- You can successfully Investigate a location even if there are no clues on it.
Dr. Milan Christopher
Profesor de Entomología
Apoyo. Aliado
Aliado. Miskatonic.
Coste: 4.
Recibes +1 .
Después de que investigues con éxito: Obtén 1 recurso.
Latest Taboo
This card’s ability now reads: “After you successfully investigate, exhaust Dr. Milan Christopher...”
Cartas relacionadas
- Dr. Milan Christopher: Professor of Entomology (Revised Core Set #33)
FAQs
(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)Reviews
AndyB's review of Dr. Milan Christopher pretty much holds up. But now that a year has passed, I'd like to take a moment to reexamine this highly-acclaimed card.
I think Dr. Milan Christopher is clearly the strongest multiplayer Seeker ally in the game. I don't think any of the primary-class Seekers (Norman, Minh, Daisy, Rex) can do any better. I strongly recommend him for Carolyn and Finn as well.
What makes Milan so good? Well, first, the +1 Intellect is really important, especially on high levels. On Expert it is incredibly valuable to get to 6 or 7 in your primary stat. Milan's bonus makes a huge difference here.
What is really special, though, is the resource generation. In multiplayer, Seekers can and should spend the vast majority of their actions investigating; this means Milan, who does not exhaust upon activation, will trigger over and over. It's extremely common to get 2 or 3 resources a turn from him. The profits become immense very quickly.
But what are you going to do with the enormous piles of money that Milan produces? Well, there are tons of good options. The world is your oyster. But the simplest and most reliable way to spend them is on the XP permanents--Higher Education (for the Seekers), Keen Eye (for Carolyn), and Streetwise (for Finn). Note how all of these can boost Intellect even further (among other abilities). That means you can spend money to crank up your investigate tests even further, so you have excellent odds even against even the Expert chaos bag, and then have Milan get you your money back!
Obviously, this approach reaches its zenith with Rex Murphy. The combined bonuses of Higher Education and Milan makes triggering his ability pretty easy, even on Expert, and Milan's resource generation means he can investigate at a furious pace over a sustained period of time. He comes pretty close to investigating twice as fast as the other Seekers--and the other Seekers are already going pretty darn fast.
Milan is a weaker pick in solo. There are far fewer clues to be found and hence fewer activations of his ability. Moreover, investing so much (4 resources and the ally slot) in the early game into something that boosts cluefinding is probably not what solo Seekers need to be doing. Something like Dr. William T. Maleson (with the goal of avoiding monsters) might be better.
In multiplayer, though, Milan is just dominant. Now, the other Seeker allies are fun, too, and if you want a change of pace there's nothing wrong with using Horowitz to find some relics or Maleson for some encounter deck manipulation. But if your goal is to be the most effective Seeker you can be, this is the guy to pick.
Even for groups that don't regularly observe Taboo restrictions, Dr. Milan Christopher's change to exhausting him (limiting his gain to single resource a turn) is one of the most fair rulings of the Taboos I have seen. It was the first I took into account after my first full playthrough of The Dunwich Legacy; Daisy was regularly ending scenarios with a dozen resources in hand. Zoey looked on in just a little envy.
Even with the new limitation, the good entomologist easily pays for himself in a couple turns, assuming you value a flat +1 Intellect and a little soak is worth 2 resrouces. Seeing as Seekers generally aren't leaping into danger, it's likely your Ally will stick around for some time, perhaps the entire scenario.
The biggest problem with Dr. Milan Christopher is that he exists. While deck building, players shouldn't have to consistently ask themselves "Is this new Ally better than Milan?"
He might seem like he's looking up a recipe for cockroach soup, but Dr. Milan Christopher is by a country mile the best Seeker ally.
Sure, he's fairly expensive. Sure, one icon to commit to a test is weak. But here is an ally who will improve your investigation, and then pay you for investigating. +1 ! Brilliant! He'll soon repay his cost, provided you're investigating enough. And let's not forget, clues are how you win.
He turns Daisy Walker into an intellect 6 clue-hoover - and lets her earn resources for doing it! And Mind over Matter or I've Got a plan become even more awesome.
He turns Rex Murphy into a great investigator, and combos nicely with Burglary and Scavenging. Find a low shroud location to burgle for +4 resources, and retrieve a discarded item! Neat! Or more regularly manage to grab 2 clues at once!
And he can turn a reasonable, normal investigator into a good one. Jenny Barnes, Roland Banks and Jim Culver can all reach 4 intellect and become solid investigators in their own right - though for Roland, I still think battering monsters and collecting clues from them make Beat Cop a better option.
For Seekers though, so far, he's the best available ally.
I know people are aware of how powerful Dr Milan is. I've now tried a few decks where i deliberately didn't take him. I can honestly say, this man is so incredibly powerful, that not taking him, is a deliberate, and non-power-gamey choice. If you want to win, and you are using book, and you have access to this man, there is no reason not to take him. Other allies can do other things, but this man helps you win the game, and gives you more money for doing so to help you play more things. He just combines 2 things you need in one card. I played a Trish deck most recently, that was still focused on using book. And I felt his absence. The lack of the boost to a baseline 5, and the lack of drip feed of economy was so painful it made me question my life choices. This is in a context where I consider Magnifying Glass just Forbidden for being too good. On the math, Mag glass is better than Milan since you never spent the 3 or 4 resources for him, saved an action, and you still get the boost. Milan at least means you have to consider the slot.
This man is too damn powerful, and, yes, you can win without him. But the difference between having him and not is so apparent each time. This card is S tier. If you think the game is too easy, just play without the good Dr. No need to go to Hard or Insane difficulty. Just adjust the player cards and remove the S tier options, and feel the difficulty rise.
I think that the text added with the taboo list is wrong. Exhausting him shouldn't prevent him of repeating the ability since exhausting it is not part of the cost. It should say limit one per round or turn.
Well, know that I think of it, Scavenging works similar without the taboo too.