DEFINITELY a lot milder than Norman's other weakness, which wasn't too much to deal with in its own right. is generally the cost to rid oneself of a weakness, so this fits right in there, and you probably are going to get rid of this as fast as possible - I mean, look at its effect, why would you NOT - so if this spends more than a turn plaguing you, you're... probably doing something wrong. No offense.

In any case, the Livre d'Eibon is so much better than Split the Angle, so it's a small price to pay for a MUCH better Signature.

When one thinks of "attacking with ," their mind immediately turns to the undisputed King of the Relics, the Ornate Bow - and Ornate Bow the whip is not. Sure, you don't need to reload it every round, and it's got fast, but... that's about it. And to be honest, that's to be expected, since the Bow is a deck staple of its own right, and the Whip is more of a supplementary card for Jack, getting him out of a pinch with any creepy crawlies by either delivering some more pain than usual or binding them up for a bit with a free evasion. Basically, what I'm saying is that if I go a game committing the Whip to a different test as a slightly more buff Manual Dexterity rather than playing it, then that would be fine with me.

Maybe if a certain runner could make use of it then it would be better, but alas - you can't use Signatures that aren't yours. Sigh.

If the Hallowed Mirror is in my play area all the game, after I used soothing melody, do these melodies go into my discard pile? can I use some cards to get soothing melody to my hand and re-usa again? Or after I used soothing melody and they are just out of game

After years of being hobbled with the sub-par signatures presented in his book reveal, the real thing is finally here, and it really helps cement Norman as the efficiency machine he was striving to be.

Previously, Norman struggled with some action-order constraints, and his deckbuilding had compatibility issues with skill cards and non-Fast events. Being able to swap his topdeck card at will frees Norman from a lot of these problems - and when the Livre is out, you're probably going to be using it every turn. Notably, as a Tome signature, it's probably the easiest one in the game to pull from your deck courtesy of Research Librarians. It's worth digging deep on a mulligan for this book or your book slaves, because you can usually investigate just fine out the gate with 5.

Traditionally, you'd use his ability to cast half-off Working a Hunch or cheapen an expensive asset like St. Huey's Key. Now that he's officially joining the fray, Edge of the Earth brings him lots of toys tailor-made for this book: Written in the Stars lets you topdeck that Deduction and throw it into a slew of Investigate tests, hoovering up 6+ clues in a turn. Astronomical Atlas accelerates your draw and, at its simplest, lets you get one more use out of a / skill before you officially draw it, provided you pass the test. When the Livre isn't discounting a card of your choice each turn, it's essential for setting up these big combos with the rest of his kit.

There are other conceivable uses for it in the Seeker wheelhouse - a Research-focused deck can topdeck the surprised rabbis it ends up drawing, ensuring no such cards are ever wasted. If you have mid-turn draw effects, you can do similar with Cryptic Writings, though swapping it into your hand through the Livre or the Atlas likely won't trigger the free-play effect.

So here's my game state; I have Beyond the Veil in my threat area. One card left in my deck. Deny Existence in my hand (saving it for this exact treachery). I draw a card in upkeep, so Beyond the Veil triggers immediately and I use Deny Existence to prevent the 10 damage. Phew.

Unfortunately, your deck will only cycle when you would draw a card from an empty deck. So at this point, I still have an empty deck.

So what happens in the following mythos phase? I draw another Beyond the Veil, it goes into my threat area and immediately triggers. ...But wait! I have a Ward of Protection. PHEW!

But unfortunately Ward of Protection only cancels the revelation effect, so the "Surge" keyword still applies. Oh well, I can handle the subsequent surge card, I'm sure...

...

Beyond the Veil AGAIN! Are you kidding me?! Instant 10 damage, because at this point my deck is still empty. Never has Arkham Horror kicked me in the balls as hard as this. I took all the mitigation that could be reasonably expected for this card, and still I couldn't survive it. Not a particularly fun card to play around, but it sure is a memorable one.