"Are the Dilemmas any good?" asks Patrice.

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Patrice Hathaway - Stargazing for the Nature of the Beast 3 3 0 2.0

acotgreave · 782

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Introduction

I built this deck because I'd not tried the Dilemma cards from TSK yet. What better way to ensure you'll see them than in Patrice, who's guaranteed to draw her entire deck?

I'd also noticed that there were (at time of building) no published decks featuring Katja Eastbank, so consider this an attempt to remedy that, and to understand why she seems like an unpopular ally...


Table of Contents

  • Are the dilemmas any good then?

  • Each Dilemma, reviewed

  • Katja - any good?

  • General Patrice shenanigans

  • Over to you...


Overview

 
Team play: ★★★★★
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Enemy Management: ★★★★☆
Clue-getting: ★★★★☆
Encounter protection: ★★★★☆
Survivability: ★★★★☆
Economy: ★★★★☆
Card Drawing: ★★★★★★★★

Are the dilemmas any good then?

When I first got my hands on TSK, I didn't look positively at the Dilemmas. "Too fiddly," "Too situational," "Too chaotic," all came to mind.

Now, having built a deck that forced them all the table, I think they're an excellent, fun, thematic addition to the game.

They force some difficult decisions, and they force team play. If you like your Arkham to be an interactive puzzle that involves your team mates, then they're gonna enhance your game. I do like that the Dilemmas really do create, ahem, dilemmas. It's not like they're "just" an event card - each has decisions to make (some more crunchy than others), so their theme fits their trait very well.

A deck like this would be a great one to take to a multiplayer event.


Each Dilemma, reviewed

Nature of the Beast ★★★★★ (in multiplayer)

Wonderful card. If you're in a 3 or 4 player game, you're always going to be able to find at least one Encounter card that is easy for one of your team to handle. The upside - a clue from anywhere - is very powerful.

Predator or Prey ★★★★☆

This was the one that made the only meaningful combo with Katja Eastbank. If you HAVE to play this when you draw it, it's a real dilemma, because the table state might play havoc. But, if you can control when you play it, it becomes a potent Event with no downside.

At a Crossroads ★★★★☆

A free action for the cost of one card? This one comes with a great cost-benefit but the timing can work extremely well. In our scenario our Mark Harrigan player managed to kill an enemy that just hunted to him. A great outcome. And it only costs a randomly discarded card? Yes please.

This one's definitely fun to inflict on your group because the downside's not a disaster.

Making Preparations ★★★☆☆ (speculative)

This one went under Katja Eastbank, to be played later in the scenario. It never got played... I didn't want to play it when it was drawn, because during Upkeep, it was too hard to predict which skills would be worth altering for an entire Mythos and Investigation phase. I think that, had I played it, it would have made for some fun table talk (at my expense!).

I would consider this one in solo because you're more in control of which skills you'll be focussing on.

Heed the Dream ☆☆☆☆☆

I didn't like the look of this on first sight and I have to say that playing the card only reinforced that hunch. Sure, drawing a card is good. Sure, if you're playing four-players and everyone draws a card, that's great. But, for me, the risk of losing key cards for the game is too great.

In our scenario I drew this one turn 2, and it was an excruciating decision. Each pile had an important card. I just don't think the benefit of card-draw outweighs the risk of ruining someone's deck. I certainly would NOT play this at an event.

Fickle Fortune ?????

I didn't put this one in the deck because I didn't want to mess up the Doom clock. I suspect this one would combo well with Katja Eastbank because both options are positive, if you can control when they take place.


Katja Eastbank - any good?

Um. She's... ok?

The combo with Predator or Prey was very powerful. But otherwise, she didn't shine. Because it's an action to play the card under her any Dilemmas could be considered as Event cards. That seems reasonable. But most Dilemmas make for pretty weak Events: they all have a downside (hence: Dilemma!). Paying an action for a Dilemma feels expensive.

I think I'd only consider her again if I'm playing Predator or Prey and/or Fickle Fortune because those are the Dilemmas you most want to control.

To make her work well, you need to have plenty of tools to get her in play before the Dilemmas show up. Hard mulligan for her, or use your #Flare to find her.


Other Patrice shenanigans

The rest of the deck is the general discard wizardry that Patrice loves. I did lean to newer (TSK) cards where possible

Beyond that, you have:


Over to you...

I built this to try out the Dilemmas.

My conclusion: packing a deck full of them makes for a fun deck to take to an event, or for a standalone. In a campaign, I'd be more choosy and perhaps just take one or two.

  • Have you tried the Dilemmas? Which is your favourite?
  • Have you had success with Katja Eastbank?

Let me know below...

10 comments

Apr 25, 2023 mattastrophic · 3018

I highly recommend houseruling that Heed the Dream shuffles the not-chosen cards back into everyone's decks. Removing everything from the game just creates so much analysis paralysis to be worth running except in solo or to troll your friends.

Apr 25, 2023 acotgreave · 782

Good idea @mattastrophic!

Apr 26, 2023 Ric · 741

Definitely a huge fan of Nature of the Beast. The Patty build I ran recently sniped a lot of Ancient Evils on a regular basis with minimal issues from the added encounter. I think the tiny xp cost makes it worth considering in future s I run, depending on the deck and composition of the party.

I feel like Fickle Fortune would be interesting to try sometime, but it definitely requires a party that throw in some strong healing support.

Overall, thanks for creating this! It's neat to see a dilemma-heavy setup.

Apr 26, 2023 Susumu · 330

Very interesting read! I have yet to try the Dilemmas myself. Minor thing: The "Preditor or Pray" link is broken, leading to the "Masked Hunter" from "Midnight Masks".

Apr 26, 2023 acotgreave · 782

@Susumu Link fixed! Thank you!

Apr 26, 2023 Valentin1331 · 55152

To me, the real "wow" realisation on Fickle Fortune was when I started looking at how it would interact with Resourceful.

This is a bit more challenging with Patrice Hathaway because you cannot keep a Resourceful in hand, but look at it this way:

  1. Draw Fickle Fortune, choose the heal.
  2. Play Resourceful on Fickle Fortune and choose the damage.

Results: Fast healing of 2 damage and 2 horror to your whole party, no matter the location.

If you draw it at the right time, meaning witching hour, then it's pure benefits, and if you draw it later in the scenario and everyone can afford a bit of damage/horror, it's also pure value.

Apr 26, 2023 acotgreave · 782

@Valentin1331 That combo's fantastic! Thanks for pointing it out. I initially worried that Dilemma's only trigger on card draw, not when "added" but, for the benefit of others reading these comments, it's been clarified that Dilemmas do trigger when "added" to hand.

Apr 26, 2023 AL · 1

Oh, what I love most about this decklist is that you've solved my own dilemma and now I don't have to go through the process of trying them all out haha

I don't have Patrice yet, so it would be a grind.

I'll add one thing on Fickle Fortune, though: if you look up Vincent Lee + Soul Santification + Fickle Fortune on the dictionary, I'm pretty sure you'll find "Stonks" written in there, with an asterisk that says "*of the jankier kind.", of course.

May 02, 2023 Masterface7 · 1

Nice deck! I just finished a run of carcosa with Patrice in a 3 investigator game. I shoved in a bunch of Dilemmas because why not. Nature of the beast it just so, so good. The stealth best part is getting to discard 2 mythos cards. Whether it is an elite enemy or a treachery that turns a simple scenario into a difficult one nature of the beast can discard them all.

I played fickle fortune regularly and it was strong. I imagine with katja it is completely busted. On one scenario I lucked into drawing it on the witching hour so we all got free healing of 3 and 3 then a turn or 2 later I resourceful'd it to remove a doom and since we were all fully healed 1 and 1 each was nothing. Being able to do that almost every scenario might make the game too easy bordering on less fun.

Dec 15, 2023 Ramun · 265

Hey @acotgreave, thanks for the great deck guide and feedback on dilemmas! inpired me to build my own Patrice deck. I included Stargazing as I'm curious to see the interaction wiht Nature of the Beast. I think cards in general that accelerate encounter draw are less scary if Stargazing has been played before.