Abandoned and Alone

Abandoned and Alone

A bad weakness or the worst weakness? Let's see. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: Wendy Takes 2 direct horror and removes her discard pile from the game. The first effect is bad but manageable; Wendy has 7 base Sanity and has ways to heal horror and/or soak future horror. The second effect ranges from mild to devastating. Depending on when you draw the Weakness, it can remove most of your deck, killing recursion tricks, shutting down Wendy's Amulet, and possibly leaving you in a very short horror spiral to trauma for decking yourself and more horror for drawing this again. There are not many was to mitigate the effects, with Rabbit's Foot (3) being probably the best way to dig for it early, maybe abetted by Drawing Thin or Take Heart to increase your failure and draw more cards. Of course, if you don't hit it early, this tactic may exacerbate the damage when the Weakness hits. If you have a Seeker in your party, they can help out with No Stone Unturned, but that's a lot of cooperative building, and none of these solutions are XP-cheap (especially since Rabbit's Foot vies for the Accessory slot with the Amulet, so you won't be doing them in the first few scenarios.

The discard condition: You do the terrible thing, then this card becomes your discard pile.

All in all, this is a way above average signature weakness, and in competition for the worst weakness, able to wreck a scenario or end a campaign.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1076
This is not anywhere close to the worst signature weakness. Even within the core set, this is one of the tamest ones. It’s just 2 horror and then it’s gone forever. Wendy has 7 sanity which is protected by her 4 willpower, and often she will run Peter Sylvestre. You essentially just play Wendy as if she’s actually 7/5 instead of 7/7. The worst thing about it is how it removes your discard from the game, but that is very very rarely an actual problem more than it is an additional deckbuilding restriction ie Wendy can’t rely on discard recursion as readily. Annoying and restrictive, yes, and certainly worse than, say, Shell Shock. But I would not call this worse than Dark Memory or even Cover Up. — StyxTBeuford · 13043
Sorry, not gone forever since yes it will go into your discard pile. But even still, the scenario is likely to end soon anyway if you pull it late, so the chance it hits you more than once is pretty miniscule. I’ve literally never had that happen. — StyxTBeuford · 13043
I should add also that the core set weaknesses are mostly above average in my eyes, this being no exception. But I push back hard the idea that this is the worst one in the game. It is, however, I think the least well designed weakness. — StyxTBeuford · 13043
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with Styx. Abandoned and Alone is a bad weakness , no doubt about that, but I think you're evaluating it in terms of the impact that it has if you draw it at the worst possible time and all weaknesses are pretty bad in that context. Even really low-key ones like Bought in Blood or Unsolved Case can wreck your tempo if you draw them in a tight situation. And like, the worst possible context for Dark Memory is something like Before the Black Throne where it will probably be campaign ending. It's a really really un-fun card tho, just taking options away... — bee123 · 31
Mark takes two horror: Below average. Wendy takes two direct horror and loses her discard pile: Worst weakness! — Hylianpuffball · 29
It is for sure a worse weakness than Shell Shock, but the impact is more comparable than I think the review implies. — StyxTBeuford · 13043
I would say that Survivors aren't usually churning through their deck quickly, and Wendy if she hits her amulet early will be putting cards back in. What I'll conclude instead of saying that this is a really bad signature weakness is that it's SUPREMELY swingy depending on when you see it. If it's early you barely care, and if it's late you hopefully found the amulet and put some cards back in to mitigate its card removal. But if you see the amulet late and only shortly after the weakness, then it can be very sad. — DjMiniboss · 44
I'd have to agree that while it has the potential to be extremely punishing, due to the equally extreme swingy nature of the card that it's more to the average to above average pile (if I'm understanding the scoring system correctly). Having played Wendy a decent amount, if it triggers late game and decks you out, then the scenario is basically over so it doesn't get reshuffled... Dark Memory is still the worst IMO. — LaRoix · 1645
The easiest way to avoid decking out from this is to get amulet out early. Since Backpack (2), this is far more reliable than it used to be (and guarantees that Wendy sees the Amulet before the last 12 cards), and Wendy will be hard mulling for the amulet in any case while playing Winging It and the like. Once Amulet's in play, the risk of decking out is basically none if your deck is build correctly. As Styx says, this is more of a deckbuilding restriction that discourages draw and cycling on Wendy and encourages deck bloating and events. Speaking of bloat, Versatile also acts as a great check against the worst case deck-out scenario and Wendy's one of the best Versatile users too. — suika · 9497

Plan of Action

Plan of Action

Here's a review of the card as it actually works. No, you don't get extra icons in the mythos phase ("of this turn" implies that an investigator must be taking their turn, as compared to "of this round"). No, you don't get 2 icons and get to draw a card.

This card is a deck slot filler.

Treat this as a de-facto cantrip with restrictions on when it can be committed, and it's not that bad a card to include in a 0xp deck. Especially if it's a deck that runs Practice Makes Perfect but doesn't have enough Practiced trait skills (e.g. only Deduction and Perception). Better that a Practice Makes Perfect hits this card than nothing at all.

In a very situational pinch, this can act as an unexpected courage if the window is right — practically, a boost to your first evade or last investigate isn't terrible if you really need it and haven't gotten a chance to commit this on a test on someone's second action.

Practically speaking, a skill card that gives +1 draw on succeed is very usable, even if it has commit timing restrictions. Of course it's completely almost completely outclassed by Eureka! for the same effect, so most of the time you want Eureka! before you want this.

suika · 9497
Not completely outclassed by Eureka! since Eureka! cant be committed to combat checks and isn’t Practiced, but otherwise spot on review. Plan of Action is a perfectly respectable PMP target for some investigators, particularly ones that don’t have enough other Practiced skills to run at level 0 (mostly true of Rogues). — StyxTBeuford · 13043
he fact, that it is a wild also makes it better for investigators with PMP, if they aren't a specialist. If you run PMP on a fight action and only find "Deduction" or "Perception", the search will wiff. This card will always be commitable. — Susumu · 381
The current FAQ on this page now clarifies that this card does gain icons during the Mythos phase, for anyone who happens to come across this now. — Courier_Snow · 1

Hoods

Hoods

Another Enemy signature Weakness. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: Enemy Weaknesses tend to be on the weak side, but this one is tailored to mess with Rita, since it gets an attack whether an Evade attempt succeeds or fails. There are weapons that do +1 damage (Like Fire Axe or the .18 Derringer), but that's still 2 actions to clear. The Ornate Bow is a very good choice, giving Rita a 7 vs 3 Fight for 3 damage, but Rita could really use her hands for clue tech and other things. Brute Force is another choice if you can boost her combat a bit to get a 2 up result. Like all enemies, of course, there is no reason another investigator can take them off her hands if that's not too much tempo loss for the team.

The discard condition: Kill them or get a friend to take a hit and Banish them to the far side of a large map or maybe get Handcuffs on them, but killing is the best choice.

Taking it all into account, this is an average signature Weakness, a bit more trouble than some of the other Enemy Weaknesses.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1076
I completely disagree that this is average. This is one of the harshest enemy weaknesses since Rita only has 3 combat and not a ton of great combat options. She takes a hit whether she successfully or unsuccessfully evades it, so even that isn’t a great route to kill it. And it targets health as well as sanity, and Rita only has 5 sanity. Yes, you can one shot it with a Bow or OHR or Chainsaw, but in all cases you’re devoting Rita’s hands to fighting, which isn’t terrible for her at all but still limits her. — StyxTBeuford · 13043
Is the shtick that every weakness is a below average signature weakness? What is this, Lake Woebegone? — DjMiniboss · 44
If @LivefromBenefitSt considers Dark Memory average, then surely Hoods must be average as well! Meanwhile, Smite the Wicked is rated as above average. Hmm... — suika · 9497
@DjMiniboss The average weakness is a below-average weakness. — Hylianpuffball · 29
It makes sense for most weaknesses to be below average, if the median weakness is below average. But Hoods requires 6xp/8xp and two hand slots to deal with on a character who would otherwise be perfectly content with doing nothing but evading as enemy management. And if you're using the bow, you're effectively using two actions to attempt a test to clear this weakness. Not to mention that passing even an Ornate Bow shot is still anything but guaranteed on Hard/Expert, and a Chainsaw will miss on average on Hard/Expert without commits or Live and Learn. Of course a Guardian can effectively take care of it for you if they're at your location; but if they're not the action cost for them is even higher (Move, Fight, Move back), even disregarding the ammo spent and the chance of failing the test and hitting Rita for 3 damage. — suika · 9497
I think I see the argument for an average rating, however, the best solutions require XP cards which is the same knock against Abandoned and Alone except that one's rating is much more extreme. What gives? — LaRoix · 1645
You shoot one arrow at this and go on with your day. — Cpt_nice · 80

Unsolved Case

Unsolved Case

A relatively simple but damaging signature . Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: The sharp needle in Joe's Insight haystack, this is going to cost you an action, 2 resources, and maybe a clue. Note that you can play it even if you don't have a clue, which makes it considerably less damaging. Joe needs to keep 2 resources on hand until this gets drawn, and it could cause an AoO if he is engaged when it comes up, but, despite the nasty effect if it fires, this is not a terrible threat. There is no particular mitigation, beyond making sure you have those resources or a quick way to get them. If Joe has somehow managed to translate the Cryptic Grimoire, he can play this fast. That Tome would generally help Joe, even if it's not hugely feasible for him to translate it without a cooperative Rogue or a lucky draw of the Dread Curse Weakness during deck building. Farsight could also help, but it's got a high opportunity cost for Joe. Other than that, there aren't a lot of card interactions. You can't even troll your party by playing Eidetic Memory, since Unsolved Case is removed from the game.

The discard condition: Another "one and done" Weakness, and one that removes itself from the game after playing, so it won't recur, even if Joe decks himself.

Summing up the facts, this is a way below average signature Weakness, in competition to be the easiest in the game.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1076
The clue must be placed on a location with the highest shroud which has the potential to be VERY bad, but I more or less agree with you on this one. Most high shroud locations are at the heart of where the resolution is anyways. — LaRoix · 1645
Are we sure you can play it without a clue? I thought there was a rule against playing cards that wouldn't affect the game state. Does the fact that it tells you to remove it from the game provide a loop hole? — OrionJA · 1
Precisely. It affects the game state by removing itself from the game. See Preston Fairmont's weakness, which is also an event and has only the effect when played of removing itself from the game. If removing itself from the game wasn't sufficient to change the game state, that card could never be played. — Yenreb · 15
Youare still paying 2 resources, which counts, I think. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1076
No, the cost to pay for abilities and cards does not factor when you must determine if those change the game state or not. — Killbray · 12327

Sure Gamble

Sure Gamble

A very good defensive card. With this in hand, even Winifred and Finn can pass Rotting Remains and Frozen in Fear and worse, for when "You handle this one!" isn't enough or in solo. It also pulls double duty as upgraded Daring Maneuver, allowing you to under-commit to tests you need to oversuceed by, particularly in Hard and Expert where it's impractical to cover the -6 -7 -8 otherwise.

Strong consideration for when the campaign feature nasty / treacheries that you need to pass. On my TCU solo Winifred run, this was one of the first upgrades to mitigate Bedeviled and Realm of Torment.

suika · 9497