Katja Eastbank

Another action-intensive but potentially useful application would be in Patrice when you draw an card that you can't afford to pay for in your current turn that you don't want to discard when the turn ends. With Katja, you can put that card under her, then draw and play when you need it in the future.

robnixilis · 29
That's a good call. I see some additional issues in that the ally slot is quite contested in Patrice, and you still have to have the 3 resources to play Katja. Like you said, you get an ability, that you likely don't want to overuse in a game, due to it's action cost. But if I would want to play say a "Rite of Seeking" (2) in her, which I normally avoid due to it's cost, this could definitely enable such a build. — Susumu · 372
It would also finally make "Uncage the Soul" (0) a useable card in her. (She quietly weeps inside, that she can't take the upgrade.) — Susumu · 372
It is a good enabler, though costly - not only to play Katja (probably with a Charisma or two), but once you have a good card attached to her and enough resources to play it, you still need to spend 2/3 of your turn just to play the card (probably ignoring most of the 5 you just drew in upkeep) - not sure if any single card is worth such effort. Maybe Leo de Lua would be such a card for a versatile and very charismatic Patrice, as in my view, actions are her most valuable assets. — Trady · 173
I think, a Synergy build would also work. Patrice is potentially among the better users of "Strenght in Numbers", and "Close the Circle" could give her the extra actions, she lost to Katja. The main issue is, that it costs an Arcane Slot, which you then likely want for some multicolour-spells like Divination or Brand as well, so you need additional assets to grand you these slots. Looks too asset heavy for a Patrice deck, but Katja could enable that. I would still not comfortably tuck more than 3 or 4 cards under her in any given game, but it can help to keep a few critical cards. — Susumu · 372
Another way to see Katja is just as an enabler of improvised and other discard interaction cards. Replace them with another card and when Katja is full, accidentally get her defeated to have all these cards join the discard in one go. — Valentin1331 · 75512
The Black Cat

Every investigator can try to pet The Cat. Who does not appreciate a 3/3 soak, especially by the end of a tough campaign? But the XP cost is too high for just a soak and some, rather random, help on the road. If only you could mess with the chaos bag enough to take advantage of the upgraded modifiers The Cat brings?

Enter Jacqueline Fine. Even without Olive McBride and Charisma, even without Grotesque Statue she has much bigger chance to draw one of the tokens The Black Cat cares about.

A psychic should run a Sixth Sense, trying to fish symbol tokens (fish for a squid?) - but by the end of the campaign, these happen to be quite ugly and sometimes force you to make unpleasant decisions - The Cat fixes the problem! Even when Shrivelling someone, it's better to take a horror while passing a test rather than wasting a charge, failing a test, being punched back AND taking a horror.

Jacqueline's is something you like to ignore if you can, but if you need to use it, at least it can do something charitable - like healing The Cat!

Furthermore with The Cat by her side (on her shoulder?), Dark Future is much less of a problem, significantly decreasing the risk of Jacqueline's ending in fails with terrible consequences.

Trady · 173
.41 Derringer

A cool "function" of this gun is that when shooting an enemy engaging with other to swiftly free up that investigator and you are boosting for 2 damages, or trying to finish off 1 HP enemy with high accuracy, if the bag hands you high minus or , the +1 became automatically inactive on the friendly-fire damage. A Rogue looking to play to the strength of this gun should just shoot it instead of Engage first like a Guardian with extra damage weapon.

5argon · 11014
Thermos

This could be a very useful (though easily overlooked) card for Amina Zidane. It's likely that she will start with at least 2 trauma from In The Thick of It or Arcane Research.

Her ability to put discounted assets into play overcomes the worst thing about this card - its 4 resource cost. Since it's a support card she can likely wait until the midnight hour to play it (or whenever, if she has Elle around to hold her minestrone).

Bloodw4ke · 81
Nature of the Beast

For large group, Nature of the Beast is good card. This card is compared to Drawn to the Flame in that it make the investigator a encounter card. Only 1 clue is discovered, but at any location by any investigator. This card provides remote discover tool. This card gives the fighter a clue to avoid clue spending encounter like Hunting Shadow. In addition, 3 encounter cards are given and 1 is resolved and the others are discarded. It means that discarded encounters are not drawn in this encounter cycle. In addition, chosen card is drawn by any investigator. For 3 or 4 player game, commonly 1 of 3 is easy to handle by one of the player.

When I used, I confront two annoying situations. The first is when the number of the encounter deck is less than 3. I had to choose two of one, or choose one of one. The other is when no clue exists at any revealed location. Then, I had to draw encounter card without advantage.

For small (1/2) group, this card is good with another meaning. Many users comments in this review, so check those if you're interested :)

elkeinkrad · 500
"For large group, Nature of the Beast is good card." You mean, for solo and small group, Nature of the Beast is great card? I see no particular advantage in big groups. Sure, you can pick and choose even from a wider selection, which card would wiff or be near impactless. But 1 clue is worth more, the less investigators are in the game. And the chance, you mentioned, that the encounter deck gets depleated is near impossible in solo, much more likely, the more players there are. — Susumu · 372
I suppose he means that it's in lager groups easier to find someone who can easily handle one of the cards. Nevertheless with 3 cards the chance is good that even a solo player find a card he can handle. — Tharzax · 1
Certainly, but that's the issue, imho. 1 clue is so much more worth in solo, and you should nearly always be able to deal with one of the three cards easily even in solo. Besides, you discard the other two, which in itself can be a huge boon in solo, if at least one of them is something really bad for your investigator. — Susumu · 372
In solo / small group, I see this card more as "encounter deck protection", with the clue being an added (but welcome) bonus. You get to discard two encounter cards of your choosing (a dangerous treachery targeting a skill that nobody can face, a tough monster, an Ancient Evil-analog when no mystic is around) for the "cost" of facing an encounter card now, but that you can direct to the investigator most likely to face it successfully. — DrOGM · 25
@Susumu // My intend is that "for 3/4 player party, the cost of NotB could be negligible." As I saw the comments, NotB will be good for small group. In fact, I always play AHLCG with 3 or 4 players, so I sometimes miss the case of solo/duo. — elkeinkrad · 500
I think if you bring a pair of these in solo or two player, you're going to have to be pretty cagey about card draw and possibly make some bad short-term plays in order to have a clue ready for the upleep phase. Whiffing on one of these is pretty rough. Could be fun but it's more flexible and reliable in larger groups. — housh · 171