Nathaniel Cho - the boxer - Arkham Horror

Nathaniel Cho - the boxer

When up-and-coming boxer Nathaniel Cho was offered a lot of money for a title fight, he thought he would finally have the big success. But his promoter turned out to be part of the infamous O'Bannion gang, and Nathaniel was pressured to settle fights by taking the occasional dip. His refusal led to the "accident" of his brother Randall. Nathaniel is justifiably fed up with the gangsters endangering the people of Arkham every night. Now he uses his fists better, patrols the streets and defends others from harm. But he's about to find out that there are far more dangerous things lurking in Arkham's shadow than simple mobsters...

In short, Nathaniel was a rascal who would do anything for money until his family got involved. Now he's a vigilante who wants to correct his past mistakes. As you may already know, the Guardian class is not only about fighting, but also about supporting your fellow players. Now you are lucky that Nathaniel is at home in both markets.

His stats are great for certain skill tests especially when it comes to combat. His Willpower of 3 is not bad but not very good either. You don't have to try to find clues with Nathaniel. You can use his cards better in supporting fellow players and mowing down enemies. 3/2/5/2 actually says enough about this boxer, he doesn't run away (evade) from a game of fighting. His ability makes him even stronger, because for every damage you do with an event card he deals 1 extra damage and luckily for us there are several cards in this deck that will hurt your enemy. His health is also abnormally high with no less than 9 points, Nathaniel can take quite a few hits before throwing in the towel. His horror on the other hand is a bit on the low side. So don't go to places with Nathaniel where you can expect horror.

PRO TIP: Play expectantly with Nathaniel, because this way you can make optimal use of his support and you have a number of cards in your deck where you can pull an enemy away from your fellow players.

His reaction ability is very cool. You will give +1 extra damage if you deal damage with an event card or a fighting ability by an event card. So long story short, in the must times you will hurt a enemy you will deal +1 damage.

His super star ability gives him +1 and you may take an event card from your discard pile and add it to your hand.

Nathaniel is all about the event cards that come with this deck. His strongest strength lies in using as many event cards as possible in every fight skill test, just like with a Roque class. Because by means of his super ability you can get event cards back from your discard pile.

We continue with this article to cover all the cards. We will first look at his special card and of course the 2 weakness cards that are included.

Special card

Randall Cho is Nathaniel's little brother, this person has had an "accident" and is quite concerned about his big brother. Randall is basically a search engine for your boxing gloves. That's all, yes he can take over some horror from you and if you have another card, you can use it as a skill test. I have to tell you honestly that this card is not really special. In my case I draw this card way too late in the game and I already have a pretty tight board control. The only thing he might be useful for is the fact that he can heal 3 damage. But let's be honest Nathaniel with 9 health doesn't need that 1,2,3 healing.

weakness

How could it be otherwise. Nathaniel's weakness is a criminal. He's had his portions in the past, but his past won't leave him alone. He is a Hunter but does not specifically hunt Nathaniel. So you have to keep a close eye on this. This is also a rough fighter owner, because for all the damage you inflict he only gets 1 damage. Regardless of the amount. So if you do him a total of 6 damage, for this Tommy aka the Scum it feels like 1. So you need 3 turns anyway to take out this Tommy and don't use + damage event cards because they are useless.

The next weakness card we are going to discuss is Self-destructive. This is a card that is included in the starter deck. You can always replace this card with a random weakness card, but I think that by adding this card to your deck you build up a nice theme deck.

This card ends up in your threat area and only leaves the table when you surrender 2 actions. It's a map you'll quickly dislike, because any damage you inflict on an enemy you also do to yourself. If you deal damage to an enemy, you will also receive 1 yourself.

Try to get rid of this card as quickly as possible, because Nathaniel only came along for the fight.

event

Just a short announcement, pay attention to the keyword spirit. This will come back later and is very important.

Get over here / the card we talked about earlier. If you are not at the location of a certain enemy or if your fellow players have trouble. Then you can play these cards for 2 resources to draw an enemy from adjacent location to your location and attack immediately. Even if this enemy is engaged with a fellow player.

Counterpunch / the name says it all. Attack the enemy you just attacked. You can also play this card if the attack was blocked or cancelled. It's a free event which makes it a perfect card. You can also earn this card back from your discard pile with Nathaniel's ability. Also don't forget the fast ability. This card therefore costs no action.

Dodge / this card also costs you no action and for only 1 resource you dodge an attack. Then play the counterpunch for example and you can attack right back.

Clean them out / a mechanism that we see coming back more often. Each class has such a card. In this case it's a fight action that triggers you for nothing and you get 2 free resources for it.

Glory / the draw mechanism should not be missing in this deck either. After defeating one enemy you can play this card. It only costs 1 resource and it has the keyword FAST.

Monster slayer / what a wonderful title. MONSTER SLAYER! a free card to start a fight action. This card gives you +1 damage. Let's not forget Nathaniel's reaction ability. Because you deal damage with an event card, you do 1 extra. So 0 resource for 2 damage.

One-two punch / a nice combination card. You start a fight action for 2 resources and get +1 fight skill. If the skill test passes, you can attack the same enemy again for free. Now you gain +2 fight skill and you do +1 damage. If you also pass this test, Nathaniel's ability + 1 more damage. You can deal 4 damage with this card.

Stand together / a free recource card. Not just for you, but for another investigator at your location. You both get 2 resources.

assets

Grete Wagner / kick in the door with the most expensive card. Wagner costs no less than 5 resources, but you also get something in return. You gain +1 fight skill as long as she is in play and you have a mechanism to collect clues. Anyway what I told you before is clues don't like Cho and he just wants to defeat enemies. Drop this card as soon as possible. When you defeat an enemy, you may exhaust it and deal damage. That's how she picks up a clue for you. So you can do this 3 times, but at what cost....

Safeguard / with safeguard as a talent on the table you can always safely move along with your fellow players. This way you can protect them at all times against the evil that you encounter. This card costs you 2 resources and if your fellow player moves from your location to another you can trigger the response of safeguard to join for free.

Flesh ward / Cho's magic arm block. Comes into play for 3 resources and gains 4 supplies. Whenever you take damage or horror you can trigger Flesh Ward's reaction and turn in a supply. For example, you may cancel 1 damage or horror. This is in my opinion the best continuation card you can get in the guardian sequence so far.

Physical training / this is a Talent card that you see coming back from every class. I'm not a big fan of these kinds of cards. On what belongs what so to say. For 2 resource, this talent card comes up on the table and has the ability that you have to pay for an extra Skill point each time. In this case willpower or fight. I never use these cards. Your resources are way too scarce for these kinds of cards.

Relentless / the money boxing ball. You can use this card for free for 1 action of course, but for every damage that goes over an enemy's health bar you can use the punching bag to turn that damage into resources. You can only get these resources by discarding the punching bag. That's why we call it the money machine because you do a lot of damage with Nathaniel.

Boxing gloves / and finally the card that the whole deck revolves around. The boxing gloves... you only use Randall Cho to get this card on the table as quickly as possible. Make sure that it uses both of your hand slots. For 3 resources you can put on these gloves and you get +1 fight skill (only if you also do this skill test) In exchange for destroying your enemy you can use the gloves to buy a spirit in the first 6 cards of your deck map to search. Almost every good event card from this deck has the keyword spirit. It is also a mechanism for not overpowering the deck. The spirit card ends up in your hand.

PRO TIP: You can also play this card immediately because you are still in combat, because it is a reaction to. For example, draw the card Glory. Then you can play this one for 1 resource and trigger no action because it is FAST and because you just defeated an enemy you can draw 2 cards.

skill

A classic from the core set. Vicious Blow. This skill card gives you +1 fight skill and +1 extra damage. But because of Nathaniel's ability, this card does 2 extra damage. I often made the mistake of forgetting his ability the first few times I went to battle with Nathaniel. That's why I come back to it so often. In the heat of battle you sometimes forget about these crucial moments. Not only because there is so much happening on the table, but also the group you play with can be hectic. THEREFORE, DON'T FORGET ABILITY WITH THIS!

upgrade cards

These expansions also come with upgrade cards. This way you can quickly sleeve these cards and join the game. It won't cost you a fortune to collect cards or purchase all expansions. You are ready to go. Also with these upgrade cards you can make a strong deck and just play a campaign mode with your friends.

PRO TIP: in most cases the upgrade cards can also be used very well in skill test. For example, each card gets an extra skill icon. This is also sometimes overlooked, but can give a huge twist to your playing session.

event

Evidence / Always a good card to have, but with this upgrade version you have to put in a little more effort for that extra clue. You must take out an enemy(s) with a total of 4 health to get the extra clue. In my opinion it is better to use the standard version.

Galvanize / a card I've actually overlooked a bit. As I write this article I find out that this is quite a good card. For 2 resources you get an extra action to start a fight ability, not only that but you can also straighten a Guardian asset. Take, for example, the boxing gloves asset, you can use them again.

Counterpunch / This is a must if you are looking at an upgrade deck for Cho. You play this FAST card for 0 resources and you attack the attacking enemy. You gain +2 fight Skill and deal +1 damage. Actually, the name Counterpunch no longer fits, because you attack before the enemy does you damage. This card has often helped me take out enemies before you have to calculate the outcome of their attack.

Dynamite blast / not much changes with this card, only what you get for 3 upgrade pips is that you can play this card FAST and in any player window. This is really only useful if you look deeper into the game mechanics. When you eventually progress and gain more skills, you go deeper into how the game works. Each card triggers a certain mechanism and some events take precedence over others. Which means you have to plan very carefully or calculate what happens first. For each skill test you must maintain a certain player and enemies windows. This will all be explained in more detail in our new blog.

Get over here / the card we talked about earlier. If you are not at the location of a certain enemy or if your fellow players have trouble. Then you can play these cards for 2 resources to draw an enemy from adjacent location to your location and attack immediately. Even if this enemy is engaged with a fellow player. You can play this upgrade card in a player window time slot. What means that you can preform this ability before the enemy makes an attack.

Taunt / You can play this upgrade card in a player window time slot. What means that you can preform this ability before the enemy makes an attack.

Lesson learned / This is a real Cho clue gathering card. Get some blows and find clues at your location. It only cost you 1 resource and its a FAST action.

One-two punch / This card will give you an extra +1 fight skill and +1 extra damage at the second time you attack begins.

Mano a Mano

We've kept this last card aside for a while. This card has been given a special place with us and appears more often in our upgrade decks. Not only is the artwork super cool, but the card itself also gives you goosebumps when it pulls. Most enemies have an average health of 2, so you take out an enemy for nothing. Dealing damage is not common in the early phase of the game, so this is quite an invention. As soon as you draw this card you get a kind of super saiyan feeling, because you no longer have to work hard to eliminate an enemy as long as you play this card as the first action.

This card also has the spirit trait and you can find this card very quickly if you play with Nathaniel Cho.

That was it. The Boxer's comprehensive analysis. I hope it's imprinted in your mind about Nathaniel's ability, because this does a lot of extra + points of damage. Stay tuned for more starter decks.

Are you curious about the complete deck? Slam the link.

Jessie - dutch blogger company

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