So, it felt wrong that the only review regarding Calvin was a negative one. As I'm writing this Dark Side of the Moon is the most recent pack and boy has Calvin gained a lot since his release back in the Forgotten Age.

Let me start off by saying: no, he is not the most powerful investigator in the game, probably not the strongest survivor either. But he is by no means weak or underpowered. His playstyle and strategy are very different, but he's a totally serviceable investigator.

In general, you should try to push the risk/reward with him: while you can use "Look what I found!" and Flashlight to get clues and Fire Axe to kill enemies without stats, Calvin is really at his best once he's got a 4-4-4-4 statline. With Cherished Keepsake and Leather Coat you can avoid getting killed, with Peter Sylvestre and the new Jessica Hyde acting as more powerful versions that take up an ally slot. If you want an ally that helps with your economy, Madame Labranche is perfectly fine with her 2/2 soak.

I think a lot of the tools I associate with Calvin appeared in The Circle Undone or later, leading to a lukewarm reception upon his first arrival. Cards like Meat Cleaver and "I've had worse…" are great, not to mention Five of Pentacles or Trial by Fire, two cards I think really push Calvin to the next level.

I find Calvin performs best in a flexible role that focuses more on enemy management but can get clues in a pinch. Survivor doesn't have a ton of clue acceleration and he's got access to some great weapons. Cough, Meat Cleaver, cough.

For his Spirit cards, please don't underestimate the value of these. Ward of Protection and Ward of Protection, Stand Together, "I've had worse…", Heroic Rescue, with Dream-Eaters also giving us Self-Sacrifice and Solemn Vow.

So, yeah. If you aren't sold on Calvin Wright, give him a shot. He might surprise you.

So time may tell but for now Calvin just seems horrifically underpowered. The idea is cool - you can happily fail early scenarios to gain trauma which increases his skills which means you can spend those scenarios trying to grind XP instead of making progress - but the payoff really isn’t there to make up for him having such awful base stats.

Let’s compare him to Mark Harrigan, another investigator who uses something bad happening to him (taking damage) to boost his skills. Using Sophie he can boost any skill by 2 for a relatively low cost of taking one damage. Sure, this doesn’t apply throughout the whole game like Calvin’s ability, but Mark easily makes up for this by a) having good stats to begin with, b) being able to boost a stat more than once for a critical test and c) being able to heal the damage to get further uses of his ability. Calvin has awful stats unless he is close to death, cannot naturally boost his base skills above 5, and gets weaker if you heal damage or trauma from him. Mark even benefits from taking damage whilst Calvin gets nothing other than approaching having a decent stat value.

Calvin’s weaknesses are pretty glaring. He is awful at the beginning of a campaign (or any time he has less than 3 damage/horror on him) as he can’t do anything effectively. With 0 in everything he has almost no hope at fighting or evading enemies and he can really only discover clues by using Flashlight to make locations 0 shroud or via events. He can use enemies that deal damage to boost his physical skills, but when stuck with an enemy that only deals horror he is going to be in trouble. Even 2 is a bad number to have in a skill and 3 is still poor, so he really needs at least one other investigator to kill enemies that he cannot handle early and another one to discover clues. However, this goes against his desire to fail scenarios in order to gain additional trauma as the other investigators are not likely to want this to happen, leaving him in an awkward position early in the campaign. Once he gets some trauma he starts to become okay, but then a lot of his deck needs to be devoted to keeping him alive and becoming merely ‘okay’ is not worth the annoyance of being useless for a long time.

So all in all he is definitely interesting, but I can’t really see him being anything other than awful unless some amazing combo comes out that only he can use.

Calvin is my favorite gator in the game. That is not to say that he is easy to use. He is not. In fact, his restrictions make games tense, and difficult, and oftentimes disheartening. But this is Arkham. We live for that.

However, when Calvin works, when you put forth the effort, when you grit your teeth, take it on the chin, and get just a little bit Lucky!, you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

Plus, Calvin's restrictions force you to build a good deck. Since you need to be toeing the line at all times, you need, need, need to put cards in that help you survive. Peter Sylvestre, Cherished Keepsake, and Leather Coat are all important to staying alive long enough to get you to a point where your stats outweigh your damage.

With the recent release of Nathaniel Cho's preconstructed Investigator deck, Calvin got a ton of new, fun toys. "Get over here!", Glory, One-Two Punch, all slot into a Calvin deck nicely. Plus, you can Versatile in those Boxing Gloves if you're feeling feisty (I do not think this is good, but I do think it's fun.)

Calvin can do almost anything, so long as that anything is his best imitation of a tanky Guardian. You're not likely to be the primary clue-getter, but you are likely to protect your other players with Ward of Protection, "Let me handle this!", Heroic Rescue, and A Test of Will. Run headlong into danger, get beaten up a little bit, and enact your revenge.

Calvin also is the single best investigator at using Rise to the Occasion, as his base stats are zeroes, no matter how much damage you have on your person. This only changes if you become a Werewolf, but by then you're probably going to win as is, so nothing to worry about.

Get a good weapon, get your boyfriend Peter Sylvestre, your girlfriend Jessica Hyde, and your neat playing card Five of Pentacles, and you will be a force of nature. Happy hunting!

INTRO

I love a deck-building challenge, and wow, does Calvin Wright present one. In preparing to play him, I’ve read through his cardpool (with some new playthings from The Drowned City) and watched a number of review videos, most of which put him in F-tier. Sad.

But! I was inspired by Quick Learner’s video which encouraged people to think outside the cluever vs. fighter binary, and there is a niche that I wondered if Calvin could uniquely fill – being the soak for the entire team. The idea: what he lacks in action compression, he could perhaps provide to others by letting them save cards they would otherwise commit to skill tests, take opportunity attacks with abandon, and more. Here’s the deep, wild ride my brain went on to get there:

BEST-CASE CALVIN: 7/7/7/7

Without any shapeshifting, the max Calvin can normally achieve is 5’s across the board, living on the razor’s edge. Add in a Five of Pentacles for +1/+1, and you’ve now got 6’s. You could push this even further with Anna Kaslow or Moon Pendant – either give you an extra tarot slot, but Anna ALSO fetches one of your 5oP as she enters (and provides a little soak). Anna + two 5oP means you could achieve 7/7/7/7 with Calvin. I’ll let you decide if that’s worth building around. :)

PART I - POWERING UP: TAKING DAMAGE & HORROR

Calvin won’t be passing many tests until he’s battered and bruised, so most people focus on hurting him as fast as possible.

There are a several non-deck ways to take damage & horror that are important to remember upfront:

-Trauma (adds damage/horror at the start of the scenario). In the Thick of It can jumpstart you here (though many people think it’s overkill and playing with fire since his signature weakness Voice of the Messenger will accumulate plenty). If things get too dicey, the new card Spiritual Healing can walk you back from the brink, but for some reason you can only buy it once.

-Attacks, including opportunity attacks you intentionally trigger, or your comrades’ missed attacks on enemies engaged with you.

-Encounter cards. (If, like me, you figured that you’d like to fail every mythos test to take damage/horror, remember that there’s much worse things the encounter deck can do to you than dish out pain, like discard your assets, siphon your actions, or lethally for Calvin, give you -1/-1 on health/sanity.)

-Spooky tokens, depending on the scenario.

-Drawing your whole deck, and taking 1 horror to reshuffle the discard pile. Not impossible to do if playing Short Supply, but drawing the signature weakness more than once a scenario might actually just kill you before the campaign’s through. Eek.

Cards that help Calvin take damage/horror include:

-Spirit of Humanity: does double duty with fast-action damage+horror for 2 bless, OR fast-healing to dodge death in a pinch at the cost of 2 curse tokens. It’s not unique, and without much competition for Arcane slots, Calvin could theoretically have two of these out.

-Purifying Corruption also does double duty – the treachery cancellation doles out 1/1, and intentionally drawing an encounter card with the second effect can lead to more damage/horror (but see risks of encounters above). If you don’t need the healing, you can remove a corruption to keep cancelling treacheries.

-Solemn Vow: Because it’s myriad, free, and fast, you can give it to each of your companions (even in a 4p campaign!) to shunt damage/horror from their investigator cards OR any card they control to you or cards you control. Effectively healing your comrades’ Guardian Angel, Field Agent, or Guard Dog can be super valuable, beyond just keeping their investigators tip-top.

-Meat Cleaver: Another double-duty card that can both hurt & heal, and rewards you with bonus accuracy for being slightly cuckoo.

-Fickle Fortune can remove a doom from the agenda if everyone takes a DIRECT damage + horror; but, your friends won’t be too mad if you’ve already passed out your Solemn Vows.

-Force an attack with A) Toe to Toe: Two test-less damage, and the enemy first makes an attack against you, B) Fend Off: to permanently evade an enemy at the cost of an attack.

-Redirect attacks to you with "Get behind me!" and Heroic Rescue / Heroic Rescue. GBM cancels an incoming horror (a little awkward in Calvin), but HR lets you ping the enemy for 1 testless damage.

-Draw extra encounter cards (buyer beware)! Take a friend’s encounter (including monsters) with "Let me handle this!" or the effects of their failed encounter test with Self-Sacrifice; Nature of the Beast gets a clue, and you can choose which of the top 3 encounters gives you the right damage/horror (or pass an easily-handled one to a companion); Shrine of the Moirai trades encounters for up to 6 cards from your discard; the new Deliverance lets you load up on encounters one turn, and skip drawing encounters next turn. Could be a sick turn 2 play if your health/sanity totals are still high!

-Ward of Protection / Ward of Protection force you to take a horror at resolution, which is more of a boon in Calvin.

Cards that inflict damage/horror/trauma but probably aren’t good:

-Makeshift Trap - Explosive Device yourself for 3 damage. Silly and situational but funny.

-"Devil" can also explode to deal 2 damage to everyone and everything nearby, including you.

-Mysterious Raven can testlessly get you clues for horror, but will feel bad if your ally slot is already full.

-Go out with a bang via "I'll see you in hell!" (delete enemies for physical trauma) or Ghastly Revelation (vacuum up clues for mental trauma). But probably unwise for the same reasons as In the Thick of It (above).

-Blood Eclipse / Blood Eclipse can add 2-3 damage to you for a big swing, but awkwardly the damage you take as cost won’t contribute to this card’s skill test, since it uses head instead of fist (which scales with your horror, not damage).

-Dream Parasite. But first you need to draw your 1-of Nightmare Bauble, THEN play it, THEN pull an auto-fail, THEN draw the Dream Parasite. A little far-fetched.

-Forbidden Sutra lets you take up to 3 horror-for-additional-tokens on each Spell event skill test, but Calvin doesn’t have access to very many Spell events that actually require skill tests.

Cards that trigger/benefit when you take damage/horror/attacks:

-Sparrow Mask replenishes an offering whenever you take damage/horror, meaning you can probably have +2 head and foot for most of the game.

-Bangle of Jinxes can give you +2 skill value on a few tests if you keep provoking/enduring attacks.

-Lesson Learned can grab you 2 testless clues after an enemy attack damages you (includes opportunity attack!).

-"I've had worse…" converts cancelled damage/horror into up to 2-5 resources.

-Blood Will Have Blood can draw you cards depending on how much pain you or your non-ally assets take from a single attack, but it seems hard to get value with it reliably.

-There are a number of other cards that just cancel damage/horror (with no bonus effect) considered further below.

Cards that care how much damage/horror/trauma you have:

-Fight or Flight boosts your fist and foot for a turn according to your horror (note: these are the stats natively boosted by Calvin’s damage, rather than horror, total)

-Key of Ys has been unfortunately mutated to oblivion, but would’ve been a nice sink that further boosted stats.

-Providential could add a max of 5 blesses to the bag (7 if you’re dual-wielding tarot cards) on a successful skill test, but the XP cost and success requirement are rough.

-The almost-insane suite of skill cards can also be used in Calvin since getting him to 3 or fewer sanity is part of the game plan: Desperate Search, Reckless Assault, Run For Your Life, Say Your Prayers.

PART II - DEATH INSURANCE: HOW TO NOT RANDOMLY DIE

Ok, so you’ve built up solid damage and horror and are feeling pretty strong. Now, how do you survive?

There are (at least) two big threats here, even with endless soak assets in your play area: treacheries/weaknesses that reduce your printed health/sanity can instantly defeat you, as can effects that force you to take DIRECT damage/horror. Calvin’s signature and some other cards can insure against the latter, but the former is very scary unless you know the contents of the encounter deck and can play more conservatively.

Soak

-Jessica Hyde & Peter Sylvestre / Peter Sylvestre can provide endless damage & horror soak, respectively, along with some nice stat buffs.

-Precious Memento and Precious Memento offer another soak asset(s) that can heal itself, and you can play both with Relic Hunter or Occult Reliquary.

-Hunting Jacket serves as both soak and resource gain.

-"Devil" and Guiding Spirit seem awkward since they force you to remove/assign damage/horror from Calvin, though when Devil explodes he gives 2 of it right back to Calvin (along with any nearby frenemies).

-Profane Idol (horror) and Improvised Shield (damage) can be useful, recur-able soak that you don’t mind discarding or sending to the discard off of Short Supply. The most obvious discard outlet would be Idol of Xanatos, but sadly it’s also an accessory. (Relic Hunter could help I suppose.)

-Leather Coat, Cherished Keepsake, etc. don’t really provide any additional benefit other than being cheap.

Healing

Healing is a little counter-intuitive in Calvin, unless you’re planning to soak everyone’s damage & horror or staving off defeat. Healing can be useful to equalize damage/horror values when you want to trigger 1/1 ping effects like Spirit of Humanity.

-Spirit of Humanity (above)

-True Awakening is extremely useful for damage/horror healing, card draw, and/or a testless clue grab, all of which Calvin can use. Yay drifters!

-Wrong Place, Right Time can offload excess damage/horror to Jessica/Pete/Mementos, etc., and maybe even draw a card or two.

-Earthly Serenity / Earthly Serenity can offer big chunks of healing, but only if you pass tests. (By the time you want healing, you’ll probably have high willpower, though.)

-Ready for Anything at its best is draw 2, heal 1 horror, while Second Wind heals damage and draws.

-Short Rest can heal allies or investigators, which is neato.

-Manipulate Destiny is more likely to heal if you’ve been blessing the bag with Spirit of Humanity, but you might be able to land 2 points of damage if you’re lucky. (But Favor of the Sun / Favor of the Moon let you choose which to resolve, if you play them.)

-Painkillers & Smoking Pipe can let you juggle your horror/damage, but without a natural way to heal one or the other, it’s probably not worth it.

-Thermos is so expensive, why?? (Though Calvin can quickly get the bonus-trauma effects.)

Cancelling Damage/Horror

Even direct damage/horror can’t kill you if you cancel the damage! This might be the sweet spot for Calvin.

-Idol of Xanatos can cancel up to 3 damage/horror per turn, as long as you have the same number of cards to discard. A Glimmer of Hope / A Glimmer of Hope can solve that problem for the low, low price of 1 resource/turn once all three copies are in play!

-Talisman of Protection can cancel 2 incoming damage/horror, if it would defeat you. If Calvin is operating on the razor’s edge of max stats, these would-be-defeated effects will usually be live when you’d want to use them.

-Perseverance: up to 4 damage/horror that would defeat you.

-"I've had worse…" (above)

-Spectral Shield to cancel 1 damage/horror; note that without an asset with charges, this won’t stick to the board after the first cancellation. (Earthly Serenity (above) is probably the only card Calvin would consider here.) Note also that the effect to cancel is forced, so if it DOES stick to the board it will prevent Calvin himself from taking any more damage/horror and eat up all your charges.

-Delay the Inevitable cancels one instance of all damage/horror dealt & you can keep it out if you’re willing to pay 2 resources each turn. Can also give it to a friend (but can only be played during your turn)!

-Devil's Luck cancels up to 10 damage/horror, but gets exiled.

Mythos Protection

Since Calvin won’t be passing tests early in the scenario, it’s important to have a plan for nasty encounters that require a skill test. Later on, mythos protection is also great insurance against those -1/-1 type effects.

-Ward of Protection (0) & (2) (above)

-A Test of Will / A Test of Will

-A Watchful Peace, if playing bless cards (Spirit of Humanity alone can get you there)

-Purifying Corruption (above)

-Alter Fate / Alter Fate, but they can’t save you from a health/sanity reducing treachery in your play area.

PART III - BASE 0s AS A STRENGTH?

Because Calvin’s ability adds bonus modifiers onto his base stats of 0, anything that lets him test at a different base value can produce very high numbers.

-Trial by Fire / Trial by Fire, and The Red-Gloved Man to pump base skill values for a turn.

-Miss Doyle’s army of cats lets you test with a base value of 5 once per turn in their associated action.

-Signum Crucis gets maximum value in Calvin, adding bless tokens to the bag equal to the difficulty of the skill test. Combo with Drawing Thin for two extra tokens!

-Against All Odds lets you insulate from the auto-fail by revealing additional tokens.

-Rise to the Occasion / Rise to the Occasion will pretty much always be live unless you’re testing 1.

PART IV - WHO NEEDS A TEST?

Testless cards also really shine in Calvin, being useful whether you draw them early or late:

-Mano a Mano / Mano a Mano, and Quick Shot (weirdly a Spirit card?) for testless damage.

-Elaborate Distraction for testless damage and/or evades.

-Lesson Learned (above), Mysterious Raven (above), Nature of the Beast (above), and Burn After Reading for testless clues.

-Stroke of Luck for an auto-success.

-Gumption, Old Keyring, & friends can turn 2-skill tests into auto-succeeds.

-Ancient Covenant + Favor of the Sun in a bless-heavy deck can get you up to 3 auto-plus-2s, which will be an auto-succeed if you know how to count.

-Will to Survive / Will to Survive to dodge the chaos bag entirely, and again rewarding the ability to count.

-Dumb Luck / Close Call can yeet an enemy back to the encounter deck, and don’t require Calvin to pass a test.

CONCLUSION

I still have no idea how I’m going to build Calvin. XD

Super-soaker-tank-Calvin, with all of the self-healing assets and damage/horror redirection cards? Seems fun, if not super viable.

Blessed-be-the-fruit Calvin, with Ancient Covenant, Favor of the Sun, Spirit of Humanity, Jacob Morrison, Token of Faith, A Watchful Peace, Keep Faith, Predestined / Providential / Signum Crucis, etc.? I think that would feel too similar to my other boyfriend, Father Mateo, who can make better use of the bless arsenal with his token-fishing.

Big-deck-energy-Calvin, with In the Thick of It + Versatile + Forced Learning + Short Supply (to hide from the signature weakness), paired with discard synergies like Ample Supplies, Lawrence Carlisle, Improvised Shield/Profane Idol, Moonstone, Scavenging, Professor William Webb, A Chance Encounter, Glimmer of Hope, Scrounge for Supplies, Resourceful, Fortuitous Discovery, etc.? Might be cool if I could draw deep enough and then use the shuffle-back-from-discard effects quick enough to never deck out.

End manic rant. What did I miss?