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.

Agnes Baker: The Waitress

A waitress by day, a powerful sorceress by night.

While Agnes seems to be just a shy waitress, there is more to her than meets the eye. She used to command forces of seemingly unlimited power bringing doom to her foes. Even though she's scared of these memories and the power they bring, she will not hesitate to use it against the evil forces, threatening to destroy mankind.

Legacy: Agnes has always been designed as one of the most proficient spellcasters (if not the strongest one indeed). Her stats were maxed for handling the arcane, her abilities were either strengthening her spells (Arkham Horror), enabling her to gain more of them (Eldritch Horror) or making it easier for her to successfully cast them (both). She was considered one of our favourite characters¹.

Her vision is no different in AH:TCG – her stats make her a perfect spell-casting monster-wracking machine. Both her class and her signature card encourage building her deck around spells, too.

Skill Values:

As I've already mentioned, Agnes is born to wield the art. Will of 5 precisely defines her area of interest. Each time she is to use a spell you can be sure it'll be cast at a proficient level. Both her Combat and Intellect are negatively affected by this specialization - with a value of 2 (lowest Intellect so far, along with Zoey) she needs to rely on magic for both fighting and discovering clues.

Agility of 3 helps Agnes in two ways. It allows her to evade enemies, while she's gathering and playing her magical assets. Secondly, together with her superior Will, it provides her with a great protection against the Encounter Deck. This is exactly what a witch needs.

Such specialization allows her to handle all kinds of situations perfectly with an appropriate spell If she fails to draw the correct one, however, Agnes can easily find herself in troubles. This is exactly what a pure spellcasting investigator should look like, though.

Strength

Theme

Special abilities:

Agnes’ ability enables to put her sanity loss to a good use, dealing damages to enemies. First of all, it allows her to get a benefit from purely negative costs – sanity lost on casting spells, using Forbidden Knowledge etc. Secondly, it allows her to strike back, when attacked in the enemy phase (her ability works once each phase!). Last, but not least, when she’s left with no means of fighting, she can at least do some damage with her ability.

Unlike Roland’s or Wendy’s ability, Agnes’ power needs careful planning, particularly during the deck creating. It is worth to create as many opportunities to use it as possible, even more so if you can decide yourself when the sanity loss occurs (like in the case of aforementioned Forbidden Knowledge). Consider using some sanity recovering cards (Fearless, Clarity of Mind).

You must also carefully plan using the ability, while playing. Remember about the limitation and do not decide to lose sanity, before it’s necessary. First check if spell caused you to take horror, before you do action, which outcome is surer.

All in all, her skill might come extremely handy in sniping one-health enemies, or wearing down bosses. Enemies are bread and butter of AH:TCG, hence it is used quite regularly. Still it comes with constraints, as Agnes Sanity is not limitless and sometimes she is forced to take horror without benefiting out of it.

Also, one easily missed rule – horror must be placed on Agnes, not one of her assets to trigger the ability. Therefore I almost always put all the remaining horror on assets (unless it’d destroy them).

Absolute must-have in every Agnes' deck.
provides means of playing her expensive assets.
And deals damage whenever you need it.

I still remember reading Agnes’ ability for the first time and struggling to understand, what it is supposed to thematically represent. Unlike most of the abilities it does not have a very clear connection between the gameplay result and the thematic event it is supposed to symbolize.

A picture started to slowly appear in my mind, when I was reading descriptions of the spell cards. Just like in previous Arkham Files games, Agnes casts spells with an added efficiency, dealing extra damage. Even more of an individualized meaning emerges upon reading her story. I imagine taking horror uncovers previously locked (suppressed) parts of her memory, containing unnatural arcane knowledge. Using the freshly regained wisdom, Agnes slays every evil being opposing her. One must really appreciate this sophisticated yet precise design.

Agnes’ Elder Sign effect is rather a boring one. It pretty much follows Roland’s design – unnecessarily high positive modifier. It’s consistent with the “theme” of horror and the idea of Agnes growing stronger through unlocking her memories.

Strength

Theme 

Signature cards:

Agnes’ signature card seems not to get too much love around. I could easily understand that sentiment earlier on – it wasn't particularly strong with only base set cards around. There were too few spells available to regularly benefit from her necklace. Dunwich Legacy, however, brought 2 more level 0 spells and additional one with level of 2. Now you can easily have 8-10 Spell cards in your deck, which might result in drawing quite a number of additional cards.

It still has some drawbacks, though. Necklace is far less useful if drawn later on, almost making it an auto-commit (and its icons are not too impressive). It is also rather a costly asset. Moreover, Agnes has access to two other assets for the Necklace slot – Rabbit's Foot and Holy Rosary. Particularly the latter is tough to pass on, as it boosts her Will. Ironically, using her precious Hyperborea witch necklace makes her less potent at spellcasting.

While it's a great reference to Agnes’ story about the recently discovered Hyperborean artefact, her signature card is not an overwhelmingly thematic card due to its questionable interaction with Holy Rosary.

You should have listed to your mom when she said:
"Don't play with magic!"

I very much like the design of Agnes' weakness. It's a spell, very clearly on the dark magic side of the sorcery. Even though it is a weakness, it might be used to your advantage. If you decide to postpone playing it, you might make use of Agnes' ability. It comes at a hefty cost of two sanity (so basically double the cost), yet when back against the wall, you might consider it a good trade. When you decide to play it, you might just take advantage of Heirloom of Hyperborea to replace the drawn weakness with a "real" player card. Still these options are just a minor consolation price, when you realize you just payed two resources and an action to add a doom token. And you can't play it cleverly, timing it in a way that would not hasten agenda's progress, as the card clearly states it can cause agenda to advance.

The thematic implications of the gameplay options mentioned above create a great thematic experience. Even just the straightforward results are quite thematic. They remind you, that you can't use magic without paying its cost. In the end it always works for the benefit of the evil forces, advancing their agenda.

Strength

Theme 

Class/Deckbuilding options:

Choice of Agnes’ class is rather obvious, considering her spellcasting theme. The addition of a Survivor subclass creates a very interesting mix. It does not only match very well thematically (Agnes is just a simple Waitress, who just become aware of her previous life). It also provides her with great deal of useful cards.

Main problem with playing Agnes is – you usually cannot do well in a given area without an appropriate spell. Without Shrivelling or Blinding Light you struggle with enemies. Without Rite of Seeking you have hard time investigating etc. Here red cards come as a perfect help. Survivor weapons are suboptimal as a first choice, but perfect if you add them to increase a chance of drawing anything to handle enemies, while biding your time and waiting for stronger options. Both Baseball Bat and Fire Axe have their downsides, yet are able to provide decent enough bonuses to Combat to offer Agnes fair shot at fighting. Look what I found cannot be the long term source of clues, but makes it possible to do some investigation, while waiting for purple cards to come to your hand.

Some other survivor cards match her needs as well – Lucky! is one of the strongest events in the game, so no surprise there (and the upgraded version helps going through the deck), but you might also consider a Leather Coat to help with her slightly lower Stamina or 2XP version of Peter Sylvestre to help with spellcasting, some evasion cards allow to allow her for sneaking around if you choose to… list of matching cards is truly astonishing.

Strength 

Theme 

Agnes is a perfect thematic representation of a magic user, who is almost powerless without the arcane forces. First Mystic character sets high standards for the next ones and proves fun and efficient, even more so with the freshly expanded card selection.

Powerful card by itself with an added synergy with Agnes' ability.

I am waiting to see bit more punch for the fight capabilities of spellcasters. Once it’s there, I am sure Agnes will excel at it, just as she excels at all other areas of magic. You can shape her according to your preferences – while making her the main fighter is pending arrival of another monster-wracking spell, she can easily handle investigation (with a combination or Rite of Seeking, "Look what I found!" and my absolutely favorite Drawn to theFlame), be an all-round or a support investigator.

Strength 

Theme 

¹For both Arkham Horror and the Eldritch Horror we come up with a drafting idea to ensure – good balanced team and sharing the characters quite evenly, when it comes to the fun factor (we usually play 3 each). We first draw 3X investigators, where x is number of investigators each of us controls. Than we choose a team, making sure we have appropriate number of fighters, gate closers, support etc. Once they are selected, one person chooses one investigator to play, the other chooses 2, again first person chooses 2 and the third gets assigned automatically.

²It is sometimes overlooked, that drawing a weakness not only forces you to deal with it, but also robs you of a player card.

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