A Test of Will

Normally, I'd would entertain the idea of having a chance to not exile a card, especially if it's determined by a moderate difficulty test of a skill that many investigators in this class excel in, and also gain a 1 resource discount for 1 additional XP.

But the very same pack that introduces this card also contains a card that lets you return its cheaper variant back to your deck for FREE in between scenarios. Both copies, potentially. Understandably, you might not have Unspeakable Oath, or maybe, you really don't want to chance exiling your Test of Will. This pack gives you an even CHEAPER alternative with the exact same effect. The only thing that this card affords you over its Lvl 0 version is that the effect is guaranteed to happen in Lvl 2, but then you have to pass the exact same test in order to keep it from being exiled. If you weren't confident enough in passing that test to settle for the Lvl. 0 version, what makes you think that you can salvage the Lvl 2? In that case, you're just flushing an extra XP down the drain; I'd rather take my chances on the Lvl 0.

The biggest benefit this card is supposed to give you is saving your XP from having to dump it into upkeeping its exiles, and you know what, if you just bought 1 copy for the fun of it and wanted to see how far you could get without losing it, then sure, this card obviously has more sustainability over time than Lvl 1. But if you're including this in an exile deck or planning on buying 2 of these, just use Lvl 0 for lower difficulties and Lvl 1 + Deja Vu for higher difficulties. This card really has no place in your deck given the alternatives. If you don't have Unbreakable Oath, just pretend these cards are Lvl 1 problem solved :)

TheDoc37 · 468
Generally agree, although one thing to note as Stella, if you have this a test of will, and commit "neither rain not snow" you essentially autopass, because even if you fail, you cancel the treachery and don't exile the card — NarkasisBroon · 10
Damn, good point Nark! — MrGoldbee · 1472
It definitely fits a new design space that I am unsure how I feel about. 2 XP in Survivor gets you so many good cards, it seems like either going hard into Exile or just stiicking with Level-0 is more attractive. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1067
Deja Vu also exists, and if I have that card already, I think I prefer unsure if exile over unsure if cancel — StyxTBeuford · 13028
But, if you are going with Déjà Vu, you've already committed to Exiling cards. You might as well go with Test of Will (1), because you can replace it for free. ToW (2) just lets you gamble with XP, which isn't that fun a game from where I'm standing. If I want 2 XP Exiles, I think Fortune or Fate or Stroke of Luck are better choices, but that's me. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1067
If your willpower is high enough, it becomes an XP savings in the long run since you will almost always pass that test. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Take Deju Vu twice and just leave yourself open to get 2 xp exile cards back, if all of them are conditional then you don't want them all to exile in the same game so having random chance attached to each one is good. — Zerogrim · 295
I think 2 Déjà Vu would just give you 1 XP for 6 cards. If you are examining six cards per scenario, that is impressive. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1067
only other benefit I see with this one is again for Stella - she plays this with the intention of failing the Will test, meaning she cancels the revelation effect and gets an extra action during her turn that round. Maybe expensive for the 2xp (even with the Deja Vu discount), but something to consider if you like more actions at critical moments. — Krysmopompas · 360
There is one additional benefit to this version over the lvl 0 in Stella. If she commits her signature and fails she gets to keep this card, cancel the encounter, and gets the extra action on her turn. — jsronce · 1
One other difference: This card doesn't need resources to play it, which could be important for a Dark Horse build. — fuzzlepuzzle · 1
With or without XP, all you can do is resist. — MrGoldbee · 1472
The Skeleton Key

TL;DR: Think of the key as a late-mission MP support Event, not an Asset. It competes with no slots, and you don't have to play it until/unless it's needed. If 3R and 1 action to trivialize an entire 3+ Shroud 8+ Clue location for EVERYBODY in your party seems worth it, then it doesn't matter when you draw your one copy- you'll always be happy to see it.

+++

I recently completed a 3P Carcosa as Tony Morgan; the key here was a late upgrade in the "eh why not" vein after getting all his other needed upgrades. It ended up being a relief to see on each remaining mission.

Left me wondering why it never really got much in the way of reviews, but I think I can see why- it looks deceptively cumbersome. 3R to play, 2 actions to place & recover, only 1 per deck, Lockpicks exist, etc. But here's the thing: in 3-4 player MP, all of these become unimportant... a single use of the key will pay for itself.

  • Fast. No need to play it til you need it, and ultimately costs only 1 action to place it at a destination.
  • NO SLOT. Did you notice that? Some assume the key is an Accessory or Hand item at a glance, and thus in competition.
  • Item. You can tutor it with Backpack, which many Rogues enjoy running.
  • You likely want it late. High-shroud spots often reveal near end of mission. This reduces the 1-per-deck risk.
  • Scales hugely in MP.

That last one's the biggy. It's rare that a campaign doesn't have at least one location with 3+ shroud and 2+/Investigator clues. In SP you can clear that with an event or skills. In 4P though, the Skeleton Key becomes an 8-charge Flashlight that your whole party can use in addition to any other investigation skills they have.

If you can get the key to work on 1 hard room in a mission in 3-4 player MP, it's a terrific and reliable value. The uninstall/reinstall effect is neat, but distracts from the fact that it should pay for itself with a single use.

(FUN FACT: Preston & Dexter & Sefina aside, everyone who can take the Key has 3+ base INT, and is thus themselves now investigating at a minimum of +2 after using it.)

(edited to add Sefina to sub-3 INT investigators, thanks to all who noted this in comments!)

HanoverFist · 740
When I learned about Skeleton Key I was really excited because it could pair with the Ornate Bow and make the loss the Lockpicks not that big of a deal. But I only play 2 handed solo so it just didn't have the payoff since there just aren't enough clues at one location to justify using it. It might still work in some Rogue decks that have a bunch of extra actions like Leo DeLuca, Haste, Quick Thinking or other free action cards. Maybe I will design a deck with that in mind and make Skeleton Key an element of the cluegetting. — The Lynx · 980
Smart thinking! The key goes nicely w/ 2H rogues who like the Bow, Typewriter, or .45 Thompson. But yeah, in 2P it may still be a tossup as to whether you'd want it, or another copy of something like Followed to scoop clues from high-shroud spots. — HanoverFist · 740
everyone who can take the Key has 3+ base INT, and is thus themselves now investigating at a minimum of +2 after using it.) — MrGoldbee · 1472
Not Sefina! — MrGoldbee · 1472
Preston, Sef, and Dex. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Of course, Preston and Sefina can use Lola Santiago, who still likes the reduced shroud; and Sefina and Dex can use spells to investigate at 4 or 5 vs 1. — Yenreb · 15
Lola combo is CLUTCH. — MrGoldbee · 1472
It has the keyword fast — Arkham Addict · 1
It has the keyword fast, does that mean once you have paid the resource and card actions for it, it costs no further actions to play? — Arkham Addict · 1
A fast card does not cost an action to be played and is not played using the “Play” action. A fast asset may be played by an investigator during any player window on his or her turn. — flooze · 7
Skeleton Key combos with Look What I Found, as well, turning into 2 guaranteed clues regardless of shroud value. — Blackhaven · 9
Alter Fate

Just to be clear, neither this version or it's upgrade can discard a treachery unless that treachery has the text "put X into play", correct? In other words, If I draw a hex or something, I have to resolve the revelation effect; I cannot have someone play this to cancel that card entirely (that'd be Ward of Protection lvl 2 if I really want that effect). Right?

As for this card itself, it's... well, it's not great. In a nutshell, what you're doing is replacing whatever conditions have to be met on a threat area treachery with the following:

  • Spend 3 resources: discard this treachery.

But that's not the whole story since there are other things you've spent or are giving up in order to have this card, so it really reads like this;

  • Spend 3 resources, 1-2 xp, and discard a specific card from your hand: discard this treachery.

To compare, here are a few common treacheries. Now I'm only looking at cards from the deluxe boxes and return to boxes since these are the only ones that will continuously pop up throughout a campaign. Obviously, it's preferable Alter Fate has some value beyond getting you through a single scenario. Look at the cost to get rid of it is and ask yourself if you'd rather pay the alter fate cost (because it is extremely costly):

I like lvl 3 Alter Fate, but lvl 1 is massively inferior just from a numbers perspective. Unless you've got money to burn like Mr. Fairmont who I do think is ideal for this card since he can not only pay for it but also generate extra actions to mitigate that loss as well. Besides him, I suppose Stella might like it to get rid of those "end of your turn" treacheries so she can approach her turn undisturbed, but 3 resources and an action just seems like a lot to cough up. It does make you wonder what sort of threat area treacheries we might find in Innsmouth, no?

Also, question. Does either version of Alter Fate work on Straitjacket?

By the way, I love that the art is a depiction of The Tower • XVI, which was a subtle hint at the time the original Alter Fate released because we would see the tower released in the deluxe box a few months later. Nice touch, though curiously you can't use Alter Fate to counter it.

LaRoix · 1645
Neither version of Alter Fate works on Straitjacket: "This card cannot leave play except by the ability below", and 'cannot' is absolute. — Tamsk · 1
I think the main reason to get Alter Fate (1) is so that you can upgrade it to Alter Fate (3) w/o any XP cost with Arcane Research. Both Patrice and Mateo can do that. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Preston also has the resources and actions to play AF1 - and can use it with Double, Double quite well in a larger player count game. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
In an On Your Own build, this is worth considering as well, as you save 2 XP for each Alter Fate which you can use to take more important stuff, and the only thing you lose is it's not Fast anymore. — Nenananas · 258
Yeah I mean, I’m never not happy to see a downgrade because you can incrementally build your deck (plus I’m a sucker for marginal rpg improvement). And the combo with arcane research and on your own are both solid. I was mostly thinking of which off class survivors could play it well since it being lvl 1 opens it up quite a bit. As a card by itself I still think it’s quite poor. It can certainly be improved by good deck building, but Alter Fate lvl 3 is just so far and above this one that it’s a hard sell to me. While arcane xp reduction would be nice, this probably isn’t your highest priority spell to upgrades. On your own would be good with it if you’re running that. I think if this card had Fast and Exile, then I’d be more intrigued. You’d have to weigh if it’s worth saving it to upgrade it or if you really need to free yourself from a treachery. Idk just a thought. — LaRoix · 1645
@LaRoix good thoughts, I definitely agree with what you said — Nenananas · 258
@Nenananas Hey thanks! — LaRoix · 1645
There's one case where I'd consider buying it for scenario-specific treacheries , late on the Forgotten Age. That one needs quite careful timing and some of the scenario-specific treacheries can be crippling at the wrong moment. Beyond that, one funny case where I might have taken this card would have been to deal with Light of Aforgomon in particular as Tommy of all people. It completely shuts his ability down, and if it gets on to e.g Agenda 2 of Where Doom Awaits it's not leaving play on its own. Having a way to zap it gone would have been nice... — bee123 · 31
You missed the cards that attach (except to Elite enemies): Acrid Miasma, Altered Beast, Arcane Barrier, Conspiracy of Blood, Creeping Darkness, Dhole Tunnel, Driven to Madness, Harvested Brain, Incriminating Evidence, Infinite Doorway, Kidnapped!, Light of Aforgomon, Locked Door, Lunar Patrol, Mask of Umordhoth, No Turning Back, Nobody's Home, Obscuring Fog, Oppressive Mists, Overgrowth, Poisonous Spores, Primordial Gateway, Resentful Wilds, Secret Door, Sickening Webs, Song of the Magah Bird, Sordid and Silent, Spectral Mist, Spirit's Torment, The Pit Below, The Sign of Hastur, Threads of Reality, Towering Beasts, Wonderous Lands — Yenreb · 15
I did not miss the cards that attach. I deliberately didn't add them because I didn't want to list every treachery ever. Most of those target, again, I don't think are worth spending 3 resources and an action. But thanks for taking the time to list them in case someone is really having a rough go with them. — LaRoix · 1645
The question worth asking is how many of those treacheries are worth an XP, 3 resources, a card, and an action to kill? I wager not many. This seems like a tech pick for Preston and maybe a transitional AR pick for Mateo, though he can use the savings on other spells anyway, and it might be worth jumping straight to level 3 for this one. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
It may also depend on the investigator so it is worth mentioning the attachments because there are some who are far more susceptible to something like Light of Aforgomon. The savings is nice for any Mystic that can take it, and I definitely agree that Preston would like it because the resource (and actions being a Rogue and all) aren't nearly that big a deal to him. Clearing the board space is always good, it's just how worth it is to you. One thing I didn't mention is that Survivors while enjoying their cheap cards, may not mind the 3 cost since most of their other cards are... well... cheap. — LaRoix · 1645
I actually think it tends to go the other way for Survivors, in that because they tend to run cheap cards, they like to run their decks low curve and reward themselves for staying at low curve. Eg if I'm doing a Fire Axe/Labranche/Dark Horse build, I really want to keep as many cards as possible at 2 or lower. I do think this is roughest with the Mystics who can take it though, especially Marie who happens to just run a very expensive deck almost every time. That said, Marie can play this as a free action with doom in play, so that's interesting. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Bad Blood Agnes is probably quite happy with the lower version since she can discount the cost and shuffle it back. Definitely a card for the specific crippling Treacheries and it's going to pay to know your scenarios ahead of time. — Timlagor · 5
I wonder if "Blessed" is (going to be) relevant... — Timlagor · 5
Obfuscation

Play this in Akachi. Not for the ability, but for the fast charge jank.

1) With Spirit-Speaker out, you can immediately discard this and convert the charges to resources. This is a net gain of 2r at fast speed.

2) The charges on this can be fed to Angered Spirits. The charges on this thing by itself can clear Angered Spirits over the course of 4 rounds.

3) The charges can power 2 Torrent of Powers with 2 charges spent on each.

4) Occasionally, you might actually use the ability. Note that Obfuscation does not require you to exhaust to use it, meaning that if you exhaust it for Angered Spirits, you can still use it just fine.

Basically, think of this card as paying for a slot with 4 charges on it at fast speed for 2r, and you got a few tricks available to you. It does take an arcane slot, but a lot of Akachi decks try to have support for extra arcane slots anyway; this concept best fits into one of those styles of decks.

Soloclue · 2604
Or with Trish: 1) investigation with no AoS to get 2 clues, 2) evasion and 3) exit from the location. — AlexP · 252
For additional jank, Marie could take this and Eldritch Sophist to use it as a battery for recharging spells. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Promise of Power

This card is very strange. 4 icons is a lot. 4 icons is amazing. However, it happens to also be a Mystic card, which means the wilds are mostly going to act like pips. Adding a curse token to the bag is not that steep of a price in my opinion, especially if you're leaning into it with maybe one or two other cards that let you mitigate or benefit from curse tokens, though it remains to be seen what those payoffs are. Either way, 4 icons is a lot, and it can even be used to help evade if you don't have a good spell in play.

Realistically I see this as a staple for Amanda Sharpe. All of her stats being at 6 is amazing. Sure, she'll add up to 3 curses to the bag that turn, but that might actually be a good thing, again depending on the payoffs for curse tokens. Patrice Hathaway also likes it, as she's already happy to commit all of her cards in a turn, and this is just a very easy one to throw down.

StyxTBeuford · 13028
We've seen some of the rewards for curse tokens; specifically Armageddon and Eye of Chaos, and their rewards are very good (1 extra damage and 1 extra clue, respectively), so this is a great way to get extra benefit. — SGPrometheus · 821
It could also be interesting in a Daisy deck to speed up the addition of 10 curse tokens if she wants to translate the Cryptic grimoire. — AlexP · 252
I find that there's usually a few non-wp tests to have to do over the course of a campaign (especially in lower player counts), and this is pretty significantly better than UC for those times. — Zinjanthropus · 229
You can commit it to other people's tests, so there's that. — slyjeff · 503
Summoned Hound uses base combat or evade of 5, so it helps those tests too. — The_Wall · 286
The second sentence makes me wonder: Under which circumstances wouldn't you be able to add a cursed-token to the bag? — dr31ns5mf · 1
If the bag is already full of bless/curse. As I understand it, you are limited to only adding 10 tokens total. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Nope, ten EACH. — MrGoldbee · 1472
Well that’s just ridiculous, and hilarious. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
I do like that this card means you can just not break out the curse tokens (your dog ate them or whatever) and you still know that this comes with a price. — Zerogrim · 295
Just started playing Amanda, I've read somewhere that if this was placed under her, there's no need to add the curse token because it's a Forced effect. Can anyone clarify this for me? — Helsinki · 1