This card is as amazing as it is fun to play. Its overpowered action-compression () and variance mitigation (test less clues/evade) effects are balanced by the fact that you have to gather 3 cards to bring the Pendant of the Queen into play. Because of this and also because it takes allot of deck space, this card should only be used if you are building a deck around it.

What’s the best strategy to use with the Segment of Onyx

The possible strategies you can use to find the Segments of Onyx are search, mill or a combination of both. I consider a pure search build the best way to assemble the pendant, since searching reduces variance or even eliminates it so you will get the Pendant of the Queen faster than the most aggressive mill decks ever could. I would also recommend not adding pure mill cards like Preposterous Sketches or Cryptic Research to your search deck, because through your search actions you will be pulling 1, 2, 3 or even 4 extra cards out of your deck per turn so you will be milling just by searching. Here are some of the best search synergy cards: Mr. "Rook", Astounding Revelation, No Stone Unturned (5), Old Book of Lore. At 0 XP Backpack and Calling in Favors are also good.

What is the best investigator to play with Segment of Onyx?

Mandy Thompson, the queen of search, should be the best investigator for this build right? Actually, I prefer Daisy Walker because of 3 reasons:

1. Her Weakness doesn’t cancel searches and she can use No Stone Unturned(5) in turn 1.

2. She can play Recharge. This is the most important reason why I prefer Daisy over Mandy. Once I have Pendant of the Queen in play and 1 copy of Eldritch Inspiration in my hand then every Recharge becomes a copy of Pendant of the Queen that cost 0 resources to play.

3. She can trigger the Old Book of Lore more often than Mandy and without losing an action. Once her Old Book of Lore of Lore is in play Daisy’s searching power is almost as good as Mandy’s.

Piloting the Pendant of the Queen

The Pendant of the Queen is inutitive and easy to use, here are some guidelines:

1. Use the free and test less evade effect only in case of emergency (to save someone from certain doom or scape from an enemy when your bodyguard can’t help).

2. Use the teleport action only if it would save you at least 2 actions and save 1 charge if you know that at some point you will want to teleport across the map.

3. Use the free clue trigger only in locations with 4+ shroud or in locations where investigating is risky (locations that drain your resources just by standing there or investigating).

Example of good piloting in a 2 player game:

You move to investigate in a 1-3 shroud location with 4+ clues. While you clean this location of clues, you use your Pendant of the Queen to clean the 2 clues at the 4-5 shroud dead end location your fellow investigator/bodyguard revealed. Using the Pendant of the Queen you saved 2+ investigate actions and 2+ move actions (you don’t have to move in and out of that remote location). This shows the action-compression and variance mitigation power of this card.

Cons of running the Pendant of the Queen

1. Tight deck space. The Segment of Onyx takes allot of deck space and can compete with other OP cards like Ancient Stone. Nevertheless the variance mitigation of a search deck allows us to play many of our best cards as one-offs, without skipping their powerful effects. In other words I can run only 1 copy of Ancient Stone in my search deck and still the probability of me seen it and using it is higher than in a normal deck that runs 2 copies and no search.

2. Many cards are needed to make it work. Indeed, but many of those are search cards and the search strategy is strong even if the Segment of Onyx wouldn’t exist.

3. The only true problem of this strategy is the lack of access to Adaptable of Daisy and Mandy. This means you have to expend XP on some lvl 0 cards once you get the Segment of Onyx or start your campaign with some suboptimal cards, namely 2 copies of Enrapturedand 1 copy of Eldritch Inspiration. This is not great but also not terrible.

Final Words

I really like the mechanics, balance and strenght of this card. If you like seekers (especially Daisy and Mandy) I would recommend trying it. To be fair constructing the perfect deck to go with the Segment of Onyx is no easy task and at the moment there are almost no decks on Arkham DB that focus on exploiting the Pendant of the Queen. Most of the published decks just run it as an afterthought/gimmick and the few that do focus it (1 or 2) are Mandy builds that are just ok. I do plan to publish a full in depth guide and build with Daisy but I still have to do some more playtesting and refinements, so this is as much insight as I can provide right now.

Very surprised that there has only an off-handed mention for Luke Robinson. This card is insane for him. Luke naturally likes Recharge, and with the new taboo on this card, it makes it a natural combo to use Pendant of the Queen with Recharge. Furthermore, Luke can take the magical Whitton Greene, which boosts his will (which needs help) and his intelligence, it also combos with Hawk-Eye Folding Camera to create a 5-6 intellect mystic. FINALLY Luke always has access to a new location, so he can activate the search 3 times, with each one having a 1/3 chance of finding a piece, not including ANY other locations (looking at you Side A dream world).

Therefore the combo for Luke is; Segment of Onyx, Whitton Greene, Recharge, Premonition, Hawk-Eye Folding Camera, Lucid Dreaming and for added spice Astounding Revelation. This makes Luke, a testless, teleporting, high intel high willpower, MACHINE. All for the low low price of 9-13xp.

*If You know the scenario well, and know you wont be able to explore much Backpack is another great option. Either way HARD MULLIGAN for Whitton Greene, even if it means you lose a segment.

Here are some piloting notes once you put Segment of Onyx in an appropriate deck (e.g. Mandy Thompson).

Typically, if you draw 1 or 2 Segment of Onyx's in your opening hand or early few turns, you will aggressively try to get the last 1-2 by searching. If you don't get any early on, it's often better to search out other cards and let the Segment of Onyx's concentrate into a smaller deck.

When your deck is large, you should use the charges only when it really helps, because when they are gone it will be difficult to collect the Segments again. Conversely, when your deck becomes very small, your threshold to use the charges becomes smaller and smaller (e.g. you might use a charge just to move 2 locations), because if you can use them all the Segments go back in your deck, and you can get the Pendant of the Queen much faster. That being said, remember that each Segment cost you 1 card and 1 resource, so you really want to get at least 2 "action equivalents" or an important time-sensitive effect (like evading an enemy that would otherwise cause trouble) from each charge, or you are not getting any net benefit. Nonetheless, I usually used Pendant of the Queen twice each time I went through my deck with Mandy Thompson, with a maximum of 6 completely spent [Pendant of the Queen](/card/06022/s in 1 game (The Blob that Ate Everything).

This card is actively bonkers for Daisy Walker, who can frequently draw through her entire deck to find it using Old Book of Lore and other search/draw. It costs 1 XP Total, thanks to Myriad rules, and gives you tons of free actions for resources provided you are meeting the requirements. Actions and autosucceeds are way more important than resources. And in a pinch, it pitches as a wildcard!

If you expire Pendant of the Queen when your deck is near empty or empty, you can stack your deck with three Segments and immediately draw into and play them again. Combined with secret charging abilities like Astounding Revelation and Enraptured, this card can make five-action life a reality for seekers.

Too powerful card (even with +3 xp). why?

• easy to collect: Deck tempo of most seeker is very fast. It means that it's not hard to find all three segments of onyx.
• powerful ability: Pendant of the Queen has three ability, and all three are powerful
  • teleport: why Elusive is powerful and tabooed? I think you know the reason.
  • clue: you could detour high shourd or investigate penalty. Moreover, you can discover a clue at any revealed location. If your teammate reveal a location and you don't want to go there, you can discover clues at there only by pendant.
  • evade: Pendant's auto-evade works with elite enemy. (why? I don't believe.) Also, don't forget this is trigger ability. You can always chance to trigger between 3.2 and 3.3. This means that Pandent can evade any enemy ignoring any ready effect such as TNOZ BOSS.
• easy to recycle: After you use all charges, all segments are shuffled into deck. If you make your deck thin, and use all charges. Then, you could replay your new Pendent very easily.

Fun card that requires a little help.

Segment of Onyx is fun and powerful, but not without the right tech. You need drawpower to find it, or tutors, and you need deckspace. It's actually quite costly at 3 resources to "complete".

For a full on this card will probably pull it's weight, Preposterous Sketches, Cryptic Research, Mr. "Rook" and Glimpse the Unthinkable make actually finding the things relatively easy, Feed the Mind will find it in a jiffy! For a full-seeker there is one problem though, 3 slots might be very hard to come by! Segment of Onyx competes HARD with the classic "research" cards, Strange Solution and Archaic Glyphs, if it's not pushing those out then it's competing with powerful mechanics like "I've got a plan!", Pathfinder or Connect the Dots. Don't forget that Segment of Onyx also needs support to find them with.

For a non the prerequisite for card support is harder, there are no Glimpse the Unthinkable, Cryptic Research for them and Mr. "Rook" charges might very well be better spent on other things (finding weapons, useful skill cards in the moment). If you get Segment of Onyx then you should probably also be getting Preposterous Sketches ASAP. Feeling like you HAVE to tutor fragments can actually get in your way and until you complete the damn thing the early shards will feel like duds.

I dont think I really need to talk about how powerful this thing is when you complete it, crazy movement efficiency, evasion and unstoppable clue gathering make it rather awesome, Pendant of the Queen is perhaps one of the single strongest items in the game. It's particularly interesting to multi-role characters like Roland Banks and Joe Diamond since they can make full use of every facet of the card, it's also rather attractive for Daisy Walker who can assemble it with Old Book of Lore and she can use Recharge and Enraptured to get extra uses from it. Minh Thi Phan will be a natural fit, she runs through a deck at rapid speed and the flexible uses are of particular interest to her.