I played Mark Harrigan fairly extensively this weekend, I wanted to share a few thoughts that maybe didn't occur to me at first blush, particularly when related to the new cards (no spoilers expect for player cards).

Let Me Handle This: this is still pretty solid. I don't know if I'm gushing over it as much as when I first saw it. It's useful. It has a spot in my deck for now. There have been games where its been *extremely* handy, but there have also been games where it has sat in my hand and done nothing. It's hit or miss.

True Grit: I've heard some people on the forums being rather down on this card. I think it's great, I don't understand the reluctance to use it. It provides 3 extra hp for no XP cost, which is nice, and being able to soak for other investigators is also extremely useful. I especially like this in Mark Harrigan, because he wants to be using his character HP for Sophie, True Grit gives him a card to place damage on when he does suffer it during the course of the game. No slot occupied either, that's fantastic.

Ever Vigilant: I didn't see myself using this much but I put it in a deck and gave it a try. I'm much more impressed than I thought I would be. It can be tricky to use because of the hand limit, and you want to draw it early obviously... but when it does work it is a real boost to your tempo, and it's a steal at only 1 XP. Can be annoying to run up against the hand limit though, but worth it if you run a lot of assets.


Finally, Mark himself: I really like him. I think he's my new favorite guardian. Free card draw from time to time is very nice, Sophie helps him do anything he might otherwise have trouble in. His sanity/willpower is weak, but that can be built around. He pairs pretty well with Daisy (the best Intelligence and the best Combat: I mean who knew?). Daisy was running Strange Solution (Restorative Agent) which is a huge help to Mark.

Mark can be phenomenal at dropping bosses, specifically with the Shotgun. Because Shotgun damage is based on how much you succeed by, Mark is far and away the best shotgun user we have. With his base combat of 5 and +2 from Sophie, mark is easily at 10 combat before he even commits cards or resources. 5 damage hits are easy to achieve. Vicious Blow or The Home Front can increase it further.

A shame we don't have many useful Tactic cards. Like just about everybody else, I run 2 Shortcut (which is great). Nothing else seems to be worth it.

Run Elusive.

If it doesn't change your world, I have no words.

^_^

I have only run Mark solo, and he's been real blast to play.

8 hours ago, Elhannan said:

Run Elusive.

If it doesn't change your world, I have no words.

why? because I have run elusive, and it doesn't change my world. I dont think this card is nearly as good as people claim. It's fine. It's not bad. there are two parts to this card, the free disengagement and the movement. If you need to disengage with enemies as Mark Harrigan, you're doing it wrong. The movement... ok, sure it's nice. As I discussed in another thread when talking about Astral travel: aside from a small handful of scenarios, it's not all that.

On 10-10-2017 at 0:46 PM, awp832 said:

As I discussed in another thread when talking about Astral travel: aside from a small handful of scenarios, it's not all that.

That was your conclusion from that discussion, other people (like myself) love Astral Travel.

I have to agree with you on Elusive though, I never had much use out of it.

Nice write-up, @awp832 - in general, I feel like the community at large (across websites) wasn't raving about many cards, including things like Grit and Vigilant, and if anything has been proved, it's that we need all to get them in decks and actually try them out. Vigilant, particularly in Mark, who may have a series of assets (like Grit!) to play, can be an absolutely powerhouse. All your caveats hold, but we really underestimated how quickly Mark can fill his hand to set up that amazing Vigilant play!

The tactics situation is definitely a very interesting one: I'm personally a huge fan of Elusive (it's the fast bit that I like so much) but I think there are actually quite a lot of Mark builds out there that can leverage tactics cards - it doesn't have to be Elusive, of course. I like the options of Cunning Distraction, if by some miracle you have a resource-rich Mark. I also think Hiding Spot, used proactively to protect other investigators, is worth consideration. As I say, all depends on the role you're performing as Mark, and whether you're playing solo or multiplayer. Not saying these are auto-includes, not by a looooong stretch, but I am coming around to not dismissing them out of hand.

to be clear: I do like Elusive: I'm just not sure that I like it out of Mark Harrigan. Mark is about attacking enemies, and Elusive is about disengaging, and then moving to where no enemies are present. It seems like a card that goes against what Mark is fundamentally trying to do, that's why I don't favor it in his deck. I do like it in others, especially Wendy, and most of the Rogues as well.

Elusive could be a decent pick for a Solo mark build though. I considered Hiding Spot but ultimately it seemed a bit too niche to be useful, so it got cut.

Yeah it's a tricky time. I like Elusive as a bit of a panic button. Mark engages one enemy, is about to kill it but winds up drawing another in the mythos phase or something like that, and it reaches the point where it's better to get away than to stick around and get munched... something like shortcut. Nice trick to have in his back pocket. But yeah, just talking around the topic now!

To me Elusive's ability to detach from monsters is just a bonus.

The 2 cost, fast teleport is what it is all about.

It allows you to go solo from the group, kill a specific monster and then catch up in effectively zero actions and 2 resources.

On 10/13/2017 at 2:40 PM, awp832 said:

to be clear: I do like Elusive: I'm just not sure that I like it out of Mark Harrigan. Mark is about attacking enemies, and Elusive is about disengaging, and then moving to where no enemies are present. It seems like a card that goes against what Mark is fundamentally trying to do, that's why I don't favor it in his deck. I do like it in others, especially Wendy, and most of the Rogues as well.

Elusive could be a decent pick for a Solo mark build though. I considered Hiding Spot but ultimately it seemed a bit too niche to be useful, so it got cut.

Elusive is a Fast action that moves you to a revealed location. Oh, and it disengages from enemies, too. So, no action used, no limit on distance, and if you do happen to need to disengage a load of enemies works very nicely. The card is crazy mobility with a nice bonus utility, if you happen to need it.

Also, I heavily challenge the concept that Mark is purely about killing monsters. First, having almost any character focus on one task alone to the exclusion of all others works out poorly, in my experience. Secondly, Mark is the Guardian who can simply pass tests, pretty much on demand. If he is fixed into any one niche of play, it's being the meatshield who needs to heal himself...

Hiding Spot, now, does not currently seem to have a use worth a card spot.

18 hours ago, Elhannan said:

Elusive is a Fast action that moves you to a revealed location. Oh, and it disengages from enemies, too. So, no action used, no limit on distance, and if you do happen to need to disengage a load of enemies works very nicely. The card is crazy mobility with a nice bonus utility, if you happen to need it.

Also, I heavily challenge the concept that Mark is purely about killing monsters. First, having almost any character focus on one task alone to the exclusion of all others works out poorly, in my experience. Secondly, Mark is the Guardian who can simply pass tests, pretty much on demand. If he is fixed into any one niche of play, it's being the meatshield who needs to heal himself...

I know what the card does. There is a sort of limit on distance, it's a revealed location with no enemies. Theoretically yes, if you happened to be in a scenario 6 spaces away from where you wanted to be and there was no enemy there, then yes, you could move there with Elusive. In practice, most maps are pretty centralized, and take only maybe 2-3 moves to get from one end of the map to the other. Most of the time you'll only really ever need to move 1-2 steps. For that, a Shortcut at 0 cost and without the no-enemy restriction is quite a bit better. Mark has no easy access to tons of resources, and will want to be spending his cash on weapons and other assets, so I don't particularly love spending the 2 on elusive.

I never said mark was "purely" about killing monsters, but he is *mostly* about killing monsters (unless you're doing some sort of mark solo build which I already said Elusive might be worth a spot if it was a solo deck). If you want a well rounded character there are others who fit the bill better.

To be clear, you have tried Elusive in Mark Harrigan multiplayer and feel it is worth the deck space?

Elusive makes the combo with dynamite blast viable in every turn.

Try having both cards in your hand and enjoy blasting ghouls into pieces.

Imagine playing a team game:

Play let me handle this --> engaging a monster ---> draw your encounter card -- > engaging another monster ---> use elusive ---> use dynamite blast --> kill every monster with only one action.

Also play Carnevale of Horrors without elusive.. You play hard mode on standard mode..

Pretty awesome, costs a lot of resources to pull though. I barely have enough to do dynamite most times.

Yeah I have to say, if Mark has 7 resources to pull of Elusive and Dynamite, then that is probably why there are so many monsters on the board.

I have never been a huge fan of dynamite, but one of the guys I play with is murder with it. Saved our buts so many times. Most of the time he drops it while either him or another investigator is in the space with the dynamite. Less than ideal, but it gets the job done.