Black Market

Black Market

Not a review, but yet another rules q:

I'm Wendy with a Deja Vu. I play Black market and reveal my own Burn After Reading. Someone else plays it, exiling it and some card from their hand

Can I use Deja Vu on that copy of Burn? Or no, because I didn't exile it? (I know it's in my Exile , but I technically didn't put it there??)

slyguavas · 49
My read would be that Exile is an effect that removes a card from your deck. A card played with Black Market that is discarded goes to its original owners' discard, so it doesn't alter ownership of the card, and it would still be exiled from your deck and not your teammates. — Maseiken · 1
We also see this on Black Market itself. If a card isn't played, its shuffled into "its owners" deck. Despite being playable by any investigator, the cards are still "owned" by the investigator whose deck supplied them. — Maseiken · 1
While that's a fair way to homerule it if you want, Deja Vu is explicit: "cards you exiled." There is no 'your exile'; it was returned to the collection. — Death by Chocolate · 1479
either you exiled it from your deck (and deja vu works) or you didn't exile it from your deck soooo...its still in your deck. I think the actual resolution is other players can't play exile cards because you can't pay costs using other players components, in this case exiling is a cost using someone else's deck, black market lets you play the card but doesn't let you spend things from other players. — Zerogrim · 295
Neither of the exiles in burn after reading are costs though — NarkasisBroon · 10
I think the answer is no, it was exiled, but you didn't exile it. So deja vu doesn't work. Deja vu also therefore wouldn't work if a scenario effect exiled cards but I don't think there are any of those at the moment. — NarkasisBroon · 10

Burden of Leadership

Burden of Leadership

This isn't exactly the kind of weakness that is going to have Charlie too worried because you have flexibility to decide how to handle the revelation effect.

Let's say you exhaust all your allies during the upkeep phase; the result is you have a subpar next turn where you avoid tests and do some other stuff with your actions (draw, move, resource, etc). Sure, there will be times when there's an enemy or another really critical test that you need to deal with. But you can always take the damage/horror route if there is something important going on, not to mention passive effects on your allies are still going to work.

Just don't get caught with no allies in your hand or in play and only this card in your deck. That would be bad...

kingofyates · 26
I just noticed the disclamer regarding the weakness in Valentin's review of Charlie. I'd say, he is wrong. Because of the ruling for exhaust: "An exhausted card CANNOT exhaust again until it is ready (typically by a game step or card ability)." So the biggest threat is indeed, if the weakness hits you, when all your allies are exhausted. Many simply can't take more than 1 damage or horror, so would get defeated by it. — Susumu · 371
You are correct that the exhausted card doesn't exhaust again, but that doesn't stop you choosing the exhaust option. From the rules on must "In the absence of the word "must" while choosing among multiple options, any option may be chosen upon the resolution of the effect – even an option that does not change the game state." — NarkasisBroon · 10
That's the reasoning, Valentin stated. However, I think, it is not true. If you theoretically could exhaust a card a second time, you could choose this option, even though it would not change the game state, because there is no "must" on this card. However, it is not even possible to exhaust the card a second time, hence the rule for exhaustion. Therefore, you can't even choose this option. — Susumu · 371
An interesting effect of this weakness is that Charlie has a large soak pool that he might not want to use very much. Might make him a good candidate for the Desperate skills and similar cards. — Maseiken · 1
I'm with susumu on this. it is not about not changing a game state, it is about choosing an ilegal action — Adny · 1
"Choosing an illegal action" isn't a concept this game has, though. The word "cannot" only means that it doesn't happen. If it's part of a cost, that means you aren't able to pay the cost in full, if it's part of an effect, it can only stop you in as much as it might mean the effect doesn't have the potential to change the game state. Failing to exhaust an exhausted card is no different from failing to lose resources you don't have or counters from a card that doesn't have any. — Thatwasademo · 58
Furthermore, I just want to point out that FFG knows how to use the word "must" when writing cards for this game, and if they meant it to be there, they would have put it there. — Thatwasademo · 58
Every game has the concept of invalid targets and invalid actions - eg succeed or fail on encounter card, tap lucky/rabbit, enter location that says "Forced: When you enter this location, exhaust 3 assets you control" You can't pick the cigs/rabbit. It's not a valid target for that, because it's already exhausted. If the card read "exhaust all ally assets you control, or deal 1 direct horror and damage to all ally assets you control' the absence of a must should permit the former even with all allies already tapped, but it's a choice made per card, and therefore... Honestly even given this the weakness is not _THAT_ bad, but it means that you'll probably lose allies from time to time. — Lailah · 1
"Just don't get caught with no allies in your hand or in play and only this card in your deck. That would be bad..." Actually, no. As per the Rules Reference: "A single card cannot be shuffled into an empty player deck or encounter deck via card effect. If this shuffling would occur during the playing or revelation of a card that is typically discarded after it is resolved, such as an event or treachery card, it is discarded. Otherwise, the card remains in its current game area." — Red_Rob · 1

Crisis of Identity

Crisis of Identity

The most important word of this card is "Then". If Lola has a Permanent of her role (or a card that can't be discarded like Unscrupulous Loan), she will not discard all cards of her current role, and the second part of Crisis of Identity will not happen (no card discarded from deck and no role switch).

So, if you buy a Permanent of each class, half of your investigator weakness will be nullified. As a nice side effect, you will get full bonus from the Synergy cards, all of those (except Close the Circle) beeing events or skills and therefore immune to Crisis of Identity,

For example, i like to start my campaign with In the Thick of It, Shrewd Analysis Short Supply, Charon's Obol and Arcane Research, before dealing with with Sacred Covenant on second scenario.

If Charon's Obol scares you, you can wait the second scenario for Adaptable. I would still keep ItToI'xp for some synergy cards.

Edit : thanks to the latest taboo, this review has become irrelevant :/

Emmental · 129
This makes me finally want to give Lola a try. Good spot! — snacc · 1001
good catch, though if there are non-permanent cards in play of her current role, they will go still — SergSel · 370
While this is true, losing one card off the top of your deck and being forced to change rolls is far less than 'half' of the impact of Crisis of Identity. — Death by Chocolate · 1479

Charlie Kane

Charlie Kane

One nice little quirk not mentioned in the other review:

Several scenarios have story assets, normally with an encounter card back, that often rather represent a liability than being of actual use. Poster children for these are Helpless Passenger or Innocent Reveler, but also Harold Walsted or Joe Sargent, who are of some use, can be seen as an example. None of these have any icons, but this does not stop Charlie from exhausting them for the 1 from his own ability. With the notable exception of Mr. Peabody, they usually don't cost an ally slot, so they are a completely free bonus for him! Just be aware, that your weakness might kill your free allies off, if it hits you, while they are exhausted.

Susumu · 371

Down the Rabbit Hole

Down the Rabbit Hole

This card is about to increase in value with the reveal of the Customizable keyword in the Scarlet Keys cycle. The details of this keyword were recently revealed (https://twitter.com/NatsunoYoru/status/1545188668570214400) on Twitter by MJ Newman.

Now, simply including a card like Hunter's Armor will provide you with seven different upgrade options - each one easily discounted by 1XP with Down the Rabbit Hole. And that's only one of the customizable cards we've seen so far! Customizable cards will also scale better than many other cards in the game, lowering the requirement for you to purchase new cards in the first place.

snacc · 1001
It still does not alter a lot with the bottle neck of discounts. You still can only discount two cards by one, and other upgrades benefit from not costing extra. Not to say, that is not useful, but if you have some core upgrades without level 0 card, like "Relic Hunter", "Grotesque Statue" or "Cyclopian Hammer", you will still gladly pay the extra XP for it. If you purchase only 1 card a new per scenario, you still get a net discount of 1. And if you delay new cards to later scenarios and start with upgrades by name, you get a pretty nice speed advantage of your deck upgrades. (Early XP are worth more, because you get use from them in more games.) I'm not saying, the Customizable cards are bad targets for DtRH, but Mystics in particular had plenty of other good targets before, so they are not strictly a necessary enabler for this card. But thanks for sharing the Customizable rules for us not twittering players here. Got a like from me for that. — Susumu · 371