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Dexter Drake

Dilir — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 10:10:38 +0000

Lone Wolf: Dexter Drake, The Magician

Coming from the Innsmouth Conspiracy investigator expansion, Dexter Drake is printed with a 5W 2I 3F 2A statline and a 6/8 health/sanity split.

Elder sign: +2. You may return an asset from your play area to your hand. Then, draw 1 card.

This elders signs at least does something. However, it is kind of the reverse of Dexter‘s ability, which is strange. Usually, you want your depleted assets to be fodder to trigger your ability into playing fresh ones action free and at a discount. The only useful case I see is if you have no suitable replacement for a depleted asset, in which case the refill and card draw are useful. Very niche though.

Ability: Once per round, can discard a controlled asset to play a different one, action-free and with a 1 resource discount.

On paper, this ability seems quite strong. It indeed saves one action and one resource each time you use it (3.5R in my model). However, I do feel that, even with the full current card pool, building too much around Dexter‘s ability is still a bit of trap. It is possible to build very fun and good builds around it (I have one example of such deck bellow), but it is probably not the strongest way to build Dexter.

The idea of binging through assets is nice, but quickly runs into a lot of issues. Mystics spell assets are expensive enough that burning them with charges remaining isn’t worth it. They will also last longer in Solo, as a single Shriveling could be half a scenario worth of fighting. The same goes for doomed assets, such as Dowsing Rod. Even though you could in theory pile up doom and swap them when it would cause the agenda to advance, the resource cost is barely worth the tempo gain. You could think of going the opposite direction, playing fast and cheap assets (such as switchblade) to transform them into useful ones, but at this point you are paying a card and deck slots just to save on one action. Quick-thinking does about the same.

I often find myself not using the ability more than 3-4 times in a scenario. However, I do believe that it is still a decent ability to have. The best use for it is to delay paying for your fight spells. You can instead use value assets (Scroll of Secrets and Scroll of Prophecies) first, and turn them into spells when depleted. Scroll of Secrets (the tabooed version) is already a very good mystic card at level 0, it becomes outright fantastic in Dexter, being effectively a 0 cost, fast, draw 3 cards with a chance of discarding weaknesses. The other perk of Dexter‘s ability is fight management. Because you can just swap your empty assets for a new one while engaged with an enemy, you never have to fear running out of charges/ammo as long as you have another useful asset in your hand.

Deckbuilding: Mystic 0-5 / Rogue 0-2

Let’s just say it first: this deckbuilding offers the most abusive XP acceleration an investigator can pile up. With 2xArcane Research, Down the Rabbit Hole and Charon’s Obol, you can add 6XP of upgrade on top of what each scenario gives you. You can resign most of the scenarios and still end up on par with some investigators that full clear them.

Aside from this, for an investigator with 5 willpower, full Mystic access is never bad. The interesting decisions come when looking at what to do with the Rogue splash. Dexter‘s low agility means that a lot of the Rogue pool will be left aside. However, Rogue has a lot of economy support when the Mystic class struggle with it. It also has a lot of payoffs for evading, which means Dexter can use the Mystic evade spells a lot of other investigators have no room for. Finally, even though Seeker is better than Rogue for it, the class still offer some curse interactions should you want to build in that direction.

Signature Kit

Showmanship is hardly the best signature asset. It is at least cheap enough to be played free using Dexter‘s ability.

Its effect is however underwhelming. In True Solo, it is not that common to perform two actions on the same asset in a single round (fighting large enemies might be the one exception). I’d say its effect is hardly better than the one of the Masks, which are good level 0 cards, but I expect more of an investigator signature.

The main use I can see is if you include Flashlight in your clue getting plan. With the effect of Showmanship active the turn they come into play, you are getting an effective +4 to investigate, which gives Dexter a fair shot at shroud 3/4 locations.

Another option is to use it as a third Cat Mask should you want to play with a weapon based Dexter. I believe that with just Showmanship, this build is a trap, but adding Cat Mask brings just enough consistency for Dexter‘s 3 fight to be workable.

Occult Scraps is just as mild as Showmanship. Minus two Willpower fairly is annoying, but can be worked around, especially with an high XP deck.

What makes it mild is how easy it is to discard, provided that you have an asset you were willing to discard anyway. All it does then is delaying by one round its replacement with a usable asset, and giving you minus one willpower during that round.

While it is a nice design for a weakness as it is closely tied to Dexter‘s ability, it is definitely on the softer side.

Preformance review for True Solo tasks

Clue Gathering

Base 2 intellect is not worth building upon. With Dexter, we will be using our Willpower to get clues.

Fortunately, there are plenty of assets and events to do so in the modern card pool. As Dexter, you are encouraged to play assets with different titles, which means that mixing it up a bit with the likes of Divination, Dowsing Rod, Close the Circle is encouraged.

One big part of the mystic game is arcane slots management. Fortunately, with his ability, Dexter can make a very good use of his hands slots to alleviate some of the pressure on arcane slots. Heck, even a simple Flashlight becomes quite good when its effectively 1 Cost and fast.

Overall, Dexter has no trouble investigating whatsoever, without being overly impressive at doing so.

Enemy Management

When it comes to enemy management, a 5 willpower mystic will never disapoint. Yes, it does often imply playing a spell asset of some sort, but even Gardians need to play a weapon.

Dexter has access to Shrivelling, Azure Flame, Brand of Chtugha. Its Rogue splash can generate enough curse for Armageddon to be workable too.

He has 3 fight, which, while not being as consistent as playing the spells above, opens up some alternative builds using a fight based weapon in the hands.

Having access to Dirty Fighting, Dexter is also one of the few mystics that can make evade spells shine.

Finally, his ability enables swapping a depleted weapon/spell in the middle of combat, or playing one while engaged. It is convenient as it means Dexter doesn’t have to pay the upfront costs of the fights assets until they are needed.

Mythos Defense - Survivability

With 5 willpower, Dexter enjoys the mystic edge of being resilient to the most tested stat on treacheries.

Its agility is on the weaker side, though, with only 2. Combined with only 6 health, this makes him vulnerable in the campaigns that test agility the most (notably Forgotten Age). However, the mystic class provides plenty of encounter protection (Ward of Protection, Deny Existence, Promise of Power) that can soften this weakness.

Dexter can also use soak assets to take a few damages before cycling them. The two most notable ones are David Renfield, that you want to leech for resources before killing/swapping him, and Leather Jacket, that is fast and can take a damage before being swapped for something more active.

The last point to mention is that if you are playing the greediest XP version of Dexter, you will start with 4 traumas. Something to be aware of, but very manageable.

Action efficiency - Economy

I already stated that Dexter‘s ability has a strong effect, but will not be activated enough for it to compete with top tiers ability out there.

He does enjoy the support of the Rogue class access, which provides a strong resource generation to fund his stream of assets.

The Rogue class also gives access to interesting cards for his action economy (Eon’s Chart(1) being one of the most notable one). Dexter is also one of the best users of Close the Circle, with his high willpower, the ability to start with a Rogue permanent, and the extra value he gets upon discarding it.

Thanks to his ability, he also has access to card draw through the Scroll of Secrets and Scroll of Prophecies.

Overall, he has a solid economy, that can keep up with the pace of the game, without breaking it.

Deckbuilding ideas

The most boring magician

Decklist on ArkhamDB

This deck is maybe one of the most boring ways of building Dexter. The only Rogue card used is Charon’s Obol.

On the flip side, this deck is extremely consistent and will upgrade insanely fast. Each of the pieces have a clear purpose, which makes choosing the upgrades very simple.

The deck is built around spell assets for both fighting and investigating with willpower (4 and 3 respectively). To boost the willpower to consistent values, the deck features Holy Rosary, Cat Mask, Guts and Living Ink. For passing non willpower tests, it is supplemented by Promise of Power. A solid Mythos defense is built in with Deny Existence and Ward of Protection.

The deck supports its card draw with Scroll of Secrets (one of the best target to be pitched by Dexter‘s ability), and Arcane Initiate (that can either be killed for soak, or swapped right before the agenda advances for another asset). With 13 out of 33 cards being spells, the Initiate will get you a lot of cards.

The resource generation is provided by David Renfield & Uncage the Soul. Just as for the Initiate, David can be safely played thanks to Dexter‘s ability.

The final touch of the deck is the 2xSpectral Razor, though this is more of a wildcard slot, that can be swapped for other spells such as Read the Signs, depending on the campaign characteristics.

I will not even bother presenting a 29XP version of this deck, first because with this deck, I got to 31XP after the first three scenarios of Dunwitch, and because the upgraded deck just uses upgraded versions of the level 0 cards. Just make sure you upgrade one spell each scenario, and choose the upgrades based on the needs of the next scenario.

The Rainbow Magician

Decklist on ArkhamDB

At level 0, this deck has a lot of similarities with the previous one. The main difference is that it is a bit less spell heavy, which is why the Arcane Initiate has been replaced by Scroll of Prophecies to boost the card draw. The deck also drops Down the Rabbit Hole, as it will upgrade to a sensitively different deck. Charon’s Obol remains, as it is both great xp acceleration and a Rogue permanent.

Upgraded deck

Decklist on ArkhamDB

The upgraded deck is where the magic happens. The deck is built around Close the Circle, one of the best synergy cards, magnified by Dexter’s ability. Close the Circle allows for free basic actions, which can test willpower instead of their normal stats. With a normal investigators, you need 3 charges (and thus 3 controlled classes) for the card to be worth playing. With Dexter, 2 charges is enough and you have that guaranteed from the start with your investigator card and Charon’s Obol. Of course, this deck can massively exceed that value, as it has 5 seeker assets, 3 guardian assets, and 1 survivor asset.

The chosen assets are Scroll of Secrets, Dexter‘s real signature, Divination, a powerful investigation tool to complement Close the Circle on multi-clue locations, Brand of Cthugha, an amazing fight spell, Prophetic, that can pay for and boost the use of spells, and Eon Chart, which due to Dexter stats will be use only to move, but is basically a fast, cost 1, get 3 free moves card.

Since the deck is built around boosting synergy cards, the Faustian Bargains are replaced by Cheat the System, to save more actions, and the deck is capped by a Call for Backup, that will most likely be a “move, find a clue, heal one horror” card.

Finally, the deck features Sign Magick(3), to both help fielding Close the Circle on top of your spell assets, but also to occasionally generate an additional action. It is completed by one Shrivelling, just to cram a bit more damage into the deck, as Close the Circle is at its worst when used for fighting (one charge per damage is not a great use of charges).

Cursed with many arms

Decklist on ArkhamDB

This deck is built around two objectives: messing around with curses, and playing a unique mystic gamestyle where the arcane slots are not used. The star of the deck is Astral Mirror, that both gives Dexter four hand slots, and enables him to cycle through hand assets at warp speed (being effectively able to fast out two hand asset per round with Astral Mirror and his ability).

At level 0, with only one Astral Mirror in the deck, hand slot management might be tight. This is why the deck features events such as Drawn to the Flame, Read the Signs, Riastrad and Spectral Razor, which can help advancing the game even if you currently do not have a hand available for the right tool.

To investigate, the main tools for Dexter are Flashlight, and Dowsing Rod. Enemy management can be done with the help of Sword Cane, Wicked Athame and occasionally the Rod of Carnamagos. The deck obviously misses a 2+ damage asset, which means that chunky enemies will evaded with the cane or handled through events.

At level 0, the curse interaction is still limited, though the deck features Faustian Bargain, Promise of Power and Wicked Athame that all put curse in the bag, and the Rod of Carnamagos as a payoff.

Olive Mc Bride is there as a cheap soak, (and to be upgraded should you want to run Down the Rabbit Hole), but could be substituted for David Renfield.

Finally, the deck has a solid resource generation potential with both Faustian Bargain and Voice of Ra, which is needed to fund events and the stream of hand asset you want to be playing.

Upgraded deck

Decklist on ArkhamDB

Once again, this deck really takes its shape once upgraded. The deck now has 5 effective hand slots once Astral Mirror is in play. I’d say Eye of the Djinn, the Rod of Carnamagos and one Ritual Candle should be permanent residents once in play, while the two other slots can be dedicated to cycling through the Flashlights and Scrolls of Secrets and Sword Cane.

The curse mechanics is now way more fleshed out, as the curse generated can be stored on Favor of the Moon to be released to guarantee a Rot from the Rod of Carnamagos, gain an action out of the Eye of the Djinn, or to bolster the use of Voice of Ra. The upgraded Olive Mc Bride is both here to serve the same purpose and help you pass tests.

The deck also feature Geas and Crystalline Elder Sign, which can have Dexter do any active test at 7 with the Eye of the Djinn. The promise from Geas can either be to not use commits, or to not draw during the turn (as Black Market can easily replace your draws). The promise can also be broken should you need to refill the bag with curses.

This deck for sure has the most unique playstyle of the three presented in this post. Additional XP should be used to upgrade the Flashlights. I am also soft banning the Hyperphysical Sh(i)otcaster from my deckbuilds, but for a high XP deck it would be a good versatile tool to include.

My evaluation of Dexter True Solo power level

Dexter Drake is an interesting investigators. Amongst the 5 willpower mystics, his statline and ability are not really the best. A comparison with, for example, Agnes Baker makes it obvious that Agnes as an easier set-up and built-in engine.

Dexter Drake requires a bit more finesse to operate at his full potential, as you have to carefully chose in which order to play your assets. He however is very rewarding to play when you can line up the pieces correctly. He also helps to solve a usual issue of Mystics in True Solo, which is to miss arcane slots to do everything you want to do, as he has a valuable use of is hand slots.

From his in scenario raw efficiency alone, Dexter would be A solid A tier investigator. However, he enjoys one of the best XP scaling of the game, which means he will be consistently very strong in the later scenarios of a campaign. My overall True Solo ranking for Dexter is:

A+

The post Dexter Drake appeared first on Alone in the Mythos.

Wendy Adams

Dilir — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 09:48:43 +0000

Lone Wolf: Wendy Adams, the Urchin

Last investigator from the core set, Wendy Adams is printed with a 4W 3I 1F 4A statline and a 7/7 health/sanity split.

Elder sign: +0. Autosucceed if Wendy’s Amulet is in play.

This gives nothing more than passing the test, and sometimes, +0 will not even guarantee it Yuk!.

Ability: Once per test/ability, Wendy can discard a card to cancel a chaos token, return it to the bag, and reveal a new one.

Her ability is hard to evaluate, as what you can get out of it really depends on the circumstances. Using it to investigate at +1, draw a -2, and discard a card for another shot has not a lot of value, while using it in on a Backstab test with Manual Dexterity and Quick-Thinking committed where you drew the Autofail prevents a huge tempo loss and can even save your scenario in some instances.

Overall, what Wendy’s ability brings is consistency. Effects that enables to cancel an Autofail are very rare in the game. As a nasty Auto-fail can ruin a scenario, Wendy‘s has a built-in safety net that no other investigator can play with.

Her ability does have the cost of discarding a card, but this cost can be minimized by running cards that have value when discarded (Moonstone, Winging It…).

Deckbuilding: Survivor 0-5 / Rogue 0-2

Every time I see Wendy, I wished that our Rogue 5/Survivor 2 was not Preston. These two classes pair very well together. The main reason is that Rogue has a lot of cards that care about using agility, and Survivor has the best level 0 assets to boost that agility. And the Rogue class can provide the resources to fund these assets.

Additionally, the Survivor class has many archetypes that Wendy can interact with: lower test difficulty – discard synergies – neverfail, while Rogue offers her a lot of economy options, and the ability to manage monsters despite her horrible fight score. Rogues also like to adopt a “high risk high reward” playstyle, for which Wendy’s ability is a perfect fit.

Signature Kit

Wendy’s Amulet is maybe one of the most unique signatures, and one of the most potent ones. It is so powerful that it is almost a second ability on itself.

Being able to play events from the top of the discard pile means that you can purposely commit events or discard them with Wendy‘s ability to play them right after. It is an easy way to negate the card cost of the ability for a lot more cards.

The events played are however no longer discarded but placed under your deck. This has several consequences. For starters, if you already have drawn your weaknesses, you can play without cycling your deck and having to see the weaknesses again. Moreover, if you manage to keep a small remaining deck, you can see strong events over and over again. Wendy is known to be able to generate infinite money that way with Easy Mark, and has access to wacky true infinite combos (that I will not discuss here).

Abandoned and Alone is a high variance weakness. The direct horror is mostly something to be aware of, but not threatening unless you do cycle your deck.

The stingy part is that this card will erase your discard pile, but not itself. At the worst, it could erase all your deck and then inflicts 3 horrors per round as you draw it every round after that. As long as you don’t draw it too late, and if it doesn’t hit your amulet, it is fine.

This card mostly makes playing Short Supply a high variance gamble, and creates a game within the game where you are actively trying to fetch both your amulet and your weakness as early as possible.

Preformance review for True Solo tasks

Clue Gathering

With a base 3 intellect, it is possible for Wendy to use it to collect clues, but it will require some support.

Fortunately, survivors are quite good at attempting test they are not guaranteed to succeed at. It is often ok to attempt tests at +1, having Lucky!, Live and Learn, “Look what I found“, or even Wendy‘s ability in case of failure.

Alternatively, Wendy can play a high agility build ( Survivors get tons of assets to boost it) and use Rogue tools such as Lockpicks(1) or Thieves’ Kit to investigate at very respectable values.

Both builds are quite viable, and can even complement each other. Having ways to progress the game even if you missed your tools in a bad mulligan is quite nice.

Wendy’s ability is not nearly as relevant for clue gathering as it is for enemy management or treacheries, but can still be worth to use. It for example shines in the Circle Undone due to the Haunted mechanic.

Enemy Management

Having a 1 in her fight skill, Wendy doesn’t strike as a very competent fighter.

You could attempt to make it work, with Fire Axe and a lot of money, but it is much better to turn to her agility to handle enemies.

With a base 4, she can already evade decently. Adding Pete Sylvestre / Track Shoes / Moonstone / Sparrow Mask can push it above 6, at which point she can evade most enemies.

To deal with hunters, VP enemies and boss fights, Wendy gets plenty of support from the Rogue pool in the form of the new British Bulldog, Backstab, or Dirty Fighting.

Her ability is however the cornerstone of what makes her good at managing enemies. Autofails rarely matter, but they do when you are dealing with an enemy. A failed evasion can lock you in for the turn with the enemy. A failed fight can cost you two enemy attacks (from retaliate and during the enemy phase). Having a “do over” option to save precious actions / ammo / events is invaluable in these situation.

Mythos Defense - Survivability

Wendy starts with 4 willpower and 4 agility, and a 7/7 health sanity split, which is a very robust chassis to build on.

Her full access to survivor makes her extremely resistant to the mythos deck. Pete Sylvestre(2) is enough to push her to 5W 5A, and if you want to go the extra mile a Moonstone (that she discard with her ability) ramps it to go to 6W 6A.

On top of these amazing defensive stats, Wendy’s ability can negate Autofails on the worst treacheries. In hard and extreme difficulty, her ability can also help to avoid the nasty effects of some scenario tokens.

Overall, the combination of her skills, cardpool and ability makes her on of the most resilient investigators in the game.

Action efficiency - Economy

Before any other consideration, Wendy‘s Rogue access means that she have access to great resource generation, and a fair number of ways to gain additional actions.

Discussing the added value of Wendy‘s ability is challenging, as it mostly depends on how allergic to variance you are.

If I look at what actually caused me to fail scenarios, while I occasionally have decks that fall a bit short for specific scenario challenges, more often than not, it is a streak of bad luck that throws the game of the rails. An it very often involve autofailing one/some critical test (s).

Having the ability to drop the probability of an Autofail from 1/16 to 1/256 is quite significant in these instances.

Value wise, Wendy‘s ability is average, if not slightly below average. But an investigator with an average ability, decent stats and a full card pool can beat most scenarios if built properly. Wendy brings something that few other investigators have: consistency.

Deckbuilding ideas

Wendy is agile

Decklist on ArkhamDB

This deck is aims to capitalize as much as possible on Wendy‘s 4 agility.

The deck uses 2xPete Sylvestre, a Sparrow Mask and a Track Shoes to reach 5+ agility and get regular boosts if needed. This agility is then used to either get clues (Thieves’ Kit, Breaking and Entering), or to dispose of enemies (British Bull Dog, Backstab, Waylay).

The economy of the deck is supported by Faustian Bargain and Easy Mark.

The deck includes a few cards with high action economy value, such as Elusive (that can be worth an evade and a move for 0 action), and Nimble (useful to move multiple times, even engaged. It also features some of the best generic cards from the survivor pool, in the form of Lucky, Live and Learn and Resourceful.

At level 0, this deck focuses on reliability and resilience rather than seeking to optimize a combo around Wendy’s Amulet.

Upgraded deck (29+3+2XP from Charon’s Obol)
Decklist on ArkhamDB

This deck is quite easy to upgrade, as it contains a lot of straight upgrades to level 0 cards.
Notable new entries are Drawing Thin / Black Market to increase the deck consistency by providing additional draw. Because skills have a countersynergy with Black Market, the deck drops a few skills to make room for these new cards. The last substitution is to replace the Waylays by two copies of Think on Your Feet(2). This card is basically a 0 cost Elusive, that can also avoid the attack of a hunter enemy entering the location. The fact that is is not limited to revealed location makes it quite valuable in Solo, to advance the game while managing the enemies and keeping the fight cards (British Bull Dog and Backstab) for elites with VP.

The deck is easy to pilot. The mulligan should target to have at least one agility asset, after which the second priority is Thieves’ Kit.

Once the Amulet is in play, Black Market can set up very strong rounds, as events such as Easy Mark or Lucky(3) can be used to generate real draw out of it.

The only thing to be mindful of is Wendy’s weakness. Avoid discarding your valuable British Bulldogs or Backstabs until you draw it or you really need them.

Wendy has blessed bows

Decklist on ArkhamDB

This deck is a bit more janky than the previous one. The idea is to build toward around the two bows available in Arkham Horror: Enchanted Bow and Ornate Bow. Both have a significant drawback, which is that they shoot once with high accuracy, but then either exhaust or requires an action to reload. It means that any enemy that is not outright killed will become an issue.

To manage this issue, Wendy will be mixing evading and fighting. The deck being an Underworld Support deck, it only features two weapons at level 0: Enchanted Bow and a temporary British Bull Dog.

Evasion is well supported, with agility boost supplied with one of the two Masks, Pete Sylvestre if you play him over Leo, and Breaking and Entering should you meet an enemy with high evade value. The deck also features Pickpocketing, as a payoff for evasion.

Both hands being dedicated to hold a bow, the deck also have to find ways of getting clues without an asset support. For this reason, the deck features a Fox Mask, “Look what I found”, Lucky!, a Winging It that can be discarded with Wendy’s ability, and Breaking and Entering for high shroud locations.

The deck is rounded up with cards that provide burst damage (Long Shot, Backstab), economy cards (Emergency Cache, Faustian Bargain, 21 or Bust, Cheat the System), and action generation (Leo De Luca, End of the Road, Swift Reflexes).

The deck should work scenario 1, but is mostly geared for its upgraded version.

Decklist on ArkhamDB

The full fledged deck now features the two Bows as weapons. An Occult Reliquary opens a hand slot for a blessed or cursed asset, which is dedicated to Eye of the Djinn. This enables at least a base 5 investigate per turn for Wendy, and can provide extra benefits out of the blesses and curses from Tempt Fate and Keep Faith. The blesses will also trigger Ancient Covenant, which further improve the success chances of skill tests.

A Charisma enables playing both Leo De Luca and Peter Sylvestre. The rest of the upgrades are improved versions of level 0 cards.

With a tiny bit more XP, the deck could include a Dirty Fighting to replace Lone Wolf, to trade an economy that Wendy has now in excess for more fight efficiency.

My evaluation of Wendy True Solo power level

Wendy is an undeniably strong investigator. I make this statement without taking into account the broken infinite combos that she achieve.

Her main strength is consistency. She has great defensive stats. Her access to Rogue allows her to actively use her agility, which is even easier to boost for Survivors than for Rogues.

Her ability doesn’t generate as much active value than a lot of strong investigators abilities out there, which is why I don’t think Wendy can compete with the best investigators at high player count. However, what she does is unique as she can lower the variance of the game. Most investigators, with the proper deckbuilding, can do the “Work” part of the game at a fast enough pace. However, a lot of them, especially in Solo, could crumble on a single autofail drawn at the bad time. Not Wendy.

Overall, despite her consistency, the lack of built in extra action efficiency would keep her near the top of A+ for me. She does however also have access to Charon’s Obol, and that is enough for her to be the first investigator to sneak into my S tier.

S

The post Wendy Adams appeared first on Alone in the Mythos.

Agnes Baker

Dilir — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 11:37:50 +0000

Lone Wolf: Agnes Baker, the Waitress

Present since the release of the Core Set, Agnes Baker is printed with a 5W 2I2F 3A statline and a 6/8 health/sanity split.

Elder sign: +1. for each horror on Agnes Baker.

Agnes is likely to have horror on her, but this elder sign offers nothing more than passing the test.

Ability: Once per phase, if horror is dealt to Agnes, she can deal one damage to an enemy at her location.

Testless damage is quite good, and I value it quite highly in the resource trade model (3.5R). The value is there, but the more difficult part is to reliably trigger it. Agnes can play some cards that deal horror to her, but most of them are either reactional (Ward of Protection) or janky (Meat Cleaver, Forbidden Knowledge). Since the horror have to be place on Agnes and not on soak, you are also limited in how much you can use it, unless playing some healing as well. Overall, it is a good ability, but not exceptional.

Deckbuilding: Mystic 0-5 / Survivor 0-2

This deckbuilding is fantastic for Agnes. Having full mystic access is always great for a 5 willpower investigator, as it is the class that was initially designed as “use willpower to do everything”. The class also offers the best XP acceleration in the game, and is quite good at dealing with the encounter deck. The only drawback of the class in True Solo is that the traditional set up of mystics is quite expensive. Having to pay for an investigate and a fight asset has a heavy cost in actions, resources and slots.

The survivor minor access is quite a good supplement for Agnes. Pete Sylvestre(2) is the perfect ally for her, boosting the two stats she cares about and offering some buffer protection to play with a lot of horror on her. The Sparrow Mask is also fantastic, as it will recharge whenever you use her ability. Finally, survivor has the best cards to cheese or recover from failed tests, which is important in Solo.

Signature Kit

Heirloom of Hyperborea is a fairly weak signature, unfortunately. The play cost of 3 resources, an action an a card is a net -7R, and you need to draw at least 5 cards to get some value out of it.

Yes, Agnes want to play spells. But she wants to play her spell assets right away, which she will struggle to do if she has to pay for the heirloom first.

The card also suffers from the competition with Holy Rosary/Crystal Pendulum, which cost one less resource and both give +1 willpower and something Agnes wants (horror soak/card draw).

The card does not exhaust, so one could try to create an “event spell slinging” Agnes. But other than Backpack(2), there is no reliable way to get the Heirloom early. Most of the time, the card is just a commit.

I just said that Agnes had no reliable way to take horror. Here is one. The only issue is, it will probably defeat you at some point.

Dark Memory is a well designed and punishing weakness. Paying for it is awful, as you pay one action, two resources and a card for what Ancient Evils gives for free. Ignoring it, especially if you have Pete Sylvestre in play, is quite tempting, and probably the right choice should you be close to the end of the scenario.

But two horrors per round will ultimately likely overcome your soaking capability, and it is even worse to have to pay for Dark Memory while being on the brink of being defeated.

Tough on both end. I enjoy cards that initiate difficult decisions, and this one does. It also helps to balance Agnes.

Preformance review for True Solo tasks

Clue Gathering

Agnes has base 2 intellect, which makes using other solutions than her intellect to gather clues desirable.

Using willpower spell assets to investigate is the obvious solution, but is expensive, and compete for her valuable arcane slots. Rite of Seeking and Clairvoyance are also not so great in True Solo, as using a charge on a 1-Clue location is inefficient. In Solo, the most likely spell assets used to investigate are either Sixth Sense as it does not use charges, or Divination to get some action compression on 2+ Clues locations.

Both Mystic and Survivor pool have good clue gathering events (Drawn to the Flame, Read the Signs, “Look What I Found”) but they also are poorly suited to 1-Clue locations, as they aim to gather two clues at once.

In the end, Agnes will have no trouble gathering clues once set-up, but will have to dedicate a fair number of cards/resources to do so reliably.

Enemy Management

Just as for intellect, 2 fight is not an incentive to use traditional weapons to defeat enemies.

Unlike investigating though, the spell assets to fight are much more suitable for True Solo. Most enemies have the same health in Solo and Multiplayer. They are just less numerous, which means the spells won’t deplete as fast.

Agnes has also a nice ability to supplement fighting, as she can “round up” her attacks to both save a spell charge and an action if she can inflict herself an horror.

The access to the survivor pool offers interesting fighting support options, in the form of Long Shot for an extra damage, or Sparrow Mask, which can be used both to fight with a spell asset, or to add to her decent 3 agility to evade.

Overall, Agnes is a very capable fighter, just held back by the fact that Mystics are still mostly reliant on limited use cards (spell assets or events) to deal damage.

Mythos Defense - Survivability

Until we see an investigator with more than 8 points in willpower+agility, I would argue that 5W/3A is the best split for the campaigns printed up to today, as they still majority test willpower over agility.

To supplement this, Agnes has access to the Mystic Pool, which is the strongest class to defuse the encounter deck, and to the Survivor Class, which is the best at succeeding test you were not meant to pass, at bouncing back from a failed test, and one of the best at soaking.

The only thing that prevents Agnes to be amongst the toughest investigators in Arkham LCG is that both her ability and weakness are pushing her into taking a lot of horror, which can turn dicey on an unfortunate streak.

Action efficiency - Economy

Agnes is a extremely solid all-rounder, once set-up properly. However, she does struggle a bit with action efficiency.

Mystics and Survivor are both classes with not that much card draw or resource generation. They are also not really efficient at accelerating the set-up phase, nor are they specially good at generating extra actions.

Her ability is a nice tempo boost in fights, but will usually require an asset to be played upfront to generate horrors.

And, of course, her weakness, if it arrives early enough for you not to be able to soak the horror, is an extra Ancient Evils you have to pay for, which is a massive tempo loss.

Deckbuilding ideas

Agnes goes to Wonderland

Decklist on ArkhamDB

This is the most consistent of the builds that I will present today.

Because of the initial trauma (4 total), this build is not meant to capitalize too much on Agnes ability (though you can still dish a bit of damage through the scenario). What you get in exchange is a deck that will upgrade crazy fast with an additional 4XP per scenario.

The deck use Azure Flame and Shrivelling to fight, Divination and Sixth Sense to investigate. At level 0, Pete Sylvestre and Fearless are there to ensure you don’t die from horror. The deck economy is funded by Uncage the Soul and Forbidden Knowledge, which is the only “on demand” horror dealing card in the deck. Card draw is provided by the Scrolls of Secrets and At a Crossroad.

Holy Rosary is there to both soak and boost willpower, and Sparrow Mask is a nice supplement to it, as Agnes will take a lot of horror. Sign Magic is mostly waiting to be upgraded, as having a third arcane slot is nice to have but not mandatory in the build. Finally, the deck is completed by generically potent mystic cards such as Ward of Protection (useful to defuse some treacheries and to deal damage in the mythos phase), or Deny Existence (the later could be substituted by Promise of Power for campaigns that feature in-scenario tests of Intellect / Fight, which you cannot boost otherwise).

Upgraded deck (29+3+4XP from AR/DTRH)
Decklist on ArkhamDB

The first shocking thing to notice about this upgraded deck, is that, even if it has 36XP in it, on a 8 scenario campaign, you only need 5XP collected in scenarios to play this deck in the finale. This is what outrageous XP acceleration comes to. Realistically, in most campaigns, you will have enough XP on top of this to upgrade the rest of the cards.

The upgrades themselves are quite simple, as the cards just become better versions of themselves. Pete Sylvestre(2) brings an extra willpower, Divination(4), Shrivelling(5) and Azure Flame(5) allow for better fighting / clue gathering.

The most noticeable upgrade is Sign Magick(3), which aims to bring some action economy, chaining a use of a fight spell and an investigation one, or two investigation ones on rounds without any enemies.

Agnes is Hatchetwoman

Decklist on ArkhamDB

While the previous deck almost ignored Agnes ability, this one aims to make use of it to support fighting with the Hatchet.

The star of the deck is of course Hatchet, with which Agnes can fight at a comfortable 5, 6 with Pete Sylvestre, 8 by expending a charge from Sparrow Mask. Its main drawbacks is that you don’t want the Hatchet to kill the enemy.

The strategy is the following: 1 and 2 HP enemies are dealt with Forbidden Knowledge and Painkillers. Since there is a player window after drawing the encounter card and at the start of the investigation phase, this can be done before Agnes has to take any action. 3/4 HP enemies are killed with one swing of the hatchet, completed by Agnes ability and/or Long Shot. To deal with more chunky enemies, Agnes can rely on either Spectral Razor or Stunning Blow to finish the fight or carry it to the next round.

Not having to use her arcane slots for fighting leaves more latitude to Agnes to slot in two different investigations asset should she want to, Divination being prioritized for 2+ Clues locations while Sixth Sense is reserved for 1 Clue locations.

The deck is completed by Scroll of Secrets, for card draw, Uncage the Soul for economy, Promise of Power to pass selective Intellect or Fight tests, and Ward of Protection for testless treachery protection.

Upgraded deck (29+3XP)

Decklist on ArkhamDB

This deck is fairly cheap to upgrade, as the only priority upgrades are Peter Sylvestre and Divination. The rest are gravy upgrades such as Scavenging, to be able to recycle the Scroll of Secrets and lost Hatchets, Call of the Beyond to refill an asset, or Uncage the Soul to recover a Divination or replay a Spectral Razor.

The deck is not meant to deal insane burst damage, but it has great clue gathering and a very low resource curve. Being able to use Scroll of Secret(3) almost every round also gives a good chance to to discard Dark Memory and your basic weakness, which is a significant tempo boost for Agnes.

Agnes is a blursed k-healer

Decklist on ArkhamDB

Now, this deck is dipping its toes into Jank – use with caution – . The idea is to go all-in on Agnes ability. The deck main enabler is Spirit of Humanity.

On turns where Agnes draws an enemy, the can use Spirit of Humanity, Mysterious Raven, Forbidden Knowledge and Painkillers to deal damage while taking horror. On turns where she draws a treachery, she heals with Spirit of Humanity. Spectral Razor/Promise of power are there to help bringing down chuncky enemies, while Sixth Sens/Drawn to the Flame/“Look what I found” are there to secure clue gathering.

The deck will gradually turn into a blurse deck, as Spirit of Humanity will put a lot of bless and curses into the bag. The only pay-off at level 0 is Rod of Carnamagos, which can soften enemies, while Ritual Candles are there to ensure curses are not too much of an inconvenience. Holy Rosary and Fearless are there to ensure Agnes will not die from horror. Oh, speaking of, this deck really wants physical rather than mental traumas for In the Thick of It.

Upgraded deck (29+3XP)

Decklist on ArkhamDB

This is what the -almost- fully fledged deck looks like. The absolute priority is the second Spirit of Humanity, to ensure Agnes has enough healing to keep damaging herself at will to kill enemies.

Using two Spirit of Humanity every round has two consequences:
First, it will fill the bag with bless and cursed tokens in no time. This can be exploited with , and to almost guaranty an autosucess every round. To make room for more tokens, the can eat-up some tokens for extra healing and resources.
Secondly, since Spirit of Humanity heals one damage and horror, and Painkillers heal damage while dealing horror, Agnes will most likely over-heal damage quite a lot. Soul Sanctification can turn all that extra healing into a stream of +2s.

Finally, the capstone of the deck is Seal of the Elders, a fun card that can output up to 4 clues and 8 damage if you manage to get the two servants in play.

While this deck may not be the most reliable or the strongest deck out there, it looks functional enough and a fun deck to try if you want to experience Agnes differently.

My evaluation of Agnes True Solo power level

Agnes is undoubtedly strong. Once set-up, she can face all the challenges of Arkham with great reliability. Her deckbuilding is very, very potent and allows for a great variety of builds, which I tried to illustrate in this article. Being a mystic, she can also access the XP acceleration cards of the class should she want to.

Yet, she falls short of being one of the very bests. Her card pool doesn’t offer a lot for card draw or action compression, her ability, while potent, trades for her sanity, and her weakness is brutal.

Ultimately, she is certainly good enough to hold her own in True Solo, and it is always a pleasure to play her unique mechanic. My ranking for Agnes in True Solo is:

A+

The post Agnes Baker appeared first on Alone in the Mythos.

The XP system

Dilir — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 09:10:28 +0000

Purpose and implementation of the XP system in Arkham Horror LCG

In a cooperative board game, players play against the game and not one another. The lack of human competition is an additional challenge for the game designers. indeed, in a competitive setting, the game remains interesting as long as players have decisions, and as long as players have a comparable skill level. In a cooperative setting, the difficulty balance is key to keep the game engaging for the players, as designers cannot rely on the wit of the opposition to challenge the players.

In Arkham Horror LCG, the difficulty balance of a given scenario is piloted by three different factors:

The game difficulty setting, which affects both the chaos bag and the value and effect of scenario tokens.
Set-up conditions that depend on the outcome of previous scenarios.
The deck quality of the participating players.

As the difficulty setting is mostly static (decided when a campaign begins) , and the set-up conditions are scenario specific, the improvement in deck quality is both the easiest way for players to feel their progress in a campaign, and for the designer to evaluate how difficult their scenario need to be.

In Arkham Horror LCG, players deck are improved through the experience(XP) system.

In this post, we will examine what the XP system brings to the game, how XP interacts with difficulty scaling and players success rates, how is XP earned, and finally, review the tools available for players to generate more XP in the context of True Solo play.

Greed that doesn’t kill you…

… makes you stronger.

Why have an XP system in a game like Arkham?

As it is a system unique to Arkham, one can think about the purpose of the system and what it brings to the game.

If you consider playing a single scenario (even playing the standalones), then Arkham doesn’t stand out compared to other “deckbuilders”. In this type of games, players are required to assemble a static deck before using it to either complete a challenge offered by the game (LOTR LCG) or defeat other players (Androïd Netrunner LCG, Legend of the Five Rings LCG).

In Arkham, XP is what ties scenarios together. It offers player the opportunity to modify (and improve) their deck between two scenarios in a campaign. The difference with games like LOTR LCG, in which you can rebuild a deck for each scenario, is that the XP system sets a limit to the modifications you can do.

So, XP is what allows us to modify our deck in-between scenario. But the game could just have given us the equivalent of 2X Adaptable, and function without XP. What does XP brings on top of this?

The first difference is that XP is earned. It is a good metrics of how well did the players do in a given scenario. For players that care to win campaigns, gathering as much XP as possible is probably the best strategy in all scenarios but the finale of each campaign. XP reinforce the influence of past scenarios on the play of the next ones, often more than journal entries and scenario resolutions.

The second improvement is that XP offers a sense of progression. The game could have been designed with campaigns of scenarios of similar difficulty from the beginning to the finale. In Arkham, they become gradually harder (worse chaos bag, more challenging tests, etc), and your deck is expected to have gathered enough XP and field better cards to beat them.

One could say that on some level, XP is a clever way to exploit our psychology to cheaply expand the card pool. After all, Testing 6 vs 2 with Shrivelling on an early enemy is mathematically identical to testing 8 v 4 with Shrivelling(2) in a later scenario (assuming the same chaos bag). But it makes us feel stronger. -numbers big, huh- . Fortunately, adding XP to cards do not simply feed into our inner Timmies, it also opens new cards interactions, either unique and creative (Johnnies) or simply effective (Spikes).

How does XP interact with the game difficulty and balance?

In my work of theorizing Arkham, I created a model to evaluate the difficulty of a scenario. In essence, it compares what the players are given to perform the tasks of the scenarios, and the difficulty / volume of the tasks.

While I have yet to model more scenarios to prove it, I expect the difficulty index of scenarios to increase along a campaign. There might be difficulty spikes in certain scenarios of some campaigns, but on average, I expect finales to have a higher index than the first scenarios. This is the consequence of multiple factors:

Chaos bag difficulty: in the course of a campaign, multiple scenario chaos tokens are added, that tend to have either worse than average negative modifier, or strong negative on reveal / on failure effects.
Test difficulty ramp-up: while not true for all campaigns, some of the later scenarios feature tests of higher difficulties, especially on in the encounter decks. A good example from the Core Set is the comparison between a Rotting Remains and Umôrdhoth’s Wrath. This is however not systematic, as for example Shroud Values in The Dunwich Legacy are fairly constant across the campaign.
Tasks volume: Later scenarios can require to collect more clues, defeat enemies with larger health, perform more actions, etc.

XP is the main tool for players to compensate this difficulty increase. Cards of higher XP level have better value. When I evaluated the cards that allowed to trade between game resources, I showed that while level 0 cards are on average valued at ~1.5 resources, for events, each XP invested would add on average ~1 resource of value to the card.

While the details of the decks and their synergies / strength and weakness matters, ultimately, this value difference is why it is easier to beat a scenario with a 40XP deck than a 15XP deck.

This creates a key characteristics of Arkham Horror LCG, which is that it is a snowballing game. The better player do in early scenarios, the better their decks becomes, which in turn makes them more likely to gather more XP on later scenarios, etc. On the opposite direction, a bad start can spiral into difficult scenarios, up to the point where the finale has very little chance to be won.

How is XP won, and should it change?

First and foremost, I’d like to thank DerBK from Ancient Evils for the amazing job in collecting XP data from all the campaigns. It really made writing this easier.

As of today, players can gain XP both during the play of a scenario, or in-between scenarios.

During the play of a scenario, XP are gained through one of the following:

Clearing clues out of Victory locations
Defeating Victory enemies
Player cards that grant additional XPs

In between scenarios, XP can be obtained by:

Bonus XPs from scenario resolutions
Player cards that grant additional XPs (or discount upgrading cards).
XP granted by the campaign guides during interludes / off scenario readings

Excluding the effect of player cards, here is how much XP can be collected in the different campaigns:

This is the total XP value that can be collected, some of which is not possible to get because you either have to chose an option in a scenario, or have to choose the scenarios you are doing.

Yet, clear tendencies appear. In the early campaigns, most of the XP was obtained through Victory enemies and locations. The proportion favored enemies in Dunwich, then shifted heavily in favor of locations up to Dream-Eaters. Starting with Innsmouth (but mostly since Edge of the Earth, we see a drastic change, as most of the XP is now attached to other things than VP enemies and locations. Some of it is still related to scenario success (such as getting Shelter in Ice and Death I), but with a significant amount tied to non scenario decisions (such as in the Scarlet Keys, where a lot of XP is earned by moving around the world map, or in Hemlock Vale, with the preludes).

This shift is has both positive and negative implications.

Having XP tied to tasks specific to the scenarios is more immersive than collecting generic VP out of locations or enemies.
Having XP tied to out of play decisions can create meaningful decisions, especially if they are balanced by an opportunity cost (such as getting XP vs getting a story asset, or getting Cookie’s XP vs removing a Frost Token in Edge of the Earth).
Giving XP that is not tied to how player performed in scenarios reduces the snowballing effect. It also ensure that player can still see their deck evolve even if they fail the scenarios.
This is however to use with caution, as an excessive distribution of XP removes a lot of the rewarding feeling of doing well in a scenario.

While I do not 100% agree with everything that was said in the article, I do recommend reading DerBK reflection on failing forward mechanics for further perspectives on the topic.

Getting XP through player cards

From the discussion above, I excluded the use of player cards to get XP.

In The Dunwich Legacy, with the introduction of Delve too Deep, players got their first tool to generate additional XP. Since then, players received a fair number of other cards that generate additional XP.

I will present and detail each of them, but for the most part, these cards either grant the XP in exchange of another player resource, create a sort of “minigame” to be solved within a scenario, or are permanent cards that impose some kind of restrictions to the player.

In a min-maxing perspective, using these cards makes a lot of sense. XP is what wins campaigns, and any XP that you can get on top of what the campaign offer puts you ahead of the balance curve. Sadly, this means that these cards create a situation where players can increase their chance of winning the game by not playing it. Sometimes, it’s just easier to play Delve to Deep and resign than to get to that last VP location with a Locked Door and clear it.

These cards also break the balance when introducing side scenarios into a campaign. These scenario had an XP cost to be played, and you had to perform well in them to just get back to even, XP wise. With additional XP coming from player cards, the balance shift into the positive and adding side scenarios is an easy way to increase the XP total for the finale.

Ultimately, using these cards or not is a matter of personal choice, just as choosing with how many investigators to play or what difficulty to play at. You will see no judgement on my part. Personally, I tend to use these cards when playing solo, and they will figure in the decks presented on this website. But I completely understand why some cards may be frowned upon at a gaming table.

Evaluation of XP acceleration cards, in the context of True Solo play

In this section, I will review every cards that can be used to accelerate the XP density of True Solo decks. Some of them will figure in most of my decks, and some will never see use.

Investigator Signatures

S Tier

Will Yorick has the privilege of being the only investigator to have a -vanilla- signature that gives additional XP.

In most of the scenarios, if you see the card, you will get the XP. It just costs a card, it is fast, and you just need to defeat a non-elite enemy to play it, something Will Yorick both is good at and wants to do.

Cherry on the cake, the card will ensure this enemy is out of the game. In solo, the encounter deck is not likely to run out of cards, but it can be valuable in scenarios where the deck is reshuffled multiple times.

It can also lock away enemies weaknesses, like the Graveyard Ghouls.

B Tier

This card is a replacement signature for Jenny Barnes. While this card has the highest XP gain potential of the game as you could -in theory- get a 10XP card for free out of it, it does not really play well in Solo.

The cost of the first XP is quite high: a card, an action, and 7 resources is a lot (11R in my model). After that, each additional XP cost just 6R, a much better rate.

In multiplayer, it is easier to get ahead of the doom clock and cheese XP at the end of the scenario. In True Solo the doom pressure is much higher, an the timing window for greeding is not nearly as big.

This card also takes a valuable slot and comes with the Sacrificial Beast weakness, which in Solo can completely disable Jenny‘s ability to get resources. Without the two wilds, it would probably drop to C Tier.

Neutral Cards

S Tier

This card offers 3 additional XP in exchange for two traumas at deck creation. In my model, two health or sanity are worth 3R, and and 3XP adds about 3R to the deck, so it appears as a balanced trade.

However, in reality, the trauma will be often allocated to the pool you have in excess (Roland plays just as fine with 7h/5s than 9h/5s), while the XP will be used to by cards with way above average value and investigator synergies.

The result is that for me, I now only consider NOT taking the card when I actively intend to use my health / sanity (Mark Harrigan being a good example). Or if I am already taking trauma from other source (2 from In the Thick of It and 2 from Arcane Research starts to pile up).

This card is so good because it places the deck above the XP curve from the start, which means it will be easier to collect XP from early scenarios as well.

C Tier

This card face value is one XP for 3 resources, 2 actions and a card (9.5 R), a bad rate overall. It is slightly better than this as this XP usually will upgrade two cards in your deck.

The problem with Refine is that in Solo, it is hard to find a quiet turn to dedicate to it, and there is no guarantee that you will have enough time to play it in the end of the scenario.

The fact that it has icons is both a boon and a curse, as I am often quite tempted to (and sometimes do) commit it to an important test.

I still take a 1-of in some of my decks with customizables, but it never felt amazing.

Guardian cards

It is a cruel but true statement. Guardians are now the only class with no XP acceleration whatsoever. I hope they will get something out of The Drowned City.

Seeker Cards

A Tier

The intended effect of Shrewd Analysis is to upgrade two cards for the price of one, with the caveat that you have to select at random among the available options.

It see three use cases for the card:

The investigator deckbuilding restrictions only allow for one of the upgrade options (Ancient Stone for Carolyn, Strange Solution for Vincent). In this case, it’s a free 3-4XP.
You want an upgrade but don’t really care about which one. A good example is Dream Diary, where the 3 upgrades at least provide the Unexpected Courage every round.
You want a permanent that does nothing. This is helpful to satisfy Lola Hayes deckbuilding restrictions, and to trigger Synergy cards effects.

None of these are particularly broken, but when you want it, it costs absolutely nothing to get.

C Tier

“Hey, a card that upgrades itself when you plat it, sound good, right?”

The fact is that, even at level 10, this card is not incredible. Each of the effects are individually good, but none of them are that so enticing that paying 3 resources, a card and an action for it sounds like a bargain.

It work best for assets you would like to keep in the deck from scenario 1 to the finale. To justify the cost, you also want a lot of mileage out of the said asset. For me, the most likely candidate is Grim Memoir, for Daisy, with ways of adding secrets to it.

Rogue Cards

A Tier

“Wait, but this card does not give any XP!”

True, but it kinda does. Because this card makes your deck smaller, each XP you spend on other cards has more impact on your deck average value.

At level 0, it is actually a negative, as your deck is now more dense in weaknesses. With 10XP in the deck, the average value of the deck is about equal with/without Underworld Support. At 29 XP, the difference is notable as your XP is split between 30 cards in one case, between 25 in the other. The more XP you get, the better it becomes.

A Tier

Let’s not pretend this card will never kill you. It will.

The math on the card is not simple. It will sometimes reduce your chance to get to the finale (or have you reach the finale with a new investigator with low XP), and the rest of the time, you will get to the finale with 12 more XP (assuming you take it with in the Thick of It).

Does this increase / decrease your probability of winning a campaign?

I am waiting for more stats on my plays to give my verdict, but I suspect it improves your winning probability quite a bit. If you manage to survive, having more XP from scenario 3 to 8 will also help you collect more XP than decks without the Obol.

D Tier

This require so many stars to line up to be played that it is just not worth taking. In True Solo, you very rarely encounter single enemies with 6+ HP that are not scenario-ending bosses.

Even if you find yourself with multiple enemies, then your priority is to defeat/get away form them ASAP, a task that is already challenging for a lot of investigators.

Killing them with one action to spare is a nice fantasy. It just never happens.

I might take this card for The House Always Win with Tony Morgan, but that’s about it.

Mystic Cards

S Tier

7 XP of value for 1 mental trauma is just insane. Getting to take two of these for 14XP total is just insanely strong.

To make full use of the card, you need to have 7 spells to upgrade during the campaign. That is really not that difficult considering that multiple spells have two upgrades each.

While this card is rarely good in off-class Mystics, it is -almost- a mandatory pick-up for the primary Mystics. Agnes Baker might be a bit more reluctant to take it, as it reduces the room to use her ability.

S Tier

Liked the 14XP for 2 traumas? How about 14 XP for free?

Down the Rabbit Hole, in the modern card pool, is, by far, the strongest XP acceleration card in the game. It is entirely possible to field decks with 14 upgradable cards.

Of course, most of the time, you will want to add some new cards to the deck as well. My standard pace is to upgrade 2 cards and buy one new every scenario, which still leaves me with a net 7 XP for absolutely no cost.

While Arcane Research is very powerful for Primary Mystics, I take Down the Rabbit Hole in almost any deck that can take it.

B Tier

The first card to break the XP curve is unfortunately not the best in True Solo.

The fact that it actually gives Victory 1 and not reward individual XP only matters in multiplayer. The golden hour for Delve Too Deep, which is to play it at the end of a scenario before resigning/advancing, is not so easy to find as time is more pressing in True Solo. Finally, the fact that it is a dead draw until used is also more significant, as True Solo decks are tight with little room for unusable cards.

Being the same class as Down The Rabbit Hole is also a drawback, as 2 of the earned XP will be removed when replacing Delve Too Deep by new cards for the finale.

Survivor Cards

B Tier

This card is a fresh new addition to the game. Just as Delve Too Deep, it is mostly a dead draw. The main difference is that while you need to hold onto Delve until you play it, the best place for Pelt Shipment is actually your discard pile. The fact that it reduces hand size mean that it is more likely to trigger discards in the upkeep phase, at what point I would pitch Pelt Shipment without remorse. It is also a great fodder for treacheries, or Wendy‘s / Ashcan’s abilities.

Just as Delve Too Deep, I would not play Pelt Shipment in Down the Rabbit Hole decks. However, it really shines in the decks that are using a lot of recursion (Will Yorrick/Scavenging), as picking it back just before closing the game is the best way to use it.

D Tier

The promise of this card is to give you 3XP worth of exiled cards after each scenario.

Unfortunately, exiled cards are not that good, and their best use is to dump your last XP in them for the finale.

The fact that Deja Vu cost 5 XP means that you probably only want to invest into it if you can field 3 exile cards immediately. That’s a 8XP minimum investment. The same XP spent elsewhere will almost certainly make the deck much more likely to succeed. To me, this is a hard pass.

And, that’s about it. Not that many cards, but they changed the game forever.

Today, a Dexter Drake can, as long as he isn’t defeated, gain 6 points worth of XP out of Charon’s Obol, Down the Rabbit Hole and 2X Arcane Research. It is more than what a lot of scenarios give.

Looking at the cards, it seems that today, the only class that still struggle with XP are Guardians. Seekers have great cards from level 0, Survivors do not need that much XP to get going, and Rogue and Mystics have the best XP accelerations cards.

Wrapping up: my wishes for the evolution of the XP system

Now that I presented the system, how would I like it to evolve over the next few years? Here is my wishlist:

XP aquisition

I feel that there is enough XP in the vast majority of campaigns, and if not, it is easily compensated by XP acceleration cards. During my last run of Dunwitch with Tony Morgan, I started the last scenario with 50XP in my deck despite loosing 3XP to a Brood.
Personally, I would like XP acquisition to be limited to either scenario play (VP enemies, locations, player cards), or scenario resolution. I don’t like XP being added during interludes.
I would love to see some VP treacheries in some campaigns. Big, scary treacheries with a difficult test that are added to the VP display once resolved.
The game should not give “Pity” XP, as it removes value from the XP earned by play. I personally don’t mind face-planting a scenario. To implement a catch-up mechanic, I’d rather have campaigns give unique story cards to failing players, or add collectable XP in the next scenario.
Player cards that give XP should be tuned to create extra challenges during scenarios, rather than being “free XP” (Down the Rabbit Hole, Charon’s Obol), or cheesed at the end of a scenario (Delve to Deep, Refine, Pelt Shipment). Just imagine how different it would be if Delve to Deep was designed as this:

Using XP

Interludes in campaigns are a good place to spend XP in. I’d love the game to offer new story paths that you could invest some XP in unlocking, just as you spend XP to play a standalone in a campaign. It is also a good way to reward players doing “too well” while avoiding to trivialize the later scenarios.
I would also love to have a “campaign player card pool” to buy cards from, with cards that thematically fit the campaign. It would enhance being unique decks around a specific campaign.
I want more investigators like Lily Chen, that care about their XP total, or have unlockable perks with XPs.

And beyond it...

In the end, the XP mechanics brings a lot to Arkham Horror LCG. It successfully bridges the gap between pure deckbuilders and the traditional idea of levelling up your characters is a roleplaying game.

Looking at it from afar, the main drawback is that the XP system -can- somewhat dissociate the decks from the story of the campaigns. It is now not that hard with a lot of XP to build decks that are universally good, and don’t care too much about the specifics of a campaign.

While my personal wish would have been to tie the XP system more closely with the campaigns, the designers seem to have went for another route, in The Drowned City. They have built-in progression with the form of the Tasks, where you can unlock a Perk by performing in game actions. This is quite close to what I whished for, as it is very similar to hand you XP for in game play, and then have you invest it in campaign specific bonuses. I am quite excited for this!

The post The XP system appeared first on Alone in the Mythos.

“Skids” O’Toole

Dilir — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 09:29:38 +0000

Lone Wolf: "Skids" O'Toole, the Ex-Con

Present since the release of the Core Set, “Skids” O’Toole is printed with a 2W 3I 3F 4A statline and a 8/6 health/sanity split.

Elder sign: +2. If you succeed, gain 2 resources.

2 resources, that thanks to “Skids” ability equates to an extra action is a significant tempo boost. “Skids” elder sign is among the bests in the game.

Ability: Once a turn, can spend two resources to generate an additional action for himself.

I do personally value actions at 2.5 resources, but still, his ability only “generates” 0.5 resources worth of value every time you use it. Quite far from the best abilities out there.

Nevertheless, having a permanent resource converter at your disposal is quite good. On-tap actions can be key to recover from a missed fight or evade in True Solo.

Deckbuilding: Rogue 0-5 / Guardian 0-2

Rogue has the best high XP cards, and any Rogue can be turned into a powerhouse with a Red Clock (5) in play. It also brings one of the best XP acceleration cards, in the form of Charon’s Obol. In the early stage of the campaign, Rogue offers to “Skids” a few options for investigating tools, good one handed firearms, and a solid economy to feed both its ability and weakness.

Guardian 0-2, while sadly not adequately backed-up by “Skids” 3 fight stat, still offer good staples. A notable one is Geared-Up, a card that synergize very well with “Skids” as he is likely to put down a few assets before being able to reliably do something. The Guardian class also offer a bit of extra Mythos protection, with good skill cards, and some fair soak and heal options. It is also impossible to not mention Wolf Mask, a new and perfect card for “Skids”.

Signature Kit

On the Lam is a strange signature, as it is hard to see its direct contribution toward advancing a scenario.

In multiplayer, this card can be quite strong, as you can collect enemies and have them neutralized for a round (and then Dynamite them all for glory).

In True Solo, is is arguably not better than a fast, automatic evade for a non-elite. And “Skids” is already decent at evading.

The card is best used saved as a panic button to help you deal with multiple threats if they pile up, or toward the end of a scenario to rush for the exit without having to deal with enemies. The card also have enough icons to be useful, even for +2 willpower should you be needing it badly.

All weakness that can take XP out of you are bad, especially if you have no control over it.

Hospital Debts requires 6 resources to clear. As a price, it is fair, eating away 3 potential “bonus” actions that they could have paid.

The bad part is that it takes three rounds to clear. It means that if the doom clock is close to midnight, and the weakness has not shown yet, drawing becomes quite dangerous.

Hospital Debts is among the one you would rather draw early. During play, it is just a dead draw, and if you happen to cycle your deck, it will not be in your second cycle.

Preformance review for True Solo tasks

Clue Gathering

With a base 3 intellect, “Skids” need some support to collect clues. Because he only has access to Guardian and Rogue, his kit is not really made to use events or intellect boosting skill cards to investigate.

It means that his most likely strategy is to rely on investigating assets to reliably gather clues. Most of them are one handed items (Flashlight, Lockpicks(1), Thieves Kit). They will lock up a hand slot and require and action and some resource to play them.

Once equipped with a tool, “Skids” can manage to get clues, without being particularly efficient in doing so.

Enemy Management

A lot of resentment toward Skids came from the fact that 3 fight is not a good place to start a main fighter with.

In True Solo, however, you don’t need to deal damage as often as a multiplayer fighter. “Skids” also has a 4 in agility, which makes him decent at evading, which is sometimes the most efficient way of dealing with an enemy.

It is true that because “Skids” will be likely to play a one handed weapon, his ceiling in damage output will not be as high as some other investigators, but thanks to the addition of Wolf Mask, hitting his target is not really an issue anymore.

The fact that he can buy an extra action is very useful for enemy management, as it can help recover from a missed fight action, or get you out of an evade lock.

Mythos Defense - Survivability

2 in Willpower and 4 in Agility is average in terms of defensive stats. However, because most of the early campaigns disproportionally targeted Willpower, “Skids” remains a bit fragile for these, especially considering he has only 6 sanity.

It means that his deck will have to incorporate a few cards dedicated for his survival, in the form of good soak (Lonnie Ritter/Leather Jacket), defensive skills (Take the Initiative) or heal (Hallowed Mirror).

Sadly, the best Rogue defensive card (“You handle this one”) does not work in True Solo. To deal with the most threatening treacheries, “Skids” may want to invest in Counterespionage.

Action efficiency - Economy

“Skids” ability is certainly not the one that generates the most raw value, as it merely offers you to trade your resource for actions at a fair price.

Yet, actions is probably what is the most needed in True Solo, as a lot of the difficulty comes from having to singlehandedly explore the map.

Because of its Rogue access, “Skids” can easily generate both resources to feed into its ability, and extra actions on top of it.

Geared-Up can also generate some set-up acceleration for Skids, helping him to put out his weapon, investigating tool and Mask at a discounted price.

Deckbuilding ideas

"Skids" is a reliable Ex

Decklist on ArkhamDB

This deck is a very unimaginative yet consistent build for “Skids”, aiming to highlight that with the proper gear, he is doing just fine.

The deck revolves around Geared-Up, which help to save resources in the set-up. It packs 13 items, that makes finding at least 3 in the Mulligan not too hard. The tools and weapons costs 3 (2 with Geared-Up), which makes playing an investigation tool, a weapon and another item turn 1 possible.

After this initial set-up, the deck packs a lot of resource generation cards both to help refresh the tools and weapons, play Lonnie, and feed into “Skids” ability and weakness. Faustian Bargain is one action spent but two and a half action back, Bank Job is two actions spent but three back, “Watch this” is a better Quick Thinking that nets 1.5 actions and only require to succeed by 1, etc.

To investigate, the deck rely on Lockpicks or Thieves’ Kit, both of which can be supported by Wolf Mask.

Fighting is done with Machete or Enchanted Blade, supported by the boost of Lonnie Ritter, Wolf Mask, Daring & Vicious blow. Should “Skids” find himself without a weapon, the deck can also easily evade.

Finally, mythos protection is done both by soak (Lonnie + Leather Jacket) and dedicated skill cards: Take the Initiative is there to soften the tests during the mythos phase, while Calculated Risks is good for treacheries that are tested at the end of your turn, (Frozen in Fear), and “Skids” can boost it to 4 wilds thanks to its ability.

Upgraded deck (29+3XP)
Decklist on ArkhamDB

The upgraded deck aims to keep the balance of the deck while improving its effectiveness.
Thieves’ Kits are upgraded to generate more resources. Lonnie is replaced by Delilah and Lola, both of which can use the extra resources for stronger effects than the extra action provided by “Skids” ability (activating Lola on a shroud 2 location is better than spending 2 for an extra investigate action).

As the deck lost some soaking capability, two “I’ve had worse” are taken to keep survivability while generating resources. They can help to proc Stylish Coat.

For fighting, the Machete are now the only weapons in the deck, but Skids can use Sweeping Kicks and Delilah to manage enemy if he is lacking one of them. 2X Reliable can be attached to either Machete or an investigating tool.

Finally, the skills to pass treacheries test were replaced by Savant, which is a 4 wild base for a willpower test, but improve to 5 wilds once Delilah and Lola are in place.

Underworld "Skids"

Decklist on ArkhamDB

This deck has a lot of similarities with the previous one, but showcase Underworld Support. The idea is to use it to more easily find the key pieces of the upgraded deck.

At level 0, the restriction of 1 card per title induces more diversity. The 3rd weapon is now the British Bull Dog, a Flashlight is taken as a 3rd investigation tool, and a Backpack is introduced to support Geared-Up.

Resource generation cards such as Grift and Sneak By are added. The skills / event are also more diverse, making more use of “Skids” agility, and showcase silver bullet events such as “Hit me!” or “Im outta here!”.

Upgraded deck (29+3XP)

Decklist on ArkhamDB

The star of the deck is The Red Clock. To find it, the combination of Underworld Support and Bewitching reduces the deck size to 22 (25 with weaknesses + signature). If you miss it in the mulligan, you get a very good second chance with Backpack(2).

The deck spends the remaining XP into a better Thieves’ Kit and Lola Santiago, for extra resources, soak and tempo.

My evaluation of "Skids" True Solo power level

It might come as my first controversial statement, but I think that “Skids” is a decent True Solo investigator. In multiplayer, I’d rank him as C tier, mainly because its ability does not generate enough value.

On his own, “Skids” however does just fine. He does need a bit of set-up, he is still a bit vulnerable, notably to assets-hate cards such as Crypt Chill.

But, and this in all honesty largely due to the introduction of Wolf Mask, “Skids” is capable of investigating, fighting and evading with decent skill values. And his ability is a great way to use excess resource generation in the late game toward advancing the scenario, or to get out of tight spots.

On these bases alone, I’d rank Skids as B tier. However, he does have access to Charon’s Obol, and this is enough for me to push him a tier above. For this reason, my ranking for True Solo “Skids” is:

B+

The post “Skids” O’Toole appeared first on Alone in the Mythos.

Daisy Walker

Dilir — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 07:00:31 +0000

Lone Wolf: Daisy Walker, the Librarian

Present since the release of the Core Set, Daisy Walker comes with a 3W 5I 2F 2A statline and a 5/9 health/sanity split.

Elder sign: +0. If you succeed, draw 1 card of each Tome you control.

Daisy’s elder sign is nuts. On pro-active tests, the +0 is a pass and she will very often draw two cards as a consequence. It is one of the strongest elder signs effect in the game.

Ability: One additional action that can only by used to activate Tome abilities.

This ability is the identity of Daisy. One extra action per turn is one of the best ability you could hope for. How to consistently make use of this action to advance the game is the puzzle that Daisy has to solve.

Deckbuilding: Seeker 0-5 / Mystic 0-2

Truth be told, Seeker 0-5 is a bit of an overkill for Daisy, which has no trouble gathering clue and does not find much support in the other tasks in high XP seeker cards (Maybe with the exception of Occult Lexicon (3), or a couple permanents).

The Mystic splash is however quite helpful in True Solo. While I do believe that the spells using willpower are a bit of a trap for her, having mystics access brings a lot to Daisy for encounter card mitigation, as well as access to great skill cards such as Promise of Power. The class also enables a handful of usable Tome to support her ability. It also means that Daisy can play Down the Rabbit Hole. XP acceleration is a big deal in True Solo, and Down the Rabbit Hole is probably the best XP acceleration card in the game.

Signature Kit

Daisy’s signature is a slotless asset that giver her two additional hand slots to hold tomes.

While the idea of having a flexible Daisy that has a book for every situation is nice, this card has two things going against it.

The first is common to all assets that add player slots: you need to draw them before completing your set up.

The second is that to make a full use of the Bag, Daisy has to play at least 4 tomes. This, even if you are using the cheapest tomes available, is likely to cost at least 5 actions, 5 card and 8 resources to achieve. I hardly see how you can get more tempo back just from being able to use a couple other tomes.

At least, it is a good commit with two willpower or intellect.

The Necronomicon is a solid weakness for Daisy.

The first bite is the enter play effect, that in Daisy will often results in discarding a valuable tome (hey, that’s a positive for Tote Bag, it at least makes room for you weakness).

The second kick is that it presents a cruel Dilemma: either spend 3 actions and take three horrors to discard it, or double your chance of autofails for the rest of the game. You also give-up any chance to trigger the effect of Daisy’s elder sign.

Overall, I tend to ignore this weakness more than to pay for it. The only exception might be if a big fight is coming and my only solution are big events such as I’ve got a plan, or my build critically needs two hand slots.

Preformance review for True Solo tasks

Clue Gathering

With 5 in Intellect and a full Seeker access, it is hard to give any note but the best to Daisy.

On top of that, in the Scarlet Key’s, Daisy finally received a tome that allowed her to investigate on her bonus action: Grim Memoir.

This makes getting clues with Daisy an easy task that speed up scenarios, which reduces the burden of the encounter deck.

She is a top tier clue gatherer, no doubt about it.

Enemy Management

With a 2 in Fight and Agility, Daisy needs to find other tools to manage enemies.

Using her Mystic splash does enable a strategy that use spells to fight / evade enemies, but this strategy has a heavy set-up cost, as Daisy needs not only to play her books, the spells, and boost her Willpower to a usable value.

The other option is to use the Occult Lexicon, backed up by events such as Occult Invocation and I’ve Got a Plan.

However, these options are still expensive and an early stream of enemies can easily overwhelm Daisy.

Mythos Defense - Survivability

3 in Willpower and 2 in Agility is slightly bellow par, but still manageable. The 2 in Agility hurts the most, as treacheries that test it often deal damage, and Daisy has only 5 health.

Still, her access to the mystic class allows her to play with a safety net, using cards such as Deny Existence and Ward of Protection.

On the most aggressive campaigns damage wise (looking at you Forgotten Age), Daisy will require a bit of deck adaptation. Otherwise, she will be fine.

Action efficiency - Economy

An extra action every turn is about as good as you can get as an ability, and at this point, Daisy is quite close to it.

In the early days, her ability was balanced by the lack of Tome to use her action on to progress the game. These days are gone now.

On top of the ability, Daisy enjoy the benefits of being a Seeker, and having therefore access to their powerful mobility and economy cards.

As early as scenario 1, Daisy can routinely get 5 action worth in a turn, by combining her ability with the likes of Shortcut / Eon’s Chart, etc.

Deckbuilding ideas

Daisy is a compulsive researcher

Decklist on ArkhamDB

In this deck, Daisy impersonate Mandy, as she is built to draw/search into her deck every round. The idea of the deck is to rush the assembly of the Pendant of the Queen, then use Enraptured to keep adding charges to it.

The intended game loop of this deck is to play either Grim Memoir, Old Book of Lore or Whitton Green as a starter (or Backpack, should neither of the two be in your opening hand).

The deck is built around the following synergies:

Grim Memoir allows to both use Daisy‘s free action to progress the game, and generate in turn draw (which triggers Cryptic Writing).

Old Book of Lore / Backpacks / Whitton Green all have strong search effect that will enable assembling the Pendant of the Queen in no time, while triggering Astounding Revelation for resources / secrets on Grim Memoir.

Occult Lexicon / “I’ve got a plan” / Mind over Matter are tools to keep her safe from enemies before she gets the Pendant, and for boss fights.

Practice Makes Perfect is another search, with 3 powerful targets: Perception to accelerate card draw, Promise of Power for emergencies/mythos protection, and Enraptured, that can reload both Grim Memoir and the Pendant of the Queen.

The deck is completed by 1X Pathfinder for extra mobility, but this can be swapped for another two XP value card, such as Knowledge is Power.

This deck is perfect for use with Down the Rabbit Hole, as almost all of the cards have upgrades.

Upgraded deck (29+3XP+2 Bonus from DTRH)
Decklist on ArkhamDB

This deck is incredibly straightforward to upgrade, as you just select the cards you want to improve to their better self. A good way for the selection is to think about the challenges of the next scenario (does it involve a lot of fighting / slow or fast start, etc) and choose accordingly.
Thanks to Down the Rabbit Hole, this deck is easy to reach even in the campaigns that grant low XP (though I would adapt it in Dunwitch to include 2X Deny Existence for protection against Beyond the Veil).

Daisy swings the doomed book

Decklist on ArkhamDB

At level 0, this deck is easy to pilot. It sacrifices some of the searches and late game combo of the previous deck for more Mythos protection, in the form of Deny Existence and Ward of Protection

The game plan is quite simple: use Grim Memoir to investigate with bonus actions, find your tomes with Laboratory Assistant and Research Librarian, and have enough cards to deal with enemies with the likes of Occult Lexicon, “I’ve got a plan” and Occult Invocation.

Resources for this deck are generated with Crack the Case and Cryptic Writing. The deck has enough search potential for Astounding Revelations to be good, but the seeker pool is wide enough to have some variety.

Calling in Favor, while it can help re-trigger Lab-Assistant, is mostly there to support the upgraded deck.

Upgraded deck (29+3XP)

Decklist on ArkhamDB

Unlike the previous deck, this deck actually requires some finesse when choosing upgrade. The first upgrades should be Abigail Foreman, Miskatonic Archaeology Funding, a second Knowledge is Power, and Occult Lexicon.

These provide consistent upgrades to the deck, allowing to free more hand slots (Abigail offers one and you can replace Occult Lexicon(3) without loosing the Blood-Rites). Abigail and Knowledge is Power provide action compression and more use of the tomes already in the deck.

Once we are ready, we can cut our fight events for a pair of Abyssal Tomes, and swap the Laboratory Assistants for Library Docents. The other upgrades (Eon Chart, Old book of Lore 3) are nice to have but less essential.

Once equipped with her Abyssal Tome, Daisy can become a monstrous boss killer. Abyssal Tome + Abigail Foreman is a potential 5 damage with only her bonus action spent. Adding a Knowledge is Power beforehand up the damage count to 9.

While the doom is likely not important if fighting the boss because Daisy is likely to kill it in a single turn, a word has to be said about how to handle smaller enemies.

Daisy can either soften them with an Abyssal Tome hit, then use Blood-Rites to finish them off, or charge the Tome. The doom can be removed either by playing another tome to discard it, bouncing it back with Library Docent.

For set-up, Daisy can aggressively look for her tomes with Research Librarians, and speed up the finding of Abigail with Calling in Favors.

My evaluation of Daisy True Solo power level

Daisy Walker is a clue getting beast. In multiplayer, her versatility in playing cluever / support with very high efficiency makes her S tier for me.

In True Solo, she is reeled in a bit as she does not have the best statline to manage enemies on her own. And while in the modern card pool, Seekers have decent options to deal damage / evade, most of them are not the most efficient, especially early in a scenario. Having to play an Occult Lexicon and a Blood-Rite is expensive resource wise. Occult Invocation is great but depleting your hand before the set-up is complete is annoying. You need to get clues before using “I’ve got a plan” effectively, etc.

For this reason, a couple early enemies can throw a wrench in Daisy’s plans. Otherwise, Daisy is geared to breeze through the location vacuuming clues at a record pace. Thanks to Down the Rabbit Hole, Daisy’s decks also upgrade faster, which helps to achieve long term success in a campaign.

Given these observations, my rating for Daisy in True Solo is:

A+

The post Daisy Walker appeared first on Alone in the Mythos.

Roland Banks

Dilir — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 09:38:45 +0000

Lone Wolf: Roland Banks, the Fed

Present since the release of the Core Set, Roland Banks boasts a 3W 3I 4F 2A statline and a 9/5 health/sanity split.

Elder sign: just a positive number.

Ability: Reaction: discover a clue on a location as a reaction after defeating an enemy.

This ability was introduced to help Roland to support the team by collecting a few extra clue while fighting enemies. Ironically, it loses value in True Solo, as the enemy count is lower, there is less clues per location, and the game often punishes the player leaving clues on locations (with treacheries such as Locked Door or Obscuring Fog)

Deckbuilding: Guardian 0-5 / Seeker 0-2

This is the redeeming factor for Roland. Roland has access to both the amazing weapon kit of Guardians, and can dip into Seeker cards to support clue-gathering, economy and mobility.

A funny aspect of this split is that he has access to every skill boost with the Hemlock Vale Wolf and Mouse Masks. Which one to pick is campaign dependent.

Signature Kit

Roland’s signature is a one handed, Firearm weapon asset. Its closest comparison is the .45 Automatic. The .38 has the same number of ammo, costs one less resource and offers an extra +2 skill value on locations with clues. It is just better, as expected.

However, most of the decks that uses weapons have to decide whether to go one handed or two handed. In one handed builds, the .38 will happily take the place of another weapon or be an extra option.

For two handed builds (such as Runic Axe builds), the .38 is not good enough to justify using cards that generates an extra hand slot (unless this hand slot is also needed to play investigation tools). It is however a nice expendable weapon if you didn’t draw your main one immediately. And if you did, the icons are good.

Among the signature weaknesses, Cover-Up is a nasty one.

On the positive side, it does not affect your tempo instantly, as the only immediate effect is the blank draw. However, the penalty for not completing the task is a mental trauma, which should really be avoided considering Roland’s 5 base sanity.

It is notable that the location must have clue on it to be able to trigger the reaction effect. It might be wise to stick around a location with a clue a bit to clear it.

In a twisted way, Cover Up makes cards that collect multiple clues at once such as Deduction shine. While they are usually less appealing in Solo due to the low clues per location count, they can both clear clues out of Cover Up and advance the game.

Preformance review for True Solo tasks

Clue Gathering

Roland has an average base 3 intellect. However, the 0-2 Seeker access provides numerous options to both boost the intellect to usable values or collect clues without passing a test.

His investigator ability unfortunately fades a bit in True Solo, as enemies are not as numerous and not always killable on a clue location. It will probably barely generate enough clues to balance his weakness.

Amongst the Guardians, he is still a quite capable clue gatherer.

Enemy Management

4 fight and 0-5 Guardian access makes Roland a very capable fighter.

His signature, the .38 Special is a cheaper, sometimes better .45 automatic. It is great in one-handed builds, less useful if you plan to use two handed weapons that outclass it.

Roland is not very good at evading enemies for the occasions where it’s preferable to fighting.

Overall, enemy management should not be an issue with Roland.

Mythos Defense - Survivability

3 in Willpower and 2 in agility is slightly bellow par, but still manageable.

The real struggle with Roland is the 9/5 health/sanity split. Having such a low sanity puts Roland at risk of being defeated by a couple treacheries.

To make it worse, he will take a mental trauma whenever failing to clear the clues on Cover-Up.

As dying from horror will grant additional mental trauma, it’s not hard for Roland to spiral out of control and end up insane. His deckbuilding has to take this into account.

Action efficiency - Economy

As Roland weakness eats-up roughly all the benefits of his ability, action economy has to be found elsewhere.

However, Roland can access both the Guardian’s set-up acceleration cards such as Geared-Up or Ever Vigilant/Stick to the Plan, and the very powerful card-draw/resource generation/mobility card of Seekers.

Compared to some investigators, he is easy to get-going on a short set-up. After that, he keeps up with the game pace without being overly impressive

Deckbuilding ideas

Roland practiced the cursed art

Decklist on ArkhamDB

This deck capitalizes on the fact that with Blasphemous Covenant, curses are a positive addition to the bag in True Solo (unless the bag is full of curses, in which case it is about neutral).

The curse package in this deck includes Tempt-Fate, which is a very positive cantrip paired with Blasphemous Covenant,1X Esoteric Method and 2 X Deep Knowledge.

This deck also feature Practice Makes Perfect, which thanks to Roland‘s classes can be used efficiently both in combat (Overpower, Vicious Blow), investigating (Deduction, Perception) or even in the Mythos phase (Take the Initiative, Esoteric Method).

The perk of this deck is that it has a very fast set up, requiring only to play one of the 5 weapons to get going. Having 5 weapons in the deck almost ensures you are getting one out of the mulligan.

The only other assets are disposable soaks such as the Laboratory Assistants, and the Ancestral Token, or the dirt cheap Magnifying Glass. This means that this decks doesn’t require much resources, and two Burning the Midnight Oil are enough to get them.

This deck is meant to be very fast cycling, and it has a ton of card draw. The play strategy is to use skills to boost the tests without loosing any tempo or resources.

This deck is however risky to play in The Dunwitch Legacy, as a certain treachery can severely punish using too much card draw.

Upgraded deck (29+3XP)
Decklist on ArkhamDB

The priority upgrades for the deck are the Blessed blades which are one the best one-handed weapons in the game, and Pathfinder for action efficiency.

All other upgrades are luxury: Stick to the Plan/Ever Vigilant bring both deck thinning and set-up acceleration. I’ve had worse compresses damage/horror mitigation and resource generation. The curse archetype can be expanded to enhance clue gathering with Prismatic Spectacles and Stirring Up Trouble.

Roland is to lazy to think

Decklist on ArkhamDB

This deck is built for Roland never have to pass an intellect test to gather clues.

The deck uses the overpowered Runic Axe as a primary weapon, with the Glory upgrade to add some card draw / heal should it be needed. The axe is seconded by Brand of Cthugha, to ensure Roland can find a weapon on the first round, and allow for the Axe to recharge when caught in a streak of fights.

Clue gathering is handled by disposable Art Students, and solid events such as Working a Hunch, Scene of the Crime, and Task Force.

Because Roland need a bit of extra clues to clear its weakness, the deck can also capitalize on Take the initiative + True understanding to get a couple clues in the mythos phase, while On the Hunt can be used to get two clues with Scene of the Crime, and one more after defeating the enemy, which can speed-up clearing Cover Up

While the axe is the only asset you really need to play in the deck, the cost of events adds up, so the deck feature Crack the Case and Emergency Cache to balance the economy.

The deck is completed by 2X Ancestral Tokens, just because they are good supporting assets. 1X Ancestral Token + 1 Mask is also a good option.

This deck is probably the most suitable for play at harder difficulties, as it minimize the amount of tests to pass, and Roland can fight at high skill value with the Runic Axe.

Upgraded deck (29+3XP)

Decklist on ArkhamDB

The upgrade path for this deck is fairly straightforward, dumping as much XP as we can into Runic Axe to both boost fighting efficiency (Ancient Power, Scriptweaver) and clue getting support through the Elders inscription. The two Brands of Cthugha are also upgraded for fighting consistency.

The rest of the XP is spread between extra mobility (Pathfinder, inscription of the Hunt), Stick to the Plan/Ever Vigilant for deck thinning and set-up acceleration, and economy / utility (I’ve Had Worse / On the Hunt).

An alternative, a bit more Janky but funnier upgrade is to transform Roland into a true Eldritch Knight.

Decklist on ArkhamDB

The build use the Runic Axe as a charge machine by going Saga instead of Ancient Power. An Eldritch Sophist can then feed the charges either into the Brands to keep delivering 3 damages blows, or into the Pendant of the Queen once assembled to break the late stage of a scenario by collecting clues and teleporting around the map. The build uses two Backpacks to accelerate gathering of the Onyx Segments.

My evaluation of Roland True Solo power level

Overall, I have mostly positive opinions about Roland. Though neither his statline nor his ability stand out on their own, his true power lies in it’s deckbuilding capacity. He gets the best part of the Seeker pool and access to the high level Guardian weapons and their turn one set-up acceleration.

While he is a bit fragile, a bit of soak and a couple good skills are enough to maintain him afloat.

I would probably rank Roland as a B in multiplayer, as he lacks the extra efficiency to go higher up the list. My personal evaluation for Roland in True Solo is:

B+

The post Roland Banks appeared first on Alone in the Mythos.

Mitigate treacheries

Dilir — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 09:23:44 +0000

Introduction

In the “5 cool cards to…” posts series, I look at the card pool for the most interesting cards to assist in rounding up a deck that might struggle with some of the challenges required to perform well in true solo.

To keep the posts to a reasonable size, I select cards with the following rules:

5 cards maximum per class
Level 0-2 cards (to maximize the investigators that can access them, and facilitate the use in starting decks)
Variety of archetypes (to avoid shoehorning players into one deck type)
Suited for true solo (some cards have amazing value in 2+ players, but are less interesting playing solo).

How to tame treacheries from the encounter deck

Most of a player’s deck should be dedicated to advancing the game (finding clues, defeating bosses, revealing the map). This leaves treacheries mitigation in a uncomfortable spot.

On the one hand, treacheries can ruin a scenario (and this is especially true in True Solo), by either defeating you through damage and horror or leaving you helpless in front of an impossible hurdle. On the other hand, you cannot win in Arkham just by not loosing.

Whether your should even consider including treacheries mitigation cards in a deck depends on the scenario played, your investigator statline and its health/sanity balance. Having a good understanding of these three elements helps to identify what’s the most likely to ruin your gameplan and what could be the best fix for it.

Generally speaking, most treacheries will interact with defensive skills (willpower and agility), and will either contribute to defeat you with damage/horror, or slow you down by taking away actions, cards, resources or play options.

To mitigate the effect of treacheries, you can either:

Raise the defensive skills to reliably pass the test on treacheries
Include soak and heal cards
Have “counter” cards that either mitigate, nullify, change or remove the effect of treacheries.

In this post, we look at cards that are good at achieving at least one of these purposes. Which one to go for is a choice for you to make, by considering both your weak spots and how well your card otherwise synergize with your deck.

Neutral cards

Painkiller / Archetype: None

Painkiller, and its sibling Smoking Pipe are great cards to fix an imbalance in your soak, or in the scenario damage/horror dealing.

In the right setting, these cards are a heal 3 for 1 resource, one card and one action. Not too bad.

The best candidates are 9/5 or 5/9 investigators, or investigators with a deck that has a lot of soak in one stat but not in the other (decks running Pete Sylvestre or Jessica Hyde are a good example).

Favor of the Sun / Archetype: Bless

If you are running blesses, Favor of the Sun allows three on-demand +2 boosts in any skill test. This means it will help you on multiple treacheries should you need it, even if they target different skills.

While you need to first put bless token in the bag before your can use it, bless generation has become much easier since the Hemlock Vale expansion.

Guardian Cards

Take the Initiative / Archetype: None – Practice Makes Perfect

This card gives 3 wild icons for test in the mythos phase, which makes for 90% of the tests you will be doing because of treacheries.

While it falls short dealing with a few notable treacheries (it is worthless to get rid of a Frozen in Fear, for example), it is versatile and shine in True Solo as it can be used to pass a difficult scenario test on your first action.

It is also a great include for decks running Practice Makes Perfect.

Bestow Resolve / Archetype: Skill card matters

You liked the wilds icon of Take the Initiative, but you wish you got more out of it than just passing the test on your treachery?

Bestow resolve will transform a lot of very good skills into a plethora of icons. The best targets are Inspiring Presence, Eureka, Watch This! and Resourceful. The double events from the Hemlock Vale expansion also have 3 icons at level 0, should you need it. Even the base skills such as Overpower can now be upgraded to offer both 3 wilds and potential card draw.

Tetsuo Mori / Archetype: Meat Army

Tetsuo soaks for 2/2. Tetsuo dies. Tetsuo reward you by giving you an object as a memento.

Value wise, it’s one of the best soak card available to Guardians at level 0. The fact that it uses the ally slot can be somewhat of an issue, though. I tend to prefer allies that contribute to advance the game.

Trusted / Archetype: Meat Army

You want to use your allies to soak but actually care about them surviving? You just want more soak at a great price?

Trusted is a fast 1/1 soak for a resource and a card. At level 0, the value is hard to match. Yes, it does need an allied to be played before, but allies are among the highest priority assets anyway.

It is one of my go-to cards if I want to round up a deck with a bit of extra soak, without having to think to much.

“I’ve had worse” / Archetype: None

This card is what I would upgrade Trusted for if I ever upgrade it. It has almost the same effect, with no restrictions and effectively save 3 resource for your economy (cost 1 less and gives you 2).

While it is nice and of good value, this upgrade is worth it only if you are a bit lacking in economy, or if you need more of a given type of soak.

Guardians are well equipped when it comes to facing the mythos. They have a solid mix of cancels / heals /soaks and skill boost to adapt to the treacheries that hurt them the most.

In Solo, the main difficulty that guardians will encounter is probably the few available deck slots for Mythos protection. They will have to dedicate a fair amount of cards to fight but also to find clues, which can be a struggle for them.

I would favor cards that either are critical to fix the weakness of an investigator (Rolland Banks low sanity issue, for example), or use cards that can serve another purpose (such as Take the Initiative).

Honorable mentions: Obsidian Bracelet, Hunter’s Armor, True Grit, Something Worth Fighting For, Hallowed Mirror

Seeker Cards

Tooth of Eztli / Archetype: None

This card is pure treachery defense. It boosts the two most tested stats on treacheries, and reward succeeding at those.

For this card to be worth it, you need a decent base willpower and/or agility to start with. Rex, Mandy and Ursula have statlines that make them good users of this card.

It is of course best for campaigns with a lot of tests on treacheries.

Dr. William T. Maleson / Archetype: Clue Dropping

At level 0, our dear Dr. Maleson is already a very good card, as 1 resource and a card for a 2/2 soak is as cheap as you can get at level 0.

I chose to select the level 2 version because while the ability on the level 0 version can be useful for the worst treacheries in the game, the level 2 gives a much greater control on what you draw from the encounter deck.

Dropping a clue is a hefty price to pay, which you have to build around (or use the level 0 version as a cheap soak with a panic button).

There are however lots of ways to create synergies around dropping clues. You can pick them back easily with Research Notes, generate extra moves out of Hiking Boots, etc. And being able to discard enemies while feeding treacheries to your Tooth of Eztli is great fun.

Forewarned / Archetype: Clue Dropping – Tech

This is the Seeker version of Ward of Protection. It does cost an XP and requires to drop a clue.

Unlike Maleson level 2, who is made to build around and use repetitively, this card is usually included as a Tech card with a few specific targets in mind. Of course, it hurts when you draw the treachery when you have no clues on you.

Plan of Action / Archetype: Practice Makes Perfect

Plan of Action had recently received a clarification that indicate that it indeed gives two willpower or agility in the Mythos phase, which is why it appears on this list.

Yes, it is only worth a +2 for mythos defense, but it can also be used as a cantrip for a +1 / draw on your second action.

The main perk is that is combines very nicely with Practice Makes Perfect, as the wild icon ensures it is always a valid target.

Esoteric Method / Archetype: Cursed – Practice Makes perfect

For once, Seekers don’t have the best card at doing something, as Promise of Power is better, unless your goal is to load the bag with curses.

That being said, curses + Blasphemous Covenant works great in True Solo, and 4 wilds icons will ensure you can pass an important treachery test. For Seekers/Mystic investigators, Practice Makes perfect + Promise of Power and Esoteric Method goes a long way.

The main tools for Seekers to deal with treacheries are mostly good skill cards or card that drop clues.

Clue dropping is the most committing of the two solutions, as a large amount of deckslots will be dedicated to support it.

Honorable mentions: Quick Study, Bizarre Diagnosis, Logical Reasoning, Inquiring Mind, Medical student

Rogue Cards

Lonnie Ritter / Archetype: Tech – Chuck Fergus

Lonnie is a great value card on it’s own, and a lot of Guardians would love to include her in level 0 decks.

While the +1 fight is -very- relevant, Lonnie made the list because her ability makes her one of the best level 0 soaks in the game. Trading 1 resource for a 1/1 heal without an action is amazing value.

The only downside is that you need to play an Item with 2 health to enable this ability. This puts a constraint in your deckbuilding, and it can sometimes feel overkill (Tony Morgan needs the horror soak but not more health, for example).

Well Connected / Archetype: Big Money

Well Connected is worthless unless you are playing the hoarding resource archetype.

In this archetype, though, it is quite good at boosting the tested skill in the Mythos phase. Unfortunately, that also means you cannot use it to do anything else this round.

As a limit 1 per investigator, it cannot be your only plan should you need treachery protection, but as it will for sure be in the deck if you play the archetype, it will contribute to keep you safe.

“Hit me”/ Archetype: Over-succeed

While Survivors probably don’t care about this card, “Hit me” is a quite versatile card for Rogues.

It’s primary role is a safety net to pass risky test, just as a Lucky! Compared to it, it is of course less reliable, but has redeeming perks.

First, it scales wonderfully with campaign progression. Assuming you only play it when the test would be failed anyway, at the start of a campaign, it would blank about one third of the time (skulls + autofail + 0s), and be a +1/2 most of the time. By the end of the campaign, though, worse tokens are added to the bag. This both reduces the chances of the card being useless, and increase the potential gain.

The second advantage is that it can help to trigger all the succeed by X triggers that rogues care about.

Counterespionage / Archetype: Pay to win

This card is fairly straighforward, as it allows to get rid of an unfavorable encounter draw for another, which is useful to dodge a bad timed Crypt Chill or a Frozen in Fear.

Value wise, paying an extra two resources to draw from your deck instead of getting another encounter card is worth it, as an encounter card usually take more than 2 resources worth out of the player, and the extra draw is worth 1.5R.

If you fall short on cash, the card can be committed for two brain, which is nice on its own and very nice with the Crystallizer of Dreams.

Savant / Archetype: None

Savant is a silver bullet to pass a Willpower test for most Rogues. Most of the rogues will have a modified stat of 5+ once Savant is committed to the test.

For the other skills, it will at worst be an Unexpected Courage. It is of course completely useless for Preston, and has nice interactions with cards such as Geas or The Black Fan.

In the end, this will help you pass a treachery test, and that’s all we could ask for.

Early rogues being notably low on willpower, they were for a long time the most vulnerable to treacheries.

Lately, rogues with higher willpower came out, and the latest campaign do a better job at testing a balanced mix of willpower and agility.

To defend against treacheries, they have different options. They can either use good soak such as Lonnie Ritter, use talents to boost their stats, or keep a few silver bullets for the nastiest treacheries.

Honorable mentions: Liquid Courage, High Roller, Moxie, Money Talks, Tennessee Sour Mash

Mystic Cards

Alyssa Graham / Archetype: Doom

Alyssa’s peek ability is very nice in True Solo, as it gives you a one round lead on what the encounter deck is about to do to you. If the intellect boost is useful to you, she might already be worth considering.

The doom ability is probably hard to profit from if not without doom support. If you have Sin-Eater, though, you can eat the doom for an action, and that makes it much easier to trigger.

Deny Existence / Archetype: None

Mystics have a reputation of being Mythos immune, and Deny Existence is one of the reason why.

While it got almost tabooed by the ruling about “For each” treacheries, it is still a staple that can nullify the effect of a lot of treacheries.

This is a pure value card. Even negating just two damage makes it a fast, free, slotless 2/0 soak. A staple that is easy to include in a lot of decks.

Ward of Protection / Archetype: None

Ward of Protection gained its fame by both being introduced in the core set, and by being one of the rare card that can prevent an Ancient Evils.

In the modern card pool and in True Solo, Ward of Protection fade a bit. It still is quite good at negating a nasty treachery, but costing one card, an horror and a resource is about what a treachery usually costs you, if not more.

For this reason, while Deny Existence can be played quite liberally for value, Ward of Protection requires a more clever use and a better knowledge of the treacheries in the encounter deck.

Ward of Radiance / Archetype: Bless – Token Manipulation

Ward of Radiance is the cheaper twin of Ward of Protection. While it is require for you to be able to generate some blesses to be worth it, it takes about 3 blesses to have a 70% success rate in a standard bag.

This card can also be supported by Olive Mc Bride or Favor of the Sun.

Unlike Ward of protection though, it does not have the spell tutoring / upgrading interactions.

Promise of Power / Archetype: None – Practice Makes Perfect

As a lot of treacheries are about passing a test, 4 wild icons goes a long way to succeed at it. This card is just a staple, and the curse is barely a downside.

It also is Practiced, which make for a very strong Practice Makes Perfect package for investigators with Seeker/Mystic access.

Of all the classes, Mystics have the best and most boring cards to tame the encounter deck. While Alyssa Graham offers interesting decisions and game loop, the other cards are just good, and straightforward to use.

This combination with the natural resilience of Mystics in early campaigns due to their high willpower and sanity makes them less incline to search for different mitigation solution, such as soaks or heals.

Honorable Mentions: Earthly Serenity, Hallowed Chalice, Talisman of Protection

Survivor Cards

Peter Sylvestre / Archetype: Never die

While the biggest downside of Peter is that it takes the ally slot, he sits comfortably in the leader seat of the good old staples to counter the mythos.

Peter does two great things for you: it soaks one horror per round, and boost your agility. The latter being often tested for damage dealing treacheries, Peter does a great job at softening the encounter deck.

Its level 2 version is very worth it, loved by investigator with mystic access, as it boost the willpower and is dirt cheap to upgrade into with Down the Rabbit Hole.

Sparrow Mask / Archetype: Self-harm

This mask is tailored to combat treacheries. It comes loaded with two uses of a +2 against the most tested stats during the mythos phase.

Should you fail a couple tests, it has the nice perk on reloading when taking damage and horror.

The last thing to mention is that as a slotless item, it has a lot of interactions with survivor recursion and Geared-Up

Lucky!/ Archetype: Taking Chances

This staple from the core set is still very relevant, as it is an Unexpected Courage you can use reactively.

It has also the nice effect of mitigating the effect of some treacheries even if you would still fail the test after the +2. A good example is going 4 v 3 against Rotting Remains, drawing the -4 then play Lucky to only take one horror.

The versatility of Lucky! is also its drawback, as it is tempting to play it on many tests, and deciding which one to spend the Lucky! on can be difficult.

Perseverance / Archetype: Taking Chances – Discard matters – Tech

Perseverance is a quite potent card, as it can be an effective soak 4 for 2 resource and a card. The issue is it is only useful if you are about to be killed otherwise, which is not something usually desirable.

The best comparison for it would be Leather Coat. Leather Coat costs an action upfront, or is a dead card in your hand. Perseverance is a dead card in your hand, unless you need it.

Gumption / Archetype: Test at 0

For all treacheries, Gumption acts at least as an Unexpected Courage.

For fail-by treacheries such as Rotting Remains, though, it adds the benefits of capping the effects of a failed test. Now, even the auto-fail will only result in one horror.

This card is extremely versatile in its use and worth including in a lot of decks, even if you are not pushing a test at 0 archetype.

While they don’t have the raw power of Mystics to nullify treacheries, survivors are quite resilient to the encounter deck, and have multiple strategies to counter it.

They can try to cancel the treachery with A Test of Will, try to pass the tests preventively, using boosts such as Sparrow mask or Grizzled. They can cheat the result with Lucky!, soften the effects with Gumption, or straight up tank the damage and horror with the very good soak cards available to them. Finally, lasting treacheries can be removed from the board with Alter Fate.

Honorable Mentions: Grizzled, Alter Fate, Talisman of Protection, Hunting Jacket, A Test of Will, Alter Fate.

Outro

In the current card pool, every class has a decent selection of card to face the treacheries in the encounter deck.

Guardians have usually a good willpower, supported by good skill cards and soak capabilities. Some seekers might be the most fragile class at low XP, but can make do with good skill cards, or playing Dr Maleson / Forewarned in a clue dropping archetype. Rogues used to be crippled by their low willpower, but have now options to cheat / pay out of the most annoying treacheries. Mystics straight up counter what’s in the deck, and Survivors have so many tanking options they are un-killable should you want to.

With that many options, the Mythos deck should not be that scary anymore. The main question is how much of your deckspace should you want to dedicate to Mythos Prevention?

This is where knowledge of the scenarios and investigators come into play. Some scenarios (in Dunwitch, for example) have treacheries so impactful that it is worth having a silver bullet to counter them. Some investigators with unbalanced stats and hard weaknesses will require to add a couple cards ensuring they wont blow up on one autofail.

For the others, the best solution is to look for cards that can be used both offensively to progress the game, and for mythos defense. Cards such as Lonnie Ritter, Trusted + Guard Dog, I’ve had worse, Well-Connected, Gumption are all great options to avoid being defeated while being able to effectively help you progress the game.

The post Mitigate treacheries appeared first on Alone in the Mythos.

Save up on move actions

Dilir — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 09:16:13 +0000

Introduction

To keep the posts to a reasonable size, I select cards with the following rules:

5 cards maximum per class
Level 0-2 cards (to maximize the investigators that can access them, and facilitate the use in starting decks)
Variety of archetypes (to avoid shoehorning players into one deck type)
Suited for true solo (some cards have amazing value in 2+ players, but are less interesting playing solo).

How to save up on move actions

Moves are one of the most simple and common actions in Arkham Horror LCG. Moves very rarely require a skill tests, and are more often than not pro-active rather than reactive (in contrast to fight actions, for example).

A key characteristics of the game is that most of the locations in scenario starts either out of play or unrevealed, and interactions with unrevealed locations are very limited. For this reason, one of the main task to advance the game is to move around to reveal locations or put new locations into play. This creates one of the major differences between True Solo and multiplayer play. In multiplayer, this task of revealing location is shared amongst the team, while in true Solo this burden falls on a single investigator.

From my estimate, move actions in Solo make up to 1/5th to 1/3rd of the total actions required. As actions are one of the most valuable player resources, finding ways to generate action economy by saving on move actions is a good step toward success.

In this entry, I will look at cards that can help to move around and reveal locations more efficiently.

Neutral cards

Hyperphysical Shotcaster / Archetype: Use another stat

Hey, it’s me again!. Hyperphysical Shotcaster, with the Translocator upgrade, allows to evade with your highest stat, and offer a move before or after the evade, for either the investigator or a non elite enemy.

While many cards (especially in Rogue) have “evade-like” effects that allows to move afterward, this one of the only one that offer to move before, which is very handy to move into occupied locations.

The card does not strictly allows to move for free, but compresses two actions that are often performed sequentially into one.

Call for Backup / Archetype: Synergy

Call for Backup requires to control at least a Rogue card to move. Just as the previous card, it does not offers free move, but compresses it with other effect of various utility. Move – Clue – Heal are the easiest to reliably trigger.

If you can stack up enough effects, it offers good value.

Guardian Cards

Runic Axe / Archetype: Enemies Matter – Two handed weapon

There is a reason why the Hunt upgrade on the Runic Axe was tabooed. The ability to spend a charge to get a full move action worth is incredibly good.

Of course, to profit from it, you have to have an enemy around, but still, this upgrade will probably save 2-3 moves across a Scenario. If your deck is already playing Runic Axe, it is a very high value upgrade for it.

It is noteworthy that this also enables moving while engaged to an enemy without taking attacks of opportunity. A niche effect but useful in some occasions.

Task Force / Archetype: None

If you just want to move, Task force is actually costing two resources, a card and two actions to do it. Yeurk!

However, getting a clue before/after moving is very easy to trigger, an a good pacing for True Solo.

Except if your deck really struggle to get clues, this card is only worth including if you can benefit from the third activate action at least some of the time.

Time to face the hard truth: in Solo, guardians have very bad mobility. The main moving gimmick for guardians is Safeguard, that allows to piggyback other investigators on their move. In Solo, there is very little they can do to move faster.

Some cards like On the Trail or Righteous Hunt do allows to move toward a distant enemy, but in Solo most of the enemies will spawn at your location, and they are effectively useless.

Seeker Cards

Shortcut / Archetype: None

One card for a free move. Shortcut is a staple at any player count since it was released.

Notably, this card allows to move while engaged to an enemy. This can be handy when racing toward a resign location at the end of a scenario.

Pathfinder / Archetype: None

This card, even with the +1XP taboo, is incredible. In True Solo, you can expect to save at the very least 5-6 move actions should you draw it in your opening hand.

The only downsides are the relatively hefty cost and the rather useless icon if you draw it late in a scenario. You also cannot move while engaged to an enemy.

Hiking Boots / Archetype: Geared-Up – Clue Dropping – Agility matters

The direct competitor to Pathfinder. It is cheaper both in resource and XP, and grants a +1 agility bonus. However, it will not likely grant as many free moves in a scenario, as its triggering condition is more restrictive.

I tend to prefer Hiking Boots to Pathfinder in decks that either care for items (such as Geared-Up) or about the agility (Jack Monterey and Trish Scarbourough). Running one of each is also an option.

If you play a clue dropping archetype, you can sometimes get extra triggers when picking-up a dropped clue on a central location.

Join the Caravan / Archetype: Synergy – Tech

In the vast majority of case, just running Shortcut is better than using this card, because it is cheaper and allows to reveal locations, which this card cannot do.

However, Join the Caravan can break open any scenario where back-tracking is important, especially in the “race back to” situations at the end of some of them.

Due to the cost, I would only consider it for decks that consistently controls 3+ classes.

Shortcut (2)/ Archetype: Tech

Paying 2XP and a resource for a single fast move is not worth it. In True Solo, other investigators cannot generate extra free moves out of it.

Therefore, the upgrade from Shortcut (0) must be really justified. The main reason to upgrade is if the campaigns has a lot of scenarios with central locations, backtracking situations, or treacheries that move you around.

Most of the time, sticking to Shortcut (0) is fine.

The mobility of Seekers is insane. They have with Shortcut and Pathfinder the most staple “free moves” event and asset. What is almost disgusting is that they have many other options to play in various archetypes.

Honorable mentions: Eon Chart, Esoteric Atlas, The Truth Beckons

Rogue Cards

Scout Ahead / Archetype: Tech – Chuck Fergus

Scout Ahead is a solid movement compression card, allowing you to save up to two moves actions if you play it at full value.

Its most common use is to speed up backtracking, and avoiding engagement is great for that. Moreover, it is notable that this card allows to reveal locations, which can be interesting if you intend to play cards that can collect clues from a distance.

With two agility icons, it’s a solid card if you need more mobility, and a great candidate for an Adaptable tech card.

Eon Chart / Archetype: Item – Scavenging – Secret manipulation

Also available to Seekers, the level 1 version of Eon Chart give two basic actions for two resources and a card, which is nothing to go crazy about. Moves are the easiest actions to use.

The interesting part about it is that because it has the item trait, it is super easy to find added value. Eon Chart can be played at a discount by Geared-Up or Unearth the Ancient(2), played fast and resold by Joey the Rat(3), scavenged back, recharged, etc.

Think on Your Feet / Archetype: Enemy avoidance

This card is deceptively good. Played at is best, it will save you an enemy attack, an evade, and give you a free move. Most of the time, it will still save an evade and a move.

Even though the free move is why this card made the list, the true action saving on this card is to avoid a annoying fight / evade you would have to spend resources on.

Elusive / Archetype: Enemy avoidance – Chuck Fergus

This card is a rare instance where a Taboo intended to nerf the card actually made it better in True Solo. While the original text allowed to cheat certain scenarios with abusive accross the board motion, the new text reads “move to a connecting location with no enemies”. You can now reveal a new location out of Elusive, which is great in Solo!

Even though Think on Your Feet has a level 0 version of the card, I consider Elusive to be better. It cost 1 more resource, but can be used to disengage from multiple enemies, and does not care whether they spawned on you or not.

Nimble/ Archetype: Agility Matters – Oversucceed

Nimble is certainly the only level 0 skill that can give you 3 actions. Of course, you will very rarely both need to move as much and have the ability to oversucceed that much on demand.

Yet, Nimble is decent as long as you can reliably generate a free move. This can be done through evasion, or card testing agility such as Grift, British Bull Dog and Thieves’ Kit..

Rogues come a close second to Seekers when it comes to mobility. While they don’t have card as easy to use as Pathfinder and Shortcut, they can save actions by bunching moves together (Scout Ahead, Haste), or moving around enemies (Think on Your Feet, Elusive).

Of course, Rogues are also able to easily generate extra actions (Leo di Luca, Quick-Thinking, etc) which adds up to their mobility.

Honorable mentions: Haste, Leo di Luca, Quick-Thinking, Honed Instinct, Swift Reflexes

Mystic Cards

Dowsing Rod / Archetype: Will matters – Doom

What Dowsing Rod allows to do is to compress move and investigate actions together. Yes, you cannot trigger it at every use, but it will probably give you 2-3 free moves in a scenario, which is enough to justify it being played as your investigate asset for low intellect mystics.

In Solo, the best sequences to profit are :

Trigger the doom and move / investigate a location.

If its a 2 clues location, investigate again to clear the doom.

If its a 1 clue location, move again and investigate to clear the doom.

Close the Circle / Archetype: Will matters – Synergy

Close the Circle gives you extra basic actions. Moving is a basic action. Having the option to use your charges to move is a very nice way to make sure you always get full value of this asset.

In a way, it is very similar to the tabooed Eon Chart, but with the option to use your brain for your actions. It is however notable that its not nearly as easy to find an recur, so while I’m perfectly happy with 3 secrets on Eon Chart, 3 charges is where Close the Circle starts to be good, but I am only including it in a deck if I can get 4+ charge on it.

Summoned Servitor / Archetype: None

Summoned Servitor, with the Wings of Night upgrade, allows to move along with the servitor.

There are two major drawbacks for this card, though. First, the cost of the card is hefty. Having to discard a controlled asset and dedicate two slots for it is a large price to pay. But the most annoying part to be usable in True Solo is that you cannot move with the servitor to enter an unrevealed location, which is often what you want to do in Solo.

Ultimately, the Wings of Night upgrade and the Summoned Servitor are only useful if you go all-in on a dedicated build around deck.

Astral Travel / Archetype: Tech

Astral Travel is the parfait example of a Tech card. It is only useful for backtracking, and quite good at that.

The potential downsides are not really relevant when you actually want to play it (which will be to get to the exit of a scenario).

Except for specific scenarios, though, this card is just a bit too costly and hindered by the inability to reveal new locations.

Mists of R’lyeh / Archetype: Will matters – Evade matters

This card is very similar to other mystic assets that grant a move or action after an evasion (such as Blur or Shroud of Shadows)

It combines both enemy management and mobility, two important aspects of the true Solo game. If you intend to include evading for enemy management, these are a great choice.

While Mystics don’t have nearly as much mobility as Seekers or Rogues, they do have a few ways to generate move actions or to compress move actions with another useful action (evade or investigates, mostly). The rest is made of very niche card that are either complete build-around or pure tech.

Honorable mentions : Blur, Shroud of Shadows

Survivor Cards

Track Shoes / Archetype: Agility matters

To actually generate free moves, this card requires to both have already moved, and to pass an agility test.

If we disregard the use of this card to abuse Drawing Thin, what can it do for you?

It is fantastic for backtracking, as it both saves moves and allows to jump over enemies. It can however feel clunky moving forward, as most of the time, you want to investigate the locations just revealed. Some decks can be built to get around that by picking-up left behind clues.

Overall, this card is mostly useful if you can profit from the +1 agility it offers. Wendy and Rita are prime users of Track Shoes.

At a Crossroads / Archetype: Dilemma

At a Crossroads gives you one action you can use to move should you need it, at the cost of two cards. To be honest, it’s not a great rate, and I would probably only use it near the end of a scenario.

The good thing is that the second option, to loose an action for a net gain of two cards is perfectly playable.

An ok card overall, but nothing exciting.

End of the Road / Archetype: Discard

While you can only play it near the end of a scenario, this cards gives you a very nice tempo boost. A net gain of an action and a resource at level 0 is about as good as you can get. And the last agenda is often when you profit the most from the extra action.

To mitigate the fact that this card is dead until the last agenda comes into play, investigators with discard synergies can pitch this card to feed their abilities, and recur it later with Resourceful.

Survival Instinct / Archetype: Evade matters

Survival Instinct allows to compress evade and move action together. Just as for the Mystics evade spells, these to action types are very useful together and make for a useful include if evading is your main enemy management plan.

When it comes to mobility, survivors are taking inspiration in every class, while not being as good than each of them. They can use Track Shoes as a clunkier version of Seekers Hiking Boots, get extra actions with hoop to jump through than Rogues don’t have, or move and evade as Mystics do, but using a skill instead of assets.

It is notable that while Survivor don’t have a very good card pool for mobility, some investigators have great mobility in their abilities (Duke and Rita, for example)

Outro

Not every classes are equal when it comes to moving around. Seekers can invest in a few card to generate a lot of free moves. Rogues generate a lot of extra actions, for which moves are a great use as they are actions that do not require tests. Mystics and Survivor are not nearly as consistent, but have a few cards that can either generate actions or tie moves to another action type. Guardians, however, suffer a lot in True Solo of the lack of Safeguard. They will either have to use their secondary class, or find action compression otherwise.

In the end, a basic move action is still a very good action that advances the game. Saving on moves is great as it’s one of the most common action type, but you can usually get by without it if your deck has great action economy otherwise.

There are exceptions to every rule, and some specific scenarios have a “race against the clock” moment where extra moves can make things a lot easier.

The post Save up on move actions appeared first on Alone in the Mythos.

Defeat enemies with low fight

Dilir — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 08:36:20 +0000

Introduction

To keep the posts to a reasonable size, I select cards with the following rules:

5 cards maximum per class
Level 0-2 cards (to maximize the investigators that can access them, and facilitate the use in starting decks)
Variety of archetypes (to avoid shoehorning players into one deck type)
Suited for true solo (some cards have amazing value in 2+ players, but are less interesting playing solo).

How to defeat enemies with low fight

Managing enemies is one of the most important tasks in Arkham horror LCG. There are many different ways to deal with them, all of which have their uses.

Enemies can be defeated, evaded, avoided, incapacitated, or even reshuffled in the encounter deck. In this section, we will look exclusively at ways to defeat enemies. There are multiple reasons that makes having ways to defeat enemies important. Some scenarios have a boss you must defeat to reach the resolution. Some enemies have victory points on them. And some are fairly easy to kill but very annoying if left on the board (I’m looking at you cultists).

For this reason, in this post, we will look at cards that enable defeat enemies for investigators with a low fight stat.

Neutral cards

Hyperphysical Shotcaster / Archetype: Use another stat

Here it is again. Hyperphysical Shotcaster, with the Railshooter upgrade, allows to fight with your highest stat (most likely intellect or agility, as high willpower investigators are usually mystics and their spells are just better). Unlike Telescanner, though, the upgrade just give a +1 damage and does not open up any cool playstyles.

It is most suited for investigators that have a native 5 in one of the stats, and intend to use it as much as possible. The main drawbacks are the resource and XP costs, the slot, and the fact that refilling it is impossible without discard recursion.

Call for Backup / Archetype: Synergy

For this card to deal damage, you need to control at least a guardian card.

Testless damages are always great, but this card will trigger an attack of opportunity from enemies engaged to you. To be playable in Solo, this card is best used combined with a move. Moving once and removing a cultist for 1 card and 1 resource is great.

To really justify the XP cost, though, it is probably only worth including if you have a decent chance at triggering a third effect (the clue being the most valuable one). But it is easy enough to achieve for a good number of investigators, and with multi-class cards.

Dawn Star / Archetype: Curse

This card is very powerful, in a build that supports it. If the bag is loaded with curses, it will at least be useful (saving a test you would have failed, and pinging an enemy if there is one at the location).
But to be worth including in a true Solo deck, the deck should be able to reliably reveal curses on demand. Cards such as Kohaku‘s signature, Favor of the Moon, Rod of Carnamagos, Olive Mc Bride are all excellent ways to increase the damage dealt.

This card also fixes the issue of cursed spells such as Armageddon, where you want to draw a lot of curses, yet still pass the test. Armageddon(4) + Dawn star with a lot of token drawn is a good way to nuke a boss or clear multiple enemies in the same location.

Guardian Cards

Guard Dog / Archetype: Healing matters – Meat army – Riposte

Guard dog should need no introduction. It work wonders, both soaking and dealing damage for you.

However, Guard dog does have some limitations. To be used optimally, the damages need to be assigned to guard dog one at a time. It means that the horrors and extra damage dealt by enemies must go elsewhere. Guard dog is not a safe plan for a boss fight. It helps, but cannot do enough burst damage.

Guard Dog is at is best hunting cultists. Just move in the location as your last action and let it do the work.

Brother Xavier / Archetype: Meat army – Willpower matters

Brother Xavier is an odd fellow. To be worth the ally slot and the hefty cost, the investigator must have some active use of its willpower, and a solid economy (Diana Stanley comes to my mind).

In opposition to Guard Dog, Brother Xavier offers a permanent stat boost and deals the damage when defeated. He is at is best helping you through the scenario and sacrificing itself on the final boss.

Dynamite Blast (2) / Archetype: Pay to win

Few cards can have as much effect on the board state as Dynamite Blast. I selected the level 2 version because Dynamite Blast is usually worth playing to remove multiple enemies at once. In True Solo, if the enemies at are your location, you are likely to take multiple attacks of opportunity on top of the 3 damage from the blast if you use the level 0 version, which is hard to justify. Ignoring attacks of opportunity makes it more viable to blast yourself.

The card is best used to clear a connecting location, and works great to remove chunky aloof enemies.

Toe to Toe / Archetype: Riposte

Toe to Toe is a guaranteed 2 damages dealt, at the cost of an enemy attack.

Most of my True Solo losses come from autofailing an/a couple important fight tests. Not only Toe to Toe doesn’t care about your stat, it removes any variance and it helps to secure other effects that trigger on a success to the test (in that case, you succeed by your modified card value).

Toe to Toe can also back-up assets that consume uses to fight, and provide a safety net for a boss fight. The only requisite is to have enough soak remaining.

Sweeping Kick / Archetype: Agility matters

This cards packs so much for very little. It is playable by any investigators with a high agility (most investigators will have 6+ combined agility + fight value).

With just the +1 damage, it would still be playable, but not amazing. The automatic evade upon success is however insane, and works even on elite enemies.

It is funny that Guardians, who usually have a high base fight, have so many options to not use it.

Guardians can deal damage by expending allies, getting hit, an through the use of powerful events. Some cards are designed for off-class guardians, and offer to use another stat to do the fighting.

Honorable mentions: Katana – Brand of Cthugha – Beat Cop (2) – Blood Eclipse – Radiant Smite – Strong Armed – Gang up.

Seeker Cards

Occult Lexicon / Archetype: Pay to Win

Blood-Rites, of which you get one in the hand and two in the deck, are amazing cards. The standard use of them will be to draw 2 – discard 2, and pay 2 to deal 2 damage to an enemy.

Paying 2 resource, a card and an action to guarantee two damage is good, but not amazing. Where Blood-Rite shines is at it allows on top of it to dig through the deck while discarding your least useful cards (duplicate of assets, for example).

The main drawback of the Occult Lexicon is that it is only 1 per deck. With the Item and Tome traits though, it is not that hard to find.

“I’ve got a plan”(2) / Archetype: Intellect matters

Events that can deal up to 4 damage are rare. The ceiling on this card is quite high.

I favored the level 2 version because the level 0 is quite expensive, and the lack of a skill boost can be problematic early on for such a high impact event.

In True Solo, this card can sometimes be hard to use, as some scenarios don’t allow to have a large stockpile of clues when an enemy shows up.

Gaze of Ouraxsh / Archetype: Curse

This card scales with how much of the chaos bag is made of curse tokens.

For a full cursed chaos bag in a starting chaos bag, damage triggers on 11/26 tokens, for an average of 4 damage. It’s of course a lot of work to get there. On the plus side, it takes only 6 curses to average 3, and 3 curses to average 2. Later in a campaign, tough, the inflation of the bag with other symbol tokens make it fade a little.

To boost the damage, the investigators can use effects such as Olive Mc Bride or Favor of the Moon.

Occult Invocation / Archetype: Intellect matters

3 cards, an action and 2 resources to deal 3 damage with a +2 intellect boost. This rate is not great, and this card would be quite bad if Seekers were not so good at drawing cards.

There is not that many ways for Seekers to deal damage at level 0, though, so this card often makes the cut in some decks that lack other options.

Mind over Matter / Archetype: Intellect matters

Let’s be honest, this card will not help main Seekers to deal with enemies without access to some kind of weapon. Dealing damage 1 by one is not a viable plan in this game.

If you do have access to a weapon that deal extra damage, this card is fantastic. I’d go as far as saying that it is better than Overpower (2) and Manual Dexterity (2) for a lot of investigators. It does cost a resource, but the stat boost is for the whole round, which is great for a boss fight, it is versatile, and the card draw is not dependent on succeeding the test.

It does not apply for the Mythos Phase, but should you need it, it will still give 1 Willpower or 2 Agility icons.

Seekers have a tough time for good killing solutions at low level. Most of their great enemy killing tools are high XP cards. Until there, their strategy is to pay expensive events that either deal testless damage or use their high intellect to hit.

Honorable mentions: Disc of Itzamna, but it cannot deal with elite enemies.

Rogue Cards

British Bull Dog / Archetype: Agility matters

Finally, Rogues get an asset to fight with agility.

The rate is not amazing, with only 3 ammo and no skill boost, but the class is drowning in agility icons begging to be used on their skill and events. This card enables new plays, such as moving during a fight with Nimble

It is still not perfect, though, because at level 0, Rogues are lacking a +1 agility ally, and it is easy to miss a couple shots using this weapon. Be sure to have back-up or reload options available.

Backstab / Archetype: Agility matters – Chuck Fergus

This was the original way for Rogues to kill things with agility. At 3 resources and with no skill boost, it is often a big gamble to play it.

In the modern card pool, it is however easier to support Rogues with enough agility icons to make it more reliable. As a Tactic, it fit’s quite well in Chuck Fergus events decks.

Sneak Attack / Archetype: Evade matters

Sneak attack is Backstab for the risk averse. It does require you to evade first, and does less damage, but the damage is guaranteed.

Because it feels like a waste to evade and play a card to kill a 2 health enemy, Sneak Attack is best used on enemies that you are not confident killing in one round, and in this case it’s a nice payoff for a successful evade.

Just as Backstab, it is a Tactic and works well with Chuck Fergus.

Stir the Pot / Archetype: Parley – Intellect matters – Trick

There is a lot to love about this card. You do have to test Intellect, but you get to choose the weakest enemy for it, so it will often be difficulty 1 or 2. Just as Dynamite, it is AoE damage and bypasses aloof. Unlike it, it doesn’t trigger attacks of opportunity and you cannot damage yourself.

Being able to disengage from all enemies and move is a cherry on top that can be a life saver in dire situations.

In early campaigns, the first scenarios often feature parleys to perform, and the duo Fine Clothes / Stir the Pot does wonders there.

Hatchet Man / Archetype: Evade matters

This card has quite a narrow use, yet can be useful to up the damage output of investigators that favor evading enemies before killing them.

It’s not great on its own, but combine nicely with cards such as Pickpocketing / Dirty Fighting to increase the value of the evasion.

Rogues have several ways to proceed when trying to kill enemies without using their fight. They can attempt to use their high agility to outright kill them, but they tend to suffer from having only limited and expensive options to do so. They can take a slower route, evading the enemy and grinding it down in a couple more actions. Their last option is to spend resources on high cost solutions with guaranteed effects.

Honorable mentions: Cheap Shot, Small Favor, Coup de Grace, False Surrender

Mystic Cards

Shrivelling / Archetype: Will matters

Shrivelling (but also Azure Flame, and Armaggedon) are part of the core of the Mystic identity. All are spells assets that let the investigator fight using willpower, and do extra damage. They have just enough differences to make some better than other in certain decks, but not so much that discussing them separately is worth it.

Shrivelling is better for investigators that have low health, Azure flame for investigators with low sanity or are looking to draw symbol tokens, and Armaggedon in cursed decks.

Most interactions are well known by the community. Upgrade them with Arcane research /DTRH, pay them with Uncage the Soul , search them with Arcane Initiate, recharge them, etc.

Spectral Razor / Archetype: Will matters

Another staple in the Will matters archetype. The interesting discussion is why it is interesting to play it on top of the assets listed above. It cost almost as many resources and is single use. Looking at the raw damage, we are paying 2 for 3 damage while Shrivelling is 3 for 8 damage, a better rate.

Three factors makes up for this difference.

First, assets needs to be set up before the fight happens. This makes Spectral Razor a great panic button should you find your other fight assets depleted mid fight.

The second factor is that it adds the willpower to the fight skill instead of testing it. While it fades once the assets spells are upgraded, at level 0, it makes it much more reliable to hit every enemies. An interesting side effect (for Sister Mary and Diana Stanley) is that you can also commit Vicious Blows to it.

Finally, you also get to engage the enemy, which is great to hunt aloof enemies or protect a teammate.

It does lose a damage fighting elites. Still an incredible card.

Enchanted Bow/ Archetype: Will matters – Agility matters – Ranged assault

The immediate thing one must notice is that a weapon that takes three valuable slots and exhaust upon use requires a plan to work out. The big payoff though, is that you can hit non elite-enemies from a distance 3 times, and more if you can recharge it. It also have unlimited uses at your location.

To succeed with it, though, you need to have ways to either ready the bow (such as Luke Robison with The Raven Quill), or enough additional damages to take down the larger enemies.

In the Hemlock Vale investigator expansion were introduced Long Shot and Strong Armed, two excellent skills to up the bow damage (though the second one requires to fight with agility). Silas Marsh, Ashcan Pete and Agnes Baker can all build great bow hunter decks.

Storm of Spirits / Archetype: Willpower matters – Tech

This is Mystic’s mini Dynamite Blast. This card does require a test, but most of the time, you get to choose the enemy at your location with the lowest fight value. In Solo, the eventual self-damage taken is not that meaningful.

Whether or not this card makes it into the deck is very campaign dependent. In Solo, having multiple enemies at the same location is not that common. However, when it does happen, it usually create high stress points that cards such as this one can help to cope with.

Abyssal Tome / Archetype: Doom – Willpower matters – Intellect matters

I kept one of my favorites for the last. To my knowledge, Abyssal Tome is the only asset without uses that let you fight with intellect. You can in fact use three of the four stats to fight which can be interesting for some investigators and when using skills.

Abyssal Tome has two problems: it exhausts, and you have to manage the doom.

At its low point, it is a Wither in a hand slot that get a bit of a boost at the witching hour or on the final fight of a scenario. Not good enough for two XP, but still can be useful to save charges on spell assets.

Where the card becomes interesting is through interactions. In the Mystic class, Elle Rubash turns this into a +2/2 damage weapon that exhaust. With her, it can sit comfortably as a secondary weapon, waiting for the boss where you can unleash insane damage with cards such as Knowledge is Power, Abigail Foreman, Sin-Eater, the Raven Quill, Word of Woe.

Right know, this card would probably work for a handful of investigators (Marie, Amina, Daisy, Luke, Charlie). But it’s such a unique playstyle that I wanted it to be on the list.

Mystic primary way of defeating enemies is to use cards that test willpower, of which they have a plethora to choose from. The majority of them however have a drawback, with the most common being self damage/horror on symbol token pulls.

The Enchanted Bow and Abyssal Tome are similar build-around cards, as they both double with another stat (agility for one, intellect for the other), and offer very unique payoffs, for which you have to work for.

Honorable mentions: Ceremonial Sickle, Sword Cane, Azure Flame, Brand of Chtugha, Armageddon, Blinding Light, Drain Essence, Explosive Ward

Survivor Cards

Hatchet / Archetype: Agility matters, Recursion

Adding the agility to the fight test is quite powerful for a level 1 card.

The funny thing is that you can only use Hatchet once per enemy. It will either be held for the rest of the fight, or in your discard if you killed the enemy.

To remedy that, your investigator must have other way to finish enemies off. Daniela and Rita abilities are both good in that perspective. I am not 100% sure about it, but Long Shot might also work to avoid the discard.

Lantern / Archetype: Recursion

Lantern is one of the most expensive way to deal one damage, with a cost of two actions, 2 resources, and a card.

The damage dealt is however guaranteed, and does not require to be engaged to the enemy.

This card shines best in a Scavenging(2) deck. If you are using scavenging to recur and play the card, the damage now just cost 2 resources. Being able to reduce the shroud also makes scavenging easier should you have one in hand and one in the discard.

It is not the most exciting option, yet viable for Bob or Darrell.

Exploit Weakness / Archetype: Test at 0

This card is amazing when played. A guaranteed defeat against an enemy, or a 3 damage hit against an elite is a huge payoff.

The difficult part is to get to play it when needed. For it to be consistent, you will need a fight/evade difficulty reduction of at least 2, as not that many enemies have 1 in one of their stat (with a notable – spoiler – exception).

In solo, with a bit of XP Flashlight(3) is a versatile option. At level 0, oddly enough, the best options are outside the survivor class. You can find a full interaction list on the ArkamDB page and on Reddit, but the most notable are Toe to Toe which guarantees a 5 damage hit on an elite, Stealth or Anatomical Diagrams (works only on non-elite though)

Long Shot / Archetype: Evading matters – Use another stat

Long Shot is not a standalone solution to defeat an enemy. Its purpose is instead to add damage to another effect.

Because it has no icons, it is quite versatile at doing so.You can commit this to a Shrivelling fight. You can add another damage to a Cheap Shot or a Blinding Light. You can boost a “I’ve got a plan” or a British Bull Dog attack.

It is very good with the Enchanted Bow as you can add damage when fighting an enemy at a connecting location.

“Devil” / Archetype: Soak-Tech

Devil is an exciting card,. Effectively, it soaks for 1 (heal 3 – deal two), and deal a testless AoE 2 damage for 1 resource, a card an an action, which is very decent for a 2XP card.

The issue is that you want to absolutely avoid having the Devil bomb you with no enemies in play. It also will trigger attacks of opportunity and loose some value if you are already engaged to an enemy. The best use is to either play it when you know you will have an enemy at your location soon (either because it spawn in a location you want to move into, or because of the agenda flip), or to avoid having more than 2 damage on yourself to move to Devil.

Survivors have to rely on a small set of cards with very diverse mechanisms. Most of the card presented require some sort of combo to work. Survivors wanting to avoid testing fight will have to spare deck space, cards and resources for the enemies they really want to kill. They will often also have to use evasion and multiple different damage source to grind down chunky enemies.

Honorable mentions : Elaborate Distraction, Waylay (cannot defeat elites)

Outro

Because enemies dictate the pace of the game, investigators need a plan to address them. Defeating them is only one of the options available, but it is critical for True Solo investigators to be able to at least defeat 6-10 HP worth of enemies. You can target the lower end if your investigator is very good at dealing with enemies otherwise, and should shoot for even higher than 10HP if your only way to manage enemies is to defeat them.

The reason is that not being able to do so will outright loose some of the scenarios with a boss. In the other scenarios, it can be used to target VP enemies, or enemies that are hard to manage otherwise.

The common thing about the cards presented are that they are either costly, with a limited use, or a bit janky. This means that to achieve the 6-10 HP goal, the investigator will have to use a fair amount of resources and deck space.

During the game, investigators have to be very mindful of what they have in their deck, and use their resources carefully. Spending a Spectral Razor on the first 2/2/2 enemy that pop out of the encounter deck might leave them without options when the hard enemies show up.

Unfortunately, because of this scarcity, the variance for investigators with a low fight stat is usually higher. Missing a Backstab or a 4 damage “I’ve got a plan” can lose you a scenario, it’s just something you have to accept. Your goal is to make that as unlikely as possible with a clever use of your resources.

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