I really like this card with Agnes. At first I wasn't quite sure if it would be worth the slots as she can already be pretty strong with Shrivel and Spectral Razor (Scrounge for Supplies loop) ... so I took it out. I then realized that I relied on it a bit not for damage, but for healing horror, and I suppose saving charges or razors when for a tougher enemy. Put in some Fight or Flight and you can finish off an enemy with your meat cleaver and heal some of that horror.
Hello folks, this review is just another one that gives you insight into how my group changes some cards that never see play, because we realised we hate paying money to have cards sitting in binder from the moment they are pulled out of the pack, so here it goes.
So i think we can all agree that this card is underwhelming. Even in Sister Mary who "wants" to play this card as it is from her cycle and looks like it is made for her, this card just does not pull the weight. If it had +2 fight then maybe, but still would be pretty bad. So like with a lot of cards that are just sitting for years in my collection without ever seeing the light of the sun, we decided to change this card a bit and made the effect of exhaust to add 1 bless AFTER revealing the token. This changed it a bit so that you do not have to exhaust it and pray you kill the enemy if it has 2 health or something like that, or worry why did you not exhaust it in the first hit if you pull the bless one out on the first swing, and you can actually smack it once or twice and then when you see what you pulled you can exhaust it to add that 1 little bless inside the bag. It is a minor change, but now when we build Mary we actually take it, and in solo i was suprised to see myself actually not cutting it out after the first scenario like i did before. Idk, time will show, we may even change it even more and have it give you +2 combat instead of 1, time will show.
In my community, many application of Tool Belt are told and I introduce some of them.
Practical applications:
- Twice usage of sloted/exhausted tools in single slot: Put two tools, one in play area and the other attached in Tool Belts. After trigger first one, swap it with that in Tool Belt and use one more.
- Example: Lockpicks, Mariner's Compass, Riot Whistle...
- Fight/Investigate flexiblity for tools: Unlike other classes, some of tool is (two-handed) weapon. When you need to fight, use tool weapon; when you need to investigate, use tool for investigator.
- Tool weapon: Chainsaw, Sledgehammer...
- Tool for investigation: Old Keyring, Flashlight, Mariner's Compass, Magnifying Glass ...
- Keeping sacrificial asset: After fully uses of supplies (or any other), attach that asset into Tool Belt and throw it away when you meet asset-hate encounter such as Crypt Chill.
- Rule note: you still can choose the card attached into Tool Belt because 1) it is still asset 2) you still have the control of it 3) it is still in play. (not official ruling, but my interpretation)
- Old Keyring: If you investigate using Old Keyring with 1 key, you can attach that at during the investigation test. Nevertheless, the test works normally and the last key is removed from that Old Keyring; however, attached Old Keyring is not discarded because the text box is alread blanked so that the effect "If there are no keys on Old Keyring, discard it" does not work. If you want to discard that Old Keyring for some reason, you simply detach it, and then that is discarded. (my rule interpretation)
Funny(?) applications:
- We can make charged Old Keyring with keys having some secrets (in the Tool Belt), since the "Uses (2 keys)" is blanked. Of course, we should distinguish them even if same resource tokens are placed. After that Old Keyring is detached, it's not clear that the charge and secret could remain on it :)
- Attaching Quickdraw Holster with .32 Colt: We could attach Quickdraw Holster thanks to the existance of the Devil from Observed. Then, .32 Colt in Quickdraw Holster now regain hand slot in the Tool Belt :)
- Discarding (non-slot?) tool card: The common way to discard the asset is using the slot limit, but we cannot do this for non-slot asset so that it's hard to discard non-slot asset. Now, if we want to discard non-slot tool, just attach Tool Belt and then discard (or Sleight of Hand) Tool Belt. Is it really useful? Not yet, because non-slot tool is Darrell's Kodak only when I write this review.
I think Caught Red-Handed is wrongly designed weakness. The effect commonly make the player angry. Why? This has two main effect:
- Ready each enemy at your location or a connecting location.
- Each hunter enemy at a connecting location moves 1 location toward you.
However, the discard condition only refers "second" condition. Even if the first condition met, Caught Red-Handed is returned to the deck after making all enemy ready. Notice that it's very easy to meet first condition; whereas it's rare to meet second condition.
Finn has free evade action. Thus, it's very common that he has Pickpocketing. After he evade an enemy, he trigger the Pickpocketing, and draw card. What if that card is Caught Red-Handed? Just evaded enemy is ready! In general, no hunter enemy moves so that Caught Red-Handed is returned into his deck. Now, Finn wasted evade, card. However, the weakness is still in deck.
Captivating Discovery is one of the fascinating card which is spoiled in scarlet keys. This provides the 6-cards searching effect, which helps to trigger the Astounding Revelation. In addition, this gives the 2/4/6-card drawing effect among 6-cards, which is powerful search/drawing ability. Someone might think that dropping the clues is expansive cost. Unlike other clue dropping cards such as Forewarned, however, the player can easily control the timming of the playing Captivating Discovery because the drawing effect is independent to the location. Thus, you could select the location to drop the clues. You may drop the clues at the location with low should value. You may drop the (unnecessary) clues at the location with non-victory location. It means that the cost of "dropping the clues" for Captivating Discovery is commonly lower than that for any other cards.