Event

Upgrade. Illicit.

Cost: 1.

Rogue

Fast. Play only during your turn.

Attach to a Clothing or Armor asset you control.

Attached asset gains: "You have 1 additional hand or accessory slot (your choice), which can only be used to hold an Illicit asset."

"Thanks! It has pockets!"
Pixoloid Studios
The Scarlet Keys Investigator Expansion #65.
Hidden Pocket

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: Hidden Pocket and Occult Reliquary both give you an additional slot, but allow you to choose what type of slot you gain. Are you allowed to change your mind about what kind of slot you gain from these effects (similar to the other slot-related effects in FAQ 1.24, "Shifting Slots"), or is it determined when the card enters play? A: With cards that allow you to choose what type of slot you gain, you should declare a slot type immediately, but you can still re-assess what type of slot it is once an asset enters play that can use either slot. It’s fine if you play Hidden Pocket, thinking you’ll use the hand slot, but later you play an accessory that you’d rather put in Hidden Pocket instead. (Rules Form, January 2024)
Last updated

Reviews

I'll offer a less... apocalyptic take on this card.

All in all, the possibilities aren't mind-boggling, merely intriguing. Like many of the Upgrade cards, it requires you have something you want to attach it to, so you're not going to take it willy-nilly. On top of that, the thing you're stowing needs to be Illicit and take up a Hand or an Accessory slot.

The "vanilla" use case for this card is straightforward: you're playing a Rogue with your hands full, and, in typical Rogue fashion you'd like to squeeze just a little more out of your deck. Say you're Wini with Lockpicks and Mauser C96 out, but a miniboss just spawned and you'd like to legerdemain out a Lupara for that sweet 6 damage turn. Your Hidden Pocket on a Leather Jacket (impeccably maintained by your favorite seamstress) lets you do just that.

A lot of things need to happen before this can work, of course, but I'd argue that a decent number of things need to happen before you find yourself with full hands (and a need to continue to fill them). Upgrade cards are by their nature dependent on other cards hitting the table before them, so it's corresponding a gamble to choose to include them. I think Hidden Pocket's saving grace is that you can let it ride until your slots are full; it's not the kickstart to a combo, it's the flourish at the end to round things out.

Admittedly, I'm a sucker for Upgrade cards, personally, so I'm biased. :)


Let's talk about some potential combos.

At the time of writing, there are 14 (non-signature) level 0 Illicit 1- or 2-Hand slot assets, and all of those are pure Rogue cards except for .18 Derringer ()and .45 Thompson (/).

  • I'll lump all the Firearm cards together: You can store an extra gun (or half gun). Handy for Tony, Leo, and Zoey, to name a few popular enemy managers. Finn might like it as well, since you can run him flex and he might have his hands full of Finn's Trusty .38 and 2x Magnifying Glass.
  • Lockpicks and Thieves' Kit: both neat Investigate pairings. Sef, Finn, Kymani, and Trish can dig it.
  • Switchblade and Knuckleduster: maybe a curious choice if you're not playing Tony, but a weapon with infinite use can come in handy (er, pockety?).
  • Damning Testimony: I haven't run DT yet, but it seems good (or at least fun!), so I'll offer proportional hype to be able to hide it in a secret pocket.

I won't say anything about the XP Hand slot cards except that I think the above comments apply to them uniformly. I'll highlight Lupara and Sawed-Off Shotgun as two fun ones to store in a pocket, though.

At the time of writing, there are no cards printed that are Illicit Accessories. With that said, you can always play "I'll take that!" to make any Item card Illicit. In this way, a very charitable interpretation of Hidden Pocket is as a poor man's Relic Hunter.

Simple Armor choices include Leather Jacket (or Leather Coat if you have access). Lonnie Ritter will be happy to tailor these for you, of course, but as others have mentioned, we often run these cards as throwaway soak.

Correspondingly, I think the hype rests with the Clothing assets:

  • Robes of Endless Night is usually taken for its economy over its soak, so it's a candidate for an extra pocket if you're Sef or Dexter (or Jim or Jenny, I suppose).
  • Track Shoes and Hiking Boots are both great choices. They're slotless themselves and are generally robust to being taken from you (knock on wood). Also, you can attach multiple copies of Hidden Pocket to an asset, so you could conceiveably fit a Chicago Typewriter into your boots. Cheeky!
  • Tool Belt is interesting, since it's already affording you a bunch of slots. Kymani likes this combo, obviously, and I suppose you could always Versatile the pocket in to let Joe get an absolutely disgusting number of things on the table.
  • Fine Clothes deserve a mention. I usually only take it as teching for Parley-heavy scenarios, but, hey, Clothing is Clothing.
hecatee · 10

Sadly cannot be combined with Quickdraw Holster, Bandolier, or Backpack... But for some Old One forsaken reason can be used with Improvised Shield.

Also... I'm not quite sure who technically owns the Straitjacket treachery, but I'd imagine a certain magician wouldn't mind keeping a little something up his sleeve when he preforms his next show at Arkham Asylum.

NorainJS · 56
Straightjacket is in your threat area, so you don't control it. Sadly, your review is funny. — Susumu · 330

Thanks to this card, any 4 of the Dunwich investigators who aren't above taking things can work together to create a garbage can lid that has 7 other, smaller garbage can lids hidden inside of it.

Has science gone too far?

EDIT: No it has not, due to the play-from-garbage-only clause on shield, which I overlooked. Wow. What a literally garbage card.

HanoverFist · 660
The garbage can is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside ! — aurchen · 1
Sadly I don't think this works. I'll take that plays an item from your hand, and improvised shield can only be played from your discard pile, and doesn't use "as if in your hand" in its text. I don't think you can steal garbage can lids — NarkasisBroon · 10
That might not be the problem if you can discard the shields reliable, like Petes or Wendy's abilities. The more interesting question is how do you get the 5 other hidden pockets you need to put all in one. — Tharzax · 1
It's a problem because unless you can't have an illicit garbage can. I'll take that can't play improvised shield, whether it's in your hand or discard. You can't have 8 nested shields. The best you might manage is a shield with 8 guns in it :-P — NarkasisBroon · 10
The method is to have all 4 investigators play 2 shields each using "I'll take that!", and place Hidden Pockets on them. Then, use Teamwork to have any one of them create the trashcan lid singularity. — HanoverFist · 660
... except yes, only now am I seeing that improvised shield can only be played from the discard pile. ffs. Welp, that won't work. — HanoverFist · 660

Turns out I shouldnt be posting reviews when Im having a bit of a manic christmas stress episode. Sorry y'all! Apocalypse averted.

So anyway, to properly review this thing.

Hidden Pocket does by itself a relatively weak thing, +1 hand slot. It does not change the board state but enables more flexibility with weapons and tools. Hand slot tools universally take 1 slot, so the point of extra slots is all about enabling greedy strategies with 2-slot weapons. Ornate Bow comes to mind. The illicit requirement is'nt much of a drawback, but "I'll take that!" can help with this issue.

In an older version of the game, or with a limited collection, this would be a very, very bad card. Card draw used to be a premium that only had. Wasting a draw to find Hidden Pocket with a core+Dunwick Jenny Barnes would be like shooting yourself in the foot. The reason it'd be so bad is that a card like this needs a strong, dependable flow of cards to find all the pieces. You need to find the clothing, find the weapons and tools, find the pocket, find money generation to pay for it, find the card draw. For a large swathe of characters this is a ridiculous stretch.

But the support does exist, and the synergy, particularly if you have Underworld Market which single handedly assays the card's downside of dudding a draw and the deckspace issue. Also of note is the synergy, not only can you use Pickpocketing to fund the expensive boardstate, you have good illicit hand assets like Thieves' Kit to put into the extra slot.

I misjudged this card first time around. Even so. It is -very- niche. I wouldnt reccommend it for most decks without careful planning.

Tsuruki23 · 2472
there's a certain "mechanic" who is actually a tailor who might have a few words for you about using armor as a soak without discarding it — Thatwasademo · 52
also, there's Fine Clothes and Stylish Coat which both do plenty for you not-as-soak, and if you're playing Rogue you probably have enough card draw to only include two copies of one of them and still find it in time to get value from the combo — Thatwasademo · 52
or, out of class, Lab Coat, Hiking Boots, or Track Shoes, if you have incidental seeker/survivor access (or incidental rogue access and a reason to use an illicit hand slot item, but that seems less likely) — Thatwasademo · 52
For me, it was a very effective way for Sefina to use the Ornate Bow and a Thieves' Kit simultaneously. And works well on a body slot that you're not planning to cycle - like Stylish Coat. — snacc · 946
There are three new Rogue cards in TSK that synergies super well with this card: Stylish Clothing, I’ll Take That, and Underworld Market. Stylish Clothing is a HUGE boon to big money decks, I’ll take that lets you hid any item you want in your pocket, and Underworld Market gives you a solid guarantee of having the card available when you needs it. — PanicMoon · 2
And it’s one thing to critique a card. It’s really another to use this as evidence that the design team doesn’t give a shit. No one needs your whole “Rome is falling” shtick. — PanicMoon · 2
Really weird to be this negative about a card that, while doing nothing on its own, has really obvious combos and is fast and incredibly cheap besides. Like missing Lonnie's entire existence, the fact that it can go on shoes, and the massive, massive acceleration that I'll Take That can provide, that's one thing, but even missing all that you're left with a decent enough combo card that's at level 0, so can be adaptable'd in or out if you need it, and has reasonable icons. Like, at worst it's still Arcane Enlightenment but it's a 2 card combo. Not great, but like, not worth getting angry about. Like, have you seen Clean Sneak? — SSW · 206
This card is also a great way to thin your deck, it is fast, gives you a slot and stays on the table pairs great with i`ll take that which gives more options to store something in that slot, is also fast and thins your deck even further. — Flatlin3 · 1
"Wasting a draw to find Hidden Pocket with a core/Dunwick Jenny Barnes would be like shooting yourself in the foot." - This is how you get a hidden pocket in your Track Shoes. — HanoverFist · 660

Just my 2 cents, but I haven't read anywhere that you can't have 2 copies of this on the same card.

So I went down a rabbit hole and thought, if you put 2 of these on bandolier, you'd a total of 6 handslots. 2- per normal, 2-bandolire, and 2- hidden pocket.

It'd be pretty sweet to hold double Thompson and double mouser. Though, that's over 20 resources, but talk about being loaded for bear!!

You are correct, it is both legal, and in my opinion, encouraged, for Wendy to use 2 hidden pockets to hide a Thompson in her shoes — NarkasisBroon · 10

I just realized there's no "limit one per item" text on here.

That means with 2x hidden pockets + 2x .25 Automatic (2) + 1x .41 Derringer (2) + 1x any one handed gun + 1x dirty fighting (2) + 1x stealth (2) you could have a round in which you attack 7 times.

As I typed it out I realized you technically don't need the second hidden pocket to pull it off, but the visual is much cooler if they're dropping two guns to pull out two new ones, trenchcoat flared out behind them, like Neo attacking the lobby in the first matrix.

Kahnjl · 1
If you want seven attacks in a turn this is also possible with Tony with double haste and either derringer (2) or quick thinking sounds only a slightly bit less complicated (which is a 3 card combo vs this 9 card combo). — PowLee · 20
Fair, but this makes it possible for any Rogue to cosplay as Tony. — Kahnjl · 1
Plus, except for stealth, all these cards are illicit, meaning Underworld Market greatly increases the chances of being able to set it up early in an game. — Kahnjl · 1