Minh Thi Phan
The Secretary

Дослідник

Assistant.

Шукач
  • 4
  • 4
  • 2
  • 2
Health: 7. Sanity: 7.

After an investigator at your location commits a card to a skill test: That card gains a icon until the end of the test. (Limit once for each investigator per round.)

effect: +1. You may choose a skill card committed to this skill test to return to its owner's hand after this test ends.

"You can depend on me to guide you through the unknown."
Tony Foti
The Path to Carcosa #2.

Minh Thi Phan - Back

Дослідник

Deck size: 30.

Deckbuilding Options: Seeker cards () level 0-5, Neutral cards level 0-5, Survivor cards () level 0-2.

Deckbuilding Requirements (do not count toward deck size): Analytical Mind, The King in Yellow (Act 1), 1 random basic weakness.

Minh never quite felt like she belonged in America. Things were even harder for her family before they moved, being Vietnamese in Korea under Japanese rule. She worked hard to get her college degree, reminding herself that her parents had sacrificed much to come to the States. Finally, her father became acquainted with a man from Arkham, Mr. Thomas, who offered Minh a job at his office. he was kind to her, at first - but then he started reading The King in Yellow, and his demeanor changed completely. He'd lent it to Minh, but she dared not read past the first act. Three weeks later, Mr. Thomas was found dead, having taken his own life… And The King in Yellow is the key to the truth.
Minh Thi Phan
Minh Thi Phan
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Reviews

Some observations:

Since the committed card gains after it's committed, this doesn't let you commit cards that don't a matching symbol or cards (like Emergency Cache) that don't have any skill symbols.

The effect only applied to skill cards, not any card you are using to support a skill check.

krish · 50

Minh Thi Phan, the Secretary. Assistant.

The best* seeker in the game, and the worst^ seeker in the game. Minh revolves completely around her access to her signature Analytical Mind, without it she struggles to pass tests without depleting resources and is forced to huddle around her allies to make use of her ability. Once Analytical Mind is in play, however, her potential is unshackled and she can project unparalleled support across the map while accomplishing her own clue-oriented objectives.

For this reason Minh is below power curve until she has two No Stone Unturned (5)s to guarantee immediate access to her unique asset. Past 10xp Minh begins to outpace her contemporaries, and past the midpoint of a campaign she should be trivializing (through some combination of hard card draw and Deciphered Reality) scenarios which severely hamper others.

Obviously she’s better in higher player counts, but she is more than effective enough in 2p. A late-campaign Minh can reach tiers of effectiveness even a pre-taboo Rex would flinch at.

* above 20xp

^ below 10xp

Difrakt · 1303
I strongly disagree with the assessment of Minh as the worst below 10xp if the only grounds for that is lack of reliable access to Analytical Mind. Mr. Rook and other seeker card draw and dig can very reliably pull Analytical Mind even in a level 0 deck. Her own weakness isn't bad to pull early with Rook since (A) it avoids the surprise lost hand slot later and (B) can be easily dealt with by pulling more pitch icons that Rook himself is helping you grab (even at that very moment). — Death by Chocolate · 1447
Rook definitely improves the situation, but at significant risk of pulling either of your two weaknesses which can drastically slow down your deck (and every turn not doing what Minh does best is a huge loss). The resource cost alone is a big problem, and sometimes even with rook you won’t have the right collection of skill icons to clear her weakness early on. — Difrakt · 1303
Seeker grisly totem, drawing thinh, eureka, Ressourceful, perception all help to stay stocked with skill cards as well; Chance encounter 2 is great to resurrect rook and has Int icon to commit. Good target for resourceful — Django · 5072
& Compass. — MrGoldbee · 1453

It’s worth reconsidering Minh a few years after her debut. And it’s because nearly every beneficial card survivors have for clues is in the 0 to 2 XP range.

In terms of assets, the mariner's compass lets you run a speedy-efficient dark horse Minh. In duo, you can clear most locations in one action. With scavenging, you can recur the ice pick(3) and make it three clues. Or use scavenging(2) to continually grab your old keyring.

The new survivor skills are also amazing. In your hands, unexpected courage (2) is a ???. With analytical mind, you can use it all game to mitigate tests they won’t pass but are punished by how much they fail. You even get a card! Plus, you can recur it to help deal with your weakness.

Signum Cruces can fill the bag with blesses, even if you’re intending to use a fire axe and succeed. Unrelenting lets you take test without symbols that penalize you for trying.

On the seeker side and ignoring recursion, Ancestral knowledge and Guided by the Unseen get you more skills. And while Ancestral might make PMP harder to trigger, it allows you to get skills you need later, like stunning blow. Congratulations, the guardian just evaded the boss! No more retaliate this turn!

There’s a lot that makes you hardier than a normal seeker: bandages, jury-rig, hiding space… So many different ways to build the seek-tary. (Although most of them involve the card you can get from either color, grisly totem.) Plus, you can use it to help deal with your weakness.

Now go get a lot of clues and make your team more efficient!

MrGoldbee · 1453
Minh got a big boost wtih EOTE. Scavenging (2) eon chart gives her lots of actions. Pocket telescope saves her lots of actions to investigate from a central spot. Ancestral knowledge is very helpful for clearing the king in yellow. — Django · 5072
I think, Minh has a lot better items for her handslots than compass or even more so keyring. And upgraded "Unexpected Courage" I would strictly only consider, if she has people on the team, who plan to fail stuff. Sure, Scavenging (2) is great on her and "Ancestral Knowledge" as well. — Susumu · 366

In this episode of "the writer's thinly disguised fetish":
Take your pick of Asian women! Submissive secretary or Kung-Fu Chick in an Armpit Cheongsam! Haha, I'm drunk but this is funny. How'd it get past editing or whatever anyway? All the other ethnic groups get some level of antistereotypical diversity, not too much 'fitting into the setting', but both sides of the collective American megaphone enthusiast community insultingly agree that fitting in lovecraftian works isn't for minorities. Shame.
What an insultingly comically tokenistic card.

ArchivesIV · 4
Wait. Your problem with this particular FFG diversity hire is that it's "insultingly comically tokenistic"? As opposed to, say, Stella Clark, Daniela Reyes, etc. etc. etc.? — Eudaimonea · 5
Haven't gotten there yet. Right now I'm staring at https://arkhamdb.com/card/60410 trying to figure out why they keep referencing Lovecraft's black cat (who was named something very rude). — ArchivesIV · 4
Haha, just looked at Stella what the ####. The "postman"? Affirmed by the mysterious voices? Did someone on the writing team have a bone to pick? — ArchivesIV · 4
Well, I was going to write something there, but you've appearently locked me out of a good time. Jerk. Ah well. Have fun in looney racist not-racist land. — ArchivesIV · 4
这人在发什么颠? — OnThinIce · 25
可能,他无法再写评论,因为他仍然处于 1 声誉状态,并且他认为,他已被锁定在该网站之外 — Susumu · 366
Minh đến từ Việt Nam phải không? Tại sao lại là tiếng Trung Quốc? — MrGoldbee · 1453
何 — AlderSign · 290
the japanese "nani" kanji had me rofl. Thanks :) — rirze · 2
나는 김밥이 아주 좋아. :) — TheToad · 1

Tried her again with the TSK card pool. She's still bad.

The problem is her weakness.

Let's compare Minh to the first seeker in the game everyone has access to: Daisy.

Stats (Winner: Daisy) Daisy has a 5 int, whereas Minh has 4. Daisy has a lower Will, but a higher sanity and can safely fail will checks easier.

Survivability (Winner: Tie) Minh is more durable with 7 health, whereas Daisy is quite squishy with only 5. Minh has access to survivor cards like leather coat and Jessica Hyde, but Daisy has deny existence. Overall, they can both stay on the board pretty well.

Card pool (Winner: Tie) Some really good survivor cards came into play with TSK. However, they both aren't really going to want to delve too deep into their offclass as the seeker cards themselves are still pretty nuts.

Weakness and Sig Asset: (Winner: Daisy, by light years)

Daisy and Minh both get assets that completely lock up a hand slot,and limit each character to one hand. Daisy's signature asset completely locks down her weakness though, and basically ends up netting her one hand at the cost of increasing the auto fails in the bag by 1. Minh's weakness on the other hand completely locks down Minh's signature asset to where she basically can't use it if King in Yellow is on the field. For Minh to clear the King, she's going to want to be draw heavy so she can over commit. Since she's draw heavy though, she's going to be drawing the King a lot too. If youre playing with more than one actove hand slot, you always have the threat of King bumping one of your slots. Compare that to a draw heavy Daisy. Once she has necronomicon safely tucked in her book bag, it's a non issue for the remainder of the game.

Investigator ability (Winner: Daisy, by light years).

Minh can boost each investigator by one each time. They're probably not attempting checks they couldn't innately pass anyway, and this ends up essentially being pretty useless. Daisy on the other hand gets a free action on tome abilities, which she will most likely use on Old Book Of Lore. Draw (and even free asset play) each turn, pretty much every turn, guaranteed.

Overall: Daisy.

The librarian will outperform the secretary in almost every scenario. Since they're both competing for the same role... I find it hard to ever really recommend Minh. I have yet to find a deck build for her that Daisy can't do better, and as such she's a C Tier investigator for me.

drjones87 · 191
I am no stranger to hot takes, but saying Minh is bad is a bold statement considering some of her decks were so strong they were a large reason cards were taboo'd. — dezzmont · 212
Seeker 5/Survivor 2 is probably the strongest card pool in the game. Minh doesn't even need an ability or signature to be good. But she does have a great sig - much better than Daisy's, which just lets you maybe play a couple of tomes you might not even need if you're just using Old Book of Lore every turn. Her weakness turns off her ability and signature, but is much, much easier to clear than Daisy's, and doesn't double the amount of autofails in the bag if you leave it in play. — SSW · 209
Please, show me a deck that this holds true. I know about twenty different ways to build Daisy. Every Minh build comes back around to the same problem. Build her for draw to combat King In Yellow and you just draw it more. Don't, and it completely shuts down her sig. As stated above. — drjones87 · 191
Drawing the King in Yellow isn't a problem if you also draw enough cards to trivially commit +6, which Minh can easily do. If your drawing lots of cards you 'hit your weakness faster' but it also literally doesn't matter. This means that in normal play Minh doesn't need to do anything special besides maybe discard an extra card on a skill test, while Daisy (who I think is quite good but is a very different character) has to give up using her character power for 3 turns while taking sanity loss to clear her weakness. As SSW said, Seeker 5/Survivor 2 is a ridiculously good combo as well due to scavenging, which allows Minh to do bonkers things like infinitely recur limited use researched cards, or utilize her insane skill synergy with ice picks to become a better killer than many guardians. — dezzmont · 212
Does having to build (slightly) around your sig weakness make a character bad? Especially when the thing you're building around - drawing cards - is generally just a net benefit to begin with? Also, Minh is absolutely a thousand times more versatile than Daisy in her deckbuilding, it's not even close. You could build a Minh deck with all survivor cards. You can absolutely not build a Daisy deck with all mystic cards. — SSW · 209
I found the best solution to address the King in Yellow to be "Archaic Glyphs: Guiding Stones". Suddenly, committing 6+ icons to a single test isn't a waste any more, as it gives you loads of clues, at least in higher player counts. I played her before the release of "Ice Pick", and still found her a very strong investigator. — Susumu · 366
A Glimmer of Hope solves her weakness. — MrGoldbee · 1453
Sometimes you may feel threatened when you have to overcommit cards to clear KiY at the risk of drawing the autofail. But now...Analysis just makes that a non-issue. TSK actually made Minh even stronger. — toastsushi · 74
Dream Eaters gave Minh Dream Diary, A Glimmer of Hope, and Sharp Vision and I've never had trouble clearing King in Yellow since. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but "still bad" is very different from my experience. — Pseudo Nymh · 54

All the reviews I read on Minh do her little justice. You can look at her ability and frown a bit, but it is not what makes her strong. Her stat line is not perfect, but it is perfectly reasonable - at 4 Will and easy access to +2 from comitting a single symbol she is very resilient to the nastier effects of the mythos deck. Her 2 foot is not stellar, but if she commit a symbol and someone else commits a symbol she is at 6 Agility. Plus her 7/7 health pool is a blessing, since Seeker allies tend to soak horror better.

She is ridiculously strong and among the best Seekers in the game after only 4xp. The reason? Scavenging 2 + Seeker 5. Its an unique combination that gives you the best of red plus the best of yellow. Scavenging in a Survivor deck is all nice, but most Survivors have trouble to pull it off easily out of the box and even when they can survivor has very few items worth scavenging. Darrel can, but he doesn't have access to good cards to scavenge aside from Old Keyring. Minh and Rex are unique in this regard, but Minh does it more consistently from Turn 1 and can play scavenged items without spending an action with Scavenging. Considering that Rex get a clue for free, but has to spend turns playing scavenged items almost evens the clue game all by itself.

Two cards make the core: Scavenging and Schoffner's Catalogue

Shoffner can pay for all of your AND your allies items. And it takes no slot. It's basically a 3 resource card (2 cost, 5 return) that auto-recurs. It is easy to over succeed after you play your seeker items. Even on tough shroud you only need to commit 1 symbol to reliably overshoot the check (on Standard difficulty. On higher difficulties Encyclopedia or Dream Diary should be considered.

Scavenging + ANY item with ? (Rabbit's Foot or Encyclopedia or Hyperphysical Shotcasterfor commit turns her ability into a mini-Darrel. You never actually play these items. You just commit them over and over again.

Scavenging + The Necronomicon. Minh is THE BEST Necronomicon user by none. Overstack on Hand slots, play cheap assets like Magnifying Glass to go over your hand slot and discard necronomicon. Recur, play for free with Schoffner. Trivialize every monster.

Scavenging + Scroll of Secrets. Scroll of Secrets is Gloria Goldberg in the form of 3xp 1cost seeker item, which you recur and play for free with Schoffner's Catalogue

Expensive Seeker assets like Fingerprint Kit and Fingerprint Kit or Grim Memoir are a joke to pay for Minh. With Research Librarian you can tutor either your Schoffner's Catalogue to load on resourced or The Necronomicon start the chain reaction depending on what you get in your starting hand. Put a single copy of Astounding Revelation makes Research Librarian pay for itself.

azmo · 4
I think there is one omission in your review: Ice Picks (3)! It is the best scavenging target in the game right now, and plays fast so it doesn't need Scavenging (2) (except for the catalogue recursion). With this in mind, I still agree that Minh is top tier with Scavenging alone! — Valentin1331 · 69473
Ice Pick (3) is the inferior option for Minh. She can do Fingerprint Kit (4) instead. In terms of XP, resource cost and actions to recur the kit is simply superior. — azmo · 4
Accidentally clicked post. Just to clarify: — azmo · 4
Fucking hell i hate this site. Must not CLICK press repeat to myself.... with that said... fingerprint (4) will get you 6 clues for 5 resources and one recursion. For the same 6 clues you'll have to recur Ice pick 6 times and pay 6 resources. For Minh recurring Necronomicon is simply superior. Darrel doesn't get Necronomicon and Rex doesn't get Scavenging(2) so they can save 4XP from Scavenging and recur Ice Picks isntead. Bonus points if you also run Hyperphysical Shortcaster or any of the seeker attack events. — azmo · 4
I think the nature of Arkham makes it hard to declare one card as always superior to another. There are several benefits to Ice Picks over Fingerprint Kit 4. At 2p FK4 is mostly wasted, and a flexy Minh that also fights can benefit from the damage aspect of Ice Picks. And per-clue economy isn't the only way to analyze costs; you can recur the Pick with the resource you generate each turn, whereas you need burst economy to replay Fingerprint Kit. FP4 can be a good choice for Minh to scavenge, but which card is superior depends a lot on player count, build, etc. — Pseudo Nymh · 54
Obviously it is not a one card fits all situations. Laregely depends on your build. If you are not recuring any other cards other than Ice Pick (3) then you can enjoy the flexibility it provides. But if you are recurring Necronomicon (or other expensive assets - like Grim Memoir), you'll also have to recur Schoffner more often. In this case you prefer an asset that you recur once and use over longer amount of time - like the Kit. Ice Pick (3) is a flexible, fire and forget item, but you — azmo · 4
... (hate this site) will have to commit to recur it every round instead of anything else. — azmo · 4