Girish Kadakia

Girish is well worth his high cost. He proves a free Unexpected Courage every round and provides self healing soak. He's amazing in a Carson deck but I suspect many other investigators will like him as well.

Oweldon · 39
It seems that he would work well with Vincent Lee, as well. Soak damage for the whole team, get a +2 by exhausting, succeed, heal the damage and get a free On the Mend for another +2 for another test... — DrOGM · 25
Breach the Door

This is a niche card that excels in or even trivializes some scenarios but most of the time isn't very useful. Do you need to clear a ridiculous amount of clues from one location? Is the enemy's strength tied to the location's shroud? Congratulations, you've just won the scenario.

The rest of the time, it let's a Guardian help a little with clues.

Oweldon · 39
Might be a Yorick-combo-piece, if he wants to "Shed a Light". — Susumu · 372
TCU has a cave location this'd work in. — MrGoldbee · 1477
TCU? You mean TDE? I thought of that one, too. There is a second, Leng location in the same half of the campaign. However with this, it entierly depends on how well things went in previouse scenarios. If you did decently enough, it's likely not worth the effort. Card could also be an Adaptable target for Skids or Leo before "Blood on the Altar", in particular if in combination with a "Guiding Stone". But all of that fits into the "niche" lable of the original review. — Susumu · 372
I meant the caves of TIC. Oops. — MrGoldbee · 1477
Wow this would be good for a solo Guardian/Fighter in Blood on the Altar. Gives a doable option for clearing the Chamber of clues instead of defeating Silas. — Krysmopompas · 360
Perhaps useful for Joe Diamond ? As an Insight, it can go in his hunch deck. Joe being kinda good (but not excellent) at both investigating and fighting, this card can use his fight to help him clear a difficult/high shroud location. — DrOGM · 25
This card seems too slow for me. Costs a lot for a guardian, and it doesnt immediately give you any clues. It even has a chance of failing (or only getting -1/2 shroud) — fates · 54
I agree with you guys. I tried to make this work in a Leo Andersen deck with Chuck Fergus, but in 10 scenarios it was never really useful. I mean, I played it a few times but it never really pulled its weight. It should have been either fast or cheaper or capped at -2 or -3 difficulty. — olahren · 3518
If you could reduce the shroud to zero with a high strength investigator, it is basically a better Flashlight, which doesn't take a hand slot and helps other investigators as well. It has some uses with 3-4 players, where you have mostly 3-4 clues/location. — DeadGuy · 95
Flavorfully should have removed an obstacle from the location to breach locked doors; maybe the upgrade will? — darkernectron · 8
String of Curses

This card.

Holy moly. Golly gee. Horsefeathers. Applesauce. Bushwa. Hooey. Swell.
...F*ck.

First just some quick analysis on the card itself:

  • It's dirt cheap to play. Run it with Robes of Endless Night and it's free.
  • It's a Parley action. Since those are few and far between, here's your obligatory reminder that taking one does not provoke opportunity attacks.
  • Option 1 gives you a testless clue and a testless evade at the cost of placing a doom and not being able to damage the enemy that round. That last part kinda bites, but it's good value, especially if played during the "witching hour", moreso on an enemy you can just sweep under the rug and move away from.
  • With option 2, the resource cost of the spell is, at minimum, refunded right back to you. Nice! Any doom after the first is profit, which means this card can turn pressure into opportunity. Mysterious Chanting is a card that often translates to "kill this enemy now or lose", but if you've got String of Curses in hand, now there's a nice bounty to collect on that high value target, and it's a guaranteed kill.
  • Note as well that option 1 only precludes damaging the enemy. You can still defeat it if you have a way to do that without dealing damage, like, say, playing String of Curses again. More on that later. (Other cards can do this too, and Waylay could be a decent combo. Or leave it to your friend playing Kymani Jones if they don't have VP.)
  • The testlessness of both options makes this card worthy of consideration in Expert mode. I have no experience there personally, but going off the theory of wanting to touch the expert chaos bag as little as possible, this seems a decent choice.

Focusing on option 2, this seems like great tech for any scenario that uses the Dark Cult encounter set (quick tip: to date, you'll see it at least once in all but one campaign) to have a way to quickly deal with spiking doom placements. Many campaigns also have their own encounter sets with similar themes of cultists or other doom-oriented enemies (for brevity let's call them "doomers"), often featuring treacheries that place even more doom on enemies. If you've played Midnight Masks, Echoes of the Past, or Threads of Fate, you can probably guess what the peak performance of this card might look like.

Many doomers are weak, like your standard Acolyte, where having a value answer is nice but might be overkill when a simple Fight action would suffice (unless there's profit to be gained). But other doomers can be particularly nasty, and having a way to defeat them automatically in a single action might be just what the doctor ordered. You'll be surprised what you can cuss out, even in the furthest reaches of time and space.

This all comes with the solemn acknowledgment that as an event card, you're limited in the number of times you can actually play it. If you, like me, would like a way to play String of Curses more than once or twice in a game, you've got a few combos to consider:

  • Dayana Esperence can cuss on tap, until she runs out of secrets. If you have a way to recharge her, and perhaps also a way to ready her, she's an unstoppable cultist cussing machine.
  • If you're leaning into other doom tech, De Vermis Mysteriis allows you to cuss one last time after discarding.
  • Recursion options in-faction include Prescient and Quantum Flux. Out-of-faction options include Scrounge for Supplies, Shrine of the Moirai, and I guess also The Council's Coffer.
  • The new upgraded Uncage the Soul also allows you to play it from discard, but it will provoke opportunity attacks and the discount is mostly wasted.
  • You can use Double, Double and one-two cuss a single target--evade and defeat an enemy AND discover a clue for 1 resource and 1 action! This sounds like the coolest combo to me, but outside of Versatile, the only investigators who can pull this off are Sefina Rousseau and Jenny Barnes.

...and so's your old man!

Patrice can use this to get rid of the watcher. (Trish too, with versatile) — Escalir · 1
It only occurred to me hours after writing this that Patrice can do serious work with that card, thanks for pointing out it's good for her signature weakness as well! — MiskatonicFrosh · 344
Actually Patrice can't use this to get rid of the watcher. it only discards if Patrice successfully evades/fights it. Automatic evasion is not a successful evasion. The Trish comment still stands though. — yayepicyay · 15
Painted World, baby. — MrGoldbee · 1477
Parallel Agnes Baker can recycle it into her deck, since it's a spell event. — andreasskovse · 15
"Swell! ... and so's your old man!" TROUBLE! Trouble, trouble, trouble... — HanoverFist · 742
For the record, Double Double actually let's you testlessly defeat ANY non-elite IN THE GAME for 1r, 1action, and one card and it gives you a free clue. — Sycopath · 1
This card is bonkers, I feel like it should be tabooed and cost some XP, the first effect is way too efficient and in pairs it kills any non-elite enemy without a test (and if you are lucky and the enemy gets doom on it from the encounter deck, you don't even need the pair).. — DakonBlackblade · 8
We got a third investigator, who can pair it with "Double, Double" in Alessandra. Besides, everybody, who can take this card, can take the XP-budget-version of this combo with "Eldritch Tongue". — Susumu · 372
Salvage

This is the only way to get back Becky once it is in your discard pile for Tommy Muldoon if it got accidentally taken away from you...

One copy of Salvage and 1-2 of Resourceful and Becky is safe from anything that doesn't take it out of the game :)

EDIT : NOPE, I'm an idiot that can't read a card for years, see the comments ;)

captainfire · 259
The only way, other than Tetsuo Mori, Scavenging, Chance Encounter/Scrounge for Supplies to get back Tetsuo. There's now easily enough ways to get back Becky, and ways of getting back the things that get back Becky, that you can run Short Supply with no worries whatsoever. Salvage bumps it a lot since it's so fast, but it is one of the higher exp costs. — SSW · 214
Wow... I think my life as been a lie for the last 2 years :o I NEVER saw the mention "or your discard pile" on Tetsuo Mori, I just never needed it as your weapons are generally in your deck when he dies.... Then Salvage is great only if actively don't want to play him :p — captainfire · 259
Don't know how I also missed this. I already thought tetsuo mori was good for this deck but yeah, this is even better. — Olimarrex · 2
At a Crossroads

In my opinion the best Dilemma in The Scarlet Keys.
For 1xp, it's basically a 0-cost event that makes you draw 3 (you want the second option most of the time).

The downside is obviously that you cannot precisely control when At a Crossroads will trigger BUT :

  • Most of the time you can spare an action for this.
  • Don't forget you don't lose 1 action "immediately" but on your next turn so you can plan accordingly. And it will never destroy what you were planning to do this turn if you drew it during your turn (thus not during the upkeep phase).
  • Katja Eastbank will help you with the "draw-timing" if it is that big of a problem for you.
  • You always have the first option if you need a burst of action right now and/or you already have a lot of cards in hand.

Overall a really good card. Just be careful if your friends at the table also play some Dilemmas though ! :)

captainfire · 259
Patrice's Swift Reflexes. — MrGoldbee · 1477
I don't see it as being that strong for the 2nd effect. You only get a net gain of 1 card at fast speed for 1 XP. Draw 3 sounds like a lot but you lost 1 action (which could've been to draw a card, but worse because an action is more flexible than a card) and this card itself is lost (if you didn't have this card you would've drawn a different card to your hand you can actually use). — fates · 54
so do I draw 3 cards immediately or at my next turn? — BoomEzreal · 8