The Scarlet Keys Spoiler Roundup #2

First part here: <2022-07-01>

Disclaimer

Some of the cards in today’s spoiler roundup have been posted as leaks in Discord and on the subreddit. So keep in mind that while they look to be legit, they have not been confirmed by FFG yet and therefore there is at least a little bit of doubt about them still.

Sources

Any leaks referenced on this page are from the leaks and spoilers channel of the Mythos Busters Discord. To be clear, the source is not one of the Mythos Busters themselves, but another user on that Discord.
The rules for Customizable were shown off by lead designer MJ Newman on her Twitter. She also answered some detail questions about the mechanic on the MB Discord.
Orphic Theory was officially previewed by the arkhamhorrorlcg subreddit.
Map the Area is an official preview from PlayingBoardGames.

Investigators

We got leaks for everyone but Charlie Kane (who we already know everything about).

Carson Sinclair

The one thing missing from him after the announcement article on FFG.com was his backside, particularly his deckbuilding. According to the leaker, it’s Guardian 0-5, Neutral 0-5 and up to 10 level 0-1 events from either Seeker, Mystic or Survivor. So he’s the Guardian in the line started by Tony, Gloria and Mandy. Seems fine to me? That sort of deckbuilding has proven to provide different angles on how the build the investigator in the past, i don’t see why it would be different here. For his supporter role that means he could help with seeking clues, he could throw around some counterspells or do some survivor flavored seeking while handing out Take Hearts. At first glance, the survivor option appeals most to me, but that’s without having thought about it too much.

Vincent Lee

The parallels to Carolyn Fern are obvious, so i apologize in advance for holding his card next to Carolyn’s the whole time now. Let’s get the most glaring parallels out of the way first. Level 0-3 in their class, neutral cards, cards that heal up to 5, up to 15 level 0 or 1 cards from two other classes. The statline is very similar, the elder sign is mechanically identical and the stamina/sanity are simply flipped. Vincent does not come with an additional deckbuilding restriction because a limitation in terms of weapons is basically already built into his card access. The payoff for healing is also a different one. Where Carolyn hands out resources, Vincent hands out copies of a special set aside signature skill. How this card looks exactly is unknown, but it is said to have double wild icons, acting as an Unexpected Courage at the very least. At first glance, i think i prefer Carolyn’s more broadly useful ability which is also able to stack up much better. Vincent is limited by the number of set aside cards he has. That being said, this is certainly a powerful ability, handing out skill bonuses like that can be very impactful. Vincent also has the better statline. While very similar to Carolyn’s, upping the combat from 2 to 3 can be the base for some competent fighting, putting him in a camp with the other two fighty seekers, Amanda and Joe. Where Carolyn always has to struggle a bit with a statline that runs counter to what their main classes card pool offers, Vincent doesn’t have this problem. The 3/4/2/2 statline always felt more befitting to a Seeker and Vincent will be able to make great use of his card pool with it. One last thing about the card pool: Carolyn has Guardian, Seeker, Mystic. Vincent has Seeker, Guardian, Survivor. Mystic as a subclass has always been quite shallow, except for the occasional counterspell. Survivor 0-1 however is like half of the survivor cards. This is a vastly better pool than Carolyn has.
In conclusion, i like Vincent. While i am not terribly invested in the idea of a healer as such, the card access and stat spread alone make sure that there’s plenty of great ways to build his decks and to take them into various directions. That’s the sort of thing i can really get behind.

Kymani Jones

Compared to the other investigators from the Scarlet Keys, Kymani Jones is a relatively straightforward one. They get to use the full rogue pool and also anything with the Tool trait, up to level 4. Standard decksize and they get a weakness and a signature card as usual. The bonus experience of 5 is a welcome surprise, mirroring Pater Mateo who had a similar card pool (in size) at point of his release. Getting extra XP for a rogue is huge, as they are generally hungry for those expensive upgrades, exceptional and otherwise. It also means they can take Charon’s Obol at deck creation (without having to use In the Thick of It), which squeezes an extra 2XP out of the Obol. In terms of Tools, only very few cards stick out as worthwhile from the current card pool. Most of them are investigative tools or weapons, and Kymani’s intellect and combat aren’t really up to the task. Fire Extinguisher(3) might be a thing, but aside from that, Lockpicks is really the only interesting tool in the list. And that one is rogue already. But at least we now know to look out for the trait in any further player card spoilers for the set!

Amina Zidane

Her front and signatures were officially previewed last week, but the back is still a mystery. From what we’ve been told through leaks, Amina is able to use Cherished Keepsake in her deck, though. If we assume this is true, this points towards either having Survivor as a subclass or a trait based deckbuilding similar to Kymani’s, but around the Charm trait. She is not supposed to have any bonus XP, though. I figured i’d mention this here for completeness sake, but personally i don’t think this is substantial enough to really discuss yet. Here’s the list of Charms, if you are interested in this angle.

Darrell Simmons

The Survivor of the bunch is the one we know the least about. Like with Amina, the leaks had some info, spoiling that he has 5 intellect and 2 combat. If true, this is quite spectacular and gives us finally someone better than Minh to play around with fan-favorite Scavenging. Furthermore, his ability is supposed to lower shroud in some fashion. His deck building is what many have been expecting it to be, Survivor 5/Seeker 2/Neutral 5. That card access with 5 intellect alone make Darrell one hell of a powerful character before we even consider his full ability.

Seeker

Orphic Theory

Oh hey, it’s Edge of the Earth’s Roald Ellsworth as a full player card. Roald was arguably the strongest of the explorers in his campaign (at least for the first half), i have no doubt that this will translate easily to Orphic Theory. Obviously the value of the card is going to fluctuate with the campaign, but having this in the toolbox is powerful indeed. It’s cheap, both in resources and XP. It uses a relatively uncontested equipment slot. It has a relevant trait. Using it is fast and can be done multiple times per turn. There’s synergies with secrets to consider, a theme that has recently been growing within the Seeker card pool. There’s not really much you can fault this card for, so if you want this effect the card will do the job remarkably well. Note that revelation treacheries don’t have a window allowing you to blank the text box, so this is not going to work on something like Rotten Remains.

Map the Area

Solid card, but probably nothing that will see a wide amount of play. There are some situations where this card would be really great, like on locations with lots of clues on them (Edge has a lot of those) or special locations like Silas Bishop’s room in Blood on the Altar. To be worth including in a deck, the campaign would need to have several such occasions though. I feel like this would’ve been a good candidate for double icons, so that the card would be worth it even if you don’t plan on playing it. Then again who knows, maybe someone finally can do their dreams of a Barricade-Minh that never leaves her starting location come true with this.

Customizable

Maxine Newman herself posted the rules for Customizable on her twitter feed. The rules clarify the things we have been wondering about after last week’s reveal of Hunter’s Armor and the other three cards with the keyword. Find the link to the tweet(s) above in the sources if you want to read them in detail, but here’s a recap, also including some further info that Maxine gave on the Mythos Busters Discord:
– As expected, each checkbox costs 1 XP.
– Any checkboxes ticked are active for all copies of the customizable card for this investigator, making this a relatively efficient way of spending XP.
– Spending XP on checkboxes counts as “upgrading” this card, so cards like Down the Rabbit Hole and Arcane Research apply.
– A customizable card’s level is half the number of ticked boxes, rounded up. This means that someone who can take Guardian cards 0-2 is able to spend up to 4XP on upgrading their Runic Axe or Hunter’s Armor.
– Related to the above, a hard maximum of 10XP can be spend on a customizable card, in line with the usual maximum card level of 5.
– An investigator can buy a new customizable card including upgrades by paying the upgrade cost in one swoop. So if you don’t have Power Word in your deck yet, you can pay 4XP and add one or both copies to your deck with 4 checkboxes ticked.
– Related to the above, trait based investigators would be able to buy an upgradable card even if it only gains that trait via checkbox. Of course they’d have to actually pay for that textbox. (Examples are Relic for Ursula or “cards that heal horror” for Carolyn). This also means that Lily Chen could get Runic Axe without ever having to spend one of her 5 Guardian 0 slots for it.
– Purchased checkboxes can not be refunded.
– You can add further copies of a customizable card to your deck without any costs (except for having to cut another card, of course), for example if you decide that you want 2 copies of Servitor after all or if you take the “you can take 3 copies of this” upgrade on Power Word.
This all looks quite generous and erring on the side of the players. I expected some sort of limitation on how much you can upgrade these things, but throwing up to 10XP at them sounds like it’s got some great potential. It’s not even as expensive as it sounds at first, because you do actually get 2 level 5 cards for your investment. To use Maxine’s own words:

Sounds about right to me!