I've published another post about the data behind the decks - what are the most popular 5XP cards on published Arkhamdb decks?

http://gravyanecdote.com/arkhamhorror/arkham-horror-most-popular-5xp-cards/

(see if you can guess before you click the link!)

What do you think? Do you agree with the list? Do you use any of the less popular ones?

Carolyn Fern can't take the Armor of Ardennes. She doesn't get high-level Guardian cards.

I bought Armor of Ardennes for my Zoey deck in a run through Carcosa and Dunwich. Investing 5 XP in this card was totally worth it (Especially when you start with 3+ physical trauma). There have been games where she took 15+ physical damage total and walked away with a cruel smile on her blood-spattered lips

10/10, would buy again.

The Armor was not out when I played Zoey. Though, these days if I played her again, I'd probably be tempted to go Flamethrower instead for the body slot. (Shame you can't have both. There go my dreams of playing a 40k-style Sororita in Arkham.)

I'm surprised at the Red Gloved Man. While he looks undeniably fun, I have yet to be able to include him in any deck, with any character, where I felt he was worth his price.

Armor isn't bad, but as OP mentioned, comes in the wrong faction. Guardians typically have high HP scores, and might want their body slot open for the flamethrower. They have access to a lot of allies that can soak hp damage as well, plus some other available healing. They would also probably rather spend XP on a Key of Ys or Elder Sign Amulet to protect their sanity, rather than their health. Topping it all off, Guardian XP is simply tight, as Guardians need (want) to buy a lot of high XP cards, and often simply dont have enough xp to spend on a 5xp card that is of questionable value.

RGM is amazing with Wendy or any survivor that brings chance encounter.

Or of course Calvin Wright.

1 hour ago, awp832 said:

I'm surprised at the Red Gloved Man. While he looks undeniably fun, I have yet to be able to include him in any deck, with any character, where I felt he was worth his price.

He was in my Yorick deck for our zero vengeance FA playthrough. Mythos phase/Enemy phase soak monster plus Police Badge combo to do any task that was required at 6 base skill. Oh, and could be bought again from discard. Utterly ridiculous.

Yes, William Yorrick is a great option for him as well due to the recursion. Wendy can play events from her discard once she has her amulet out, so those chance encounters are doubly useful, and you will not need to upgrade them as RGM only stays out for a turn anyway.

I don't play Guardians enough to comment on the Armor vs Flamethrower convo, but it would ultimately depend on group comp and investigator. The nice thing about the armor, is it can let you take AoO sometimes to perform actions you might not otherwise risk taking when engaged. It's pretty great overall and can help a guardian pull the pressures off of other teammates in a pinch.

I also think the Rogue cards are deceptive because exceptional cards from Rogue are 'top-tier' whereas the lvl 5 rogue cards are just kind of , meh. Ace in the Hole, Borrowed Time, Golden Pocketwatch, and Skeleton Key are all great cards that range from 4-8 xp. Skeleton Key is the only one listed by me that is less than 5 xp, so it's a little more difficult to see the effects of high cost rogue card inclusion here. I would take any of these (except maybe Borrowed Time) before I took Cheat Death or All In personally.

EDIT: Similarly, there's not much info here about how survivors build either. Their cards max out at 3 xp due, in part, to the exile mechanic.

well... I have tried those things, and was still unimpressed. William Yorrick's recursion is nice, but his reaction is only used after you defeat an enemy, so probably you don't have very many actions left to make use of the RGM. You get to keep him for the mythos phase, but you still have to pay for him. At best you get 2 actions with RGM and a mythos phase. It's just not very useful. If absorbing damage is the idea, Cherished Keepsake or Leather Coats are cheaper, don't cost XP, and provide lasting staying power. Police badge is a nice combo, allowing for a slight boost in efficiency, but you'll still have to set this combo up again every few turns, and that's really pretty dependent on having another 2XP, 3 cost card, so I don't think it's fair to give all the credit to the RGM. Police badge is good though.

Wendy is a little stronger, but again, Chance Encounter is not fast, so you have 2 actions and a mythos phase if you are doing any sort of recursion, and playing Chance Encounter provokes an AoO if you happen to be engaged. In general the survivor inability to get multiple clues/damage easily makes the 6 stats of RGM a bit less useful.

He could be handy in Calvin. But I dont play much of Calvin. Also I find it hard to believe that arkham db is flooded with Calvin RGM decks. Maybe it is, I havent checked, but something tells me this isnt where RGM popularity is coming from.

On 3/6/2019 at 4:28 AM, rsdockery said:

Carolyn Fern can't take the Armor of Ardennes. She doesn't get high-level Guardian cards.

Yup - I fixed this error!

I'm surprised to see Shotgun not on there...and Lightning Gun on there. I was on the assumption that Shotgun was extremely popular for it's high swing damage.

10 minutes ago, Hordeoverseer said:

I'm surprised to see Shotgun not on there...and Lightning Gun on there. I was on the assumption that Shotgun was extremely popular for it's high swing damage.

Shotgun is not 5 exp.

It's also, anecdotally, the least well-regarded of the Guardian "big guns".

55 minutes ago, Allonym said:

Shotgun is not 5 exp.

It's also, anecdotally, the least well-regarded of the Guardian "big guns".

Even less than the Springfield?

Oh, right. Shotgun feels like a 5xp gun with the full set up.

Yeah Springfield has to be the worst. That's not even a contest. It's annoying how restrictive that gun is when you try and use it. I'd say its really the only poor choice as far as Guardian firearms go.

Shotgun is perfectly usable and worth the xp cost. The issue is as time went on things like the Lightning Gun, Flame Thrower and the BAR starting popping up around almost the same XP cost and just made the Shotgun seem poorer by comparison. When it was the only game in town to reach insane damage totals it was a go to weapon. I think it would be nice in the future to get maybe a level 5 version of Shotgun that made it more competitive with the current weapon roster. Either that or a cheaper xp version of the Shotgun that would give you a reason to stick with the gun when moving toward an end game weapon.

Also I sincerely hope they take another look at the Springfield to give us a more usable version of that card.

1 hour ago, Jobu said:

Even less than the Springfield?

I said "big guns", not "traps for the unwary" 😛 I honestly hadn't thought that anyone would count the Springfield, since its terribleness goes without saying.

But yes, I'll definitely agree that the shotgun is more well-regarded than the Springfield.

14 minutes ago, Allonym said:

I said "big guns", not "traps for the unwary" 😛 I honestly hadn't thought that anyone would count the Springfield, since its terribleness goes without saying.

But yes, I'll definitely agree that the shotgun is more well-regarded than the Springfield.

So are we saying I should rethink my Springfield, bandolier & kukri combo deck???

2 hours ago, gazzagames said:

So are we saying I should rethink my Springfield, bandolier & kukri combo deck???

Absolutely, you should replace the Kukris with Blackjacks!

34 minutes ago, Assussanni said:

Absolutely, you should replace the Kukris with Blackjack(0)s!

Fixed that. Sadly, the new Blackjack is so awesome we can't bash the card on title alone any more!

I have yet to include a single 5XP card in any of my decks.

4 minutes ago, Khudzlin said:

I have yet to include a single 5XP card in any of my decks.

Do you play a lot of Survivors?

I will say that 5xp guardian and seeker cards are pretty nice. Deciphered Reality has been very good to us in the past.

29 minutes ago, Soakman said:

Do you play a lot of Survivors?

I will say that 5xp guardian and seeker cards are pretty nice. Deciphered Reality has been very good to us in the past.

I play mostly Guardians, with a side of Mystics. None of the 5 XP Guardian cards appeal to me (and there's plenty to do with 2-3 XP cards).

I thought people still swore by the Shotgun even when Lightning Gun popped. Even with Flame Thrower came out, my friend still favours the Shotgun for that sweet sweet 5 damage ceiling (even if it only happens 50% of the time...and when it does, the thing he's shooting at only has 2 health...but 5 damage!).

1 hour ago, Hordeoverseer said:

I thought people still swore by the Shotgun even when Lightning Gun popped. Even with Flame Thrower came out, my friend still favours the Shotgun for that sweet sweet 5 damage ceiling (even if it only happens 50% of the time...and when it does, the thing he's shooting at only has 2 health...but 5 damage!).

The problem is that the shotgun isn't reliable. If you need that 5 damage you're essentially testing at -2(!), because you get +3 but need to succeed by 5. A lightning gun, conversely, is a consistent 3 damage at a very reliable +5 to hit. There's other ways to look at it (for instance, Beat Cop and Reliable are +1 damage) but for 4 exp and base 2 ammo, needing further cards to help the gun function properly isn't attractive. If you need 5 damage with a BAR, it'll cost you a bit more than half your ammo, but you also get reliable accuracy without needing further cards. Low ammo, low flexibility, low reliability is not an attractive combination.

It has its upsides - highest damage ceiling per shot, bonuses to hit also become bonuses to damage, high potential damage per ammo so Extra Ammunition is very effective, but that niche has been encroached upon by Flamethrower, with its consistent 4 damage per shot, high starting ammo, reasonable resource cost, better accuracy and flexibility in dealing with weaker enemies as well as bosses.