Remington Model 1858

Remington Model 1858

I already wrote about a combo the Remington has with Act of Desperation in a Mark Harrigan deck. You can read about that combo in my review of AoD.

EDIT: I wrote a ton of stuff I don't think is actually true because I misunderstood the exact details of the "when" timing condition. I'm just going to get rid of all that to avoid confusion, and leave the first sentence that this gun is really cool with Act of Desperation, because it is. Just not as cool as I thought it was.

Jim_Bob · 27
Sorry, I got the FAQ wrong. It was Elusive, not Aloof. I get those two mixed up constantly since they sound so similar. — Jim_Bob · 27

Act of Desperation

Act of Desperation

This card does so much good stuff for you. I feel like this was originally an upgraded version of a hypothetical "Act of Desperation [0]" that never got printed, because it has so much text on it, and all that text is awesome. It's a great way to get a little more value out of items that have overstayed their welcome, whether that be firearms or investigating tools. I have not used this extensively in-color, but it seems like it plays very well with the Survivor ethos of recurring cards from their discard.

I mainly wrote this review because I want to highlight one very specific combo I have been using that's probably not that good but feels absolutely hilarious. Play as Mark Harrigan, take this card since you get rank 0 tactics, and use the Remington Model 1858 as at least a backup weapon. You get a nice two for one since you can use all the ammo out of the Remington, then play Act of Desperation, and the weapon ability lets you get one more shot out of it before the Act of Desperation resolves.

If you really want to double down on a combo that is more cute than good you can add some stuff like Well-Maintained to let the gun bounce back into your hand after your BS gun-fu (which lets you play it again, maybe in the enemy's face, and get another free shot when it enters), or Custom Modifications to really lean into your sub-par weapon (and you still get to use it on the last shot when the gun is discarded, since the reaction happens just before it leaves play. Sadly it doesn't help you on the Act of Desperation attack).

Anyway, I think this card is really fun and potentially worth playing in any deck that gets value out of recurring their discard pile. It's not broken, and probably not even great, but it is a nice little extra value card to fill out your deck. We are at the point in the game where "cute value card" isn't really good enough unless you're building a more casual deck, but keep an eye out for this one just in case that's your thing.

Jim_Bob · 27
It's a bonus sig for Yorick. — MrGoldbee · 1596

Jim's Trumpet

Jim's Trumpet

Jim's upgraded Trumpet is a really odd advanced signature, because instead of just being the same base card, but better, it's actually more of a sidegrade than anything else.

Obviously, if you are playing Parallel Jim, you always take this because it was made for him and the synergy between his alternative version and the new signature is immense, but for Vanilla Jim? That is a tougher sell, especially given it comes with a deadly weakness.

Why so you may ask? Doesn't it work just the same but triggering on curses and healing horror from more than one target?

Well, the answer is no

What many players don't notice is that now the trumpet only trigger if Jim reveals the right token, while other Investigators cannot trigger it anymore. That severly cuts down the chance for Jim to use the trumpet each round if nobody is adding curses in he bag, even taking in consideration Jim has access to Chaos Token manipulation.

What is especially ironic is that the new version of the Trumpet gets stronger the more players there are, as it gets more targets to heal, but the drawback is completely meaningless in true solo, because, well, the reaction can only be activated by Jim anyway.

I think whether you include this on your deck with the vanilla front and back will depend on the number of players and whether anyone in the team will lean into blurse.

HeroesOfTomorrow · 117
Strange thing is that while Jim's an adequate investigator, he's is in the running for best purple ally. — MrGoldbee · 1596
@MrGoldbee One friend of mine calls it the "Andrè's curse" and is the whole reason he is dreading the idea of Girish becoming an Investigator in the future, as he might go from one of the best allies in he game to mid at best. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 117

Crazed Guest

Crazed Guest

Not a review, but the cardback and the description of it do not line up with each other. The cardback upload is from Dianne Devine's enemy card. Thought you should know.

This review must be at least 200 words long.

SunshineMarmot · 2

Spiritual Charm

Spiritual Charm

I think this is the most underrated card of Chapter 2 so far and will eventually be considered a staple.

If you are a fighter and have access to this card, then it should be in your deck. No ifs, no buts.

You get to engage an enemy off your cluever even if you are already engaged with another enemy. Not only will you not take an attack of opportunity for this, but you'll get paid to do so? It bodies Taunt and Get Over Here.

This card is so much stronger than it first appears.

QggOne · 145
I haven’t played this card, so I’m speculating here. But Taunt 1) is fast, 2) engages any number of enemies, and 3) is generally considered binder fodder. Out of those, Fast especially seems like a really big deal because the rulebook already provides a basic engage action so your value proposition about avoiding AoO only matters if I have multiple enemies to deal with, which is exactly the kind of moment that I don’t want to be giving up actions as this card does. And then there’s the rider about gaining resources but who wants their resource generators gated behind effects this situational? By the time you play this card, you’re hopefully already set up, at which point resources are a low priority. This card seems highly situational. — Eudaimonea · 9
In my opinion are cards that taunt quite situational. On higher difficulty they get better through the option to take a enemy off your friend. Otherwise they might offer some action compression for aloof and elusive enemies. Also some scenarios restrict movement so the lure effects might be useful. All in all I think it is on par with get over here and which one I would use depends on the enemies and the shenanigans of my deck. But bonus points for this card being a trick and a spell — Tharzax · 2
I think that the resource generation may be only a nice to have, but the card costing 0 instead of 2 resources compared to GoH is a game changer. In that regard Taunt might also be overpriced... — AlderSign · 480
@Tharzax, but this one does not offer action compression against Aloof or Elusive enemies, right? Except in the highly unusual case where there’s an aloof enemy exactly one location away that you don’t want to visit. I agree that this is on par with Get Over Here (0), but that is a card I have never used except in Nathaniel Cho. I have used Taunt in rare circumstances, and found it borderline playable. I would call it the best of the three. — Eudaimonea · 9
If you consider the keywords alone no. But you still get some resources and maybe a move action on top. — Tharzax · 2
Right, the clearest benefit is the resources. So this is basically an extremely conditional Emergency Cache that maybe moves you sometimes even though you’d probably just as soon move the enemy to you. Yuck. — Eudaimonea · 9
@ Eudaimonea "but this one does not offer action compression against Aloof or Elusive enemies, right? ": I would say, against elusive enemies, you cannot one-shot it does, it potentially has. Because the enemy will move to another location (with no investigator, if possible) after the first attack, and then you can bring it back. Granted, you use an action either way, wether you bring it back to you or move into their location yourself. But chances are, you are at the location, you want to be anyway, and following it would cost you two actions, one to follow, and one to return to your location. Of course, it is still situational, but if you want to go to the location, where the enemy flees, you won't play this card anyway. — Susumu · 393
Elusive also exhausts the enemy, so this card takes care of engagement in this case too. — AlderSign · 480
Sure, but this only matters for enemies, that are elusive and aloof. Or if you want to avoid, that an enemy with pray would engage another investigator after reading. — Susumu · 393
After thinking about this card I would point out, that it's more interesting for Luke, since he can use it to lure enemies away. — Tharzax · 2
Taunt costs 1 card and 1 resource. In return you get a fast engage on an enemy at your location. On rare occasions you get to engage an additional enemy or 2. Get Over Here costs 1 card, 2 resources and 1 action. In return you get to engage an enemy at your location or a connecting location and get a basic fight action to boot. Spiritual Charm costs 1 card and 1 action. In return you can engage an enemy at your location or a connecting location, even if you are already engaged. Then you are given a 1.5ish resources. I wouldn’t really compare it to Emergency Cache, although I think you can Parley your own enemy to gain resources. I just don’t think that’s a good use of this card unless you desperately need them. I've found that in most scenarios both investigators will draw an enemy during the mythos phase at least once. For consistencies sake a fighter should be able to deal with this outcome. One of the best ways is to kill off your enemy in 2 actions, then either engage and tank or risk your cluevers health by attacking directly. Taunt and Spiritual Charm both work here although Spiritual Charm has an edge if your opponent is at a connecting location. The other side effect of choosing Taunt over Spiritual Charm is that you are left with -2.5ish resources. Get Over Here is more expensive again and you need to kill your own enemy before using it. If you fail to kill your own enemy, you’ll have to eat an attack of opportunity and you do miss out on some other combos. Allowing your cluever to stray away gives a fighter time to do other tasks which I think is important and with Elusive becoming ever present, I think this card is fantastic. I really think if players give it a try, they’ll like it. Let your cluever stray and run slightly more expensive late game events because this card facilitates that play. — QggOne · 145
"Get Over Here" does not provoke an AoO, because it is also a Fight action. Pretty much every non-basic action has some other type attached, that would provoke AoO. Activating a weapon is an activate action on top of a fight action, playing an evade event is a play action on top of an evade action. A parley action is always one or the other, as there are no basic parleys. Obviously, none of these provoke an AoO, So the Fight designator of GOH prevents it from provoking AoO, no matter, that there is also an Engage designator on it. Obviously "Righteous Hunt" DOES provoke an AoO. — Susumu · 393
And if you ask, why then is there even the Engage designator on GOH, the answer is: Because "Riot Whistle". — Susumu · 393
TIL I've been taking unn Get Over Here then. — QggOne · 145
TIL I've been taking unnecessary AoOs when playing Get Over Here. I did have Righteous Hunt come good during The Longest Night with a blessed fighter once. Other than that, I've avoid it. — QggOne · 145
Something I implied earlier: If you are at 0 resources, of the 3 cards mentioned here you can only play SC. That is something to consider among all other points raised here. — AlderSign · 480
@QggOne, in the best use case for this card that you reference, which is the fighter and the clue gatherer both draw an enemy, my most typical solution as the fighter would just be to swing at the enemy while it’s engaged with my partner because I probably need all three actions this turn to output damage in order to ensure I can clear the decks. So even if I had this card in my hand in that ideal circumstance you describe, I personally would not play it because I would find the option of a third potential fight action in case of autofail more important than the resource or two this card grants. — Eudaimonea · 9