Blackmail File

Not gonna lie, this looks like hot garbage, but I want to write a review in the hope that someone proves me wrong.

This costs 2 resources and an Action to give you the ability to make a test that makes an enemy not bother the party until the end of the round, so I see it as very similar to Mists of R'lyeh. Obviously, there are quite some differences:

  • Different class
  • Doesn't use charges and is slotless
  • Parley instead of Evade
  • No bonus movement (and no drawback for the scary tokens)
  • Non-Elite enemies only, but can be used on enemies not engaged with you
  • Test against printed health instead of evade value
  • Aloof instead of exhaust if successful

Let's start with the class. While Mystics like to use on each and every test, it's one of the most common weaknesses of Rogues all around. In fact, every single green 'gator so far has an equal or higher , so why would they bother. Some of the outside-class 'gators that can take this have stats better suited for it, but Pete, Jim and Zoey have way better things to do with their limited out-of-class slots, while Leo Anderson has the means to deal with enemies in a more definitive way.
Dexter might consider this in order to have different options to play with his ability, but that comes with the age old question "why pick an Evade spell when I can pick a Fight one", especially since being a main-class Mystic means he has other options if he wants some way to deal with enemies while building as a cluever (like Mists of R'lyeh itself). The lack of charges is also kind of an anti-synergy for him, since he likes to have expended assets to throw away.
For Parallel Daisy this has the arguable advantage of being a slotless tome, thus bringing with it a stat boost and a semi-reliable way to deal with enemies, does she have the deckspace for it, though?

Now, clearly, this being a parley card we must consider it in the parley-centric investigator that got released together with this card. Thanks to this card, Alessandra Zorzi can sort-of-evade each round as a free action, but I feel like the drawbacks of having to play this in advance (contrary to the various evade events she has at her disposal), testing a lower stat and not working against Elites outweight the saved actions (even considering the engage actions you would normally take to evade an enemy engaged with a friend) and deckspace. I can see it in a level-0 deck if you have few other options, but I would upgrade out of it fairly quicky.

When it comes to the "special effects" of this card, they leave me pretty confused. Testing against health is rarely an advantage, since the few times the evade value is higher it usually means that it's easier to just kill the enemy. Giving them aloof instead of exhausting them honestly just sounds like a disadvantage: can't attack them without engaging, they will move during the enemy phase if they're hunters and you can't engage and move them around freely if you need it for some enemy-to-clue shenanigans.

All in all, looks like blackmailing ain't worth it.

tinybreeder · 21
Seems fun in Sef, especially in TFA multi. No need to engage/evade. With fine clothes, auto succeed vs nasty non-hunters. — MrGoldbee · 1463
#Alessandra Zorzi likes to have enemies at her location to enable other parley tests. — JosieBean · 1
This is not a good card IMO because it costs too much and is too difficult to use. That said, it is often better to make a hunter enemy aloof for a round than to evade them conventionally, because that way they can move to your guardian and engage them at the end of the round without getting an attack in. — OrionAnderson · 71
You also get to avoid triggering Alert — OrionAnderson · 71
The point regarding Alert is a valid one I think. Also, there are scenarios or at least parts of them where you it's actually bad to kill certain enemies while the game makes them annoying for you nonetheless. Aloof fixes that. — AlderSign · 300
On the Hunt

Automatically engaging is an amazingly powerful effect when combined with the full choice of all enemies in the encounter deck. Whippoorwills are fairly benign, but become downright pathetic when they're face to face with the main fighter.

I'm pretty sure this works even against concealed since player cards can override game rules, so you replace the concealed spawn instructions with them being engaged with you.

Gws · 75
Winifred Habbamock

FHV-Era Winifred Update/Retrospective:

When the investigator decks came out, I saw a lot of buzz for Winifred, but it died down almost immediately when Edge of the Earth released with a pile of interesting new investigators and a very powerful card set that offered Wini almost nothing she wanted. Edge of the Earth. EoTE was an asset-heavy set chock full of multiclass synergies, bonus action sources (Eon Chart, The Red Clock, etc.), big money tech, and trait-based boosters (Crafty) that rewarded playing items and assets instead of skills. So did the best rogue card in the set (Black Market). Apart from offering Savant and Blur to let Wini pass will tests and waste less time evading, it offered very little support to skill-based, gun-based, foot-based, or oversuccess-based green archetypes. It was the meta of building a big board and then taking lots of tests at high static numbers.

Fortunately, The Scarlet Keys and Hemlock Vale have been much kinder to Wini, delivering plenty of support in all the areas she needed.

Deck Manipulation & Consistency:

Underworld Market is an amazing boon to Winifred, especially for long scenarios. By sticking her weapons and tools in a side deck she can achieve a much higher density of skill cards in her main deck, allowing her self-replenishing skill card engine to run much more smoothly than before. If you end up cycling your deck the option to leave spare weapons and backup soak options in the market until needed unclogs your reshuffles beautifully. Being able to hide your key assets elsewhere also makes level 0 Daredevil feel a lot more reasonable to use.

I'm not sure whether Friends in Low Places is useful or overkill and whether you use it to tutor for assets or refill on skills, but I think you definitely run it. "Bolstering" seems like kind of a trap; I think you only need prompt, want versatile, and maybe stretch to experienced. Innate and Practiced are the obvious choices for vacuuming up skills, but there are a few skills with gambit, fortune, trick, and cursed which can help you double-dip into other card types if you wish.

New Foot Payoffs

British Bull Dog and Thieves' Kit came in as simple reliable foot-based combat and investigation options, each with lots of support cards available, making it much faster for a low level Wini to get rolling. Disguise, Lightfooted, and Dirty Fighting massively increased the reward for taking normal evades, too.

Oversuccess Support

Grift and "I'll take that!" each in their way give a resource per point of success up to some cap, and Grift also gives you a diff 0 test to style on with other effects. Breaking and Entering joined the roster of reusable oversucceed events and Chuck Fergus level 2 appear to make trick builds easier to scale up.

Slot Support

Hidden Pocket can go in the market, and open up the chance for Wini to combine the Beretta M1918 with an investigation tool or Eye of the Djinn, or run Lockpicks, Thieves' Kit, and .25 Automatic all at once. Or to combine her obligatory Lucky Cigarette Case with more fun toys like the clock or garotte wire.

Considering that recent campaigns have also introduced more reasons to evade and a fair number of scenario-based foot checks, I think it's a great time to dust off Wini and put her through her paces.

Underworld Market Wini is like a new character. — MrGoldbee · 1463
Survival Technique

I seem to be missing something about that card... Everyone says this is so good combined with the pitchfork but I don't understand why. Assume not having survival technique but the pitchfork, then you would make one attack and then need one action (where attacks of oppurtunity are possible) and you have it back. Coupled with survival technique you would spend a fast action to get it back on your hand and then spend an action to play it (paying 3 resourses). This does not help. What am I missing?

Xetolosch · 2
You spare the one action to pick it up. That's ok in general. The skill bonus is also nice. Where it shines is when you are playing Wilson, who can perform the fight action with his signature as a fast action. — Tharzax · 1
I have to add that you can use the second ability of the fork with survival technique to put the fork as a fast action into your play area. There you can use the fork for a second attack. In total that are 6 damage in one turn for a two card combo which is great. And on top it's repeatable without additional costs. — Tharzax · 1
I don't get it either... I see why Wilson likes Pitchfork, but I don't see how Survival Instinct helps at all without a third card like Ad Hoc. What is this "second ability" on Pitchfork that makes playing it Fast? — Hylianpuffball · 29
@Tharzax: how? That's what I don't get, it only allows you to put the card in your hand and then you still need an action to play it... — Xetolosch · 2
You are right it's not a good combo if you need to play and pay again. Rather stick to other cards you can recur like breach the door, map the area and shrine of morai etc. — Tharzax · 1
o have I got this right that the interaction with pitchfork is that the second ability on Survival Technique puts the pitchfork into your play area ready o be used again? — FantasyMan · 14
What you missing is that this combo only works with Winston. With Winstons ad hoc you can discard Pitchwork to attack with it. On successful attack is attaches to your location. You pick it up again with Survival Technique. So this mean you get a free 3 damage attack each turn with this combo. — vidinufi · 69
it would be a good combo indeed IF wilson could get the card, but i don't think he can (survivor 2, talent and science aren't in his pool) — Tof · 1
21 or Bust

This is mostly worse than our good old friend Emergency Cache. If you play it honestly and pay normally it's only better if you hit a 20 or 21, slightly worse on an 18 or lower, and much worse if you bust. I feel that it's pretty clearly only worthwhile if you have some kind of trait synergy going with fortune or gambit, or you're already doing token manipulation.

As Elkeinkrad points out, you can pay for this with Prophetic if you have it in play, which notably improves the value proposition if you weren't using that card otherwise that turn. With mystic access, one could also try fishing for desired numbers with the new Olive McBride, although generally anyone who can run Olive can run Voice of Ra to probably-better results.

Preston Fairmont's Family Inheritance has an interesting interaction here that may make genuinely gambling worthwhile, because his resources are use-it-or-lose-it each turn unless he spend an action to bank them. With two action remaining, Preston could play 21 or Bust with his inheritance money, and then spend an action to bank his winnings if he wins big and move on with a shrug if he busts.

Finally, this card's fortune and gambit traits have some interesting potential with the premier green tutor, Friends in Low Places. Selecting gambit lets one search up a number of decent resource economy options (Bank Job, "Watch this!", Kicking the Hornet's Nest), some bonus actions (Honed Instinct, Swift Reflexes), and a handful of other utility options (Copycat, Stir the Pot, Money Talks and deck thinners (Daring Maneuver). There are also some powerful cross-class options like Act of Desperation, Transmogrify, and Practice Makes Perfect.

Fortune probably doesnt have enough hits in mono-green to be worth selecting although it has the very powerful All In and Hot Streak, but for green/red players it opens up a huge library of failure-prevention and failure-exploiting cards in Survivor.