Charon's Obol

Charon's Obol

I was extremely excited when I first saw this card. I thought I was going to immediately buy it in every Rogue deck I ever played. XP is incredibly powerful and fun in this game, after all. But the more I play with this card, the less I like it.

The odds that your character dies at some point in missions 2-7 of your campaign (if they die in mission 1 or mission 8, that's not really relevant for the Obol) are just way too high. Even if you run "I'm outta here!" and Cheat Death, I just think the risk is too great. Starting over midway through a campaign at 0 XP is a truly terrible feeling. In solo, maybe it doesn't feel quite so bad, but I really would not recommend this in multiplayer.

Note that "I'm outta here!" is far from a perfect failsafe here. Many scenarios don't have a resign space or have one that doesn't show up until the final Act. It won't save you then.

Moreover, Charon's Obol can also hurt you even if you don't die. This is because the Obol makes you play scared. Vastly increasing the consequences of dying makes it harder to play effectively. A very common situation in this game is the following: your investigator is severely hurt, down to 1 or 2 health or sanity remaining, but only a couple of turns away from a potential victory. What should you do? A normal investigator can go for the win. Sure, you might take a trauma, but that's not really a big deal at all. And you might win! With the Obol, you can't really do that any more. The consequences of defeat are too high to take otherwise profitable risks.

Furthermore, playing the Obol can force you to stuff your deck with durability cards (like the aforementioned "I'm outta here!" and Cheat Death), at the expense of better cards that actually help you win the scenario directly. This hurts your deck and can mean that your deck's power level isn't that much higher than a deck that doesn't run the Obol, but also doesn't have to run these cards.

Still, I can see the temptation here. If you like the thrill of risk and are OK with a strong chance of having to starting over, go ahead. But personally, I find the game much less fun when I'm running the Obol. And setting considerations of fun aside, if I were just trying to maximize my odds of winning the campaign, I do not think I would take it.

CaiusDrewart · 3191
What this card boils down to is this: Get an extra 13 xp over the course of a campaign. (5 if playing Night of the Zealot)(2 of that xp only counts if you carry the character over, so really 11/3) In exchange, tension is considerably higher, as every failed chaos pull or monster becomes magnified. If you like the tension, take it; if you don't like tension, then ask yourself if that 11 xp is worth all the stuff Caius listed above. — CecilAlucardX · 10
Check your math. The Obol is exceptional, so it costs 2 xp, and since you can't buy it until after the first mission, you only relevantly have it for 2-7 (if you don't carry over) in a campaign or just 2 in NotZ which makes it worth a net 10 xp in a campaign or a net 0 in NotZ. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
If you're forging your own path in TFA it will net you 14xp including the final scenario (12 that you can actually use without carrying it over). Unless my math is way off. There's two extra scenarios, and one scenario where it gets removed from your deck ahead of time, so you don't get the XP. — Zinjanthropus · 230

Suggestion

Suggestion

This card gets very broken with Sefina especially when combined with pickpocket lvl 2. One of the best combos we've found so far for it. Keeping elite enemies locked down whilst the team gets work done

Vicoforbes · 21
Certainly an effective combo, but given that 6 XP worth of cards are involved, I'm not sure it's fair to call it broken. But yes, I really like this for Sefina. — CaiusDrewart · 3191
Absolutely awesome with Sefina. Good with Akachi, though there's a lot of competition for her Arcane slots. Unconvincing for Skids and Jenny. — AndyB · 955
Why is it that good on Sefina? Just because she has 4 willpower? — QDI · 1
4 willpower and 4 agility. This adds willpower to the evasion check, so added to agility, it totals 8. — Lemmingrad · 21
But is it worth 4 XP? Cat Burglar and Elusive already provide guaranteed evasion and action compression to boot. — QDI · 1
Put that card in a Marie Lambeau deck and she gets a free evade action at 7 every turn as long as she has a doom on a card she controls. Like a Finn! — Ezhaeu · 50
this is probably a good way for Sefina to trigger win-by-2 type effects like Quick Thinking. Starting at 8 is already good, but Sefina also has access to others ways to boost agility and willpower. — Zinjanthropus · 230

Pickpocketing

Pickpocketing

The lvl 0 of this card is barely usable. But this one is down right broken with Sefina if you combine it with suggestion. Sefina can easily get suggestion up to 9 to 10 without boosts and can keep elite enemies locked down whilst the rest of the team gets some work done. Jenny can probably use this as well with suggestion with a bit more work. very very strong combo

Vicoforbes · 21
How does this interact with automatic evades? — dkayarkhamdb · 14
@dkayarkhamdb An automatic evade is still an evade, so pickpocketing will trigger. However, automatic actions are not considered "successful" as no skill test was actually performed - you just resolve the effects. Therefore you will never trigger the "if you succeed by 2" part with an automatic evade. — snacc · 1020
To add to above comment, automatically evade (Stray Cat) is not the same as Evade then get an automatically successful test (getting elder sign as Wendy + Amulet). In the latter case, test's difficulty is considered 0, and is likely that Pickpocketing (2) triggers. — 5argon · 11243

Stick to the Plan

Stick to the Plan

Re: Lola and this card, confirmed from Fantasy Flight rules enquiries: "...though Lola technically has access to Stick to the Plan, at the time its ability would be triggered, she has not yet chosen a starting role and therefore cannot trigger the ability on Stick to the Plan (rendering it rather useless for her). Matthew Newman."

Cluny · 52
It is possible to add two copies of the same card? For ex. 2 copies of shortcut and 1 of elusive. — alberttrombone · 40
Yea that’s my question too. Stick two Emergency Cache or two Prepared for the worst certainly changes whether or not I’ll shelve out the exp for it. Ideally, you’ll have 3 cards in mind to attach to it every scenario, although I suppose I could see myself changing it up depending upon the scenario. — LaRoix · 1646
No, it says 3 different - so all three must have different card names. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
@DeathByChocolate Where did you find that "different ... events" means differently named cards? So not allowing for example Emergency Cache (0) and Emergency Cache (2). Is there some general ruling on the word different? I didn't find a reference. — Kvothe · 2
@Kvothe "Different cards are cards with different titles (excluding subtitles). (e.g. two copies of Ward of Protection are not considered to be "different," even if they have different levels." - from the FAQ — Emelka · 1
This ruling has been reversed and Stick to the Plan (and similar effects) WILL trigger for Lola. See her page for details. — MindControlMouse · 45

Ambush

Ambush

A group, meta card. If your group is running any combination of Alyssa Graham, On the Hunt, Split the Angle and/or Scrying, this card is really, really good as you will always know exactly when to use it.

And at 1 XP, it is worth the buy in those situations.

Outside of it, I would probably only run 1 in a On the Hunt Guardian (aka almost everyone everyone who can run guardian). If nothing else, you pay 2 and 2 to save you an action on your next turn.

Myriad · 1226
I had this card in mark's deck in 2 missions. It's great when it works, but it was a dead draw most of the time. Should be a good combo with Scryning 3. — Django · 5162