Green Man Medallion can reduce the cost to zero. So u might see ascetic Jenny sitting in the corner, doing nothing but moving resources to her medallion, and finally resigning herself (Don't do this in the multiplayer game).

This sounds like it was designed for Kōhaku Narukami and his Geist weakness Weeping Yurei. Although an annoying weakness if drawn at the wrong moment, you can pretty much control when the thing attacks you with a Kōhaku deck, and assuming you were investigating anyway Oculus Mortuum helps you getting the clue and at the same time stinging the little hit-and-runner. I see this as a true blessing regarding its keywords and the fact that the last damage will interrupt and negate the attack.

What a cool card right ? ... Right ???

Let's get a few things out of the way :

• It is a Relic, Melee weapon, which has similar applications to staple cards like Enchanted Blade, Runic Axe or Cyclopean Hammer when dealing with a handful of enemies.

• The damage from exhausting Storm Ruler is a different damage source from the one from the attack itself, which has a few applications like dealing 2 damage to Tommy Malloy in one hit, exposing two cards at once in Scarlet Keys (this may be the single best card in the game at exposing concealed minicards). It also has interesting uses during ... Elongated evenings (Spoiler).

• The damage from exhausting Storm Ruler can target a different enemy from the attack's target, including aloof enemies at your location (remember Whippoorwill ?).

• Unlike a spell like Shrivelling, an attack using Storm Ruler is a test and not a : You can commit Overpower to it, but not Guts.

• You may still activate Storm Ruler while it is exhausted. It will only deal 1 damage, but sometimes that's all you'll need.

• You need to succeed to get the bonus damage. This means that resoving 2-3 Scenario tokens (///) to deal +2/3 damage doesn't work if these tokens cause you to fail the test (which is already quite common on Standard, and even more so using the Hard/Expert Scenario Card) !

• Rules : Tokens that are Canceled (Jacqueline Fine) or Ignored (Dark Prophecy) do not count as being revealed for the purposes of Storm Ruler.

By pulling a Scenario token when using Storm Ruler, the damage can bump from 1 to 2, which is the standard damage you want your weapon to be dealing. But how about 3 or even 4 damage ? How do we do it ? The only way to do so is to resolve additional tokens, which is not a common effect :

• Jacqueline Fine : If you reveal Scenario + Scenario + , you may cancel the and resolve two tokens for +2 damage. Quite unliky however. Jacqueline's ability is still a huge help to get the damage from 1 to 2, but will just about never help you reach 3 damage.

• Olive McBride and Olive McBride : Allows you to resolve 2 tokens out of 3/4. Much like Jacqueline Fine, Olive will help you fish for Scenario tokens to get that +1. the ability to get that +2 damage is more likely than Jacqueline Fine, provided you are able to overcome the modifiers that come with these tokens of course.

• You can also notably combo Olive and Jacqueline to deal 4 damage : Use Jacqueline Fine's ability on the initial token, and Olive McBride's ability on one of the 3 tokens pulled. If Olive finds 2 Scenario tokens, and the other two are and a third Scenario token, you can cancel the and resolve 3 Scenario tokens (Don't forget to pack your Ritual Candles !).

• "Hit me!" : Not a great option, but hey, that's an extra token. Of course, skulls will cause you to , so there are less targets to fish for than you'd like, but it does technically work.

There are only two more options that can cause you to reveal extra tokens (without ignoring/canceling them), and both are Investigator weaknesses :

• Dark Future : You just need to find a way to reveal a lot of tokens (Olive McBride, Dark Prophecy, Grotesque Statue). Good luck passing the test however.

• Glimpse the Void : Much like "Hit me!", you just reveal an extra token. Of course, Agatha Crane cannot add Storm Ruler to her deck in either or , and doesn't have great stats for it anyway, but it counts.

So yeah, not great. As has hopefully been demonstrated, getting 3/4 damage out of it is incredibly hard and unlikely, on top of being very dangerous (messing with multiple Scenario tokens at once).

OR IS IT ??? .... Sighs ...

Remember when I said resolving extra tokens was the only way. I lied ! There is a way to reveal extra tokens without resolving them. It's called Rod of Carnamagos. For those who still haven't heard, there is a player window during Step 2 of a skill test, that you can use to activate the rod. This will reveal 5 tokens, which are neither cancelled nor ignored, and will count as revealed for the purposes of cards like Storm Ruler. You can also use abilities like Jacqueline Fine's or Olive McBride's ability while using the rod, fetching even more tokens without ever having to Resolve any of them. It's risk free. So yeah, there we go ! This card does work after all !

And that sucks.

For comparison : combining Olive McBride(2) with Jacqueline Fine's abilty will always get you exactly 6 tokens revealed. Using Rod of Carnamagos will get you 5 tokens, with a 6th one from the actual skill test, the exact same amount. With the former, you'll have to resolve 2 nasty tokens if you are hoping to get +2 damage, with the latter, you are just taking a standard skill test, at what is likely a very high skill value.

I find it tragic that the best use case for Storm Ruler that doesn't involve Rod of Carnamagos (Olive McBride + Jacqueline Fine), with the Investigator whose ability is built to do token manipulation, is outmatched by any other random mystic just using Rod of Carnamagos. I find it even more absurd that the card Storm Ruler works best with, is one it has anti-synergy with : If you want to add curses to the bag to benefit from the Rots, you will be less likely to reveal Scenario tokens when using the rod for Storm Ruler.

It seems like the designers have recognised this problem, as both Breath of the Sleeper and Eyes of the Dreamer, which come from the same expansion, explicitly mention ignored tokens and therefore don't work with the rod. But unfortunately, the big shiny 4 xp card didn't get the same treatment.

The solution to me just seems simple : Taboo and make Rod of Carnamagos cancel (not ignore, to not have it interact with Breath of the Sleeper / Eyes of the Dreamer) all non- tokens. It would still work with Eye of Chaos and Armageddon, but it would no longer be the best enabler for Storm Ruler. And Song of the Dead. And Shards of the Void. And Ritual Candles. And whatever card they might release in the future. And maybe once that's done, we can get an actual good card for the Token Manipulation archetype that is designed for it, as opposed to one that was designed for something else entirely and took over the archetype by accident.

Without the Rod, This card is essentialy an alternate to Wither(4) : Both will allow most Investigators to fight with similar skill values for 1 damage, for the rest of the scenario, and deal 2 damage with Scenario tokens. I think Wither(4) is the superior option in most cases : The Spell Trait does a lot for , from Prophetic to Sign Magick to Uncage the Soul, the fight is easier for to commit icons to, the Fight/Evade debuff is generally useful (especially in boss fights), and it is one resource cheaper. The reason I've mostly only talked about is because, despite this card being "neutral", the only investigators that can take it are Mystics, Sister Mary and || Wendy Adams, and because all the enablers for it come from the card pool.

If you care about Wither(4) and don't have the arcane slot to spare for it, or are running Scarlet Keys, then maybe consider this card. Otherwise, either go nuts with that stupid Rod or stay away. It's not worth it.

This review was brought to you by the "I Hate Rod of Carnamagos" Club.

I like this card a lot. The 10xp is totally worth it. You can have only one investigation spell in your entire deck, for example Sixth Sense and have 100% consistancy with it. This creates a lot more flexibility in the rest of your deck and gives room for many different ideas. More cards like this, please.

This card would be so much better if it was simply a Uncage the Soul for guns, play a firearm and reduce its cost by 3, the thing about playing an upgrade is super clunky, you will hardly ever have this card a gun and the upgrade all at the same time in hand, a bunch of upgrades are fast already and it also requires you to have the resources to pay for your gun (which will probably still cost 1 or 2) and the upgrade. I’d much rather just have the extra 1 resource discount.