Clean Sneak · ArkhamDB

I'd say for it to be worth 4XP you need to trigger about at least 2 effects, more likely 3.

So how can you achieve this ?

Evade every one with a 5 investigator (Finn even if he can't take it, Winifred, Kymani...) .
Investigate with Trish's ability.
Pay and throw a Cunning Distraction with Preston !
Just play with other investigators that can evade and maybe synchronize your Clean Sneak copies.

Just be sure to have one extra action to move out of the location after you played this card unless a guardian is coming to kill them. (Blur is pretty usefull for that but Rogues don't lack more actions in general...)

EDIT : Overall this is a pretty bad card I would say.
If we compare this card to Cryptic Research, we can see the difference between Rogues and Seekers in the game :p For the same cost and xp, Cryptic Research already does 3 effects (three times "draw 1 card" to allow the comparison with Clean Sneak), to anyone and you don't need to evade 2-3 enemies beforehand ! You pay for the versatility of effect of course but you need to work much harder for an overall lesser result sadly... :/

10/11/22

captainfire · 244

I think this is third card Finn hates — elkeinkrad · 486 10/12/22

It's really strange, that they made this level 4, gating the two investigators, who might consider it at least: Finn and Rita. — Susumu · 366 10/12/22

All the more, since it is imho overpriced for it's effect at 4 XP. — Susumu · 366 10/12/22

Oh crap in my memory Finn was 0-4 not 0-3, my bad ;) I would also agree that this card is not amazing, especially if you compare with Cryptic Research is Seekers... I'll edit my review to talk about it ^^ — captainfire · 244 10/12/22

Compared to "Cryptic Research", it's not even that more flexible. Unlike the seeker card, it can't draw you three cards, just one, because you have to choose DIFFERENT options for each enemy. (Which also means, it maxes out at 4 enemies, not that this matters much. Game should be normally pretty much over with 5 enemies at your location, regardless of what you can pull off with the resources, you get from them.) — Susumu · 366 10/13/22

Even just compare to Dynamite Blast (0). lol. Way fewer hoops to jump through and actually helps you deal with the fact that you floated 2+ enemies. It's 100% comparable, but this card is pretty wack. — Zinjanthropus · 227 10/20/22

Meant to say that it's NOT 100% comparable — Zinjanthropus · 227 10/20/22

Also what the hell even is a "clean sneak?" — Zinjanthropus · 227 10/20/22

Too bad, we'll likely never see a "Return to" box again. This is a classic example of an underdeveloped card, that might get a fixed version in such a product. 1 or 2 XP cheaper, 1 or 2 resources more expensive, which doesn't matter as much in the investigators, that want it, as they would likely stich it in a Chuck or Crafty deck anyway. — Susumu · 366 10/30/22

This card may have been worth 4xp, as a TSK specific tech card, of it counted versus #concealed mini cards at your location, and you could use up 2 of the 4 triggers to pop 2 concealed minis, plus gain resources and draw a replacement card. That's pretty sweet, of you ask me, I might pay 4xp for that in TSK campaign. — Quantallar · 7 8/24/24

Another way, I've thought of remaking this card, is 4Xp same, ONLY change is to delete the must choose 1 different option per enemy. Allow me to use it as a mini dynamite for 2 dam per enemy exhausted at location, or versatile draw 3-4, or gain 6-8 resources of you can get 3-4 exhausted enemies in one location, that seems fair, big set up, big potential payoff. — Quantallar · 7 12/16/24

At first look you might think this card is not so good, but let me change your mind; this card is not just not good, it is completely terrible. If this card costed 1 xp, you might play it once or twice and just be done with it, and realise that it almost never does anything. Not only do you need to have enemies exhausted on your location, you cannot even choose the same option twice lmao. So you need to spend 4 xp and exhaust 3 enemies and spend all of your actions, and then play this for fast and for example draw 1 card (which just means this card replaced itself), deal 2 dmg to one of them like Sneak Attack does, and get 2 resources? Wow. My group has our own tabboo list since the official one is always 2 years behind, and we don't wanna wait to change cards that are problematic, and we changed this immediately when we saw it to be 3 xp so that Finn Edwards and Rita Young can take it as they were the only ones who would even consider it, and dear lord did we regret it. We did not regret making it 3xp, but buying it and replacing our 0xp cards for it, as it was so underwhelming that i think nobody will ever buy it again. We might actually change it to cost 2xp, just so it is a bit better than Sneak Attack which we rarely play

12/27/22

Blood&gore · 420

It's rare to see two enemies exhausted at the same location, let alone 3-4. Even if you somehow get the perfect play opportunity and get all 4 rewards you're probably not getting 4xp worth of rewards. I am baffled what the intended use for this card is. — Pseudo Nymh · 54 12/27/22

I think, you are exagerating. "Sneak Attack" costs 2 and an action. (Although 5 XP Chuck could make it free and fast.) A clue from "Working a Hunch" also cost 2, at least it is fast. You could get the effects of both (level 0) cards for 1 card. The biggest issue is the opportunity cost of sinking evading actions to setup this card. Let assume, Fin could take this card. He could use his additional evade action on one enemy, and a "Breakinng and Entery" for a second one on an investigate action to grab a clue. He would not need to waste actions for a decent payoff. It is still too expensive in XP, and not in the range of the investigators, who might make it work. — Susumu · 366 12/27/22

Besides: "we changed this immediately when we saw it to be 3 xp so that Finn Edwards and Rita Young can take it". It's your house rule anyway, but according to what you wrote, you might have a missconception of how chaining on the taboo list work. It only alters the XP cost, not the level of a card. So it does not change, who can take the card. For example, Dunwich investigatores (beside Duke) can still not "Signum Crucis", because it's still a level 2 card, regardless of costing 0 XP with taboo. — Susumu · 366 12/27/22

Yeah i know how lvl and xp work, i just wrote that we changed xp since we just say it that way. Also, if Working a hunch required you to have an exhausted enemy on your location so that you can play it for fast, it would be awful, like this is — Blood&gore · 420 12/28/22

It is not completely comparable, because it is in seeker class, and rogues have (in general) the easiest way and most pay off to/ from evade, and second because it costs 2 resources. For "Clean Sneak" to be somewhat decent, you need it to reliably be triggered, when 2 enemies are down. Getting 3 down is something, you might achieve once or twice a campaign, when everything aligns right. (And then you still need the action compression to get out of the snake pit as well.) But if you have two exhausted enemies, "Clean Sneak" can save you 1 card, 1 action and 4 resources compared to "Sneak Attack" + "Working a Hunch", that's not that terrible, even though it is 4 XP, and the other cards are level 0. One issue with this card is, in solo it gets harder to trigger, because there are less likely multiple enemies on top of you. (Which is a good thing!) And the more players are in the game, the less efficient evading gets, you don't want to get swarmed with enemies. Most investigators, even if they are Rogues, want to do better things with their turn, than repeatetly evading. This card gives you a pay off for something, you in general want to avoid doing. And it is gated from the investigator, who have the lowest opportunity cost to go for it. That makes the card bad, not the effect of it. — Susumu · 366 12/28/22

I don‘t really understand why you argue against him, especially in this volume of text. Only to arrive at basically the same conclusion but with some different semantics… — niklas1meyer · 1 12/28/22

Probably because I'm reluctant to Blood&gore's "we taboo/ errata any card, we don't like on first sight" approach. — Susumu · 366 12/28/22

Yeah we are saying the same thing, i am just also adding that my group fixes the card right away because FFG is known for waiting 2 years to fix what is obviously not good, so i do not understand why not just change it right away, especially if the consensus of your group and almsot the whole community is the same? It was the same way when we first played Gene or Cyclopean Hammer when EotE came out, we saw it was broken right away and changed it immediately, and it turned out that we did the right thing, we made Gene 5xp and we made Hammer do the exact thing that FFG made do. So i guess we are doing what is right, which is not hard considering that we just do what common sense says, and we change it that way — Blood&gore · 420 12/28/22

maybe change the text to "for each exhausted non-swarm enemy at your location, choose TWO different options"? and leave the xp cost be. it would be still very situational but could be neat. — galge · 16 3/23/24

I mean, Fairmont gets Survival Instinct (2), Fire Extinguisher (1), and can drop a Cunning Distraction. But this card looks best for Rita, who can use Survival Instinct (2) more convincingly, gets Fire Extinguisher (3), Impromptu Barrier, Light Footed, and likes Bewitching and Shrine of the Moirai. She also struggles to get clues and leaves lots of enemies on the map. A poor card, but it might be fun to run it asxa gimmick for her in something like that configuration, just because it accelerates the game. And, It works on Elites too! — Blitheharrow · 37 11/26/24

Oh! That's right; Rita can't take it. In that case, pure garbage. — Blitheharrow · 37 11/27/24

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