I want to make a point about this card, and it's three cousins "Watch this!", Eureka!, and Resourceful, skill cards with three, fixed, distinct icons.

These are, in essence, win-more cards; cards that get their value when you commit them to tests you're already likely to succeed, and will fail you should you be looking to even the odds against a skill test that's beyond you. They will only ever add +1 to whatever test you perform (save for some fringe cases where two attributes are being tested in one skill check), and they pile on the pressure to pass that test, as the gap in outcomes between success and failure widen from committing this card.

Skill cards lie on a sliding scale between improving your odds of succeeding versus increasing the rewards for doing so. Cards like Cunning and Inquiring Mind occupy the former extreme, Inspiring Presence and its ilk occupy the later, and the core set neutral skill cards (e.g. Perception) define the middle ground. When picking which skill cards to include in your deck, you need to be mindful of which extreme they lean towards.

If you're planning to make use of an investigator's base attribute of three, then forget about win-more skill cards: your success will never be guaranteed without a +2 boost to that attribute MINIMUM. If you have base attribute of 4, the odds will be on your side on the easiest of tests (i.e difficulty 2 and below), but if you have an attribute value of 4, then you're likely expected to take on the harder tests (i.e difficulty 4 and above), for which win-more cards alone won't cut it. If you rock a base attribute of 5, then you're golden; include these cards to your heart's content...

...Which leads to the catch-22 of Inspiring Presence and co.; that they have three skill icons for different attributes, but will only really find use in test with base attributes of 4 or above, of which no investigator has more than two such attributes, and only a handful have more than one. You'll do yourself a dis-service should you spread yourself too thin,.

So here is the big conclusion of this review; the flexibility of this card exists NOT at the game stage, BUT AT THE DECK-BUILDING STAGE. In essence, these win-more cards are almost identical to Vicious Blow, Deduction, Fearless, and Survival Instinct; they just have a place in more decks thanks to the icons. Using the example of Inspiring Presence, most Guardians would compare this directly to Vicious Blow, but other takers, like Jim Culver or Joe Diamond, could very well make the case of replacing (or complimenting) Fearless and Deduction respectively in a more ally focused deck (like for instance, Olive McBride and Dr. Milan Christopher post Taboo List).

These cards are easy includes into decks that can make use of them, their power deriving from benefits that require no actions OR resources to play. Just, take care to not fall into the trap of thinking your deck is now all-purpose; just because the deck-building metrics tell you you've got a lot of , , and icons in your deck, doesn't mean you're going make use of all of them.

Edit: Weirdmarine asked in another review how many cards Harvey Walters could draw. The answer is too big of a comment, so i updated my review.

First assume the following cards are in play

• Dream-Enhancing Serum
• 2x Laboratory Assistant (add Charisma for a second ally slot)
• 2x Arcane Enlightenment (add Sign Magick with Versatile for a third arcane slot)
• 2x Vault of Knowledge.

This brings him to a max handsize of 18 and only the first copy counts against your handsize. With those 7 cards in play your deck will be smaller. So you're likely drawing more cards than your deck and discard have so you'll take horror each time you shuffle your empty deck and go insane.

Even outside Harvey (without Vault of Knowledge) you end up with a max hand size of 14. So you still draw lots of cards that could make you go insane as well.

Updated review of this card

Seekers have a lot of card draw, but redoing your hand is very powerful, especially when your cards don't help or you ran out. on some encounter cards can result in that.

Combos

• Playing this with any version of Ancient Stone in can deal homungus amounts of damage or heal horror (but it provokes an OA).
• Increase your hand size to draw more cards
  • Dream-Enhancing Serum
  • 2x Laboratory Assistant (add Charisma for a second ally slot)
  • 2x Arcane Enlightenment (add Sign Magick with Versatile for a third arcane slot)
  • If you're playing Harvey Walters, 2x Vault of Knowledge

Alternatives

• If you're looking for specific cards, use No Stone Unturned or Mr. "Rook" instead. The first can also be used to help other players
• Cryptic Research costs 1 fewer XP, no ressources and no action; Can also target other players

I really want to like this card in a Carolyn Fern deck for the theme alone - and the fact that she can't play any weapons level 1+ and is so good at getting clues. But I feel a bit bad about putting an enemy back in the deck, and in some campaigns there aren't a lot of humanoids. I'll start with it in the deck but have a feeling it will go pretty quickly once the fighter types in the group get amped up.

This weapon is so well oiled, it won't stay stuck in slimy spheres (good on you Diana!)

However, it still requires you to get close to your target, so it won't protect you from a haunted sarcophagus (sarcophaguses? sarcophagi?)

Also, don't expect it to catch anything flying either.

No reviews of this card? Preposterous!

This is a type of card I like seeing in AH LCG, and it almost makes me sad that it's stuck in its role as "a replacement encounter set in Return to Dunwich" instead of it being a straight up upgrade/replacement of Ancient Evils, one of the most annoying and omnipresent encounter sets of the entire game.

Ancient Evils just hits you with a Doom and possibly advances the Agenda, that's it. Such as it is, it's.. fine. It messes up the timer, it keeps you on your toes, but doesn't have any direct negative impact on you. However the lack of any agency in resolving it means that with higher player counts (or simply unfortunate clumping) sometimes the Agenda will just surge forward and sabotage the scenario which can feel a bit unsatisfying. Essex County Express is one of the more notorious examples of this (and possible direct inspiration for Resurgent Evils), since the breakneck pace of the scenario coupled with a relatively thin encounter deck means 3-4 players will in disproportionately large ratio of games have AE finish the scenario early without the players having any tools to stop this from happening.

Resurgent Evils is simply Ancient Evils with agency. You can stop that Doom being added.. at the cost of drawing two more Encounter cards. This doesn't take out the bite of Ancient Evils, but it enables players to dampen its impact. I've seen games where the choice of 2 Encounter cards saved the game, and I've seen games where it turned possible unfortunate timing of Doom into an absolute catastrophy and mayhem. But in any case, players are not passive sufferers but have active involvement in their fate, which makes a world of difference.

I highly suggest considering using this card whenever a scenario calls for Ancient Evils (and sooooo many of them are). Maybe the difficulty will be slightly lowered, but the payoff is definitely worth it.