Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

True Magick

True Magick doesn't work with Seal of the Seventh Sign.

The Seal keyword is stated as "As an additional cost for a card with the seal keyword to enter play, its controller must search the chaos bag for the specified chaos token and place it on top of the card, thereby sealing it."

True Magick's ability is "Treat True Magick as if it were the revealed asset".

Hence, if you try using True Magick on Seal of the Seventh Sign, the card does not "enter play" because True Magick is already in play and thus no token is sealed.

6/7/22

kongieieie · 13

Not using them together is good advice, but it is not actually true that they 'don't work together.' (I wouldn't recommend it though...) Forced abilities are abilities so you may choose to reveal Seal of the Seventh Sign when somebody reveals a spooky token from the chaos bag in order to remove a charge from True Magick. (Again, not recommended, but technically legal.) — Death by Chocolate · 1428 6/7/22

There is no reason why true magic should not work with seal of the seventh sign. According to the "as if..." rule true magic becomes technically the seal of the seventh sign with one charge until all effects are resolved (including the removal from game) — Tharzax · 1 6/8/22

@Tharzax, there are four abilities on Seal of the Seventh Sign: two keyword abilities — that resolve when it enters play, a constant ability — the sentence about removing it from the game, and a Forced ability. True Magick is treated as a copy of a spell in your hand throughout the resolution of an ability on it, but there is no way to resolve the Seal ability as long as no card is entering play. — Spritz · 68 6/8/22

Incidentally though, you can make an argument that the timing of the Seal keyword must be such that, if you play True Magick with 7th Sign in your hand, you can seal the Autofail. Should you make that argument? Probably not. — Spritz · 68 6/8/22

@Spritz I don't think you can make that last argument because True Magick's constant ability isn't active until it is in play, at which point it is too late to resolve Seal (which it would need to already have as it is trying to enter play). — Death by Chocolate · 1428 6/8/22

There's a problem in that (non-deckbuilding) keywords shouldn't be active until the card they're on is in play either — and it's arguably relevant that additional costs can be paid outside the normal timing. But I agree that it should be ruled the way you describe. — Spritz · 68 6/9/22

You could argue that if you choice the sign with true magic the card switches from an out of play area to a play area. But nevertheless if it work or not I think you shouldn't waste true magic in this way — Tharzax · 1 6/9/22

@Spritz That ("non-deckbuilding keywords shouldn't be active until the card they're on is in play") is objectively wrong. See: Fast. — Death by Chocolate · 1428 6/10/22

The rule I think was being misinterpreted is (from "Ability") "Card abilities only interact with the game if the card bearing the ability is in play, unless the ability (or rules for the cardtype) specifically references its use from an out-of-play area." But the definition of the Seal keyword specifies "as an additional cost to put this card into play", which suffices to meet that requirement. — Thatwasademo · 56 6/10/22

That said, True Magick's constant ability to resolve abilities on Spell assets can't work at the time Seal needs to, so the only abilities you could copy from Seal of the Seventh Sign are its forced effect to remove a charge from True Magick and its constant ability to remove True Magick from the game. — Thatwasademo · 56 6/10/22

You Definition of seal is not correct in the rules is written that you seal the token if it enters play not if is put into play. Als look at the description of a card enter playing:it just need to change from an out of play area (hand) to the play area. For me the as if condition on true magic fulfill this requirement. — Tharzax · 1 6/13/22

https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Seal — Thatwasademo · 56 6/13/22

It says if a card enters play and gladly there also a rule entry for this wording: https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Enters_Play . Does it work with true magic? Loook at the rule for "as if": https://arkhamdb.com/rules#As_If . I think if i use the as if ability of true magic i have to treat it like the card in my hand in all aspekts which also includes a sudden appearance in an ingame area from my hand. This meets the requirement of the rule for cards to enter play and therfore to seal tokens. — Tharzax · 1 6/14/22

You can be engaged without ever engaging (see massive enemies and Zoey's cross), so you can also be in play without ever entering play. — Nils · 1 6/15/22

I think that this cases rather depends on the fact that the engagement is never fully solved, since the massive enemy don't enter your threat-area. Also you're "consider" to be engaged. For me the ruling for "as if" is more direct (I think there is also some time between both cases). Probably try to change the rule for massive enemies so it becomes an as if condition. — Tharzax · 1 6/15/22

Lone Wolf

Even in multiplayer this card still almost work as well as solo. The trick is about invertigator order.

Example : even your play style is to glue together and start round at same location. Just let your friend start turn first and move away. So "when your turn begin, there are no investigator"

Poor Lone Wolf. So fast to get lonely.

6/6/22

Pawley · 26

Waylay

So turns out, duke_loves_biscuits already mentioned it - this card is suited for Finn Edwards.

I will add a small caveat. With Anatomical Diagrams. Most of the time you wouldn't even consider that card for a cluegathering style. Although Finn does it already well enough with Lockpicks. Otherwise Finn is an assassin. He understands and sees through the human anatomy so he could pull a stunt like this.

Even more to it, some enemies have an agility below two ([Hunting Nightgaunt](/card/01172), Relentless Dark Young, Wizard of the Order), so he can perform two action(one of them free) with 99% accuracy. Would you pay 4 resources and an action to deal with Hunting Nightgaunt? I would!

In total I'll start the Finn campaign with 2x Anatomical Diagrams, 2x Lucky! and Waylay. To later swap in Fight or Flight and Practice Makes Perfect. Second Anatomical Diagrams is for a combo with Eavesdrop.

I've basically written a small review for Finn here, because I don't really see Waylay being used anywhere else. I would welcome any suggestions in the comments :)

Finn

6/6/22

ambiryan13 · 177

Well Connected

A non-obvious aspect of Well Connected (3)'s ready ability is that its main ability is NOT "limit once per test." You can exhaust it to boost a test, ready it during the same player window, and exhaust again to boost that same test.

This is especially important to know about defensively, sacrificing a few resources in order to pass an important test before you've actually acquired your full hoard of cash. This means that Well Connected (3) can protect you much earlier in the game than Well Connected (0) -- doing so does delay your set-up, but in the case that you're forced to make a "must pass" test (e.g. Frozen in Fear; an untimely Crypt Chill; a must-evade enemy that arrived before you were ready to handle it; or even an early Act-progressing test), that is often worth it.

E.g. this is very useful to keep in mind for Preston Fairmont, who can basically double his test value in a pinch using this trick, and who has an easier time recovering from the expense. And who is likely to be quite vulnerable before being fully set up.

"Ashcan" Pete can also do this trick with a splashed Well Connected (0), by discarding a card to ready it. Pete doesn't generally need protection, but he can use the trick to hit much higher difficulties than expected, or to enable oversuccess if, say, splashing Lucky Cigarette Case or playing Brute Force/Sharp Vision/Expeditious Retreat.

6/6/22

anaphysik · 94

Sleuth

Tactic contains some expensive one-off attack events. Building for just event discount rather than test boosting can be a lot of fun too, and shape the deck away from asset stacking style. (Same for Prophetic with Fortune, Crafty with Trick/Insight. All the non-asset traits.)

I feel like 3 on an Event is much more agonizing to pay than 3 on an Asset as they are one-off, so -2 cost here is a much better deal than it looks considering these events need the right timing to play. It is perfectly fine to "waste" 2 replenishing resources as what you get is the readiness to play strong Events.

When I get to -2 on 2~3 cost Event, it is enough to make them feel like an entirely new card, as a part of experience of using them is often painfully holding them on hand while waiting for resources or even queue up until you can setup other Asset first. You may even have no choice but to commit it away with everything considered, a lot of opportunities lost.

Anyways, here are some early events :

Dynamite Blast : Cost 5, Dodge : Cost 1, Taunt : Cost 1, Ambush : Cost 2
"I've got a plan!" : Cost 3
Backstab : Cost 3, Sneak Attack : Cost 2, Elusive : Cost 2
Cunning Distraction : Cost 5, Flare : Cost 2, Waylay : Cost 3

But this card is strategically priced at 3 pips, limiting characters that could take it, while not having and icons, so aiming for and discount is a puzzle. At the same time it is fun to think about which specific character can really play which card at discount while the others can't, really set the theme that a character may have special talent unlike no other.

"Skids" O'Toole with 2x 2x 2x of each core Rogue events at discount would feel like superpower but his access is only up to Lv.2 so the plan is foiled. Instead Parallel Roland Banks can have his niche to be able to swiftly use events. Or go great length to have Zoey Samaras use Elusive and Cunning Distraction as her splashes? Who can Waylay at 1 cost? These series of card has been fun so far to build on and I am glad it is at 3 XP instead of 2.

6/4/22

5argon · 9171