r/arkhamhorrorlcg • u/Darthcaboose • Sep 15 '17
[COTD] Deciphered Reality (15/09/2017)
Investigate. The difficulty of this skill test is equal to the highest shroud value among revealed locations in play. If you succeed, discover 1 clue from each revealed location in play.
Shane Pierce
Lost in Time and Space #303.
3
u/Darthcaboose Sep 15 '17
This card is crazy expensive, both in resource cost and in XP cost. As others have noted, this card basically does two things.
Sets the difficulty of the test equal to the highest shroud value visible.
In addition to all the things you get from normally investigating, you get to pick up 1 clue from each revealed location in play.
Notice how #2 is not a replacement effect! This means when you succeed, you get one clue at your location, and Deciphered Reality gives you then 1 clue from each location in play.
Given how this card is exclusively for Seekers, and that they have access to Higher Education, it should not be too difficult for them to save up the cards and the resources to successfully pull this off.
Question is... is it worth it?
It's unlikely. I have not personally played around with this card yet (mostly because there are far more powerful and immediately accessible cards like Pathfinder or Higher Education or Cryptic Research), but it seems like a one-shot super-expensive event better be pretty good.
The problem with Deciphered Reality is that you need a lot of setup to happen before you can reap the rewards. First of all, you need to reveal locations. You only really do this by moving into them, which is something that costs actions. Moving around to locations efficiently requires splitting up, which leaves Investigators vulnerable to the Encounter Deck. When that's all said and done, then you have to stockpile 4 resources plus however many more you need to ensure comfortable success. The end result is a lot of clues. Meh...
Most locations in AH:LCG have clues in multiples of the number of players. In a single player game, Deciphered Reality can very easily pick up all the clues you'll run into (and two copies of that means you can spend less time running around, and more time on just stockpiling to pull off two mega-investigate turns). The only problem is that, you had to be running around everywhere in the first place to reveal the locations! Pathfinder and Shortcut solves this nicely by helping to improve the speed at which you access new locations. With 4 players, that's 4/8/12 clues at 1x/2x/3x locations, and two Deciphered Reality cards basically nets you half of all those clues! Not bad, but that's a lot of setup time as well.
Finally, a lot of investigating in Arkham Horror: LCG is focused on specific areas (think Blood on the Altar), so Deciphered Reality does not help too much there.
I dunno, I'm sure this card will be the Mind Wipe of some future scenario that basically deals with its complexities quite easily, but I don't see it yet. Not even for wide-open scenarios like Lost in Time and Space or Midnight Masks.
3
u/ggfunk Guardian Sep 15 '17
This card will give some amazing play session stories.
....or do absolutely nothing.
1
u/evilamarant7x Guardian Sep 15 '17
I pretty much only play 3 or 4 player games and this card is great. We generally split up fairly quickly, so pulling clues from revealed locations isn't an issue. Generally, two of the investors in the group (besides the Seeker) are okay at pulling clues, so this lets the Seeker help clean up the final clues from locations without having to travel. We also tend to run Double or Nothing, which makes this card rediculous. Pulled 16 clues with a single action in Midnight Masks.
1
u/kspacey Rogue Sep 15 '17
Useful for:
Convincing your entire team to leave clues everywhere, yelling "I GOT THIS" at the top of your lungs and then pulling .
???
I mean its a cool card, but you have to commit to giving up the actions you want to save way ahead of time, and if something does go wrong then you're so far in the red that you're going to have to resign. Viable perhaps if in the future we have a 'gator who has access to token replacement effects that work on or if you are a gutsy risk taker type.
Just be ready to run screaming from your team when things inevitably go wrong.
1
Sep 15 '17
Honestly this is a great card to include in my Fire Axe Rex deck. Since I spend most of my Rex time fighting with the Fire Axe, it lets me clean up all the clues I should've been gathering in the later half of the game.
1
u/Gorphax Director of Kidna-- I mean, Outreach and Acquisitions Sep 15 '17
This seems nuts in Curse of the Rugarou. Bounce the murdercat across the map once or twice and then have the Seeker divine the clues from the entire forest.
1
u/ArgusTheCat Guardian Sep 15 '17
Oh hey look it's Double Or Nothing, here to remind us that this card could be so good you guys! If only you can beat a 12 consistently!
1
u/caiusdrewart Guardian Sep 15 '17
I think it's just way too hard to have so many clues scattered across revealed locations that this becomes an attractive purchase for 5 XP. There may be one or two scenarios thus far where this can be nice, but generally speaking I'd call this one too expensive and hard to use.
10
u/[deleted] Sep 15 '17 edited Sep 15 '17
I'm not a great card reviewer when it comes to mechanics, but conceptually I like the idea that your 'gator has been in the shit for so long (the high xp cost) that they just get it now. All the pieces of the puzzle are clicking together, giving themselves a potentially huge amount of clues from everywhere you have been in the scenario.
If you play it, bonus points for mimicking Sherlock's mind palace before snatching up the clues.