Power Word

Power Word

This card is a role playing heaven. What more could you ask from the rats when you can make them distract the ghouls, tend your wounds, or even confess where the cheese is..

Anyways, I'll drop a rule related to the Confess option since I had to look it up a bit : "Health" is a number which damage counter goes up to and defeat it, so damaging it partially will not decrease effectiveness of Confess. Also it does not say "printed health", so I think any mythos-modified health can take effect. (Rule : Health and Damage)

5argon · 10081
Can you use any of the commands on itself (like distracting itself to evade)? It does have equal health to itself and is an "any enemy" technically. — brianlights · 7
Yeah I think Betray and Distract should be able to work on itself. — 5argon · 10081
Why not use " "Cower." This enemy exhausts"? — MrGoldbee · 1453
Could work equally for not taking battle damage but exhausted enemy still stay in your threat area right? Distract can be a bit better that you can move away and left it behind. — 5argon · 10081
@MrGoldbee, Maybe you used "Cower" already this round? — olivergrayson · 1
Exhausting doesn't disengage evade does both so if you are moving away so you don't have to keep using power word to exhaust. — White Liger · 3

Runic Axe

Runic Axe

This card is doing some good work with Lily Chen. No longer are we stuck with Dragon Pole or Cyclopean Hammer. Lily and Zoey are prime candidates for HUNT and FURY. To start, I recommend getting SCRIPTWEAVER as soon as possible. HUNT and HEIRLOOM next. If you want a lvl5 axe, finish it off with SAGA and GLORY. The cool thing is you have upgrade path options as well; ELDERS for Roland Banks, FURY for Zoey Samaras etc.

levirexjones · 5
I think, "Ancient Power" plus "Scriptweaver" plus "Inscription of Glory" might be a sick combo for Akachi. She normally wouldn't want to fight with combat, but this lets her once per turn fight with a skill of 6 to 10, dealing 2 to 4 damage and using any buff you don't need on the current enemy to heal or draw cards. The downside being of course, that she can use it at most maybe any other turn for one attack, and it's quite expensive for a sidearm XP wise, which likely requires an additional fight spell. It's also not that synergetic with her ability (will enter the game with 5 charges, but then replenish only up to a max of 4), and she likes using her hands for a Sword Cane or Grotesque Statue. — Susumu · 366
On the plus site, this can absolutely replace a "Sword Cane" in a level 0 deck, unless you want to avoid vengeance. In particular for Rats and similar "scenario 1 critters", it looks totally servicable without any ticks on the custom-sheet. It is quite expensive compared to Sword Cane, though. In particular, once she wants to rather replay than first-play her spells with "Uncage the Soul". — Susumu · 366
To be honest, I have to see this in practice, but I'm sceptical, that it is a great card for guardians. I think, "Ancient Power" might be kind of mandatory, for a 10 XP across 2 copies twohanded Guardianweapon, because without it, it is restricted to dealing just 2 damage, which is a hard sell in that context. "Scriptweaver" is probably also too good to pass on, it gives essentially each charge double value. So you can go either for the bland build of maxing with "Saga" or a fun build with up to 3 Inscriptions. (Or 2 with the discounted Poltergeist Slayer.) At which point, it might get tricky to get enough charges for the turns, where you have to fight multiple enemies or bosses. So I guess, you need either another weapon plus Bandolier, or a "Brand of Cthugha" as side weapon or something. — Susumu · 366
What happens with Scriptweaver + Ancient Power? Is that 7xp for 2 weapons that can hit at +7 fist and +3 damage for 1 charge use? — 1337duck · 1
With just the standard inscriptions and Scriptweaver+Ancient Power, for each charge you spend you can invoke both inscriptions, and you can invoke both inscriptions 3 times, so +7 fist and +3 damage would take 3 charges. — Xenas · 7
Ah. I misread the card! The original card says "you may spend any number of charges to imbue the axe with that many *different* inscriptions", while Ancient Power says "You may imbue the *same* inscription up to three times." I misread the original card as "you may only chose one to imbue", and then read Ancient Power as "your chosen inscription may be imbued up to 3 times". So of course, *that* interpretation + Scriptweaver would be busted AF. — 1337duck · 1
^I mean "imbuing an inscription imbues it up to 3 time" - hence 1 charge for 3x imbue. — 1337duck · 1
This is a very nice option for Guardians but requires a backup weapon/spells or events. My go to is Scriptweaver and Ancient Power with Inscriptions for Hunt, Glory and Elders. If you are engaged, or an enemy is around, you can go to a connecting location (or even further), kill it and pick up up to 3 clues. Usually costs all charges but for one action without an AoO thats some nice action compression. Not as strong as the Hammer or the Flamethrower but much more flashy and versatile. — Raketensegler · 1
I feel like it's not a huge problem to have a backup spell like Brand of Cthugha with it. Flamethrower ends up wanting shitloads of support cards, and Hammer gets a godlike accuracy but will struggle a bit with burst without a backup Brand itself. — Lailah · 1
The list of backup spells "like Brand of Cthugha" is just Brand of Cthugha. Available to guardians, doesn't necessarily replace fists with heads, and takes an arcane but no hands is a list of one. Another splurge option is Mk. 1 Grenades. — jaunt · 20

Vincent Lee

Vincent Lee

Question, how do his copies of on the mend interact with Ancestral memory?

Do they count as skills in my deck for the 10 skill requirement, or are they like bonded cards?

I assume they cannot be put under ancestral memory?

Tgaland · 2
They are set out of play at the beginning of a scenario, so you can't put them under it. In regards to whether they count, I suppose you could say yes, but On the Mend is variable so it could make your deck invalid if players drop in and out. I don't think there's anything preventing them from counting for Ancestral Knowledge's skill requirement. — Tay5967 · 19
They do not count towards your deck size, and they are not even part of your deck, just set aside. So I would say no, they are not eligible to count towards the "10 skill minimum" requirement of "Ancestral Knowledge". — Susumu · 366
I would guess, not even "Whispers from the Deep" would allow Amanda to take only 9 other skills into her deck. (Not, that this would do much sense for her anyway.) If a card doesn't count towards your deck size, it shouldn't count towards other card limits either. — Susumu · 366
The issue is that they are included in his deckbuilding and set aside as a setup step, so technically I believe they would count. To not count, it shouldn't be listed under deckbuilding, such as Luke's Dream Gate, or the bonus permanent cards for front-side parallel Wendy and Roland. There are all sorts of issues with the wording of Vincent and his On the Mends. Setup occurs after mulligans, the number included is defined as deckbuilding, another player can shuffle one into Vincent's deck by doing something that would shuffle it into their own, etc. I'm honestly surprised they waffled the wordings so hard when they have examples such as Parallel Wendy and Essence of the Dream to template off of. — Death by Chocolate · 1453
the "[additional] setup occurs after mulligans" point is untrue in this case, per the FAQ on Sophie/Duke/Dark Insight -- if "you begin the game with" some card in a particular zone, that card is set aside before shuffling so it's not possible to draw it in your opening hand — Thatwasademo · 58

Protective Incantation

Protective Incantation

Can Protective Incantation Forced effect be paid by Antiquary?

If yes, it would be great in a Jim Culver deck, where two copies of Protective Incantation remove the highest number negative modifier + Nkosi Mabati reduce to 0 every symbol token. Combined all of these with Grotesque Statue + Scavenging and your only fear is the autofail token.

filippo21daniele · 205
No. — toastsushi · 74
Is the Forced effect a skill test? No, it isn't. So you can't use the resources on Antiquary to pay for the Forced effect. — fiatluxia · 65
I was referring to the first part: "Resources on Antiquary may be spent to pay for Favor, Relic or Ritual cards." but I think that it does not apply anyway to Forced effect. — filippo21daniele · 205
That refers to playing them from your hand. It does not apply to the Forced effect. — fiatluxia · 65

Soul Sanctification

Soul Sanctification

This card has a pretty insane combo with Fickle Fortune.

The idea is that you have at least 1 copy of Fickle Fortune in your discard, and 2 copies of Resourceful in hand. Then, wait until the "Witching Hour" (the turn when there's one doom left on the agenda threshold).

Action 1: Pass a skill test, committing both Resourcefuls to it. Have each Resourceful pull Fickle Fortune out of your discard, healing your entire team for 3 damage and 3 horror.

Action 2: Play True Survivor, returning the Resourcefuls again

Action 3: Same as action 1.

You've just healed 12 damage and 12 horror, for a total of 24 Unexpected Courages. And not just for you - for every investigator with a copy of Soul sanctification. So in a 4-player game, this combo would generate 96 Unexpected Courages for your team. Which should be more than enough for your team to pass every skill test for the rest of the scenario.

If you had more than 3 actions, or other ways to recur them even more during this turn, you can probably get the number even higher.

After you pull off the combo, you can just do it again on a later turn, but select the second option, to cash in your Fickle Fortunes for entire extra rounds. Considering your entire team will be fully healed at that point, the direct damage and horror isn't much of a downside.

Neofalcon · 17
Limit 2 dilemmas a turn. — MrGoldbee · 1453
And only one soul sanctification in game because it's unique. — Tharzax · 1
It also adds doom and would only add charges to the user's Soul Sanctification. It's when *you* heal, not when you are healed by someone else. — SSW · 209
Welp. Wrong on just about every count. — Neofalcon · 17
This is why you read cards before posting about them, guys. — Neofalcon · 17
This is still an extremely strong combo if the scenario allows an early witching hour, as even just giving yourself 48 unexpected courageous is extraordinarily powerful, and you will be able to skip two doom later in the scenario. But you do need to be careful about drawing them unintentionally from your deck and triggering the doom/damage early. — Death by Chocolate · 1453
Also recurring fickle fortune doesn't trigger it. It activates when you draw it, not when it enters your hand. — spannertheodd · 1
A+ for effort, lol. — Innsmouth Conspirator · 57
Actually, the dilemma do trigger through recursion, according to faq. To be fair, the combo is neat but requires a lot of xp to get going, and also assume you don't draw the autofail, unless you commit resourceful on an auto-succeed test (which survivors can do now). However, only one person can get Soul sanctification and you'd probably always getting one extra doom on the agenda the first time you draw it (unless you're very lucky or you draw the ally that combo with those cards before the dilemma). It's extremely strong as a kind of deck enabler and can be accessed to any survivor, but require a good portion of deck and xp dedicated to it. 18~ish unexpected courage (because people are never full life realistically) is extremely good value and requires little action to setup. However, it gets hard countered on single agenda scenarios. It's probable the dilemma with heal will probably get tabooed as "this can advance the scenario", since the dilemma card is a lil too strong by itself for a 3xp card. — mugu · 198