The Scarlet Keys preview: Embezzled Treasure

Hey everyone! Welcome to the last Obscure Studies preview of the Scarlet Keys spoiler season. Thanks again to Fantasy Flight Games for the opportunity to showcase these cards. We have another Rogue card today. Everyone, meet Embezzled Treasure.

Theme

Like Hidden Pocket, the theme of this card is very evident and it fits in rogue pretty well. After all, smuggling out a treasure chest from the Miskatonic Museum seems like something Kymani Jones would very well do. It’s also Illicit, which fits the big theme of the green cards of this expansion.

Despite fitting well in the Rogue flavor pool, this card can be a bit weird if you think too much about it. After all, how am I spending resources to acquire more monetary resources that will benefit me next time? Even considering my own view where resources are only occasionally related to money, this card can stretch the imagination a bit.

In the end, this game and so many others require a bit of suspension of disbelief. This card doesn’t ask too much more of you and even in the cases where it does, the humor of it all might just be worth it.

Mechanics

Looking at what this card actually does, it can take a bit to wrap your head around it. You need to spend an action to play this, but then it’s free to move resources to it during the game. If you spend 4 resources, you get the effect of a single Another Day, Another Dollar, with the ability to beyond even two copies. This card also benefits from item synergy, such as Geared Up, Backpack, Bob Jenkins and others. Lastly, you can share the extra resources with other investigators, which is good and seemingly part of the charitable side of rogues.

While the ceiling on this card can be pretty high, we all know Arkham can be unforgiving. The fact that you need to find the space in your deck for this card, draw it and spend an action to play it are its biggest disadvantages. Of course, at level 0, such is to be expected. Unfortunately, since you need to start pumping the treasure 5 rounds before the end of the game, it also has a time limit in which it can be good. Lastly, it can hinder any big money strategies that rely on having the resources in the pool, such as The Black Fan and works poorly with Unscrupulous Loan.

There’s a lot to think about with this card, but who might be able to take good advantage of it? An obvious first choice would be Jenny Barnes, who would spend only an upkeep’s worth of resources on this card. She might even enjoy this in a non-big money strategy, just spending any left over resources at the end of the game to bolster her next scenario. Finn Edwards can also take good advantage of this, finding it with his stash of Smuggled Goods, how flavorful! If he’s going heavy on the Illicit cards, making this fast with Fence can be very strong. My last pick would be “Ashcan” Pete who can ready this card, increasing the window in which it can be effective, and use it to turn on Dark Horse at will.

Thanks to everyone who’s been following the previews and all the other awesome content creators who have done their own. This spoiler season has been really special and I wish everyone nothing but elder signs as we get closer to the official release of The Scarlet Keys. What do you think of Embezzled Treasure? What about the other cards previewed here? I’m sure there are some cool interactions I missed! As always, feel free to send any comments, thoughts or concerns my way through Facebook, Twitter, Discord, or Nightgaunt Mail. See you next time!