Hastur

I am always stumped when I see this card, because as much as this cycle toys around with the players, suddenly inverting difficulty levels at the very end of the campaign seems to be mean just for the sake of being mean. Players who choose the Easy difficulty setting may cruise through the campaign only to suddenly have to deal with 10 Autofails in a bag which is quite possibly an absolute showstopper. Harsh.

ratnip · 68
I guess... make sure you have sanity remaining? I agree, I also dislike this version. — cb42 · 38
I’m fine with it. The entire scenario is designed to be mean to you when you have no sanity remaining, it doesn’t hit that hard, has Combat 3, and there are other ways to damage it besides attacking. — Death by Chocolate · 1490
If you are playing on easy and are still unable to beat the Carcosa campaign maybe it's time to reconsider your deck building discussions instead of blaming the designers! :) — Alogon · 1145
*deck building decisions — Alogon · 1145
I managed to kill him with my timeworn brand+reliable Leo in 7 rounds, while the others evaded him. — elenneth89 · 84
Just faced off with this punk last night, until 6am in the morning, 2nd blind playthrough of Carcosa. My first attempt was solo Chen Li which ended up incarcerated for those who know... My second attempt was 2 handed Winifred and Jenny with both being able to fight. He sucked down 2 initial Dynamite sticks from Jenny, then a full clip of Wini's Beretta M1918, in full sniper mode, and was finished off at 20 damage taken. To those saying it's extremely harsh on your sanity, I started this scenario with 6 out of 7 sanity, but was prepared to drink the Liquor like ladies do, and packed a bunch of soak and resiliency through Previous momento on Wini, Lonnie healing horror, and actually ended this Hamburger with zero sanity damage on the board, completely cleared all sanity damage. It's possible, it got close on beginning, but so where many of my scenarios through Carcosa, hanging on by a razor's edge. Gotta say, amazing campaign, beautiful design, still heaps of replayability, for sure. — Quantallar · 8
Honestly, I think the autofail mechanic is fine. With how the map is structured, it's pretty easy to just stay away from him and thus avoid attacks. Imo this is the least problematic version of Hastur, i'd much rather deal with this one than the King in Yellow variant — SmileyVandal · 40
Olive McBride

The artwork of this card is sooo cool. And here you are an interesting tip: the woman painted on this card is a real ffg employee. Does anyone know any other card with such background? Let's gather collection!

s5una · 2
Anyone know how does Olive interacts with the dynamic of blessed/cursed tokens? She reveals just 3 tokens anyway or (if it's the case) she has to draw more and at the end just choose 2 of them? — tom · 14
Premonition

I've been using this card with Daisy Walker rather than with one of the main Mystics which makes this perspective slightly different. The short version is that I really like the card, though I appreciate that it's not awesome.

So let's start with the basics. I think the icons are better for Daisy Walker than they are for the Mystics, particularly the Agility, so that's something. It's also important to point out that it's both fast and so it doesn't cost you an action as well as it costs 0 resources. This means that the only cost to it is the slot is takes up. The ability to play it at pretty much any point in the game regardless of location or turn order really increases the odds you can use it at a good time.

Now for the more complex stuff. There's lots of times you can use this, but the times that provide a good benefit are much fewer. Reacting to things like nasty encounters haven't turned out well for my group. Typically we've drawn a terrible token and so there's little else to do than suck it up - no amount of committing will help. In fact various of the uses of the card are for nought when you draw a bad token - all that happens is you know the inevitable and so either just fail or end up wasting an action.

There are times when you find out how much you need to commit (or not) and those are nice, but they're often pretty niche. On the one hand you might be really likely to fail so there's a question about why you're doing it anyway and typically you'll just find out that up you're going to fail. In another case you might be pretty likely to succeed and so you just confirm that that works too with no real value. The ideal situation is that it's a challenging but not insurmountable test for which you have enough cards to commit but would ideally save them if you can. However, you must consider that you're spending a card to save cards so you'll need to save at least two cards to make it worthwhile. Hmm. that's a pretty niche case in my opinion. I suppose you might find out how much to boost with something like Higher Education though.

So where does this leave us? Well, it really starts to improve when:

  • you have charges on things that you want to avoid wasting
  • you're using cards you want to make sure you get the positive effect from (e.g. extra clues or damage)
  • when you're about to perform actions where certain tokens cause drawbacks.

When reading the other review here I saw that this perhaps has a lot more use in a Mystic deck than with Daisy Walker. This is because most spells fit two of these criteria. With Daisy Walker you're generally just smashing out clues so it has less use, but we have been using it with Old Hunting Rifle on another investigator nicely. Some uses are random chances - using it essentially unnecessarily before Archaic Glyphs meant I avoided an autofail that would waste a token - and those are nice but not exactly strong. You can get some utility by using it early on as well - ideally before anyone has started their turn - and essentially help plan your turn. If you get something cool you or someone else can do good stuff, but generally you learn "yup you will fail the test" and so plan around that accordingly.

As I said at the beginning, I like this card and it's fun, but in my opinion its use cases are more situational than I at first thought. It's almost useless for encounters as well as for many of the Big Moments that appear in this game. It's most useful things with limited uses such as spells, items and cards, and things you control that may have bad side-effects on certain pulls.

Octo · 104
Interesting review! I've been running it in a Sefina deck and I'd say it pulls its weight. In fact, I might say Sefina gets more out of it than anyone else who can take it. I've run it alongside Double or Nothing, which encourages you to invest heavily into one specific skill check. Premonition then guarantees that investment, which I think is pretty decent synergy. Sefina's ability means that if you have Premonition under her card , you can be sure you'll have it available when the time comes for the Double or Nothing check. You don't even have to wait for the perfect time to use it. If a good-but-not-great opportunity shows up, then you can play it via the Painted World and save the actual card for the monster check. I'd also quibble a bit that it does nothing for you if you end up drawing a token that would have passed, especially in a double or nothing build. When you're weighing up the idea of a giant monster check with Double or Nothing , Quick Thinking , Vicious Blow etc , you have to weigh the payoff against the consequences of failing and maybe that leads you to spread the various resources across a few checks where both the benefits and costs aren't quite so huge. But having Premonition ready changes that risk-reward calculation quite a bit and I'd say that's a meaningful effect. — bee123 · 31
In my opinion this is almost entirely a multiplayer card, and best played in the window at the start of the investigation phase, before anyone has yet taken their turn. Seeing what token will come up for the first test this round lets you decide whether the first turn should go to someone who can pull off something huge and now be certain that that huge thing will succeed, or to whoever can overcome a huge penalty with the least effort, or to whoever can afford to burn an action on an autofailed test. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
"I've been running it in a Sefina deck and I'd say it pulls its weight." — Octo · 104
Oh... that didn't do what I expected .... can't undo it either. Anyway, yeah, sounds like it's ticking a lot more of the boxes in a Sefina deck - both the Rogue super combos and the precious Mystic spell resources. — Octo · 104
There's actually a player window before every taken action, so it doesn't have to be the first action of the first investigator. — Nils · 1
Yes, but before the first turn allows you to look at the token and decide whose turn it'll be. — Ektheleon · 223
My buddy runs this, while i play Keen Eye Leo Big Actions. Knowing what I'm going to draw opens up so much rediculous actions with double or nothing. — CecilAlucardX · 10
What would happen if you used Olive McBride to seal multiple tokens here, then used her ability again (after readying her somehow) when resolving those tokens? — Runic · 1
Pnakotic Manuscripts

It felt like the community went pretty bonkers over this card when it came out. I've been using it most of the way through Carcosa so here's my thoughts.

It costs a lot of XP and a lot of money, and you'll maybe want two copies to make sure you get actually it at a useful time. You might feel it needs even more support too in the way of cards to add more secrets on to it, so that's even more slots/resources/xp ploughed into it. This adds up to a lot so it better be pretty damn good.

Basically, it's not been as good as I hoped.

Maybe it's the investigator party mix that's the issue, but I'm Daisy Walker which seems like the intended user. Maybe it's that running it in Carcosa isn't so good. Maybe running it with only two investigators is the problem due to not always being at the same place as another investigator. Who knows?

What tends to happen is that first it requires a lot of saving up if I don't have Dr. Milan Christopher out, which is already annoying. Then I get it on the table and then it sits there waiting for a good opportunity that only seldom comes. The reaction to encounters seems great, but then there's lots of reason it's not useful:

  • you pull an enemy. It can't help with that
  • you need to test a stat that is too low and you can't boost so it will fail anyway e.g. agility
  • there's no skill test involved in the encounter
  • you're not at the same location as your team mate so can't help them out
  • your team mates encounter is a Peril
  • the downside of the encounter is relatively harmless so there's no point wasting it e.g. adding some doom to an agenda that will advance next turn anyway or something

The secrets can sit on the card unused for a while. I find similar things can happen with cards like Ward of Protection and Forewarned which I have also been using, where using the card is just as bad as the potential penalty from the encounter, or it's an enemy so you can't use it - these cards are great and powerful but sometimes can wait a long time for the right opportunity. Pnakotic Manuscripts has been falling into the same category for me.

The other ability this card has does have it uses and has been used to good effect, but the times where you would like to use it are often problematic:

  • you need a clutch evade as Daisy Walker, however you'll take an attack of opportunity using it which can be really damaging and exactly what you're trying to avoid. Also her agility is so low that it often wouldn't help anyway.
  • you want to help a team mate do something important/difficult/awesome, but you can only help on the first pull and they need to do something else first
  • your team mate needs to do something important/difficult/awesome, but they need to take their turn before you do so you can't help them out
  • your team mate needs to hack away at an enemy and you can only help them out on the first chop. This one is of course still good, but with a big monster you need consistency
  • your team mate needs to do something important/difficult/awesome but they're not in the same place as you and you really need to work the setup to make it click

Now, it is good when combo'd with risky things like the Old Hunting Rifle. It's great for that stuff for sure; however, we've been managing the campaign pretty fine without using that card for a while now. I haven't tried it with things like Lightning Gun etc., but it's probably less great for them as you get so much combat boost that's it's often not really necessary. From reading around it has potential for those all-or-nothing plays that Rogue decks sometimes have and that's probably got some legs. However, in that use case you're waiting for even more stars to align than just everyday usage which is already a bit problematic so you may only get that working a couple times in the whole campaign.

So yeah, in my opinion based on current plays it's basically a lot more situational than it appears. This doesn't make it terrible, but costing 5XP and 5 resources is a very high price to pay for it and I'm not entirely convinced it's worth it.

PS: not sure if anyone else felt like this, but this card also weirdly makes the game less fun too, which is not something I expected. If you remove key pulls from the bag from big moments in the game you have these super plays that have no risk. As a result they can be less exciting; Arkham is all about that chaos bag.

Octo · 104
I had almost the same experience with this card and agree: this card isn't good. It is only useful for big multiplayer combos like an attack using double or nothing. "Mind over matter" can help you pass agility tests and "Premonition" can help you to pull those muliplayer combos...at 0 XP, without having to pay 5 resources and at fast speed. — Alogon · 1145
Could be really great in a Rex Murphy Burglary/Scavenging deck with Dr. Milan and Crack the Case, he could have the economy to play it again and again — mogwen · 254
The expense wasn't a problem so long as I had Dr. Milan out. My experience was not that it was unaffordable, but that it in the end wasn't that useful. — Octo · 104
YMMV, but the Daisy in my playgroup, which was 3-4 people, ran this during our run of Forgotten Age, and he got it most games after he bought it. I don't think he emptied it all the time, rather, he used it to make sure people passed tests that were close and that they needed to pass, or where there was a price you had to pay to take them. It worked like a Will to Survive, but more spread out. Was it The Best Thing Ever? No. Were we very glad to have it? Yes. Yes we were. — Schielman · 38
Could help lower the risk of a big Deciphered Reality power play. Not sure if that's a good thing to be building your deck around, mind you. — Zinjanthropus · 231
This is a fine exp sink in a deck featuring Dr. Elli Horowitz, although it's a feel bad if you draw it instead of having Elli pay for it. I feel like it's it's a more natural Ursula card than a Daisy card for that reason. I found myself using the reaction ability without ever really considering the action ability, so Daisy's free action wasn't something I missed here. — BoozySquid · 8
Ornate Bow

Interesting that the only review of this card in arkhamdb is so negative. The Bow seems to be great for any investigator with a high base agility and access to rougue cards though. The main points of criticism of the bow are:

  • Its action intensiveness.

With Leo De Luca the load-action drawback is mostly mitigated and even without him the bow is still usable. If you really need to be dealing damage you can use ally searchers like Calling in Favors or Flare to maximise your damage output with Leo, an ally which is always good to have anyways. Finding your self engaged with a 4 or even 5 health enemy doesn't always mean you have to use more than 1 arrow on it because you should also be running some event monster-removal cards (like Sneak Attack, Waylay, Coup de Grâce, etc) to support the bow or in case you don't draw the bow from the beginning of the game. And Hatchet Man is also a thing by the way.

  • Its use of 2 hand-slots.

The only true important asset you may not be able to play while using the bow are the Lockpicks. This is only impactful if you are the main or only cluegatherer and there are many clues for you to pick. If these is the case ofcourse you can skip the bow. On the other side, If your team needs you to deal damage or in true solo (where there are fewer clues to pick) investigators like Jenny Barnes, Finn Edwards and even Wendy Adams can easily get away with not using lockpicks because they have many other ways to boost their intellect and get clues like for exmaple Streetwise, Dr. Milan Christopher, St. Hubert's Key (in case of Jenny Barnes), Lola Santiago, "Look what I found!", etc. So in conclusion, the importance of those hand-slots is relativ to the the amount of cluegathring you will be doing and based on that you make the decision to get the bow or not.

The strenghts of the bow on the other hand outweight it's drawbacks.

  1. It's very reliable.

The fact that rougues and rougish characters like Wendy come with a base agility of 4 and the ease with which they can boost that agility make the bow super effective. Staple cards like Streetwise, Lola Santiago or Peter Sylvestre boost agility and don't even represent an opportunity cost because you will be gettingt them anyways. The new Track Shoes and The Moon • XVIII can further increase your agility menaing you can consistently loose your arrows like Legolas with 9+ agility. Considering this and taking into account how ineffective it is to boost combat with rougue and/or survivor cards (I am looking at you Hired Muscle) means that the bow is for the moment more efficient than the Chicago Typewriter. I personally prefer to shoot 2 times per round with 9-12 skillvalue than shoot 4 times per round but with only 5-6 skillvalue...

  1. It has infinite ammo.

This is also important to consider when comparing the bow to other weapons with ammo. With the bow you just drop it and forget about it for the rest of the game. No last bullet anxiety or need to bring expensive support cards like Contraband.

  1. It deals 3 damage.

This is very relevant because the new base health of enemies is 3. Been able to oneshot those pesky swarmy 3 health enemies feels good and because they now usually have hunter it's even more fficient than just evading them. Piercing the hearth of those annoying snake-people and 3 health cultist with an arrow is priceless.

  1. It only cost 3 XP.

Besides the bow only the Old Hunting Rifle and under certain conditions Lupara can deal 3 damage with one shot. I won't discuss here why the bow is superior to these two but limit myself to mention that as a rougue you can get the bow relatively early in the campaign supported by other staple cards that you normally get early. This means you will reach your max. damage output way earlier than guardians, which have to expend allot more XP for their big game weapons and support cards.

  1. It is flexible.

Because you are so invested in agility you can always decide to evade instead of attack. Using the bow doesn't prevents you to play an evade heavy strategy with the added benefit that when an enemy that must be killed in order to get some juicy Xp or advance the story appears, you alway have the damage to take him down.

That's it from my side. If you agree/disagree leave a comment.

Alogon · 1145
Skids O'Toole can use Bandolier and Bandolier(2) to help with the hand slots, could keep running lockpicks! — mogwen · 254
Nice review! Talking about Combos: As a relic, Dr. Elli Horrowitz can carry it for you, freeing your hand slots. Venturer can reload the bow and E.Cache 3 can add up to 4 charges to him. — Django · 5171
@mogwen sure thing. A Skids build with the bow (specially in truesolo) could be very powerful. — Alogon · 1145
Thanx @Django. Those combos you mention with Dr. Elli Horrowitz and Venturer are also much loved by bow wielders. — Alogon · 1145
I once played a Wendy Bow deck solo and worked magnificently. I was managing clues with Treasure Hunter and Skeleton Key. I'd love to try it again! :) — matt88 · 3229
Yeah I think that works too. They will be printing a new ghost survivor ally called Guiding Spirit wich also provides an intellect boost and may be better than Treasure Hunter for Wendy — Alogon · 1145
One thing about the bow too. It plays very differently from a gun, from a gameplay-routine point if view. — Tsuruki23 · 2588
@Alogon Yeah, that was my first thought when I saw the Guiding Spirit. I'm already trying to make a transition into it! :) — matt88 · 3229
I think the Dr. Elli interaction is cute but not that great. You cannot rely on her finding the bow, so you have to build around having your hand slots fully occupied by it - at which point your deck won't be able to take advantage of the Elli freeing up the slots when she does happen to find it. Much rather have a Peter Sylvestre or even a Cat Burglar. — Blackhaven · 9