Sleight of Hand

I'd like to see someone hide the Chicago Typewriter up their sleeve! Whip that bad boy out, unload on a mob of goons at your location, then after the smoke clears and your stepping over the corpses, just return it to your hand! Awesome card!

FractalMind · 44
For me the main problem is that it doesn't work with Jenny's guns. — Magnificate · 1201
Alternately, with Lightning Gun in a Zoey Deck. Bzzzzzzzzzzzt! — HollowsHeart · 17
This and Grotesque Statue? — XehutL · 48
Pretty disappointing that a card that has such excellent theme/flavor for rogue stuff like Jenny's guns, ends up being more desired for pulling out gigantic, awkward weapons like the Lightning Gun or Chicago Typewriter. Seems like a bit of a miss, thematically speaking. Not that it's a bad card, quite the opposite, I'd argue that it's too good, and it being a level 0 card and available to non-rogues who will likely desire it (see above) further waters down its class identify, in my opinion. — gionazzo · 64
This card is great in Zoey with Shotgun or Lightning Gun. Incredible power, value, and flexibility. — Low_Chance · 13
Lupara. That is all. — Batra · 1
Can't wait to use Wendy to pull the Typewriter out and reuse it again. — AquaDrehz · 204
Wendy can't include Chicago Typewriter in her deck. — Indog · 1
Lupara and Derringer, with some value with a flashlight. One of the best rogue cards, if not the best, waiting for more combos to come. — Fishiste · 153
Daring Maneuver

Seems odd at first glance, why would you need +2 if you have passed? My initial reaction was that it would help land Double or Nothing but it doesn't actually help there, because of how that works (it doubles the difficulty rather than you needing to get double the target).

It does combo with cards where you need to succeed by a certain amount:

Switchblade

.41 Derringer

Opportunist (though this seems a pretty poor use)

Scavenging

Rex Murphy's trigger

Expose Weakness

Deduction

Alchemical Transmutation

(I might well have missed a couple)

Ultimately none of these uses are that mind blowing. I think a card that only works in combination, and only provides lukewarm benefits even if you draw the combo together is pretty weak.

I'd like to add that it also pairs with quick thinking. — FractalMind · 44
Cool, thanks. I also missed the advanced version of Fearless — waferthinninja · 660
what about the trusty shotgun? — stetson · 3
And Viscious Blow 2? — AndyB · 956
And lockpicks. — XehutL · 48
Rite of Seeking

Rite of Seeking (4) is unusual in that it is one of the few cards to grow more expensive when upgraded. However, it is certainly worth the cost. One danger of the previous Rite of Seeking was the waste of a valuable charge on a failed check. With the (+2) built into the upgrade Rite of Seeking this is far less of an issue. Furthermore, gaining two additional clues instead of one is a sizable gain, further compressing actions. On the other hand, it is near useful in solo play as rarely will locations have three clues on them.

This card often gets a bad rep from the community, but it has a particularly strong niche: 3 player — Chitinid · 14
Marie Lambeau

Marie Lambeau was offered as a promo card in the Investigators of Arkham book. I hadn't the chance to grab that at the time, as shipping was prohibitive. Now, if you're in the same position, proxy her. Really.

Marie Lambeau is a great investigator for solo play.

Just look at the stat-line breakdown of Marie Lambeau:

  • at 4 , she has the ability to cope with a lot of what the encounter deck will throw, at least in terms of Treacheries.
  • the 4 of Marie Lambeau puts her on par with Minh Thi Phan and Rex Murphy, at second place behind Daisy Walker, all of them being investigators! This is really amazing, as you definitely need the clues in that game.
  • at 3 , nothing to sneeze at, Marie can always evade what she can't fight.
  • at 1 though, she has no way to defend herself, at least until you get that Shrivelling out.

Her ability is a bit tricky, but can be powerful.

First, remember that you only check for the Doom threshold during the Mythos phase, allowing you to pile up some Doom tokens on the board the turn before the Agenda is supposed to advance. That said, when the Agenda does advance, you remove every doom token in play, even the ones on player cards.

This entitles three things:

  1. Willingly getting a player card out with a Doom token on it to trigger Marie's ability will reduce the time you have before the Agenda advances by 1 turn. Then for the X-1 turns remaining, you have 1 extra action . But wait! There are restrictions on those actions: you can play Spell cards or trigger their .
  2. When the Agenda advances, you lose the benefit of Marie's ability, as all doom tokens are removed. So you need a way to get those Doom tokens back in play.
  3. Going blind on most scenarios (or not), no matter what, you're probably not so prepared to help the encounter deck advancing too fast. So you may want to trigger that ability with parcimony, thus getting extra doom tokens on the penultimate turn before advancing the Agenda.

All of this require :

  1. Experience of the scenarios you play
  2. Experience at actually playing the deck, and being tricky overall
  3. Getting a reliable and consistent way to put those doom tokens on player cards

That last point is not that easy. Marie's ability is not reliable. Browsing the current card pool, the alternatives are:

  • Alyssa Graham gives you further , parring Marie to Daisy, and encounter deck control as well as Doom management
  • Arcane Initiate gives you at least the Doom token you want, and helps you grab those Spells. And... that's it! Granted, those two allies are pretty good in their own right.

Yes, yes, and just when you think those two cards are perfect for Marie Lambeau and just after you add 2 copies of each in your deck, you take a look at her special weakness: Baron Samedi. I think Baron Samedi is a very punishing weakness:

  1. He cannot leave play until he as 3 Doom tokens on it. It's action yes, but as it requires to exhaust him, you need 3 damn turns to get him out and obviously before the Agenda deck can advance, so in most Agenda (with a Doom threshold at 6 or less) it's not even possible. In the meantime, you can always benefit from Marie's ability true, but 3 Doom can really hurt.
  2. It fills the damn sole tiny, tiny, tiny ally slot you need so badly.

Overall, on your first scenario, pray not to draw him too early, and get at least 3 victory points. If you do, you will be able to buy Charisma.

All this blabbering on Doom management makes you want to introduce some shielding. Marie's special event Mystifying Song is one way to go: for 3 Resources and no (it's a Fast event) it buys you one more turn to pile those Doom tokens. That's pretty good if you draw it.

If you do not though, include 2 copies of Moonlight Ritual. At least, you'll be able to hold on to the current agenda if something has Ancient Evils comes your way.

Check out the sample deck here: arkhamdb.com

banania · 409
Her Signature Card helps you to get 3 doom on baron samedi on short agendas. The permanent Talent "Blood pact" is also a good option to trigger her ability. — Django · 5163
I like the idea of Blood Pact overall, but the cards is not so efficient in my opinion, as you probably won't be able to trigger it much during the game. Or at least, much less so than you'd do with those other talents triggered by spending resources. The true strength of Blood Pact is of course to be Permanent, as you can trigger Marie's ability from the get-go. I have yet to try it. It's somehow does not appeal to me, but it might be more efficient than I think. — banania · 409
One note since this has been written that David Renfield is a great way to pt doom on the board. — jacque_stampunk · 3
Even if you only use it during the last round of each agenda, blood pact is still pretty good! Reliably activating Marie's ability is also worth a lot, so I'd encourage you to try it. — Chitinid · 14
Fearless

Fearless is a pretty straightforward card. I honestly don't see any reason not to include in any deck that relies heavely on Spells, which is to say, most decks of investigators.

Most of the Spells assets require that you do a skill test. With one icon to commit, Fearless helps you do just that, and providing you succeed, it heals 1 horror.

Some of those Spells inflict horror damage when you draw a non-numerical chaos token (example: Shrivelling), so you might want to mitigate those downsides a bit.

In any case, that card is always good encounter deck mitigation, as a lot of treacheries throws tests to the investigators, and the game has many ways to inflict horror you might want to heal.

Great great card.

banania · 409
And if you look closely, you can see the symbol on the back of the hood is the same "alpha/omega PX" symbol as on Armor of Ardennes. Interesting coincidence, or perhaps foreshadowing? — SGPrometheus · 847