Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Waylay

When waylay came out with a pallid mask, it could do some good work.
Adventures since (and Carcosa's return) have given us more difficult enemies, five or six or seven hit point foes, who aren’t elite. Yet, despite being 0xp, this card is best as a skill commit until mid adventure. Lola, Wendy, Preston… all three can use adaptable to swap it in. And it’s expensive, but a rogue splash or on your own can handle that. Your mileage may vary.

6/24/21

MrGoldbee · 1486

My millage with this card was taking it preston for undimensioned then leaving it in my deck and just finding instantly killing any problem using prestons cash. I think I undervalued it greatly, I prefer it immensely to back stab personally. — Zerogrim · 295 6/24/21

I could see Darrel getting some use from as his ability can also reduce the difficulty of the test. I don’t carry a single weapon and Flashlight(3) is helping with my evasions when I have to gain way for murderers in my group. — Staticalchemist · 1 2/27/23

Stargazing

Your friendly neighborhood Buttermancer here to strongly recommend against running this card in The Circle Undone, given the huge amount of deck milling mechanics in that campaign. You'll whiff right past it at a million miles an hour. Probably twice after the encounter deck shuffles. You might draw it if you have encounter deck peeking shenanigans, but even then not reliably enough to make playing it worth the action.

In campaigns where the encounter deck is not flying off the table out the window, it looks pretty intriguing, probably strongest at 2 players given its unique requirements and effect. To elaborate, for one player, ten cards in the encounter deck is basically guaranteed, but play Stargazing halfway through a scenario and shuffle it into the bottom and you probably won't see it before the scenario is resolved. It does cancel 100% of spooky card bad stuff when it lands.

Two players probably have plenty of cards in the encounter deck and will draw the card within 5 turns, reasonable if it's at all early. It will cancel 50% spooky card draw for the team on the turn it lands. After that, it gets worse. It will be drawn very soon but only cancel a third of the encounter deck, and it will be drawn almost immediately but cancel the effect on 1/4th the team. It's actually a pretty good play on Farsighted (Mandy and Daisy can fit these, and Daisy has big hands potential synergy in Forbidden Tome).

6/23/21

MrButtermancer · 56

I love this card. It's very popular in my 4-man group, and I'll usually take two copies pretty early. In a 4 player game, the action you get can be big enough to free up multiple other players, like evading a massive enemy. Great card. — SGPrometheus · 841 6/23/21

Not cancelling the entire encounter phase in higher player counts isn't really a huge drawback in the way this review suggests, because it also doesn't cost every player a card and an action to do, just the one who plays it. It's not like we say that Deduction is bad because it only gets one clue and not one clue per investigator, for instance. — Thatwasademo · 58 6/27/21

That said, there is one thing that you actually should be aware of at higher player counts: That "max twice per game" restriction. Even if your group is four mystics you can't all take Stargazing (and be able to play all the copies). Still, there really aren't any issues with running one or two copies of this card among the entire group in a three or four player game: even if you happen to draw it when the encounter deck is low, you'll reshuffle soon enough. — Thatwasademo · 58 6/27/21

The Stars Are Right

"Other card abilities or game effects do not resolve with the altered game state in mind; only the indicated ability/action. - FAQ, v.1.7, March 2020"

This information is outdated. The FAQ v 1.8, October 2020 states instead that

"Other card abilities or game effects resolved during this duration are also resolved with the altered game state in mind."

6/22/21

anaphysik · 97

So, for a laugh I'm going to play Stargazing in my current Gloria deck so I can put this card into the encounter deck, find it, out it underneath and then my "weakness" becomes 3 actions :) — screamingabdab · 100 5/2/22

Quick Thinking

"Other card abilities or game effects do not resolve with the altered game state in mind; only the indicated ability/action. - FAQ, v.1.7, March 2020"

This information is outdated. The FAQ v 1.8, October 2020 states instead that "Other card abilities or game effects resolved during this duration are also resolved with the altered game state in mind."

6/22/21

anaphysik · 97

Rite of Equilibrium

I'll quote user @Susumu in another comment: "if you ever want to choose the first option. It would be spending 5 XP, an action and a card just for removing the restriction of X=3" when compared to Tempt Fate, which is a freaking biiiiiig ask. So that second option better be one hell of an effect.

And I mean, in some ways it is. It's probably the most action efficient horror healing card in the game. The closest example is probably Logical Reasoning, which heals up to 6, costs 2 and can only heal from investigators, but costs 1 xp less. I basically never upgrade to level 4 Logical Reasoning though; that much horror healing is pretty much overkill and xp is usually spend better elsewhere.

In conclusion, I don't think Rite of Equilibrium is worth it's xp cost at all, and is probably up there with worst level 5 cards. Tempt Fate is just so much better, even when not taking into account xp. But hey, at least it's not Flute of the Outer Gods.

6/21/21

Nenananas · 267