Ikiaq

Ikiaq

I like this card with Charlie Kane. I get nice static boosts to some important stat lines and the exhaust ability only needs to be done if the weakness draw is untenable, but 99% of the time, the weakness can be mitigated. I like the allies that don't gain their "worth" from exhaustion for Charlie... Although Ikiaq does, she is over compensated with a nice stat boost and matching icons to boot.

dlikos · 160
I don't know. For the same XP, I would take Lola any time over Ikiaq. — Nenananas · 258
I think it depends on the teams Basic weaknesses, if someone is deck cycling Ikiaq could prevent a lot of pain and barely take a slot in charlie. — Zerogrim · 294

Downtown

Downtown

Just to clarify, according to this discussion boardgamegeek.com This limit is "Limit once per game per investigator" You can find this same mechanic in other locations in the same scenario.

MarcMF2 · 6
Yes, it is, a look into the rules will answer this question (https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Limits_and_Maximums). Also, Boardgamegeek, Reddit and the Mythos Busters Discord are awesome places to ask these kinds of questions. Please don't ask questions in the review section on ArkahmDB. — PowLee · 15

Katja Eastbank

Katja Eastbank

This is not a card added casually to a deck. It's a main ally for a specific niche use. If the draw ability was a free trigger, this would be a good card that could fit in more decks. However the action hit to draw a card that was already drawn (either during the investigation or upkeep phase) is a huge action sink. Also offers no skill boots as other 2-3XP allies do.

Actions are the most valuable resource in the game, and spending one to draw an already drawn card is detrimental to the player's ability to advance the game. The benefit of holding onto the card must therefore outweigh the action cost of choosing when to draw it. It's probably intended for Dilemmas since they trigger immediately on drawing them.

But this comes in a class with all the recursion tools to play/recur cards from the discard pile. If it's used to hold cards in excess of the maximum hand size, why? A niche card that may have some specific use cases (Patrice perhaps) but otherwise is detrimental to most investigators who could better spend an action keeping ahead of the Agenda. She would've been better if she held only one card but it was a free trigger to draw it.

KingsGambit · 15
I think, Valenin's comment under another review is spot on: Could be very good, if you build a deck around the improvised set and other cards, you want to discard, like "Fortuitous Discovery" (unfortunately not "Moonstone"). You can replace them with something else, when you draw them, then use Katja for soak to get them into the discard. — Susumu · 371
I think you're undervaluing the additional draws. You can see Katja as a forced learning that doesn't require a 15(!) increase in deck size. That's no small thing. You'll go through your deck much quicker and just keep exactly what you need. As you stated, you can for example keep the recursion cards and then just get back what you need. And you'll need to make less room for each card because in combination with Short Supply, you got access to pretty much any card in your deck. The disadvantage is that you can only do this 5 times before having to invest actions, but the upside is she comes with 2 health/sanity as well. And she's also optional, meaning you don't have the same problems as Forced Learning where you get to decide between 2 good cards or when you've drawn a weakness. — Nenananas · 258
I do see the sweet spot in between your 2 comments. In a deck that does not necessarily need an Ally (and there are quite a few in Survivor I think), she can be an strong accelerator to your set up. Add 2 copies of your main assets, and if you draw the second copy, slap it on Katja to get another card. Once she's full, use her soak and get the second copy on the table and start again. An example of how it could work: you are power drawing for a key asset, with Katja in play, you get to see 6 cards instead of 3, which is 20% of your deck, and almost 30% if you used Short Supply. The negative aspect of attaching it an improvised card to her though is that you want this card in your discard pile ASAP to use it... Long story short, I follow arkham-becons on his review. — Valentin1331 · 73534
Can you use her ability if there’s 5 cards below and discard the excess? The limit is not part of the cost to activate her — Django · 5108
Even though, the case in the FAQ is slightly different (the limit below Katya is for card in general, not cards by name), I would say no: "Some limits may pertain to a particular play area, such as "Limit 1 per deck," "Limit 1 in the victory display," or "Limit 1 in play." This limit restricts the number of copies of that card (by title) that can exist in the specified play area. Another copy of that card cannot enter the specified play area if this limit has already been reached." — Susumu · 371
Since you are not allowed to but a card beneath Katja if you have reached the limit, you can't resolve any part of her reaction. You can also only initiate abilities, which have the chance to change the game status (what the reaction wouldn't do) — Tharzax · 1
There’s a ton of game state changes even if you don’t attach the card. Mythos buster’s discord told me my guess is correct. There’s a faq for Diana that’s the source — Django · 5108
Which state changes? The exhaustion is not part of the cost and you can't replace the card you put beneath her because there is no card. — Tharzax · 1
The FAQ for Diana is actual a FAQ for "Sacret Covenant" under the condition, that there are less then 5 cards below her. In this case, Diana can trigger her ability to draw a card and gain a resource, even though she can't put the covenant below her, because it's a permanent. So this case never exceeds her limit of 5 cards below her. I do not think, you could trigger it, if she has already 5 cards below her, otherwise the FAQ entry would not start with "If Diana Stanley has <5 cards beneath her..." — Susumu · 371
This works for Diana because the restriction with the limit is part of the costs, which you must pay. After that you resolve as much of the effect as possible and in this case you can draw the card and the ressource. With Katja ability this is different since the limit is part of the ability. The question is how do you interpret the last sentence with drawing a card. Can you replace a card you never placed beneath her? — Tharzax · 1
Query for all you rules experts: how does a fully stacked 5 cards attached Katja work when "Teamwork" is played by a Guardian ally, wishing to take her over across the table, as part of the team swapping? Do her 5 attached cards go with her too the new player, do they get discarded? — Quantallar · 8

Anna Kaslow

Anna Kaslow

With the introduction of hyperphysical shotcaster, boosting 1 stat is a lot valuable then before. Tarots are one of the more slot-efficient ways to stat boost.

Putting 1-level tarots x2 + the fool(3) + anna + charisma makes any deck able to +2 in their primary stat without taking up any important slots + cost reduction every turn.

Could be used in:

  • rogues that use thieves kit/lockpick engine that loves boosted evasion
  • survivors that can use scavenging to recur hyperphysical shotcaster
  • guardians with runic axe looking for reliable ways to proc elder or bandolier/shotcaster jank

Not worth in:

  • mystics usually have lots of other ways to boost willpower, and after upgrading spells that's enough anyways
  • seekers should just invest exp in draw power to draw into other techs
gyrjsrla · 31
I see your point, but in most classes, there are many other ways to boost your primary stat without spending (1*2)+3+4+3 = 12xp (assuming you get 1 copy of Anna) "just" to give you +2 to a stat. In your examples, the Rogues could go with the Moon x1, Lola Santiago or Delilah for the same result and a better ability, Survivors depend too much but also have their fair share of allies with Granny Orne, Peter Sylvestre, Jessica Hyde, etc... and Guardians have Beat Cop and Grete Wagner that now are supported by Motivational Speech. Also the new lvl 3 composures are sometimes very valuable for that matter too. — Valentin1331 · 73534

Underworld Market

Underworld Market

Are you allowed to put Finn's signatures in the Underworld Market Deck? 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200

SE13SEB · 33
You should consider asking these questions somewhere else. The 200 character requirement is in place partially because these are meant to be reviews of the cards, not rules questions about them. — SSW · 213
As a complement, BoardGameGeek's forum or Reddit are good places to ask these questions as other users can find them easily with google later :) — Valentin1331 · 73534
Okay thanks guys, will do! — SE13SEB · 33