Take the Initiative

Take the Initiative

If two guardians show up to the party, one of them will probably have to change.

This card is an auto-include, probably over unexpected courage. If you play it for encounter card protection, you will be pretty resilient against treacheries.

Also, you are probably going first to nab bad guys or defeat enemies for allies.

AND even if you don't use it on a first action in a turn, you can use it on the second for an unexpected courage.

HOWEVER if you are in a two+ guardian party, someone probably will need to change this card out for something.

The possibilities of running this card next to Inquiring Mind, mean some investigators will have high quality skill cards.

Myriad · 1236

Arcane Research

Arcane Research

A fantastic card that'll help propel Mystics up the spell upgrade tree. Spells are expensive, and even though there's just a handful of targets as of the writing of this review, what is available is quite expensive!

All the better if you're playing with Carolyn Fern in your group of Investigators, as she can turn that pain into profit.

Darthcaboose · 286

Stunning Blow

Stunning Blow

Hey, why don't we have a pipe or a pipe wrench as a weapon?

It MIGHT be worth taking this in Yorrick. Throwing a punch to dodge a boss for a round and finish them off later can be really good.

It also lets you fight an enemy engaged with an ally so that they can be evaded.

But lets be realistic, it isn't really doing a ton for you right this second.

Some people bring up the Waylay combo, but I don't see it right now. If you are waylaying them after you need high evade as well as high fight.

Not hot on this one right now due to its really narrow application as a way to tie up a boss or threat for a round. Hopefully it plays well with the inevitable pipe or pipe wrench weapon for theme.

Myriad · 1236
It has also a decent synergy with Sneak Attack - stun that badass with wrench and finish the job with garrote. — KptMarchewa · 1
Yup! It does. I had not considered that as I think only Jenny or a weird Pete deck would bother at the moment (since Wendy is pretty bad at that combo). Even for them it is kind of a stretch. — Myriad · 1236
I think of it as evading with Combat. But that means Yorick or Zoey (and maybe Duke), both of whom would probably rather defeat the thing anyway, unless they're trying to avoid Vengeance. — CSerpent · 132
A fire axe Minh could play it alright. Either to shore up her abilities or to buff a fighters attack and buy a round. — Myriad · 1236
Having just played The House Always Wins, I can see it as an economical way to deal with the Conglomeration of Spheres for a while.. — Katsue · 10
Silas Marsh has both strength 4 and agility 4, and can pull back the Stunning Blow if the fight will fail, so he has pretty good synergy with the Waylay combo. At least its something to do for him that doesn't involve Dark Horse for a change. — The_Wall · 293
I believe you are missing the value of this card. It basically lets you evade with your attack stat while still doing damage. That is extremely useful. — Tilted Libra · 40

Perseverance

Perseverance

Hang in there Calvin! Help is on the way!

I love playing Calvin, but lets face it... it can be really hard to cling to life by the end game in some scenarios. Adding this to his toolkit helps him out immensely.

I think Wendy can also find some use for this as her weakness can sometimes hit her hard out of nowhere.

Ashcan Pete can like it, but usually is okay without it, like Yorrick.

Agnes likes it for when she is on the ropes.

and the upcoming Sylas Marsh really likes it due to his low sanity score.

Really the only bad thing I can say about the card is that it doesn't play well with Dark Horse due to its 2 resource cost.

But it is worth an include in many decks until you can upgrade into devil's luck.

Myriad · 1236
Also worth pointing out that, like Logical Reasoning, this has two willpower icons so it can take the place of Guts if you don't necessarily need the card draw. — The_Wall · 293
Silas also has Fearless (and Fearless-2) to protect him. Combined with teddy bears, this is less of a cert for him, though it is also good with Yoatl — duke_loves_biscuits · 1333
Is it up to 4 of each or total? — dominicjtriana · 1
I'm thinking total. — crymoricus · 252
And/or means you could take 4 damage and 4 horror and shrug it off. — Myriad · 1236
I have 3 HP and an asset that can soak 2 damages. If i'm taking 3 damages can I trigger this card effect ? — Baker · 6
If you assign all 3 damage to yourself you can use the card to cancel all of that damage on you. You could assign some to your soaks and then cancel just the remainder put on you, but there'd be no good reason to do that outside of something like Brother Xavier. If I understand the card right you could even take 4 damage, assign it all to you, cancel it all with Perseverance, and be left with 3HP and your soaks untouched. — StyxTBeuford · 13114
@Myriad. I know this reply is a year off, but here it goes: — goblinerd · 1
sorry for double post. I don't believe that's true. And/or simply implies any combination there of. The card says up to 4, so it means you can cancel any combination of damage/horror up to a total of four. — goblinerd · 1
It can still work with Dark Horse. You just need Madame Labranche too. You can have the two resources needed during the mythos phase, while still taking your turn broke. — Tilted Libra · 40

Counterspell

Counterspell

The card has an elder sign on it, so that makes it good right?

Counterspell is in the same vein as cards like Time Warp and Defiance. These cards allow Mystics to play some really difficult pulls, even with their backs to the wall and still blow out tests.

To me, this means it works best when combined with high stakes cards like Shriveling level 5, Rite of Seeking level 4 and Double or Nothing. it also works great with Dark Prophecy.

But the best part is, you can use this on other people too. So if your friend is packing a shotgun, you can suddenly open up power plays with ease so long as you both are in the same spot.

With the upcoming additional token bag pull cards like Olive, this card will also gain stock.

I expect it to be great moving forward.

Myriad · 1236