Tutors (i.e. cards that search your deck for a card and draws it) are only as strong as the selection of cards they can draw for you, which for the case for Dr. Horowitz, means she's as good as the relic cards in your deck. This observation, combined with the fact that the good doctor is a lvl 0 card, makes her a bit fiddly at the start of a campaign, where she'd feasibly be included unless you're willing to pay one exp for her later on.

There are, as of Dream-Eaters, six lvl 0 Relic cards, and only one relic, Tooth of Eztli. Of these relics, four occupy the accessory slot, which means extra relics in your deck will not be playable unless the first relic you play leaves your play area for some reason or other. This, coupled with the fact that the available relics don't synergies all that well, leaves Dr. Elli Horowitz rather lacklustre at best...

...Right until the likes of Key of Ys, Timeworn Brand, and Pnakotic Manuscripts start populating your deck, then you'll be praying she ends up in your starting hand. The more expensive the relic's resource cost, xp cost, and number of slots they occupy, the more value Elli will provide by completely ignoring the resource and slot costs, and speeding up the process of getting out your big hitter cards.

This doesn't make her any less fiddly though; once you're committing to including her in your deck, your selection of upgrades shrinks a fair bit. You'll likely be investing into at least one Relic Hunter and one Charisma, the former as insurance in case you draw two or more of your relics before Elli, and the latter because you'll likely want to include other allies in your deck, especially early on in a campaign where her usefulness is lacking. And of course a significant portion of your earned exp will be spent on relics, of which thankfully you get some leeway on where you want to take your deck, either in a combat-focused direction, or a more clue gathering angle, or a whole range of unorthodox functionality.

In conclusion, Dr. Elli Horowitz is the type of card you build an entire deck (and upgrade path) around; you certainly don't use her for her early-campaign power and then replace her once you get some exp. No half-measures; either she is the focus of your deck, or she isn't in your deck at all.

As for which investigators she'll likely be collaborating with often; naturally Ursula Downs has the relic synergy to make full use of Dr. Horowitz, and Mandy Thompson will get extra value from her tutoring effect. But special mention goes to Jim Culver, as the blog Rite Of Seeking made an excellent case for their pairing in their Big Relic Jim article (source:)

riteofseeking.com

To summaries what said over there, Jim is the only investigator that can take Dr. Elli Horowitz and whose signature card is a relic (that doesn't start the game in your play area already), and to whom Enchanted Blade works nicely if it didn't occupy an arcane slot.

Cancelling nasty treacheries is extremely powerful, especially for free, and especially especially when the only consequence is you having to do a bit more of something you're probably specifically built around doing. Hell, if you're running Milan Money or similar incentives to investigate, you might even "break even" in terms of the action cost of putting down the clue.

It strikes me as particularly good for Joe Diamond in the main deck, as his big weakness is treacheries.

First, a quick rant; Fantasy Flight Games, why u no make it direct damage? This card (and it's counterpart Painkillers) are incredibly cool thematically; the concept of self-destructive habits is one that breaths even more life into our pseudo role-play of the investigators we build decks for. It legitimately saddens me when I consider that Rita's athletic career might be compromised by the as of yet not understood effects of smoking on the lungs. It brings me great satisfaction when I outfit Roland with a Trench Coat and a Smoking Pipe and complete the gritty noir-detective look.

Then the Painkillers-Peter Sylvestre combo became a staple and the horrific tragedy of it all disappears like so much lovecraftian-lite confetti. Muh immersion. MUH IMMERSION!

To be clear, I am not being serious; I know full well that a card game like this, with a million moving pieces, is not going to keep a straight face in the face of all the possible combinations. I've already accepted that this isn't always going to hold up as a grim horror experience, especially when I held off an eldritch god with two Attack Dogs for six rounds, that one time. Still, would have been nice.

Anyway, the review. You consider Smoking Pipe when you're playing a 9 health, 5 sanity investigator. That's it.

Okay, okay, I'll elaborate a bit: Smoking Pipe and Painkillers have one very obvious drawback; being defeated from damage or from horror holds little distinction. While you can assign damage to non-critical systems through these cards, they require that you've got a big difference in your remaining health and remaining sanity in order to have a noticeable effect in your survivability.

You might think that's the reason I'm recommending 9 health, 5 sanity investigators take this card, but that's only half the story. The other half is that the statement "being defeated from damage or from horror holds little distinction" does not hold for these investigators because mental trauma hits much harder and physical trauma hits far slighter. Starting with 8 health or 9 makes little difference; starting with 4 sanity or 5 does, and should be avoided at any cost.

So, other that the aforementioned Rita Young and Roland Banks, you should consider Painkillers when you play:

• Silas Marsh
• Tony Morgan
• Mark Harrigan

How many allies can benefit from the full heal (AKA, how many allies have 3+ health)? nine (as of The Search For Kadath, and excluding Jake Williams).

Of these options, Beat Cop (2), Guard Dog and Agency Backup are the ones that most synergies with Emergency Aid. Trusted can push some allies into the three health range, and of course all investigators have enough health to use the full effect.

But really, you two main uses for this card are in an ally focused deck, or in a Mark Harrigan deck to prevent the bad side of Sophie. Take Second Wind instead for all other cases; cheaper and with free card replenishment!

Why do we pay for insurance? It's not a great feeling, having to pay a continuous fee to be insured against a situation that is unlikely to occur and that you're probably trying to avoid in the first place. And yet, just the knowledge of a safety-net can give us peace of mind when dealing with the unknown, and may even prevent missed opportunities due to a fear of the associated risks.

With that clarity in mind, let's talk about Clarity of Mind. This is an insurance card, and you have to be of the mindset that "things are likely to go south" in order to accept this card into your deck. It does nothing to prevent bad things from happening, only the ability to undo their effects. As such, if you take no horror, then this card is useless. Heck, if you're guaranteed to take your sanity threshold minus one horror, this card is still useless. Thus it's efficacy is tied strictly to your likelihood of crossing that sanity threshold, which for mystics, is unlikely, given all but one have eight sanity or more (the one being Diana Stanley, with a still respectable 7 sanity).

...Except it's not unlikely, because mystics have to contend with one more source of horror than normal, on top of treacheries, enemies, locations and the symbol tokens; themselves. Staples like Shrivelling, Ward of Protection, and Forbidden Knowledge, are all cards that leave one extremely susceptible to one bad encounter card or test, and it can lead to the tragic situation where a large portion of these cards that are in play, in your hand, or in your deck cannot be used without being defeated.

As such, Clarity of Mind is an excellent card for enabling a horror incursion deck. Agnes Baker is the most obvious candidate for such an archetype, but it's also a strong pairing with Arcane Research (especially since you can use the spell discount to get upgraded Clarity of Mind). It's basically an auto-include in a Carolyn Fern deck, and the pair of cards Fight or Flight and Meat Cleaver need cards that can sustain their risky play-style. Finally, Clarity of Mind will insure you against some of the upgraded versions of cards that start dealing or deal additional horror; AKA Shrivelling (5), Scrying (3), and Blinding Light (2).