The latest cycle for Arkham Horror is now out in the wild, so it is time to take a look at the Investigator cards from the full set. I'm going to be taking a look at the out-of-class cards that existing Investigators gained access to in the near future, but before then I thought it'd be worth taking a quick look at the new Neutral cards, as well as the four new Basic Weakness cards we now have access to.
Neutral cards sit in an interesting spot, given that every Investigator currently in print has Neutral 0-5 in their Deckbuilding Options, and I'm only aware of two Investigators where their Deckbuilding Restrictions prohibit some Neutral cards from being taken (Rex Murphy with Tempt Fate, and Carolyn Fern with Ornate Bow and Timeworn Brand). I know that Unexpected Courage is almost always one of the first cards I'll put in a deck, and - unfortunately - In the Thick of It seems to be sat in a similar spot for a lot of other people. The design team need to be careful with Neutral card designs to leave them as a valid option for a subset of Investigators, without hitting the point where they're nearly an auto-include.
Basic Weakness cards almost go the other way - unless you're using a house rule, you don't have a say in what your Random Basic Weakness ends up being, but they ideally want to have some impact on how you're going to play your deck. There are quite a few of these that I've seen described as a "double action soak", where the only concern is when you'll have two spare actions to get rid of them, but they're not doing much else. At the other extreme, you have something like the Doomed chain which can kill you outright - and surprisingly quickly, if you're unlucky with what you draw.
Anyway, let's see what new options have cropped up in Hemlock Vale.
