Safeguard

Reviews

Should I run Safeguard, you ask? Well, would you run a 2-cost, slotless Leo De Luca?

OK, so maybe that comparison is a little bit flippant, but I do think this card is quite pushed and is probably the best level 0 Guardian card we've seen since the Core Set. This thing does a very respectable Pathfinder imitation, while being cheaper and not costing XP.

Note all the tricks you can do with this card and enemies. You can still activate Safeguard if you have an enemy on you. This allows you to drag enemies across locations without attacks of opportunity. This has cool applications for investigators like Roland and cards like Grete Wagner. Even outside of that, I've found that this comes in handy surprisingly often. For example, does your location have some nasty text that makes it unpleasant to stay and fight there? Just Safeguard your way to a nicer spot, action-free. With Safeguard II my Guardians have found themselves dragging enemies across the map in frankly ridiculous fashion.

Note that, unlike with Safeguard II, if another investigator moves into a location with an enemy, this version of Safeguard does not allow you to swoop in to preemptively engage that enemy (since you move "after" the other investigator). This is one of several reasons why I would recommend Safeguard II as a strong upgrade to an already great card.

Another benefit you'll notice from Safeguard, beyond the obvious one of saving you a ton of actions, is that you'll much more often be able to end your turn at the same location as the rest of the team. This is usually a really good thing. Investigators will more often be able to support each other with commits during the Mythos phase, for example.

Finally, Safeguard gets even better if other investigators are running the movement cards of their own faction. It's so strong with another investigator's Pathfinder or Shortcut. If you haven't tried a multiplayer group where one player takes two Pathfinders and everyone else takes two Safeguard IIs, well, you really should. It's pretty sweet.

3/18/21

CaiusDrewart · 3125

I played it in Nathaniel and am currently playing it in Carolyn, who doesn't really care about engaging the enemies herself, and I agree, this is a great card in everybody, who can take it. — Susumu · 363 3/18/21

Safeguard also combos nicely with Scene of the Crime, helping you position yourself to scoop those free clues. — Mordenlordgrandison · 447 3/18/21

Yeah, I don't think you have to be a fighter to want this card. It ends up being good for pretty much any investigator. This makes it one of relatively few level 0 Guardian cards that have appeal for investigators who aren't trying to fight with Combat. — CaiusDrewart · 3125 3/18/21

Safeguard basically an auto-include in anything beyond solo, no combos needed. It'll be easier to describe the situations where you don't want Safeguard! — suika · 9389 3/19/21

Is your teammate moving into an unrevealed location that turns out to be horrid, its cool safeguard (0) has you covered, just don't trigger it. Honestly the only thing this is missing to just be the best card ever is a wild icon. — Zerogrim · 292 3/19/21

ALMOST as good as Safeguard, but not quite, but 1 saved move near every turn past the point of playing this card is fantastic. There IS a little bit of tricky rules text though that ensure that you'll eventually want the upgrade.

Movement is king in many scenarios of Arkham and the ability to have a buddy cheuffeur you in and out of locations can be mind-blowingly clutch. At the end of a scenario you might have 10, 12 saved moves from ths one card, and that's just insanely good.

DO keep in mind this MAJOR rules text difference between Safeguard and Safeguard:

The move on this version happens -after- a friend moves, this means that unlike the 2xp version, enemies at that location will still engage your friend rather than yourself. This, of course, is a HUGE issue and is single-handedly the balancing factor that makes this a good card, but not an autotake.

That said, I do recommend this thing, it's good, but it does cost 2 resources, a rather hefty price for the resource starved faction, and obviously, it's best played in a big 4-man team, it'd be fine in 3-man, but I wouldnt play it in 2-man unless you're playing a "Beef & Brains" sorta specialist team.

8/28/20

Tsuruki23 · 2522

Compare to Pathfinder, even without the timing benefit and even at one move a round, free moves for a slotless 2-cost asset is great. Obviously more flexible the higher the team size, but great for any Guardian that wants to stick with their team. — Death by Chocolate · 1440 8/28/20

This card is better for carolyn than most guardians cause she's not much of a fighter and mostly doesn't want to be engaged anyway. — Django · 5070 9/1/20

did a play through of innsmouth recently and the amount of saved actions on the guarder were obscene. Constantly wishing my guardian have this if they ever don't. — Zerogrim · 292 1/28/21

This one shines when Trish Scarborough is your companion. Helps triggering her ability. Upgraded version makes Trish Scarborough even happier.

Whenever my companion (guardian) had enemy engaged with him I tried triggering Trish ability by moving guardian along with me to a location with clue. So I could net 2 clues with Lockpicks in single action. Of course sometimes there was a cost to pay for keeping guardian engaged but I was able to successfully mitigate that using Girish Kadakia's self healing ability.

During my Innsmouth run I noticed that Safeguard helps staying away from flooded locations.

Can we please lift this 2 hundred length review constraint?

6/6/23

bugiel_marek · 21

The 200 character limit is there for a reason, and that reason is to discourage low effort or spam posts. Annoyingly, people don't realise that and still post 'good in this character' reviews, random questions they could ask somewhere else, or stupid memes, and then just fill in extra characters on top of that. — SSW · 209 6/6/23

But what makes it good in combination with Trish? The enemy engage her and prevent so an investigation without an attack of opportunity. You move after the other player moves (not like the upgrade) — Tharzax · 1 6/6/23

@SSW: I don't think 200 characters prevents spamming, see no reason for that. — bugiel_marek · 21 6/6/23

@Tharzax: If you, as a Trish, are in the same location as your guardian, and he's already engaged with enemy, then you can move to location with clue and guardian can exhaust Safeguard to move along. If that new location has clue then you can use Trish's ability to pick up extra clue or automatically evade enemy. — bugiel_marek · 21 6/6/23

What we need is the possibility to remove these non-reviews. — TheNameWasTaken · 3 6/6/23

That combo is OK especially if the enemy has retaliate but the enemy readies in the next upkeep phase and you won't evade it for all time. In my eyes there are better way to capitalize of Trishs ability like handcuffs or the new existential riddle. — Tharzax · 1 6/6/23

"I don't think 200 characters prevents spamming": No, but some people might reflect, that their review is probably not really worth it to post, if they can't figure out more substantial things to say. And reviews like this onle will likely not gain you the hearts to post more reviews. So there is at least a little incentive to not spam with low efford reviews. You have a reputation of 2, you have written 2 reviews, so until you have posted a decklist, that gets at least a bit of recognition, you will likely not be able to write a third one. (Unless somebody rewardes a heart or star on something previously published by you.) — Susumu · 363 6/7/23

@Tharzax: it's not about evading him, but picking up extra clue (sometimes it may be evading, if that's what's best in a given moment). There may be better cards for leveraging Trish ability but this one you most likely want to have anyhow. It's a free move, potentially each turn. So it has much more wide usage than Handcuffs. — bugiel_marek · 21 6/7/23

@Susumu I think you're taking this way too serious. I had a very good experience during my last Innsmouth run on hard with Mark & Trish running this card. Thought I'd point this out, how Safeguard helped me getting more clues, passively. My intention wasn't to collect hearts or provide detailed review. — bugiel_marek · 21 6/8/23

I'm not going to argue, that "Safeguard" is not a great card. But that was not, what this review was about. — Susumu · 363 6/9/23

@Sasumu, I like to think about those reviews as building a wall. Some guys already laid few layers of bricks. But did not cover everything, as it's impossible (for example because new cards were released). Every now and then new brick or even a new layer of bricks can be laid. Not every review aims at building a new wall, sometimes only a new layer is added, other times that's just another single brick in the wall. And that's that. — bugiel_marek · 21 6/9/23

Some readers may wonder why Safeguard is good combo with Trash. I really happy that you also write thoes parts in the review to catch your good idea about the cards. — elkeinkrad · 485 6/10/23

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