Blood Pact

This card largely sucks on its own. +3 will can be a butt saver against the encounter deck or critical for pulling off a difficult spell in expert, +3 fight tends to be pretty pointless on Mystics but can help them deal the odd 1 damage (2 with fireaxe or something) but it's definitely not worth losing an equivalent of a whole turn (which is what doom is) for a mediocre boost on either of these stats.

Now the first use case where BP can begin to pull its weight is at the end of an agenda. The additional doom doesn't trigger an agenda-advancement check, and when agendas cycle they remove all doom in play, so if you overload the game board with doom on these turns (with Alyssa Graham and arcane initiate also wanting to use these windows for their doom triggers) it doesn't have any negative effect on the game state. (Watch out for this possibly changing in future scenarios). For scenarios with a lot of agendas this can be really crucial to abuse. Still, it's not the most powerful and its situational that the timing will work out that you need to do these tests before the agenda cycles.

Enter moonlight ritual. Lordy, this is an epic combo. With moonlight you can load up on the doom early in an agenda and clear it before it triggers during the mythos phase. The wonders this works are not to be understated, it is not at all hard to put 6 or 7 doom on Blood Pact early in a long agenda and simply clear it later for a swing of +21 or so in tests for one action and 3exp total. It's bonkers powerful, and fairly consistent since with BP's permanent code word you only need one of your two rituals in hand to have the combo ready.

Now here's the big catch, you need to be hyper aware of what threats are available when doing this. A stray doom or two from the encounter deck, or an unexpected discard effect can have you throwing away 6 turns because of cocky overconfidence. Stay alert for what threats exist and always assume the worst, if you do you too can tap the strength of blood magic without fear of repercussion.

Difrakt · 1319
Note the 1/test limit. I mean, I guess you could get 6 or 7 doom on it in separate tests, but it sounded like you meant in one test. — rlpowell · 1
Oh, you meant over several turns. I get it, nevermind. — rlpowell · 1
Crisis of Identity

Do you discard all assets in play, as well as cards of the appropriate color in your hand?

The rules about "Ownership and Control" mention: "A player controls the cards located in his or her out-of-play game areas (such as the hand, deck, discard pile)."

Django · 5154
I assume that's why her base deck size is 35? — Steinbran · 1
Official answer: — vidinufi · 69
Generally speaking, card effects only interact with cards that are in play. Cards that are out of play aren’t typically affected by card effects unless explicitly stated. So, even though you control the cards in your hand and deck, Crisis of Identity only ever discards cards from play, because it does not specify that it discards cards from your hand or deck. — vidinufi · 69
Does Crisis remove permanents? The obvious one beeing Higher Education... — Oxymandias · 7
No, this does not make you discard Higher Education. From the rules: "A card with the permanent keyword cannot be discarded by any means." — Sechen · 53
Does Crisis of Identity discard a leveled Shortcut that's attached to a location? — Oxymandias · 7
Let's say you have both Well-Maintained and Enchanted Blade (either 0xp or 3xp Guardian). If you're guardian and draw Crisis of Identity, do you choose the order in which you discard the cards of your role you control? Can I use Well-Maintained to get the Blade back to hand before discarding Well-Maintained, or is the discard effect simultaneous? — clydelucy · 6
It definitely discards the shortcut because you still control attachments you attached to encounter cards. For Well-Maintained, it’s definitely simultaneous. However, Well-Maintained should still be able to trigger since it’s already weird by default. Its reaction trigger is ‘after’ which means that that it triggers after the asset is discarded and all effects of that are resolved (which would include discarding all attachments as well), so it seems it is already capable of being triggered from the discard pile. To fix that weird situation, they’d probably errata it to a ‘when’ trigger, in which case it would still work against Crisis of Identity since it would resolve before the discard resolves. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Aquinnah

Sweet Aquinnah, i always wanted to welcome you and embrace you as a friend when embarking on a new campaign. You look absolutely gorgeous in your black dress and the neckband! Besides, you are so familiar with horrors of all kind, i really would side with you against the tides of darkness.... if you were not such a self-opinionated person!

Only the loneliest hermit would scrape together the sum to buy your company. Even then, you would not raise a finger to help your fellow in affliction, you would rather soothe him with eloquent words. Don't lose heart! Only in moments of utmost importance you are willing to bundle your mental powers to mesmerize a foe and make it attack one of his kind. Alas, most people disdain your laziness, yes, but me, myself, i would love to tease out your ability! Several times i tried, but you hoodwinked me all the time.

The basic version of Aquinnah(1) requires two or more enemies present at your location to trigger in the Enemy phase (Step 3.3). Furthermore, only the damage is redirected to another target, the horror still has to be dealt with. It's logical that enemies who inflict high damage also inflict high horror, so the investigator who uses Aquinnah has to take massive horror from the redirected slash. If the redirected slash does not suffice to kill the second enemy, the investigator has to take damage and horror from that second enemy's attack, too, if ready and engaged.

Since the experienced Aquinnah(3) has been released, i would recommend to buy the basic version only in case you plan to upgrade her and do not have the 3xp to spend in one go.

Pros

  • On it's own, Aquinnah comes with some good sanity and can always be used as an expensive sanity shield.
  • If done right, Aquinnah can kill one enemy in the Enemy phase before it can attack.
  • The redirected attack can target any (other-than-the-beater) enemy at that location, also an Aloof or otherwise engaged enemy.
  • Activated as a reaction. You don't lose an action, you only pay for it upfront by playing Aquinnah.
  • Does work on any type of attacking enemy, including Elite and Massive.
  • Could be combined with "If it bleeds..." and Evidence!. It was your ally's skill that killed the creature, is not that true?

Cons

  • High install cost.
  • Occupies the Ally slot. So many other sweethearts give you more versatile bonuses.
  • Aquinnah has very low health.
  • Very difficult to find a situation where the reaction gets triggered.
  • Ability does not work on spoiler.
Synisill · 803
When upgraded Aquinnah teams up with Ashcan Pete, Aquinnah's ability can trigger twice — Heyenzzz · 7440
Though, there is no Fast window between each enemy attacks unless you get a test, There is only one after hunter enemies move. So no triggering twice between multiple attacks. To use Pete's ready ability with Aquinnah, you would have to make Aquinnah play inside Investigation phase (perhaps by asking for attack with AoO) or Mythos phase if it cause enemies to make immediate attack. — 5argon · 11177
Close Call

So amusing, just have a look at that disappointed security guard! Behold the moment, you won't see that often, because Close Call is a very situational inclusion in most decks. For Wendy, who has an abysmal Fight statistic, Close Call becomes a valuable companion, if you are willing to play with the things she is good at, instead of boosting the thing she hates to do.

Playing it mainly depends on two factors:

  1. Is the enemy worth the effort? You have to evade that non-Elite enemy before playing Close Call, so add 1 action to the play cost of this event. In most situations, within 2 actions the enemy could have been defeated and placed into the discard or victory pile instead. But imagine a scenario where finding clues in time is essential, or a situation where you have not drawn the right weapon yet, or your investigator is better at evading than combatting. Close Call can buy you the time you need then.
  2. How many cards are left in the encounter deck? The earlier you draw Close Call, the better.

For 2xp you get a unique ability that let's you finish some scenarios (see "Recommendations") with greater ease, in others it works like another copy of Backstab. You can not swap this event out with Adaptable, so an inclusion should be measured with your investigator's Agility and the cards in the deck supporting evasion attempts.

Pros

  • Can be played in another investigator's turn or your own.
  • Is played after a successful evasion attempt, so the effect is never lost to a failed evasion test.
  • Fast cards aren't subject to Attacks of Opportunity, so you can conveniently use it to ban one enemy while you are still engaged with others.
  • Only card so far that let's you reshuffle an opponent into the encounter deck.
  • Works best if used together with auto-evasion cards like Stray Cat.

Cons

  • Does not work on Elite enemies that you really want to get rid off.
  • Does not work on Weakness enemies like the Mob Enforcer.
  • The enemy has to be evaded as a prerequisite, so triggering the effect becomes more difficult against enemies with high Evade.
  • The enemy does not count as defeated for combo purposes.
  • Rex Murphy can not use this card.

Recommendations

  • spoiler, spoiler Follow the imperative in The Essex County Express: RUN!
  • Ban unpleasant roamers in Undimensioned and Unseen, and you can do more than using Close Call to buy more time. Actually, you can end the scenario, because spoiler are neither in play nor set aside while situated in the encounter deck!
Synisill · 803
I wonder if youve missed what i suspect is the key point in this card. It converts an evade action into a pseudo kill, but basically one you cant or dont want to use on a boss/mini boss. In the same way Wendy uses backstab as an agi converter, this is essentially intended for any larger regular encounter deck enemy that is problematic to leave at a given location, hunters especially. Sure they`ll eventually come back out again but in wendy they would have taken several actions and likely a card or two to deal with. — StartWithTheName · 71744
@StartWithAName, I think i covered this point with the 2 questions one has to answer prior playing this event. I did not explain what this card does in particular, because i found it self-explanatory. — Synisill · 803
Yes i see what you mean. Sorry i actually like the review btw, I dont want this to sound like criticism. I guess im trying to help a little really. I think its describing the card as situational in the opening sentence that caught me off guard. Its clearly meant for wendy (who is form the pack it was released in) where it isnt situational at all, other than needing an enemy to kill. You could happily use this on a regular 222 or 333 enemy, or indeed keep it for bigger targets, hunters in particular since you cant just evade and ditch them in the same sense as non hunters. In Wendy it can be a staple if you want to go in that direction. I think it doesnt see much use because of the xp rather than being niche use. Ofc in other low evade chars its going to be situational, i would agree with you there certainly. Anyway. nice work on all these reviews btw. I dont have the time to read them all but youre really fleshing out the site for the new folk. Good one! — StartWithTheName · 71744
I would like to press the flesh with you for your nice commentary, you made me flush there. As a non-native speaker i have my difficulties to accentuate the important points at times, and i also lack the leisure to format my reviews as good as you do. I felt bad about my last comment and would have deleted it, if possible. It's crystal clear that your criticism was of a positive kind. I changed my wording to improve the review, thank you again! — Synisill · 803
Stroke of Luck

The exile mechanic is an interesting one. Cards with an exile mechanic are extremely expensive near the beginning of a campaign but seem reasonable near the end. If purchasing before the last scenario, any card you purchase has an "exile" effect.

Stroke of Luck came out with the 2nd to last Mythos Pack of this cycle. So what should be the XP value of this skill card? Most skill cards have an XP value of 1 with few exceptions. This card however, is much more powerful than any skill card. No skill card can do better than Stroke of Luck. It's the most powerful skill card in the game. You could have a base skill of 0 and still have a 95% chance of beating a skill check of 10 or more. And as such, it should have a higher cost than other skill cards. But how much more? Double? It's probably worth a bit more than double considering it's Wild and its also saving you from using multiple cards on one skill check. Three times? Depends on the scenario. Will there be those situations where you need a boost of +4 or more? In the last few scenarios it's much more likely.

The conclusion is that Stroke of Luck seems like its very powerful for the final scenario. It only costs 1 more XP than any other skill card and the exile drawback is negated. For the second to last scenario is its breakeven point. I wouldn't recommend purchasing Stroke Of Luck prior to the second to last scenario.

randplaty · 39
Just to clarify how XP is measured: Cards with no XP pips are considered level 0. So, all skill cards released to date are either 0XP or 2XP. That said, Stroke of Luck does seem impressive as one of the few ways to almost automatically pass a skill test. As to whether its 2XP cost is too low, compare it to Will to Survive [3XP, 4 resources]. A single Will to Survive can provide 3 truly automatic successes on one turn at the cost of only 3XP, and do so every game. A single Stroke of Luck would cost 6XP for 3 almost automatic successes (it's still subject to the Autofail token), and could only be used once per game. Given that, I'd say its 2XP cost is about right. — Herumen · 1741
Stroke of luck does not work exactly like Will to survive though. Indeed, where the former allows for automatic success (making all test difficulty a 0, bare an autofail), the later only allows you not to draw token - meaning that you still need to match the test's difficulty! To take an example, if Wendy Adams wants to attack Umôrdhoth, she'd better be using Stroke of Luck rather than Will to Survive. — Alleria · 114
I assume that the other aspects of the chaos token area still resolved, ie. the cultist symbol demands you discard 3 cards or something. Correct? — shenaniganz11 · 40