Survival Technique

I seem to be missing something about that card... Everyone says this is so good combined with the pitchfork but I don't understand why. Assume not having survival technique but the pitchfork, then you would make one attack and then need one action (where attacks of oppurtunity are possible) and you have it back. Coupled with survival technique you would spend a fast action to get it back on your hand and then spend an action to play it (paying 3 resourses). This does not help. What am I missing?

Xetolosch · 1
You spare the one action to pick it up. That's ok in general. The skill bonus is also nice. Where it shines is when you are playing Wilson, who can perform the fight action with his signature as a fast action. — Tharzax · 1
I have to add that you can use the second ability of the fork with survival technique to put the fork as a fast action into your play area. There you can use the fork for a second attack. In total that are 6 damage in one turn for a two card combo which is great. And on top it's repeatable without additional costs. — Tharzax · 1
I don't get it either... I see why Wilson likes Pitchfork, but I don't see how Survival Instinct helps at all without a third card like Ad Hoc. What is this "second ability" on Pitchfork that makes playing it Fast? — Hylianpuffball · 25
@Tharzax: how? That's what I don't get, it only allows you to put the card in your hand and then you still need an action to play it... — Xetolosch · 1
You are right it's not a good combo if you need to play and pay again. Rather stick to other cards you can recur like breach the door, map the area and shrine of morai etc. — Tharzax · 1
21 or Bust

This is mostly worse than our good old friend Emergency Cache. If you play it honestly and pay normally it's only better if you hit a 20 or 21, slightly worse on an 18 or lower, and much worse if you bust. I feel that it's pretty clearly only worthwhile if you have some kind of trait synergy going with fortune or gambit, or you're already doing token manipulation.

As Elkeinkrad points out, you can pay for this with Prophetic if you have it in play, which notably improves the value proposition if you weren't using that card otherwise that turn. With mystic access, one could also try fishing for desired numbers with the new Olive McBride, although generally anyone who can run Olive can run Voice of Ra to probably-better results.

Preston Fairmont's Family Inheritance has an interesting interaction here that may make genuinely gambling worthwhile, because his resources are use-it-or-lose-it each turn unless he spend an action to bank them. With two action remaining, Preston could play 21 or Bust with his inheritance money, and then spend an action to bank his winnings if he wins big and move on with a shrug if he busts.

Finally, this card's fortune and gambit traits have some interesting potential with the premier green tutor, Friends in Low Places. Selecting gambit lets one search up a number of decent resource economy options (Bank Job, "Watch this!", Kicking the Hornet's Nest), some bonus actions (Honed Instinct, Swift Reflexes), and a handful of other utility options (Copycat, Stir the Pot, Money Talks and deck thinners (Daring Maneuver). There are also some powerful cross-class options like Act of Desperation, Transmogrify, and Practice Makes Perfect.

Fortune probably doesnt have enough hits in mono-green to be worth selecting although it has the very powerful All In and Hot Streak, but for green/red players it opens up a huge library of failure-prevention and failure-exploiting cards in Survivor.

Hank Samson

Obviously Warden Hank is a good. 6 will let you kill everything. But I'd like to comment about what else can he do.

So, I just need to get sure this is correct.

Let's say you run a Dark Horse build. The Resolute - Warden form works against this kind of build since you don't want to have resources to get your +1/+1/+1/+1 at any time unless you find a way to burn your resources earnt by blood (Dig Deep and Scrapper are a thing).

So, let's say you decide to go into your Resolute - Assistant form. While your Dark Horse bonus is activated, you are at a pretty 4/4/5/5 and when you suffer Horror you draw cards. This statline is so so neat and you can flex with this. Later on the campaign of course you will get Charisma + Jessica Hyde + Peter Sylvestre and you will sit in a nice and comfy 5/4/6/6 while both are in play.

If I'm correct, in later stages on a campaign Hank will be basically inmortal and he will be able to do as he pleases with the game, since Mythos cards aren't a thing for him anymore, you will be able to success at hitting things consistently with Fire Axe, and you can add clue getting to your team using Mariner's Compass.

Oh, wait, you can trigger this item's up to three times? Then God have mercy, forget what I said about Warden Hank not working with Dark Horse. Let's say you end your turn with 0 resources. In case Warden Hank suffers damage before your turn starts or via Spirit of Humanity, you get 2 resources thanks to his and you also get your upkeep resource. You will be able to investigate with Mariner's Compass with your lame base 1 . If you use this 2 resources + the upkeep resource, you get a +3 and, on top of that, your Dark Horse bonus. Warden Hank can investigate at 5 getting 2 clues once per round as long as he has suffered damage before the investigation check.

Maybe I'm too overhyped about this, because there are way easier options to get clues with low survivors not involving janky combos (for example, using Old Keyring in 2 shroud locations while leaving big clue getters doing their job in harder locations). What I'm trying to say is that Hank using the Dark Horse engine looks fun and consistent. Depending on the scenario, a Dark Horse build should let you get in either Resolute form and you can still get the best of both worlds. Assistant Hank will better in scenarios where you need to get more clues, still kicking any enemy in the butt when needed while tanking damage/horror for other investigators. Warden Hank will be more consistent in scenarios where there are more enemies because of better values and ocassionaly, if you have your setup ready, as a reward of doing your job tanking damage, you can get 2 clues.

Can Assistant Hank exist without Dark Horse? We know Warden Hank will always have a place as an aggresive tank because of having the biggest printed yet in an AH investigator, but a 3/3/4/4 statline, while looking pretty needs some work. Unless you are a investigator, you lower difficulties with some cards like Gumption or Old Keyring, you are just lucky or you live and learn from your mistakes. He will be consistent because of this , allowing him to draw many cards during the game.

Hank is good. You can build him to suit a ton of groups. Obviously he will have a better time dealing with enemies while tanking stuff, but he can flex if the group and/or the scenarios require it because of his overlooked Assitant Resolute form.

Sure, flavour-wise he isn't as neat as the other investigators of his expansion, but the other investigators are just so neat in this regard, Hank Samson doesn't care, he will just survive everything.

rodro · 69
Until you take testless damage, or a boss eats you, or you take the autofail (or -7), or take damage on a symbol! He's durable but no healing requires prep. — MrGoldbee · 1389
Jessica Hyde / Devil + Peter Sylvestre should have you covered, but you have to look for them and play them.Also, there are a ton of cards that can soak or just ignore damage in his pool. Even then, no healing requieres prep and proper deckbuilding. — rodro · 69
In standard or hard mode, yes. In expert mode he lacks almost everything — OnThinIce · 11
Unearth the Ancients

So, can I choose 0 assets and combine with Shed a Light to ignore whatever shroud and discover 3 clues? (or maybe use other cards that can decrease difficulty to make it 0) I think Darrell Simmons will be happy to find this

Lumina637 · 4
Using this card to reduce a shroud to 0 is cool in theory, but looking at the list of level 0-2 Seeker assets that cost 0 there's not much here. In the current card pool Darrel's options are Archaic Glyphs (which he can't upgrade), a couple of Talents (Higher Education 0 and Hyperawareness 2), and Magnifying Glass 1. The combo has some potential, but at 2xp per copy and limited options to combo it with, I think most Darrell decks will get more value out of other shroud reduction cards (at least with the current card pool). — Pseudo Nymh · 40
I suppose lumina ask if it is possible not to choose an item so you don't have any costs. Personally I think if you have seeker assets you have to use them, but as far as I remember the rules it should be possible to choose no asset, as far as there is at least one clue. Finding this clue would alter the game. — Tharzax · 1
"Personally I think if you have seeker assets you have to use them": I disagree. That's why the phrase "up to" is present. If there was no "up to", you would need to choose 2 cards, if you have 2 in hands, because you would need to do as much as possible. But "up to" overrules this. The review rises an interesting question. I see no reason, why you can't. — Susumu · 330
I believe at least one asset is necessary to be chosen. It's because of Target rule (https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Target), which is related to the term "choose". According to Target rule, at least one target need to be chosen for successful resolution; it's can be found the third bullet. — elkeinkrad · 468
I don't have a specific rule to point to but it seems unlikely to me that this card is intended to be played with 0 assets chosen. Most shroud reduction effects reduce shroud by -1 or -2, even in Survivor (the class that specializes in shroud reduction). To get more than -2 reduction you typically have to meet some kind of condition, such as crushing a skill test to maximize Momentum. I find it a bit hard to believe that there's a single card that's intended to reduce any shroud in the game to 0 with no questions asked or support cards needed (let alone that card being only level 2). Then again, it wouldn't be the first time Seekers broke the design curve of the game. I would still like to see an official ruling confirming this before I start celebrating it as the best single card shroud reduction in the game. — Pseudo Nymh · 40
Blade of Yoth

Personally, I think that, regardless of its power level, Blade of Yoth is a very good card for Arkham because of the thematic point it makes, that the Mythos is not inherently evil. The point of Lovecraft's creations wasn't that they were hostile to humanity, it was that they were largely indifferent to them, and the cycle that gave us this card's name is one of the best examples of that: in the Forgotten Age, neither the Valusians nor the Yithians were, strictly speaking, evil, they were only trying to save their homes. Yig, the Father of Serpents, only fights you if you threaten his children, and in one resolution is willing to give you gifts for helping his children.

The Mythos is not a monolith of evil; it's a collection of non-human individuals, oftentimes possessing as much capacity for good and evil as the investigators. We can't sing Kumbaya with them, our needs are too diametrically opposed (again, the Forgotten Age shows it really well with Ichtaca's point about Earth belonging to humanity now, not the Valusians), but that doesn't mean that we're inveterate foes, utterly incapable of benevolent interaction. We're people, with all the messiness and conflict that brings with it.

It helps that Yig (whom this blade of Yoth seems at least partially aligned with, as it seems to be intended to be summoned to defend the serpent people of Valusia) is, despite being very angry, one of the more 'cuddly' and anthropomorphic great old ones, to the point it is theorized he would side with us against the outer gods and many of the other old ones who would serve them. As a bonus, his character is ultimately philosophically aligned with the guardian class, much like Bast is, to whom he shares a LOT of similarities. — dezzmont · 199
There are also other stories where the great old ones helps the humans. Just read "out of eons" where the high priest of shub-niggurath get a spell from her to defeat another god. Or Yog Sothoth in "trough the gates of the silver key" where he offers Randolph Carter a wish. Even Nyarlathotep in "dreams from the witch house" seems to be a protector of the ones who travel through the dimensions (and yes they have to sacrifice humans for this, but who understands a great old one) — Tharzax · 1