Armageddon

So after finally doing a campaign with these in a team that was dedicated around bless/curse tokens, as well as seeing the new doom sidegrades like Ceremonial Sickle, I felt like it was worth evaluating this cycle of cards again as I think that merely saying "it's good with curses" doesn't really go far enough to describe. The Doom Charms are cards that also require some concessions in deckbuilding and playstyle, but even when you manage to really mitigate the downsides of putting doom in play, you end up with mediocre weapons that just don't really stack up vs the regular Spell assets like Shrivellingand Azure Flame. Their raw power just isn't very high to the point where even if you can manage the cost of having to figure out where all the doom is going to go, you still are left with cards that don't really pull their weight.

Armageddon (and Eye of Chaos) both have 3 big costs to them compared to the standard spell assets. Firstly, they're just less efficient than their base versions. Eye costs 1 more resource than Rite of Seeking, and Armageddon costs 1 more resource while also giving you one less charge than Shrivelling. Secondly, they require you to hit curse tokens to get any substantial benefits over the base versions. And lastly, the fact that you're hitting curses (and thus getting reductions in your skill value) has to be overcome in some way in order for you to still actually pass your test. Using these assets as an expensive way to hedge against unfortunate Curse pulls IMO just isn't really the best use of these cards, and if drawing curses are that big an issue for you and you're not going to invest in finding them consistently you should just have your party run less curses.

However, I think that of the 3 downsides, all of them can be reasonably mitigated with the right build. Firstly, the lowered base efficiency can be reasonably made up for if you consistently hit curses. If you hit a curse on even 2 tests I think you break even vs Shriveling as you can give yourself 5 total uses or potentially get a clutch extra damage that you can distribute among any enemies at your location, allowing you to either kill a 3 health enemy clean or deal 2 to one and finish off another. If you consistently hit curses, you can pull well ahead of the vanilla versions. Shriveling and Rite of Seeking will eventually run out of charges and force you to find and play another copy to get uses back, (or some other card that restocks the charges) but Armageddon and Eye of Chaos can easily last the whole scenario with no support outside of making sure you find curses, saving you resources in the end.

As for actually hitting curses, you have 2 fairly effective options. Favor of the Moon can give you a curse on demand, although only one a turn so it's somewhat limited but still extremely potent as it alone gives you 3 guaranteed hits. And secondly there's Olive McBride. Digging 3 deep for tokens gives you a pretty good chance of finding at least one curse if the bag is stuffed with them.

For actually passing tests that you reveal a bunch of curses, there's a couple massive bonuses. Firstly, there's the Blasphemous Covenant and False Covenant which both mitigate the negatives of them. But the really big bonus is the newly buffed Ritual Candles. This card is absolutely nuts with Curses and Blesses as it gives you the boost for each one you resolve. Even one of them can go a long way in more or less mitigating the fear of drawing curses, but if you can get 2 in play it completely cancels out the curse penalty making them all upside as you remove them from the bag. Unfortunately, Mystic as a whole isn't the best at finding non-spells consistently so if you don't find your candles early it can be a struggle to pass tests especially if you don't have any other sources of Willpower boosts, but if you can find them it's extremely strong.

So the sort of TL:DR is that if you can support Armageddon and the other Curse spells, they're not just fairly decent. They're absolutely fantastic and greatly reward you for building around them. This is sort of a thing that you unfortunately kind of have to build your entire team towards supporting, but it is fairly effective and fun to play with, and since you'll be pulling curses with Favor of the Moon and Olive, the curses will be in large part mitigated by you so it's not even that bad for your teammates.

Sylvee · 103
Note that you can ignore base costs of these spells with true magic. They don’t have negative effects on special tokens so even without curse synergy they have some uses. Also note that all the neutral brurse cards are fast, which can be quite the tempo boost — Django · 5142
I am working on a curse Agnes (probably in 2 weeks for my 20k Series), and my major issue with these is that it forces your team to commit to curse management. You cannot just decide on your own to use the curse tech without majorly impacting your teammates. And besides Mystics, there are very little interest for other classes to use curse in any way. So that is a bit a niche use for solo (single or 2 handed) or if everyone else is happy to use curse management AND lets you play the mystic suite (which is the only viable thing). — Valentin1331 · 77338
You kind of need your team mates to build around it anyway as Mystics don't have a ton of options to generate curses anyway. Although with your Agnes deck Spirit of Humanity will do that job. — Uberdolphin · 1
Astral Mirror

This card has the potential to do what Bob Jenkins does with its ability: having an extra action to play recycled-asset (Scavenging, Joey "The Rat" Vigil)

Another notable synergy is with The Chthonian Stone. Even if not cheap, it can be played without spending an action after it returns to your hand.

Mateo with versatile scavenging his signature is a funny combo I saw elsewhere. — Zerogrim · 295
Ikiaq

I like this card with Charlie Kane. I get nice static boosts to some important stat lines and the exhaust ability only needs to be done if the weakness draw is untenable, but 99% of the time, the weakness can be mitigated. I like the allies that don't gain their "worth" from exhaustion for Charlie... Although Ikiaq does, she is over compensated with a nice stat boost and matching icons to boot.

dlikos · 160
I don't know. For the same XP, I would take Lola any time over Ikiaq. — Nenananas · 267
I think it depends on the teams Basic weaknesses, if someone is deck cycling Ikiaq could prevent a lot of pain and barely take a slot in charlie. — Zerogrim · 295
Downtown

Just to clarify, according to this discussion boardgamegeek.com This limit is "Limit once per game per investigator" You can find this same mechanic in other locations in the same scenario.

MarcMF2 · 7
Yes, it is, a look into the rules will answer this question (https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Limits_and_Maximums). Also, Boardgamegeek, Reddit and the Mythos Busters Discord are awesome places to ask these kinds of questions. Please don't ask questions in the review section on ArkahmDB. — PowLee · 15
Katja Eastbank

This is not a card added casually to a deck. It's a main ally for a specific niche use. If the draw ability was a free trigger, this would be a good card that could fit in more decks. However the action hit to draw a card that was already drawn (either during the investigation or upkeep phase) is a huge action sink. Also offers no skill boots as other 2-3XP allies do.

Actions are the most valuable resource in the game, and spending one to draw an already drawn card is detrimental to the player's ability to advance the game. The benefit of holding onto the card must therefore outweigh the action cost of choosing when to draw it. It's probably intended for Dilemmas since they trigger immediately on drawing them.

But this comes in a class with all the recursion tools to play/recur cards from the discard pile. If it's used to hold cards in excess of the maximum hand size, why? A niche card that may have some specific use cases (Patrice perhaps) but otherwise is detrimental to most investigators who could better spend an action keeping ahead of the Agenda. She would've been better if she held only one card but it was a free trigger to draw it.

KingsGambit · 15
I think, Valenin's comment under another review is spot on: Could be very good, if you build a deck around the improvised set and other cards, you want to discard, like "Fortuitous Discovery" (unfortunately not "Moonstone"). You can replace them with something else, when you draw them, then use Katja for soak to get them into the discard. — Susumu · 381
I think you're undervaluing the additional draws. You can see Katja as a forced learning that doesn't require a 15(!) increase in deck size. That's no small thing. You'll go through your deck much quicker and just keep exactly what you need. As you stated, you can for example keep the recursion cards and then just get back what you need. And you'll need to make less room for each card because in combination with Short Supply, you got access to pretty much any card in your deck. The disadvantage is that you can only do this 5 times before having to invest actions, but the upside is she comes with 2 health/sanity as well. And she's also optional, meaning you don't have the same problems as Forced Learning where you get to decide between 2 good cards or when you've drawn a weakness. — Nenananas · 267
I do see the sweet spot in between your 2 comments. In a deck that does not necessarily need an Ally (and there are quite a few in Survivor I think), she can be an strong accelerator to your set up. Add 2 copies of your main assets, and if you draw the second copy, slap it on Katja to get another card. Once she's full, use her soak and get the second copy on the table and start again. An example of how it could work: you are power drawing for a key asset, with Katja in play, you get to see 6 cards instead of 3, which is 20% of your deck, and almost 30% if you used Short Supply. The negative aspect of attaching it an improvised card to her though is that you want this card in your discard pile ASAP to use it... Long story short, I follow arkham-becons on his review. — Valentin1331 · 77338
Can you use her ability if there’s 5 cards below and discard the excess? The limit is not part of the cost to activate her — Django · 5142
Even though, the case in the FAQ is slightly different (the limit below Katya is for card in general, not cards by name), I would say no: "Some limits may pertain to a particular play area, such as "Limit 1 per deck," "Limit 1 in the victory display," or "Limit 1 in play." This limit restricts the number of copies of that card (by title) that can exist in the specified play area. Another copy of that card cannot enter the specified play area if this limit has already been reached." — Susumu · 381
Since you are not allowed to but a card beneath Katja if you have reached the limit, you can't resolve any part of her reaction. You can also only initiate abilities, which have the chance to change the game status (what the reaction wouldn't do) — Tharzax · 1
There’s a ton of game state changes even if you don’t attach the card. Mythos buster’s discord told me my guess is correct. There’s a faq for Diana that’s the source — Django · 5142
Which state changes? The exhaustion is not part of the cost and you can't replace the card you put beneath her because there is no card. — Tharzax · 1
The FAQ for Diana is actual a FAQ for "Sacret Covenant" under the condition, that there are less then 5 cards below her. In this case, Diana can trigger her ability to draw a card and gain a resource, even though she can't put the covenant below her, because it's a permanent. So this case never exceeds her limit of 5 cards below her. I do not think, you could trigger it, if she has already 5 cards below her, otherwise the FAQ entry would not start with "If Diana Stanley has <5 cards beneath her..." — Susumu · 381
This works for Diana because the restriction with the limit is part of the costs, which you must pay. After that you resolve as much of the effect as possible and in this case you can draw the card and the ressource. With Katja ability this is different since the limit is part of the ability. The question is how do you interpret the last sentence with drawing a card. Can you replace a card you never placed beneath her? — Tharzax · 1
Query for all you rules experts: how does a fully stacked 5 cards attached Katja work when "Teamwork" is played by a Guardian ally, wishing to take her over across the table, as part of the team swapping? Do her 5 attached cards go with her too the new player, do they get discarded? — Quantallar · 8