmind - This DREAMLANDS spell increases your Maximum by 3. You can cast it during the Artifact/Spell phase of combat if you realize you'll otherwise be Discarding vital cards. Unfortunately, it's a Dream icon spell, and thus hard to find outside of the Dreamlands.
Dealing with the Speed strategy is a bit more difficult, but here are a variety of suggestions:
Tulzscha - Tulzscha not only totally destroys the usefullness of An Unexpected Calamity, but also extends the round by requiring three passes.
Police Investigation - If your opponent is playing speed, he is counting on drawing An Unexpected Calamity every few rounds. Police Investigation will dramatically decrease his chances of doing so, and also mess up his whole strategy of drawing his needed cards.
Leeching - Go with the flow. If you've got a speed deck of your own, you'll be able to play just as fast as your opponent, and will be quite happy to see short rounds. In fact, if you're in a four player game where everyone else has An Unexpected Calamity in their deck, you'll be ahead of the game if you DON'T. They'll be offering you plenty of opportunities to draw, while you have space for four more cards in your deck. The only deficit is that you're not in control.
Keep Him Moving - Force your opponent to constantly move, and make sure he's doing it in a wasteful way. Townsfolk Riot and DREAMLANDS' Rude Awakening might force your opponent to leave his current Location. DREAMLANDS' Blizzard can slow use of Cars, Camels, or Zebras. MSGS' Downpour slows City travel. Earthquake, Cthulhu Rising, and other cards of this ilk can be useful if they destroy a Location that your opponent just had to walk or Travel to.
Aggression - This doesn't keep the Unexpected Calamity from being played, but it stops your opponent from taking full advantage of it. Beat his Sanity down with Monsters and Phobias. Monsters are especially useful since speed players will try and ignore this aspect while moving toward victory. Decreasing Sanity in this way may prevent your opponent from playing required Tomes or Artifacts. If someone is playing speed, they're just asking for trouble, in the same way that a high Sanity player is. You and his other opponents need to give it to him.