Top 3 Staple Cards for Each Class - Arkham Horror LCG Analysis

[@shaxberd7211]

“First though, what do I define a staple card as being? A staple card is simply a card that holds other cards together by being a crinkly, little metal thing. Staple cards attach, so they’re busted in Parallel Pete. Think office supplies.” (Also first.)

[@mr.blackpitts6850]

1:30 for Runic Axe.

[@ChenowethGames]

Runic Axe as the first card you talk about is great and fitting.

[@necrotoaster94]

Great to see some non-investigator analysis to mix things up a bit. 😊

[@IzzyWizzySpoon]

Haven't finished the video yet, but chipping in my top for each class (class order, not power level order) Guardian 3. Toe to Toe - Just being able to guaranteed pass on a combat test is utterly invaluable, and being able to attach skills to it is just insane to me. I really value being able to dodge the bag on essential tests so I find this card to be incredibly important, especially in level 0 decks when you're potentially at your weakest 2. Vicious Blow - Essential for pushing through that one point of extra damage for odd health enemies, I rarely end up cutting this card because even with something like flamethrower you will eventually get a 5 health enemy 1. Wolf Mask - I generally play on hard and having an effectively infinite +2 to combat is absolutely incredible for taking the pressure off of guardians to consistently be up 3 or 4 for combat tests. This card effectively replaced beat cop 0 which I usually ended up running just to get to those valuable break points Seeker Honourable mention: Empirical Hypothesis - If my seeker is taking in the thick of it, the upgrade to gain the evidence when you enter a 3 shroud location is almost always my 3rd xp point, and once you have that upgrade I do believe this is a strictly superior lucky cigarette case 3. Deep Knowledge - If the character has seeker off class then this is always taken, but on main seekers I find myself skip[ping it sometimes, especially if the deck is a cycling style deck. In that case I prefer to get my draw from fast cards like perception 2 and cryptic research 2. Magnifying Glass - Utterly insane card, I can't believe it's fast. Low key one of the strongest cards in the whole game in my opinion. Imagine if rouges had something like this for agility, mystics for willpower, or combat for guardian. 1. Deduction - Yeah, maybe gets cut later, but it is in 100% of main seeker decks I make. A lot of other ultra powerful seeker cards like shortcut, practice makes perfect, and astounding revelation depend on what I'm trying to do with the deck, but this card is ubiquitous Rogue 3. You Owe Me One - My go to rouge mythos manipulation card. Usually gets upgraded into savant or counterespionage (highly underrated card in my opinion), but will often live alongside those cards 2. Faustian Bargain - The best economy card in the game, not much to say. Significantly better than stand together which is alo and insane card 1. Lucky Cigarette Case - Arguably the best level 0 draw card (alongside deep knowledge but a case can be made for this card being superior in my opinion) Mystic Honourable mention - Mystic spells. You actually just need some of them to function and I didn't want the list to just be all these cards Honourable mention 2 - Promise of Power. Yes, goes in every deck but I find the other cards in this list more essential 3. Ward of Protection 0 and 2 - I agree that most classes can deal with the mythos deck better than in the early stages of the game, but the two most important things to have redundancy on are economy and mythos protection in my opinion. Yes, your rouge has easy mark and faustian bargain but stand together is still great because not every player always draws their economy every game. Similarly, yes your Silas has sparrow mask and lucky, but they don't always manage to draw those cards in time so now every character has a safety net for when the plan goes wrong. I'll still run this card in a 2 player game where the other player is running Maleson 2 for example, especially due to the free upgrade from experience cheats 2. Scroll of secrets - I consider this a mystic card as I don't really play it in seekers, but I think this is also in contention for best level 0 draw card, due to being filtered draw. Ina lot of ways compares very favourably to cigarette case (infinite but conditional, more expensive, and unfiltered), and deep knowledge (unfiltered and adds curses) 1. Mystic xp cards (the permanents and delve too deep) - Without doubt in my mind the strongest thing you can do with mystics. Mystics I think are already underrated as level 0 characters and with this card you can convert that advantage into the rest of the campaign Survivor 3. Short Supply - The absolute cornerstone of survivor consistency in my opinion. Almost all of my survivor decks run this, scrounge for supplies, and resourceful as an effective tutor for any card I want. 2. Take Heart - The single best level 0 economy card in my eyes. 2 card and 2 resources is just completely insane, the card is almost strictly better than easy mark and is level 0 1. Resourceful - The best recursion card in the game now that scavenging 0 is chained. This is the survivor deduction/vicious blow in my opinion

[@Nerdmeetsyou]

Love the list! Would have loved to see your colorless cards as well!

[@RatherIncoherent]

Thanks for the optimism

[@thepwn121]

Thank you for mentioning runic axe 2 minutes into the video. It's been days since it was mentioned and I have my runic axe high back. You also forgot to mention hunting jacket for survivor.

[@emergency.jergens]

I believe you about ancient evils… but I’ll have you know my group drew three of them in a row in the finale of Circle Undone when all we needed was to get 2 clues to win. I’ll never let that card get the best of me again.

[@halforange1]

The background is upside down!

[@emergency.jergens]

Always keep them guessing

[@andrethannhauser6302]

Bank Job and Grift made me play decks without Faustian Bargain. Alessandra Zorzi is able to easily get 5 to 6 ressources out of Grift and a Bank Job at the beginning is king to make other investigators get enough ressources to play enough assets.

[@Fogshaper]

Playing with Lucky! and Ward feels a little like playing a tempo deck with Spell Pierce or Daze in Magic.

[@rupert7565]

Poor neutral class forever forgotten (I know neutral is not a class).

[@andrethannhauser6302]

I hardly play Easy Mark because I either want a lot of ressources or draw multiple cards and not that mishmash. Spending an XP for that to me isn't worth it either with so many good ressource cards out there.

[@DrDifra]

Double time AAC comment shout-out like waaat Ill be here all week guys no worries

[@hammerdall]

The part I don’t get is how your group is so anti Delve Too Deep because it sets your deck above the curve later in the campaign (at the notable cost of the big tempo hit to play the otherwise dead card), but has no problem with the rest of the xp cheating cards from Mystic or Charon’s Obol. So it’s ok if one players deck is significantly stronger than everyone else’s from tons of bonus xp, but it’s not ok if you instead play for everyone getting a bonus drip together?

[@RatherIncoherent]

Delve's ban is not strictly a power-level thing. That's only a part of it. Two main points involving why it got banned and why the permanents feel very different: 1-EXP permanents, at least at our table, don't affect play patterns. It's actively unfun to optimize Delve Too Deep timing and makes the game more unenjoyable. 2-EXP permanents are often something the class feels balanced around. Mystic is very clearly balanced around theirs, and Rogues rarely feel like they have cheap decks either. If there was a near-zero downside Seeker exp permanent in any expansion, I'd be flabbergasted. Delve Too Deep can be that Seeker EXP permanent though.

[@hammerdall]

@ thanks for the explanation. Look forward to when Guardians can get their 2xp permanent haha

[@sevento7]

Okay no comments and not watching the video: My guess and my top3 staples are: Seeker: Deduction, Deep knowledge, Short cut Rogue: Leo de Luca, Faustian Bargain, Easy Mark (if only 0 xp then Lucky cigarette case) Guardian: Stand together, Wolf Mask, Safeguard Mystic: Ward of Protection, Promise of Power, Delve Too Deep Survivor: Lucky, Take heart, Sparrow Mask

[@sevento7]

Not bad, I thought we would overlap a lot. No wolf mask and Leo? Maybe Leo is just my pet card and does not go in every deck that could run him. Also I thought a lot about, what other classes might splash, so the mystic permanents felt a bit like cheating, because I very very rarely play them outside of mystics. Is there an easy way to calculate your actually most played cards from your decklists? I might write a program for that.

[@RatherIncoherent]

@@sevento7 Couldn't help with programming / sorting algorithms, but sounds hype. Leo is just so expensive. That's all. There's a LOT of decks where cutting Leo solves my problems. Wolf Mask is incredible, but it's not quite top 3 for me. Very close lists though.

[@roguebanshee]

The way you talk about In the Thick of It makes it sound like you think you need to pay 3 XP to get 3 copies of Easy Mark. When you buy one Myriad card with XP you get to include 2 additional copies _without_ paying their XP cost.

[@hammerdall]

Naw, you misunderstand. He says he immediately takes in the thick of it (+3xp), Easy Mark x3 (1xp), and charon’s Obol (2xp). Math checks out