Flamethrower

The cost in the description is wrong guys (4 instead of 5) ;) Keep up the good work! These are the "Your review must be at least 200 characters," so ignore it :D These are the "Your review must be at least 200 characters," so ignore it :D These are the "Your review must be at least 200 characters," so ignore it :D These are the "Your review must be at least 200 characters," so ignore it :D

Wolf · 86
Question: If I fail with the Flamethrower by 2 or less, can I play Oops! to assign the damage elsewhere? If so, to which enemies can I legally assign it? — Setzu · 336
If you play Oops!, you can assign damage to any enemy that Oops! allows. However, it will probably only by 1 damage since Flamethrower doesn’t deal additional damage like other weapons and the ‘assign four’ effect is explicitly ‘on a successful hit’ which is not the case when you play Oops!. — Death by Chocolate · 1490
Burglary

This is what I like to call "an OK card."

It's not great when compared to the many ways to collect resources these days, but I don't think it's bad. As with most cards, this really only shines in two circumstances.

Quick recap for those of you who haven't scrolled down to CaiusDrewart's excellent review: this card is not as efficient as it seems. While it might seem like 3 resources for 1 action, you gotta do a little more math to break down the cost. The first action of playing actually nets you nothing. Strict loss for 1 action. You lose 1 action, 1 resource, and 1 card. After that, you spend 1 action for what I'd hope is a decent shot at 3 resources.

Scenario 1: Play Burglary: -1 action, -1 resource, -1 card Successfully Burgle: -1 action, +3 resources (if you are lucky enough) Net change: -2 actions, +2 resources, -1 card

Scenario 2: Get a resource: -1 action, +1 resource (guaranteed) Get a resource: -1 action, +1 resource (guaranteed) Net change: -2 actions, +2 resources

Obviously, this is a bad deal. In the first turn you've played it, you've only lost one card IF YOU ARE LUCKY and passed the investigate. However, this does recoup it's investment the more you use it. One more action (and successful investigation) and you've hit the same efficiency as getting two resources and playing emergency cache level 0. After that, it starts improving, but you're always hit with the possibility of failure. It's valuable if you can dedicate many actions to earning resources and you have an efficient outlet for those resources.

So, in most cases, it's bad.

But when is it good?

As has been discussed before, Rex is the gold standard. While in many situations, Rex needs to be a clue hoover spending each action getting as many clues as possible, there are a number of situations where Rex only has 1 clue at a location, whether you're playing solo or not. In these situations, it could be more efficient to burgle, get the resources and the clue in one fell swoop. In addition, with the ability of certain cards to move Rex between locations DURING an investigate (Shortcut level 2 and Pathfinder,) he can burgle a low shroud location with no clues, move to another location, succeed on the investigation, and collect his bonus clue from a new location (one that may be at much high shroud value.) There is math that could be done on the likelihood in each scenario you'll run into location with only 1 clue. The short answer is "it's pretty likely."

The second case is worth considering is the combo of Burglary with Lola Santiago. If the Rex combo is the gold standard, consider this the bronze minimum qualifications.

Lola's first aspect gives you that nice +1 to intellect and agility, which makes us better investigators. But it's the second aspect that really makes things interesting. Lola's fast exhaust allows us to convert resources to clues at a varying levels of efficiency. What this does is improve the value of a resource.

Suddenly, a single resource can become clue on 1 shroud locations. If a Rogue burgles a 1 shroud location and then uses Lola, they can net 1 clue and 2 resources for 1 action. On a 2 shroud location, the efficiency become 1 clue and 1 resource for 1 action, which is as efficient as Dr. Milan Christopher. That's ignoring the possibilities of burgling from a neighboring location and then moving to acquire a clue.

That said, the only aspect about Lola that makes Burglary directly more efficient is that +1 intellect, which can be accomplished otherwise. However, because resources are now slightly more valuable in terms of action economy, having an efficient way to consistently collect more resources throughout a scenario becomes more valuable.

Does that mean that Burglary is now good?

Nope. But it is adequate. The more and more we use Burglary in a given scenario, the closer our efficiency rating reaches 3 resources/action. It never quite reaches it because our first action cost 1 resource and 1 action, also because there is always a chance of failure. Over a single scenario, over 10 turns, we reach an efficiency of about 2.63, which drops to about 2 if we assume you only succeed 3/4 of the time.

Are there more efficient generators of resources? Absolutely, but few that are as beneficial over the length of a game and nothing is as card efficient. If you can pull off a Double or Nothing + Watch This combo, you get 9 resources for 0/1 actions and 2 cards. Hot Streak level 2 nets you 5 resources for 1 action and 1 card.

This card essentially gives you the fuel to repeatedly rely on Lola throughout a scenario. As you level up, you can supplement it or swap it out with Hot Streak or whatever else is more efficient.

jblade · 19
I’m not sure why you’re ubsatisfied with an average 2 resources per action. Even ECache isn’t so efficient as to be 3 resources for an action (since it also costs a card). Burglary also helps alleviate one of the biggest contradictions in Rogue kits - they have cards that give extra actions and effects that make for individually strong actions. You typically can’t afford to make all of your actions powerful with cards like Streetwise, and other cards, like Lockpicks are restricted in their frequency. Burglary gives a solidly efficient thing to do with spare actions that doesn’t require much support. I do agree with you overall that ‘adequate’ is a good descriptor of its power level. And it does have a super-cute synergy with level 0 Newspaper if you have other people on the team whose job it is to get 90% of the clues. — Death by Chocolate · 1490
This card is not bad....it is terrible, specially if we consider the current card pool. It is so situational, inconsistent and slow that I would rather have an extra weakness instead of this atrocity in my deck....well I exaggerated a llitle but seriosusly, anybody saying this is "good" or even "decent" is objectively wrong, unless you are playing on easy with 2 extra +1 tokens in the bag. In the current state of the game even cards that are — Alogon · 1145
...considerably better than this don't find space in most decks. I don't see any reason to play this unless you only have 1 core an 1 Mythos pack or if you are playing some thematic deck — Alogon · 1145
@Death by Chocolate: It's not bad by any means, it's just a matter of what resource you have most of. If you have cards and resources but are low on actions, Hot Streak is more efficient. If you're doing exceptionally well on card draw, double or nothing and watch this are the most efficient in terms of actions (if you manage to pull it off in response to a treachery, it's brilliant.) — jblade · 19
@Alogon: I respect your opinion, but mathematically, it is unquestionably useful with Rex. Are there better cards? Depends on what you're trying to do. 90% (maybe more) there's something else that'll work better. But that doesn't mean always. There will come times you'll need a constant income of resources and you get other rewards for investigating successfully (like lucky cigarette case, Milan Christopher, and Rex.) In those cases, this card becomes useful. — jblade · 19
I love this card. It's a great chump blocker for treacheries which take one of the assets you control. It's also perfect for rich girl Jenny when paired with Dr. Milan Christopher, 4 resources per action. On a low shroud location with Milan's buff of +1 intel it should work most of the time. And then you can dump those resources into free triggered skill boosters when the need arises. — Andronikus · 1
Another thing that you can do with Lola, is Burglarize a low shroud location and then use the Resources on a different location with a higher shroud, essentially making the test at the new location easier. — Xenas · 7
"What this does is improve the value of a resource." This is a key takeaway. Some decks simply value resources more than others, so they have to consider running the 2nd, 3rd, maybe even 4th best economy card they have access to. That said, when comparing Burglary to something like Emergency Cache, it's mostly a question of long-term efficiency vs. high tempo. — Blackhaven · 9
Truth from Fiction

So as of the end of the Forgotten Age cycle there are 6 assets that have Uses (Secrets), though strictly speaking this doesn't actually have to put secrets on a card that can use them I cant think of a reason why you would want to. Of those 6 cards, one of them is a Forbidden Knowledge, which Daisy, Rex, Jim or Norman Withers could play, but spending 2 resources and an action to put two secrets on Forbidden Knowledge to let you spend 2 horror to get 2 resources back seems.... bad. Unfortunately this won't let you refuel it for a friendly Agnes as you have to choose an asset you control.

As for the in faction cards, both versions of upgraded Ancient Stone can be restocked with this. Using two resources and an action to heal two horror, divided amongst investigators and assets, makes Truth from Fiction behave kind of like a better Emergency Aid for horror which is definitely not bad, especially in Carolyn Fern. However, I think a much better use is to combine it with the damage variant, letting you bank two testless damage for a later turn. Just dealt with an enemy on your space that was keeping you from investigating, but used up the last of your ancient stone pings while doing so? Fear not, instead of spending an action investigating right now you can hedge against the encounter deck by reading a children's book. I would say that how good a strategy this is largely depends on how high a number you noted for your ancient stone translation, the greater the number of secrets you start with the less useful a 2 secret recharge will be for you. I dont think this is worth running if you're planning to go for some Double or Nothing 14 secret ancient stone shenanigans, but if you get put in a bad spot and have to note down 5 or so secrets you might look at this as an option.

Feed the Mind also uses secrets. Moving on.

Another interesting use is In the Know, if you set up camp on a low shroud location and leave a clue there, you can keep using it to save your movements and recharge it with Truth from Fiction, provided a teammate can run around revealing locations and keeping monsters off you. Combined with Disc of Itzamna, Scavenging, Hiding Spot and Analytical Mind out of Minh Thi Phan and you could have a fun deck concept.

Finally, and possibly the most powerful use of this card is the new 5xp Seeker card from Shattered Aeons, Pnakotic Manuscripts. It enters play with only 3 secrets so one copy of Truth from Fiction can nearly double the number of uses you can get from it. Given that each use of it is somewhere between a Ward of Protection and a Will to Survive, doubling up on that is extremely powerful and I think we may see a lot of Seekers, especially in 3 and 4 player games, look into combining these two cards. I do think this is worse in solo or in two player, as actions are generally more pressured at lower player counts and its harder to justify taking the action off investigating to play this, though I still think it will be worth it more often than not.

The biggest downside of all of these strategies is that all of the powerful assets that use secrets cost experience, which means either you are spending exp on swapping this in later in the game or you are putting a dead card in your deck for the first few scenarios. The double books on this card help to mitigate its uselessness in the latter situation somewhat but there isn't a shortage of double int cards with useful effects anymore.

birdfriender · 1297
It’s not useless in a 0xp deck if you are using it to quickly complete a level 0 Archaic Glyphs! One question though, why do you specify camping on a low shroud location with In the Know? ItK doesn’t care about the shroud on your current location. — Death by Chocolate · 1490
Excuse me but where exactly can you see the new cards from the pack?? Can you post a link?? — matt88 · 3229
That's a good point about Archaic Glyphs. As for the low shroud location, you dont have to be on a low shroud location, but Truth from Fiction requires a clue on your location. The idea is that you can just leave a clue on a 2 or 3 shroud location to turn TfF on and then be able to reliable scoop it up when you need to move on. — birdfriender · 1297
I can confirm, using this on Pnakotic Manuscripts is amazing. On of the guys in our playgroup was using this with Daisy, and he did great things with it during both games. You can also use it for it's icons (he did once). Two intellect icons aren't the most useful thing in the world for Daisy — Schielman · 38
Don’t forget every greedy Seeker’s best friend: Mr Rook — PanicMoon · 2
Works with the new Necronomicon too but I'm not sure how valuable it is for that. Compares decently with the riskier Recharge when you have powerful secret cards — Timlagor · 6
Pushed into the Beyond

The text of this card is very missleading. As I encountered this one the first time without a single asset into my play area besides from permanents, it was kind of unclear to me, if I have to discard 3 cards or not. Since i cannot fulfill the "choose" part of the card, what to do next. The word "and" has no entry in the rulebook, so hard to say. In my opinion the cards wording should be: Revelation - Choose a non-story asset you control then shuffle it into your deck. Discard the top 3 cards of your deck. If a copy of that asset is discarded, take 2 horror.

thakaris · 199
If they had wanted the discard to be conditional, they would have said ‘Then discard...’ since ‘then’ is their keyword for a step condiiibal in the previous one resolving. I think your proposed wording is clearly the correct interpretation. ‘Do A and B’ means ‘Do A. Do B.’ I think it’s the same way that Emergency Cache 2 (Gain 3 resources and draw a card.) will still draw a card even if an effect (such as sacrificial beast) prevents you from gaining resources. — Death by Chocolate · 1490
I asked FF games about this card, and you can choose a weakness unless it has “can’t leave play“. Weakness assets that CAN be shuffled –Dexter's Occult Scraps Weakness assets that CAN'T leave play with this card. –Mandy's Necronomicon –Minh's King in Yellow. –Baron Samedi –Wounded Bystander — MarcMF2 · 8
Treasure Hunter

TL;DR: Leo Anderson might use it, particularly in solo, if you have a limited card pool and can't find better non-unique allies.

So the immediate comparison for Treasure Hunter one would make would be to Hired Muscle, an expensive, niche, hard-to-slot ally that is arguably only usable in Jenny Barnes or Leo Anderson.

Hired Muscle does have something going for it, however: it is one of a handful of assets that gives you a static +1 boost. That list, as of The Depths of Yoth, is:

Because is tied to Weapons, a static +1 boost is quite rare. So then you can think of situations where you really want that extra , like Shotgun Leo Anderson or Gambling Jenny with .41 Derringer(2), Lucky Cigarette Case, etc.

Treasure Hunter's +1 boost, however, is not rare at all. Dr. Milan Christopher, Magnifying Glass, St. Hubert's Key, Hemispheric Map, Alyssa Graham, Dario El-Amin, Lola Santiago, and sometimes Newspaper are probably the best examples. So if Treasure Hunter lacks the biggest selling point of a mediocre card, that pretty much makes it a bad card, right?

The last comparison to make for TH (and Muscle too) is the talents that give a 1-to-1 pump for that skill. If you had Hyperawareness, you'd spend 2 up front instead of 1, and then you'd spend 1 per check to get the same boost. If you're using more than 1/turn, then Treasure Hunter starts to look decent. That is offset by how it takes up Leo De Luca's ally slot, and how you don't need to spend the money on a Talent until you need to. Overall I don't think Treasure Hunter makes up for those downsides.

You could use it in Charisma Jenny with Dr. Milan Christopher for lolz though.

PureFlight · 784
I've really enjoyed this card in a dark horse wendy focused on investigation, the downsideof treasure hunter becomes a non factor and can help you empty your resource pool — aurchen · 300
He's meant to die. — MrButtermancer · 56