Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Harvey Walters

Harvey is basically unplayable... unless you take Versatile and Deny Existence. Then, he's probably the best seeker in the game. Once his signature asset is down hes a guaranteed 2 card draw per turn per successful investigate. Add a dream Enhancing Serum and he can basically hold (no joke) 20 cards in his hand at the same time. The 5 extra cards from versatile does slow him down a bit, but not enough to matter with the intrinsic seeker card draw.

Hes a shoe in for Farsight as well, and stack that on with an Occult Lexicon (or level 3, from the circle undone) and you basically have limitless card draw and can turn the ones you aren't using into resources.

But all of this is contingent upon taking that early game versatile and Deny Existence. Otherwise, he will get eaten alive by his weakness.

4/30/22

drjones87 · 191

If only there were a way to use cards after drawing them, then Harvey would finally be good. — Zerogrim · 292 4/30/22

If only 5 Intellect was extremely powerful, then Harvey would finally be good. — Death by Chocolate · 1447 4/30/22

If only there were some other ways of mitigating damage, then Harvey would finally be good. — snacc · 982 4/30/22

If only he was in another class instead of being in the most broken one, then Harvey would finally be good — Blood&gore · 422 4/30/22

If only someone posted a Deck about 10 days ago showing how broken he can be even with a very limited card pool. — Valentin1331 · 69320 5/1/22

If only Bulletproof Vest was in the Core Set to effectively provide a large amount of soak, then Harvey would finally be good. — Pseudo Nymh · 54 5/1/22

If only getting 2 sled dogs and a coat into play was in any way a feasible set-up to survive his weakness with 36 cards in hand, then Harvey would finally be good. — NotaRealCop · 1 5/1/22

Jeeze, I dunno. It's a kind of limmited review, but we could do more than mock. Harvey is a terrible investigator in some settings: If you want to play him in Expert solo RttFA, he is going to have a pretty rough time of it. On the other hand, almist any Seeker in 2+ player with a dedicated enemy management investigator will do fine. The question, with any card in AHTCG is not "is this card good/bad/broken/essential" but "how can this card be used to progress the game?" There are a ton of investigators that are not great in certain campaigns/scenarios/player counts. There are even more cards that work well only as part of a combo or in a particular investigator. Heck, Knuckleduster has a really bad reputation, but it's an OK starting weapon for Tony. I won't go so far to say that every card has a potential home right now, but it's agood exercise to look closely at some of the "head scratchers" and think "what would make this card attractive to play?" Maybe that will appear in a new set. In general, I think trying to be positive and charitable makes the hobby a more welcoming place. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1058 5/1/22

Looks up the recent versatile review. — Zerogrim · 292 5/1/22

While the memeing is fun I feel it is important to always try to remember there is another person on the other side of the conversation! I have had a few terrible takes on cards myself, who hasn't? In this specific case, I think the mistake the OP is making is assuming that Harvey is about drawing as much as you can, as often as you can, and always going big hand at all times. In reality what prevents Harvey from being boring is the 'skill testing' of his extremely potent ability: You aren't meant to draw as much as you can and go big hand Harvey mindlessly because that would just be a Mandy 2.0 boring OP seeker. — dezzmont · 212 5/2/22

dezzmont, +1 — LivefromBenefitSt · 1058 5/2/22

@LivefromBenefitSt I dunno, I've played Harvey through every campaign on Expert in solo and he's rocked almost all of them. Did fine in RttFA with Hyperawareness (4) and a few other tricks, especially the I-hope-to-be-tabooed Gené Bouregard. Funnily enough the only campaign I had some problems with Harvey was RtTCU, because a few of those scenarios ditched whatever was in my hand for a new batch of cards...so it was a crapshoot to hold on to cards I wanted to use. — Krysmopompas · 358 8/21/22

Gené Bouregard is taboo'd now. — MrGoldbee · 1452 8/28/22

Quickdraw Holster

Compare this to sign magic. It's sadly not close.

Both will give you a free action. However...

Sign magic is worse in only one minor regard. You have to piggyback it on another spell activation. Alright. One point for Quickdraw holster.

Now. Sign magic is fast. Quickdraw is not. Sign magic is cheaper to play. Sign magic is cheaper xp. Sign magic allows a free action on all spells, not just attacks. You can use two sign magicks. Sign magic gives you an entire extra spell slot. Quickdraw only frees up a gun.

The balance isn't close.

4/29/22

AussieKSU · 1076

if it just had 2 health.... — Zerogrim · 292 4/29/22

On the other side there aren't much options for your body slot. — Tharzax · 1 4/30/22

I want it to be more playable with 2 handed weapon, or even hands already full of one-handed items. For example, if has one more ability that allows playing the gun from hand straight to the holster. — 5argon · 9977 5/1/22

There is not a single Investigator, who can take "Sign Magick" (3) and "Quickdraw Holster". I do agree though, that this card is severe overcosted. I tried it in Tony and was not impressed. He can't take Bandolere, but Garrotte Wire would have given him more mileage. (Even if it costs 1 XP more if you are buying a "Relic Hunter" for not quitting smoking.) — Susumu · 366 5/1/22

I have considered (but not played yet) Quickdraw Holster + Mauser + Tony's gun + Black Fan in a "rich rogue" Tony deck. — AlexP · 249 5/7/22

Window to Another Time

Consider that Padma Amrita only locks down clues on Ancient locations. If you choose to remove an Ancient location, it causes all of the clues that were on it to go to the Present Day location that was under it. Now you have some clues you can discover even when Padma is ready.

4/29/22

Signum · 14

I suspect, they forgot to instruct players to remove these cards from the game on Agenda 2b. TBH, it's one of the worst cards to draw beforehand, but kind of the encounter deck offering you a freebie during Agenda 3. — Susumu · 366 4/29/22

Even disregarding it messing up with Padme's ability, you can even choose, which location to go, potentially sending a hunter enemy on a large detour from your investigators or creating a beneficial shortcut for yourself.. — Susumu · 366 4/29/22

Schoffner's Catalogue

This card is so dang good it's actually ridiculous.

At worst, it's sort of like a net Emergency Cache anyone on your space can spend on items (not a huge restriction for most decks). At best, it's a complete loose cannon. It allows for such crazy plays. If Yorick has both this and Chainsaw in his discard, he's set -- no other moving parts required. Minh can Scavenge it into absolutely filthy combos recurring high value seeker assets. It even discards itself so that happens smoothly. It's red and level 0, so an easy target for a lot of Survivor recursion if someone's running low on dough -- which is practically your starting hand if you're running Short Supply. And Dark Horse can't see it. I'm sure there are things I'm missing.

It enables so many shenanigans in the most wonderful ways. Just a brilliant card.

4/29/22

MrButtermancer · 55

I don't really see it. At best its a slow emergency cache. And you're really spending your recursion to get this thing back instead of something more useful? How many items are you playing? — fates · 53 5/8/22

Versatile

I think this card pretty much exists solely so you can play Harvey Walters. Thrice-Damned Curiosity coupled with his high card draw is basically going to kill him. You can either build as a somewhat weird Harvey that doesn't like to draw and uses soaks to offset the damage (losing imo one of the best parts of being a Seeker class: turnover)... or just take this card and Deny Existence to effectively completely ignore his signature weakness.

4/28/22

drjones87 · 191

or....you could use the cards you draw...OR make teammates draw cards. — Zerogrim · 292 4/29/22

Honestly it's more efficient to soak the damage. It'd derp, but I like Body Armor. It can soak a 12 card TDC, and if you have less, well, maybe some attacks and encounter stuff too. — MrButtermancer · 55 4/29/22

Or to make crazy builds otherwhise imposible (premonition wendy or dynamite blast abusing preston) — LordWolfen · 1 4/30/22