Recharge

Hey, here is an official ruling about the interaction between the mystic player cards Eldritch Inspiration and Recharge.

Question:

Hello, I have a question regarding the interaction between the mystic player cards Eldritch Inspiration and Recharge.

So the question is: Does the word "Otherwise" from the card Recharge is referring to the revelation of the , , , or token or the resolution of it's negative effect? In other words, if I use Eldritch Inspiration to cancel the negative effect of Recharge (discarding the targeted asset) do I still get its positive effect (the 3 extra charges) or not? Thanks for the answear and your time.

Answear:

Greetings, If you use Eldritch Inspiration to cancel the “…if you reveal a ___ symbol…” effect on Recharge, it cancels just the “discard the chosen asset” effect. The “otherwise” clause doesn’t kick in because you still revealed the relevant symbol.

In other words, it’s not saying “if the asset wasn’t discarded, add 3 charges to it,” it’s saying “if you revealed any other token, add 3 charges to it.”

Still a great combo for ensuring that Recharge doesn’t get rid of your best spell [or relic] asset, though!

Cheers,

Matthew Newman

Senior Card Game Developer

Fantasy Flight Games

PD: In my personal opinion the combo is not worth it XD. I now use Premonition and/or Olive McBride to somehow mitigate variance when using Recharge on my Pendant of the Queen...so being there is no way to guarantee the 3 extra charges, you've got to ask yourself one question before you put Recharge in your deck: 'Do I feel lucky?'... Well, do you, punk?

Alogon · 1125
Aquinnah

EDIT: removed the cringy self-congratulations for finding an exploit in Arkham Horror.

Because I apparently need 200 characters minimum in a review, Step 4 could be either; turn the Watcher's attack on itself, or better yet, make it your attack dog and deal three test-less damage to any fool who dares step up to Patrice.

Lucaxiom · 4465
I don’t think you can deal damage to it when it’s in your hand, only ‘fight’ it as if it were at your location. — Difrakt · 1304
You can fail the test, let it spawn engaged with you and then take an attack of opportunity. Not sure this is the most efficient way to deal with it though. — Sassenach · 179
It's actually quite an ingenious plan, particularly the part about carrying the Watcher around and using it to kill other enemies. Don't think it's game-breaking though. Aquinnah is a 4 cost asset and Patrice only gets one opportunity to play her. Holding 4 resources in hand while you wait to draw her isn't exactly efficient. It's a fun exploit but probably won't be used much. — Sassenach · 179
I can see some use in dealing the Watcher's damage to other enemies, not back at the Watcher. But for this you need to have a viable target at your location at the right time and you also gimp yourself by having -1 card in your hand. So while the combo is certainly potent when it works, it is difficult to setup and has a few downsides. In my opinion it is a fun, but janky combo, not a gamebreaking exploit (like infinite Jenny for example). — PowLee · 20
You don't need to keep it in your hand; you can purposely fail an attack to spawn it at your location, and trigger the attack reflection 3 times on other enemies before using the forth reflect needs to be used on the Watcher itself. if you have another investigator at your location, you can have them engage enemies for you so you only get attacked once per round. Failing that, you can play cards like hiding spot or infighting to delay attacks as you position yourself for maximum damage output. Failing that, good enough evade options will achieve the same result. — Lucaxiom · 4465
@Lucaxiom Excet that Aquinnah exhausts, so you can’t simply trigger three or four times. You have to space it out across 3-4 rounds which means lots of AoOs that can’t be cancelled or actions getting lost, or TN 5 evade checks that need to be made. Yeah, converting TN 5 agility tests into 3 damage hits isn’t the worst, but it definitely requires more than just the one card combo. — Death by Chocolate · 1473
Relying on specific cards in your hand is quite the gamble with Patrice cause you'll discard them at the end of your turn. You could setup hiding spots in advance, but risking you're too far away when the watcher in play and enemy to reflect. Hiding spot and infighting are both rather useless, so i wouldnt recommend using them. Aquinnah 4 on the other hand is very helpful, even without the watcher. — Django · 5093
Tried this out on a whim on a Return to Midnight Masks solo run. I did get stuck under the watcher for a couple rounds, but Aquinnah made up for it by directing the Watcher at two masked cultists and one three-health doom accumulator. — Kergma · 11
Also, one key point: the Watcher is a hunter, so if you can evade it once and get the timing right, it’ll come to your targets. You don’t need to drag it around. — Kergma · 11
Teamwork

EDIT: Grammar

Teamwork is a card that, on it's own, requires such a knowledge of the resource dependency of not just your own deck but each of your fellow investigators' decks as well to determine it's usefulness, that the effort involved in getting and analysing that information is better spent picking a different card and doing something more meaningful with your time. However, Teamwork also has the benefit of facilitating some jank, of which I'm going to detail three such instances below:

First, poverty decks, defined by decks that centre around Dark Horse, have an annoying catch-22; they need to have the resource expenditure to get your resources to zero in order to facilitate Dark Horse, but also be cheap enough to operate without resources once Dark Horse hits the field. The solution is usually cards that have additional avenues for spending resources, AKA Fire Axe and Dig Deep, but investigators that can take guardian and survivor cards have a third option; donating your resources away with Teamwork. So William Yorick, Tommy Muldoon, "Ashcan" Pete, and Zoey Samaras will probably want to including at least one copy of Teamwork, should they decide to go the poverty route.

Second, a deck archetype I call the Charity Gala, with none other than Jenny Barnes in a full support roll. Coupled with Charles Ross, Esq. and Joey "The Rat" Vigil, its main purpose is to bankroll the rest of your team, either by paying for their assets, for straight up giving them money with Teamwork. The Ally exchange part will actually see use as well in this deck; Joey "The Rat" Vigil is a stupidly expensive card, but his effect, and highest health/sanity values, are useful to any investigator, especially if Jenny foots the bill, and Charles Ross, Esq.'s discount affects everyone regardless of who's controlling him.

Third, and while I usually don't advocate begging, I'll make an exception for the poorest investigator in the game bar none; Mark Harrigan. I cannot stress enough how much Mark struggles with economy. Not only is he restricted to guardian, neutral, and lvl 0 tactic cards (AKA "I've had worse…", Emergency Cache, and Act of Desperation), but he also has the fastest draw-engine of all the investigators (which impoverishes him more as he loses out of the one resource stipend gained from drawing cards in the upkeep phase), AND he's disinclined from including the cheapest type of cards in his deck; skill cards, on account of having an on-demand Unexpected Courage most the the time. If you're willing to sell your dignity, then do take Teamwork when playing Mark, because Lord knows he needs every scrap of economy he can get.

Lucaxiom · 4465
I don't get it - why does Mark lose out on the upkeep resource again? — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Mark doesn’t struggle that bad with economy. His card advantage is the best out of all Guardians, and Stick to the Plan helps that even further. His resource gen as a result isnt bad either with Ever Vigilant, and Act of Desperation and Thompson 3 go a long way as well. I dont think I would take Teamwork in Mark just for resources. Play E Cache instead? — StyxTBeuford · 13028
I think skill cards are really good as Mark. They complement Sophie's boosts very well! — CaiusDrewart · 3170
Teamwork is strange with bonded cards, like hallowed mirror. It doesn't leave play, so the owner still keeps the bonded cards, but saves a slot. Regarding mark, you don't have to use his ability, if your hand is full but you're missing ressources to play them. — Django · 5093
Another reason why Mark might want to use teamwork: to take control of Jessica Hyde from a friendly Survivor. — Zinjanthropus · 229
With the sheer power of Hunters Armor and Runic Axe, this card is stronger than it used to be, yeah? A character like Carson can use this to hand nasty items like these off to allies more qualified to use them — The Nue · 1
You forgot the jankiest jank of all: Getting rid or taking control of Charon's Obol in juuust the right moment (: — AlderSign · 301
Absolutely love this card, as it truly shines in 2 handed solo, where you can really tune two decks to share many slots, and the imagination is the only limitation. So much deck building ideas. So much to love about this. — Quantallar · 8
Leadership

Leadership's inclusion in your deck is entirely dependant on your deck-building philosophy:

Using myself as an example of a deck-building methodology that will likely never take Leadership, I do not build campaign specific or party specific decks. Instead I build investigator specific decks; decks that are a complete package of synergy with themselves and the special ability of the investigator they are paired with, and adhere to a full-combat roll, a full-cluever roll, a full-support, or a half-and-half of the aforementioned rolls.

This philosophy, while good for forming multi-purpose decks, lacks the foresight to include cards like Leadership. On a purely theoretical level, two investigators committing Leadership to each-others test is strictly better than two investigators committing Unexpected Courage to their own test. In that train of thought, you trade away flexibility for max potential performance, probably at too high an exchange rate to be considered a good card.

But the extra icon reveals the main use of this card; as a safety net for your fellow investigators with low . If you know you'll be hanging out with a Finn Edwards, a Silas Marsh, or a similarly stated investigator, Leadership will very likely see play in most scenarios you draw it in. One way to think about it is you save them from having to commit two cards to get the equivalent amount of protection.

This is why, when building a party-specific deck, you should always consider Leadership. It's efficacy increases with the more players in your game, as you'll be in a location with another investigator more frequently. Alongside low individuals, mystics might also appreciate the extra boost, particularly Diana Stanley while she's still stockpiling cards underneath her.

And technically, there is ONE synergistic relationship with another card; Liquid Courage. Liquid Courage is very finicky, as the investigators that probably need the horror healing the most are also the ones that are most likely to fail the test that comes with it. Leadership can thus be used to get one good Liquid Courage test and heal 2 horror off of a 5-6 sanity investigator reliably. Not a bad investment, and right up Carolyn Fern's alley, though Leo Anderson can also take those two cards.

Lucaxiom · 4465
I disagree. Beyond deckbuilding philosophy, Leadership is a bad card. Steadfast and even Guts are usually preferable due to their higher level of versatility. If I’m Finn or Skids or any other vulnerable investigator, I’d rather my Guardian have more ways to kill things or heal the group instead of committing 3 Will to a test I will still probably fail anyway. There are so many better ways for these guys to deal with their low Will, and if Im playing one of them the last thing I want is for my fellow investigators to try and compensate for my low will. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Lol, this card belongs in the last pages of the dusty binder where you keep the unplayable cards. Unfortunately deckbuilding sophistry can't change that — Alogon · 1125
Jessica Hyde

Looking to the future, at some point we should be getting Vincent Lee. If he can take Survivor level 1 cards, and his ability does something good when healing - which I assume it will - then this could be a pretty big card for him. If he can’t take survivor cards, I suppose there’s always Teamwork!

ksym77 · 91
That or similar to Carolyn he might be able to take any cards that "heal damage" which gives him Jessica access anyway. But yeah, much like Peter Sylvestre for Carolyn I can imagine Jessica being a good choice for him. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Now that we've seen Vincent, Jessica is even better for him than Peter is for Carolyn. The Strength boost is more helpful for him, than the Agility is for Carolyn, and her starting damage gives Vincent two free On the Mends. She looks like a great card for him! — Jaysaber · 7