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Clarification: If an investigator’s deck contains a card that summons one or more bonded cards, those bonded cards are set aside at the start of each game. The number of copies of each different bonded card that are set aside in this way is equal to the number of copies of that were included in the product in which that bonded card was introduced. The number of cards in your deck that summon the bonded card in question does not factor into this limit. *For example: An investigator may only have 3 copies of Soothing Melody set aside at the start of the game. Similarly, an investigator may only have 1 Essence of the Dream set aside at the start of the game, regardless of how many copies of Dream Diary they include in their deck. - FAQ, v.1.7, March 2020
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Automatic Success/Failure & Automatic Evasion: Some card effects make an investigator automatically succeed or automatically fail a skill test. If this occurs, depending on the timing of such an effect, certain steps of the skill test may be skipped in their entirety.
- If it is known that an investigator automatically succeeds or fails at a skill test before Step 3 (“Reveal Chaos Token”) occurs, that step is skipped, along with Step 4. No chaos token(s) are revealed from the chaos bag, and the investigator immediately moves to Step 5. All other steps of the skill test resolve as normal.
- If a chaos token effect causes an investigator to automatically succeed or fail at a skill test, continue with Steps 3 and 4, as normal.
- If an ability “automatically evades” 1 or more enemies, this is not the same as automatically succeeding at an evasion attempt. As per the entry on “Evade” in the Rules Reference, if an ability automatically evades 1 or more enemies, no skill test is made for the evasion attempt whatsoever. Consequentially, because no skill test is made, it is not considered a “successful” evasion. The investigator simply follows the steps for evading an enemy (exhausting it and breaking its engagement).
- For example: Patrice uses the ability on Hope, which reads: “ If Hope is ready, exhaust or discard him: Evade. Attempt to evade with a base value of 5. (If you discarded Hope, this test is automatically successful.)” If Patrice chooses to discard Hope, the skill test automatically succeeds before chaos tokens are revealed; therefore Steps 3 and 4 of the skill test are skipped. However, the skill test still takes place. Cards may still be committed to the test, and the investigator’s total modified skill value is still determined, as it may have some bearing on other card abilities. However, if Patrice instead uses the ability on Stray Cat, which reads: “ Discard Stray Cat: Automatically evade a non-Elite enemy at your location,” no skill test is made whatsoever. - FAQ, v.1.7, March 2020
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Q: Can I play a card with a cost of “–”? A: No. Cards with a cost of “–” have no cost that can be paid, and therefore cannot be played. For example, if Pendant of the Queen is discarded from play and then shuffled back into your deck and drawn, you would be unable to play it from hand. (Cards that put it directly into play bypassing its cost would be able to put it into play, however.) Cards with a cost of “–” that are played as a copy of a different card, such as Eidetic Memory, use the resource cost of the copied card, and therefore bypass this restriction. - FAQ, v.1.8, October 2020
Pendant of the Queen
Of Nothing at All
Ativo. Accessory
Item. Relic.
Cost: –.
Bonded (Segment of Onyx). Uses (3 charges). If this card has no charges, set it aside, out of play, and shuffle 3 set-aside copies of Segment of Onyx into your deck.
Exhaust Pendant of the Queen and spend 1 charge: Choose a revealed location and select one - move to that location, discover 1 clue at that location, or automatically evade an enemy at that location.
Latest Taboo
This card's constant ability now reads: "If this card has no charges, remove it from the game."
Bonded Cards
- Segment of Onyx (1) (The Dream-Eaters #21)
FAQs
(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)Reviews
This card is S tier as scenario tech. With a deck that can assemble it, it's one of the strongest tech against dangerous Hunter enemies (and one of the few that works against Elite), and its teleportation ability is invaluable in any scenario that requires extensive backtracking.
Outside of its use as scenario tech, I'd rate the post-taboo pendant as a B+ card in multiplayer. A hot take I know but hear me out!
Without support
The pendant is always 3 testless clues globally even without support, and that's already better and cheaper than Working a Hunch. But unlike Working a Hunch, there's a few strings attached:
- Assembly required: You need to assemble the pendant before doing anything. In a slower-drawing seeker deck, Segment of Onyx are dead draws that gum up your hand, costing you valuable time in scenarios that demand speed.
- Limited uses: Even in a fast seeker deck, it's only 3 uses, so it doesn't work as a deck-cycling payload. Fast decks also lack for deck space due to the amount of draw they need to pack and have a hard time fitting the Pendant in for just 3 uses.
So while in theory 3 better copies of Working a Hunch can fit into any deck, it's actually quite rare to see decks taking the taboo'd pendant without building around it because of the above limitations.
Building around
Recharging the pendant creates some interesting deckbuilding puzzles with a strong payoff if you manage it: one extra testless clue a turn isn't that amazing for the support needed to enable it, but that's made up the additional safety margin the pendant adds by the other two options it gives.
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Eldrich Sophist: The bog-standard way to enable such a build is Eldritch Sophist with a battery like the The Red Clock or Runic Axe, which has large opportunity costs in terms of slots or XP, resources, and play actions. It's a Rube Goldberg machine that functions only with all its many pieces in play and tends to result in a relatively slow deck*.
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Recharge Tech: The alternate way is to pack recharge tech (Winds of Power, Recharge, Enraptured, etc.). The drawback here is that recharge tech is expensive and a little clunky to use, being balanced around their ability to affect mystic spells with higher action compression like Rite of Seeking, and still being limited to 1/round usage even if you cycle your deck (unless you use The Raven Quill). This is most optimal if you have other cards to recharge (hello, Luke Robinson), but it also does mean that you get also less milage out of the pendant.
The Queen of Nothing at All
In conclusion, the pendant's compression and flexibility strongest in solo, where it's ability can single-handed clear location instantly or solve an enemy for good. In multiplayer, the pendant mainly acts as a very strong insurance against the unexpected. It bails your team out of situations you haven't prepared for and saves you from a careless team wipe.
In other words, it's a bit of a crutch.
But the better your deckbuilding and your piloting is, and the better your team is, the less likely it would be that you would actually need bailing out. If you're aiming to win more, win harder, and win faster, and you can trust your teammates, you're often better off ditching the pendant to be a leaner and meaner seeking machine.
* relative to another deck that uses those slots and XP for better action compression, faster clue power, and or utility/team support in other ways. The difference is magnified on Hard/Expert where you can't mindlessly cycle cantrip skills.
Tabooed or not this card is ridiculous. For the love of God, please change that evade to "non-Elite" enemy. Even then it should be at least 3 XP (Sorry Luke). It's easy to find; it's easy to get in play; it's 3 bonus testless actions.
Since the errata, it's hard to work out who the real Queen to use this pendant is.
Currently I think it might be Amanda Sharpe.
Using Enraptured behind Amanda Sharpe, you can try to keep your pendant topped up with charges and preventing it from removing itself from the game. Also, with Amanda's additional card draw (or rather card filtering) from her ability, she can see those Segments of Onyx faster than other investigators, without even trying.