Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Detached from Reality

A thematic weakness but not much of a threat. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: Luke is removed from his location and moved to the reverse side of Dream-Gate, where he can sit in isolation and think about what he's done. This can curtail 0-3 of Luke's actions, depending when you draw it, since he can still do things like draw cards, take resources, and play assets or events that target himself. It even disengages Luke from his enemies! Once in a very great while, this might stop him from supporting a fellow investigator at a crucial moment, but most times this is very mild.

The discard condition: Either investigate a 6 shroud location to get to the good Dream-Gate or wait until the end of the turn and take 2 horror. In either case, Luke then moves to any revealed location. Since Luke has 9 Sanity, this is almost like a slightly-damaging extra use of the Gate Box, and, in play, this has almost always been a welcome draw.

All in all, this is a way below average signature weakness. The only way it could be less of a weakness is if it just said "add a charge to the Gate Box."

8/8/21

LivefromBenefitSt · 1076

I wouldn't underestimate the horror since you're probably taking two Arcane Research as well, but yeah I do agree it's a below average weakness. — Nenananas · 267 8/9/21

Hmmm. Since many spell events don't have upgrades, I'm not sure I'd always take AR in Luke. I had originally included it in the deck I just posted, and ended up cutting it for insufficient targets, and I haven't missed it. Of course, AR is weird in TIC, but.... — LivefromBenefitSt · 1076 8/10/21

Whispers from the Deep

Not much of a weakness, to be honest, although at least it messes with Amanda's mechanics. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: If this is in Amanda's hand at the beginning of the Investigator Phase, she must put it underneath her, making her a poorer Preston. elkeinkrad's suggestions of how to deal with it are pretty solid -- commit it to a test (yours or someone else's) before the beginning of Amanda's turn or overwrite it with Obscure Studies. You can also just power through, doing testless actions or throwing in more icons than usual. There are a few cards that might let you find and discard this, but usually Amanda would prefer to get rid of her Basic Weakness, since it's likely to be harsher than her signature. Once in a while, this weakness will catch you in a very bad place, but, most scenarios, it will be the lightest of speed bumps.

The discard condition: Discard it at the beginning of Amanda's next turn or overwrite it with her signature.

All in all, this is a way below average signature weakness.

8/8/21

LivefromBenefitSt · 1076

Yeah, I think the worst offender is how Obscure Studies just basically cancels it. And with Amanda's draw power, not hard to have it in time. — Nenananas · 267 8/9/21

Agreed, very weak. Just one thing: the trigger to put it under/discard is at the beginning of the Investigator phase (not her turn). Which is a significant difference. — Death by Chocolate · 1488 8/10/21

Ooops, thanks; I will fix it. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1076 8/10/21

So is this a valid target skill for Ancestral Knowledge at the start of a game? I think it is?! — gazzagames · 7 12/24/24

Scrap that last comment, I actually read Ancestral Knowledge properly… — gazzagames · 7 12/24/24

Geas

This card is super fun for Dexter, who can remove it from play without paying any of the negative effects. And most Dexter decks are overloaded with assets, so not committing cards during your turn doesn’t seem like a huge problem. At 4XP, it’s expensive, but slotless plus-one to every stat can be useful against diverse encounter decks like Innsmouth.

8/7/21

MrGoldbee · 1484

If you are running Curse Dexter, you might as well play it, violate it, and soak up all those Curses for your spells.... — LivefromBenefitSt · 1076 8/8/21

Enchant Weapon

I'm loving this upgrade on Survival Knife (2), which allows you to fight and deal damage as a during the Enemy Phase BEFORE the enemy can damage you. That attack with this upgrade becomes ( + +2) and deals 3 damage (or more with Vicious Blow or Vicious Blow (2)).

Use your last action to move into a location with an enemy (or one location away from an enemy with Hunter) and deal at least 3 damage to that enemy when it attacks, which may kill it before it gets to damage you.

8/5/21

DrMChristopher · 501

The survival knife Reaktion is not a Fight *action*, is it? So it should only work with the basic attack? — trazoM · 9 8/6/21

Due to the bolt printed word fight in the description of the knife, the attack is a fight action (you just pay no action). So enchant weapon will work with the knife during the enemy-phase — Tharzax · 1 8/6/21

Enchant Weapon has done a lot to make low level weapon builds, which I already liked, incredibly viable. I usually just load up on Survival Knife 2 and maybe another level 2 gun or something, and do just fine. That said, Enchant weapon on holy spear can completely destroy final scenarios. — SSW · 216 8/6/21

Fun with sig weapons too. — MrGoldbee · 1484 8/6/21

Enchant Weapon does not work with the reaction ability, it's not a fight action. Compare with something like Marksmanship, that triggers off of any fight ability. — toastsushi · 74 8/8/21

So apparently a Fight-action designator does not indicate that something is a Fight action, but only a Fight-ability. Otherwise Frozen in Fear would make you pay an action if you used Shortcut(2) during your turn. — trazoM · 9 8/8/21

I've just looked in the rules and the fight action is clearly described as the usual fight. So using enchant weapon on the reaction is for me totally OK. (and you loose an action if you use shortcut as the first action with frozen in fear) — Tharzax · 1 8/8/21

You don't do that with Shortcut either. Frozen in Fear only affects move, fight, or evade actions, and Shortcut does not spend an action to use. — toastsushi · 74 8/8/21

But the action is in my opinion just a part of the costs, so if you don't need to pay it and you go through the steps you still perform the action — Tharzax · 1 8/9/21

You aren’t performing an action though, you are resolving an ability. You are ‘fighting/attacking’ (for things that care about it) but you aren’t taking a ‘fight action’. — Death by Chocolate · 1488 8/10/21

There’s definitely uncertainty around action designators and their effect on non-action abilities, and I hope an FAQ will weigh in on that soon because it’s a common issue, and I could see a strong argument for either side. — Death by Chocolate · 1488 8/10/21

I recognize this is old but on some level I actually want to see the argument that Shortcut(2) is not a move action. Would you honestly look someone in the eye and tell them they couldn't activate Haste to pop someone a third time with a .25 automatic(4) for triggering the evade, then spending the action? Literally all of them are triggered abilities, and gain additional descriptors that also turn them into actions of other types as well. Taking an action doesn't mean spending an action - if it didn't, Fast events would be inchoate, among many, many other points of failure. — Lailah · 1 11/3/22

The FAQ for shortcut now mentions that it DOES cost a movement with Frozen in Fear, which incidentally sheds light on how actions are percieved by game rules. I feel then that Enhcanted Blade should work on survival knife. — TehFrederick · 1 1/22/23

Shrewd Dealings

The Good, the Meh, and the Ugly:

The Good: A dollar off all items? Fantastic. It's doesn't even exhaust. Between this and Bob's free play-item action, you've got a mini Ever Vigilant forever.

The Meh: The second bit seems neat; in practice it hits the same barriers as Teamwork as you mess with other deck's plans for their limited Slots. Slotless items sidestep this, so here's hoping this cycle includes more things like Pills, Smokes, Booze... More Booze... uh...

...wow. Bob may be more of a bootlegger than an actual bootlegger.

The Ugly: SO SWINGY. Bob REALLY wants this in his opening hand. Get it anywhere from mid-game on, and you're probably just committing it for an investigate. And to my knowledge, there's literally no tutor that'll help. It feels wasteful to ignore, but risky to count on, sort of like Wendy's Amulet which you can at least find in a Backpack.

(EDIT: Building a Bob deck and realized that L3 Lucky Cigarette Case is an excellent tutoring option available to him, both for this and more or less anything else.)

+++

So, tl;dr... make friends with your local seeker!

8/5/21

HanoverFist · 745

Question is, can this be used with Bob's ability to play from another investigator and place the item under Bob's control? If so, that might be a good way to utilize duplicate items from other investigators. — Valkun · 41 12/6/21

Fair question- for my take, I can see no reason it wouldn't work. Shrewd Dealings triggers off Bob playing an item, and Bob's ability is for him to "play an item" out of another's hand. Where the item was played from is of no concern to Shrewd Dealings... Bob played an item, so he gets to use SD. This would mean (and it seems very much the intended design) that all of Bob's & SD's abilites can be used together to play an item, on his turn, with a free action, out of somebody else's hand, into that same person's control, at a 1R discount. Bob just got that person the toaster they always wanted at wholesale price! — HanoverFist · 745 12/15/21

Friends in Low Places now tutors this. — MrGoldbee · 1484 10/11/22

If this combos with Bob's normal ability as suggested, that suggests he can take an Item from any player's hand and play it under ANY player's control. In that case, Bob isn't limited to pushing his own Survivor and Rogue merch--he can deal stuff from any class he's playing with. — SleepyLibrarian · 44 10/18/22