Grievous Wound

Although I don't think this card is as bad or niche as the other reviews here make it seem, there is one aspect that I didn't see covered so far: Grievous Wound is absolutely great at exposing concealed cards. And it makes sense - both thematically (a wounded enemy desperately tries to seek help from their allies, running from one potential location to another) and mechanically (it was released in The Scarlet Keys, the only campaign that features concealed cards).

Of course you need a proper victim first, meaning to have an enemy in play that does not bother you when kept alive (or is Handcuffed). Preferably this will be a non-hunter enemy, but I am certain there are cases where you are evasive enough yourself and actually want it to move around, covering more ground for doing your legwork. And if you manage to Bolas a hunter enemy, you got yourself a really good pet spy!

The initial attack/wound > evade > get away before re-engaging can be taxing, and you don't want too frail of an enemy to be your target or hit it with your big arsenal, but cheap hitters exist.

Overall, I think if played early enough this card can save you a lot of actions if brought along across the globe in your playthrough of The Scarlet Keys campaign.

AlderSign · 469
I am not sure that even works, but I won't argue too much because Concealed is such a messy mechanic it creates a lot of odd outlier situations that are hard to tell how they resolve — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
From https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Concealed_Mini_Cards: "An investigator may also use a card effect that automatically evades an enemy, deals damage to an enemy, or discovers a clue at a location in order to instead expose a concealed mini-card." — AlderSign · 469
this doesn't deal damage to 'an enemy'. doesn't work. — Adny · 1
What else would you say attached enemy is? An egg? The quotations are your own addition following your own interpretation of taking that one sentence word by word (which... why would you?). — AlderSign · 469
By your reasoning Daniela's ability would also not expose concealed cards because it either deals damage to "THAT enemy" or automatically evades "IT". Neither wording includes "an enemy". Come on... — AlderSign · 469
@AlderSign I'm with Adny on this one: Grievious Wound deals damage "to the attached enemy", Daniela deals damage to "that enemy". They both specify a target you are striking. You need to use an effect that is specifically targetting a decoy in your location rather than either the enemy you attached the event to (for GW), so the attacking enemy (for Daniela). Arkham works on exact words: you need an effect that can target "an enemy", which would be Beat Cop and Coup de Grâce for example. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
There is obviously the exception of Area of Effect cards , that target everything in a location, like Dynamite Blast, Storm of Spirit, but even then, those effects get replaced completely by exposing the decoy instead of dealing damage — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
I really would like this combo worked as much as Guard Dog countering an enemy attacking you with Figure on the Shadow could expose a decoy. If you could attach it to an enemy in the shadow and expose a decoy at the end of every round, that would be very cool themtatically, like you are following a blood trail of an enemy hiding. But sadly, that isn't the case. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
I'm sorry, but that simply is not true. I agree that the rules for concealed are very confusing and create head-scratching edge cases, but on this here I am certain and don't find your logic sound. If I try to follow it (you say "Arkham works on exact words" - yeah, like game rules in general) it immediately contradicts with the core rules. E.g. I assume you wouldn't argue about whether an effect that triggers when "a clue" is discovered triggers when "2 clues" are discovered. Or whether an effect that triggers when an ally takes damage triggers when a treachery attached to a location deals damage to each ally at that location. I could go on, but there are numerous examples that contradict your argumentation. There are even more than enough examples that show slightly different wordings referring to the same thing. I honestly don't get why a different logic should apply here, compared to the rest of the game. — AlderSign · 469
@AlderSign I still think Grievous Wound and original Daniela's ability do not work: these card deal damage to SPECIFIC TARGETS, and nothing else. When you Investigate, you choose to replace finding clues for revealing concealed card, when you attack, you choose to strike the shroud value to reveal a concealed card, when you deal damage with Beat Cop, you choose to deal damage to an enemy in your location or a concealed card to reveal it. Because Grievious Wound and Daniela only target the enemy it is attached with and the enemy that attacked her respectively, they just cannot reveal concealed cards. This is because their clause is limiting: there is already preceding evidence to that with Dirty Fighting. Nothing in Dirty Fighting says you cannot fight an enemy you evaded at long range, but it was ruled you couldn't do that because you still need to obey the normal limitations of fight actions. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
I see where your reasoning is coming from, but am certain you (both) understand the concealed rules wrong. The rules say that you need to target a concealed mini-card for fight, evade, investigate actions, but for the other effects (like automatic evade or dealing damage) the exposing simply REPLACES the effect. You do not need a target beforehand. I think this is the main misunderstanding here. — AlderSign · 469
@AlderSign "You do not need a target beforehand. I think this is the main misunderstanding here." That is the exact reason why I brought up Dirty Fighting specifically as an example: the rules do not specify the effect must target the concealed mini-card, but they also don't say an effect that isn't targeting the concealed mini card can work on them. The limitation of those cards should still be in effect on who they target, otherwise you could just take a fight action against an enemy and instead of dealing damage to it expose a mini-card. At least, that is how I interpret it. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
Careful here, the damage from a fight action is not a card effect, therefore you couldn't do that according to the concealed rules anyway. I understand the ruling for Dirty Fighting but don't think it is comparable to our case here because concealed has its own rules. — AlderSign · 469
On Your Own

With the new ruling of Chapter 2 changing retroactively that story cards ignore deckbuilding restrictions, this version of On Your Own finally found a niche. While Survivors have some of the best allies of the game and I doubt giving up on them is worthwhile, now at the very least your Ally slot can STILL be useful to play story allies, and there is also a reason to bother with Charisma even.

You can always recur allies from the trash with Chance Encounter. — MrGoldbee · 1562
@MrGoldbee I am aware of it, but that depends on what allies your teammates are running. While Survivors are very versatile and can make use of almost anything, there are just some not really compatible with what each Survivor does (I definitely wouldn't want Logan on Wendy for example) — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
Quick-Witted

So, clearly this isn't a great card for pips, as noted in other comments. Though +2 Books or Feet is often very welcome.

But as also noted, this can pad your deck repeatedly to slow it cycling. Perhaps most specifically, this can single-handedly stop decking out completely. If you do a viable test every round and alway shuffle back one, that one will offset your compulsory draw giving a the final state where your deck consists of either 1 or 2 copies of this depending on timing point (and also still letting you do extra draws as long as you know you have extra viable tests coming).

I was looking closely at it recently, before I remembered there was Swarming in my current campaign, which will definitely break the cycle.

So in summary, it's very niche but definitely playable.

Problem with that is, 99% of decks don't want to do that. Like yeah maybe if you're Wendy or Yorick you might want to keep your discard, but they can't take it. "Maybe Minh Thi or Darrel if they're going all in on a scavenging deck of some kind" or "A seeker that drew doomed as their basic weakness" is not a great pitch for a card. — Spamamdorf · 5
Isabelle Barnes

Izzy is a great start for the new core set, both in terms of flavor and in terms of the characters. She is simultaneously something new and somewhat old, since we've all been searching for her every time we played Jenny Barnes. Her stat line is perhaps a tad underwhelming, but that's not really surprising given that she is a survivor and historically, they have/will get lots of ways to buff their skills, especially the defensive ones like Will and Agility.

I think Izzy's strongest point is that she has access to Mystic 2. While it isn't the best access, it provides at least enough to give her ways to use her Will so that you can focus on buffing that over trying to get her Fight and Agility up. It makes her signature asset all but useless, and I have to imagine that most of the time, it is going to end up either committed to a test, or used to deal with swarms of weak enemies that pop up.

The most interesting part of her design by far though is her ability. The ability to recur a clutch skill from the discard pile cannot be overstated, and makes it almost possible to try to run some cards that could get her gun into a usable position. Overpower becomes +2 and draw to on a successful attack, as do Guts and Manual Dexterity. That says nothing of the other cards that you might want to have repeated access to. If you're not limiting to the new card pool, Take Heart becomes stupid powerful, as do any of your leveled commits like Last Chance (3) or Enraptured (2) (to put charges back on the spells that you may want to investigate with). The only disappointing thing about this ability is that it is limited to once per round. It's powerful enough that I understand this choice, but with the current card options for healing horror, I do think you could let the player take a bigger risk. That said, I still think 1 per round is plenty. Just means you need to choose carefully.

Vardaman · 2
Sorry, but Nothing Left To Lose isn't a level 2 skill, it is a level 3 event — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
You are correct, I was thinking of Last Chance (3), not sure how I made that mistake — Vardaman · 2
Tbf I also did similiar mistakes often, like mixing up Versatile for Adaptable — HeroesOfTomorrow · 95
Alice Luxley

Alice Luxley is a member of the big family of "0xp allies that cost 4 resources, boost one stat and have an extra ability".

Her biggest liability is that she boost a weak stat for her class : most have only 2 , some 3, so it limits greatly the pool of investigators who can consider running her :

  • In guardian : Wilson (who has bonus with Tools), Roland ( access for extra bonus), Carolyn (only with 4 )
  • But she is also accessible to other investigators with 3+ , notably :
    Skids and Jenny in , Ashcan in , and in Joe, Rex and Daisy with // back (note that outside Joe, all these investigators have // front you may also use).
  • For neutral investigators, i would consider her less important (Charlie can't use her ability if he exhausts her, and Lola will usually not be in the class when she finds clues). [TODO : test with // front Lola]

What can Alice bring to those investigators ?

  1. Give a flat bonus in 0xp deck. Rogues may have Dario, but he usually won't be online from the start. Wilson has no other alternative at 0xp. But every of the other investigators i listed (excepted Skids) have acces, and could prefer one the 0xp seeker ally that boost intellect (Milan, Jeremiah, Whitton).

  2. A unique ability. Lets compare Alice with her rivals :
    Dr. Milan Christopher gives resources
    Jeremiah Kirby gives cards
    Whitton Greene gives searches
    Alice Luxley gives damages
    And... a damage, it's strong. It kills a Whippoorwill in when a figter would have used 2 actions. It brings the odd damage to help killing a big ennemy. On a little ennemy that doesn't hit hard (like an Acolyte), you can take an opportunity attack to get rid of him (without taking in option the solutions existing to find clues without attacks of opportunity, because unlike Milan, Alice works not only on tests, but on every clue discovery. That's stronger).

In a two-player game, one can easily concieve Alice dealing 4 to 6 damage : thats the firepower of a basic weapon, without loosing tempo or risking a Retaliate on a missed attack. Alice power is almost invisible (she either damages a big ennemy, or kills an unimportant one) but really powerfull all things considered.

Do you complain of the weakness of a 3 like Skids or Jenny to deal damage ? Their missing damage will be given by Alice. A card like Daring Maneuver can cancel AOO, or you could evade with Hatchet Man and kill it with Alice.


But if you really want to make a monsterkilling Alice, take a look at the : Gray's Anatomy allows her to deal damage 4 by 4, putting her in the same category that the best weapons of the game. Example (Joe is perfect for this) :
With The Raven Quill, your Gray's Anatomy won't take slots, won't give AOO and give an extra +2
Then you find a clue (with Working a Hunch, Field Agent, Empirical Hypothesis (easy to proc, you just made a 1-difficulty test with a base skill of at least 7)...
Alice deals 4 damage, ignoring every keyword like Retaliate, Aloof...
Another test with gray Anatomy, with Raven Quill upgrade, you ready Alice... And another 4 damage

Be careful, this combo can go live as soon a scenario 2, and your figter may feel totally useless for the rest of the campaign, as you will be better than him without loosing much on you main activity : finding clues.

Joe can even put Trusted on his Field Agent for more uses, and then use Gray's Anatomy for a big Soothing Melody heal.

(Man, this campaign was wild. Joe blasted the secret scenario of Scarlet keys without an issue.)


Side note : use of Alice in Synergy decks in

I find the Synergy archetype extremly strong, and a good reward for an atypic deckbuilding.

For example, Cheat the System becames the best event to win money : , 1xp, 5 resources.

Lola has an easy access to synergies thank to her permanents, but can use it at most, because Double, Double + Call for Backup becames the solution to every problem of the game : clues, movement, damage, heal, and everything testless.
This combo cost 2 resources... But good news, there is exactly a card giving not only those resources, but also 2 extra classes for your rogues : Antiquary.
→ a that want to play on the Synergies has mostly to look for and cards. And Alice becomes an excellent pick, notably by transforming your 2 damage into 3, and therefore trivialising the majority of the ennemies in the game.

Yay, finally ! Skids and Jenny, you dirty childs of the family, now is your time to shine !

Emmental · 172
Never thought of her with the Anatomy. XP intensive tho. — MrGoldbee · 1562
I already built a Joe Diamond deck around Alice and loved it/her, but holy moly does the combo with The Raven Quill, Gray's Anatomy, and Empirical Hypothesis sound like fun! I always relied on Galvanize and Inspiring Presence to re-ready her, but this combo fits perfectly! — AlderSign · 469