Really interesting in The Circle undone: with an investigation action you can evade a Witch enemy and then all the investigators at your location can automatically discard their Hex treacheries. Even better in The Secret name !

I'm currently running a "lowering difficulty" (Quick learner + Leo de Luca + Haste) Wendy deck and even in hard it's very efficient !

Even though I wrote an a bit doubtful remark in flamebreak's recent review, I now played this card with Carolyn in a campaign, rather than First Aid. It had been under perfect condition for this card: together with Agnes (and Minh) through Carcosa.

On paper, these two cards are very similar in cost: number of uses, resource cost, XP of the upgrades are all the same. First Aid can heal horror and damage, even on allies, and is a slotless talent, while with this card, like pointed out by flamebreak, Carolyn's ability can easily net two resources to the group in one action. Overall in a vacum, I would estimate First Aid's advantages to be bigger, yet, there had been a couple of reason, I did not choose the other card.

First, I had two copies of Arcane Research, so the cost in XP is really not an apt one any more. The difference of 4 XP among 2 copies is huge. I had two other main healing assets in my upgraded deck, Ancient Stone and Liquid Courage. It was quite a shame, that the Agnes' player did not slot Drawing Thin to at least attempt to forget her Dark Memory while drinking. Not that I think jumping through these hoops would have actually worked, but it would have sure being fun and thematic at least trying. At 1 XP each, Clarity of Mind clearly won the popular vote against Liquid Courage from all three of us. For 5 XP (thanks to Shrewd Analysis) I got both copies of the Ancient Stone, and that was so much better, than two copies of First Aid could ever be (at 1 XP more!), upgrading other great cards like Stand Together and even the upkeep phase, i did not need to use a "draw 1 card" action just for the trigger one time.

Second, I had the Eldritch Sophist as one of my allies. Clarity of Mind is cheap to play, in particular with Ever Vigilant, but I never needed 8 charges from 2 copies, even with Agnes vs. who's name she liked to call. (Also, because it was not the only card, I had for horror healing.) Of course, the secrets of the Sophist were always well spend, on Carolyn's stone, but even more several cards from Minh. But with his ability, Carolyn also became kind of Agnes' Venturer, loading up her Shrivelling or Rite of Seeking, with spare Clarity-charges.

In summary, this card was pretty great in my deck, and I likely would take it again in Carolyn. Still, I don't see it in any other investigator's deck, not even in Agnes, for whom 2 horror heal in an action kind of equals 2 testless damage in an action, which is quite awesome. For one, the arcane slot is among the most competed slots in . A power mage will almost always want to put a big fight and a big investigate spell into his or her main arcane slots. Now the card pool is in flux, we got (or soon to be getting) almost everything but footwear converted into an arcane slot, and I'm quite stoked for the cards spoiled from "Return to the Cycle Undone". But there are so many other options, for evading or sealing, or maybe even a Sixth Sense next to a Rite of Seeking for charge preservation in 4 player games, I would rather slot.

Second, this card was 1 XP (and the opportunity cost to have an awful card in the lever 0 deck) in a Carolyn deck. I would consider it still 3 XP in any real . Why? Because Carolyn (as of now) has only 3 viable cards, she can upgrade each twice with Arcane Research: Clarity of Mind, Deny Existence and Blood Eclipse. CoM is the "mandatory upgrade", you want to flush the level 0 version out of your deck ASAP, DE is the "great upgrade", something to pleasantly anticipate after scenario 3 and 4, BE is the "luxury upgrade", nothing to sneeze at for a free upgrade, but not that much better than the level 1 version. The mental traumata are not a real cost for Carolyn, the 2/15 and slots rather something to consider. At least the upgraded Deny Existence will free some slots again for a couple of level 1 or cards. Blood Eclipse was also a fun card to play in Carolyn with Brother Xavier. Of course, real wizards will also take Arcane Research, but they have so many spells to choose from, they can't really say, "this Clarity of Mind cost me only 1 XP". For them, AR is just a flat +2 XP each scenario, even with several side stories stuffed into the campaign. Carolyn can simply either take the 12 XP discount from these six cards, or not. It would need several new valid upgrades for her to reevaluate this card "at level 3".

I think it's fair to say that, with most of the Innsmouth cycle completed, given all the later packs only include XP cards, that this is the best Bless Token generator at level 0. It's fast, so you only spend 1 card and 2 resources to get 40% of the maximum allowable tokens into the bag. Scrounge for Supplies and Resourceful can both get this back to you at the cost of an action. Preston Fairmont can take Ancient Covenant and pay for Leo De Luca very easily to afford Scrounging for this, though his Resourcefulness isn't quite as reliable (but can definitely work with some moderate boosting from a Mariner's Compass, Fire Axe, and/or Well Connected). William Yorick can take either the Ancient Covenant or the Sacred Covenant, and has access to both pools of Bless Token cards, including the resource saver Rite of Sanctification. Father Mateo can use this in combination with Blessing of Isis to trigger his Elder Sign ability way more consistently. I think the absolute top dog for this, though, is the rookie cop Tommy Muldoon, who can take almost any worthwhile Bless Token card in either of his classes and has the resource generation to back it up.

Worth noting also is that Tempt Fate is another level 0 card for Scrounging purposes, but with Keep Faith in the same deck, I see it being the more likely target. Still, Tempt Fate costs 0 instead of 2 and draws you a card, so having that option is nice. I doubt any Bless token deck wouldn't include both if it could (sorry Sister Mary).

Scrying (lv3), Alyssa Graham, or Scroll of Secrets if taboo make Gloria to look encounter deck by trigger ability. All of those require exhaust, so that Gloria only use those cards once per round. After those cards are ready during upkeep phase, Gloria has no chance to trigger those ability until the encounter cards are totally resolved. However, if the encounter card initiates the skill test, Gloria has a chance to trigger those ability. This window is the key window if Gloria wanna to look all encounter cards for 4 players game. If no test will be initiated, another investigator plays A Test of Will (lv 0 or lv 2) to forcly initiate test.

If Gloria in balenced 4-player group, Gloria could focus on controling encounter deck. Even if Gloria only looks encounter decks, the group can be very safe & stable. Gloria doesn't need to consider Fight; the enemy is always drawn by fighter (or flexible fighter/evader). The clue gatherer could go alone without fearing of drawing enemy. If Gloria remains action, she could investigate with high or play event such as Read the Sign, Drawn from the Flame.

The key cards for encounter control is Scrying, Alyssa Graham, and Twila Katherine Price. Gloria could look 4 cards by Scrying. If 4 cards are ok, then place 4 cards. If 1 or more is terrible, then discard/seal one of those card. In this case, place 3rd encounter card which has a skill test. Then, when a investigator tests by 3rd encounter, trigger Alyssa to look final unknown card. Twila Katherine Price could save the charge of Scrying. If you want to save the for Scrying, you could take Scrying (lv3); in this case, however, Gloria needs horror soaking sources, because Scrying usually gives 1 horror.

Really disappointing to see this weapon is not a relic ! It means that if you are playing Carcosa or TCU (for example) you can't rely on it to kill those annoying enemies who require spells / relics to be killed and so that if you want to have a fighter generating blessed tokens you will probably have to use both Blessed blade and Enchanted blade ! I for sure really hope this card will be tabooed to add it the "relic" trait.