Harvey Walters
The Professor

Дослідник

Miskatonic.

Шукач
  • 4
  • 5
  • 1
  • 2
Health: 7. Sanity: 8.

After an investigator at your location draws 1 or more cards from their deck during the investigation phase: That investigator draws 1 card. (Limit once per round.)

effect: +1. Draw 1 card.

"I have experience dealing with these sorts of horrors."
Aleksander Karcz
Harvey Walters #1.

Harvey Walters - Back

Дослідник

Deck Size: 30.

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

Deckbuilding Requirements (do not count toward deck size): Vault of Knowledge, Thrice-Damned Curiosity, 1 random basic weakness.

Professor Walters began as a devotee of the archaic and obscure, but over the years he has discovered that his knowledge of ancient languages, profane relics, and strange rituals is vital to addressing dangers in the modern day. He is both an avid collector of prehistoric ephemera and a fount of knowledge regarding the bizarre primordial religions that worshipped nightmarish gods eons ago. There is perhaps no sane person alive who knows more about the occult than Harvey. When a supernatural event occurs, Professor Walters brings his considerable resources and experience to bear.
Harvey Walters
Harvey Walters
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Reviews

Disclaimer: I haven't gotten to play Harvey yet, so the following is speculative theory.

I am personally VERY skeptical about Harvey's value for biggest-hand seeker. Having 9 or more cards in hand when he draws his signature weakness will hurt a LOT, and if you go all in on draw, you will likely hit it a couple times. Many of his starting cards and upgrades suggest you should be aiming for a 11+, 12+, or even 15+ card hand, and I think they're an absolute trap for him. There are certainly tricks around it, such as using Mr. "Rook" to bait it out when you have 8 or fewer cards, but in general, I believe he has much better and less dangerous uses for his abilities if you still want to lean into his abilities as an unstoppable draw engine. Here I suggest three options:

Farseer Harvey (hand size 6-8) The biggest hand Harvey that I recommend should aim for the sweet spot of hovering around 6-8 cards, for the spicy Seeker ritual, Farsight. There are many general events that you can happily toss out one or two a turn as free actions that you might not be running in another seeker deck because they don't 'give enough value on their own' for their deck slot. Harvey's 5 means that he can get by on raw investigation tests throughout the scenario, and cheep investigate action events such as Burning the Midnight Oil or Seeking Answers, where most of the 'cost' is the action they take, become the workhorse pieces. Economy from Emergency Cache or Cryptic Writings (even if you draw it out of turn) are easy to slip in. Conditional emergency cards such as Occult Invocation, "I've got a plan!", or Logical Reasoning can comfortably sit in your hand until they're needed. Even Guidance seems pretty sweet when you don't have to pay an action for it. Generally you should expect to draw 3 cards per round (1 in the upkeep and 2 in the investigation phase, ideally from triggering Vault of Knowledge and your ability, so you can get it as an incidental to investigating and just keep trucking. An ideal turn looks like - draw to 8 with upkeep, during your turn, Farsight at the start, investigate to draw back and then use the other Farsight. You can be less paranoid once you've passed Thrice-Damned Curiosity, and there is still a lot of flexibility.

Support Harvey (hand size 4-5) Like Minh, both Harvey's ability and his signature can be used on your allies. Unlike Minh, Harvey doesn't actually need that much help himself. With just a Magnifying Glass, or any other bonus, he can gleefully investigate away, succeeding on -3 for Shroud 3 locations. Old Book of Lore is another fantastic support card that also synergizes with his ability and can pair nicely with the grossly overqualified intern or the derby-rocking badass or both! Crack the Case or Charles Ross, Esq. can help them pay for all the cards you give them. You'll be fairly self sufficient, and really give your team-mates some serious boosts (especially with the insane value compression of New Book of Lore all while hovering around an irrelevant but middling number of cards. Keep some options, but only take 1 damage at some point. Whatever.

Harvey Goes Brrr (hand size 0-3) Okay, this one may not be the best. It's almost certainly not. But it's definitely my favorite. Just lean all into the gas. CHURN through your deck. Almost every card in the deck should draw cards and/or is fast so you can tear through again and again, playing cards as quickly as you draw them. The engine itself is Abigail Foreman holding an Old Book of Lore. Yeah, you're spending an action each turn to use the book (except when you don't), but that's giving you two searches, and your bonus. That's 3 cards, plus a Surprising Find and/or Surprised Rabbi you stumble across in your reading. Add that to the card you're drawing in upkeep and another expected off of Vault of Knowledge - because you should be investigating once or twice every turn with this deck. The Cryptic Writings play themselves, and other assets will just jump out of your hands. Between spin-cycling your deck and Practice Makes Perfect, the Deductions will easily make back your actions spent reading. Any build-up of accidentally drawn can be easily vented by pitching to your own or allies' investigation actions, or burned into your foes. Best of all, Thrice-Damned Curiosity will become literally the softest weakness in the game - often dealing 0 damage and discarding itself!

Great review! Thank you for allowing me to understand how I'll like to play Harvey, for me, it will be Harvey the mentor because I love support investigators! I'll cite you in my inspiration for the deck! — mogwen · 254
Reactions nowadays? — MrGoldbee · 1443
You could add versatile/ deny existence to counter his weakness with a big hand. — Django · 5070

My man Harvey, finally! The OG of the Arkham universe, ever since his first appearance as a journalist (and eventual Prof) in the original Call of Cthulhu days at Chaosium. Was initially hoping for more of a Norman Withers vibe here, starting as a scholar and ending up as a bad-a** mystic, but this is a very solid, uncompromising seeker who helps pretty much anyone who he comes in contact with. For card draw and surfing through decks, I'd take a course with him anytime. Will consider a real review once we see the cards included in his pack, but for now just have to say, finally good to see you again old friend.

Krysmopompas · 358
In agreement, it's cool to see Harvey still kicking around. I'm enough of a dweeb to be amused that Harvey's got a commendable base Will of 4 when in the character creation walkthrough he was noteworthy (and indeed NAMED, Walters rhymed with "Falters") for his awful POW stat therefore his incredibly low Sanity. — Omnicrom · 4
Ha! Good point on that low POW - oh how our Harvey has grown. — Krysmopompas · 358

There’s a reason the individually packaged investigators can only take their color and neutral cards… Because they’re amazing at what they do. Harvey is the epitome of the big hand seeker, with almost every card he can get either helping him gain cards or helping his hand size, or taking advantage and discarding cards for effect. The man is a mobile library, and while you could play him with magnifying glasses and Hawk Eye cameras, he’s designed for books. Piles and piles of books. Celaeno fragments, forbidden Tomes, Occult Lexicons...

What separates Harvey From Daisy or Norman, however, is that he works extremely well with teammates. His ability can trigger off of others. He can gift cards with his signature card while doing actions he already wants to do, or simply be around while Winnifred or Nathaniel handle their business. It’s important to have focused characters you can give to a new player, and if they are playing Professor Harvey, they are going to be able to have fun and contribute to the game.

Plus: Tempt Fate for 2 cards in 0 actions.

MrGoldbee · 1443
What REALLY seperates Harvey from Norman is his ability to take Seeker cards above level 0! :P — Death by Chocolate · 1440
Did I read his ability correctly? Because it does not say group limit per round, if there are 4 investigators in Harvey's location, are all able to draw 1 card? — Lettucefolk · 1
@Lettucefolk, you couldn't trigger it multiple times for different investigators because, while it can be used to make other investigators draw, it's still being triggered by Harvey's controlling player, and the limit applies to that player. — Simonandduncan · 1
A question, if I search a card from the deck and add it to the hand, even though it doesn't say draw it, can it still trigger Harvey's ability? — petercheungjr · 1
@petercheungjr if it says add to hand you can't trigger Harvey's ability, but many search effects say draw, and in those cases you can trigger Harvey's ability — NarkasisBroon · 10

Harvey is basically unplayable... unless you take Versatile and Deny Existence. Then, he's probably the best seeker in the game. Once his signature asset is down hes a guaranteed 2 card draw per turn per successful investigate. Add a dream Enhancing Serum and he can basically hold (no joke) 20 cards in his hand at the same time. The 5 extra cards from versatile does slow him down a bit, but not enough to matter with the intrinsic seeker card draw.

Hes a shoe in for Farsight as well, and stack that on with an Occult Lexicon (or level 3, from the circle undone) and you basically have limitless card draw and can turn the ones you aren't using into resources.

But all of this is contingent upon taking that early game versatile and Deny Existence. Otherwise, he will get eaten alive by his weakness.

drjones87 · 189
If only there were a way to use cards after drawing them, then Harvey would finally be good. — Zerogrim · 292
If only 5 Intellect was extremely powerful, then Harvey would finally be good. — Death by Chocolate · 1440
If only there were some other ways of mitigating damage, then Harvey would finally be good. — snacc · 980
If only he was in another class instead of being in the most broken one, then Harvey would finally be good — Blood&gore · 418
If only someone posted a Deck about 10 days ago showing how broken he can be even with a very limited card pool. — Valentin1331 · 67657
If only Bulletproof Vest was in the Core Set to effectively provide a large amount of soak, then Harvey would finally be good. — Pseudo Nymh · 54
If only getting 2 sled dogs and a coat into play was in any way a feasible set-up to survive his weakness with 36 cards in hand, then Harvey would finally be good. — NotaRealCop · 1
Jeeze, I dunno. It's a kind of limmited review, but we could do more than mock. Harvey is a terrible investigator in some settings: If you want to play him in Expert solo RttFA, he is going to have a pretty rough time of it. On the other hand, almist any Seeker in 2+ player with a dedicated enemy management investigator will do fine. The question, with any card in AHTCG is not "is this card good/bad/broken/essential" but "how can this card be used to progress the game?" There are a ton of investigators that are not great in certain campaigns/scenarios/player counts. There are even more cards that work well only as part of a combo or in a particular investigator. Heck, Knuckleduster has a really bad reputation, but it's an OK starting weapon for Tony. I won't go so far to say that every card has a potential home right now, but it's agood exercise to look closely at some of the "head scratchers" and think "what would make this card attractive to play?" Maybe that will appear in a new set. In general, I think trying to be positive and charitable makes the hobby a more welcoming place. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1051
Looks up the recent versatile review. — Zerogrim · 292
While the memeing is fun I feel it is important to always try to remember there is another person on the other side of the conversation! I have had a few terrible takes on cards myself, who hasn't? In this specific case, I think the mistake the OP is making is assuming that Harvey is about drawing as much as you can, as often as you can, and always going big hand at all times. In reality what prevents Harvey from being boring is the 'skill testing' of his extremely potent ability: You aren't meant to draw as much as you can and go big hand Harvey mindlessly because that would just be a Mandy 2.0 boring OP seeker. — dezzmont · 210
dezzmont, +1 — LivefromBenefitSt · 1051
@LivefromBenefitSt I dunno, I've played Harvey through every campaign on Expert in solo and he's rocked almost all of them. Did fine in RttFA with Hyperawareness (4) and a few other tricks, especially the I-hope-to-be-tabooed Gené Bouregard. Funnily enough the only campaign I had some problems with Harvey was RtTCU, because a few of those scenarios ditched whatever was in my hand for a new batch of cards...so it was a crapshoot to hold on to cards I wanted to use. — Krysmopompas · 358
Gené Bouregard is taboo'd now. — MrGoldbee · 1443