Shocking Discovery

Shocking Discovery

A unique, flavorful, and annoying weakness. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: only goes off during a search, cancels the search entirely, and you draw an encounter card. Another very situational card. It can wreck your plans or kind of fizzle. I mean, you could build a Mandy deck with no search effects beyond her . You'd be abandoning her ability and signature asset, but you'd also neutralize her signature weakness, making her kind of a bland "generic seeker." That's not a good idea, mind you, but I am not sure there is another investigator who can render her signatures irrelevant, so that's one mitigation strategy....

More practically, you want to find a big search card to draw this out. Like thakaris, I think Research Librarian is probably your best choice to "rip off the band-aid" and get this out of the way early. (I'm also very impressed by their subversion of Treacheries, but, Arkham being Arkham, you would probably draw one of them as your draw from Shocking Discovery instead of before it.) Another strategy is to use Whitton Greene to dig for, say, Segment of Onyx. Since her search ability is limited by revealing locations, it hurts less than searches driven by card play or secrets. Cards like No Stone Unturned (5) are pretty expensive to spend on a wasted action and an encounter card. Depending on your "off class," Mandy has some ability to cancel or redirect the errant encounter card as well.

The discard condition: It discards itself.

All in all, this is a below average signature weakness, maybe even way below.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
I found the most annoying thing about this to be I always drew my powerful search cards early, where they sat in my hand while I frantically dug for her weakness. Truly the threat of this card is worse than its effect. — SGPrometheus · 847
I think Seekers have the worst weaknesses in the game for the simple reason that they draw so many cards, it's not unrealistic to deck yourself, sometimes multiple times in a scenario. Which means they have to tank their weaknesses over and over and over. Maybe ironically, Shocking Discovery is probably the easiest and I'd agree with a way below rating. Shocking Discovery is similar to how Mr. Rook breaks the game: drawing a weakness on YOUR TERMS where you can be adequately set up for it is leagues better than a random problem at the wrong time. And finally, Mandy can get a larger deck to help nullify the need for decking out. — LaRoix · 1646
I literally run a couple throwaway Research Librarians in my Mandy deck solely to be used as "Pay 2 resources: Pull your weakness when YOU want to. Own your situation!" — HanoverFist · 748
Drawing an enemy with it can ruin the rest of your turn and hurt you, if no one deals with it before enemy phase. — Django · 5161
Yes, drawing an enemy is a real problem, but again, if it's on your terms, you can have a mind over matter or whatnot to be prepared for it. Additionally, it is worth noting that most of your searches are going to take place EARLY in your turn and not at the end so that provides you with some time to deal with the problem. — LaRoix · 1646
In my experience this is a very annoying weakness. You more or less loose an action and draw an encouter card for it. If you draw an enemy, it can wreck your game. Yes, you can choose when to draw it, but it has to be in the early game. I really don't feel this is below average. — Carcharoth · 1
Yeah Im not sure I agree with any responses calling this one harsh. First, you perform a search on your own terms ie if you cant handle an enemy, dont search. Even without using her ability constantly, you have Mandy running around with 5 intellect and the entire Seeker cardpool. She’s already strong. Add to that the fact you can utilize your splash to deal with enemies. Rogue for instance has Decoy, Slip Away, and Think on your Feet, as well as You handle this one! for multi. Shocking Discovery is usually there to just put a speedbump to Mandy’s ridiculous search engine. Once its out of the way, you’re good to go. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
I will agree that of all the Seeker weaknesses, this is the tamest (except possibly Amanda’s). — StyxTBeuford · 13049

Stars of Hyades

Stars of Hyades

A weakness where the worst element is that it recurs and recurs and recurs. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: This is a fairly complicated weakness with 3 parts.

  • First, you need to discard one of the 5 special events under Sefina. Losing one of her events can be trivial or damaging, depending on the event and situation. It's pretty common to have a card or two under her that aren't useful in that scenario or that you've used up your The Painted World and don't have a free action to get them into your hand; that doesn't hurt so much. Other times, you were counting on that Deny Existence or Slip Away and now what's the plan? Sometimes, you've drawn a lot and pulled all the cards out, so no discard!

  • Second, if you can't discard, you take damage and horror, which is pretty punishing for a 5 Health investigator. Under normal circumstances, this isn't going to happen until you've drawn the weakness 3-6 times, but that can happen. and aren't all that great with soak, so Sefina doesn't have great options -- maybe Leather Jacket or Robes of Endless Night (2) and Lonnie Ritter?

  • Third, you shuffle it back into your deck unless that deck is very thin. Without this, this wouldn't even be average badness, but here we are. There is very little mitigation -- she can take the basic Scroll of Secrets and hope to snipe it off the bottom of the deck. Quantum Flux can make your odds better.

All of these are very situational; draw this once, and it's no big deal; draw it 5-6 times, and it will wreck your day and probably the scenario

The discard condition: You kind of don't, except just before decking yourself.

This is a hard weakness to rate because it's so situational; everything considered, it's above average, especially if you have a draw-heavy deck or bad luck.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
As with Abandoned and Alone, this is also more of a deckbuilding restriction that discourages draw and cycling on Sefina. A Sefina that draws a lot will run headlong into this; conversely the easiest mitigation is not building Sefina as a draw-heavy investigator — or to only selectively draw. Her usual drawing tools (Arcane Initiate & Scroll of Secrets) won't run into Stars of Hyades and she always has the option of drawing a event under her instead of drawing from the deck. If she wants to smoke, she'll want to take the expensive (3) cigarette case that lets her sidestep this. — suika · 9511
This is truly the worst weakness, because it discourages the painter from drawing. — suika · 9511
Yeah this one is super annoyin — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Agreed, it's a pain in the butthole. — LaRoix · 1646
@suika: +100 internet points for the pun — AlderSign · 395

Abandoned and Alone

Abandoned and Alone

A bad weakness or the worst weakness? Let's see. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: Wendy Takes 2 direct horror and removes her discard pile from the game. The first effect is bad but manageable; Wendy has 7 base Sanity and has ways to heal horror and/or soak future horror. The second effect ranges from mild to devastating. Depending on when you draw the Weakness, it can remove most of your deck, killing recursion tricks, shutting down Wendy's Amulet, and possibly leaving you in a very short horror spiral to trauma for decking yourself and more horror for drawing this again. There are not many was to mitigate the effects, with Rabbit's Foot (3) being probably the best way to dig for it early, maybe abetted by Drawing Thin or Take Heart to increase your failure and draw more cards. Of course, if you don't hit it early, this tactic may exacerbate the damage when the Weakness hits. If you have a Seeker in your party, they can help out with No Stone Unturned, but that's a lot of cooperative building, and none of these solutions are XP-cheap (especially since Rabbit's Foot vies for the Accessory slot with the Amulet, so you won't be doing them in the first few scenarios.

The discard condition: You do the terrible thing, then this card becomes your discard pile.

All in all, this is a way above average signature weakness, and in competition for the worst weakness, able to wreck a scenario or end a campaign.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
This is not anywhere close to the worst signature weakness. Even within the core set, this is one of the tamest ones. It’s just 2 horror and then it’s gone forever. Wendy has 7 sanity which is protected by her 4 willpower, and often she will run Peter Sylvestre. You essentially just play Wendy as if she’s actually 7/5 instead of 7/7. The worst thing about it is how it removes your discard from the game, but that is very very rarely an actual problem more than it is an additional deckbuilding restriction ie Wendy can’t rely on discard recursion as readily. Annoying and restrictive, yes, and certainly worse than, say, Shell Shock. But I would not call this worse than Dark Memory or even Cover Up. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Sorry, not gone forever since yes it will go into your discard pile. But even still, the scenario is likely to end soon anyway if you pull it late, so the chance it hits you more than once is pretty miniscule. I’ve literally never had that happen. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
I should add also that the core set weaknesses are mostly above average in my eyes, this being no exception. But I push back hard the idea that this is the worst one in the game. It is, however, I think the least well designed weakness. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with Styx. Abandoned and Alone is a bad weakness , no doubt about that, but I think you're evaluating it in terms of the impact that it has if you draw it at the worst possible time and all weaknesses are pretty bad in that context. Even really low-key ones like Bought in Blood or Unsolved Case can wreck your tempo if you draw them in a tight situation. And like, the worst possible context for Dark Memory is something like Before the Black Throne where it will probably be campaign ending. It's a really really un-fun card tho, just taking options away... — bee123 · 31
Mark takes two horror: Below average. Wendy takes two direct horror and loses her discard pile: Worst weakness! — Hylianpuffball · 29
It is for sure a worse weakness than Shell Shock, but the impact is more comparable than I think the review implies. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
I would say that Survivors aren't usually churning through their deck quickly, and Wendy if she hits her amulet early will be putting cards back in. What I'll conclude instead of saying that this is a really bad signature weakness is that it's SUPREMELY swingy depending on when you see it. If it's early you barely care, and if it's late you hopefully found the amulet and put some cards back in to mitigate its card removal. But if you see the amulet late and only shortly after the weakness, then it can be very sad. — DjMiniboss · 44
I'd have to agree that while it has the potential to be extremely punishing, due to the equally extreme swingy nature of the card that it's more to the average to above average pile (if I'm understanding the scoring system correctly). Having played Wendy a decent amount, if it triggers late game and decks you out, then the scenario is basically over so it doesn't get reshuffled... Dark Memory is still the worst IMO. — LaRoix · 1646
The easiest way to avoid decking out from this is to get amulet out early. Since Backpack (2), this is far more reliable than it used to be (and guarantees that Wendy sees the Amulet before the last 12 cards), and Wendy will be hard mulling for the amulet in any case while playing Winging It and the like. Once Amulet's in play, the risk of decking out is basically none if your deck is build correctly. As Styx says, this is more of a deckbuilding restriction that discourages draw and cycling on Wendy and encourages deck bloating and events. Speaking of bloat, Versatile also acts as a great check against the worst case deck-out scenario and Wendy's one of the best Versatile users too. — suika · 9511

Plan of Action

Plan of Action

Here's a review of the card as it actually works. No, you don't get extra icons in the mythos phase ("of this turn" implies that an investigator must be taking their turn, as compared to "of this round"). No, you don't get 2 icons and get to draw a card.

This card is a deck slot filler.

Treat this as a de-facto cantrip with restrictions on when it can be committed, and it's not that bad a card to include in a 0xp deck. Especially if it's a deck that runs Practice Makes Perfect but doesn't have enough Practiced trait skills (e.g. only Deduction and Perception). Better that a Practice Makes Perfect hits this card than nothing at all.

In a very situational pinch, this can act as an unexpected courage if the window is right — practically, a boost to your first evade or last investigate isn't terrible if you really need it and haven't gotten a chance to commit this on a test on someone's second action.

Practically speaking, a skill card that gives +1 draw on succeed is very usable, even if it has commit timing restrictions. Of course it's completely almost completely outclassed by Eureka! for the same effect, so most of the time you want Eureka! before you want this.

suika · 9511
Not completely outclassed by Eureka! since Eureka! cant be committed to combat checks and isn’t Practiced, but otherwise spot on review. Plan of Action is a perfectly respectable PMP target for some investigators, particularly ones that don’t have enough other Practiced skills to run at level 0 (mostly true of Rogues). — StyxTBeuford · 13049
he fact, that it is a wild also makes it better for investigators with PMP, if they aren't a specialist. If you run PMP on a fight action and only find "Deduction" or "Perception", the search will wiff. This card will always be commitable. — Susumu · 381
The current FAQ on this page now clarifies that this card does gain icons during the Mythos phase, for anyone who happens to come across this now. — Courier_Snow · 1

Hoods

Hoods

Another Enemy signature Weakness. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: Enemy Weaknesses tend to be on the weak side, but this one is tailored to mess with Rita, since it gets an attack whether an Evade attempt succeeds or fails. There are weapons that do +1 damage (Like Fire Axe or the .18 Derringer), but that's still 2 actions to clear. The Ornate Bow is a very good choice, giving Rita a 7 vs 3 Fight for 3 damage, but Rita could really use her hands for clue tech and other things. Brute Force is another choice if you can boost her combat a bit to get a 2 up result. Like all enemies, of course, there is no reason another investigator can take them off her hands if that's not too much tempo loss for the team.

The discard condition: Kill them or get a friend to take a hit and Banish them to the far side of a large map or maybe get Handcuffs on them, but killing is the best choice.

Taking it all into account, this is an average signature Weakness, a bit more trouble than some of the other Enemy Weaknesses.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
I completely disagree that this is average. This is one of the harshest enemy weaknesses since Rita only has 3 combat and not a ton of great combat options. She takes a hit whether she successfully or unsuccessfully evades it, so even that isn’t a great route to kill it. And it targets health as well as sanity, and Rita only has 5 sanity. Yes, you can one shot it with a Bow or OHR or Chainsaw, but in all cases you’re devoting Rita’s hands to fighting, which isn’t terrible for her at all but still limits her. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Is the shtick that every weakness is a below average signature weakness? What is this, Lake Woebegone? — DjMiniboss · 44
If @LivefromBenefitSt considers Dark Memory average, then surely Hoods must be average as well! Meanwhile, Smite the Wicked is rated as above average. Hmm... — suika · 9511
@DjMiniboss The average weakness is a below-average weakness. — Hylianpuffball · 29
It makes sense for most weaknesses to be below average, if the median weakness is below average. But Hoods requires 6xp/8xp and two hand slots to deal with on a character who would otherwise be perfectly content with doing nothing but evading as enemy management. And if you're using the bow, you're effectively using two actions to attempt a test to clear this weakness. Not to mention that passing even an Ornate Bow shot is still anything but guaranteed on Hard/Expert, and a Chainsaw will miss on average on Hard/Expert without commits or Live and Learn. Of course a Guardian can effectively take care of it for you if they're at your location; but if they're not the action cost for them is even higher (Move, Fight, Move back), even disregarding the ammo spent and the chance of failing the test and hitting Rita for 3 damage. — suika · 9511
I think I see the argument for an average rating, however, the best solutions require XP cards which is the same knock against Abandoned and Alone except that one's rating is much more extreme. What gives? — LaRoix · 1646
You shoot one arrow at this and go on with your day. — Cpt_nice · 80