Esoteric Atlas

Very solid multiplayer upgrade.

3 Locations away is a routine situation that you might find yourself in. From the exit, from an important location, from a friend. You can use it to bypass intervening enemies. The only issue is the revealed requirement, which is why it's mostly a Multiplayer card.

You can teck this like a silver-bullet against scenarios that you know involve heavy backtracking or back and forths.

Tsuruki23 · 2568
Occult Invocation

This is a brutal card.

To make this card work you need a worthwhile card-engine. Seekers got that in spades! Grisly Totem or Feed the Mind or Cryptic Research or whatever other card draw you like will find you this, fill your hand with chaff, and you discard the chaff for great benefit on this card.

The attack is accurate and powerful, you typically hit at +7 or better which is a golden number both in Standard and Hard to ensure that the hits land, 3 damage will remove the vast majority of threats, although it'll leave some of the most tricky opponents in the game alive.

So long as you have any sort of sustained card draw in your deck, this card is great. And even when your card draw is so-so, this card is okay.

Tsuruki23 · 2568
Could also be a way for Ursula or Minh to get a Moonstone into play. — Zinjanthropus · 230
It took think card seeing print for me to realize how good Persuasion is in retrospect! — Yenreb · 15
Cryptic Writings

You're just never going to draw it during your turn.

Finding it is nice, but most of the time you will just feel bad and annoyed. It's not important enough to try and search for it with search effects. And the rest of the time it's just a bad Emergency Cache and you'll be cursing it in anger!

The card is quite decent in Norman Withers decks, and I could imagine it in a deck with Scroll of Secrets.

Tsuruki23 · 2568
Heavy disagree. If you build your deck to cycle quickly, you will frequently draw this during your turn. Even Crack the Case require you actually clear a location to get the burst. This is just gas in a draw heavy deck. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Yeah, a typical draw-heavy deck will draw 2x, 3x, or even 6+x as many cards during their turn as during the upkeep. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
And at worst, you've got 2 int symbols, the best non wild symbols to have in the game. It hurts less than accidentally drawing Astounding Rev, which you should still run despite that risk in a search deck. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
I agree with Styx. Harvey with his Vault of Knowledge out has got great odds of drawing this during his turn. If it's early in the game, you'll be glad to have the resources. If it's mid to late game, those icons are beautiful. A great card either way. — Pinchers · 132
@Death by Chocolate, can you link me a deck that draws 6 cards every turn? Curious. — flamebreak · 25
@flamebreak simple example: any Seeker investigates commiting PMP, drawing Perception (2), exhausting Gristly Totem, passing, gaining +4 cards in a single skill test; investigating again commiting the Perception, gaining +2 cards. Exhausts a Taboo'd Scroll for +1 draw. Exhausts Rook for +1 draw. Exhausts Dream-Enhancing Serum for +1 draw. Plays Cryptic Writings for +3 more. Spend 6 secrets from the Necronomican for 6 more cards. Of course, this will be spread out in a few turns to avoid running into the hand size limit...or you might not care becuase you have the Dream Enhancing Sereum in play. — suika · 9511
@flamebreak uh oh you're actually talking to the maker of such a deck. Death by Chocolate made the legendary Trish goes brr deck and it does just that actually. — kellyhoang92 · 1
Question....Is Cryptic Writings a dead card (aside from it's 2 book icons) in your opening hand? My reading of it says YES because drawing your opening hand is not "on your turn" — BillyB · 21
@BillyB You are correct. "Your turn" refers to a specific time within the investigator phase, however your opening hand is drawn before that. — snacc · 1014
Burning the Midnight Oil

On command resources for what you want to be doing anyway. Grab it alongside other economy to fuel a greedy engine (something that runs on Hyperawareness for example, allies or is also doing stuff with guns).

The trick that makes this so nice is that it's unconditional. A Crack the Case requires that you finish a location, this one hands you the resources just for trying (and you are allowed to fail!). All of a suddent you're playing this card and possibly getting a clue along with your resources, instead of just standing there to play Emergency Cache. There is no setup-cost unlike Dr. Milan Christopher.

One thing you might find yourself doing is playing a Roland Banks or Luke Robinson and playing this at a 1-shroud, that's just a really big tempo boost!

Great tempo, completely dependable, valuable benefits. A great addition to the cardpool.

Tsuruki23 · 2568
Whitton Greene

Wholly unimpressive. The faction is chock full of draw-mechanics that are better than this, and there are allies who do the + buff unconditionally.

It is a bit nice that you can use her to sift for a Segment of Onyx and other relics, which is handy sometimes.

She is'nt terrible, she's just worse than the status Quo, which is a pretty high bar to aim for. If there are big nerfs as of this review (Okt 2020) then my stance might drastically change.

Tsuruki23 · 2568
I mean, the Seeker status quo without taboo is Milan and Rook (the latter is fully expected to be taboo soon). Picking between Whitton and taboo Milan seems like a genuine choice, especially if you’re anyone who cares about tomes or relics. Luke starts with one in play, and anyone with Charon’s Obol access can have her bonus on permanently as well (Ursula, Trish). It all depends on what you’re fishing for, but I will say her level 2 version makes taboo Milan look pretty weak, especially as Seekers have better means of burst resources now. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
I tried running her in a few decks, and I'd say she's pretty good. The 2xp version a bit more so though (searching 6 deep is a bit underwhelming). The key is having good targets like Dream Diary, Occult Lexicon, or Crystalline Elder Sign. She can allow you to take some of those as only 1 copy which can save a lot of XP and deck space. Also definitely sturdier than Dr. Milan. — Zinjanthropus · 230
Pretty good for Roland Banks and Joe Diamand get Timeworn Brand, Armor of Ardennes (roland only) and Pendant of the queen. Will boost on her upgrade is also great for both. — Django · 5154
Though, I'm guessing she is worse on higher player counts, as it's less likely that Whitton's controller will be able to reveal all the locations. Also pretty bad if you draw her late after all locations are revealed. — Zinjanthropus · 230