Carson Sinclair

Carson Sinclair

What a dud of a gator. The only time I'd consider playing him is two-handing to reduce mind-melt. It's hard to feel excited about playing with a flat 2 stat line whose special ability is to hand off his actions to better investigators.

Compare him to the other support-leaning gators: Bob can get into all kinds of wacky combos while handing out resources and actions. Daisy has a selection of supporting tomes. Minh can crush the most brutal skill tests and ward off treacheries.

It baffles me that they gave Kymani 5 bonus xp when this doddering old man can hardly fend off a ghoul without help.

Someone, please convince me he's worth playing. Not that he's strong, I'm sure he has a good build somewhere. I want to know if you had fun!

NoSleepTillHippo · 32
I had fun! Honestly, giving away an action still feels like YOU'RE doing the action. Carson fights like your best fighter and investigates like your best cluever. On top of that, everyone loves you! Amazing — Nenananas · 258
Lightning gun gives +5 attack so if you build a deck around that he could kill efficiently — Django · 5116
One Carson action is as powerful as each other investigator at his location so he naturally scales up in power as the player counts increases. He may not do much in 2p (and is easily the worst solo investigator in the game) but at 3-4 players he really shines. He's only a dud if every other investigator at his location is a dud. — Pseudo Nymh · 67
One thing I didn't think would be so fun before I actually play him is that his ability often becomes similar to Shortcut. No one wants to spend an action to move and it is fun when everyone begs me to push them around... plus I can also kick someone into the enemy to get the engage. This translate to higher damage because they can spend 3 full actions to kill it. I can follow and give Guidance (1), draw and wait to commit cards, or work on other things. I'm the commander! — 5argon · 11020
I think Carson is suitable to the commander by re-order of turn/actions among players. That effect might seem weak, but sometimes be powerful, especially action efficiency sense. — elkeinkrad · 500
Take Safeguard and a ton of skills, and donate your actions to other players. Now you’re playing in a way that enables everyone around you to be stronger. Carson’s not designed for solo obviously, but even in 2p I bet he can do some work, and in 3 or 4 he seems like one of the best. He offers a larger team much more flexibility and consistency. — StyxTBeuford · 13036
In a recent TSK run I played as Carson with Zoey and Cluever Charlie. I was planning on eventually getting a Lightning Gun or Sledgehammer (4) to defend myself but ended up never needing to do so. It is simply better to give an action to Zoey (who appreciates it too), and I can commit Soothing Melody or other 3-icon cards with Bestow Resolve if I really need to pass a test. Overall I think Carson is indeed a bit underpowered in terms of stats (he deserves 7/7 health/sanity at least) but each of his actions can contribute as much as the best investigator at his location does, which makes him really fun to play and practically everyone will appreciate having him on the team. — koaexe · 30

Combat Training

Combat Training

I can understand why people don’t like the card. It’s too fragile and easy to loose. But with Muldoon the card is great, with his ability you get it always back in your deck when you loose it, you get the cost back and it doesn’t cost an action to play.

DonFernandoMuc · 2
I guess it's probably because agility is not something guardians use. Though it does come in handy sometimes — Therealestize · 74

Runic Axe

Runic Axe

With Ancient Power, this could do solid work in an Old Shotgun deck. Sleight of Hand it out, one shot a 4 health enemy and do it again next turn after playing it normally. Skids, Leo and Zoey are the options there. Other cards can outpreform it in one way or another but the axe can be a solid low-level solution until you have 10 XP for 2xLupara and 2xOld Shotgun. Even your mystic or survivor might not mind you pawning it off on them, as it can serve any 3 investigator reasonably well when the big bad needs a single 8 , 3-damage bonk. It might be tempting to pimp your axe, but keeping it cheap and semi-disposable might be wise if you have any other forms of enemy management.

If your party is good at evading things and/or you have 3-4 players, an Ancient Power + Fury combo could be like a safe, rechargeable Dynamite Blast.

NoSleepTillHippo · 32

Flesh Ward

Flesh Ward

Note that this card is doubly good for Mary. In addition to addressing her weak health, it can be used to get lots of extra [bless] tokens from Guardian Angel by assigning a damage to it and then canceling the damage.

FBones · 19316
You can't use the angels ability if you cancel all damage since the effect and therefore the triggering condition is ignored. — Tharzax · 1
The FAQ on Guardian Angel says you can indeed do this. — dscarpac · 1172
That seems a bit strange if you compare it with the wording in the rule reference for canceling, where is explicit noted that the canceled effect doesn't take place. Probably the three effects are resolved one after another (assign damage, initiate the angels reaction and cancel the damage). — Tharzax · 1
Yeah, this should work. In the rules for dealing damage, it says that effects that cancel or ignore damage are done between step 1 (assign) and step 2 (apply), so you do get to assign then cancel. — Hylianpuffball · 29

Field Agent

Field Agent

Field agent might seem like the cluevery equivalent of Beat Cop, with one fewer uses, but indeed, she's much better. Forget the boost. It's nice, but secondary. If you build around this ally, you can turn her into possibly the mightiest no-test, no-action clue-gobbler in the whole game (barring the prohibitively expensive Agency Backup.)

That said, she does need some building around. There are a good handful of ways to heal/remove horror from allies, but I'll just mention three, since these do not require actions. With them alone, you can count on 5-6 free clues,and upward of 10-15 in the best-case scenarios, all while never pulling a token, and never spending an action (except to play her).

Trusted: if you have the Field Agent, think of this card as a discounted Working a Hunch, that also heals a point of damage. That's basically how it works out! Trusted can also be used to protect the field agent from forced damage/horror from treacheries (deal one direct horror to each card you control, etc.). That is a concern in some scenarios, since without Trusted she'll often be one horror from death in the Mythos phase.

Inspiring Presence: in the best case scenario, you're using Field Agent almost every turn. This card let's you use her twice in a turn, while only inflicting one horror on her.

Solemn Vow: The other two cards are handy, but this is what takes the Field Agent from good to godlike. Healing horror from investigators is usually much easier than from allies. Solemn vow let's you tap the field agent every single turn by instantly offloading the resulting horror onto an investigator. Of course, not all allies can absorb a per-turn horror, at least not without devoting significant resources to healing. But you know who can? Parallel Daisy. It's routine for her to have a sanity of 13 by the midgame, and not unheard of for her to reach 15 or even 16, way more than you'll ever need. Plus she usually has an ally who can soak a horror or two as well. Since Solemn Vow is fast to play and activated with a fast action, this horror conversion from Field Agent to Daisy is entirely actionless.

If you pull the Field Agent early, and your pal (ideally Daisy or Caroline) pulls a copy of Solemn Vow, your team will be in very good shape. Are you a one-intellect oaf usually engaged with two enemies? Don't let that limit you! With Field Agent, you STILL might be the leading clue gatherer for the scenario.

Mordenlordgrandison · 459
I think Field Agent is only a real option if you don't have the Grete Wagner/NatCho investigator pack. Static combat boosts for fighters are too important and you can never have enough of them. You are definitely correct that unconditional untested clues are an amazing power so the card is definitely strong. And good combos for getting extra uses out of the card. I feel like this would work best with Joe, Caroline, Charlie or Leo. maybe roland/tommy. And I think this card gets better in True Solo and even 2p (both flex roles). — The Lynx · 992
I'd say she's better in 2p than solo -- at least, if the other investigator is able to run a copy or two of Solemn Vow. And she's wonderful in Extreme mode, where investigate actions often fail, even with low shroud. — Mordenlordgrandison · 459
This review is completely misunderstanding what Solemn Vow does. Solemn Vow is played under the control of another investigator, and that other investigator can activate the fast action to move their damage to the owner of the card. Which is the Guardian. The Guardian does not move their damage to other people - that is the exact opposite of the point of the card, which is to move other people's damage to the guardian's tankier assets. Not from the Guardian to their squishier team mates. — Lailah · 1
The review does acknowledge that. That’s why it talks about Caroline or Parallel Daisy pulling the Solemn Vow to play on the investigator with the Field Agent (Parallel Daisy can splash into Guardian). — Ubik Lives · 1