This is the best card in the core set.

It has two main uses:

1) When hosting newbies or walking a fresh group through their first game of Night of the Zealot, keep an eye out for the player that zones in on this card, manipulates the dynamic so they're selected as lead investigator, and proceeds to gleefully burgle the crap out of every location. "B-b-bbBut isn't this your own home?" other players might observe, incredulously, as the bathroom twists and churns in and out of several realities and the toilet burps out a rat ghoul. "I said. I blrujgle." The player replies, arm outstretched, palm up and open for the chaos bag. That's the one you want in your long term gaming group. Keep them for life.

2) Inversely, it can be used as a litmus test for that one player who'll inevitably advise others against the very thought of including this POINTLESSLY INEFFICIENT, WHOLE DECK SLOT TAKING CARD INTO THEIR DECK WHEN LITERALLY JUST SPENDING THREE ACTIONS TO GAIN THREE RESOURCES IS EQUALLY AS VALID GIVEN THE AVERAGE AMOUNT OF TIMES ANYONE CAN EVEN PROC THIS THING IN A GIVEN SCENARIO AND LEAVES THE DECK SLOT OPEN FOR BASICALLY ANYTHING ELSE TO BOOT. DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO USE EXCEL VBA? That's the player you tell to go back to playing their meticulously charted mono blue decks in the commander groups that inwardly groan whenever they show up.

Invaluable I tell you.

Im not sure what the developers were thinking for this weakness.

For one, it's never going to be a dead draw. McGlen is always going to have a gun on the field.

For two, this card essentially reloads all guns on the field and puts them back in his deck. Simply keeping a gun in your hand and using the card "Sleight of Hand" makes this weakness a non issue. It actually even turns this into a buff.

McGlen somehow got two signature assets and no weaknesses.

Is this really a 2 xp for a single wild icon? I mean.. It does make a difference, but I feel that's a bit uninspired and maybe a bit expensive? There's probably a sheet somewhere telling me it's not expensive and I do feel there's definitely use for it, but it definitely feels a bit expensive.

Or am I missing something? I've been staring at the two cards side-by-side for a moment and I can't see anything else.

Rogues are known to be sketchy, but paying yourself?! I guess the potential weirdness of this card is limited by having to give the resources all at once, but as long as you have 5 (which is easily doable as one of the greens) this card is more and less flexible than Deny Existence at the same time:

• (-) You can only choose damage and/or horror.
• (-) You can only cancel 5.
• (+) You can mix damage and horror.
• (+) You can target other investigators.
• (+) You can target investigators at connecting locations.
• (+) Damage/horror can come from player card effects.

I've been thinking for a while that this card may be "the sleeper hit" of The Drowned City Expansion, so I gave it a try this weekend. I started a new campaign with Daisy (and not a high power-level Daisy: no Guiding Stones, no Empirical Hypothesis, etc.) playing with 1x Spectral Shield, 1x Eyes of the Dreamer, and eventually 2x Enraptured (which has other uses than putting chargers on Eyes of the Dreamer).

Based on my initial test in an off-class investigator, I'm overall really impressed with Spectral Shield. It's a combo card (although you could play it for a 1-cost fast on its own to prevent one damage/horror, I guess?), so if you're not using charges as your main engine then you'll need to find both Spectral Shield and something to fuel it.

Right out of the gate on Scenario 1, I started with 2 horror (In the Thick of It), failed an early treachery for 2 horror, and then drew my The Necronomicon weakness which is another 3 horror if I want to clear that. That's 7/9 horror right there. Yikes! My Guardian just randomly discarded Hallowed Mirror! Panic! I have a Logical Reasoning in my deck, but I need to find that... And then instead I found Eyes of the Dreamer + Spectral Shield, and... I'm pretty much fine? Now I don't have to worry about:

• Ward of Protection horror
• Horror from cycling my deck
• Swarming attacks, mostly (most Swarming is 1 damage or 1 horror each)
• "For each... choose..." effects where one of the options is 1 damage or 1 horror (because the "for each/every" rules for decisions is that each is its own effect)
• A 2 horror effect defeating me (now it takes two such effects)

There are so many effects that are trivialized when you get to prevent 9 damage/horror (maybe less, as I did use Eyes of the Dreamer now and then to not autofail a critical investigate with Deduction). (EDIT: Using is forced, not optional, so cannot combo with Deduction and the like. Thank you for the correction; the rest of the review still holds true for me.)

The main downsides of Spectral Shield are:

• You have to find 2 cards (normal combo tax)
• 4 resources is pricey early game for some decks
• You must spend the charge if you can, which can be annoying if (for example) your only charges are on tabooed Pendant of the Queen and you're at risk of removing it from the game
• This combo helps you "not lose" more than it helps you to win, if that makes sense

I'm very curious to play it in a Mystic with high-charge assets (Brand of Cthugha, Eyes of the Dreamer, etc.) rather than low-charge assets (Shrivelling, Rite of Seeking, etc.). I think that Spectral Shield could really open up a number of cards. Don't want to get damaged because of Alchemical Transmutation? Just spend one of its charges! Don't want to take horror from Shrivelling (3)? Just spend a charge from somewhere else! And so on. And with Eldritch Brand, you can start with a 9-charge spell from the outset, so the combo tax is further reduced.

I'm going to continue testing this card out to explore whether this card trivializes the encounter deck with all of the ways investigators can now replenish chargers: Uncage the Soul (3), Ghastly Possession, Enraptured (2), etc. Let me know what your experiences are!