The Whisperer in Darkness

Review - Devil Reef Guardian Cards

Manfromleng and Nate 'Lost in Time and Space' Winslow review the Guardian cards in Devil Reef, the second Mythos pack in the Innsmouth Conspiracy cycle for the Arkham Horror LCG.

Arkham Horror LCG - Roland Banks Parallel Investigator Preview

Manfromleng visits the scene of the crime with Arkham's latest parallel investigator, Roland Banks. And you thought Cover Up couldn't get any worse! CC licenced music from the album Lovecraft Memories by Zreen Toyz. Contact manfromleng@gmail.com. Direct DownloadYouTubeiTunesGoogle Podcasts

Arkham Horror LCG - In the Know - A Beginner’s Guide to Multi-Class Cards

Manfromleng takes a look at multi-class cards, which were introduced during The Circle Undone cycle. CC licenced music from the album Lovecraft Memories by Zreen Toyz. Contact manfromleng@gmail.com. Direct DownloadYouTubeiTunesGoogle Podcasts

Arkham Horror LCG - The Adventures of Lily Chen

Lily Chen unleashes a flurry of blows on Silas Bishop in Blood on the Altar. All of this is highly speculative, but it's a fun thought experiment nonetheless. CC licenced music from the album Lovecraft Memories by Zreen Toyz. Contact manfromleng@gmail.com. Direct DownloadYouTubeiTunesGoogle Podcasts

Arkham Horror LCG - Edge of the Earth Expansions Preview - Part 3 - The Player Cards

Manfromleng examines the player cards spoiled in FFG's preview of the Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion for the Arkham Horror LCG! CC licenced music from the album Lovecraft Memories by Zreen Toyz. Contact manfromleng@gmail.com. Direct DownloadYouTubeiTunesGoogle Podcasts

Arkham Horror LCG - Edge of the Earth Expansions Preview - The Investigators

Manfromleng examines the investigators included in the Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion for the Arkham Horror LCG by Fantasy Flight Games! CC licenced music from the album Lovecraft Memories by Zreen Toyz. Contact manfromleng@gmail.com. Direct DownloadYouTubeiTunesGoogle Podcasts

Arkham Horror LCG - Edge of the Earth Preview - Part 1 - Expansions Overview

Manfromleng examines the Edge of the Earth Investigator and Campaign expansions for the Arkham Horror LCG by Fantasy Flight Games! CC licenced music from the album Lovecraft Memories by Zreen Toyz. Contact manfromleng@gmail.com. Direct DownloadYouTubeiTunesGoogle Podcasts

Arkham Horror LCG - Harvey Walters Deck Tech

Manfromleng attends a lecture by Harvey Walters, the Seeker investigator from the Investigator Starter Decks for the Arkham Horror LCG by Fantasy Flight Games. CC licensed music from the album Lovecraft Memories by Zreen Toyz. Contact manfromleng@gmail.com.Direct DownloadYouTubeiTunesGoogle Podcasts On this episode, we’re attending a lecture by one of Arkham’s oldest, most distinguished professors, Harvey Walters, an investigator for the Seeker class released in the Investigator Starter Deck product. I’ll share my thoughts on Harvey, explore his viability in the multiplayer and solo formats and examine some of the player cards that are included in his starter deck. By the end of this video, I hope that you’ll be better prepared to ace Harvey’s course on non-Euclidian mathematics at Miskatonic University. There are spoilers throughout if you care about that sort of thing. If you enjoy what you hear, like, comment and subscribe. Will Harvey’s lectures shed light on the nature of the Mythos or will they bore players to tears? Let’s find out! Harvey Walters is among the oldest, if not the oldest, investigators in the history of Mythos-related gaming. Harvey originated in the 1st edition of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game in 1981, where he was a sample investigator used to illustrate the character creation process and the game’s mechanics. I first encountered Harvey and his unfortunate companion, Kurt, when I picked up the 4th edition of the roleplaying game in 1989, and Harvey has reprised his role as the sample investigator in every edition since, including the 7th edition of the game that was released in 2015. Harvey appeared in the original Arkham Horror boardgame, which was published by Chaosium in 1987, and every Arkham Horror Files product released by Fantasy Flight Games. Harvey is the original investigator, so I was looking forward to seeing how designer MJ Newman would interpret him for the Arkham Horror LCG. She did not disappoint. Harvey Walters, The Professor, has 4 Willpower, 5 Intellect, 1 Combat and 2 Agility. He has the Miskatonic trait, 7 Health and 8 Sanity. Harvey has the following response: After an investigator at your location draws 1 or more cards from their deck during the investigation phase: That investigator draws 1 card (Limit once per round). Harvey’s Elder Sign effect is +1. Draw a card. Harvey Walter’s base skill values are typical of an intellectual Seeker whose goal is to investigate the Mythos from the safety of a university campus rather than the heart of a steamy jungle. Harvey’s advanced age and experience have taught him a thing or two about controlling his fear, which is reflected by his above-average Willpower. Harvey has an advantage against common Willpower-based treacheries, such as Rotting Remains and Frozen in Fear from the Core set. Harvey lacks the mental discipline of a highly trained Mystic though, so he’ll still need to commit cards and/or resources to deal with treacheries such as Crypt Chill and The Yellow Sign from the Core set, Arcane Barrier and Visions of Futures Past from The Dunwich Legacy or Centuries of Secrets from The Circle Undone. Willpower skill tests are required by some Parley actions and they also appear on Agenda and Act cards from time to time. Harvey’s above-average Willpower is helpful during these types of skill tests, although he’ll likely need to commit additional cards and resources to pass them consistently. Fortunately for Harvey, his starter deck includes one card with multiple Willpower skill icons, Arcane Enlightenment, as well as cards, such as Celeano Fragments, Encyclopedia (0) and Higher Education (0), that can modify his base Willpower. Harvey’s highest skill value happens to be in the most important skill in the game. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: playing an investigator with 5 Intellect is like playing an entirely different game of Arkham Horror LCG. An investigator with 5 Intellect has such a huge advantage that the rest of the card could be blank, and I’d probably still play them. Intellect skill tests during Investigate actions become a breeze at all but the highest-shroud locations, and you can often race through scenarios before the encounter deck has a chance to put up much of a defence. The question is not whether you’ll discover clues when you take an Investigate action, but how many clues you can discover with one Investigate action. Harvey’s starter deck includes several cards, such as Celaeno Fragments and Whitton Green, that can raise his Intellect to 6 or 7, while Extensive Research (0) and Deduction (0) can help him discover additional clues. Intellect is critical to Investigate actions and it is also tested by many Parley actions. Harvey is gentleman and a scholar who will have little difficulty enlisting the aid of ‘Jazz’ Mulligan in Extracurricular Activity, gathering vital clues about the King in Yellow from Constance Dumaine in The Last King or persuading Ichtaca that he is not her enemy in The Untamed Wilds. There aren’t that many treacheries that test an investigator’s Intellect, but Harvey is in a far better position than most investigators to deal with cards such as False Lead from the Core set, Ephemeral Exhibits from The Miskatonic Museum or Black Stars Rise from The Path to Carcosa. Harvey’s experience and advanced age do wonders for his Willpower and Intellect. The same can’t be said for his Combat and Agility, both of which are below average. Below-average Combat and Agility aren’t a significant liability in multiplayer since there is usually at least one combat-orientated investigator at the table who will happily take enemies off Harvey’s frail hands. However, enemy management can be a significant problem for Harvey during a solo campaign. Up until recently, Seekers have had very few options at Level 0 to deal with enemies. The situation has improved slightly with the release of cards such as Blood-Rite in the Before the Black Throne. Harvey’s starter deck contains two more enemy management options, Disc of Itzamna (0) and Occult Invocation. Encyclopedia (0) can also be helpful in a pinch, although it requires an action to trigger, which would open Harvey up to attacks of opportunity. Unfortunately, Harvey’s below-average Combat and Agility skill values also make him vulnerable to several common encounter cards. A simple Locked Door from the Core set has the potential to become an impenetrable barrier for Harvey, while Grasping Hands has the potential to deal a significant amount of damage to him. Needless to say, escaping Entombed from The Forgotten Age will require a Herculean effort from our fragile professor. Scenarios such as The Essex County Express, Undimensioned and Unseen and Curtain Call have all sorts of nastiness in store for Arkham’s less Agile investigators, and Harvey will be lucky indeed if he can make it through The Forgotten Age campaign without falling off a rope bridge or succumbing to a Snake Bite. There is only one Parley action that tests either Combat or Agility, Nasht: Priest of the Dreamlands from Beyond the Gates of Sleep: however, it’s a difficult test for Harvey to pass unless he has a trick up his sleeve. Harvey’s response isn’t as flashy as some of the other special abilities available on Seeker investigators, but it ranks among the most powerful in the game. Draw wins games, and Harvey’s ability to draw extra cards each turn is unmatched. In the multiplayer format, Harvey can use his response to help other investigators at the table dig that much deeper into their decks for the right tools for the job. Is the Guardian or Mystic in the group missing that key weapon or spell? Harvey lets them draw additional cards each turn so they can find it that much faster. The ability to draw extra cards isn’t that common outside the Seeker card pool, so having an investigator at the table who can feed card draw to other players from the word go gives a group an edge against the encounter deck. If you’re playing Harvey in the solo format, then he gets to keep all that additional card draw for himself, which is fantastic. Harvey may trigger his ability in response to taking a vanilla draw action during his turn, but the ability also synergizes with a wealth of other cards in the Seeker card pool. For example, you may use in conjunction with assets, such as Dream-Enhancing Serum, Feed the Mind and Old Book of Lore; events, such as Blood-Rite, Cryptic Research and Preposterous Sketches; and skills, such as either level of Perception or Eureka! If Harvey uses any of these cards on his turn, he gets to draw an extra card, and all those extra cards means he has extra options to counter the machinations of the encounter deck. Harvey is capable of drawing so many cards so quickly that he can exceed his maximum hand size if you’re not careful, forcing him to discard some of those hard-earned cards during the Upkeep phase. Fortunately, Harvey’s starter deck contains several cards that let him not only boost his maximum hand size into the double digits, but also reward him for maintaining a so-called Big Hand. Big Hand decks are a relatively new concept in the Arkham Horror LCG since there weren’t than many cards to support the strategy until the Dream-Eaters cycle. The premise of the deck is simple: use cards, such as Vault of Knowledge, Laboratory Assistant and Dream-enhancing Serum to jack your hand size into double digits, and then draw like a madman, cycling through your draw deck rapidly while abusing powerful cards, such as Knowledge is Power. A good example of this type of strategy is a Mandy Thompson deck built by Cuherdir, which is capable of cycling through the draw deck multiple times per turnonce it’s up and running. While this strategy is extremely effective in either solo or multiplayer, Cuherdir’s deck contains 45 XP worth of cards, so it’s the type of deck that you either play in standalone or a deck that you build towards, not something you play at the beginning of a campaign. It’s also worth noting that many of the cards in this deck are on the optional List of Taboos because the designers recognized that they were overpowered. Harvey’s starter deck may not be capable of cycling itself several times per turn, but our professor is no slouch in the Big Hand department. Between his signature asset, Vault of Knowledge, Laboratory Assistant and Arcane Enlightenment, Harvey can have 10 plus cards in his hand during his turn. While testing Harvey, I added Dream-enhancing Serum from A Thousand Shapes of Horror to the mix, and I routinely had a 12-plus cards in my hand within a turn or two. I often had so many cards in my hand that I felt spoiled for choice how to respond to threats from the encounter deck. When you’ve got that many cards in your hand, you can start to feel nigh untouchable, whether you’re Investigating, Fighting or Evading. Sadly, Harvey is not immune to danger once he amasses a fistful of cards, cycles his deck and begins abusing powerful events such as Knowledge is Power. Beyond the Veil, a common treachery from the Dunwich Legacy, can put the kibosh on those types of shenanigans very quickly. Harvey has a surprising amount of health for a fragile old man, but even he will be hard-pressed to mitigate 10 damage. Cards such as Crypt Chill from the Core set can whittle away at Harvey’s key assets, while Laboratory Assistant is fragile at only one health. Even basic weaknesses, such as Amnesia from the Core set and Drawing the Sign from the Path to Carcosa, can spell trouble for Harvey, although he is in a better position than most investigators to recover from these types of setbacks. Harvey pings himself for a horror each time he cycles his deck, but that shouldn’t be much of a threat, given that he has 8 Sanity and access to plenty of high Sanity allies who can soak the horror for him. The biggest difference between running a Big Hand strategy in Harvey and another Seeker investigator, such as Mandy Thompson, is his signature weakness, Thrice-Damned Curiosity. Mandy’s signature weakness, Shocking Discovery, forces her to draw an encounter card, which may or may not have an impact, when she cycles her deck. As we’ll see in a moment, that is not the case with Thrice-Damned Curiosity, which can easily kill Harvey if he cycles his deck too rapidly. If Harvey didn’t draw enough cards with his response, his Elder Sign ability gives him a chance to draw even more. Remember that if Harvey pulls an Elder Sign during a skill test on his turn, he can trigger his response, too, drawing a second card. This didn’t happen all that often during my games with Harvey, but it’s a nice option if Harvey is preoccupied and can’t find the time to squeeze in some type of draw action. Harvey gets +1 to his modified skill value if he pulls an Elder Sign, which is the same for all investigators in the starter decks. That’s not all that surprising, considering Harvey is primarily focused on discovering clues. Harvey has a base Intellect skill value of 5, which becomes a 6 or 7 with a few key assets in play, so it’s not like he needs a big boost from the Elder Sign during Investigate action. Unfortunately for Harvey, pulling an Elder Sign won’t be enough to save him if he can’t muster enough skill icons during more challenging Combat and Agility skill tests. Harvey’s signature card is Vault of Knowledge. It’s a three-cost asset with Willpower, Agility and Wild skill icons and the Talent trait. It is Harvey Walters deck only. Your maximum hand size is increased by 2 while Vault of Knowledge in in play. It has the following game text: Response - After you successfully investigate, exhaust Vault of Knowledge and choose an investigator at your location: That investigator draws 1 card. Vault of Knowledge is the type of signature asset that does everything that Harvey could ever want. First, it boosts Harvey’s hand size, providing a cushion for all those extra cards that he’s going to draw during a scenario. Cards that increase a player’s maximum hand size are few and far between, so this ability is a welcome one, especially if Harvey wants to lecture to allies other than Laboratory Assistant. If that isn’t enough, Vault of Knowledge rewards Harvey for doing what he does best, that is, investigating and discovering clues. Of course, this ability gives Harvey yet another opportunity to trigger his response and draw an additional card. The nice thing about Vault of Knowledge is that Harvey can share that draw with another investigator at his location, facilitating the development of their board states. Guardians, Rogues, Mystics and Survivors have received a few more ways to draw cards since the Core set days, but Seekers still monopolize the mechanic. Harvey is unique in that he can share some of that draw consistently with other investigators at the table, which makes him a valuable support investigator in addition to being a top-notch cluever. Harvey Walter’s signature weakness is Thrice-Damned Curiosity. It has the Flaw trait and the following Revelation – For every 3 cards in your hand: Take 1 damage. Harvey can draw a ton of cards, which is fantastic. The downside of all that draw is that he will also see any weaknesses that are lurking in his deck more frequently. Thrice-Damned Curiosity is the weakness that keeps Harvey honest. Harvey can draw so many cards so quickly that he has the potential to cycle through his deck multiple times during a scenario. Thrice-Damned Curiosity makes you think twice about doing that. Harvey has a lot of health compared with many of his Seeker counterparts, but he needs that extra health to absorb the blow from this weakness, which has the potential to kill him outright depending on the number of cards in his hand when it pops. Now I was lucky while testing Harvey, and Thrice-Damned Curiosity rarely hit for more than one or two damage, but then I wasn’t necessarily trying to maximize Harvey’s hand size in every game either. Still, that one or two damage was enough to kill Harvey at least once, so Thrice-Damned Curiosity commands respect. If you pursue a Big Hand strategy, which the starter deck encourages you to do with cards such Vault of Knowledge, Arcane Enlightenment, Laboratory Assistant and Extensive Research, then Thrice-Damned Curiosity will likely tag you for anywhere from 3 to 5 damage, which is a significant chunk of Harvey’s health. If Harvey has 10+ plus in his hand while cycling his deck, Thrice-Damned Curiosity will almost certainly kill him unless he has a way to mitigate that damage. If Harvey is tackling scenarios such as The Essex County Express or Curtain Call, which can ping investigators for a significant amount of damage unless they’re extremely careful, the odds of Thrice-Damned Curiosity landing a lethal blow rise dramatically. Damage mitigation and/or healing is rare in the Seeker card pool, so Harvey’s best bet is to pawn off the damage from Thrice-Damned Curiosity on one of his unlucky allies from Miskatonic University. Harvey’s starter deck includes one basic weakness that is designed to harass bookish investigators like him. Obsessive has the Flaw trait and the following Revelation – Place Obsessive in your threat area. Forced – When your turn begins: Discard 1 non-weakness card at random from your hand. You may take two actions to discard Obsessive. Obsessive is a Jekyll and Hyde type of weakness. On the one hand, if you’re playing a Big Hand style of deck like Harvey, Obsessive is a relatively minor nuisance. On the other hand, if you’re playing a deck that doesn’t draw that many cards or struggles in the card draw department, it can be a dreadful brute that will shred your hand, leaving you battered and bloody in its wake. Let’s take a closer look at both sides of Obsessive. If you draw Obsessive as your basic weakness when you’re playing a Big Hand deck, it’s somewhat irritating, but you could do far worse. When I was testing a Big Hand Harvey build with Vault of Knowledge, Laboratory Assistant and Dream-enhancing Serum, I had so many cards in my hand most of the time that randomly discarding one of them at the start of my turn to Obsessive simply didn’t matter all that much. Sure, Obsessive would discard something important from time to time, but it rarely posed a significant setback. If I had 10+ cards in hand after the random discard, then I usually had an answer to almost anything the encounter deck could throw at me. Sometimes I’d just let Obsessive sit in my threat area because I had better things to do than take two actions to discard it. If you’re drawing enough cards to turn after turn to neuter Obsessive’s random discard, one of the best ways to deal with it is to simply beat the scenario as fast as possible. Given Harvey’s 5 Intellect, he’s quite capable of doing just that. If, on the other hand, your deck plays a lot of cards or commits them to skill tests as fast as you draw them, Obsessive is a huge pain in the ass. If your deck doesn’t have a good draw engine, then you’ll usually end up drawing Obsessive during the Upkeep phase, which is the worst time to see it. I hate when I draw a weakness rather than a card that could potentially help me next turn at the best of times, but Obsessive is doubly painful, because it will discard another card at random from your hand before you have a chance to deal with it. If you don’t have that many cards in your hand to begin with, the odds of Obsessive sniping something important rise dramatically. Lose the wrong card at the wrong time, and you could quickly find yourself in a no-win situation. But Obsessive isn’t done turning the screws, because you need to take two actions to discard it. If you don’t have two actions to spare because you’ve got more pressing matters to attend to, Obsessive will loiter in your threat area, ripping cards out of your hand turn after turn, which could be devastating. In this type of situation, Obsessive is a very nasty weakness. If you draw Obsessive as your basic weakness in this type of deck, my advice is to remove it from your threat area as quickly as possible. The fewer cards you discard at random, the better off you’ll be in the long run. Now that we’ve analyzed Harvey’s strengths, weaknesses, and signature cards, let’s examine Harvey’s viability as a multiplayer and solo investigator and break down the contents of his starter deck. If you’re new to the game and you picked up the Harvey starter deck to play with friends, I’ve got some good news for you: Harvey is a great multiplayer investigator, and his starter deck is perfectly suitable for your first campaign. I have a few nitpicks with the starter deck, namely the lack of support for Combat and Agility skill tests and the implementation of the Big-Hand strategy, but most of these issues are relatively easy to fix. Much like the Nathaniel Cho starter deck, the Harvey Walters starter deck goes all in on its strategy of choice, in this case, Investigation, leaving him relatively defenceless against Combat and Agility skill tests prompted by enemies, treacheries or locations on the table. Harvey’s starter deck contains only 2 Combat, 3 Agility and 5 Wild skill icons, which will make it difficult if not impossible for Harvey to pass Combat and Agility skill tests with any consistency out of the box. Unfortunately, Harvey’s starter deck is missing two Seeker staples, ‘I’ve got a plan!’ (0) and Mind over Matter (0), which would help him a lot in either multiplayer or solo formats. While I can understand the omission of ‘I’ve got a plan!’ (0), since the starter deck assumes that Harvey won’t be taking that many Fight actions in multiplayer, Mind over Matter (0) is sorely missed, because it would really help Harvey deal with not only the odd enemy, but also the occasional Combat or Agility skill test that occurs during his turn. I’m glad the deck includes ‘I’ve got a plan!’ (2) and Mind over Matter (2), which Harvey can purchase once he earns a few experience points, but they don’t do him much good at the beginning of a campaign. Besides, I’m not crazy about the idea of spending anywhere from four to eight experience on these upgrades when the Level 0 versions of ‘I’ve got a plan!’ and Mind over Matter usually suffice. Fortunately, Mind over Matter (0) is available in the Core set, and I wouldn’t hesitate to add one or two copies of it to the deck immediately. ‘I’ve got a plan!’ (0), which is in the Miskatonic Museum mythos pack, is a tougher call. If you are playing with two or three other investigators, or you are paired with a ruthless killing machine, such as Nathaniel Cho, you can probably get away without it. Otherwise, I would err on the side of caution and try to include it if at all possible. The implementation of the Big Hand strategy in the starter deck is also somewhat problematic. Cards such as Vault of Knowledge, Arcane Enlightenment, Laboratory Assistant really encourage you to boost your hand size to double digits so that you can reap the rewards of cards such as Celeano Fragments, Forgotten Tome, Higher Education and Extensive Research and Farsight (4). A larger hand size also helps mitigate the drawbacks of Obsessive. However, in my experience, I’ve found the Big Hand strategy as presented in the starter deck to be somewhat slow, since you need to play a lot of assets to have at least 12+ cards in your hand. Moreover, I’m not entirely convinced the payoff for amassing 12+ cards in your hand is worth it. That leaves you with a couple of options. The first is to abandon the Big Hand strategy altogether. I’ve played Harvey with and without the strategy, and honestly, it’s easier to play the deck without obsessing over your hand size. Your second option is to improve the strategy’s consistency. Fortunately, there is a relatively easy fix. Dream-enhancing Serum, a Seeker asset from A Thousand Shapes of Horror, is a perfect for this deck. It has the potential to boost your hand size more than most of the cards in the deck, and it synergizes nicely with Harvey’s draw ability. I would highly recommend buying the mythos pack or borrowing a couple of copies the serum from a friend. I think you’ll find the deck runs much smoother. While the Harvey Walters starter deck is perfectly suitable out of the box for multiplayer, I wouldn’t recommend playing it solo. It simply lacks the tools needed to protect poor Harvey from the dangers of the mythos. That said, once you expand your collection, Harvey’s 4 Willpower, 5 Intellect and draw ability make him a tremendous solo investigator. I have beaten some of the most difficult scenarios this game has to offer with Harvey in the solo format. There aren’t that many good enemy management tools in the Seeker card pool at Level 0, but once you gain a few experience points, there are some fantastic options whether you prefer to Fight or Evade. The Harvey Walters starter deck contains a wealth of new Seeker cards that work well with not only Harvey, but also other Seeker and off-class Seeker investigators in the card pool. I’ve tested Harvey against a variety of scenarios as a solo investigator, so most of what I have to say here will focus on the viability of these cards in that format. You can divide the Level 0 cards in Harvey’s starter deck into six groups: draw, hand size maximization, resource generation, clue discovery, tomes and cards that interact with tomes and enemy management tools. I’ll discuss potential purchases and upgrades later in this video. The first group of cards support Harvey’s special ability, drawing cards. Forbidden Tome (0), Feed the Mind (0), Laboratory Assistant, either level of Whitton Greene, Vault of Knowledge and Preposterous Sketches provide Harvey with so many options to draw additional cards during his turn that he should rarely need to take a basic draw action to trigger his response. I’ll discuss Forbidden Tome and Whitton Greene a little later, and Preposterous Sketches has been around since Blood on the Altar, which leaves Feed the Mind (0). Feed the Mind (0) is a downgrade for Feed the Mind (3) from the Depths of Yoth mythos pack. It’s a lot like its Level (3) counterpart, with the exception that it costs one more resource, the Intellect skill test is slightly more difficult, and the card draw is capped at three. The two cards are so similar that I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of player forgo the Level 3 version altogether. While the prospect of drawing 3+ cards with Feed the Mind is very tempting, it does require an action to play, an action to trigger and a successful skill test, which can and will go wrong from time to time. I went back and forth on this card for a long time before trimming it to one copy and, ultimately, cutting it from my deck altogether. In my experience during testing, Preposterous Sketches required fewer actions and resources and produced the same effect. If you’re interested in playing a Big Hand deck, I’d would recommend playing both cards to see which one you prefer. It’s entirely possible your answer will be one, both or neither depending on how you’ve constructed your deck. The second group of cards help Harvey maximize his hand size. Harvey can amass a Big Hand of 10+ cards by playing a combination of Arcane Enlightenment, Laboratory Assistant and Vault of Knowledge. If Harvey happens to get all three assets on the table, he can have a maximum hand size of 14, one shy of the 15 required for the +1 Intellect bonus on Celeano Fragments. I’ve already discussed the power of Vault of Knowledge, and Laboratory Assistant has been a staple since the Dunwich Legacy, which leaves Arcane Enlightenment. I consider this to be the weakest card of the bunch, and it’s the primary reason I recommend picking up Dream-enhancing Serum from the Thousand Shapes of Horror mythos pack. I like the 2 Willpower skill icons, since the starter deck lacks Guts, but I think the card is too slow and offers Harvey too little in the solo format. If I want to increase Harvey’s hand size, I’d much rather play Vault of Knowledge, Laboratory Assistant and Dream-enhancing Serum, which has the potential to ramp up your hand size far higher than Arcane Enlightenment. I cut Arcane Enlightenment for two copies of Dream-enhancing Serum, which made an immediate impact because it enables Harvey to have 10+ cards in his hand without Vault of Knowledge or Laboratory Assistant in play, and it gives him yet another way to trigger his response. Dream-enhancing Serum is such as perfect fit for Harvey that I’m surprised it wasn’t reprinted in his starter deck. Arcane Enlightenment also provides an additional hand slot for a Tome, which is OK I guess if you’re playing the starter deck straight out of the box. Harvey does have plenty of tomes from which to choose. However, if I’m playing solo, I’m not all that interested in wasting a card, 2 resources and an action on a card that doesn’t have an immediate impact on the board state. Besides, if I want to play a deck based around tomes, I’ll just play Daisy or her parallel version, who can leverage tomes so much better than Harvey. Arcane Enlightenment may be worth playing in either of those investigators, since you can dump Daisy’s signature weakness, The Necronomicon, into that additional slot. I’d consider playing a copy of Arcane Enlightenment in Minh Thi Phan, since she could use a hand to hold the King in Yellow. There are two cards in the Harvey’s starter deck that generate resources: Burning the Midnight Oil and Cryptic Writings.  The cost curve of Harvey’s deck spikes at 2 resources, so the extra resource generation is appreciated. You’ll also need those extra resources if you’re planning to leverage Higher Education. It’s odd that Harvey’s starter deck actually contains more resource generation than the Rogue starter deck, but we’ll address that problem when I break down Winifred’s deck in a future deck tech. Burning the Midnight Oil is similar to Clean Them Out and Sneak By from the Nathaniel Cho and Winifred Habbamock starter decks, respectively, in that it rewards Harvey for doing what Harvey does best, investigating. It goes without saying that Harvey is going to take a lot of Investigate actions in multiplayer or solo, and Burning the Midnight Oil simply hands you two resources for doing so. Piggybacking resource generation on another action is terrific and Burning the Midnight Oil has become a staple in many of my Seeker decks for that reason. I have had an on-again-off-again relationship with Cryptic Writings and its Level 2 upgrade. Currently, we’re on the outs. Theoretically, Cryptic Writings works similarly to Burning the Midnight Oil, piggybacking resource generation on card draw. The problem is, I never seem to draw Cryptic Writings during my turn, even when I play an investigator like Harvey, who draws a ton of cards. Maybe I’ve just been unlucky, but Cryptic Writings’ inconsistency, coupled with the fact that I hate taking an action to play Cryptic Writings if I don’t draw it during my turn, really bugs me. Long story short, I haven’t been playing Cryptic Writings in my Seeker decks lately, but that could change. The fourth group of cards help Harvey discover clues. Deduction has been around since the Core set, which leaves Extensive Research (0), a downgrade for Extensive Research (1) from the Dark Side of the Moon mythos pack. Extensive Research (0) is similar to Working a Hunch from the Core set, the obvious differences being that it’s not fast and its exorbitant cost is conditional on your hand size. If you have 12+ cards in your hand consistently, then Extensive Research will save you an action at a high-shroud location. Discovering two clues without making a skill test is also a great option at locations where Investigate actions have the potential to trigger dangerous effects (I’m looking at you, Haunted keyword from The Circle Undone) or tricksy locations, such as Arkham Woods: Cliffside or Arkham Woods: Tangled Thicket for The Devourer Below scenario, which force Harvey to investigate with Agility and Combat, respectively. Unfortunately, Extensive Research prices itself out of the market the moment your hand size falters. I’m not sure how much I’d be willing to pay for Extensive research to discover two clues, but I can’t imagine that it would be more than two or three unless the game was on the line. I took this card for a spin in the Harvey Walters deck I played during the Farkham Nights Ironman event, but I don’t think I ever played it. More often than not, my hand size would dip, and Extensive Research (0) was simply too expensive. Extensive Research (1) would have been a better option. The fifth group of cards are tomes and cards that interact with tomes. The starter deck comes with three tomes: Celaeno Fragments, Encyclopedia (0), and Forbidden Tome (0). It also includes two cards that interact with tomes, namely Arcane Enlightenment and Whitton Greene. I am a little surprised that Harvey’s deck contains so many cards that focus on tomes, considering the Arkham Horror LCG already has one investigator who specializes in them, two if you count Daisy’s parallel version. Unfortunately, Harvey lacks Daisy’s special ability to trigger a tome for free each turn, so triggering tomes will eat away at his precious actions. Harvey might be able to make these tomes work in multiplayer, but most of them are too slow for solo play, and I quickly cut them during testing. Daisy, of course, has a much easier time leveraging these tomes. Celaeno Fragments, Book of Books, is a cheap source of extra Intellect and Willpower icons if you’re playing a Big Hand-style of deck. While testing Harvey, I routinely had 10 plus cards in hand to qualify for the Intellect and Willpower skill bonuses. I was never able to hit 15 or more cards in hand for the extra +1 Intellect, though, and honestly, I’m not sure the payoff is worth risk, since Thrice-Damned Curiosity has the potential to hit you for a whopping 5 damage if you are holding that many cards in your hand. Celaeno Fragments role in the starter deck is like that of Magnifying Glass from the Core set. Personally, I prefer Magnifying Glass because its Fast and the +1 Intellect skill bonus is unconditional, but Celaeno Fragments is a perfectly acceptable option if you’re playing the starter deck out of the box. Encyclopedia (0) is a downgrade for Encyclopedia (2) from the Core set. Encyclopedia (2) sees play in the multiplayer format, because an investigator like Daisy may trigger it with her free action to give herself or another investigator at her location +2 to a skill of their choice until the end of the phase. That bonus is fantastic whether that investigator is planning to Investigate, Fight or Evade. Encyclopedia (2) isn’t quite as good in the solo format since triggering it will provoke an attack of opportunity unless you use Knowledge is Power, which isn’t included in the starter deck and has since been added to the optional list of taboos. The other drawback of targeting yourself with Encyclopedia is that, in most circumstances, the skill bonus will apply for only two actions, not three if you target another investigator. Daisy, as always, is the exception. The only significant difference between Encyclopedia (0) and its Level 2 counterpart is that it uses secrets, which limit how often you may trigger it. However, the card enters play with 5 secrets, which is quite generous, and Seekers have several ways of adding more secrets if necessary, including the ubiquitous Astounding Revelation from the Dream-Eaters deluxe expansion, so upgrading to Encyclopedia (2) isn’t that urgent. Harvey’s starter deck includes one ‘untranslated’ asset, Forbidden Tome (0), and two upgrades for it, Forbidden Tome (Dark Knowledge) and Forbidden Tome (Secrets Revealed). I’m a big fan of the ‘untranslated’ assets. Most of them are relatively easy to identify or translate, and the upgrades for them tend to be well worth the effort. That said, I’m disappointed by Forbidden Tome (0). First, Forbidden Tome (0) and both its Level 3 upgrades are intended exclusively for a Big Hand style of deck. If you’re not playing that style of deck, then there’s no point to playing either level of Forbidden Tome. Second, Forbidden Tome (0) takes a lot more actions to translate compared with the other unidentified assets. For example, identifying either Strange Solution or Ancient Stone takes only two actions: one to play the card and one to identify it. Interpreting the Dream Diary takes three actions, while translating the Archaic Glyphs takes four. Forbidden Tome (0) is the most labour-intensive card of the bunch, since you need to take six actions to translate it. That’s a lot of work unless you’re playing Daisy, especially in the solo format where time is of the essence. Unfortunately, Harvey’s starter deck doesn’t include cards like Knowledge is Power from Union and Disillusion or Eldritch Sophist from In Too Deep, which could speed up the process significantly. There is also a small chance that you can get ‘stuck’ while translating Forbidden Tome (0), since you can’t remove the last secret from it unless you’re certain that you’ll have at least 10 cards in hand after you draw. Now this shouldn’t be an issue if you’re playing a Big Hand deck; however, you could end up in a situation where your hand size dips, forcing you to draw without triggering the tome for fear of getting stuck. Both upgrades for Forbidden Tome (0) are geared exclusively towards Big Hand decks. Unless you’re holding 12+ cards in your hand or you play Knowledge is Power, you’ve got to spend 2+ actions to trigger them, and neither effect is worth more than two actions, much less four, in most circumstances. Cards that force investigators to jump through a bunch of hoops before they become useful tend to be slow and cumbersome, and the upgrades for Forbidden Tome (0) are no exception. Forbidden Tome (Dark Knowledge) lends itself to the multiplayer format. It gives Seeker investigators like Harvey a way to heal themselves or an ally while damaging an enemy at their location. There are some interesting tricks that you can pull with this tome in multiplayer. For example, if a Seeker is paired with a Guardian, they could trigger Forbidden Tome (Dark Knowledge) to move 1 damage from [SLIDE] Beat Cop (2) or Agency Backup (5) to an enemy at their location, then the Guardian could use the free-triggered ability on either card to deal another damage. Dealing 2 damage for the cost of one action is a good trade. If you need to discover clues rather than deal damage, the combination also works with either level of Grete Wagner from the Nathaniel Cho starter deck. If a Seeker is paired with Sister Mary, they could move 1 damage from Sister Mary’s signature asset, Guardian Angel, to an enemy. Then Sister Mary could assign more damage to Guardian Angel, adding more Bless tokens to the chaos bag. Don’t forget that you can use the tome to move damage to an enemy with the Aloof keyword, so it’s another weapon against those irritating Whippoorwills that flock to investigators during The Dunwich Legacy campaign or Union and Disillusion. If my hand size dipped below 12, I’d be very hesitant to spend more than one action to trigger this effect in most situations, but never say never. I’m not sold on Forbidden Tome (Dark Knowledge) in the solo format. There’s a good chance that Harvey will sustain some damage from his signature weakness, and it would be great to pawn some of it off on enemies. Unfortunately, unless the enemies at Harvey’s location are exhausted (which is highly unlikely given Harvey’s below-average Agility) or they have the Aloof keyword, triggering the tome will likely trigger attacks of opportunity. Harvey has quite a bit of health and sanity for an old fella but trading blows with enemies is not a position that I want to be in when I’m playing a Seeker. Forbidden Tome (Secrets Revealed), on the other hand, is a good option in either solo or multiplayer if, and this is a big if, you’re playing the Big Hand deck that can maintain a 12+ card hand consistently. Spending one action to move to a connecting location and discover a clue there without making a skill test is a terrific effect that only gets better at high-shroud locations or locations with potentially dangerous effects, such as the Haunted keyword from The Circle Undone campaign. This tome has the potential to generate action advantage during a scenario since it’s not limited by a predetermined number of secrets or charges. As long as you can keep your hand size at 12, you can take two actions for the cost of one every turn, which is fantastic. If my hand size dropped below 12, I might even consider spending two actions to trigger this tome. I wouldn’t be happy about it, but I think there are certain situation where you could justify it because that ability to discover a clue without making a skill test is so powerful. Harvey’s starter deck includes two cards that interact with tomes: Whitton Greene: Hunter of Rare Books and her Level 2 upgrade. I have a soft spot in my heart for Whitton, because she is such a powerhouse in the Call of Cthulhu LCG. That said, I haven’t found the right deck for her yet in the Arkham Horror LCG. There are a couple of problems with Whitton. First, she costs four resources, which is a lot considering her +1 Intellect bonus is conditional on controlling either a Tome or Relic. Now Whitton’s reaction helps you find those Tomes or Relics, but in terms of pure speed and efficiency, she simply can’t compete Dr. Milan Christopher from the Core Set, who gives you +1 Intellect unconditionally. Whitton also comes up short against the other Seeker ally in the Core Set, Research Librarian, in the Tome hunt. Research Librarian cost half as much as Whitton and it fetches you any Tome in your deck the moment it hits the table. If you’d like to abuse the Necronomicon, easily the most powerful tome in the game, Research Librarian can fetch it for you on Turn 1, and you’ll still have the resources to pay for it. Sadly, the same can’t be said for Whitton. The other problem with Whitton is that she doesn’t fit in very well with the Big Hand-style of deck, which Harvey’s starter encourages you to play. Laboratory Assistant is the ally of choice in that deck, which leaves poor Whitton on the outside looking in until you can purchase Miskatonic Archaeology Funding, which is included in the starter deck, or Charisma from The Essex County Express mythos pack. Despite the strikes against Whitton, I haven’t given up hope of finding her a home. Either version of Daisy seems like the obvious choice to play Whitton, but there is undeniable chemistry between Luke Robinson and Whitton, too. Admittedly it’s an odd pairing, but Luke starts scenarios with a Relic in play, which mitigates Whitton’s tempo issues. I’ve also considered ignoring Whitten (0) altogether in favour of her Level 2 upgrade, perhaps including her in a quote unquote nerdy deck built around Miskatonic Archaeology Funding. Unfortunately for Whitton, I haven’t pulled the trigger on that build yet because I still wince when I look at her resource cost. I’d happily pay 4 resources if Whitton’s Willpower and Intellect skill bonuses were unconditional; knowing that I need to draw and play a tome or relic before I get any sort of bonus is a tough sell. The final groups of Level 0 cards that I’m going to look at are Harvey’s enemy management tools. If you needed any more evidence that the Investigator Starter Deck product was designed with the multiplayer format in mind, this is it. The Nathaniel Cho starter deck goes all in on combat at the expense of investigation because the designers expect you to pair him with an investigator who can discover the lion’s share of the clues. Harvey’s starter deck takes the opposite approach, going all in on investigation at the expense of combat. Again, it the designers expect you to pair Harvey with an investigator who can manage enemies, because he has only two options: Disc of Itzamna (0), a downgrade from its Level 2 counterpart in the Core set, and Occult Invocation. I’m not a big fan of Disc of Itzamna (2) in solo. It’s a little pricey at 3 resources, and I feel like I’m taking a huge tempo hit whenever I spend an action to play it. All too often it seems, a dangerous enemy, such as a Yithian Observer, will spawn on top of you before you draw and/or play the Disc, at which point the Disc is basically useless. The Disc is also useless against enemies, such as the ubiquitous Acolyte from the Core set, that don’t spawn at your location. The Disc might have been more helpful in these situations if it had a better spread of skill icons, but a single Combat skill icon isn’t going to help Seekers like Harvey, who are notoriously weak in the Combat department. Disc of Itzamna (0) suffers from the same drawbacks as its level 2 counterpart. It’s expensive and you’ve got to play it before the enemy spawns on you to be effective. Again, it’s no help if the enemy spawns elsewhere. Automatically evading an enemy or dealing 2 damage to it isn’t quite as powerful as discarding an enemy outright, but it can be functionally equivalent if the enemy has two or fewer health or it lacks the Hunter keyword. As for Occult Invocation, I’ve played it in a variety of Seeker decks, and it’s a good alternative to ‘I’ve got a plan!’ (0) if you’ve got the card draw to support it. Spending 2 resources and discarding up to 2 cards from your hand isa steep price to pay, but Seekers don’t have that many options at Level 0 to deal damage, so beggars can’t be choosers. Occult Invocation tops out at 3 damage, which is fine for spot removal of run-of-the-mill enemies with two or three health. However, it comes up short against enemies with four or five health, such as the friendly neighbourhood Ghoul Priest from The Gathering. Unless you have a follow up in your hand – which would need to be a second copy of Occult Invocation if you’re playing the starter deck out of the box – then dealing those final two points of damage will be tough. Before I wrap up this video, let’s talk about the upgrades that you can purchase once you earn some experience points. How you modify Harvey’s deck depends a lot on whether you’re playing multiplayer or solo and whether you have access to card pool at large or just the cards in the starter deck. If you’re interested in taking Harvey for a spin in the solo format and you have access to the card pool at large, your first order of business should be to upgrade Harvey’s enemy management tools. There are plenty of great options in the Seeker card pool, including Strange Solution: Acidic Ichor, Arcane Glyphs: Prophecy Foretold, Ancient Stone: Knowledge of the Elders, Pendant of the Queen and, last but not least, the Necronomicon. If you prefer the multiplayer format, discovering clues as efficiently as possible takes priority. Again, if you have access to the Seeker card pool at large, there are great options, including Archaic Glyphs: Guiding Stones, Deciphered Reality, Pendant of the Queen and the Necronomicon. If you are playing Harvey Walters out of the box and you’re restricted to upgrades from the starter deck, then you have a couple paths that you can follow. Let’s begin with the elephant in the room: The Necronomicon. The Necronomicon is the best tome in the game, period. Free-triggered abilities are amazing, and The Necronomicon gives you four that you can mix and match as you see fit. If you want to abuse the Necronomicon, purchase two copies of Library Docent (1), which can bounce the Necronomicon back to your hand so you can play it again fully recharged. The Necronomicon is flat out busted when you have access to a larger card pool. If you ignore the optional list of taboos, you can unleash the Necronomicon’s terrible power repeatedly by playing it in combination with Knowledge is Power and two copies of Sleight of Hand, which Harvey can pick up by purchasing two copies of Versatile. Abiding by the list of taboos tones down the abuse a little by removing Sleight of Hand from the mix. The Necronomicon and Knowledge is Power also cost slightly more experience, which means it will take you a little longer to assemble the combination during a campaign. It does nothing to rein in its power, though. You know you’ve got a problem card on your hands when you can deal 9 damage to an enemy or discover 4 clues at any location without taking a single action, making a single skill test or spending any resources during your turn.   If you avoid the temptation to snap up the Necronomicon for 5 to 8 XP, depending on whether you are playing with the optional list of taboos, then you can explore some of the other options included in the starter deck. One of the first upgrades that many players purchase is Charisma, a permanent from the Essex County Express that provides an extra ally slot. Charisma was not reprinted in the starter deck products, but Harvey’s deck includes an alternative in Miskatonic Archaeology Funding. It costs 1 more XP than Charisma but provides two additional ally slots as long as those slots are occupied by Miskatonic assets, such as Laboratory Assistant, Whitton Greene or Library Docent (1). The card’s Forced effect prevents you from assigning more than one damage or horror to those assets when you take damage or horror, but that was never much of a concern during testing. I haven’t tested a Seeker deck that assembles a small army of nerds to take on the mythos, but it seems like an interesting angle to explore. There are nearly a dozen allies with the Miskatonic trait, some of which rank among the most powerful allies in the game. I’d love to be able to work Peter Sylvestre into that build, but there aren’t that many Seekers who can play him without purchasing Versatile first. If you prefer to focus on events rather than allies, Farsight (4) is a great option. As long as you have 8 or more cards in your hand, you can exhaust Farsight (4) to play events such as Cryptic Writings, Extensive Research, Occult Invocation, Preposterous Sketches, ‘I’ve got a plan!’ (2) and Seeking Answers (2) without taking an action. You must still pay the cost of that event mind you, but if you can get Farsight (4) down on the table early, it has the potential to generate a lot of action advantage during a scenario. There are plenty of powerful events in the Seeker card pool and beyond, so the value of Farsight (4) only gets better as your collection grows. You need at least 8 cards in your hand to trigger Farsight (4), but that’s a much lower bar to achieve than some of the other cards in the deck that reward the Big Hand strategy. Each Investigator Starter deck comes with an upgrade for one of the Neutral skills included in the Core set. To nobody’s surprise, Harvey’s deck includes Perception (2). Perception is a very good option for Harvey decks, since drawing a card with it during your turn will trigger Harvey’s reaction, so he actually gets two cards. Perception (2) let’s Harvey draw three cards as long as he succeeds by 2 or more during a skill tests, which shouldn’t be difficult between Harvey’s 5 Intellect and the 3 Intellect skill icons on the skill card. Drawing 3 cards off a successful skill test is basically the equivalent of playing a Cryptic Research for half the experience points. That’s a pretty good deal. If Harvey plays Perception (2) in combination with Practice Makes Perfect, he has the potential to draw 5 or six cards using a single copy of the skill, which is amazing. Other Seeker and off-class Seeker investigators also have the potential to abuse this combination, making Perception (2) a valuable pickup if you’re playing Practice Makes Perfect and a few other skills with the Practice trait. Seeking Answers (2) has the potential to be quite good depending on the scenario. First, Seeking Answers (2) let’s you discover at least 2 clues for a single action, which is great from a tempo perspective. Second, it can be extremely valuable in scenarios where you need to keep moving, whether to stay ahead of an enemy with the Hunter keyword or reach an objective across the map. The ability to move past a location but still pick up the clues there is very nice indeed if you need to put some distance between yourself and the enemy. Seeking Answers (2) also pairs well a card such as Barricade or Luke Robinson, who can barricade himself in his Dream Gate and investigate other locations to his heart’s content. To top it all off, Seeking Answers (2) has 2 Agility skill icons. Seekers tend to fall back on Agility rather than Combat if their enemy management options are running thin, so those 2 Agility skill icons can be invaluable. Esoteric Atlas (2) is an upgrade for Esoteric Atlas (1), which was released in the Union and Disillusion mythos pack. Extra movement can be critical to completing scenarios; unfortunately for Esoteric Atlas (1) and (2), Seekers have some of the best movement cards in the game in Shortcut and Pathfinder. Esoteric Atlas (2) is certainly better than its Level 1 counterpart since the movement is more flexible (up to 3 connections away) and it doesn’t exhaust when you trigger it, so you can take a long, desperate lunge towards and objective if necessary. However, you’ve got to target a revealed location, which is only good if you’re backtracking, like in The Doom of Eztli, or running around in circles like in Midnight Masks or A Phantom of Truth. Unfortunately, Esoteric Atlas is Harvey’s only option out of the box, so do yourself a favour and purchase The Dunwich Legacy expansion and/or The Miskatonic Museum for Shortcut and Pathfinder, respectively. The final card I’m going to look at in Harvey’s starter deck is Glimpse the Unthinkable (1). It’s a downgrade for Glimpse the Unthinkable (5), which was released in the Before the Black Throne mythos pack. I really quite like Glimpse the Unthinkable (1). If you purchase this for Harvey, he gets to draw at least 2 cards for free It also has fewer restrictions that a card like, says, Preposterous Sketches. Then Harvey gets to draw X more cards, depending how many cards from his hand he reshuffles into his deck. That has the potential to be quite powerful if you’re looking for answers buried deep in your draw deck Glimpse the Unthinkable (5) is probably a better option if you’re playing a Big Hand Harvey deck since he draws until he reaches his maximum hand size plus one, but 5 XP is quite a commitment when there are so many fantastic Seeker upgrades and purchases available. Besides, unlike its Level 5 counterpart, Glimpse the Unthinkable (1) isn’t removed from the game so Harvey has a chance to see it again if he draws through his deck. And before I forget, it also has the Insight trait, so you can pack it in Joe Diamond’s Hunch deck.MFL

Arkham Horror LCG - Nathaniel Cho Deck Tech

Manfromleng steps into the ring with Nathaniel Cho, the Guardian investigator from the Investigator Starter Decks for the Arkham Horror LCG by Fantasy Flight Games. CC licensed music from the album Lovecraft Memories by Zreen Toyz. Contact manfromleng@gmail.com.Direct DownloadYouTubeiTunesGoogle PodcastsThe stars are right, and that means it’s time for another episode of The Whisperer in Darkness. I am your host, the Manfromleng. Thank you very much for joining me today.On this episode, we’re stepping into the ring with Arkham’s resident boxer, Nathaniel Cho, the Guardian investigators released in the Investigator Starter Deck product. I’ll share my first impressions of Nathaniel, explore his viability in the multiplayer and solo formats and examine some of the player cards that are included in his starter deck. By the end of this video, I hope that you’ll be better prepared to serve as Nathaniel’s corner man when he attempts to go 12 arounds against the agents of the Mythos. There are spoilers throughout if you care about that sort of thing. If you enjoy what you hear, like, comment and subscribe. Is Nathaniel the type of investigator who can stand toe to toe with the Mythos, or does he have a glass chin? Let’s find out! Nathaniel Cho, The Boxer, has 3 Willpower, 2 Intellect, 5 Combat and 2 Agility. He has the Criminal and Warden traits, 9 Health and 6 Sanity. He has the following game text: Response – When you deal damage to an enemy by an event or a fight ability on an event: Deal 1 additional damage (Limit once per phase). His Elder Sign effect is +1, and if this skill check is successful during an attack, return an event from your discard pile to your hand. Nathaniel Cho’s base skill values are typical of a combat-orientated Guardian. Nathaniel’s average Willpower skill value will make it challenging for him to deal with common treacheries, such as Crypt Chill, Frozen in Fear and Rotting Remains from the Core set, without committing additional cards and/or resources to the skill test. He will also need help to pass important Willpower tests on Agenda cards, such as Agenda 1B – The Serpents Attack! in The Untamed Wilds scenario. Fortunately for Nathaniel, the Guardian card pool and the upgrades in Nathaniel’s starter deck are chalk full of extra Willpower skill icons. Nathaniel will need every Willpower icon he can muster in a Willpower intensive campaign, such as The Circle Undone, but at least he doesn’t have to overcome a significant Willpower deficit like his Rogue counterpart, Winifred Habbamock. Nathaniel’s below average Intellect is fine if you are playing in a three- or four-player game, where he can count on other investigators to discover the lion’s share of the clues. However, it’s much more problematic if you want to play Nathaniel solo or partner him with an investigator who doesn’t specialize in discovering clues, either. It will be extremely difficult for Nathaniel to discover clues using Investigate actions at a typical three-shroud location, and common obstacles, such as Obscuring Fog, can all but lock him out of a location for the duration of a scenario. Nathaniel needs to leverage cards such as Evidence, Flashlight, Perception, Grete Wagner, Lesson Learned and Scene of the Crime either to reduce the shroud value of locations or discover clues without taking Investigate actions. Unfortunately, Nathaniel’s starter deck comes up short in the Investigation department. While the deck includes Grete Wagner (0) and (3), Evidence (1) and Lesson Learned, it lacks Evidence (0), Scene of the Crime, Flashlight and Perception. If you want to play Nathaniel Cho solo, you will need to tinker with the starter deck to improve its viability in that format. Nathaniel Cho is the type of investigator who prefers to let his fists do the talking, so he will also struggle on Parley tests that use the Intellect skill. If Nathaniel wants to recruit Jazz Mulligan in Extracurricular Activity or sweet talk Constance Dumaine in The Last King, he’ll need to exchange his boxing trunks for some Fine Clothes. Poltergeist, an enemy from The Path to Carcosa campaign and the nemesis of Guardians everywhere, is particularly dangerous to Nathaniel since it’s immune to his damage bonuses and his odds of parleying with it successfully are low. If you’re taking Nathaniel through The Path to Carcosa, you should consider bringing an Enchanted Blade along just in case. Nathaniel is only the second Guardian investigator with a Combat skill value of 5, which means there are very few enemies that can stand toe-to-toe with him. Between his base skill value and his special ability, Nathaniel is a combat monster who can knock many enemies to the canvas in one or two action. Nathaniel is an excellent combatant for one simple reason. While traditional Guardians usually need to draw and play a weapon to improve the efficiency of their Fight actions, Nathaniel can start throwing punches as soon as he draws an event that deals damage or has a fight ability, which are plentiful in his starter deck. If Nathaniel draws enough events, he can leave a trail of battered and bloodied enemies in his wake without resorting to gun or knives. Treacheries that require Combat skill tests are relatively rare, but it’s nice to know that common obstacles, such as Locked Door from the Core set or Overgrowth and Entombed from The Forgotten Age, won’t pose much of a problem for Nathaniel. Finally, we come to Nathaniel’s below-average Agility. Nathaniel stings like a bee, but he sure as hell doesn’t float like a butterfly. Nathaniel’s odds of evading an enemy that he can’t or won’t knock out are slim. Agility skill tests are common on treacheries, so Nathaniel is vulnerable to things like Grasping Hands and On Wings of Darkness from the Core set and Snake Bite from The Forgotten Age. If you are playing The Forgotten Age, odds are that Nathaniel will end up poisoned at some point during the campaign, so don’t forget to bring along some Medicine. Some Agenda and Act decks also have surprises in store for Arkham’s less agile investigators. The Essex County Express, Undimensioned and Unseen and Curtain Call, for example, punish investigators who are unable to pass Agility skill test. Unfortunately, Agility skill icons are few and far between in the Guardian card pool and the Nathaniel Cho starter deck, so it will be difficult for Nathaniel to muster enough of them to pass these types of skill tests consistently. There are several cards that can improve Nathaniel’s odds, although none of them are in starter deck. Unexpected Courage from the Core set is helpful whether Nathaniel is attempting to evade an enemy or pass an Agility skill test, while Daring, a Guardian skill from the Search for Kadath is useful whether Nathaniel is throwing haymakers or using the rope-a-dope defence to buy some time. Take the Initiative, a Guardian skill from The Boundary Beyond, is a great addition to a Nathaniel Cho deck in either multiplayer or solo. It’s a fantastic defence against Agility skill checks on treachery cards and provides a great bonus during the Investigation phase as long as Nathaniel takes the first turn. Nathaniel’s response makes him a force to be reckoned with in the Combat department. Between his response and events cards such as Monster Slayer (0) and One-Two Punch (0), Nathaniel can easily deal three or four damage to an enemy in one action, which is extremely efficient for a Combat-orientated investigator. Throw in cards such as Clean Them Out (0) and Vicious Blow and Nathaniel can knock out an enemy and generate resources in a single action, which is fantastic. Nathaniel’s response is limit once per phase, though, so finding ways to trigger it in as many phases as possible will maximize his effectiveness. Nathaniel’s starter deck includes several cards that can help him do this. Counterpunch (0) and Counterpunch (2), for example, let Nathaniel trigger his response when he is attacked, which usually occurs during the enemy phase. Nathaniel could use Heroic Rescue (0) from Echoes of the Past or Heroic Rescue (2) from Point of No Return to pull off a similar trick during the enemy phase. Unfortunately, neither card is included in Nathaniel’s starter deck. Get over Here!’ (2) may be played during any free-triggered ability window, which means Nathaniel can play it during the Mythos, Investigation, Enemy and Upkeep phases. Ambush, a Guardian event from The Unspeakable Oath, doesn’t see much play, but Nathaniel could use it to trigger his response when an enemy spawns at his location, which typically occurs during the Mythos phase. With the right combination of events, Nathaniel could trigger his response four times in one round, which would make short work of most enemies the solo format and put a significant dent in the health total of most bosses in multiplayer. Nathaniel’s starter deck is packed with a lot of great events with fight abilities to trigger his response. The trick is drawing enough of them to trigger his response turn after turn. That’s where Boxing Gloves comes in. Boxing Gloves is one of the most important - if not the most important - card in the Nathaniel Cho starter deck. Weapon assets are the hallmark of Guardian and off-class Guardian investigators, but few of those assets define an investigator as much as Boxing Gloves. Nathaniel isn’t really Nathaniel without them and getting Boxing Gloves down on the table should be your No. 1 priority in most scenarios. The passive +1 Combat skill bonus is great, since it plays to Nathaniel’s strengths, but it’s the card’s response that is key his staying power during a long bout against the agents of the Mythos. The ability to search the top 6 cards of your deck for a Spirit event and add it to your hand after you defeat an enemy is critical to how Nathaniel’s deck’s function. Nathaniel’s starter deck contains a lot of events with the Spirit trait, so odds are that you’ll find something to refill your hand and let Nathaniel maintain a flurry of blows. There are several cool tricks that you can pull off with Boxing Gloves. For example, if Nathaniel is confronted by multiple enemies, he can defeat one of them, then trigger Boxing Gloves to fetch an event such as Counterpunch, which he can play during the enemy phase to trigger his response for a second time in the round. There are also several events, such as Glory (0) and Evidence (0), that trigger after you defeat an enemy. If you defeat an enemy with Boxing Gloves, you can trigger the response to fetch Glory, which you can trigger to draw two more cards. If one of those cards happens to be Evidence, you can trigger it to discover a clue, too. These types of tricks take Combat to a whole new level. Boxing Gloves may be one of the most important cards in the Nathaniel Cho starter deck, but it presents something of a problem in solo play since it takes up both hand slots. Nathaniel can’t wear the gloves and wield a Flashlight at the same time, so you need to give some thought to how you will discover clues. Nathaniel has a couple of options here. The first is to forego Flashlight entirely and rely on cards such as Evidence, Grete Wagner, Lesson Learned and Scene of the Crime to discover clues. The second option is to play Bandolier (0) from The Essex County Express so Nathaniel can play Flashlight in addition to cards such as Evidence, Grete Wagner, Lesson Learned and Scene of the Crime. I’ve tested both approaches, and I think I prefer the latter. Nathaniel can make do without a Flashlight, but he’s got to be extremely careful how he uses Grete, Evidence and Scene of the Crime because there is a chance that he’ll run out of options to discover clues at high-shroud locations before the end of a scenario. Locations with more than one clue per investigator can also be problematic until Nathaniel upgrades to Evidence (1) or purchases Lesson Learned. The Flashlight/Bandolier combo is a more card intensive, but Flashlight is great for sniping clues at 1- and 2-shroud locations, allowing Nathaniel to save Evidence, Grete Wagner and Scene of the Crime for the 3+ shroud locations. Discovering clues with a 2-Intellect investigator in solo is always going to be challenge, so it doesn’t hurt to err on the side of caution and pack a Flashlight, too. Besides, Bandolier (2) from Return to the Dunwich Legacy is a decent upgrade for Nathaniel since it gives him a passive +1 Willpower bonus if he has Boxing Gloves equipped. Nathaniel’s Elder Sign ability supports his style of deck and his response, both of which are based around events. Nathaniel receives +1 to his modified skill value if he pulls an Elder Sign, which is the same for all investigators in the starter decks. That’s not all that surprising, considering Nathaniel is primarily focused on defeating enemies. Nathaniel has a base Combat skill value of 5, 6 or 7 if he has a couple of key assets in play, so it’s not like he needs a big boost from the Elder Sign during Fight actions. If Nathaniel’s in Hail Mary territory, that is, his modified skill value is one less than the difficulty of the skill test before you pull a chaos token from the bag, an Elder Sign will save him from time to time. The odds of that happening on standard difficulty aren’t very good at the outset of a campaign, but I’d rather have two +1s in the bag rather than just one. Unfortunately, an Elder Sign won’t enough to save Nathaniel if he can’t muster enough skill icons against more difficult skill tests, such as the Willpower (5) skill tests on Visions of Futures Past from the Dunwich Legacy or Centuries of Secrets from The Circle Undone. At that point, it’s not a question of whether Nathaniel will fail the skill test, but how badly he will fail. Nathaniel should not need the skill value bonus from the Elder Sign if he’s taking Fight actions, but the ability to return an event from his discard pile to his hand during an attack is excellent. It’s worth noting that Nathaniel can return any event to his hand, not just events with the Spirit trait, and his starter deck contains good options for a variety of situations. If you’ve got an important bout against an agent of the Mythos coming up, you can return Counterpunch, Monster Slayer or One-Two Punch to your hand. If you want a little extra prize money, then Clean them Out is just the ticket. If you need to draw cards, then you can go for Glory. If you’ve tinkered with the starter deck to play solo and you’re afraid you’ll come up short on clues, Evidence and Scene of the Crime are great options. Nathaniel needs to keep his hand stocked with events to be an effective investigator, so the ability to return an event to your hand from the discard pile from time to time is vital. Nathaniel doesn’t have access to any sort of meaningful chaos bag manipulation, though, so Lady Luck will need to be in his corner if he hopes to pull a lot of Elder Signs while attacking enemies. Nathaniel’s signature asset is Randall Cho: Concerned Brother. It’s a two-cost asset with Willpower, Intellect and Wild skill icons and the Ally and Medic traits. Randall Cho takes up an ally slot and has the following free-triggered ability: After Randall Cho enters play: Heal 3 damage or search your deck or discard pile for a Weapon asset, play it (paying its cost), and shuffle your deck. There’s a lot to like about Randall Cho. First, he’s a bargain at two resources. Second, he has 1 Willpower, 1 Intellect and 1 Wild skill icon. Nathaniel’s Willpower and Intellect skill values aren’t exactly stellar, so Randall has the potential to save your ass during a critical skill test. Third, Randall is the type of ally who is useful whether he enters play at the beginning of a scenario or at the end. If you can get him down on the table early, Randall has a Prepared for the Worst effect that can not only fetch Nathaniel’s Boxing Gloves from either the draw deck or discard pile, but also play them (paying its cost). Boxing Gloves cost 3 resources (2 if you have upgraded them), so you can play Randall Cho and Boxing Gloves on Turn 1 and still have two actions left over. You can’t get much better than that in terms of action efficiency. If you play Randall towards the end of a scenario, he can either fetch his brother’s Boxing Gloves or heal 3 damage on him. Randall Cho is a little fragile after his unfortunate ‘accident’ at the hands of the O’Bannion gang, but his mind is sound. Nathaniel has only 6 Sanity and he is somewhat vulnerable to Willpower treacheries, so Randall’s 3 Sanity is always welcome, especially toward the end of a scenario. Unfortunately, like most signature cards, Randall Cho is a singleton, so drawing him consistently is a challenge. Nathaniel’s starter deck contains a few tools that can help. The response on Boxing Gloves will thin out your deck a little if you can kill enough enemies, while Glory (0) will draw you two cards for doing what Nathaniel does best. Once you’ve earned a few experience points, you can purchase Overpower (2), which provides additional card draw. When I was testing various Nathaniel Cho builds, I tended to play Grete Wagner towards the beginning of scenarios to pump my Combat skill and discover clues. Once Grete had done her job, I’d drop Randall Cho to heal some of the damage that Nathaniel had taken and provide a nice Sanity cushion. Nathaniel Cho’s signature weakness is Tommy Malloy. Tommy has 2 Fight, 3 Health and 3 Evade. He has the Humanoid, Criminal and Syndicate traits. His prey is Nathaniel Cho only. He has the Hunter keyword and the following Forced effect – When Tommy Malloy would take any amount of damage: Reduce that amount to 1. Tommy Malloy deals 2 damage. Honestly, I’m disappointed by the art FFG chose for Tommy Malloy. Patrick McEvoy did a great job depicting the pivotal bout between Nathaniel and Tommy, so I was expecting something more along those lines for Tommy. Unfortunately, FFG decided to re-use a piece of art from the Call of Cthulhu LCG, which doesn’t capture the character portrayed on the other cards in the starter deck. As far as signature weaknesses go, Tommy is a bit of a lightweight. He has a Fight value of only 2, which means Nathaniel won’t have much trouble dispatching him in most scenarios. Nathaniel’s base skill value is already three greater than Tommy’s Fight value before he pulls from the chaos bag, four if he has Grete or Boxing Gloves down, so the bout with Tommy is a formality. The Hunter keyword is largely irrelevant in solo play, since its highly unlikely that Nathaniel will evade Tommy in that format. I could see another investigator taking Tommy off Nathaniel’s hands in multiplayer, though, especially if Nathaniel has more pressing matters to deal with during his turn. Tommy hits hard but I don’t expect his punches to land very often. Besides Nathaniel has 9 health, so he can absorb a significant amount of punishment. Like many signature weaknesses, Tommy isn’t so much a threat as a time-consuming speedbump that will tie up Nathaniel for a turn. Tommy’s forced effect is annoying since Nathaniel will need to take at least three actions to deal with him. One-two punch (0) can help Nathaniel speed up the bout if necessary. Counterpunch (0) and Counterpunch (2) can also help Nathaniel land a quick blow on Tommy if he’s willing to take an attack of opportunity or one of his punches fails to connect during the Investigation phase. I didn’t run into Tommy all that often while testing Nathaniel, but he didn’t pose much of a challenge when I did. All things considered, there are far worse signature weaknesses out there. Nathaniel’s starter deck includes one basic weakness that is designed to harass combat-orientated investigators like him. Self-Destructive has the Flaw trait and the following game text: Revelation – Put Self-Destructive into play in your threat area. Forced – When you deal 1 or more damage to an enemy: Take 1 damage. An investigator may spend two actions to discard Self-Destructive. Self-Destructive has the potential to punish Nathaniel severely if he draws it in the heat of a battle. Nathaniel has 9 health, so he can afford to take a damage here or there, but trading blows with a swarm of enemies or a boss with a ton of health with Self-Destructive in his threat area is a situation best avoided. As with many basic weaknesses, Self-Destructive taxes an investigator’s actions but doesn’t necessarily punish them if they don’t deal with it immediately. If you’re feeling lucky, you can let Self-Destructive linger in your threat area for a few turns while you find the right time to deal with it. It’s worth noting that Self-Destructive has absolutely no impact unless you damage an enemy, so investigators who specialize in Investigation or Evasion will be happy indeed to draw it as their basic weakness. Self-Destructive is so ineffective against these types of investigators that I would consider re-drawing my basic weakness if I  pulled Self-Destructive in multiplayer, where decks tend to specialize a lot more. The Arkham Horror LCG is a challenging game, and players should seize every advantage they can get, but I feel a basic weakness should have some effect on an investigator. Now that we’ve analyzed Nathaniel Cho’s strengths and weaknesses and examined his signature cards, let’s turn our attention to the deck itself and how it performs. I’ve tested Nathaniel against a variety of scenarios as a solo investigator, so most of what follows will focus on his viability in that format, but I do have a few thoughts on the starter deck in multiplayer. If you’re playing Nathaniel in a three- or four-player game, where he can focus exclusively on defeating enemies, then the starter deck is, well, a good starting point. Between Boxing Gloves, his response and the suite of events that deal damage or have fight abilities, Nathaniel can dominate the squared circle, knocking out enemies with a ruthless efficiency that will make other investigators at the table envious. ‘Get over here!’ has a taunt-like effect combined with a fight ability, which is great for pulling enemies away from other investigators and triggering Nathaniel’s response. It’s also an efficient way to deal with enemies with the Aloof keyword since you can engage and fight them with one action rather than two. Unfortunately, ‘Get over here!’ is restricted to non-Elite enemies, so you can’t use it to pull most bosses or annoying enemies, such as the Man in the Pallid Mask from the Path to Carcosa campaign. To do that, you’ll need to import Taunt from the Dunwich Legacy or purchase Taunt (3) in the starter deck.Clean Them Out is an amazing card that generates resources and has a Fight ability that triggers Nathaniel’s response, while Monster Slayer is a great way to remove three-health enemies from the board. Clean Them Out also happens to have the Tactic trait, so you can stack it on Stick to the Plan. One-Two Punch is useful against enemies with greater than 2 Health; however, it’s also vulnerable to being countered by a bad pull from the chaos bag. If you play One-Two Punch, remember that you don’t get the second punch unless the first punch connects, so it can be worth overcommitting to the first Combat skill test to make damn sure that it lands. I’ve had that first punch miss a couple times, and it can put Nathaniel in an awkward position since he expected the action to end with the enemy lying flat on the mat. Now the enemy is still standing, and Nathaniel didn’t get to trigger Boxing Gloves to search for an event to continue the fight. If Nathaniel doesn’t have a second event in his hand, he’s the one who might end up going down for a 10 count. Counterpunch is helpful in the event you need to take an attack of opportunity or an enemy lives long enough to counterattack during the enemy phase. Counterpunch is the only way Nathaniel can trigger his response during the enemy phase until he upgrades to ‘Get over here!’ (2) or Dynamite Blast (3). It’s also one of only three cards in the deck with an Agility skill icon, the other two being Dodge and Relentless. Dodge, Glory and Stand Together round out Nathaniel’s events package, providing damage mitigation, card draw and resource generation, respectively. Nathaniel’s asset package is a mix of essential and non-essential tools. I discussed Boxing Gloves at length earlier in this video, so I won’t dwell on it here. Needless to say, it’s the engine that keeps Nathaniel in fighting shape. Safeguard (0) is an amazing card in the multiplayer format that can generate a tremendous amount of action advantage during a scenario. It’s not quite as busted as  Safeguard (2) from Dark Side of the Moon, but it’s damn close. Unfortunately, Safeguard (2) is not included in the starter deck. However, if you can play both copies of Safeguard (0), you can use all those action that you would spend moving around the board to fight enemies. Grete Wagner provides Nathaniel with a passive Combat skill boost and she can soak 3 damage and 2 horror for him. She also happens to be the only card in the deck that can help Nathaniel discover clues at the opening of a campaign, which is one of the deck’s glaring weaknesses. Grete Wagner (3) is also very nice, throwing in a passive Intellect bonus, soaking even more damage and allowing you to discover clues at connecting locations. Unfortunately, Grete is quite expensive at five resources. The cost curve of Nathaniel’s deck isn’t that steep, but his resource pool will take a significant hit if he plays Grete. The final three assets in the deck are Flesh Ward, Physical Training and Relentless. Honestly, I don’t much experience with these cards since I pulled most of them from the deck relatively early during testing.  Flesh Ward provides Nathaniel with another source of damage and horror mitigation, and it uses an Arcane slot, which is uncontested. It’s also has 1 Health and 1 Sanity, which is somewhat unusual for an asset of this type. However, you can only trigger it in response to taking damage or horror from an enemy attack. Nathaniel seems to take more damage and horror from treacheries, given his proficiency in the ring, so Flesh Ward isn’t as useful as it appears. It’s also a little pricey at three resources. Relentless provides Nathaniel with another way to generate resources, but I never felt the need to play it during testing. The price is right, and the card has great potential if Nathaniel can arrange a bout with a lowly Swarm of Rats. I also like the fact that gaining the resources on Relentless is free-triggered ability. However, in my experience most combat-oriented investigators tend to deal just enough damage to enemies rather than excess damage. Relentless might payoff eventually, but resources tend to be in short supply at the beginning of a scenario and plentiful in the late game. I would prefer to spend the card and the action on something else. Besides, with 10 cards that cost zero resources, the cost curve of Nathaniel’s deck is not that steep. Finally, there are two copies of Physical Training, which seems excessive. Nathaniel has a modified Combat skill value of 7 with Boxing Gloves and Grete Wagner in play, so I doubt that he would need to spend resources to boost it during Fight actions all that often. It would come in handy during Willpower skill tests, though, so I would consider playing one copy. I don’t consider playing it a top priority, though, unless I expect to face a lot of treacheries that prompt Willpower skill tests. Nathaniel’s skill package is just one card, Vicious Blow, which is standard issue in most Guardian decks. I’m surprised the deck doesn’t include two copies of Unexpected Courage or Take the Initiative to give Nathaniel more options to counter treacheries or pull off a cheeky Investigate or Evade action. That brings me to my chief complaint about Nathaniel’s starter deck: it focuses almost exclusively on defeating enemies at the expense of everything else. Don’t get me wrong, Nathaniel’s single-minded determination to become king of the ring has its advantages. I suspect the deck is fine in a three- or four-player setting, and it’s a good way to introduce new players to the game because it provides them with a clearly defined goal, that is,  kill all the enemies. However, if you are playing Nathaniel solo or in a two-player game where he is expected to chip in and discover a few clues or pass the occasional Agility skill test, the starter deck simply isn’t viable. Two copies of Evidence (0) would go a long way to fixing Nathaniel’s inability to discover clues; however, the designers decided against including basic tools, such as Evidence (0), in favour of upgrades, such as Evidence (1), or entirely new options, such as Lesson Learned (2). This is a problem with all the starter decks, not just Nathaniel’s. I can understand why the designers took this approach. There are only so many cards that you can stuff into a $15 starter deck, and I think most veteran players would prefer to get new cards such as Evidence (1), ‘I’ve got a plan! (2) and Mind Over Matter (2) rather than reprints of their Level 0 counterparts. Unfortunately, excluding the Level 0 versions of staples, such as Evidence has a negative impact on the starter decks’ overall performance, especially at the beginning of a campaign, which is when new players are going to form their first impressions of the game. Fantasy Flight Games makes it pretty clear in the product description that Investigator Starter Decks are an ideal entry point for new players. As long as you’ve got a friend who has a collection of Arkham Horror: The Card Game, you don’t even need to buy your own Core set or deluxe expansion. Simply pick up your favourite investigator starter deck and start playing immediately! However, if your friend shows up to a two-player game with a Nathaniel Cho starter deck and they get crushed because they can’t discover clues or they take one too many treacheries to the face because they don’t have any skill cards to counter them, they could leave the table with a very bad first impression of the game. And I wouldn’t blame them, because FFG promises these decks are perfect for getting started on their first campaign, when they are clearly lacking in a few key areas of the game. I don’t envy the designers having to make the choice between including essential, albeit somewhat boring, staples such as Evidence (0), Flashlight and Unexpected Courage and flashy new toys that will appeal to veteran players. However, I think I would have erred on the side of well-rounded decks rather than hyper-focused builds that excel at one and only one aspect of the game. Brief rant aside, what’s done is done. Nathaniel Cho and the other Investigator Starter Decks are in the hands of new and veteran players alike. The question is: how do we modify them to make them enjoyable to play in multiplayer and solo formats? Well, if you’re playing in a three- or four-player game, Nathaniel’s deck could benefit from a few changes, but it doesn’t require a total overhaul. First, I’d consider swapping Grete Wagner for Beat Cop or Guard Dog from the Core set. Both are slightly cheaper than Grete and give Nathaniel the option to ping an enemy damage, which can be invaluable. I would also consider adding a few more skill cards, such as Guts, Steadfast, Take the Initiative and/or Unexpected Courage, depending on your card pool, to give him a fighting chance against a broader range of treacheries and buff the occasional skill test. It’s tempting to add a secondary weapon to the deck, but I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary unless you’re worried about a particular enemy, such as Avian Thrall from the Dunwich Legacy, Poltergeist from the Path to Carcosa or Wraith from The Circle Undone. Nathaniel leans heavily on his events to get the job done, so there aren’t that many deck slots for superfluous assets and skills. Nathaniel’s event package is pretty tight, but you may want to consider adding a copy Prepared for the Worst to find Boxing Gloves quickly. Other viable events in multiplayer include ‘Let me handle this!’, First Watch, Heroic Rescue and On the Hunt. If you’re preparing for a two-player game or you prefer to play solo like me, then you’ve got more work to do to make the deck viable. Shoring up Nathaniel’s ability to discover clues should be your first priority. Flashlight, Grete Wagner, Evidence (0), Scene of the Crime are a good starting point. Discovering additional clues is going to be a challenge until Nathaniel can upgrade to cards such as Evidence (1) and Lesson Learned, but that’s to be expected for a combat-orientated Guardian. If you go the Flashlight route, then Bandolier is worth a look to avoid a slot conflict with the Boxing Gloves. I haven’t been playing Perception in my solo build, since Evidence (0) and Glory double up on Intellect skill icons, but the card draw is nice perk. If deck slots are tight, I’d drop Perception in favour of Steadfast, Unexpected Courage and/or Take Initiative. I’ve been playing one copy of Prepared for the Worst, but you could also try Tetsuo Mori, a fantastic Guardian ally from A Thousand Shapes of Horror. If you’re looking for cards to cut from your solo build, Safeguard and Stand Together are the obvious choice. I also axed Flesh Ward, Relentless and at least one copy of Physical Training. My current build cut both copies of Physical Training because I found myself never wanting to play it. You may want to consider making other changes to the deck depending on your playstyle and the nature of the campaign. If you expect Nathaniel to encounter a lot of parley tests, for example, a copy of two of Fine Clothes works wonders. If Nathaniel is stepping into the ring with the Man in the Pallid Mask, Taunt can be invaluable. Before I wrap up this deck tech episode, a word on upgrading Nathaniel’s deck during a campaign. Nathaniel’s event-centric combat mechanic is unique among Guardians, so traditional Guardian purchases, such as beefier weapons, don’t necessarily hold true. If you’re sticking to the upgrades included in the starter deck, then you’ll probably spend the first six experience points you earn upgrading to Boxing Gloves (3). The starter deck includes upgrades for many of Nathaniel’s key events so you will probably want to upgrade those too, since enemies tend to get tougher as a campaign progresses. If Nathaniel needs to pull his weight in the clue department, then you’ve got Evidence (1), Lesson Learned (1) and Grete Wagner (3). If you need more card draw, Overpower (2) is an option. If you need more direct damage, then you’ve got Mano a Mano (2). Nathaniel’s starter deck doesn’t include that many new upgrades and purchases, but there are two worth mentioning. Galvanize is a two-cost event that costs one experience point. It has two Willpower skill icons and the Spirit trait. It has the Fast keyword, and you may play it only during your turn to ready a Guardian asset you control. You may also take an additional action during your turn, which can only be used to fight. I quite like Galvanize. Any card that is Fast and provides an additional action is worth a long hard look when you’re upgrading a deck. Nathaniel can use Galvanize to ready Boxing Gloves, so he has the potential to search his deck twice in one turn for Spirit events to keep the combat train rolling. Galvanize also provides an additional Fight action, which Nathaniel can use to play those events. It’s worth noting that Galvanize also works with Grete Wagner, enabling Nathaniel to discover multiple clues at one location. It also synergizes with Well Prepared from the Boundary Beyond. Playing Galvanize in combination with Well Prepared and a Guardian asset with a lot of skill icons, such as either upgrade for Physical Training, is worth exploring in any Guardian deck, not just Nathaniel. Lesson Learned is a one-cost event that costs one experience point. It has one Willpower and two Intellect skill icons and the Insight and Spirit traits. It’s Fast, and you may play it after you take damage from an enemy attack to discover 2 clues at your location. I haven’t had a chance to test this card yet, but it seems strong. Discovering a clue without making a skill test is a great ability. Discovering two clues without making a skill test is amazing, especially for an investigator like Nathaniel, who doesn’t have that many ways of discovering more than one clue at a time. Nathaniel needs to take damage from an enemy attack before he can play Lesson Learned, but that’s easy to arrange in most scenarios. If you’re a veteran player with access to a larger card pool, then you can take several different approaches to upgrading Nathaniel’s deck. Upgrading Boxing Gloves and several of Nathaniel’s key events is still a top priority. Many of Nathaniel’s key events have the Tactic trait, so Stick to the Plan is an option. Ace of Swords provides another passive boost the Nathaniel’s already impressive Combat skill, while Agency Backup can help Nathaniel damage enemies or discover clues, depending on the circumstances. Bandolier (2) is worth a look since it synergizes with Boxing Gloves. There are plenty of other great upgrades and purchase, including Police Badge (3), Safeguard (2), either level of ‘I’ve had worse …’ and, of course, Vicious Blow (2). That’s going to do it for my look at Nathaniel Cho, the Boxer. I’ve had a lot of fun playing Nathaniel over the past couple months. I had to make quite a few changes to the starter deck to make it more suitable for solo play, but the deck has performed extremely well against a variety of scenarios. I don’t get to play multiplayer all that often, but I suspect the starter deck would work well at higher player counts, where decks can afford to specialize in Combat, Investigation or Evasion. I wouldn’t recommend playing the starter deck in a one- or two-player game, though. The deck is a little too focused on combat for its own good, and it’s missing a few staples would make the deck more flexible and resilient. Most of those cards are in the Core set though, so if you’re a new player who purchased a starter deck, the Core set is a logical next step. Nathaniel’s event-centric combat mechanics are fresh, exciting and, perhaps most importantly, ruthlessly efficient. The first time I played Curtain Call, for example, I killed the Royal Emissary five times. The only reason I didn’t win that game was my inability to discover clues, which I fixed in a later iteration of the deck. Nathaniel may have only two Intellect, but the addition of cards like Scene of the Crime to the Guardian card pool have made it a lot easier to play a low-Intellect Guardian in the solo format. You’ve already got the Combat angle covered. If you can solve the investigation problem, then you’re going to be in great shape.

Arkham Horror LCG - In Too Deep Covenant Card Review

Manfromleng and Nate 'Lost in Time and Space' Winslow review the Covenant cards in In Too Deep, the first Mythos pack in the Innsmouth Conspiracy cycle for the Arkham Horror LCG. CC licenced music from the album Lovecraft Memories by Zreen Toyz. Contact manfromleng@gmail.com. Direct DownloadYouTubeiTunesGoogle Podcasts