In bad fantasy movies, there’s a powerful demon that gets sealed for thousands of years. Then on page 3 it gets loose. Bind monster doesn’t have that problem, if you use it right. Because there a certain reasons you keep monsters in play instead of sending them to the encounter discard pile.

In four player, you’re going to cycle the encounter deck a few times. That means monsters recur, and ones that have an obnoxious spawn or engage can bother you over and over. If you have a hunch that the encounter discard is going to be shuffled back into the deck, you might not want to kill an enemy this turn, but you don’t want to take a hit.

Relatedly, you might have scenario effects that empower the nearest enemy. In threads of fate, having a cultist with one HP in your location vs having to spawn one across the board could make a full turn a wasted effort, or create unpreventable doom chain, ending this scenario.

Third, some investigators like having an evaded enemy. Trish can get a bonus clue every turn that you keep this card active. The .25 Automatic is a fun combo, or Sneak Attack.

It has some advantages compared to handcuffs: it can target non-humanoids and doesn’t require a set up action to put it into play. But the cuffs are permanent once applied, and are level 0.

Double or nothing is now nothing. As the first forbidden card, the creators acknowledged that all the times you might want to use this it either blows up in your face or succeed so well it wrecks the scenario. Instead of designing around it for the rest of time, they’re telling you not to use it.

Which is fine; since core has come out, rogues have many, many ways to gamble. But the day is destroying a campaign and boss with one shotgun blast may be over. You might have to, tragedy of tragedies, use both barrels and even a spell!

I think this card is slightly outclassed by most of the other cards that do something similar: Sixth Sense, Clairvoyance, and now my new favorite Eye of Chaos. There are two exceptions though: characters that want access to RoS (2), like Sefina who can't take higher level mystic cards but really benefits from the extra willpower; and Mystics playing with exactly 3 players, where RoS (4) becomes a thundering powerhouse card. Clairvoyance 5 is similarly powerful for 3 players, but I actually feel like the 2 horror starts to become just too painful especially if you're recharging your charges.

The special token consequence is a little awkward, though you can play around it cleverly sometimes.

In 1924, MGM was founded with the slogan “ars gratia artis.” (By 1932, it also had the slogan “more stars than there are in the heavens”). The signature card of Rousseau is the opposite: art that can stand for anything.

The painted world is an intriguing card because unlike most signatures, it gets directly more powerful with every release. It doesn’t have to combo with anything because it becomes Rogue, Mystic or neutral events.

It also allows ridiculousness, like playing “ You owe me one” four to nine different times and building a deck entirely out of other peoples' stuff. (One time from your deck, three times from underneath Sefina, one time when you draw it from underneath, and then Quantum Flux so you can get both back, twice.) And it allows you to become the second richest character, edging out Preston with repeats of Faustian bargain and hot streak.

The trade-off is that you’re building a larger deck with Sefina, so you’ll need to find a way to your paintings out. Arcane initiate is a good one, and can be Sacrificed to get more cards. That’s gratitude in the art world.

But the belle of the ball might be double double. It’s what separates the painter from all the other level five capable mystics. Unfortunately, it cost 8XP, four bucks, takes an arcane slot, and you only get one of them in your deck because it’s exceptional. It’s worth it. With it, your sneak attacks do two damage, twice. Your contraband can quadruple an ally’s ammo or supplies. (Infinite chainsaws become a possibility.) Gain $14 with one action and hot streak...Up to six times, assuming you use your painted world only for that combo.

With ridiculous amounts of money, anything is possible. Have an ally give you Charles Ross and fund the team’s Everything. (Although frankly this is easier to do with Jenny Barnes; She can take him as part of her five wildcards.) Run Lola and get a clue a turn for the rest of the game, Or crush foes with Delilah O’Rourke.

Double storm of souls to clear out rooms, even ridiculously crowded ones. But even before that, there’s a lot of fun to be had with the painted world. It gives you a tremendous amount of flexibility, between evasion, economy, attacks, team actions, or dealing with the encounter deck.

Ars longa, vita brevis.

Having tested this card, it’s nice but not as game-breaking as initially thought. The three cost, the exhaust, and the fact you constantly have to be broke mean that you’re going to not be adding much to your tableau every turn. And it’s a hand slot, which means you can’t have two magnifying glass out with it.

For Minh, this serves as a fun piece of clue acceleration before you get the big-ticket seeker items. And combos well with deduction in larger player games: Theoretically, you can combine this with practice makes perfect to add a deduction, get three clues, and keep the deduction.

This is probably more useful for people with Survivor splash: Stella, Yorick, Calvin, Rita and Ashcan don’t have tons of Direct clue finding power. Wendy’s only slightly better, and she probably wants lockpicks instead.

Preston will have fun here, as well as anyone who can scheme to get this in the hands of a five lore seeker. (Joe diamond can request it with teamwork.) And if you’re sailing as a team, anyone can enjoy this at a skeleton key location.