Drawing Thin

Drawing Thin

If i use this on Rotting Remains and draw , do i take 5 horror (or 7 if used both of them)? This would increase cards searched with Rabbit's Foot 3, if i fail?

And would increase the amount of charges if i succeed on the higher difficulty on Ancient Stone?

Django · 5164
Playing Drawing Thin on Rotting Remains seems like a terrible idea. If you auto-fail, you'd be taking 5 horror - drawing a 0 when the difficulty is 5 means you fail by 5. By the same token, It would increase the charges on Ancient Stone, which directly references the difficulty of the test. — cb42 · 38
Except of you plan to deny the existence (5) of rotten remains - then it is a very good idea! — trazoM · 9
Or if you're a (mostly) sane Agnes and there's an enemy around. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Unfortunately, you can't use Drawing Thin on Rotting Remains or almost any other treachery card with a Revelation effect. Drawing Thin can only trigger off of skill tests you initiate - things like investigate, fight, or evade actions. — Tynian · 1
Actually, Tynian, that is quite incorrect. The card text of ‘when you initiate a skill test’ is not in contrast with an ‘unwilling’ skill test from an encounter card but in contrast to ‘another investigator’ initiating a skill test. If you go back through the rules, you will see that ‘initiate’ is used to mean ‘resolving some effect in full’, whether it’s an elder sign ability, or action, or a ‘when’ clause of rules text, etc. There is no required notion of player agency when it comes to ‘initiating’. Heck, technically, you aren’t any more responsible for initiating any of skill tests you mentioned because you choose the action and the game rules of said action trigger the skill test. So, yes. You can use Drawing Thin, or any other ability that triggers when you initiate a skill test such have as Money Talks, on a skill test during a Revalation effect. — Death by Chocolate · 1484
tHaT iS qUiTe incOrReCt — DeckLicker · 1

Shrewd Analysis

Shrewd Analysis

What I haven't seen written is that this is still a good card for strange solution. Four experience points for two random upgrades will save four experience points. Even if acidic ichor is not drawn, it is only two additional experience points to switch them out. It still saves two experience points overall.

The same will happen with both archaic glyphs and ancient stone.

filovirus · 2
Strange solutions and the like actually specify they can only be included by upgrading from the "unidentified/untranslated" versions, meaning to swap out upgraded versions, you would need to buy a level 0 version and then upgrade it again, for 5 xp total each, not 1. — zrayak · 87
zrayak is right, and furthermore the discount for upgrading cards wouldn’t be relevant even without that clause because “When purchasing a higher level version of a card with the same title, the investigator may choose to "upgrade" that card by paying only the difference in experience (to a minimum of 1) between the two cards and removing the lower level version of the card from his or her deck.” The rules do not allow for ‘upgrading’ to a card of the same level. Previously this wasn’t very relevant due to these cards’ clauses, but it is relavent now for the level 3 upgraded dual-class cards. — Death by Chocolate · 1484
Can you add Shrewed Analysis and use it immediately in the same upgrade? Say I identified the Strange Solution in the last scenario, can I add SA before the next scenario and immediately use it to add 2 Identified Solutions? — Vortilion · 1
I don't know with any official capacity, but I would presume that yes you can. Same as Adaptability. — VanyelAshke · 188
Start first scenario with 2x Strange Solution (Unidentified) and earn at least 9 XP. Take Shrewd Analysis and get two random level 4 Solutions. Then take Adaptable and swap for your two unidentified solutions, and upgrade into two more Level 4 Solutions. :) — Runic · 1
Why would you "add" Shrewd Analysis? You can just start with it in your level 0 deck. — gustafusus · 1
@Runic I don't think that works, as you can only own 2 copies of a card "by title" and the title of each of these varians are simply "Strange Solution" — Axoloth · 16

Deny Existence

Deny Existence

Not a review per say, just a pre-emptive question...

What if you draw a treachery where it is "Lose all resources"

What is the opposite of "all" in this instance, for the purposes of this card technically reversing the effect

Easy if it is something like, lose 3 resources, because it becomes gain 3 resources

Might need a FAQ on this one ASAP

Kire · 5
Adding to this: What about "discarding all but X cards from your hand"? — trazoM · 9
My assumption would be, if it asks you to lose all resources, then "all" = the number of resources you have. So, if you have 5, and it asks you to discard all, it's asking you to discard 5. So, in this case you would gain 5 instead. — Eschaton1 · 1
The opposite would be to gain ALL THE RESOURCES, so you should take every available token. — Azriel · 1
Crap, that previous comment was a joke, and I wanted to skip a like and ended up posting it. In all seriousness though, I think it's best to not overthink it: if it says to lose all resources, just count how much you would have lost. If it says to discard every card except one, just count how many cards you would have actually discarded. I can't see any other way to make this card work with these wordings, so it kinda has to be this. — Azriel · 1
Carolyn is able to play this card, right (but not the 0 xp version)? — Django · 5164
@Django I'm not sure. The looser interpretation is that yes, this card heals horror (even if it's unlikely to do so), so she can take it. A tighter interpretation would say that this card doesn't specifically have the "heals horror" wording mentioned in Carolyn's deckbuilding requirements. Personally, I interpret Carolyn as, "if it heals horror, she can use it," so I'd say yes. — SGPrometheus · 849
But it DOES specifically say " — CSerpent · 126
(fat fingered) it DOES specifically say "heal horror". But I agree anyway -- it can heal horror, she can take it. — CSerpent · 126
@Django Carolyn can take the level 0xp because she can take 0-1 Mystic card. — Cyiel · 1
What happens if you are supposed to lose say, five resources, but you only have one and you play this. Do you gain five resources? Or just the one resource you would have lost? — The1Aaron · 1
I emailed Matt Newman and he confirmed Carolyn can take Deny Existence lvl 5. — Cyggie · 7
@The1Aaron: The effect allows you to perform the opposite of what the encounter card asks you to do. So if the encounter card asks you to discard 5 resources, you do the opposite: gain 5 resources, regardless of how many resources you have in your resource pool. — rednar · 22
How would you rule this card interacting with Realm of Madness and someone having... say... 5 horror? Would they draw cards from their deck until they have a combined printed resource cost of 5? Only keeping cards that have a cost? — Sleffie · 1
I would say you draw until you draw a total of five cost and keep ALL cards, even the zero cost — PanicMoon · 2
Sorry, yeah... the distinction I tried to make was keeping cards that have a cost (even if it is 0), but not keeping skill cards. Or would you say keep those as well? — Sleffie · 1
For future reference: the correct way to resolve it is to pick the cards that you would discard from hand as a result of the effect: 5 resources worth of cards (including as many 0s as you want, but no skills). Then instead of discarding these cards, draw a number of cards equal to the number of cards you would have discarded. If you don't have enough cards in hand to reach the threshold, you still need to discard from play; Deny (5) will not help against that. — suika · 9506
And you would take 2 horror afterwards if you only chose cards in your hand (: — AlderSign · 416

Carolyn Fern

Carolyn Fern

It's more a question / comment than a review, but did anyone noticed that arkhamdb treat the official starter deck as invalid? I guess it is because it doesn't take into account that the 15 Seeker/Mystic limit should only be applied to cards that doesn't "heal horror". That might be a problem when trying to save / publish self made deck too.

ChesterBlack · 1434
The official starter deck IS invalid. It has 17 non-horror healing Seeker and Mystic cards. — StyxTBeuford · 13051

Sixth Sense

Sixth Sense

Sixth Sense competes with tried-and-true Rite of Seeking. They are both level 0 Mystic Spell assets that let you investigate with willpower in place of intellect, which can be a crucial ability for low intellect investigators such as Agnes and Akachi. Let's compare these two Spells:

  • Sixth Sense picks up clues one at a time, whereas Rite of Seeking picks them up in twos. Rite of Seeking is therefore more action efficient at clearing multiple clue locations, which gives it an advantage in high player counts by accelerating your clue gathering. In theory Sixth Sense can create action efficiency by saving actions that would have been spent moving, but obviously saving the skill test on an extra investigate is usually better. When playing solo though, Sixth Sense is just as fast against 1 clue locations.

  • Sixth Sense costs 3 resources and Rite of Seeking costs 4. Not a major difference but it might be important if you are playing Dark Horse.

  • Sixth Sense doesn't deplete charges. With Sixth Sense in play, you can investigate using as often as you like.

  • Sixth Sense rewards you for drawing , , , and tokens where Rite of Seeking punishes you (or at least restricts its use to your last action). This might make Sixth Sense more desirable for Jim Culver who is already encouraged to increase his odds of drawing tokens.

The reward Sixth Sense offers you for drawing a funky token is worth talking about in more detail because there's a lot going on there. It will allow you to sometimes investigate at dangerous or high shroud locations that you might otherwise be locked out of. It can also protect you from token effects, large negative modifiers, and the Haunted keyword by lowering the shroud of a location you are investigating (although you must change the location you are investigating at in order to use this effect).

Unless you're willing to use Dark Prophecy this effect isn't reliable, but it is a kind of insurance against the chaos bag. Finally, a location must be revealed for Sixth Sense to let you investigate at it instead or use its shroud, meaning it pays to follow another player around, investigating to pick up clues left behind with the added possibility that you sometimes get a clue from a location they just revealed instead.

To conclude: Rite of Seeking is still the premier level 0 Spell for picking up lots of clues quickly, but Sixth Sense offers a persistent and highly reliable way to investigate using willpower. Having played a little with it at this point, its definitely a strong card for allowing Mystics to consistently contribute to investigating, so try it out!

Trinity_ · 204
Great review! 2 thoughts: First Sixth Sense might be better in solo than Rite of Seeking, second I don't see Sixth Sense as much as a competition than an additional option if you want your my stic to investigate reliably. — mogwen · 254
I didn't go into a lot of detail about why I think Sixth Sense competes with Rite of Seeking because I wanted to focus on comparing it to the older spell, but basically I think it isn't worth giving up two Arcane slots to both investigate with when Mystic combat spells are so powerful, and because Sixth Sense persists and doesn't deplete charges, I don't think you want to play both it and Rite of Seeking in the same deck. — Trinity_ · 204
If you're going for dedicated clue-gathering, it's actually pretty viable to run both, especially since you can replace Rite of Seeking once it's empty. Grotesque statue and Eldritch Inspiration help with using Rite of Seeking quickly, though. — Chitinid · 14
Good review! I'dd like to mention that the infinite nature of Sixth sense, a high stat isnt quite so crucial. Unlike Rite of seeking youre willing to make half-assed attepts at 4 or 5 willpower since there is no risk of loosing the charge — Tsuruki23 · 2581
How do this interact with Eldritch Inspiration? Do I get to investigate again either in my location or a connected (with the same token from the bag)? — Old_Man_in_the_Mist · 1
You would get again the choice to "choose a revealed location connected to your location; you are now investigating as if you were at the chosen location instead of your location (you may use either shroud value)." Now, since you were already investigating as though you were at the first location you picked, you might have the choice now of locations adjacent to that one. But you'd still only end up investigating at one location total. — Yenreb · 15