Olive McBride

With Jaqueline and Voice of Ra, it’s now possible to play big money mystic. When before you would have to sacrifice or play a lot of alchemy, now you can play Olive, use Jaqueline’s ability, and get 6-10 bucks reliably. Get that card back with prescient and your mirror of scrying to guarantee you get to play it three or four times a game, and you can play all the expensive spells you want. It’s completely possible to play Miss McBride and not use her for skill checks, only from cards that require you to draw tokens. And she even helps with Jaqueline‘s weakness!

It’s always good to have a spotter when you’re predicting the future.

MrGoldbee · 1470
I agree that this is a good combo, but how do you get 10 bucks? Voice of Ra gives 1+2/spooky and draws 3 tokens. With Fine and McBride, you can either draw 5 tokens (one of which you replace with a draw 3 pick 2 before knowing what it is) and then overall cancel 2 of them (or just the auto-fail, but that's not going to happen unless literally all 6 tokens are spooky). Alternately, you can use Olive's ability first and draw 3 (one of which is replaced by a Fine-modified draw 5 pick 2). But the point is, either way you have a realistic maximum of 4 tokens drawn for a maximum of 9 resources. You could only reach 11 resources if you revealed 6 spookies across 7 draws and canceled just an auto-fail which is incredibly unlikely. If there are 17 tokens in the bag, 6 of which are spooky, you are looking at an average of a little under 6 resources on from Voice of Ra. Again, not a bad combo - I actually rather like it - but not quite as powerful as you describe. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
These investigator decks need to get released so I know what the hell voice of ra is. From context I gather it's a zero-cost Mystic event that says, "Reveal three chaos tokens. Gain 1 resource, plus two resources for each [spooky] token revealed." Something like that? Maybe a negative rider for the auto-fail? — SGPrometheus · 821
@SGPrometheus It is exactly what you say. Plus it has the Spell trait, so synergy there with some stuff. And it can pitch for 1 Will. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
Contraband

Sure, lemme try an analysis.

TL;DR: This is a great upgrade to Contraband 0xp, and is a powerful card in a vacuum... but unless I'm missing something, it's overshadowed by the same-priced, same-XP, far-more-reliable Swift Reload.

+++

As an upgrade, this one is great. 1 less resource saves early setup actions, and even puts it in Turn-1 range for the BAR, Flamethrower, Rogue's .45 Thomspon, or Typewriter via either Emergency Cache (STTP Leo Andersen) or Another Day Another Dollar (any Rogue).

The +2 ammo/+1 card alternate effect is great, too, ensuring value late-game on empty guns.

Now for the problem: Swift Reload. Huge similarities- cost, XP, class. Leo can even STTP them both. The difference is a chasm of flexibility in maximizing their effect.

  • Both can load a max of X Ammo, where X is the target weapon's original clip (not counting combos, but we'll get to that).
  • To max Contraband (2), it must be used during an action AFTER playing the gun, but BEFORE firing a shot
  • For Swift Reload, it must be used any time after emptying the gun... and does not require an action

IOW, Swift Reload lets you "pay later", and only when you NEED to- even mid fight!- to get the same effect that Contraband (2) requires you to pay for up-front, spending an action (and possibly AoO), and which you may not even ultimately use.

Now, that's if they're played by themselves. Enter the Contracombo!

Yeah, you know what I'm talking about- the famed 2x Contrabands = 4x Ammo, usually illustrated on Leo/Zoey's BAR for 32 whopping bullets- a profit of +3 clips/+24 ammo. And you don't need two Contraband (2) specifically; anything that can overload ammo (Venturer, Custom/Extra Ammunition) can tilt a single Contraband (2)'s payout over SR.

But when it comes to reliability, the Contracombo takes Contraband (2)'s situationality and makes it worse. Supposing the ideal, that 32 bullet BAR, you need:

... and you pretty much need them all at the same time.

Swift Reload can't really combo... but to get a max profit of +16 bullets from two of them, you just need the weapon- purchased & used as needed- and then one SR + 3 resources to reload when/if it empties, and another SR + 3 resources when/if it empties again, likely spread over several turns. Drawing the SRs late doesn't reduce their value, and you still net +2 clips.

And that last bit's kind of the clincher, as obvious as it may seem: the perfect Contracombo is kind of an illusion. It doesn't give you +4 clips, it gives you +3 (you started with 1)... and that's only 1 clip more than you get by actionlessly Swift Reloading as needed.

+++

Of course there's a few other asymmetries- Contraband (2) has much better pips, it can grant Supplies instead of Ammo, Jenny can't Swift Reload her Twin .45s, you can tutor Contraband (2) with Backpacks/Smuggled Goods. EDIT: And in MP, Contraband (2) can be used on allies (thanks to MrGoldbee for spotting this!).

But for its purpose of getting lotsa bullets, it just feels like Swift Reload will win out more often.

HanoverFist · 739
Unless you reload your friends! — MrGoldbee · 1470
Excellent point! Contraband can reload allies in MP. — HanoverFist · 739
I think you covered it pretty well, Contraband has higher combo potential, and can reload more than just guns (Fingerprint Kit is a good one). A few other combos include Fence (makes Contraband and most weapons fast), and also the fact that you can dig out both copies of Contraband with Smuggled Goods, and recur one of them from the discard later (though that can be better or worse depending on when you draw it.) — Zinjanthropus · 229
Or you can empty your gun while gathering 2x contraband, then start with Swift reload and quadruple that — Django · 5108
.35 Winchester

This card is better than it looks, competing with some of the better weapons available at level 0. As pointed out in another review, in easier fight tests the damage the Winchester deals per action is close to other weapons such as the .45 Thompson and .45 Automatic, though slightly inferior for easier tests. However, it actually deals more damage than any other level 0 weapon when you are facing tough fight tests, such as when your final skill value is equal to the test, when it deals about 3 times more average damage than the .45 automatic (try out the math to see it's true). This happens more often when you are using an investigator with relatively lower fight (such as 3 combat with Skids), so the Winchester has more value for these investigators if you need to have a way to deal damage. Conversely, investigators with 5 base combat benefit less from the Winchester.

The other things to consider when deciding to use the Winchester are that it takes up 2 hands slots, and that the damage it deals comes in packages of 1 and 3. The 2 hand slots might be less of a problem compared to the Thompson, for example, since the Winchester is cheaper to play, so you can potentially use it quickly and replace it with other hand assets more easily than playing the more expensive thompson. The damage dealt is definitely something to consider. I think doing 1 or 3 damage might not cause overkill more often than 2 damage attacks, since 1 and 3 health enemies are pretty common. But you could in theory deal 1 damage twice, miss, then deal 3 damage to a 3 health enemy, which would be far from ideal. So it's definitely best to use the Winchester when the 3 damage is needed. In the same way, being able to adapt your plan depending on how much damage you deal after each attack can be very effective. This works best if you have alternate ways of dealing with enemies that don't take hand slots, like evading or allies that damage such as Alice Luxley or Beat Cop.

Not to mention, it is really fun using the Winchester! You look forward to seeing whether the revealed token will give you a critical hit, unlike other weapons where the token can only have a negative effect.

jmmeye3 · 629
There's an upcoming card in the Nathaniel Cho pack that converts excess damage into resources, so that might make cards like this more palatable as well. — pneuma08 · 26
nice idea! — jmmeye3 · 629
Decorated Skull

Tony Morgan's best mate. You need money? Cards? Money for cards? Apply Decorated Skull to the problem and watch as your hand goes from 2 cards to 5 after you went BRRRRRRRRRRRRRAP BRRRRRRRAP BRRR BRR BRR with your pieces against whatever poor bastard is in your way!

Bonus points if you use Joey "The Rat" Vigil to play out the cards you got without using actions.

ironbrw · 17
Not sure; it's nice for the card draw but Tony has more money than he needs — jd9000 · 73
The appeal of this is definitely cards over resources. Unfortunately the base Lucky Cigarette Case outshines this easily in that department for being actionless and more consistent draw. You dont get the draw until you decide to take the action, which means you’re deferring draw you would have otherwise gotten immediately. It is possible to outpace LCC if you get a lot of death happening, and the resources might matter in a Delilah or Lola Santiago based deck, but I find this personally hard to justify the XP for. There are tons of consistent resource methods in Rogue already, like Lone Wolf, that I dont even take with Tony. Easy Mark, Another Day Another Dollar, and Watch This all on top of Tony’s bounty income already go a long way. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
For Tony I prefer Garrote wire + Lucky cigarette case. — AlexP · 252
Blood Eclipse

I think this is a much better card than Blood Eclipse (3). At level 1 it can fit into many more decks and doesn't require such a large investment to add in. And really, what are the drawbacks? It locks you in at 2 damage for +2 damage? That's probably what most people will be using level 3 for anyway.

I'd consider this an auto-include in any Tommy Muldoon deck. The ability to trigger the destruction of virtually any of your damage soak assets can be very useful if you're strapped for cash or trying to empty an asset slot or trigger a death rattle.

Really excited to see this card.

I'd definitely use level 3 as a 4 damage attack sometimes, but I agree that with the level 1 card existing, I don't think I'd spend 2 extra XP very often to regain the option. — Yenreb · 15
I would perhaps upgrade to level 3 with Carolyn and double Arcane Research since her upgrade targets are limited. — Defel · 4
I wouldn't personally waste Carolyn's off-class slots on Arcane Research. I do like level 3 Blood Eclipse on Carolyn though and I think that the ability to defeat a 4 health enemy in one shot is worth mentioning though, especially for investigators like Carolyn who might otherwise have trouble doing that last bit of damage and could also save you an action against 4-health enemies. — iceysnowman · 164
How do you recommend to heal up after using this? For Carolyn painkillers so she can heal her horror and profit. Other guardians just tank it cause they have 8+ HP? — Django · 5108
@Django yeah, pretty much. Tommy can kill one of his assets with it for quick cash/bullets, Mark and Leo can put some in their allies. My problem with using this is that it uses will instead of fight, which only Leo is really good at. For others, it's going to be hard waiting for a 4-health enemy with low fight. Except Tommy, who just wants the damage from it and is willing to use this on rats. — SGPrometheus · 821
Zoey's Willpower is also 4. It fits better for Leo than Zoey maybe because he plays soak so easily, but he's not the only one with the Will for it. — Yenreb · 15
The one time that I used the Level 3 version, I combo'd it with Brother Xavier for a 6 damage burst. It actually worked quite well, because BroX had mostly been soaking horror. I suppose most of the time this is better though. Also, either is pretty worth considering in Calvin, I would think. — Zinjanthropus · 229
A couple other use cases: Calvin can use this, assuming he's already scared enough to have sufficient will, and wrecking himself up a bit for more fight/agi. Yorick can use it as a handy 3-dmg nuke at a respectable 3+2 will, with soak rivalling or exceeding Tommy & Leo. Lastly, Marie Lambeau may like a 3 dmg nuke if her arcane slots are occupied. Thematically, tho, I love the idea of Leo using this to "fire" his Hired Muscle when he doesn't wanna pay them. — HanoverFist · 739
The combo of playing this in Carolyn Fern with 2 copies of Arcane Research is neat. Free upgrade to the level 3 version. If you play cards like St Hubert Key, Brother Xavier or Hawkeye Camera, you can get more Will boosts to increase the chances of landing the hit. BUT, Carolyn can equally take Spectral Razor. It does the same thing as this level 1 version of Blood Eclipse, without costing an XP per copy. So if your Carolyn deck isn't using the full 15 slots for Seeker/Mystic cards, then Spectral Razor is just "better", since it doesn't cost an XP, right? — VanyelAshke · 180