Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Vale of Pnath

When replaying Point of No Return, it is absolutely vital to have a plan for dealing with this location (unless you're fine with accepting R2/no resolution) -- it is a mandatory gate for advancing Act 2. Although there are tons of clues available in the other locations, you cannot actually flip Vale of Pnath unless there are specifically no clues on IT, and hitting Shroud 4 without committing or playing cards can leave even dedicated clue-getters subject to the whims of a small number of tokens in the bag unless you can rely on multiple static boosts and/or triggered abilities. For many solo investigators it will be flat-out impossible unless specifically built-around.

(FWIW, in my personal games, I house-rule that Vale of Pnath's veiled ability can be triggered as if there were no clues remaining on it if the investigators have "surveyed the vale" -- with flipping Crag of the Ghouls or Peaks of Thok leading to remembering that the investigators have "surveyed the vale." I think that offers a more varied way for investigators to contribute to advancing the act.)

5/1/21

anaphysik · 98

This isn't actually that difficult? You just need some static boosts or action-to-investigate assets in play ahead of time, which is most investigators' plan anyway because it saves cards and resources — Thatwasademo · 58 5/2/21

Oh, I guess if you're playing on hard/expert +2 isn't a reasonable margin anymore, and that's the figure I was saying was easy to hit, so nevermind. — Thatwasademo · 58 5/2/21

Except that most of the time you are aiming to sit at ~5 Int in play to default to that +2 margin against Difficulty 3 or lower tests with commits to boost up for the occasional 4+ Difficulty investigations. The big issue is that this is a mechanic that will throttle certain builds in a choke-point location which is just bad design. — Death by Chocolate · 1489 5/3/21

You can also use any of the various "discover a clue at a connecting location" cards (e.g. Sixth Sense, "Look What I Found! (2)", Seeking Answers) — LivefromBenefitSt · 1084 5/3/21

Burial Ground

It's a nice touch that the Ghouls in A Thousand Shapes of Horror spawn in the graveyard. Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath makes it pretty clear that the "ghouls of the waking world" actually live in the Underworld, and simply cross over from the Dreamlands to feast in waking-world graveyards. So the Ghouls are only here due to random proximity to the Underworld entrance, because they're coming up from the Dreamlands' Underworld for their snack time, unrelated to the Unnamable itself.

Similar to the Web of Dreams overarching story, I suspect that what happens to your house in The Gathering is also probably a Dreamlands/Underworld-merging-with-the-waking-world thing, even if it's never explained in Night of the Zealot.

(Mechanically, it's also a way to make area-of-effect damage more relevant beyond just the swarming mechanic (in fact, probably more so, since most swarms are more easily dealt with via normal attacks/evades).)

5/1/21

anaphysik · 98

It's fun to jump over with Track Shoes.... — LivefromBenefitSt · 1084 5/3/21

Wendy's Amulet

TEoE introduces Black Market and Cheat the System, fast rogue events which bring you cards and resources. The fact that your teammates can use cards revealed from you deck by Black Market without spending actions. The fact that they will be put into your discard pile so you can use then again right after your teammates. The fact that you put them back at the botyom of your deck. The fact that you and you teammate got so many money from cheating system that swift reflex and will to survive are affordable, and they are all fast. The fact that your deck is thin and the order is fixed so you can easily repeat all these next turn. Easily the most broken signature card in the whole game , if not the most broken player card.

4/30/21

Tzolkin1065 · 155

Of course, don't go back to Dunwich, Cultists there hate well-scripted deck and will disturb it by all means. Unless you are filled with DETERMINATION and plans to erase their entire existence with A watchful peace. — Tzolkin1065 · 155 4/30/21

Omg... I had never considered Wendy using a watchful peace... And I thought Silas was too good with it :-P — NarkasisBroon · 11 4/30/21

Unrelenting

Finally, gets 2-drawing skill card. When starter pack released, unlike other factions, has Unexpected Courage and cannot gain 2-drawing skill card. Unrelenting has that role in . You can draw cards even if you fails, and you can recycle this card by Resourceful, Try and Try Again, Silas Marsh, Butterfly Effect. Also, for urgent test, you could seal terrible tokens such as -5, , ; but, be careful. it's more likely to draw .

This card seems good, but has one big problem. Whenever you commit this, you have to find three tokens in token bag and seal on this. That is really really annoying work. But, don't worry. Here is a trick. If you select all tokens of one type, you don't need to find and you can just ignore selected type of tokens. (+1, 0, 0 for standard NotZ)

4/30/21

elkeinkrad · 496

Can I introduce you to our lord and saviour Take Heart? — NarkasisBroon · 11 4/30/21

The token part of this card is actually amazing as it allows you to more easily force a failure for all sorts of Survivor shenanigans. — StyxTBeuford · 13049 4/30/21

@NarkasisBroon I upload survivor fail combo deck, check here: https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/30480 — elkeinkrad · 496 5/6/21

Well Prepared

You know which one is the MOST AWESOME card to be Well Prepared? The Necronomicon! With 5 icon, there will be almost nothing you can`t seek.

And you know who can take both of the two cards? Joe Diamond, the one and only! Seeker cardslevel 0-5 only makes him a NORMAL seeker, but plus guardian cardslevel 0-2? That would makes him a real DIAMOND!

The Necronomicon will not only be Well Prepared, but also Well-Maintained! It means he will be the only one, of course with enough resources, who can make The Necronomicon recyclable, I mean, FOREVER. And if you are crazy enough? Just also bring Pnakotic Manuscripts and Archaic Glyphs, and TWO Well Prepared! You know what I mean, right? One time a place, no fuss no muss~

4/30/21

Alex-Ice-9 · 64

Minh can play the Necronomicon from the discard pile with Scavenging. And all seekers who can access the Necronomicon can return it to hand with Library Docent. But well prepared Joe "The Book" Diamond as someone named the deck is pretty hilarious — NarkasisBroon · 11 4/30/21

That’s true, but Minh can use the Scavenging like twice with conditions? While all other seekers with Library Docent only once, but Joe can use well-maintained to take the Necronomicom(actually he doesn’t really need to take the Necronomicon back since he doesn’t need to use the secrets on it)/Pnakotic Manuscript/Archaic Glyphs back to hand like a million times. — Alex-Ice-9 · 64 4/30/21

Not sure I understand your points. Scavenging can be used to recurse an item every turn once played? Whereas well maintained only returns the Necronomicon to your hand once. Well maintained itself gets discarded when that happens. And well maintained only works on items, so it can't recurse Archaic Glyphs (3) at all because it's only a spell. — NarkasisBroon · 11 4/30/21

Not personal, but I think you should check well-maintained and scavenging once more. Well-maintained is a fast card with 0 resource cost and after the item attached it get discarded, the item and each upgrade attach to it can be taken back to it’s owner’s hand, while you must use an action play scavenging with 1 resource cost and you can only things back after your investigate successes by 2. — Alex-Ice-9 · 64 5/1/21

Well-Maintained does not return itself, only other upgrades. — OrionJA · 1 5/1/21

Indeed. Well maintained does not return itself, only other upgrades, and yeah you have to play scavenging with an action, but then you can return an item every round as long as you are a reasonably capable investigator. Like Minh. — NarkasisBroon · 11 5/1/21

Rex can also play Scavenging and will be aiming to succeed an investigation by 2 once per round (or every time if non-taboo) anyways. — Death by Chocolate · 1489 5/3/21

You can also simply avoid the discard-recur cycle entirely by recharging the Necronomicon with Ariadne's Twine. As a backup, our until you get the XP for the twine (I mean, you've presumably just blown everything on the Necronomicon, so it might be a minute), the Eldrich Sophist can also donate his 3 secrets, thou and move them from other stuff to the Necronomicon, though I can't think of any other sources valid for the investigators named here. — SleepyLibrarian · 44 7/7/22

You can't just discard the necronomicon. You'd have to play over it with an asset. Which isn't that difficult with magnifying lenses, but still feels worth mentioning. — Lailah · 1 11/14/22