I came to Tommy by asking ChatGPT to suggest "weird or quirky" characters from classes I don't usually play (I have been -averse). After taking him through The Drowned City as half of a duo, I completely fell for him.

I built him as a retaliation/"thorns" tank, and am just shocked at how well he has put the bad guys down, while also keeping my friend and I in tip-top shape.

Tommy made me look at assets in a new light: Leather Coat reads "Prevent 2 damage. Then, gain 2 Resources" when Tommy wears it. Efficiency became the name of the game, "how much profit can I make when this thing gets chewed up by a star spawn?"

On top of that, a retaliation playstyle is almost absurdly efficient. Testing and action requirements are minimal, allowing Tommy to run around flipping switches and putting out fires.

Core cards

• I ran 3x Solemn Vow. In addition to keeping my partner healthy, it is great for maximizing returns on an asset, e.g., it can be tricky to max out both horror and damage on some assets, but not if you keep your promise to a mentally traumatized investigator.
• Hunter's Armor. Durable, Hallowed and Lightweight take this from a "break even" to a +5 on your investment. Enchanted frees your body slot and lets you double up. Hexdrinker is very appealing as card-draw struggle is real; mechanically it may be the better choice. But I went all-in with Armor of Thorns. The way I see it, Tommy's role is to deal with enemies. He wants to draw cards to find... ways to deal with enemies. So, cut out the middle-man and just dish out up to 8 test-free damage per thorny suit. It has certainly been the fun choice.
• Survival Knife. Sorry, but Becky is a trap. Even un-upgraded, the ability to dish out up to 4 wounds a turn without spending actions or resources is drool-worthy. The upgrade is an absolute bargain.
• Guard Dog. I think everyone understands the joy of free damage with no limit per turn. Upgrade this one early, as her action can be activated after hunters move in the Enemy phase to expose them to Knife pokes (if you don't want to take the hit). Also nice for squishing aloof and exhausted enemies.
• Tetsuo Mori. I picked him up as an insurance policy against Rookie Mistake, but he has proven to be my second-favorite ally. When we have limited card draw, his item searching is such a flexible boon. The team soak ability is nice, too, in a pinch.
• Combat Training. Hmm: doesn't take a slot.. doesn't take an action.. net gain 3-4 resources, boosts stats, and now I have something to dump my wads of cash on? (because again, we're not using Becky, right?) Incredible. The "damage/horror must be assigned to Combat Training" clause was scary, until I realized that we can assign damage/horror to other assets first, which Tommy wants to do anyway.
• Bangle of Jinxes. I was reluctant to try an asset that doesn't have health or sanity. The first game I played it, I think my bangle had built up 7 charges after 2 turns. After that session, I immediately bought Relic Hunter. Tommy does occasionally need to take tests, and having a universal +2 (or +4 if we get both out!) can make that a much more pleasant experience.

Supporting cast

• Geared Up. Taken on a whim but I have enjoyed the playstyle. It's a bit of a roll of the dice, but I like that it doesn't cost XP or a card slot (unlike Ever Vigilant).
• At a Crossroads. Amazing flexibility in card draw that plays well with Geared Up. The opportunity for a free action can pay off, too.
• In the Thick of It. Tommy is hungry for XP, and I often end sessions at my starting health/sanity.
• A Chance Encounter. I prefer the un-upgraded version as it is quite easy to "knock out" your allies in a round. Again, good insurance against Rookie Mistake. Also remember that you don't have to activate Tommy's , and reusing any of your allies can be very impactful.
• "Devil". OK, I mostly picked him up for fun. Honestly, Tommy has been dishing out so much damage that I have never had a reason to use my li'l devil. But at a net gain of 2 resources, this recyclable, one-shot, guaranteed Mk 1 Grenades certainly feels at home.

Things that looked good at first...

• Charisma. I initially thought Tommy would be ally-heavy, but really Tommy is just asset-heavy (Currently up to 25). Also, those assets tend not to stick around very long. One copy at most is fine.
• Calling in Favors. Again, not as much ally-investment as I expected. Also, bouncing Guard Dog feels great, but Tetsuo Mori less so.
• Sparrow Mask. Verdict is out here. It looked like a nice complement to Bangle of Jinxes, but mostly for treachery avoidance. One copy is enough.
• I haven't found any body armor I've been happy with. I picked up a Hunting Jacket and regretted it. Plain ol' Leather Coat has been my reliable workhorse. Bandolier is tempting - but feels unnecessary. Everything else is expensive in terms of XP and/or Resource cost. I do wish I had given Protective Gear a try, although I don't love its 4-cost.
• Beat Cop, Field Agent, Agency Backup, Grete Wagner. These all looked like includes, but their XP and/or resource costs put me off. They also compete for ally slots, Tetsuo can't find them, and - unlike our puppy and armor - they don't actually want to soak damage. Just doesn't feel like the right fit for a tank who makes mistakes. The budget price and potential payout of the new On Their Heels is much more appealing to me for flexible clue/damage support.
• Brother Xavier. In theory, he fits better than the "exertion allies" above. Not a bad choice, but I have a strong aversion to paying 5 resources for an ally as Tommy. This is very likely to end up as a net loss, and the 2 damage payout feels underwhelming. So I'd rather put my XP elsewhere.
• The Red-Gloved Man, The Black Cat. Both look super cool and the "I can reuse this!" feel of Tommy is a definite draw. But playing them does little to actually further our goals. We want assets who make a real impact and then a hasty exit, and can't be precious about holding on to anything or anyone for too long. Use the Bangles for test support, and save your XP.
• Wrong Place, Right Time. I really wanted to love this card - "card draw and healing! win-win!" right? It's just so awkward to play. It also negatively interacts with our dogs and armor: we want the assets to take the hits, not Tommy. And we really don't want to build up a board of heavily-injured assets.

Anyway, this is my first review and I hope it's been helpful for a timely (end of 2025) look at Tommy. I hope you have as much fun with him as I did!

Really strong Investigator as it has a built in Favor of the Sun and Premonition for blesses. This makes Mateo really consistent at know exactly what symbol he will pull and what he will succeed by.

This allows him to run cards like Prescient, tabboed Jewel of Aureolus, Crystal Pendulum together with Ancient Covenant to get tons of cards. Or Recall the Future and tabooed Ritual Candles to get skill bonuses.

You can also run Ward of Radiance for encounter protection as you can guarantee the bless.

You can also guarantee success via combos suchs as

• Favor of the Sun + Mateo's ability and Blessing of Isis. Which allows you to put a bless back onto Mateo since the effect bypass the limit.
• The Codex of Ages + Mateo's ability and Blessing of Isis for the same thing.
• Mateo's ability + Ancient Covenant

So if you somehow have 2 Blessing of Isis in play, Favor of the Sun, and The Codex of Ages. You can guarantee 3 tests in a round.

It's also worth noting that Mateo's ability, The Codex of Ages and Blessing of Isis don't return blesses to the supply, so you can keep them running without a lot of bless generation.

Since Mateo is really good at pulling blesses, you can also run Eyes of the Dreamer and Breath of the Sleeper to get 2 blesses to trigger the additional effect. You can also run Spectral Razor, Read the Signs, and Ethereal Form as you can guarantee a symbol to pull them back to your hand.

If you need money, Voice of Ra is solid since you can guarantee at least 1 symbol, so the minimal you get is 3, with potential for more. Since I like to run Eyes of the Dreamer and Breath of the Sleeper, I naturally also run Olive McBride, which usually means Voice of Ra hits 5-7 money per cast. It can also be recurred via Prescient if you need more money. Rite of Sanctification is also okay as you don't actually need to fish for the blesses from the chaos bag, so you can have them sealed while still guarantee your bless pulls.

In terms of weakness management, Since Serpents of Yig will temporarily eat up all your blesses, unfortunately Radiant Smite wouldn't work. Spectral Razor and using Breath of the Sleeper without charge works, but takes two action. I'm not sure if there's a better way to deal with it.

As a bonus, if you want to do meme plays, you can try to fish out 1-2 bless symbol from the chaos bag with Breath of the Sleeper or Eyes of the Dreamer and Olive McBride, then reveal another 3 more blesses with Favor of the Sun, The Codex of Ages and mateo's ability to play Miracle Wish for 4-5 blesses.

If you want even more blesses for some reason, Nkosi Mabati and name bless as your sigil + Katarina Sojka is also an option (Though I think it's overkill and you don't have that much ally slots)

This card does not say that the performing investigator needs to have few items, but the investigator that commits it. Great card for Carson Sinclair to commit to skill tests of other investigators, while he does not really need items in his play area.

"You want a review? You can't handle a review!!!" How hard would it have been to insert a simple part-sentence "While this agenda is in play, each criminal enemy gains aloof". Feels like our group wasted an afternoon waiting for a condition that would 'remove' 'aloof' to happen, AS WRITTEN IN SCENARIO SETUP. Wish we could have been signposted here earlier. Edit: some formatting.

Paying 4xp to make a card MORE expensive feels like a really tough sell. The extra Int boost is nice, but often in low player count games there won’t necessarily be 3 clues available on the location to grab. I wish this had just decreased the resource cost and/or added a supply token, so it felt properly like an upgrade, rather than just a bigger, clunkier item