Protective Incantation

Protective Incantation

The economy boost your entire group gets from not having to boost/commit cards to cover that -5, is that worth 1 resource a turn?

I say yes.

Is it worth an arcane slot? Hmmmmmm.

Rich via Dr. Milan Daisy Walker is taking this all day long.

spoth3d · 4
Might be good for Carolyn too, since she has the economy to support it and her arcane slots aren't that valuable. — SGPrometheus · 860
If you go into tests mostly with ability score of 2 higher that the difficulty, then this is not really worth it. If you aim to hit the highest negative, and you remove the single highest token, then this saves you resources in the long run — Adny · 1

Charon's Obol

Charon's Obol

This card is powerful but as one might expect, you are playing with fire here. Just be aware that you spend 2 xp to get it and then it grants you 2 xp each time from then out. This means that should you buy this after scenario 1 (the only reasonable time to get this) you don't really get "bonus" xp until the conclusion of scenario 3, as following scenario 2 it just pays for itself.

(MILD SPOILER) Without spoiling too much there are scenarios which kill your investigator if they are defeated Obol or no Obol. So the total number of scenarios you have to survive with Obol is slightly lower than one might initially think since you would be killed with or without Obol in these cases. (END SPOILER)

It is also worth noting that Ursula and Leo can take this card. Easy to miss it.

Complete list of people who can play this as of FA: Skids, Wendy, Jenny, Sefina, Lola, Leo, Ursula, Finn.

This is worth getting if you are comfortable with the risk involved. But you must get it early, otherwise just leave it behind.

Soloclue · 2654
Playing this as Ursula is risky, because you don't have cards like Elusive to bail you out if things go wrong. — Katsue · 10

Alchemical Transmutation

Alchemical Transmutation

I don't see why someone would take a copy of this card instead of Emergency Cache.

Emergency Cache vs Alchemical Transmutation:

  • Cost of 0 ressources vs 1 ressource
  • Gives you 3 ressources for sure vs 0 to 3
  • No side effects vs possible damage
  • No slot vs 1 spell slot

Ok, you can use Alchemical Transmutation 3 times (or 4 times with Akachi Onyele), but in most scenarios, you won't have that much spare time.

Ezhaeu · 51
It makes a very good Double or Nothing target to stack other effects on (such as Quick Thinking or Watch This!) for Sefina since it only has a base difficulty of 1. — Death by Chocolate · 1510
Also you should have mentioned 1 action (Emergency Cache) against minimum of 2 actions (Alchemical Transmutation) for a similar effect. Though you can (and you should) repeat the Transmutation if you have any spare time for it -> or not even put that card in your deck at all. — XehutL · 48
BTW, should it be to maximum of 4 I would be inclined to add it to my deck, or perhaps with not losing the charge when damage occurs. But not in its current mutation - both Emergency Cache and Forbidden Knowledge are currently waay better option. — XehutL · 48
You're not missing anything. This card is really bad. — CaiusDrewart · 3234
One thing would make this card indispensible, a free trigger after paying it. I use it alot in Akachi decks as you can be fairly sure of bumping her Willpower up to 8, giving a good chance of maximum returns. But using a damned action to do it puts my teeth on edge. — bern1106 · 2
@bern1106 that free trigger would make it way more powerful, true, but if they're whenever they make an 'indispensable' card, they've made a mistake from a design perspective. — Death by Chocolate · 1510
Maybe FFG adds an upgrade like scrying 3 that is free to trigger but deals damage and horror. — Django · 5228
Marie Lambeau + 2 Book of Shadows + 2 Scrying + Alyssa + Forbidden Knowledge + this = Deck Controlling, Clue Gathering, Resource Whore. — crymoricus · 252
Marie + This + Book of Shadows = 5 resources, 3xp, hand slot instead of the Arcane slot (think about it), unlimited charges, first three charges are free (pays for itself in 2 turns, zero actions) (must have at least one doom on a card she controls). I'm trying to build around this, it's not easy lol. But it's fun to try. — crymoricus · 252
Man, I hate it when people disregard cards because it "worse than Emergency Cache". As if two Emergency Caches will always be enough resource cards for every single deck in the game. I'm not defending Alchemical Transmutation in particular, but if that's the only case you're presenting, it's hardly a review. — TheDoc37 · 468
But EC is still a good baseline for comparison. Nowadays a mystic deck would in fact rather consider EC as potential third or forth copy of UtS than the other way round. There are many other valid options to slot instead of EC in all classes. AT isn't one of them. (At least for most investigators. I can see, that a Rogue-Mystic like Dex or Sef might find value it it due to synergy with "succeed by x" builds, but I have not played that combo myself.) — Susumu · 385

Ursula Downs

Ursula Downs

Ursula has the abilities of a dedicated clue gatherer like [Rex Murphy], so let's compare her to Rex and not Daisy and Minh.

Stats:

Ursula loses 1 fight and gains 1 escape.

Rex couldn't really use his strength without a [Fire axe] and tons of money anyway.

Now Ursula has high chances of being able to escape monsters. That's especially useful when you know that seekers have low combat abilities and that Ursula cannot splash for combat cards like [Fire Axe] or [Elusive].

Ability:

Rex's ability isn't capped, Ursula's ability is. That changes a lot of things.

In solo play, most locations will contain only one clue and Ursula's ability is better.

With 3-4 players, most locations will contain tons of clues and Ursula's ability will fall behind Rex's.

In duo, the two abilities are quite similar. Rex needs to move, investigate and succeed by 2 or more to get both clues.

Ursula needs to move, investigate successfully during her free action and then investigate successfully once more.

Rex only needs to succeed one test, Ursula has more flexibility in her actions.

Rex doesn't really need [Archaic glyphs: guiding stones] but Ursula could definitely put it to good use to investigate as fast as Rex!

Cards pool:

Rex can splash for awesome cards like [Fire Axe], [Ward of Protection], [Elusive], [Scavenging], [Lone wolf] and so on. He seems more versatile, stronger in the early campaigns & safer. With money, [fire axe] and [Higher education] he can basically succeed in every task easily. But later in the game, his card pool only improves with Seeker cards.

Ursula has access to [Armor of ardennes], [Charon's Obol: the ferryman's pay], [Grotesque statue], [Lucky dice], [The chtonian stone], [Jewel of Aureolus: gift of the homunculi] and [The gold pocket watch: stealing time]. Those are all strong late campaign cards. Those can be combined with [Dr. Elli Horowitz: assistant curator] or [Relic Hunter] to great effect. Basically she can gain xp faster and use that xp better.

She still has access to [Mind over matter], [I've got a plan], [Knife] and [Manual dexterity] to survive alone early on. Later in the game she will have access to [Strange solution: acidic ichor] and [Disc of Itzama: protective amulet]. The later also prevents Yig's revenge from stacking in the victory pile!

This may still be a bit weak for solo play, especially against bosses, but in a duo it would work wonder!

Bonus cards:

Both are useful but not broken. It's a bit sad that Ursula's card takes up an ally slot. [Dr. Milan Christopher] & [Dr. Elli Horowitz: assistant curator] are both really interesting ally choices. This may make [Charisma] a high quality option for Ursula at some point.

Malus cards: Both are back-breaking but generally won't cost you the game. Be sure to pack some horror soak for Ursula anyway.

Conclusion: In my opinion, Ursula is a really good dedicated clue gatherer. She may be even better than Rex in a multiplayer campaign or in a duo as she has a better late game potential and her ability is basically equivalent to Rex's in a duo. She is also favored in scenarios with tons of locations to explore & investigate and little to no time to do so.

Kiliath · 623
Nice review, just one thing to remeber. She can't take Armor of ardennes ( its lv 5) — Cambro · 18
She could take Runic Axe these days, or Hunter’s Armor…! — legobil · 4

Dark Pact

Dark Pact

"Hey kid... wanna buy a human sacrifice? Only two resources!" - Matt Newman, How to make a terrible deal in AH: LCG

This card is a fantastic example of excruciating decisions that AH LCG is capable of producing using only two cards. It should never be looked at by itself, but rather in conjunction with its "upgrade" as well - The Price of Failure. Let's examine what this duo does in practice.

Basic weakness itself seems rather straight-forward: pay two resources to deal two damage to an investigator at your location (reminder: it can be assigned to assets). It can be you or one of your teammates - your choice (or is it? we'll get back to that later). This effect might seem similar to Dark Memory of Agnes, but the cost in here seems to be less steep. With Agnes's weakness however, it is possible to just hold it - as long as you are capable of staying sane, nothing happens. With Dark Pact situation is somewhat different: if you hold it till the end of the scenario, you have to exchange it for The Price of Failure going forward - and this is where fun begins.

This card is never in the vacuum of its own effect - it always poses the question: "are we in good enough situation to do it?". The question is also never static, the answer to it will shift with every play. After all, The Price of Failure is quite nasty in its effect, which is partially group-wide (the doom aspect of it). You might find yourself in the situation when you KNOW FOR A FACT that your next scenario is the one you can't afford to risk having The Price of Failure as a potential draw, but at the moment, both you and your partners sit on 2 health points left... Are you going to willingly diminish your own chances of success now by offing yourself or your partner, to not face the cost of insubordination in the future...?

At times, the answer might be easy, with everyone healthy and the board state relatively safe (or in the last scenario, when the future doesn't matter). But this is Arkham: how often will that be the case? Especially since the Dark Pact robs you of two resources as well, potentially impairing your other actions. But hey... decision is yours. (is it really...?)

Because here's my only pet peeve with this card: why doesn't it say Peril anywhere on the card? That one keyword would change so much about it, making it a very personal decision by design. Because as it stands, it is perfectly possible to make it a group decision, something that happens just because everyone at the table agreed upon such turn of events. But if only one person had to make a call (who should take damage, and when, if at all), that would change so much about their actions. They would be faced with the duty of postponing potential future disaster, but the only judgement they'd have would be their own. How exciting and crushing at the same time it would be...? (my internal "lovecraftian fun" calculator says it would be 2.3 times much more fun) It also wouldn't be out of ordinary, since Carcosa cycle already introduced cards that hamper player communication with the Peril keyword, forcing players to make their own mind and searching for their own solutions in cooperative environment. Making Dark Pact such a card would be the natural progress of this already known mechanism.

As it stands though, the card in and of itself is still good, and by by "good" I mean "bad"; it does what it was supposed to do very well. Cards that create interesting choices are always welcomed in my book, and by "book" I mean "binder".

Still, two resources for self-inflicted harm? That's a bad deal, Matt! Not economically sustainable at all! And by "not economically sustainable" I mean "fun". Quite fun.

Skid_the_Drifter · 148
Peril is currently only found on encounter cards, which Dark Pact is not. I can see how it'd possibly be more fun if this card had Peril, but that would bring in some nontrivial rules changing with it. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Since you took your time to state the obvious, could you go further and propose what rules would have to be changed to make this card work in the same way that 4 cards from Carcosa expansion (all flavors of "Whispers In Your Head")? Because as it stands, it would appear that adding keywords "Peril" and "Hidden" would work effectively the same without changing any rules. I'd even argue that this would work even better, since no one would be able to tell if you have this card in your hand, as opposed to Carcosa's hidden perils. If your only line of argument is "Peril can be only on encounter cards" I'd say it's not something that can't be changed, and most certainly it wouldn't require "nontrivial rules change". Rules are set in place. Peril and Hidden are already established keywords. — Skid_the_Drifter · 148
It wouldn't require any rule changes at all; weaknesses in your deck ARE encounter cards. They have encounter card types and behave exactly as if drawn from the encounter deck. Adding Peril to this card would require literally just that: putting the text on. — SGPrometheus · 860
@SGPrometheus Dark Pact does not have an encounter card type, it's an event. That makes it not an encounter card. And it's by far not the only weakness with a player card type. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
@Skid_the_Drifter Well, at minimum the rules for what the Peril keyword means would have to be expanded. As currently written, Peril only triggers when an encounter card with it is drawn. I guess modifying the definition for the Hidden keyword and putting Hidden on Dark Pact could do it (I forgot about Hidden when writing my first comment). — TheNameWasTaken · 3
With all due rispect, all things you've listed seem rather trivial, as oposed to earlier "nontrivial rules change" argument. Nonetheless, it's all wishful thinking, cause the end product is what we have at hand. Any future developments are yet to be seen. — Skid_the_Drifter · 148
Let me clarify by what I mean by expanding the Peril rules. This being a cooperative game, the part where players discuss among themselves how to best take their turns is essential. To place a Peril-like ability on a player card would mean to either shut down all such communication while someone has Dark Pact in hand or only forbid the holder to discuss that card, or something in between. The hidden cards have an easy out here because they have different backs and all have the same cost to get rid of. So you can just say "I'll need to get rid of this thing this turn", and that's all the discussion you need. And even with this easy out, the Hidden rules don't actually forbid communication about the hidden cards, they only discourage it. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
What you're describing isn't that different than section called "Table talk" in "Learn to play" booklet, page 12: "The game’s areas of hidden information (the cards in a player’s hand and deck) exist to maintain the feeling that each investigator is a unique individual in the game world, and makes his or her decisions without complete and perfect knowledge of what everyone else knows or is thinking. A good means of maintaining this illusion is to not name, read off, or allude to individual cards that are hidden information (i.e., in a player’s hand or deck)." In the following example game creators give a proper hint as to how communication should be approached. Adding "peril" and "hidden" keywords would suffice without breaking the existing rules. I think your personal prefference is taking over what is and what isn't in the boundaries of the rules, however it is clearly visible designers intended for communication to be vague, and not clear information that you're trying to say is vital to the game. If you're already in open discussion mode and you don't care about that aspect of the game, I would conclude with saying that adding peril or hidden properties wouldn't really impact your experience, since you're already playing your own way. — Skid_the_Drifter · 148
Strapped for cards, make Dark Pact work for you. Add Decorated skull to your hand, kill a useless Ally you have (Art Student for example) take a damage, draw a card, gain a resource.), — bern1106 · 2