Double, Double

Asset. Arcane

Ritual.

Cost: 4. XP: 4.

Rogue

Exceptional.

After you play an event, exhaust Double, Double: Play that event again as if it were in your hand.

Harpier cries, "'Tis time, 'tis time."
- William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Tiziano Baracchi
Before the Black Throne #320.
Double, Double

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)

  • "As If": This was added to the FAQ (v.1.7, March 2020) and then amended (v.1.8, October 2020). You can read the October ruling on the ArkhamDB rules page here. (I'm adding a hyperlink rather than retyping the rules in case in future the ruling is changed or amended - at that point, the rules page will be updated and all ArkhamDB FAQ entries will link to the correct ruling.)

  • Q: Double, Double vs Pay Day. Can the of Double, Double be initiated despite the end of the turn [from Pay Day]? If the turn immediately ends, does this mean even if Pay Day is played again, no actions were performed and the second pay day will grant no resources? A: Technically, you can use Double, Double to play a card that ends your turn twice, even though it ends your turn. Ending your turn doesn’t mean that you can’t trigger effects, it just means that you can no longer take actions. Since the second playing of the card doesn’t cost an action in this case, you can go ahead and resolve it even though your turn has ended. HOWEVER, due to the specific text on Pay Day, doing so would essentially do nothing. It says that you gain 1 resource for each action you performed this turn. Since you are playing it outside of your turn, you would gain 0 resources from the second copy of Pay Day (since the first copy ended your turn.)

  • Q: Double, Double vs The Painted World. I imagine The Painted World cannot be played twice by Double, Double, since it's removed from the game, but can the copied event be played twice? A: You can absolutely use Double, Double to play The Painted World twice. Note that it says you play it “as if it were in your hand,” so each time you played it in this way, you could choose a different event beneath Sefina Rousseau. Keep in mind this may not work with some events (such as events that become attachments or go to a specific play area) as you only actually have one physical copy of The Painted World to move around. UPDATE: There is an extant ruling that one can trigger Double, Double after playing The Painted World (and target different cards no less). A recent ruling said that one cannot trigger double double after playing Cheat Death as Cheat Death will have been removed from the game as part of its resolution. As The Painted World is also removed from the game during its resolution (albeit with slightly different timing) is this ruling no longer valid? Would the same be true of any card removed from the game? A: Under current rulings, removing The Painted World from the game is a part of its resolution, so it would be an ineligible target for Double, Double. This does overrule the previous ruling.

  • Q: Can you use Double, Double on Scene of the Crime (as Tony)? Can you Double, Double with Evidence!? A: Yes, you can. You can use Double, Double on Scene of the Crime because it is still technically your first action (the second playing of the card does not cost an action). As for Evidence, it is a reaction to defeating an enemy, so as long as you are still in that same opportunity window (having just defeated the enemy), it is perfectly legal to use Double, Double to play it a second time. In this way, it’s no different from having two copies of Evidence in hand and playing both of them, one at a time.

  • Q: Regarding Double, Double, when is the time to trigger the ability in playing an event? When can I trigger Double, Double's triggered abilities, before or after the event card goes to the discard pile? For example:

    • 1) When I played a Scrounge for Supplies and resolved the effect. Can I use the ability of Double, Double to resolve the effect of this card and return it from the discard pile to my hand? A: If you played Scrounge for Supplies, then activated Double, Double, you would retrieve Scrounge for Supplies from your discard and put it into Limbo (a liminal state, expanded upon in FAQ 2.0). It would not be in the discard pile at that time, and could not target itself.
    • 2) When I played Delay the Inevitable and resolved the effect. Can I use the ability of Double, Double to play one again? If possible, is the timing of DD's triggering ability before or after this card's attachment to Investigator in play? A: Activating Double, Double on an event card that “attaches” would only cause that card to attach to something else, or reattach to the same element. This goes for Delay the Inevitable as well as cards like Reliable.
    • 3) When I played Think on Your Feet and resolved the effect. Can I use the ability of Double, Double to play one again? If so, how do I resolve the effect? A: Playing Think on your Feet and activating Double, Double, would allow you to move an additional time before the enemy spawns, because a nested sequence off the same timing trigger has occurred.
    • 4) When I played a Cheat Death and resolved the effect. Can I use the ability of Double, Double play one again? If so, what happens? A: Cheat Death must be removed from the game as part of its resolution. Double, Double cannot interact with it once it’s removed from the game.

  • Q: You explained that the trigger time points for Double, Double [see above] and Heirloom of Hyperborea are "after the Event/Spell card has resolved in full". How am I to correctly understand "This trigger occurs after the card has resolved in full."? According to your reply, I guess that a card is placed in play (e.g. attach to, in play area, in threat area), or in its owner's discard pile. Does this mean "this card has resolved in full"? What if a Spell Asset card is played, or an event card (e.g. Delay the Inevitable), in which case, at what point has "the card resolved in full"? A: For Heirloom of Hyperborea, it triggers after you play a Spell card. If the Spell card has a single effect like Ward of Protection and then gets discarded, you can trigger Heirloom once it’s in the discard pile. If you instead play a Spell like Scrying, you could activate Heirloom once Scrying enters play. A card like Delay the Inevitable, which stays in play after it is played, could become a target of Double, Double after it has been attached to an investigator.

  • Q: Double, Double reads "Play that event again as if it were in your hand." Does this actually mean "The same card is physically played twice", not "The second copy of the card was played by Double, Double"? If so, I play a Slip Away and fail the evasion test. Then, I trigger the Double, Double ability to "Play [Slip Away] again as if it were in my hand." If this skill test succeeded by 3 or more, can I return Slip Away (I mean the first card that failed the test, physically present, of course) to my hand at the end of my turn? A: Yes, Double, Double should be interpreted as physically playing the event card an additional time. Yes, you could fail the first test with Slip Away but succeed in the second to return Slip Away to your hand.

  • Q: Does the ability on Double, Double allow me to replay an event that removes itself from the game such as The Painted World? A: No. While Double, Double’s ability allows you to replay an event “as if it were in your hand”, it does not allow you to replay an event that has removed itself from the game as part of its effect. - FAQ, v.2.1, August 2023

Last updated

Reviews

  1. Double, Double.
  2. The title of this card is a single word, doubled.
  3. The cost of this card is 2 x 2 = 4.
  4. The level of this card is also 4.
  5. Because it is exceptional, you pay double the XP to buy this card.
  6. Ironically, because it is exceptional, you can only have 1 in your deck.
  7. It has 2 commit icons on it.
  8. Not counting the duplicating coin in the middle, there are 16 (or 2^2^2) intact coins on the artwork.
  9. It lets you play any event twice.
  10. Aside from the keyword, the flavor text and rules text each take up 2 lines (4 total)
  11. It takes up an Arcane slot, of which you have 2.
  12. It is card 320 (2^5 x 10, note 2 x 5 = 10) in "The Circle Undone" cycle.
  13. It is in "Before the Black Throne", the Mythos pack containing the 8th Scenario this cycle.
  14. "The Circle Undone" is the 4th cycle of Arkham Horror LCG.
  15. The set symbol for "The Circle Undone" shows a severed figure 8, which contains 2 loops.
  16. The Rogue class symbol has 2 loops intertwined as well.

Alright enough of that. Clearly this is a Sefina Rousseau card. Get some extra value from The Painted World, a card that normally is restricted to three plays a game. Because Painted World becomes a copy of whatever card you play it as initially, I'm fairly sure you'd have to play that same event again if you Double, Double it, instead of getting to change targets, but that's okay. There's a lot of cards worth doubling: Drawn to the Flame, Sneak Attack, Backstab, Swift Reflexes, Narrow Escape, Hot Streak. Some events wont benefit well from this (Ward of Protection, Drawn to the Flame on lower player counts, Sure Gamble), but overall you'll probably get more than enough value out of it to make it worthwhile. Hot Streak is already a very powerful Sefina card when combined with Lola Santiago, so doubling it seems strong. Speaking of Lola and Hot Streak, Preston Fairmont likes this card as well. Preston relies on events to do anything (Intel Report, Decoy, Small Favor, "Look what I found!") so this could be very valuable action economy for him. Oh, and there's also Ace in the Hole.

That said I'm not fully sure how some of the timing would work there. Could you use it to discover four clues with "Look what I found!"? Could Sefina double Think on Your Feet and move two locations instead of one, or can she not double the card since she didn't draw another enemy? I'm not sure how the timing works here. Still, I'm sure there will be plenty of targets for this card. Two paragraphs.

StyxTBeuford · 12987
What Money Talks does is change the type of a skill test from ‘whatever it is’ to a resource skill test. Playing it again with Double, Double would then change it (again) to a resource skill test - i.e. no actual effect besides exhausting Double, Double. — Death by Chocolate · 1447
Ah yes you're right. I'll edit that out. — StyxTBeuford · 12987
Double thumbs up for this post. Doubled. — mythosmeeple · 454
This reply is here to make sure there are 4 comments on this review. — StyxTBeuford · 12987
Do you pay for the event a second time? — dotPeddy · 1
Yes — Alogon · 1118
I'm really scared of one thing "play it again as if it were in your hand". Does that mean that you have to pay the cost again ? Action and all ? I don't think so because it would make the card so mediocre in comparison of its cost, but a confirmation would be appreciated. — Docteur_Hareng · 7
You pay the cost, not the action. — StyxTBeuford · 12987
> Could Sefina double Think on Your Feet and move two locations instead of one — Steinbran · 1
"Could Sefina double Think on Your Feet and move two locations instead of one." Of course not, you have to replay the event as if it were in your hand. When you move the first time, the trigger for TOYF is no longer met. Same with "Because Painted World becomes a copy of whatever card you play it as initially, I'm fairly sure you'd have to play that same event again if you Double, Double it" TPW is played "as a copy" but doesn't "become" that other card. Once it's removed from play it is simply a regular TPW (which is why it doesn't work with e.g. Delve to Deep). — Steinbran · 1
This is just to verify playing it with Hot Streak. You collect the resources from the first Hot Streak and can use those to pay for Double, Double replayed Hot Streak. That is how I interpret the card but I have made plenty of mistakes in this game before. — The Lynx · 967
I want to know very clearly whether the effect of this card will make me pay for the action again，thank you very much. — zephyr1001 · 1
Does "Double, Double" replay the same card or does it create another instance of a card that is an exact copy of the event you just played which you then may play during that window? — Kaldaran · 1
It says "Play that card again..." So I think it plays that card. There's no concept of creating a copy of a card described in the rulebook (up to this release; Swarm does use that term I think) — Yenreb · 15
@Zephyr The effect of playing the copy is not done as an action- it's timed as part of the reaction ability on Double Double. It's the same thing as the Guardian card "Ever Vigilant", where for one action you play 3 assets at once. You do have to pay the cost of the event again. — StyxTBeuford · 12987
Saw a deck, recently that used this to double Lucid Dreaming in order to grab both other copies of Three Aces. Seems like a decent combo, if not quite as strong as Mandy's ability. — Zinjanthropus · 227

We discovered a nifty little combo with this and Scrounge for Supplies. If you can draw both copies of Scrounge, you can double-play one to bring back the other Scrounge plus another card from your discard pile. Then you can repeat this every 1-2 turns to bring back cards from the discard at will. Of note, this combo costs no resources once the Double, Double is in play, and only one action each time you bring back the card (the same one action it would take to draw a card from your deck), although it uses up your Double, Double effect for the turn. The effect is potentially very strong, especially in the late game, but can only get back level 0 cards. Since Scrounge is a pretty good card anyways, it is a no-brainer for any investigator who will be taking Double, Double.

Finn Edwards, Jenny Barnes, Preston Fairmont and Tony Morgan can use this combo, and other Rogues can use Versatile to get the 2 scrounges.

jmmeye3 · 625
This seems particularly strong for Preston recurring lots of powerful level 0 events, such as "Look what I found!", Intel Report, and Trial By Fire. — Trinity_ · 201
"Dynamite Jenny"? — mogwen · 254
Agreed that this is great with Preston. Recurring dynamite blast would be fun, though expensive even for Jenny! — jmmeye3 · 625
Do you really need both Scrounge for supplies? When you play it, you resolve the first event, you take your 0 lvl card from discard and you put scrounge in discard (point 4th of appendice 1 - reference guide). You active Double, Double (reaction + after means that you have to resolve completely the activation element - so going throw the point 4 of appendice 1 )- you play the copy and scrounge is already in the discard pile. — eldiran · 8
According to the most recent FAQ the altered game state of "as if" effects while being resolved are valid for any other card. So while you are playing scroung for supplies a second time due to double double, you are playing it "as if" it were in your hand, so during this whole resolution it's not considered in your discard pile and it can't target itself. — Killbray · 11587
You can get Scrounge for Supplies back from the initial, 'legit' playing, no? You play it, it goes immediately to discard, and then you take it back with Scrounge's effect? Then with the 'doubled' playing take the other card you wanted. — BlankedyBlank · 21
Sadly, Finn Edwards cannot take Double, Double. — elkeinkrad · 486
Quite a powerful card, perhaps a game changer. However, so far my favourite combo is with backpack and emergency cache..... both the basic card and the upgrades. Also good with burning the midnight oil and crack the case. — gitty · 7

This is a very rogue card. It's a card asking for you to take a gamble. You're gambling that you see this card in your opening hand (or at least within the first few turns) or waste 8 xp.

From a minmax perspective:

This effectively gives up to +1 card* +1 action** once per round, at the cost of 8xp for a single copy that can't be tutored, 4 resources, 1 card and 1 action.

Considering that a lot of the time you can't actually use this every round, that's expensive as hell in terms of XP. You absolutely need several cards worth playing twice, and the economy to play those cards. Double playing Intel Report costs you 8r for 4 clues, a hefty chunk of change even if you're Preston. A doubled Faustian Bargain or Hot Streak will recoup the costs for only one such doubled play.

In-faction, rogues don't have many strong, cheap events that they can abuse with this, especially if you're playing with Taboo where Black Market and Ace in the Hole are Once Per Round. One of the best card to double be Friends in Low Places with the Swift upgrade, letting you play two different cards each round from your deck. A doubled Sneak Attack/Small Favor/Backstab is useful for the occasional assist kill, but is too situational to recommend building your deck around.

To maximize what you can get out of the card you must look at off-class access. Trish with her access to the very strong low-level seeker events like Burning the Midnight Oil, Extensive Research, Deep Knowledge, Stirring Up Trouble, Shortcut, etc. makes her an excellent candidate. In Survivor, Scrounge for Supplies and Salvage recursion power is worth considering, as is "Look what I found!". Guardian and Mystic pools are, at the time of writing, harder to use, though gems like Dynamite Blast, Stand Together and Drawn to the Flame do exist. If you can get synergy, Call for Backup is very strong to double play.

In my opinion as someone who hates gambling, this card at its best when played as 1) a capstone luxury purchase for an events-based deck with good draw*** and 2) in a support deck built around playing other player's cards with (Black Market and "You owe me one!") - playing Extra Ammunition/Recharge twice for your guardian/mystic, or Soothing Melody twice to heal up to 4 horror/damage, or letting your guardian dig twice with Prepared for the Worst (2), or "borrowing" your seeker's Cryptic Research or No Stone Unturned,

* playing the card again isn't the actually same as drawing it again (not all cards are equal), but it's a close enough comparison

** only if the event wasn't Fast

*** so that you can find Double, Double early

suika · 9413

Currently the deck builder allows you to put two of these in a deck. Being fuzzy on the rules for 'exceptional' I did that. Yes I realize it means I've been cheating for quite a few scenarios but I just want to say that having two copies in play is the most glorious thing I've seen in any game so far :p

jmccrary · 16
You could actually legally have two copies in play - one of your own, and one played from someone else's hand with You Owe Me One. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Only if you don't care about losing friendships... — Sassenach · 179
Couldn't you use a second copy of You Owe Me One to take a third copy from a second (former) friend? — cb42 · 37
Depends on the investigator. It would need 3 arcane slots so it would have to be somebody with mystic access, although I guess Versatile is a thing. — Sassenach · 179
(1) Play 2 Sign Magicks as Sef, then steal 1 copy each from Jenny and Preston. Then have Skids give you his with Teamwork. (2) ???? (3) Profit? — bricklebrite · 509
Oops, Teamwork doesn't work on Rituals. I knew that card was crap! — bricklebrite · 509
Maybe play Double Double on "You Owe me One" to steal twice? I think that works. Now, if only we could figure out a way to get 5 copies in play... — bricklebrite · 509
The duplicated event still takes an action, so even with Leo you can only benefit from so many Doubles... unless of course you're using them all to double Ace in the Hole :p — jmccrary · 16
Why would the duplicated event still take an action? The trigger on Double Double tells you to play that card. See also Joey "the Rat" or "You owe me one". — Yenreb · 15
The duplicated event does not take an action. We have so many cards that work similarly that show this is the case- Easy Mark, Tony's Long Colt, Ever Vigilant, You Owe Me One, Joey, the list goes on. — StyxTBeuford · 12987
I think - I could be wrong- that @ jmccrary's point is that playing the event in the first place, before duplicating it, takes an action, so you need extra actions to use more than three Double Doubles/per turn. But honestly, if you've built your entire team around giving four copies of Double Double to Sefina, then I guess you're going to build in a way to use all four :). — bee123 · 31
Because it has the text "as if it were in your hand" and playing a non-fast event from hand requires an action, does that not mean the duplicate requires an action? — Halo99 · 1
It does not, as playing a card is not inherently an action. Playing is am action you can take, just like taking 1 resource is an action you can take. If a card tells you to gain a resource as a result of its effect, you dont pay an action for that resource. Same principle- this is a reaction trigger, and the effect is you get to play the event. It doesn’t take an action because its an effect that’s part of the react trigger. — StyxTBeuford · 12987
If you YOMO'd a couple of copies of this to Sefina, and were playing without the taboo list, you could get like a million extra actions with Ace in the Hole (by a million, I mean 12, because teams are generally limited to 4 players) — Zinjanthropus · 227