So, like Jim we have a mystic with only 4 Willpower but with 5 bonus experience at the start of the campaign. That looks pretty handy to me for an experience-hungry mystic.

Elder sign effect looks very good, choices are always nice and actions are probably the most valuable resource in the game. I can also see the reaction to cancel a tentacle token and turn it into an elder sign being amazing for make-or-break tests at the end of a scenario, although deciding whether to use it or not if a tentacle comes up early could be a dilemma.

The Codex of Ages is okay, but my gut instinct is that I'd rather have the elder sign in the bag than +1 willpower (I haven't done any maths on this).

Serpents of Yig could be annoying if it comes up early but with only 2 fight and 3 health it doesn't look too bad to me, particularly if you have a combat-focused friend nearby.

What are your thoughts?

St Hubert is a good fit, even thematically. His workable Intellect becomes respectable.

Codex - yes, but the moment you say, "Dang, wish this was an Elder Sign instead", poof, it becomes one. A priest, cheating in the card room -- shame!

I’m assuming that one Seal doesn’t trump another, so Sealing the Elder Sign on the Codex of Ages protects it against Serpents of Yig doing the same? I expect they’ll clarify in the Seal rules in the accompanying pamphlet, but interesting to note.

He reminds of Jim:

Same spread of abilities but Agility and Fight are swapped.

Special ability that revolves around mitigating the chaos bag.

His Elder sign is better than Jims.

His card pool is not as good as Jims but 5 splash is very nice. Would be interested to see what Blessed cards will be released.

5XP to start? That looks good but is a clear indication that the developers thought he was weak without it.

I could see him not using rite of seeking and relying on lore boosts and flashlight to get the job done.

25 minutes ago, General Zodd said:

I’m assuming that one Seal doesn’t trump another, so Sealing the Elder Sign on the Codex of Ages protects it against Serpents of Yig doing the same? I expect they’ll clarify in the Seal rules in the accompanying pamphlet, but interesting to note.

Serpents of Yig specifically says to search the chaos bag for it, so the Codex certainly protects it. Whether the Codex pulls it from Serpents is less clear.

34 minutes ago, CSerpent said:

St Hubert is a good fit, even thematically. His workable Intellect becomes respectable.

Codex - yes, but the moment you say, "Dang, wish this was an Elder Sign instead", poof, it becomes one. A priest, cheating in the card room -- shame!

If you could use the Codex in response to drawing the chaos token then I might rate it a bit higher, but you have to choose to use it before you even see what you would have drawn. It's not bad, it means you don't waste cards over committing to a test, but I'm not blown away by it.

22 minutes ago, General Zodd said:

I’m assuming that one Seal doesn’t trump another, so Sealing the Elder Sign on the Codex of Ages protects it against Serpents of Yig doing the same? I expect they’ll clarify in the Seal rules in the accompanying pamphlet, but interesting to note.

My guess is that if it is already sealed then it doesn't move, but if the original sealing card gets discarded then it immediately becomes sealed on the second card. I think this is how sealing dice works in Elder Sign?

He is essentially a full-on mystic. I'm assuming the experience bonus is to counter the fact that he will need to build almost entirely from the mystic deck.

I'm not 100% sure that this is a drawback worthy of 5 experience, personally, but it is what it is. I have a custom character that cannot use neutral cards and only mystic and relic/charm cards (there are some great relic/charms now, but not having access to neutral cards is rough). That being said, this character never felt underpowered because mystics are capable of covering almost any role. The biggest problem for my character was the lack of emergency cache, but with forbidden knowledge and alchemical transmutation, even this was manageable.

The 5 xp, to me, seems excessive, and his elder sign ability is amazing. You will almost always want this guy on your team in hard mode due to his auto success. Olive might even make a good choice for him because if the elder sign is one of your 3 tokens, you don't really need to worry about the other one that you have to resolve.

He seems very powerful as far as mystics are concerned. His non-5 willpower, in my mind, is not that big of a problem as he can start with shriveling 3 or 5 to get automatic +2 bonus to his uses.

I don't really see a downside to this guy unless you are looking for someone more specialized in combat like Akachi or Agnes.

32 minutes ago, Assussanni said:

ou could use the Codex in response to drawing the chaos token then I might rate it a bit higher, but you have to choose to use it before you even see what you would have drawn. It's not bad, it means you don't waste cards over committing to a test, but I'm not blown away by it.

I'm thinking that's why the card is simply discarded. If it is played like Mateo's ability, the card would either be exiled, or at the very least, removed from the current game.

Keep in mind that using the Codex of Ages also offers a small refund from his ability. Either an action or 1 card and a resource.

I think I would be willing to spend 1 card and an action to get +1 will and autopass any test. I could see going a few rounds with it.

I'd say the Codex is pretty amazing, if youcan play it right before an important test. THen it's an auto success for one action and 2 resources, and then you get either the resource and a card or the action back.

Is it me or does Wendy Adams feel a bit cheated now that Mateo has a straight up better version of her elder sign.

5 minutes ago, Eldan985 said:

I'd say the Codex is pretty amazing, if youcan play it right before an important test. THen it's an auto success for one action and 2 resources, and then you get either the resource and a card or the action back.

Is it me or does Wendy Adams feel a bit cheated now that Mateo has a straight up better version of her elder sign.

Nothing is in isolation in this game. He does have a really good elder sign ability. So good, it would be hard to justify using the Codex of Ages or his special ability on anyone else.

I would suspect that is Wendy's own fault for putting all of her faith into a trinket

25 minutes ago, Eldan985 said:

Is it me or does Wendy Adams feel a bit cheated now that Mateo has a straight up better version of her elder sign.

He has a better version of her ES Ability, but her reaction (although costing a card) can be used more than once per game.

My thoughts (I'm still wishing for Marie, but that's neither here, nor there), his stats are nothing special compared to the rest of Mystic investigators. High willpower is a signature for the class. Knowledge and agility is on the high end of average, while combat is on the low end of average. The health/sanity split is 6/8, the same with the rest of the investigators in this class.

His ability is a real "ace in the hole". Being able to cancel the auto fail, and treat it like the elder sign token is crazy powerful, so it stands to reason that the ability can only happen once per game. I am not a big fan of that stipulation, but I can understand why it's there.

The elder sign ability, I must admit, had me a little puzzled. "If it is your turn,..." had me thinking that in the future, we would have a player card that would allow players to share es abilities. Then it dawned on me, most cards drawn from the encounter deck require tests. About 95-100% of the time, encounter cards are drawn during the encounter phase. If you, as Father Mateo, draw the elder sign token during the encounter phase, not only do you automatically succeed (amazing in its own right), but you gain one resource and draw a card. If you are searching, or fighting, or fleeing, and you draw the elder sign token, you still succeed, but you have the option to pass on the resource and draw, and instead gain an extra action. This could lead to clearing out a location, or defeating an enemy. The odds of this happening isn't very good, but there is slim chance it's possible. I may try this character out some time.

I actually like The Codex of Ages. Not only does it beefs up Mateo's willpower (combined with the Holy Rosary, and Mateo becomes a willpower juggernaut), but you seal the elder sign to use on a rainy day. It just dawned on me that this is a mystic thing to do as it will screw other players out of the elder sign as only Mateo can benefit from the elder sign token at that point, but like most mystic's cursed blessings, this one has a silver lining.

Serpents of Yig is nothing remarkable stat wise. With 2 combat and agility, and 3 hit points, most Guardians, Seekers, and/or William Yorrick can easily dispatch this baddie so long as they are around Father Mateo. It makes sense that Mateo is the tie-breaking prey as basic weakness baddies with the "Hunter" keyword chases the investigator who drew him/her when capable. What makes The Serpents of Yig so nasty is that the card seals the elder sign token. The way that "seal" works is that a card enters play with the "seal" keyword with a token next to it. You then search the chaos bag for that specific token, and place it on the card. That token is no longer available to draw until the card in question leaves play.

So how can Codex of Ages benefit the party? On Mateo's turn, for his third action, he plays Codex of Ages and seals the elder sign token. During upkeep, he draws Serpents of Yig. Since Codex of Ages has already sealed the elder sign token, Serpents do not get the token, and are simply a nasty thorn in Mateo's side. During the encounter phase, Mateo performs a skill check, and decides to discard Codex. Be passes the test, draws a card, gains a resource, and puts me he elder sign back in the bag.

Let's talk about decides building. Mateo's options are similar to that of Mark Harrington. Both can take in class cards and neutral cards 0-5. They both can build with out of class cards with a specific trait. For Mark, it's tactics. For Mateo, it's blessed. What really separates the two is the fact the Mateo start with 5 XP in reserve. This is both amazing and a pain. It's amazing because you can start the game with a more powerful card in your deck. It's a pain because it means you have more cards to choose from. While that may not be that bad, keep in mind, you only have five points. This means anywhere from one level 5 card to five level 1 cards. While it is tempting to go with a crazy powerful level 5 card, do not discount the level 1 cards. They are good in their own right.

55 minutes ago, Turtlefan2082 said:

It makes sense that Mateo is the tie-breaking prey as basic weakness baddies with the "Hunter" keyword chases the investigator who drew him/her when capable.

He's not just a tie breaker. Prey with "only" means the enemy ignores everyone else completely. The only way for them to attack anyone else is for that someone to engage them.

2 hours ago, Eldan985 said:

I'd say the Codex is pretty amazing, if youcan play it right before an important test. THen it's an auto success for one action and 2 resources, and then you get either the resource and a card or the action back.

Is it me or does Wendy Adams feel a bit cheated now that Mateo has a straight up better version of her elder sign.

But her standard ability is far better at mitigating token draw overall than his. He gets one use per game, she can replace all day as long as she has an extra card or two. His elder sign effect is so powerful because his standard ability is so situational.

3 hours ago, Assussanni said:

My guess is that if it is already sealed then it doesn't move, but if the original sealing card gets discarded then it immediately becomes sealed on the second card. I think this is how sealing dice works in Elder Sign?

It will depend on the exact wording, but I don't think so. The description of Seal in the preview specifically says to search the chaos bag, and it's almost certainly not a constant effect. So if there's no token X when you try to seal it, nothing happens, and it'll stay that way.

Quote

You will almost always want this guy on your team in hard mode due to his auto success. Olive might even make a good choice for him because if the elder sign is one of your 3 tokens, you don't really need to worry about the other one that you have to resolve... elder sign = success even if the other token is a -10.

Throw in Time Warp and Recall the Future with Alice and you've got a pretty good chance at making some interesting pulls and really putting that elder sign ability to good to use.

Seal away an additional negative token with the Cthonian Stone to raise the overall chances of you pulling an elder sign with Olive.

13 hours ago, Soakman said:

Olive might even make a good choice for him because if the elder sign is one of your 3 tokens, you don't really need to worry about the other one that you have to resolve

Hypothetically speaking – what would happen if Father Mateo with Olive chooses the Elder Sign (auto-success) and the tentacle token (auto-fail)? Sucess? Fail? Both? Neither?

16 hours ago, Soakman said:

I don't really see a downside to this guy unless you are looking for someone more specialized in combat like Akachi or Agnes.

His downside is his narrow deck deck building and his ability is only useful once per game. Compared to Jim Culver, who also has a narrow deck building scheme, even moreso that Mateo, Jim's ability to make skulls count as "0" will be more useful in the long run, since most chaos bags have 2 skulls in there to start with; This means Jim Culver has a better chance to pass tests he is already ahead in.

Father Mateo is relatively weak compared to all the other mystics in this regard. Luckily, the 5 xp head start brings him up to speed.

15 hours ago, Eldan985 said:

I'd say the Codex is pretty amazing, if youcan play it right before an important test. THen it's an auto success for one action and 2 resources, and then you get either the resource and a card or the action back.

Is it me or does Wendy Adams feel a bit cheated now that Mateo has a straight up better version of her elder sign.

Wendy Adams is the last investigator to feel cheated. She has the better class and deckbuilding than Mateo. Its ok if Mateo's Elder sign is much stronger.

6 hours ago, Astrophil84 said:

Hypothetically speaking – what would happen if Father Mateo with Olive chooses the Elder Sign (auto-success) and the tentacle token (auto-fail)? Success? Fail? Both? Neither?

Two parts to this answer

1) Apparently Matt Newman has ruled that Auto-Fail trumps Auto-Success when they are simultaneous. He said this would be in the next FAQ update.

2) This ruling was in response to an Olivia question and came before Mateo's reveal, so it doesn't directly address Mateo. It seems to me that Mateo's ability could turn that tentacle into a second Elder Sign, and you could resolve two Elder Signs. This would only be an option if he hadn't already used the ability this game, of course. But in that case, he'd most likely just discard the tentacle.

5 hours ago, C2K said:

His downside is his narrow deck deck building and his ability is only useful once per game. Compared to Jim Culver, who also has a narrow deck building scheme, even moreso that Mateo, Jim's ability to make skulls count as "0" will be more useful in the long run, since most chaos bags have 2 skulls in there to start with; This means Jim Culver has a better chance to pass tests he is already ahead in.

Father Mateo is relatively weak compared to all the other mystics in this regard. Luckily, the 5 xp head start brings him up to speed.

I can understand this logic, but I don't think it's applicable. Firstly, I don't really see how he's weaker than the other mystics unless you are just referring to his 4 willpower. 5 willpower feels great. 4 is meh, but there are so many options to increase your willpower and spellchecks in the mystic faction that I don't think this is worth 5 experience. There's grounded, blood pact, spirit athame, the resource pumping skill, st hubert's key, alyss graham, rosary, renfield, not to mention the faction is packed with cards you can commit to willpower tests.

Jim's ability to make skulls count as 0 is already arguably not that useful unless you synergize it with grotesque statue and scavenging. I'm not saying he's bad, but I don't think he has an advantage over Mateo based on his ability. Mateo's elder sign passive alone trumps Jim's abilities. Free actions and draws are invaluable. Will it happen often? With Olive, it has at least as much a chance of occurring as drawing a skull, and it's an auto-pass, not a '0' which is just better unless you want to trigger song of the dead or hypnotic gaze.

Early introductions to mystics as a spell slinger (Agnes/Akachi) seem to make people (in my opinion) feel like if you can't destroy enemies, you're not a good mystic. I find that completely untrue. In the games that I play, mystics are the jacks-of-all-trades that can pick up the slack when your teammates fail. Not only does Mateo's ability help keep your teammates from failing once per game, he can fill gaps just as well as other mystics dropping rites of seeking when the seeker goes down or you need a boost in tempo, or pulling out shriveling when your guardian or offense teammate misplaces their weapon. They also add the potential of additional experience to the team, which Mateo can do just as well as any other mystic.

I understand that 5 splash cards is awesome, but it's not needed to make a mystic function at this point. We also have no idea what blessed cards are capable of and if they are anything like the other Arkham Files games, they will be quite strong.

I actually lean more toward the bonus experience being intended for Mateo to be able to start with a blessed card in his deck (I expect all of these to be level 1+ and will cost xp). If this is the case, it makes a bit more sense to me, but just giving him an extra 5 xp because he's 'weak' seems a bit overkill. From where I'm standing, Mateo just seems like a stronger version of any other mystic now. 5 xp is nothing to write off. That's about what you make in a pretty successful scenario (at least in a blind play), which you don't always have.

I'm sorry if this got long, I just have pretty strong feelings about it. I doubt anyone is going to convince me that it is justified. Hats off to the designers and balancers for trying new things, but with stat and stam/sanity as high as anyone elses, I just don't think it was needed with this investigator.

1 hour ago, Soakman said:

I can understand this logic, but I don't think it's applicable. Firstly, I don't really see how he's weaker than the other mystics unless you are just referring to his 4 willpower. 5 willpower feels great. 4 is meh, but there are so many options to increase your willpower and spellchecks in the mystic faction that I don't think this is worth 5 experience. There's grounded, blood pact, spirit athame, the resource pumping skill, st hubert's key, alyss graham, rosary, renfield, not to mention the faction is packed with cards you can commit to willpower tests.

Jim's ability to make skulls count as 0 is already arguably not that useful unless you synergize it with grotesque statue and scavenging. I'm not saying he's bad, but I don't think he has an advantage over Mateo based on his ability. Mateo's elder sign passive alone trumps Jim's abilities. Free actions and draws are invaluable. Will it happen often? With Olive, it has at least as much a chance of occurring as drawing a skull, and it's an auto-pass, not a '0' which is just better unless you want to trigger song of the dead or hypnotic gaze.

Early introductions to mystics as a spell slinger (Agnes/Akachi) seem to make people (in my opinion) feel like if you can't destroy enemies, you're not a good mystic. I find that completely untrue. In the games that I play, mystics are the jacks-of-all-trades that can pick up the slack when your teammates fail. Not only does Mateo's ability help keep your teammates from failing once per game, he can fill gaps just as well as other mystics dropping rites of seeking when the seeker goes down or you need a boost in tempo, or pulling out shriveling when your guardian or offense teammate misplaces their weapon. They also add the potential of additional experience to the team, which Mateo can do just as well as any other mystic.

I understand that 5 splash cards is awesome, but it's not needed to make a mystic function at this point. We also have no idea what blessed cards are capable of and if they are anything like the other Arkham Files games, they will be quite strong.

I actually lean more toward the bonus experience being intended for Mateo to be able to start with a blessed card in his deck (I expect all of these to be level 1+ and will cost xp). If this is the case, it makes a bit more sense to me, but just giving him an extra 5 xp because he's 'weak' seems a bit overkill. From where I'm standing, Mateo just seems like a stronger version of any other mystic now. 5 xp is nothing to write off. That's about what you make in a pretty successful scenario (at least in a blind play), which you don't always have.

I'm sorry if this got long, I just have pretty strong feelings about it. I doubt anyone is going to convince me that it is justified. Hats of to the designers and balancers for trying new things, but with stat and stam/sanity as high as anyone elses, I just don't think it was needed with this investigator.

Akechi brings sustain and Agnes brings the pain, so that is their niche. I think these are some popular choices, so I won't go into explaining why you would consider these mystics over Mateo.

Jim Culver raises your probability of passing tests. I would even argue that this new "seal" ability and Olive help Jim Culver more so than it helps Mateo. If you were take another symbol out of the bag with the Cthonian Waymark and use olive in your tests, you will probably get a skull, maybe even more than 1 skull, and the Elder sign. With Mateo, you are trying to pull 1 token. In Hard mode or Expert, I would consider Jim Culver over the other mystics if I am playing for technical, strongest deck type of game because of the probability curve.

I actually look forward to using Father Mateo and I have nothing bad to say about the design. I think his 5 xp is balanced based on how narrow the rest of his investigator ability is, and that keeps him in the discussion with other mystic choices.

The problem with Jim's skull ability though, is that they are still just 0's. Just because you pull a skull doesn't mean you are going to pass the test. I understand your point, but I'm not sure I see Jim as more capable because you are still going to need to boost or commit cards often to pass the test even with a +0.

+0 is often the highest number in the bag. If you were failing the test, before picking a chaos token out of the bag, there was an almost certain chance you were failing the test anyway.