Man, this might be my favorite Mystic card. I expect it to get Taboo'd at some point, maybe with that replacement ruling reverted back to the original, because an essentially free 14 XP (because you always take two) is just too easy to take in this game. Even Agnes should consider it despite the anti synergy with her ability- her Mystic/Survivor card pool gives her decent access to horror soak, heal, and prevention (you can always try and infinitely recur St. Hubert's Key with Scavenging for example) which makes the 2 horror she starts with not too big of a problem. But let's check in now and see what spells we can upgrade to as of The Circle Undone wrapping up:

Blinding Light Blinding Light 2 for 0 XP

Clarity of Mind Clarity of Mind 3 for 1 XP

Deny Existence Deny Existence 5 for 3 XP

Mind Wipe 1 Mind Wipe 3 for 1 initial XP

Mists of R'lyeh Mists of R'lyeh 4 for 2 XP

Rite of Seeking Rite of Seeking 2 Rite of Seeking 4 for 0 XP

Scrying Scrying 3 for 1 XP

Shrivelling Shrivelling 3 Shrivelling 5 for 1 XP

Sixth Sense Sixth Sense 4 for 2 XP

Ward of Protection Ward of Protection 2 Ward of Protection 5 for 1 XP

Wither Wither 4 for 2 XP

Also in Return to Carcosa we're getting a lower level Suggestion, so look out for that Sefina Rousseau and Akachi Onyele.

So which of these upgrades do you shoot for? Remember that you only get the benefit on the first spell you buy, so a chain of three cards like Shrivelling to Shrivelling 5 is going to take 4 scenarios to reach if you want the full discount. In other words you'll get the benefit 7 times in a standard campaign (though side stories will help you out quite a bit). There's a few up there that stand out to me:

Obviously if you're going to be a fighty Mystic it's a good plan to move through the Shrivelling chain. However you might find you have XP to spare in which case it's probably better to spend the XP for the other upgrade sooner, making you more powerful more quickly (and increasing the liklihood of picking up enemy Victory points later). Instead, I recommend using AR's savings in other areas.

If your name is Diana Stanley or Agnes Baker then I strongly recommend Deny Existence 5. If you plan on running Diana with Dayana then I even more strongly-er recommend it.

Mists of R'lyeh upgrades into a big +3 bonus and an added charge. Particularly good for Jim who is just a bit lower in than anyone else, and also valuable for that one campaign we all know where evasion is super useful.

Ward of Protection 2 is usually considered superior to its overcosted counterpart upgrade Ward of Protection 5, so probably just go up the first step in this chain and then stop. This is especially true in higher count multiplayer, and especially extra super true for Diana in multiplayer. In solo with a less fight capable mystic you could eye 5 instead, or else skip the chain entirely.

Jim should probably always take Sixth Sense 4 since it becomes a very consistent multi clue gathering tool for him, assuming you're building him in the traditional manner of drawing more spooky tokens.

Funny gun and most certainly, bad.

The Colt Vest Pocket is native to a small and specific theme/archetype of who sneak assets into play quickly, it's a build based on the mechanics of cards like Joey "The Rat" Vigil, Sleight of Hand and Fence, I.E you play it quick and action free and deal the damage easily and efficiently.

A few other cards exist to support this, Fence can be used to play Pay Day, so that's a source of economy for the build. Narrow Escape can be used to play the gun when Fence or Joey "The Rat" Vigil are unavailable, certain characters might use it with either variant of "Eat lead!".

Many of the aforementioned cards, notable Joey "The Rat" Vigil, Fence, "Eat lead!" and arguably: Pay Day, are all rather shaky or outright BAD cards. Colt Vest Pocket is by no means the sort of gun that warrants doubling down on a variety of bad cards to try and make them all work properly.

If a character arises who can somehow play weapons the way Leo Anderson can play his allies, then Colt Vest Pocket will rise to recognition, otherwise it will remain on the bottom of the barrel, ready to be scraped up by folks who want to push the limits of deckbuilding.

Edit: After a little extra testing, I got to admit that a Finn Edwards deck with Sleight of Hand and Leo De Luca to get some actions stands a half-good chance to make this card shine. The free evade and extra action can give you space to safely get 3 shots from the gun, Sleight ups that to 4 shots. The card is still bad but it's passable for a 0-xp deck, they are, after all, not particularly powerful at level 0.

Something Worth Fighting For is a funky card. It's a relatively bad card, in that it highly inefficiently does just the one thing that loads of other cards do better. It negates a bit of horror at the cost of 3 resources, an action and a card. Compare this to, say, Beat Cop who gives you + or Art Student who picks up a clue or Dr. William T. Maleson who does 66% of Something Worth Fighting For's work at 33% of the cost AND has damage tank AND an ability.

In case its not obvious yet, the reason Something Worth Fighting For is still worth a card slot in rare few decks is this: All of those other cards are allies!!! Without access to Cherished Keepsake or Holy Rosary there's is a very real dearth of horror tank options that aren't allies and even those two are accessories, therefore occupying a different contested slot themselves (a problem that characters can attest to).

So, Something Worth Fighting For occupies the weird niche of preventing horror without filling any slots, more like a healing event (Logical Reasoning) than an asset. Certain characters will find Something Worth Fighting For occupying a key niche: Expand your horror tank without interfering with your allies.

Oh, there's also an ability text? Yeah you can just ignore that, you can bother to dig it up for the niche cases where a friend is literally 1 horror from death and you playing Something Worth Fighting For might help them reach the final clue or resignation location. 90% of the time, this is YOUR horror soak.

It's not a bad 1-off for dudes like Roland Banks or Mark Harrigan whose weaknesses cause horror, to be upgraded asap to "I've had worse…".

This thing is the big gun of doom. The big bang.

For Reference, the historically most powerful weapon in the game until the latter packs of Forgotten age was the Lightning Gun, it still remains on the short list of most powerful weapons in the game.

Compared to Lightning Gun Chicago Typewriter deals the same amount of damage, has one extra ammo and costs one less XP and Resource. The only disadvantage is the drastically lower attack bonus of +2 instead of +5, this is a big issue because most characters start from 4, so the combined attack is +9, a will land all of its's Lightning bolts straight up with no help from anything else. The usually starts from 3 and the +2 puts them at +5, an unimpressive number to say the least, the extra action pump can remedy that partially. Other sources of raw boosts are required to reach proper accuracy.

Some simple upsides to Chicago Typewriter:

• Deals 3 points of damage per shot, mediocre in some campaigns (Core, Dunwick) great elsewhere (Forgotten age). Abilities to bump that damage to 4 are important but they are somewhat hard to find, Vicious Blow and Beat Cop are options for some, others will cost you separate actions, for example Hatchet Man or Coup de Grâce.

• Contraband is a natural combo, so is Extra Ammunition. "Skids" O'Toole can use Well Prepared to get a +2 boost from Chicago Typewriter's 2 icons. If the damage tick from Coup de Grâce isnt helpful then you can use it's 2 to land hits.

• The Taboo lists shut this combo down, but if you dont care about that then Sleight of Hand + Chicago Typewriter is ridiculous.

"Skids" O'Toole can make full use of Chicago Typewriter, he's not the best character ever but if anybody has the cards for Chicago Typewriter, its him.

Jenny Barnes has the money to pay for it, she can emergency tech in some of those cards from to make the hits land. Jenny Barnes is probably the top character for utilizing the big gun right now. Until the next deluxe that is.

All in all, Chicago Typewriter is a great card, it's just in a weird spot where there aren't (good)characters around for whom it's a natural 1st priority upgrade. Thankfully this problem will be remedied in the Dreamlands deluxe where a 5 will be unleashed.

Superb card. Often enough you'dd play the 4-xp version to negate 2 horror and this version here does just that, for less XP! I wouldn't be hesitant to claim "I've had worse…" the better card of the two.

"I've had worse…" negates 2 points of pain and rewards you 2 resources for it, each of these effects is'nt by any means a powerful effect on its own, but the two combined effects are greater than the sum of their part. Cards are a precious resource and when cards arise that double dip roles those cards warrant special attention. Taking damage is a bit of an art-form, and characters gotta be good at it, this requires some soaks and weapons to mitigate and prevent incoming pain, "I've had worse…" does the former and helps you pay for the latter.

Most characters already give consideration to "I've had worse…", the 2xp variant is going to be hard not to justify.

Off class characters should also take note, Diana Stanley in particular loves the cancel trigger. "Skids" O'Toole has problems and "I've had worse…" can be a hugely helpful influx of cash and survivability for him. William Yorick does not care, at all. Joe Diamond likes it so/so, he has higher priorities but "I've had worse…" is not a terrible way for him to conserve deckspace.

"I've had worse…" is one of those rare cards that are near universally good, only niche characters who have overabundant survivability won't consider it.