Through the Gates · ArkhamDB

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On paper, this weakness doesn't seem that bad. It's easy to picture scenarios where you draw something like Emergency Cache, some skill card, or end up having to toss an asset in play that's out of ammo or charges. Sure, it's too bad if you end up losing that second copy of .45 Automatic or whatever, but for all intents and purposes, that card might have been on the bottom of your deck and you weren't going to draw it anyway. And heck, maybe the second copy is already in your discard pile - no biggie, right? Or maybe you don't even have a second copy of the drawn card! Then all you've lost is a single card draw - far from the end of the world.

And yeah, you will encounter those types of low impact situations with this card from time to time - which can make it feel pretty mild.

However, when this card hurts, it really hurts. It's particularly brutal if it causes you to lose your only weapon in play, or some other asset you are heavily relying on. If you are playing solo, then - depending on your investigator - you can find yourself suddenly defenseless with essentially no recourse other than to resign. There's the potential for some real feel-bad moments when you end up losing a fully powered Hawk-Eye Folding Camera, or an Investments that you've been juicing since the start of the scenario. And there's nothing quite like having your big gun disintegrated right before a boss fight to really elicit some choice swear words.

Having played with this card a few times now, I have to give it a lot more respect than I did initially. It's a lot of fun (in the way that only cruel cards can be) and is probably one of my favorite weaknesses, just because you never really know how much of a disaster it's going to be until you see what's sitting underneath it.

2/12/20

bricklebrite · 502

Maybe consider running singletons of your super weapons if this is your basic weakness. There are enough high power lvl 4-5 guardian weapons that you can easily diversify if you know this is in your deck. Other staple cards are harder to justify playing around this card, but it is doable with the current card pool this deep. — Death by Chocolate · 1440 2/13/20

i would think it's especially bad if you lose a one-of-a-kind card that's a core part of your strategy. something like Peter Sylvestre or Lola Santiago — Zinjanthropus · 227 6/17/20

Yes, it is very swingy. A friend of mine (first time player) was playing a 19 XP deck, draw this one as one of his weaknesses, and had both 5 XP Shrivelling removed by it. So he was basically playing a 9 XP deck with one extra RBW. This was quite harsh. — Susumu · 363 8/27/20

Forgot to mention: this was a stand-alone, Carnevale to be precise. — Susumu · 363 8/27/20

I guess in a Mandy Thompson's deck, that weakness becomes a very powerful card. If we draw Through the Gates (with Mr. "Rook", for example), we'll trigger a search in ALL THE DECK, but that "search" will be canceled if we have Shocking Discovery in the deck. So... we'll have removed two weaknesses at the price of one card from the deck and one card from the encounter deck. I really think it's worth it.

5/11/20

Flazzy · 5

This weakness has a lucky interaction with Lily Chen, who sports up to 4 copies of Burden of Destiny. When Through the Gates draws one of the Burdens of Destiny cards, resolve the Burden. Then Through the Gates' 'if' phrase has been "successfully resolved in full", so the last sentence kicks in, and all other copies of Burden of Destiny get removed for the game! Cull 5 weaknesses from your deck for the price of 1!

3/23/22

MrWeasely · 42

Similarly, it prunes Bloodlust from a The Hungering Blade deck, but that's maybe not a good thing in your book. — MrWeasely · 42 3/23/22

But Burden of Destiny is a weakness, so the 'if' phrase isn't resolved in full (it's not even resolved at all), which doesn't trigger the 'then' clause? — toastsushi · 74 3/23/22

Yeah, doesn't work — MrGoldbee · 1444 3/23/22

What part isn't resolved? You draw the second weakness. Some cards get special "if" treamtent. Others proceed on to resolution effects from being drawn. Nothing is cancelled. In both cases, all instructions have been resolved. — MrWeasely · 42 3/23/22

"If it is not a weakness, remove that card from the game" was not fully resolved. A card wasn't removed from the game, so that portion of the pre-then ability did not fully resolve. — PaxCecilia · 411 3/23/22

in general, a card preventing its own effect with an "if" clause doesn't count as that effect successfully resolving in this game — Thatwasademo · 58 3/23/22

this card's wording actually hints toward that, somewhat, since it says to remove the other copies "as well" — Thatwasademo · 58 3/23/22

I think it's more clear for you to check Kidnapped! encounter card. Kidnapped! has similar structure of a sentence (if ~~, do ~~~. Then, do ~~~). — elkeinkrad · 485 3/23/22

Notice that even if no "then" exists, it's arguable to perform second effect. Strange Solution (unidentified) is good example. It states "Test [intellect] (4). If you succeed, ~~~. Record in ~~~." Could I record in my campaign log even if I failed the skill test? In my opinion, nobody knows. — elkeinkrad · 485 3/23/22

@MrWeasely The 'then' here refers to the previous clause, not the full sentence. By your logic, if I have Recall The Future in play, I should always name a chaos token that isn't in the bag because then it will never exhaust but I will always get +2 on every skill test! — Death by Chocolate · 1440 3/23/22

and Three Aces would draw three cards and give me three resources even if I only committed one (and failed!) — Death by Chocolate · 1440 3/23/22

That's a very good discussion. I believe the key to interpret the weakness-situation are the last 2 words: "as well". You remove each other copy you found only if you have removed top card of your deck. Otherwise it would be the first removal, not a removal "as well". — Trady · 167 3/26/22

This card has three sentences. The first tells you to do a thing. The second tells you to do a thing. The third tells you to do a thing. Insisting that the third sentence pry into the internals of the second sentence, strip it of it's guard, and extract it without context is certainly a way to interpret it, but a simpler explanation of "resolve in full" is "do the first two sentences". Sentences are the building blocks of meaning, and short of pronouns or some other anaphor selecting the phrase buried in the bowels of the second sentence, I don't see why one would do that. — MrWeasely · 42 4/17/22

You can rules-lawyer this as much as you want, but we all know what the intention of the card is. The game designers clearly did not design this card as a means to remove additional weaknesses from the game, so it's probably best not to play it like that. — snacc · 980 4/20/22

It absolutely does not work as the MrWeasely interpreted it. You resolve the weakness step-by-step. Step 1 - draw a crad (if it is anoter weakness, resolve it's revelation effect). Step 2 - if it is not a weakness, remove a card from the game. Step 3 - "then" clause which triggers ONLY if the pre-then aspect is resolved in full. "Pre-then aspect" here is removing a card from the game and it could not resolve if you drew a weakness. — chrome · 56 9/6/22

Come on, guys... If the "then" does not convince you that the third phrase is a direct continuation of the second, observe that it ends with an "as well". Remove all other copies AS WELL. If it is a weakness, you don't remove the first copy nor any other. — RFreitas · 33 9/14/22

If I interpret this card correctly, it will have an interesting interaction with upcoming Dilemma cards. You draw the Dilemma and the Revelation effect of the Dilemma is triggered because they should be resolved immediately, what, I assume, is between these two sentences in the weakness wording: "Draw the top card of your deck" and "If it is not a weakness..." Thefore if you are a survivor who happened to get this weakness, dilemmas occur to be more appealing to you, as they won't be wasted by this weakness, especially if they are singletons (besides removing a posibility for you to use them from your discard).

9/6/22

chrome · 56

Yeah, that would work. You did specifically draw the card, which is all revelation text asks for. — Lailah · 1 11/15/22

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