Watcher's Grasp

Watcher's Grasp

Game designer Matt Newman has confirmed on Twitter that The Watcher’s Grasp effect includes causes the Spectral Watcher to exhaust: “Q: Does the Spectral Watcher exhaust after moving and attacking with Watcher's Grasp? If that's the case, it would not attack later in the enemy phase, right? A: Yep!”

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Fenchurch · 5

Sword Cane

Sword Cane

A much, much cheaper alternative to Sign Magick. Not only does it cost one less resource, you also don't have to spend the resources and action playing the spell you just made room for. And because of its reaction ability and the fact that it doesn't provoke AoO, it's effectively fast if you only play it when you need its effect. This is a card that has so much convenience going on that, if this were a competitive game, it would be considered broken. We'll see how it plays out in practice, but it's very appealing for decks that can take it.

Who benefits most? Mystics like Akachi and Agnes, at 5 will, can use it to replace events that allowed them to fight or evade when their spell slots were full. Mystics whose will is closer to their other stats see less of a benefit, but still might like that third-slot versatility. For non-Mystics, who has the will to make it work? Parallel front Daisy with original back can pump her will to awesome proportions, but that fills her hand slots. Carolyn might actually be the non-Mystic who gets the most from it, as she has decent will and generally free hand slots. It allows her to evade cultists and pick off rats which she normally can't do herself, so it's pretty useful for her too.

Very compact card, performing a lot of functions. Interested to see this in action.

SGPrometheus · 821
Note that it isn't just 'pseudo-fast' if you play it the turn you need its effect, but it also doesn't exhaust, so you can use it twice during that first turn. It is also better than fast in the sense that its bonus stacks with Sleight of Hand and Dexter Drake's ability. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
You could take it in Ursula to help with her abysimal combat score, although "evade and run" is a better strategy for her 9 times out of 10. Maybe she could have Elli Horowitz hold this while Ursula was reloading her bow? — LivefromBenefitSt · 1067

Rite of Sanctification

Rite of Sanctification

Guardian economy in an uncontested slot? Because let's be real: nine out of ten times the investigator who needs the most help offering for their assets will be the guardian. In a Sister Mary deck this feels like an auto-include, since it only needs two tokens sealed to beat Emergency Cache, with the potential to far outstrip that in terms of resources generated. It remains to be seen if someone like Roland or Yorick will be provided enough tools to stuff the chaos bag with bless tokens and make this reliable.

It also remains to be seen if someone like Carolyn or... Skids, I guess? could make use of it as a support tool for the other members of the team. I can't really think of anyone else who could take it (besides Dunwich, and it's probably too niche unless they're going full bless) and not really need the economy; Diana can take it but she wants her arcane slots, and there isn't a seeker/guardian that I know of, or a minor guardian other than those above. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So the power here depends on whether I can load the bag with bless tokens while fighting, moving, and protecting my allies; if I can (or if I'm Mary) it's arguably better than emergency cache. If I can't, it's probably a miss.

Final note, it can't go under SttP, but that's a pretty minor hit. Excited to see it in action.

SGPrometheus · 821
I think your analysis is correct. I'd just add that we do have a Seeker/Guardian in Joe Diamond. If we get any Insight Blessed cards that would be a very interesting add to the Hunch deck. Aside from that, I have a feeling Father Mateo will be able to utilize the Blessed Tokens very well if all the cards related to them use the Blessed keyword — DavidRyanAndersson · 54
Would Tides of Fate be a cool combo with this? Because the [bless] tokens aren't in the chaos bag they couldn't be replaced with [curse] tokens right? — Vyr · 7
Vyr - Was thinking the same thing, especially for dealing with Sister Mary's weakness. Also looks like an effecient way to research the Cryptic Grimoire. — agentwestmer · 1
Joe Diamond! I knew I was forgetting someone. As you say, if there are insight cards that add bless tokens, this will be a natural fit. — SGPrometheus · 821
Carolyn loves it with Psalms. — MrGoldbee · 1471

Beyond the Veil

Beyond the Veil

This seems to be a contentious card, but in my opinion the worst part about the card is that it simply isn't fun or interesting. Many of the card milling mechanics in Dunwich don't have significant counterplay and it's easy to draw this at 10 cards left in your deck and just eat shit. Every other strong encounter card has something you can do to mitigate its effects, like passing a skill check. This is just really boring and doesn't make me excited to play Arkham Horror.

the_mllkman · 8
There are a fair few ways to deal with it at this point tbf. Anything that targets revelation effects (ward of protection, test of will), anything that cancels damage (deny existence, devil's luck), anything that discards from play (Otherworld codex, alter fate) all just stop it cold. Stuff that manipulates the encounter deck (First Watch, Scroll of Secrets) can point it at a less vulnerable investigator or use the other milling effects to reset your deck. And in most of the scenarios where it appears there's room for at least one investigator to resign to dodge its trauma and you usually have enough warning to do that. You Handle This One will get rid of it if you have a friend who can deal with it/doesn't mind it/has a bigger deck. And all the other milling things are pretty irrelevant if you can stop Beyond the Veil itself. So while it's a big card, I don't think it's *that* hard to stop, almost any anti-encounter event will do the job, most encounter and most of the encounter decks that it appears in are built around it as the main threat. I don't think it's a wholly successful experiment, but it does give TDL a distinctive mechanical identity, and my experience is that dealing with it successfully does feel fun and satisfying. — bee123 · 31
One more satisfying way to deal with it mitigate it's badness — NarkasisBroon · 10
If you use first watch, you handle this one, etc. You can put it on a player who already has a copy in their threat area. In which case it just surges — NarkasisBroon · 10
Of course you can do something to mitigate the effect, especially now years after the Dunwich Legacy came out: You can cancel the damage, counter the encounter card, soak the damage, avoid drawing the encounter card, remove the card with Alter Fate, reshuffle your discard pile into the deck with Quantum Flux, increase your deck size with Versatile, draw fewer cards (or draw enough cards to reshuffle your deck before you draw Beyond the Veil). I just played the Dunwich Legacy with Marie and Joe. Marie had Deny Existence and Joe was running enough soak and Delay the inevitable to mitigate the high amount of damage this card deals. There are so many ways to deal with this card. Actually this makes me excited to play Arkham, because I would be very bored if the game was only about passing skill checks and did not include curveballs like this. However, I have to admit though that I did not understand the flavor of this card at first. But now I think it relates to the story: "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" where Randolph Carter loses his body after transcending time and space. The entity who grants this ability and curse to him is strongly implied to be Yog Sothoth so it makes sense in context of the campaign. — PowLee · 15
You can also run ‘I‘ll see you in hell‘ or ‘ghastly revelation‘ to lean into it killing you. Just use those on your own terms before the veil kills you. As a seeker, the ghastly revelation will just give you a mental trauma which (usually) isn’t a big deal. And you can use them to set your team up for the win — Pixcalcis · 1
There is almost no recourse in the core set or dunwich set, which were the cards available at the time, and are still the only cards available for those just getting into the game, playing in order. — eskimoform · 102
But there was also hardly enough card draw available in that old card pool to churn through your deck enough to be a playstyle. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
I have a question about this card. if at some point I have to draw more cards than I have left in the deck, is the deck considered to have been empty at some point and the effect is applied or do I draw what is left as cards, take an horror and reshuffle the deck, re-draw the missing cards from my new reshuffled deck and then the deck is not considered empty so the effect of beyond the veil is ignored? — TinchO · 1
@TinchO You reshuffle your deck because you are trying to draw from an empty deck. BtV triggers when your deck is empty. Nice try though. :-) — Time4Tiddy · 246

Momentum

Momentum

Momentum is a pretty generically good card for Rogue decks that are planning on overachieving, but I think it bares particular consideration for Parallel "Skids" O'Toole. There are basically 2 reasons for this.

  • As a Practiced skill, it can be found by Practice Makes Perfect, which is gambit traited, so Parallel Skids can take it. In general, you're probably trying to dig out Three Aces, but it doesn't hurt to have an alternative choice if there isn't one in the top 9.

  • If you commit this to a test that you're way over the difficulty for (a Lockpicks test, for instance) you could reduce the difficulty of your ability by up to 3. This means that you can bet all 3 resources and be nearly guaranteed to double that. Add in Double or Nothing to go from 3 to 12 resources at no action cost.

Zinjanthropus · 229
What's the order of operations? If you use momentum to reduce parallel Skid's generator by three, does double or nothing double the 0 (zero), or does it double the 3 to 6, then reduce it by 3? Relevant to drawing thin as well. — jdk5143 · 98
I actually don't know. I was assuming that the momentum would come first, because it is the result of an earlier skill test, but perhaps I'm wrong — Zinjanthropus · 229
Looking at the RR (skill test timing), it doesn't seem as if there's a point specified when you determine the difficulty of the test. I'm guessing that it would be before committing cards to the test, which is when — Zinjanthropus · 229
...which is when Double or Nothing would start affecting the test? Then again, DoN modifies the difficulty of the test, so who knows. In any case, it should still work without Double or Nothing. I hope there is a FAQ entry for this at some point. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Looks like there is a FAQ on Rise to the Occasion + DoN, which is that it is a nonbo, because they are committed simultaneously, so you can't use the increased difficulty from DoN to allow you to commit Rise. I'm not sure what implications that has for Momentum because Momentum is the result of a previous skill test. — Zinjanthropus · 229
You commit Momentum to an investigation with lockpicks and succeed by three, reducing the difficulty of the next skill test by three. You activate your free ability; normally it's difficulty 3, but the effect from Momentum reduces this to 0. That is the difficulty of the test before you begin committing cards to it; therefore DoN would double 0 to 0. You spent 3 resources, so you'll get 12 back on anything but the auto-fail. — SGPrometheus · 821
From "Modifiers", in the Rules Reference: "Any time a new modifier is applied (or removed), the entire quantity is recalculated from the start, considering the unmodified base value and all active modifiers. When calculating a value, treat all modifiers as being applied simultaneously. However, while performing the calculation, all additive and subtractive modifiers are calculated before doubling and/or halving modifiers." Since nothing is preventing both modifiers from applying, it isn't really a timing question in the way previous commentators have been trying to address it. — Thatwasademo · 58
(tl;dr: if both DoN and Momentum try to modify the same skill test, Momentum always applies first -- the example skill test's difficulty becomes 0) — Thatwasademo · 58
So it sounds like the easy way to think about it is that the mathematical order of operations is reversed. — jdk5143 · 98
That's really useful information! Thanks for finding and posting that! — Zinjanthropus · 229