Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Isabelle's Twin .45s

As much as I love playing Isabelle, I seriously wonder who thought giving Isabelle Barnes a copy of Thompson Submachine Gun as her signature card AND Gift of Nodens built into her investigator sheet was a good idea.

To be clear, Isabelle's Twin .45s takes some setup. It's not self-sufficient, and Isabelle's base stats mean you're only fighting at 4 for each attack. The extra Fight action also requires Isabelle to fight with Agility, so you may not have skill dedications for both halves of the card.

On the other hand, Resourceful, At a Crossroads, and Fight or Flight exist to help Isabellle break the game in half. Assuming you have time for setup, you can play Fight or Flight to get a massive boost to each fight action, and sequence your Resourceful to recur At a Crossroads to get extra actions --- easily allowing you to fight at 9+ six times in a row and do 12 damage. Most enemies will just explode. If you really need to reset and do it all over again, just make sure to have Hunter's Instinct and Act of Desperation available, and you can chuck your guns at the boss as a coup de grace, and then reset to do it all over again.

6/17/26

Telosa · 81

I mean, it's explicitly balanced for CH2. So they don't care if older stuff breaks it. — MrGoldbee · 1581 6/18/26

Also the bonus attack exhausts the guns. — MrGoldbee · 1581 6/18/26

Agree with MrGoldbee. Also there's only one copy in her deck - even with tutor cards (which are absent in Chapter 2 in the Survivor class) you'd still be lucky to find it. As a signature it's okay, especially as Izzie doesn't have any means to reload it. — HungryColquhoun · 18289 6/21/26

To clarify, the bonus attack exhausts the guns, but with a full collection, you can use cards like Resourceful to recur At A Crossroads twice a turn to get an addition 2 actions. It takes a little bit of work to set up the combo, but once you get the cards in your hand, play area, and discard pile, you can consistently do 4-6 action turns and unload your all six shots in your gun, and then reset on alternating turns. — Telosa · 81 6/25/26

Ultimate Sacrifice

This card seems to be much stronger than the two other "do powerful effect, then you are defeated" cards in the game. The way I see it, if you play this card and then you resign before (!) the repetition of the investigation phase ends, you avoid being defeated and suffering trauma, since you're no longer in the game when the "you are defeated" part of the effect resolves. If I'm correct about this, then this is a very strong card!

6/17/26

Corgano · 4

4xp for a "You Better Win NOW" button seems cool. — MrGoldbee · 1581 6/17/26

I am pretty sure anything that exhausts stays exhausted however if you use this — HeroesOfTomorrow · 106 6/18/26

Correct, there is no upkeep phase in between. And yes, if there is no "end of that phase" you avoid the trigger. — AlderSign · 472 6/18/26

Do-or-Die

Do-or-Die is just Resourceful, but slightly more restrictive and with different icon. Instead of being able to return any Survivor card that is not named Resourceful, Do-or-Die can only be used to recur Asset and Event Survivor cards. That might sound like a major issue, but you barely notice it with cards like Gift of Nodens and the new Hunter's Instinct.

6/17/26

Telosa · 81

Art's more fun. — MrGoldbee · 1581 6/17/26

Blood Curse

I felt it was important to point out that this card specifically says "deal 1 damage to a card with health at your location" which includes enemies since they are a card with health who are often at your location. I'm not sure if its intentional as it feels like it was meant to say "deal 1 damage to a player card with health at your location". But if that does get errata/taboo would make the card practically unplayable as 3 EXP for an extra ? and choice of player damage isn't the best.

Regardless of intention it's a great card as it lets you pass a test and deal 1 damage to an enemy at your location, as committing +5 to test will easily push you over the standard bag for most tests. Furthermore, since it's a Spell card it can be fetched with Arcane Initiate and others.

Got a Whippoorwill/Zealot annoying you, but don't want to spend the actions to engage/fight it? Well just investigate your location using its blood.

Want to help the Guardian burn down that Elite? Commit this to a standard Cosmic Flame attack to deal 3 damage. It's also super safe if that Elite is engaged to the Guardian since both Cosmic Flame's bonus damage and this are predicated on you succeeding.

All this to say have fun blood bending enemies into passed skill tests.

6/16/26

McJames · 337

It's intentional. It's kill 1 one health aloof foe for 0 actions. — MrGoldbee · 1581 6/16/26

This sure is intentional, it costs 3 XP! But do note that it is best played if there is an enemy at your location since dealing the damage is NOT optional. Which makes sense in the context of new Marie. — AlderSign · 472 6/16/26

I mean they have released three exp skill cards that are even worse than +5 wild you pick who takes the damage (cough Indomitable) — McJames · 337 6/18/26

Unflappable

Just commit Manual Dexterity pal, it is so much better than this trash event could ever hope to be in a million of years.

Wow, needing to reach the 200 words limit is a lot harder than I thought? Hopefully this will be enough to get over the amount now...

6/15/26

HeroesOfTomorrow · 106

Maybe if you have Down the rabbit hole and an ally who can profit massively from the healing like Jim? — Tharzax · 2 6/15/26

@Tharzax This can't heal allies — HeroesOfTomorrow · 106 6/15/26

Oh, you mean the upgraded version? I mean, that is a totally different card, so I wouldn't count exp reduction shennanigans — HeroesOfTomorrow · 106 6/15/26

Expensive and very niche. — MrGoldbee · 1581 6/15/26

Actually the only deck where I would consider to put in this card is the new Carolyn, where the healing comes along with a clue. — Tharzax · 2 6/16/26

@Tharzax The issue I see with this is that you need to fulfill THREE condition to heal 1 Horror: you must 2 resources, have 2 clues and pass an evasion test (and while there are Seeker with decent to amazing Agility, most of them have a sub-par amount). Even for a level 0 card, it's ludicrously restrictive: manual dexterity, meanwhile, doesn't cost anything, can be used on any agility test (not just evasions) and draw cards (meaning it is not useless even if you are at full Sanity). As much people (rightfully) clown on Fame, at least that doesn't require to jump on any hoops beyond spending multiple actions to gain cash. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 106 6/16/26

Needing to pass the evasion test are actually 2 conditions in 1, since there is no evasion attempt without an enemy. — AlderSign · 472 6/16/26

I general I agree with you, that in most cases the skill beats this event due to the lack of the costs and the versatility to commit it to all agility tests. The restrictions are in my opinion rather mild. As a seeker having two clues is not a big problem. So to me it's a pay 2 for a boosted evasion and heal a horror event. I would probably put such an event in my deck if I get some synergies from the investigator, that boosts the effect. Actually I see 4 investigators, who might consider this card: The new Carolyn for the extra clue from healing, Seeker Agatha, who can reuse the event and new Trish and Flynn due to their extra action and vulnerability to horror. (And yes Fynns deck building limitation will let me look for other seeker cards) — Tharzax · 2 6/16/26

I think it's alright, but you would take it in addition to Manual Dexterity at best. Trish likes it (possibility of horror healing, and she can afford it). Carolyn has pretty limited enemy management options so this + Manual Dexterity can help there (which is the exact approach I took in my published deck...). For the "Oh crap, I really need to pass this evade" moments you can use both for a +4 boost. — HungryColquhoun · 18289 6/17/26

This can be played in Joe Diamond's hunch desk for free. Still pretty trash though. — liwl0115 · 57 6/17/26

But it's still a bad pick for the hunch deck, because the window where you want to play it is not necessary the window, when it's on top of your side deck. — Tharzax · 2 6/19/26