Traîtrise. Faiblesse

Folie.

Neutre

Révélation – Subissez 2 horreurs directes et retirez de la partie toutes les cartes dans votre pile de défausse.

Je n'ai pas besoin d'eux. Je n'ai besoin de personne.
Ben Zweifel
Boîte de Base #15.
Seule et Abandonnée

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Remove cards from the game for the duration of the current scenario only. They're still part of your deck during this campaign.
Last updated

Reviews

Despite the heartbreaking imagery and flavor text, Abandoned and Alone is not that critical a weakness like some of the others are. Yes, taking two DIRECT horror could be game-ending, but knowing that this is in your deck, you basically make plans to ensure you have that two horror buffer (and with Wendy's starting Sanity of 7, this should not be TOO hard). Of course, sometimes you just have to take all that horror, which results in you being scared of being defeated by drawing Abandoned and Alone.

Abandoned and Alone removing all of your cards from your discard pile can range from inconsequential to devastating; the primary determination of which is whether or not you were planning to play Wendy's Amulet, or if you had something to pull out with Scavenging. Scenarios in Arkham Horror are generally so time-limited that you rarely draw through the entirety of your deck; making the reduced number of cards in your deck when you reshuffle a non-issue. As more investigator cards come out, we may see cards that interact with the discard pile, which may be an issue for Wendy decks.

There are not many solutions to the discard problem, but there are solutions to deal with the Horror aspect. Probably the best solution in the current Dunwich Legacy cardpool is to have Wendy put out her best ally buddy, Peter Sylvestre, to help deal with other sources of Horror (to ensure she has the buffer needed to take that direct damage). If Wendy has other allies she'd like to have (Leo De Luca and Cat Burglar to name a few) without investing in the additional ally slots that Charisma has to offer, then she could instead use a Smoking Pipe to help convert that excess horror away.

Darthcaboose · 273

After this card is resolved, it's placed in the now empty discard pile. So if this is the last card in your deck, it removes the remaining discard pile from the game when you draw it and when you're required to draw a card again, it's the only card in your new deck. So you take 2 direct horror each turn, because it's the only card to draw each time.

Django · 4859
I don't understand that recursion, can you explain it further? Because once the treachery is in your discard pile, how can you ever draw it again? — banania · 392
Because once your deck is empty, you have to shuffle your discard pile, which becomes your new deck. — bricklebrite · 460
Actually, it's even worse than that. You would take 2 horror from that card, but also 1 more horror from recycling your deck — SilverFox · 1
I would have to disagree. From the Rules Reference, p.21: "When an investigator draws a weakness with a player cardtype (for example, an asset, an event, or a skill weakness), resolve any Revelation effects on the card, and add it to that investigator's hand. The card may then be used as any other player card of its type." Please correct me, if I 'm wrong. — Ereshkigal · 1
Please disregard my previous post. I was wrong. From the RR: "When a treachery card is drawn by an investigator, that investigator must resolve its effects. Then, place the card in its discard pile unless otherwise instructed by the ability." — Ereshkigal · 1
"A single card cannot be shuffled into an empty player deck or encounter deck via card effect. If this shuffling would occur during the playing or revelation of a card that is typically discarded after it is resolved, such as an event or treachery card, it is discarded. Otherwise, the card remains in its current game area." — kongieieie · 13
Can't edit comments but ignore my previous one. — kongieieie · 13
I woundn't worry too much, since her amulet lets you place events on the bottom of you library when you play them. — NotSure · 21

A bad weakness or the worst weakness? Let's see. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: Wendy Takes 2 direct horror and removes her discard pile from the game. The first effect is bad but manageable; Wendy has 7 base Sanity and has ways to heal horror and/or soak future horror. The second effect ranges from mild to devastating. Depending on when you draw the Weakness, it can remove most of your deck, killing recursion tricks, shutting down Wendy's Amulet, and possibly leaving you in a very short horror spiral to trauma for decking yourself and more horror for drawing this again. There are not many was to mitigate the effects, with Rabbit's Foot (3) being probably the best way to dig for it early, maybe abetted by Drawing Thin or Take Heart to increase your failure and draw more cards. Of course, if you don't hit it early, this tactic may exacerbate the damage when the Weakness hits. If you have a Seeker in your party, they can help out with No Stone Unturned, but that's a lot of cooperative building, and none of these solutions are XP-cheap (especially since Rabbit's Foot vies for the Accessory slot with the Amulet, so you won't be doing them in the first few scenarios.

The discard condition: You do the terrible thing, then this card becomes your discard pile.

All in all, this is a way above average signature weakness, and in competition for the worst weakness, able to wreck a scenario or end a campaign.

This is not anywhere close to the worst signature weakness. Even within the core set, this is one of the tamest ones. It’s just 2 horror and then it’s gone forever. Wendy has 7 sanity which is protected by her 4 willpower, and often she will run Peter Sylvestre. You essentially just play Wendy as if she’s actually 7/5 instead of 7/7. The worst thing about it is how it removes your discard from the game, but that is very very rarely an actual problem more than it is an additional deckbuilding restriction ie Wendy can’t rely on discard recursion as readily. Annoying and restrictive, yes, and certainly worse than, say, Shell Shock. But I would not call this worse than Dark Memory or even Cover Up. — StyxTBeuford · 12917
Sorry, not gone forever since yes it will go into your discard pile. But even still, the scenario is likely to end soon anyway if you pull it late, so the chance it hits you more than once is pretty miniscule. I’ve literally never had that happen. — StyxTBeuford · 12917
I should add also that the core set weaknesses are mostly above average in my eyes, this being no exception. But I push back hard the idea that this is the worst one in the game. It is, however, I think the least well designed weakness. — StyxTBeuford · 12917
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with Styx. Abandoned and Alone is a bad weakness , no doubt about that, but I think you're evaluating it in terms of the impact that it has if you draw it at the worst possible time and all weaknesses are pretty bad in that context. Even really low-key ones like Bought in Blood or Unsolved Case can wreck your tempo if you draw them in a tight situation. And like, the worst possible context for Dark Memory is something like Before the Black Throne where it will probably be campaign ending. It's a really really un-fun card tho, just taking options away... — bee123 · 25
Mark takes two horror: Below average. Wendy takes two direct horror and loses her discard pile: Worst weakness! — Hylianpuffball · 25
It is for sure a worse weakness than Shell Shock, but the impact is more comparable than I think the review implies. — StyxTBeuford · 12917
I would say that Survivors aren't usually churning through their deck quickly, and Wendy if she hits her amulet early will be putting cards back in. What I'll conclude instead of saying that this is a really bad signature weakness is that it's SUPREMELY swingy depending on when you see it. If it's early you barely care, and if it's late you hopefully found the amulet and put some cards back in to mitigate its card removal. But if you see the amulet late and only shortly after the weakness, then it can be very sad. — DjMiniboss · 44
I'd have to agree that while it has the potential to be extremely punishing, due to the equally extreme swingy nature of the card that it's more to the average to above average pile (if I'm understanding the scoring system correctly). Having played Wendy a decent amount, if it triggers late game and decks you out, then the scenario is basically over so it doesn't get reshuffled... Dark Memory is still the worst IMO. — LaRoix · 1627
The easiest way to avoid decking out from this is to get amulet out early. Since Backpack (2), this is far more reliable than it used to be (and guarantees that Wendy sees the Amulet before the last 12 cards), and Wendy will be hard mulling for the amulet in any case while playing Winging It and the like. Once Amulet's in play, the risk of decking out is basically none if your deck is build correctly. As Styx says, this is more of a deckbuilding restriction that discourages draw and cycling on Wendy and encourages deck bloating and events. Speaking of bloat, Versatile also acts as a great check against the worst case deck-out scenario and Wendy's one of the best Versatile users too. — suika · 9247

As cards come out that let you recurse from your discard, this card gets progressively worse. Resourceful, True Survivor now let you grab stuff in the discard and can become borderline (or totally) unplayable because of the risk posed by this card removing all the viable targets, Scavenging has always been a liability and these cards are only gonna grow in number. Thankfully Wendy is getting some solid cards like Waylay and Lucky Cigarette Case to slot next to Backstab and Rabbit's Foot and thus all 4 cards gain consistency.

Here'S hoping Wendy gets a novel though because I really would like to try True Survivor survivor on her.

Tsuruki23 · 2469
I've created a replacement weakness for wendy, which i posted on boardgamegeek for the same reason you said: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1950114/wendy-adams-replacement-weakness — Django · 4859
I think this issue will be less of a problem once upgraded lucky rabbits foot comes out. Digging for this weakness is already not a bad idea on Wendy, and once it’s in the discard you’re unlikely to see it again. — Difrakt · 1267
Yeah, I'm really excited for Wendy to eventually get alternate cards. This weakness really takes away deckbuilding options and makes her less fun to play (though I love the art and flavor text). Would be nice to have an alternative. — CaiusDrewart · 3004
Drawing cards makes it more likely to shuffle your deck and draw her weakness again... — Django · 4859