Soothing Melody

Fun Fact, Soothing Melody has the Spell Keyword, meaning that somebody taking Hallowed Mirror (lvl 3 especially) and combining with an Arcane Initiate or some other way to search, can put out a lot of healing, especially towards the end of the scenario when the deck gets thin, without being too prevalent in the normal Card Draw. Also, because Soothing Melody can heal Allys, a few like Beat Cop, Grete Wagner or Agency Backup might get more uses than Expected if you mix them in with Charisma.

LatexWaifu · 1
Sharpshooter

Listen, don't get me wrong, it's a very bad card, there is no deck that will be improved by going in this direction, but I will evolve some sort of Finn deck into a Sharpshooter deck, and I'll have fun.

LordHamshire · 841
It should cost 1 exp or be a permanent. — LordHamshire · 841
I don't agree it's a bad card. I had a lot of fun with Wini deck where this card combos v well with Momentum. https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/28347/winifred-makes-a-mock-of-the-snakes-1.0 — acotgreave · 872
Agreed with Acotgreave. With Sharpshooter, Delilah gives +2, add Dirty Fighting and you have a great enemy manager. — Valentin1331 · 75500
How does Delilah gives +2? Sharpshooter replaces the test skill, does not add up fight+evade. Like mentioned on other reviews: Sharpshooter is bad, because it requires you to draw and play itself and a gun to do anything. — Susumu · 372
Delilah is +2 because Sharpshooter says "All modifiers to Fight modify Agility too" - so they both apply, even though agility is being tested? That's my interpretation. — acotgreave · 872
Also: "a card is bad because it requires you to draw it and play it"?? Huh? Doesn't that describe a huge amount of cards? Think of all the other weapon modifiers: they too require a gun, and the modifier to be drawn and played. Are those bad cards, too? — acotgreave · 872
I think the main critic is coming from the fact that it exhausts and therefore if you rely on it completely, you cannot shoot twice, in case of a beefier enemy or if you pull the autofail. Nevertheless, it can be alright in certain cases, including Expert, OP's favourite play style. — Valentin1331 · 75500
Thanks for the heads up on Delilah. Was not thinking about that, but it makes sense indeed. @ acotgreave: The issue is not, that you have to draw it and play it. It is, that it does nothing until you draw and played another card (namely a firearm). That makes it kind of expensive in actions, resources and card draw, similar to a Bandolier. Now Rogues get better around this than guardians, with extra actions, extra resources and LCC, but it is still questionable, if you want to take the extra efford for that effect. Taking it in a Rogue with low fight is kind of meh, because then you are relying of drawing your Sharpshooter, before your guns are of any use. And in a high fight Rogue there are other ways to push them. — Susumu · 372
I think Dirty Fighting is the perfect comparison. Tons of decks have already been made using that card, while Sharpshooter is left in the dust (or should I say binder). — Nenananas · 258
That's a bad comparison in my eyes since dirty fighting resolve around evading, while sharpshooter pushes fights. All in all if you need to fight and you play a Charakter with a high agility and low fight, it's a way you can spare hands lots compared to the bow. — Tharzax · 1
"Dirty Fighting" refunds you the evade action, if fighting is, what you want to do. AND makes you better in fighting on top of that. It is still a card for decks, that want to fight, not evade and leave the enemies behind. Hence, it's not called "Dirty Evading". — Susumu · 372
I’m using Wini in the Dream Eaters campaign with 3 other players. All characters need to draw and play cards to be “good” so everything here on a possibility scale and in truth it’s a main driver in why we the game to begin with. Having also been gifted a story asset that gives me a static boost to Strength and Speed I have looked very hard at Sharpshooter as a part of being the main fighter in the group. I’m using Hidden Pocket to hold a spare Mauser -yeah, more setup- so I can almost guarantee to get in two shots if I need. The large ammo capacity of the Mauser means I am not just holding onto the spare until the first gun is empty. Oh, and I have pulled Doomed as my weakness so why not try to have fun with it? Reckless and Arrogant are my normal style and I like not even worrying about something that I can’t mitigate. So the role that I am playing is really driven by some things that I have no control over. If Swarms weren’t susceptible to damage overflow I would have to rethink every choice I have regarding my Fight setup. — Staticalchemist · 1
Eixodolon

Why is there victory points? It seems that no XP are get after the scenario... Nothing related to victory display in the resolutions... It's not for sending the card in victory display: this can be achieve with "Victory 0".

Novark2 · 1
It's the same with other cards in this scenario, and with the Barkham one as well. Victory Points are just meant as a scale of archievement, not for upgrading your deck. Even though Labyrinth can be played in a wonky "Campaign Mode", you are not supposed to upgrade your decks even there, but rather play different parts with different investigators. — Susumu · 372
See https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Campaign_Play : "Each investigator earns experience equal to the total victory value of all cards in the victory display plus or minus any bonuses or penalties indicated by the campaign guide for that resolution. This total is added to any unspent experience an investigator has recorded from previous scenarios in this campaign." No need to specify it in the resolutions, it's already in the rules. — Phtayn · 1
That might be. But there are still special cases, when people might not get the XP from the victory display, e.g. Agnes Baker in her special scenario "Bad Blood", if she chooses to take the XP from the memories instead. And LoL clariefies, that you are not supposed to use the scenario as a siude story in a campaign, and even its "special campaign rules" do not include upgrading decks, so the XP is void. It's just VP as a measurement of success in this scenario. — Susumu · 372
"The Golden Rule" is a bit messy. It does not clarify, what happens, if a scenario or campaign guide contradicts the rules reference. E.g. in Roland Banks "By the Book" scenario resolution, Roland gets only the VP from enemies, other gators only the VP from location (and nobody from cards like "Delve Too Deep", should you have played them). I would argue, the scenario guide takes precedence over the RR in cases like that. Would not make any sense otherwise. — Susumu · 372
Sure: the guide takes precedence. And it says "Experience is not earned or spent in between scenarios during this campaign.". Not "Experience is not earned or spent during this campaign." So the XP are earned at the end of the campaign, after the last scenario. — Novark2 · 1
Cover Up

Just in case it may be useful for someone. I've reached out FFG to clarify the following rules question: "My location has exactly one clue. I'm Roland Banks and Cover Up weaknes is in my threat area with three clues on it.

  1. If I use basic investigate action with Deduction commited to it, can I remove two clues from Cover Up in case of success?
  2. Can Daisy Walker with Research Notes asset in play, 4 uses (evidence) on it, remove all three clues from Cover Up and the clue from the location if she succeeds Research Notes' action test by 4 (she is in the same location with Roland and exactly one clue on it)?"

Answers:

  1. No. Deduction doesn’t allow you to discover clues that aren’t at that location. If your location has 1 clue at it, you can only discover 1 clue at most when you investigate it.
  2. No. Like above, Research Notes won’t allow Daisy to discover clues that aren’t already on the location. But, Daisy could discover 1 clue with Research Notes to help with Cover Up.
chrome · 60
Hello! Can you share and forward the official ruling email (including questions and answers) you received to drawntotheflamepodcast@gmail.com? This is the mailbox of Frank, the official FAQ maintainer, and he will update the verdict you received into ArkhamDB! — Jacksonsu · 1
sent — chrome · 60
Tool Belt

I was trying really hard to find a neat combo with Kymani Jones's deckbuilding options and Tool Belt, since the last expansion (maybe the previous ones too, but I haven't played the game too much prior to The Scarlet Keys) seems to have hard-to-find interactions that are both quite strong and very fun to discover and play (e.g. demolishing enemies with Gray's Anatomy, Ancient Stone and Empirical Hypothesis, you can look this up in my review of Gray's Anatomy), and I think I've found something interesting. It is not necessarily tied to Kymani at all, but I think it works especially well in some of her builds.

The idea is all about the interaction between Tool Belt and Pocket Multi Tool that allows to bypass the "Limit 1 per investigator" text on the latter. First we play one of our Pocket Multi Tools and Tool Belt, then, when we have our second Pocket Multi Tool in hand, we attach the first one to Tool Belt and play the second one, which as far as I understand becomes possible because the text on the first copy is blanked, including the "Limit 1 per investigator" line. Then we can activate the first Multi Tool in our hand and once it exhausts switch it with the Multi Tool attached to the Tool Belt to get another activation during the same round. It also works with the Spring-Loaded upgrade, but you won't be able to use both Multi Tools during the same test. This neat trick, given that we have some upgrades on the Multi Tool, lets us get two Unexpected Courages every turn (or even two free copies of Lucky!). As I've mentioned, this works very well in a Kymani Jones deck that aims to utilize Chuck Fergus, Crafty and Pilfer to grab 3 clues for one action every turn, because two instances of +2 to skill value from two copies of Pocket Multi Tool should be more than sufficient to succeed by 2 on the Pilfer test to get it back at the end of the turn. Another reason why it is very good in Kymani is how Pry Bar upgrade can single-handedly protect them from nasty treacheries, bringing their already above average (for a rogue, naturally) to a confident 5 or even 7, if necessary.

There are definitely a lot of investigators that benefit greatly from having two Pocket Multi Tools in play, and I'm sure other deckbuilding enthusiasts will mention the most interesting combinations in the comments. I'll just say that interactions like this is what makes Arkham deckbuilding discoveries so exciting.

EDIT: As it was noted in the comments, this trick does not actually work :( I'll still leave the post here, hopefully to spark the spirit of discovery to find another way to get around that pesky "Limit 1 per investigator" line.

adogface · 7
It's great idea, but I think it does not work. It is because the second copy still has "limit 1 per investigator" and the first copy is still in play. It means the restriction of second copy, "limit 1 per investigator", is not satisfied. — elkeinkrad · 500
That is similar as the question if Daisy can add The Necronomicon: Petrus de Dacia Translation in her deck due to her signature weakness. That was resolved with additional rule from FAQ about signature card. — elkeinkrad · 500
But the Necronomicon issue is tied to card name which always stays the same, regardless of the textbox, and "Limit 1 per investigator" shouldn't apply if the textbox is blanked. It's not like we're messing with some core rules of the game by having two copies of a unique asset in play. It's basically as if we had two Lockpicks, or two .45 Automatics - nothing restricts us from doing that. Same thing for Pocket Multi Tool, if we can blank that first line in the textbox, and that's what the Tool Belt does. — adogface · 7
Ohh, wait, now I get it, damn, you must be right. That's tragic :( — adogface · 7