Expose Weakness

It feels like the 3XP cost of upgraded Expose Weakness has more to do with making sure that Roland Banks can't buy it than it does with the actual value of the card itself.

This card basically lets a Seeker fight an enemy with their Intellect. If that were all it did, then it would just be a weaker version of Mind over Matter.

The card's only two saving graces are the card-draw (which is fine, I guess), and that it lets another investigator take the shot. The clearest combo is Shotgun, for which Expose Weakness hugely boosts the odds of scoring the maximum 5 damage. If you throw Double or Nothing in the mix, you could be looking at 10.

That combo is all well and good if you can pull it off, but it comprises three cards across separate classes and, realistically, at least two separate investigators in the right place, and a total of 7XP. That's assuming your scenario even has an enemy with enough health to make it worthwhile.

If that represents the best case for Expose Weakness, then it's in trouble. For the same 7XP, you'd be far better off getting Acidic Ichor and 3XP Emergency Cache to refill it, and dealing with the enemies yourself. As a Seeker, you're also in a much better position to make sure you actually draw those cards, using e.g. Cryptic Research or No Stone Unturned.

Also compare with "I've got a plan!" - the other major card built around weaponizing your intellect. It's more costly than Expose Weakness and doesn't work if you don't have the clues (although for a Seeker that shouldn't be a problem very often), but it deals solid damage and you don't need anybody else's help to deal it. It's genuinely unclear whether Expose Weakness even represents an improvement, which has got to be a pretty embarrassing comparison for the card that costs 3XP.

I give this card a rating of "unpurchasable."

sfarmstrong · 272
This does seem like an extremely weak use of 3 XP. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
The biggest saving grace of this card is that it sets the fight to 0, which nearly guarantees success. Put this in a rex deck and combo it with double or nothing, and you stand to enable your guardian to make one very effective attack. Rex is efficient enough that he might even have time for this. — SGPrometheus · 855
Also combos with Monster Killer really well, but that's still an 8xp investment (divided between two people, but still). — SGPrometheus · 855
@SGPrometheus, I feel like I addressed those points in the review itself. The plays you're describing certainly work, but they're inefficient compared to the abovementioned alternatives. You could absolutely justify playing Expose Weakness if you drew it, but I don't see how you would justify including it in your deck to begin with. That's also how I feel about Double or Nothing - the mere fact that useful applications for the card EXIST isn't enough to overcome its dismal average value. — sfarmstrong · 272
Speaking of combos, Monster Slayer is also an ideal target for this card, since a lot of tough enemies are not actually elite. — Azriel · 1
This feels like it's only passable on expert, where higher education boosted book tests and testless damage are about the only things you can rely on — Mataza · 19
"It feels like the 3XP cost of upgraded Expose Weakness has more to do with making sure that Roland Banks can't buy it than it does with the actual value of the card itself."It's funny you say that, because Roland now CAN buy this with his Parallel Lines back deckbuilding options — HeroesOfTomorrow · 65
Art Student

This card is very similar to Working a Hunch - they both do the same thing for the same cost with a few differences:

So, Art Student effectively costs one more action than Working a Hunch, provides some soak, but takes up a slot that could be prohibitive to playing other useful cards. In-class, I don't know if Seeker investigators will take either, since I think they'd rather put their resources towards playing assets that will let them gain clues over and over again rather than getting a one-time clue. Sure, Working a Hunch will help you get one clue from a high-shroud location... but how are you going to get the rest of them?

I think most Seeker investigators are not going to be interested in Art Student as an Ally option. Dr. Milan Christopher is generally the preferred choice for clue gathering as a flat +1 with resource generation is overall a more useful set of effects than gaining a single clue.

However, I think Art Student is a good ally for Roland Banks. Roland's is lower than most main-class Seeker investigators, so he likes having the testless clue option to crack high-shroud locations. He also has low sanity, so the 2 points of horror soak are welcome, especially in an ally that can be discarded without too much consequence. Roland's other main ally, Beat Cop, definitely adds a valuable +1, but it's twice the cost of Art Student and Roland is usually spread pretty thin on resources.

I think there's a good way to build a Roland Banks deck without Beat Cop, and I think in those builds Art Student is one of his better choices. There is some minor synergy with Calling in Favors and Laboratory Assistant where you can use the allies for their "entering play" effect, have them soak one horror, then return them to your hand so that you can use their "enter play" effect again. Roland Banks likes these smaller, cheaper Seeker allies for horror soak.

So, while Art Student isn't necessarily the best card, it definitely has its uses. In decks that count on the occasional testless clue and want cheap Seeker allies for horror soak, I think it's a reasonable choice.

Art student is a cheap soak and great target for calling in favors( together with laboratory assistant. — Django · 5171
For Roland, I think I'd go with Scene of the Crime and "Let Me Handle This" to pick up clues at a high-shroud location. I'd say Dr. William T. Maleson is also a stronger purchase for 1 resource - better damage-soak, and the ability to drop a clue is helpful for dealing with Cover Up. — sfarmstrong · 272
@Django - I agree, Laboratory Assistant and Calling In Favors let you get more out of Art Student. It really helps with the card draw, horror soak, and clue-gathering. — ArkhamInvestigator · 313
@sfarmstrong - I see what you're saying with Dr. William T. Maleson. For 1 resource, you get very good horror and damage soak, and his ability does help a lot with Cover Up. However, with Maleson's ability being so important for Cover Up, I think he's less expendable than Art Student (and so Roland might be hesitant to use him for his full soak value). I also think that Roland's best version is probably "Dirge of Reason" Roland (if you have the books) and I think that benefits a little more from Art Student than Maleson (since Mysteries Remain is itself another testless clue gathering card and has the potential to drop a clue on Roland's location to be picked up, and Cover Up isn't looming throughout the scenarios). Scene Of The Crime and "Let me handle this!" are definitely both good Roland cards, too (and to be honest, a testless-clue Roland build might take all 3 cards). — ArkhamInvestigator · 313
Dario El-Amin

You know, the "14 resources to get going" may actually be worth it, in this case. The way I see it, the Unscrupulous Investor has four especially important interactions right now:

  • Jenny Barnes's unique ability plays well with Dario, and I would especially recommend Dario for a Jenny deck. Raising her willpower and intellect from 3 to 4 significantly boosts her resilience and investigative ability, and Jenny's Twin .45s can make excellent use of a giant resource pool.
  • Streetwise is a reliable and efficient way to ensure that double-digit resource pools can be used to full effect. For Rogues who can buy it, Physical Training also deserves a mention for, alongside Streetwise, letting the investigator buy their way to the top of any skill check.
  • Hot Streak allows you to get Dario's stat-boosts as quickly as possible.
  • Now for the non-obvious one: Lockpicks. When you're early in the scenario, Dario and Lockpicks provide a useful turn-loop, where you take one action to investigate with lockpicks (almost certainly successfully), one action to get resources with Dario, and one action for miscellaneous purposes like moving or putting other cards like Lone Wolf into play. Reliably getting one clue and three resources per turn makes it fairly painless to hit the magic 10. (Admittedly, many things can disrupt this loop. Welcome to Arkham Horror!)

It's worth noting that 10 of the resources you're committing to Dario aren't actually spent, so they're more like a war chest that you can sit on until the endgame, and then spend on a final flurry of Streetwise-based investigations and evasions.

My point is that, provided that you have Lockpicks, Streetwise, and Lone Wolf in your deck, Dario actually has a very nice tempo in most scenarios:

  • in the opening, when there are less likely to be dangerous enemies to deal with, he's an effective way to build up your war chest while still getting some things done;
  • in the midgame, he's a persistent and boost, which is a top-tier bonus from the ally slot, and provides the occasional extra resource-bump when you happen to have a spare action at the end of your turn; and
  • in the endgame, he's the reason that you have like 20 resources to buy your way out of trouble, plus some much-needed damage-soak.

You can get Streetwise and two Lockpicks for just 5XP, which is often feasible just one scenario into your campaign, so this is a very attractive starting point for leveling up your Rogue.

If Dario had been available when I played Jenny Barnes, I expect I would have settled pretty early on a Dario/Hot Streak/Streetwise/Lockpicks deck, resulting in an effective, Treachery-resistant clue-gatherer who just happens to be able to transform into an unholy murder-machine with Twin .45s, when necessary.

The deck-building lesson here is that the best way to compensate for having actions that can only trigger once per turn is to get additional once-per-turn actions. Dario is there so that you have something useful to do when you can't use your Lockpicks; your Lockpicks are there so that you have something useful to do when you can't use Dario.

sfarmstrong · 272
As you said Dario is better with hot streak. I usually swap him in with adaptable once I have 2x hot streak and charisma. — Django · 5171
Mind over Matter

Good card for Daisy Walker and Norman Withers, reasonable on Minh Thi Phan too but Ursula Downs and Rex Murphy don't need it or have better options.

The higher your intellect can go the better Mind over Matter is, thus it synergizes with Dr. Milan Christopher and St. Hubert's Key, both cards are good and frequently taken on Norman Withers and Daisy Walker. The maximum potential Mind over Matter buff is 7 and for a round which makes you a fearsome warmachine much like Fight or Flight does for characters.

Supplement Mind over Matter with Anatomical Diagrams which can have similarly drastic effects on your abilities, Anatomical Diagrams is not quite as strong a card but consistency is the key here.

The good thing about this card is that it isn't much of a "combo", you're just tapping into stats that are already making you good at other stuff that you really need to be doing. Do consider bringing a simple weapon however to make proper use of this large buff, Knife is perfect in this role since the discard mechanic means that you eventually get the hand-slot back to fill with a Magnifying Glass.

Finally, it's just an entertaining play. The Scrawny smart-person hulking out and knife-fighting down a bunch of Ghoul Minions or karate chopping a boss is just plain fun.

Tsuruki23 · 2588
I like it for Carolyn too, with her access to level 0 guardian cards she can turn into a killing machine! — mogwen · 254
Old Book of Lore

Just to underline how powerful this card is in a Daisy Walker deck. There is an interesting note on how card draw and randomized decks work.

Whenever you draw a card from a randomized deck, say a deck of 20 cards, there is a 1 in 20 chance to draw any one particular card. In an environment where you draw cards regularly, there is a 100% chance that you'll draw each card in the deck eventually. This means that even though there is a, say, 1 in 20 chance of seeing your weakness on each draw, there is a 100% chance that you'll draw it eventually. To be more particular, there is a 100% chance that you'll draw it at the point that you find it in your deck, say for example if it's the 4th card from the top, then there is a 100% chance you'll draw it once you've drawn 4 cards.

Old Book of Lore has a really funny interaction here. Whenever you shuffle your deck you refresh each cards randomized location, so long as you shuffle every turn the cards will have a new randomized location every turn! This has the effect of changing when you draw your weakness from "100% once you've drawn 4 cards" to "100% so long as the Weakness is the topmost card after a shuffle."

.

TL:DR. So long as you use Old Book of Lore every turn, the chance to draw a weakness is literally "1 in however many cards are in your deck". The only Weaknesses will be those that you're unlucky enough to top-deck after a shuffle.

I.E, Daisy Walker is very unlikely to draw her weaknesses with this card in play.

BTW the same is true for Eureka! and No Stone Unturned but neither of those can minimize weakness odds indefinitely..

Tsuruki23 · 2588
Hate to say it, but this analysis is wrong. You're confusing probability with expectation. While it's true that a deck's draw-order is set only when it's shuffled or reshuffled, and the probability of your card draws is technically set in stone in-between, that has no bearing whatsoever on the EXPECTED probability of drawing a specific card. Your chance of drawing a specific weakness is 1/n each time you draw. When you reshuffle the deck, the next time you draw a card your expected probability of drawing that card is also 1/n. Reshuffling to move the weakness away from the top of your deck is just fine, but just as often a reshuffle will move that weakness from the bottom of the deck to somewhere nearby. — sfarmstrong · 272
(Obviously, the distinction between probability and expectation is actually meaningful when you actually have information about the order of your deck, such as with Scrying. In that case, a reshuffle ability could actually be very useful, although effects that let you discard cards off the top of your deck would be even better, at least for avoiding weaknesses.) — sfarmstrong · 272
Scrying + yaotl to discard weaknesses? — Django · 5171
Or Alyssa Graham + Yaotl! Only possible for the moment with Ashcan Pete, not a fantastic play. — mogwen · 254
You could also manage it by discarding Key of Ys, which is an even worse play! I'm not actually saying that discarding the top card is practical with the current card mix, so much as I'm saying that I'd probably WANT that ability if I were serious about using lookahead abilities to their full advantage. — sfarmstrong · 272
The Alyssa Graham + Yaotl combo is alsi available for Agnes, but what would she want those allies for except for the combo itself?? — matt88 · 3235
The combo is usefull for Lola. — Django · 5171
The combo is harder to use in Lola since it requires switching from Mystic to Survivor (so every other turn) and interferes with which other cards you can use. I think you’re much better with Marie or Agnes using Scrying every 3 rounds or so and Yaotl as needed, and probably only if you have really nasty weaknesses in your deck. — Death by Chocolate · 1490