Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Baron Samedi

"Well now, we had a deal. You get to sing songs sweeter than ice tea on a summers day and I...I get you."

A weakness that is true to the character, a deal that seems amazing (you get Mystifying Song) that turns out to be not even close the price of purchase. Mystifying song, in a vacuum is an extremely powerful signature card, especially paired with arcane initiate but by god, is Baron a DEVASTATING weakness.

I would be so bold as too say that he has to be one of if not the WORST personal weaknesses amongst investigators to the point that he has played a large role in Marie's lack of play-ability. The jankery you need to include and draw in your deck to handle this weakness is absurd. If your lucky (scenario pending) you can handle this in the first 3-4 turns, if not...You're screwed.

6/24/22

, · 565

It is brutal. A lot of the time you wouldn't even want to try and get rid of him, because getting getting caught by the myths phase resets your progress. — Maseiken · 1 6/24/22

I think this guy feels a lot more dangerous than he actually is. It's actually surprisingly easy to get rid of him as Marie as long as there isn't a very tight agenda, and a single of her elder signs is basically an instant discard. Once you have a charisma or two there's no risk of him booting out important allies, and the damage thing might mean you have to leave a partner for a turn and maybe pack a little soak, not much more. It's understandable that he's intimidating, and he's definitely not in the category of free weaknesses, but I've had a lot more trouble with weaknesses that initially seemed tamer. — SSW · 214 6/24/22

"If you spend 3xp, he sometimes isn't bad" — MrGoldbee · 1470 6/24/22

That's the catch with dealing with him. When we look at other investigators, I'll use my two favourite, Luke & Finn, their weaknesses become non-issues with 3xp. 3xp to only deal with ONE PART of the weakness is brutal. Also makes certain scenario's devastating. Another tech you can bring to counter this is The elder sign commit. so for 8xp and good draws, you can destroy this weakness, but that's a LOT to commit to it. — . · 35 6/24/22

No weaknesses are truly devastating if you carefully plan for ways that deal with them. But, yes, for me Mr. Samedi is the most depressing personal weakness in the game. He makes you second thought before picking Marie and he makes her a character not for beginners to play with. Second to Samedi, I would say it would be Ursula Downs's weakness; it itself is not super powerful but simply eternally annoying and doesn't goes away, although Ursula is such a delightful investigator to play. Agnes Baker's weakness should also be at the top of the list; it's just that Agnes' super power is so damn strong that even her Dark Memory can't match up with it. — liwl0115 · 41 6/24/22

He's actually more helpful than not if you play with only Arcane Initiates and David Renfield (and no Charisma). One more way to kill them off before their doom becomes an issue, and Samedi allows you to add doom on demand to activate Marie's ability, and leaves before it becomes an issue unless you tempt fate when Ancient Evils is in the encounter deck. Mystifying Song also helps with getting that third doom on him safely if the agenda is tight. Of course, it could be argued that the actual weakness then shifts to you not being able to build a deck with non-expendable allies... All in all, I found Marie to be quite strong back in the day due to being able to use her intellect, seeker cards and hand slots to investigate, and her usual mystic suite for combat and utility. The doom jank is just icing on the cake. Now that Gloria and Norman have muscled in on that niche, Marie arguably isn't the best option for that approach anymore though. — Sorden · 1 6/24/22

Mystic also has some tools to offset the baron's challenges, like ward of protection to cancel bad timed ancient evil, deny existence to avoid damage, Ethereal Form so you dont take OAs,... — Django · 5108 6/25/22

Divination

The selling point of this boy bad is that seekers can also take it. For mystics, Norman Withers (yes, he is a true mystics) especially likes this card. As it allows Norman to use his high intellect instead of using his slightly lower will power to investigate. Pairing Divination with True Magick, a card which Norman can and should take, enable him to nab 3 clues in an action each round and sprint through the scenario quickly. This simple strategy also off-set the main limitation of Divination, which is that it only had 6 charges to nab 6 clues.

6/23/22

liwl0115 · 41

True Magick revealing Divination can get one clue per round, because True Magick only has one charge per round. — Thatwasademo · 58 6/23/22

Superb in solo play to clear locations in one action. Use it as complement to your ordinary investigate actions to save charges, when the game is on the line. — Skrattmas · 9 6/24/22

It's short-lived nature can also be a feature if you're running Dexter. Empty charges are actually still useful for him. — Maseiken · 1 6/24/22

unfortunately I think Thatwasademo's comment is correct. D (4) is still good though — liwl0115 · 41 6/24/22

You don't use True Magick with it; instead, you use Ghastly Possession and the usual Norman shenanigans to grab 3 clues in one action each turn, with 6 more charges for emergency and/or an untimely tentacle — ethereal64 · 556 10/18/23

Sledgehammer

Here are a few cards you may be interested to look at if you wanna slam around this bad boy:

• Relentless that can be recurred by Yorick to turn all these silly damages into resources, that you can spend with Scrapper to boost the smaller attack, or in Plucky (3) to investigate when there are no other enemies. Keen Eye covers for both in .

• Safeguard (2) so that you can save all the moving actions, and simply spend your turns eradicating everything that you collected on behalf of your teammates.

• Drawing Thin to turn the ridiculous +5 into resources/card draw.

• Live and Learn and Oops! as mentioned, especially paired with Drawing Thin to one-shot big bosses. It was correctly mentioned that you can use 2 Live and Learn on the same failed test, and even use Resourceful while doing the new test of Live and Learn to get it back and so on.

• Well Prepared for a +4 +1 damage, ammo-free weapon. You can also use it on Plucky (3) is you took it too for a good capacity to discover clues on empty turns.

• Riot Whistle to engage the enemies that your teammates draw and still have the 3 available to kill the threat without risking the 360--No-Scope on your partner in crime.

• Police Badge for the extra 2 actions that allow you to use the big hit and still have 2 actions to play. Also helps you with Well Prepared against tests.

• Nightmare Bauble and Eucatastrophe can also give you a little safety net against friendly fire.

• Jury-Rig for the 1 attack.

• Prepared for the Worst of course to find it.

• Nine of Rods to find more enemies to turn into jam

• Brand of Cthugha potentially for 1 hp attacks.

• Unrelenting to get 2 cards since you don't mind cancelling the better tokens

• Brute Force as a safety weapon for 3 health enemies when you have only one action.

• Galvanize that you can use on a Beat Cop (2) to get an extra action for an extra attack and an extra testless damage, resulting in 10 damages in 1 turn.

• Scavenging so that you can play the first one that you draw and commit the second one on the small attack, and get it back to your hand whenever you would succeed an investigation by 2 or more.

Off colour:

• Lucky Cigarette Case (0) of course, and if your teammate is Bob Jenkins, Lucky Cigarette Case (3).

• Shortcut/Pathfinder to move and hit

• Some succeed by shenanigans like Gregory Gry, "Watch this!" or All In that you can commit on your mate that is playing the Sledgehammer (4).

Feel free to tell me in the comments other good synergies and I'll update that review!

6/23/22

Valentin1331 · 73764

I think you miss to mention, that the investigator for this list is yorick and probably danyela and Tommie. Also why do you mention brand of cthuga? The hammer provides the same effect without drawbacks. And probably you find a friend who enchant your reliable weapon. — Tharzax · 1 6/23/22

Scavenging/recurring tech was great when I use this card for committing the 2nd copy for 3 combat. The first copy found usually stay around. I actually left the lower version in the deck as I quite like the 2 action swing. In the case I setup with lower version, this 4 XP commit to support the lower version's swing. — 5argon · 10735 6/25/22

I thought about it, but couldn't really find an investigator that can somehow succeed investigations by 2 or more reliably, while wanting to use both hand slots with the Sledgehammer. I'll add a line for it though, because who knows what's coming up in the future :) — Valentin1331 · 73764 6/25/22

Probably Ashcan or Zoey with sixth sense as splash card? — Tharzax · 1 6/25/22

I was using a janky Crafty + Jury Rig hammer Wendy deck that manage to use Lockpicks to revive the hammer but involves some clunky hand slot juggling. Otherwise, Prof. William Webb could work for that purpose too. — 5argon · 10735 6/25/22

Live and Learn

Recently, I hear that I can play multiple Live and Learn for a single failed test. After the test initiated by L&L finished, the timing would go back to the initial failed test and the second copy of L&L could be play. That make me think some big combo.

Step 1: using Will to Survive(3) to avoid drawing chaos tokens.

Step 2: Fight with Sledgehammer(4) triple-action ability (+5 fight +5 damage) and using double Drawing Thin and/or Quick Learner(4) to make the difficulty of the test 1 or 2 above your fight value and failed the test.

Step 3: Using L&L to fight again. With +2 skill from L&L, the test is successful and L&L go into the discard pile.

Step 4: The timing is still after the first failed test, so we can play the second copy of L&L to fight again with Resourceful to get the first copy of L&L in discard pile back .

Step 5: Using the copy of L&L we get back from discard pile to fight again with second copy of resourceful to get another copy L&L back.

Step 6: Using the final copy of L&L to fight again... for total 24 damages in one turn for the boss.

Is it worth it?

6/21/22

Chris_yang · 4

Add some Oops! (2) for another 6 damage each. — Death by Chocolate · 1479 6/21/22

Playing this combo on an exhausted or engaged enemy: cool and awesome. — Maseiken · 1 6/21/22

Playing it on one engaged with another gator: war crime. — Maseiken · 1 6/21/22

The effects of Drawing Thin would persist on the Live and Learn tests, though, right? — housh · 171 6/23/22

Yes, Drawing thin would carry to the L&L attempts, so use Will to Survive(3) and the +2 skill build in the L&L to ensure the success. — Chris_yang · 4 6/23/22

Bonnie Walsh

The true backbone of Arkham has arrived, and WOW is she a powerhouse of an ally! Not only is she Unexpected Courage on tap (get it?) but she also gives you second shots at your favorite exhausting friends! Tabooed professors extend your grant money, the cat army gives you more chances for buffs - hell, maybe you can even get a second try on some precarious tests!

6/21/22

supertoasty · 39

She is very good but is unlikely to see play outside Charlie Kane deck ;p — Susu · 36 6/25/22

I'm curious if Miss Doyle will see use in Charlie's decks. An extra ally is good but they all only contribute one icon to any given test... — Maseiken · 1 6/25/22

Each of the cats have two stats that don't match their ability, so unless you need them for a Willpower test, they are either worth +2 with Charlie's ability (remember that it adds 1+pips), or +4 if you use them to test at base 5! Miss Doyle has a wild icon so she is always worth +2. That is +4 to +6 total each round for 3 resources and 1xp. It seems like it would be harder to find reasons to not include the cat army in ANY Charlie deck. — Death by Chocolate · 1479 6/26/22

That is compelling, yeah. I found Yorick with a creatures build quite powerful but the cat army was more finicky to pilot than I expected — Maseiken · 1 6/27/22