“Always Current” Environment Review

As per my last review, I'm reviewing this from the perspective of starter decks (like Harvey's) and the revised core being always current environment - which will become the established meta. Unless FF changes what they consider current environment, this should remain a constant and can be used for all deck building going forward. All the cards I discuss below, unless otherwise stated, are all also current.

Should Seekers use this? As other reviewers have pointed out, level 0 Mind over Matter allows you to test instead of or . For most Seekers, the level 0 version is usually good enough to not want to upgrade, as you can commit cards to those tests which you can't do with this card. This makes the additional XP for adding to or less worth it, as you can just commit what should naturally be in your deck (things with icons) to match the elevated skill value on the upgraded version. It draws a card as well, but that's largely irrelevant to a class which draws cards easily. Further, Magnifying Glass (as it only boosts investigate) doesn’t help with a boost here either.

The answer is therefore generally a no to this on Seekers. I think when you are using both Dr. Milan Christopher and Whitton Greene so your outside of Magnifying Glass is higher, and/or you have Encyclopedia (*cough* Daisy *cough*), then it’s a little more worthwhile if you have the XP to spare - but otherwise the base version is good. Lucius may also be an exception to this rule when playing focused.

Who then should use this? For non-current investigators, as other reviewers have pointed out Joe Diamond is a good fit - but I'd probably rather spend XP on boosting directly with a Beat Cop. Legacy Trish also uses it okay but it's a bit of a waste of XP, same goes for (currently current) Darrell.

The real answer to who should be using this is yo' boy, Roland Banks. Using Mind Over Matter •• you can add +3 to your tests (or even to your for specific tests) which is pretty decent for a fast card which draws a card to replace itself. Common allies, such as Grete Wagner ••• and potentially Dr. Milan Christopher then add additional boosts for a Mind Over Matter •• turn while making Roland more well-rounded at clue finding. As this is a singular event in your deck, you will need to lean in to card draw to find it, but Seeker tech and Glory help with that.

The real question is, when is Mind Over Matter •• worth it on Roland? Super boosts for a turn are fine, but you do need to spend XP to put this in your deck, when instead you could be running Grete Wagner with Beat Cop and commit things like Overpower to have a good boost on a Machete, .45 Automatic or a Roland's .38 Special fight action.

The main use case here is Shotgun. Shotgun is now the only current big gun (TSK, FHV and TDC are current environment at the time of writing). Previously, no one used Shotgun because Lightning Gun was instantly better than it in Dunwich Legacy - but without that competition Shotgun becomes worthy of consideration again. With Shotgun and just Mind Over Matter •• Roland fights at a 10 skill value, with Grete Wagner ••• and Dr. Milan Christopher or Beat Cop that becomes at 13. Bosses like Umôrdhoth often take the full 5 damage when playing on standard difficulty at a 13 test (it varies, but it's around 80% of the time normally, and you do 3 or more damage around 95% of the time).

While this is all combo-erific, I'd say this is a very solid option for Roland which hasn't been considered much previously but perhaps should have been because the damage potential per action is very high. As long as you have good card draw, I think this is a new standard for what good damage looks like in current environment. I've made Roland deck based on this to coincide with the review here, check it out here if you're interested.

TL:DR Roland with a Shotgun is realistically the main use-case I would consider for this card which is also always current environment. That said, it's one hell of a cool use case and I think the juice here is worth the squeeze to assemble the combo.

I got an answer from Alex Werner on how this card interacts with String Along:

You can trigger String Along after triggering Stealth. If you do, the chosen enemy gets -2 evade value and alert, and you get +1 skill value; then if you succeed, you draw 1 card, disengage from the enemy, do not exhaust the enemy, and the enemy cannot engage you for the rest of your turn. The “cannot engage you” on Stealth takes precedence here.

So it turns out that, in the discussion following my review about the other card, the very first comment by NightgauntTaxiService was the correct interpretation.

I feel like the card has a very strong interaction with Abyssal Tome. You attach the Tome only once you actually need to fight as a quick action and can just put it on the bottom of the deck if doom becomes too much of a problem. Currently available to Daisy.

In a Michael McGlen deck, both Joey "The Rat" Vigil and the Remington Model 1858 can be played for 14XP.

A turn could look like this:
Play the Remington for 3 ressources, attack 4 times, gaining 1 resource back, sell the Remington for 2 ressources and attack again.
In one turn, this could add up to 10 damage, upfront paying the 2 ressources and for playing Joey and for the attacks. The gun pays for itself.
If you stretch it over multiple turns, you can come out resource positive.

Is this better than using Colt Vest Pocket in a similar scenario?
The damage potential is the same.
For the colt, additional actions need to be generated, which is doable in .
In both scenarios, you end up without the gun in hand if you need the 5 attacks. A pro for the Remington if less than 5 attacks are necessary, because then the gun is carried over to the next turn.
Joey lets you use the Remington to kill an enemy in the mythos phase if necessary, since there is window after drawing encounter cards.
I tend to the Remington as being "better", I definitely feel it's is more reliable and more flexible.

I think it's possible to take 1 damage or horror to heal 3 dmg/horror, flip Discipline to broken side, cancel that 1 damage/horror via Spectral Shield and flip this asset again the same round to unbroken side becase no horror/damage was taken this round.