Dark Pact

"Why hello there Dark pact." Amanda said with a blush "Fancy seeing you here beneath me~".

This does work right, nothing prevents Amanda from choosing dark pact and placing it beneath her, then its forcibly gone next turn, you have one turn with a card that simply can't commit to anything and then poof its gone?

(I guess the sticking point is are you choosing to discard dark pact by putting it under Amanda or not, and that feels more like a table to table thing than something that would have a solid ruling against it)

Either way, an averagely below average weakness.

Zerogrim · 299
I dunno; I think this would be forbidden by the you cannot choose to discard a weakness" principle, since you can't claim to be using it for a different reason. In different news, I got this as a "bonus" weakness in Dunwich, played it once, failed to play it a second time, thne had "The Price of Failure" milled out of my deck. Dunwich giveth and Dunwich taketh away, I suppose.... — LivefromBenefitSt · 1099
I think that works, both raw, and I don't think it needs fixing, because turning off Amanda's ability for a turn seems like a reasonable penalty for it — NarkasisBroon · 13
@LivefromBenefitSt You can't choose to discard a weakness, but Amanda's ability doesn't involve choosing to discard anything. Placing a card beneath her is not discarding a card, and the effect that discards the card that was beneath her is forced so it works on weaknesses too. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Also the rule is that you can't choose to discard a weakness from hand. Once the card is beneath Amanda you absolutely can choose to discard it. So it's fine to discard it this way — NarkasisBroon · 13
By the Rules as Written, nothing stops you from putting Dark Pact or other asset or event type weaknesses beneath Amanda. My understanding is that this is not RAI. However, any logic which would prevent it would be by classification 'weakness' and would inadvertently stop skill weaknesses -- but those must be allowed for her signature weakness to work! I will be surprised if any official correction is issued which would prevent Dark Pact from going under her. — Yenreb · 15
I think her weakness would still just about work on specific beats general. If her text hypothetically was identical except for adding non-weakness you wouldn't be able to voluntarily choose a weakness, but her forced would still read "when choosing a card to place beach Amanda, if this is in your hand you must choose it" which can override the non weakness part because it's a specific situation. It wouldn't be elegant though — NarkasisBroon · 13
Bandolier

This card is really good for any Sistery Mary that wants to uses the .35 Winchester plus any other hand cards like The Chthonian Stone, Enchanted Blade, or Sign Magick (for more Spells!). And with a previously used Rite of Sanctification you may not even get the problem for paying all these assets.

Enrif · 4
Pretty good for solo Nathaniel Cho as well; his boxing gloves are great but one of these with a Flashlight not only helps his investigation but also that little Will boost can be surprisingly helpful during the Mythos Phase. — Krysmopompas · 367
Flashlight — Nils · 1
Flashlight? How about a second pair of boxing gloves!! — Nils · 1
Hot Streak

This card is not gonna see a lot of play after Innsmouth cycle; with the same price of 2 XP you can get two Faustian Bargains and a False Covenant (which practically negates the curse tokens)

[review needs to be 200 characters long]

wjr · 148
Double Double. — MrGoldbee · 1512
False Covenant cancels one Curse token a turn at your location, and nothing prevents you from drawing another curse after canceling it. In most cases, this just means that other investigators not at your location will be the ones paying for the curses you add to the bag. — suika · 9527
Faustian is good, but you know what is better than one or the other? — Zerogrim · 299
Hot Streak (4)? /s — suika · 9527
I think zero meant both is better than just one... — Django · 5175
There needs to be a more universal way to denote sarcasm over the Internet. — suika · 9527
/s is my go to as well — StyxTBeuford · 13072
You just need to play the "Hot Srcasm" card... — LivefromBenefitSt · 1099
There are some (I'm betting many) tables that don't run bless/curse every game. This is a potential problem for the LCG I'm finding; adding more options like Bless/Curse and Tarot is ok in certain campaigns, but it can lead to a *lot* of min/maxing in certain groups. To me that means theme is secondary to winning (but that's just me - Tarot card in Antarctica anyone?), and perhaps more importantly it means fairly useful cards like Hot Streak (2) (good in Leo for example) will get relegated to the binder. — Krysmopompas · 367
I want to explicitly point out that Faustian Bargain can benefit other players if you like other people messing up your “perfect” deck design. Hot Streak(2) you have to play an action for as well. If I’m spending experience on something you can sure I want it start and will look for it with my mulligan. Compared with Another Day Another Dollar, both Faustian Bargain and Hot Streak can be played multiple times depending on you card draw ability versus only being used during setup. Minmaxing can be a problem in any game, so if you enjoy running cards for thematic effect you really don’t have to worry about justifying your deck mathematically. I would like to see an Antarctic Tarot card in the next set though. — Staticalchemist · 1
The Hungering Blade

I initially dismissed this as an option in Nathaniel Cho but after giving it a shot, it might be a decent option in him. It has the same use case as Mark, with Cho not really needing the extra from weapons. It also works alongside Boxing Gloves, if you're willing to run Bandolier so you can have both. The fact that it's a one-off weapon is also mitigated by the fact that Cho doesn't really need weapons over his fight events, and his unique card can search a weapon.

Is this good? Well, the obvious downside is that as soon as the blade's out, you need to kill with the blade, and not kill with fight events. Cho's fight events range from 2 damage utility events - Clean Them Out, ["Get over here!"], and the lower levelled Counterpunch and Heroic Rescue - 3 damage events like Monster Slayer, Mano a Mano and the levelled Counterpunch, to the big guns of Dynamite Blast and One-Two Punch. So if an enemy has 3 health, do you use a 3 damage Cho event or a 2 damage one followed up by a Hungering Blade hit? Or do you not waste the event and just hit twice with the blade? In that case, is there much point in running the blade at all when you could just hit with an event then make a normal punch? Obviously the more enemies on you, the better - you can finish off a 2-4 health enemy with an event followed by a blade hit, then kill a 1-2 health enemy with a blade hit to get 2 charges, but whether this is going to happen frequently is questionable.

Perhaps you can simply run fewer damage events, and more utility spirit-traited events like Stand Together or "I've had worse…". But then what happens if you never draw the blade?

If you have the blade but not the gloves, you can save up on fight events while just killing with the blade. If you have the gloves but not the blade, you can use the events faster and search into more, thinning the deck to make the blade a more likely draw. But if you don't draw either, you're in trouble without weapon searching tools.

I think there may be a balance between fight and utility events that can make this work, depending on the scenario. My main problem with building Nathanial before I got Dream Eaters has been that there's only really one deck for him - load up on fight events and ways to draw boxing gloves. But The Hungering Blade makes me think there are some more niche builds that might have a place in him. I enjoyed the build on my first try, but I think a little more testing is required. Still, it's a deck I'm happy to test.

SSW · 217
What about backpack 2 to search for gloves, bandolier and the blade? Prepared for the worst with 0 xp? — Django · 5175
I'm not sure what's the advantage of this card over a Machete on such a Natcho build. Even ignoring the possibility of taking horror due to bad luck, it will cost 3 draws, and Nat likes his draw to cycle events. The Hungering Blade when charged up gives a higher fight bonus, which as you say Natcho doesn't need (especially with Bandolier and Gloves out), and doesn't require engagement, but Natcho can just punch his way through them or Get Over Here/Heroic Rescue/Rightous Hunt etc. — suika · 9527
You can shuffle Bloodlust into your deck for extra damage, but using that regularly means it'll cost you even more draws and delay your cycling of fight events back into your deck. — suika · 9527
"Fool me once..."

Don’t forget, it’s not only the future card that you cancel, but the existing card is also removed from the deck while waiting for future nastiness. Some of the nastiest scenarios in the game have ancient evils and the encounter discard pile gets shuffled back into the deck one or more times. So this card takes Ancient evils (or other doom-applying card effects) out, making the encounter deck lovely and cuddly when reshuffled.

I wonder what happens with this card for surge cards. I know you can't cancel the surge, but if its a truly horrible one (say some of the peril surge doom-adding cards early on in The Forgotten Age), then could you discard and cancel the revelation effects of the card with a Ward of Protection, but because the surge keyword does have an effect, you could also play Fool me Once..., to protect against a future version of the card (in the case of a peril card, clearly only works if you are the one to draw it a second time)

If that does count, then you could even play that very same "Fool me once..." again, if you are playing Diana and have the twilight blade in play?

1) Draw the first encounter card (a treachery one) with a surge effect (and a nasty revelation effect). Resolve any effects

2) Play "Fool me once..." and attach the nasty encounter card to it.

... play a few more rounds...

3) Eventually draw a second nasty treachery card of the same type.

4) Trigger the reaction ability on "Fool me once..." - cancel the card's revelation effect.

5) Trigger Diana's ability to put the "Fool me once..." card underneath Diana (draw a card and resource)

6) Resolve the treachery card's surge effect. (note the rules do specifically use the word resolve for the surge keyword)

7) Get to the point where you are about to discard the treachery card in question.

8) Trigger the reaction ability on Twilight Blade to place "Fool me once..." in your play area and attach the treachery to it.

Any thoughts on that ?

Phoenixbadger · 199
Note* do not cuddle the encounter deck, very dangerous — StyxTBeuford · 13072
Needs the GW Bush quote. — MrGoldbee · 1512
There’s an old saying in Tennessee — StyxTBeuford · 13072
...you can't get fooled again. This effect is really good in TCU, where you lock down Daemonic Piping/Terror in the Night/Ultimate Chaos and prevent the set of 3 from ever being completed. — suika · 9527
Make sure to use card sleeves if you do cuddle the deck. Thanks for safety reminder StyxTBeauford — Phoenixbadger · 199
Absolutely, but as we all know, abstinence is the only guaranteed way to protect yourself. — StyxTBeuford · 13072
Cuddling the encounter deck is why Cthulhu created cuddlefish. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1099