Mk 1 Grenades
Well, it's taken almost four full cycles, but we've finally got a repeatable AoE attack. We all know how good Storm of Spirits can be in the proper situation; the grenades give you three uses of it, with a better skill value, which can be recharged with E-Cache (3) and Venturer (and Contraband, if you want to go full Bomberman). Of course, it does come with the drawbacks of costing 4 experience and blowing up your fellow investigators--The latter is especially awkward, since AoE works best at high player counts. Be sure to bring some shareable soak (such as True Grit or Teamwork + Armor of Ardennes) or partner exclusively with evasion tanks if you don't want to lose your friends. Warning Shot or a teammate's Barricade (3) can also help create large piles of enemies a safe distance away from your comrades.
Of course, there is one little benefit that makes all that awkwardness worth it: The grenades may be a Weapon, but they don't take up a hand slot--or any other slot, for that matter! That means you can safely play them as soon as you can afford to, then save their supplies for when you can get the best use out of them. It also makes them excellent backup weapons for a limited-use big gun, though your build is starting to get a little xp-hungry at that point. If you're really raking in those victory points, you could even use them to work around the Telescopic Sight (I don't think real snipers use grenades as emergency melee weapons, but I'm hardly an expert).
Agency Backup
At 5 experience and 7 resources, this may be Arkham's quintessential Timmy card. It's a real challenge getting this card in play, but when you succeed, you've got testless clues, testless damage, and a ludicrous amount of shareable soak. And, really, who doesn't love the feeling of just calling in the feds on your enemies?
Needless to say, this is pretty much exclusively a Zoey/Leo card. Anyone else who can take it lacks the economy to play it reliably, and with that experience cost you need reliability. Turning the US government into your own private army isn't cheap, and you're not playing a transnational corporation here. You could also trying using Calling in Favors on a nearly-dead Beat Cop (2), which is nice when it works, but it's safest to assume you'll need to spend the full price on these guys.
Ghastly Revelation
The obvious comparison to this card is "I'll See You In Hell," and Ghastly Revelation blows that one out of the water. First off, getting a large number of enemies engaged with you requires careful planning, while getting at least three clues at your location only requires playing multiplayer. Secondly, if you want to use this to accept defeat on your own terms, you're almost guaranteed to get a decent value out of your sacrifice. That clue transfer is far more powerful than it looks at first glance. If you have two clues, and you're going to be defeated, playing Ghastly Revelation means that your team still keeps those two clues, in addition to whatever you discover with card itself. Losing a cluever often spells doom for the investigators; Ghastly Revelation softens the blow significantly.
It's also a great card for Calvin, if you like your amiguously-undead antiheroes properly tormented. You can spend the first few scenarios self-destructing on a nice VP location, then start the back half of the game with a significant tempo boost. You can, of course, do the same thing with "I'll See You In Hell," but it's harder to get VP for the team (since it doesn't work on Elites) and a combat Calvin has to deal with fiddly Survivor weapons.
Studious
New Permanents are always nice. They give you a power boost without changing the structure of your deck, and you can always rely on them. A single extra card for three experience might not look like much, but when you take mulligans into account, that means you can dig two cards deeper into your deck when drawing your opening hand. That works wonders for consistency, and makes all your other experienced cards slightly stronger now that you're more likely to find them. If you get a second copy, you can sift through nearly half your deck for any particular card. And, of course, it's quite good in combination with Tarot cards. It's nowhere near as gamebreaking as Higher Education, but Studious is a solid addition to any deck that can take it.
Small Favor
"Psst. Hey kid. Wanna make a quick buck? See that dark god over there? Go punch him for me!" The Service cycle has given us clues, evasion, and finally damage, with a card that I'm certain most of you could extrapolate by now. A single point of testless damage is nice, but not as nice as a testless clue or automatic evade, particularly since (unlike Decoy) it's not protected from attacks of opportunity. After all, most attacks worth making deal 2 damage, so what does Small Favor add to the table.
The answer, surprisingly, is the ranged kicker. With the other Services, the ranged kicker's been nice to have, but not crucial to the card's function. With Small Favor, it's pretty much the only reason to consider it. Spending an action to punch an enemy is ineffective, even if the punch is automatically successful; paying two resources for the privilege is almost insulting. Spending an action to reach across the board and punch a 3-health enemy engaged with your Guardian, saving a single precious bullet? Far more worthwhile. It's even better if it's a 4-health enemy and your Guardian has a Lightning Gun out.
Obviously, this means that Small Favor needs to be in a rich deck. You'll never spend 2 resources on this card; it's only worth it if you spend 4 or more. This makes it the most situational of the Services, but it's not without its place.
Another Day, Another Dollar
The Rogue take on Studious, getting 2 resources instead of a mulligan-enabled card. 3 xp for 2 resources is actually a better deal than you might think. Most Rogues are quite happy to upgrade Hot Streak from level 2 to level 4, effectively spending 2 xp for 2 resources, and that requires them to draw and play a specific card to benefit. ADAD will always give you your money, and it'll give it to you at the start of the game, before you've got any economy up and running, when you need it most. Of all the many, many ways Rogues can spend their xp, this might be the most reliable.
Of course, this does come with investigator-specific caveats. Think twice before getting this if you have Paranoia. Sefina would rather make money by copying Hot Streak, if possible. Jenny and Preston have their economy built from turn one already (though Preston might appreciate the fact that this bypasses his Inheritance). It is, however, great for Finn and Skids, and probably for a good chunk of future Rogues, as well (such as a certain someone who's been revealed for The Dream-Eaters).
Dayana Esperence
This should go without saying, but recursion is a powerful thing. An ally that lets you recur almost any Spell event twice (plus more times if you can get more secrets on her) is a powerful ally. Tempting as it is to give her Storm of Spirits and laugh at the piteous Mk I Grenade, bear in mind that you do need to pay for the event she copies, on top of the 4 resources to actually play her. 1- or 2-cost events are a bit easier to afford if you plan to triple-cast them. An evasion event gives you a solid self-defense solution if you want to keep your arcane slots open for utility and investigation, particularly the 1-cost Blinding Light (2) (yes, I did just say something nice about Blinding Light, because Dayana makes miracles happen). The real meat, in my opinion, is in the cancellation events: Counterspell, Alter Fate, Ward of Protection, Eldritch Inspiration, Time Warp, and Deny Existence.
If you're playing TFA or Guardians of the Abyss, right of first refusal should go to Marie or Lola, who can both combo Dayana with Alter Fate and Truth From Fiction to utterly destroy the encounter deck. Father Mateo gets right of second refusal, since he can at least use Alter Fate. Outside of those scenarios, Dayana is a solid ally for Diana (as confusing as that sounds), since the cultist naturally packs a large number of spells that work well with the witch, and she can potentially pull cancellation events off Dayana to swap in different ones if that's ever necessary (though that's pretty inefficient, and should be done sparingly).
And, yes, that second paragraph did say something nice about Lola. See above about Dayana and miracles.
Deny Existence
So, Deny Existence is already one of the best cards in the game. What does a level 5 version of that look like? Turns out, it looks like a very good reason to spend five experience points. It remains free and versatile, and it reverses whatever it cancels. If you cancel two horror, you heal two horror, effectively negating four horror for zero actions and zero resources. If you cancel Paranoia, you double your resources. It's almost a shame that action drain is so rare, but if it does come up, you can just laugh and laugh and never stop laughing.
Obviously, Diana wants this card the most. A well-timed use of this card can obliterate her horror issues, and she's got a weakness that reliably deals horror for her to reverse, and she's got Twilight Blade to recur it. Agnes also wants it, since any horror healing for her becomes testless damage. So does Carolyn, because it can heal horror and therefore falls into her unlimited deckbuilding slot. As for everyone else... well, starting with two copies of Arcane Research isn't so bad when you can completely flip the tables on the Mythos for only three experience points, is it?
Trial By Fire
It's like a level 0 event version of the Red-Gloved Man. It only covers one stat, and it doesn't give you protection to the next Mythos phase, but it's still an incredible boost to a weak stat. Obviously, you're most likely to use it on combat or intellect, since it's easy to spend an entire round fighting or investigating. In fact, I'd say the most common use of this will be to boost intellect before spending an entire round investigating (after all, if your combat is terrible, you probably don't have any weapons worth mentioning).
The math's pretty simple: If you have less than 4 base intellect, then this card is more efficient, resource-wise, than any booster short of Higher Education and Streetwise. The lower your intellect, the better this card. The exception is obviously Ashcan Pete, since Trial By Fire isn't Duke-compatible. It's also useful for 3-combat characters, who might potentially pack weapons anyway and rely on skill bonuses. That makes it a solid card for Rita, and a decent cross-class pick for combat-focused Jenny and Skids. It's also absurdly good for Calvin and Preston, and pretty great for anyone who wants to go werewolf.
Bait and Switch
Wow, it's probably been years since anyone's even thought of this card's base version. Does the new level 3 upgrade bring it redemption? Well, the ranged evade is nice, as is the ability to effectively combine movement and evasion. It's biggest selling point is probably the fact that you can use it to evade enemies engaged with other players without having to spend your own actions moving and evading. Unfortunately, it only works if they're at a connecting location, but for someone like Rita, who is often away from the group doing her own thing, it's not hard to save two actions with it. It is, unfortunately, pretty inflexible, doesn't work on Elites, and prevents follow-up attacks. My final verdict is a resounding "Maybe." I'll have to see this in action to make a proper judgement.
Anna Kaslow
She has the same resource cost as a Tarot card, the same "when the game begins" effect as a Tarot card, and her "enters play" effect searches and plays a Tarot card. In short, Anna Kaslow is a Tarot card; to be specific, an extra copy of any other Tarot card in your deck. You could also use her to neutralize The Tower, if you're willing to spend 4 xp to counter that weakness.
So, who wants her? For the most part, it's investigators with subclass Tarot cards that boost a mediocre skill. Skids, Diana, Roland, and Daisy are all good examples. Starting with a 4 instead of 3 in their subclass's stat is quite the important jump, even if they use Anna solely for the search. Getting both copies of their sublass Tarot in play at once, if they're willing to keep her around, is pretty solid.
Note that most investigators are unlikely to use both of Anna's extra slots. One extra slot gets you two copies of a single Tarot, and there's rarely a good reason to have more than that taking up your deck space. Lola might be able to get use out of that, but otherwise, consider her extra slot to be protection from The Tower.
No comments:
Post a Comment