Counterpunch

1 Free reactionary attack. No bonus damage or anything. It's pretty clutch when it's good, but that "good" opportunity Window is rather narrow.

You might have to engage a 3 or 5 health opponent with a 2-damage weapon, and rely on Counterpunch to finish them off.

The only obvious combo is Randall Cho, for anybody else this is probably something that gets cut in deckbuilding.

Tsuruki23 · 2556
It also has synergy with Guard Dogs and Survival Knife (especially the new one) to deal up to 4 actionless damage. And/or with Diana who wants to set up cancels anyways and sometimes has an issue of drawing too many cards and could benefit from a fast/free one if she can otherwise boost her combat enough. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
Clean Them Out

Smash, gain money.

Brilliant if you have a high base stat and are doing lots of fighting anyway.

While I wouldnt replace Emergency Cache just yet, I can imagine taking this in a deck alongside Emergency Cache to buff up the finances of a deck. Imagine taking Stand Together as well, all of a suddent the faction is kinda rich, which is exactly what they've been needing for the longest time.

The case for not taking this is basicly the fact that failed actions can be a liability. If you'dd only be fighting at 4 while using this card then I absolutely dont see it as being a must-have.

This is a non-spectacular workhorse (well, it's spectacular in Nathaniel Cho) that will be a rather useful addition to many characters from now on.

Tsuruki23 · 2556
Safeguard

ALMOST as good as Safeguard, but not quite, but 1 saved move near every turn past the point of playing this card is fantastic. There IS a little bit of tricky rules text though that ensure that you'll eventually want the upgrade.

Movement is king in many scenarios of Arkham and the ability to have a buddy cheuffeur you in and out of locations can be mind-blowingly clutch. At the end of a scenario you might have 10, 12 saved moves from ths one card, and that's just insanely good.

DO keep in mind this MAJOR rules text difference between Safeguard and Safeguard:

  • The move on this version happens -after- a friend moves, this means that unlike the 2xp version, enemies at that location will still engage your friend rather than yourself. This, of course, is a HUGE issue and is single-handedly the balancing factor that makes this a good card, but not an autotake.

That said, I do recommend this thing, it's good, but it does cost 2 resources, a rather hefty price for the resource starved faction, and obviously, it's best played in a big 4-man team, it'd be fine in 3-man, but I wouldnt play it in 2-man unless you're playing a "Beef & Brains" sorta specialist team.

Tsuruki23 · 2556
Compare to Pathfinder, even without the timing benefit and even at one move a round, free moves for a slotless 2-cost asset is great. Obviously more flexible the higher the team size, but great for any Guardian that wants to stick with their team. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
This card is better for carolyn than most guardians cause she's not much of a fighter and mostly doesn't want to be engaged anyway. — Django · 5108
did a play through of innsmouth recently and the amount of saved actions on the guarder were obscene. Constantly wishing my guardian have this if they ever don't. — Zerogrim · 295
Lonnie Ritter

There are two elephants in the room to address here.

First, Lonnie is one heck of a large pile of soak. For the cost of a resource, you can heal one damage and one horror every round. The resources aren't hard to come by, and she's also a level 0, 5 health/sanity ally who says +1 in her card text, so you aren't even feeling like you're 'wasting' your ally slot for defense. Compare her to equally costed Beat Cop with one fewer sanity and an ability that you really hope you don't have to use! Lonnie can also provide the health healing for your fellow investigators provided they bring their own items for soaking damage. Also, note that 'choosing' is part of the ability and the lack of 'must' and 'then' in her ability text. If you just need the horror, it is totally legal to choose an item without damage - or even activate the ability with no available item at all.

Second, Lonnie isn't a mechanic. She's a tailor! She doesn't fix motorcycles and cars - she fixes shirts. AHCG has a small selection of items with health, mostly 2 health: Leather Coat, Trench Coat, Leather Jacket, and Robes of Endless Night

And some high level armor with 4 health: Bulletproof Vest and Armor of Ardennes

Plus a few more honorable mentions with 1 health, so not enough health to be healed: Bandolier, Fine Clothes, and the Spooky Spoilery Snuggy

Will we one day see Motorcycles as player cards? I hope so and expect it. The motorcycle is one of the most iconic cards from Arkham Horror, and both Tommy Muldoon and Daniela Reyes are big fans of them! Plus, it is confirmed that we will be seeing the new Vehicle trait in The Innsmouth Conspiracy, but the couple of revealed spoilers have shown scenario specific assets without health stats.

But until then, Lonnie is stuck mending coats, jackets, and dresses!

Tony loves her. — MrGoldbee · 1471
It is really nice that there's finally another good L0 Rogue ally. She's also uniquely suited to helping Winifred Habbamock cope with deck-cycling horror (possibly also Parallel Skids with his 25 card deck). Also, the first Rogue ally with more than 2 sanity (which tends to be more of an issue for Rogues than damage). — Zinjanthropus · 229
Can carolyn fern play this? — Gran_Danés · 1
@Gran_Danés: Yes, Carolyn can play her. — Zinjanthropus · 229
I think, choosing an item without damage is illegal. From rule (Target part) "A card is not an eligible target for an ability if the resolution of that ability's effect could not change the target's state". — elkeinkrad · 499
As long as you heal something (item or lonnie), the games state is changed. — RocketKat · 7
RocketKat sadly that's not enough to make this a legal play. You need a valid target for Lonnie's ability, and an item asset without damage isn't a valid target. — Veronica212 · 299
It is a rules combination which requires an item with damage to heal. Target: "A card is not an eligible target for an ability if the resolution of that ability's effect could not change the target's state." Health: "An asset card without a health value is not considered to have a health of 0, cannot gain health, and cannot have damage assigned to it." — BrotherZagon · 7
Hmmm... @BrotherZagon, that is a pretty convincing point. Okay. I'm convinced that Lonnie can't just choose any item for this. However, this rule raises a new problem, which is that Well Prepared can't actually work since it involves 'choosing a target' but there will never be a legal target that has its game state changed by the ability! — Death by Chocolate · 1485
Bu — Lateralis · 7
Entering comments on mobile is tricky. I wanted to give my interpretation of the rules question around this card: it literally states that an item controlled by an investigator at the location of Lonnie Ritter needs to be chosen. That means what is written: any item. It doesn't have the 'an item with health' clause. When then evaluating the second part of the text box, one has only to try and fulfill as much as possible, that is to say heal a damage from the chosen item if possible and a horror from Lonnie if possible. — Lateralis · 7
This review is correct. You do NOT need an item to heal to activate this ability. Target :"If an ability requires the choosing of a target, and there is no valid target (or not enough valid targets), the ability cannot be initiated." Nowhere does it say that it "requires" the choosing of an item and it is not part of the cost so whether or not you have an item that may or may not be a valid target is completely inapplicable. — Vultureneck · 74
I have emailed Matt, and he says you DO need a damaged item asset. The faq will be added soon. — Cpt_nice · 78
Nevermind then, guess "Choose" implies "must" and "then" by itself. — Vultureneck · 74
In multiplayer, if you want more survivability, Zoey can take this card along with leather coat. — LeFricC'estChic · 86
In solo, though, you'll probably get a better use of your splash cards. — LeFricC'estChic · 86
where are Matt's faq? 3 years ago they were supposed to arrive soon — taras79 · 1
Also RocketKat Lonnie is not an item so can not be targeted . — Dugbo · 1
Relentless

So, its important for a review of a card to address the merits and detriments of a card, so lets get that out of the way. As an economy card, we have to compare it against the OG Emergency Cache. In order to get as many resources for the same number of actions, it has to absorb at least 3 points of overkill - that is a LOT of 'wasted' damage. It also takes time to reach that level of overkill, unless you're going all in with Shotgun or hitting a Swarm of low health enemies with Mk 1 Grenades, Dynamite Blast, Storm of Spirits, etc. (and pushing forward all the excess damage to super-overkill the host). If you draw it late in a game, you might not have enough overkill opportunities left, and unlike the Cache, you can't find this early with Stick to the Plan or Backpack.

Much of the time this can be slow, awkward, and potentially weaker ECache. It has a couple skill pips for a flexible commit in a pinch, but otherwise its worst case scenario value is much worse, but its best case is, at least in theory much better. Letting a roguish fighter with a boomstick (Sawed-Off or otherwise) Double or Nothing to blow an enemy to smithereens and walk away with a juicy payout. However, in this case, you're probably just better off using "Watch this!" and getting enough.

However, there are three Guardians who deserve special recognition.

William Yorick likes assets. And 0 cost assets that he can easily get into the discard and have as an option for his ability regardless of current finances or available slots? That's pretty tempting. Plus, do to his recursion capabilities, Yorick isn't faced with the standard conundrum of when to brake his piggy bank - because he can do so in a free trigger window just before fighting an enemy that'll let him buy it back immediately.

Tommy Muldoon's signature weakness Rookie Mistake shuffles itself back into his deck if it doesn't trash anything with health or sanity on it. Because of its wording, Relentless is a rare asset that DOESN'T have health but CAN have damage on it. So while it'd never synergize with Tommy's ability, it IS vulnerable to his weakness. Depending on what you want Relentless for, this could be an awful downside, or a spicy bonus. I choose the latter because it isn't that hard to get into play and get at least one damage on it as bait for his weakness. Of course, the weakness hits ALL of his damaged/horror'd assets, so you still have to play around that, keeping your assets fresh, and getting them hurt/defeated in bursts, but that's how you wanted to play him anyways - keep one thing vulnerable and protect the rest. Relentless provides vulnerable bait that doesn't take up any of your valuable slots.

Last, but certainly not least, is Mark Harrigan - the Guardian's guardian. His special ability triggers whenever 'damage is placed on a card you control' - that's right! Dealing overkill damage 'places damage' on Relentless and triggers it! This gives Mark two major benefits. First it gives him more opportunities to trigger his ability to draw cards, perhaps even more times per round if using tricks to deal damage fast outside the investigator phase (such as with Dynamite Blast. Second, it gives him triggers of his ability without HURTING him!!! Normally the downside to triggering his ability is he and his assets now have less health left for further punishment, but Relentless actually has inherent BENEFITS for taking more and more damage! As if Mark wasn't already a great contender for Shotgun builds, between Practice Makes Perfect and Overpower granting a lot more card advantage and reliable boosts. Relentless supports with even more refill, and turning wasted overkill into BOTH cards and resources.

And I can't talk about weird rules consequences of this card's wording without taking a moment to acknowledge Solemn Vow. If you... really wanted to... you could use someone else's Solemn Vow to move damage OFF of your Relentless and put it on one of their assets with health. Outside of niche situations of killing off a doomed Mystic ally when nobody else is hurt, I haven't thought of a good use case for that. Note that you cannot use Solemn Vow to move damage TO Relentless because it doesn't have health and thus can't have damage put on it (except by its own ability which explicitly says to do so and overrides the general rule via The Golden Rule) the same way that Archaic Glyphs can put secrets on itself with its own ability but can't have them added via other cards.

Edit: Oh, I guess I missed that you can also save the damage to give it back later if you somehow haven't taken any yourself...

Good eye on Mark! — MrGoldbee · 1471
Calvin could conceivably want to pull damage off Relentless w/Solemn Vow as a low-risk manageable way of increasing physical stats? — bee123 · 31
I feel like this card would have been great as a Permanent that lets you exhaust it to get the points instead. As it is, its super niche — brkndevil · 19