Spirit Athame

Generally lackluster...but I'm gonna run this card with Favor of the Moon and the curse suite of spells Armageddon, Eye of Chaos, and/or Shroud of Shadows. The hand slot is uncontested for a battlemage, and the +2 skill value cancels out the modifier for the curse token you just released, while guaranteeing your bonus effect from the spell. Then you just pull a token like normal...should make 3-damage strikes (or 2-damage and a recharge) from Armageddon pretty reliable. It's just too bad that either use of the Athame causes it to exhaust, which interferes with repeated hits against a boss, or finishing off a mortally wounded foe. Still, it's a low-XP and only slightly janky way to "cancel" a curse token and gain a resource every turn...

Pinchers · 132
Equip 2! — Time4Tiddy · 248
Generally lackluster?? It’s definitely more ‘boring but (very) practical’. The biggest downside to this card is that they printed arcane research (IMO a way overpowered card). — Difrakt · 1319
Exhausting is also a problem. Having 2 in play helps but I’d rather have a swordcane another hand slot — Django · 5148
It has its downsides but it’s still an extra 2 icons on the test you’re most likely to take every turn for 1xp. It doesn’t compete with sword cane, it competes with the innate bonus of level 5 spells, at a minuscule fraction of the cost. — Difrakt · 1319
I'd run this OR Sword Cane, but not both. SC lets you hit for 1 damage or evade; an item for mages who DON'T want to fight. This lets you hit for 1 damage, or treat your (level 0 or 3) attack spell as being 2 levels higher, as Difrakt quite rightly pointed out. I wouldn't consider that to be worth 3 resources, a card, an action, and a hand slot if I wasn't running curse tokens. — Pinchers · 132
The level 5 skills provide more action compression and don't require taking another play action, a card, and 3 resources. It's hardly comparable. — suika · 9499
*spells — suika · 9499
Sword Cane

The previous reviews of this card have held up pretty well, but I wanted to add a few thoughts after months of playing with Sword Cane. It deserves the attention. I think we can now say that this unassuming little card has proven itself as a Mystic staple.

You can tell the designers had Dexter Drake in mind thematically and mechanically with this design. Sword Cane is indeed particularly good for him, but I think this card is excellent in vast majority of Mystic decks.

The most time-honored and traditionally effective way to play a Mystic is to stack a ton of Willpower boosts and try to use Willpower to do basically everything. As it turns out, Sword Cane just fits perfectly into that strategy. It lets you replace not one but two stats with Willpower, on a permanent basis, for a very low cost. That's so good!

Sword Cane's most powerful feature is that it lets you evade with Willpower. Its effect here is very comparable to Mists of R'lyeh. There are some differences--Sword Cane exhausts (but not on its enters-play trigger!), doesn't use charges, doesn't have the minor added bonus and penalty, etc. Basically, though, the cards accomplish the same task. Yet the biggest difference by far is that Sword Cane doesn't take up a hotly contested Arcane slot. Previously, running an evade spell on a Mystic meant either sacrificing an investigation or fight spell (an enormous price to pay) or running some clunky do-nothing asset like Sign Magick. Sword Cane totally gets around this. Hand slots are not at a premium for low-level Mystics. (Sure, you might want your Taboo'd Scroll of Secrets, but it's no problem to run that alongside Sword Cane.)

Sword Cane's Fight ability is much less powerful since a basic Fight action is much worse than a basic Evade action. The exhaustion clause is also much more relevant here--most enemies need to be evaded just once, but will take more than one hit to be killed. So, this won't adequately replace a combat spell. But that's fine, because you have your Arcane slots for that. And Sword Cane's ability is still really useful. It will save you charges on your main combat spell by taking out weak enemies like Swarm of Rats and Acolytes, or dealing that last point of damage to odd-health enemies. This is why some people like to run Wither as a supplement to Shrivelling. I always hated doing that, myself, because of the Arcane Slot issues and because Wither is so weak on its own. Sword Cane gives you all the benefits of this without any of the problems. It's a really nice effect to get stapled onto what was already a playable card.

Remember that it's usually better not to play Sword Cane prophylactically. This is because you get a free activation that doesn't exhaust Sword Cane when you first play it, so better to wait until you actually want to use it. Plus, if you end up never needing it, you won't have wasted the resources. There are exceptions, of course: maybe you want to protect your other assets from the encounter deck, or maybe you're Patrice and don't really have a choice.

To sum up, I'd say that if evasion is central to your strategy (maybe you're playing TFA or something), then you may still want to look at higher-level evade spells like Mists of R'lyeh IV for that big bonus to the evade check. But if you're a more typical Mystic that likes having the flexibility to evade, but only every once in a while, I think Sword Cane is substantially better than the various evasion spells and events. You're paying less and getting more.

I'll be honest, from a thematic perspective it feels a little silly that all my Mystics nowadays are venturing out to fight cosmic horror with Sword Canes in tow. But what can I say? This card just gets the job done.

CaiusDrewart · 3183
Righteous Hunt

Alright for real this time.

I haven't seen this mentioned yet, so I just wanted to add it for posterity. This card is Tactic traited. You can stick this on a Stick to the Plan and have an on-demand dash at any time during a scenario. I can't wait to try it out!

DanPyre · 62
"Get over here!" is a tactic too... — MrGoldbee · 1484
Chuck Fergus can make it fast — Zinjanthropus · 229
And Tony Morgan can use his extra action to use it on an enemy with a bounty (as it is an Engage action). :-) — SocialPsientist · 148
I added this half way through my campaign to deal with the Basic Weakness Accursed Follower, which spawns at the location furthest from you. Certainly helps me track it down and kill it. There are a few similar weakness that this would help with, in addition to the acolytes. — Zombocom · 27
The Necronomicon

2 questions about this version of necronomicon.

  1. What if you play voice of Ra and reveal elder sign?? Does it earn you 0, 2, or 6 resourse??

  2. If you draw elder sign during skill test, can you play counterspell(2)? If you can, would the effect of 1 icon token of your choice be cancelled? Or all of them?

ks4108 · 5
It's a single chaos token with three symbols. Voice of Ra cares about symbols, so you get 6 out of it. Counterspell cancels a token, so you it cancels the whole thing. — Adny · 1
Voice of Ra states: "For each... symbol revealed, gain an additional 2 resources." This would lead me to believe that one would gain 6 resources because (per Adny's comments) the single token has three symbols. Critically, the Necronomicon states that the three symbols apply when a token is revealed, not only resolved, so it should apply to Voice of Ra and other reveal mechanics. — SocialPsientist · 148
1.6 resources — Pawiu14 · 196
2.Of 1 icon token of your choice — Pawiu14 · 196
...why is it a single chaos token with three symbols, as opposed to the more natural interpretation of treating as though you revealed three chaos tokens simultaenously? — suika · 9499
Because it's literally, physically, a single chaos token. This means, by the way, that Counterspell (2) treats this tri-symbol token differently than Defiance (0) does. Counterspell says to cancel the entire token, so you cancel the entire token and you haven't drawn a token for that test. Defiance says to ignore the effects of the chosen symbol, so you ignore those effects and still resolve the rest of the token. — Thatwasademo · 58
If it's a tri-symbol token, could you cancel it with counterspell? Technically, counterspell specifically cancels a skull/cultist/tablet/elder-thing chaos token, not a chaos token with a skull/cultist/tablet/elder-thing symbol. — suika · 9499
The definition of "skull/cultist/tablet/elder-thing chaos token" *is* "chaos token with a skull/cultist/tablet/elder-thing symbol" (respectively). — Yenreb · 15
Would it defined as a token with that symbol on it, or a token with only that symbol on it? The latter interpretation would mean Counterspell (2) can't target a tri-symbol token. — suika · 9499
Ikiaq

The static boosts are nice, particularly for the likes of Norman or Marie that can use the as well. But it's usually a waste to get Ikiaq just for the stat boosts, particularly since mystics have no shortage of good allies. You'd usually be better off getting Arcane Studies if you're particularly enamored of the two stats; it'll save you a Charisma as well. No, what you really want Ikiaq for is the ability to cancel basic weaknesses.

Mystics will rarely need to use Ikiaq's ability for themselves. With Deny Existence and the worst draw of all the classes, Mystics don't worry much about their own basic weakness. The draw that they do commonly use (Scroll of Secrets and Arcane Initiate) can't draw basic weaknesses either. Ikiaq is better for your friendly fast drawing rogue or seeker, who is likely to draw out their deck and see their weaknesses more than once. It's for a support mystic that's willing to give up their Ally slot and 6xp for the good of the team.

Y'know about all those degenerate rapid-cycling big hand seeker decks, and how the only thing holding them back is nasty basic weaknesses like Through the Gates or Amnesia? With Ikiaq, they'll have nothing to fear at last. The last barrier to true seeker supremacy is finally broken!

You'd think it would mitigate Doomed or Offer You Cannot Refuse, but in practice it doesn't do very well against those two as the "upgraded" forms are no longer basic weaknesses and can't be cancelled. All it takes is drawing them before Ikiaq is purchased or before she's played, and she'll be useless against them henceforth.

She also is much more useful in Standalone mode, where you have more weaknesses in your deck and haven't built your deck to mitigate those weaknesses.

suika · 9499
I have a confession to make. If I get a really terrible basic weakness that attacks the central strategy of my deck, like Doomed or Through the Gates in a cycling deck, I shamelessly redraw it. This makes Ikiaq quite a bit less necessary. Regardless, a cool card to have in the game and not overpowered in my opinion. The cost to do this is pretty significant and I think the decision to limit it to basic weaknesses was a good one. — CaiusDrewart · 3183
Sadly you cannot use Ikiaq against the Unbound Hound either. I wanted to build more Summoned Hound decks T_T — Zinjanthropus · 229
@ Caius: I wouldn't do that. But even if, "Through the Gates" is actually kind of a fun basic weakness in the queen of cycling. Kind of beneficial, if you draw it before "Shocking Discoveries". — Susumu · 381
Agreed that this is a card you take so that the seeker doesn’t draw Paranoia for the third time in a game. You may think it would be useful for humanoid enemy, but a slotless handcuff is a lot better. — MrGoldbee · 1484
Question: can you cancel a weakness, then another, then slot Ikiaq under Diana after you do this, and keep those weaknesses connected to Ikiaq? — Antiundead · 31
@Antiundead: The FAQ states that generally cards placed beneath other cards are "out of play". So the moment you place Ikiaq under Diana he leaves play and all the weaknesses you placed under him must be drawn by the respective owners. — Killbray · 12351
I think it only makes sense to go all-in on this card in standalone mode, greeding for XP and mitigating the skill debuffs with Empower Self. Makes sense especially in Diana. — AlderSign · 391