Storm of Spirits

This is a very strong spell for mystics in multiplayer games and the more people you are playing with, the stronger it becomes. It is similar to Dynamite Blast except that it only deals 2 damage and requires you to succeed at a Fight test, though you can choose the weakest enemy at your location to fight. Those drawbacks are balanced out by the fact that it costs 2 less resources and is in a class that is substantially more likely to have spare resources to play it. Additionally, it synergizes with other popular mystic cards such as Arcane Initiate and Uncage the Soul. Finally, and possibly most importantly, it is much easier to arrange multiple enemies at a location that contains investigators than an empty one where Dynamite won't hurt your fellow players.

Storm of Spirits is especially good in Sefina Rousseau decks, where it is possible to play Storm of Spirits two, or even three times in a single turn, clearing a location of even tough enemies. And for the truly bold, it can be combined with Double or Nothing though I haven't personally tried this combo yet.

menionleah · 79
Note that playing Uncage the Soul to pay for Storm of Spirits would trigger an Attack of Opportunity from each ready enemy engaged with you. 0-level Uncage the Soul isn't as useful as it may seem. (See my review of it.) Though, if an experienced version with Fast gets released down the road... — Herumen · 1741
Storm of Spirits + Double or Nothing is fantastic. Highly recommended. — Katsue · 10
Although Sefina would need to be built to take the potential damage..... — TheDoc37 · 468
Guard Dog

Guard dog is most effective at taking out weak enemies with 1-2 health that deal 1 damage. This allows it to maximize its (guaranteed damage) triggered ability and save a few actions.

Take this example in a Roland deck:

  1. Weak enemy (1HP) engages Roland in a location with clues.
  2. Roland has guard dog in play, and decides to draw a card (or just walk around like a boss).
  3. This triggers an attack of opportunity (AoO), and damage is assigned to guard dog.
  4. Guard dog triggers and the enemy is defeated.
  5. Roland's ability triggers, and you discover a clue.

Effectively, you've killed an enemy and discovered a clue while using an action doing something else entirely.

Clarifications

-Timing structure (for the above example): trigger action is declared (i.e. move) -> AoO triggers -> damage is assigned (not dealt) to guard dog, triggering its ability -> enemy is defeated -> Roland ability triggers > damage is dealt to guard dog -> trigger action is resolved (move).

-If guard dog has 1HP remaining, it can be assigned both lethal damage and horror (1 damage + 1 horror) from an attack.

firze · 74
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the card reads "When an enemy attack DEALS damage", so the trigger occurs after damage is dealt to the guard dog and not before. — FractalMind · 44
@FractalMind, The triggering condition of "damage is dealt" does happen as @firze shows it, but because the Guard Dog's ability is a "When" clause, it happens before the direct effects of the damage are resolved — CSerpent · 126
I'm confused with the FAQ statement. If Guard Dog is dealt only horor which is lethal, will its ability trigger? — Catv5 · 1
@Catv5 Guard dog being dealt Horror is irrelevant to whether or not it’s ability triggers. Likewise an attack being lethal is irrelevant. The ability triggers on ‘when’ which is before the results of the trigger resolve. So after the dog’s ability happens, yeah the attack could kill it. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
I wish FFG would release an errata, or a reprint that had the wording " When an enemy attack would ASSIGN DAMAGE to guard dog..." In my mind this would fix the majority of issues people have understanding the timing/rules of this card. Hinging on the flimsy "When" vs "After" rules just seen more like laziness on the part of whoever wrote the rules for the cards. The "When" rules are contradictory to the simple English being used of "attack deals damage"(past tense). After years of playing MTG, I've come to appreciate very specific wording and punctuation to communicate exactly what a card will do. — Atrael · 1
Charisma

One of the single best upgrades you can buy for your deck. The ally slot is arguably the strongest slot available to investigators and being able to have two or even three allies out at the same time will dramatically change how you build decks.

There are allies so good that building decks that don't play them is unthinkable if those allies are available, such as Leo De Luca for Rogues or Dr. Milan Christopher for Seekers. Playing Charisma allows you to look at the other allies available to these investigators and consider including them as well.

Even better though is the health and sanity buffer that your allies provide you with. Having three allies out at the same time makes you virtually unkillable to any non-direct damage/horror. I would always consider getting Charisma and playing an extra ally before picking up something like Bulletproof Vest or Elder Sign Amulet if you are worried about trauma.

menionleah · 79
In addition to horror/damage soak, almost every ally gives you some supplemental passive ability or ability boost. For the vast majority of scenarios, that will always outweigh the additional +2 horror or damage soak that the 4 capacity vest/amulet provide. — AdamMal4444 · 12
Calling in Favors

Very strong card...in very specific decks. You are only going to want to include this in your deck if you have either A.) A really strong ally that you want to get as early as possible AKA Leo De Luca or B.) You have disposable allies that you play for a one time effect such as Research Librarian. The strongest disposable ally is The Red-Gloved Man , which you could play to either grab two clues, or fight an enemy twice, and then play Calling in Favors to pick him back up to play again later while replacing him with another ally from your deck.

The problem with this card is that you are really going to want to play at least 5-6 allies in your deck, as you need to have one out first to play it, and then enough left in your deck to have good odds of finding one in the top 9 cards. Some investigators just aren't going to want to play 6 allies in their deck due to which ones are available to them, and the resource costs of those allies. Plus, you'll have to get at least one copy of Charisma to avoid being stuck with allies you can't play in your hand.

On top of that, you are going to run into situations where Calling in Favors is a dead draw, such as when you haven't got an ally out yet, or when you already have your best allies out and don't want to replace them. I'd probably only play a single copy of Calling in Favors most of the time, unless you are trying to abuse The Red-Gloved Man.

menionleah · 79
I would totally agree with menionleah. The only investigator that can utilize this card is Lola Hayes with a spesific ally deck-build. Her low sanity and health makes you either buff her with accesories or protect her with allies. Charisma is essential in this deck otherwise it wont work. — Uncle George the Farmer · 49045
Or Skids. Beat up Beat cop? Swap him with Brother Xavier. Or Leo. Or fail to find... and still pick up your ally to play them fully healed. Or trigger entering play effects. — CecilAlucardX · 10
Ok, but I don't understand one scenario: when I search the first 9 cards of my deck I might not find any ally, in this case can I play the ally I have in my hand? Because in this way I practically have the possibility of healing my ally. — Dancar · 1
Suggestion

It's a bit hard to write a review on a card that's not printed yet. Bittersweet exercice : it does not settle my desire to test it, and what's more, I can be victim of my own hype of the card.

This card has two effects, which consumes charges (or not). Let's start with the 1st one. You add your agility to your willpower for an escape. If you don't succeed by at least 2, you remove one charge from that spell. It's a sort of boost for escaping. The second effect triggers when you are attacked : you remove 1 charge from the spell and cancel the attack. If you only consume charges that way, it means it can cancel up to 3 attacks.

I am a only playing Mystics and Rogues so far, and I can see a truly amazing potential for Akachi Onyele (see my quick review/thinking on Akachi) and Sefina Rousseau (full review of Sefina). For both of them, Suggestion gives a basic 8 in escape. It works the same as lockpicks and thus I expect to not use too many charges on suggestion, so I can use its 2nd effect to the fullest. Both of them have troubles when it comes to staying power. Akachi can only rely on a few spells like Shrivelling and will have to fight (while being bad at escaping) and Sefina will mostly use event like Backstab to burst or run from mobs. Sooner or later, all spells or events will be fully used, but Suggestion, which is more or less everlasting, offers an alternative that can be useful to prevent wasting precious charges / events, at a low cost.

Palefang · 72
Am I reading this right? The first ability functions even when there are no charges remaining? — tbigfish88 · 13
Having just gone through The Dunwich Legacy with Akachi, I can say that this card will be wondeful for her. — Panzerbjrn · 19
Tbigfish88 I would read it that way as well, in contrary to lockpick which is mechanically similar but gets discarded at 0 charges. But that looks unintended — dyos · 7
I believe it is written as intended. Once a turn, you get an awesome evade, always. You also can cancel attacks, but that's limited by charges, which may be lost by the first ability. — CSerpent · 126
Yes, most spells ar — Blackgreywhite · 1
Yes, most spell assets aren’t discarded when out of charges, plus the Exhaust action doesn’t say ‘spend 1 charge’ like Firearm cards do. So the infinite Evade boost looks intended. — Blackgreywhite · 1
Infinity booted evade makes this card really damn good! — Euruzilys · 14
But then if you fail with no charges what happens? I think the ability is dead with no charge — infra_dat · 1
Only the reaction ability does not work once this is out of charges, and it is entirely intentional. If you look at the level 1 version of Suggestion you'll see that it — much like the level 1 version of Lockpicks — has the text "If <the card> has no charges, discard it". There is no charge cost to initiate the first triggered action ability on the card, so you may continue to do so forever. 4XP nets you 3 cancelled attacks and permanent evade-o-rama. — BlankedyBlank · 23