In my opinion, playing Marcus is worse than just spending an action taking a resource.
Marcus costs a card, 3 resources, and an action to play.
In the best case scenario, if you play him on the final action of the turn, it will take 3 rounds to be a net positive and you don't see the benefit until Round 5
Playing Marcus
- Round 1 (played on last turn) = -1 action, -1 card, -2 (-3 cost + 1 ability) net resources
- Round 2 = -1 (-2 + 1 ability) net resource
- Round 3= 0 (-1 + 1 ability) net resources (breaks even)
- Round 4 = +1 net resources
| Round End | Actions | R Cost | R Gain | Net Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | -1 | -3 | +1 | -2 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | +1 | -1 |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 0 |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | +1 | +1 |
Taking a resource:
- Round 1 = -1 action, 0 card, +1 net resource
| Round End | Action | Card | R Cost | R Gain | Net Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | +1 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 |
Emergency Cache:
- Round 1 = -1 action, -1 card, +3 (0 cost + 3 resources) net resources
| Round End | Action | Card | R Cost | R Gain | Net Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | +3 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +3 |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +3 |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +3 |
The Value Proposition
You must keep Marcus alive for more than 3 rounds before his ability pays off. A typical scenario is 15 rounds long. Also, there's the opportunity cost. Instead of playing Marcus, you could have spent that 3 resource on something that could advance the game state. He is a net negative to play after round 10.
On his own, he's already not amazing with one extra resource a turn, especially in a class that can generate extra actions and resources easily (especially in the Legacy cardpool), but I can see it adding value to a resource hoarding deck as a win more card if it didn't have the biggest flaw - Marcus' Forced ability.
Marcus' Forced ability reads: After you fail a skill test: Deal 1 horror to Marcus Sengstacke.
In the 3 full mythos and investigator phases before it starts paying off, you cannot fail 2 tests. That's 9 investigator actions and 3 encounter draws, and potentially tests when the Act or Agenda advances.
He also has no soak ability: he's 1 health, 2 sanity, and the sanity is the buffer for his Forced ability. There are better soaks for fewer resources.
He also takes up a contested ally slot.
If you take a resource instead of including Marcus in your deck you can:
- Take riskier tests
- Play a different ally in the slot (Olivier Bishop, Gregory Gry etc.)
- Immediately get the payoff
- Hoard the 4 resources now (3 not spent on Marcus) instead to work towards triggering Well Connected immediately
- Include a different card in your deck instead that can solve a different problem in the game
