Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Jim Culver

I've just recently started a 2 gator playthrough of Cirle Undone with Jim. I'll have a deck list to come soon but at the moment it has gone well using the sealing cards as well as Defiance to mitigate the bag in Jim's favor. Most every test so far as long as I can at least match the test value has gone my way. I feel like sealing mechanic may have jumped up Jim's power level by quite a bit.

6/4/19

JourneysintoArkham · 7

How'd it go? — MrGoldbee · 1493 10/12/20

Grisly Totem

The question being: Is Grisly Totem, the missing link with Take Heart and Drawing Thin to the Survivor economy engine? Looks like so, and that's great for Survivors! All you need is now a survivor who's not afraid to fail a check once in a while. The safest checks to fail being investigate check (barring the BS tokens), this combo is very potent for investigators with low like William Yorick, "Ashcan" Pete or Calvin Wright for exemple and reaching the 200 characters threashold.

6/1/19

mogwen · 254

Well. Stella is here now and this is bonkers with her. — Mufasa · 1 2/15/22

Scroll of Secrets

Must say I don't think they got this one right as an upgrade. You're spending 3xp for one additional secret and a willpower pip. The seeker version is vastly superior since it allows you to search three cards at a time and do something to all of them. That's a card that has legitimate utility to a number of investigators. This ? Not so much. I honestly can't see why anybody would ever buy this card. It's only marginally better than the Lvl 0 version. If it was a Lvl 1 card then it might be worth adding to a deck. 1xp for an extra secret seems about right, a small investment for a small bonus. At 3xp it's just prohibitively expensive.

This would have been much better if it was a free action trigger. That way you'd have two different upgrade paths, both of which were valid. Seekers would get the greater range of cards they could influence, mystics would get the much more limited scope but without having to spend any actions to use it. As it is though, I'd be amazed if anybody ever uses this card in their decks.

6/1/19

Sassenach · 180

This also lets you look at the top card of the deck, the unupgraded version only looks at the bottom. — cfmcdonald · 7 6/1/19

Ah yes, so it does. That does make it a little better then. Still not worth 3xp though in my opinion. I could see how a combo with Alyssa Graham or scrying might be effective, but that's going to be finicky to set up. — Sassenach · 180 6/2/19

Really, there is a big difference between the top and bottom because of the four options the card gives you. Putting a card on the bottom or discarding when you took the card from the bottom initially is mostly worthless. Hitting bad cards with this version actually gives you some value. — Death by Chocolate · 1484 6/3/19

Sure, but the vast majority of the time you're not going to hit a weakness. There's a big difference between drawing a good card from the bottom than one from the top, which you would have gotten at the end of the round anyway. — Sassenach · 180 6/3/19

I think this would be bad as a level 0 card. — CaiusDrewart · 3200 9/11/19

I think the major redeeming quality of this card is that it synergizes well with Wendy's amulet. So if Wendy is in your group, you can potentially let her reuse the same card 4 times. Imagine Wendy committing "Look what I found" to a skill test and then using that card on a fail to get 2 clues, then it's your turn and Wendy's get the card back in her hand. Repeat 3 more times. — Killbray · 12468 9/20/19

I agree with @Sassenach -- this card is a dud. Manipulating the encounter deck is a cool mechanic, but it's rarely worth it to pay an action to check the top card. Whatever you do with that top card of the encounter deck, you are (essentially) putting another encounter card on top that reads: "Surge; Revelation: lose one action." Just not worth it. — Mordenlordgrandison · 464 3/7/20

Here you have it. Free trigger! — petercheungjr · 1 10/17/20

Guiding Spirit

This is a really great card and obviously the strategy is going to be how to make sure you can protect it so you don't lose the XP investment. Cherished Keepsake is one obvious route as is Charisma plus Peter Sylvestre.

But if you don't want to take Charisma, you could always use another ally or even A Chance Encounter to push Guiding Spirit out just before it is defeated.

5/31/19

kingofyates · 26

Calling in favors comes to mind as a last minute save for this one — Dustgod · 3 6/7/19

Or Charisma plus a second spirit to protect the first. It mostly depends on how much sanity buffer you expect to need, but even if you do lose it, a 1 xp loss isn’t the worst. — Death by Chocolate · 1484 6/8/19

Arcane Research

Does anyone know if say - Daisy could take this card and purchase the 3XP version of Shrivelling? Her deckbuilding requirements say Seeker cards level 0-5 and Mystic Cards level 0-2. Arcane research lowers the XP cost of the first spell card you purchase by 1. Does this lower the "level" of the card or just the XP "cost" of the card? These these things different?

5/31/19

Eccegb · 1

Level and XP cost are two distinct things (which is why, say, Wendy can take Skeleton Key), so AR doesn't affect which cards an investigator can get. — TheNameWasTaken · 3 5/31/19

During a campaign, players build a deck before playing the first scenario.will be suffer 1 mental trauma？ — ddk1982 · 1 7/7/20

You get the mental traume immediately as you add the card to your deck. Since this happens before the start of the first game, when you begin the first game you will start with 2 horror — Samirash · 1 7/15/20