Promise of Power

Promise of Power

I've run Promise of Power in a couple campaigns now and I've been really impressed. I don't think you need to have any Curse payoffs in your deck to happily play it. It's just a good deal in its own right.

I think Promise of Power is considerably better than Unexpected Courage, especially on higher difficulty levels. Getting +4 to any test for any investigator at your location is premium--compare cards like Rise to the Occasion and Inquiring Mind, which (in my opinion) feature much larger downsides, while only giving +3! With a +4 bonus, even when playing on Expert, you have a real chance at passing a skill test in a weak stat. That's a nice impact for one card, and something like Unexpected Courage is simply not powerful enough to achieve this.

The Wild icons provide a welcome element of flexibility to Mystics who are otherwise focused only on Willpower. Scenarios often feature important non-Willpower tests, which can be awkward for hyper-specialized Mystics. This card is a great answer to that, and of course also has the flexibility to help allies cover for their own weaknesses.

Moreover, a single curse token in the deck is a very small cost. There's a very high chance that it gets discarded on a test that passes anyway (or, less probably, on a test that would have failed anyway.) I will happily take a large bonus to my skill test right now, when I know the test is important and I know the bonus is useful, in exchange for a smaller penalty later, which might come up on an unimportant test, on an important test that I committed a lot to and therefore can succeed on anyway, or simply not come up at all.

Finally, this is Practiced. That's very relevant because Practice Makes Perfect is a great card, significantly above the curve for a level 0 card and well worth building around. Together with Deduction and Perception, this makes a really nice package for investigators like Amanda Sharpe and Daisy Walker.

CaiusDrewart · 3185
I never considered the downside of "Inquiring Mind" that big. Sure, it might jinx you to not be able to commit it on a test, you really want to, but there will come others, where it will still be very useful. I think, what makes PoP bonkers good is, that it provides a lot of wilds for PMP. Practiced wilds normally come in singulars, like in "Momentum" and "3 Aces". Exceptions are rare and either very restrictive like "Take the Initiative", or very XP-expensive like "The Eye of Truth". Now with PMP it's kind of unfortunate, if you are doing an investigation test and dug up an "Overpower", because it wiffs. That's why Wilds are so much better with PMP, and why I considered Rogue-Mandy the best Mandy, because with "Momentum" and "3 Aces", she will always find a suitable card with PMP. Now with POP this might shift to Mystics. She can still include "Prophecy" and "Plan of Action" to increase the number of eligible wild targets, but without POP they would have just been inferior to "Momentum" and "3 Aces".. — Susumu · 381
Hi Susumu, I agree that Inquiring Mind is a good card (see the review I wrote of it a few years back.) It was perhaps a bit misleading to lump it in with Rise to the Occasion, which is generally a bad card that only becomes good for one or two specific investigators. That said, while I like Inquiring Mind and often run it, I think Promise of Power's drawback is preferable, even discounting the other advantages of the card like the higher bonus and the Practiced trait. Yes, it's usually true that even if you can't commit Inquiring Mind at a particular moment because your location is clueless, you can find a good use for it later. But there are a fair number of scenarios where the clues all get scooped up but there are still some final tasks to do, and Inquiring Mind can sometimes go completely dead. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
Your point about Mandy is interesting. I didn't mention her in the review because I assumed this card was not enough to dethrone Rogue Mandy as the best option, but perhaps so. I haven't tried it. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
I have not tested it yet, either. But this card lets me want to test out a Mystic-Mandy. I think, it might be enought to catch up with Rogue-Mandy, because really, the wild practiced skills were, why I picked that off-class for her. — Susumu · 381
And it was also more of a general point: Mandy will not run "Overpower" anyway. But while you can run PMP with distinct icons, it's IMHO true for any investigator, that wild skills are premium for this card, for reliability. — Susumu · 381
Any card with Practiced is worth considering just for PMPs efficiency. Promise of Power makes the cut over most of the skills mentioned here for that reason on top of the 4 icons being incredibly flexible and strong (and as mentioned you will often pull a curse on a test you would’ve succeeded or failed anyway). I agree that you need no curse removal or tech or anything to justify this card, it’s just good in its own right. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
I actually kind of dislike using PMP with PoP, since most of the time you don't actually need all 4 icons when you're playing PMP, so it feels somewhat wasted (and you still get a curse). PMP decks also tend to run also skill heavy, and skill heavy decks don't like curses all that much, since there's slightly more at stake with each test. — suika · 9511
I think those are both totally valid points suika, but ultimately they're not important enough to make me dislike this combo, since the curses (even if you get 2 playing it off PMP) are just so minor. If you hit PoP and other Practiced skills, you can often choose something else instead if you feel +4 isn't needed. And hitting PoP is still definitely a lot better than hitting nothing. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
Agreed, but it does mean I won't count PoP as one of the practiced skills in my deck for the purpose of PMP, so that there's a good chance to choose something else. — suika · 9511
Rather I think PoP allows you to use PMP for tests you might otherwise not be as confident in passing. I think it’s still an excellent PMP target for that reason. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
For the price of 2 curse tokens instead of just one, you can also use PMP to "fish" for PoP. The first use might be slightly wasted, but you get it out of your deck into your hand for the use, you really want it. Of course, there is always the chance to loose it, if the PMP test results in a tentakle. But that's a risk, I like to take on "The Eye of Truth", and I don't see that much difference here. Of course, if you find another practiced skill, you can commit, you can always take that one instead. — Susumu · 381

Anette Mason

Anette Mason

"Good job team! One clue to go and only 7/12 doom. We did it handsome today. All right, now let's see about this forced ability on Annette... Discard three cards and --gulp--, well that's two witches we didn't need right now. So we add two doom for them, one for Annette, one for the mythos phase. Holy smokes, 11/12! We're barely gonna win this thing... And there's ancient evils. More like Circle Unfun..."

There's a simple way to keep Annette's insane doom acceleration from spoiling your evening. Have someone drag her off the Witches Circle. She'll spawn her sisters at her new location, giving you a chance to kill them before they can get to the witches circle and end your scenario. Or, if you have sufficient health, just let Annette and her coven smack you around for a couple turns while your colleagues clean up the clues. As long as the witches are engaged, they won't move to the Witches Crcle, as per the instruction on Agenda 2a.

Mordenlordgrandison · 464
Agreed. 1/1 damage for several turns! — MrGoldbee · 1492
Handcuffing normal witches earlier helps, especially the one that gets stronger over dead sisters — Django · 5162
We just followed this exact strategy about a week ago on our fourth time through TCU, it was kind of an ah ha moment for us. — Time4Tiddy · 249
Ghastly Revelation is an interesting option for true solo — Zinjanthropus · 230

Mano a Mano

Mano a Mano

The usually prudish Sister bared her chest and pounded the Brotherhood Cultist as though the fate of the universe depended on it. Tag-teaming the cultist was the Huntress of Bast, trying to find an opening to impale the cultist with her arrowhead. A few frenetic, breathless moments later, Nephthys thrust in her fearsome weapon and sent the cultist straight to heaven.

The cultist's screams was soon joined by another as Rex splashed his juice all over an Acolyte next door.

suika · 9511
I didn't expect the words 'fisted' and 'penetrate' on this site. Especially not with Sister Mary. — PowLee · 15

Eye of the Djinn

Eye of the Djinn

One crazy interaction that exists is with Skid's parallel ability. Instead of testing at base 3 you can increase that number to 5 since the Djinn doesn't specify which skill test type it has to be. On standard and easy this means you can gamble 1 resource and all but guarantee a resource every turn barring the tentacles. If you actually commit cards, it gets even crazier.

Also, a question: Can you use this during the Mythos phase? It says "during your turn" so I'm not entirely sure.

Darvete · 577
There are no player turns during the mythos phase, so the eye can't be used then. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
There are some rogue cards that let you take an action as if your turn, but these are are after the test initiation on Mythos cards. — Django · 5162
It's actually pretty incredible with the favors, because you can basically just get yourself a free action and unexhaust the eye of the djinn. Lair of Dagon cannot come soon enough! — Zinjanthropus · 230

Elusive

Elusive

It’s hard to tell if this is actually worth two XP. It’s a teleport for free and zero actions that I can get you anywhere except to the boss. But there aren’t a ton of situations where you just want to ignore all your responsibilities and get to the end when that end doesn’t have a resign ability. And if that point, "I’m outta here" is cheaper. As a panic button, it’s pretty great, but for 3XP more, will you eventually get cheat death instead?

MrGoldbee · 1492
I'll push hard on this. Elusive is a much more flexible and useful card than Cheat Death. This protects you in much the same way as Cheat Death, while also acting as an I'm Outta Here if you need it. But really what it does is it saves you tons of actions. You don't have to evade, you don't have to commit cards to a test, you can just go anywhere on the board without spending tons of move actions. Some maps encourage this more than others, but in the right campaign this card is absolutely stellar even with the taboo XP increase. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Great points! — MrGoldbee · 1492
As a note, sometimes you actually want to ignore all your responsibilities and get to the *BEGINNING*. Zoey, Jenny, and to a lesser extent Tony all have painful weaknesses that involve the farthest location, which on a large map can be otherwise impossible to deal with, even when the investigator's actions aren't needed to complete the act. Also relevant to large maps can be VP locations that the investigators chose to ignore in favor of progressing the scenario, but which they later realize would be safe to clear later on if only an investigator could get there again (mild spoiler for Dream-Eaters: a situation like that can easily occur in Point of No Return). — anaphysik · 98
It is very useful in Campaigns with large maps and side quests, including the signature weakness sidequests meantioned by anaphysik. It can also be useful for "jumping over" enemies you don't want to deal with as well as serving as a super evade. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
I would say that Elusive is still a bargain at 2xp. I was including it in all my solo Rogue decks, and it was always useful at least once. Eventually I decided that it's too strong to include in Wini decks, but had to backpedal on that when I started trying to do solo Innsmouth. It helps even out the really poor 1p scaling a bit. — Zinjanthropus · 230
Taboo'd again, lol — MrGoldbee · 1492