Event

Fortune. Blessed. Cursed.

Cost: 1. XP: 3.

Survivor

Attach to your location. Uses (3 offerings).

Attached location gains: " Draw the top card of the encounter deck, exhaust Shrine of the Moirai, and spend 1 offering: Return up to 2 cards with a total combined level of 5 or less from your discard pile to your hand. Any investigator at this location may trigger this ability."

Card design by the Moirai at Arkham Nights 2019.

Alexander Chelyshev
Into the Maelstrom #310.
Shrine of the Moirai

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • NB: ArkhamDB now incorporates errata from the Arkham Horror FAQ in its card text, so the ArkhamDB text and the card image above differ, as the ArkhamDB text has been edited to contain this erratum (updated August 2022): Erratum: The $free ability granted by this card should read: "...Any investigator at this location may trigger this ability." - FAQ, v.2.0, August 2022

  • Q: Can I return signature cards to my hand with Shrine of the Moirai? If so, how many levels do they count as? A: Signature cards do not have a level, so they cannot be returned to your hand with Shrine of the Moirai. - FAQ, v.2.0, August 2022

Last updated

Reviews

I just used this card with Calvin in a Dark Horse deck that uses "I've had worse…" instead of Perseverance, because it's free and brings fuel to your Fire Axe/Mariner's Compass, and it blew my mind!

That got me interested in looking deeper into the real benefits of this card over its competitors.

TL;DR: Shrine of the Moirai is the most versatile discard-pile-drawing card available to as of now. No limit of class, or level, is fast after being played. Buy it after you bought some key events to use them over and over again. It is important to be confident in your encounter prot though, before adding it to your deck. And this is useable by your fellow teammates!


Shrine of the Moirai: 1 action, 1 resource, 6 targets, 3 encounter cards, 3xp, limit: 5xp for the 2 cards, the user needs to stay at the same location when using it. this is the most versatile discard-drawing card.

Net cost: 0 actions (considering encounter cards like 1 action lost for each, which is an average, some will make you lose 2 actions, others just provoke a skill test or direct effect).

Best when: Played at the end of your turn, you can consider that you will use it once after playing it, and once at the beginning of your next turn. Also interesting at the end of your campaign to recycle certain of your key cards (events/skills most likely). Importantly, it can be used by anyone at that same location!

Down side: You need a solid encounter-protection to find a real benefit to Shrine of the Moirai. The new Nine of Rods helps scaling down the risk, and all the versions of A Test of Will as well. If you are pairing with a Mystic, that's also often going to be fine, especially as they can use Ward of Protection on it (and redraw it right after, along with a 5 pips spell, like Deny Existence).


Here is now an analysis of when X card is better or worse than Shrine of the Moirai:

Scrounge for Supplies: 1 action, 0 resource, 1 target, 0xp - limit: level 0 card.

Net cost: -1 action: You spend an action to replace Scrounge for Supplies by any other level 0 card in your discard pile.

Best when: Early campaigns when all your cards are level 0

Down side: Good cards tend to be in your discard pile by the end of the scenario when actions become really scarce, therefore Scrounge for Supplies may stay in your hand because you have more important stuff to take care of.

Resourceful: 0 action, 0 resource, 1 target, 0 xp - limit: cards, only works on success.

Net cost: 0 actions: You spend one card to find another one

Best when: Playing heavy decks like Calvin Wright or Stella Clark. Also, you need to be sure to succeed in your test and aim at higher level cards for a better return on investment.

Down side: draw the and you lost your chance. Let's face it, we all wasted Resourceful at least once on an excess of confidence in the Chaos bag.

True Survivor: 1 action, 3 resources, 3 targets, 3xp - limit: Innate skills (full list of Innate skills here)

Net cost: -2 actions

Best when: You play the combos of Brute Force and Sharp Vision. Or Resourceful to bring back your True Survivor for another round.

Down side: Very expensive in XP. Your deck must be more or less built around this strategy for you to find a spot for this card in your upgrades.

A Chance Encounter (0): 1 action, 1 resource, 1 target, 0xp - limit: Allies, only for 1 turn

Net cost: -2 actions

Best when: You use it on allies that bring something specific: Anna Kaslow, Tetsuo Mori if you can kill him fast enough, Medical Student, Laboratory Assistant, Research Librarian, etc... The Red-Gloved Man why not, but you lost your first use of him already...

Down side: The Ally is discarded (not defeated, sorry Xavier) at the end of the round, when it takes you already 1 action to play it.

A Chance Encounter (2): 1 action, 0 resources (it doesn't add to the value of the target), 1 target, 2xp - limit: Allies that are already defeated/discarded

Net cost: -1 actions: You spend one card to find another one

Best when: You heavily rely on certain allies that provide you a time-based benefit: Guard Dog, Beat Cop (2), Aquinnah (3), Agency Backup, Grete Wagner, Mr. "Rook", David Renfield, Eldritch Sophist, Dayana Esperence, etc...

Down side: This card becomes useful only when you first draw your ally and finish using it. It implies heavy use of this ally's benefit. It can also become a very costly strategy (Hey Agency Backup).

Scavenging & Scavenging (2): 1 action, 1 resource, unlimited targets, 0&2xp - limit: you need to be a good investigator

Net cost: N/A

Best when: You are an investigator with access to this card and you are interested in reusing certain items. First in mind are Rex Murphy and Minh Thi Phan with the Ancient Stone, Agnes Baker with her charged spells, or Calvin Wright, Wendy Adams that will like to re-use soaks. "Ashcan" Pete will also like to draw back some cards from the discard pile to turn them into dog food another time, and potentially Preston Fairmont could also use it.

Down side: You need to be confident in your investigating capacities to make the best out of this card. It is also often useful from the 2/3 of your scenario onward, as you first need to draw your item, use it completely, discard it, and play Scavenging to be able to spend another action to play it again. This decreases the overall value of Scavenging & Scavenging (2). It is often being used around twice to 3 times per scenario.

Conclusion:

Shrine of the Moirai fits best with investigators that have a great protection against encounter cards (Wendy Adams, Calvin Wright, Stella Clark for example) and rely on some key events.

It is expensive in XP, but is by far the most versatile one of them all. It is a great replacement for Scrounge for Supplies once you bought expensive cards and you want to use them as many times as possible.

Unless you play a certain style of deck in which Resourceful, True Survivor or A Chance Encounter will shine, Shrine of the Moirai is your go-to card for bringing value to your discard pile.

Valentin1331 · 55083
I think you’ve overlooked something… Anyone in your party can use this. We had tremendous luck in a recent campaign using this to recur level two deductions. With Gloria, you can easily know what you’re going to get, and with investigators like Roland, you might want to get more enemies on the board. Any fun skill card is now back in your hand. Same for fun event cards! — MrGoldbee · 1391
Thanks, I actually mentioned the fact that it can be used by your teammates in the TL;DR :). Also I forgot one of my other big time favourite, Scavenging 0 & 2, that require you to throw heavy investigation to be reliable and only target at Items. I love the 2xp version especially for the Fast effect when aimed at recurring key items like your soaks, or your empty weapons. — Valentin1331 · 55083
I'm sorry but, is it correct that another investigator could use this? As I know, Shortcut (2) may not, so that it was fixed by erratum, but it seems that Moirai has the same problem. — elkeinkrad · 468
That's a good call. Especially as the erratum is leaning towards "attached to location" can be used by other investigators, and it is not clearly mentioned here that it's not possible, I feel like it's fine. And it thematically fits with the idea of the card IMO. — Valentin1331 · 55083
you aren't using the shrine, you are using an ability of a location — Adny · 1
The issue is, given someone else played shrine on the location, the triggered ability comes from a card you don't control. Shortcut 2 was directly errata'd such that it specifies "any investigator at this location may trigger this ability", which is necessary as otherwise investigators cannot interact with abilities from cards they don't control (even though the location gains the ability, the ability itself needs to be something you control). It's very unintuitive, you would think that the ability being on the location is enough, but it doesn't work that way. So currently, the Shrine can only be used by the investigator who plays it. Unlike Shortcut 2, it's hard to tell if this is intentional or not. — StyxTBeuford · 12918
The FAQ section on "permitted triggered abilities" seems pretty clear, you can trigger abilities on locations, the effect granting the location moirai's power isn't a triggered one so it doesn't matter who controls it. dunno where there's any contradiction in the rules. — Zerogrim · 284
Shortcut 2 has the erratum because of the rule of “Costs”: “Only the controller of a card or ability may pay its costs. Game elements another player controls may not be used to pay a cost.” “When a player is exhausting, sacrificing, or otherwise using cards to pay costs, only cards that are in play and under that player’s control may be used”. So without the erratum, though other investigators can undoubtly trigger the ability on a location card, they cannot exhaust shortcut to pay the cost of the ability (since shortcut is still controlled by the investigator who played it), thus can't actually use the ability. Someone on Mythos Busters sent this problem to MJ and MJ then added the erratum to FAQ, iirc. Now Shrine of the Moirai has the same problem and, as StyxTBeuford says, it's hard to tell if this is intentional or not. — ydycga · 1

Since the location gains the effect, then Lola Hayes can trigger the effect in any role, right?

Being Lola, this opens so many possibilities. And that without the drawback of needing to be in the role at the right time.

Weges · 78