Occult Lexicon

This seems like a good upgrade if your seeker can cycle their deck quickly to redraw them after shuffling them in. The potential for an extra point of damage could be useful for odd-hp enemies, and if not needed you either get to keep an extra card or get an extra resource.

Also of interest is that this card has lost the text "When Occult Lexicon leaves play, find each of those copies of Blood-Rite (even if they are out of play) and remove them from the game." I think this means you can now swap the tome out after playing it and still keep the Blood-Rite cards in the deck. You don't get to use them as powered up versions, but replacing it with a better hand item might be worth the trade.

awroe · 7
I'm glad you mentioned the loss of text on this card; the upgraded Hallowed Mirror is the same. — SGPrometheus · 855
could someon play both the lvl 0 and lvl 3 version of this card or does the "limit once per deck " still prevents you from doing so ? — aurchen · 307
@aurchen you cannot contain both in deck, because limit restriction works by title. You could check "Limits and Maximums" parts in RR. Of course, you may play both by some card (teamwork, you owe me one..); you may contain at most 3 blood-rite as in FAQ 1.19 and bonded rule. — elkeinkrad · 505
Shrine of the Moirai

I just used this card with Calvin in a Dark Horse deck that uses "I've had worse…" instead of Perseverance, because it's free and brings fuel to your Fire Axe/Mariner's Compass, and it blew my mind!

That got me interested in looking deeper into the real benefits of this card over its competitors.

TL;DR: Shrine of the Moirai is the most versatile discard-pile-drawing card available to as of now. No limit of class, or level, is fast after being played. Buy it after you bought some key events to use them over and over again. It is important to be confident in your encounter prot though, before adding it to your deck. And this is useable by your fellow teammates!


Shrine of the Moirai: 1 action, 1 resource, 6 targets, 3 encounter cards, 3xp, limit: 5xp for the 2 cards, the user needs to stay at the same location when using it. this is the most versatile discard-drawing card.

Net cost: 0 actions (considering encounter cards like 1 action lost for each, which is an average, some will make you lose 2 actions, others just provoke a skill test or direct effect).

Best when: Played at the end of your turn, you can consider that you will use it once after playing it, and once at the beginning of your next turn. Also interesting at the end of your campaign to recycle certain of your key cards (events/skills most likely). Importantly, it can be used by anyone at that same location!

Down side: You need a solid encounter-protection to find a real benefit to Shrine of the Moirai. The new Nine of Rods helps scaling down the risk, and all the versions of A Test of Will as well. If you are pairing with a Mystic, that's also often going to be fine, especially as they can use Ward of Protection on it (and redraw it right after, along with a 5 pips spell, like Deny Existence).


Here is now an analysis of when X card is better or worse than Shrine of the Moirai:

Scrounge for Supplies: 1 action, 0 resource, 1 target, 0xp - limit: level 0 card.

Net cost: -1 action: You spend an action to replace Scrounge for Supplies by any other level 0 card in your discard pile.

Best when: Early campaigns when all your cards are level 0

Down side: Good cards tend to be in your discard pile by the end of the scenario when actions become really scarce, therefore Scrounge for Supplies may stay in your hand because you have more important stuff to take care of.

Resourceful: 0 action, 0 resource, 1 target, 0 xp - limit: cards, only works on success.

Net cost: 0 actions: You spend one card to find another one

Best when: Playing heavy decks like Calvin Wright or Stella Clark. Also, you need to be sure to succeed in your test and aim at higher level cards for a better return on investment.

Down side: draw the and you lost your chance. Let's face it, we all wasted Resourceful at least once on an excess of confidence in the Chaos bag.

True Survivor: 1 action, 3 resources, 3 targets, 3xp - limit: Innate skills (full list of Innate skills here)

Net cost: -2 actions

Best when: You play the combos of Brute Force and Sharp Vision. Or Resourceful to bring back your True Survivor for another round.

Down side: Very expensive in XP. Your deck must be more or less built around this strategy for you to find a spot for this card in your upgrades.

A Chance Encounter (0): 1 action, 1 resource, 1 target, 0xp - limit: Allies, only for 1 turn

Net cost: -2 actions

Best when: You use it on allies that bring something specific: Anna Kaslow, Tetsuo Mori if you can kill him fast enough, Medical Student, Laboratory Assistant, Research Librarian, etc... The Red-Gloved Man why not, but you lost your first use of him already...

Down side: The Ally is discarded (not defeated, sorry Xavier) at the end of the round, when it takes you already 1 action to play it.

A Chance Encounter (2): 1 action, 0 resources (it doesn't add to the value of the target), 1 target, 2xp - limit: Allies that are already defeated/discarded

Net cost: -1 actions: You spend one card to find another one

Best when: You heavily rely on certain allies that provide you a time-based benefit: Guard Dog, Beat Cop (2), Aquinnah (3), Agency Backup, Grete Wagner, Mr. "Rook", David Renfield, Eldritch Sophist, Dayana Esperence, etc...

Down side: This card becomes useful only when you first draw your ally and finish using it. It implies heavy use of this ally's benefit. It can also become a very costly strategy (Hey Agency Backup).

Scavenging & Scavenging (2): 1 action, 1 resource, unlimited targets, 0&2xp - limit: you need to be a good investigator

Net cost: N/A

Best when: You are an investigator with access to this card and you are interested in reusing certain items. First in mind are Rex Murphy and Minh Thi Phan with the Ancient Stone, Agnes Baker with her charged spells, or Calvin Wright, Wendy Adams that will like to re-use soaks. "Ashcan" Pete will also like to draw back some cards from the discard pile to turn them into dog food another time, and potentially Preston Fairmont could also use it.

Down side: You need to be confident in your investigating capacities to make the best out of this card. It is also often useful from the 2/3 of your scenario onward, as you first need to draw your item, use it completely, discard it, and play Scavenging to be able to spend another action to play it again. This decreases the overall value of Scavenging & Scavenging (2). It is often being used around twice to 3 times per scenario.

Conclusion:

Shrine of the Moirai fits best with investigators that have a great protection against encounter cards (Wendy Adams, Calvin Wright, Stella Clark for example) and rely on some key events.

It is expensive in XP, but is by far the most versatile one of them all. It is a great replacement for Scrounge for Supplies once you bought expensive cards and you want to use them as many times as possible.

Unless you play a certain style of deck in which Resourceful, True Survivor or A Chance Encounter will shine, Shrine of the Moirai is your go-to card for bringing value to your discard pile.

Valentin1331 · 82151
I think you’ve overlooked something… Anyone in your party can use this. We had tremendous luck in a recent campaign using this to recur level two deductions. With Gloria, you can easily know what you’re going to get, and with investigators like Roland, you might want to get more enemies on the board. Any fun skill card is now back in your hand. Same for fun event cards! — MrGoldbee · 1497
Thanks, I actually mentioned the fact that it can be used by your teammates in the TL;DR :). Also I forgot one of my other big time favourite, Scavenging 0 & 2, that require you to throw heavy investigation to be reliable and only target at Items. I love the 2xp version especially for the Fast effect when aimed at recurring key items like your soaks, or your empty weapons. — Valentin1331 · 82151
I'm sorry but, is it correct that another investigator could use this? As I know, Shortcut (2) may not, so that it was fixed by erratum, but it seems that Moirai has the same problem. — elkeinkrad · 505
That's a good call. Especially as the erratum is leaning towards "attached to location" can be used by other investigators, and it is not clearly mentioned here that it's not possible, I feel like it's fine. And it thematically fits with the idea of the card IMO. — Valentin1331 · 82151
you aren't using the shrine, you are using an ability of a location — Adny · 1
The issue is, given someone else played shrine on the location, the triggered ability comes from a card you don't control. Shortcut 2 was directly errata'd such that it specifies "any investigator at this location may trigger this ability", which is necessary as otherwise investigators cannot interact with abilities from cards they don't control (even though the location gains the ability, the ability itself needs to be something you control). It's very unintuitive, you would think that the ability being on the location is enough, but it doesn't work that way. So currently, the Shrine can only be used by the investigator who plays it. Unlike Shortcut 2, it's hard to tell if this is intentional or not. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
The FAQ section on "permitted triggered abilities" seems pretty clear, you can trigger abilities on locations, the effect granting the location moirai's power isn't a triggered one so it doesn't matter who controls it. dunno where there's any contradiction in the rules. — Zerogrim · 296
Shortcut 2 has the erratum because of the rule of “Costs”: “Only the controller of a card or ability may pay its costs. Game elements another player controls may not be used to pay a cost.” “When a player is exhausting, sacrificing, or otherwise using cards to pay costs, only cards that are in play and under that player’s control may be used”. So without the erratum, though other investigators can undoubtly trigger the ability on a location card, they cannot exhaust shortcut to pay the cost of the ability (since shortcut is still controlled by the investigator who played it), thus can't actually use the ability. Someone on Mythos Busters sent this problem to MJ and MJ then added the erratum to FAQ, iirc. Now Shrine of the Moirai has the same problem and, as StyxTBeuford says, it's hard to tell if this is intentional or not. — ydycga · 1
Great for exceptional cards, as the printed level is lower than their real/power level. — AlderSign · 430
Ceremony Room

So you're playing your game as normal. You've completed the first two acts. You know what you need to do to complete the third and final act. There are three enemies on the board and two MAYBE three more rounds worth of doom left on the agenda. It's tight, but you can win if you just stick to the plan. And then you look and there's these two locations that don't seem to have anything to do with the scenario. Why is this even here? And you read the text on the back...

I don't imagine a lot of people would be reading reviews of individual location cards on here, but this particular one is proof of how brilliantly this game is designed. The creaters knew exactly what both the game state and your own state of mind would be when you are considering going there. In its first play through, it stokes the players' curiosity and their willingness to risk it all just to learn a bit more. The text on the back is just perfect. It knows who you are and speaks directly to your investigative gamer's soul.

Directive

Using this directive means there is no point in Roland using police dogs in the extra ally slot. As the dogs only bite after they have been assigned damage.

Brother Xavier: Pure of Spirit is also made worthless.

LegendRJS · 3
The dog for sure. But Bro Xavier could still be asigned damage and horror from other investigators though. — Susumu · 383
A card that actually makes "Something Worth Fighting For" look pretty good. — Pinchers · 133
You could take the front but not the back of parallel Roland and add Agency Backup? Not sure that effectively saving 3xp on Charisma is really worth the regulation, but if you're not planning on using the allies to soak anyway maybe nbd. — swornabsent · 7
How would this affect allys that have a trigger that deals damage directly to the ally? e.g. #grete vagner or #beat cop[2] — mordequess · 96
Similar question here. — Rick Dreckitt · 1
For the people asking about Grete or Beat Cop: those still work fine. They deal themselves damage as part of their effect, the damage is not assigned to them. — Veronica212 · 301
Can anyone answer how this directive interacts with The Black Cat or Key of ay's? — thewintersloth · 1
Black Cat would work fine for the same reason as Beat Cop and Grete Wagner... it takes direct damage, it's not being "assigned" damage that was otherwise dealt to you. And Key of Ys isn't an Ally, so it's unaffected. — HanoverFist · 762
Directive

Very funny and tricky Directive card, I think. You can very strange play by triggering. Note that you may play a event during any player window as in Fence FAQ, as I know. If it's revealed that it's not true, please ignore this review at all.

However, the Regulation is strong. You can play at most 2 cards for each round. Don't forget this limit includes not only events, but also assets. If you plan to trigger , you can only play 1 card for each round. One solution is Stick to the Plan + Ever Vigilant combo. Just reveal , and play Ever Vigilant.

I think here is a dilemma that the commit-based deck seems to be suitable due to play-regulation. However, parallel deckbuilding may access limited number of skills and normal deckbuilding may access limited number of tactic/insight events.

elkeinkrad · 505
Ever Vigilant should not work, as it also _plays_ the cards, right? — trazoM · 9
@trazoM you need to reveal elder_sign to ignore regulation before play Ever Vigilant :) — elkeinkrad · 505
aaah, that's printed in Roland, I see. I guess it was a joke, then :D — trazoM · 9
The ruling for fast assets is that they can be played in any fast window **during your turn**! (Corroborated by re-reading the Fence FAQ answer very carefully) So, rules as written, you would not be able to do shenanigans with this directive during the enemy phase. Obviously, "rules as written" is very different from "rules as intended" so people should play as they want :) — Frost · 275
Event is not asset. There are no restriction for event. — elkeinkrad · 505
Additionally, Fence tells "during your turn" but this Direction doesn't. — elkeinkrad · 505
Good point that I missed (and TIL!) in which case it works like Chuck Fergus, for which there hasn't been a ruling as to what happens when you have a fast event without a specified point in time it's allowed to be played, which leaves us with you can basically decide for yourself — Frost · 275
Would just like to point out that in Arkham Horror, "playing" refers to paying a card's resource cost to place it into your play area, so you can still use the Reaction of this directive (it's Permanent, so it always starts in your play area) and still play 2 more cards from your hand. Because of this, Ever Vigilant still works, but you can only play one other card. Since it gets fast, though, you can do cool things like playing weapons while an enemy is right on top of you. So it's still very strong! — GoldPooka · 7
I don't believe GoldPooka is right. Not taking the play action doesn't mean you're not playing a card. — StyxTBeuford · 13052