Kicking the Hornet's Nest

This is one of the best bruiser cards in recent memory and is required in all bruiser builds that can take it.

The main role of the bruiser character is to keep enemies off of cluers. Most are able to do this with just a weapon up and don't need a whole lot of setup. There is nothing more annoying then, than having your bruiser spend three actions doing functionally nothing, and then the next turn you draw two enemies from mythos. You inevitably probably can't deal with both, and one of them gets to either take a free shot at you, or worse lock down your cluer.

This card does many things a typical bruiser wants to do. It thins the encounter deck of enemies by forcing a spawn now. Those three actions you would have essentially wasted, you get to now take two others doing what you're designed to do.

Honestly, the card would be great if it just did that. But it also has the potential for massive resource gain (if you pick a 3 HP enemy, you basically played an emergency cache) and you even get a clue out of it, which can help thin out particularly high shroud value locations.

It's also one of the only cards that can bypass concealment (concealment procs when you draw an enemy per wording in TSK manual, and this card specifically has you spawn the enemy, not draw it).

The only thing bad about this card is it can whiff the search. But if it does, your enemy frequency was pretty low anyway (or you just got really unlucky).

Tldr this card forces enemies on to your enemy handler, which is something they want anyway, and gives you a clue and a crap ton of resources for one action. Honestly a little too powerful and should be automatically included in any bruiser that can take it.

drjones87 · 205
Yeah. I'm very surprised that they made it a 0xp card. — fiatluxia · 68
It is somewhere in between "On the Hunt" (0) and "Dran to the Flame", and has disadvantages to both of them. Compared to OtH (0), it draws you an additional mythos card, not replaces your draw in the mythos phase. Compared to DttF it gives you an uncertain amount of resources instead of an additional clue, which might be great, if you draw a 3 health enemy, but a meh substitute, if you draw some rats, or worse, a Whippoorwill. I'm not saying this card is garbage, it looks fine in the right decks. But I wouldn't say it's too good to be level 0. — Susumu · 382
It's also in the rouges card pool which rather evade than killing enemies. — Tharzax · 1
Descent into Madness

Really weird card. First, the art is personally a bit ick to me, "wet-looking realism" isn't my preferred style.

Second, this thing's balancing is absurdly variable; either it just surges into something harmless, surges into something bad, or costs you an action before throwing something bad at you. Add in the fact that there are 2 of these in the encounter deck (almost certainly back to back, because encounter decks are sentient and malevolent) and you could go from "nothing-nothing-Ghoul Minion" to "nothing-nothing-Corpse Dweller" to "lose an action-lose an action-get an Asylum Gorger thrown in your face." Yes, I understand that randomness is an inherent element in a card game like Arkham, but this degree of it doesn't feel right.

Third, Descent into Madness does nothing with the rest of its set. No "If there is a hidden card in your hand..." trigger, no "For each hidden card in your hand..." reference, just a Revelation effect that feels more at home in the Core Set's Striking Fear. This is a bit of a letdown, especially due to how innovative the rest of the set is (or at least was, on release) with the Hidden keyword.

Very "eh" card. Best thing I can say about it is it's a masterclass in why Surge should virtually never be printed on cards that actually alter the game state; Surge is a very blunt tool, and the variability it adds to a card can make the element of random chance go from "present" to "overpowering."

Self-Centered

I love the thematic idea behind the card, because it's a personal failing that can hurt your team's chance of success. Still, it's easy for many decks to ignore. Some decks will be hurt a lot by it, such as [Carolyn Fern], but you can also just spend the two actions to discard.

I've seen some comments wondering how broadly "affect other investigators" applies. To me, it means that you can't target another investigator in a way that changes the game state of the investigator, specifically. You can't manipulate their cards in hand, their cards in play, their location, their resources, their clues, or their health/sanity (except to cause damage/horror since the weakness allows it.)

In this view, while you couldn't use [First Aid] targeting another investigator at your location, you could still engage an enemy which is engaging another investigator. Or, you could cancel a treachery that another investigator draws. Neither of those change the actual investigator's game state; they affect an enemy or a treachery card. If the restriction were meant to be broader than this, it would need some clarification.

Signum · 14
Best part is that the guy in the art gets to look at her underwear — Django · 5165
Disliked. — Signum · 14
I know I’m 6 months late on this, but Django, that’s just not okay, dude. — LikeaSsur · 45
Bestow Resolve

There are a lot of fun 3 icons Skill cards theme going on in the Path to Carcosa Investigator Expansion, with 1 icon missing where it doesn't work thematically. Plus you can now commit them to a test previously not matching the icons for funny effects. (e.g. inspire allies with your fancy evasion)

5argon · 11437
Since it states "Commit a non weakness card from your hand to that skill test, treating all icons as ?", do you suppose that counts for the situational icons in the text box on cards like "Not without a fight" and "Steadfast"? — Fermentomancer · 7
@Fermentomancer I believe it does! — waltercardcollector · 12
Dirty Fighting

All those reviews are nice. But you cant use weapon for that fight action. You can just punch. Same as Ursula and her free investigate after move. You cant use it for fingerprint kit or glyphs for example. Shooting wit weapon is not fight action but activate asset and then it will be fight. Sorry guys :)

atilak · 13
Actually, you'll find under the Q&A section of haste that shooting with your 45 automatic or whatever else is considered to be both a fight and activate action, same for flashlight being both active and investigate. — aurchen · 274
Any non-fast event or action triggered ability with an action designator is the type of action indicated by its designator, in addition to being a play or activate action. This is why some other cards specify "basic" actions, which are the normal actions you have access to without the use of cards (technically, a basic action is any action that doesn't involve playing an event or triggering an ability whose text includes an action designator, even if it does otherwise involve playing a card or triggering an action trigger, but so far only Close the Circle can let you take basic play or activate actions). — Thatwasademo · 58
(2022 Taboo also turns both Eon Chart to be "basic" only.) — 5argon · 11437
This is factually wrong — MegaWazzaby · 7
ArkhamDB needs a downvote system — snacc · 1022
"Same as Ursula and her free investigate after move." Doh, maybe you should have just checked the fAQ on Ursula's page: Q: Does the ability on Ursula Downs allow me to take an investigate action on an asset or event card? A: Yes. Ursula’s reaction allows you to take any investigate action, including those performed via the activate action or via the play action. - FAQ, v.1.3, May 2018 — Susumu · 382
The comments in here really feels like actual dirty fighting — toastsushi · 74