Familiar Spirit

Familiar Spirit

Another entry in the "Mystics turn all slots into Arcane slots," this is a cheap, fragile way to get an extra spell into your rig.

What can't it hold? Empower Self, Empower Self, Empower Self (either singly or as a set); Enchanted Blade, Enchanted Blade (3), or Enchanted Blade (3); or Mind's Eye Since it's a level 0 Mystic, the Familiar can get around and refuse to hold: Arcane Enlightenment, Borrowed Time, Double, Double, Dream-Enhancing Serum, Farsight, Flesh Ward, Haste, Rite of Sanctification, or Spiritual Resolve. This cat is sort of finicky.

The Familiar is cheap, it plays into a low-resource deck that wants to pay for spells with Robes of Endless Night and Shining Trapezohedron. It is also Fragile, easy prey for Ally-sniping Treacheries or Location effects. It occupies the hotly-contested Ally slot, but a low-resource deck can get by without David Renfield, so maybe that slot became a little less contested. It might help keep a Sixth Sense or other spell available while your own Arcane slots are full of Mind's Eye.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1067
I personally think this card is just terrible. Ally slots are way more contested than Arcane, and I would much sooner play Sign Magik over this (which I already rarely do). Initiate, Olive, and David are all just so much better. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Imagine a Body Arcane skit, though. What would that be like? — LivefromBenefitSt · 1067
Eh, probably still a fair step worse than Robe. The reality is that arcane slots are not really needed outside of very specific builds, like Seal. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
I don't know, I think this card is pretty awesome. It's a cheap way to get an extra arcane slot, which in multiplayer is incredibly useful if you're doing token sealing or you want something like mind's eye. It's cheap so I would actually play it in a deck with a bunch of expensive spells. It's also a little soak which is good for when you've spent all your charges. FS is not meant to sit on the table the whole game. Also, just get charisma if you want another ally. Mystics have good allies, but they still don't have THAT many to choose from that it isn't rare for me to be waiting for them to show up during a game. — LaRoix · 1645
I could see this working with two Protective Incantations. To me, that's a great card whose bigger drawback is the arcane slot rather than the resource upkeep. — Pinchers · 131
...and disregard my above comment. Protective Incantation is a ritual, not a spell. I just want to have a mystic who keeps two of them running without locking up the whole character... — Pinchers · 131
@Pinchers, Familiar still works well with Protective Incantation - you can just have the Protective Incantations take up your regular two arcane slots while your spell takes up the slot from Familiar Spirit. I like Protective Incantations in Carolyn as she typically has a lot of money to spare :). — iceysnowman · 164
I think the Familiar would combo well with Arcane Initiate. Play the Initiate early to dig for cards and then play the Familiar later to remove the Initiate from play and allow for an extra Arcane slot cheaply. This would require a build that wanted to use extra Arcane slots but I could see it being useful. — The Lynx · 980
I think, it is useful for mystics, who have charged spells each for fight, investigate and evade. You don't need to have the cat hang around all game. Imagine, you have one or two chagres left on your Shrivelling, a full RoS in play and the Mists in hand. You can play now the Familiar and the Mists and, once the Shrivelling is empty use the soak. It's probably less important with the upgraded robe, which lets you play spells engaged without AoO, but it gives flexibility. Also, you could "convert" Charisma into an extra Arcane slot. But I would only do that with at least 3 different allies, in particular, if one of them is acumulating doom. — Susumu · 371
I feel like it's designed to be played over Doomed Acolyte (0). At the time you need the spell slot you have much less use for the Acolyte. If you're running the Acolyte it can be tricksy to include a reliable Ally in the same slot so you probably can't overplay them efficiently. — Rack · 1

Ineffable Truth

Ineffable Truth

Completing the "Good Token" trinity, we have a replacement for Mists of R'lyeh. It

  • costs 1 more
  • has 1 less charge
  • doesn't give you a free move
  • does a point of damage
  • costs you a resource instead of a card if you draw the wrong token

Losing a resource instead of a card is a definite plus, the extra cost and lost charge a definite minus. Whether the move or damage is better depends too much on play style, enemy, and scenario. Mists can help you escape a bad enemy (if there is a safe space to move to) , Truth can help set you up for a 3-Health kill with a single attack charge same turn or next. Or a 4-Health kill if you are Agnes with a Meat Cleaver and a bit of combat boost. Or it could accidently kill of Vengeance enemy you would have preferred to just Evade. Let's call it a wash.

Otherwise, most of the comments Ruduen made under Azure Flame apply here -- at lower bag difficulties and earlier in a campaign Mists is favored, higher and later, Truth is less likely to hit bad tokens. If you have a Crystalline Elder Sign or 2, maybe there are no tokens that can trigger the negative side of the card.

I'm liking this new design space. It's not that the new set are better than the old set, they just hit slightly differently, and that gives some room for deck design that is a lot more nuanced and tailored to individual campaigns and scenarios, and that feels pretty exciting.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1067

Dark Future

Dark Future

This has been updated to match my "Signature Weakness Project." I have done my best to make sure that the original content isn't altered too much, out of respect for any comments.

Another flavorful Signature Weakness from the Starter Decks. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: It severely limits Jacqueline's special ability by making it impossible to cancel "bad stuff" tokens, effectively shutting it down until this can be cleared. It also shuts down Dark Prophecy, Defiance, Defiance (2), Grotesque Statue (2), Grotesque Statue (4), Olive McBride. It appears not to shut down Seal of the Elder Sign, Tides of Fate, Ward of Radiance, Voice of Ra. It would not affect either of the Will to Survives and probably other non-Mystic, non-Neutral cards, but Jacqueline can't take them, so let's not worry about that.

The discard condition: Draw a in a random pull of 5 tokens. Jacqueline can use her ability on this, along with cards like Olive McBride, Dark Prophecy, etc. to increase token pull.

All things considered, this might be the worst of the Starter deck Signature Weaknesses. Nathaniel's just takes strategy and effort (or a whole turn of basic Fight), Harvey's could kill him at a bad moment, but it's one and done, Winifred's is more a roadbump than a Weakness, and Stella's, while a problem, can be cleared with . Jacqueline's Weakness could hang around for the entire game, although that's not all that likely, with 2-4 turns being average.

LivefromBenefitSt · 1067
I disagree; I think Nate's is worse. The bottom line here is that this might not lose you any actions at all; Malloy can lose you quite a few, and eats resources no matter what. You can continue to do things pretty much as normal with this, just being a bit more careful. One "benefit" of this is that you won't be tempted to use her ability during your turn, meaning you'll have it at end of turn for this. — SGPrometheus · 821
It is super dubious to say this will hang out all game. Even in a 16 token bag without using your ability, you’ll clear it 31% of the time. The chance that it sticks around for 8 rounds is already less than 5%, and as soon as you start using your ability on it it becomes much more likely to clear. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Nathaniel's is a turn of actions, maybe less if you have a Beat Cop or some other way to ping damage. Malloy hits hard, but his Combat of 2 is child's play for Nathaniel at most difficulties. It would generally take more cards to beat the Mob Enforceer. Dark Future shuts down Jaquiline's central ability and a good chunk of her core card; swhich feels like more of a pain to me. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1067
StyxTBeuford -- OK, you are right, assuming Father Mateo or Crystaline Elder Sign hasn't locked the token up, but 3-6 turns isn't out of the question, unless you use all your tricks. I mean, Jaquiline's ability makes it a 7 card draw, and Olive would take it to 9. You could play 2 Dark Prophecies to get it to 17, and maybe a charge off a Statue to pull the whole bag, but that's a steep cost in charges and cards. Additionally, for me, losing access to abilities somehow hurts more than taking damage/horror or getting a nasty enemy or losing a couple of actions. Your mileage, of course, may vary. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1067
If you have Jacqueline Fine in the party and you’ve chosen to buy CES or bring Mateo, you’ve made a massive mistake. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Yeah having used this a fair amount this is a super gentle weakness. It usually has very little impact, and it clears itself. I generally have 2 dark prophesies in the deck and just hold onto them as insurance. But your investigator ability + a dark prophesy or two + olive McBride is all but guaranteed to get rid of it. — NarkasisBroon · 10
Like, as long as you’re willing to save your ability on it, it should be gone pretty soon. It shuts off your ability, but not the fact that you’re a 5 Will Mystic, and you still can use your ability, if need be, on bad numbers. I think this is the tamest weakness except for Arrogance. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
FWIW, you can also seal the +1 for Crystalline Elder Sign. Strictly speaking that means that the Elder Sign is more likely to be revealed. Mateo can choose to cash in the book after Jacqueline draws — Zinjanthropus · 229
*after Jacqueline draws Dark Future. Not to say that Mateo + Jacqueline is a dream team or anything. — Zinjanthropus · 229
On Easy and Standard sure. Hard and Expert dont have +1s. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
It doesn't prevent Defiance (0) or (2). This card says you cannot cancel or ignore those symbol tokens. Defiance ignores the effects, not the token. (See also Defiance + Shriveling/Baseball Bat) — Yenreb · 15
Are we positive that Dark Prophecy helps with this weakness? As far as I can see, when you're about to draw the chaos tokens, you will say: I'm going to reveal 5 chaos tokens, +2 per Jacqueline's ability; the last of the 7 will be substituted by 5 tokens per Dark Prophecy. You proceed to reveal 6 tokens + 5 for DP. You cancel all but 1 of the tokens of Dark Prophecy (keeping a symbol token except elder sign) and then canceling 2 more (or 1 tentacle) for Jacqueline's ability. What happened is that you basically screwed yourself, because if you drew the elder sign with dark prophecy you had to cancel it in favor of an other symbol. Isn't this how it's supposed to work? — Vittek · 1
@Vittek - Discard condition is bound to "if elder sign was revealed", so maybe it is true even if this symbol was not chosen. — johniez · 3
I just finished A Thousand Shapes of Horror with Jaqueline and this weakness lasts till the end (like 12 rounds), not using Dark Prophecy. Pretty anoying that this rare token is so hard to get on light. — johniez · 3
I don't think it shuts down Olive....... you just have to be aware of what tokens you are going to ignore. If you ignore a say, 0 or -1 for instance, and one of the other tokens revealed is an elder sign, you would be golden, right? — tasman · 1
@Vittek — Dark Prophecy does help with this weakness. Remember that the entire point of Dark Future is that you cannot cancel or ignore tokens, and that includes the ones revealed by Dark Prophecy. So you would 11 tokens, not be able to cancel any of them, then toss Dark Future if you hit an elder sign. — Whimsical · 29
Yeah, the design choice, that "Dark Future" does not allow to ignore the elder sign was probably less to prohibit card draw, but more to give "Dark Prophecy" the possibility to get rid of it. Still, in the one "half" campaign I played Jaqueline, I had DP + her ability wiff at some point. And it always took me at least 3 rounds to clear it, and once literally 8 rounds. I didn't have Olive, which was probably a mistake. But I'm glad, nobody from our group had "Day of Reckoning" as a basic weakness. (Wasn't even out back then.) It can stick around long enough even without, just with bad luck. I agree with the review, that this is probably the worst of the starter set signature weaknesses. Sure, Jackie is a 5 brain mystic and still works fine without her ability. But her ability is really strong, and it has big impact, if you turn it off. — Susumu · 371

Arbiter of Fates

Arbiter of Fates

Another simple and clear Signature card which makes Jacqueline's special Ability better. If messing with the Chaos Bag once per Round is nice, doing it twice is 2x nice, especially as she can use her ability on any token draw by any Investigator (at her location) in any Phase. About as simple to deploy as Randall Cho or Vault of Knowledge and easier to get a beginner's head around than Anything You Can Do, Better or Neither Rain nor Snow (not that the last two are hard, exactly, but you need to think more about timing and how to maximize them in any scenario).

LivefromBenefitSt · 1067

Farsight

Farsight

It's a bit pricey at 4 XP, and it takes up an Arcane slot (precious to at least some Seekers), plus requiring 8 cards in hand. Is it worth it?

This card essentially makes one event Fast each turn. About a third of all events are already Fast, but the ones that aren't often trigger Investigate (or, occasionally Fight) actions, so this card could theoretically give Seekers 4 actions/turn fairly regularly and allow for some "no Attack of Opportunity" actions to get things done while under Enemy pressure. Play Burning the Midnight Oil to get 2 resources and maybe a clue, avoiding the Attack of Opportunity, then using the resources to pay for "I've got a plan!" (2) or Persuasion to get rid of an Enemy? As Ursula, getting a "Fast" Seeking Answers (2) to clear a location, then running a couple of locations away for a Special Ability Investigate?

Who likes it? Harvey has the hand size and Draw. He doesn't start with a ton of Events, but there's no reason you can't change that. Mandy has Draw, ways to increase hand size, and access to a lot of Events. Daisy probably doesn't, unless she's going with Spell Events over Assets, and poor Norman can't take it at all. Does Joe Diamond want it to make his entire Hunch Deck Fast?

LivefromBenefitSt · 1067
Yes, Joe does. Plus he has the added benefit that playing cards from his Hunch Deck doesn't reduce his hand size, so it is easier for him to maintain his hand size. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
Farsight explicitly plays cards "from your hand", not from the hunch deck — OrionJA · 1
Surely that combos with his "Until the end of the phase, you may play that card as if it were in your hand, at -2 cost," right? — LivefromBenefitSt · 1067
For the purpose of playing the cards (and only playing the cards) the hunch deck cards are treated as if in your hand. Thus, for Farsight effect, you can play a Hunch Deck card. Contrast it with Joey "The Rat" not working with Backpack since he says to 'choose an item asset from your hand and play it'. While the backpack cards are available 'to play from hand' they aren't available 'to choose from hand.' — Death by Chocolate · 1485
I would consider this interesting for Joe but I would need to build around this card to an extent in order to have 8 cards. I use some card draw with Joe but usually have 3-5 cards in his hand plus the Hunch. — The Lynx · 980
TWWaterfalls -- Yeah, I'm not sure it's agreat idea for Joe, but it's possible, and, as you say, "interesting." Is it 4/8 XP + however many support cards (Feed the Mind (2) maybe for a "Full Arcane Joe" deck) level interesting?) — LivefromBenefitSt · 1067
Maybe Farsight will finally make Guidance playable. — Zinjanthropus · 229
I realised that in a Mandy deck Farsight can be used to re-shuffle Occult evidence in your deck as a free action. Which, in turn will give you chances to have a testless clue during your next search. — AlexP · 252
Farsight Joe Diamond as discussed above is back on the table with the latest faq right? — NarkasisBroon · 10
I've been enjoying event-heavy Crystallizer of Dreams builds for a couple of my Rogues, so I found that this sits right at home with an event-heavy Jack with both his card draw momentum and resources to pay for the events as quickly as Farsight shells them out. — TheDoc37 · 468