Armor of Ardennes

Armor of Ardennes

It's almost pure insult how much better Jessica Hyde, a level 1 survivor card, is than this level 5 guardian armor. It has some niche bonuses:

  • Far less contested body slot

  • can tank 3 more damage immediately instead of having to wait for heals

  • those two willpower icons can be used in a Well Prepared deck to moderate effect. (I will pass on commenting on the fight icons since guardians have many sources for those)

  • damage is canceled, which can have edge-case benefits like voiding a Pit Viper's poison (this is not a common benefit)

However these niche bonuses do not make up for:

  • Jessica provides a flat +1 to fight

  • 4 more XP to purchase but a single copy

  • 1r higher cost

  • lower overall damage negation than Jessica since she can benefit from the heal every turn rather than just on turns where damage is taken

  • Jessica has synergy with move damage effects as well (hello Solemn Vow)

  • 1 horror soak

The fact that you can purchase 2x Jessica Hyde + Charisma for the same cost as one copy of this card costs suggests something went very wrong in writing the balance for these two cards.

Difrakt · 1327
The only other advantage to this card is that it's a relic so can be placed on Elli Horowitz. That's not a hugely big deal of course, and doesn't affect many of the investigators who can take it. Truth to tell I tend to forget this card even exists. — Sassenach · 180
How about Jessica and 2x this in play, one on Elli? — Django · 5165
If you mean for Tommy, wich is the only investigator who can access both of them, then I agree with you, but I still prefer to use the ally slot for the Beat cop or the Guardian dog to maximize the damage dealt to enemys. — Fenrirgarm · 11
At the end of the day very few are upgrading to Armor of Ardennes and many Survivors will want this. One difference not covered is that they come from different classes and things are not equal between classes. Jessica Hyde is essentially a new Peter Sylvestre. He is one of the strongest allies in the game and so is Jessica. The ironic thing is that most of the investigators that want the combat bonus don't need the infinity damage soak as much. Jessica and Peter could make for an interesting combo though with someone. Infinity soak. I doubt that I would upgrade to Armor of Ardennes though. — The Lynx · 999
Yeah, the armor is way undertuned. It's just unfortunate that the big splashy Guardian XP card from the Carcosa cycle is almost unplayable. It doesn't even work well with Mark's ability! — CaiusDrewart · 3200

Borrowed Time

Borrowed Time

Took this card in a campaign and it's great fun. I would venture to say it's a little underrated.

Aside from the obvious synergies with Pay Day, The Red-Gloved Man etc., this card provides a few subtler benefits, for example...

  • Saving up your actions when you draw Frozen in Fear so that you can do the Willpower test at the end of your turn, and hopefully get rid of it before your next turn.
  • Saving up your actions if you have an inkling that your mystic is preparing a Delve Too Deep turn.
  • If you're at the same location as a team member, sometimes it's worth it to end your turn at the same location as them (for card commits and card abilities) instead of moving away. Using Borrowed Time, you can stay at your teammate's location for safety and just do the move action that you would've done this turn on the next turn instead.
  • It's easier to avoid ending your turn at certain locations to avoid nasty "end of turn" location effects - again, just save up that move action you would've used this turn for next turn instead.
  • A lot of treacheries affect you only for a certain round, like Dissonant Voices. Borrowed Time can help you save up actions during those rounds so that you can do more useful things with the same 3 actions next turn.
  • Giving yourself extra actions to make your Chicago Typewriter super accurate, or your Kukri extra damaging.
  • Making it easier to trigger action intensive, time-sensitive cards like "Let God sort them out...".
iceysnowman · 164
Well, Borrowed Time is an asset, so you cant play it if you get Dissonnant Voices, and you are Forced to trigger the efect as soon as your next turn begins, so in the 90% of the times, you spend an action to play it and you can save only two actions. I´m not saying it has its usses, but you need to build a specific deck just to trigger it. Quick thinking and Swift reflexes are a must in it, plus all the other cards you want to proc with it. — Fenrirgarm · 11
Sorry Fenrirgarm - are you reading the card as needing to be discarded when its effects trigger the next turn? Borrowed Time can't help if it's in your hand the turn you pull Dissonant Voices, true, but if it's in play already you can trigger the action on it without issue. I like the points raised in this review, I was interested in the card before - and now I'll be sure to buy it in my next campaign :) — Prinny_wizzard · 251
I'm excited to try this as a priority get for my dedicated fighter Tony in my upcoming 4 player campaign. Can't wait to bank all my actions whenever we pull no enemies and use them as needed when we pull 2 or a tough one. — DaveHz · 1

Scrounge for Supplies

Scrounge for Supplies

This card is fantastic and stands alongside Drawing Thin as one of the survivor cards of which other classes are actually jealous. I hope it doesn't similarly end up on the chained list of taboos.

Android Netrunner had Archived Memories for a similar cost and effect, except in that game the archives was a vulnerability rather than a potential resource farm. Still the card saw a lot of play.

The rules reference p5 cites a level 0 card as being one without any pips under its cost, but the FAQ errata for the core set investigator fixed cards makes it clear that you can't use this to return Nautical Prowess. So what can you do with it?

Well, Resourceful is an universally played card in survivor, but only returns cards. This is a proactive version of the same effect and happily returns cards from other factions. It is therefore especially excellent for characters who simply splash survivor, such as the Dunwich investigators. Being limited to level 0 cards is fine when it includes every card in your starting deck!

This card gives the ability to better spam something important like Ward of Protection or "I've got a plan!", recover a defeated ally or spent item, and turns treacheries that mill your deck into greater card selection.

Cross your fingers and pray for a 5 xp upgrade to this that returns any card. Or a Yawgmoth's Will, I'm not fussy...

The_Wall · 289
The intended rule is that signature cards and story assets have no level (and are not considered to be level zero). This can be seen from the card errata under the five core-set signatures in the FAQ, as well as from FFG's rules clarification reproduced on this site under those five cards. — Spritz · 69
I agree. They're also unable to purchase and haver no level printed as same as other Level 0 cards. — AquaDrehz · 204
I accept that errara; it needs an actual rule to back it up across the board, but the principle is there. The only truly great interaction was Nautical Prowess in any case. I'll modify the review - still a great card. — The_Wall · 289
I think it’s rather overzealous to put this in similar standing to Drawing Thin. This makes any level 0 card in your discard playable, but it costs an extra action and card to play. Works okay with fast cards, but you could’ve just included a more immediately useful effect. For example you could take this to recur Ward, or you could take Deny Existence and have more choice on what you cancel and how, and save actions in the process. Resourceful being actions-less and able to hit leveled Survivor cards (namely Eucatastrophe) is huge. This card if it even ends up in my decks, and I rarely see that happening, will get replaced once the deck gets heavily leveled. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
Just a correction from the previous comment: using this costs an action, but since the card is replaced with the card you retrieve, there is no loss of cards. So it only puts you down one action, which should be easy to overcome using the powerful card you brought into your hand. But don't use this to bring back economy cards like emergency cache, which will be diluted by the lost action. — jmmeye3 · 632
I'm with StyxTBeuford on this card. The extra action it costs is a huge drawback for an effect like this. And if you have XP cards this card gets worse and worse. — Nils · 1
I want to come back to this card actually now that we have Keep Faith. I wrote this on the Keep Faith review, but Scrounge does work exceptionally well with that card. It is fast, which I mentioned before is incredibly helpful in working with Scrounge, but additionally it's a very powerful level 0 effect you would keep in your deck all campaign long. Tempt Fate is similarly quite powerful for a level 0 card. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
Agree regarding Keep Faith. Shrine of Moirai and Favor of the Sun for recursive Will to Survive spread out across multiple cards. Lots of pieces but they all fit in Patrice nicely... — KenMonster · 28

Moonstone

Moonstone

The passive bonuses on Moon Stone are good. But how to play it?

There are two main ways:

  1. Specific card effects. The best are those printed on investigator cards that you start the game with: Wendy Adams, "Ashcan" Pete and Patrice Hathaway. The best non-investigator way to discard at will (there aren’t many) is Scroll of Prophecies.

  2. Discarding cards due to maximum hand size. Anyone can do this, but it could be difficult if your hand tends to run low. So other than the investigators listed above, Moon Stone would probably only be used by investigators that really want the willpower and agility bonus and have no better or more reliable accessory options.

jmmeye3 · 632
It's a relic so you can grab it with Elli. The best non-investigator way to discard it at will is probably Cornered, which fortunately is in-faction. — Yenreb · 15
True! I should have said “best level 0 non-investigator” for scroll of Prophecies. — jmmeye3 · 632
Cornered is also pretty good. However i don't think the card is good outside specific combos (bow) and mystics cause the stats don't help win the game, just make the player harder to kill and just slows you down. — Django · 5165
I believe you could also play this off of the discard from Blood Rite. Take extra card draw so that you a) are more likely to draw Occult Lexicon or b) can discard it to hand size as a backup. Might be worth considering in TFA at least — Zinjanthropus · 231
And I think Backpack is, too, a ways to 'cheat' this into play. — Lateralis · 7
Backpack is very clever. I wonder if there'll be a ruling on that. You could also use The Council's Coffer to play it, though there are probably better ways to use that card most of the time. — Zinjanthropus · 231
You could also get it into play with Amnesia. I think you could play it with "You Owe Me One!" because it wouldn't be from "your hand." Would take some group coordination though that might be better expended on a different card. — Zinjanthropus · 231
Dr. Elli Horowitz can get the Moonstone into play without much ado. — dlikos · 166
I don't think backüack works cause Moonstone says it must be discarded from your hand but backpack only says the cards are considered in your hand for the purpose of playing them. So the moment backpack is discarded, moonstone is not in your hand (and not considered to be there either). — Django · 5165
If you overwrite the backpack with another card taking up a body slot, then you discard Moonstone, allowing it to be played. — clydelucy · 6
Oh derp that doesn't work, Moonstone must be discarded from your hand. — clydelucy · 6
Pelt Shipment can help discard. — littlisk · 1
I think backpack would work because the card says "cannot play from hand" and backpack says "Cards attached to Backpack may be played as if they were in your hand", Moonstone only cares about if it is in your hand, so being attached to backpack would do the trick — Wasindear · 1

Tetsuo Mori

Tetsuo Mori

Absolutely great.

Survival is a problem even for beefy characters, Tetsuo is a 2 - in - 1 combo that tanks a couple hits and then hands you a gun with which you can now avenge him.

An ally card with 2 and 2 life is worth 1 resource already (see: allies) and Tetsuo backs that up with a slightly better form of Prepared for the Worst as well. At 3 resources he's a tiny bit hard to fit sometimes but you'll never regret taking the space and time to get him into a deck and onto the table.

Absolutely check him out if you're going for a big gun build.

Tsuruki23 · 2586
There's nothing slightly better about his Prepared for the Worst effect! His one can affect other investigators and can check the discard pile to return spent items, which is huge. Good review though. — The_Wall · 289
He's not like prepared for the worst in your starting hand cause he needs to die first and then you need to play the weapon with an enemy in your threat area. But he's great for searching your next gun, in case your current one runs empty. — Django · 5165