Meat Cleaver

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.

dlikos · 150
Blessed Blade

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.

Blood&gore · 415
Tool Belt

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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
elkeinkrad · 483
Your rule notes: Yes you can discard it with cryptic chill (it is official) it doesn't say to put it facedown (and no reason because of the blanking) and every card that is attached face up is in play (unless written otherwise) — vidinufi · 67
Your old keyring tricks work. But there is no real reason to put secrets on it as you can't use it. You could do it with any other cards. — vidinufi · 67
"A card cannot bear uses of a type other than that established by its own" so i think the secrets are removed. And yes i get that you are only writing the last part as it is interesting. — vidinufi · 67
In some theoretical universe there's a Toolbelt with a Hidden Pocket that's holding a Quickdraw Holster, which is helping the Pocket to hold a pair of "I'll Take That"'d 1911 Colts, which themselves each have a Sledgehammer stuck in their barrels. If only the 1911 Colts hadn't specified "hand" slots, we could have had an Ouroboros. — HanoverFist · 711
Caught Red-Handed

I think Caught Red-Handed is wrongly designed weakness. The effect commonly make the player angry. Why? This has two main effect:

  1. Ready each enemy at your location or a connecting location.
  2. 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.

elkeinkrad · 483
You’re right if you ignore the existence of this card. A smart player should consider enemy positions and draw effects before starting his turn. Either position an enemy so this card is discarded or don’t draw during your turn — Django · 5063
Whenever we start to manage this weakness, it's obvious that Caught Red-Handed is one of the most powerful signature weakness. I write this review because I has feel that many of user overlook that. — elkeinkrad · 483
Agree, it' — CHA · 1
Agree, it's a horrible weakness and a bit of bad design. Really brings down an investigator that should be fun but has weak deckbuilding and a bad weakness. — CHA · 1
Correct me if I'm wrong - and I probably am wrong. — Snjuer · 1
But the way I read this weakness it means "choose your location or a connected location", then ready all enemies at the chosen location. So let's say I'm at location A with an disengaged exhausted enemy. At a connected location B there are no enemies at all. I choose location B, since it's connected to my location and then ready all enemies at that location (none). Then I can choose the same or another connected location and move all hunter enemies there. Again I could just choose a location without a hunter enemy. — Snjuer · 1
@Snjuer When an effect presents you with a choice you always need to make the choice which changes the game state. Since choosing an empty location doesn't change the game state its not a valid choice. — nikee40 · 4
@nikee40 "In the absence of the word "must" while choosing among multiple options, any option may be chosen upon the resolution of the effect – even an option that does not change the game state." This is from the rules reference book (page 16, "must"). I still somehow feel that I'm wrong or misinterpreting something... — Snjuer · 1
As I understand it, here we have just a bad wording. Word "or" implies there is a choice involved, but in fact it means that you need to ready all enemies that are situated in your or a connecting locations and "or" here means "and" actually. — chrome · 56
Captivating Discovery

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.

elkeinkrad · 483