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Q: What's the interactions between Carson Sinclair's ability and Plan of Action? Let's say that Carson gives an action to Silas Marsh, and commits Plan of Action on a test Silas is performing, will it gain icons? If so, which ones? Does "your turn" on "as if it was your turn" refers to "the turn you are playing this round"? In that case, it would depend on the number of action that Silas has performed. A: When Carson uses his ability to grant another player an action, he does so during his own turn. The type of icons that Plan of Action would gain in your proposed example depends on how many actions Carson has taken during his turn. (“This turn” = “Carson’s turn.” Though Silas is “taking an action as if it were his turn”, it does not mean he is taking a turn.)
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Q: If I commit Plan of Action to a skill test during the Mythos Phase, would it only commit for ? A: No; if you commit Plan of Action during the mythos phase, you would give it .
Skill
Practiced.
If this skill test is during or before the first action of this turn, Plan of Action gains .
If this skill test is between the first and third actions of this turn, draw 1 card if it succeeds.
If this skill test is during or after the third action of this turn, Plan of Action gains .
FAQs
(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)Reviews
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.
This is a good card.
That's my opinion to begin with. It's good. Not exceptional, not great, not an auto-include. And yet, I've seen this card on a list of worst cards in the game, and I've seen people argue it isn't even worth running with Practice Makes Perfect despite the synergy. Naturally, I disagree.
Obviously, the reason people are so down on it is that it compares poorly to Eureka!, to Perception, to several other excellent Seeker skills, and even to Unexpected Courage. The problem is, while Plan of Action is good, those are great, excellent, or auto-includes. It can be a Perception, with one less icon, with a limited window to be committed. It can be an Unexpected Courage, but not in the mythos phase, and not if you want to test certain skills first or last. Eureka is almost a wild icon, and does better than draw you a card.
However, while you could simply see it as a worse Perception, Eureka, or Unexpected Courage - something I generally agree with - it is important to note that it is all those things simultaneously. If you need a worse Unexpected Courage, it's there. If you need a worse Perception, it's there. Is that versatility worth a deck slot? Maybe. Is the versatility worth anything if you're only planning to use it as a deck-filling cantrip? I think so.
Talking theoretically, we can imagine a practiced skill with a single that draws you a card if you succeed. This card would be objectively a worse Perception, and yet I think it would still see some play in a number of Seeker decks. I would certainly run it on occasion. Expand this out to be a icon instead, and it this theoretical card would be a much more likely include. It would still mostly get thrown onto investigates to be a +1 in most of the decks it ended up in, but it would be a skill that competed with Eureka - a worse draw effect, but its ability to be committed to , and its traits would see it out. And there's no reason you couldn't run both. This theoretical card is still not objectively better than Plan of Action. It does have less versatility, and it isn't hard to engineer a second action investigate in Seeker. Any deck that would run this theoretical card - at least at level 0 - has a reason to consider Plan of Action. Any deck that wants to go skill and draw heavy for whatever reason should at least consider it.
And if you need to fill a 45 card deck with as many cards that replace themselves as possible, you can do a lot worse.
Ruling from Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist via the official rules question form:
Question: If I commit Plan of Action to a skill test during the Mythos Phase, would it only commit for one wild icon?
Answer: No; if you commit Plan of Action during the mythos phase, you would give it 1 willpower and 1 agility icon.
Ruling from Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist via the official rules question form:
Question: Hello! How many icons does Plan of Action have during the timing window after my turn but before my partner investigator’s turn?
Answer: Plan of Action would have 1 combat icon and 1 intellect icon.
(I won't speculate how the question would be answered if we reversed whose turn was over and whose was yet to begin.)
Hm so looking at this its either a weird unexpected courage with incredibly restrictive icons OR its an amazing unexpected courage that also lets you draw.
The key difference would be if during your first and third action you are "between" them as well, if we can trigger the middle effect AND the first and third effect I can see this card being very useful, but if its just +2, or +1 wild draw I don't think its worth the hassle of finding the timing on this over unexpected courage or Inquiring mind.
Side note: it is fun bringing back Trish's flavor of swapping around her stats all crazy like in the board game.
Edit: Given a year with this card, I include in basically any deck that can run it, 1 wild icon draw a card is just such a handy effect so frequently that it is worth the tiny amount of effort it takes to make it work. The me above is an idiot, ignore them, and enjoy having like 20 skills in your deck that all replace each other muahaha!
I don't think this card is quite so limiting as all that.
For Minh, this card is essentially a +3 during Mythos phase, or Unexpected Courage + card draw on her second action. For any user of Tooth of Eztli, this card basically ensures you pass any will or agility treacheries (and get the card draw), and otherwise functions as the seeker version of Quick Thinking - by which I mean rogues get ? plus an action, where seekers get ? plus a card.
It does seem that its best function is either going to be before your first action (during Mythos) or as your second action (for the card draw), although many with access to 0 seeker will find times for the third action use as well.
I see a lot of arguments against skill cards by comparing them to Unexpected Courage. I have never understood that, as there's no reason you can't have both.
If you follow the reading on Abandoned Mine or The Lonely Tree, it is two icons + draw on your first and third actions this turn, an icon and a draw on the second action and two icons during the mythos and other phases.
Good card.