Key of Ys

Key of Ys

I think this is the best card Arkham Horror: LCG has released since Higher Education. Key of Ys is absurdly broken.

For best results, try it with Duke and Peter Sylvestre as Pete. Those two allies will keep the Key in play more or less indefinitely, and you can enjoy what is effectively an 8/7/7/7 stat line. That is totally gamebreaking.

Or try it as Yorick. He can also use the Peter Sylvestre combo, and if the Key somehow does get discarded, Yorick can just play it back! (More often than not 10 discarded cards actually helps him, too.)

Survivors are best poised to take advantage of the Key, but really, anyone can put this to great use.

Yes, it's 5 XP, and you need other sanity-soaking assets in play for it to really work, but the benefits it grants are so absurdly strong that these drawbacks don't come close to balancing it. No matter who you are, the Key makes you an all-around dominant investigator. This card makes Wendy fight like Zoey and Skids resist treacheries like Agnes. What is more, it augments every investigator's strengths, to the point that even the Expert chaos bag stops being that scary. No other card in the game comes close to that.

The "discard the top 10 cards of your deck" proviso is totally irrelevant unless the scenario features Beyond the Veil. Even then, you might not draw Beyond the Veil, and if you do, you can just be careful about keeping the Key in play. That's not a major concern at all.

CaiusDrewart · 3185
@CaiusDrewart, does the wording on the card "+1 to each of your skills" mean that #Duke can get a boost as well? Does it add to the ally skills or only to the investigator's skills? — JuSTiN · 15
@JuSTiN: Duke lets you investigate or fight with a base skill of 4. Any card that provides a passive boost to a stat, such as Magnifying Glass, Dark Horse, or Key of Ys, will modify this new base skill as well. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
+1 for needing other sanity soaks. You really want at least 3 horror available for those "1 horror for each point you fail by" treacheries... — AndyB · 955
Additionally, if the discard effect mills your entire deck, the Key gets shuffled back into your deck! It actually allows you to draw it later! Insane. — SGPrometheus · 847
Based on the card wording, can you avoid putting horror on the Key, by assigning all horror to allies/items? — Daerthalus · 16
@Daerthalus: Yes. That's why this card is super broken if you get it into play with e.g. Peter Sylvester. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
I have played 3 campaigns (2 with Pete and 1 with Minh) the diffrence between having and not having the card is "doing good" to "complete and utter god mode" I don't think a single card should have so much impact, I think it is broken and it needs (imo) to be changed, if you always had to assign horror to the key first I would be fine with it (I would really like the design of the card at that point) :) — Quilzar · 6
@SGPrometheus, not if you have less than ten cards left. The 10 discards are triggered by the key leaving play, which means they are resolved before the discarding of the Key is resolved (see "Nested Sequences") — CSerpent · 126
Why does this card and some other cards don't show up in the deckbuilder screen? I notice this card doesn't show up in the filter for Ashcan Pete Neutral lv1-5 filter on. — XTruFinale · 7
I got it in my opening hand for Marc last friday for The Boundary Beyond. Oh my god. — Apologised · 4
@Apologised: Right??? This card is so broken. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
Incidentally, while I think my initial review has mostly held up, I was incorrect in calling this card the best card since Higher Education. This card is way more broken than Higher Education. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
Agreed. Higher Education is a strong card. This is a broken card. Why it's still not errata'd is a small wonder by itself. — ratnip · 68
Incidentally, ruling via FF customer service: "If an investigator suffers 1 direct horror while he or she has Key of Ys in play, the horror must be placed on Key of Ys instead. However you may assign a non-direct horror to another asset (like Elder Sign Amulet) and it doesn’t have to be placed on Key of Ys. In other words, the horror most only be placed on Key of Ys if it would otherwise be physically placed on your investigator card. Cheers, ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Matthew Newman Senior Card Game Developer" — Cluny · 52
Whats the difference of direct and non-direct horror? — Fuzer · 1
Direct horror must be put on your investigator. Non-direct horror can be put on any of your cards. — ddbrown30 · 3
"According to our current rulings, “you” are “dealt damage” when your investigator or an asset you control is dealt damage." (latest FAQ entry) - so does it mean now you can't dodge assigning horror to key of ys?? I'm so confused ... — klarki · 1
I would say no because the wording specifically says "Placed on you" rather than "dealt horror/damage." So it implies if you are to put allocate the horror to yourself, the 1st horror must be placed on the keys. — linarc · 1

"Eat lead!"

"Eat lead!"

Not the most efficient use of XP. Compare this to Time Warp; both allow you to draw an extra chaos token, but "Eat lead!" only works for Firearm attacks, and forces you to spend ammo on top of that, and has to be played in advance (before you know whether you'll need the extra token or not).

Now, you can get even more tokens from "Eat lead!" if you so desire—but how many tokens do you really need? There’s major diminishing returns here, as each chaos token pulled after the first contributes less and less to your odds of success. Furthermore, ammo is precious. Even spending 1 extra hurts quite a bit, let alone 2 or 3. This really limits the effectiveness of this card with Shotgun or Lightning Gun, since the ammo is just so precious. It's a bit better with the .32 Colt, but I don't think I'd rush out and spend my XP on that.

I’m not saying this card has no place at all. "Worse than Time Warp" is not the same thing as unplayable. A janky Double or Nothing/Shotgun/Extra Ammunition deck is probably pretty excited to see this card. And with Stick to the Plan, for which both Extra Ammunition and "Eat lead!" are valid targets, these elaborate multi-card combos are more achievable than they first appear. But generally speaking, this card isn’t that powerful for 2 XP. That’s disappointing, since Firearms could have used a stronger buff than this.

CaiusDrewart · 3185
The difference between this and Time Warp is that you can draw the same token twice with time warp, since the token you pull goes back in the bag as part of the reset. Your odds are like, 1/34 to do so, but that's a non-zero chance, which this card avoids. — SGPrometheus · 847
Right, you avoid the chance of autofail -> Time Warp -> autofail. But that so statistically unlikely that it has to be a very minor consideration, and surely can't outweigh the many other disadvantages of Eat Lead. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
I just think the ability to literally guarantee an attack is worth 2xp and 1 ammo. In an extremely tense scenario, the difference between "this will hit" and "this will probably hit" is huge. — SGPrometheus · 847
It's an interesting consideration. I agree that psychologically, the difference between guaranteed and very likely feels huge. In terms of maximizing your odds of winning the scenario, the difference cannot be accounted that big. Still, I don't disagree that this is a viable use of 2 XP down the line. Like I said, compared to other cards that pull extra tokens (you could add Grotesque Statue to the list) it's unimpressive. But that doesn't make it awful. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
I think an important consideration for this card is that, unlike Time Warp and Grotesque Statue, Guardians can actually take it. It's unique as a guardian card as it's their only card that provides that "re-draw a token" effect. — SGPrometheus · 847
@SGPrometheus: Certainly a valid point. Perhaps the designers very deliberately didn't want Guardians to get token manipulation effects as strong as those of other classes. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
I feel that's definitely the case. — SGPrometheus · 847
@SGPrometheus: Yeah, we see the designers do that in other areas. E.g. Clarity of Mind is pretty much just worse than First Aid, and Fearless is pretty much just worse than Inspiring Presence. Clearly Guardians are meant to get better healing cards than Mystics do. I guess it's the opposite with extra token effects. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
Getting more chances of drawing an Elder Sign with Zoey firing the colt and avoiding the auto fail is well worth the price, imo. — Freeman · 5

Key of Ys

Key of Ys

A card poised to take Arkham Horror by storm (get it?).

I don't have to say much. Most investigators will benefit from this, especially if they have any way of off-shoring sanity to other assets (it has been confirmed the "you" is your investigator card).

So if you are a Mystic, Survivor, or Seeker you have assets that can help shield your Key.

Guardians without access to these card pools will struggle, but even they have beat-cops to take a few hits to keep the key around longer.

Rogues also struggle a bit to use this card without those dips due to ally selection, but they have a few things that can work.

Solo, this card is a monster. Multiplayer, you probably will have 1 person who is considering it and is trying to build around it.

Let them. Because once it gets 2 or 3 horror on it, they become hyper efficient.

Myriad · 1226
Yeah, I agree with you, which actually brings up my one issue with it: is it okay for a card to be good (or great) in literally every deck? I fell like it kind of waters down class identity, but I'm not the one making the cards. — SGPrometheus · 847
@SGPrometheus: I agree. I think a neutral XP card this powerful was a mistake. The individual strengths and weaknesses of classes and investigators--some of the most interesting parts of this game--become less meaningful if literally anyone can take the Key and become godly. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
It's a 5XP card, that does nothing, when it hits play, and might continue to do nothing, if you do not find a way to get horror on you... — Adny · 1
Well, in the second half of the Carcosa campaign you can simply say "Hastur" a few times. Even in other circumstances, it is generally really easy to take a couple horror in this game. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
@adny: The very fact that it changes horror from something you avoid into something you're seeking is game-warping. Horror is one of the ways the game punishes you, and this card makes it useful to you. Agreed though, 5xp is a hefty price tag, but if it does nothing all game, then you probably won the scenario super hard and didn't need it. — SGPrometheus · 847
After seeing this card absolutely dominate in three separate campaigns by completely different investigators, I would really appreciate witnessing a game where Key of Ys 'does nothing'. — ratnip · 68

Infighting

Infighting

Seems too situational and expensive to be worthwhile. The icons are good, but I don't think I would pay for this in any deck.

It is usually a worse dodge... keep that in mind.

It might get better in a scenario with a crapton of enemies.

Until then, skip this.

Myriad · 1226
A worse Dodge (and I’d agree with that assessment) for 3 XP is pretty rough. The Survivor XP cards not named Peter or Will to Survive continue to disappoint. — CaiusDrewart · 3185
Can this be good? Are the icons good enough to warrant an include in some decks? For 3xp, I doubt it. I can't imagine a survivor deck where your aim is to engage as many enemies as possible, which is where this would really shine. Obviously in solo it's extra bad, but even in multiplayer it's uncommon to see multiple enemies, let alone in one location, let alone being engaged by the survivor. — SGPrometheus · 847

Newspaper

Newspaper

Its Newspaper 2.0.

If you loved Newspaper you will love this.

If you hated Newspaper, you will hate this.

Its great in Solo. Weaker in multiplayer and probably best for Survivors who cannot take seeker splashes.

But it does have some cool synergy with look what I found and drawn to the flame.

So... there is that?

Myriad · 1226
I think this is an amazing solo card I think, and means you can investigate with Duke on 6 and get 2 clues with Pete.and in say Yorik in multiplayer it could get some good use, there are often times 2 clues is enough to advance the agenda or the game in some manor — Quilzar · 6