Opportunist

Winnifred loves this one. You play two skills to a test, you get to draw a card. One stays in your hand if you super succeed on the test. So every skill test, you get to draw a card. Your hand stays steady. Soon you need your own cave to store all the wine you stole.

MrGoldbee · 1497
since winnifred has to commit 2 different skill cards, you can't increase your hand by comitting two Opportunist. So her hand stays the same size through her ability with Opportunist, rather than growing — niklas1meyer · 1
Have tried, can confirm, Winifred loves Opportunist. You're pretty much always trying to win by 2 anyway to benefit from Lucky Cigarette Case, Watch This, Quick Thinking, etc. — Zinjanthropus · 231
Nik is right! — MrGoldbee · 1497
I actually did not realize that, but they do still both return to your hand, so you can, e.g. commit 2x opportunist + QT + Watch This for +1 card, +4 skill modifier, and most likely +3 resources and +1 action (as well as Opportunist returning to hand).. It's still good. — Zinjanthropus · 231
yes they both return, but you wouldn`t come out with a netto of +1 card, you commited 4 cards, get 2 back and draw 1 with winifreds effect, so in the end your hand is -1 card — niklas1meyer · 1
If you aren't running Lucky Cigarette Case with Winifred, you're doing it wrong, though. I have found that her ability + LCC + 2xPickpocketing 2 is plenty to keep her hand full. Opportunist helps if you aren't evading something or if you need to increase the number of cards in hand — Zinjanthropus · 231
To be clear, I think Opportunist 2 (especially if you have 2 copies) is good for Winny because it allows her to push her skill value into succeed-by-two range without sacrificing _as many_ cards in hand. In many cases, you can successfully replace the cards you spent, and in some cases (with Pickpocketing 2 + Lucky Cigarette Case) it lets you net cards in hand — Zinjanthropus · 231
Yeah never said something against that, just that commiting 2 copies of opportunists doesn't trigger winnifreds ability and so don't "increase" your hand size, just keeps it stable. Of course you can draw cards through other cards etc — niklas1meyer · 1
Stealth 2 gives her something close to a free evade each turn to trigger aforementioned cards — Django · 5171
Drawing Thin

At three experience, this stops being an auto-include for every single survivor. If you’re going for a big money deck, with teamwork to help out your buddies, you’re probably gonna make more than Jenny trying to get her hot streaks, as your toys cost less. Two bucks a turn every turn, or four bucks with two, in exchange for a failure or a more difficult action.

Making a test harder for yourself, especially if you have other failure cards, can be a strategy, but it’s no longer -the- strategy*. And as much as I love playing Rita and having an economy made from two copies of one card, this is a reasonable taboo.

*Unless you're Stella.

MrGoldbee · 1497
I think it's still a good Rita choice, as she tends to be bad at reliably failing tests (because of her +2 Elder Sign) without it. Also with two copies the card draw can really be beneficial for finding Peter, Track Shoes, etc. But yeah, it's definitely not an auto-include anymore. — Zinjanthropus · 231
The Yellow Sign

I highly, highly disagree with the FAQ. That isn't how it is written. You would take two horror and do the search. You then draw tge card and play it. The horror OBVIOUSLY comes before the card play. Even if it comes from official sources, it does not follow the rules or logic of the game.

Tilted Libra · 37
Proof of why interactions work is very lax around here, but in this case it's not wrong. Keyword here is "after you take". You take the horror during the skill test, virtually at the same time as (but after) putting the weakness in your threat area. Only after the test ends can the weakness check whether you took horror. Long explanation: You initiate a skill test, which has 8 steps, and after determining your failure(step 6), resolve the consequences of failing, which is taking horror and drawing a madness. At this point you're at step 7, take the horror and put the weakness in play during the test still in step 7. Then you end the test at step 8 and clean up, putting chaos tokens and committed cards away. Only after it is done will Psychosis check for horror damage because of the "after" wording. — Mataza · 19
I appreciate the explanation! — Tilted Libra · 37
Scavenging

Minh Thi Phan can now become the Keymaster from the Matrix with Old Keyring and Scavenging (2). As long as you can afford to spend 1 resource every 2 successful investigates to pay for the keys, you are effectively permanently removing 2 shroud from every location.

Erdjo · 329
Actually "After you successfully..." happens in St.6 before "If you succeed" which is St.7, so the keyring discards after Scavenging triggers. — Kittibop · 1
Amanda Sharpe

Rules clarifications

  • Both of Amanda's abilities are mandatory (see errata), including putting a card below Amanda.
  • Hidden cards: Treat it as if it were in your threat area, so you cannot but it below Amanda.
  • It's possible to put non-hidden weaknesses and encounter cards below her. Examples for valid weaknesses: Doomed, Dark Pact, The Tower • XVI; I don't know if valid encounter cards exist, most are hidden.
  • If you have no other cards than non-hidden weakness or encounter cards in hand, you must choose them.
  • Weaknesses and encounter cards below Amanda can be discarded. Weakness rules only prohibit optionally discarding weaknesses in your hand, but it's not in your hand and discarding is mandatory.
  • If you have no cards in hand, you cannot put one below Amanda. For example you discarded your hand during mythos and Amanda's ability drew a weakness that was put into play.

This character has a very strong ability and combo potential, though her low stats seem to be the balancing factor. Cards with constant bonuses will work well on her, like Milan, Magnifying glass and Death. Or temporary replacement, like the Red gloved man or Strange Solutions (Acidic).

I think the most powerful combo on her will be Quick thinking (gained through Versatile) + Red gloved man, potentially gaining close to infinite actions. Both stay during next mythos phase, so the combo may go off again if you succeed on an encounter card.

Combos

  • Grisly Totem 3 (seeker): +1 first skill test and draw another card each turn
  • Neutral skill cards like perception: draw lots of cards
  • Vicious Blow and Upgrade + Acidic Strange Solution: Deal 12 or 15 damage in 1 turn
  • Daredevil 2: I don't think this is worth to put below her. If you have 2 of 3 aces in your hand, this potentially guarantees the third if you have no other rogue skill cards in the deck.
  • Enraptured: Add 3 charges/ secrets to other cards, see below.
  • Eureka: Only +1 to tests, but better than draw 3 cards
  • Essence of the dream (dream diary): Skill card with 2/ 4 symbols that you can put below her. The timing is a bit off, so you can only use it every other turn.
  • Leadership 2: Only +1 to tests but gain up to 6 ressources
  • Stunning blow: Auto evade 3 times, if your attack succeeds (not very likely without fight boosts)
  • Three Aces: Put one below Amanda and try to find 2 with Practiced makes perfect to get 2 auto successes (also gain6 cards and 6 ressources)

Versatile combos

  • Quick Thinking + Red gloved man: Gain close to infinite actions
  • Take heart: draw 6 cards and 6 ressources if you fail 3 tests
  • Arcane Insight + Archaic Glyphs (Markings of Isis) + Double or Nothing: Investigate shroud 0 and put 2 assets into play each time, ignoring their ressource costs
  • Fearless: Heal 3 sanity
  • Inspiring Presence: Use exhausting allies more often, see below
  • Nimble: Reveal all locations

Enraptured targets for secrets and charges

  • Pendant of the queen: Auto evade, clue, teleport. Easy to assemble with all your card draw
  • Mr. Rook: Search for more important combo pieces
  • Arcane Insight: Reduce shroud to 0
  • Archaic Glyphs (Markings of Isis): Put assets into play without spending actions and ignore their ressource cost
  • Feed the mind: Draw more cards, but potential horror
  • Ancient Stone: Deal more damage/ heal horror
  • In the Know: Barricade yourself and takes clues from afar
  • Old Book of Lore 3: Play assets cheaper
  • Pnakotic Manuscript: Avoid chaos tokens (auto success)
  • Scroll of Prophecies: Draw more cards; Add Abigail for double the fun and Ancient stone
  • Scroll of Secrets 3: Not very good but may have some combos in the future
  • More with Versatile but I dont think they're worth it, like Shriveling or Rite of Seeking

Inspiring Presence Targets

  • Charles Ross: Make the next item cheaper by additional 3, i don't think this is worth it
  • Mr. Rook: Use his secrets more quickly, but i don't think this is worth it
  • Alice Luxley (Versatile): Deal 3 damage when investigating
  • David Renfield (Versatile): Get lots of ressources, best used when you're about to remove him with a free action (Smoking pipe)
  • Olive McBride (Versatile): Draw more tokens, avoid Autofail. I don't think this is worth it due to Amanda's low stats.
  • Venturer (Versatile): Reload guns, Ornate bow and strange solution more quickly. I don't think this is worth it, moving 1 supply each turn suffices in most cases (E.cache 3 adds more supplies to venturer)
Django · 5171
As a minor point, Markings of Isis only lets you put an asset into play if you succeed by its cost. That means that if you have DoN beneath Amanda, and get the shroud down to 0, but don't commit any cards, and draw a -3 (fairly common) you could only put 2 0 cost assets into play for free, which is only a little better than just making a play action (you do also get a clue, though). You could commit stuff to the test to have a better chance of putting higher cost assets into play. There are also static boosts that make this more effective. — Zinjanthropus · 231
I do really like the Daredevil + Three Aces interaction. That's a cool combo that would be improved by Practice Makes Perfect. Using 2 PMP to try to dig out 2 aces, OTOH is quite risky unless you only have 10 or fewer cards left in your deck, but a much higher ceiling, of course. — Zinjanthropus · 231
What DoN stands for? — Susu · 36
@Susu Double or Nothing — Death by Chocolate · 1491
With the taboo on double or nothing making it costs 3 XP toi car add it with versatile. — Susu · 36
@Susu the taboo on DON just changes the cost, not the level of the card. — mazrim · 1
what if you start investigation phase without any card and you draw a weakness? or an ocult weakness — toriano · 3
I added "rules clarifications" at the top of my review. What do you mean with "occult weakness"? — Django · 5171