Amanda Sharpe

Having played Amanda, I can safely say that she is one of the most powerful characters in the game, and one of the strongest Seekers as well.

Let's say there was a gator who's ability was simply "draw an additional card each turn." That would, rightfully, be seen as quite powerful. Let's say there was a gator who's ability was "on each turn, choose a Skill card in your hand. You may play it up to three times this round, at no additional cost." That would also, rightfully be seen as powerful. Silas is great, and this is simply a stronger version of that.

Amanda does both of these, and does them while stationed in the fundamentally strongest class, having access to all of the benefits Seekers have, as well as various powerful Practiced skills such as the new Promise of Power or Three Aces (with experience).

One thing I have noticed when seeing others evaluate Amanda is the belief that she has low stats. She sure doesn't feel like that when she is played. Due to drawing an additional card (or more, if you've got Dream-Enhancing Serum, you will regularly have a card with good, or great, icons to slot underneath you. If your deck is built right, you will often have between four and six to the stats you care about on a given turn, or all of them (Promise of Power is really, really good.)

You can regularly have The Red-Gloved Man, without spending neither resources nor experience, just by playing your gator. You can fight, as Vicious Blow and Overpower are both Practiced skills. You can be pre-Taboo Rex, or better, by putting Deduction or Deduction underneath you.

You can take Amanda Sharpe in a myriad directions, and no matter which direction you take her, you will likely be successful. I'm personally partial to taking the regular Seeker route, abusing such cards as Practice Makes Perfect, Astounding Revelation, and Eureka! in order to draw through a deck incredibly quickly. Putting Eureka! or Perception underneath your investigator means you can fairly easily, comfortably, draw five cards in a single turn, Once you've spent experience, this lets you assemble Pendant of the Queen and Three Aces quite rapidly; without the newest Taboo list, you can quite comfortably play three copies of Three Aces every other turn.

In short, Amanda good. However good you think she is, she's better, and if you are not careful, she can quickly take over an entire game and overshadow other players. Be careful when you play her.

hatfulofbomb · 852
How can you repeatedly commit Three Aces? Once you play them on one skill test, they go to the discard. Even if you have 1 copy under Amanda, the other 2 copies still go into the discard. Can you please explain? Thank you. — VanyelAshke · 195
I would imagine the idea being that you reduce her deck down to about 15 cards by having 8ish in hand and assets out. From there, you are using something like Eureka to potentially draw 3 on top of her normal 2 at the same time you thin the deck by finding Astounding Revelation three times. Then Three Aces causes you to draw three. You play another Eureka the next turn and flip five more in a turn - that's a total of thirteen cards plus three Astounding Revelations for 16 cards drawn in two rounds. On turn three you are back to a fresh deck and using search cards again to dig out your Three Aces. — Time4Tiddy · 250
You can only target one Astounding Revelation per search. — marduk360 · 1
Shroud of Shadows

Shouting out this card necessarily because it's super exciting (though it kind of is, even besides the curse synergy the fact you can kick a monster out of a location is something Mists of R'lyeh can't) but because at time of writing the page for this card has a broken Bold tag and I'm giggling at it because I'm incredibly immature.

I think I'd take this over Mists even if I wasn't going in on curses.

Omnicrom · 4
Innsmouth Troublemaker

I like this card. Well, maybe not like; I kind of hate it, but I like that I hate it so much. It's a well designed enemy. With 4 Combat, 3 Health, and 2 Damage, this is a beefy fellow that makes even combat-focused investigators wonder if he's worth the ammo, charges, actions, and/or cards to put him down. He's easy to evade, but the Hunter keyword means he's just going to keep dogging you around the map, making your life miserable. Then the card text offers a way out and forces you to do some calculations about whether dropping the clue and picking it up will speed you up overall, leaving aside the times when you actually want a clue on the ground for Inquiring Mind, Roland's weakness, or other shenanigans. And it's got a great flavor -- you're casing a gloomy, decaying town and some local tough keeps following you around, keeping an eye on you, and making you nervous. Can you afford to make a ruckus? Can you afford to not?

Oops!

Having finished a 2-player run of RttFA with a Chainsaw Yorick deck in the combat specialist role, I have some opinions about this card. I had visions of getting to regain chainsaw supplies while still doing damage and reveling in Survivor BS. The level-0 version was a disappointment for all the reasons listed in that card's page -- it's a bit pricey for most survivor decks and you have to have a copy in hand, 2+ opponents at your location, and 2 resources available, and have failed by 2 or less for the thing to land. Now, RttFA hands out enemies like candy in most scenarios, so this was a likely setting, but it never really seemed like the right time. The card does have icons, and it mostly got used for them.

The upgraded version, which only requires one enemy, has a 3 or less failure threshold, and, importantly, protects fellow investigators from your clumsiness, looks like a better bet, but, at the end of the day, I only used it twice in the campaign (although the use in the final scenario was very clutch), so it wasn't really worth the 4XP to replace both. Maybe a one-of?

For Stella, it's a bonus action too! — MrGoldbee · 1497
Oh, def. This is a Yorick-specific review. Stella's action generation makes all the "fail to win" cards worth a close look. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1091
This would have been a nice card for Yorick with Yaotl build but I agree that it is too situational to be a great card. One condition you left out was that the enemy needs to deal damage (vs some that only deal horror). And there are already plenty of 2Com icon cards that Yorick can use (Overpower, L2 Vicious Blow, L2 Shovel, AoD). — The Lynx · 999
Yu redirect your own damage, not the enemy's, I don't think. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1091
I made pretty good use of it in solo Rita. Turns out that you miss a lot when you're only fighting at 5 with the cleaver, but you don't usually miss by 3 or more. Also some combo potential with Live and Learn — Zinjanthropus · 231
It is the same. You redirect the damage that you would take from an enemy attack. So if an enemy only deals horror then their isn't anything to redirect. It might not be normal for an enemy to not deal damage but there seems to be an average of one (with multiples of that one sometimes) each scenario. There are just too many conditions for this useful in general though. — The Lynx · 999
TWWaterfalls, Oops redirects the damage that you would have delivered during a failed attack that you made. It does not allow you redirect damage received from an enemy's attack. Visualize this: You swing an axe or fire a gun. "Ooops", you missed. Darn! The level 0 "Oops" allows you to deal that damage to a different enemy at that location. This level 2 version allows you to still deal the damage to the same enemy, even though you "oops"ed. I imagine that you were aiming for his head, and instead you got the enemy in the torso. Oops... oh well! Still a hit. :) — VanyelAshke · 195
Anything You Can Do, Better

So, having played TCU with Wini; this card is good... but I found myself holding it in tow a whole damn deal for WP tests, which is unfortunate. Of course, you can recur it in varying ways like Opportunist, but it's not reliable, especially on harder difficulties.

Wini being WP1 really hurts her starter deck. There is of course Tennessee Sour Mash or (3); and tons of other cards other investigators can tote, but this feels like the Band-Aid of the deck for that particular problem.

In low WP-treachery campaigns this could probably let you pull off some big plays!

fiatluxia · 68
Honestly, WIni is motivated to overcommit anyway, so even without her sig, with enough draw (esp with lucky Cig Case) you should be able to comfortably overcommit to some will tests. You still have to be discerning, but you can beat Frozen in Fear without much trouble. And there is always "You handle this one!", which should be a staple for any low will Rogue at this point. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
Ah, I don't own TFA yet, but that's a great shout -- def a solid card! — fiatluxia · 68
WP1 = Wonky Player One? — MrWeasely · 42
will power 1, I think. — Olimarrex · 6