Haven't had a chance to play this yet, but at first glance it seems like a prime taboo candidate. The minimum that any investigator who can take it would be investigating at would be 6, but that's really only the off-class or splash card people and it assumes no boosts to either will or int are in play. For most players you're going to be able to get up to 9 or 10 very easily when using this card, which is enough to smash almost any shroud level in the game. As such it effectively amounts to "pay 2 resources to discover 2 clues while ignoring all triggered effects". It compares very favourably to Intel Report in that respect and is arguably superior to Drawn to the Flame since it doesn't require the drawing of an encounter card. Granted, this is not testless and can still fail, but I'd suggest that in most cases failure is very unlikely and the consequences for failure are not very severe. I'm surprised that this is available at level zero, or that they didn't make it cost a little more.

This card is as amazing as it is fun to play. Its overpowered action-compression () and variance mitigation (test less clues/evade) effects are balanced by the fact that you have to gather 3 cards to bring the Pendant of the Queen into play. Because of this and also because it takes allot of deck space, this card should only be used if you are building a deck around it.

What’s the best strategy to use with the Segment of Onyx

The possible strategies you can use to find the Segments of Onyx are search, mill or a combination of both. I consider a pure search build the best way to assemble the pendant, since searching reduces variance or even eliminates it so you will get the Pendant of the Queen faster than the most aggressive mill decks ever could. I would also recommend not adding pure mill cards like Preposterous Sketches or Cryptic Research to your search deck, because through your search actions you will be pulling 1, 2, 3 or even 4 extra cards out of your deck per turn so you will be milling just by searching. Here are some of the best search synergy cards: Mr. "Rook", Astounding Revelation, No Stone Unturned (5), Old Book of Lore. At 0 XP Backpack and Calling in Favors are also good.

What is the best investigator to play with Segment of Onyx?

Mandy Thompson, the queen of search, should be the best investigator for this build right? Actually, I prefer Daisy Walker because of 3 reasons:

1. Her Weakness doesn’t cancel searches and she can use No Stone Unturned(5) in turn 1.

2. She can play Recharge. This is the most important reason why I prefer Daisy over Mandy. Once I have Pendant of the Queen in play and 1 copy of Eldritch Inspiration in my hand then every Recharge becomes a copy of Pendant of the Queen that cost 0 resources to play.

3. She can trigger the Old Book of Lore more often than Mandy and without losing an action. Once her Old Book of Lore of Lore is in play Daisy’s searching power is almost as good as Mandy’s.

Piloting the Pendant of the Queen

The Pendant of the Queen is inutitive and easy to use, here are some guidelines:

1. Use the free and test less evade effect only in case of emergency (to save someone from certain doom or scape from an enemy when your bodyguard can’t help).

2. Use the teleport action only if it would save you at least 2 actions and save 1 charge if you know that at some point you will want to teleport across the map.

3. Use the free clue trigger only in locations with 4+ shroud or in locations where investigating is risky (locations that drain your resources just by standing there or investigating).

Example of good piloting in a 2 player game:

You move to investigate in a 1-3 shroud location with 4+ clues. While you clean this location of clues, you use your Pendant of the Queen to clean the 2 clues at the 4-5 shroud dead end location your fellow investigator/bodyguard revealed. Using the Pendant of the Queen you saved 2+ investigate actions and 2+ move actions (you don’t have to move in and out of that remote location). This shows the action-compression and variance mitigation power of this card.

Cons of running the Pendant of the Queen

1. Tight deck space. The Segment of Onyx takes allot of deck space and can compete with other OP cards like Ancient Stone. Nevertheless the variance mitigation of a search deck allows us to play many of our best cards as one-offs, without skipping their powerful effects. In other words I can run only 1 copy of Ancient Stone in my search deck and still the probability of me seen it and using it is higher than in a normal deck that runs 2 copies and no search.

2. Many cards are needed to make it work. Indeed, but many of those are search cards and the search strategy is strong even if the Segment of Onyx wouldn’t exist.

3. The only true problem of this strategy is the lack of access to Adaptable of Daisy and Mandy. This means you have to expend XP on some lvl 0 cards once you get the Segment of Onyx or start your campaign with some suboptimal cards, namely 2 copies of Enrapturedand 1 copy of Eldritch Inspiration. This is not great but also not terrible.

Final Words

I really like the mechanics, balance and strenght of this card. If you like seekers (especially Daisy and Mandy) I would recommend trying it. To be fair constructing the perfect deck to go with the Segment of Onyx is no easy task and at the moment there are almost no decks on Arkham DB that focus on exploiting the Pendant of the Queen. Most of the published decks just run it as an afterthought/gimmick and the few that do focus it (1 or 2) are Mandy builds that are just ok. I do plan to publish a full in depth guide and build with Daisy but I still have to do some more playtesting and refinements, so this is as much insight as I can provide right now.

First review!

This card seems made for Tommy Muldoon:

1. expendable ally;
2. boost to useful stat;
3. preexisting damage is not bad at all because for Tommy that damage means resources, so he can play a “fast” Jessica Hyde for net 1 resource, or keep a “slow” one for the soak and boost. Cards with several “roles” are really nice to have in this game since you can tactically adjust to situation.
4. immediate fodder for Rookie Mistake.
5. [meta] right cycle, so the designers probably planned it.

Poor girl. Seems like she’ll be sacrificed by Tommy a lot. At least empirically in my game, Tommy (played by my partner) has sacrificed more people than all the “bad guys” combined...

Does this card have a place in a deck that isn't Zoey's? Yes, in one very specific case, which I'll get to in the last paragraph:

Taunt shares a theme with certain other fast cards; Shortcut, Working a Hunch, and Sleight of Hand, come to mind. Cards that involve a fast version of a basic action that any investigator can do, such as moving, discovering a clue, playing an item card, or engaging an enemy, as the above examples provide.

Thing is, some basic actions are more valuable, and needed more often, than others. Take the humble move action; every investigator is going to be moving between locations, in every scenario, from start to finish, regardless of class, role, or objective. It guarantees the usefulness of Shortcut, made even better when it's use can be applied to any investigator at your location, nor just the card holder. Same with discovering a clue, same with playing a item asset.

Engaging an enemy just isn't one of those actions. For an engage action to be taken, there must be an enemy at your location that's either exhausted, or engaged with another player. Even then, only the latter really calls for an engage action to be taken, and EVEN THEN it's completely optional, as all engagement does is eliminate the risk of the other investigator taking damage, either by your hand, or the enemy's. It makes justifying a card slot solely to be able to taunt faster very difficult, as it doesn't actually help perform a guardian's primary role, and non-guardians will be more likely to want to AVOID enemies, not Taunt them. So then why, other than being Zoey Samaras, would you want to include Taunt in your deck?:

To eliminate the downside of Flamethrower... yeah that's pretty much it. Flamethrower harshens the downside of not being engaged with an enemy, which makes engage actions more valuable, which makes Taunt more valuable. If you're running Flamethrower, consider running Taunt.

This is not a review so much as a response to the FAQ entry on the interaction between Mk 1 Grenades and Marksmanship. It ends with a statement that “the bonus +1 damage from Marksmanship would be dealt to the attacked enemy, and not to the other enemies at the location.” This is not necessarily true, it should be clear that the Grenades won’t deal ANY damage ‘to the other enemies at the location’ or even ‘the attacked enemy’ if you targeted an enemy at an adjacent location. Mk 1 Grenades damage ‘each enemy and each other investigator at YOUR location’ INSTEAD of its standard damage. Because it won’t deal any damage to the attacked enemy from the attack, it can’t deal additional damage for the same reason that Deduction can’t discover additional clues when used with Burglary or Unearth the Ancients.

If FFG wants the Mk 1 Grenades to work with Marksmanship, they would need to say ‘each enemy and each other investigator at the attacked enemy’s location.’ Or have Marksmanship work like Luke’s ability where you Fight as if you were there.

(If Marksmanship is used on an enemy at your location, of course the additional damage will apply if the condition is met.)