Burn After Reading

Burn After Reading

The card is a very effective way to get clues from locations with high shroud even without removing the doom. However, the taboo on Signum Crucis makes it a great combination with this card on earlier scenarios. With this and Fortune or Fate you can net your team 2 extra turns per scenario.

K_oroviev · 241
That's what you get for patching a physical game... — AlderSign · 415
Yeah…I don’t like this kind of exploits. I hope that the soft reboot LGS is hinting at with the Standard vs Legacy distinction fixes this and other issues going forward. — K_oroviev · 241

Scene of the Crime

Scene of the Crime

The effect of this card is great when conditions are right. There needs to be two or more clues on the location and an enemy you can allow to persist for an action to get full value. If you have the pictured Alice Luxley in play, you can even do one damage to an enemy. But in practice Scene of the Crime often languishes in your hand while the perfect moments elude you.

If there is no enemy at your location it's two resources and an action for one clue. This is a reasonable and unimpressive transaction. If the clue is otherwise difficult to get thanks to some treachery or your investigator's low , it's a little better. It is easy to commit it for one or one . But using Scene of the Crime outside of its perfect situation always feels like a mediocre effect with a painful opportunity cost, especially considering what you could've had.

The temptation to engineer the situation this card demands--for example, evading an enemy you could have killed, or absorbing an attack during the enemy phase--will be strong. But going out of your way for this card quickly diminishes its promised efficiency.

Free movement abilities that allow you to enter the perfect situation from outside make this much easier and safer. On the Hunt, mentioned in the old review, can also work, though sometimes you will not be at liberty to expend an action depending on what enemy you get. These combo plays are often not quite as good as they feel since it's now two cards for two clues, but it's better than just holding the card in your hand.

The Mythos seems to take particular pleasure in scuttling perfect Scene of the Crime setups. So take Scene of the Crime and enjoy those special times when it goes off. But be prepared for it to sit sullenly in you hand while you have other priorities.

Frickenator · 29
I don't know if this situation is particularly hard to engineer - Are you a fighter who drew an enemy during the mythos phase? If yes, you've met the conditions. Now all that you need are clues at your location. You don't need to evade something as this doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity, you don't need to not kill an enemy as you can just kill them on actions 2 and 3 during your turn. If I'm trying to flex a few clues in a fighter deck for a 2 player game, this is one of the first cards I'm looking at. — Therebrae · 42
@Frickenator: Like you mentioned, cards like Sg — AlderSign · 415
That's my first accidental Enter here, took me long enough... Continuing: Cards like Shortcut or Eon Chart are your friend. Or you have Carson in your party. Or you are Joe Diamond (this as a Hunch is less predictible, but saving 2 resources seems worth it). — AlderSign · 415

George Barnaby

George Barnaby

I'm getting confused about the "Limit 5 cards" - I was trying to compare it to Diana and Gloria but wording is different every time - can I still use the ability when there are 5 cards under him and discard one of the previous ones?

arkadiusz666 · 1
I don't think you can discard cards that are beneath George Barnaby. You can only commit them to tests. So if he has five cards beneath him you can't his reaction ability after discarding a card. — Frickenator · 29
I agree you cant discard cards beneath George, but I don't see any reason in the card text why you can't keep adding cards past 5. — RichardPlunkett · 12
To be specific, I think the (Limit 5 cards.) in his first ability is capping the handsize benefit of having cards beneath him, not capping the count of cards beneath him (which would be more correctly implemented in his last power preventing too many being added, just like in Diana's text) — RichardPlunkett · 12
Ah, I see. That seems to be interpreting it as a misplaced modifier. The most reasonable intepretation, to me, is that it applies to either the number of cards beneath George Barnaby, or to both. I can't think of reason to write like it appears if your interpretation is the intention. — Frickenator · 29
I don't know their intent. As written, I would interpret it as only limiting your hand size. The sentence is about his max hand size and only refers to the cards beneath him to establish that number. I think it would be worded like Diana if it was intended to limit the number of cards beneath him. — Hirangren · 1
There's now a ruling on this from Duke: "He can only have 5 cards under him max, at any given time. I think the idea is that his hand size is set to that and cannot be increased, but I'd rather not make a ruling on that until closer to release." While there is further clarity needed, I think the limit is clear. I would take this to mean the reaction can't trigger when you're at the 5 limit, personally. — HungryColquhoun · 9776
Well, it's clearly not a "ruling", it says so right in the response. And it's also frankly stupid. This continues the steady decline in my respect for the current rules guardians who seem to make "rulings" based more on what they think is intended or desirable than what is written on the cards. I think there is no defense for Duke's position without errata. — RichardPlunkett · 12
Well okay, there's a "comment from the devs" on how this should work if you find the word ruling so offensive... — HungryColquhoun · 9776
My understanding is that you can still use the reaction regardless, since the limite for the reaction is just 'once per phase'. That much is cristal clear for me. I actually have doubts if you can or cannot put a sixth card under him (6, 7, and so on) or you would have to send to the discard anything over 5, allowing you to effectively cycle the cards under him. — madcircus · 189
Can I use Cornered with George special ability to get +4 skill value with Unexpected Courage? Start skill test, at before commit card fast window, use Cornered to discard Unexpected Courage (get +2 skill value), use George's ability to put Unexpected Courage beneath him. Commit Unexpected Courage to the test for total of +4 skill value. — daosilulu · 1

Confiscation

Confiscation

Of course Michael wants to play as many Firearm assets as possible to trigger his investigator reaction ability more often, but I wonder if this weakness is really such a drawback if you have means to - intended - draw (them) back. What it means besides crippling him if checked by the cops at an unfortunate time, it is for one highly probable that you have some more guns in your hand anyway (waiting to be played), but what's more, shuffling the ones in play into your deck means you get a free ammo replenishment on all of them!

AlderSign · 415

Sacred Woods

Sacred Woods

I wonder if my 15 Permanent assets for my Mystic count...

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't. Like, I do control my permanents, right? Preston can manipulate resources on his Family Inheritance, so surely he controls his permanent asset.

Rushional · 130
Works for sure. If something should not work with Permanent cards, it will tell you. Like the deckbuilding options for || Jenny or the ability of the spoiled "Drowned City" card "Memories of Another Life" do. It would be a stretch to call this anywhere near broken, though. There are player cards, that potentially reduce shroud to 0 on a much more regular basis, than a location, that might (or might not) enter a specific scenario. — Susumu · 381