Captivating Discovery

Captivating Discovery

This card is absolutely insane. For 1 action and 1 resource cost, you could search and selectively draw up to 6 cards. Dropping clues might sound like a heavy burden, but with 2 Research Notes in play, dropped clues potentially double back, so you actually benefits from dropping clues. However, I have only tried this combo on 4 player game and I assume that it doesn't work well on solos or 2 player games.

Horo · 43

Charles Ross, Esq.

Charles Ross, Esq.

The discount build-up feature ( once per turn without playing any Item yet) works well when you are playing with firearm-based teammate. While the fighter is using the ammo of their current gun, at the same time you save up the discount for the fighter's next gun, possibly reduced to 0 if enough turns passed. Sometimes when I use Dr. Milan Christopher and continue to get +1 resource every turn yet it cannot help the fighter take the heat off me, I think Charles Ross, Esq. is a great alternative.

5argon · 11237
Other use I see for him is in a Dark Horse deck (probably Darrel or Minh), since you can use the discount to play stuff while still sitting at 0 resources. Also side note, I think he should be errata’d to instead place resources on him (from the token pool), and those resources can only be used to pay for items played by investigators at your location. Adds the obvious method for tracking, loses the effect persistence past his demise, but gains the ability to spend only part of the effect on your next item (so resources aren’t wasted on a magnifying glass, for example). Just most importantly it’s more intuitive and doesn’t require mental tracking. Or they could errata him to only work this turn only, but that takes the card from rarely played to total binder fodder. — rockmaninoff · 3

Fingerprint Kit

Fingerprint Kit

This is Rite of Seeking (4) for seekers. Cost the same, same uses, same bonus.

Pros
No downsides for pulling special tokens
No item synergy

Cons
Exhausts on use
No spell synergy
Only gets 2 extra clues if succeed by 2

Other
Uses hands instead of arcane

Should be worse than rite of seeking in most cases.

Thanks to replies for correcting/pointing out simple things I missed!

fates · 54
its doesn't need a succeed by 2 to get the two clues. — Zerogrim · 295
Since no current investigator can take both Fingerprint Kit 4 and Rite of Seeking 4 I'm not sure that there's a meaningful way to declare one better than the other. . Also, surely if 'no spell synergy' is a con then 'Item synergy' should be a pro. Can be searched for with Backpack, paid for with Schofner's Catalogue, etc. — Pseudo Nymh · 67
also, it's more easy to refill its uses using cache(3). — elkeinkrad · 501

Bolas

Bolas

This strikes me as kind of awful. Pay 1, play action, use up a card to DO A TEST (not even an easy one at that). IF you pass, then the enemy gets -1 Evade (so what thats useless?), and it exhausts when it moves (kind of useless too, the enemy can already be in your space.

You might as well just kill the enemy than waste all those resources. Oh and it doesn't work with elite so you cant repeatedly stun a boss enemy.

fates · 54
Yea it is definitely the kind of card that is scenario dependent. There are occasions where killing an enemy is not the optimal route. Oddly enough, it's great for snakes to help avoid building up vengeance in TFA. — LaRoix · 1646
Tripped enemies don't cycle or spawn again. — MrGoldbee · 1490
Remember the enemy will still exhaust after the initial test, because it's still an evade action. As time goes on, there are more and more enemies in Arkham Horror that are better to evade rather than kill, and this card fills that spot very nicely. As LaRoix says, this seems very well suited to TFA. — snacc · 1020
Reminder that exhausted enemies don't attack. So this keeps a hunter enemy from attacking you even if it reaches you (though it will be ready in your threat area come upkeep, which is why -1 evade is nice). — Yenreb · 15

Living Ink

Living Ink

I will dedicate some writing to the non-clear points of the card and possible ways to exploit it.

  1. When its bonus ceaze to work? Once it is discarded. It is still almost 3 (5 with Imbued ink) full rounds. It starts working the turn you have played it, at the beginning of your next turn you will discard the first charge, and once you have discarded the last charge it is discarded and its bonus isn't applied anymore (but you still had the bonus during the mythos phase before this turn).

  2. Subtle Depiction as a perfect mythos protection. You don't spend the charge and ignor the ability till the end of the round. So the bonus isn't applied since the beginning of your turn, but it IS applied since the beginning of the mythos phase till the beginning of your turn. Therefore you can boost your and for the mythos and don't spend charges during your turn to prevent the card from being discarded.

  3. Imbued ink allows to have two copies in play at the same time. The card is not unique, so you can use your both arcane slots for it. This way you can manage to add +4 and +4 for the mythos protection using the tip above, while 10 charges total allow you to use only one of the card for the boost during your turn, alternating them to make it last longer.

  4. Static stat boost is always good for the cards that use fixed stats like Summoned Servitor or Summoned Hound. This way you can get some really nice numbers for your free tests.

chrome · 62