Winifred Habbamock

Insane. It’s very easy to trigger her reaction 2 times in a turn, and to succeed by a lot besides.

Winifred’s biggest drawback is that it can be difficult to find tests to over-succeed with. In a group setting she therefore excels in a similar role to Finn, by engaging that one most problematic enemy and keeping them occupied Wini can turn a poorly located enemy into a repeatable source of cards such that evasion isn’t as big a sink of actions as it might be for other characters. In a solo setting Wini needs Lockpicks up right away so that she can reasonably commit her Opportunists to a number of tests without losing them. The end result of this is a draw machine that rivals even Minh.

Of the Mono-color investigators she is quite easily the best, with access to a card pool which complements her strengths, but she does struggle with Willpower tests. For this you will probably want to hold onto a couple guts and maintain a healthy respect for which tests you can fail without major problem.

Take her for a spin, you won’t regret it.

Difrakt · 1325
No joke about her card draw. I had 2xOpportunist in my hand, 2xPickpocketing out, and Lucky Cigarette case. Ended up drawing through my deck like 4 times in the second half of the game and ended with 20 resources. It was bonkers. — Zinjanthropus · 230
Just as an addition: I was mostly milking one enemy and investigating mostly, as there was only one enemy out. I didn't have any boosts for investigating, so it was just committing a ton of skills. Minh also helped out with analytical mind, though. — Zinjanthropus · 230
Just hope that you don't get amnesia as a weekness. That would really shut the engine down... — Zinjanthropus · 230
How we deal with the low willpower? Same stat as Finn and same problem: a 1 is too low to try to pass the will tests and it's better just to recover sanity aftewards. But unlike Finn we have no acces to acces to Logical Reasoning or Peter Sylvestre. Liquid courage seems not optimal. After checking, neither we have dump allies with high sanity to soak horror and die. Pobably our best bet is the old Elder Sign Amulet. — Matamagos · 4
There are basically three avenues available to (solo) Wini to succeed at an important wp test IME: Either you save up Anything You Can Do Better (which, even on its own brings that number up to 7--You could probably safely add Watch This! (with a bet) to that in a lot of cases--or you run Say Your Prayers, so that once it gets bad enough that you'll die to Rotting Remains, you might be able to not die--probably also want to commit another card or two to this, just in case-- or you commit an entire hand's worth of wild icons to the test (well, maybe not literally your whole hand, but you get the point). I think you probably want to combine all three strategies, really. I don't think you necessarily need to _only_ use AYCDB for that, though. In multiplayer you have "You Handle This One!" which is surprisingly effective considering you'll probably cycle your deck 3-4 times, drawing these cards each time, You can also intentionally pair up with a mystic (who can Ward (2) your tests, potentially, and is probably a good target for YHTO). If not that, consider partnering with somebody who can take Hallowed Mirror or Logical Reasoning. Elder Sign Amulet is probably not a bad idea, either. I actually think taking Versatile for Hallowed Mirror might not be bad either, as Wini probably isn't going to have too much of an issue with the extra 5 cards. — Zinjanthropus · 230
Oh, there's also Money Talks. That's pretty effective if you're running a deck with a lot of resource gain. You _can_ get a ton of resources with nothing more than Watch This and Lone Wolf, but it can take a pretty long time, so if you aren't specifically taking other econ cards, Money Talks might end up being a dead draw for a good chunk of the game. Then again, Say Your Prayers is inherently a dead draw for much of the game, so it's arguable that it's actually any better than Money Talks. Well Connected is probably quite similar. — Zinjanthropus · 230
Does her ability trigger while you are committing cards (basically: can you commit the card she draws in the same test)? — Gandalph · 34
Just listened to the Drawn To The Flame episode for her card reveals. Does 2x Opportunist in a test trigger her ability, or would you need a third card in there? I’m assuming it’s the latter because of the word “different” in her ability. — Hilgendwarf · 1
@Gandalph no you cannot - if you look at the timing window you commit cards and then there is a player window. @Hilgendwarf, yes you need a different named card. — xccam · 1
Of the Mono-color investigators she is quite easily the best. good joke. — Rentgen · 1
.18 Derringer

I think this card is ridiculous. Seems to me like some serious power creep has been introduced with the investigator decks, and this is a prime example of it. All previous survivor weapons have followed an archetype. They're potentially powerful but all come with major drawbacks. Baseball Bat takes two hand slots and can break at any time, Fire Axe only gives extra damage when you burn through all your resources, Meat Cleaver requires you to take horror to trigger the extra damage and only gives a meaningful fight boost when you're already riding the sanity line, Old Hunting Rifle can jam. They're all good, but you need to take the rough with the smooth. This is nothing like any of those weapons. There is no rough. It's insanely overpowered for 2xp.

2 resources to put it into play, +2 fight for +1 damage and not only do you get your bullet back if you miss, doing so also makes it easier to hit next time. So this is 2xp and 2 resources for a guarantee of 6 damage. No other card in the game offers that kind of value. Oh, and this comes in the survivor class where it can easily be recovered from the discard pile and played again. I honestly don't see why any survivor except maaaybe Wendy would ever leave this out of their decks. It's the ultimate auto-include.

I think it will prove to have been a mistake to start releasing obviously OP cards like this. It smacks of an attempt to cash in. The starter decks are pitched as being aimed at new players but I'm willing to bet it'll mostly be experienced players who buy them so they can their hands on cards like this one.

Sassenach · 180
Most experienced players are collectors who buy everything anyway, or at least attempt to, so "attempt to cash in" is kind of a wacky comment, especially when so many of the now Taboo cards are from the *Core Set*. — Soloclue · 2615
I agree that this card is way better than previous survivor weapons but I think that needed to happen. It is very difficult to build a consistent Silas deck that can be the groups main fighter. — Someguy11 · 1
It's clearly OP. This needs to not give the up front +2 and either make it a +1 or make it a +0 and give the followup a +2. I think that makes it a bit less just straight OP. Probably the latter due to the ammo being saved. The taboo cards from the core set is because they were just getting into their design paradigm. This seems clearly like it's back to the old core tabooed design it's basically a guaranteed 6 damage. — LikeWise · 1
well if you compare strictly numbers on the card, its a very very powerful weapon for sure. But don't forget it is also only available to investigators who doesn't do that much fighting. So I don't think it's OP in that sense. I mean its super great in a Yorrick deck... but does it makes Yorrick OP ? nah... — GWItheUltimate · 1
I like that it fits into a different archetype, since most survivor weapons prior to this were of the "do more for less" variety, while the .18 Derringer is a card that plays into the Survivor's ability to "mitigate failure". The problem, if there is one, is that it the two XP you spend on the upgraded version here buys you a lot. Most other weapons with a decent base version get + 1 ammo, or - 1 cost, or +1 fight, alongside a minor or moderate special effect. The .18 Derringer here gets - 1 cost *and* + 1 ammo *and* its special effect gives you a conditional +1 fight. That — RichardUptonDeckman · 33
That is a really good deal! It's in the territory of cards like Blackjack and Switchblade, which were pretty poor level 0 cards, and I don't think .18 Derringer (0) is poor. It doesn't help that a 2-shot, 3-cost gun becoming a 3-shot, 2-cost gun feels like such a dramatic change when adding 1 ammo and losing 1 cost - it's super-efficient! It's not totally out of the realms of the design space, however... some of the 3 XP upgrades on level 0 weapons are this good or better. There's also the fact that while this is certainly a great little gun, it doesn't do anything particularly spectacular - Survivors have always been able to pay down two resources and swing at +2 Fight for 2 damage a hit. This lets you do it one handed, and with a higher floor on your effect, but it's still got a lower than ceiling than baseball bat, which can hit four or more times with a bit of luck and/or a Will to Survive turn. — RichardUptonDeckman · 33
Try to play this "op" on expert, and u change ur opinion after streak of misses — Rentgen · 1
Delilah O'Rourke

Protip: enemies exhaust after attacking during the enemy phase. As such, you may want to trigger her during the player windows that occur before the readying of the enemies, namely between steps 3.3 and 3.4, and between 4.1 and 4.2

jd9000 · 77
This comment right here. hot damn. — Difrakt · 1325
Good point, though it’s hard to setup if the target didn’t spawn at your location or you engage another investigators enemy with your last action — Django · 5162
Sry i meant if the target DID spawn at your location. — Django · 5162
the problem with this is that somebody needs to be taking an attack for this to work. admittedly taking hits isn't that big of a deal, but i don't think you need to for Delilah to be good. that being said, guardian Tony can take Dodge, and probably likes the static +1 combat Delilah gives him. — Zinjanthropus · 230
Boxing Gloves

At first glance, boxing gloves seem almost offensively bad. Compare them to machete: One fewer hand slot, +1 damage, and the same boost to attack, at the cost of some draw power? Of course, Spirit events are quite common in Guardian (with Stand Together being the best, perhaps), but with Boxing Gloves it's extremely important to consider the opportunity cost of two hand slots. Barring some Bandolier shenanigans, you aren't going to be dealing more than 1 damage with non-event attacks. This game is balanced around dealing 2 damage with those attacks, so you're going to need to play +damage events or skills whenever you need to fight. And with the Guardian's notorious lack of early economy... event based fighting doesn't seem particularly good outside of Nathaniel Cho.

This game is balanced around dealing 2+ damage per attack. I have a feeling that even Cho is going to want to grab Machete or Enchanted Blade and leave the Gloves behind.

dichromate · 11
I think the "+1 while fighting" is super interesting; as the other review notes, it improves your other weapons' fight actions (let's ignore the flavor implications there). Still clunky, but very interesting. — SGPrometheus · 847
Nope! — MrGoldbee · 1492
Granny Orne

On tap micro Lucky!. Once per turn. Helps your friends too. Holy moly this chick is up there with the very best allies in the game and by far the hottest girl on campus!

Lucky! is historically among the most useful "deck grease" cards in the game, it makes you better at everything and anything and since playing it is an afterthough it gives you a LOT of leeway to either depend on it to cover the really harsh tokens or to try and beat a test you have no business beating in the first place.

Granny Orne is expensive for a card, the faction doesnt typically require you to gather resources and many characters can coast by by the merit of their natural gains, playing Orne means you need to hold off on playing too many 2-3 cost events like "Look what I found!", Trial by Fire and weapon assets like Meat Cleaver, Ornate Bow and Timeworn Brand become the sort of financial pain that characters typically deal with.

Thankfully,Granny Orne is worth the cost. An on-tap mini-lucky to effectively raise any skill retroactively by 1 is a brilliant ability, and she also sports a defensive boost to and greatly buffs clue-power (effectively by +2 while her ability is unused). All of a suddent a Yorick is clue-ing low shroud spots as though his were 4 and Wendy is clueing like a 5 seeker before accounting for any items she might be using.

I think its fair to say that Orne will be replacing Peter Sylvestre in decks that dont actively depend on Pete's horror regeneration, since the + is objectively better than a + for most characters, the micro-Luckies will easily make up for the added cost and lack of +.

P.S. To whom it hasnt occurred yet, the ability to get a -1 may open the window to play stuff like Eucatastrophe.

Tsuruki23 · 2577
-1 can also give you an extra card dig with Rabbit's Foot 3 — Zinjanthropus · 230
So, I'm pretty sure that you could use Granny's ability and Lucky on the same test to get a monstrous +3. This means that if you're taking tests at +1, you can actually succeed on all but the autofail (in most starting bags. Not TFA, obvs). That's nuts. Combine it with Wendy's ability and you basically don't need to boost. — Zinjanthropus · 230
Nope. It doesn't open the window to play Eucatastrophe, since Euc requires the TOKEN to reduce your skill value to 0 (which is in Step 5). Granny Orne triggers in Step 6, and while you could use her to reduce your Skill value to 0, that would be HER doing that, not the token. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Granny just nuts. She's like +1 to stats of all people at her location while her ability is ready. She's also great with dark horse and 1-2 seals of the elder sign on lola. — Django · 5162
Pair with Motivational Speech in Yorick. — MrGoldbee · 1492