Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Private Practice

One of the rare instances where the flavor of the card complicates its interpretation.

Does "you heal 1 or more horror" imply the trigger occurs when you are healing yourself, or when you (the player) heals 1 or more horror from a card using a card effect? The strictest interpretation would be that Private Practice triggers only when you self-heal from horror, but that wouldn't make sense when one considers the flavor of the card, which

very prominently features someone working to heal someone else's "horror"
refers to a Profession in which exactly that person-to-person process happens
references two people in its flavor text.

So far my table's decided that the flavor overrides the strict rules text, and it triggers whenever Carolyn (because it is always Carolyn) heals horror from any card, by any means.

6/24/26

emmy_starlight · 13

Rules as written, “you heal 1 or more horror” means you generate an effect that heals 1 or more horror from your investigator card. I agree that thematically that doesn’t make a ton of sense for this card, but thematically it doesn’t make sense that the proper way to conduct Psychoanalysis (3) is to get all your friends together for a single moment and then fire a confetti cannon of treaters into the air, but that’s how that card works too. — Eudaimonea · 9 6/25/26

*a confetti cannon of treats — Eudaimonea · 9 6/25/26

I think it depends if you interpreted the healing phrase as active or passive. I would agree to Emmys interpretation, that whenever the investigator heal horror from a card you can trigger the reaction. Where I would say this doesn't work is when an ally like aleksey heals himself. — Tharzax · 2 6/25/26

There's a lot of work done BETWEEN sessions to keep a practice going. — MrGoldbee · 1576 6/25/26

Indeed tricky, since what Eudaimonea said is true (that's how the effect of "you heal 1 or more horror" is interpreted), but IMO you are also considered to "heal 1 or more horror" when you target a card other than your investigator if an effect allows you to (the same words are contained in "you heal 1 or more horror from another investigator/Ally asset/etc."). — AlderSign · 472 6/25/26

Personally, the wording seems really clear. If you heal horror, you get the bonus. Since there is no clarification of what TYPE of horror is healed, then it applies to any horror healing. That seems straightforward. — acotgreave · 964 6/25/26

@acotgreave, The skill card Fearless reads, “If this skill test is successful, heal 1 horror.” Since you think the phrase “heal 1 horror” clearly means heal any card anywhere, can I commit Fearless to a skill check and then, if successful, heal 1 horror off the Resilience my buddy three locations away has in his play area? — Eudaimonea · 9 6/25/26

@Tharzax, The distinction you want to make cannot hold. Old Carolyn Fern said, “ After one of your card effects heals horror from an investigator or Ally asset” and new Carolyn Fern says “ After you heal 1 or more horror from an investigator or Ally asset.” The permissive interpretation has to be that “you” is a stand-in for “one of your card effects,” so assets you control that self-heal would be included by that reading. — Eudaimonea · 9 6/25/26

Correlate All Its Contents

A "bit" niche, but I can imagine this in a Jim Culver deck with either a lot of token control or using Mind's Eye, Ritual Candles, or other skills to boost your skill value (since the investigation is still an intellect test). If the investigated location's shroud is 3 or less it might be worth trying to fish for your skull with this card.

6/21/26

AlderSign · 472

Feline Hybrid

I asked to FFG and got the some answer. Questions is like below.

is it immune to attack ability from the weapon asset? so it means impossible to take fight action on weapon?
is it immune to commit attributes? like if player do basic fight ability against to Feline and commit the Overpower then is it take 2 strength from Overpower or not?
is it immune to damage boost cards? like if i take basic action and commit the vicious blow and success then is it take damage 1 or 2?
if it is not immune to vicious blow then how about like longshot that cards says deal damage (not the attack damage boost)

Answer is like below The Feline Hybrid cannot be targeted by player card effects, which means it can’t be targeted by a Fight ability or a damage-dealing ability on a player card. However, an investigator can take a basic fight action targeting the Hybrid and commit cards with effects that increase their own stats or damage output for the test. So yes, Vicious Blow can cause the investigator to deal additional damage to the Hybrid, but Long Shot cannot deal damage to the Hybrid.

6/18/26

prudentiae · 1

Good to know you COULD one shot it, if you built that way. — MrGoldbee · 1576 6/18/26

Crazy that this enemy circumvents Barricade. — AlderSign · 472 6/18/26

Isabelle's Twin .45s

As much as I love playing Isabelle, I seriously wonder who thought giving Isabelle Barnes a copy of Thompson Submachine Gun as her signature card AND Gift of Nodens built into her investigator sheet was a good idea.

To be clear, Isabelle's Twin .45s takes some setup. It's not self-sufficient, and Isabelle's base stats mean you're only fighting at 4 for each attack. The extra Fight action also requires Isabelle to fight with Agility, so you may not have skill dedications for both halves of the card.

On the other hand, Resourceful, At a Crossroads, and Fight or Flight exist to help Isabellle break the game in half. Assuming you have time for setup, you can play Fight or Flight to get a massive boost to each fight action, and sequence your Resourceful to recur At a Crossroads to get extra actions --- easily allowing you to fight at 9+ six times in a row and do 12 damage. Most enemies will just explode. If you really need to reset and do it all over again, just make sure to have Hunter's Instinct and Act of Desperation available, and you can chuck your guns at the boss as a coup de grace, and then reset to do it all over again.

6/17/26

Telosa · 81

I mean, it's explicitly balanced for CH2. So they don't care if older stuff breaks it. — MrGoldbee · 1576 6/18/26

Also the bonus attack exhausts the guns. — MrGoldbee · 1576 6/18/26

Agree with MrGoldbee. Also there's only one copy in her deck - even with tutor cards (which are absent in Chapter 2 in the Survivor class) you'd still be lucky to find it. As a signature it's okay, especially as Izzie doesn't have any means to reload it. — HungryColquhoun · 18207 6/21/26

To clarify, the bonus attack exhausts the guns, but with a full collection, you can use cards like Resourceful to recur At A Crossroads twice a turn to get an addition 2 actions. It takes a little bit of work to set up the combo, but once you get the cards in your hand, play area, and discard pile, you can consistently do 4-6 action turns and unload your all six shots in your gun, and then reset on alternating turns. — Telosa · 81 6/25/26

Ultimate Sacrifice

This card seems to be much stronger than the two other "do powerful effect, then you are defeated" cards in the game. The way I see it, if you play this card and then you resign before (!) the repetition of the investigation phase ends, you avoid being defeated and suffering trauma, since you're no longer in the game when the "you are defeated" part of the effect resolves. If I'm correct about this, then this is a very strong card!

6/17/26

Corgano · 4

4xp for a "You Better Win NOW" button seems cool. — MrGoldbee · 1576 6/17/26

I am pretty sure anything that exhausts stays exhausted however if you use this — HeroesOfTomorrow · 105 6/18/26

Correct, there is no upkeep phase in between. And yes, if there is no "end of that phase" you avoid the trigger. — AlderSign · 472 6/18/26