Act of Desperation

Don't sleep on this card!

The real power here is in gaining back a bunch of resources from a spent item while also gaining tempo by dealing 2 damage for 0 resources. Cards that grant click compression tend to be among the best cards in the game. The "if you succeed" clause is also generally fine coming from the faction with both Lucky! and Live and Learn.

So what deck can use an Act of Desperation? Honestly, anything with Backpack, it has almost perfect synergy with that card and deckbuilding style. Mark Harrigan puts this under his Stick to the Plan to recoup the investment on his Lightning Gun or M1918 BAR. Survivors tend to be swimming in cheap items and card draw so it can act as a backup to Fire Axe (at least until they all upgrade to Ornate Bow or Timeworn Brand).

Then on top of all of this, the card has symbols like so much gravy.

The_Wall · 289
The most obvious abuse of this card is Yorick discarding a empty or jammed Old hunting rifle killing the monster and playing the rifle back at no cost — Susu · 36
In a Mark Harrigan deck you can even put a Well-mainted on your "big gun" to get it in your hand and replay it short after. — AlexP · 295
Amazing on Yorick for a different reason than noted; if you have an enemy infront of you early but didn't have time to put a weapon into play yet, you can throw a weapon from your hand to kill a weak enemy, then equip it from your discard as a free character trigger ability. — Antiundead · 31
IDEA FOR UPGRADED VERSION: 2xp version for +1 damage and let you discard any item in play (not just hand slots, but also body and accessory slots too). It would be amazing tech for Yorick, to throw an installed Backpack (2) with 3 items in it. Imagine throwing your backpack, killing a monster with it, and then using Yorick's free action to equip one of those free items... MATT PLEASE! — Antiundead · 31
Ace of Swords

I like most of the new tarot cards (Ace of Rods being the only exception). Advantages:

  • Provides +1 , which is necessary to deal with enemies that prevent clue gatherers from winning the game
  • Free to play if in opening hand (mulligan increases your chance of drawing it)
  • Does not conflict with existing assets with the new tarot slot
  • Is not an item, so it's immune to many treacheries that target these

Disadvantages

  • Second copy is a dead card, as players have only one tarot slot and it has no icons to commit
  • Conflicts with other tarot cards, if the investigator has access to more than one faction at level 1+
  • Ability to play this for free may motivate a player to mulligan important cards, like weapon assets
  • Guardian assets are quite expensive, so 3 ressources can be too much
Django · 5171
The only use of the second copy on your hand could be on Corrosion or Ants!, which would be nice, but that's pretty unlikely. — SGPrometheus · 855
The math probably isn't that different, but I'm thinking I'd be more likely to bring these in a deck that wants to start with a particular economy or boost card where I'm probably going to mulligan 5 anyway as opposed to a squishier synergy deck where I'm hoping to come out with 2 or 3 key assets and my mulligan rules are more flexible. — housh · 171
Maybe this has a home in a Yorrick deck that's running Cornered. — FractalMind · 44
Death • XIII

I like most of the new tarot cards (Ace of Rods being the only exception). Advantages:

  • Provides +1 , which is the most important stat to gather clues and win the game
  • Seeker assets are rather cheap, so 3 ressources should be ok
  • Free to play if in opening hand (mulligan increases your chance of drawing it)
  • Does not conflict with existing assets with the new tarot slot
  • Is not an item, so it's immune to many treacheries that target these

Disadvantages

  • Second copy is a dead card, as players have only one tarot slot and it has no icons to commit
  • Conflicts with other tarot cards, if the investigator has access to more than one faction at level 1+
  • Ability to play this for free may motivate a player to mulligan important cards, like weapon assets
Django · 5171
I think its worth acknowledging that while any tarot is a dead card, when running Higher Education, dead cards are fine. — Death by Chocolate · 1490
The Moon • XVIII

I like most of the new tarot cards (Ace of Rods being the only exception). Advantages:

  • Provides +1 , which by itself helps evading enemies and protects against some treacheries. It's real value lies in cards like Lockpicks.
  • Free to play if in opening hand (mulligan increases your chance of drawing it)
  • Does not conflict with existing assets with the new tarot slot
  • Is not an item, so it's immune to many treacheries that target these

Disadvantages

  • Second copy is a dead card, as players have only one tarot slot and it has no icons to commit
  • Conflicts with other tarot cards, if the investigator has access to more than one faction at level 1+
  • Ability to play this for free may motivate a player to mulligan important cards, like weapon assets
  • Evading enemies usually does not win the game, so boosts are not as good as or .
Django · 5171
Joe Diamond

Investigators are complex beasts, and lots can be written about the various nuances of their cards: Playstyle, Key Combos, Deckbuilding, Archetypes, and of course just how fun they are. I don't want to cover all of that, but instead just to talk about one question for Joe, but probably one of the first questions you will ask about him: "What do I put in the Hunch deck?"


Before we answer that, lets make some observations about the Hunch deck:

  • First off, note that you "play" from the Hunch deck, which means you cannot commit cards to skill tests from it (Norman's ability is the same). As you are not committing, cards that are good for their flexible commit icons lose that power in the hunch deck. Conversely if a card has a weak set of commit icons, you don't care.

  • Note also that you can only play Hunches during the Investigation phase. This means that defensive insights such as Forewarned are not useful.

  • Every time you play from the deck, it is the equivalent of a draw and 1-2 resources, that's up to 3 actions, and is therefore extreme value (most Investigators get the equivalent of a bonus "1 action" from their ability, Joe's ability therefore compares very well to others, providing it gets used frequently). You will want to be playing from the deck as much as you can. An average game is about 15 turns, which should be enough time to empty the deck.

  • You will see the Unsolved Case every game, and need to plan around it. Note that you can play this even if you have no clues in play (which is great!), so the main thing here is keeping two resources back, or at least a way to get two resources in a pinch if you need to. Joe is actually a very resource-hungry investigator, so if you don't have a regular source of income from Dr. Milan Christopher, you'll need to consider economy during deckbuilding.

  • As you want to play Hunches wherever you can, you favor Insights that are flexible over ones that are situational. Situational insights can still go in your regular deck if you like them.

  • You favor cost 2 Insights over anything else, as you get maximum value without any investment. Cost 1 and 3 insights are also good. Cost 0 insights provide lower value, and cost 4 insights demand investment and therefore lower flexibility.

  • For the same reason, you prefer Fast insights over standard action ones as they increase flexibility. Fast insights that cost 2 or less are essentially completely free.

  • When you empty your regular deck, spent Insights will get reshuffled back there rather than back into the Insight deck. This isn't a huge problem, and doesn't really affect deckbuilding, but its worth noting. It possibly does mean that very late game draws might be "polluted" with Hunch draws, but they should still be playable or used for commits. It probably does mean that Joe has a mild dislike to things that burn his deck, and possibly weakens cantrips for him, but only by a mild amount.


Given all the above then, here is my rankings for Hunches.


Some notes on the above:

Scene of the Crime won't always get you the two clues, but you should be willing to play it for one clue whenever it arrives. It still provides good value at that cost. Emergency Aid, normally a middling card, becomes very strong when it is free, as well as providing options around healing Beat Cop or other allies. Likewise, Delay the Inevitable, No Stone Unturned, Preposterous Sketches while not amazing cards, hit all of the sweet spots for Joe (2 cost, usually always playable, etc), that the provide immense value in the Hunch deck.

Logical Reasoning is a fantastic card, but normally has three abilites (heal, counterspell, commit) and only one of those (heal) is reliable from the Hunch deck, so I prefer this in Joe's regular deck and in his hand. Anatomical Diagrams is a great card, generally underrated, but Joe's low Sanity makes it a tricky play. "I've got a plan!" is interesting, and can sometimes be amazing, but won't always be playable - again it might be better in the main deck. Shortcut is good, but you're missing out on some value as its 0 cost (Shortcut (2) is better here). Connect the Dots is strong, but you need to be confident you will be able to play it, as it requires both the investment and the right situation.


Joe is a powerful Investigator and his Hunch deck is an opportunity for immense value. However it's not a sideboard. Flexibility and mid-cost Hunches that you want to play every turn are the best way of building the Hunch deck, rather than a traditional sideboard stuffed with magic bullets that will go unplayed.

Why do you rate Preposterous Sketches as "high" but "Cryptic Research" (which is like Preposterous Sketches (4) to me) only as "mid"? — Django · 5171
Decent analysis. I would add that you can always run more than 11 hunches and pick and choose which ones you want in your hunch deck and which in your main deck for each scenario. Also, it should be mentioned along with the hunches that Higher Education is a prime pick for Joe because a card played from hunch deck is a card preserved in your hand, making it much easier for him to stick to the 5+ requirement. Good catch on Unsolved Case, as the RFG is a separate clause therefore changes the game state by itself. — The_Wall · 289
Preposterous Sketches (0) is normally 2 cost, but in the Hunch deck it is 0 cost. It compares to the 2-XP variant. By contrast, Cryptic Research (4) costs 0 and therefore gets no cost reduction in the Hunch deck. If you're going to upgrade Prepop (0) into Cryptic (4), you've spent a lot of XP, to get only a marginal benefit. Cryptic (4) would be better suited in the main deck, assuming you want it at all, as No Stone Unturned (either variant) and Prepop (0) are already providing a lot of draw for Joe. (As an aside, Joe also likes Backpack, although it clashes sadly with Bandolier). — duke_loves_biscuits · 1285
Because with Cryptic Research you don't save 2 resources, when played as a Hunch — Adny · 1
What's a *cantrip*? — kingofyates · 26
In the trading card game Magic: The Gathering, a cantrip is player jargon to refer to a spell that, in addition to any other effect, makes you draw a card. — flooze · 8