Essex County Express - New cards

Fantasy Flight Games is releasing new Mythos Packs at a very decent pace. Not long after the previous card-discussing post it’s time for a new one. Essex County Express has arrived, bringing 12 new player cards (2 from each class)! I will give cards more a detailed look this time. Please let me know if you found it useful!

There are two new neutral cards with the permanent keyword, granting investigators an extra slot. At a reasonable cost of 3 experience points you can try some fancy combinations of assets. As of now, Charisma is definitely the stronger one. There are multiple strong allies out there (not to mention few you can get during the Dunwich Legacy campaign). There are multiple valid combinations, so I don’t think it’s worth to mention all of them, just please keep an eye on following options. You can have two copies of the same ally in the game (particularly Beat Cop), just make sure it’s not a unique one! You should also be aware of possible using the extra slot to play one time effect allies (Seekers have two at this moment) If you are really planning to center your game on allies, two copies of Charisma might come even more handy.

Charisma is a cool and needed card.
And makes me want having Charlie Kane even more!

There are significantly fewer strong accessories as of now, though one can think of a good use for Relic Hunter. Particularly Waitress-Witch Agnes seems to be the best candidate as of now. I personally wasn’t able to fit any copies of Rabbit’s Foot in her deck, but it seems to be a valid choice, particularly with the new permanent talent around. I have also encountered different ideas, some of which seemed controversial or suboptimal to me. First one was Roland with Elder Sign Amulet and Police Badge – just too much XP invested, in my opinion. The other was Zoey with a Holy Rosary and Zoey’s Cross – rather a debatable idea of filling the out of class slots with Holy Rosary. Accidentally, Police Badge sounds like a decent option for her, if the goal is to boost her Will. With Relic Hunter in the card pool we can hopefully expect to see more accessories in future Mythos Packs.¹

One may just wonder, why being a Relic Hunter gives you an additional neck to hang a necklace on.

The list of “slot adding” cards does not end here. Guardians got Bandolier, an elegant solution to their constant hand – related issues. While not allowing them to reach quite the Kali level, it provides a much needed help. Guardians have been struggling with the hand slot limitations pretty much since day 0. Regardless of what do you need more slots for – to put a Flashlight/Magnifying Glass, or just to be able to pull out both Shotgun and Machete, Bandolier provides a strong help. A requirement to use the extra slot for a weapon is trivial, as you’re going to have one anyway. One extra health is just a cherry on top. Bandolier is in a way a similar card to Book of Shadows – giving a free slot, but occupying another one. However, it fills a rather less useful slot and costs no XP.

The next Blue card is an absolute blast. I was waiting to finally include it in my decks since I’ve seen the preview. You all know, how much I love the team cards and this one is not only playing right into the theme. It is also a very strong one! For one action and one card you get 4 resources and 4 cards. Moreover, usually spreading the gain is much more effective, as excessive cards need to be discarded.² AND it has two Will icons! What a great card and what a headache for Guardians – they have so many great cards to consider already, when leveling up.

Usual graphics rant:
Why is one investigator and ghost?
What kind of strange glasses does the other one have?

Seekers got one upgraded and one un-upgraded card as well. Art Student is rather on the weaker end of the spectrum. Clue for an action is not terribly efficient – unless you need to deal with Locked Door – kind of situation or a tough location, you could just as well investigate. Bit of a damage/horror buffer dos not sound too strong neither, as she occupies the ally slot (more about slots and opportunity costs here). The best idea to use her would be for a character with Charisma, particularly Roland, who needs extra Sanity the most. In this way she reminds a bit of Laboratory Assistant.

The upgraded Deduction is a card we saw coming. Not only because of the previews, but also due to the role it fills. It is nicely balanced; getting full benefit out of it is not too easy. Cost of two XP makes it a viable choice for Roland (and possibly more incoming investigators, who can take cards of level 0-2 from a single second class). With more and more of similar cards, Double or Nothing will get even stronger - can you imagine getting 6 clues with this synergy in a single action?! It also begs the question, if we’ll see similarly upgraded versions of Vicious Blow, Fearless and (tougher to imagine, as the design would have to be non-obvious) Opportunist and Survival Instinct.

Rogues finally got a good weapon! While stocking on different interesting little cards, they have been so far lacking a pure power, easy to use means of fighting and investigating. We’ll have to wait more for the later to come; a strong weapon has finally arrived, though. Switchblade’s 0 level version is very poor, the stronger 2 XP one is definitely superior. The Combat boost provides a decent shot at succeeding and – more importantly – at doing some serious damage, further expanding the “succeed by 2 or more” Rogue theme. While still not a perfect weapon (it’s basically a fast, unlimited uses version of .41 Derringer), it finally gives Rogues a chance to deal with enemies at cost of 2 XP. It will definitely be an auto-include for me.

Easily the last taken Green card.

 "I'm outta here!" sparked quite a discussion on a Polish AH:TCG group I am member of. A very strong observation has been made – many cards with two icons can be seen primarily as committable ones. Option to play them for their “real” effect is merely a nice addition. One can compare them with the neutral skill cards – they also primarily offer two icons. So is the new level 0 rogue card – you will use it very rarely. You can, however just commit it at any Agility test for juicy 2 icons.

There is one problem with this view – skill cards allow you to draw a card, if you pass the test. It is a very strong effect, basically a FREE ACTION. It is not to be easily disregarded. In fact, it costs 2 XP to upgrade Lucky! to a stronger, card drawing version! Therefore, having a non-skill card, that will be used just for icons, in most of the cases sounds like a poor choice to me. You could theoretically want to have more 2-icon cards and choose I’m outta here! or Oops! For this purpose, but it’s rather unlikely. 

Resigning is sometimes a valid option (and in rare cases even a way to win a scenario!), however the card seems very situational. I am not sure if I’d include any copy without knowing in advance it’d be useful in a particular scenario. And I rather prefer not to optimize decks for scenarios (as mentioned here). The card deserves some extra credit for being a very thematic one (by thematic I mean – very character – suiting one, having a strong RPG feel).

My favorite class (Mystics) did not get any obvious powerhouses this time, though they do not have a reason to complain neither. Level 3 version of Shrivelling, offering an extra Will boost is a decent card. While Agnes might not need the bonus too heavily, it’s a life-saver for Jim. Along with Book of the Dead he can become a very proficient fighter. It is bit unfortunate, it is not a level 2 card – Daisy and other future characters limited to 2 level cards could really use the bonus. 

*SPOILER ALERT* The card makes much more sense, when put into long term perspective. We happen to know there will be level 5 version of Shrivelling. It makes sense to take a lesser one on your way (due to the rule, allowing you to pay the XP cost of level difference only), not to have “saved XP” not yielding any benefit. *SPOILER ALERT*.

Hypnotic Gaze is another card, gaining an extra edge when used by Jim (told ya huh?). And another one, allowing players to use symbol tokens to their advantage, which is a nice design touch – not everything has black’n’white effects on the gameplay. At first sight It seems bit costly, compared to Dodge. However, it is mostly due to it not exactly being a Mystic-themed card (avoiding damage is not a typical Mystic thing), while Dodge fits perfectly in the Guardian archetype. To get beyond your usual capabilities, you must pay a higher price. While Jim gets an extra token he can use to trigger the second part of Hypnotic Gaze, it has added value for everyone. Daisy is particularly interested in avoiding damage and should consider having a copy or two. Agnes will be very happy about the “Spell” trait.

The only high level Survivor card.

Survivors once again got a nice interesting card. Newspaper is a very unusual boost to investigating – only working if you have no clues. It is very hard to establish how useful this card is, without knowing a particular scenario. There are scenarios like “Midnight Masks”, in which it might help you a lot. There are also quite a few, during which you only spend clues once or twice – it would make Newspaper significantly weaker than a Flashlight.

Newspaper is obviously weaker than Magnifying Glass. It is to be expected, though – Seekers excel at gathering clues, hence their clue related cards have to be the strongest ones out there. It is much more interesting (and useful!) to compare it with a Flashlight. They both provide a boost of two. Flashlight’s Shroud reduction is a bit more handy, though. First of all, reducing the Shroud to 0 all but guarantees succeeding (only auto-fail chaos token would cause you to fail the test). Secondly, it provides a stronger help, when using Double or Nothing!. Finally, it helps with locations which are not investigated using Intellect. Flashlight is a bit more expensive. Most of the value difference will be decided by how many times you are able to use them. For Flashlight the answer is simple, it has 3 charges. Newspaper’s uses, as I mentioned before are uncertain – in some scenarios you can definitely use it more often than 3 times. In some, just once or twice (particularly if drawn later). A good item for both Agnes and Pete to get their first clue (Pete can use it first while investigating on his own, using Duke at the 2^nd try.)

Lure makes me a bit worried. It’s a 3^rd Survivor level 1 card in a row, which means there are not too many high level red cards to take. It’s made even worse by Flare and Fire Extinguisher being Exile-based cards. Moreover, Lure is not too strong of a card, neither. To use it efficiently you need a triangle of locations, one of which contains hunter enemy, one with the character himself and a 3^rd one, where you plan to go. As already discussed earlier, two icons do not make a situational card good by themselves. Lure would be definitely a better card if it lasted one more turn, effectively keeping the monster trapped or at least making him to chase it for longer. It hurts even more, as the card costs 1 XP, I wouldn’t be sure if I’d include it even if it was a 0 level card.

TL;DR version:

Strongest/Weakest card: Stand Together/Lure 

Most/least thematic cards: "I'm outta here!"/Relic Hunter

My favorite/ least favorite card: Switchblade/Art Student

¹I am also still waiting for a cool Tome for Daisy! Even a stronger version of Encyclopedia or Old Book of Lore wouldn’t be too bad.

²Not to mention the law of diminishing marginal utility, which just as applicable in board games as in real life.

Miskatonic Univeristy - New Player Cards (vol II)

Hello again my dear readers. As promised on Sunday, I am providing an analysis of selected cards. I have decided to include Pathfinder in the article as well, as it deserves few more words, given the general comparison one can make based on it. 

Instead of "ora et labora" Brother Xavier's motto is
Pray and shoot!

The first one, however, is Brother Xavier. I do have to agree, it’s not a terribly powerful card. The reason for it is the alternative cost – he takes up a slot usually taken by Beat Cop. Particularly its upgraded version is a powerful ally – increasing Combat and allowing for some test-free damage. In case of Skids’ Leo provides another worthy alternative. Most of the priest’s usefulness comes from being a damage/horror buffer. Unfortunately it’s not as big of a buffer as one would imagine. Barely one Sanity more than Beat Cop. He can, in fact, deal just as much damage as the beat Cop (2) does, you cannot control the timing though, which limits the tasks he’s capable of performing. Bonus to Will, while very thematic, has limited applications. Two main ones coming to my mind are protection against the encounter deck and helping Zoey becoming a more proficient spellcaster.

The alternative cost is the key. Please consider cards like Bulletproof Vest or Elder Sign Amulet – they provide less protection and no other benefits, yet cost more experience and can easily be considered better cards. The reason for it is – they do not take an ally slot, the alternatives are much weaker. There are barely any cards for the body slot. There are few necklaces. However, they rarely compete with Elder Sign, as they have different users. Generally speaking, the most powerful assets can be found among the allies.

I am very happy, though, with the team work approach the ally has. I am a big fan of all the cooperation elements. Shielding your teammates from the dangers is a classic. Just as a classic is the tank character, absorbing all the damage – it seems designers include this sub-class within Guardian class. It’s worth noting, Guardians are low-Sanity characters and are usually paired with low-Stamina ones, making Xavier a useful damage absorber for both team members! With "I've had worse" added to the mix, the Tank sub-class seems to slowly emerge.

Is it Jack Montrey on the picture?

Card that can be considered in relation to Brother Xavier is Pathfinder. You can ask, why? They are nothing alike! This is a true observation. Let me try to explain. Pathfinder is a powerful card, basically providing a free action per turn. Still it wouldn’t be considered as powerful, was it occupying the ally slot. Just as Brother Xavier would be a solid card, if he wasn’t.

The idea I’m trying to implant in your mind is – a vital part of cards strength is the alternative cost. And vital part of alternative cost is the slot it occupies. If a card takes no slot, even a weaker benefit might make it worthy including in the deck.

Pathfinder is obviously blast of a card. For 1 XP (!) you get a talent allowing you to have an additional action once per turn. Granted, it has restrictions (only a move action, only if you are not engaged with an enemy, only during your turn). But a free action means doing 1/3 more stuff per your turn – this is truly what you’re missing the most – actions. And move action is one of the most universal one – performed multiple times in basically any scenario. 

Out of 3 characters, which can include Pathfinder in their deck, I believe it’s the strongest for Rex. Having the card allows him to use his double-powerful investigation action more often. He also clears locations from clue tokens quicker, hence having to move more often in general. I’m not trying to say it’s not an obvious choice for Roland or Daisy, though – it clearly is a very good choice for both of them, too.

Using right set of notes you can make dead dance

 Last, but not least, I’d like to have a look at Song of Dead. I absolutely adore the design of this card for 2 reasons.

First of all, it has a non-obvious design. One can easily create a stronger Shrivelling, adding more damage, charges etc. to it. Song of Dead is a combat spell, which works differently. It has many small advantages – its costs is lower, it has more charges (hence one charge costs 0.4 resources compared to 0.75)^1, never causes you to lose sanity (arguably this might be minor flaw for Agnes) and gives a slight bonus to the test. The only (though a hefty) shortcoming is the damage output – it basically only deals one damage per attack. Randomly getting a skull token is not a result you can reliably count on getting…

…unless you help your luck a bit. This slowly brings us to the other reason why I like this card. It is a very thematic, custom made card for Jim. At the same time it is still a card other characters can consider to use – particularly Daisy with her low Will can consider having a copy or two to face minor enemies.

Speaking about Jim – our jazz musician can dearly benefit from playing the Song of Dead. His Will is slightly lower than Agnes’. Therefore the boost is appreciated, giving him higher chances for succeeding the test. The critical piece focuses around drawing a skull for the added damage. Jim not only has an added chance to get a token, as he can treat Elder Sign as Skull. He also very often uses the Grotesque Statue a lot (more about it in upcoming post about him). Using the statue increases chances of getting a skull even further! Here is some useful piece of math for you:

If there are 2 Skulls and one Elder Sign tokens in the bag, chances of drawing at least one Skull/Elder Sign token are²- 37% for 15 tokens in the bag, 35% for 16 tokens in the bag, 33% for 17 tokens and almost 31.5% for 18 tokens. Of course matter of damage is not so easy – sometimes one damage is enough (in this situation Song of Dead is actually superior to Shrivelling), sometimes you need 2 (the opposite is true). When trying to maximize the damage (trying to take down some major threat) even a 15 token chaos bag yields a worse average damage (1.84, not counting increased chances of succeeding due to a boost to Will). Last piece of pure math-stats³ – total damage done with all charges – 9.2 on average, compared to 8 of Shrivelling. This includes using Grotesque Statue on every attack though; so we’re talking 0XP against 6.

I hope I didn't bore you with too much math.

Taking math into account card does not look too powerful, taking into account the XP cost. Suddenly it becomes a tool to deal only with 1HP opponents (or enemies who only have 1HP left). Unless, of course, you’re playing Jim and can alternate between standard use and boosted by Grotesque Statue attempts at dealing 3 damage.

What cards are your favorites? Do you have more interesting thoughts about cards discussed above? Please share'em with me and don't forget to visit Delve Too Deep's posts about new cards (links in my previous post about Miskatonic cards) 

 All images are courtesy of cardgamedb.com and fantasyflightgames.com

1 It’s bit of an oversimplification, obviously. Card costing 20 resources for unlimited charges would have an even better cost: however being so costly would almost totally prevent you from playing the card at all.

2 This is by far most common scenario. All calculations are rounded and delivered in percent, even though I personally prefer simple fractions.

3 As in point 1, math approach is bit of an oversimplification here, just providing some insight into actual usefulness of the card.

Miskatonic Univeristy - New Player Cards (vol I)

Hello again, my dear readers! Based on your reactions posts about investigators build a good and needed cycle. However every now and then it’s good (and necessary since we’re running out of investigators anyway) to write about a different subject. The recent release of Miskatonic University creates an opportunity and need to share my thoughts about the new player cards.

There are 13 new cards – 2 neutral ones, 2 for each class and a whopping 3 new Survivor cards (2 out of them use the new exile mechanic introduced in Dunwich Legacy rules).

A first glance over the cards made me quite optimistic already – they seem to be on the stronger end of the spectrum and one can easily see a game play situation/deck they would fit well. Even the ones I don’t particularly fancy still seem to have good uses and match particular play styles.

I do not plan to have a very detailed look at all of them, would like to make some general points about them instead - particularly the ones that might be less obvious. I have chosen 2 cards to describe in more details in a separate post – Song of Dead and Brother Xavier.

Guardian cards seem to be an attempt at creating different Guardian sub-types. Emergency Aid not only provides an enormous boost for existing allies (more uses of for Beat Cop [2] and Guard Dog), which is rather obvious. It also delivers yet another healing card in Guardian’s arsenal. And since they are usually paired with low-Stamina characters, it is an additional opportunity for a support/healer role to be added to Guardian characters. You can read more about the sub-classes in upcoming post.

It's bit funny to use Pathfinder for extra movements... in a museum

Seekers are given yet another quick movement card. I guess this is the direction designers wish to develop the class. I’ve got a Plan on the other hand (sort of along Whoops) is another of the cards that provide some means of fighting to less-fighting classes. Such cards are not only necessary to make solo playing enjoyable, but also do not disturb overall class archetype too much, while making deckbuilding far more interesting. After all, these are only singular cards. They do not allow to consistently deal with monsters, but rather to manage “back to the wall” circumstances or give them something to do, when team is facing a “boss” enemy. Their existence also arranges for another layer of decision making – should I keep the card for later and ask my team fighter to relieve me now? Or should I rather use it now, to allow him to do some other job he’s currently busy with?). Both of these cards are very strong, so Seekers (and Roland) get a substantial boost.

I have mixed feelings about the Adaptable card. This comes back to my approach to the game. I like to treat it as a role-playing experience. Granted, it’s easiest during first run of the campaign and somehow manageable during next few runs. And it is definitely getting much harder afterwards. You can’t make yourself forget content of the cards, resolutions etc. Therefore, willingly or not, you do plan your actions based on the knowledge you’ve gained. However, using Adaptable for the purpose of deck changing, in order to adjust it to scenarios feels… well a bit like cheating. As very well pointed out by KP The Aficionado (link to the whole great article at the end of the post) – if you decide to swap level 0 cards, you might as well take Adaptable, so it’s cost-effectiveness is terrific. Contraband is yet another Rogue – support card, slightly underpowered in order not to become grotesquely overpowered in the future, when some multi-use asset comes into the card pool. 

I am a big fan of teamwork cards.

Mystic is my beloved class and yet again they got really awesome cards! Delve to Deep is easily my favorite card in the whole set. First of all, it is incredibly thematic. It reminds of Lovecraft characters, who decide to pursuit the blasphemous knowledge despite knowing that curiosity might lead to their demise. Further on, it builds on Mystic’s tendency to deal a lot with the encounter deck (Ward of Protection, Drawn to the Flame, Scrying…). Lastly, it has a very unique and powerful effect! Great stuff! And in the later stage of the campaign it can easily be replaced, as experience gets less and less important (cards bought in the beginning of the campaign stay with you for its whole duration, while the ones acquired later for fewer scenarios).

In a popular vote for the best card of the mythos pack
held among all the Shuffle's authors
Delve Too Deep won, getting 100% votes!

Survivor cards deserve mostly few words about the exile mechanic. I am a big fan, as it adds yet another layer of decision making. They also seem to have a reasonable cost and extremely thematic uses (designers even considered a very role-playing aspect of the fire extinguisher – using it as a blunt weapon – truly a nice touch!). The 0 level card is rather on the weaker side, though one might see a good use for it, particularly in bigger teams, more prone to have multiple enemies at one location.

Important note - if you don't find an ally you DO NOT exile Flare

Last, but not least, the neutral cards. It becomes quite clear to me now, there are 2 categories of neutral cards. The first category encompasses staple cards, needed, or at least very useful for investigators of every class (and pretty much everyone) – 5 double icon skill cards, Emergency Caches etc. The other one includes cards that are weaker than their class – restricted friends. You use them to have some means of covering your class’ weaker sides or just for the synergy/combo related benefits (think: Knife, clearly an inferior weapon to any Guardian stuff). The two new neutral assets clearly belong to the latter one, providing a weaker way of healing or a combo opportunity for Agnes (possibly more of clever synergies will show up in the future).

So we’re 2 expansions in and so far Mystics got almost exclusively strong cards, while other classes more of a hit and miss ones. The class ideas are getting clearer with each pack and I’m already biting my fingernails impatiently waiting for next cards.

What are your favorite new cards? Which one do you consider the strongest? Let me know in the comments section!And definitely check out Delve Too Deep's post about the new cards.

Addendum: Here is the second part of DTD's analysis (with quit few guests on board.

 All images are courtesy of cardgamedb.com and fantasyflightgames.com