Colt Vest Pocket

Funny gun and most certainly, bad.

The Colt Vest Pocket is native to a small and specific theme/archetype of who sneak assets into play quickly, it's a build based on the mechanics of cards like Joey "The Rat" Vigil, Sleight of Hand and Fence, I.E you play it quick and action free and deal the damage easily and efficiently.

A few other cards exist to support this, Fence can be used to play Pay Day, so that's a source of economy for the build. Narrow Escape can be used to play the gun when Fence or Joey "The Rat" Vigil are unavailable, certain characters might use it with either variant of "Eat lead!".

Many of the aforementioned cards, notable Joey "The Rat" Vigil, Fence, "Eat lead!" and arguably: Pay Day, are all rather shaky or outright BAD cards. Colt Vest Pocket is by no means the sort of gun that warrants doubling down on a variety of bad cards to try and make them all work properly.

If a character arises who can somehow play weapons the way Leo Anderson can play his allies, then Colt Vest Pocket will rise to recognition, otherwise it will remain on the bottom of the barrel, ready to be scraped up by folks who want to push the limits of deckbuilding.

Edit: After a little extra testing, I got to admit that a Finn Edwards deck with Sleight of Hand and Leo De Luca to get some actions stands a half-good chance to make this card shine. The free evade and extra action can give you space to safely get 3 shots from the gun, Sleight ups that to 4 shots. The card is still bad but it's passable for a 0-xp deck, they are, after all, not particularly powerful at level 0.

Tsuruki23 · 2546
I think there's more support for it than you give credit. Borrowed Time, Swift Reflexes, Quick Thinking (and Double or Nothing), and Ace in the Hole all give you extra actions (as does Skids' ability). You can very easily with Skids have a 5 or 6 round turn, which allows you to use the Colt's 5 charges, which is potentially 10 damage in one turn, which is actually pretty insane. That said the build as it stands is agreeably shaky. Without Beat Cop Skids would just be fighting at 4, so it's fairly likely to miss on that big health enemy you're trying to take down in one go. — StyxTBeuford · 13026
There’s also a cute synergy with The Golden Pocketwatch since repeating the Investigator Phase gives you two turns to unload it before the round ends. — Death by Chocolate · 1467
So the problems with this card are: (1) you have to jump through a lot of hoops to take extra actions in order to capitalize on it, and (2) most Rogues only have 3 combat and would rather use weapons with +2 boosts. So if the Colt Vest has a home it is with an investigator who has access to green cards, has a very high combat skill, and can take extra actions in combat. Hmm. — Spritz · 69
Hmm. :) — Death by Chocolate · 1467
Man, it's going to be a sad day for Skids once Dream Eaters gets released. — StyxTBeuford · 13026
My thought too. Poor guy lost all of his niches progressively as other folk got released. — Tsuruki23 · 2546
He’s still got Alice Luxley and Ornate Bow. I believe in a future where Skids becomes a reverse Roland. — StyxTBeuford · 13026
Something Worth Fighting For

Something Worth Fighting For is a funky card. It's a relatively bad card, in that it highly inefficiently does just the one thing that loads of other cards do better. It negates a bit of horror at the cost of 3 resources, an action and a card. Compare this to, say, Beat Cop who gives you + or Art Student who picks up a clue or Dr. William T. Maleson who does 66% of Something Worth Fighting For's work at 33% of the cost AND has damage tank AND an ability.

In case its not obvious yet, the reason Something Worth Fighting For is still worth a card slot in rare few decks is this: All of those other cards are allies!!! Without access to Cherished Keepsake or Holy Rosary there's is a very real dearth of horror tank options that aren't allies and even those two are accessories, therefore occupying a different contested slot themselves (a problem that characters can attest to).

So, Something Worth Fighting For occupies the weird niche of preventing horror without filling any slots, more like a healing event (Logical Reasoning) than an asset. Certain characters will find Something Worth Fighting For occupying a key niche: Expand your horror tank without interfering with your allies.

Oh, there's also an ability text? Yeah you can just ignore that, you can bother to dig it up for the niche cases where a friend is literally 1 horror from death and you playing Something Worth Fighting For might help them reach the final clue or resignation location. 90% of the time, this is YOUR horror soak.

It's not a bad 1-off for dudes like Roland Banks or Mark Harrigan whose weaknesses cause horror, to be upgraded asap to "I've had worse…".

Tsuruki23 · 2546
also useful for Diana Stanley to cope with her signature weakness Dark Secret — An_Undecayed_Whately · 1263
Chicago Typewriter

This thing is the big gun of doom. The big bang.

For Reference, the historically most powerful weapon in the game until the latter packs of Forgotten age was the Lightning Gun, it still remains on the short list of most powerful weapons in the game.

Compared to Lightning Gun Chicago Typewriter deals the same amount of damage, has one extra ammo and costs one less XP and Resource. The only disadvantage is the drastically lower attack bonus of +2 instead of +5, this is a big issue because most characters start from 4, so the combined attack is +9, a will land all of its's Lightning bolts straight up with no help from anything else. The usually starts from 3 and the +2 puts them at +5, an unimpressive number to say the least, the extra action pump can remedy that partially. Other sources of raw boosts are required to reach proper accuracy.

Some simple upsides to Chicago Typewriter:

"Skids" O'Toole can make full use of Chicago Typewriter, he's not the best character ever but if anybody has the cards for Chicago Typewriter, its him.

Jenny Barnes has the money to pay for it, she can emergency tech in some of those cards from to make the hits land. Jenny Barnes is probably the top character for utilizing the big gun right now. Until the next deluxe that is.

All in all, Chicago Typewriter is a great card, it's just in a weird spot where there aren't (good)characters around for whom it's a natural 1st priority upgrade. Thankfully this problem will be remedied in the Dreamlands deluxe where a 5 will be unleashed.

Tsuruki23 · 2546
Nailed my thoughts on the Typewriter. This weapon is great but who wants to use it. Tony, who you mention, obviously likes it but I think The Ornate Bow is a better match for Skids and Jenny since you can invest totally in Agility upgrades and skill icons. This just seems to be a case where the cardset and investigator strengths and weaknesses work against what would otherwise be a great card. — The Lynx · 979
"I've had worse…"

Superb card. Often enough you'dd play the 4-xp version to negate 2 horror and this version here does just that, for less XP! I wouldn't be hesitant to claim "I've had worse…" the better card of the two.

"I've had worse…" negates 2 points of pain and rewards you 2 resources for it, each of these effects is'nt by any means a powerful effect on its own, but the two combined effects are greater than the sum of their part. Cards are a precious resource and when cards arise that double dip roles those cards warrant special attention. Taking damage is a bit of an art-form, and characters gotta be good at it, this requires some soaks and weapons to mitigate and prevent incoming pain, "I've had worse…" does the former and helps you pay for the latter.

Most characters already give consideration to "I've had worse…", the 2xp variant is going to be hard not to justify.

Off class characters should also take note, Diana Stanley in particular loves the cancel trigger. "Skids" O'Toole has problems and "I've had worse…" can be a hugely helpful influx of cash and survivability for him. William Yorick does not care, at all. Joe Diamond likes it so/so, he has higher priorities but "I've had worse…" is not a terrible way for him to conserve deckspace.

"I've had worse…" is one of those rare cards that are near universally good, only niche characters who have overabundant survivability won't consider it.

Tsuruki23 · 2546
Wither

EDIT: I misunderstood the card negatively, which is funny because I was very much pleased with it to start with! This should reflect how good the card is better:

I'm a fan of Wither, a cheap asset that can be used infinitely kill off problems that aren't worth charges from other assets, it's a great backup weapon, 1-off, or to dual wield with Shrivelling or Enchanted Blade or Ornate Bow or Timeworn Brand (I.E, a fight heavy whose role is to kill things, like many forms of Agnes Baker, Diana Stanley and Jim Culver). "Super archmage" builds with Sign Magick will also be interested. The -1 fight and evade trigger is surprisingly useful in making hits land or getting out of trouble.

So, the upgrade is worth it's XP cost because:

  • The -1 health effect reduces the written HP total of the target by 1 and triggers whether or not you actually hit, this can create some funky circumstances such as:
    • You shoot a 2-hp foe a and get a token, killing it in one attack.
    • You miss a damaged enemy, but draw a special token, reducing their health total enough to make their existing damage kill them anyway!
  • The +2 and special trigger combine to make Wither very, accurate. The largest penalties are often keyed on tokens and Wither innately resists those.

Layer all of this with Wither's initial ability to infinitely channel into damage and you've got yourself a very good attack spell, whether it's for the 5- juggernaughts who do everything via or the 4- midrangers who like to use their other stats for things and miss the occational spell charge.

This card stands out as being FAR more impressive than it seems at first glance, especially in the latter half of a campaign where special tokens tend to be much more numerous. Wither a very impressive attack spell that manages to stand alongside without replacing Shrivelling.

Edit 2: After now playing in 3 campaigns with Wither, I'll stand by it except in 1 circumstance. In a skillful and informed playthrough of Dunwich you might manage to not actually add any special tokens to the bag, in this case Wither looses much of its luster.

Tsuruki23 · 2546
I want to like it, but at 4xp I think it's overpriced. I'm not too sure of the maths on this, but I'm guessing that most of the time you're only going to be at 40% or worse of pulling a token that would trigger the -1 damage. The +2 will is replicated by Shrivelling(3) anyway so the hit rate is not a big deal. Why exactly does this spell cost more xp ? It's overpriced for what it brings to the table. Not bad exactly, but it's never going to be a priority upgrade. — Sassenach · 179
I think it could be interesting in an Olive+Grotesque build (though so is Songs of the Dead), but otherwise in terms of doing damage I'd take Shrivelling 3 over this. Agnes in particular likes Shrivelling better since she gets to do extra damage anyway if she pulls a spooky token. I think if it gave the -1 health/fight/evade for the whole round it would be worthwhile, because then you could have anyone else come in and punch a now withered monster. Maybe some strategy with Swift Reflexes? — StyxTBeuford · 13026
It doesn’t actually matter whether the health reduction is before or after in your example. If it had been after then you would (1) deal one damage, (2) reduce its health from 2 to 1, and (3) then it would die because it has damage equal or greater than its health. — Death by Chocolate · 1467
#Death by Chocolate. You mean that the reduced health keys off total health rather then current health? — Tsuruki23 · 2546
Definitely. Health is the number printed on the card. It doesn't change with damage. — CSerpent · 126
Also note that the health reduction is only until the end of the investigator's turn. You're right that it defeats a 2 health enemy, but it is not the same as damage because it will go away if you don't defeat the enemy.. — CSerpent · 126
if you are with 1 HP left and you fail an attack with special token against a monster with 1HP left and retaliation keyword, are you both defeated? — chrome · 57
It should also be noted that the effect happens in step 3 of the skill test (https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Skill_Test_Timing), so you could you're sort of at a +3 vs special tokens. You can also end in a sitaution where the enemy dies, before the attack is finalized, which is a bit funny — dotPeddy · 1
I think it is worth combining with Shards of the Void. It takes the normal downside of Sealing 0s and turns it into a positive for Wither, which also lets you conserve Charges. — Radix · 1
@chrome, the special token effect happens at ST3, so I think you would defeat the enemy at ST3, before the enemy can retaliate. (The retaliation only happens AFTER the entire skill test has been resolved, as per the section on the "Retaliate" keyword in the Rules Reference.) The only exception would be if you're fighting an enemy that already only has 1 (max) Health, because Wither can't decrease the max health of the enemy down to 0. — iceysnowmansolo · 1
If several special tokens are revealed during a test (with grotesque statue, olive or dark prophecy, does the effect trigger several times ? — JemJaime · 8
@JemJaime No, for a couple of reasons. If the highest review in Shards of the Void is accurate, then effects which reveal and then ignore tokens do not consider ignored tokens to be 'revealed'. As such, Grotesque Statue or Dark Prophecy would only 'reveal' one token. Olive McBride also has an explicit ruling that if an effect triggers on a token type revelation, "Such an effect will not trigger twice if two of the designated tokens are resolved." — Ruduen · 1001
Totally understand why people don't like this card, but to me this is a way to kill an enemy without using a charge on Enchanted Blade for example. If you hit a 3 health enemy with Wither and a special token, the enemy now has 2 health and 1 damage, so you can just attack with Enchanted Blade, and it is important to note the card reads; you may spend a charge, which in this case you are going to kill an enemy in 2 actions with no charges spent which is huge in my opinion in a Mystic build. — TiguiDaisy · 19