Curse of Yig

Curse of Yig

Last time my friend as Calvin Wright with only 1 health left drew this. He kept Perseverance in hand for damage dealing treachery , but Curse of Yig doesn't deal damage, making Perseverance useless against it. Calvin died during his transformation into Serpent, sadly. What a nasty encounter card.

Secutor145 · 3
That is a pretty edge case, you must admit. Maybe the lesson is "don't run Calvin through TF..." — LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
Killed me once as Trish! — MrGoldbee · 1492
True. It was our first FA run. Guess he would reconsider his choice of charactor knowing how terrifying the jungle is. — Secutor145 · 3
Calvin likes trauma, though, and TFA awards a lot of trauma. I think that's what they were going for releasing him as part of that cycle anyway. — Zinjanthropus · 230
Calvin can also take both Test of Will and Ward, as well. — Zinjanthropus · 230
The trick is to get it to stop awarding Trauma, although I guess that is a problem bigger than Calvin. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1084

Curse of Yig

Curse of Yig

Oh, Yig, you wily monstrosity! The -1 isn't so bad, the -1 health definitely sneaks up on you and makes you more paranoid, and the Serpent trait keeps getting you excited when you draw Encounter cards like Children of Valusia and think you are getting a benefit, then you notice it's "Serpent enemies," and you hear Yig laughing in the distance. Drat you, Yig! That Pit Viper was trying to bite me! We need a card called "Reasonable Explanation" that removes Vengeance.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
A week ago I might have agreed that the -1 fight was more annoying than bad. Then I played a scenario where it knocked me off the "sweet spot" and made spooky tokens incredibly dangerous. I'd say if you're the fighter, it's either annoying or devastating, but otherwise it's pretty irrelevant. — SGPrometheus · 847
If you’re at 1 health, this makes you paranoid when you draw encounter cards — Django · 5162

Devil's Luck

Devil's Luck

The issue with this one is that it is exceedingly rare to be dealt around 10 damage and/or horror in a single instance (the poster child being Beyond the Veil).

Perseverance covers real-world cases at a cheaper XP cost.

jd9000 · 77
There are some final scenarios where a bad token pull or a card can deal 4-6 combined damage and horror in a single go. Even if you wouldn't be defeated, you probably don't want to take that. So, yes, this is a tiny bit more expensive (but 1 XP = 1 resource cost isn't unusual; see most of the talents, Proposterous Sketches)), but it is a more flexible card and, even if you don't get "full value," if it keeps you in the scenario, that's worth an XP. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
I agree it's more a tech card than just goodstuff you can put into any deck (like lucky! for instance). it might also be significantly stronger when played in a deck built around Deja Vu. — PowLee · 15
Or in final scenarios, where you could not care less about Exiling, and where a lot of the 3 damage and 3 horror attacks might reasonably turn up. This is no Deny Existance (5), but it has a place. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
It's worth noting that Devil's Luck costs one resource fewer to play and isn't conditional upon the damage or horror being able to defeat you like Perseverance is, which adds up to reasonable value for a 1 XP investment even if you only intend to use it to block hits that deal four damage and/or horror or fewer. This is probably the most relevant in Dark Horse decks, where reactive cards that cost one resource are a fair bit more wieldy than cards which cost two. This only really relevant in final scenarios, one-shot adventures, and Deja Vu decks, but worth bearing in mind all the same. — RichardUptonDeckman · 33

Day of Reckoning

Day of Reckoning

There is one investigator for whom this is particularly horrid. If Jacqueline Fine is sitting down at your table, don’t even shuffle this one in. It makes her weakness, Dark Future, unable to be resolved.

MrGoldbee · 1492
Thankfully it's attached to the agenda so it can disappear with time. — jdk5143 · 98
Still, up to 10+ turns of not using your core gimmick? — MrGoldbee · 1492
There are only a small handful of scenarios with an agenda that long, and you would have to hit both weaknesses very early in the agenda. In exchange, it’s one of the least impactful weaknesses in the game most of the rest of the time? And it doesn’t even stop her from using her gimmick on cards such as Voice of Ra, Recharge, or Hypnotic Gaze? I’m not especially concerned. There are far more punishing combinations of basic weakness and investigator. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Depending on difficutly, this may also prevent you from playing crystalline elder sign or it's 2nd copy. — Django · 5162
I'm not even sure this is that bad for Jacqueline, especially since it requires you to draw both weaknesses in short succession. It's still laughable compared to other bad deck-weakness combinations like Doomed in Patrice, The Tower in Minh, or Paranoia in a big money deck. — PowLee · 15
In MrGoldbee's (or Mr. MrGoldbee's, we haven't been introduced) defense, it is an annoying weakness in all cases, less annoying in some scenarios (e.g. Essex Country Express) more in others (e.g. The Doom of Eztli). It does threaten Jacqueline particularly badly. I agree there are worse Basic Weaknesses (e.g. The Tower), but it's a reasonable review. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
More to the point, when you search the Chaos Bag for a token, do you "reveal" it? If so, could Father Mateo use his ability to treat the Tentacle as an Elder Sign and seal that instead? Could Many use her ability to seal an extra token (say, the Tentacle)? On checking, I see that it specifies "deck." Bah. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1084
While it is true that it could stop you from playing CES or Mateo's Codex, those cards could also prevent this weakness from doing anything at all. Also, arguably a positive thing for Daisy. — Zinjanthropus · 230

Carolyn Fern

Carolyn Fern

SGPrometheus already wrote a definitive guide to Carolyn, but with the Innsmouth conspiracy, she's playable in a fourth archetype, blendable with the other ones. Holy Roller.

It's entirely due to the Book of Psalms. A card that’s decent for others is a godsend* for Dr. Fern, paying for itself +1, healing potentially eight horror from your teammates with hypnotic therapy in play (more with knowledge is power).

Add Rite of Sanctification, and spiritual therapy is very possible. Your super expensive assets are now much cheaper, adding 10 bucks to the party with an action and a card. You can pair this with more support or clue hunting, because a better bag makes you more capable of anything. Get out your appointment book, there’s a new way to play Carolyn.

*Ha ha?

MrGoldbee · 1492
Hey that's me! I did that thing! That review is super old now; I'd update it, but I haven't played Carolyn in ages. — SGPrometheus · 847