Boxing Gloves

Are the boxing gloves "USE" while attacking? Wondering this aspect of play cause of a new card in the Scarlet Keys name : Lurker in the Dark. --Lurker in the Dark can only be attacked or damaged using Weapon assets. ? Would need a clarification of the term "using" generaly.

franakin74 · 1
It may be arguable but I believe not. Could you ask to FFG and update this review? — elkeinkrad · 492
No. Only if it had a bold FIGHT designator. — Nenananas · 257
Mano a Mano

This is pretty much only viable in a Nathaniel Cho deck. In that setting though, its pretty good. 3 testless damage is enough to kill roughly 80% of the enemies in arkham horror.

The downsides to it are it has to be the first thing you do in a turn. This means no upgraded taunting enemies over to you first. It must be the very first thing you do.

There are ways around that, namely On The Hunt. A deck then is already starting to form.

drjones87 · 193
This is not true. There is aplayer window between 2.2 and 2.2.1. Any version of Taunt can be played then, and "Mano a Mano" still after that, because no action has yet been spent. — Susumu · 366
Other than for instance "Riot Whistle", because this counts as an action. — Susumu · 366
I strongly disagree abouth the Nathaniel exclusivity. While 3 testless damage is better than 2 testless damage, 2 testless damage is still hell of a thing! — Trady · 167
I agree. Why would Yorick not benefit from this? An event with a cost of 0 and with a chance to return this card to your hand at a later point… — tenzion · 19
Conglomeration of Spheres

I'm surprised that there's no review for this guy! He's.....cute and a total PITA.

I think this is up there for one of the more annoying enemies in TDL campaign. If you are using a melee weapon, you're probably not willing to use it, meaning this is a 6 action sink! Even If you can beat the rough evade, it's still got hunter, meaning you're probably going to have to pay the action tax at some point.

On the bright side, the low fight means that you're not likely to miss, and even your non-fighter friends can likely pile on, so maybe you can share the misery of wailing on this guy?

Props to the guardians running Monster Slayer (5) that get to deal with this in 1hit.

TheMathDoc · 15
Spell bait. — MrGoldbee · 1460
I agree, Spells are more conveniant than "Monster Slayer" for this guy. It apears only two times in the campaign (THAW and LIT&S), unless you kill Silas Bishop, then it apears for sure in WDA. You technically could get a copy of MS for THAW, if you play EA fist, but that seems to much effort for two little gain IMHO for the rest of the scenarios. — Susumu · 366
Runic Axe

After playing with and upgrading this card, I've really grown to hate it. Not because it's a bad card (it's great, honestly) but because it's so flexible that it will stifle competitive design for other Guardian weapons, especially the low level ones.

Think of it this way: for level 1, its "competition" is The Hungering Blade, which is already...not great. But let's think about future designs, and review what they have to compete with.

With 1 XP invested, Runic Axe is a 4cost 2-handed weapon with 4 charges, recharging one charge per round (and can still attack for +1 Fight with zero charges, giving it a flexibility edge over anything that needs charges or ammo). In addition, Runic Axe will have either

Spend 1 Charge: Get +2 Fight on attack Spend 1 Charge: Deal +1 damage on attack Is a Relic and only costs 3 instead of 4 (nice for Guardians who often struggle to scrounge cash)

OR

Spend 1 Charge: Get +2 Fight on attack Spend 1 Charge: Deal +1 damage on attack Spend 1 Charge: If this attack defeats an enemy, either heal 1 horror, heal 1 damage, or draw 1 card

OR

Spend 1 Charge: Get +2 Fight on attack Spend 1 Charge: Deal +1 damage on attack Spend 1 Charge: If this attack succeeds by the location's shroud or greater, discover 1 clue at location

OR

Spend 1 Charge: Get +2 Fight on attack Spend 1 Charge: Deal +1 damage on attack Spend 1 Charge: Get a free move (that doesn't trigger AoO) or a free engage

OR

Spend 1 Charge: Get +2 Fight on attack Spend 1 Charge: Deal +1 damage on attack Spend 1 Charge: If this attack is successful, deal 1 damage to each other enemy engaged with you

Any future 1 XP Guardian weapon has to compete with that, and compete with the fact that you get 2 copies of it for 1 XP, and compete with the growth over time, and compete with the not-so-unlikely chance that you'll Refine it to make it stronger without even getting charged XP. That basically boils down to forcing "good" future 1 XP Guardian weapons to be one-handed, and even then, they'll feel extremely lackluster unless they come with either guaranteed bonus damage and some kind of reactive ability (for things with ammo), or conditional bonus damage that you can reliably build your deck around, unlike Hungering Blade and some kind of reactive ability (for things you don't have to reload). Whatever the bonus or condition is probably needs to be good in multiples, too, to make spending 2 XP on a pair of copies not feel worse than spending 1 XP on 2 copies of Axe.

Tl;dr: Runic Axe is great, impactful, and incredibly flexible. Everything that makes it a worthwhile inclusion as a card also forces power creep into future 1 or 2 XP Guardian weapons to be worth including in any deck. It's also hard to nerf, and the weakest thing about it is that it takes 2 hands.

I think the fact runic axe recharges and can't be sped up easily by guardians is a decent enough draw back, at the low xp costs if you don't build a deck with some supportive damage boosters/events it can really struggle if you get a few enemies in a row. that enough of a difference between it and say hungering blade. — Zerogrim · 293
It's also unique, so no double bandolier. — MrGoldbee · 1460
It's a +1/+1 weapon with 1 charge a turn until you get 3 or 4 xp into it, or a +3/+0 weapon, or +1/+0 weapon with heal/card draw/clue. And you have to pick when you spend the xp. This thing at low levels is a worse machete. — jaunt · 20
@jaunt but a better .45 — Nenananas · 257
Grim Memoir

I wonder why fighters do not get weapons as good like Seekers get their toys. Why is there no lvl 0,1 hand weapon that says you get +2 fight, deal +1 dmg and if you succeed by 2 or more you draw a card? Probably would be a bit too much. You could argue that this does not give +1 clue but the basis of fight is dealing 2 dmg per hit to make it even good, not getting into the thing that getting clues is still more important than dealing dmg, as clues win you the game. Also, why do we not have a card like Crack the Case that is Guardian and says play when you defeat an enemy, gain x resources where x is that enemy's printed fight or health value?

Blood&gore · 430
My guess would be that if enemies are too easy to kill (arguably they already are) then a lot of tension gets removed from the game. The designers probably do want players to succeed at the game and experience the story, and since getting clues is the name of the game (and playing offense to what the game is doing, killing enemies is playing defense) it's necessary that they have good tools to do that. Also, give it time. The game has many more years ahead and there is plenty of design space left. — ArkhamArkhanist · 10
A level 0 1 hand weapon that deals 2 damage with no condition and lets you draw is not an equivalent to this card in the slightest. — SSW · 213
Increased cost, slow, use based, magnifying glass lets you sometimes draw cards.... and all guardians got was runic axe, what a rip off. — Zerogrim · 293
The game wouVariety among the factions is a good thing. Different classes should have different strengths and weaknesses. — Pseudo Nymh · 54
Didn't edit that right, but I stand by the sentences that are complete. :p — Pseudo Nymh · 54
You have a weapon like this: boxing gloves. Get a bonus and draw a card if an enemy is defeated. And you trade the bonus against infinite uses. And the best is that bonus is passive and count for all fight events and other weapons. — Tharzax · 1
Discovering clues and dealing damage are NOT comparable. Undiscovered clues don't attack you, just to name one example. — snacc · 988
For drawing cards specifically? Because drawing cards has always been Seeker-centric and +1 clue would be too good for this card. If you don't fixate on the draw effect, this is basically .41 Derringer. For resources, there's always On The Hunt (3, admittedly) and Kicking The Hornet's Nest, so there are options out there, but having strength in drawing is, again, something that Seekers pride themselves in more than any other class. That's like complaining why Rogues have more resource-gaining cards than other classes. — TheDoc37 · 468