Precious Memento

Here are my thoughts after running this in Silas Marsh:

  • This has been a great horror soak replacement for Peter Sylvestre so I can run On Your Own (perm). I'd pay 4XP to upgrade to two Peter Sylvestre (2) if I wasn't playing On Your Own anyway, so that feels like a wash to me.
  • Both versions of this work really well to keep damage and horror off of any of the Level 3 composures in this set, (Plucky (3) for Silas), but I think Plucky (1) from Echoes of the Past is the better combo; this version of Precious Memento "heals" horror from itself (on Standard difficulty Silas is easily passing almost all tests by 2+) and you don't have to worry about "healing" damage from it because Plucky (1) doesn't soak damage (so it can't force you to put damage on memento instead of it).
  • While it usually won't be defeated by horror, it may still find its way into the discard pile (the previous reviewer also noted that it commits for just like Unexpected Courage), so Resourceful and Scavenging (and William Yorick!) get it back.
I never would have thought to use this to replace the Big Man on Campus, but it makes great sense if you're play Own Your Own. I guess you'd start with Peter but upgrade him to this? — MythosManiac · 1
Yes, start with Peter in your deck and then before getting On Your Own (perm) replace him with this (it should be noted that you really have to commit to this strategy, as it's 10 XP total for just those two cards). — DrMChristopher · 509
Roland Banks

Playing Roland solo is very workable as long as you get good card draw. When I get an ally in play, and Pathfinder, and a weapon, I do pretty well. I've been trying to use his special ability to get clues after killing enemies by running 2 copies of On the Hunt. You also want to end your turn on a location with a clue just in case you draw an enemy in the Mythos phase.

However if you draw his Cover Up weakness mid to late game, it almost guarantees a bad ending. His sanity stat is so low you can't afford to just ignore the card. Roland has to work hard for every clue, so having to spend a minimum of 3 actions plus cards to commit or resources to boost your can be crippling. At least with my limited card pool (Dunwich & Carcosa cylces only) I find it very challenging.

SoloArkham · 39
How do your remove Roland's signature card to use advanced versions ? — Ayoross · 3
William Yorick

(This is probably just repeating other reviews but I would like to talk about William anyway).

William Yorick is my favorite investigator. No question about it, the Survivor/Guardian combo is great for the job of being the monster killer/bodyguard combo and the feeling you get from playing him is like no other investigator.

But why would you want to play Yorick? His card pool is good but he doesn’t have access to the big blue weapons. And Tommy has a better card pool with guardian 0-5 and almost all the survivor cards. Yorick’s stat line is pretty good 3 2 4 3, and 8 health and 6 sanity. He has 3’s in his defensive stats, 4 in his offensive stat and a 2 in the one he doesn’t want to use. This is means he will struggle to get clues and progress the investigation but you have cluevers to handle that so you can just focus on protecting them. His Elder sign effect is great +2 and return any card from your discard to your hand! While this is great, it’s unreliable. You do have survivor tricks to make this happen more often, but I don’t think any investigator should be picked because they have a good elder sign effect (except father Mateo).

No, the reason to play Yorick is because of his investigator ability. After you defeat an enemy play an asset from your discard pile (paying its cost). This ability is a absolute flavor win as well as being fun and powerful. Flavorfully our gravedigger plays assets from his “graveyard”, It’s great! From a gameplay perspective the ability is powerful, your “graveyard” becomes a second hand for assets (your elder sign can grab events and skills) and all you have to do is kill something. This ability is not just deck recursion but also action efficiency! Some great targets for this effect are: -Weapons (so you can fight) -Ally’s (because they’re powerful) -Cherished keepsake (free sanity soak) -Leather coat (free heath soak) -Knife (cheap weapon and a discard effect for a big hit) -Grave diggers shovel (cheap weapon and a discard effect for clue) -Mysterious raven (fast discard effect for clue) -Stray cat (fast discard for an auto evade) -Any card you can discard for an effect or discard themselves once they are empty -Any free card (because you still need to pay) -And any cards the game ever decides you need to discard because it wanted to “hurt” you

Actually the only cards you shouldn’t recur are expensive cards that don’t have arrival effects or discard effects (try to run cheap with Yorick)

So now that you know all about our favorite gravedigger and his ability the last thing to talk about is his role on the team. He is a monster killer and in turn a bodyguard with insane survive ability thanks to your ability. Partner up with your squishy cluever and keep them safe with your teddy bear in hand and old coat wrapped around you you’ll be able to take whatever the mythos has to throw at you, and with your choice of weapon weather it be a knife or chainsaw you can even throw whatever the mythos right back at it.

So if you’re like me and your job is to protect your less equipped friends from the things that go bump in the night and stand strong as a bulwark against the darkness. Or You feel goosebumps rise as you defiantly hold you’re own against a eldritch monstrosity and “whisper gimme your best shot”. Give Willam a try, you’ll like him.

sorry for any spelling mistakes my dyslexia is real bad. — TheLostSnowman · 8
Yorick is a pretty good user of the Old Keyring, so you can help your cluever out a bit by focusing on the 2-shroud locations if there aren't any enemies around — dscarpac · 1262
You can run some expensive stuff now, with cards like Rite of Sanctification or — Therealestize · 76
Schoffner's Catalogue. Definitely a apex in his class. — Therealestize · 76
Ice Pick

Is this +scavenging really that much better than fingerprint kit, a card that isn't used that often? The costs of slot and resource per extra clue are similar. They are in different classes (though a lot of people seem excited about this combo specifically in Minh) I'll acknowledge but on pure value alone I'm not that excited. For the same XP you could even add emergency cache 3 to your fingerprint kit, another 2 card 3 XP combo that is far cheaper for your extra clues. It's also just not that easy to land scavenging every turn, especially if you play on harder difficulties.

The versatility to use it for fighting definitely makes it a lot more interesting for investigators that can use it both ways though and I'm still excited to try it in different investigators as it's just a fun card.

dubcity566 · 111
Finger print kit exhausts, Ice Pick doesn't so its more like a deduction you pay 1 resource to set up, I've done a Minh Dark Horse deck with this and it was obscene. The added flexibility of very occasionally doing +1 damage helped out too because seekers so rarely want to fight but when you do you want to be certain you get a kill. (also for high difficulty it does have the advantage of not losing its charge if you fail with it) — Zerogrim · 296
I think the comparison between the fingerprint kit and the pick/scavenger combo is a bit unfair even if the last one might be good. So at first you have to pay 3xp for the pick, while the kit is available right from the start. For the same amount of xp you can get better cards like the glyphs, where the clue/action ratio might be much better. Also keep in mind that the combo between the pick and scavenger needs two actions because you can't recur the pick in/after the same test where you discard it due to the timing of the reaction. So you need to be capable to trigger the condition on scavenger without the bonus from the pick. — Tharzax · 1
Ice pick also exhaust. But with scavenging 2 it returns to play ready, so it can be used twice in a round if you investigate 3x. Flexiblility for 2 damage is nice with mind over matter, fight or flight and similar events. — Django · 5171
Glyphs do have a lot of upfront power, but scavenging is such an easy way to recharge them compared to the glyphs I feel like you can keep the multiclue going for longer with less cards needed to maintain it. — Zerogrim · 296
The Pick is fast which is also great, burns less resources to set up (though it uses more on the long run, but there are many ways to mitigate this). Also one thing is that you never waste a pick as you can only discard it when succeeding. Finally you can scavenge it during an action when you only need one clue. Considering the flexibility, I’d say yes it’s much better. — Valentin1331 · 82010
These also work really well in Scavenger Minh for their combat value because she is really likely to run a lot of fist commits, as well as acid which this can buff, anyway. It is a REALLY good card if you have scavenging access. — dezzmont · 222
And you are able to trigger it often. So this is a good combo/item for Minh, Rex, Yorik, who all can recur the pick regularly. Also possible investigators who depend on their build are Wendy with lockpicks, Patrice with sixt sense or similar or Ash with a supported Duke. — Tharzax · 1
Although ice pick is equally expensive in the long run, paying in installments is much cheaper than paying 4r upfront for fingerprint kit. — yinwhite · 20
Because you can't scavenge back the [Ice Pick](/card/08107) you just used I made a Minh deck that uses [Fingerprint Kit](/card/05024) and [Ice Pick](/card/08107) so you can cycle between the two [Ice Pick](/card/08107)s. It also gives you a way to discard and replay to refill the [Fingerprint Kit](/card/05024) might be overkill but I am excited to try it. — White Liger · 3
Oops guess the card name thing does work in comments lol — White Liger · 3
Electrostatic Discharge

I like to put away the game carefully after finishing a campaign and check that everything is there. I could only find two Electrostatic Discharge and when i checked all my Great Seal cards were numbered out of 14, with ED being 13/14 and 14/14. So don't panic.

Leutha · 1
I reported it on GitHub. For reference, because this review might not make sense to everybody, once corrected: The DB entry currently states, these are "The Great Seal #13-15." — Susumu · 383