Event

Fortune.

Cost: 1.

Survivor

Fast. Play when you would fail a skill test.

Get +2 to your skill value for that test.

David Auden Nash
Core Set #80.
Lucky!

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • The "When you would fail a skill test" triggering condition comes before the "After you fail a skill test" triggering condition, so you cannot play Lucky! after you use Rabbit’s Foot or play "Look what I found!".

  • If you reveal an auto-fail token, your total skill value is considered to be 0, overriding any modifiers.
Last updated

Reviews

One of the best cards in the game right now in my opinion. Its closest analogy are the neutral skill cards that give 2 icons, but

  • they only cover one check type, this covers any check
  • they have to be played before the draw, which makes a huge difference

Pass the check? No need to play it Fail by more than 2? No need to waste it

Its almost as if you are playing it on every check, but can choose to take it back if it wasn't needed or wasn't enough.

It lets you go for much more marginal checks with more confidence. If you get lucky in real life, you keep it and can keep it until your real life luck runs out and you need to actually play it.

Lucky! is a superb card from an angle of flavour and universalism. A survivor's trait is escaping dangerous situations rather than appeasing them by force of arms.

Especially new investigators should note that this card has similiarities to other in-faction cards (Look what I found!, Oops!), but a fundamentally different mode of operation. Like the other above-mentioned cards, Lucky! is played after the chaos token is drawn from the bag, but unlike the others, Lucky modifies the value of the skill test, giving it a +2 bonus, hence turning the result from failure to success!

Let me give an example to make things clear: There is a location with a clue, a shroud value of 2 and an Obscuring Fog attached to it. You have a base value of 2 Intellect, there are no further modifiers and you draw a "0"-token for the skill test. You failed the test by 2 points.

Variant a. You play Look what I found! The skill test is still considered "failed", but you gain the clue from the location. The Obscuring Fog stays in place.

Variant b. You play Lucky! The skill test is modified by +2, you pass the test "successfully" and gain the clue. The Obscuring Fog is discarded.

Pros

  • Lucky! is played after a chaos token is drawn, so you only play it if you would have failed else.
  • Low priced play cost, only it's competitor, Unexpected Courage, is cheaper.
  • Provides the currently best fallback strategy against otherwise failed skill tests.
  • You can play two Lucky! instances to boost one test, if you are not passing the test after playing the first.
  • Wendy's Amulet can play events from the discard pile.

Cons

  • Lucky! under no circumstances turns a drawn -token into a successful test.
  • One-time effect. Make it worthwile!
  • Does not combine with Rabbit's Foot nor Look what I found!
Synisill · 783
I thought Lucky did combine with Look what I found! if you play it and were still failing the skill test? — HollowsHeart · 17
@HollowsHeart It does, if you play it to desperately get into the margin of "-2" to be enabled to play Look what i found. But that's a very suboptimal combo not worth mentioning! — Synisill · 783
I said this combo is not worth mentioning - i was wrong there! I tried expert mode since then, and whoooaH! there is *plenty* of need to play Lucky and Look what i found (in this order). Sorry i did you wrong there, Hollowheart! — Synisill · 783

Its not new to say this is one of the best cards ever printed, its not even really original to say this is a cornerstone of survivors to this day, both are things I feel strongly about but today I want to say something else great about lucky.

Its one of the first and best examples of a card that wins you the game by doing nothing at all besides changing your approach while its in your hand.

I have many times run lucky and held it back in my hand for rounds, sometimes half an entire game, never committing very highly on tests, sitting at a gentle 60% pass rate and never actually failing to a point where it would matter, the sheer amount of energy you save, the resources, the cards and the mental strain to just play super reckless and worry about the consequences later, you will win so much faster playing that way if your luck is at least marginal.

I can't count the amount of games I've ended with a lucky in my hand staring at me, gathering dust and looking back at how demolished the level was.

Its gotten to the point where lucky is SO good at making me win, I don't even include it in decks any more, it is perhaps to me is the only card in the entire game that simply by having had it in a previous deck (and no longer running it) I still get a massive benefit from it, simply by allowing myself to experience that risky, devil's gambit play style.

Lucky, it used to make me win games by sitting in my hand doing nothing, now it sits in my collection, and still is making me win games.

I'm curious what other cards can say the same for other players.

Zerogrim · 284