Dark Horse

Assuming that I'm reading the rules correctly, it seems like you are able to draw your card during the upkeep and then decide if you want to take your resource for the turn or not. This allows much more flexibility in planning your upcoming turn.

"In player order, each investigator draws 1 card. Once those cards have been drawn, each investigator gains 1 resource." - Rules Reference, p. 25

The term "during" seems to apply to any moment within the phase and there's no entry in the Rules Reference for the term.

I'd say you're absolutely right. In a similar vein, we've always played Paranoia as essentially, "keep 1 resource," which aligns it thematically with Amnesia, so it makes sense. I would say "during" means, "at any point inside" the phase, so you can decide whenever you like. It seems silly to reply to a 10-month old post, but I just wanted to confirm your assessment. — SGPrometheus · 861
Strange Solution

With the Acidic Ichor variant (see above) of the Strange Solution, seekers gain an awesome weapon. Strength is a problem for all the current seekers, and having your base increased to 6 is great - and combined with +2 damage, it becomes awesome. On top of that, it's cheap, and it doesn't take a hand slot.

In a recent campaign I equipped Rex with 2 of these as early as I could - they do need a lot of XP - and he was a better fighter than Jenny through much of the rest of the campaign.

Advantages:

  • Gives seekers good combat
  • Deals 3 damage!
  • Cheap
  • Leaves hands free

Disadvantages:

  • You have to identify the solution, to start with. That relies on the right card coming out, your playing it, and passing the test.
  • They're expensive XP-wise - though if compared with The Red-Gloved Man they feel about right.
  • They're hard to discard once used - and so hard to Scavenge
  • It can be difficult to use all that damage effectively. For example, a 4 damage enemy would require 2 uses - which wastes a third of the damage they can do. Ideally, get someone else to do the additional damage.

To be honest, I think that combat beats evasion (kill it and it goes away) and healing (kill it and it won't hurt you) , so I can't see why you'd use either of the other Strange Solutions.

AndyB · 960
WHY do some cards discard themself when out of supplies and others don’t? I really want this card to be scavengeable, and I don’t get the inconsistency. Is it a way to nerf strong cards? Or was there just not enough space on this card for another line of text? — Runic · 1
@Runic Also so items can be used to recharge assets — shenaniganz11 · 40
The Red-Gloved Man

This card is awesome! And the best thing about him isn't the stats increase - which are brilliant - but rather the freedom he gives. You want to accept 3 attacks of opportunity while you investigate (probably at 6 ) - no problem. Move while under attack - fine. It's one turn where you can more or less ignore any enemies.

Disadvantages?

  • Expensive in XP (but worth it!)
  • Uses the ally slot.
  • Not worth using for combat without having a weapon that increases damage.
  • Small cost to play
  • Unique - so only 1 in play at a time. Not such a problem as he only lasts until the next Mythos phase.

Advantages?

  • Capability. Do what you want for a turn.
  • Fast. Don't waste an action using this, and don't suffer an attack of opportunity.
  • Works with A Chance Encounter, which is also awesome (though he lasts even less time if brought into play this way)
  • Use it with Police Badge or Ace in the Hole for even more over-powered actions in one turn!

Simply brilliant. Game winning.

AndyB · 960
He's also a great damage soak with 4/4 and he dies anyway. Use smoking pipe or pain killers, to move some of your damage to him. — Django · 5228
Pair this guy with a gold pocket watch and smile..... (bit heavy on xp though) Or with the unique ability on the soon to be released William Yorick — Heyenzzz · 7729
Great upgrade for Trial by fire or alongside it, especially in an INT challenged character. — Tsuruki23 · 2604
Daisy Walker

There's three ways to play Daisy Walker. Okay, possibly more, but these are the most obvious. :)

1) Detective Daisy! You can make her into Nancy Drew extraordinaire; backed up by a large amount of Seeker cards, Old Book of Lore, Dr. Milan Christopher and her amazing 5 Knowledge. In a campaign she'll probably eventually complete her Higher Education and figure out the Sordid Secret of the Strange Solution, giving her both great Willpower and some decent fighting skills.

PRO +The advantage of this build is that Daisy will be a great clue gatherer with access to both card drawing, extra resources and even a bit of combat. +It's a versatile and fun playstyle. Seekers tend to be a valuable party members and you can often help your friends (free cards! Medical assistance!) if you have spare time.

CON -Rex Murphy is arguably the better clue gatherer, while not being as versatile as Daisy. I personally think Daisy is more fun to play, but that's like, just my opinion, man. -Detectice Daisy doesn't have room for more than a few Mystic Cards. Ward of Protection, maybe even a Shrivelling and a Holy Rosary, but she can't really go Team Purple when so heavily invested in Team Brown. -Even with a few combat cards you'll never be a scrapper. Bring someone to babysit you and don't split the party (too much).

2) Witchy Daisy! You can play Daisy dual-class: part-time sorcereress, part-time detective. This will give her decent combat abilities in form of cards such as Shrivelling, access to plenty of powerful Mystic cards and still let her perform well in her role as a clue gatherer. You WILL need to add several support cards such as Holy Rosary and Higher Education to make up for her 3 Willpower, but it's doable.

PRO +So many options! You can Scry, you can Shrivel, blind your enemies and unravel the mysteries of the universe. And you can still investige better than most.

CON -I feel that the Mystic cards, while powerful and versatile, always have a high cost. They demand a premium of resources, actions and/or sanity. It's easier to cope with this if you specialize and Daisy will never be able to do that as well as her as her more arcane colleagues.

3) Helpful Daisy! Daisy is great at support - her Seeker/Mystic combination and free tome action ability is a really powerful combination. She can heal damage with Medical Texts and Horror with Clarity of Mind. She can let her friends draw cards with Old Book of Lore, she can Scry, she can use Ward of Protection. And if that's not needed, she can still investigate better than most.

PRO +No one can support as Daisy (at least not 'till The Path to Carcosa is released).

CON -The more support cards you'll include, the less useful Daisy will be on her own. -This game isn't really dependant on support characters. Time is of the essence, so why help other people do stuff when you can just do it yourself? You could argue that support-Daisy allows the other investigators to specialize more, but she's still spend precious actions on healing when she could be advancing the story.

In conclusion, I prefer option #1, as I think playing on Daisy's strength as a Seeker is the better choice. There's still room to dabble a bit in mysticism and support cards, so you have lots of variety. Options #2 is a completely acceptable way of playing Daisy as well; Witchy Daisy can be super-versatile, especially if she's the only spellcaster in the gang. PS: I would think twice before playing her in a Hard campaign - her 3 Willpower will cause problems.

Option #3 is a bit more complicated, as it's (obviously) multiplayer only. You'll need to design your deck to fit in with the group and your group need to design decks that actually need your support. It's a great option but for advanced players only.

If you're like me and tend to get bored with one-dimensional characters (looking at you, Zoey!), you'll love Daisy. Yeah, she's a seeker at heart, but access to a huge card pool and a free tome action each round gives her more options than most other investigators. And options = fun. :)

olahren · 3728
Nice review! Just wanted to add, that your option 2 (Daisy the spellslinger) makes Daisy a far more viable and more entertaining choice than Rex Murphey for true solo. — Scheckel · 107
Daisy cannot use Book of Shadows. It's a level 3 Mystic card, and Daisy can only go up to level 2 in Mystic. — MaxDamage · 1
Good point, MaxDamage! I've updated the review. — olahren · 3728
For option 2, if you play an old book of lore and an arcane initiate, you can "draw" 3 cards per turn. Use mind over matter for weak enemies and replace later with the fighting strange solution for bosses. — Django · 5228
All told, my most recent Daisy decks was a mix of the above 3 playstyles, each represented by what I'd call a 'core card'. For seeking, it's Dr. Milan Christopher; for spellcasting, it's Shrivelling (and later Higher Education), and for support, it's the Old Book of Lore. — MattyKaye · 7
Dammit, this is my first time commenting so I wasn't used to the controls : / As I was saying, I had a lot of fun playing the librarian, and it was especially satisfying for her to deliver the killing blow against Seth Bishop in the Dunwich Legacy . I was especially surprised by just how capable she was in combat, thus putting less pressure on the monster killer character (in my case, Roland) to pass every fight check. That said, my playthroughs gave me the impression that packing Shrivelling, Milan and Old Book of Lore was just too expensive, so I need to switch out one of these three core cards with something less expensive but equivalent. Shrivelling seems like the most obvious option to cut, but enemy management is such a core part of the game, and it's really helpful to have 2 characters who can reliably deal 2 damage per action. Removing Old Book of Lore feels like a non-starter given my hope to use Daisy's free action on tomes. So shock of all shock, if I had to do it again, I think I'll cut Milan and replicate his intellect boost with magnifying glass. It could have the added effect of unclogging Daisy's ally slot that will now consist of a platoon between Research Librarian and Arcane Initiate. But then again, I was really successful in my two-handed campaigns with Roland and Daisy, so maybe no changes to my original 'formula'? — MattyKaye · 7
Oops!

Oops! isn't half bad when used as a skill card. It adds +2 Fight; a rarity among Survivor cards. There are neutral cards that do the same and more, but if you're playing multiplayer with a limited card pool (one core set for example) this card might be worth it just for skill checks.

As an event however, Oops! is all kinds of crappy. There's just so many condititions: First you need to fail the skill check by at least 2 points while attacking an enemy engaged with you, with another enemy present at your location and THEN you have to pay two resources to play it. Ouch!

Low-Fight Survivors such as "Ashcan" Pete can make use of it in certain situations ("Attack the mobster in order to kill the Whippoorwill") but that's still highly situational. Overpower will be better in almost every case.

One could argue that the Oops! event gets better if you play on Hard or Expert. The counter-argument is that you also need a more finely tuned deck at higher difficulties, leaving less room for situational cards like this.

olahren · 3728
The other enemy does not need to be engaged with you. It's still a bad card, you can't use it to avoid hurting a friend. — Django · 5228