Finally, a Weapon, I would put into a 's hands. I was never a fan of any version of Enchanted Blade, even for Diana, Akachi or Jim, who have 3 , because trading to fight with instead of is still not a great thing to do for them, and spending an arcane slot for it even more awful. (Of course, there are other tools like Sword Cane or in some decks maybe Spirit Athame for , but I wouldn't see their main use as a fighting weapon.) I think, the Cyclopean Hammer will shine exceptionally in the hands of Diana Stanley, who gets an awesome card for Well Prepared synergies to boot with it, which also makes it easier for her to over-succeed by 3 on the test on this card. A disadvantage, compared to Shrivelling or Azure Flame will be, that have to rely more on or pips. Overpower becomes a consideration for them, possibly also Vicious Blow for Diana. This needs extra deck space, compared to a build, where you only rely on . Also, if I understand the syntax of the card right, you will deal the extra damage from over-succeeding only to non-Elites as well, on par with Spectral Razor. (Another interpretation would be, that on over-succeeding Elites would go flying as well, but that would be really strange and sounds silly to me.)

That's not to say, won't like it. They all come with at least 3 , several of them have 4. Of course, in this class, it has to compete with Flamethrower, with it's unpaired amount of damage. Sister Mary likes her Holy Spear, but she could wield the Hammer as well, and it might even be as good and less clunky. On the plus side, the Hammer improves the value of cards like Brother Xavier, Bandolier (2) or Police Badge, because suddenly get another offensive stat, they can buff with these. A minor consideration, but much more important for than , are enemies like Poltergeist or Wraith, who can be squished with the hammer quite easily. But it's really minor, in particular Poltergeists are only to be seen twice in Carcosa, and the first time in the first scenario, when no can currently have a Cyclopean Hammer.

The card is of course expensive in XP and Resources. In particular for , who get an XP discount from Arcane Research on cards like Shrivelling, which cost (at most) 3 resources. But it has not the spill-over effects, we usually see on cards, and unlimited uses (except on a Conglomeration of Spheres), so I think, the card is not overpriced. Some people like to put Spectral Razor on Dayana Esperence, and that's twice the resources (unless you discount the spells with Robes) for 3 uses of a similar effect. (You don't need to over-succeed, you can engage enemies, but can't bounce off non-Elites.) I'm very much looking forward to the release of this box to try it out!

Oh boy... there are bad cards, there are laughably bad cards, there's Flute of the Outer Gods, then there's this absolute hunk of junk. My goodness, what a terrible waste. Let me point some things out...

You'll need dedicated support curse token bag manipulation to make this card even close to being viable. That is going to almost certainly mean help from a red character running the absolutely overpowered Spirit of Humanity. Nothing else is going to come close in multiplayer in keeping the chaos bag stocked full of tokens. Even so.... good luck ever getting 5 charges on this card purely from curse tokens that ONLY you can pull. You're lucky to pull 5 curse tokens in an entire mission with a chaos bag filled with 10 at most times. So even if you DO manage to get 5 charges on it, and you manage to ignore one single encounter card, what have you invested...

You've struggled through the untranslated grimoire, which is just a dead card in your deck.

You've spent a whopping 4 xp to purchase this card.

You've had to find this card early in the mission so that you have a prayer of getting 5 secrets.

You have a precious hand slot taken up for the entirety of the mission.

You make all this investment for a card, that if drawn in the last half or so of a mission, is completely dead. There's no point trying to play this card when you only have a few turns left. It's only viable if found and played early.

All that to ignore MAYBE.... and I say MAAAAAAYBE 1-2 encounter cards (and draw 2 cards).

My goodness. You can make it your life mission to manipulate secrets via Eldritch Sophist, Ariadne's Twine, Favor of the Moon, etc... but my god. You're devoting all this effort simply to cancel a couple encounter cards with a big fat maybe attached.

There's no comparison to say, A Watchful Peace. Absolutely none. Cheaper to play. Far easier to play. No silly untranslated hoop to jump through. No hand slot to take up, and simply 5 bless tokens from anywhere.

I've run a campaign with a dedicated support curse token, Spirit of Humanity Agnes Baker, keeping the bag full of curse tokens, and i proc'd this card precisely zero times. Give it a wide miss.

A simply taboo fix that is DESPERATELY needed is to proc the curse tokens from any investigator at your location.

Not a review but a question: does this work with Bless and Curse tokens?

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B R O K E N

You are playing The Forgotten Age, got 5 exp in first scenario. Then, you buy this card.

Hard mulligan to get it. When you got it, make the entrance The Locus. It means u have this efect until the end of scenario. When you will get the Relic, give it to other player, move him to entrance, win.

There is a lot of other scenarios that can work with it. Cassino with Peter Clover, Theater in Carcossa, and every scenario with resigning.

TL;DR: Included links for list of cards, and notable cards as of 9/6/2021 based on what is on the site. Lots of interesting tricks. Stargazing is the most surprisingly good use I've seen of this.

For those who are interested in a list of non-guardian Insights and Tactics that alternate Roland Banks can take and which are not already fast, here is a search. The list that includes Guardian cards is also helpful, but is much, much larger - here is a search.

There are a lot of cards that are impractical to use - often due to Roland's base stats not fitting well. I've done my best to list out any of particular note.

• Damaging
  • Act of Desperation is a tactic that can be useful as extra supplies if you have a build which churns through hand items.
  • Coup de Grâce is marginally easier to time correctly when it can be played during any fast window, and when it can be used outside your turn (Though it is still expensive in terms of cost).
  • Dynamite Blast can work, though it's expensive. You can also treat Dynamite Blast (2) as Dynamite Blast (3)!
  • Flare can be used in Stick to the Plan, and can do double duty as emergency damage or an ally search, if you're willing to pay the cost.
  • Improvised Weapon isn't great as an initial fight, though it looks a little better as a cheap, quick 2-damage fight that you can use from your discard. I think using it will likely require some very odd build (like, say, using the 5 bonus XP from alternate Roland to take Versatile for Short Supply or Forced Learning (TBA) during deck creation.
  • One-Two Punch can be a solid double attack in larger player counts, but will be much iffier when using Directive (Due Diligance).
  • Sneak Attack is tricky to use, but not impossible with Directive (Due Diligence) or Sweeping Kick.
  • Sneak Attack (2), however, can be much more flexible, especially in larger games.
  • Sweeping Kick gets extra points for being a good tactic for Stick to the Plan should you need it, combined with being both emergency damage and an evade that's likely to succeed. It's not perfect due to Roland's low , but still can be used to avoid something big for a bit of time.
  • Toe to Toe is great if you have the soak for it - two guaranteed damage for free is amazing, and the right combinations can help mitigate the downside, as long as you're careful about who you use it with.
• Clueing (Keep these in mind, especially when using Directive (Seek the Truth) - that tends to come up more in larger player games, but you might find a few opportunities to squeeze a card out here or there.
  • Burning the Midnight Oil is a weaker attempt, but also can be used as a fast resource gain.
  • Drawn to the Flame can be a bit risky to use, but it remains one very strong cluing option - and works well on a character who might need to immediately deal with the enemy that pops out.
  • Eavesdrop is a very situational attempt, but if you're dealing with a lot of enemies with low evade values, this might squeeze a couple of extra clues out.
  • Extensive Research and Extensive Research (1) can work, but you're unlikely to have the hand sizes to support it outside of some fairly specific situations.
  • Fortuitous Discovery is an odd one to use and you won't have Survivor discard support, but also allows for a cheap attempt with potentially large rewards.
  • On the Trail is a good hybrid of movement and clue gathering, as long as you're in the right place for it - which may be difficult if you're using Directive (Leave No Doubt).
  • Scene of the Crime can turn into a quick variation of Working a Hunch, as long as you watch your location.
  • Seeking Answers and Seeking Answers (2) still have the downside of a check, but can potentially grab you more items from nearby areas for relatively low costs.
  • Stirring Up Trouble is still a very powerful source of clues when used with curse counts in mind - having it fast only makes it better.
  • Winging It is another potentially small bump that likely requires focused deck construction - make sure you're thinking carefully when using it!
• Other
  • Cryptic Writings and Cryptic Writings (2) can do double-duty for resource gain, both when drawn and when played quickly for the resources.
  • Deep Knowledge, Preposterous Sketches, Preposterous Sketches (2), and No Stone Unturned are all reasonable card draw options that can normally be a bit slow to use.
  • Similarly, Prepared for the Worst might not seem quite so iffy if it's fast - though be sure you have the spare card play for the weapon.
  • Delve Too Deep can be dangerous, but can also be a good source of XP. Is having it as a fast action any better? Probably not, since it's often saved for the end of the game. Still, who knows!
  • Glimpse the Unthinkable is another potentially useful draw/mulligan tool when it doesn't take your action.
  • Guidance likely seems a lot better when it only costs you a card to give someone else an action.
  • Impromptu Barrier is more awkward than the offensive equivalent, but still can give you some bonus evade or mass evade should you need it - often made more practical if you also have Directive (Due Diligence).
  • Join the Caravan, Scout Ahead, and The Truth Beckons are all various options for movement, but remember that movement can be restricted when using Directive (Leave No Doubt) - and that's often one that Roland will want to take. If you really want extra movement, you might consider sticking to good old Shortcut or Safeguard.
  • Logical Reasoning can be used as a quick heal, or to handle terrors if there wasn't quite enough Willpower to a check.
  • Righteous Hunt is another movement option that can add a few blessings in to the deck, though that is more for the normal deck-building rules - without access to Holy Spear, there isn't nearly as much payoff.
  • Stargazing is probably the most amusing card to use in conjunction with the effect. More than any other card I've tried to use, it's a very flexible one - as long as the Encounter deck isn't close to empty, you can add it in at any point, effectively exchanging the card to give someone that card, action, resource, and skip of the encounter draw.

There's definitely a lot here to process, so think carefully about which packages you want to include - it can be hard to balance the amount of combat and clue gathering correctly, but good use of your fast plays can sneak in a lot of extra actions and avoid tests altogether.

Just remember, if you're trying to get access to the whole suite of these cards, Roland's combat power will suffer - loss of access to the 5 XP Guardian weapons hurts a lot. It's not impossible to fight - Enchanted Blade (Guardian), Survival Knife (2), Timeworn Brand, and Enchant Weapon can make reasonable weapons, Beat Cop (2) and Guard Dog can still help deal some extra damage, Alice Luxley can help pivot towards a slight Investigation focus, and you have more events to try to squeeze out some damage through action compression. However, that choice will mean that Roland's offense tends to suffer in exchange for a few interesting tricks and some extra early XP - and if you're using Directive (Due Diligance), you will almost certainly be playing a more flexible role than a primary fighter.

(My money's still on Stargazing being the most surprisingly useful purchase, though.)