Sweeping Kick

Sweeping Kick

Rita, Nathaniel, Calvin, there had been several investigators mentioned, who might be interested in this card, and probably rightfully so. Personally, I got it in Tony playing the "Web of Dreams" campaign, and even though there is no particular synergy with him, I was still very pleased of this card. I think, it might as well be a good card for any investigator, who can take it. With 1 XP and 1 resource, it's reasonable cheap for an event, that can attack for 2 damage and evade even bosses for one action.

However, now that I think of it, there might be somebody else, who gets extra mileage out of this card: Zoey Samaras

If she has her Cross out, she can do one damage while engaging, sweeping kicking disengage it again, dealing another 2 damage. And then in upkeep phase, when the cross and the enemy ready, deal an additional damage to it. That's basically 4 damage in one action, not counting additional damage from Vicious Blow, Beat Cop, what have you. You could also say, this card doubles the damage output of the cross on an enemy without requiring any additional action. (Assuming, you don't fail the test.) Of course, it will exhaust the cross for the complete next round in advance, so you might miss its ability then on some other foe. But it's dubious, if you will even get that new enemy, you could profit from the cross again, so if it saves you a complete action, or 1 point of health on your Beat Cop, etc., that's still a synergy to look out for. Sure, her is not great, she only attacks with a base of 6 on this card, but with some static boost and commits, she certainly has no hard time using it. It's still 1 base skill better than most level 0 weapons, and they are certainly not unplayable for her.

Susumu · 381
Its very good for smoothing out your Combat strategy. Rita is the Queen of this, but generally speaking going for racking n a — Maseiken · 1
*racking up small-middling damage while keeping enemies at arms length is a solid strategy — Maseiken · 1
$3 to use it and the cross twice! — MrGoldbee · 1485
Yes, the fact, that it is so cheap, makes it so powerful. It's half the price of Spectral Razor, which could also do 3 damage. With a different restriction: not against elites, but independend from if the Cross is out. But since elites are the most likely to stand a round vs. Zoey, there is extra value in that even, too. You get a free "Dodge" out of it. (Or even multiples, if the enemy is massive.) — Susumu · 381
(Spectral Razor of course also being a very good Zoey card, due to engagement option and base skill of 8.) — Susumu · 381

Occult Lexicon

Occult Lexicon

Assuming you only ever use the "2" to "3" mode on this card and your resource economy can't support paying for the third damage, then when you don't have Ancient Stone, you're getting +1 card or +1 money per Blood Rite. When you do have Ancient stone, you're getting +1 testless damage on top of that.

If this card cost 10 exp, then it would take 19 exp to buy 2 Ancient Stone and this card. That would still probably be a bit strong for a 19 exp deck. So maybe this card should cost 10 exp.

sharpobject · 1
11 XP for up to 18 damage for 9 card and 9 ressources seems not too strong for me (this combo blocks also both hands). — Tharzax · 1
I don't understand your math. if this card cost 10 XP, it would take 18 XP to buy 2 ancient stones and this card... Also, you'd have all of your XP in three cards, so you wouldn't necessarily get it into play quickly and consistently. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
You're right, it's only 18. I can't edit my comment though. You can use Whitton Greene to dig for these cards and play a character who draws an extra card each turn anyway such as Amanda or Harvey. We've found this sort of build for Amanda to already be gamebreaking with Occult Lexicon (0). — sharpobject · 1
The problem card here is Ancient Stone and not Lexicon. Seeker combat tools are intended to be potent but fleeting, expensive, or both. You can occult invocation ONE person to death and then your unsafe, or you can acid weak enemies but need commits for harder ones. Stone is easy, safe, repeatable, and cheap, with the most automatic damage of any single card in the game if you go for a high shroud location. — dezzmont · 222
imagine the fun of a shenanigan using black market to get double double in play in addition to lexicon (3) + ancient stone. That would be 12 testless damages (Harvey even more) in one action if I count correctly. — liwl0115 · 42
@liwl0115 Black market doesn't draw cards, it just reveals them and allows them to be played - so it has no synergy with ancient stone. — snacc · 1014
@snacc you would play double double under your control using black market and so it synergies with blood rites which trigger ancient stone. — liwl0115 · 42
it's the same idea as using "You owe me one!" to play an asset under your control — liwl0115 · 42
Oh right, I misunderstood. I thought you were referring to Black Market as an additional synergy with Lexicon and Ancient Stone, but you were meaning it as a way of getting Double, Double into play. — snacc · 1014

Sneak By

Sneak By

If Finn Edwards plays this card, would it count as his additional action? I think so, based on the FAQ for Haste. I believe playing a card that takes an Evade action counts as both Play and Evade. If so, this and other Evade cards could be useful in a Finn deck.

GeneralXy · 41
Correct, any card that uses **Evade. xxx** can be played using Finn's additional action. — Valentin1331 · 78262

Quick Study

Quick Study

My wife, who plays Luke Robinson, discovered a fun lil combo here with Hawkeye Folding Camera:

With the Camera and Quick Study in play, the next time Luke hops into his Gate Box- which drops him in a temporary location unique to him that has 1 shroud and no clues- he can do a single investigate, pumping it with Quick Study (putting him at 7 INT vs 1 Shroud) to drop a clue, and immediately pick it back up...

... and because that clue was the last clue at his location, he gets to power up the Camera.

It's been mighty handy to carry around a means to get one of the two important charges on there.

+++

(link to Luke's portable hole location, called Dream-Gate: Wondrous Journey, doesn't seem to work. If you're not familiar and want to see, it's the 2nd card in sequence after Gate Box)

HanoverFist · 746
Works even better with Vantage Point — Nenananas · 267
Each time you use gatebox the dreamgate counts as a new location for the limit on camera because it left play — Django · 5154
Yeap. The dream gate is a very scenic spot for pictures. and I second the Vantage Point combo because it has the added bonus of advancing your progress in the game by picking up a fresh clue rather than just picking up a clue you already had! — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Terrific, had not considered Vantage Pt. Also good to hear the rule on Gatebox counting as a new location each time it enters play; we knew it activated Whitton each time, but thought the location itself didn’t count as different for camera purposes — HanoverFist · 746
If I could enter a dream world, I too would take as many pictures as possible — Nenananas · 267

The Devourer Below

The Devourer Below

Even after all this time, Devourer Below remains one of the most difficult scenarios in Arkham Horror.

Due to the encounter deck recursion and the large number of cards that add doom (roughly half the deck), you're going to at best get 8-9 turns before Umordoth spawns. The other half of the deck that isn't doom cards are enemies, four of which are very hardy.

This would be enough to make this challenging, but the random location debuffs make it dangerous to even explore.

All in all, this scenario should honestly be skipped when introducing people to the game unless they like getting stomped on. Most, even good viable parties, will end in failure on this scenario.

drjones87 · 200
Half the deck is doom cards? What? There's 3 Ancient Evils, 3 Acolytes, Wizard of the Order, and 2 Mysterious Chanting. 9/29 is not half, and it's not even particularly scary doom generation because you can just kill the Acolytes/Wizard to remove the doom. Honestly compared to drawing Umordhoth's Wrath which is the real killer here, you're happy to draw the Dark Cult cards. People say that Devourer is still one of the hardest scenarios today, but I haven't found that to be the case in my anecdotal experience. With the modern cardpool it's very doable to stop the ritual in time. It only uses Core encounter sets, which aren't really that scary these days. It's challenging, but no longer as brutal as it used to be. I even recently played every 2-character Core Set combination through NotZ, Core Set cards only, and won more often than lost (only on Standard though). Personal opinion (feel free to disagree): People have gotten better, Devourer isn't that hard, it's just perceived to be hard since everyone's first experience with it is brutal and then nobody revisits it, so the myth remains. — Soul_Turtle · 493
I agree with Soul_Turtle. The Devourer Below is very doable compared to some of the harder scenarios. — Nenananas · 267
I think blundering and dying through the Devourer Below (or throwing Lita in desparation) is a far more interesting and satisfying conclusion to a new player's introduction than the person introducing it saying "no, that level is just bad, we aren't playing it," and getting no conclusion at all. But besides that, I've managed to beat it most times I've introduced new people, and that's with using the starter decks (Nathaniel, Harvey, Jaqueline, etc.), so not especially optimised. — SSW · 216