Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Pocket Telescope

A neat combo that folks have missed is with Think on Your Feet, which grants fast, free movement and you avoid an enemy from the encounter deck.

Pocket Telescope solves the issue of stranded clues that are now "guarded" by an enemy.

I think that non-combat clue finders like Wendy, Trish and especially Jack love this combo, moreso at low player counts.

9/11/23

An_Undecayed_Whately · 1313

If I have a Summoned Servitor in-hand and one in-play, and the Dreaming Call upgrade, can I return the in-play one to my hand as the additional cost for playing the in-hand one? Or does the unique flag prevent that sort of swapping? If so can I use the in-play Summoned Servitors action(s), play the in-hand one to get a fresh Summoned Servitor, and then have the fresh Summoned Servitor do the same action(s)? Ie, if I have the Daemonic Influence upgrade and Servitor 1 Fights and Evades, then my Investigator plays Servitor 2 (removing/replacing Servitor 1), can Servitor 2 do it's own Fight and/or Evade action this turn? Normally I'd assume Servitor 1 and Servitor 2 would have their 'per turn' tracked individually, but with them being unique I'm not sure.

I'm considering running this with Dominance (remove Arcane), Eyes of Flame and Dreaming Call. All up it's 6xp to have a drone flying around either farming low Shroud locations or mopping up the last clue at mid Shroud locations that I can potentially jump back to my location for 2 resources. At a glance 6xp for two cards that will gather a handful of clues per game if deployed early/well isn't amazing, but I think the real value is in Investigating being a simple background task that the drone can perform reliably enough that it frees the actual Seeker up to do more productive Investigations. As I understand it this can't be attacked or otherwise disrupted beyond the methods of losing an asset, and since the drone is taking the action not the Investigator it won't provoke attacks of opportunity, so it seems like once it's in-play it'll be super stable.

Overall I really like the concept behind this card but it feels like Dominance and Daemonic Influence are basically mandatory and that's 7xp before it can even do anything other than slowly wandering the map.

9/11/23

TenDM · 1

Unfortunately, you cannot initiate the playing of a unique card, if another copy is in play — Adny · 1 9/12/23

Thanks. Makes sense. Still think there could be some value in finding another way to pull it back and redeploy, but like everything else about this card it's demanding a little more investment for not quite proportional return and it adds up. — TenDM · 1 9/14/23

Why couldn't you repeatedly bounce Servitors? Per the rules: "Unique (*) A card with the symbol before its card title is a unique card. There can be no more than one instance of each unique card, by title, in play at any given time. A player cannot bring into play a unique card if a copy of that card (by title) is already in play. If a unique encounter card that shares a title with a unique player card would enter play, discard the player card simultaneously as the encounter card enters play. — Bloodw4ke · 81 9/18/23

...whereas costs are paid prior to playing the card. The initiation sequence does start with checking for restrictions as to whether the card could be played or not, which it could not on the basis of unique, but if you factor the cost pulling the card back it seems like it would be legit again? https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Appendix_I_Initiation_Sequence - it's a weird one. — Bloodw4ke · 81 9/18/23

Tool Belt

QUESTION:

If I swap out Flash Light with 1 charge left on it into the Tool Belt -- when I bring Flashlight back out to use does it have all all its charges again?

Or would it come out with the same number of charges it had when it went into the Tool Belt?

9/10/23

Lazy-T · 3

This is the reviews section, not the rules questions section. There are many other channels for those - BGG, Discord, Facebook, Reddit and probably others too. — TheNameWasTaken · 3 9/10/23

Since the card don't leave play if you attached it to the belt, you don't refill the uses according to the rule for uses. Anf for the other way I suppose the uses stay on the cards even if the textbox is empty, according to the FAQ of the sophist, who can move secrets on a Machete. — Tharzax · 1 9/11/23

Dumb Luck

Amazing, underrated card for anyone who evades. Looking at you Wendy, Finn, Rita, Silas, and Stella.

The power of this card isn't in coping with powerful enemies, it's in nerfing the encounter deck. Every turn you might endure unknown horrors, and the next encounter card could be truly awful.

When you run across some mook like a spoiler or a spoiler you evade because that's what you always try. You don't always succeed because, well, this is Arkham Horror.

This card turns a failure into a grand slam: put it right back on top of the encounter pile. It follows in the style of "Look what I found!", but for enemies.

You've guaranteed that the next encounter is just another mook that you know exactly how to handle. It's like mirror of recursion from an player's draw pile: instead of recycling good investigator cards, use this to recycle milquetoast enemies.

10/10, would evade that again.

PS: For a truly cool evasion deck run both this and Dumb Luck (2), so you have the option of burying a tough enemy in addition to recurring a mook.

9/9/23

An_Undecayed_Whately · 1313

Now see, this is what I'd always thought. It feels like this is a deceptively valuable card. Even in solo, the difference between landing an evade vs. whiffing & playing the card is identical... except you effectively skip drawing an encounter on the mythos phase. DL(2) ensures you don't see that particular enemy for a while, but in terms of tempo, both cards are identical: Enemy is removed from the board. With DL(0) you just happen to know what the first Mythos card you'll be drawing is. — HanoverFist · 748 1/2/24

Dendromorphosis

I got this weakness while playing parallel Agnes and it's awesome. Literally reads "one free charge of your ability and nothing else 99% of the time".

I also got this weakness once in a big gun Mark deck and I've never been more scared of a stack of cards in my life.

Totally dependant on the deck you're running, from actually beneficial to absolutely detrumental.

9/5/23

Chillstad · 35

Dendromorphosis-phobia? — MrGoldbee · 1491 9/5/23

How is this a 'free charge' for Parallel Agnes? Sure, she might not have any hand slots in her deck, but since you can't assign damage to cards in your threat area I'm not seeing how this helps her. — Pseudo Nymh · 67 9/6/23

See ithrt — Django · 5155 9/6/23

Sorry for mistyping. See other reviews for arguments but you can assign damage to it. — Django · 5155 9/6/23

I have read through the other reviews and I see no official rulings cited, only user opinions. To be fair, I can't find a ruling that clearly states you can't assign it damage either. That said, I find it hard to believe that this one weakness (unlike literally every other weakness in the game) is intended to provide you a beneficial protection effect (especially with the inclusion of the free trigger ability on the card).. — Pseudo Nymh · 67 9/6/23

I think it being a player asset is clear that you can assign it damage, being a weakness does not change that. It in threat area and play area at the same time (there are other similar weaknesses like Minh or Daisies. Otherwise it wouldnt need the threshold alltogether and its ability could read: Take 1 damage, then discard dendro. — Django · 5155 9/6/23

I'm with Django on this one. If it couldn't be assigned damage, it wouldn't have a health value in the first place. — Nenananas · 270 9/7/23

I also agree Django's opinion. Dendromorphosis is weakness and *asset*. Thus, it is affected by both weakness and asset rule. Asset rule clearly states the damage assignment. — elkeinkrad · 501 9/7/23

“When an investigator draws a weakness with a player cardtype (for example, an asset, an event, or a skill weakness), resolve any Revelation effects on the card, and add it to that investigator’s hand. The card may then be used as any other player card of its type.”This is a weakness of the player card type and is controlled by the player.“When an investigator is dealt damage or horror, that investigator may assign it to eligible asset cards he or she controls. To be eligible, an asset card must have health in order to be assigned damage, and it must have sanity in order to be assigned horror.”Since you control the asset card Dendromorphosis, you can assign damage to it. — Jacksonsu · 1 9/9/23

This conversation prompted me to submit this question in the FFG rules form: "Hi! I have a question about Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Can I assign damage from an attack or treachery to the random basic weakness Dendromorphosis? Or can I only assign damage to Dendromorphosis through its own ability? Thanks!" According to the response I got, you cannot assign damage to Dendromorphosis except through the ability; "No. You cannot assign damage/horror to weakness assets in your threat area unless otherwise stated (meaning, besides the way described on Dendomorphosis)." — Soul_Turtle · 500 9/27/23

However this ruling doesn't seem correct by the rules of the game or given that Wounded Bystander exists, so I can't fault anyone for ignoring it. — Soul_Turtle · 500 9/27/23