Katja Eastbank
Keeper of Esoteric Lore

Asset. Ally

Ally. Scholar.

Cost: 3. XP: 2.

Survivor
Health: 2. Sanity: 2.

When you draw a non-weakness card from the top of your deck, before resolving any of its effects, exhaust Katja Eastbank: Place that card facedown beneath her (limit 5 cards beneath her). Draw a new card to replace it.

: Draw any card beneath Katja Eastbank.

"Let's bookmark that for later."
Aleksander Karcz
The Scarlet Keys Investigator Expansion #114.
Katja Eastbank

FAQs

No faqs yet for this card.

Reviews

Another action-intensive but potentially useful application would be in Patrice when you draw an card that you can't afford to pay for in your current turn that you don't want to discard when the turn ends. With Katja, you can put that card under her, then draw and play when you need it in the future.

robnixilis · 29
That's a good call. I see some additional issues in that the ally slot is quite contested in Patrice, and you still have to have the 3 resources to play Katja. Like you said, you get an ability, that you likely don't want to overuse in a game, due to it's action cost. But if I would want to play say a "Rite of Seeking" (2) in her, which I normally avoid due to it's cost, this could definitely enable such a build. — Susumu · 366
It would also finally make "Uncage the Soul" (0) a useable card in her. (She quietly weeps inside, that she can't take the upgrade.) — Susumu · 366
It is a good enabler, though costly - not only to play Katja (probably with a Charisma or two), but once you have a good card attached to her and enough resources to play it, you still need to spend 2/3 of your turn just to play the card (probably ignoring most of the 5 you just drew in upkeep) - not sure if any single card is worth such effort. Maybe Leo de Lua would be such a card for a versatile and very charismatic Patrice, as in my view, actions are her most valuable assets. — Trady · 167
I think, a Synergy build would also work. Patrice is potentially among the better users of "Strenght in Numbers", and "Close the Circle" could give her the extra actions, she lost to Katja. The main issue is, that it costs an Arcane Slot, which you then likely want for some multicolour-spells like Divination or Brand as well, so you need additional assets to grand you these slots. Looks too asset heavy for a Patrice deck, but Katja could enable that. I would still not comfortably tuck more than 3 or 4 cards under her in any given game, but it can help to keep a few critical cards. — Susumu · 366
Another way to see Katja is just as an enabler of improvised and other discard interaction cards. Replace them with another card and when Katja is full, accidentally get her defeated to have all these cards join the discard in one go. — Valentin1331 · 69035

Background: I played Katja Eastbank in a Stella Clark deck with emphasis on Dilemmas. We played a two-player campaign of Path to Carcosa and Stella joined the campaign after the Asylum. My partner played Joe Diamond.

Katja Eastbank was a great addition to the deck. Stella Clark's character ability offset the action cost of Katja Eastbank when accessing cards beneath her. We were able to put dilemmas beneath Katja when the situation was not favorable and activate them later on. However, Katja was even more useful when drawing situational cards such as a second .18 Derringer or Old Keyring while the first one was still healthy. Here, Katja Eastbank basically saves that card for later and provides you with an additional draw.

I think Katja Eastbank is particularly good in decks which include strong but situational cards. "Situational" cards are not limited to high-impact Dilemmas such as Fickle Fortune but may also be cards such as End of the Road, assets with expendable charges for later use, and Alter Fate, just to name a few. Stick these cards to Katja Eastbank, building up a strong selection of cards for later use, and draw into your economy, skills, or general-use events earlier.

arkham-becons · 57
One thing everyone seems to have overlooked here is Katja's ability to speed up card draw, and her usefulness in discarding those cards when she departs for the great esoteric repository in the sky. Simply stuff your deck, then Katja's raincoat with improvised cards and the Moonstone then Tetsuo her out to improve resource expenditure, card draw, tempo, and test successes as all those cards are discarded. — Blitheharrow · 37

This card has "Dilemma enabler" written all over it. Certainly the first card I'd upgrade into if I were playing a Dilemma deck. Also 2 stamina and 2 sanity is a great soak. 3 cost and 2 EXP is a moderate cost for the effect, but I don't think you would want to pay it if you have no Dilemmas in your deck. You can view this card as an "additional hand", somewhat safe from hand-milling effects... But it is a very slow second hand then.

alexalansmith14 · 695
Don’t forget, that all the cards she holds onto can go into the discard pile when she is defeated. Which is great for both cards you play from the discard, and weaker cards. If you only trap cards you value less underneath her, she is a much better version of forced learning. — MrGoldbee · 1451
She is literally written into the SK Investigator pamplet as a Dilemma enabler. — fiatluxia · 65

This is not a card added casually to a deck. It's a main ally for a specific niche use. If the draw ability was a free trigger, this would be a good card that could fit in more decks. However the action hit to draw a card that was already drawn (either during the investigation or upkeep phase) is a huge action sink. Also offers no skill boots as other 2-3XP allies do.

Actions are the most valuable resource in the game, and spending one to draw an already drawn card is detrimental to the player's ability to advance the game. The benefit of holding onto the card must therefore outweigh the action cost of choosing when to draw it. It's probably intended for Dilemmas since they trigger immediately on drawing them.

But this comes in a class with all the recursion tools to play/recur cards from the discard pile. If it's used to hold cards in excess of the maximum hand size, why? A niche card that may have some specific use cases (Patrice perhaps) but otherwise is detrimental to most investigators who could better spend an action keeping ahead of the Agenda. She would've been better if she held only one card but it was a free trigger to draw it.

KingsGambit · 15
I think, Valenin's comment under another review is spot on: Could be very good, if you build a deck around the improvised set and other cards, you want to discard, like "Fortuitous Discovery" (unfortunately not "Moonstone"). You can replace them with something else, when you draw them, then use Katja for soak to get them into the discard. — Susumu · 366
I think you're undervaluing the additional draws. You can see Katja as a forced learning that doesn't require a 15(!) increase in deck size. That's no small thing. You'll go through your deck much quicker and just keep exactly what you need. As you stated, you can for example keep the recursion cards and then just get back what you need. And you'll need to make less room for each card because in combination with Short Supply, you got access to pretty much any card in your deck. The disadvantage is that you can only do this 5 times before having to invest actions, but the upside is she comes with 2 health/sanity as well. And she's also optional, meaning you don't have the same problems as Forced Learning where you get to decide between 2 good cards or when you've drawn a weakness. — Nenananas · 251
I do see the sweet spot in between your 2 comments. In a deck that does not necessarily need an Ally (and there are quite a few in Survivor I think), she can be an strong accelerator to your set up. Add 2 copies of your main assets, and if you draw the second copy, slap it on Katja to get another card. Once she's full, use her soak and get the second copy on the table and start again. An example of how it could work: you are power drawing for a key asset, with Katja in play, you get to see 6 cards instead of 3, which is 20% of your deck, and almost 30% if you used Short Supply. The negative aspect of attaching it an improvised card to her though is that you want this card in your discard pile ASAP to use it... Long story short, I follow arkham-becons on his review. — Valentin1331 · 69035
Can you use her ability if there’s 5 cards below and discard the excess? The limit is not part of the cost to activate her — Django · 5072
Even though, the case in the FAQ is slightly different (the limit below Katya is for card in general, not cards by name), I would say no: "Some limits may pertain to a particular play area, such as "Limit 1 per deck," "Limit 1 in the victory display," or "Limit 1 in play." This limit restricts the number of copies of that card (by title) that can exist in the specified play area. Another copy of that card cannot enter the specified play area if this limit has already been reached." — Susumu · 366
Since you are not allowed to but a card beneath Katja if you have reached the limit, you can't resolve any part of her reaction. You can also only initiate abilities, which have the chance to change the game status (what the reaction wouldn't do) — Tharzax · 1
There’s a ton of game state changes even if you don’t attach the card. Mythos buster’s discord told me my guess is correct. There’s a faq for Diana that’s the source — Django · 5072
Which state changes? The exhaustion is not part of the cost and you can't replace the card you put beneath her because there is no card. — Tharzax · 1
The FAQ for Diana is actual a FAQ for "Sacret Covenant" under the condition, that there are less then 5 cards below her. In this case, Diana can trigger her ability to draw a card and gain a resource, even though she can't put the covenant below her, because it's a permanent. So this case never exceeds her limit of 5 cards below her. I do not think, you could trigger it, if she has already 5 cards below her, otherwise the FAQ entry would not start with "If Diana Stanley has <5 cards beneath her..." — Susumu · 366
This works for Diana because the restriction with the limit is part of the costs, which you must pay. After that you resolve as much of the effect as possible and in this case you can draw the card and the ressource. With Katja ability this is different since the limit is part of the ability. The question is how do you interpret the last sentence with drawing a card. Can you replace a card you never placed beneath her? — Tharzax · 1
Query for all you rules experts: how does a fully stacked 5 cards attached Katja work when "Teamwork" is played by a Guardian ally, wishing to take her over across the table, as part of the team swapping? Do her 5 attached cards go with her too the new player, do they get discarded? — Quantallar · 7