Mind's Eye

I think an overlooked use case for this card is in Daisy Walker. Her willpower isn't that great, and it isn't often worth using spells that don't boost , and the ones that do boost it are too high level for her. She's not too likely to use arcane slots aside from Arcane Enlightenment or some other niche cards.

Obviously she's never going to substitute , and she doesn't need to. And it seems at first that getting a boost of only 1 to (without extra damage) or isn't really worth 2 xp, 1-3 cards and both arcane slots, but the most important consideration is Higher Education. Since it's a permanent, this combination of cards can convert any test to something that can be astronomically boosted with only a little bit of money, something that's easy enough to come by as seeker, and cards in hand, which are also easy enough to come by in that class.

It's not something that lets you fight primarily, but it can finish off a weakened enemy, and it can let you evade when desperate. It's also good at dealing with the rarer or even treacheries.

Also worth a consideration are all the seeker cards that interact with secrets. Eldritch Sophist and Truth from Fiction let you keep it around even longer, and the former lets you move charges from it to stuff that's more useful as the situation calls for. With that in mind, the three copies can be extra easy and fast secret gain, for use with other great secret assets, of which a few have been teased for the Innsmouth cycle. Though some of them also compete for arcane slots, Daisy can run Familiar Spirit in a pinch, or just run the very best slotless or Tome assets that use secrets. Old Book of Lore is a particular standout.

Overall, it isn't really necessary, or something that seekers don't have tools for already. However, most of these tools are events, and having something permanent - secret supply notwithstanding - on standby for turns where Mind Over Matter would feel like a waste is pretty good.

SSW · 216
Nicely put! I had considered this as well, though it is going to be 3 resources to play, + however many more to pump it up through higher ed. And while Seekers tend to be rather wealthy, I have noticed Daisy to be a little short on cash for me. You'll need to pump probably at least 2 resources to get the willpower high enough. But it is conservative on secret uses since you won't need it too often. — LaRoix · 1645
I generally don't find Daisy too poor, but maybe that's because I mostly play her in Dunwich, where she has access to a certain resource-gaining tome. — SSW · 216
You could always throw in Renfield to generate some more resources, soak damage, and boost wp. That actually sounds like some fairly interesting jank — Zinjanthropus · 229
I was just looking at using this with Daisy and this post covers most of it. Her Willpower can get quite high between L2 Whitton, Hawkeye and an accessory like Rosary (or Four of Cups). Having Mind's Eye makes you virtually indestructible to the encounter deck tests saving your Ward for more important treacheries, easy to pass any Parley or Test and can also evade or chip in a little damage. The limited secrets aren't as big of an issue with Daisy since she will draw through her deck finding the other copies of the card. It won't be the first upgrade but after upgrading she will power through the scenarios. — The Lynx · 987
To Fight the Black Wind

Q: Pretty sure I know the answer, but is "heal" a protected verb (e.g. A card effect must explicitly say "heal" in order to prevent the forced effect here), or do all means of removal qualify as healing? (e.g. Tommy Muldoon's elder sign effect)

HanoverFist · 744
I would think Tommy’s ability is moving, not healing, but I don’t feel really confident about that.... — LivefromBenefitSt · 1076
As far as I can tell, you can just keep a Deny Existence on hand to prevent the horror which can make you worry free during upkeep, just like Diana and now Sister Mary. — LaRoix · 1645
I think the token that was assigned to the investigator would have to have been healed by the end of the round to avoid the doom, but it doesn't have to be healed from the investigator it was originally assigned to. So if Tommy Muldoon's Elder Sign moved the horror onto Peter Sylvestre and it was healed at the end of his turn, you'd be okay. But if Tommy moved it onto a Keepsake and defeated it, the token wasn't healed so the doom would happen. — Yenreb · 15
Vengeful Hound

This has been updated to match my "Signature Weakness Project." I have done my best to make sure that the original content isn't altered too much, out of respect for any comments.

Another enemy signature weakness. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: This thing attacks Norman keeps him from drawing or revealing cards, messing with, but not completely negating, Norman's special ability. This is not a terribly difficult enemy to kill, even for Norman. In a previous review, people pointed out that it's not a hunter, so, if Norman can Evade it (or someone else engages it and Evades for him, it stays in its starting location, which might effectively put it out of play. However, with it's Evade of 3 and Norman's of 1, this is not going to happen naturally. Mists of R'lyeh could do the trick, but combat seems a better option, since Norman is even up with the Hound, even during his opening round ((Norman is unique so far that he can draw his signature weakness first turn. It's not likely, but it's Arkham). As Norman gains XP, his damage-dealing options become too numerous to mention, but, at 0 XP he is very fragile until he gets set up. Knife seems to be his traditional solution to an early Hound. It's cheap and he can throw it, getting 2 up on his test and killing the Hound if he hits. Enchanted Blade is more expensive, but it's more or less 3 thrown knives with some extra utility. Sword Cane is very attractive, since it can be kept in hand for the Hound's appearance and might be his best shot for that Evade attempt. It will take twice as many attacks to finish it, which might strain Norman's luck if he can't boost his . It's possible to get a perfect storm of a bad opening hand + the Hound on top of the deck, but that's pushing "situational" a bit far.

The discard condition: As usual with enemy weaknesses, kill it.

All in all, this is a below average signature weakness, maybe even way below on Easy or Standard.

Box vs book The Hound is a pretty easy weakness, but Split the Angle seems to get used for icons more often than it is played, so the "box" set is better, although you can run both without too much trouble.

It isn't a hunter, so always evade if possible so it doesn't go back to your deck. Norman runs through his deck very quickly, so even as weak as the hound is you'd rather not see it twice or thrice. — suika · 9497
Sure, but Norman has less chance of Evading it "naturarlly" than Ursula does punching a rat. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1076
But unless you're running Norman solo, it's probably better to let your allies evade it than to include blades or knives in your deck to fight at 4 fight, with enchanted blades 0 eating up 2 mystic slot. Better mystic solutions are the cane, mists and ethereal form, or a spectral razor. Without using a mystic 0 slot, there's mind over matter and disk, occultic invocation, or the disc of itzamna. — suika · 9497
I do mention getting your allies to deal with the darned thing, but I also want to consider cases where that isn't convenient or possible. Once Norman has some XP under his belt, the Hound gets increasingly weak. For example, Norman isn't particularly likely to be packing Mists of R'lyeh (0) because of his deckbuilding, but Mists (2)? Easy, and It makes the test 6 to 3, which is fairly certain on Satandard — LivefromBenefitSt · 1076
Blast, hit post while editing. It's also worth remembering that Norman is the only investigator who might be dealing with his signature weakness on turn 1, action 1. It's not likely, but it's there. Mind over Matter won't help, because you'll have no clues. Occult Invocation could, but it will cost you half your remaining hand. He's not likely to use both his Arcane slots at XP 0 because having more than one spell is a luxury. I tend to think that Sword Cane + Guts + Unexpected Courage is a decent safety net, although you can still get caught oyut, but that's Arkham. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1076
I think you confused Mind over Matter with I've got a Plan. Mind over Matter doesn't require clues. — suika · 9497
You are absolutely right. I always get those two mixed up during deck building. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1076
Disc of Itzamna

If I use the disc on a deep one that is spawning on me does it ever engage me or does the when interrupt it fast enough to prevent the enemy to have been considered engaged with me? (either by evading it or dealing it 2 damage and killing it)

Zerogrim · 295
Before. — MrGoldbee · 1484
Yeah, sadly it does engage you, then you evade. Compare the wording with Think on Your Feet, which definitely takes place before engaging. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1076
Technically due to the word "when" you evade or deal damage just before the enemy engages you. It's probably not intended to leave you with an engaged exhausted enemy (though that would be possible), so I'm not sure about the evade case. However, in the damage case, it definitely prevents the Forced effect from applying, since you made the enemy leave play before the "After" timing point for its forced effect. — Thatwasademo · 58
"If the card is an enemy, spawn it following any spawn instruction the card bears. (A spawn instruction is any text bearing a "spawn" precursor.) If the encountered enemy has no spawn instruction, the enemy spawns engaged with the investigator encountering the card and is placed in that investigator's threat area." PLUS The word "when" refers to the moment immediately after the specified timing point or triggering condition initiates, but before its impact upon the game state resolves. The resolution of a "when" ability interrupts the resolution of its timing point or triggering condition. (For example, an ability that reads "When you draw an enemy card" initiates immediately after you draw the enemy card, but before resolving its revelation ability, spawning it, etc.) — MrGoldbee · 1484
MrGoldbee I have no idea what you are saying, before....before what, the enemy engages before the disc OR the disc kills/evades before the enemy, reposting the rule book isn't very useful without any insight, I too read that section and found it ambiguous as Thatwasademo says, it being evaded doesn't actually stop it from engaging based on the spawn rules. — Zerogrim · 295
I don't think it's ambiguous. Before it spawns, it is evaded, disengaging it and exhausting it. Then, it spawns exhausted in your threat area unless it spawned at your location due to a spawn effect, in which case it spawns exhausted and unengaged at your location. — suika · 9497
it spawns engaged with you, then it is evaded (or killed). if it is evaded, the forced effect still triggers, if it is killed, it wont — Adny · 1
Adny, that's not correct, at least with the rules as written. Then "When" triggers before resolving the spawn (aka before placing it into the location/threat area), so the enemy is not yet engaged with you when you evade or damage it. Afterwards, if it is still alive, the spawn continues to resolve, which will result in it being placed either on the location (if it has a spawn effect for the location) or in your threat area (engaging you even if it's exhausted), if you drew it. For it to function as you describe, the trigger needs to be "After" a non-Elite enemy spawns. — suika · 9497
...actually, you could interprete the "When spawn" triggers to be after the enemy spawns in your threat area and engages you, but before resolving the effects of the spawn and engagement. In which case the resolution would be that it'll be properly evaded and disengaged. In such a situation, the enemy will have engaged you, but you won't trigger the effects of the engagement since it dies or is evaded before those effects would resolve. — suika · 9497
Tony's Quarry

Another enemy weakness, which are usually pretty tame. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: An enemy that needs killing, which is, ironically, just what Tony likes to do. It even comes with it's own bounty, so Tony can engage it for free. It's 4 combat, which is stronger than most enemy signature weaknesses, but Tony should be prepared to dish out 3 damage to such an enemy, and if he's using Tony's .38 Long Colt, it boosts him and rewards him for the kill. It would be a signature asset if it didn't come in with a Doom on it, which makes it a weaker Ancient Evils that you can cancel if you are fast enough or if it gets drawn during the Witching Hour. It has the usual "loophole" that any investigator can deal with it, although the Quarry's Aloof keyword makes that less appealing than some of the "on the board" weaknesses. If you are on a small map, killing this maybe a turn and change. In a larger map, you might just want to take the Doom hit or deploy cards like Nimble (although Tony will need some boosts before that's going to happen) or Elusive to get close, if not in, the space.

The discard condition: Kill it, if you don't feel like ignoring it.

Taken together, this is a below average signature weakness, which is almost more a benefit, except for the slim possibility of Dooming out a scenario.

"On a big map, lose a turn. Below average" — MrGoldbee · 1484
Compared to "get a trauma?" Yes. You're a tough audience. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1076
For whatever it's worth, yeah, giving a clean linear rating to cards will almost always be impossible in a game as multidimensional as this. But I'm finding the actual evaluations of the weakness effects & discards to be educational & helpful for deck-planning. Keep it up! — HanoverFist · 744
I agree with the effort but I find @LivefromBenefitSt's reviews of the signature weaknesses quite contentious. Comparing this review to Smite the Wicked that's rated as above average, for example... — suika · 9497
Losing a full turn can mean losing the scenario, which can have consequences ranging from immediately losing the campaign to adding additional weaknesses to your deck, or to take trauma anyway. There are scenarios where you can afford to lose, but even in such scenarios losing can easily translates to the team losing out on a VP they would have otherwise gotten, which would be a 4XP swing. In contrast, trauma is bad only if you repeatedly take the same trauma to a low base stat. That doesn't usually happen! The chances of Smite the Wicked causing a trauma is far less likely than the chances of Tony's Quarry causing the team to lose a turn. Zoey can even decrease the chance of Smite the Wicked coming up late if she digs through her cards during spare guardian turns and plays Daring/Overpower/Glory, while Tony can't effectively do that, since the window to dig for his Quarry during the Witching hour is so narrow. These reviews makes me wonder if I'm playing very differently from how LivefromBenefitSt plays. — suika · 9497
In this case I actually think Live is on the money. This is one of the easiest enemy weaknesses to deal with. I can only think of Graveyard Ghouls as less of an issue. — StyxTBeuford · 13043
The reason this one isn’t so bad is because 1. If you dont care about the doom, then you completely ignore it and it cost you nothing (aside from a draw) and 2. If you do care, the chances are pretty good you have the time to kill it before the doom matters. It is at worst Ancient Evils and at best an extra bounty for Tony (and a way to trigger card effects like Glory or Evidence!) — StyxTBeuford · 13043
In terms of actual actions forgone for a weakness, this still ranks up quite high no matter which way you resolve it, either in terms of move actions to/from the Quarry, or from the actions lost to the doom advancement. I agree that this isn't that bad on average because the action cost is deferred rather than paid immediately, and sometimes it just spawns close by or where you want to go anyway. But the worst case scenario is the same as the worst case scenario for an Ancient Evils: triggering an untimely Agenda advancement due to doom on the board or on Arcane Initiates/Renfields, which then leads to a scenario loss. It's not so bad. But it's certainly worse than most other signature weaknesses! — suika · 9497
Compare, for example, his rating of Siren Call as "Average" despite it costing 2 actions to remove, when Quarry will cost at least 2 actions. — suika · 9497
Honestly I think it’s below average. Maybe if there’s more threats on the board, but this is kind of like Call of the Unknown sans reshuffle. Just as Ursula will use her ability on a location without clues to satisfy the weakness, Tony can usually find a spare engage action he wouldnt be able to get on some turn otherwise. So you don’t have to pay too many actions to kill it, and Tony has the best action economy in the game. I think sure it costs a fair chunk of actions, but the fact that it plays into what Tony gets benefits from anyway makes the net cost fairly low. — StyxTBeuford · 13043
Maybe I'm just traumatized from the time this derailed us in Essex County Express. — suika · 9497
The doom effect of this card is more like an Acolite than an AE. Because it can not advance the agenda it will often NOT loose you a turn. Unlike "Dark Memory", which will always do so, if you play the card. Heck, the quarry is even less thretening than an acolite in that regard. Because, if you can ignore the doom on it, it won't trigger "Mysterious Chanting". Regarding "Smite the Wicked", I agree, this weakness is not the worst. But Zoey is beefy enoght with her 4 willpower and 6 sanity. Roland, the wimp, with 3 will and 5 sanity is a different story. I find his weakness on par with "Doomed" in 8+ scenario campaigns. — Susumu · 381
What if you draw Quarry during upkeep tho? — MrGoldbee · 1484
Honestly, re: the ratings, I think some of us as reading "an average signature weakness", but LiveFromBenefitSt often means "an average threat". I think most of us agree that signature weaknesses aren't really that bad, especially compared to the encounter deck. I'd rate this as an average weakness, which is an ancient evils in the worst case and a dead draw in the best case. — Hylianpuffball · 29
It has been mentioned on the card's review page, but I say flip it and Interrogate the s**t out of the f****r! — AlderSign · 381