The Scarlet Keys preview: Hidden Pocket

Hey everyone, if you’re seeing this, that means the community has deciphered my puzzle and managed to figure out the text of my preview card. Maybe they’ve even managed to decipher its title! In case you haven’t, I want to introduce everyone officially to my second Scarlet Keys preview: Hidden Pocket.

Theme

The flavor of this card is immediate. The name and art give away exactly what this is and the second line of the card fits perfectly within that theme. After all, what has pockets? Clothing… and maybe some types of armor, I guess. In any case, the thematic package here is pretty complete, albeit a bit straightforward. The alcohol in the art even hints at the Illicit cards present in the game, many of which are forms of alcohol.

Lastly, as with my last preview, Salvage, the flavor text on this card is just perfect. If you’re not familiar, there’s plenty of internet content associated with this, but this one is my favorite. Now we just need a dress asset that I can sew pockets on to, or maybe just an alternate art of Fine Clothes.

Mechanics

There’s not much subtlety to Hidden Pocket. It’s a straightforward and powerful card that asks something of you during deck building. That is: include Illicit cards that take up the hand or accessory slot and also Clothing or Armor cards, which as of now, mostly take up your body slot. The restriction is both flavorful but also works well to reign in the power level of having another hand or accessory slot. In fact, the cards that give you extras of those slots are high level, like The Hierophant • V or niche like Arcane Enlightenment so it makes sense that Hidden Pocket makes you a little bit for it.

Knowing the constraints, let’s look at some of the cards we can hide in our pockets. Funnily enough, the entire class of alcohol, which is all Illicit and pictured in the art does not benefit from the extra slot. Liquid Courage and Tennessee Sour Mash being two representatives, with different versions each, none of which occupy a hand or accessory slot. Fortunately there’s another category of illegal cards that can take great advantage, guns! There’s a number of Firearm assets that are also Illicit traited such as .18 Derringer and the .45 Thompson.

In addition to weapons, there’s a few other tools that can be stored in your pocket. Lockpicks or the recently previewed Thieves’ Kit can help you investigate, as can Damning Testimony (upgrades). Lastly, while there’s no Illicit asset that takes up an accessory slot, you can make much broader use of your Hidden Pocket if you use to store an item you’ve “found” via “I’ll Take That!”. Having an extra Lucky Cigarette Case in your pocket is both a thematic hit and a powerful combination.

There’s plenty of cards we can unlock with Hidden Pocket, but there’s also a very important question I haven’t answered yet: Where is the best place to sew a hidden pocket onto? In Rogue, we have Leather Jacket, which certainly feels like it would have a hidden pocket. Guardian gets some more and sometimes weirder options in Armor of Ardennes, Enchanted Armor and Protective Gear. Where are the pockets there? Who’s to say. There’s plenty of other strong options, especially in neutral, but my favorite have to be Track Shoes and Hiking Boots. After all, who doesn’t have carry around a 2-handed gun in their shoe pocket?

If none of those options suit you The Scarlet Keys investigator expansion brings a new Armor asset in the form of Hunter’s Armor. An interesting aspect of this card is that it can take up the Arcane slot via one of its upgrades, so you can make otherwise make use of your body slot for other things such as a Backpack or a Quickdraw Holster for even more guns!

Lastly, given all of the possibilities on both ends of the card, who are the best investigators to make use of Hidden Pocket? The most obvious choice might be Mr. Illicit himself, Finn Edwards. His signature event gives him a way to find Hidden Pocket and other Illicit enablers and he makes good use of “I’ll Take That!”. Leo Anderson is another good option since he has access to and makes good use of a lot of illicit weapons as well as having the widest array of assets to sew the hidden pocket onto.

That’s all I have for you today. I hope you’ve been enjoying the previews. Which investigator do you think is perfect for Hidden Pocket? I’m interested to hear your thoughts! We’re not quite done with previews yet, we have one more card to show you. Check back here on Monday, September 12th at 1:00pm Pacific Time for our last preview or check out the community spoiler doc here (hosted by the lovely Frank from Drawn to the Flame). Otherwise, feel free to send any comments, thoughts or concerns my way through Facebook, Twitter, Discord, or Nightgaunt Mail. See you next time!