Did they forget to make this fast? It might have been worth considering if it was. As it stands, if this card isn't in your opening hand then most of the time you are effectively paying three resources to get +2 in a skill test, the equivalent of Unexpected Courage. Comparing it to the other neutral skill cards like Perception or Overpower is even more unfavorable because those allow you to draw a card if you succeed and are completely free. There are a handful of situations where the Ace of Rods will give you +4 in a test, but even then it is still too pricey to seriously consider.

One positive is that because it gets removed after use, putting two in your deck doesn't result in a dead draw. Preston Fairmont can use it as a means of flexing on other investigators to show how little he cares for efficiency.

So I am thinking that maybe there is a character that goes under looked when considering the Ace of Rods and that is our friendly Pete.

So you lose your tarot slot but the survivor tarot is the most easily skipped so no great loss there.

If you don't draw it in your opening hand it can be fed to your dog like any other card so its lack of icons isn't as much a hindrance.

I also find myself flush with cash to burn in my dark horse pete decks so banking an action for 3 resources being the worst use of this card doesn't seem like a bad use of money I typically end up burning anyway.

The end of the day if it was good enough to include in every deck then it would probably be too good for a neutral 1xp card.

This is the perfect card for Amina Zidane. With her ability that 3 resource cost turns to 0, and the downside of her ability (adding doom to the asset) is entirely negated when you remove this. 0 cost, 0 action, 0 downside, +2 to all skills for this turn. This is especially good if you're playing Spectral Razor or Read the Signs, where it gives you a +4 to the skill test since you're buffing both skills.

This card is pretty bad. Get that straight. Its bad. But its not irredeemable. A few characters are so action starved that theyll take what they can get.

If you find it in the mulligan, its a free action, nice, but, not groundbreaking. We already have Quick Thinking and Swift Reflexes.

If you dont find it, and have to play it... you pay 3 resources to -move- an action, bank it. That is so goddamn terrible that it begs belief that this is a printed mechanic, yet, even so. There is a demand for it.

Some characters are so damn hungry that they will take any old garbage card to sate that hunger.

• Rita Young has some of the tightest rounds an investigator can have, its all those Engage actions that really muddle her rounds. She likes to bring tricks like Cheap Shot and/or Bait and Switch to circumvent lost actions. For her the ability to generate 4 action rounds is valuable. Typically that 4 action round reads: Dodge, Shoot bow, Reload, Shoot again.

• Mark Harrigan can be hella action effective with big guns, Shortcut and Elusive, even so he might feel the need to make a 4 action round happen every now and then, probably to attack 4 times with his Machete or .45 Thompson.

• Calvin Wright has very few options for action economy, and the bonus isnt bad.

You get the picture now, decks that lack access to action economy might want to teck a couple of these every now and then. If there's any other action Economy card in your cardpool, that one is better than this one.

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Another, small, consideration for using Ace of Rods is that it's not a bad tagalong tarot for Anna Kaslow, she's an ally with a deathwish and having tarots that self-discard solves some issues that might arrive when she kicks the bucket.

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Ace of Rods is not a good card, but i'dd like to say that it gets less credit than it deserves. I highly recommend you try it out, 2 copies, even if only to never try it again.

Anybody else have trouble with ArkhamDB decks adding this after the intro to The Witching hour instructs you to add both it and The Tower XVI to your deck? After the scenario, I tried to add it as a campaign card, but it wasn't there - it was just under the regular assets, and when I added it there, it tried to charge me XP. Did I miss something?