21 or Bust

The expected resources is about 5.0 resources, same as Emergency Cache, in standard token setup. Many "5" give slightly better result, but many above 5 (-6, -8) give poor result. In this reason, this card is not suitable for expert difficulty. If you consider "fun", 21 or bust is good choice unlike Henry Wan, since 21 or bust at least achieves E-Cache.

Additionally, if your deck has Prophetic, 21 or bust may be better than E-cahce. Since 21 or bust has fortune trait, you can play 21 or bust for free with Prophetic. Sadly, Prophetic doesn't have , so that only off-class investigators can do.

Note: additional -5 or symbol token slightly increases the expected resources, and -7 or -8 token significantly decreases the expected resources.

The below is my stratagy. I believe your intuition is better, so please refer this just for fun.


Here is my stratagy to achieve E-Cache. According to the combined value of revealed tokens,

  • 11 or less: reveal 1 additional token
  • 12, 13: reveal 1 additional token only if and/or was revealed. (exceptional case: stop if you revealed but you bust if you treat as 11).
  • 14, 15, 16: reveal 1 additional token
  • 17, 18, 19: reveal 1 additional token only if was revealed and treated as 1.
  • 20: reveal 1 addtional token with above condition and if 2 or more "1" tokens exist in bag.
  • 21 or more: stop

Nevertheless, I believe many of you don't want to stop when the total value is 12 or 13 (including me) for fun. I also give the expectation value when you follow above stratagy but don't stop at 12/13.

NotZ Standard bag] ideal: 4.98, proposed: 4.96, proposed(non-stop): 4.86, 17-stop: 4.76
NotZ Standard bag + ] ideal: 5.01, proposed: 4.99, proposed(non-stop): 4.95, 17-stop: 4.85
NotZ Hard bag] ideal: 5.02, proposed: 5.00, proposed(non-stop): 4.97, 17-stop: 4.88
NotZ Hard bag + ] ideal: 5.07, proposed: 5.03, proposed(non-stop): 5.03, 17-stop: 4.96
Here, "ideal" means ideal stratagy. I reveal one additional token only if the expectation will be increased considering all cases. It's the upper bound if you don't know the future information.

With above stratagy, you can achieve below table in standard NotZ.

name
0
4
5
6
9
exp
ideal 3.6% 58.1% 9.6% 13.6% 15.1% 4.98
proposed 3.7% 60.1% 9.6% 10.2% 16.3% 4.96
nonstop 11.2% 44.0% 13.6% 12.9% 18.3% 4.86
17stop 8.8% 48.9% 14.8% 13.9% 13.7% 4.76
12/13/17stop 2.9% 61.7% 11.6% 11.7% 12.1% 4.83


  • 17stop: we stop whenever the sum is 17 or above
  • 12/13/17stop: In addition to 17stop, we stop if the sume is 12 or 13 (not 14~16).

(modified Oct 8, 2021)

elkeinkrad · 500
This card is probably really bad (if you stop at 17 it's sub-E-cache-efficiency), but it's really fun. — Zinjanthropus · 229
If you're expert gambler, you can earn more resource than E-cache. 0.1 higher than E-cache. However, I believe I cannot earn 5 resources using this card. (note: 17-stop gives approx. 4.75 resources) — elkeinkrad · 500
4.83 in standard notz + 1 additional symbol token (17-stop) — elkeinkrad · 500
Do you not put the token back in the bag after revealing it and drawing the next? — Olider · 1
I think the tokens are returned after the effect ends, like test. — elkeinkrad · 500
What does the phrase "(ignoring +/-)" on the card mean? It sounds like numbered tokens are ignored? But then you can't even get 19 or 18? — Nils · 1
It means that both -1 and 1 are calculated as "1". You just ignore the sign of the number token. — elkeinkrad · 500
That makes sense, thank you! Nice review! — Nils · 1
What happens when you play Wendy and "stack the deck"? — ErynnWoodward · 1
@ForrestWoodward // In that case, you can cancel last revealed token, return it, and reveal another. Canceled token don't be combined but you should reveal another. — elkeinkrad · 500
When busted, the number of tokens in chaos bag is small, so that Wendy's ability may not be efficient. — elkeinkrad · 500
Rite of Equilibrium

Let's evaluate two uses of Rite of Equilibrium.

Firstly, playing the second option with a full bless/curse deck can almost guarantee total horror heals. But is it worth the cost? While Horror is a problem in most games, this card seems unreliable if it was the only source of horror heal and normally, the game does not care if you finish with 1 sanity or full sanity so over healing is not necessarily the best use of the card. Choosing this option means you are playing with a blurse deck and this move tends to reset your deck (which is not good)

Secondly, the first option can be used to replenish your bless/curses. As others have mentioned, this can be paid cheaply with Tempt Fate so unless you use Dayana Esperence to squeeze more juice out of this single card, it is normally better to stick with tempt fate (having both to fill bag up faster is an option, but usually there are more things that need to be added to a blurse deck before this one)

Overall this card does not seem playable without Dayana, and if we look at the other spells cards that are 0-cost high xp cost that synergizes with Dayana ( Deny Existence and Recharge), Equilibrium seems to fall short of the other two of the effectiveness though (even Soothing Melody seems to do better)

It could be a niche card to take in Carcossa (or equivalent) campaign with more horror but little damage.

Overall, this card does have a unique effect and can be used in some cases (e.g Agnes Baker to continue her ability) or if there were better rewards for over heal. It might be balanced if the 1st option came with a card draw to at least be on par with Tempt and makes it worthwhile to combo with Dayana, and the second option included damage heal as well (or did not remove the bless/curse)

Hulahoop12 · 1
Wendy's Amulet

With the new erratum on Wendy’s amulet from FAQ v.1.9, do cards like Lure and Hiding Spot now go to the bottom of your deck instead of going to the discard pile? If not, then what events are discarded from play? I’m assuming you can still discard an event from hand to cancel a token and that card does go to discard because your hand is not considered in play.

You are absolutely correct, lure and hiding spot (and premonition if you are pulling nonsense) now go on the bottom of your deck instead of your discard pile — NarkasisBroon · 10
Before FAQ 1.9, 1 premonition would last forever, basically. — 1337duck · 1
The Fool • 0

How about Dark Horse deck? You could play 1-cost fast event card for free, such as Lucky!. You could play 2-cost asset with 1 resource from upkeep + Fool, or 3-cost asset with upkeep + Labranche + Fool. Similarly, you could play Will to Survive with upkeep + Fool + On Your Own, or 3-cost event, such as True Survivor, Waylay, with no cost.

One problem is that The Fool is 3-cost asset, which is hard to play Dark Horse deck in the middle of the game. Luckily, here is a solution; if you find Fool in your opening hand, you don't need to concern this. What you need to do is improving your drawing ability :) Of course, my drawing ability is too poor to find; my Fool always places among the bottom five cards.

elkeinkrad · 500
I feel like the 3-cost investment actually isn't that bad in a dark horse deck, since dark horse itself costs 3. Whichever you get first, you can just play, and paying this has the benefit of making Dark Horse cheaper. Seems solid to me. — SGPrometheus · 835
I tried this card in a Bob Jenkins deck, and found it lackluster. Yes, it's great if you have it in your opening hand. If not, you'll have to take a tempo hit (three resources!) to hopefully make a worthwhile return later on. Opportunity costs means that paying 3 resources, a card and a play action in round 3 isn't always going to be worth saving 10 resources during the entire length of the game. Also I think it's overpriced at 3 Xp. — olahren · 3540
Agree... on it's own, it's IDEALLY a net +1 R/turn... and that's only realized if you can play at least 1 card per turn. Not bad in a vacuum, but 3R 3XP? Tempo-wise, if it's not in your opening hand, it'll be 7 turns before it competes with a single Take Heart. That said, as OP suggests, it really feels built for the niche of lifting the operating bar of a Madame LeAxehorse deck from 2 to 3. — HanoverFist · 744
I just realized this card is almost the same as the card resourceful in the lotr card game. Niche but works great in a hobbit deck. This has me thinking a deck likely exists where this is a really good card as well…not sure what that looks like yet though. — spoonman2084 · 1
Divination

The most comparison for this card would be Rite of Seeking (2) or Clairvoyance (3). At first it seems like this card doesn't compare favourably to it, but there's a couple of advantages to using Divination. Let's compare:

Rite of Seeking (2)

  • Costs 4 resources
  • 6 clues total (2 at a time)
  • +2 to the test
  • Lose all remaining actions if you fail

Divination (1)

  • Costs 3 resources
  • 4 clues total (1 or 2 at a time)
  • +1 or to the test (can choose what to test)
  • Discard a card if you succeed by 0
  • Can be taken by the class
  • Does not lose a charge if you fail

Clairvoyance (3) is similar to Rite of Seeking but costs 1 more XP, has a different fail condition and does horror as opposed to losing actions. I personally think Clairvoyance is worse than Rite of Seeking, so I'll stick to comparing Divination to Rite of Seeking here.

The expanded access for and the ability to test could be useful for Trish Scarborough who typically wouldn't fill both her arcane slots and provides her another tool on top of her Lockpicks while keeping her other hand free for a handy Magnifying Glass. A traditional might take this with 2x Magnifying Glass or a tome if you're Daisy and get some action compression this way. Daisy in particular might like this card as it frees up her hands.

Perhaps the biggest boon is Carolyn Fern who's 3 typically holds her back from using spell assets and her restrictions prevent her from even getting Rite of Seeking (2). This card allows you to test instead which works much better for her and gives her much needed action compression. She can also access Enraptured to provide a few extra charges.

Speaking of Enraptured, this is a spell card that investigates that can actually use the bonus. So if you're playing a high , you could use this as your investigate card and use it to recharge your combat spell potentially.

The last point for Divination is a really big bonus here for most users in that you never "waste" the charge. Divination is more "spammable" since you don't have to worry about failing the test as much as Rite of Seeking, which can provide a tempo boost for finding clues you have a "good chance" of getting where Rite of Seeking may require you to commit more to try and guarantee success. This particular useful against high shroud locations where you might expect some attempts. On top of being 1 resource cheaper, the card is also cheaper by 1 XP.

This card also provides action compression compared to Sixth Sense (0) and a +1 boost, at the cost of having limited charges. I think even for classical , this card should be considered an option.

The card creator have really managed to create an interesting choice in the space between Sixth Sense and Rite of Seeking that somehow still has honest trade-offs between all three options.

shortpunch · 180
Is there a practical reason to ever choose to spend 1 charge? Is the bonus charge from Akachi completely useless? — ErynnWoodward · 1
Practically, yes, there will be plenty of times in a typical scenario where you only need to pick up 1 clue. That's the main reason many people don't go for RoS and take Sixth Sense instead, especially in lower player counts. Flexibility is part of the appeal here. — MiskatonicFrosh · 344
Totally agree! I am just building an Akachi Investigator focus for a 4 player game, and I have to take the hard decision to put Sixth sense even if it does not benefits from Akachi ability, but it will help to retrieve those single clues locations (odd location are more frequent in 1/3 players, so it gets more value), this is an obvious upgrade for Akachi I think, it also add more investigate spells into the loop, so you can find them on the mulligan. — marduke182 · 15
Along with Enraptured, this works with Deduction, right? Seems good for multiplayer. — ilksvorbern · 75