Control Variable

Working a Hunch but discounted by 1. Given the requirement of revealing a curse, its less flexible for things like snagging a final clue and moving, although it has the niche upside that it can discover the clue outside your turn.

It being Cursed means that it can also be taken by ||Wendy and Kohaku.

kamiidude · 27
Strong-Armed

There was a classic Vincent Lee combo: makes a slash with his Bonesaw and commit On the Mend, takes 1 dmg and heal with Bandages, add another On the Mend to your hand. Well, now the strong-armed doctor may do this trick in any other weapon (or lets say surgical instruments). To other guardians, its also useful to cancel the and does more damage. Its a better form of Analysis to all who want to fight.

BTW its fix Ornate Bow pretty well. It is the only card that can easily commit to the bow shooting with a plus dmg.

OnThinIce · 11
Cat Mask

Obviously, this card makes the doom charm suite much better Dowsing Rod, Ceremonial Sickle, Onyx Pentacle, Hallowed Chalice, especially at level 0. Something you might not have noticed is that the mask also recharges when the first doom is placed on the agenda, an enemy, a treachery, etc, which makes it possible to take this mask for its skill values without the doom suite in those campaigns that really like doom.

Crazly · 156
Amina Zidane

Make way, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, there's a new (un)Holy Trinity in town.

Use Cat Mask offerings to turn Amina's miserable stats into respectable 5 or 5.

When you're out of offerings, add doom to Blood Pact for the same bonus... replenishing Cat Mask offerings.

Sin-Eater removes the icky doom that's lingering around (and incidentally can also refresh Cat Mask offerings).

With a bit of careful sequencing, this lets Amina test at base 7 and 7 for damn near every test. This opens up lots of options for Amina, including:

And on top of that, Amina can play assets at a 3-resource discount! (Be aware that Amina's ability causes the asset to enter play with the doom, and so doesn't trigger Cat Mask, but moving it onto a fresh Sin-Eater will).

Edit: Amina might trigger Cat Mask. Check the comments below!


...There's a downside though, which is that it's kind of tricky to assemble. There are two problems:

  1. Sin-Eater costs 6xp (and the permanent Blood Pact costs another 3xp)
  2. You need to find Cat Mask (and potentially Blood Pact)

Solving the second problem means card draw and tutoring. Scroll of Secrets and Scroll of Prophecies both draw quickly through the deck, and Backpack ties it all together. All of it discounted by Amina!

The experience problem isn't really solvable in deck-building. Needing to play the first scenario without Sin-Eater is... grim. There have been some suggestions floating around of "fixing" Amina by having her start with 5xp like some other investigators, or by having her start with Sin-Eater itself. You can figure out what your group enjoys!


I hope people will give Amina another go! I'm not going to lie, she's pretty bad, but with the new toys, she's no longer a deadweight and can hold her own, with a fun and unique doom-management mini-game.

Remember to pack your Wards of Protection! Always practice Ancient Evils safety!

Frost · 250
You can also add Sign Magic (3) to trigger the Sin Eater for free. — Tharzax · 1
FWIW there is an existing email ruling out there that amina's ability does trigger cat mask. but its one of those email rulings that you just have to decide if you're table is going to squint and believe because it doesn't really make sense and hasn't made it to a proper faq or anything yet — NarkasisBroon · 10
It was given on 24th January 2024, and I haven't seen it be corrected since, but I might have missed it. — NarkasisBroon · 10
Power Word

I think this might be the only Taboo in the game that I ignore. I like the responsibility to re-test 3 each time the Parley is used as that is a thematic win and doesn't alter the original text too much, but to completely mess with the Customization sheet is a bridge too far for me.

wedgeex · 74
yeah this feels like too far of a readjustment. I suspect it was to curb how much an autowin card it would be for Allesandra but playing with the full taboo feels like it makes the card ao much harder to use and justify now. I'll probably ignore it or atleast just add the willpower check. — phillosmaster · 157