Scroll of Prophecies

Asset. Hand

Item. Tome.

Cost: 3.

Mystic

Uses (4 secrets).

Spend 1 secret: Choose an investigator at your location. That investigator draws 3 cards, then discards 1 card from their hand.

...so it was, and so shall it ever be.

Ethan Patrick Harris

The Search for Kadath #116.

FAQs

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

Q: Can I trigger Cryptic Writings' ability from the discard pile if Cryptic Writings is not in my hand "After [I] draw" it because it was discarded by Scroll of Prophecies? A: This one was tricker to determine [cf two rulings on Easy Mark], because of how “then” and “After” in abilities interact. What we determined is, Scroll of Prophecies’ final sentence would be treated as a single triggering condition, given priority because it has a “then” clause in its ability whereas Cryptic Writings has an “After” in its ability. To put it simply, Scroll of Prophecies needs to resolve in full before Cryptic Writings resolves. If Cryptic Writings was discarded as a consequence of resolving Scroll of Prophecies, Cryptic Writings could not trigger from the discard pile, as it cannot be “played” from this out-of-play area. Hopefully that makes sense! Further discussion: There's one thing I don't understand about your explanation, and I was wondering if you could indulge me with a clarification. You mentioned that Cryptic Writings can't be "played" from the discard pile. Is that because of "Card abilities only interact with other cards that are in play, unless the ability specifically references an interaction with cards in an out-of-play area." under Ability in the RR? If so, why can Cryptic Writings be "played" from hand (also an out-of-play area)? To be clear, obviously it must be playable from hand, otherwise the ability doesn't function... but how does that fit into the rules framework? I noticed that most of the other cards that work like this (particularly Easy Mark, but also e.g. Archaic Glyphs, Dexter Drake, Ever Vigilant, Farsight) specify "from your hand" - i.e. specifically referencing the out-of-play area. Should Cryptic Writings have this text? Or is there some implicit reason that Cryptic Writings can be played from only the zone we expect it to be in after its triggering condition? A: Unless something states it can be played from the discard pile (like Winging It), you can’t play it from there. Easy Mark’s ability can be activated while in the discard pile, but that’s not the same as playing Easy Mark from the discard pile. It’s the same for Cryptic Writings; it cannot be played from the discard pile.

Last updated 11/9/22

Reviews

This is monstrously strong for Daisy. I had really hoped that the last couple tomes would offer significant build flexibility to my old favorite — that wasn't the case. It's just very hard to be better than Book of Old Lore. Here, I'm hoping we see the first inkling of a card that at least defines a solid shift in the viable archetypes.

8/17/19

TheUnthinkable · 393

Let me list for you all the Mystic cards with a draw effect, up to Dream Eaters:

Arcane Initiate (and Arcane Initiate (3))
Jewel of Aureolus
Quantum Flux
Sacrifice
Scroll of Secrets (and Scroll of Secrets (3))
The Stars Are Right

...That's it. In 92 mystic cards, Mystics have only four options for card draw. Four, because Quantum Flux and Scroll of Secrets draw one card for one action, the same as the default draw action all investigators can do. And Mystics have the most severe out of class restrictions among all the classes: Father Mateo only has a pseudo-draw with Grisly Totem, Akachi Onyele can only take Decorated Skull, Marie Lambeau can only take Feed the Mind (Hallowed Mirror and Occult Lexicon don't count; they add as many or more cards to your deck as they draw), Jim Culver has 5 extremely valuable slots for out of class cards, and only for lvl 0 cards.

To these investigators, Scroll of Prophecies is a GODSEND. It is consistent, reliable, and most importantly PREDICTABLE card draw, traits that only Sacrifice can boost, and that comes with, well, a sacrifice. the other options are dependant on the chaos bag (Jewel of Aureolus), the encounter deck (The Stars Are Right), or can only draw zero to one spell cards (Arcane Initiate). AND it occupies a hand slot, the second least contested slot for mystics (body being the first).

Now, the caveat. Must you include card draw in your deck? No, you don't. Mystic characters have been just fine up till now, and are not in any way beholden to Scroll of Prophecies. But this card allows you to play with more if not all of your deck in one scenario. You can include more skill cards and events with the fast keyword; high tempo cards with no lasting value. What I see in this cards is new deck archetypes opening up for Mystics, and I for one am excited to try a spell event heavy Agnes Baker again.

10/14/19

Lucaxiom · 4371

I've been messing around with a hyper-draw Sefina Rousseau that uses this and 2x Quantum Flux. So far I'm loving it. I'm also using 2x Pickpocketing to give me even more draw. This means I get to have multiple uses of many key events for getting clues or fighting. To enable the Pickpocketing I start with Stealth then move to Suggestion. Since i'm drawing so many cards its not uncommon to have 2x Pickpocketing. I combo my evades with Double or Nothing, "Watch this!", and Gregory Gry. This often nets me 18 resources.

From here I pay may way into winning with Intel Report, Small Favor and once I have xp Lola Santiago

Each Scroll of Prophecies can enable me to grab 12 cards from my deck. I discard what I don't need right now and it's not much of a downside because of the reshuffle from Quantum Flux

Sefina Rousseau is pretty fast and doesn't need much setup since she is so event heavy. Scroll of Prophecies helps to ensure you're even faster since you can just pick and choose what you need right now from your deck.

I might replace these with All In at some point and grab some Spirit Athame but for now they are doing work.

8/3/20

Tacomental · 21

I agree that this is a pretty underrated card! — Zinjanthropus · 227 8/3/20

Do you have a link to your deck? — acotgreave · 842 8/3/20

Amazing card for investigators with weakness in hand, such as Agnes or anyone with dark pact 200characters200characters200characters200characters 200characters200characters200characters200characters 200characters200characters200characters200characters

10/14/21

Pawiu14 · 184

A player may not optionally choose to discard a weakness card from hand, unless a card explicitly specifies otherwise. — suika · 9413 10/14/21

You cannot discard weakness by Scroll of Prophecies. You cannot choose to discard weakness from your hand unless specified. You can only discard (non-hidden) weakness by discarding all cards in hand or randomly chosen. — elkeinkrad · 486 10/14/21

Really? if so, you changed my playstyle for almost all mystics. Thanks! — Pawiu14 · 184 10/14/21

You can find sulkas quote under the point weakness in the rules — Tharzax · 1 10/14/21

The point of the 200 characters rule is so that reviews have at least some meaningful content, please refrain from abusing it — jd9000 · 73 10/14/21

Rules answer from FFQ: All aspects of an effect have timing priority over all "after..." triggering conditions that might arise as a consequence of that effect. (For example, if an effect reads "Gain 3 resources and draw 3 cards," resolve both aspects of the effect (gaining resources and drawing cards) before initiating an ability that reads "After drawing a card...")

So if you use this with no cards in hand, draw a card like cryptic writings or Winds of Power (1), you may be forced to discard cryptic writings or Winds of Power. These can't be triggered from discard pile.

9/6/22

Django · 5072