On Your Own

On Your Own

This card is very powerful, when added to the combo of Will to Survive, True Survivor and 2x Resourceful.

What the combo does: Play Will to Survive and commit 2x Resourceful on any test to recover True Survivor and Will to Survive. Next turn play True Survivor to recover 2x Resourceful and any other skill.

You can repeat this as often as you want until you run out of ressources, which happens pretty fast at a total cost of 7 (4 + 3). Enter On Your Own: It reduces the total cost to 3!

I've only seen one deck (my own) that could pull of the old combo, but with reduced costs nearly every survivor should be able to pull it off. Maybe not Wendy because her Abandoned and Alone weakness destroys many survivor discard pile recurring.

You can use any version of Emergency Cache and Take Heart to gain more ressources. I think testless actions are very strong as you potentially avoid many bad icons that might hurt you or add doom, so even taking the "gain 1 ressource" action can be a good idea to keep the combo going.

Django · 5154
Limit 1 per investigator, so you only get to drop the cost to 5. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Actually, the Will to Survive/Resourcefull/True Survivor combo can and mostly will be played over the course of different turns. So you do reduce the cost of the combo by 4, wich is simply amazing. If it's worth giving up your ally slot, that's another question. — Vstene · 29
Also, If you really want to execute the combo in one turn, Pete can ready On Your Own with his ability. — ak45 · 469
I meant over 2 turns. Playing true survivor on the same as will is wasting 1 testless action. — Django · 5154
And maybe some day with more sealing effects the Chaos bag will be empty or contain only the elder sign? — Django · 5154
Sorry, previous comment was for the another card "Crystalline elder sign". — Django · 5154
Ah right, I somehow misread the combo description and thought you said 2x On Your Own in there somewhere. Doing it over two turns makes way more sense. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
This card is definitely a step in the direction of making the True Survivor/Will to Survive/Resourceful dream come true. But it still feels a little janky, no? There are so many cards you need to draw! — CaiusDrewart · 3183
I‘m still waiting for buried alive from mtg: search your deck for 3 cards and put them into discard pile. — Django · 5154
I guess Daredevil (0) could be a step toward this combo working, as it can reliably discard your entire deck (minus weaknesses). Wendy can actually do this combo quite well without On Your Own or Daredevil (0), but with Wendy's Amulet (to recur Will to Survive and True Survivor), and Hot Streak (2) to pay for the combo. You need to thin your deck heavily to do it, which 2x Lucky Cigarette Case (with Relic Hunter) can do decently well. I almost made it to Depth 9 in Standalone Yoth that way once. — Zinjanthropus · 229

Crystalline Elder Sign

Crystalline Elder Sign

Let's get one thing out the way first--this card is just terrible compared to Key of Ys. Granted. But most cards in the game are going to be terrible compared to Key of Ys, so let's not make that a serious factor in our evaluation of this card. +1 to all stats is an extremely powerful effect, even if Key of Ys might make it seem paltry in comparison.

Still, for a lot of Mystics builds, you don't really care about all of your stats. Plenty of Mystics never use Combat and rarely use Agility. You might not even care about anything except Willpower, to be honest. Which means this card is just much, much worse than Holy Rosary or St. Hubert's Key.

If this card has a niche, it's surely in solo play. There a Mystic is most likely to need all stats, and the card's drawback of sealing the Elder Sign is the least painful.

But in multiplayer, I just see very little reason to play this card instead of those other Amulet options. Even if this card were 0 XP, I would still prefer the Rosary and/or St. Hubert's Key. Since it's 3 XP, it's not remotely attractive.

Finally, there's the social element to be considered here. If you're playing multiplayer, you're taking away quite a bit of fun from other players when you seal the Elder Sign token. Not only will your teammates perform a little worse, they will also lose some of the most exciting and dramatic moments in the game.

CaiusDrewart · 3183
I don't think this card is that terrible. It surely has limited uses but it's not completely useless. Getting +1 to all skills unconditionally (unlike Dark Horse and Key of Ys) is a powerful effect for any investigator and that justifies its cost. The only problem is that it's a 3-level Mystic card and that makes it available only for investigators whose main class is Mystic, which, in turn, leads to the issues you mentioned above. So, while this card is almost useless to most Mystics, I do have a pretty good use (and the only one) for this card: In a Dark Horse + Fire Axe Jim deck and to be honest, I really want to try it out!! — matt88 · 3210
And by the way, you can also seal +1, not only the Elder Sign (unless you 're playing on Expert mode). That said I agree it's best for solo, or in a 2-player game. — matt88 · 3210
@matt88: I think we're on the same page here--I agree that +1 to all stats is a powerful effect, and I don't think this card is worthless. That said, I do think this card is a bit of a stretch in multiplayer. Even in your Dark Horse/Jim example, I would probably rather run St. Hubert's Key and get the two most important stat boosts for 3 less XP, while also not having to seal a good token. (Though I could definitely see this in true solo there.) — CaiusDrewart · 3183
@matt88: And yah, you can seal the +1 on lower difficulties, which would make this card slightly more attractive there--not only because obviously sealing a +1 is better than sealing an Elder Sign, but also because I think taking away a good token from the bag is a little less painful on lower levels. — CaiusDrewart · 3183
While it's true that mystics in general probably won't care about this, Lola can also take it and it's great on her because she's quite likely to use all of her skills. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
I agree, for 3xp it is not worth both the accessory slot AND elder token seal in almost every mystic's build at the moment (IMO even for pure solo). But perhaps there might come some "unseal" effect in the future, such that might be combined here for a sure shot. — XehutL · 47
Note this is not unique so 2 can be in play depending on difficulty over several investigators or relic hunters. — Django · 5154
And maybe some day with more sealing effects the Chaos bag will be empty or contain only the elder sign? — Django · 5154
@TheNameWasTaken: That's a good thought on Lola. She can definitely use this better than most Mystics. That said, in a 3-4 p game, the cost is just too brutal here. She needs to do something else. But for solo Lola, I'm in. — CaiusDrewart · 3183
@Django: Yah. For a high level, though, there's only the Elder Sign to seal. Since the seal is part of the cost, you're limited to one of these puppies. — CaiusDrewart · 3183
@CaiusDrewart If I'm playing a Fire Axe Jim deck, I'll be using Fire Axe as my main tool to deal with enemies, so I really want that Combat boost. Plus the St. Hubert's is more expensive and reduces Sanity. The Crystalline Elder Sign comes at greater cost of course, but It's vital to the build. — matt88 · 3210
@CaiusDreart I meant: I think it's vital to the build. — matt88 · 3210
@matt88: sure, that seems like a fine build to me. No arguments. All I have to say against it is that I would probably restrict it to solo. It would seem crazy to me to run that build in multiplayer. — CaiusDrewart · 3183
Yes, that card is pure amazingness in Lola - I tested it just after announcement of the City of Archives. Take a note that changing failing chaos token into passing is much more impactful that pulling a token out of the bag. In the first case you increase your odds by ~6% per each token, so if 4 tokens more let you pass the test you have ~24% more chance of positive result. If you just pull always passing token out of bag, it depends - if you have 50% chance to pass that lack of one good token is ~3% probability swing, when you have 80% - ~1% swing, when you have 10% - ~5% swing. If you know that you don't fear about taking that item even in large multiplayer, especially when you have +1 in a bag and CES carrier uses at least 3 stats well and frequently (Lola, Ursula and certain Jim decks come to mind atm). — KptMarchewa · 1
And yes, that item is a terrible option for mystics who use Will as their main stat - Rosary is a waaaaaay better. — KptMarchewa · 1
I like this on Ursula running Dr. Elli Horowitz — crymoricus · 252
it's good in Ursula even without Dr. Elli. +1 or +2 agility dramatically improves her enemy management. Even better with Elli, though, as you want to have enough targets for her. — Zinjanthropus · 229

Split the Angle

Split the Angle

I've played as Norman Withers through a few scenarios and this card has come up several times. I have never played this card (although I've been occasionally tempted to play it at a discount off the top of his deck). However, I really like the icons on it. Norman will ideally be doing a lot tests that take advantage of his high and , so being able to augment a critical check with this card is pretty nice. I would say that is probably the best use for this card.

If this had to be played for some reason, I don't know if it's worth it to use the icon unless the lead investigator is close to defeat and needs to avoid damage or horror in order to stay in the game. Interestingly, the effect can be used to remove the top card of your deck if you have a skill card there and you want to try to get a better asset card to play with Norman's top-of-the-deck discount. However, I don't think this is very efficient - if you're using cards that you're ok with going straight to the discard pile, maybe it's worth considering swapping them out of your deck entirely? Also, drawing a card using the draw action has the same effect - it does cost an action, but you also get a card out if it that way. Some weird scenarios do want you to mill the encounter deck, but even then this is not a very efficient way to do so.

In short - it's an interesting card, but I'd normally only ever use it for the icons. The icons are quite useful.

ArkhamInvestigator · 305
With Alyssa this card is pretty good to remove encounter cards without adding doom to Alyssa — Django · 5154
Does the "Reveal the top card of the encounter deck" ability make you resolve treacheries yourself when they have Revelation effects? — slothgodfather · 7
Ironically (but fortunately) no. Revelation effects trigger when the card is drawn. — Death by Chocolate · 1489

Ancient Stone

Ancient Stone

Carolyn Fern can take this; she can use the level 1 version because she's her, and this because it heals horror. She can also take Shrewd Analysis, which has a strange interaction here: Since this is the only "eligible" option, she flat out upgrades the second copy for free. The other version isn't eligible because she can't include it in her deck, so it's not included among the random options. Since shrewd analysis is so easy to include in a deck, it's now a viable include for Carolyn. The biggest hurdle is getting the initial investigate off to upgrade the card at all, but she can be built as a solid seeker so that's not such an issue.

SGPrometheus · 841
Wow!! That's huge!!! — matt88 · 3210
Yep, a huge get for Carolyn, but I'm pretty meh on this for everyone else, because the other Ancient Stone is just so good. This one would be great in Dim Carcosa... but so would the other. — CaiusDrewart · 3183
Either we 're getting something wrong about this card, or something's wrong in the works, regarding the site. I'm trying to add this in a Carolyn deck I created and the site overwrites it, telling me I've included a card that is forbidden for the investigator. Any idea why this would happen?? — matt88 · 3210
@caiusdrewart Agreed re: everyone else, especially since pretty much everyone else who can take this can take the other version instead. That's what I love about Carolyn though, she takes so many sub-par cards (First Aid, Clarity of Mind, Liquid Courage) and makes them into viable, powerful cards. — SGPrometheus · 841
@matt88 Well, let's take a look: The first card is a level 1 seeker card, and Carolyn can take Seeker cards 0-1, so that checks out. This card has "heals... horror" on it, anywhere, so that checks out too. My guess is that the (one) guy who does all the coding for arkhamdb hasn't gotten around to flagging this card as obtainable by Caroyln yet. — SGPrometheus · 841
Question: Can the stone heal Key of Ys? — Uncle George the Farmer · 48818
Note that because multiple cards drawn from a single game effect are considered to be drawn simultaneously and not one at a time, neither version of the Ancient Stone can divide a single 2+ heal/damage among multiple targets. Nor, on the wording of the card, is it permitted to spend fewer secrets than the number of cards drawn by the said game effect, e.g. you could not spend just 1 secret after playing Preposterous Sketches to draw 3 cards; it would have to be 3 secrets or else not use the Ancient Stone reaction-trigger at all. — Cluny · 52
@Uncle George the Farmer: Answer: yes, if it's at your location. See the FAQ entry. — SGPrometheus · 841
Could this affect be used to heal investigators character cards at your location? Just seeing if that qualifies — coffeeandgames7 · 1
@coffeeandgames7 Yes, an investigator's card has a sanity value, so it can be targeted. — MiskatonicFrosh · 344
Epic combo from our recent Carcosa campaign with "Stand together": Carolyn draws 2 cards, gains 2 resources, Agnes heals 2 horror, gains 1 resource, Minh draws 2 cards, gains 2 resources, deals 2 damage to an enemy without AoO. — Susumu · 381

Trusted

Trusted

To be fair, I have not used Trusted in a deck yet. I think it might be worth writing a review for why I don't normally consider it good option, though. I like the idea of Upgrade cards in theory. They are cards that are supposed to make your other key cards better, and I think normally that's pretty good. Of course, that does mean that you need cards to work well with them as they are not much use on their own.

The cards that work well with Trusted are Ally cards that normally have abilities that cause them to take damage or horror as part of the activation cost or have a ability that is triggered by taking damage or horror. Some examples would be:

If you play Trusted on one of these cards, you normally get one more use out of their ability, which can be pretty nice. Anything that adds value to these cards is a good thing in my opinion.

On their own, the extra points of soak are handy to have. In-faction, Guardian cards don't normally need a lot of extra health soak, but most will welcome the horror soak.

The reason I don't normally pick this card is because I feel like it has anti-synergy with Calling in Favors. Calling in Favors is the other card you want to run if you have a lot of Ally assets, but if you target an Ally that has the Trusted Upgrade on it, you lose the Upgrade and it gets discarded when the Ally goes back to your hand. When you take into consideration that both cards cost 1 resource, I personally normally just run Calling in Favors instead, since it returns the Ally card to your hand (effectively healing it) and also lets you search for your other useful allies. Trusted is nice to have, but I don't think it's effective right now to run it in addition to Calling in Favors.

ArkhamInvestigator · 305
That doesn’t make sense. You play trusted to get more use out of guard dog or beat cop but — Django · 5154
Are too scared to discard it with favors? Trusted served it’s purpose once the ally reached it’s stam/ San Limit so playing favors at this point or having the ally die as soak is very effective. But i don’t think trusted is really worth the deck slot. — Django · 5154
I guess my point is you can run both Calling In Favors and Trusted, but if you do both, you need to wait until an ally is close to defeat before you can use Calling In Favors on them without losing the utility of Trusted. For example, if I want to use Calling In Favors on Guard Dog to get Beat Cop, I might not wait for it to be worn all the way down before doing so normally. With Trusted on Guard Dog, I'd be tempted to wait to get use out of it. Granted, Trusted is fast, so you can wait to play it until you need it, but it has a "play on your turn" restriction that means you can't use it to soak damage/horror during the encounter phase unless you play it in advance. It's not a completely deal-breaking anti-synergy between the two cards, but it's just a little awkward. — ArkhamInvestigator · 305
Actually, trusted makes Calling in favors even better. You can dump extra damage / get extra triggers with the ally, its that much more recilient, thus when you finally get the Favors you can play it on the still-living ally. — Tsuruki23 · 2568