First Watch

This card is hilarious when taken with either Luke in the party, or adaptably by the dreamer himself. Enemies cannot appear the dreamgate. If you give them to someone there, they go into the discard pile. Treacheries that make locations more difficult can be given to him as well. Worth a dollar anytime you can use it.

MrGoldbee · 1493
you no longer need luke for such a combo, just need to beat up some nasty cultists. — Zerogrim · 296
? — MrGoldbee · 1493
unfortunately since [Pocket Portal](/card/86052) is an asset, you can't really plan to use it this way with the same power as Luke — the1armedbandit · 1
Read or Die

Do you like playthroughs that are low on risk and high on cheese? Do you enjoy quiet evenings in the Quad, talking about life and literature with your friends? Then read on!

This scenario is a tough 'un if you play it straight up. You have to race around the board grabbing clues, which let you shuffle tome assets into your deck, which you then have to find a way to draw and play -- all so that you can succeed in one climactic parley check with the malevolent geist that dwells within the pages of the Necronomicon. The main challenge is finding those dang tomes once they are shuffled into your deck. Whitton Greene and Research Librarian can help, and of course any form of accelerated card draw is nice, but all the same, bad draw luck can still sink you. Which is why...

You bring your book club! The setup instructions here only say that DAISY has to remove all tomes from her deck. Doesn't say anything at all about Sister Mary and her Book of Psalms, or Wendy Adams and Grimm's Fairy Tales, or anybody else that Daisy enjoys meeting with on Tuesday evenings for scones and bookish conversation. In short, just make sure Daisy's friends have a few tomes each in their decks, and that someone in the part, ideally more than one to be safe, has Teamwork. Hang out in the quad or better yet the Student Union and have Daisy's crew churn through their decks, playing tomes as they go. Daisy can focus on getting out her Tote Bag and/or Arcane Enlightenment. Someone can beat up on the Namer of the Dead every now and then when he ventures out of the library. Then, when you have all 6 or so tomes in play, slap down teamwork and hand them over to Daisy. Parley the Namer, and savor the dirty but delicious feeling of having completely abused this otherwise well-balanced and well-crafted scenario.

Unfortunately this doesn't work, as an investigator cannot control another investigator's signature assets. Teamwork explicitly cannot be used to bypass this restriction. — suika · 9506
Wait disregard that. — suika · 9506
Mk 1 Grenades

In the 1920s, we didn't have as many regulatory bodies for sports, and thus safety standards were a bit lax. For example, major league hockey didn't require helmets, and Professional Boxers were permitted to carry Demolition and/or Military Explosives.

Accordingly, Nathaniel Cho loves these things. He absolutely needs his Boxing Gloves, and thus has no slots for backup weapons to support his +1 event dmg for the turn. Sure, there's Bandolier, but the beauty of the Boxing Grenades is they're slotless, accomplishing in 1 card & 1 action what Bandolier+(weapon) do in 2 of each.

Better still, they give your Ringside Manager something more to do when he shows up late to the match:

It's these little details, recreating the pastiche of the early 20th century, that I really appreciate about Arkham Horror's worldbuilding.*

+++

*- ...I know absolutely nothing about boxing.

HanoverFist · 756
Haha! Beautiful review. — Mordenlordgrandison · 464
Boxing Glove Grenades won't outdo Boxing Glove Duke but I love this review. — The Lynx · 999
Thanks! I tryyygyuuuwhaa 71 likes on this review? That's supposed to be 17, right? It's opposite day or something? — HanoverFist · 756
Ward of Radiance

The initial use of this card is pretty obvious: fill up the bag with blessings, and then play Ward of Protection at a cost of one fewer horror and one less resource. It also works on fellow investigators! The trade-offs are clear: it’s not automatic. But with favor of the sun, it becomes automatic. With Tides of Fate, it becomes much more common; that card specifically lets you play it before drawing cards in the mythos phase. This card shines in support Mary or Mateo, where a lot of your game is spent filling the bags with goodness and protecting your fellow investigators.

MrGoldbee · 1493
"random" does not forbid this (at least, not without forbidding it for skill tests as well. The language used for skill tests is "The investigator performing the skill test reveals one chaos token at random from the chaos bag.") — Yenreb · 15
Keep Faith

A Preston blessing deck is extremely viable, based on ancient covenant getting you to a 3 when you need it. And this card is the cornerstone. Unlike most characters with survivor access, cash aint an issue when it comes to playing it. Use resourceful on other investigators test to recur it.

MrGoldbee · 1493