Pay Day

Pay Day

This is practically an auto-buy for Finn Edwards, who can manage five actions right out of the starting gate using his free evade and Quick Thinking, and potentially boost it to truly absurd extremes later on with upgraded .41 Derringer and Ace in the Hole - plus he's the only Rogue who can't get his hands on a Level-4 Hot Streak.

The "end your turn" effect is mostly academic, since you want this to be your last action anyway. It's sad that Pay Day is based on the number of actions you performed "this turn" instead of "this phase," because otherwise you could get 16 resources from playing Pay Day at the end of your turn, and 17 from playing a second one on another player's turn using Quick Thinking, for a total of 33 resources! (Exactly how you'd get 17 actions on one turn is left as a fairly silly exercise for the reader.) More interestingly, the "end your turn" effect suggests that other cards with a "for each action you performed this turn" effect may eventually turn up, and they wanted to nip game-breaking combos in the bud.

So Finn definitely wants it. Does anybody else? That's a tougher call. If you've built your Rogue with decent access to extra actions (mainly using the abovementioned cards), Pay Day is a decent replacement for Emergency Cache - you get better efficiency, but it has more playing restrictions. In that way, it's analogous to Uncage the Soul.

The main problem there is that the Rogue class has lots of ways to accumulate resources, and some of them are 0-level cards, like Lone Wolf, "Watch this!", and Decorated Skull, and Pay Day doesn't distinguish itself that well. It's not bad for most Rogues, but it's not amazing either. If you're running Ace in the Hole or the upcoming Borrowed Time, though, then of course that analysis goes right out the window.

Notably, Pay Day's ability to monetize on large action-counts might induce me to like Leo De Luca again. I don't think Pay Day alone is enough to tip the scales, but perhaps someday soon...

sfarmstrong · 272
I disagree that the end your turn clause is purely academic for two reasons. The first is exactly as you stated - you could play two of them at the end of your once-per-game obscene combo turn. The second reason is that a strong economy card you play last is sometimes worse than a weak economy card earlier that lets you buy and use something immediately. You can’t use the money from payday until NEXT round, which might mean not having that juicy asset out before an enemy lands on your face. — Death by Chocolate · 1490
@Death by Chocolate Good point on your second argument and to elaborate a bit on that, it gets even worse if Paranoia lurks around. — matt88 · 3235
I think this card is more useful for investigators with access to rogue and another class, like skids with expansive guardian assets. I also don't get how can take 17 actions in 1 phase? Finn can get 9 with hiw own ability, leo, derringer and ace in the whole. 2x Quick Thinking and 2x Derringer add 4 more actions outside your own turn. Or did you count Borrowed Time as well? — Django · 5171
@Death by Chocolate, my point is less serious than you think - all I'm saying is that the "end your turn" mechanic is mostly irrelevant because the "for each action you performed this turn" already means you'd almost never play this other than as your last action. That whole paragraph was mainly just musing about why they even bothered with the "end your turn" bit. — sfarmstrong · 272
Yeah, Borrowed Time, plus two uses of Guidance. I also forgot about Police Badge, and you could Double or Nothing on Derringer and Quick Thinking, so technically the maximum is well into the twenties. — sfarmstrong · 272
@sfarmstrong If you’d read my post you’d see two very, VERY important balance reasons why this card would be restricted to the last action of your turn. To elaborate on using economy cards, being able to play Pay Day as your second-to-last card would be a HUGE buff as you could immediately spend the resources - easily worth getting one less resource. — Death by Chocolate · 1490
@Death by Chocolate, I wasn't disagreeing with you, I was just explaining that my paragraph was more a critique of how the card was drafted rather than a serious write-up. — sfarmstrong · 272
If I use Fence to give this Fast and play it after three other actions during my turn, does playing this card count as a fourth action? In general Fast cards don't count as actions, but this card specifically says "including this one." — Runic · 1
Say I am playing Leo Anderson and play an ally using his ability. Does playing an ally count as an action for pay day? Super curious and would love to know. — Gyara2020 · 1
@gyarados No. You played an ally, but you didn’t take the ‘play a card action’ which is important because otherwise it would provoke AoOs. Leo’s ability never mentions the word Action, nor does it take one. However Finn’s ability which gives an extra action for Evading WOULD count because it is explicitly an extra action. (Same for Marie, Daisy, and Ursula - not that any of them can run Pay Day). — Death by Chocolate · 1490
Is it valid to use Quick Thinking in conjunction with Pay Day to give you an extra resource? I thought this would be a killer idea but realized that Quick Thinking specifically states "(this action does not count toward the number of actions you can take each turn)." I wondered if this would imply that you could take the action gained if the conditions of the skill are met, but that it would not count toward the number of resources that investigator could gain by playing Pay Day as his/her last action. Is my thinking correct? I actually hope it is not. — zshoness · 1
@Fence, I would say that it would. My thinking behind this is that Ace In the Hole is a fast card and immediately gives you three more actions. This is because you can play FAST cards during any free trigger window, which there is one following player's end of turn. Playing Pay Day using Fence gives you an opportunity to play Pay Day, which effectively gives you an action since the card specifically states "(including this one)." That is how I would play it anyway. However, I am not sure of the intention or if my logic is sound. — zshoness · 1
@Runic, already doubting my thread of logic (especially pulling in reference to Ace in the Hole). I still think you may receive an additional resource using Pay Day while making it fast with Fence. The logic is more about what is spelled out on the card. However, as you stated, playing something fast does not increase your action count and by giving a card Fast you may have effectively deactivated the text on the card because it is no longer an action. It seems like a lot to go through for 1 resource, but that is a potential action (gaining a resource) & fence does cost 3 to play. Still, Fence has potential to save you resources in the long run. That said, I've been mulling this over in my mind for several days now & I think with cards like Double, Double out there now, this may be even more relevant point to clarify. — zshoness · 1
@zshoness I believe the text on the card referring to (including this one) is because you COULD be playing this card as your third action. If you use Fence to make it fast, you didn't spend an action on it, so you would not get an extra resource. However you would get credit for the final action of your turn before playing the Fast Pay Day, so you'd still get the same amount of resources, but with the ability to do one more thing beforehand. — Time4Tiddy · 250
What about the two actions you take with Eon Chart (4)? Do those count as two actions you performed, even though the ability which lets you perform them is a free action? Or what about .25 Automatic? Does an “ability” you “perform” without spending an action count as an “action” you “perform”? — Runic · 1
@Runic — Serris · 1
@Runic So the 1st question was already answered under the other comment. The .25 Automatic lets you perform an ability, not an action. So it doesnt get payed. — Serris · 1

M1918 BAR

M1918 BAR

Magnificent. Introducing the Browning Automatic Rifle, a weapon that lets you spend exactly as much ammo as you need to one-shot the enemy.

I think the most obvious card to compare this to is Lightning Gun, and I think they tend to be neck-and-neck. The key here is that the Lightning Gun's insane +5 bonus is usually more than you need, given that every character who can buy this already has at least 4 . Mark Harrigan in particular is going to prefer the BAR's more judicious approach to spending ammunition.

Some noteworthy interactions:

  • Probably the best card to date to combine with Sleight of Hand, so Zoey Samaras and Leo Anderson should especially consider it.
  • One of the few cards for which Contraband unambiguously pulls ahead of Extra Ammunition.
  • Speaking of which, Extra Ammunition and BAR are genuinely terrible together. You want Extra Ammunition to at least double your usage out of a weapon, and this combination is nowhere close. (I might consider it before Contraband, though. You could probably make the case that it's worthwhile to get 22 ammo instead of 16.)

The BAR seems to just generally love Rogue cards, actually. Even Double or Nothing, a card I'm not ordinarily fond of, can seriously up its game in a BAR deck, where its chances of producing a 10-damage strike are much better than with Shotgun.

In all, the Extra Ammunition problem prevents the BAR from being quite as good as the Lightning Gun, but it's not quite as expensive, either, so they're roughly in the same tier. (Lightning Gun pulls ahead on Expert, though, because its +5 becomes more relevant.)

The BAR seems so powerful for Leo that I think it's my automatic first upgrade if I ever run him.

sfarmstrong · 272
Lightning Gun seems better with Sleight of Hand unless you are going for 1 action burst damage. LG can do more overall damage, and is always more accurate over all shots. Contraband still doesn't seem worth it because it takes at least 3 ammo to make an effective shot. — Urgergaberg · 1
Dont forget custom ammunition. — Tsuruki23 · 2588
Would this get the extra damage from custom ammo. Depends when the extra damage is calculated, I guess... — Urgergaberg · 1
Do i get this right, this weapon's effect replaces the 1 damage all attacks do? Or is the damage equal to ammo spent in addition to that? — Django · 5171
Yes, you will only do damage equal to the ammo you spend on the attack. — Urgergaberg · 1
It's pretty close with Lightning Gun, but yeah, I'd generally prefer BAR. I expect that it will be more common to want to spend two actions to take two +4/4 shots, or one +5/5 shot and one +3/3 shot, than to spend three actions each taking a +5/3 shot. For one thing, you could very well need the middle action to move so that there's something to hit with the second attack. The third shot with Lightning Gun will usually be wasted outside of a boss fight, and in a boss fight dealing nine damage in three actions isn't necessarily better than dealing eight damage in two actions. The BAR is especially at an advantage against four-health enemies, which are quite common. I'll stand by my claim that BAR is the best Sleight of Hand combo to date but, again, I do recognize that it's close. I'll also reiterate that Lightning Gun is the champ on Expert. — sfarmstrong · 272
Am I the only one who doesn't like this card?? The only way to make this card worthwhile (aside from the Sleight of hand combo which is quite strong I must admit) is to play it in conjunction with Contraband. That leads to 2 issues: The first is that it's only viable for Leo or Zoey who are the only Guardians who have access to Contraband (along with Sleight of Hand). The second is that you actually have to be sitting on at least 9 resources and have the actions to spare to play both the BAR and the Contraband before starting to use ammo (you wouldn't want to waste Contraband ammo so you really want to play these cards together). When you run weapons like Shotgun or Lightning Gun you always pack extra ammo with you to make them more efficient and reliable. The same can be considered with BAR, so I really wouldn't run this if I don't have Contraband. — matt88 · 3235
And I probably wouldn't run it all. — matt88 · 3235
No, matt88, you aren't :) One is right - it is the best weapon to deal burst damage. That's all. This weapon is flexible, but for 2-3 shots. What next? The answer is not that simple like with LG. BAR has some sweet synergies (Custom Ammo, Contraband), but again - they must be played before the first use of that weapon, so they need a huge initial investment. LG is much more straightforward - pull it, kill things, reload with extra ammo, still being a weapon with the best use of 1 ammo, much better than with BAR. I would always want LG first, BAR could be second heavy weapon with green Zoey and Leo. — KptMarchewa · 1
These problems all seem very manageable to me. I mean, it kind of seems like you're comparing the value of LG in an LG-optimized deck vs. the value of BAR in... an LG-optimized deck. Extra Ammunition and Experimental Ammunition are wonderful cards, but add those to LG and a Level-2 Beat Cop, and - let's face it - Stick to the Plan, and you're looking at a massive commitment of XP and resources. You can get a decent BAR deck up and running in just a scenario or two, and having the extra XP to buy Stand Together or (for Leo) Level-2 Hot Streak will do a pretty good job of mitigating the higher up-front resource cost. Obviously, a 25-XP LG deck is going to outperform an 8-XP BAR deck, but I expect I could build a pretty damned impressive 25-XP deck if I favoured BAR. — sfarmstrong · 272
@sfarmstrong Can you give an example if a 25-XP BAR-centered deck?? — matt88 · 3235
@sfarmstrong I meant: ... of a 25-XP BAR-centered deck?? (Sigh!) — matt88 · 3235
I don't think you need to have 25 xp before the LG or BAR are good. They are both good in their own right. The problem is the support cards that synergize with BAR fewer and/or weaker. Both of the ammo cards are weak with BAR. The BAR requires 3 ammo per shot to be better damage than level 0 weapons. So Extra Ammunition gets you 1 more shot. Custom Ammunition is slightly better because the extra damage will save you ammo but only if you are fighting a monsters. At 3xp and 3 cost, I think that is worse than Contraband (not hard math, just how I feel about it). At 9 resources, that combo seems unplayable. BAR is still really good with Sleight of Hand for the exact reason sfarmstrong brought up, it would save you an action when fully unloading it. If 10 damage from the BAR or 12 damage from the LG is needed will depend on the situation. But LG is also more XP, so its acqusition is slightly slower. So it is possible you can pick up a BAR earlier in a campaign, so that is something. I think in the end the BAR is good, it just has weaker synergies than LG. — Urgergaberg · 1
@matt88, I'm not prepared to put together a complete deck yet, but I would have enough XP to get Stick to the Plan and two copies of Stand Together, plus maybe "I've Had Worse". That would give me a strong opening and reliable economy - I basically end up with a deck that wrecks enemies nearly as well as an LG deck, but I've got more reliable resource-generation and card-draw. — sfarmstrong · 272
https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/7630/leo-s-bar-25xp-1.0 25xp dream first turn: Bar with 16ammo — Fireblaze · 2
Wouldn't this weapon be better compared with the Shotgun seeing as how both of them deal damage equal to amount you succeed by? The Lightning Gar is just an ultra powered .45. — LaRoix · 1647
@LaRoix correction, BAR does DMG base on number of ammo spent. Not how much you succeed by. — 1337duck · 1

Vengeful Hound

Vengeful Hound

As far as investigator-specific weaknesses go, Vengeful Hound is relatively mild. I would say it is most like the basic weakness Stubborn Detective in that it effectively blocks out Norman's special ability.

The differences between Vengeful Hound and Stubborn Detective:

Generally speaking, character-specific weaknesses are supposed to be worse than basic weaknesses, so if you get a character-specific weakness that's on par with a basic weakness, that's pretty good. If you compare Vengeful Hound to other character-specific enemy weaknesses like Sacrificial Beast and Graveyard Ghouls, I think it's much milder. In fact, I think even Stubborn Detective is a tougher weakness since it has a harder fight and you really don't want to be evading these types of smaller hunter enemies anyways.

I think this weakness was made weaker because Norman Withers has such low and , but he has plenty of combat options to help him deal with this weakness. Mind over Matter, "I've got a plan!", and Shrivelling can all potentially take down this monster with tests that are base +2 or base +3. That's really not bad. Of course, if it's multiplayer and Norman doesn't have any combat options in his deck for some reason, another investigator can easily dispatch this enemy for him.

I'm not sure what the non-replacement cards for Norman Withers will look like. I think that the other replacement card, Split the Angle, is situational at best. However, I think it is possible people may come back to use these replacement cards even after the main cards are released so that they can continue to use this relatively mild weakness.

ArkhamInvestigator · 313
Another difference - Vengeful Hound isn't a hunter, so evading it once is enough if you're at a location you don't need to return to. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Do you think that might have been a misprint? Of all the cards not to be a hunter, you wouldn't expect it to be one with "hound" in the title. — sfarmstrong · 272
I hadn't thought about that, but it would make sense! As far as I can tell, the Hound and Jenny's replacement Sacrificial Beast are the only weakness enemies that aren't hunters (not counting campaign-specific things), and the Beast specifically spawns as far away from Jenny as possible and wants to remain far away, so the lack of hunter makes sense there. Might be worth dropping a line to FFG about that. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
I did get around to writing to FFG about this some time ago and just got a reply - the lack of Hunter on the hounds is intentional. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Naturally, 'draw or reveal cards via player card effects' is significantly wider than the 'printed text box were blank' effect of Stubbon Detective, which does not affect any card effect other than the investigator cards themselves. — Cluny · 52
I notice the scanned card has "Prey - Norman Withers" while the Arkhamdb text has "Norman Withers only". Is the scan correct? Or has there been an official errata? — Vittek · 1

Double or Nothing

Double or Nothing

There's an obscure theorem that I feel I should bring to your attention:

Finn's Law

For any card in Arkham Horror CG, if the card's combo potential with Double or Nothing is part of what makes it exciting, then that card is actually very boring.

Double or Nothing depends on being played with just the right card in just the right circumstances in order to accomplish anything. The effects of this card can certainly be spectacular, but spectacular does not win scenarios - utility, efficiency, and reliability do.

sfarmstrong · 272
I can sympathize with the attitude towards spectacular vs steady, but Double or Nothing is NEVER just a ? because it always increases the difficulty. Unless the difficulty was 0, in which case you traded a card for an action, which isn’t terrible. — Death by Chocolate · 1490
Right, I apparently have trouble even thinking of this as a skill card. Making the correction. — sfarmstrong · 272
Ever collected 20 clues with guiding stones? That’s spectacular and wins the game. Seeker can help you search for missing combo pieces. — Django · 5171
Oof this review couldn’t be further from the truth... there are many, many situations where you can commit DoN to make significant gains with minimal risk. Shooting some spheres or avian thrawls for an extra 2 damage, testing against low-shroud locations or having your high-int investigator use her stacked up into cards to pass a parley twice. These opportunities pop up many times throughout a scenario. It’s just a matter of recognizing that seductive power-turn plays aren’t the only way to use this card. — Difrakt · 1327
I can respect that, even if I'm not convinced. I can't say I've come across many situations myself where I really wish I'd drawn Double or Nothing instead of, say, Quick Thinking, Narrow Escape, "Watch This!", or an innate skill. Of the situations you've listed, picking up multiple clues in a low-shroud location is the only one that you can be sure will come up at some point (and that's a pretty weak benefit unless you combine it with e.g. Guiding Stones or Deduction), and apart from that I would dispute your "many times" assessment. I think you'd average maybe one situation per scenario where Double or Nothing is unambiguously BETTER than its alternatives, and I just don't think that's good enough to justify running it. — sfarmstrong · 272
Considering Rogue’s biggest weakness is not being able to do one thing quickly enough (esp gathering clues and conserving limited ammo) you’re missing opportunities. There’s times where you need to clear two clues off a 3 shroud location right *now* and this at its very weakest enables that. A card which it’s biggest condemnation is ‘at worst it’s a free action’ is a very, very good card. — Difrakt · 1327
Maybe I'm not understanding your argument. Wouldn't Doubling a 3-shroud location effectively bump it up to a 5-shroud location, once you factor in the ? symbol? At best, that seems like a lateral move. Plus, it seems like virtually all the situations you're describing would be more efficiently addressed by playing Sleight of Hand on a firearm or Flashlight. What am I missing? — sfarmstrong · 272
I don't know, Double or Nothing and Sure Gamble or Stroke of Luck can be awesome. A DoN, Vicious Blow & Stroke of Luck attack by Duke does 6 damage. That is pretty spectacular, and it helped with the scenario. (Yes, it did take a bit of setting up) — AndyB · 957
@AndyB, I guess it's just that I'm suspicious of anecdotes as an argument for analyzing a card that's the poster child for "occasionally spectacular." Anecdotes, or idealized examples, put a bit too much emphasis on "spectacular" and not enough on "occasionally." I wonder if I'm allowed to post a second review for the same card, because I'm honestly seeing a lot more pushback than I expected to, and I think I'd have a strong case for Double or Nothing being the most overrated card to date if I could delve into this more seriously. — sfarmstrong · 272
@sfarmstrong I can agree partly with you. When the situation does not come up or your deck isn’t built around it, this can be a dead draw for a long time. But once your seeker had archaic glyphs and Milan out... or guardian a big weapon, you get plenty moments to double up. — Django · 5171
I think this card is a bit better than you're giving it credit for. Remember that you can commit this to an investigate test of a 1-shroud location (or a 1-2 shroud location with Flashlight) and it basically becomes Deduction. That's fine right there and requires minimal support. Add in that there is also serious combo potential in the late campaign, and I like the card quite a bit. In the late campaign you can take cards that basically give you an autosuccess (Seal of the Elder Sign, Stroke of Luck, etc.), plus cards that give outrageously good effects on success plus large boosts to the tests (Lightning Gun, Shrivelling V, Rite of Seeking IV.) These cards are all excellent with Double or Nothing, and the best part, from my point of view, is that you wanted these cards anyway. They are all great on their own, and just so happen to go great with Double or Nothing. So, I like the card. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
That said, I do think this card is a bit overrated, especially within the Rogue faction. A lot of people seem to be under the impression that this card can be the centerpiece of a good Rogue deck. I don't really agree. This is a one-time effect (I don't believe there is any way to recur this card at the moment) and difficult to set up. I think the upside means the card is worth including, but I wouldn't base my whole deck around it. Second, you'll notice that none of the cards I listed as going great with Double or Nothing are Rogue cards. That's not a coincidence. Despite the great Rogue theme, I think DoN is much stronger with cards from other factions. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
Well argued, but I've been thinking through the range of interactions with Lightning Gun, Rite of Seeking IV, Shrivelling V, and... I'm actually more convinced than ever that DoN isn't just overrated - it just outright sucks. NONE of the examples any of you have listed seem to amount to a compelling case for Double or Nothing, as they all hit some combination of "too awkward," "too expensive," "too risky," or, most often of all, "too little payoff," compared to its alternatives, and those are in situations where it's even PLAYABLE. It looks like I'll have to write up that lengthier review at some point, after all. If I can't post a second one, I'll have to amend this review instead. — sfarmstrong · 272
Hmm. The combo with those cards has been pretty good with Double or Nothing in my experience, and not that hard to set up. After all, you were going to play a Lightning Gun or Shrivelling V or Rite of Seeking IV anyway. It's not like you're purchasing and playing these cards just because of the nice interaction with DoN--they were going to be the centerpieces of your deck anyway, and you were going to put them into play and use them as much as you could anyway. Within that framework, DoN only costs one card, and getting 6 clues or 6 damage in one action is really sweet and not all that hard. That's been my experience. I've especially found the 6-clue interaction with Rite of Seeking IV to be really good. (The 6 damage is quite a bit finickier due to a lack of good targets.) But I'm willing to listen to your arguments otherwise! — CaiusDrewart · 3200
Deduction II would be another nice target that's fairly easy to set up (assuming we're talking about a game with a high player count) and that would also fall into the category of a card you already wanted to be running that combines nicely with DoN. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
Tbh, I run DoN but also "combo" parts like Watch This. Most of the time, when I have DoN without other pieces I don't even wait for them. I always have to commit Don by itself pretty fast ^.^ Of course, Streetwise helps. — Palefang · 72
Seems like 2 years later "just the right cards in just the right circumstances" causes this cardqqqq to be the first banned in — Skeith · 2468
Arkham History. I thoroughly enjoy the irony. Also dont post from cells. It leads to double posts... — Skeith · 2468

Deciphered Reality

Deciphered Reality

I've built a fair number of high-XP Seeker decks and I've never been that tempted to include Deciphered Reality. Oh, sure, the peak performance of this card is bonkers. In some scenarios you could arrange events so that you pick up nine clues in a single action. The rewards for a successful investigation are so high that combining it with Double or Nothing is actually worth actively pursuing (whereas most reviews' mentions of Double or Nothing are more like a fun thought experiment than a practical deck-building consideration).

But I'm not sold on it, and I think there's an important philosophical point we ought to unpack, there.

Arkham Horror CG decks should be built defensively. The consequences of succeeding a scenario are huge compared with failure - it could mean getting powerful allies, avoiding trauma and extra weaknesses, or even tipping the balance of success or failure for the entire campaign. By comparison, the difference between succeeding at a scenario and succeeding at it very well is typically an XP or two.

Therefore, cards that help you not fail are more important than cards that help you win harder. Deciphered Reality is a card of the latter type. You can only really bring out its full potential when you're in total control of your situation, where you can afford to have you and your other investigators spread out and exposing as many locations as possible to maximize the yield. If that's the position you're in, then you were probably going to win anyway.

Sure, in theory picking up a lot of clues at once can tip the balance between a win and a loss, but honestly? This is more clues than you need. Bear in mind that averaging one clue per investigator per round is extremely fast, and most scenarios will let you get away with half that pace, e.g. six rounds to pick up three clues per investigator. Massive clue-vacuuming plays are less important for a Seeker than just making sure that they, or someone else nearby, can keep enemies at bay so they can zip around the map and investigate at a steady pace.

If you don't specifically plan to use Deciphered Reality to make a huge play, then it may not even be worth using. It's not cheap at four resources, and there are relatively affordable cards to help you rapidly collect clues, like Archaic Glyphs: Guiding Stones and both variants of Deduction. Moreover, Pathfinder or a well placed upgraded Shortcut are great ways to cut down on the number of actions in a scenario, which is similar in practice to the payoff from Deciphered Reality, but they're cheaper and they're easy to use well.

On top of that, this card is just begging to be autofailed. If that happens, then you're practically guaranteed not to have time to pick up clues at all the VP locations that you deliberately didn't finish up, and could be at risk of failing the scenario itself. This game is meant to randomly generate huge setbacks. For the love of Yig, do not put all your eggs in one basket, like Deciphered Reality is baiting you to do!

sfarmstrong · 272
I would be very tempted to use it in solo play, as it might provide huge action compression. Unfortunately I do not like the seeker class that much. — XehutL · 48
How would solo play improve its action compression? — sfarmstrong · 272
I basically agree. But a few points. First, in one prominent scenario, which happens to be one of the hardest scenarios ever printed, all locations start revealed. Second, by the time you get this (which would be very, very late campaign), you can have significant protection from the autofail on your team, with the likes of Time Warp, Seal of the Elder Sign, that sort of thing. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
That aside, in most circumstances, I think this card is not worth it. You'd basically have to know in advance that the upcoming scenario is going to be conducive to it. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
Basically, yeah. Even with Seal of the Elder Sign, this combo would be a complete bastard to set up, but has some potential upsides if you know scenario details ahead of time. I haven't replayed enough scenarios to have a feel for how that kind of foreknowledge affects deck-building. — sfarmstrong · 272
I meant not improved by solo play but fact that with several scenarios it might provide huge acceleration with the right setup/play. It still can be ruined by tentacles, of course. — XehutL · 48
We tried this card in several scenarios in 4 Player but is was never worth it. Alone the time it took to reveal all locations... guiding stones and in the know is much easier to use. — Django · 5171
This card is crazy in Dim Carcosa though. — Razoupaf · 1
Might work well in a Minh Barricade deck. — Zinjanthropus · 231
Except with https://arkhamdb.com/card/04307 it can't fail. And if your Rogue friend has a Double or Nothing, you can complete some scenarios quite fast. — GrandMasterJ · 3
I agree with this assessment. I've used this card once and once only, in The City of Archives, and yes--it was awesome to pick up six or seven clues in one action. But it took a fair amount of setup to get my Seeker in the position to make the play, and the stars never aligned like that again. This card, although sexy as hell, is just pie in the sky. — Pinchers · 133