Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Cheat the System

When you have no cards in your deck , you can't shuffle any cards into it and they are discarded instead. What happens if Wendy with her signature card has no cards in her deck and plays an event? If you can't put a card at the bottom of the void, is it also discarded instead? Feels like someone is really cheating then.

9/11/21

Tzolkin1065 · 155

Wendy's signature places on the bottom of the deck, which does work with an empty deck. You could then potentially loop it for one copy a turn, I suppose, but until we see a fast, during any player window, draw one card, the loop isn't infinite. — SSW · 217 9/13/21

For cards like this, do dual-class cards (like, say, Tennessee Sour Mash Rogue/Survivor) count as two? — khoshekh · 7 9/16/21

Yes compare the rules for multi-class items. In the worst case one of them counts as to off-class cards for Dunwich investigators — Tharzax · 1 9/17/21

According to https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Ownership_and_Control you control all the cards in your hand, deck and discard pile. — david6680 · 66 10/27/21

Had been answered on other synergy cards, but while this is technically true, card abilities can only interact with other cards, that are in play, unless they state otherwise. So there is no "synergy" with cards in deck, hand or discard pile. — Susumu · 382 11/10/21

Wanted to clarify, as per the Rules Section here under Multi-Class, "A card cannot take up more than one "out of class" slot, regardless of how many class icons the card bears." , so a dunwich dude would only lose 1 slot if both card factions are off-coloured. Most Chars wont even lose a slot if one of the colors is unlimited access, with some few exceptions. — surturiel · 1 2/6/22

M1918 BAR

M1918 BAR is very strange weapon comparing other Firearm weapon. If you consider to use BAR, I recommand adding BAR-supporting cards.

BAR itself is not a good weapon. If you don't consider any supporting cards, you can easily find alternatives. I believe you don't use this weapon with spending 1 ammo(=1 damage) without anything. Then, you could trigger at most 4 times. Flamethrower has 4 ammos with 4 damage, and Lightning Gun has 3 ammos with 3 damage. If you want to find more continual weapon, .45 Thompson, Holy Spear, or Enchanted Blade exists.

However, BAR has high potential. BAR deals 5 damage with 1 action, which is the highest value among weapons. BAR has 8 default ammos, which is the largest among Firearm.

Supporting Cards

Supplying Ammunition: Contraband, Swift Reload. Here, BAR has and spends lots of ammos. Thus, the card adding flat ammunition is bad. Sadly, both cards are cards. Note that Contraband can be played by another player, so that you may find your teammate with Double, Double.
Extra Damage: Custom Ammunition, Enchant Weapon.
"Eat lead!": As I know, ammos spent by Eat lead also contribute the BAR damage. However, I'm not sure and it's still issue. It means that you can evade without any ammo loss. Additionally, you can deal more than 5 damage with 100% succeed if ammo is enough.

8 16 32 64 128: 4 Contrabands make BAR as infinite 5 damage weapon. I heard that someone did it with Sefina by playing Contraband and doubled Scrounge multiple times.

9/10/21

elkeinkrad · 498

Preston can't play Contraband. It's illicit. — MrGoldbee · 1494 9/10/21

Man, that combo with eat lead is legit; i hadn't thought of that. — SGPrometheus · 849 9/10/21

That "Eat Lead!" combo should not work either, ammo spent for that event is NOT part of the ability's cost to trigger the BAR. — toastsushi · 74 9/10/21

I thought so to @toastsushi but now I'm not sure, as Eat lead says "additional" which might mean it actually becomes part of the cost. But I could see it go either way. — Nenananas · 272 9/10/21

I don't think the Eat Lead combo works because EL says that play it after you activate the fight ability on a firearm. This means you need to have spent the 1-5 bullets on BAR to have activated it. Thus you can only play EL after you've spent the BAR ammo. — jdk5143 · 98 9/10/21

Hmm, I'm not so sure now either. I thought Eat Lead had some language like, "as an additional cost to activate that ability..." which would definitely make it part of the ability's cost (and therefore the BAR would care about it, no matter when it was spent), but I guess it doesn't. Blah. So close. — SGPrometheus · 849 9/11/21

The ammo Eat Lead makes you spend doesn't count, but not because of the timing instruction, it's because it's not a cost (let alone a cost for the fight ability), it's (part of) an effect. — Thatwasademo · 58 9/11/21

@MrGoldbee Thanks for checking my mistake. I asked the player and he told that he played Sefina and play with Versatile. I edit the review. — elkeinkrad · 498 9/11/21

I agree that the ruling with Eat Lead is not clear. Nevertheless, Eat lead (0) is still good with BAR, because 1 ammo is not precious for BAR and you can avoid auto-fail. — elkeinkrad · 498 9/11/21

Prophesiae Profana

Works incredibly well with Library Docent to switch from 1 go to location to another.

Daisy Walker can move a 4 player team to the locus in 1 turn.

No attacks of opportunity means lecturing stuff to monsters. Engaged monsters move with you. Hello helpy guardian friend, I brought a monster with me.

9/10/21

GrueneLupenAufheben · 142

I don't understand your first sentence. "Library Docent" requires to play a different Tome by title. So you can't pick up one copy of this card and play the second to name a different locus. Or did you mean something else? — Susumu · 382 9/18/21

I think he want play the book afterwards and choose to choose a new location for the locus — Tharzax · 1 9/20/21

@Tharax: Correct — GrueneLupenAufheben · 142 10/5/21

Eon Chart

This is a spicy little card. Actions are how you win the game, and getting an extra 6 actions (before you get into secret shenanigans) over the course of a scenario is a big deal. 2 resources to buy more of the most precious resource in Arkham, Time, is quite the trade.

As a bonus, these are actions you often want to be taking. Moving is a necessary tax in most scenarios and being able to do it free massively ups your efficiency, Investigate is how you win the game and are the Seeker's main job, and Evasion can be empowered to be an extremely efficient action for rogues that can amp this up to being worth 9 actions a game with just one copy of pickpocketing 2 alone!

I think Seekers will want this more, simply because move-investigate is going to nearly always be amazing for seekers while move-evade is more situational (though it is a nice thing to pair with lockpicks, many lockpickers are apparently serial smokers), many seekers don't have great a ton of options for their accessory slots, and because seekers can more easily replenish the secrets with cards like Astounding Revelation.

The main thing this is in competition with is Pendant of the Queen but the anti-synergy here is actually really mild, and despite sharing a slot the cards actually work quite well together: Both reward you for running astounding revelation, due to the Pendant rewarding deck search and the chart rewarding secret recharge. Both are temporary assets giving you extreme mobility and action efficiency. And it generally takes a bit, even with good deck search, to get a Pendant going, so you can run an Eon Chart early, use it up in time for Pendant to come out, and then if you run out of your Pendant go back into Eon again to help close out the game!

9/10/21

dezzmont · 222

One question here: Do those actions have to be base actions, or is it allowing me to play an event with bold printed action type of the kind as an additional action? Eventually use burglary, flashlight, etc. — holandato · 2 9/23/21

Yes, you can use free actions to pay the action cost for investigate (or evasion I suppose) actions on scenario, encounter, event, and asset cards. However, in the case of burglary specifically I don't think there is much utility, as burglary is most often used as an easy cig case trigger if anything, though of course this does help out Rex a bit as well.. — dezzmont · 222 9/23/21

I'm assuming, despite this effect being embedded within a fast action, that the Actions taken here qualify for action-counting effects such as Haste and Payday, given that the text here explicitly uses the words "take actions"? — HanoverFist · 756 9/28/21

Not just spicy, it's also sick. :) — ratnip · 68 10/5/21

Bob: This (recur with Scavenging), Leo de Luca, Haste, Ace in the Hole, Red Clock, Pay Day= Holy Hell!! — Alaria · 33 10/12/21

They would count as actions, but can you pick the same action twice? — Alaria · 33 10/13/21

Alaria: No, you have to take two different actions. — olahren · 3586 10/20/21

@olahren: is that an official answer or your interpretation of the card text? — ratnip · 68 10/21/21

I assume that the move and investigate actions, provided by Eon chat, do provoke attacks of opportunity? — hun · 1 10/24/21

@hun yes, because it says "take the following actions" — ratnip · 68 10/25/21

Would this combo with Haste or Payday? From what I gather here it would... — Oriflam · 207 12/28/21

@Oriflam yes it did combo with haste and payday because it is a free 'action'. It will also be affected by ''Frozen in fear''. But the Pathfinder won't be affected by Frozen in fear since it's not a move action. — BoomEzreal · 8 1/4/22

@ratnip @hun no, definitely not. Free actions never trigger aoos (see the FAQ for Attack of Opportunity) — dr31ns5mf · 1 4/24/22

@dr31ns5mf you definitely do trigger aoos. Just look at the FAQ for Ursula. It's about the "taking". The FAQ für aoos just means that triggering the ability on eon chart doesn't provoke, the actions on turn do provoke. — Nils · 1 5/10/22

@olahren - Given the previewed Grappling Hook (Kymani's signature asset) explicitly states "different actions" and Eon Chart doesn't, does that change your position on whether you can take two of the same action with Eon Chart (4)? — dysartes · 1 8/6/22

@dysartes - I agree with that. As long as it is not specified, the actions can be identical — Kerigann · 1 11/3/22

Seems the Mythos Busters discord clarified with FFG that these actions are supposed to be different. See the encounter card "Baleful Welcome" for an example of different choices being needed without explicitly saying. — SnowOnACactus · 1 5/22/23

When FFG actually pull their finger out and update the FAQ, I'll agree with that ruling. Someone on a Discord *allegedly* talking to FFG isn't enough for me. — dysartes · 1 7/21/23

21 or Bust

This card is interesting thematically because, while Rogues have a lot of betting in their thematics, they tend to NOT gamble! A rogue, before this card, said "Gambling is for chumps" like the ace hustlers they were and what their cards were more about them being certain about the outcome and deciding to make calculated wagers, not gambles. They leave that for Mystics and Survivors!

It isn't going to affect the mechanics one way or the other, but it does make my rundown of Rogues for new players a bit less accurate!

9/10/21

dezzmont · 222

This is why you should try to cheat! Maybe ask your friendly mystic to see the ure — Goboxel · 1 9/28/21

This is why you should try to cheat! Maybe ask your friendly mystic to see the future or use especially lucky dice. Or maybe praying to the moon can help you? — Goboxel · 1 9/28/21

Such nonsense doesn't belong in a class that literally has a card called 'skeptic!' But yes that might be a good mechanical use for the card. There is also the fact that as the campaign goes on the bag will start to bias closer to five, and you can, IRL, 'count cards' here fairly easily. — dezzmont · 222 10/3/21