Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Daring

Amazing card. Massively boosts your fight/evade check and replaces itself! Useful for an investigator focused on fighting that suddenly has to evade an enemy, or help an ally finish off/evade an enemy, etc.

The only reasons not to play it are:

You are bored to already play it in every fight deck, and
Your fight checks are so strong that they don't need any boosts.

6/15/25

Minethlos · 5

Yep, never undestood why it has 3 icons, not 2. Too strong IMO. — AlderSign · 430 6/15/25

Cuz alert and retaliate are rough... — MrGoldbee · 1497 6/17/25

I think the advantages outweigh the potential attack. — AlderSign · 430 6/18/25

Sure the advantages are worth the risk, but compared to the basic skills it's exactly one more icon for a chance at taking damage. That's a fair trade. — Spamamdorf · 5 6/19/25

Sacred Oath

This card and its other versions are solid, but it feels like 5XP is too much, also it should probably be fast (edit:it is but the fast keyword is kinda hidden there amidst all the text). Still, it is a good effect if you have the Arcane slot to spare and the XP to spend if you are playing an investigator that doesn't already have access to treachery cancelation effects, I dunno if any who can play this fits the bill.

6/15/25

DakonBlackblade · 13

It is fast (: The word is just a bit hidden in the sausage of text. It sounds to me that this is mainly a card for Diana, for obvious reasons. — AlderSign · 430 6/15/25

It’s good for Patrice, too. She can’t really afford to sit on Ward of Protection, but can drop these as they come and have them banked for later. She’s happier to give up an arcane slot to the effect than most mystics, too. — Eudaimonea · 6 6/15/25

Oh it is fast, i read it like three times and did see it there. It is good on Diana for sure. — DakonBlackblade · 13 6/15/25

Double Down

This card seems useful for all of those times when you have a Gatling Gun, a few extra resources, and a lot of... "Friends" that need to be taught a lesson in civility.

A one ? skill is kind of blah, but for a single resource it get +200% better. That is money well spent.

6/15/25

ErynnWoodward · 3

Obscure

This seems like a niche card that’s better for solo players and lower difficulties. That is my review.

What’s left are rules questions, because I find this card ambiguous. Does “Immediately Fight or Evade that enemy” allow the investigator using this card to activate an asset such as Blur or play an event such as Spectral Razor? Or does it presume a basic action of the relevant type? If it allows assets and events, I assume it saves exactly one action cost? Like from the Sledgehammer? And if you’re Frozen in Fear or otherwise can’t afford additional action costs of your desired swing, you presumably couldn’t do it?

6/15/25

Eudaimonea · 6

Holy moly, you made me realized they use a different wording here, compared to e.g. Eon Chart. The design team never ceased to amaze me, ambiguous indeed. Although it is just because we are used to the words in lower case letters and non-bold ("fight", "evade") - I actually think the way it's written here is the better/clearer one IF they mean any card/ability/basic action with the bold action designator. But then again, what about additional costs? I wish the used the power of reminder text more often... — AlderSign · 430 6/15/25

It's a reaction, it had to use a different wording. The bold denominator indicates it is a basic fight or evade, you can't activate assets and stuff, if you could it'd say immediately take a fight or evade action, just check how Ursula Downs is worded for reference. — DakonBlackblade · 13 6/23/25

Doppelgänger is a reaction printed in the same set that does the same thing with a different wording. It says <reaction> “ After an enemy enters or leaves attached location, return Doppelgänger to your hand: Either perform an evasion attempt against that enemy, or immediately move to attached location.” If they just now decided just now decided that the bold “Evade” was their reaction shorthand for “perform a basic evasion attempt,” it’s weird they printed two assets with that identical reaction in the set and worded them so differently. — Eudaimonea · 6 7/1/25

In other words, Doppelgänger proves that this card didn’t have to use different wording due to its reaction status, and in fact if this card is supposed to do the same thing as Doppelgänger, those two would be expected to use the same wording. Doppelgänger could save several words and be uniform if it said “Either *Evade* that enemy or *Move* to its location.” I guess one way to interpret the different wording is that they decided on this new phrasing late in The Drowned City’s design and didn’t go back to standardize Doppelgänger. Another would be that different people designed the two cards and didn’t consult one another. A third could be that they failed to send Doppelgänger through the proofing process. But it seems to me that a pretty good explanation for them being worded so differently is that they are intended to function differently. So again, what is this card supposed to do? Whoever’s confident it is a basic fight or evade action, I’d like to know your reasoning on why the wording is so different from Doppelgänger. — Eudaimonea · 6 7/3/25

Obscure

One of the best arts in the game, sadly the card in very underwhelming, having your base stat be equal to the shroud of the place is not at all a good thing, it can help you if you are a 1-2 foot investigator or a 1-2 fist investigator but it is still not good, and you need to seal a good token to keep it "armed". There are many way better ways to deal with enemies in the rogue class even for gators with low foot or fist.

6/14/25

DakonBlackblade · 13

Preston? Charlie? — AlderSign · 430 6/14/25

Many ways to deal with enemies in better ways even with gators with low foot and fist, it says so in the review itself. For Charlie specifically, you are actually like a 6/6/6/6 investigator, you do not need this at all, I woudl never waste my XP and deck slot here. Also you can never relly on the card, low shroud locations exist in droves, getting Preston up from 1 foot to 2 foot will sure help a lot. — DakonBlackblade · 13 6/14/25

Yes, I read it, but I disagree. Raising the base skill is effectively the same as getting a modifier, so it does help those two I mentioned. What you omitted from your review as well is the fact that this card saves you actions, which is quite important IMO. — AlderSign · 430 6/14/25

Charlie doesn't need to raise his stats, Preston has much better things to do to raise his skills if you even want to do that cause he mostly can just pay for test less success anyway. This maybe has a fringe use in true solo since it saves you an action but even in that situation you have no real control when it triggers, you might just be in a 0-2 shroud location. — DakonBlackblade · 13 6/14/25

i don't follow most of your train of thoughts (guess we just have to disagree), but I also think this is a solo card because of the re-sealing condition. — AlderSign · 430 6/14/25