Shortcut

Shortcut

"Play only during your turn" (Investigation Phase) exists on both Shortcut and Shortcut (2). But this Shortcut (2) plays to attach, not to move. It then provide Move that is usable in any phase. I think the ability to fast Move outside of Investigation Phase is quite rare. (e.g. Pathfinder / Eon Chart has "during your turn".)

So you may find some niche use in Mythos Phase that you can suddenly move to change its difficulty. (e.g. Go to where your friends are to get commits, attempting to get Fieldwork boost, changing shroud that affects the test, alter skill card's value like Inquiring Mind / "Not without a fight!", etc.) Or some creative use in Enemy Phase by using the fast window after Hunter enemy moves but before it attacks (e.g. Get the engage and drag the enemy where your Guardian is, so they can respond with Dodge / Heroic Rescue / "Get behind me!" / True Grit, etc.) There is one window in Upkeep before readying the cards so you can still Move late if it turns out no one used it yet back in Investigation Phase.

5argon · 9597

Power Word

Power Word

10 XP for a card that can't target elites? Can someone convince me this is a good card to pick up? It is obviously less optimal than Cyclopean Hammer, but I don't think it can even compete as a late-game enemy management because it can't interact with Elite enemies.

Innsmouth Conspirator · 57
It can interact with elite enemy's, just not directly — Therealestize · 69
You can't attach this card to elite enemies, but with distract, you can Evade any enemy withe the same or lower. Which is okay, it's not the best,bur this is a card you look at and go "do i want this? I want this." And it definitely not a stable by any means. — Therealestize · 69
1. basically turns hard to kill 3~4 hp enemies into assets that heal, gets clues, etc 2. great target for arcane research, since this is a spell you can dump 10 exp onto it. — gyrjsrla · 31
This isn't a combat card. It's a clue card that just happens to come with healing and free enemy management attached. You just drop this on any medium-sized enemy and it immediately becomes an asset for you instead. Power Word is ridiculously good with Thrice Spoken and Tonguetwister. Note that exhausting enemies does not disengage them, so you can drag around your army of helpless clue-finders for the entire game. If you haven't tried it, you are missing out. — Soul_Turtle · 434
There are some niche enemies that surprisingly don’t have the Elite trait but possess massive healing, evading, and cluevering potential. Playing blind through TFA rn and it was a blast being able to mind control 2 Yithian Observers to steam roll everything in Pnakotus (that was particularly helpful since that scenario seems to be rough for many players that don’t build for it). It also just makes for some hilarious storytelling. Just used it on Eater of the Depths in The Depths of Yoth and the big bad couldn’t really focus on his job because of the distracting behemoth snake pet rampaging in the corner healing much of the damage he was trying to do. — Synthboy · 1
This card is bonkers good, and there are ways to make it actually not 10 earned XP (add in some Refine on off turns in the beginning of the campaign, go all in with Down the Rabbit Hole, or Arcane Research). Like everybody else is saying, with Tongue Twister and Thrice Spoken, you just plop it on a tough non-elite enemy when it spawns, they also exist lategame, and as long as you can spare your first action to activate it, you can damage some elites, evade them, or collect clues testlessly while the elite is just standing there.. or even heal, so you can tank more damage/horror from said elite enemies. Not auto-include since you definitely need to dedicate XP and resources to it (but since it's a spell, a lot of the mystic money cards help it anyway). The thing that makes it good is that everything it does is testless so there's no chance of drawing the auto-fail and wasting the action. — midnatssol · 2

The Skeleton Key

The Skeleton Key

Remember that skeleton key sets the shroud location to 1, after modifiers. This means that you can't use other effects that reduce the test further to further reduce to 0.

I think this card is as such still too expensive (both in actions and experience) to use for most classes.

drjones87 · 189
It's noted that the shroud value cannot be reduced, but the difficulty can be reduced. "Difficulty 0 test" can be generated with the following cards: Map the Area, Quick Learner, Flashlight(3 level only), Gumption... — elkeinkrad · 485
Another way to get the test to 0 is for Alessandra to investigate with Beguile while having Fine Clothes in play. With 3 copies of Beguile and probably every Alessandra will play 2 copies of Fine Clothes and put them in play early, this will be a common and useful interaction making Skeleton Key very strong for Alessandra. — Sayre · 1

Drawing Thin

Drawing Thin

Drawing Thin is a type of card I often dislike and worry about. I can see the designers really tried to balance the cards as much as possible and on the face of it spending a card and an action for cards in the future seems somewhat balanced. They certainly got the balance better than other games in the past!

However, the problem cards like this have is they only get included in decks where the effect is going to be abused, otherwise you won't bother with the card. If you make the card weak enough to not be abused it is far too weak to be considered in another deck so either you see the card in a deck where it is a major engine for limitless resources, or you don't see it at all.

Titar · 3

Darrell's Kodak

Darrell's Kodak

Only a subset of encounter cards remain in play. Many have a revelation effect and are immediately put in the discard pile. For this reason, Darrell can get a lot more use out of his camera in higher player count games where more encounter cards are seen each turn.

The fact that he can place the evidence on enemies and treachery cards that investigators drew at any location (That hopefully have clues on them!) makes multiplayer the place that this card shines.

Finally, don't forget that many weaknesses are treachery cards so you can benefit off of your allies' misfortune. ;-)

david6680 · 63