What are the best cards in Basic decks (plus C)

[DrDior]

I took the morning off, and I'm hoping to stir up some interest.  So let's start this discussion.

 

What are the best cards in B/C basic deck.

 

 

My top pick is a barrier...really!

Large Chest - all the way through AD6, you will run into these.  You can banish these at no risk.  However, there is no better way to upgrade your weapons than to open some of these chest.  They hold both melee and ranged, and they keep getting better.  Unless you are fully stocked with the best weapons, the large chest is worth an effort to open.

 

Ranged weapon - Deathbane Light Crossbow.  It's magic and so useful against the early undead encounters.

Melee weapons - Spiked Chain +1, rerolls and magic are very useful for starting out.

Runnerups - any magic weapon.  Unlike the tabletop game, which has a few monster immune to magic weapons, a magic weapon is always useful.

 

Spells

Divine - Fire Sneeze.  This promo gives you a divine fire attack.  Good for low levels.

and - Holy Light.   It will be quite a while before your divine attack spells get better than this one.

runner-up - Find Trap.  It's very effective and you might get to recharge it.

Arcane - Charm Person... It's almost an explore for Ezren.  Plus a chance for a really nice early ally.  It will be super ceded by Haste, a while down the road.

 

Armor

Light - Festive Wool Hide.   This promo really helps in the early going by letting you bury an armor for a new blessing. That's two wins in one card.

Heavy - Mail of Escape.  In general, evasion is a tool for specialist.  But an evasion can save the butt of a toon that is poorly equipped for a dangerous early encounter.  

Shields - Magic Shield.  It's the only card in the set that stands out.  

 

Items

Masterwork Tools - These will be useful through deck 4, or until barriers get too tough for it's limit of 14 or lower.

Healing Poultice - In small groups without a healer, this card is a bury for 1-4 heal.  That's better than a banish.

 

Ally 

Father Zanthus - He is a +1 Healing Poultice

Poog of Zarongel - Another promo.  Give anyone a +3 attack bonus and fire trait with a recharge card.  Nuf said.

 

Blessings

Bessing of Milani - bonus to wisdom and dexterity in one card.  What's not to like?

Favors of Erastil, Gorum, Iomedae, Pharasma, Sarenrae, and Shelyn.... These all fit certain toons when they get their role powers.  Did I miss any?

 

Respond and like if you want more post for other AD decks.   Thanks.

Edited May 3, 2017 by DrDior

[Hannibal_PJV]

Flaming mace +1 is very nice. Magic, fire and blunt.

 

Augury has to be in the list. And improved arcane armor gets mages some protection.

Holy candle can be usefull in items. Spy class is must, and shovel is not bad either. Wayfinder is good Also.

Dilettante and troubadur Are best allies IMHO.

You have a good list.

[aksFourpaws]

Most of my favourites are a bit on the situational side. Well except for the already mentioned cards.

 

Shock Longbow+1: Not having to rely on strength makes this a nice longterm weapon when Crossbows are in high demand, but unfortuneately only Harsk can make good use of this. And maybe alt Merisiel.

 

Improved Mending: I feel this is what mending should have been. I can't count how often this one got me a critical Item or Weapon back on my hand.

 

Locksmith Leather: if you start out with a really low Dexterity this can help you through  a lot of early game Disable Check. And when you reach the point where it becomes useless, you are at the point where better armors are available.

 

Shalelu Andosana: No love for her? Being able to decide between scouting and exploring after you have seen the next card is really really usefull.

[DrDior]

Most of my favourites are a bit on the situational side. Well except for the already mentioned cards.

 

Shock Longbow+1: Not having to rely on strength makes this a nice longterm weapon when Crossbows are in high demand, but unfortuneately only Harsk can make good use of this. And maybe alt Merisiel.

 

Improved Mending: I feel this is what mending should have been. I can't count how often this one got me a critical Item or Weapon back on my hand.

 

Locksmith Leather: if you start out with a really low Dexterity this can help you through  a lot of early game Disable Check. And when you reach the point where it becomes useless, you are at the point where better armors are available.

 

Shalelu Andosana: No love for her? Being able to decide between scouting and exploring after you have seen the next card is really really usefull.

 

I especially like your comments on Shalelu.   It is rare to have an ally that can be a deck manipulator.

[Yorien]

I don't quite like Shalelu as a good ally here, I find her prety niche. Very useful for some characters but not an ally I'd consistently have in my character's decks.

 

My points are:

 

- Allies, along with blessings, are the main sources for extra explores for almost all characters. If you're not going to use an ally for the explore itself that ally should have a powerful enough "alternative skill" to be "worth" dropping the explore.

 

- Characters with small hand sizes and ones unable to either quickly cycle or reshuffle their decks will probably not recover Shalelu in time to play her a second time when recharged, so essentially she becomes a "recharge to look at the top card of your location deck" card when played that way. I'd say that's a really low value for an ally slot when a spyglass (item card, consistently considered of lesser value) shows two cards and let's manipulate their position.

 

- The more characters in your  party, the less turns each character will take and getting extra explores becomes way more important, decreasing alternative skill value.

 

Still, as said, she is very useful for "some characters". And for me those characters are ones that can actually combo her scouting with some sort of manipulation. Merisiel (she can evade to get a location reshuffle), Seelah (in case is an uninteresting boon, she can send it packing to the bottom of the location deck) and casters (except Lini) that can scry or augury that card. A more supportive Sajan may also be an option (he is probably the fastest deck cycler in the game so has decent chances to run her several times). For all others, there are better choices.

Edited May 5, 2017 by Yorien

[PastorJK]

Augury has to be in the list.

 

I definitely agree. One of the best. Choose blessings for the Shrine to Lamashtu to save some cards or monsters for all others. If there is no villain or henchman, put them on the bottom!

[PastorJK]

Hopefully, some of these cards show up for people who don't purchase treasure chests! 

[dbemont]

"This promo gives you a divine fire attack."

 

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a promo?

[Ethics Gradient]

"This promo gives you a divine fire attack."

 

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a promo?

Back in the tabletop edition of the game, Promo Cards were a perk of the Pathfinder ACG subscription plan.  Players would find them inserted into their scheduled shipments.  Occasionally, if you were super-lucky, paizo would include them in regular orders too.  Though, now you can just buy them for about $3 apiece.  Generally goblin-themed, they were usually pretty cool, and a tiny bit more overpowered or versatile than a regular card.

 

Now that we've gone digital, just about everyone has access to those promo cards as part of the RoTR bundle.  Open up your card collection and check out the P Deck.  Obsidian has also released a few promos of their own like the Goblin Golem or Rooster.

 

They are entirely separate from treasure cards.  Since they do not have an Adventure Deck number, they are potentially available in every scenario.

[Irgy]

 

I don't quite like Shalelu as a good ally here, I find her prety niche. Very useful for some characters but not an ally I'd consistently have in my character's decks.

 

My points are:

 

- Allies, along with blessings, are the main sources for extra explores for almost all characters. If you're not going to use an ally for the explore itself that ally should have a powerful enough "alternative skill" to be "worth" dropping the explore.

 

- Characters with small hand sizes and ones unable to either quickly cycle or reshuffle their decks will probably not recover Shalelu in time to play her a second time when recharged, so essentially she becomes a "recharge to look at the top card of your location deck" card when played that way. I'd say that's a really low value for an ally slot when a spyglass (item card, consistently considered of lesser value) shows two cards and let's manipulate their position.

 

- The more characters in your  party, the less turns each character will take and getting extra explores becomes way more important, decreasing alternative skill value.

 

Still, as said, she is very useful for "some characters". And for me those characters are ones that can actually combo her scouting with some sort of manipulation. Merisiel (she can evade to get a location reshuffle), Seelah (in case is an uninteresting boon, she can send it packing to the bottom of the location deck) and casters (except Lini) that can scry or augury that card. A more supportive Sajan may also be an option (he is probably the fastest deck cycler in the game so has decent chances to run her several times). For all others, there are better choices.

 

 

In my opinion you're playing her wrong. You do know you can encounter the card, right? Don't think of her as a scout that you occasionally use as an explore instead. Think of her as an explore with the option to unpreventably evade-to-top. You expect to explore with her, but on rare occasions you can pre-emptively evade it instead.

 

The end result is not that you explore less with her, but you explore more with her. Because any time you have no weapon in hand, or the party has no blessings, or any other reason you'd be unwilling to explore with a normal ally, you can explore with her, because it can't possibly blow up in your face (unless you choose to let it of course). You said yourself you want to explore with allies most of the time, so how is the one ally who actually explores better than any other not a top pick?

 

Oh and she also recharges for a bonus to anyone's ranged attack, so you can give her to the character that sometimes runs out of steam to make the most of the pre-emptive evade option while still being able to make use of her other ability with the ranged characters. What's not to love?

Edited July 12, 2017 by Irgy

[Ripe]

I like Mirror Image... yes, it's a bit of a gamble but you do have 3-in-4 chance to completely negate all damage dealt to you and it work for entire turn. It's especially great to have in hand when you encounter Enchantress since it will work (well, provided you don't roll a 1) on both "before" and "after" you act damage. I even used it on a final scenario on few occasions.

 

And I agree with Irgy, Shalelu is great ally... her ability to avoid getting into a mess is amazing. Most of the time she end up discarded but her ability did save me on quite a few occasions.

Edited July 27, 2017 by Ripe