Stubborn Detective

I like this card (as much as anyone can "like" a weakness card). It's got a really interesting theme, but at 3 Fight and 2 Health it is more of an annoyance than a serious danger.

Some investigators rely more on their text box traits than others. Here are a few unusual interactions:

That's just as of The Circle Undone - I am sure there will be more unusual cases going forward as more investigators get added.

Does this card blank out the portion of the text box well? I would think the answer would be yes. If that's the case, what happens when you draw that token? My assumption would be that it would be a 0 in most cases (barring the presence of the The Necronomicon). I don't know if there's an official ruling on it, though.

Anyways, this card pretty cool - that detective must be pretty stubborn to follow the investigators so diligently!

He definitely blanks out the elder sign part of any investigator; it's in their text box! And I would agree that such a draw would result in no modification to the skill being tested. The funniest thing is when he somehow shows up in a different dimension or a different time. Maybe he's more than he seems... — SGPrometheus · 847
Joe Diamond can no longer use his Hunch deck. — CSerpent · 126
I feel like if Lola got this weakness, she should just try her best to keep evading him. Think of the jank that could enable! Better yet, adapt in Handcuffs so that you can just keep him perma-evaded for the entire game. If you need to move, just engage him first! — Zinjanthropus · 231
I think with Calvin Wright it is a bit of an issue. I could imagine it just simply not being fun to play that combo, especially single player. Even if you manage to evade with something like the Stray cat, you'd have nearly no way of doing damage to him. You'd end up with a deck heavily designed to help you deal with the detective. — Phoenixbadger · 199
Hank Samson's Resolute version can be healed again with this card and Patrice Hathaway can be normal for once, — AlderSign · 416
The 13th Vision

I may be wrong about this assessment, but I believe this card is essentially a more punishing version of the Haunted basic weakness. They do almost the same thing, but The 13th Vision affects all investigators whereas Haunted only affects the bearer.

For example, if you need to pass a 3 test with an investigator who has a base of 3 and you draw a "0" token, both Haunted and The 13th Vision will cause you to fail the test - Haunted would do it because it lowered your stat by 1 (causing a failure) and The 13th Vision would do it because you needed your stat to be one higher than the test to succeed.

The times where Haunted will be more punishing than The 13th Vision are tests like Rotting Remains where failing a test by 0 doesn't really mean anything.

Having 2 weaknesses that do very similar things does add a sliver of consistenty to an otherwise difficult-to-predict basic weakness pool, so overall I am glad to see a card like this one show up. It might be tough to deal with both weaknesses in play at the same time, though!

There is another way in which this weakness is worse than Haunted - difficulty 0 tests. Haunted can't make you fail those, while 13th Vision absolutely can. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
On the other hand, any cards that activate by being 2 or more over the target, or 2 or less under the target, prefer 13th Vision. — Prinny_wizzard · 251
Adding to the previous "On the other hand", any skill test that punishes you for each degree of failure is unaffected by The 13th Vision, as while you still fail the test on a tie, it will often end with things like "You take 0 horror", or "You place 0 clues on your location". — Lucaxiom · 4542
Strange Solution

I think that Return To The Dunwich Legacy is unique in that having it in your collection might make your deckbuilding more difficult as opposed to easier.

The reason I say this is because of Shrewd Analysis. If you're looking to upgrade into 2 copies of Strange Solution: Acidic Ichor, using Shrewd Analysis, then the presence of Strange Solution: Empowering Elixir is going to make the odds of that happening a fair bit worse. So, if you're looking to use Shrewd Analysis, you're better off using it if you don't own Return To The Dunwich Legacy.

Additionally, Return To The Dunwich Legacy also adds a new basic weakness, Through the Gates. Normally new weaknesses are included in deluxe expansions, and in the deluxe expansions the inclusion of new weaknesses is offset by new investigator options and more level 0 cards. No such luck here, though.


As for Strange Solution: Empowering Elixir on its own merits - I don't think it's the most useful version of Strange Solution out there. It's one action to draw a card and get 2 resources. You can do the action 3 times. It costs you one action, one card, and one resource to get it out into play. Of course, that's also not taking into account the other, less obvious costs: having to "identify the solution" on the level 0 Strange Solution (which costs one card, one resource, and at least 2 actions earlier in the campaign) and then 4 experience to upgrade into it. That sort of cost is fine with something like Strange Solution: Acidic Ichor because you're getting a really powerful weapon in a class that doesn't normally have access to firepower like that. By comparison, Strange Solution: Empowering Elixir is underwhelming.

An interesting card to compare Strange Solution: Empowering Elixir to is Stand Together. For one action, Stand Together nets your team +4 cards and +4 resources. It costs 0 resources to play and 3 experience to include in a deck. Strange Solution: Empowering Elixir gets you 6 resources and 3 cards, but it costs you 4 actions (the 3 to trigger the ability plus the one action to play it) and one resource to play the card. It costs one experience more than Stand Together to add to the deck, and you need to spend all the extra energy to to "identify the solution" to even use it in the first place! Maybe it's better to leave this kind of card/resource support to Stand Together Guardian investigators.

Unless support cards come along to make this card better, I think its primary purpose will be to make Shrewd Analysis a little more difficult to use than normal.

I think this is an ok card. It does mess up with Shrewd Analysis, but by any means, I don't think the designers were aiming to make Shrewd Analysis worse for Strange Solution. I think this card offers more options for seekers and boosts the support role further. The math doesn't quite work like you suggested on this card because you can play it on your allies (which is super important). Also remember that you don't have to go full Empowering Elixir when you upgrade Strange Solution, you can go 1 of Empowering Elixir and 1 of something else. — matt88 · 3228
And by the way, I 've built a Minh Thi Phan deck that leans towards the support role and uses Acidic Ichor/Empowering Elixir. Here's the link for whomever wants to check it out: https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/10379/minh-thi-phan-cluever-fighter-support-2.0 — matt88 · 3228
Bedeviled

This card single handedly destroyed my blind playthrough of twh with Joe diamond. Make sure you pack lots of head icons because it really sucks when you can't use your weapons or flashlights/fingerprint kits, and just hope you don't draw wracked along with this :p

Dustgod · 3
Me too, i couldn't wait for a witch to come out so i could evade it. — Caligula · 1
Logical reasoning cannot discard this, but with Higher Education Joe could try himself. Also be aware that other investigators can do the test on this card, as encounter cards are in your thread area like monsters. — Django · 5163