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Coût: 1. XP: 3.

Mystique

Utilisations (4 secrets).

Inclinez le Parchemin des Secrets et dépensez 1 secret : regardez la carte du dessus ou du dessous de n'importe quel deck Investigateur ou du deck Rencontre. Ensuite, soit vous défaussez la carte regardée, soit vous l'ajoutez à la main de son propriétaire, soit vous la placez sous le deck correspondant, soit vous la placez sur le deck correspondant.

Matthew Cowdery
Pour le Bien Commun #189.

Latest Taboo

This card’s ability is now a ability.

Parchemin des Secrets

FAQs

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Reviews

Must say I don't think they got this one right as an upgrade. You're spending 3xp for one additional secret and a willpower pip. The seeker version is vastly superior since it allows you to search three cards at a time and do something to all of them. That's a card that has legitimate utility to a number of investigators. This ? Not so much. I honestly can't see why anybody would ever buy this card. It's only marginally better than the Lvl 0 version. If it was a Lvl 1 card then it might be worth adding to a deck. 1xp for an extra secret seems about right, a small investment for a small bonus. At 3xp it's just prohibitively expensive.

This would have been much better if it was a free action trigger. That way you'd have two different upgrade paths, both of which were valid. Seekers would get the greater range of cards they could influence, mystics would get the much more limited scope but without having to spend any actions to use it. As it is though, I'd be amazed if anybody ever uses this card in their decks.

Sassenach · 173
This also lets you look at the top card of the deck, the unupgraded version only looks at the bottom. — cfmcdonald · 7
Ah yes, so it does. That does make it a little better then. Still not worth 3xp though in my opinion. I could see how a combo with Alyssa Graham or scrying might be effective, but that's going to be finicky to set up. — Sassenach · 173
Really, there is a big difference between the top and bottom because of the four options the card gives you. Putting a card on the bottom or discarding when you took the card from the bottom initially is mostly worthless. Hitting bad cards with this version actually gives you some value. — Death by Chocolate · 1359
Sure, but the vast majority of the time you're not going to hit a weakness. There's a big difference between drawing a good card from the bottom than one from the top, which you would have gotten at the end of the round anyway. — Sassenach · 173
I think this would be bad as a level 0 card. — CaiusDrewart · 3004
I think the major redeeming quality of this card is that it synergizes well with Wendy's amulet. So if Wendy is in your group, you can potentially let her reuse the same card 4 times. Imagine Wendy committing "Look what I found" to a skill test and then using that card on a fail to get 2 clues, then it's your turn and Wendy's get the card back in her hand. Repeat 3 more times. — Killbray · 9735
I agree with @Sassenach -- this card is a dud. Manipulating the encounter deck is a cool mechanic, but it's rarely worth it to pay an action to check the top card. Whatever you do with that top card of the encounter deck, you are (essentially) putting another encounter card on top that reads: "Surge; Revelation: lose one action." Just not worth it. — Mordenlordgrandison · 425
Here you have it. Free trigger! — petercheungjr · 1

The Scroll of Secrets is worse than the one, that's for sure. But Mystics probably haven't access to that, so let's make a few points on Scroll of Secrets in a pure after playing it. Yes, most things will work with the counterpart. I'll speak exclusively about the Tabooed versions (with the ability).

  • If you go Down the Rabbit Hole (maybe you primary upgrade your spells just with Arcane Research) this costs you 2 XP, which feels like the right spot experience-wise.
  • 4 Secrets for 1 Resource is very solid, especially if you want to spread secrets with Eldritch Sophist across the table. Only Encyclopedia (2), Schoffner's Catalogue and the upgraded Ancient Stones may offer the same ratio, while Forbidden Tome (0) and Forbidden Knowledge are slightly above.
  • If you use all the secrets for draw (not discarding, not leaving them there and not for manipulating the encounter deck) overall you get 4 extra cards in windows (one more card than the Scroll, though you can't pick one of three).
  • There is a bit more competition for hand slots these days, but in general Mystics have hand slots to spare, unlike Seekers.
  • Gone empty, it's a great target for Dexter Drakes ability or for Sacrificing to get resources or even more cards. If you have access to level 1 cards obviously there is Library Docent, too, for repeating the fun.

As people mentioned, the most interesting difference to the Scroll is looking at the top card of your deck and being able to discard weaknesses you would have drawn next. With the one you can delay them (putting cards from the bottom on top), but probably you have no knowledge of weaknesses sleeping at the top of your deck.

The effect sounds like the old Alyssa Graham Trick protecting you from Doomed and stuff, but therefore you just put the card at the bottom of the deck (drawing it later) and have to add doom. Also if you're like me you could forget, that you shouldn't activate effects which reshuffles your deck...

That said, Mystics are the masters of “look at” and “return in any order”, so you have a chance to manipulate your deck in order to discard nasty weaknesses like Doomed, Offer You Cannot Refuse or Unbound Beast. In the past there wasn't much more than Scrying, but with the release of EotE we have Parallel Fates (2) to celebrate, which lets you look at 6 (!) cards. In mid-/lategame (or using Underworld Support for smaller deck size) there is a realistic chance to draw an important card with Parallel Fates (2) AND discard 1-2 weaknesses with the Scroll. And even without manipulating effects, I randomly hit a weakness or two with the Scroll and discarded them in my play-through (which may happen often in the Edge of the Earth campaign due to spoiler reasons).

The option to look at the bottom of the deck is neat too, if you've drawn Doomed and want to discard Accursed Fate or if you have Wendy's Amulet or a Copycat player at the table. Speaking of this, as with the other Scroll of Secrets it's a great multiplayer tool because you don't have to be at the same location in order to look at another investigators deck.

Miroque · 23
But it's still a bad upgrade since you pay 2 to 3 xp for just 1 secret more. And since most of the combos you named are from seekers you can just fill your deck with other secret spending options like the level 0 encyclopedia. — Tharzax · 1

This card is actually really good in a Gloria deck. Alyssa Graham and scroll help Gloria mine the encounter deck further; it's also a good backup in case you haven't got your Alyssa out yet, and takes up a hand slot instead of arcane.

When Gloria controls encounter deck, I think, Scroll of Secrets (0) is enough. This is because that Gloria can place looked cards on top of encounter deck even if she look at the bottom of deck. Of course, 3 level version is very useful for Gloria. Gloria has a time to look a top of player deck, and Scroll of Secrets (3) can discard looked weakness without any penalty. — elkeinkrad · 468

Bad combo piece. This card has only value over the level 0 version if you already know what's the top card of your deck or the encounter deck. It'd be amazing with Norman Withers if his text didn't force you to immediately draw every weakness you see on top of the deck. It might still be ok on him.

Otherwise you need effects like Scrying or Alyssa Graham to make this more valuable than the base version, except these cards already do good things on their own. This card does not justify itself over the base version.

Mataza · 18
Considering trying this in a Norman deck as a further way to manipulate top card. Potentially could pull the top card to commit, bury a card that isn't currently useful, grab a fast card that you'll use next round to make another card pop this round, etc. Burying is especially useful if something like Arcane Initiate helps pull that card back up later so it's not lost on the bottom forever. — Time4Tiddy · 230
Why bury it if you could just draw it instead tho? Unless you are running into hand size issues. — Death by Chocolate · 1359