I LOVE the idea for this card, I really do. A big gun-toting guardian tucking a .45 Automatic into their jacket so they can whip out the big guns. There's just one problem and it's pretty clear once the euphoria of taking free potshots at eldritch abominations wears off: How do I fit my brand new .45 into my holster when my hands are already full of Gun? The biggest issue of this card IMO is that it requires you to play your weapons in a particular order. Draw your BAR before your .45 Automatic? Tough luck. Bandolier and it's older brother are almost always going to be better.

Poor Tommy has to throw his beloved Becky away if he doesn't tuck his sidechick sidearm away first. Lily doesn't know the first thing about firearm safety. Sister Mary is too busy waving around that taboo Winchester she's so fond of. Nathaniel Cho prefers beating his enemies to a pulp in organized events. Mark, Leo, and Zoey might be able to make SOME use of it, but they still face the full hands dilemma.

And that's where I realized the Illicit keyword wasn't just for show. Finn, Tony, Jenny and most likely Bob would absolutely LOVE this card. Between Lockpicks, Flashlights, Magnifying Glasses, Weird Fans, Old Keys and... eyeballs? Flex or combat oriented rogues love to have a gun in one hand and something else in the other.

I feel like this card wants to sucker deckbuilders into making a "moar gun" style guardian which IMO is what Bandolier is for. I feel like this card is less for the Brute with a BAR, and more for the Con with a Colt. I avoided mentioning Roland simply because many people (at least the ones I typically play with) play him as a fight oriented Guardian who just so happens to get clues and so end up running big guns and Bandoliers. Though he'd probably do well with this card running some Magnifying Glasses to bounce for mag swaps if you wanted to go clue focused who just so happens to be able to fight. It's worth noting however that Parallel-backed Roland can't take this card.

TL;DR: While most Guardians have some slot issues that arise from the order in which you play your one and two-handed guns, Rogues can make good use of it fairly easily with a plethora of one-handed guns, including signatures.

For the gunslinger who wants to blast away with one-handed firearms, there is a sweet interaction with Galvanize. There aren't a whole lot of assets that you need to ready with it, but the Holster takes the cake in that it functionally turns Galvanize into TWO additional fight actions at fast speed. This combo is available, not just to Guardians, but to Tony Morgan and "Skids" O'Toole as well.

Quickdraw holster does a nice thing:

It saves you a fight action.

It means that your first gunshot per turn is a free action, use it with a Lupara or Sawed-Off Shotgun, maybe Vicious Blow, to nuke moderate enemies or chunk a boss right as you step into their location. Use it with smaller guns like .45 Automatic to do 4 fights in a turn or clean up chaff efficiently.

But.

• It costs 4 resources.

• It does nothing by itself. Nothing! You still need to find the gun and pay for it.

• It's 4 XP.

• It has trouble with timing. (if you have, say, some tools or a 2-hand gun in play, playing a 1-hand gun will kick out something existing.

• Again, it does nothing! Often support cards that supplement a playstyle come with some niceties like a health or sanity tank, bonuses on tests involved.

• It costs 4 resources, again.

All that put together, Quickdraw Holster is very much the cumbersome capstone to the whole "1-hand firearm" archetype. At which point you might ask, "what, there's a 1-hand firarm archetype!?", which is a good question, because there is not!

Maybe if there were better 1-hand guns around with useful and intuitive support this card would be useful unto itself, a capstone to a build, but in the current cardpool this is a lone wolf with no pack to hunt in, But until then, you'dd be better served spending these 4 XP on Charisma + Leo De Luca, they wont get you that extra hand slot, but it'lll get you that extra roundly fight action, and then some!

I was really excited by this card at first, sure it sounds cool, but then comparing it to Bandolier (0), it does:

• Gives you 1 action when you need to use a small gun, so either to deal with a small enemy or to finish a bigger one after your main weapon
• 2 more resources to play
• 4 more XP - 8 for 2 copies.

So the question is: how much do you value 1 extra action to fight an enemy every once in a while? Would there be a way to use 8xp that would bring you more efficiency?

To me, it feels like the cost and XP difference is rather stiff compared to how much of a difference it can make in my campaign.

How does this affect the "spend one ammo" part of the cost? Do I have to pay the ammo because the Holster only affects the actual action cost or all of the activation costs?

200 characters. 200 characters. 200 characters. 200 characters

Compare this to sign magic. It's sadly not close.

Both will give you a free action. However...

Sign magic is worse in only one minor regard. You have to piggyback it on another spell activation. Alright. One point for Quickdraw holster.

Now. Sign magic is fast. Quickdraw is not. Sign magic is cheaper to play. Sign magic is cheaper xp. Sign magic allows a free action on all spells, not just attacks. You can use two sign magicks. Sign magic gives you an entire extra spell slot. Quickdraw only frees up a gun.

The balance isn't close.