Hemlock Vale Spoilers #3 - All the Masks Revealed!

[@andrethannhauser6302]

....how to talk 10min about something that adds 2 foot..... ;-)

[@RatherIncoherent]

Lmao, true though. I genuinely had a moment during editing where I had to decide if I should cut out half that shit. I think it was worth including though, because I have been desperately wishing to get some reliable foot pumps for foot matters rogues for so long, and Fox Mask is a card that I am genuinely hyped for. I still think foot matters will primarily be a deck archetype for investigators whose statlines pigeon-holed them into it, but it'll at least be much better with the new mask.

[@eyeofbraille4659]

Strong-Armed is huge for Silas, not being able to take Vicious Blow was a defining part of his deck restriction and this is a perfect answer. Silas can also uncommit the card to undo the extra damage that it will otherwise do if you miss, which is one potential drawback of this against Vicious Blow - not much of one given that it lets you redo the token pull multiple times, but still. It doesn't work with Brute Force, though... or Toe to Toe, for that matter.

[@TheMonster-124]

Great to have you doing more Arkham content! You're legitimately one of the my favorite creators that I think puts quite solid thoughs and reasoning into their reviews of arkham cards.

[@MrNephthys17]

Upgraded Vamp is insanely strong, I'm amazed they allowed Rogues to have it at only 3XP. Are we sure this isn't a misprinted Seeker card? At this point I feel comfortable saying that the Parley archetype has had enough support to run it in investigators other than Alessandra. I think Trish in particular would be good running it because of how easy it makes triggering her ability, but I could also see some great Jenny or Sefina Parley decks coming out of this.

[@fredfredrickson5436]

With four resources on tap, Scrimshaw Charm is going to enable some crazy powerful big money/curse/fail builds. Really looking forward to solving the puzzle of that one.

[@RatherIncoherent]

I will allow that Scrimshaw Charm might have some value in a Curse Dexter, who can use it to pay for Intel Reports, then Favor of the Moon those curses to force them onto Curse Mystic assets. And that also supplies plenty of cheap disposable assets for his ability. That said, I don't see this being great elsewhere unless curse gets some insane payoff cards.

[@fredfredrickson5436]

@@RatherIncoherent Well, it's an auto-include for Kohaku, since the action cost is paid for by the reaction ability on his investigator card, while the potential associated curse penalty is all but entirely mitigated. Show me the Yen, baby. 😂

[@RatherIncoherent]

Oh shit, you're right. Yeah, it's specifically incredible in Kohaku for, essentially, putting blesses into the bag as well, and eventually helping in giving him a free action.@@fredfredrickson5436

[@fredfredrickson5436]

@@RatherIncoherent And you're right; Scrimshaw Charm, specifically when configured with Key of Solomon, Friends in Low Places, and Armageddon, is definitely going to make "Cursed Favours Dexter" a thing. Preston, eat your heart out.

[@mayauppstad9883]

I'm definitely running Fox Mask with Cat Burglar and Track Shoes in my next Bob deck.

[@RatherIncoherent]

I absolutely love the theme of that. That's incredible.

[@fivifivia1146]

Are you back with Arkham videos daily? Expansion is coming out next friday so i would love to have your reviews when it comes. You could even do a full box review split in parts for classes

[@Berrysimo]

It’s been pushed to Feb 9, at least it says so on asmodee store

[@fivifivia1146]

Some stores in EU already have the box and will ship it out this friday, or so they told me 3 days ago when i asked@@Berrysimo

[@Monsieur_E]

In the last two videos you talked a little bit about Runic Axe. Why do you consider it now as a S-Tier weapon? i thought you said it's outclassed by flamethrower and cyclopean hammer

[@RatherIncoherent]

I'll make an entire video about Runic Axe in the future, but it's mostly able to do anything the other weapons can do, a lot they can't, and has the smoothest upgrade path with the least needed support compared to its alternatives. At least as a main fighter weapon. The flex axe is just flat out busted due to how strong elders is if you can make a character that reliably triggers it.

[@mayauppstad9883]

While I definitely think Survival Technique's best synergies will be things like breach the door, skeleton key and map the area. Survivor also has cards that may be useful. Never running out of makeshift trap could be really useful and I guess you could use an infinite number of lures force enemies into your makeshift traps. Not saying it's good, but it could be fun. Barricade and upgraded shortcut in yellow could also be useful.

[@mayauppstad9883]

Map the area is one of my favourite cards in the game, and being able to use it multiple times in someone like Darrell who really cares about difficulty reduction, while also getting a +2 on locked doors tests seems incredible to me.

[@RatherIncoherent]

I think the non-survivor uses for the card do legitimatley look really cool. I was just sad and didn't want to look at the card after realizing that I was an idiot and it had nothing to do with pitchfork lol. As for the stuff w/ survivor trap cards, that's true, but I feel like it's a niche Parallel Pete easily had without this card, and doesn't need this card to do. I can't see myself wanting to run trap cards outside ll Pete, but that's because I'm a no-fun-allowed power gamer. @@mayauppstad9883

[@el_Ewok]

Kate can play survival technique, breach the door and shed a light. On top of that, she can play ravenous myconid(4). That means that when she is at a 0 shroud location she can cancel ALL encounter cards drawn there for FREE.

[@RatherIncoherent]

I feel like spending an action to place down Breach the Door isn't necessary for a Seeker to clear a lot of locations, and actually breaching the door to 0 (which is necessary) isn't something we can do without already having clues and using kate's ability to brute force the check. In which case, Kate's ability just turns like one location/act (because you only have so many assets to put clues on to pass the breach check) into a safe location while she clears it, which will likely be a maximum of two turns. If you're spending the actions to breach on low shroud values just for safety, it is definitely safe, but it's also slowing down clue tempo and likely preventing you from breaching the high shroud locations where you needed it most. Don't get me wrong, it's good, but it feels like it commits the whole investigator's ability and a substantial portion of the deck to mitigating up to 6 random treacheries. I'll definitely end up experimenting with that sort of combo, but I'm feeling pretty hesitant about it. The more I think about it, it might be less of a main cluever build and more of a third wheel cluever where you fight with lexicon, mitigate the mythos with myconid and breach, and just find enough clues to more than carry your weight. I think I like it more the less I view Kate as the group's main cluever. @@el_Ewok

[@el_Ewok]

@@RatherIncoherent finding a way to oversucceed on the Breach the door's test, by the amount needed, once every turn... i don't know if that's achievable. that's the real challenge. Maybe you need Pnakotic manuscripts or something like that. Maybe the setup is too complicated, but as a theorycrafting exercise i find it very entertaining. Imagine canceling all the treacheries in a 4 player party every turn, that just breaks the game.

[@KrishnaRoskin]

That's multiple people calling the masks functional slotless, which is weird since they, in fact, functionally take a slot. You can't even use Devil - XV to give yourself two, like you can with actual slots.

[@RatherIncoherent]

It is an asset that isn't mutually exclusive with any previous assets. That's why we're calling it slotless. There's a massive difference in an asset that I can't use with 2 other cards in my card pool, and one I can't use with 50 others cards in the card pool.

[@fredfredrickson5436]

Hockey Mask, Welding Mask, Rubber Mask, and Cultist's Mask are all in the pipeline. 😊

[@RolandIronfist13]

Fox mask is the weakest mask imo

[@fredfredrickson5436]

Try it with Finn- Damning Testimony/ Eavesdrop/ Followed/Dirty Fighting, and think again.

[@RolandIronfist13]

I'm not saying it can't be done. But it has the most work to put in, and largely requires you to leave enemies alive, and also have enemies. I've played solo where i may not get enemies for multiple rounds. And leaving enemies alive unless that is your entire build around, is dangerous. The survivor, seeker, and Guardian masks you could absolutely throw in any deck that can take them and largely be happy with the value without doing any extra work. Even the mystic one at least restores 2 charges, and even running mystics 2 fave allies gives you more charges + the agenda even if you aren't doing doom shenanigans. But this one... it takes work. It can be used well of course. Enemies gaining aloof, or massive (such as with a certain spoiler card) and trish or alessandra doing shenanigans or a Power Word mystic can also set this up. But it isn't as easy as the other 4. It isn't weak if you use it in a way to capitalise on it. Nothing is really weak in arkham if you capitalise on it.@@fredfredrickson5436