Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Nephthys

If you’re wondering why Sister Mary is in Guardian, this is why. Passive enemy extinction. Even in a fast game, Sister Mary will add 12 to 17 tokens to the bag just by existing. And until you have allies like Nephthys or a covenant, you’re going to cringe anytime someone draws a double bless. (Unless you have blessing of Isis.*)

Now, you want your allies to draw blesses! It lets you explode enemies, even more effectively than guard dog(2). +1Will is OK, and you could even teamwork this ally to a mystic, because it doesn’t matter where the Blessed tokens come from as long as they get used. There is another combo with this. Holy rosary (2) wants you to pass every willpower check you get. Bast’s faithful helps out. You handle this, first watch, and I'll Handle This! allows you to cycle tokens through the bag even faster. Enchanted weapon also wants your willpower to be increased. There’s plenty to elevate Mary even without spells.

At 4XP, Nephthys is extremely expensive for an ally. Cycle hard, get her out early, and melt foes. Neph is best (Bast?) at high player counts, where blessings will be drawn continually.

*It’s worth noting that there’s an anti-synergy between this card and blessing of Isis. Nephthys wants tokens taken out of the bag. Isis keeps them in there, and if you’re Mary increases them. You could take both, and on a larger team someone could take the other. But they go in different directions, so don’t spend your XP on both at once.

Spring 2024 edit: New bless tech, like Blessed Blade (4), make the huntress even deadlier. You don't need to run a covenant with this combo.

1/23/21

MrGoldbee · 1491

Great review. One thing I might argue is I don't think that the anti-synergy between BoI and Neph is that strong. Yes, if you trigger BoI, the tokens go back into the bag, but Neph catches so many singletons that you can recycle right back into the bag that she can be a huge boon for BoI. Even if you choose to burn the bless tokens to deal damage, you've already drawn them, so BoI hasn't lost its potential to capitalize on them the way it does when burning tokens using Radiant Smite or sealing them on Shield of Faith or RoS. — Sandmole · 46 3/24/21

I don't agree about avoiding to have bothe Nephthys and Blessing of Isis : if someone at your location reveals 2 blessed tokens you exhaust the Blessing and return them, if someone anywhere needs a part but not all the blessed tokens revealed you exhaust the Covenant and put back in the bag what you don't need ... and for all the other situations Nephthys can hold them until you decide if you need to spend them or if you want to put them back in the bag.<br>Nephthys not exhausting to seal the the tokens is amazing ! — AlexP · 284 3/30/21

Garrote Wire

Oh I get it! It takes up an accessory slot because it goes around the neck. I see what you did there FFG. Need 200 characters I'll just talk about my day until there. Started off sleepy but got coffee

1/23/21

jdk5143 · 98

Why does it take up my relic slot? I usually have other ppl „wear“ it. — Django · 5155 1/23/21

I just like that a common target for this weapon would be Swarm Of Rats, which only raises further questions. — HanoverFist · 748 1/27/21

You're using the wire to build a better mousetrap, clearly. — suika · 9511 1/28/21

It's probably just because it would be OP if it were slotless, but would be hard to include in a deck if it took up the hand slot — Zinjanthropus · 230 1/30/21

Smuggled Goods

This is an insane card. Tutor for 0 resource is obviously. Comes along well with Finn's other signature Finn's Trusty .38, which will often be your first target. Very soon, you are likely to search your deck for Lockpicks, maybe other/heavier weapons.

I really like to put it back in deck, delay your weakness(es), get a chance to use it again. Very versatile card, it can be used as a tutor, refill for weapons or Lockpicks, shuffle if you know that your weakness is on top, and even you had 0 Illicit card in your deck, still a ? Symbol -which will almost never happen cause of Finn's Trusty .38.

I like to play a heavy-drawer Finn and the ability to put this back in the deck is a good way to avoid reshuffling it. Helps me to: -Avoid the horror, sometimes a critical issue for Finn. -Bury my weaknesses. -Keep my discard pile for Scavenging By the way Caught Red-Handed can most of the time achieve the same purpose.

According to the wording, I guess that you can search your deck, even if you don't have an Illicit card in it and then put back Smuggled Goods in it. Can you though, search an empty deck ?

1/21/21

LeFricC'estChic · 86

You dont affect weakness occurrence at all mathematically. You only shuffle this in your deck if you searched your deck, and if you’re using an action just to place a card in your deck (not taking a card from it with the search effect), then you’re making a very minimal impact on fattening your deck at the cost of an action, which is definitely not worth it. If you dont have anything to grab, just commit it. — StyxTBeuford · 13049 1/21/21

If you are instructed to "search" an empty deck, this has no impact on the game state. Additionally, a card effect cannot shuffle a single card into an empty player deck. And you aren't allowed to attempt an action that has no potential to impact the game state. So I don't think you could play it if your deck was empty and your discard pile had no Illicit cards. But, in the absence of "must", you are not compelled (when resolving a choice) to pick an option that can impact the game state, so I suppose if you did have an Illicit card in discard you would be allowed to play this and choose to search your empty deck instead. — Yenreb · 15 1/21/21

It's alright on it's own, but when you can avoid the action cost with Fence, it's a lot better. Fence is also illicit, so can be tutored by it. — Zinjanthropus · 230 1/22/21

This card is one of the reasons I feel Backpack is a star in a Finn deck- even moreso than Trenchcoat (or in addition to it)... he's got plenty of reasons to go asset-and-supply heavy, his other signature is ALSO Backpackable, and they can dig this up for further tutoring or discard-recovery. — HanoverFist · 748 1/26/21

I never noticed that this has the trait Supply and could be tutored with Backpack. Fantastic synergy. — The Lynx · 993 1/27/21

Yep, you could find Smuggled Goods or Contraband with a backpack, in addition to the obvious E-Cache — Zinjanthropus · 230 1/30/21

@StyXBeufor I get your point. Actually, I meant it is useful when your weakness(es) are in your discard pile, so you don't get those back into your deck. You stop drawing aggressively when your deck is thin and whenever you play it without illicit cards, it delays the discard-reshuffle by a turn (as drawing Caught red-handed without a target). It is definitely not worth it on a short scenario, but in the long run it could have some worth. Anyway, there are not that many cards that give you the option to fatten your deck in this game, I mostly wanted to point that out. — LeFricC'estChic · 86 5/20/21

Nephthys

Dealing 2 damage (to an elite or foe engaged with ally) as a free action is very powerful!

I'm looking at this as a fun new ally for Leo Anderson to build around! Earlier Leo got Priest of Two Faiths to add free tokens. With [Tempt Fate] you can add a lot of tokens quickly.

Confused on this wording: "Either release 3 tokens sealed on her, or return 3 tokens sealed on her to the token pool..."

Unclear why someone would not always want them to release them back into the chaos bag. This cycles the tokens so you can seal them back on her later.

1/21/21

Calprinicus · 6343

"Confused on this wording:..." Either you release the token to the chaos bag, or you return them to deal 2 damage. — madcircus · 183 1/21/21

They are two separate actions you can perform. You can exhaust her to just release 3 and add them to the bag, or you can send 3 from her to the token pool to deal damage. This essentially means you get twice as much use out of every bless token, if you choose to return them to the bag each time. — Jaysaber · 7 2/15/21

Garrote Wire

Great item overall, but notably lacks the ability to finish off a foe you've spent your turn weakening. After looking through the windows for fast actions there's one before each of your actions during your turn, assuming I'm reading it right, but there isn't a window AFTER your last action.

Since the Garrote Wire can only be used during your turn, if you spend your entire turn chasing down a monster and manage to bring it down to one life, you can awkwardly have your turn end with a piano wire all ready to use and a nightgaunt all ready to be choked out without the opportunity to ever use it.

It still gets plenty of mileage for sure, but due to timing it has felt pretty awkward to use sometimes.

1/21/21

Vultureneck · 74

When you use your last action, the game still returns to the player window immediately preceding 2.2.1. Your turn only ends when you encounter 2.2.1 and *don't* take an action, or when a card effect says it does. — Thatwasademo · 58 1/21/21

In other words, there absolutely is a player window between your last action and the end of the turn, and "Framework Event Details" in Appendix II is pretty clear about this. — Thatwasademo · 58 1/21/21

"After an investigator takes an action, return to the previous player window. An investigator may end his or her turn early if there are no other actions he or she wishes to perform. If the investigator does not or cannot take an action, proceed to 2.2.2." — Thatwasademo · 58 1/21/21

What demo said. You can absolutely use this after your last action. — StyxTBeuford · 13049 1/21/21

Heh heh, I've used this in two campaigns and, I think, never noticed the "during your turn" restriction. Oops - I'm pretty sure I killed off many enemies in the enemy phase. — acotgreave · 887 1/21/21

Well am I glad to have that cleared up, the last two campaigns I've played we had it ruled where you couldn't play this or "Knowledge is Power" as your last action, it felt clunky and unnatural but as far as we could tell was the correct ruling. Thanks for clearing this up. — Vultureneck · 74 1/22/21

@Vultureneck you should edit the review not to mislead people with an incorrect rules interpretation — jd9000 · 76 4/14/21