I'm wondering what thought people have put into advancing their deck over the course of a full campaign. There isn't much to play around with at the moment, as the card pool is small, and the campaign is short, but ideas may have started to form.

At the moment, I'm pondering the worth in keeping hold of the non-class specific skill cards long-term, once other cards appears that allow you to gain a +2 to their related skill.

For example, if I have Guts in my deck to help Roland out with his low Sanity, is it worth replacing one or more of them with the Elder Sign Amulet as it can pull double duty. It comes with 2 Willpower symbols, just like Guts, but could also be played for the +4 Sanity instead. You lose the card draw, but is the flexibility better?

Similarly the following cards prompt the same thought process:

Police Badge, Shotgun, Disk of Itzamna, Will to Survive, Stand Together and "I'm Outta Here!"

When I'm upgrading a deck, do I ditch assets and events to make room for these, or is it better to view them like upgrading a Skill to be more flexible?

I'd say the campaign hasn't even started yet - the core scenarios are a teaser

I value flexibility, so I'll try to get as many icons as possible. Do you really lose card draw if a replacement card has the same effect and another? The amulet seems better in every way - it can work on any skill check as a +1 and +2 on Willpower, plus the sanity effect. It's a darn fine card, particularly because it's an asset, not a skill.

It gets iffy when you switch from assets to skills. There are of course the nasty treacheries/bag effects which kill off assets, but weaknesses could affect skills just as badly.

A lot depends on what you feel is right. How many players are in your game, do you have a second core set? I'd build a bit differently if playing solo or not. I would probably try to keep the card ratios close to the same. Committing the Elder Sign amulet for the skill bonus is a waste to me, especially with Roland. So if I know that is something I want to play, is there something else to remove? Roland doesn't need medical texts to me, his health is high enough. So I lose that and the research librarian, I'd rather add a second beat cop. It really all comes down to what you think you need more of and just refine your deck each scenario. Go to arkhamdb.com and check out decks if you are looking for some ideas, just keep in mind they pretty much all need a second core set.

Yeah, that second core is basically required if you want to use any of the core cards. One isn't enough. It sold out pretty quickly here as usual, so I hope a relative got me one for xmas

Solo vs. MP/two-handed does matter a bit, yeah. The other player can help the current player with skill checks, but solo you need to rely on allies and equipment.

Personally I'd toss the neutral skill cards in favor of Talents like Arcane Studies and Hyper Awareness. Though I recognize these are less helpful when you're surprised by a skill check from an encounter card. While this doesn't help everyone, I plan to run Jim Culver with Arcane Studies, Hard Knocks and Ward of Protection for encounter cards that I'm not prepared to pass skill checks for. Pair it with Grotesque statues and (hopefully) I won't have to do much in the way of discarding for skill icons.

sure if you have the resources, all of the asset skill boosters are great. but the 2 icon skills with the card refresh are king. think about it, the cards have no cost and if successful replace themselves.. so best case scenario here, you draw the card that's 1 action, you don't spend an action to play, and you get that action to draw the card back on success.

now, let's look at the asset skill boosters, you spend 1 action to draw it, 1 action to put it into play, and 1,2,3,4,5,6 actions in the resources you've spent using it to boost.

the core set skills pay for themselves essentially, while less reliable and not on demand as the asset skill boosters, they certainly have their place in every deck. sure, the elder sign is good, 2 will icons, but for 3 XP?

even then, best case scenario, you've passed a test for 1 action, whereas with the skill card you're ahead costing you 0 actions.

it's all action economy.

I certainly understand where you're coming from, but with mystic there are some other factors to consider. For one, I'd rather have more cards in my deck that don't need to be discarded. Resources matter to me less than actual card draws since so many mystic cards are specific counters to game events (such as Ward). Additionally we have cards like Forbidden Knowledge which provide us resources without the concern of taking up actions.

So if we look at the action economy and treat drawing the +2 skill card as one, yes it's extremely efficient. Let's say I draw during a normal card draw, I do not spend an action to play and am refunded the card if successful. So a +2 for no economy. That's awesome. Once. Given you can only have 2 copies of one card in a deck then you're more apt to HOLD this card and save it for when it's absolutely necessary. Even if you circumvent that with the slightly less efficient Unexpected Courage, that's 4 cards you're devoting to 4 skill tests. If you're on hard you're going to burn through those cards just getting normal checks done in a game, not to mention dealing with unexpected encounters.

If we look at a relevant skill booster then the action economy is not as great, it's true. If I draw it during my card draw then I still need to spend an action to play it. Then I need to spend resources to boost. Granted that resource may have also come from the end of turn, but let's say it doesn't. Let's say I got it from Forbidden Knowledge. Ok, I still had to draw and play that. But Forbidden knowledge provides 4 resources as free actions for one action to play the card.

Forbidden knowledge also gives you sanity damage per, but with Agnes that's more of a boon than a penalty. Normally I use it to plink damage or pick off Rats or Cutlists. Now That one action is 4 damage and 4 resources. Those 4 resources (plus any others on hand) become flexible skill boosts as I need them. This means that if I absolutely HAVE to pass a skill check, knowing the worst modified in the bag is -6 then I can try to account for that. Alternatively I can simply tip most equations in my favor with some relevant math (if the average modifier in the bag is -3 and I have 5 will vs 3 fight, I don't need much to give me a likely positive outcome).

The more efficient you make your economy, the more efficient you can make your skill boosts. So if Culver uses Burglary, he can turn one action into a +3 on a skill check or three separate +1's or what have you. In general I'm much more likely to actually use these bonuses for an action, but not a surprise action.

So yes, on the surface the +2 skill cards are more efficient, but in my opinion talent cards give you more longevity.

However I think I'm using Ward of Protection for the same reason most people use their +2 skill cards. They costs a resource but still counts as a spell, works on any skill check for encounters and I don't have to worry about +2 being not enough (or drawing an auto fail). I'd rather take those odds, personally. I could even see the new line of dunwich characters using 2 of their 5 out-of-discipline cards for Ward of Protection just for that reason, which would mean it's a viable strategy for more than half the characters in the player base once Dunwich is released.

sure if you have the resources, all of the asset skill boosters are great. but the 2 icon skills with the card refresh are king. think about it, the cards have no cost and if successful replace themselves.. so best case scenario here, you draw the card that's 1 action, you don't spend an action to play, and you get that action to draw the card back on success.

now, let's look at the asset skill boosters, you spend 1 action to draw it, 1 action to put it into play, and 1,2,3,4,5,6 actions in the resources you've spent using it to boost.

the core set skills pay for themselves essentially, while less reliable and not on demand as the asset skill boosters, they certainly have their place in every deck. sure, the elder sign is good, 2 will icons, but for 3 XP?

even then, best case scenario, you've passed a test for 1 action, whereas with the skill card you're ahead costing you 0 actions.

it's all action economy.

In your math, "Guts" cost zero actions, as the action to draw it is offset by gaining a card to replace it. "Physical Training" to be equal of "Guts" would cost 5 actions: 1 to draw it, 1 to play it, 2 to add +2, and 1 to draw another card. So yes, there is inherently a higher cost in using Physical Training the first time, but in all my (anecdotal) experience playing it, Physical Training has always been more useful than Guts. Exactly what you said, "less reliable and not on demand" makes those Skill cards situational.

So where Physical Training could be played on turn 1 and not take up hand space, Guts would need to remain in your hand. Is there a cost associated with hand space? I mean, that only matters once you hit the limit, which is rare, but is a factor that needs to be accounted for. Physical Training also provides 2 different skill bonuses, so you'd need Guts and Overpower to be ready to add a +2 to either skill test, so you need two cards in your deck (and two cards in your hand space). Also, can you weight a card's worth based on number of uses? 4 actions for a +2 isn't great, 6 actions for a +4 is better, 20 actions for a +18 is extremely useful - especially since it can be broken up over as many tests as you want. Also does the worth of card draw decrease as you draw cards, as the weaknesses will be more likely to come to the surface? Just like this real world, I pay more for reliability and having stuff on demand, so where would you consider the tipping point where Physical Training is better than Guts (and/or Overpower)?

Not trying to knock you or your math, but I think there is more to this than just action economy.

i agree, there is certainly more to it than just economy. many players have different play styles, and i think i'm an economy person, but i think it goes without saying that when i get Hyperawareness in my hand i'm probably going to play it for it's versatility.

it's also going to depend a lot on the deck and scenario, maybe in some cases you're not going to be getting your moneys worth or action economy worth from playing these cards.

i do love the fact that the cards themselves strike up a good debate, a testament to the game's design.

i do love the fact that the cards themselves strike up a good debate, a testament to the game's design.

Agreed, the tightness of 30 cards and a limit of 2 of each card really will give this game some interesting choices. I'd love to see where our starting decks are 3-4 cycles into this game. You could probably take any class and have a few very distinct builds for them, I just wish it was 2019 already so I could play all these cards!