Think on Your Feet

I am just adding my review to Django's, because of a linguistic feature in the German translation of this card. German players, please beware that FFG translated "spawn" with an unspecific term (~"appear") and that Think on Your Feet does not work on enemies who just moved to your location.

Think on your Feet is pretty similar to Elusive. It takes a bit of finesse to use, you want to make sure you are ending as few turns as possible in locations you want to spend more time at. In the ideal application, this event moves you to a better location and spares you multiple actions dealing with the spawned monster. If you are unarmed and draw a monster, you can play Think on Your Feet to step away, which gives you one whole round to properly prepare for fighting.

The benefit of this cards mainly depends on the scenario goal and the player count. In solo play or with 2 players this is a close to mandatory include for Jenny and Wendy, who both prefer to not habitually fight every last enemy that spawns on them. In larger groups, you stick together more, and more often you want to stay and, depending on your role, help fighting/tanking enemies, so your specialised buddies get freed up.

A small explanation of Think On Your Feet timing could be helpful for Lola players. Her innate free triggered ability may be triggered as a player ability during any player window. The first player window during the Mythos Phase would be after Step 1.4 Each investigator draws 1 encounter card. Since the triggering condition on Think On Your Feet begins with the word "when...", it may be used after the specified triggering condition (an enemy is about to spawn) initiates, but before its impact upon the game state resolves. In other words: there is typically no opportunity to switch roles while you are drawing encounter cards from the encounter deck, so she’d have to switch to Rogue sometime before the Mythos phase in order to play Think On Your Feet. But whenever there is a skill test, (e.g. if by chance another player draws a treachery card before Lola,) Player Windows open up before and after cards are committed to the skill test (as depicted on RR page 26). So Lola could switch to Rogue during that time.

Pros

  • Great click-compression. Gain two actions for the cost of none!
  • Fast cards aren't subject to Attacks of Opportunity, so in case you are engaged (by another enemy) when playing this card, that (non-Massive) enemy stays in your threat zone and moves with you, but does not attack out of opportunity.
  • Guaranteed result. This card is very likely to be used during a scenario, you can also flee from Weakness enemies like Mob Enforcer with it.
  • Works on Elite spawns, also!
  • In hard/expert difficulty the speed gain adds greatly to this event's value.

Cons

  • Befits not in every situation. If you want or have to fight for some reason, the event is to no end.
  • The enemy does not count as defeated for combo purposes.
  • Only helps the investigator who plays it.

Recommendations

  • spoiler Flee from unpleasant roamers in Undimensioned and Unseen.
  • spoiler Greatly speed up convincing a zealot in The Gathering.
  • It is not so useful in The Devourer Below and in The Essex County Express.
Synisill · 805
Regarding "recommendations", i think you linked the wrong "zealot" in your second spoiler? For the one that i think you mean, you must pass an evasion attempt, not just leave her location. Disengaging also does not work, to add her to the victory display. — Django · 5228
You mean Ruth? No, i really meant this "GP" i linked. I refer to the following situation: "GP" appears, you play Think on Your Feet and go directly to the zealot "LC". — Synisill · 805
One addition: This card is nice for dodging on-engage effects like you have in Innsmouth. Did serious work in solo Pit of Despair! — Zinjanthropus · 233
Emergency Cache

The basic version of Emergency Cache is included in a majority of decks. There must be a reason why the upgrade has to be searched with magnifying glasses, it is rarely included by Arkhamdb players.

Considerations about the value of this card are found under the basic version of Emergency Cache(0).

The cost of 2xp have to be put into relation to the additional effect that the upgraded version gives you.

Which is... "Draw 1 card." I still do not think that this effect is worth the additional 1xp. I just wonder about people who include Lucky!(2) during the course of a campaign but not Emergency Cache(2). Or why it is not found more frequently in Roland Banks decks. This investigator is so beggarly, he can use a cash injection at any time during a scenario and would be thankful for the extra card!

For Roland, Emergency Cache(2) has the same power level as Police Badge(2) or even Beat Cop(2).

Pros

  • Saves one action, you gain another card.

Cons

  • There is a small danger of drawing a Weakness from your deck which could meddle with your plans.
Synisill · 805
Not only exp but also action should be considered. Lucky takes 0 action this takes 1. One action is a card and a resource. This card only gives you a new card and 3 resource. So in total you use 1 card for 2 resources. — Halcyon Murphy · 20
You need Emergency Caches if you have several expensive cards in your deck and few other ways of gaining resources. It's not a great card (not even this upgraded version), but it's better than the alternative - spending actions on +1 resources per. — olahren · 3728
Emergency Cache

"Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver." Ayn Rand depicted the reasons for including Emergency Cache with few words, but you surely expect a longer explanation.

An event that gives you 3 resources for one action sounds like an auto-include in most decks. It speeds up your initial setup: play Emergency Cache, play Leo De Luca or Dr. Milan Christopher and still have 2 actions and resources to spend. Mid-game it can fuel the "pump" skills, like Dig Deep, for you. Late-game it probably sticks on your hand as a "dead draw". Emergency Cache has no alternative use, no icons to commit to skill tests. With a huge resource pool, you can buy anything, but you need expensive cards in the sale, too!

As a rule of thumb, i would offer you Spiryt's advise: If you can see yourself spending more than one action per scenario fishing for resources, then this card is a great way of ensuring you have the means to play your most powerful cards.

With more packs being released, the number of economy sources will raise. Right now, the slot for Emergency Cache mainly competes with Burglary and Dr. Milan Christopher (with 0 xp) and Hot Streak(4). Especially the guardian class runs low on resources, in-faction there's solely Stand Together(3). In solo play, Lone Wolf always is the better alternative to Emergency Cache.

Pros

  • Feasible resource gain.
  • Best economy card for Roland Banks.
  • Wendy and Pete find cards without committment icons useful, they have innate abilities where they must discard cards.
  • Jump start enabler: mulligan for Emergency Cache and Leo Di Luca.
  • There's an upgraded version available: Emergency Cache(2)

Cons

  • Card has no icons to commit to skill tests.
  • One-time effect only. Supplement with drip economy for the long run.

Recommendations

  • spoiler In The House Always Wins it is sometimes better to have a full wallet at your disposal than big brains.
Synisill · 805
I actually dislike this one: you gain 3 ressources. Instead of playing the card, you could have earned 1. Instead of drawing the card, you could have earned 1. Your net gain is thus 1 ressource. However, this is at this expense of a deck slot - you trade the use of a much more useful card for 1 ressource. Is the compression of the gain of 1 ressource worth loosing the opportunity of having a better card in your hand ? I don't think so. Poor deal. — jd9000 · 78
@jd90, trying to evaluate cards by the sum of actions is simplicistic. As a first approximation it is okay, but would you, as an example, also claim that Lucky!'s cost is in a range between 3 and 5 actions? 1 for the resource, 1 to draw the card, and roundabout 1-3 actions for skill tests, because maybe you succeed on the next two skill tests... You don't like that example? Fine, check "Guts" then. This card is regulary included in many good decks - because of the high percentage of gaining 1 additional action (together with the successful skill test). — Synisill · 805
Not a bad card to include in a Dark Horse deck. — dlikos · 173
Delve Too Deep

A card for the min-maxer in all of us. Play this card in early scenarios to make your life more difficult, but reap the rewards of experience and upgraded cards in later scenarios.

Now the card seems deceptively simple, but there is a lot of nuance to playing it. Ideally you want to play it when you can afford extra actions, but not so early in the game that you aren't set up. Often this means holding on to your D2Ds until the last round of the game, triggering both and then ignoring the encounters you pulled (to the best of your ability) in order to finish the scenario. But there are other ways of mitigating this as well: a huge number of encounter cards are will tests and upgraded Mystics have access to Blood Pact which can be used as a freebee at the last doom in an agenda. Of course beware non-will tests and enemies that may pop out from the encounter deck instead.

The other nice thing about D2D is that it makes upgrading a little easier in the mid game. Because you get that experience as a permanent upgrade, in an 8-scenario campaign a D2D played in the first scenario is worth (1 exp 7 remaining games = 7 game-experience points) while one played in the penultimate scenario is worth (1 exp 1 game = 1 game-experience point) and a D2D played in the final scenario is just masochism (assuming you don't carry your experience through). For this reason you want to play your D2Ds early in a campaign, and swap them out when you have 3-4 scenarios remaining. This is especially important because they have no skill icons and as such are actually fully dead space in your deck unlike damn near every other card in the game (exceptions for Wendy and Ashcan Pete who can discard cards as part of their ability, of course).

So yes, get a little dangerous, plunge a few deeper mysteries and reap the benefits of playing on the wild side.

Difrakt · 1348
Good review! I just would like to throw in that this card in the Victory display only counts for 1 scenario, it is returned to your deck afterwards. Your calculation and the word "permanent upgrade" hint in a misleading direction. As you often finish a scenario without drawing all cards in your deck, it is very, very unlikely that Delve Too Deep gives you as many xp as you depict. — Synisill · 805
It's not xp that's I'm referring to, it's the effective upgrade-lifetime. Experience that you have for 7 scenarios is worth far more than experience you only have for a single scenario. — Difrakt · 1348
You can use "scrying" and "alyssa graham" before playing this card, to know what doom awaits. In maps with "resign" option, other players can resign before remaining players use this card, so you draw less encounter cards. On a personal note, this card is insane. In a 2 player game we used 3-4 of these over 4 adventures EACH TIME, so you can calculate for yourself, how many bonus XP we got out of it. — Django · 5228
This card is also nice to spawn victory monsters, that are burried deep in the encounter deck. — Django · 5228
" Because you get that experience as a permanent upgrade" What? Its not a permanent card, its an event. You get 1 EXP ONCE for when you play it, not every consecutive game? — Vortilion · 1
Oh, got it, sry... You mean you can play it each scenario... — Vortilion · 1
Hypnotic Gaze

Like Dodge, but with a chance to hurt the enemy! What could go wrong?

Well, in my experience quite a bit. First of all it's much more expensive than dodge is, which can cause extreme opportunity cost as you have to choose between taking damage now, and having a better board setup next turn. Furthermore the reflected damage is not guaranteed, which kind of negates a huge amount of this card's benefit.

Now, in theory you can run a sadism run where (Slight campaign mechanic spoilers) ------ you intentionally fill the bag with these negative nancy tokens (... not as bad an idea as it sounds on Expert difficulty) ------ and I can't comment on the strength of this card then, but in a more vanilla run it can be pretty unlikely to trigger.

I think, like Song of the Dead without a better way to control the chaos bag, extremely swingy cards are going to remain cool in theory, but bad in practice.

Difrakt · 1348
The mystic deck has many expensive cards (3+ ressources), but many with charges, you're better off saving these for such cards, over 1 use stuff. — Django · 5228
Combined with Dark Prophecy, the chance of this doing damage is greatly increased. That adds to the cost, making it 4 total resources, for a potential of doing damage as a Fast action. — Tiktakkat · 38
Unlike other spells, this can't be used with Uncage the Soul (fast action trigger), which is another knock against its surprisingly high cost. — PureFlight · 796
Besides Dark Prophecy this can now also be combined with Olive McBride to increase its effectiveness. Premonition is another possibility. — Cluny · 53
Olive McBride increases the chance of a hit from 31.25% to 67.5% (with standard night of the zealot chaos token pool). This means that Olive would give you a hit 1 out of 3 times beyond the baseline odds of 1/3. Dark Prophecy increases the chance to 84.64%, which corresponds to it giving you a hit 1 out of 2 times over the baseline odds. — jmmeye3 · 637
There's something to say for Grotesque Statue here — shenaniganz11 · 40