Sharpshooter

This looks like a great card with cool abilities for high Agility rogues, but in practice I found it disappointing. First you need to get it and a gun played. Then you realize it exhausts, so if the first shot misses or fails to kill the target you need a back up source of damage. Tony isn't going to bother with it.

It's much too expensive for its limited usefulness.

The Ornate Bow is still a better weapon for this role.

Oweldon · 39
Also note that most Rogues have 3 combat. If you're taking Delilah O'Rourke that becomes 4 (and Delilah is probably the best ally for a mixed agility/combat enemy manager Rogue). This means that with the Derringer (2) you'll already be fighting at 6 most of the time. Sure, this would bring Finn or Skids up to 8, but you could do that anyway with High Roller or Well Connected, and those are a bit more versatile than Sharpshooter. You could take Sharpshooter and High Roller, but that adds another asset that you need to draw and play. Wini is probably just committing a bunch of cards to the test, anyway to try to get the extra action (and drawing a card in the process). I think the benefits are just too marginal for it to make the cut. Kind of a shame, as it's a cool concept. — Zinjanthropus · 229
This card feels like something you need to build your deck around, and then potentially fails to show-up and therefore never really ends up seeing play. It might be interesting if one day we got a version that was both Exceptional and Permanent (similar to how On Your Own got developed, and was a similar build-around style of card), I think it might be a lot more playable in that case — DigitalAgeHermit · 24
If I'm reading this correctly, for the attack in question you would benefit from bonuses to both your Fight AND Agility, correct? e.g. Reliable or Dark Horse would add +2 to the attack rather than the usual +1? — HanoverFist · 739
HanoverFist: The way I would read it is yes, but you probably can't commit combat icons to the test, still. @DigitalAgeHermit: In the case of Wini, you can be pretty confident that you'll draw it, at least, so it might be a decent build-around there. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Pet Oozeling

This card. This freaking card. Hey, did you know that its triggered ability isn't a skill check, so symbol tokens revealed for it don't weaken Seal of the Seventh Sign? And that, as a result, while the token is sealed, there's no risk involved in activating it?

Yeah. This card is far more powerful than they probably intended if there's a Mystic on your team. Even without the ability (because relying on that ability without any chaos bag manipulation is ... not a good idea), a 2 cost story asset that doesn't take up any slots for 3 soak is a fairly strong reward. But the moment you add any chaos bag manipulation, even just a Premonition, Grotesque Statue, or Olive McBride to let you use it once for free, you're getting a massive tempo advantage. And if you actually do the Seal of the Seventh Sign combo I alluded to above, you can use it to take care of the last two health of every enemy that shows up forever... or at least until the skill checks being done to advance the investigation break the Seal.

Of course, that does leave the issue of actually finding the dang thing in its side scenario, since, of course, it's a story asset...

Thatwasademo · 58
Wendy can also guarantee safe usage of this asset if her ability is available, since you do not replace the drawn token for Wendy’s ability — Difrakt · 1310
Wendy's ability reads: "When you reveal a chaos token, choose and discard 1 card from your hand: Cancel that chaos token and return it to the bag. Reveal a new chaos token." So while she can use it for this ability, there's no guarantee Wendy wouldn't put the autofail back only to draw it again. — zrayak · 86
I bumbled into this by accident (I had never played the scenario before) playing as Jacqueline Fine. Jacqueline Fines investigator ability is "when you would reveal any number of chaos tokens, reveal 2 more, you may cancel the autofail". Yeah... That combo is outrageous. Even more outrageous than Preston Fairmont with Monstrous Transformation. — NarkasisBroon · 10
Preston with Monstrous Transformation is way less outrageous than Calvin Wright with Monstrous Transformation. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
They are both pretty silly, but personally I think Preston is worse (better? More game breaking.). Once you reach a certain point having higher stats doesn't really matter (the difference between like 6 before boosts and 10 before boosts). But the action compression that comes with being a rogue and having 5-6 resources a turn, AND being 6 before boosts is tremendously potent. — NarkasisBroon · 10
It also combos with Calling in Favors. You can clear the resources off of it, and also get an ally into play. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Also, Bless and Curse tokens don't cause you to pull extra tokens for this thing because it's not a skill test. So stack that Chaos Bag. Father Mateo can basically guarantee at least one no-risk usage of it as well. — Apologised · 4
If you reveal tokens with olive McBride or Grotesque Statue don't you still reveal the autofail? Sounds like it pretty explicitly reveals extra tokens (which you ignore *after* revealing), which would cause the blob to eat you. — Vultureneck · 74
Defiance

There are a couple of points I don't see mentioned but I think are fairly important to consider when thinking of taking either this or it's lvl 0 counterpart.

The first is that the card DOES NOT protect you from negative effects that would occur even if you succeed. The big ones being the card loss from Mists of R'lyeh, and the action loss from Rite of Seeking. While the FAQ does mention Baseball Bat, that's a card, so I thought it worth mentioning that you will still have to deal with the consequence of a fickle spell cast. If you really can't afford to give up a card or you really need to investigate as your first action with RoS, Defiance will not help you. You will also be forced to spend a charge from Seal of the Seventh Sign.

To explain, Defiance blocks the effects a symbol token attempts to do as indicated by the scenario reference card; it is otherwise ambivalent towards your assets and your cards in general. Which brings me to Ritual Candles.

If you are using Ritual Candles, Defiance WILL NOT impede on the +1 skill boost. In some (albeit unlikely) cases, you may use this in tandem with two candles and then trigger, say Olive McBride or Dark Prophecy, to then turn what would have been a -4 (or , , ) into a +2. That's a significant difference. Part of the reason Olive is useful for this is that she can absorb the hit from the if necessary. And if you have access to say, cards, then you can confidently trigger succeed by 2 effects and other combos with greater assurance. And this does differ from Counterspell which, while protecting you from spell side effects, costs two resources and will definitely prevent candle bonuses. Though, I'm getting ahead of myself. Probably you'll just want to remember that Defiance doesn't disrupt your Jewel of Aureolus.

Lvl 0 Defiance can be used to target a popular token in this way, or to debuff a particularly dangerous token, but the choice may not be so easy, especially on harder difficulties. There is the possibly of it serving the measly bonus of being just a since no such symbol token may be drawn. This upgrade provides the opportunity to play cards that draw lots of tokens or hunt for specific symbol tokens in confidence because the is certainly not going to waste. Just remember that all consequences to symbol tokens from your play area will remain in effect.

LaRoix · 1645
One other points not mentioned is that Silas can get cheeky with it. Per the FAQ on level 0 Defiance, "Defiance creates a lasting effect", so unlike many skills that have triggered abilities during resolution, he can still get the safety net out of it while also bouncing it back to hand. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
You should re-read the FAQ. "treat the token as if it had never been revealed at all. All of the token's effects are cancelled or ignored, and any effects that would trigger off that type of chaos token" => this means it is like you have never drawn the token. Shrivelling side effects for a special token DOES NOT apply. The second part of the text is confusing "However, when a token is only partially ignored or cancelled, as with Defiance, the token is still considered to have been revealed, and effects that trigger off it being revealed do trigger.", however if you check, the link refer to defiance[0], and not the [2]. — el_kloklo · 1
Alice Luxley

No one has mentioned the obvious. This is a pure Roland Banks card. Roland is the only character that can trigger her ability in a non-janky way. Roland kills an enemy, then his reaction triggers, which discovers a clue, and then Alice deals a damage to another enemy. Obviously not a great card in solo but 2 enemies are common enough with just two players and you can tip the scales even more in your favor with "Let me handle this!" and On the Hunt. When there are no enemies, Roland's investigate is up to a respectable 4, thanks to Alice.

As other posters mentioned, Skids and Jenny are probably the next best two options.

Wrecko · 98
I suspect she works better for Joe or Rex than she does for Skids and Jenny. Putting her on a your seeker lets her be a reliable free damage most turns while your fighter picks up the enemies. No jank needed. Otherwise, she combos well with Scene of the Crime. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
The problem is as Roland you’ e usually better off boosting your combat and doing bits of damage in such a way that it helps you effectively kill enemies. Beat Cop’s combat boost is so much more relevant as Roland should almost never actually use his Intellect. Better to just use Beat Cop’s damage trigger than tying to get two enemies to show up in a single spot to use Alice’s one damage. She works best with evade -> investigate, so Skids is probably her best home. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
In multiplayer at least, Carolyn also seems like a decent fit? She's gonna be investigating with intellect a fair bit, and she's not hugely interested in fighting-oriented guardian allies? Obviously, Peter's gonna have first claim on Carolyn's ally slot but Alice doesn't seem like a bad back-up/charisma ally...If nothing else, she means the actual fighter of the group doesn't have to worry about things like whippoorwills and acolytes — bee123 · 31
Yeah the best thing Carolyn has going for her is card access, and one of the things that comes with is a fun choice between Milan, Sylvestre, or even potentially something like Guard Dog or Xavier. Alice is for the most part an int boost and a little soak for 4 resources. Not terrible, but there's better places to get that and the ability is significantly less consistent than even taboo Milan's. To investigate while an enemy is around, you either need someone else engaged with it first, evade it, or tank the AoO. That's why Alice is a really hard card to use well outside of high agility investigators. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
I can confirm it's decent Dunwich tech for Whippoorwills for sure, though even then you might be better off just using Beat Cops. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Lola Hayes

Lola is a 'sub-optimal' investigator, and you'll probably either love or hate her depending on what you're looking for. She's made for fun and goofy builds, not power combos.

Without playing her, it can be tough to see how limiting her role restriction is. It seems like it would be fun to build a 'rainbow' deck with cards from every color, but in practice, that's a recipe for disaster. Cards that aren't in your current role are almost blanks, since you can't use any , , or triggers, can't play them as events or assets, and can't commit them to skill tests. The more you spread out your colors, the more likely your cards are to be blanks. Your static boost abilities like the one on Magnifying Glass are always active, but you'd be surprised how much of the good stuff requires you to be in a specific role.

You can (usually) only switch roles once per turn, so most turns you're locked in to using only two colors. This is what prevents Lola from pulling off crazy stuff; you can't perform a combo that uses cards of more than 2 colors. For most cases, there's already another investigator who can play the two colors you're comboing, and they have an additional character bonus. Lola's blessing is also her curse: when she can build the deck of any other investigator, she's going to get compared to every other investigator, and I think there will always be someone else who can do the same thing you're doing, but 'better'.

So why do I still love Lola? Because her deckbuilding options give you so much freedom to do stupid stuff that makes you feel clever for trying it. Lola is absolutely not the best investigator for Key of Ys, but only she can play Dr. Elli Horowitz and No Stone Unturned to help you find the Key, Haste and Swift Reflexes for the free actions, and then finish it off with a Will to Survive for 5 token-less tests at 6, in the stat of your choosing!

Is that combo easy to pull off? Not at all. Is it super powerful? No, you spent a bunch of XP, resources, cards, and actions just for 5 autosuccesses. And heck, I didn't even point out how in order to even use it, you MUST start your turn in the role, then switch to , so you can't even do it in back-to-back turns!

But do you feel awesome when it happens? Hastur yeah.

Don't expect anybody to ever add a review here with a "Gamebreaking Combo for Lola!!!", even as more cards get printed, because that's not what she is about. Instead, I'd recommend picking an off-beat concept you really like (Relics! Tokens! The Encounter Deck!), and then using Lola to put all your favorite cards in one deck.

If you just want 5 token-less tests at 6 in the stat of your choosing, Will to Survive + Red Gloved Man and any extra action cards - such as Haste, Swift Reflexes, Leo. I disagree with the assessment that Lola Hayes is bad. She's complicated and harder to play than many characters that can coast through on a 5-stat or an efficient combo engine. But even then there are pretty simple ways to build her. I'll probably have to write my own review rather than try to squish a full defense in here. But no, she's not a janky cross-class combo character. She can however do plenty of in-class combos, such as Higher Education + Archaic Glyphs Guiding Stones and run almost every permanent (although she can't use Stick to the Plan). Heck, if you want to run her dual class, you can meet the 7 card minimum easily for rogue with Charon's Obul, 2x Adaptable, 2x Leo de Luca, and 2x Another Day Another Dollar so you get to run Leo but never otherwise sit in rogue. Then you can split the other two classes between fighting cards and investigating cards. Okay, this ended up longer than I intended. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
I guess instead of writing 'bad', I should have written 'non-optimal'. She's certainly viable and fun, and that's all an investigator needs to be good. If you've been around the block, you can tell which cards are good with Lola and which are bad, but newer players might think you're supposed to just jam all the best cards in one deck, and that could lead to some frustrating games. — Hylianpuffball · 29
The reason she's labeled as "bad" is because she brings nothing to the table. There aren't things that Lola can do that other investigators couldn't do better. Saying she can do Will to Survive + Red Gloved Man doesn't prove Lola has any value as there are other investigators who get more out of even that combo. Lola only brings restrictions and an odd deck building set that lets you think she can do amazing things but actually can't... There are a lot of simple combos that are off the table because of her restrictions. Even after many new cards have been released since she has come out she is still the 2nd rate imitation of whatever a different investigator can do better. — yuuko · 1
Alright, I agree with you in almost all cases. There is one option however that makes her go from terrible, to playable. The multi color class cards, along with the "for each class card you control" cards. https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/1817192 — AussieKSU · 1098