Stargazing

Existing reviews for Stargazing understate its power. A comparison to Ward of Protection is in some ways fair, as both are low level Mystic events that mitigate the debilitating effects of the Mythos Phase, but they do so in very different ways, and are ultimately quite different beasts. User Bronze is right to point out that, where Ward protects your party from a particularly nasty treachery, such as Ancient Evils, Stargazing instead reduces the number of encounter cards you draw, replacing one of your next 11 encounter deck draws with The Stars are Right. Ward of Protection is a comparatively costly silver bullet to shut down a punishing treachery, and Stargazing is all-round Mythos Phase protection and fantastic value proposition. I think it is ultimately clear that Stargazing has a place in more decks than Ward.

User AquaDrehz rightly points out that the action economy for Stargazing is exceptionally favourable. You draw one fewer encounter card, which saves you whatever cost you would have spent dealing with that. This is a variable reward, but while some encounter cards can be shrugged off, others (e.g. Frozen in Fear) can eat several actions or outright threaten to defeat a vulnerable investigator (e.g. Rotting Remains). Many enemies you draw will do both! Preventing just a single encounter draw can be a substantial action advantage, but on top of that, The Stars are Right makes Stargazing effective action economy too. You trade an action and a card for an action, a card, and a resource. That might not sound amazing, but the ability to move actions from one turn to another is often useful, and The Stars are Right can grant any investigator the reward. Stargazing is a bit like an Easy Mark in that it replaces itself and grants a meager resource benefit, but it also lowers the threat of the encounter deck and re-gifts the action spent to play it. This is incredible value!

The catch is that the reward comes later, and is only guaranteed while there are enough encounter deck draws left before the end of the scenario. In a 2-player game, you are guaranteed to draw The Stars are Right by the 6th round following your playing Stargazing. That is a while to wait for your reward, and you will also have to beware of effects that shuffle the encounter deck, which could put The Stars are Right completely out of reach. These effects usually come from advancing agendas, and you can play around them in many of the scenarios where they come up. While Stargazing clearly has a larger window with more players and in longer scenarios, most scenarios have plenty of time to Stargaze, and you won't hate missing it in your opening hand as much as the Tarot assets. In short, Stargazing's conditions are not as restrictive as you might have thought. Solo play is really where that condition becomes truly cumbersome as 11 rounds is too long to wait.

While playing through Return to Path to Carcosa, I occasionally found myself playing Stargazing even when the team weren't totally guaranteed to draw The Stars are Right due to the encounter deck shuffling or the scenario ending before we could draw 11 more cards from it. The value you gain from drawing The Stars are Right is so great that it is sometimes even worth gambling on! It also just feels incredibly good to draw something actually positive and helpful from the encounter deck, which usually has you reaching gingerly across the table for whatever punishment the mythos has in store for you. Stargazing is going to be a staple of my Mystic decks for the foreseeable future.. which is kind of fun to say given that its Augury traited!

Trinity_ · 203
I agree, this card is incredibly good! It is balanced in that you can only play it a maximum of twice in a game, which while being enough, does have that hard and fast cap. It is also good synergy with Drawn to the Flame as well as other cards that have you drawing encounter cards for the simple fact that you're more likely to get Stars Are Right to trigger. — LaRoix · 1645
This card feels so much better than it actually is in my opinion. It is good, but it is no Ward. Drawing one less card from the encounter deck is good, but cancelling one of the worst cards in the next 11 draws is much stronger action economy most of the time- you choose both what AND when you cancel, on too of Ward also being fast, all for a resource, a card, and a horror (and as Diana you refund the first two). In multiplayer I can see most Mystics wanting this card anyway, but Ward 2 is still the much higher priority pick, and it scales across all counts very well. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Top* — StyxTBeuford · 13028
I believe you are plainly wrong that Ward is stronger action economy. Diana is obviously a special case because of her ability, so ignoring her for a moment: Playing WoP is comparable to drawing a treachery with "Revelation: Discard a card, lose a resource, take a horror". While getting to turn something nasty like Ancient Evils into a treachery like that is often fantastic, The Stars Are Right is an even better encounter card to draw because it is actually positive tempo! Ward's upside is not action economy, but in being able to target specific treacheries and lessen their blow. They are actually very different cards, and while I cannot say that Stargazing is flatly better than WoP, I think it is clear that it is a more broadly applicable card for just always being good tempo. WoP gets priority for the specific role of targetting awful treacheries and protecting vulnerable teammates from them. — Trinity_ · 203
I think you're undervaluing the ability of targeting itself relative to action economy. Ward 2 guarantees I can save it to target Frozen in Fear on my Rogue, which potentially saves as many actions as there are rounds left. Stargazing does not. Both are otherwise action neutral. One gains you a resource, one loses you a card and a resource, but neither is equal to an action. Stargazing only wins if you value every treachery card equally, which you should not. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
My experience with Stargazing has been that most scenarios shuffle the encounter deck before you can draw it. It is pretty great in scenarios that don't reshuffle the encounter deck, though. I would think it's a lot better in higher player counts, though, as you get through a lot more of the encounter deck before reshuffling. — Zinjanthropus · 229
I think all of you miss 2 facts that make ward better: 1. Stargazing is random. So if only 1 doom is missing ward will always work against ancient evils (or grasping hands or rotting remains if they'd kill you). 2. There's a limited amount of each treachery in the mythos deck. Stargazing delays them, while Ward removes them. — Django · 5108
That’s exactly what I meant by the targeting being valuable in and of itself. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Trading an action now for "the most useful investigator's" action later is such amazing value that it's really worth emphasising. — Rooftop · 1
I'm currently playing this in Luke Robinson, and I pretty much only play it while in dream prison. Trading 1-2 of Luke's least valueable actions in the game for 1-2 actions of the most useful investigator when they come up is a brilliant deal. — Rooftop · 1
Recently had a game where both times, The Stars are Right was a tempo boost. For clearing a treachery that prevented movement, our gator most suited to do the task needed the action economy to take care of other dangerous options. And for our Dexter to attach The Skeleton Key. — Lemmingrad · 21
"Get over here!"

Less a review, and more of a note/question.

Similar to Deciphered Reality, It's worth noting that this card doesn't have the world "instead" or "but" on it. This means that the latter half of the effect is not a replacement effect, but an additional effect. Is that accurate? I believe that means that this allows you to Engage and Fight something that's already at your location. After resolving that, you could then choose an enemy up to 2 locations away, move it to your location, engage it, and attack it.

Is that accurate? If so, this becomes even better than it appears at a glance, giving you an opportunity for two separate engages and attacks, or two attacks at the same target. This adds a lot of flexibility as a fast action in exchange for the cost - especially since it means Nathaniel Cho will potentially deal up to 3 damage with it.

If that changes on release or a ruling clarifies things, it's likely still a reasonable card. However, there might be even more power in it than one expects at a glance.

Edit: The recent 2021-06-28 FAQ to Seeking Answers and the comment which said, "some players (rightfully) interpreted it to discover 3 clues in total", leads me to suspect this even further. The same applies for Righteous Hunt - none of the wording explicitly indicate you engage the specified enemy "instead" of the standard enemy you'd engage, or indicate that you can select the distant enemy as a valid target for the standard Engage action. This definitely seems like a case where the intent is clear, but a strict reading of the rules leaves some very odd gaps, and it only hasn't become an issue because only the three cards and Riot Whistle would really interact with it.

Ruduen · 1010
No, the rules state that bold action designators perform the rules action, modified by the card ability. It's clear I believe from context that the card text is modifying Engage and Fight and not adding an additional effect — tessarji · 1
Considering the 2020-06-28 FAQ confirming that Seeking Answers, which lacked the "Instead" clause, was an additional effect on top, I'm still not certain that that's actually the case. I think that's probably the original intent, but the reading of it is still weird. — Ruduen · 1010
The FAQ is simply saying that it was reasonable players would interpret the card that way, not that they were correct in doing so. The actually errata itself (in the FAQ document and reposted on this site) clarify that the intent was always to replace the effects of the original Investigate, not add to them. As that was their intent, there's no reason to think that the same intent doesn't apply here - in other words, you only engage one enemy and only fight one time with this card. — Sethala · 5
Heya y'all, question for the community: — Quantallar · 8
Strange Solution

If this were the only choice for upgrading Strange Solution, I would rarely, if ever, use it. But given the availability of Strange Solution, no one in their right mind should ever choose this. 4 evades versus 3 attacks with +2 damage each? Evading is generally only better than attacking when the enemy is not hunter and you can do what you need to do and leave the location the same turn. This card should have had at least 6 supplies to be in the same ballpark as Acidic Ichor.

jmmeye3 · 629
Evasion version of archaic glyphs is so much better if you don't need the arcane slot. Your INT will be higher than 6, easier to boost, you get a clue and you're much more flexible what you evade. You could help you fighter so he can kill a cultist with the final doom. — Django · 5108
I think this card was a pretty big miss. Acidic Ichor is a test at 6 with +2 action economy of upside, while this has... no bonus effect. Maybe if this had ‘If successful, they don’t refresh this round.” would give it enough value to be viable and play into the flavor of a freezing solution IMO. At least the healing one (the other 4 supply option) gets 2 units of value with its healing, and the Econ (with 3 supply) gives 3 units of value. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
I could see playing this with Joe Diamond if I were ever silly enough to play him in TFA. He would be able to take care of some enemies but would need to be able to evade some during the campaign. But Django is right that Archaic Glyphs is much better since it is untested. — The Lynx · 980
There is one reason that you might consider Strange Solution over Archaic Glyphs and that is the synergy with Supply cards like Fingerprint Kit. You can add ECache or Venturer if you are Joe to reload either one. — The Lynx · 980
Daredevil

(review edited 2023-09-10)

Disclaimer: this interpretation is just mine, and not offical one.

Original version: if all of the following conditions hold, discarded weakness would not be shuffled into the deck. It means that the weakness can be passed.

  • Only the single weakness card is discarded.
  • No compatitable rogue skill card exist. It means all cards in the deck should be discarded.
  • The test is initiated during the playing a card (commonly event) or during the revalation of the effect.

This is reinterpretation of FAQ point 1.13, linked here.

Taboo 2.1 (2023-08-30): if all of the following conditions hold, discarded weakness would not be drawn. It means that the weakness can be passed.

Notable things:

  • The number of weaknesses in the deck is not important, now.
  • The deck is needed to be rebuilded and cannot stay discarded.

This is reinterpretation of the offical FAQ related to Pilfer found in offical FAQ document and arkhamDB Pilfer FAQ.

elkeinkrad · 499
I believe the drawing cards rules state that "When a player draws two or more cards as the result of a single ability or game step, those cards are drawn simultaneously. If a deck empties middraw, reset the deck and complete the draw." — masterearth · 1
It's not draw though - it's discard. Elkienkrad is correct. — Eggzavier · 1
Drawing Thin

One question that might have been answered elsewhere: the Taboo instructs that this card costs 3 additional experience, but it's still a level 0 card, right? So, Preston or Marie can use it in their decks.

fran · 1
Correct, it’s still level 0 — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Correct — NarkasisBroon · 10