Archive of Conduits

It disengage/evade only an enemy with a leyline, so when engaged with multiple enemies, this allows thinning down the fight for your fighters. (Unlike something like Elusive, which disengage with all enemies, so they are still clumped up together.)

Often the fighter is fighting a high damage enemy without knowing if more enemy would join in mid-fight on the next Mythos draw or not. By putting leyline on that high damage enemy, you can have a way to mitigate that situation.

If the fighter did draw a new enemy while fighting, activate to tear away harder enemy and left the fighter with easier enemy engaged and moved together to the fighter's new location. The fighter finish that enemy and is now free to walk away one more location such that the strong Hunter enemy cannot just follow and preemptively attack.

The next turn when it closes in, fighter moves in and resume the fight. Since leyline is not removed when you choose disengage option, you can repeat again later. Ensuring more 1-on-1 fights.

When playing 3 players, it is also cool to have the other person go in and grab the left-behind enemy, also save Engage action that would otherwise needed to go in and directly take it from the fighter that is now swarmed.

5argon · 11190
Archive of Conduits

I originally thought that this card would be broken, but after putting into practice for a campaign, I think that it is fairly costed. It's a one-of that is hard to find in your deck, costs 4 resources, requires you to do a little work in the first scenario you find it, and it costs 4 XP. Let's talk about that last point for a second -- 4 XP is a lot and usually gets you cards that progress the scenario. In Seeker, it certainly buys you strong cards. You can get a fast free draw 3, an ally that will provide some soak and double the effects of some Tomes, a fast event every turn, and six (or more) extra actions.

What does Gateway to Acheron do? You have to spend an action to move anyone to 4 locations -- notably ones that have already been revealed. On the biggest of maps, if you really want to move to the far corners more than once, this will save you quite a few actions by itself. In practice, most of the time you're going to move two or three locations away, and you might use it on a friend who doesn't have any actions left. This is very useful! But Arkham Horror has been pushing movement cards for the last few cycles. We have Scout Ahead that moves you up to 3 times. Seeker already has Join the Caravan to perform this effect once without spending any actions. Even Astral Travel will get you across a map at Level 0 and has been in the card pool for ages. And usually scenarios with big maps have scenario effects that let you move a little more quickly.

Now, the other part of this card in particular is to take a free investigate action at the cost of removing the leyline. In practice, given the pressures of the scenarios, I used this ability in conjunction with the movement almost every time, and always on myself (I was the seeker after all!). You still have to take the test, and it could be using any asset or event to do so. But again, you still have to spend an action to trigger the ability in the first place, so in practice this felt like I was saving 2-3 actions every time I used it. Very good, and probably a bit better than the other 4 XP cards, but not overly so. You're more likely to get the obvious uses out of Eon Chart, whereas this one will sit on the table (or your hand) until it feels like you'll get the most value out of it. Still, this card is very good; great, even, but plays fair. I also found it fun to decide when was the right moment to use it, unlike Eon Chart which you pretty much just use every turn you have a secret on it.

Finally, a comment on "breaking" certain scenarios -- yes, a few certain older scenarios expect you to trek across a map, one location at a time. But I don't think Arkham Horror cares if some scenarios are easier than others if you tech for them or get lucky. Luke Robinson's entire schtick is that he can warp anywhere starting from the beginning of the campaign. There are plenty of other cards, even at level 0, that allow you to avoid or trivialize entire acts -- heck, "I'm outta here!" is designed for this. The balance is that some scenarios make Archive of Conduits fairly useless. If you have a small map, or no reason to go to revealed locations you've already visited, this is a 4 XP card sitting in your hand. At least in that case it has excellent icons to commit.

dscarpac · 1217
Storm of Spirits

A straightforward upgrade. 3xp for +1 on commit, +2 on the test, +1 damage to each enemy, and +1 damage to investigators on a symbol.

The +1 damage is the part that you should be focusing on. The +2 won't matter as much as you might think, since you could always target the weakest enemy in the pile.

A little steep on the xp cost for my taste, but if your campaign is sufficiently swarming multiple 3hp enemies you wont regret the upgrade.

mordequess · 88
by now mystics have multiple ways to ameliorate the xp of their spell upgrades, so xp cost of Spells is not that much of a concern as it once was — fiatluxia · 68
Self-Centered

I would consider this one of the weakest weaknesses in the game. I have been more than happy to let this weakness sit in my threat area during Dunwich for the entire 2-player campaign so far. The downsides are extremely minimal in 2-player as investigators will rarely be at the same location anyway. Perhaps it gets nastier in 4 player or if you are playing party support gators (Bob, Carolyn).

Also, the art is hilarious, especially as I've been playing Lily Chen with this in the deck. Martial artist or self-centred scrambler? Who can tell?

fiatluxia · 68
As some who actually helps my team still don't see Self-Centered as being bad, the more people are gathered together the higher chance someone can just spare two actions and clear it. — Zerogrim · 295
Devastating on Minh or Carolyn. Less so for mages. — MrGoldbee · 1487
As a I read it, Ward of Protection (2) cannot save other 'gators, so it is quite nasty for mages. Maybe rogues are less affected. — chrome · 62
It is possible for Carson Sinclair to have both this card and Selfless to a Fault in his threat area. I have no idea how that one works. — General_Ferere17 · 2
@General_Ferere17 Self-Centered prevents you from avoiding the condition in the forced effect — Signum · 14
(Misclicked post) so Carson has to take the horror and shuffle Selfless to a Fault into the deck. It's not that there's a deadlock between conditions, it's just that you aren't capable of meeting the condition to avoid taking the horror. — Signum · 14
Foresight

I made some mistake with this card and wanted to remind others. I was playing it with Norman, as he could see a card on top of the deck, when 2-cost card came up I would play Foresight in an attempt to get the best deal of -2 cost and it is even Fast.

However, this Fast has "when". It could be used only when you are about to draw that card. You cannot just pop an Asset card on top of the deck to the field Fast like that! (Luckily Norman has a lot of Skill cards with drawing effect to synergize with, and this card itself has wonderful .)

5argon · 11190
You can play it during the draw from upkeep. — yinwhite · 19
You could take a draw action and play foresight — Django · 5154
Yeah, that's how I play it now (either use draw action or wait for upkeep). I was trying to save the draw action and play Foresight Fast during the turn in Investigation phase. Waiting to play in Upkeep is fine, but having to survive one more Enemy Phase is sometimes rough. — 5argon · 11190
Personally prefer foresight as counter for weaknesses and enc cards. Alyssa really helps with that and has +1 int for norman so he can investigate without spells — Django · 5154
Draw action foresight is basically worthless as Norman - the strength of foresight is that you can play something fast, with the discount being less necessary. With Norman, taking a draw action to Foresight a card means you get a -1 discount to that card, since he could already play it from deck for -1 cost. That's it. — SSW · 217