This card beautifully encompasses what the return tos are about. A very good strategy for the original devourer below is to just camp at the main path buffing up and kill umhordoth when he spawns.
This card makes that strategy certainly more difficult, almost impossible. As others have pointed out you can win, but its gonna be a melee. Which is exactly what it should be for a prize of +10 exp.
Would Nathaniel Cho get to add another +1 to this card since it is "damage from an event card"?
So, Nathaniel Cho armed with holy Mk 1 Grenades could do 4 damage... or Nathaniel Cho armed with holy Mk 1 Grenades, with Marksmanship, with Vicious Blow... could do 7 damage to all enemies in the same or connected location?
Seems like a must include.
This finds an incredible home with Rita Young, particularly on standard difficulty.
By itself you get the utility of a nigh-guaranteed evade (8) that gives you the option to target low fight values when the evade gives you cause to sweat. For Rita that translates to 1 evade, 1 damage, +1 damage/1 free move. Solid efficiency and much stronger than her flat evade of 5.
With Crafty you're playing it for free and with pay-to-win capability. Boosting to 10 will reliably recur it on against most enemies, and can even safely recur while Drawing Thin against some.
And it even synergizes with Rita's pet quirky skill "Not without a fight!"! Where NWAF is normally a quasi- Unexpected Courage with mild boosting against multiple enemies, it truly shines with checks that use multiple attributes. With a single enemy, NWAF boosts Cheap Shot to an eye-watering 12. Essentially putting you beyond anything except an auto-fail for relatively little effort. It doesn't work that way, sadly. Technically you are only doing a test with a bonus equal to your printed . So It just gets you to that 10 spot, still a good place to be.
Is it cost-effective at melting down big health enemies? Absolutely not (that's Sweeping Kick), but Rita's real strength lies in racking up damage and managing enemies turn-by-turn and trick-by-trick. Cheap Shot (2) is the bedrock of this dynamic, reliable evasion boosting with damage included at an absolute bargain in terms of XP.
I am a bit confused. The reactions on this card seem a bit underwhelming to me. This card can solve issues you have (almost) no alternative answer to. Last scenario I helped our Rex against a Spawn of Hali being two locations away, saving the following:
And
Its kinda situational but with 4 Investigators there will be lot of moments for this card to shine. You could even use this card as explained above to "help" your fighter of the group, since he could fail his fight attempts or/and wants to save ammunition. Its not all about the amount of actions you need to solve an issue but the timing of those actions. When I can save my clue-gatherer with a single action (tho it costs 2 and is a handcard) I will almost always take this chance. Last but not least in hard mode you need to spend cards on your tests in 2/3 attempts anyway. So you would spend cards on the Evade vs the Enemy you could just swap with - amazing! greetings
Started out skeptical on this one, but mugu and Oriflam's maths made me curious, and now I'm not so sure!
As someone who loved hitting Watch This + Double Or Nothing back before taboo- a 2 card combo that netted 9 resources- I'm fond of bursty economy events. And this one is in fact quite bursty!
You may think "Sure, if you wanna risk a massive Int test." But while high prices and a correspondingly high test do certainly increase the reward (but also risk), you don't need much for a good payoff.
You're a Seeker - Can you hit a (4) Int test? Cuz if you can, then by using Unearth The Ancients at a clue-bearing location:
The Value
Using the flawed-but-oft-cited economy valuation of Actions, Cards, and Resources being of descending-but-approximately- equal value, we can appraise some economy cards as so:
So, some values for common economy cards:
For Unearth here: if you can hit two relics, with a total cost of 4, at a location with a clue:
I reckon 3-4R of Relics on a clue is the sweet-spot scenario, and happily some of the best Seeker Relics cost only 1-2R (list of Relics below). Meanwhile, regular Seeker assets are basically 1 less value than an equally priced Relic, which is still good. If you can't find an Ancient Stone, go dig up an Art Student!
Now getting Unearth + 2 Relics + A Clue'd Location + Passing A Test isn't a freebie. Odds aren't terrible, tho- as a seeker, you're probably headed for clue locations anyway, and shroud is irrelevant. Good draw helps you find pieces- luckily again, you're a Seeker. And if your deck happens to be stacked with Relics, great.
Seeker Relics
Currently, we have 17. Remove Pendant Of The Queen, and we get:
Of these, the Eon Charts, Forbidden Tomes, and Ancient Stones seem like the big winners. Each costs 2 or less, and are strong late-campaign items. And if I'm reading this right, upgraded Ancient Stones can immediately trigger off Unearth's draw from playing a relic.
Tooth and Disc are okay in early-campaign, but really only on gators with few L0 alternatives, like Harvey and Ursula. At 3R apiece they're nice savings, but can push the test difficulty.
Maybe Ursula or Monterey would run Compass. ... Maybe.
Prophawaffa and Pnakalakka are very nice if you're confident you can land the massive test. You could dodge that risk entirely, though! By playing a copy of... Pnakotic... nevermind.
Lastly, using this for Segment gains no actions (it's already fast). You do gain +1R and +1 Card for playing it this way though, so it may be worth tacking on.
Insurance vs. the test
If you pump or commit, you're eating into the very economy you're trying to save. High power skills like Inquiring Mind may still be worth it if it swings the odds by a lot, and value-neutral skills like Perceptions, Deductions or Eurekas are almost always worth it on any test they can push into all-but-autofail territory.
Elsewise, post-token insurance is nice, of which there's not much unless you have Survivor access. If you do, Live And Learn is a great level 0 savior against autofail.
Who wants it?
I wouldn't build a deck around it, but some gators might already have a deck that would like having it:
Harvey. He likes to draw, so he likes Ancient Stones. He likes big hands, so he likes Forbidden Tomes. His early accessory options are pretty skint, so he may actually run Tooth or Disc on purpose!
Daisy. 3 of the Seeker Relics are action-havin' Tomes, L2 Mystic has a couple post-token insurance cards. Likes Whitton, and Whitton likes decks with more Relics.
Mandy. Likes draw and sometimes likes big hands. Can find the event and relics quickly.
Minh. Likes Ancient Stones, is probably running Deduction/Eureka/Perception, can get 1 more pip towards the test on one of them, and she can get Live & Learn / Lucky! for insurance.
Ursula, maybe. She likes Prophesiae and Eon Chart, charges all over so she might like Otherworldly Compass, and her fondness of relics means she might already be running Whitton. Also possibly runs Tooth or Disc early.
Monterey, maaaaaybe. Like Ursula, minus the likelyhood of already running Whitton, Disc, or Tooth.
As for unlikelys:
Joe, Rex and Amanda - No real significant synergies I can think of.
Level 2 Seekers: There's very few L0-2 Seeker Relics, or assets that are better than what their primary class provide.
Lola - Anti-synergy! Of the few relics she can take, most are activated, meaning she'd need to stay in role with them, which is a liability for Lola.
So! It does take some planning (but not as much as you may think), a test (but not as big as you may think), to get a good bit of value (possibly a lot more than you'd think), out of Unearth The Ancients. If you can confidently handle INT tests around 3 or 4, and you've got Seeker assets that need playing- Relics especially- you can cleanly match or beat the value of many beloved staples.
And if worst comes to worst and that danged autofail shows up, remember: this wasn't a wager! You don't lose the assets, just the card and action, same as any other event. You're ultimately no worse off than Nacho whiffing a Monster Slayer.