Ancient Stone

Ancient Stone

I think this card is probably most comparable to Strange Solution. Both require one action to use and some form of test. (Strange Solution has the test built into the card itself, while Ancient Stone requires an investigate action (which is not always a test but usually is)). However, Ancient Stone is much more difficult to use because:

  • It requires 1 experience to include into the deck, making the whole upgrading process at least 1 scenario longer.
  • You actually want the test to be difficult to get more out of the upgraded versions.

However, if you can pull off the early legwork to get this going, a properly-researched Ancient Stone can be upgraded into some really powerful tools. With a lot of secrets on it, Ancient Stone (Heart of the Elders) can deal a lot of testless damage to monsters, which is amazing in this game. Ancient Stone (Minds In Harmony) is also one of the most efficient ways of healing horror in the game, which makes it a great option for Carolyn Fern (particularly if she has Shrewd Analysis).

There's been some discussion around using Double or Nothing to create an absurdly high skill test. While this is fine, Rogue cards and Seeker cards rarely show up together for the same investigator, so that can take some coordination and it might not be worth the extra effort, since the stars really have to align. However, I have found some success in using 2 copies of Drawing Thin to increase the difficulty by 4, which is still a sizeable amount. Drawing Thin is useable by Minh Thi Phan and Rex Murphy - two investigators that can get a lot of use out of the Ancient Stone - so I think there's good combo potential there. That's to say nothing about how Drawing Thin lets you draw cards before a skill test when you activate it, which means it will be useful even after you use it to boost up the Ancient Stone test number.

Overall, while this is a tough card to play and get set up, I think it is probably worth the investment. I think the new Drawing Thin makes it a lot better, particularly if you are also running Higher Education in non-Taboo scenarios.

ArkhamInvestigator · 313
Technically the test is built into the card for Ancient Stone too, but there are some location effects which may cause it to not be an Int test. — Death by Chocolate · 1484
Before the Taboo list it was relatively easy to pull the Double or Nothing combo with Higher Education, atleast in multiplayer. I used to get the stones with 14-16 secrets after the 3rd scenario of a campaign. Since now Higher Ed costs 8 XP you can't pull this off so easily. Now I am satisfied with 12 secrets and I usuallly get it after the 4th scenario and without using Higher Ed. I think the nerfing of Higher Ed and indirect nerf to the stones is good, since having this with 16 secrets after the 3rd scenario was OP. — Alogon · 1145

Investments

Investments

When you see this in your opening hand, you can easily expect this to pay off. Will it pay off in a manner that is helpful in the end game depends on how your deck operates. If there is no need for resources for your build late game this card might not be for you.

It makes sense really to take it off when you need it but not really before five or six resources are on it really if you can help it.

Bronze · 187
Since it says the supplies move "to your resource pool" instead of "gain that many resources", I'm fairly certain Preston can use this without having to pull the trigger on Family Inheritance right after- the resources should just go straight to his pool. Also worth running this alongside Lone Wolf and even Hot Streak in any deck that wants resources. I'm thinking Jenny or Preston with Cunning, Money Talks, and Well Connected, or even just to more consistently get extra actions from Skids. — StyxTBeuford · 13051
I can't see this card getting very much play tbh. The glaring issue is that this is a card which can only ever be useful if you draw it early, and even then it's going to be a slow burn. It costs you a resource and an action to play it and then only grows by 1 resource per turn thereafter. You then need to spend another action to recoup the money. If you play it turn 1 then do that on turn 3 to pull in 3 resources you've effectively spent 2 actions to gain 2 resources, which you could have done anyway. Do it on turn 4 and you've spent 2 actions to gain 3 resources, which is worse than Emergency Cache. Realistically this card will need to sit gathering interest for at least 4 turns after it hits the table, probably more. Which means of course that if you don't see it by about turn 3 or 4 of the game then you're going to have to seriously question whether it's worth playing at all and all it's worth is a book pip. To a certain extent the same applies to most economy cards of course. Drawing Thin is fantastic if you hit it early but can be pretty meh if you don't. At least that can give you a big boost right away when you play it though. With Investments you don't have that advantage, if it's not in your starting hand or drawn shortly afterwards at a time when you have a spare action to play it then it it's a throwaway card and you're likely to want to see almost anything else that's in your deck. — Sassenach · 180
I can't help thinking it would be much better if it didn't cost an action to recoup the money. If it were another free trigger/exhaust action to do that then it would still be inherently limited (you could either build the fund or pay it out but not both), but the lack of an action cost to cash in would mean this could be played later in a scenario and still be worth it. — Sassenach · 180
I think you're underrating the card quite a bit. You're right that it's not a good draw late, so if you have the ability to feed it into Cornered or Wendy/Ashcan's Ability it'd work out better for you, but it's not so much about resource gain. I think it's more that you pay one action to allow you to defer one "gain a resource" action for later so that you can play one particularly pricey asset later on. It even has the advantage of being playable in Dark Horse since it holds resources that aren't actually a part of your pool, which might allow those builds to run higher cost things. I think most importantly it affords you freedom to sink resources into checks using Streetwise or Scrapper (and Rex could even use it with Higher Ed) without having to worry about being unable to pay for any asset. As soon as it hits 4 resources (and 4 turns is not very long at all even late game), pretty much every card you could want to play is merely 2 actions away. For a money build I don't see any reason not to run it in addition to Cache/Streak and Lone Wolf. — StyxTBeuford · 13051
You can play arround emrgency cache4 and contraband2 — toriano · 3
This card is not bad, it is terrible. As alredy mentioned by a previous commentator if this doesn't appear in your opening hand or first 3 draws it is pretty much useless, hell even if you get it quite early you may not want to waste 1 action and 1 ressource on it because you need to play other important assets ASAP. So to make it work you need to draw it early, have the window of opportunity to play it, wait 6+ Rounds to make a decent profit and have such a limited card pool that you can somehow justify puting this in your deck on the firs place :D ...and by the way using Investments with e-cache (4) doesn't make any sense lol, why would you put your ressources on this card if you can just put them directly on your ressource pool? Why would you waste a Contraband on this card if there are many better targets and if playing it costs you anyway 4-3 ressources? and if you play them all together then you are getting a maximum of 7 ressources by expending 3 cards, 4 actions and 6 XP , which is terrible... — Alogon · 1145
Sefina finds this card a more useful choice, given the size of her opening draw. Take two copies in your deck and she has a 60% of drawing at least one of them. — Cluny · 52
You could trigger this card in immediately for 10 ressources if have venturer in play, play ecache 4 and contrand on it. Not sure it's worth it, because you spent 4 actions, drew 3 cards and spend 5 ressources (not counting venturer). — Django · 5164
For now, I call it "the card to pay preston weakness". It sums very well the deck-building potentiel I see in it. — AlexP · 287

Trial by Fire

Trial by Fire

This card is great for most survivors, particularly those with Achilles stats like Wendy’s fight, Calvin anything or Silas intellect or willpower. Combined with Leo de Luca, quick thinking or any number of other cards can give you 4-5 turns with a giant boost stat. Also ace of rods can give you extra turn with one test at 7! Watch Wendy crush the ghoul priest, Silas Hoover up clues or laugh at an encounter 4 test. Also Ashcan Pete and Calvin can prosper plus any other char that can take the spirit trait.

Agent 51 · 13
Don't forget Preston for whom a base skill of 5 for only 3 ressources is quite a nice trade — jens.h.thomsen · 22
Rita can combo with Ace in the Hole — Zinjanthropus · 231

Try and Try Again

Try and Try Again

Ever fail so hard you win?

Take Heart + Try and Try Again = Fail

Drawing Thin + Rabbit's Foot = Even Better

(My review needed to be two hundred words to post. So I wrote a useless blurb on the bottom of my review. Honestly this process seems kinda of silly all things considered. I mean If someone can articulate a thought in a concise way without a long winded review wouldn't that be superior.)

redtitan · 60
There's been several discussions about this. Unfortunately, Take Heart and Try and Try Again do not combo together. Try and Try Again is a response to a skill test failing that occurs in Step 6, when you determine success and failure. You apply the results of failure (e.g. Take Heart) in Step 7. So you could return Take Heart in Step 6 using Try and Try Again, but you wouldn't get any benefit from Take Heart in the process. The upgraded Grisly Totem on the other hand does apply during Step 7 and will combo with Take Heart. — StyxTBeuford · 13051
Isn't the wording similar as in Grisly Totem, so Matt Newmanns response that Grisly Totem triggers in Step 7 applies to "Try and try again" as well? — Django · 5164
Sry, ignore my last comment. I hadn't read the detailed answers to Grisly Totem. — Django · 5164

Take Heart

Take Heart

Ever fail so hard you win?

Take Heart + Try and Try Again = Fail

Drawing Thin + Rabbit's Foot = Even Better

(My review needed to be two hundred words to post. So I wrote a useless blurb on the bottom of my review. Honestly this process seems kinda of silly all things considered. I mean If someone can articulate a thought in a concise way without a long winded review wouldn't that be superior.)

redtitan · 60
Don't forget Oops!, "Look what I found!" or Live and Learn for a double win! — Venti · 1