Ornate Bow

I'm going to expand on a comment posted earlier.

"The bow gets much better if the user or another player us venturer and e.cache3 to reload it. — Django 1177 2 days ago"

This card is (can be) baller for Skids, Ashcan or Rex (And I suppose Jenny but she has her guns). Now, keep in mind that Skids has a decent Combat as it is at 3, so it makes it slightly more challenging when comparing to +combat weapons for him, though the others are base 2.

If we break down the efficiency of this vs other weapons usable by Skids, it makes it slightly less valuable, but still in the running. Rex has access to Acidic Ichor and Ashcan has all re-usable weapons to choose from, making this harder to justify. The biggest issue is that it requires you to have Venturer out to re-ammo the bow for a instead of an . Let's break it down.

Ornate Bow - To hit: 6 | Damage: 3 | Both Hands | 4 cost | 3 XP -- Can be stacked with Venturer to attack twice using only two actions

Chicago Typewriter - To hit: 5 | Damage: 3 | Both Hands | 5 cost | 4 XP -- Can be stacked with Leo De Luca to deplete ammo in a single round

Lupara - To hit: 4 (5 if new) | Damage: 2 (3 if new) | Single Hand | 3 cost | 3 XP -- Can be stacked with Sleight of Hand to grant bonus to hit and damage without using an action to play it

Let's assume all combos available and all attacks hit. Over 4 attacks, which would deplete all ammo for each weapon:

Ornate Bow: 12 damage using 4 actions, two rounds, 8 total resources, 3 total XP -- Pro: Still offers 1 action per round to do other things -- Cons: Relatively resource costly, requires two rounds

Chicago Typewriter: 12 damage using 4 actions, one round, 10 total resources, 6 total XP -- Pro: Only uses one round opposed to the others' two -- Cons: Very expensive, both in resources and XP

Lupara: 12 damage using 5 actions, two rounds, 4 total resources, 3 total XP -- Pros: Very cheap to play, only uses a single hand slot -- Cons: Requires two rounds, only offers 1 spare action.

Where this starts to break down is the introduction of Emergency Cache to re-supply Venturer. This allows you to keep up the pace of Venturer being your caddy for an additional 4 shots, where it does nothing for Chicago Typewriter or Lupara directly. Those would require Contraband or Extra Ammunition, both of which are resource heavy. The moral of the story is that for Skids (and pretty much only him) this card is right there with the rest of them, so long as you have Venturer.

Vafruvant · 2
What I like about this card is that it opens up new deckbuilding options for various investigators. It should be awsome on Skids with Venturer + EC3, but it's also not bad for Sefina or Wendy (as long as they have Leo de Luca to cover the actions needed to rearm it). Ursula can grab this for some self-defense anf it becomes even better if she can tutor it with Dr. Elli Horrowitz. Also not that, as a Relic, it can deal damage to Poltergeist (a big deal for me). — matt88 · 3324
@matt that‘s also what i like about the more. Skids can also play bandolier for lockpicks. Bow uses speed, so can be boosted by streetwise. — Django · 5244
@Django Yeah, Streetwise should be a must if Skids goes down that road. — matt88 · 3324
Hey Folks :) Quick Question: Is it possible to use stunning Blow or Vicious Blow with Orante Bow or can you only add cards with Agility icons? Thx in advance — Charles Dexter Ward · 580
It replaces the skill used so you can only commit cards to the check thay that have $agility icons — skanedog · 70
Sleight of Hand

Gotta love this card. It's use depends on the exact character you are playing, but the overall utility is the same:

Play a weapon with ammo and use it for one round cheaply.

Obviously the card isn't bad when used to cheat out a less powerful weapon (.45 Automatic for example) cheaply and when you really need it.

The main downside to Sleight of Hand is that, if you have no worthy weapon in hand, or draw it too late and your weapons are already in play, then this card is totally useless. You really need to have a reasonable selection of weapons to choose from or ways to tutor them like Backpack or Prepared for the Worst.

The best case scenario for this card is super rewarding, but the worst case scenario (playing it for just the lone icon) really evens things out.

Tsuruki23 · 2621
This card is also problematic if the required slot is occupied. — Django · 5244
Problematic, or a scavenging/deck cycling opportunity? — Zinjanthropus · 235
Note that you can play Sleight of Hand ON Backpack. There goes your tutor AND your deck cycling opportunity! — AlderSign · 462
Lola Santiago

This quality card double, triple dips into as bunch of different card roles.

  • The typical Hp/Sanity value you can expect from utility allies. Like other high-importance allies (Leo De Luca) though you really don't want to have Lola Santiago die, ever. Lola Santiago extends your hp and sanity bar by 1 each, and then if is a matter of life or death she can take one more of each. Nothing of particular note here.

  • A static +1 for two different stats. This here is tremendous value for a 3-cost card. Buffing two(+) stats insofar has been the realm of conditional allies (Dario El-Amin and sensitive accessories (St. Hubert's Key, Key of Ys), Lola Santiago does occupy an ally slot but she is completely unconditional and always "on". The faction typically has middling and high and rely on one or both for clue gathering, Lola Santiago is already at this point the premier Clue-card for clue-minded characters, even without the extra card text. Note that Lockpicks taps into both of Lola Santiago's stats, that's a cool synergy there.

  • The text ability, exchanging cash for clues, will become expensive ->FAST<-. if you've ever played cards like Scene of the Crime or Working a Hunch you will know that these mechanics can chunk down your resources dramatically. Obviously though Lola Santiago can keep doing her thing "infinitely", an action-less clue every turn! Running this ability with any sort of regularity means that you need a powerful economy engine to pay for repeat payments at 2/3 or 4 resources. One trick with Lola Santiago is that regular "investigate" actions suddenly become somewhat less effective than just triggering her ability, this means that rather then spending the odd-action to investigate you might actually be better served spending those actions to gain resources. If your engine is strong enough then your only actual investigate actions will be the ones you try while she is on cooldown (Barring superpowered Lockpicks triggers. Note that Flashlight can bring her cost down or nullify it completely, with Lola Santiago as a centrepiece (dual wielding Lockpicks and Flashlight) it is now possible to build a very strong clue-sniffing .

The biggest strength of Lola Santiago is not her incredible ability, it is her flexibility. Cards that on one hand help you gather clues and on the other help you deal with enemies are very rare, Lola Santiago's +1 can really help bridge the gap for when you can't quite (or don't want/need to) kill an enemy.

Lola Santiago's biggest weakness however is her high sustained cost, there is no way that you can play a dedicated monster killer, you just wont have the resources to fund weapons and combat utility cards like Machete+Physical Training. You can still deal with a few threats every scenario and if you hold off on using her special ability and lean on the raw +stats instead you can shift strategies to/from clue gathering and monster killing as needed.

Tsuruki23 · 2621
Note that her agi boost also benefits the ornate bow. — Django · 5244
Take Heart

One thing I had failed to notice with this card at first is that "the performing investigator draws 2 cards and gains 2 resources", which makes it a fantastic support card! If your friend Finn is facing rotting remains, a test he will probably fail, you can help him recover a bit. He will draw 2 cards and gain 2 resources which is a good compensation. The fact that you can take it back with true survivor and true survivor with resourceful (another innate card, see a pattern?) just makes the survivor a well oiled machine! Silas and Calvin will like it a lot. Now the survivor can alleviate others failures too, that's fantastic!

P.S: English is not my native language, so sorry if I make mistakes.

mogwen · 254
Additionally you can „try and try again!“ — Django · 5244
Looks like it works! I thought (Why?) you couldn't get its effect and bring it back to your hand but if that's the case that's wonderful news given how many times you can fail in a game! — mogwen · 254
Are we 100% sure that combo works? It's super-intriguing if so, but I'd want confirmation that the returned skill card actually triggers. — CaiusDrewart · 3255
Take Heart triggers "if this test fails". As per rules reference, "if" triggers resolve before "after" triggers, which is what Try and Try Again is, so there's no reason why it wouldn't work. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Thank you for this clarification, that's just too good! Minh will definitely like it, among others! — mogwen · 254
Live and Learn

What a great card! Lucky! is a great card and this card will not change that, but it's so nice to have a card that fills a similar role to Lucky! while at the same time not being the same and still having its own space. I'm currently playing an Ashcan Desperate/Dark Horse/Yaotl deck and I'm taking out my Lucky!s because they cost one resource and have no icons in a deck that discourages having resources and encourages having cards with icons in the discard pile. They synergized badly with the deck. This card (while not necessarily getting along with Yaotl) is a great replacement in that deck.

In general, it's very well balanced with Lucky!. While Lucky! gives you a chance to pass a test when you would have failed after you've seen the token, Live and Learn lets you weasel out of an auto fail or other really bad draw. Lucky! costs a resource, while Live and Learn still resolves side effects of a bad test and does not guarantee success (or further side effects of another failed test). But it's free!

I'm happy to see the designers make a card like this, and I've enjoyed playing with it.

NTGuardian · 24
I agree--I see this card as a slightly worse Lucky!, but it's not inconceivable that some decks could prefer this one, or could want both of them. — CaiusDrewart · 3255
Aren’t you overrating this card? Basically it just grants a free action after a test is failed and +2. You still lose all Ressources and cards committed. Might be useful if you built your deck around failing, otherwise I don’t see this cards greatness. — Django · 5244
It's great, if you don't invest heavyly into tests, like Dark Horse Pete would — Adny · 1
@Django I think that committing everything while Live and Learn is in hand is not a point of this card. In my opinion the best thing to do with this card is: attempt to the test and fail it, reap rewards of failure without losing an action (Rabbit's Foot, Look what I found!, even Oops! looks way better when played this way), then pass that test with skill bonus. This card is just a sweet addition to fail-to-win archetype. — KptMarchewa · 1
Yeah, I think it is especially useful for the situations where ammo costs are spent such as when shooting with your ornate bow and miss the mark, or you are tight on actions for an evade or even a single point of damage to keep going with your turn, but come up short. — Bronze · 188
With Wendy and her amulet, could you attempt the same test 3 times? First time normally, then with her ability discarding Live and Learn, then by playing Live and Learn from the discard pile using her amulet? — bigstupidgrin · 85
bigstupidgrin- Yes. You can also use Lucky that way. It definitely kind of feels like you're cheating when you do it. — Zinjanthropus · 235
With lots more hindsight, I agree with Django's original comment. This is just a much weaker card than Lucky, and subsequent cycles have given solo survivors better options. Since you have lost whatever skill cards are committed to the test (unlike in Lucky), it has limited use on tough tests, and since you still suffer the consequences of the loss (again, unlike Lucky), it's useless against most treacheries. I'm strongly considering replacing this in my solo Ashcan Pete deck with the new Keep Faith. The downside: Keep Faith needs to come out fairly early to justify its cost and the randomness of if/when those bless tokens get pulled, and that's doubly hard in a deck where my mulligan priorities are Magnifying Glass, Peter Sylvestre, Leather Coat/Bulletproof Vest, and Fire Axe. But compared to Live and Learn, 'd maybe rather take a chance on having a bunch of +2s that might come up randomly compared to a single guaranteed +2 that's useless on harder and more consequential tests. This also aligns with the fact that some scenarios get tougher as they proceed, either by design (like a boss fight) or by nature (when time is running out, there's less margin for failed tests)... so even if you don't get the Keep Faith very early in the scenario, you're increasingly likely to get it as you approach the point in the scenario where you're more likely to need it. — mpinzur · 1
counterpoint: you often have a greater than coin flip chance to succeed if you're (for example) one up on a test. Don't commit any cards, if you do fail, play L&L. also, it's a card that can let you redraw an auto fail, perhaps you pull back the commit using Silas' ability, Try and Try, or Grisly Totem (3). That's not even getting into the benefits that Survivors can often reap from failing a test. Commit Take Heart, trigger Rabbit's Foot, then do the test again at +2 and without having lost an action. There's also fail combos that can be done with the Survivor card pool — Zinjanthropus · 235
I think this is better than Lucky when your commitment comes from Assets. If you're taking tests you don't need to commit to, obviously that means Dark Horse, but it also means any deck at all which approaches test at an advantage through Assets. Mathematically, this card is better than Lucky! at improving your raw odds of success. The downside is that you lose anything committed to the test, the exception is an Event or the Uses of an Asset. If you are regularly performing actions without retaliation and via event or asset, with no other buffs, then this is strictly better than Lucky. This is, of course, not even bringing up fail-for-benefit synergy. — Kitsunin · 1
And I think, the majority of tests fit that case in which this card is good. There are some decks that will throw a Skill or Talent at the majority of tests, but those are rare. For most decks, this is at worst equally useful to Lucky!, often better. — Kitsunin · 1
Rex might prefer this over Lucky! with his weakness out since he can still succeed at the test after shuffling it into his deck. — AlderSign · 462