Quick Learner

Quick Learner

I received this ruling through the official rules question form on Nov 13, 2024:

Question:

A recent ruling from this form about Plan of Action, posted on ArkhamDB, appears to contradict a previous ruling about Quick Learner. The new ruling states that Plan of Action gains icons during the mythos phase. However, Quick Learner which has similar wording was ruled the opposite and did not increase the difficulty of skill tests during the mythos phase. Has the previous ruling for Quick Learner been overturned?

Answer:

No; we are reverting the ruling on Plan of Action. In wanting to make Plan of Action stronger, we caused Quick Learner to become weaker since it’s worded similarly. We acknowledge that this was a bad call, making Quick Learner significantly less playable, and we apologize for it.

The current rulings are that Quick Learner only affects the difficulty of skill tests performed during your turn, not during the mythos phase; similarly, Plan of Action only gains icons if it’s committed during an investigator’s turn, and does not gain any additional icons during the mythos phase.

Gnarls Apprentice · 10
This is a six month old ruling? Kind of a big deal. People have been sending in this question a lot with no response. — Eudaimonea · 5
How troubling is their admission that they changed the eight-year old definition of "this turn" out of a desire to make a particular niche skill card stronger? — Eudaimonea · 5
No, the definition of "this turn" did not change, what changed is the definition of "before". The "first action of your turn" always referrred to the same thing, and will continue to do so. The only thing that change is whether "before the first action of your turn" means "at any point of your TURN, before the first action of your turn", or "at any point of this ROUND, before the first action of your turn". — MoiMagnus · 63
I respectfully disagree. Plan of Action, which is the card FFG says this ruling was entirely about, does not use the phrase “your turn” at all, as all of your examples do. It says, “if this is before / during / after the first action of *this* turn.” In a four player game, each investigator phase has four turns, and no mythos, enemy, or upkeep phases have any turns. You could argue that mythos phase is before the first action of “your turn,” but not that it’s before the first action of “this turn.” — Eudaimonea · 5
Please forward this email on to arkhamdbfaqs@gmail.com, so the ruling in the FAQ on this page can be updated. — Ektheleon · 223
it's worded like that for consistency, so that it will behave the same, wether you commit it to your test or another player's test, before or after your turn. — Adny · 1
We know why it’s worded the way it is, because the card’s designer, MJ Newman, explained it: the card is intended to unambiguously offer bonus icons only during player turns. The new design team, by their own admission, wanted to “make the card stronger” so they ruled that the card does something additional to what it says. — Eudaimonea · 5
As written, Quick Learner is a bit ambiguous, but Plan of Action is clear: it says "during or before the first action of this turn". So yes, when they ruled on Plan of Action, they did implicitly change the definition of "this turn" out of a desire to make a card stronger. — Superstar · 13

Name Your Price

Name Your Price

A bit too costly for what it does.

I would have liked a bit of adaptability, like :

Cost : 5 ressources.
Pay X resources to deal X damages to an ennmy at your location (half that damage, rounded down, it that ennemy is Elite).

You know, beeing able to pay the price in order to really be able to kill anoyone :)

Emmental · 142
I love playing Tony has a "rich rogue". I think I often end up with 20-25 resources ... until I play 2 copies of Dynamite blast. Name your price will not be played often but I will probably to put a single copy in some decks. — TribulationsSolo · 1
It's waiting for its combo piece. — MrGoldbee · 1486
More than waiting for a combo piece, its waiting for non elite enemies that have 10 or more health to be more common. Because on a boss its really just "play dynamite twice on a single target" — Spamamdorf · 5
Parley + no splash damage. — MrGoldbee · 1486
I think, it should just get rid of the Elite-restriction, maybe tune it down a bit for Elites, similar to "Spectral Razor". Or at least allow to divi up among multiple enemies. 10 damage is just flavour text on this card, best it can do currently (before TDC, I don't know yet, what comes there) is 7 on an Aquatic Abomination in "Into the Maelstrom" or Oozewraith in "The Blob That Ate Everything". — Susumu · 381
But if you want refund on smaller damage, there is a "great" option for at least a few gators (Natcho, Skids, || Jenny): just play Relentless for a sensational 1$ off from your wasted damage! — Susumu · 381
I forgot: it actually is tuned down (to 5 damage) on Elites, but that seems laughtable, not impressive, for 20 resources. With 8 damage, minimum 7, it would look OK. — Susumu · 381
On second thought, 5 testless damage on an Elite might be a lot in true solo. One-shot the Ghoul Priest, 5/12 damage on Yig. It just doesn't move the needle enough to impress wit 2 or even more investigators. So I might consider this for a true solo deck. — Susumu · 381

Confiscation

Confiscation

You need a mandy I mean it. You WANT Mandy Thompson to search your deck and draw this weakness while you are holding a stupid revolver in hand so you can continue playing your Gatling Gun and Shotgun in peace. This weakness when planned carefully is not a massive investment cost but until that risk of losing all your investment is always there.

Makaramus · 9
Friends in low places gives you a lot of control over this. Use it to your advantage and shuffle an empty gun into your deck? How about a switchblade in your hidden pocket as backup? — Django · 5154
Yeah, it's why McGlenn wants a switchblade. — MrGoldbee · 1486

Blood of Thoth

Blood of Thoth

People are so locked into the “action mathematics” cost of a card. This card’s utility comes not from getting an extra action, but from the fact that the action you are getting is for any player and is out of turn. I will not argue this is an amazing card, but it certainly has merit.

We play 4 player on hard, and our highest success rate runs are where purple plays support, dragging as many of the bad tokens out of the bag as possible. They will do other stuff, because purple is so flexible, but they are not the primary cluever, or the primary fighter, or primary dodger. This type of character would love this card.

An extra, clutch turn at the right moment is amazing. Oops, our dodger just moved, engaged and then drew tentacles against the massive endboss. That’s 4 big attacks against the team. But wait, enter Blood of Thoth. An extra dodge attempt here is worth much, much more than a card, 2 resources and an accessory slot.

The action is also out of turn. There is a player window after the enemies move. A hunter enters your area – Blood of Thoth fast action – someone kills it or dodges it before it gets to attack.

Or as a big turn combo card; an extra action for the player having a Payday, The Stygian Eye or Will to Survive round.

If it’s 3 or 4 multiplayer, and you were already building a doom deck (which raises its own question marks), adding this card seems viable.

I wonder if moving blood from another card to Sin-Eater counts as “1 or more doom being placed on a card you control”. If so, then this card will trigger more often.

scrappayeti · 5
If you move doom to sin eater you could trigger the blood theoreticaly again. But to trigger the reaction you exhaust the blood. So you are usually only able to do it once a round. Probably you can more than once if you include bulwark — Tharzax · 1
I would agree with that evaluation IF you could bank the offerings and spend 3 when the moment is opportune, but you have to remove all offerings as part of the cost, which means that every turn that you don't activate the ability is completely wasted, and you are therefore incentivized to spend the action as soon as you get the 3 offering in order to maximize the value because getting offering is already hard enough without wasting them. Because of that, you are presented the difficult option of either spending the action now on something middling to start earning more offerings next turn, or save it for something more impactful but lose overall value on the card. And don’t forget the about the inherent cost of doom placement, which is much riskier in a 4 player setting. — ShadowK · 1
And it takes a slot every mystic wants to use. — MrGoldbee · 1486

"Where's the party?"

"Where's the party?"

so if I take this with Mandy Thompson I can search encounter deck for 2 non elite enemies and spawn them exhausted then draw cards equal to those enemies' combined damage and horror values? question is... I imagine this is on avarge 5 card draw but killing them will be a lot of hassle?

Makaramus · 9
Unless you Stir the Pot. — AlderSign · 391