Fine Clothes

Fine Clothes

I can't offer a purely statistical justification for this card. It's hard to make a case for it in a generic deck. And yet... it will win you scenarios. It is the Robert Horry of cards -- mediocre numbers, magical late-game performance. I am almost positive that there will be a time in your campaign, if you start with this card, when you will fall in love with it. Recruiting Randolph Carter, coaxing Peter Clover out of the club, mollifying the suspicious Josef Meiger -- these are the tests that having you digging around for five minutes in the chaos bag because you're so terrified about what you might pull out. Maybe there are monsters bearing down on you. Maybe the chaos clock is about to strike 12. Maybe your interlocutor is programmed to jump you if you fail the check. You just know you can't fail. And if you have your Fine Clothes on, you probably won't. It seems like an absurdly situational card, because the tests it deals with (for the most part) are located on unique enemies or locations or other scenario cards -- the sorts of things you don't think much about when designing a general, all-purpose deck. Nevertheless, Parley actions are actually reasonably common, as previous reviewers have pointed out, and when they show up, you often HAVE to pass them to proceed. It's not like cluevering or dealing with monsters, where you often have a range of options. Partly for this reason, Parley actions tend to be some of the most consequential in the game. And their corresponding skill checks -- nasty indeed! All the more so because you tend to make them late in scenarios, when the ugly tokens (I'm looking at you, skull!) have gotten even uglier. Who cares if Fine Clothes does nothing but soak a bit of damage for three scenarios in a row? In the fourth, it's going to be the difference between ekeing out a win that you replay in your head for days, or pulling the -3 and staring at in your palm for days.

Mordenlordgrandison · 476
I think including Fine Clothes as a one of in any solo deck is usually a good call. In fact at any player count if you can draw/search your deck well enough, Fine Clothes becomes an amazing card. Essential for toolbox decks imo because yeah, Parleys are common enough. I find myself taking this more and Leather Coat less these days. — StyxTBeuford · 13090
I don't think there's a more perfect card for Adaptable in the game :) — bee123 · 31
I always put it in my solo decks that avoid fighting. A successful parley often sends the enemy straight to the victory display — Skrattmas · 9

Custom Ammunition

Custom Ammunition

Feels like this is a card for Zoe! Flamethrower is best suited for her, as she wants enemies to be engaged with her. And flamethrower with custom ammo can do up to 30 damage total in a monster heavy scenario. That's 2 more than extra ammo can give you. It's not cheap for guardians, who a always low on cash. Fast is really needed here. Zoe in a tough scenario can engage a lot of enemies, get resourses, and pay for custom ammo without AoO. With that tactic you'd need something like Narrow Escape, which she could take.

ambiryan13 · 179
You are wrong im afraid. With Flamethrower though you can damage many monsters you are only attacking one, the one with the highest fight value. If the enemy with the highest fight value is a monster then you deal 5 damage which you can distribute across enemies engaged with you, otherwise you deal 4. I still think this goes great on flamethrower however. — NarkasisBroon · 14
Very well, custom ammo still comes out on top in terms of math in a monster heavy scenario vs extra ammo. 6 attack with 5 damage minus 7 with 4 damage = 2 damage left. I feel like Zoe has extra XP and resoureses to "fuel" that card. Other guardians have different classes to upgrade — ambiryan13 · 179
(Mark might take it as well) — ambiryan13 · 179
Hello. I'll be adding this to my Zoey deck with two well maintained https://arkhamdb.com/card/05152. Combined with stick to tha plan with one (or maybe two) Act of Desperation https://arkhamdb.com/card/05037 with contraband I am hoping her BAR will keep bouncing.... — gitty · 13

"Fool me once..."

"Fool me once..."

The Guardian's answer to Ward of Protection. While this doesn't cancel the effect of the card drawn by the playing investigator, the ability to block the next copy can be very valuable, especially for treacheries that stack and build up or draw out a scenario enemy (such as Daemonic Piping) or generally annoying treacheries like Ancient Evils. In a 3 or 4 player group where you are cycling through the encounter deck fairly quickly, this is a strong addition for those who can take, and all for only 1 XP!

c-hung · 15
Daemonic Piping is actually a bad example here, since the treachery has to be discarded first. By the time Piper of Azathoth is discarded, it's generally already gone and summoned the Piper. — Abodmuthkat · 182
That said, an interesting note here is that the cancellation effect is optional. So if you did manage to discard it (maybe with Alter Fate), you can choose to keep it trapped instead of cancelling other copies of it. — Abodmuthkat · 182
Except Daemonic Piping would still be in play, and thus trigger the summoning if all three go up. That said, Terror in the Night is countered by this. — Abodmuthkat · 182
Ah, good catch. OK, so maybe can't tie up every treachery card, but still very handy to have to block a number of annoying treacheries at low cost. — c-hung · 15
Could Diana counter a treachery with ward of protection and then use this card to counter later versions of it? — crayne · 4
Only if you resolved any of its effects (which could include Surge I believe), otherwise no. So Warding an Ancient Evils doesn't let you FMO the next one. Personally I have a really low opinion on this card because of how reliant it is on being drawn early and how many high impact treacheries don't discard initially or at all in some cases, especially in TCU. — StyxTBeuford · 13090
Like Terrot in the Night could be countered by this, sure, but that's only relevant in terms of reshuffles anyway- if you passed one Terror in the Night test to even trigger FMO in the first place, you're fairly unlikely to have to worry about all 3 copies ever being in play at once, so FMO's very unlikely to have any effect at all. — StyxTBeuford · 13090
It seems like a super niche card, for sure. Can it counter weaknesses? If so, Lola might have some use for it, maybe. Or in some campaigns, where everyone gains a copy of the same weakness at some point? Other than that , maybe it's a card for 'treacheries-drawn-in-weird-circumstances". Like you could use it to put a stop to "draw the top omen in the discard pile". Or for exploration treacheries? Like it seems like a decent answer to that one endlessly annoying card for the Boundary Beyond. Other than that, it seems expensive in xp and deck-slots for the amount of conditions you have to meet to use it effectively. — bee123 · 31
It does work on weaknesses, so a Mr. Rook deck could use it to kill a weakness permanently for deckcycling. Funny enough this works with Dirge of Reason but not with Cover Up, so the version of Roland you use matters. — StyxTBeuford · 13090
I agree Explore makes sense to use this on. Timeline Destabilization seems like a bad target though since failing it doesnt cause it to discard. Works well with Window to Another Time however. — StyxTBeuford · 13090
Yeah, that discard condition is far more obnoxious than it seems. So many important treacheries don't discard, and a lot of weaknesses don't either. But yeah, it seems like a Circle Undone card with the stacking treacheries but I think TFA is its campaign if anything is. Exploration, the poison treacheries, some City of archives stuff too, but even then it can't get at other people's peril cards , can it? It's sooooo situational :( — bee123 · 31
Yeah it only attaches on something you draw. Then it becomes useful towards anyone else drawing it, but that initial condition and timing is harsher than I think people seem to think it is. — StyxTBeuford · 13090
I use this card with Diana and believe that " resolving any of its effects" includes no effect after being cancelled by ward of protection. This works well with daemonic piping also as you would discard it once the revelation effect is cancelled by a ward. — Head Rat · 1
Surge applies after the card's revelation effect and the card is discarded (unless otherwise stated), so if you cancel the revelation effect then when you discard the card you haven't resolved any of its effects yet. Then surge applies. — Yenreb · 15
I used this in a Diana deck in the back stretch of a 4-player Carcosa campaign followed by Blob, not expecting much out of it, and was pleasantly surprised. Assuming we correctly interpreted the card interactions btwn this + Diana's face ability + her dagger, it was a nice little engine in the tail end of our run. To me, it seems like this is a decent pick for Diana later if you have covered more important XP cards and have extra XP to burn. — KillerShrike · 1
I’m — Phoenixbadger · 206
Oops. I’m Phoenixbadger. But also i’m running Diana through TFA with Finn, he’s pretty rubbish at lots of encounters, so I’ve picked it straight away along with 2xp ward of protection, so maximum opportunities to cancel. In fact you can (I think) cancel a really horrible surge card revelation effect with Ward, but use “fool me once” because “surge” is one of the effects. — Phoenixbadger · 206

Brute Force

Brute Force

put this card in "Ashcan" Pete's deck

combo with duke ability

basically a super version of vicious blow (2)

more icon and more space for other class card

just one exp

so fucing op

now we dont have to chose between Inspiring Presence and vicious blow

icanflysohigh · 1
This doesn't combo with Duke. A basic fight action is a fight action you take without activating any card. Activating Duke's ability is activating a card. — Yenreb · 15
Yeah, a basic fight action would be Ashcan fighting at base combat 2 (plus other constant boosts like Jessica Hyde if he has any). Using a weapon or any asset (including Duke) or event with the Fight keyword is no longer a basic fight action. Therefore Brute Force is a pretty bad Ashcan card. Silas and Tony on the other hand love it. — StyxTBeuford · 13090
but duke ability is only changing your base value,doesent that mean you are still perform a basic fight? — icanflysohigh · 1
No, it's a basic action only if you're not using another card to initiate it. Like a basic investigate action: Using Flashlight would not count as a basic investigate action. — StyxTBeuford · 13090
why duke ability isnt +2 attack and +1 damage ? — icanflysohigh · 1
like normal asset? — icanflysohigh · 1
When you use Duke you are using the action abilities on him. He has an Investigate action and a Fight action. Because these are actions written on a card, they are not basic. It's only basic if you initiate it yourself, aka without using a card action. — StyxTBeuford · 13090
@icanflysohigh Because Duke isn't a weapon Pete is using to enhance his abilities (bonus to base stat). Duke is doing the fighting himself (separate base stat). If you boost Pete's base stats directly (e.g. The Red Gloved Man, Trial by Fire) Duke's fighting ability doesn't change. — Yenreb · 15
This is basically a get out of jail card if you ,run out of baseball bats or lanterns to chuck and the monster still has one or two damage points left. Fisticuffs as the title suggests. — bern1106 · 2

Sefina Rousseau

Sefina Rousseau

If anyone is looking for a bigger version of Sefinas picture in 1024x1024.

www.deviantart.com

Very clever, having a painter draw a painter. Maybe she's also...

crayne · 4