Asset. Arcane

Ritual. Synergy.

Cost: 2. XP: 1.

Mystic

Uses (1 charge for each class among cards you control, including this one).

Spend 1 charge and exhaust Close the Circle: Take a basic action. For each skill test performed during that action, you may use your instead of the skill indicated for that action.

Mark Behm
Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion #62.
Close the Circle

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: Do neutral cards count as a class for the purposes of Synergy cards? A: No. Neutral is not a class; it indicates a card that does not have a class. - Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion Frequently Asked Questions section

  • Q: What is a "basic action" for the purposes of Close the Circle? A: A basic action is one that is not modified by a bold action designator on a card. For example, a basic fight action would be the standard fight action that any investigator can perform, whereas playing a Sweeping Kick or activating the fight ability on Dragon Pole would both be considered non-basic fight actions. - Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion Frequently Asked Questions section

  • Q: If I use Close the Circle to perform a basic Move action, then trigger Track Shoes off that Move action, did Track Shoes trigger sufficiently "during" that Move action to be considered a Will test rather than a Agility test? Normally Track Shoes would trigger "after" the move action and would probably not be converted into a Will test, but it has that "but before enemies engage you" clause that makes its timing fuzzy. A: Yes. If you use the ability on Close the Circle, then move, you can use the ability on Track Shoes and test Willpower instead of Agility. (Rules Form, January 2024)

Last updated

Reviews

OK, you get to take additional actions, that's like having a Leo De Luca in play for a few turns with some restrictions. But actually, since you get to take that additional action during any player window, not just on your own turn, you can do some more unusual things even outside of the investigation phase. There may be some shenanigans you can pull during the Mythos phase or the Upkeep phase, but the most likely target is in the player window in the Enemy phase after Hunter enemies move and engage but before any enemy attacks. You can do a basic fight to finish off a 1 HP enemy, or evade one to prevent it from dealing you any damage or horror. Or -- since playing an event is a basic action, as long as it doesn't have a Bold action modifier on it -- you can play an event card. If you don't mind or can avoid the AoO, or if the enemy isn't going to be engaging you, then you have some great options, like Call for Backup, Sneak Attack (2), and Small Favor. Coup de Grâce, Dynamite Blast (2), Blood-Rite, Manipulate Destiny, Gaze of Ouraxsh don't provoke an AoO, and may be used for different situations.

How about using that during your basic action? Most full-time Mystics will likely use this additional action for an evasion in a pinch, since they likely have a spell or two to do damage or investigate and get additional benefits. A basic evade is probably the most common way investigators with high evade anyhow, so it's not surprising this would be most likely choice for Close the Circle. But "activate" is also a basic action, so you can use this on tests on scenario cards that are otherwise difficult. Yes, most treachery cards have tests on them already, like Dreams of R'lyeh, but Locked Door is common enough. A few of the more recent campaigns have a good chunk of treachery cards at your location or in your threat area that don't give you a option, so be on the lookout if you're trying to leverage your Close the Circle.

dscarpac · 974
Some other interesting options for that turn a bunch of Hunters move into your location and swarm you: "I'll see you in hell", Cat Burglar, Lily Chen's Balance of Body, Lantern (discard), and Warning Shot. If you somehow ended up with the Flute of the Outer Gods, that will do something, too. — dscarpac · 974
Lily can't buy this card due to her deck building restrictions. — Tharzax · 1
Yeah, not-a-mystic always gets me, but she might end up with it anyways with Black Market. Anyone can have anything now! — dscarpac · 974
@dscarpac Almost anything. Still can’t have other people’s signature cards! — Death by Chocolate · 1447
You can play an event even if it has a bold action modifier on it, because play is also a basic action. If it has an action designator, playing it would count both as a play action and as the designated action. See also the card "Haste". — AlderSign · 269
Apparently the FAQ disagrees (Sweeping Kick is the example there), which I find very strange. But if the heavens decided so, so be it. — AlderSign · 269

This is by far the most interesting of the new Synergy cards. There are a number of ways you could view this card:

  • A source of extra actions. At a cost of 2 resources, a play action, and the card itself, you need to get all five charges to unambiguously have a net positive (in terms of "click economy"), but if you have extra resources or actions anyway -- unlikely but possible for most mystics -- this card can be a solid way to do more things over time. It also lets you bank actions for the future.
  • A source of actions. With multiple investigators, it's not uncommon to find situations where you want gator A to do some things before gator B, and some things afterward. This gives you a chance to have your cake and eat it too by letting you interleave some of their actions. The actions from this card don't provoke attacks of opportunity either, so you could also use it to, for example, move off a location that makes it harder to fight monsters before laying into them. EDIT: My understanding of the rules was incorrect. Since you are instructed to "Take" the action, the action you take will provoke AoOs. Compare e.g. Ursula's ability.
  • A way to substitute for other attributes. Mystics generally like pumping their willpower anyway, so getting a chance to substitute it is always a good thing. It reminds me the most of Sword Cane in that regard; it's a handy way to evade with , or fight a 1-health monster. You could also use it to investigate, though this forfeits the action compression of spells like Rite of Seeking and secondary effects of spells like Sixth Sense. It's a good way to save a charge if there's only one clue left, or if you really don't want to worry about drawing a symbol token.

When you consider that you'll often get several of these benefits simultaneously, this card seems really potent. So what are the downsides?

  • Obviously, this card requires you to run cards from several different classes (ideally, all of them) in your deck, unless you plan to manipulate charges some other way. Furthermore...
  • You need to not only have multiclass cards in your deck, you need to have them on the field. This means that (1) skills and (most) events don't count, so you need to run assets, which might start to tax your slots, and (2) the order you play your cards matters a lot. If you draw this before drawing any of your multiclass cards, it's likely to just take up space in your hand for much of the game.
  • It takes up an Arcane slot. This is a really big ask, since most mystics want to fill their arcane slots with some combination of an investigate spell and a fight/evade spell. Fortunately, there are many options for getting more slots, but I don't think I'd ever consider running this card without at least one of them.
  • It's not a Spell. This is a surprisingly big deal, because it means it lacks synergy with most of the mystic suite. You can't reduce its cost with Robes of Endless Night or Shining Trapezohedron, and at 2 resources it's an inefficient use of Uncage the Soul. Most recharge options don't work on it (there are a few, like the newly-released Winds of Power, or Eldritch Sophist if you have access). It also can't be tutored by Arcane Initiate.
  • You can only take basic actions with it. The EOTE expansion contains an FAQ (not on arkhamdb yet, to my knowledge) which defines basic actions to be those without a bold action designator on a card. So you can't use this to trigger e.g. Rite of Seeking, but you could use it for a normal investigation. This is only a minor downside in my opinion, since you take dozens of basic actions per game, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to use this.

In summary, this card has the potential to be quite useful in the right circumstances, but requires a fair bit of support (multiclass cards and extra arcane slots) to see the full effect. It's certainly worth a look for anyone who's planning to run multiclass decks anyway -- in fact, it might even be better for off-class mystics, since their arcane slots are usually less contested.

There's one mystic who really loves this card, though, and that's Akachi Onyele. She already had access to strong out-of-class cards even before Edge of the Earth dropped and she works great with "bling archmage" builds (The Hierophant • V plus Relic Hunter plus Sign Magick) which take care of the slot problems. Most importantly, though, is the fact that this card uses charges. As a result, not only does she get an additional charge each time she plays it (essentially refunding the play action), she can keep playing it over and over with her signature. Not only does this mean she can just keep getting extra actions than usual, but she can play it early (before her multiclass cards are out) without mourning the lost charges. Other mystics might be a bit skeptical, but I'm probably always going to consider this card when building an Akachi deck in the future.

AnEnding · 6
The main restriction of this card may be that you can only use the charges for basic actions. — Tharzax · 1
That's a very important point, yes. I've added it to the review. Thanks! — AnEnding · 6
I love the Akachi synergy. Antiquary would work well to make replaying Close the Circle free. — housh · 176
I'd probably prefer to run prophetic over antiquary, since spells are just so much more common, and you can use the resources saved when replaying Close the Circle. I don't think either of them has more obviously useful off-classes though. — AnEnding · 6
Carolyn can take it, if she's running high WP. — MrGoldbee · 1449
Carolyn can take it even if she isn’t running high WP. The Will substitution is optional, and there are plenty of actions she might take with it that don’t even care - draw, resource, move, play... Extra actions are still extra actions! — Death by Chocolate · 1447
(Also activate actions without bold keywords are still basic actions, such as First Aid (3) or Hypnotherapy - both popular actions for Carolyn to take. — Death by Chocolate · 1447
I love that they use a rule word which is not yet defined "basic action". But what it is? Everything in the rulebook is basic actions? So play and activate too. What is not? Maybe those with double action designator? Play+Fight, Activate+Fight? — vidinufi · 68
Action don't provide AOO. You do take an action, but as it doesn't use up an available action there is no AOO. Its a fast effect. There is a part about this in the FAQ — vidinufi · 68
With brute force and the other survivor skill card from the dream eater circle they had used the working of basic actions already. But there where no misunderstandings due to their symbols — Tharzax · 1
It's worth trying on Patrice, I think. — suika · 9392
@vidinufi -- There is a definition of basic actions in the EOTE FAQ specifically for this card, but I don't think it's made its way to arkhamdb yet. They're defined as any action without a bold keyword written on a card. Using these actions actually _does_ provoke AOOs. I was wrong about this myself, but it seems like effects which instruct you to "take" additional actions implicitly grant you bonus actions which are then immediately spent. This is the same reason that, for example, Ursula's investigator ability provokes. — AnEnding · 6
According to https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Ownership_and_Control you control all the cards in your hand, deck and discard pile. — david6680 · 63
@david6680 While true, this doesn't matter since abilities can only interact with cards that are in play unless they specifically mention working with an out-of-play area. As such, this is only checking cards you control that are in play, and your hand, deck, and discard pile are not in play. See https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Ability and https://arkhamdb.com/rules#In_Play_and_Out_of_Play — Lasiace · 23
It feels worth mentioning that Move is a basic action, so you basically always have a use for it if you're not worried about the substitution as well. — Lailah · 1
Is drawing a card or gaining a resource a basic action? — yadyam · 1
"drawing a card or gaining a resource is a basic action" but if you're doing that with this then things have gone wrong. Things do go wrong but you shouldn't be including this card with those actions in mind unless you are playing the whole rainbow (even then there's mostly going to be a better option). — Timlagor · 5
I can't seem to find a list of what counts as an 'basic action' (or even a list of 'actions'), only clarification that they don't have bolded designators. So it seems like things such as draw or resource would count as basic actions. I think then that also would allow play (helping get assets out). And 'activate' as long as it's not a bolded modify trigger. For example, I I'm playing the Taboo'd Lola, I could use it to switch her role, no? — khoshekh · 5