“I can’t stop now. Not when I’m so close to the truth.”

Joe Diamond has more experience with supernatural nonsense than most. He has developed a keen intuition and a knack for getting to the bottom of even the most uncanny occurrences, helped in no small part by his willingness to get his hands dirty. But in recent weeks, even Joe has been hard-pressed to stay on top of his work. His desk is flooded with photos of grisly murders and reports of disappearances: people from all walks of life vanishing without a trace. Joe isn’t sure how each of these events is connected, but he’s not about to let the case go cold.

Back in October, we revealed the new core set for Arkham Horror: The Card Game, which heralds the beginning of an era we’re referring to as “Chapter Two.” With that new core set comes a new set of five core investigators, and one of those five is Joe Diamond (Core Set, 4)!

Returning to the scene as the new core’s Seeker investigator, Joe puts his extensive experience as a private eye to use in solving mysteries and hunting down clues. While the original version of Joe had a secondary “hunch deck” that represented his keen insights, this more seasoned version of Joe focuses on straightforward investigating and drawing lots of cards. Both of the inherent abilities on his investigator card give you an extra draw when they trigger, ensuring that you always have the tools you need to keep the investigation going.

One such tool is Joe’s signature event card, Detective’s Intuition (Core Set, 5). If you manage to draw this versatile card during your turn—such as through the use of Joe’s inherent abilities—then you can draw two additional cards on top of it, giving you even more assets and events to work with. The rest of Detective’s Intuition is also nothing to sneeze at, with three handy skill icons and the ability to grant some extra resources on top of a bit of healing.

Joe’s intuition isn’t the only source of extra cards in his kit. His pre-built deck comes with some other handy ways of netting you some additional draws, such as the ever-useful Laboratory Assistant (Core Set, 32), who not only draws you two cards when you play her, but also increases your hand size by 2 (which certainly helps with all the extra cards you’re drawing). There’s also the new event card Gather Intel (Core Set, 36), which can be played in response to an enemy approaching and potentially nab you the perfect tool to deal with it…or not deal with it, if you’d rather just slip Through the Cracks (Core Set, 37) and avoid the monster altogether.

Of course, as a Seeker, Joe’s primary role in the game is investigating locations and discovering clues. Classic cards like the Magnifying Glass (Core Set, 34) and new cards like the Local Map (Core Set, 33) are useful staples in any Seeker’s deck, and they’re especially handy with Joe thanks to his ability to draw a card after he successfully investigates. To get even more bang for your investigating buck, call on Dorothy Simmons (Core Set, 30) for a boost to your intellect and a potential bonus resource after a successful investigation. You can then use that resource to pay for the ability on Sharp Rhetoric (Core Set, 35), giving you an impressive boost to your next investigation, and if you use a Fingerprint Kit (Core Set, 31) in tandem with a bit of Deduction (Core Set, 39), that next investigation could net you a whopping three clues at once! Finally, when you run out of actions, you can rely on Working a Hunch (Core Set, 38) to squeeze one more clue out of your turn before it ends.

By now, you have a good grasp of the Seeker cards in Joe’s pre-built deck. However, longtime fans of Arkham Horror: The Card Game may recall that the previous version of Joe Diamond could also include Guardian cards in his deck. While we don’t have any Guardian cards to show you today, rest assured that this new Joe can still splash some of that class in his deck—he is a hardboiled detective, after all!

Of course, no detective is without their flaws, and Joe Diamond is no exception. For every strength, there must be a weakness, and Joe’s signature weakness is Dead Ends (Core Set, 6), a blunder that can easily come up during a game thanks to Joe’s excessive amount of card draw. While hitting a dead end may not harm you in the short term, where it really hurts is when the scenario concludes, since you’ll find yourself with 2 less experience if the card is still in your hand. Having to dedicate resources to solve Dead Ends can be a real pain, especially when there are more pressing (and dangerous) matters to attend to, but if Joe wants to continue to grow as a private eye, this is one challenge he’ll have to overcome.

Seeking the Truth

With his ability to draw lots of extra cards and his determination to solve the unsolvable, Joe Diamond is a terrific example of what the Seeker class has to offer in Chapter Two of Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

Look forward to our previews of the Survivor class in the coming weeks!

Written by Peter Schumacher