History YMMV / ResArcana

** The Hypnotic Basin and the Treant rely on their powers that "leech" of of an opponent's supply of respectively Elan or Death to make a profit. If no one is using those essence types (and you can't get much value out of Treant's creature tag), these cards are not great.
** The Sea Serpent and Wind Dragon are big, expensive AwesomeButImpractical dragons. This gives them the interesting property of being excellent discard fodder for the Sacrificial Dagger, which cares about a card's cost. (The Philosopher's Stone is also good discard fodder for the Dagger, but it's also a very good card in and of itself.)

** The Mermaid can be turned to put one of your Calm, Life or Gold essences on a Place of Power for a Victory Point. Unfortunately, it'll probably end up being discarded instead because the ability is so restrictive: six [=PoPs=] are completely incompatible with it because they don't use any of her associated essences, eight have dubious synergies that technically work, but probably aren't worth the trouble, and only two work relatively well with it.

** The Philosopher's Stone has similar issues of leading to samey strategies that are hard to beat -- in this case, you just make a bunch of one essence, convert it into gold with the Stone, and buy up a ton of monuments for a ton of points. This strategy was nerfed in ''Lux et Tenebrae'', which (among other things) made it easier for opponents to buy up enough monuments to keep you from winning through those alone.

** A common complaint about the game is that the Dragons are underwhelming. While they're useful as combo pieces, they're almost never worth playing on their own -- their attacks are too easy to defend against (especially for the comparatively cheap dragons), and they're too expensive for what you get. This impression is exacerbated by how people ''expect'' dragons to be a real threat.

. Five of the [=PoPs=] are completely incompatible with her, dubiously compatible (all)

* LowTierLetdown: Windup Man is considered almost completely useless in the base game, as it's just too slow to pay off in games with experienced players. The expansions make it somewhat more usable, however.

** In the base game, Windup Man is considered near useless because it ties up a lot of resources and is almost always too slow to provide any real benefit, even if you play it in round 1. As a result, it's almost always discard fodder outside of beginner games (which are slow enough that using it can work out) and those rare games where (1) you're sure it'll go to 5 rounds (which makes it more likely to pay off), (2) you have a use for the few essences you have left after paying Windup Man's cost and putting an essence of it, and (3) you have no better options.

** Pearls can be converted as OutOfTurnInteraction... but with the unintuitive restriction that you can only do it when using a React power or responding to a React power condition (such as being attacked by a Dragon). This means that only some attacks let you convert Pearls to essences (the one you need for a Dragon's ignore clause or just Life) right before the attack to limit the damage.
* TierInducedScrappy:
** High tier:
*** Among the Places of Power, the Dragon's Lair and the Catacombs of the Dead both draw a lot of ire because they can be tapped for points every turn, allowing their user to largely or entirely ignore artifacts. These strategies are samey and hard to beat. Both are particularly annoying if combined with the Witch, whose ability can untap them for even more points.
*** The Philosopher's Stone has similar issues of leading to samey strategies that are hard to beat -- in this case, you just make a bunch of one essence, convert it into gold with the Stone, and buy up a ton of monuments for a ton of points. This strategy was nerfed in ''Lux et Tenebrae'', which (among other things) made it easier for opponents to buy up enough monuments to keep you from winning through those alone.
** Low tier: Windup Man is considered useless in the base game, as it's just too slow to pay off in games with experienced players. The expansions make it somewhat more usable, however.

** The Sea Serpent and Wing Dragon are big, expensive AwesomeButImpractical dragons. This gives them the interesting property of being excellent discard fodder for the Sacrificial Dagger, which cares about a card's cost.

** In the base game, Windup Man is considered useless because it ties up a lot of resources and is just too slow to provide any real benefit, even if you play it in round 1. As a result, it's almost always discard fodder outside of beginner games (which are slow enough that using it can work out).

** In the base game, Windup Man is considered useless because it's just too slow to provide any benefit, even if you play it in round 1. As a result, it's almost always discard fodder outside of beginner games (which are slow enough that using it can work out).

** The Possessed Demon Slayer has two powers, both of which are useless if no opponent has any demons. At that point its only redeeming quality is that it has the Demon type, but even that's useless if you're not going for a Demon strategy. It ''is'' worth a Victory Point, but at an effective cost of ~6 essences, playing it for that is not worth it unless you have some spare essences and no other way to convert them, or you can use the Homunculus's discount to decrease the effective cost to a more reasonable ~4 essences.

*** The Philosopher's Stone has similar issues of leading to samey strategies that are hard to beat -- in this case, you just make a bunch of one essence, convert it into gold with the Stone, and buy up a ton of monuments for a ton of points. This strategy was nerfed in ''Lux et Tenebrae'', which (among other things) made it easier for opponents to buy up enough monuments to keep tou from winning through those alone.

** Low tier: Windup Main is considered useless in the base game, as it's just too slow to pay off in games with experienced players. The expansions make it somewhat more usable, however.

** Low tier: Windup Main is considered useless in the base game, as it's just to slow to pay off in games with experienced players. The expansions make it somewhat more usable, however.

** Pearls can be converted as OutOfTurnInteraction... but with the unintuitive restriction that you can only do it when using a React power or responding to a React power condition (such as being attacked by a Dragon). This means that only some attacks let you convert Pearls to essences (the one you need for a Dragon's ignore clause or just Life) right before the attack to limit the damage.

** The Possessed Demon Slayer. Both of its powers are situational, as they're useless if no opponent has any demons, and even if they do, it might still not be worth it. It ''is'' worth a Victory Point, but at an effective cost of ~6 essences, playing it for that is not worth it unless you have some spare essences and no other way to convert them, or you can use the Homunculus's discount to decrease the effective cost to a more reasonable ~4 essences.

** In the base game, Windup Man is considered useless because it's just too slow to provide any benefit, even if you play it in round 1. As a result, it's almost always discard fodder outside of beginner games (which are slow enough that it can work out).

** The [[https://www.ultraboardgames.com/res-arcana/gfx/lux5.jpg Illusion item]] can react as you use a power to turn and be treated as a demon, creature or dragon for that power only, with the last part of that not being clear from the card design. This has led to a lot of rules questions about how exactly it interacts with effects that care about these card types and when you're allowed to use it. Can you sacrifice it to the Sacrificial Pit?[[note]]No, it's a magic item and can't be destroyed.[[/note]] Can you turn it to get an extra Victory Point with the Dark Cathedral?[[note]]Yes, as you're using the Cathedral's react power.[[/note]] Can you straighten it with powers that straighten these specific card types?[[note]]No, as it has stopped being a creature/demon/dragon at that point.[[/note]] Last but not least, can you use it to gain extra points from Places of Power that count how many cards you have of a specific type?[[note]]This is where it gets messy. If you turn Illusion to use it as a Demon for the Dark Cathedral, it doesn't also count as a Demon for the Place of Power that counts your Demons. If you don't do anything like this, you can only turn it to get points from a Place of Power if you actively used a power while attempting to use Illusion, usually initiating a victory check.[[/note]]

** In the base game, Windup Man is considered useless because it's just too slow to provide any benefit, even if you play it in round 1. As a result, it's almost always discard fodder.

** The [[https://www.ultraboardgames.com/res-arcana/gfx/lux5.jpg Illusion item]] can react as you use a power to turn and be treated as a demon, creature or dragon for that power only, with the last part of that not being clear from the card design. This has led to a lot of rules questions about how exactly it interacts with effects that care about these card types and when you're allowed to use it. Can you sacrifice it to the Sacrificial Pit?[[note]]No, it's a magic item and can't be destroyed.[[/note]] Can you turn it to get an extra Victory Point with the Dark Cathedral?[[note]]Yes, as you're using the Cathedral's react power.[[/note]] Can you straighten it with powers that straighten these specific card types?[[note]]No, as it has sropped being a creature/demon/dragon at that point.[[/note]] Last but not least, can you use it to gain extra points from Places of Power that count how many cards you have of a specific type?[[note]]This is where it gets messy. If you turn Illusion to use it as a Demon for the Dark Cathedral, it doesn't also count as a Demon for the Place of Power that counts your Demons. If you don't do anything like this, you can only turn it to get points from a Place of Power if you actively used a power while attempting to use Illusion, usually initiating a victory check.[[/note]]
** Pearls can be converted as OutOfTurnInteraction... but with the unintuitive restriction that you can only do it when using a React power or responding to a React power condition (such as being attacked by a Dragon). This means that only some attacks let you convert Pearls to essences (the one you need for a Dragon's ignore clause or just Life) to limit the damage.

** The Dancing Sword's income ability is underwhelming, and its infinite protection is situational (especially at low player counts).