Feline Hybrid

This creature is absolutely brutal in the chapter 2 environment. Miguel has a hard time getting his attack up, and this thing is immune to weapons and events. Towards the end of a campaign though, taking the hit and having it run away with elusive or chasing it down through superior movement becomes much more reliable.

One of the toughest scenarios (you know the one) in Hemlock gives you three different ways to deal with this thing. And with elusive, it should be easy enough to send it to locations that are leaving play (like on a train).

MrGoldbee · 1563
Grievous Wound

Although I don't think this card is as bad or niche as the other reviews here make it seem, there is one aspect that I didn't see covered so far: Grievous Wound is absolutely great at exposing concealed cards. And it makes sense - both thematically (a wounded enemy desperately tries to seek help from their allies, running from one potential location to another) and mechanically (it was released in The Scarlet Keys, the only campaign that features concealed cards).

Of course you need a proper victim first, meaning to have an enemy in play that does not bother you when kept alive (or is Handcuffed). Preferably this will be a non-hunter enemy, but I am certain there are cases where you are evasive enough yourself and actually want it to move around, covering more ground for doing your legwork. And if you manage to Bolas a hunter enemy, you got yourself a really good pet spy!

The initial attack/wound > evade > get away before re-engaging can be taxing, and you don't want too frail of an enemy to be your target or hit it with your big arsenal, but cheap hitters exist.

Overall, I think if played early enough this card can save you a lot of actions if brought along across the globe in your playthrough of The Scarlet Keys campaign.

AlderSign · 469
I am not sure that even works, but I won't argue too much because Concealed is such a messy mechanic it creates a lot of odd outlier situations that are hard to tell how they resolve — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
From https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Concealed_Mini_Cards: "An investigator may also use a card effect that automatically evades an enemy, deals damage to an enemy, or discovers a clue at a location in order to instead expose a concealed mini-card." — AlderSign · 469
this doesn't deal damage to 'an enemy'. doesn't work. — Adny · 1
What else would you say attached enemy is? An egg? The quotations are your own addition following your own interpretation of taking that one sentence word by word (which... why would you?). — AlderSign · 469
By your reasoning Daniela's ability would also not expose concealed cards because it either deals damage to "THAT enemy" or automatically evades "IT". Neither wording includes "an enemy". Come on... — AlderSign · 469
@AlderSign I'm with Adny on this one: Grievious Wound deals damage "to the attached enemy", Daniela deals damage to "that enemy". They both specify a target you are striking. You need to use an effect that is specifically targetting a decoy in your location rather than either the enemy you attached the event to (for GW), so the attacking enemy (for Daniela). Arkham works on exact words: you need an effect that can target "an enemy", which would be Beat Cop and Coup de Grâce for example. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
There is obviously the exception of Area of Effect cards , that target everything in a location, like Dynamite Blast, Storm of Spirit, but even then, those effects get replaced completely by exposing the decoy instead of dealing damage — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
I really would like this combo worked as much as Guard Dog countering an enemy attacking you with Figure on the Shadow could expose a decoy. If you could attach it to an enemy in the shadow and expose a decoy at the end of every round, that would be very cool themtatically, like you are following a blood trail of an enemy hiding. But sadly, that isn't the case. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
I'm sorry, but that simply is not true. I agree that the rules for concealed are very confusing and create head-scratching edge cases, but on this here I am certain and don't find your logic sound. If I try to follow it (you say "Arkham works on exact words" - yeah, like game rules in general) it immediately contradicts with the core rules. E.g. I assume you wouldn't argue about whether an effect that triggers when "a clue" is discovered triggers when "2 clues" are discovered. Or whether an effect that triggers when an ally takes damage triggers when a treachery attached to a location deals damage to each ally at that location. I could go on, but there are numerous examples that contradict your argumentation. There are even more than enough examples that show slightly different wordings referring to the same thing. I honestly don't get why a different logic should apply here, compared to the rest of the game. — AlderSign · 469
@AlderSign I still think Grievous Wound and original Daniela's ability do not work: these card deal damage to SPECIFIC TARGETS, and nothing else. When you Investigate, you choose to replace finding clues for revealing concealed card, when you attack, you choose to strike the shroud value to reveal a concealed card, when you deal damage with Beat Cop, you choose to deal damage to an enemy in your location or a concealed card to reveal it. Because Grievious Wound and Daniela only target the enemy it is attached with and the enemy that attacked her respectively, they just cannot reveal concealed cards. This is because their clause is limiting: there is already preceding evidence to that with Dirty Fighting. Nothing in Dirty Fighting says you cannot fight an enemy you evaded at long range, but it was ruled you couldn't do that because you still need to obey the normal limitations of fight actions. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
I see where your reasoning is coming from, but am certain you (both) understand the concealed rules wrong. The rules say that you need to target a concealed mini-card for fight, evade, investigate actions, but for the other effects (like automatic evade or dealing damage) the exposing simply REPLACES the effect. You do not need a target beforehand. I think this is the main misunderstanding here. — AlderSign · 469
@AlderSign "You do not need a target beforehand. I think this is the main misunderstanding here." That is the exact reason why I brought up Dirty Fighting specifically as an example: the rules do not specify the effect must target the concealed mini-card, but they also don't say an effect that isn't targeting the concealed mini card can work on them. The limitation of those cards should still be in effect on who they target, otherwise you could just take a fight action against an enemy and instead of dealing damage to it expose a mini-card. At least, that is how I interpret it. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
Careful here, the damage from a fight action is not a card effect, therefore you couldn't do that according to the concealed rules anyway. I understand the ruling for Dirty Fighting but don't think it is comparable to our case here because concealed has its own rules. — AlderSign · 469
@AlderSign I should have been more specific here: if you take a fight action USING A WEAPON ASSET against an enemy... — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
And I'm aware something like Runic Axe with Inscription of Fury would work because it is a separated effect, I'm talking about something like 45 automatic or Machete. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
That amounts to the same outcome, it is still a fight action. The damage from a Machete or Automatic (or Spectral Razor, for that matter) is still the result from the fight action and not from a card effect - that's why it cannot expose a concealed mini-card. But you are correct, Fury would work. — AlderSign · 469
Bro's trying really hard to rules lawyer his way into a "rules as written" loophole in a game that only really functions when viewed in a "rules as intended" lens. — Spamamdorf · 5
That's actually a counterpoint to Adny and HeroesOfTomorrow since they argued for the RaW in a more strict way than me (only accepting the exact phrasing "an enemy"). So what you accuse me of only makes limited sense. In addition, "loophole"... I dunno, the interaction I point out in my review isn't really gamebreaking or anything and there are enough other holes in loops that are accepted here. So your point is? Anyway, I submitted rules question form regarding this, let's see when the answer arrives. — AlderSign · 469
Doesn’t work. — Eudaimonea · 9
They ruled on Zoey’s Cross. People were trying to expose a Concealed card every time an enemy was engaged and they vetoed it. — Eudaimonea · 9
On Your Own

With the new ruling of Chapter 2 changing retroactively that story cards ignore deckbuilding restrictions, this version of On Your Own finally found a niche. While Survivors have some of the best allies of the game and I doubt giving up on them is worthwhile, now at the very least your Ally slot can STILL be useful to play story allies, and there is also a reason to bother with Charisma even.

You can always recur allies from the trash with Chance Encounter. — MrGoldbee · 1563
@MrGoldbee I am aware of it, but that depends on what allies your teammates are running. While Survivors are very versatile and can make use of almost anything, there are just some not really compatible with what each Survivor does (I definitely wouldn't want Logan on Wendy for example) — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
Quick-Witted

So, clearly this isn't a great card for pips, as noted in other comments. Though +2 Books or Feet is often very welcome.

But as also noted, this can pad your deck repeatedly to slow it cycling. Perhaps most specifically, this can single-handedly stop decking out completely. If you do a viable test every round and alway shuffle back one, that one will offset your compulsory draw giving a the final state where your deck consists of either 1 or 2 copies of this depending on timing point (and also still letting you do extra draws as long as you know you have extra viable tests coming).

I was looking closely at it recently, before I remembered there was Swarming in my current campaign, which will definitely break the cycle.

So in summary, it's very niche but definitely playable.

Problem with that is, 99% of decks don't want to do that. Like yeah maybe if you're Wendy or Yorick you might want to keep your discard, but they can't take it. "Maybe Minh Thi or Darrel if they're going all in on a scavenging deck of some kind" or "A seeker that drew doomed as their basic weakness" is not a great pitch for a card. — Spamamdorf · 5
I think this is not terrible, but the issue is that many outright good cards do not make the cut: being okay in this game isn't a good spot be, especially for a myriad that eats more deckspace than other cards and cost exp. I think the cost of 1 exp for 3 copies, but tbh this would hard to fit at level 0 as well — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
"I think the cost of 1 exp for three copies is fair, but tbh this would be hard to fit at level 0 as well" I really wish you could edit or delete your comments on Arkham DB... — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
Isabelle Barnes

Izzy is a great start for the new core set, both in terms of flavor and in terms of the characters. She is simultaneously something new and somewhat old, since we've all been searching for her every time we played Jenny Barnes. Her stat line is perhaps a tad underwhelming, but that's not really surprising given that she is a survivor and historically, they have/will get lots of ways to buff their skills, especially the defensive ones like Will and Agility.

I think Izzy's strongest point is that she has access to Mystic 2. While it isn't the best access, it provides at least enough to give her ways to use her Will so that you can focus on buffing that over trying to get her Fight and Agility up. It makes her signature asset all but useless, and I have to imagine that most of the time, it is going to end up either committed to a test, or used to deal with swarms of weak enemies that pop up.

The most interesting part of her design by far though is her ability. The ability to recur a clutch skill from the discard pile cannot be overstated, and makes it almost possible to try to run some cards that could get her gun into a usable position. Overpower becomes +2 and draw to on a successful attack, as do Guts and Manual Dexterity. That says nothing of the other cards that you might want to have repeated access to. If you're not limiting to the new card pool, Take Heart becomes stupid powerful, as do any of your leveled commits like Last Chance (3) or Enraptured (2) (to put charges back on the spells that you may want to investigate with). The only disappointing thing about this ability is that it is limited to once per round. It's powerful enough that I understand this choice, but with the current card options for healing horror, I do think you could let the player take a bigger risk. That said, I still think 1 per round is plenty. Just means you need to choose carefully.

Vardaman · 2
Sorry, but Nothing Left To Lose isn't a level 2 skill, it is a level 3 event — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
You are correct, I was thinking of Last Chance (3), not sure how I made that mistake — Vardaman · 2
Tbf I also did similiar mistakes often, like mixing up Versatile for Adaptable — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95