The Lamplighters Leaguehasa full castof na’er-do-wells, crooks, and oathbreakers, each with unique skills that mean that they’re destined for heroic badassery. But, as skilled and powerful as this group is, they’re still up against some steep odds.
The Undrawn Hand evens out your chances against The Banished Court. This mystical deck of cards allows you to customize your Agents with some nifty tricks. You can use them to synergize with what the Agent is good at, cover any weaknesses they might have, or even give them new and exciting abilities. But which of these magic cards should you gather for your team? Here are the best ones, ranked.
10The Imp
The ability to gain the Evade buff, which completely negates most attacks, is one only granted to melee fighters and Lateef, but The Imp allows you to grant it to any unit. Though those units are the most likely to need the ability, everyone can use a defensive boost sometimes — especially if you’ve left them vulnerable.
This costs an action, so you’ll have to use it strategically so you won’t lose ground, which is easier if you upgrade this card since it grants more Evade stacks. Just keep in mind that this won’t protect you from AoE effects like grenades or ground hazards. At higher levels, this grants multiple stacks of Evade.
9The Tyrant
A card with niche use, but is rather potent in that niche. The Tyrant gives its bearerbonus max Stressand anyone who attacks them one Stress point. This works fantastically with Tank units like Judith and Fedir, who benefit greatly from the extra max Stress since they’re targeted often.
The usefulness of the latter ability depends on your team composition, since the extra Stress they’re bouncing to enemies is mostly useful in teams where you capitalize on all that extra Stress by adding more. Even if you don’t focus on it, you might still get an occasional lucky Stress Break on an enemy.
8The Strategist
Since it works on reload, you should only equip this and cards like it on characters with guns, since they’re the only ones with weapons thatcanreload. Also, the effect only activates if you take the reload action, automatic reload abilities won’t cut it.
The Strategistis pretty decent, giving you a bump in damage whenever you take the reload action. On characters that have to reload (like Purnima, Fedir, Judith), this card sees a lot of action. On characters with ammo-saving abilities (like Eddie, Nocturne), its uptime is inversely related to how often their tricks proc.
7The Comet
Like The Strategist, this card triggers on a reload action. However, The Comet also has utility beyond that narrow instance. This card gives you a boost to your hit chance, which is great to have passively.
The Inspire on reload looks like it does less damage on paper than The Strategist, but keep in mind that it also comes with a crit chance boost, which pays off big if you’re lucky. Also, the Inspired status effect interacts with other Undrawn Hand card and agent abilities as well, making it a powerful combo piece.
6The Forsaken
Dazed is a strong debuff that reduces your AP by one, which means that most affected enemies will only get to act or move when affected by it, severely limiting their efficacy.
You can only Daze the same unit once and without this card, subsequent applications won’t have an effect. Also, you can’t Daze away a unit’s last AP, so they’ll always be able to act or move on their next turn unless they’re knocked down or killed.
The Forsaken passively gives the bearer’s attacks a chance to apply Dazed, which is especially useful on characters who can hit multiple enemies at once, or the same enemy multiple times. At higher levels, this card applies Knockdown to already-Dazed enemies. Knockdown is the strongest CC in the game, effectively skipping any non-Agent, non-Scion turns.
5The Behemoth
Depending on the Agent, armor is an important stat since it mitigates the damage they take per hit and if you can get your armor, you can prevent a ridiculous amount of damage. It’s not a stat everyone needs, since some characters either stay out of striking distance or are just hard to hit.
However, there are still plenty of characters who could use the extra protection, your tanks foremost, but also your melee hitters. The Behemoth is a fantastic source of armor, but its drawback of less movement, while not a dealbreaker, should still be something to factor into your strategy.
The smaller movement means that without something to compensate, your already-slow tanks will be moving at glacial pace, but characters like Ingrid who have naturally high movement stats and the ability to get extra moves get a huge defensive boost for a inconsquential drawback.
4The Avenger
More HP means your Agent can take more of a beating without going down, simple as that. For that reason alone, The Avenger is already a pretty good card on almost any Agent. However, the ability to ping anyone targeting the bearer with the Marked is a pretty sweet bonus.
Keep in mind that this revenge effect goes off whether the bearer actually takes the hit or not, as long as they’re targeted. Marked units are more likely to take a critical hit, which means enemies are more likely to severe or even lethal damage when you decide to strike back.
3The Great Wind
Though you’ll need some preparation, The Great Wind is quite worth it when you get it to pop off. This card gives you a speed boost, when you’re Inspired, allowing you to position pretty much freely while it’s up.
However, its second ability is what makes it great. While Inspired, your attacks have a chance to grant you an Action Point, allowing you to act again. Taken together, you’re able to zip around the map, dealing damage on any angle.
This card works great on both melee units and gunfighters, since the former is naturally zippy and gets bonus distance to close in on melee attacks, while the latter can use the effect of The Comet to Inspire themselves on a reload.
The Comet, The Strategist, and The Great Wind combination on any character with a gun can make them into a terror when they take the reload action, since it gives them more damage, a higher crit chance, more accuracy, and the possibility of taking more actions. Just make sure you have the AP to fire your gun (ideally more than just one) after reloading.
2The Herald
Inspired is a deceptively powerful buff. While an X percent buff to (hit/crit chance) might not seem like a lot, it can often mean the difference between a damaged enemy and a dead one, or one that you hit at all. On top of that, being Inspired also interacts with some Undrawn Hand effects.
So the fact that The Herald allows your non-Ana Sofia Agents to grant Inspired to your whole team is already pretty nice, but that you get to do it on a free action, that’s something special.
1The Conjunction
In a game where you get three units (sometimes four), versus a whole lot of enemies, you need to make every action count and The Conjunction does this in spades.
This card has a high chance to refund AP when you cast a buff or use a buff item, and if you cast these on a teammate, they also have a (smaller) chance to also gain AP.
If you use buffs that affect the whole, you’ll end up with more actions than you started with in addition to an empowered team. This card is especially effective in Ana Sofia’s hands, since her Bless ability gives her teammates Inspired, which has a potential of a four AP gain, which is a lot of opportunities to bash some Banished Court skulls.
