Vault of Knowledge

Probably one of the worst signatures in the game, it gives you an increased hand size which is the only thing saving it from the trash bin. There are major flaws with this card that need to be addressed.

A: you can only use this if you pigeon hole yourself into the role of clue gathering, which means to even get to use this effect you have to be willing to discard every other viable action you could do with Harvey, seriously! being forced to investigate every single round can really force you to be stuck where the clues are and away from the action.

B: its benefit is actual a downside when you think about it, so besides it amazing ability to hoard cards it also makes you draw cards from your deck, every card taken from your deck just gets you closer to a weakness and an eventual horror damage, its not worth speeding up that kind of doom clock, you use this too much and you may end up losing half your sanity just because you drew cards. (and if you use Harvey's ability you end up doubling the speed of your own demise)

C: it can grief your teammates... Unacceptable. You can force a teammate to draw weaknesses, discard cards from their overstuffed hands and take horror damage as you repeatedly get them to draw through their entire decks, I can't imagine any player ever wanting to play alongside a Harvey and seriously disrupting the natural rhythm of their deck to a faster more dangerous beat.

Side note: while its icons aren't good (triple fight would allow you to use strange solutions on bosses more regularly) the real killer is even if you try and get rid of this card Harvey's natural ability will likely make you just draw it again, especially if you are sensible and try and commit it when your deck is near empty and need to rid yourself of its vile temptation/S.

Zerogrim · 296
I.... cannot tell if this is sarcastic. Card draw always gets you closer to weaknesses on average, but that's not inherently a bad thing if you expect to draw through your deck anyway. I've said it multiple times, but card draw in Arkham is still heavily beneficial outside of Doomed decks and almost always worthwhile. The issues of Harvey taking too much damage from his weakness is fairly solvable with a single Bulletproof Vest, while the sanity issue is fairly moot as long as you have any allies at all. In any case, both Harvey's sig and his ability allow other investigators to draw cards as well, so if you are concerned with burning yourself too quickly, you can throw the draw onto someone who needs it more instead. Now, I don't think this is as good of a card draw signature as Minh's Analytical Mind, but it's still a perfectly solid signature, with the ability to transfer the draw to other investigators making it an incredibly useful tool in groups. Does your Guardian need more draw to find the weapon they need? Is your Rogue looking for that last Ace for Three Aces? You get the picture- this thing has pretty great group utility. Finally, the problem of needing to investigate every turn. I don't get this at all- you're Harvey Walters, an investigator with 5 intellect and only Seeker cards in your pool. Yes, you should be investigating virtually every turn. As long as you do it once a turn, you can trigger this every turn, but there's no reason you need to investigate just to trigger this, it's something that leans into what you should already want to be doing instead of constraining you. It's sort of like complaining that Grete Wagner gets you clues only if you're fighting- technically true, but you should really only be using the card if that was your plan to begin with. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
I find it really funny actually that in a game where you can play cards like You Handle This One, You Owe Me One, and Delve too Deep, that this card is somehow the step too far in terms of potential griefing, and for what it's worth, all of those cards are very good. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
Literally a sarcasm tag at the end, man. Even without it, if you find yourself wondering if something's sarcastic, maybe wonder a little more before writing out an essay in response. — SSW · 217
sat·ire /ˈsaˌtī(ə)r/ Noun: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. — SGPrometheus · 855
The /S at the end I thought only applied for the whole last paragraph. I literally could not tell if it referred to the whole thing. I apologize. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
I thought it was more interesting than writing "A free card draw every turn that you can give to allies is universally great, the one thing I don't like is the big hand nudge but that can be ignored" in case anyone still had doubts on what my point really was. — Zerogrim · 296
Great bit! /s — MrGoldbee · 1496
Candidly my thinking was, if this were a sarcastic post, that it should have clarification on why those points are not necessarily correct, since this is a review. I meant no offense, I just wanted to make sure I hit the points I wanted to hit. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
Drawing the Sign

I pulled "Drawing the Sign" as my random basic weakness for Sefina in my circle undone campaign, and it really hurts! Drawing this during the upkeep phase when you have a hand full of cards is really frustrating (which is, I suppose, good for a weakness). This weakness has the potential to force a player to discard 5 cards at the end of the round (it's caused me to discard 9 over the past two scenarios)! Naturally, it'll hurt big-handed investigators like Safina and some Seekers. But, in contrast, it would be a pretty mild weakness for investigators that operate with few cards in-hand.

It's also hilarious thematically. Sefina is focusing on all of the spells and tricks that she can pull off for the objectives but then she gets completely distracted by drawing the sign and forgets most of what she had been thinking about.

I love your thematic explanation! — Nenananas · 273
I like to hand-pick thematic weaknesses for my investigators rather than draw random, so this was actually my immediate choice for her. It really stings to pull in your opening hand! — Chiligoat · 1
@Chiligoat Since you seem to implying otherwise: replacing weaknesses is not part of mulliganing; it's just part of creating an opening hand. Even though Sefina cannot mulligan, she still replaces weaknesses in her opening hand (except for The Tower/Devil, obviously, whose "before or after taking a mulligan" reminder text serves as, well, a reminder of that distinction). — anaphysik · 98
so, if Patrice draws this, does she just discard her whole hand and then draws no cards in upkeep until it is discarded? Also, would it force her to discard "The Watcher"? — crispy66 · 4
@crispy66: I assume yes, she has to discard her hand totally, but not the Watcher. Watcher is a hidden card, and this type of cards is specifically mentioned in the rules: it can be discarded by no other means except the one written on it. She can discard weaknesses without "hidden" keyword though, like the Tower or Reckless. — chrome · 68
.45 Thompson

This card is disappointing. You are spending an additional 3 XP, and you are getting nothing but -1 cost and a difficult to use limited special ability.

First, fighting more than one enemy at once is something that happens, but it is a lot less common than fighting one opponent. Two, even if you are fighting two opponents, you probably have to hit by quite a lot to activate the power, it isn't that easy to do, you’d better be pretty great at fighting. Three, even when you get into the magic situation and it works, it still costs ammo, so all you are saving is an action. And other cards which give “two actions for the price of one” have the advantage that you only have to spend your boost cards on one action instead of two. but in this case, you have to hit by so much to trigger the special power, that it probably would require fewer boost cards to hit twice normally then to make the one really good hit that activates the power, so really, you aren't gaining much other than saving an action.

Now, it is true that saving an action in combat is a particularly good time to save an action, but this card just places too many limitations on that saved action. As an upgrade, compare it to .41 Derringer (2), which has a much easier to activate general purpose way to give you an extra action, and gives you an increased hit bonus. This upgrade costs more XP and does a lot less.

ChristopherA · 114
Even in two player, tony draws an enemy, the seeker draws an enemy, tony then kill's both with a single action with no risk of hurting the seeker. When I play the monster slayer in a team I am shooting over allies constantly to save them, if you are luck enough that enemies only ever show up one at a time this is still 5 bullets for 5 resources, you only get its "downside" when things are going great to begin with. (so in reality to do what this does you're trading boosting to a high number to save two actions) — Zerogrim · 296
Tony hates this weapon for several reasons. Firstly, his ability works for fighting and engaging, so the need to hit another enemy on the same location is reduced. Tony's 5 fight also makes him an eays place to run oversuccess cards which keep his actions strong and allow him to take even more of them. Tony also tends to like one handed weapons a lot more- whether it's Switchblade 2, Knuckleduster, Timeworn Brand, or his own signature, Tony tends to prefer having multiple options instead of being constrained by a 2 handed weapon. Wors to fall though is that this weapon is ridiculously inefficient compared to most upgrade weapons since it requires an additional ammo to even use its ability, so you're not really getting much in terms of compression. Compare this to the Guardian version, which refunds itself allowing you to easily set up another weapon, whereas this just burns through itself slightly faster, which is heavily undesirable for a two handed weapon that forces you to forgo any backup. Compare this to Switchblade 2, Lupara, Mauser 2, or .41 2, all of which are way more appealing to me than this. — StyxTBeuford · 13052
Worst of all*, excuse me — StyxTBeuford · 13052
I agree that it's very rare case to use spend 2 ammo. However, it has high potential because all additional damage from other card are also applied at second shot. With Vicious(2), your damage is 4+4. With Enchanted Thompson, your damage is 3+3. — elkeinkrad · 498
I think the only scenarios where I would consider taking this upgrade are the one with numerous easy to hit swarming enemies — Tharzax · 1
The damage doubling is definitely neat. Maybe in a Skids deck with Well Prepared and weapon upgrades like Reliable? — StyxTBeuford · 13052
Arcane Studies

As an upgrade to the regular Arcane Studies, this is a rather impressive and really cool upgrade, turning a card that occasionally gives a bonus when you have extra money, to a card which gives bonuses all the time. It is impressive enough to consider whether you would want to take it primarily for its free bonuses, even if you would not put the basic version of the card in your deck. For that purpose, the closest other Mystic card to compare it to would seem to be Recall the Future, so here is a comparison:

  1. The +2 bonus from Arcane Studies is a much stronger bonus than +2 on only a single named token. The comparison depends very much on the bag and the circumstances, but I'd estimate it is roughly twice as strong as the bonus from Recall the Future, or perhaps a teensy bit less.
  2. The full free +2 bonus can only be used once per turn, while the bonus from Recall the Future can usually be used on every test during a turn, since you won't often be forced to exhaust it.
  3. Recall the Future can be used on any kind of skill test, Arcane Studies cannot be used on combat and agility checks.
  4. Arcane Studies also has the ability of the original Arcane Studies to let you spend extra money to increase the bonus or use it more times.
  5. Arcane Studies costs two more experience points.

In general, since it is fairly common for characters not to make many skill checks during a turn, and one of those checks may be more important than the others, I tend to think that (1) outweighs (2) and is a small net advantage for arcane studies. But the difference is not enough to outweigh (5), so it comes down to (3) and (4). Standard spellcasting Mystics don't use combat or agility very much at all, but if you are making a character who does routinely fight with combat or evade with agility, you will want Recall the Future. And if you are tight with money and don't ever expect to use (4), you will also prefer Recall the Future. But otherwise, this is a good solid card, and is worth putting in a deck if you would have been interested in the original version of arcane studies but felt it was not efficient enough to be worthwhile.

ChristopherA · 114
Dayana Esperence

This card has a really cool effect, and other reviews describe ways to use this cool effect, but I would like to very clearly point out that this card also has a major disadvantage, which is that it is really expensive. What this card really does is to take one card in your hand, and convert it to three identical cards. Which means that, ultimately, you are spending 4 resources, 3 XP, a card, and an action, merely to draw two extra cards, which is an outrageously expensive way to draw extra cards. In return, you get the advantage of drawing a specific card (albeit one you must already have in your hand) rather than a random card.

What this means is that in order for this ally to be worthwhile, the card you place on it can't just be a nice card, it has to be a really, really super great card, so great that it is still a great card to play even if you increase the cost by a huge amount.

Now, to be fair, this isn’t the only thing you get for playing Dayana, as an ally she does have the advantage of soaking up damage for you. But then, she also has the disadvantage of eating up a very valuable ally slot, so this doesn't change the net calculation all that much, she still is mega-expensive for each "virtual card draw" she gives you.

ChristopherA · 114
Play parallel Agnes. Much cheaper. — MrGoldbee · 1496
Slapping Deny Existence on her is pretty solid. — SGPrometheus · 855
it would be more correct to say "add two copies of the best spell event in your deck to your deck, then tutor them out for free" which is maybe better than draw 2. maybe. — Zerogrim · 296
If you compare her with other allies who give extra uses like the sophist or the venture I think she is really good, because of her soak and her flexibility depending on the events in your deck. And getting additional secrets isn't hard, especially for her best buddy Luke — Tharzax · 1
Comparing her to Venturer and Sophist is doing her a disfavour. She is 3 XP more, so of course she has to be better. Her soak is rather unique. She can take more damage than other mystic allies, but only one horror. This is often very apreciateted, because moste mystics are more squishi on the meat than the mind, but it means, that you have to be cautiouse, if you want to use her for WoP, which still can be a great target, because it costs only 1 resource and is very powerfull, in particular if you go to level 2 or 5. I concur, DE (5) is probably one of the best value for money with her. I particular recommend this combo in Diana, because the cultist can take "Well Prepared", and Dayana is a great additional target for that card. Of course, you can also plan to use her on more expensive spells, but you would need a budget plan for that. The sugestion to use her on parallel Agnes seems very clever to me. Will try it out, when I play her. — Susumu · 382
I don't agree, because the usefulness of the sophist and the venturer depend on the supported assets, which need the xp to shine. Even if you use level 0 events like spectral razor you get a lot out of Diana. — Tharzax · 1