Cards Review: The Secret Name

Well, the first Mythos pack of The Circle Undone has finally come out, so let's dive right in!

Something Worth Fighting For

This one really surprised me. Yes, a horror version of True Grit is an obvious idea, but I didn't think we'd actually see it (not in Guardian, anyway). This is significantly more powerful than True Grit, simply because Guardians tend to have worse sanity than health. True Grit protects the team, this protects you. It's especially welcome for Roland Banks, who combines the worst starting sanity in the game with a weakness that piles on the trauma. Diana also loves it: While her sanity is better than most Guardians' (being decidedly average rather than terrible), it's very low for a Mystic, and she's very fond of Ward of Protection.

Crack the Case

Finally, Seekers can get rich without sucking up to that annoying entomologist. You'll normally want to save it for a 4+ Shroud location, but even hitting a 3 Shroud one is a great deal. Roland especially loves it, since he can easily pick up testless clues at high Shroud locations with his ability (and, as a Guardian, really needs the money). It might even be worth cross-class slots for Finn and Marie, since they can use Lockpicks or Drawn to the Flame to get a big payday.

Don't forget that it can give resources to your allies, as well. If you are running with Dr. Christopher, go ahead and share some of that spare wealth with the less fortunate.

Intel Report

Nobody can turn their nose up at testless clues. Intel Report is usually weaker than Scene of the Crime or Working a Hunch, but when you've got the experience to really activate the Rogue cashflow, it's a solid alternative. Paying twice the cash for twice the benefit is exactly how Rogues like to think. That goes triple for Preston Fairmont, who can buy the double clue as casually as you or I might buy a sandwich.

The ranged ability is more of a "there if you need it" sort of thing: It's quite useful if you're running all over the board or splitting the party in a hub-and-spokes map, but not something you'll build around (at least, not until we get a Seeker/Rogue who hides behind a Barricade and pays other people to do the scenario). Still, if you don't need it, you don't pay for it, so what's not to love?

Sign Magick

If this had come out in the Core, it would have been a staple in every single Mystic deck for about a year. Sure, nobody ever used Book of Shadows, but that's because of its exorbitant experience cost. These days, however, Mystics actually want to use their hands to hold athames and statues and whatnot. An extra arcane slot is nice, but you're only using so many spells in a given turn anyway.

That's not to say Sign Magick isn't good! It may not be an auto-include, but there are a few key builds where it comes in handy:

• You might be using spells or rituals that don't require an action to trigger. This includes the various sealing cards, the upgraded Scrying, and (for Daisy and Marie) Arcane Insight. This is a huge boon: Imagine being able to combo Arcane Insight with Rite of Seeking without sacrificing your self-defense, or playing as Jim and sealing three failure tokens.
• You might actually need the versatility of multiple options. Perhaps you need to budget your horror, using Song of the Dead on odd-health enemies so you don't risk Shriveling backfiring. Perhaps you're worried about incurring Yig's Fury and need Mists of R'lyeh in addition to your attack spells. Or maybe you're an investigation-focused Marie, using Rite of Seeking to finish your turn and Archaic Glyphs otherwise.
• You might have other ways to hang on to whatever you'd normally keep in your hands, such as Horowitz for Marie and Daisy or Bandolier for Diana

Of course, that's leaving out the biggest potential upside of all: We've had that double-arcane slot icon sitting in the rulebook for three full cycles now, and we're finally at the cycle that's all about spellcasters. Anything that merited that would almost certainly be worth giving up an Athame or two.

Banish

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: This is so much better than Blinding Light. Against a non-Hunter enemy, Banish can effectively be an instant kill. Just put the enemy some place you don't need to go, and it's gone forever. Even against a Hunter, Banish can buy you several turns. Depending on circumstances, you can even drop the enemy conveniently next to your team monster-killer or in a train car that's about to fall up into infinity.

The symbol effect is, I feel, more of an occasional bonus (or compensation) than something you actually want to aim for. You might be able to pull it off on certain Easy/Standard scenarios, but the high-level tokens are best left in the bag. The extra stun is powerful, but it's not worth some of those awful effects. Even if you can handle the tokens, do you really want to waste your Dark Prophecy or accept the extra risk of Olive McBride just so it'll take the Hunter four turns to catch back up instead of three?

Meat Cleaver

It's a little macabre, but it is a great way to enable desperation! More seriously, both Silas and Yorick can use this to finish off odd-health enemies and shore up their low sanity, or safely swing for double damage at high sanity while still coming out even. Rita can also fight competently with it in desperation mode, assuming she has Peter Sylvestre on hand to deal with the cost. You probably don't want to give it to anyone else (as hilarious as it would be for Agnes to make it work), since you shouldn't gamble your mental health on a 4-skill swing.

Scroll of Secrets

(I'm aware that the Thompson is actually next in collection order; I want to discuss that one later).

This one is... kind of weird? I guess it's useful if you end up with the Doomed line of weaknesses, which go on the bottom of your deck, or if you're playing with Wendy. Norman might want it so he can manipulate the top card of his deck (or, more accurately, he might want Daisy to use it for him). You might occasionally manage to discard something awful like Ancient Evils or Kidnapped if you use it on the encounter deck, and the various TCU cards that get nastier the more you draw them (eg Fate of All Fools, Daemonic Piping) make it especially handy this cycle, but it still strikes me as rarely worth the action. I'll have to run with it a bit once the cycle's fully out, see if I'm missing its hidden value.

Tennessee Sour Mash

It's classed as dual Rogue/Survivor, but I'm not sure why a Survivor would want it. Rogues can use Joey the Rat to play it reactively (which is ever so slightly more efficient than Moxie), don't have many ways to boost willpower, and can get extra uses with Contraband (hopefully after topping it up with the upgraded Emergency Cache). I'm not saying they necessarily should, but it's certainly worth exploring (except for Finn, whose willlpower is simply beyond redemption).

Survivors? Okay, it's more efficient than Dig Deep. It's still only two uses, though. Worse, you have to spend an action to play it early, and three resources for two uses isn't spectacular for this class.

Obviously, I'm not mentioning the combat ability, since that's clearly just a joke. To FFG's credit, it's a pretty funny joke, and we've seen from previews that it'll come into its own with the upgraded version.

Enchanted Blade

Here's the part where we realize that FFG was hiding all the good dual-class cards when they made the previews. For Guardians, this has the same ammo-to-cost ratio as the .45 Automatic, and it's more accurate to boot. It's not quite as much of a shoe-in for Mystics, thanks to its slot requirements, but it serves Akachi and Sefina admirably as a backup Shriveling that won't backfire. The biggest winner here is probably Skids O'Toole, who finally gets a level 0 weapon he can use reliably.

.45 Thompson

Now I'm ready to talk about this one. This is obviously a godsend to the combat-3 investigators who can take it: Skids, Finn, and Diana. It's a +2 weapon at level 0, and its massive ammo count means you can afford to miss the occasional shot. It's extremely expensive, but it lasts quite a while. Now, 4+ combat Guardians would probably prefer the smaller guns, since the accuracy bonus isn't quite as necessary, but it's invaluable in its niche.

The real question is: Would you rather take this or the Enchanted Blade? The Thompson costs as much as two Enchanted Blades and has one less use, but of course playing one Thompson only costs half the actions of playing two Blades, so that evens out. The Thompson works with ammo and firearm-based combo cards like Venturer and Custom Ammo. The Blade works with charge and relic-based effects (including the Wraiths that have begun plaguing us this cycle) and, once you get a Beat Cop or Ace of Swords out, can efficiently deal with odd-health enemies.

There are two combat-3 investigators who can take either card just as easily: Diana and Skids. Diana can make excellent use of her arcane slots, and can also take Custom Ammo. For Diana, the sticking point is the cost: The Thompson is a great investment in the long run, but it's a significant tempo hit even with her effectively free Dodges and Wards of Protection. She's mostly reliant on the agenda setup to make bank with Renfield if she wants to afford it. The Arcane Blade may be the safer investment at first (perhaps to be replaced later with one of the level 2 weapons). Skids, on the other hand, can't get Custom Ammo and doesn't care about arcane slots. He should grab the Thompson if he's planning on pumping it full of Contraband and shouting "Eat Lead!" all day long; otherwise, the Blade is the obvious choice.

Grisly Totem

And now we finish off with... well, a disappointingly simple relic, to be frank. It eats your accessory slot and gives you +1 to a skill test, once per round. No powerful bonuses with bizarre downsides or special combo pieces to find here. It's just a thoroughly adequate card. Don't bother with it for Daisy (who'd rather have the Rosary or St. Hubert's Key) or Yorick (who'd rather have his infinite army of undead teddy bears); do bother with it for Minh, who can use it to help get rid of the King in Yellow. For everyone else, it's exactly as good as you think it is.