Otherworldly Compass

Reducing shroud is a powerful effect in this game, but I suspect that, at least for the moment, Otherworldly Compass is going to have relatively few buyers.

Reducing shroud is usually better than increasing Intellect. That's because if you can reduce test difficulty to 0, you'll succeed on every token except for the autofail. This is why Flashlight is such a great card for investigators with low Intellect, like Zoey or Akachi, because it lets them pick up 3 clues from low-shroud locations nearly guaranteed. Otherworldly Compass has the potential to occasionally knock even a high-shroud location to 0, if everything works out right, which could be really powerful.

The problem is that it comes in the faction where shroud-reducing effects are least useful. If you have really high Intellect, like Seekers do, the advantages of reducing shroud vs. increasing Intellect go away. (Hence I usually don't run Flashlight in Seeker decks.) On Expert, with -6 and -8 tokens in the bag, reducing shroud from 1 to 0 will sometimes make a difference, but not that often. Reducing a 3 or 4 shroud location to 0 would be pretty nice for Seekers; but I think Otherworldly Compass will pretty rarely give you that much.

So for most investigators who can take it, Otherworldly Compass is going to be pretty equivalent to an Intellect bonus to a test of something like +1 to +3, once per round. I suspect getting +1 or +2 is going to be rather more common than getting +3. This makes the card inferior to both Magnifying Glass and Fieldwork, but a reasonable supplement to those cards if you're already running them and want even more Intellect-boosting assets in your deck.

Note that, unlike Magnifying Glass and Fieldwork, you can't combine Otherworldly Compass with other effects that require an Investigate action. So this card is a non-combo with Archaic Glyphs, Deciphered Reality, and so on.

All in all, I think this card is generally going to be substantially worse than Magnifying Glass and even Fieldwork for most Seeker builds. But I think there are two niches for this card. First, if you're a low-Intellect Seeker (Roland being pretty much the only one), this is a reasonable upgrade to Flashlight, with limitless charges and the potential to occasionally crack a 3+ shroud location. Second, if you can combine Otherworldly Compass with other shroud-reducing effects (like Arcane Insight or The Skeleton Key), it looks more attractive. But this approach seems like a lot of investment that Seekers don't necessarily need to make, not even on high levels.

CaiusDrewart · 3200
Nice review and I agree. As an investigate action it conflicts with too many other cards. Ever collected 10 clues with archaic glyphs? In the know? — Django · 5171
Tiny comment - the Compass doesn't stack with Skeleton Key because it sets the final shroud to a fixed value, so no modifiers apply. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
@TheNameWasTaken: You are very right! — CaiusDrewart · 3200
@Django: For sure. If it didn't take an investigate action, this would actually be a really cool combo with In the Know. You could find a good camping spot with 4 revealed locations attached, then fire away at other locations around the map with the massive shroud reduction. That would be pretty janky, but pretty cool. Alas, it is not to be. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
Nice on Roland. The shroud reduction is even more important for him than the average seeker and it has 2 intellect icons, htat means that it combos with Well prepared. You can build a setup where your effective intellect is 5 and locations with 4+ shroud are nonexistent. — Tsuruki23 · 2588
There’s synergy between this card and the new Hemispheric Map, which is also a relic. Sure, it’s no good in Essex, but it could do a lot of heavy lifting in other scenarios like Midnight Masks, The Pallid Mask, Dim Carcosa, etc. — Setzu · 336
I kind of like Otherworldly Compass in an Ursula/Elli/Ornate Bow build that I am working on. The synergy between Otherworldly Compass and Hemispheric Map seems to be a negative though since they both essentially go offline at the same time. It would be great if there was a Seeker accessible accessory that boosted Intellect. Arcane Insight (arcane slot) might fill this role though if there is enough XP available. — The Lynx · 999
Darrell, our local Survivor/Seeker, also likes this a lot for lack of better options: helps him fire commits like deduction (level 2) and Sharp Vision more reliably and has synergy from the start with Shed a Light — HeroesOfTomorrow · 65
It is also not too bad on any other investigator with off-class access to seeker cards and/or average inteligence: beside Roland, Trish and Luke are honorable mentions — HeroesOfTomorrow · 65
Olive McBride

I've been playing Olive in a Jim deck for Carcosa, and...my experience hasn't been very good.

The numbers on the card are the best parts. 2 resources for 3 Horror soak is great. But I don't think that's worth the slot on its own, as Mystics traditionally have lots of options for Horror mitigation.

Her ability is underwhelming. On standard difficulty, you're likely to draw something like (-1), (-2), . "Great!" you think, "I avoided the tablet!" But, because of how math works, you've drawn a -3 instead. So what? You just have to commit cards or whatever until you're 3-up or 4-up on the difficulty. Well, why not just draw a single token if you're 4-up on the test?

My beef with Olive is this: in order to use her, you have to compensate for the moderate negative value you're likely to draw, but by doing so, you no longer have a statistical advantage by using her.

Now, she combos pretty well with Song of the Dead and Defiance(2). But now you've got a combo piece in your deck that doesn't do much on her own except offer Horror soak. And you're unable to play other allies like Arcane Initiate, Peter Sylvestre, or David Renfield.

The Jim deck I've been playing beats tests because it has 3 extra (0)s in the bag (the ). I can essentially under-commit on tests because I'm likely to succeed at 2-up or even 1-up. Using Olive actually requires me to commit more to my tests than I would otherwise. So it's only helpful when I'm using Song of the Dead, but then it's only 1/turn, and even then it's far from guaranteed to draw that .

The best case use I can see for the witch who'll try anything once is in conjunction with Lucky!, as that allows you to react to the swingy-ness of the double token draw. You drew (-2), (-3), ? Well, you were only 3-up on the test, but you can succeed anyway! But then again, isn't that just a testament to how good Lucky is?

PureFlight · 784
She gets much, much worse on Hard/Expert, too. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
In short she makes you immune to autofail but potentially doubles the difficulty of all tests. So at standard she turns -2 to -4 — Django · 5171
Yeah, I think the big thing is that you only use her to get (or avoid) specific tokens. Hypnotic Gaze, Astral Travel, Recharge, and Song of the Dead come to mind. Or you can mitigate a test by stacking her with Defiance. In short, she is strictly a combo piece. — PureFlight · 784
Suppose you're playing Mateo and you've already used his trigger to convert and Tentacle to an Elder Sign. Now consider this situation: you pull an Elder Sign, Elder Thing, and the Tentacle? We toss out the Tentacle of course, but what happens if the Elder Thing is also an auto fail? — FractalMind · 44
If she is used within a bag manipulation investigators deck, then you are likely hedging your odds of avoiding multiple bad tokens you don't want to see. It could take quite a bit of work before she would become very useful, but she works with a different archetype of a deck and that's fun. — Bronze · 187
Forbidden Knowledge

To pass on this gem with Carolyn Fern would just be Foolishness. This is so good on Carolyn with Peter Sylvestre in play. 2 resources every turn for 4 turns -- awesome. With Dr. Milan Christopher, this setup, Liquid Courage, and Teamwork, The Nerd Girl becomes killer support, and the bigger the group, the better. Before you know it, everyone's rolling in it. Have her hand a Dark Horsed Silas Marsh a St. Hubert's Key while you're passing out goodies, and they may as well start calling you Dr. Frankenstein, because you've just created a monster.

crymoricus · 252
Intrepid

This is a purely speculative review.

This looks like a terrible card, but i'dd like to give it a shout-out in:

  • A. Leo Anderson decks. With minimal support he can expect to beat a standard (3) difficulty test (I.E, Rotting Remains. Chaining a successful defense in the mythos phase into a massive buff for the round throughout is terrific returns for a single skill card. And bear in mind, against exactly this kind of test, even an unsuccessful play of Intrepid will still probably save you a point of horror.

  • B. The easier the difficulty the easier the test is to make, this means that Intrepid is exponentially more likely to trigger and help you stay on top of the challenges Standard and Easy difficulty throw at you.

Of course the greatest argument against Intrepid is still the fact that it's not guaranteed to be playable when the benefit would be useful. You're not always going to draw Rotting Remains the round right before you do 3 fight or investigate actions (although there is a decent chance you'll manage to do at least 2 of those total). Don't forget the combo potential for investigators with access to extra actions, for example Leo De Luca and/or Quick Thinking (The latter is incidentally easier to trigger via the Intrepid bonus, so there's an easy combo right there! Intrepid seems more and more taylored towards Leo Anderson).

Tsuruki23 · 2588
Monster Slayer

Including this card in your deck is like ripping off a band-aid.

At first you look at the 5xp cost, and the net effect, the requirements to pull it off, and careful consideration should bring you to the conclusion that Monster Slayer is a bad card to invest in for 5xp.

But.

Personally.

I tried Monster Slayer, gave it a chance rather then going straight for Lightning Gun, a card that has proven to be worth the cost. At the time I had already finished a Talent based build built around Well Prepared. And then I got the second copy one scenario later.

In the final scenario me and my teammate proceeded to draw two big monsters in the same mythos phase, and I, like Superman grabbing a couple of crooks and bonking their heads together, defeated them with just one action each.

So there I sat, the monster hunter with nothing to do anymore, in disbelief over how effective the "bad card" turned out to be.

.

So, yes. Including this card in your deck is like ripping off a band-aid. It looks iffy and you really don't wanna do it, then you finally do it in a burst of stress and determination, and then you relax with a sigh of relief because it was'nt nearly as bad as you thought it would be.

I'll just say this, when you have cards like Physical Training(2xp) and Well Prepared to boost your fight stats without weaponry, Monster Slayer becomes a far worthier addition and a relatively good fit into the cost-curve of such a deck.

Tsuruki23 · 2588
Yeah, it's not a bad card, at least in the sense that if it were a 0 XP card, it would see a lot of play. It's just way overcosted at 5 XP. (The fact that it's rather difficult to hit with this on Hard/Expert is another issue.) — CaiusDrewart · 3200
I think it would have been perfectly balanced if this were a 3 XP card and we had a 5 XP version that granted like +4 or so to the check. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
With core and dunwich out, this card was made with one specific enemy in mind, Conglomeration of Spheres. The most annoying enemy in the campaign IMO. This takes care of it. — Andronikus · 1