Unfairer Trick

Ereignis

Trick.

Cost: 2.

Schurke

Kampf. Füge für diesen Angriff deinen -Wert deinem Fertigkeitswert hinzu. Falls die Probe um 2 oder mehr gelingt, entkommst du dem angreifenden Gegner automatisch.

„Ziel auf die Augen“, haben sie mir gesagt.
Andreia Ugrai
Ein Phantom der Wahrheit #194.
Unfairer Trick

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)

  • Q: If I use Cheap Shot against Harbinger of Valusia, do I add one resource or two? A: Both the attack and the evasion will add a resource to it, so Harbinger of Valusia will gain 2 resources from Cheap Shot if you succeed by 2 or more. SEE BELOW

  • Q: I seem to recall a discussion indicating that automatic evasion wasn't "successful" evasion, though, since there's no skill test involved. And since the harbinger requires a successful attack or evasion (and bearing in mind the rule that qualifiers apply to each term in a list), wouldn't Cheap Shot apply only one resource token to the Harbinger?" A: Hm... Technically you are correct...although I've been wondering about that ruling regarding "automatic" evasion and "successful" evasion. I don't know how intuitive it is. For now, you are correct...but know that I may reverse that ruling at some point. It's kind of confusing either way, to be honest. SEE BELOW - updated FAQ, v.1.7, March 2020

  • Automatic Success/Failure & Automatic Evasion: Some card effects make an investigator automatically succeed or automatically fail a skill test. If this occurs, depending on the timing of such an effect, certain steps of the skill test may be skipped in their entirety.

    • If it is known that an investigator automatically succeeds or fails at a skill test before Step 3 (“Reveal Chaos Token”) occurs, that step is skipped, along with Step 4. No chaos token(s) are revealed from the chaos bag, and the investigator immediately moves to Step 5. All other steps of the skill test resolve as normal.
    • If a chaos token effect causes an investigator to automatically succeed or fail at a skill test, continue with Steps 3 and 4, as normal.
    • If an ability “automatically evades” 1 or more enemies, this is not the same as automatically succeeding at an evasion attempt. As per the entry on “Evade” in the Rules Reference, if an ability automatically evades 1 or more enemies, no skill test is made for the evasion attempt whatsoever. Consequentially, because no skill test is made, it is not considered a “successful” evasion. The investigator simply follows the steps for evading an enemy (exhausting it and breaking its engagement).
    • For example: Patrice uses the ability on Hope, which reads: “ If Hope is ready, exhaust or discard him: Evade. Attempt to evade with a base value of 5. (If you discarded Hope, this test is automatically successful.)” If Patrice chooses to discard Hope, the skill test automatically succeeds before chaos tokens are revealed; therefore Steps 3 and 4 of the skill test are skipped. However, the skill test still takes place. Cards may still be committed to the test, and the investigator’s total modified skill value is still determined, as it may have some bearing on other card abilities. However, if Patrice instead uses the ability on Stray Cat, which reads: “ Discard Stray Cat: Automatically evade a non-Elite enemy at your location,” no skill test is made whatsoever. - FAQ, v.1.7, March 2020
Last updated

Reviews

I intially underrated this card while focusing on 1 damage part. And by underrated, I considered it unplayable. The one damage isn't very impressive especially if you have an investigator that has several weapons in their deck. But if you are running a more Seeker style Rogue (no/few weapons) getting a very likely point of damage and an evasion in one action is pretty good.

My latest Jenny deck (Seeker style) didn't include any weapons though and the one damage was more valuable and Cheap Shot also increased her chance (usually by +1) at evasion if she hadn't gotten many assets into play to buff her agility. Cheap Shot allowed Jenny to chip away at enemies health or outright kill them with the Alice Luxley or Sneak Attack combo. Leo Anderson still did most of the killing in the campaign but evasion Jenny held her own and didn't require a full-time chaperone.

I think this would also work well for "Skids" O'Toole especially since he could combo Vicious Blow with it. It is less useful in a Finn Edwards deck since it doesn't combo with his free evade action. Rita Young is a pretty good option since it combos with her evasion damage ability although I am still not certain it would make it into her deck or stay in the deck beyond a scenario or two.

It still isn't a great card but if someone runs a mostly weaponless deck then it has a solid niche use for a few investigators.

The Lynx · 967

I see a use case for this card I can't think any of the other rogue evade events can do, it can evade an enemy engaged to an ally without having to spend an action to engage, I often use stunning blow for this purpose.

Its not the most reliable way to help someone but I think its worth consideration in a large team, most rogues will be attacking at 7 base here, so effectively at 5 to do what you want to do which isn't horrid.

Beyond that case I think everyone but Tony has better evade events for sheer power.

Zerogrim · 292
Breaking and Entering and Decoy can both evade an enemy engaged to a buddy as well. If that's your main goal, go with Decoy: same price, no test, and greater flexibility. — Mordenlordgrandison · 448
The non elite restriction isn't much, but it is there, so at least for Tony you could make a case for Cheap shot, also it being a trick isn't nothing. (say for chuck) Its a shame stunning blow is just so much better at doing what cheap shot does. — Zerogrim · 292
cheap shot does give you a bigger boost than Stunning Blow does. B&E also works on Elites, I think — Zinjanthropus · 227
Even with the non Elite clause I find Decoy a more inviting option for its testless evade. Cheap Shot requires you succeed by 2 and if you miss you’ll damage the person currently engaged. — StyxTBeuford · 12985
I like it for the enemy evade and the additional utility of finishing off a 4 health target after a Backstab, or setting up a Sneak Attack assist. — suika · 9385
The succeed by 2 requirement on this card feels so bad. Would hardly have been overpowered without that. — CaiusDrewart · 3123

I think this card is underrated. Sometimes you would like to soften up a big enemy that has Retaliate for your monster hunters, or that person is you and you can pull out Backstab for your next action, or activate Delilah O'Rourke's ability to finish off a 3 HP enemy (Delilah also gives a +2 skill boost).

But other times you need a test you are sure you can succeed big at for your Rogue succeed-by-X cards, like Momentum, Watch This, Quick Thinking, Nimble, Opportunist, or All In, and you're engaged with an enemy. Winifred & Rita will be testing at a base 8, Tony, Skids, Finn & Monterey Jack at 7, Bob, Trish, Jenny & Sefina at 6. With the aforementioned skill cards that also have a payoff, it shouldn't be hard to succeed by 2 (or by 1 with the upgraded version, which can also return to your hand). Sure you can draw the red token, but that's the Rogue lifestyle.

The other option, Lockpicks (1), is a better payoff for the succeed-by-X cards for Bob, Finn, Wendy, & Trish or Monterey Jack with Lockpicks (0). But don't glaze over Cheap Shot.

dscarpac · 956
"but stunning blow is so much better" which isn't even true anymore given all the synergy you have for tricks now AND stunning blow is obscenely good so a card that is less good would still be good. — Zerogrim · 292
I've loved this card since I started playing Tony. Big fighters need a couple ways to give themselves room, and this is perfect. — SGPrometheus · 809

I'm not a fan of this card, but in it's defense there's a few kicker's I just want to make you aware off.

This is a attack so Skidd's can buff it with Vicious Blow and Vicious Blow for an 8 strength attack with 2 damage and 9 strength attack with 3 damage respectively (And Jenny might do the same for 1 less attack strength and 2 precious off-faction slots spent).

Additionally, the auto-evade part is less useful than you might think for a rouge character, usually you can dislodge opponents from yourself without issues, the second kicker is that this card is perfect for pulling an ally out of trouble. The mechanics let you bypass engaging the enemy and go straight for a reliable (for Skidd's) attack.

A relatively rare pairing of + icons on a card (The other 2 cards are Hard Knocks and Backstab). Mixed icons aren't a reason to include a card but it still lends a form of stability to it's usefulness.

Is it a good card? MEH. But it does a specialized job that may impress you from time to time.

Edit, Circle unbound: A new character just showed up that really blows up the usefulness of this card. Rita Young can smack enemies with this thing for 2 damage + evasion, for her the Agility conversion is outright fantastic as a means to actually land the attack, the free evade earns her time to do her thing, with weapons that tend to be action intensive,it's a good pairing.

Tsuruki23 · 2523
Good point about easily evading an enemy engaged to an ally. But for 2 resources? It's pretty meh, as you said. — CaiusDrewart · 3123
This card is all about doing an Evade using fist icons. Its not about doing damage or doing an attack with agility. If you want that, there is obviously backstab. But I agree that its a pass for most current investigators. — aramhorror · 700
I'm not sure if it is even possible to evade an enemy not engaged with investigator using this event - according to rules, it's not. — KptMarchewa · 1
I assume that according to rules you can't Evade (in bold, action) enemy that is not engaged with you. But you may engage it (as effect). — Yury1975 · 1
The standard evade actio — Greatsageishere · 141
I’ll try that again! The standard evade action can only be done to enemy engaged with you. But evade effects, like the one being applied by this card, are different. This is addressed in the FAQ, where it talks about stray cat. — Greatsageishere · 141
Can I use it combined with Switchblade? — dbraga2000 · 1
NO :) — Tsuruki23 · 2523
Be Leo or Tommy. — MrButtermancer · 55

Cheap Shot / Cheap Shot has an incredible synergy for Kymani Jones when combined with Dirty Fighting and / or Chuck Fergus / Chuck Fergus.

Next to the Stealth-Combo on Kymani Jones, it is another option to discard almost every non-Elite enemy with one action.

  1. Evade an enemy and exhaust it
  2. Trigger Dirty Fighting which allows you to take a fight action which is Cheap Shot / Cheap Shot, you may Chuck Fergus / Chuck Fergus to reduce the cost by 2
  3. Start the fight test and use the of Kymani Jones to engage the exhausted enemy
  4. Resolve the test with at least 2 + 5 + 2 (Dirty Fighting) = 9, optional +2 (Chuck Fergus / Chuck Fergus) = 11; that should be enough to hit most enemies
  5. If you succeed, you automatically evade this enemy. If a skill test automatically succeeds, the total difficulty of that test is considered 0. Kymani Jones has at least 5 + 2 = 7 skill value and therefore succeeds by 7. That should be enough to discard (not defeat!) almost every non-Elite enemy you can come by.

With Underworld Market you only need 1 copy of Dirty Fighting and you will draw it within your first five turns. That is very reliable.

It is also a fantastic trigger for other effects like e.g.

GrueneLupenAufheben · 127
So you can discard 1 non-elite enemy from play for a 4 card combo... This seems a bit overconvoluted — fiatluxia · 65
Also have a look into the rules for automatic success/failure. There is written that an automatically evasion is no skill check therefor it don't count for kymanis ability. — Tharzax · 1
As Tharzax pointed out, 'automatically evade' is not the same as 'automatically succeed' and does not work with Kymani's ability in the way the review describes. That said, it is still useful for the initial evasion (especially if the enemy is engaged with another investigator!), and since it deals a damage, it reduces how much you need to succeed by on the evasion attempt to discard the enemy. — Death by Chocolate · 1447
flipside use this in tony to trigger dirty fighting on a enemy engaged with another investigator, if you fail you don't do much damage, if you pass its as good as dead. — Zerogrim · 292