Initially, this card seems like a more complicated stick to the plan. But a friend and I checked this card for the Vale finale; the possibilities were evident. First, it makes your deck more consistent. Three cards that you know are going to be there, without having to Mulligan for them. For expensive things like Ace in the Hole, or vital combo pieces like Dirty Fighting, that’s extremely useful. Pilfer(3) and Vamp(3) are high XP cards you’ll want to see ASAP. You could place things like Warning Shot, Quick Getaway, or Swift Reload(2), to fit a variety of enemy management plans. Second, you can trigger search effects at will. Trish can use this to grab plenty of astonishing revelations. It doesn’t matter if the search actually locates a card! The third, and maybe the most important, is getting multiple copies of your favorite myriad tricks. Easy Mark and Beguile are my favorites there.

Hi, I just read the faq for this card (March 2024) and its interaction with cards like guard dog or similary that trigger reaction abilities...and I'm a bit astonished...

The question is: the Rules Reference for triggered abilities states literally "For any given timing point, all forced abilities initiated in reference to that timing point must resolve before any reaction abilites referencing the same timing point in the same manner may be initiated".

So why this forced ability doesn't trigger before the reaction one this time?? I'm a bit perplexed....

Don't make the same mistake I did...this card only disables abilities of the actual locations, it does NOT affect abilities of cards controlled by investigators AT those locations. So feel free to gain that Lone Wolf resource, or to use any weapons or spells you might have to get rid of this of this enemy, or any enemies connected to it.

In the original Agnes, there are better cards for this slot, so you should probably play the Unadvanced version of the signature asset and weakness.

In parallel Agnes, this card is excellent, especially when paired with Scavenging (2) (using Parallel Front for Agnes, and Original Back / Deckbuilding for Agnes). This card can take the damage used with you ability to play spell events for cheap and with recursion. It can also take the occasional horror from Shrivelling, Clairvoyance, and every mystic's favourite Ward of Protection. Once it's use up, recur it back with Scavenging and go again, playing an endless supply of cheap events.

It's not clear whether the horror taken by Agnes' weakness can be placed here. When I played this, I assumed I could tank the 2 horror onto the Heirloom because the weakness has a player card back, not an encounter card back, and thus is a player card?

This is definitely a signature card worth building your deck around. There are of course other ways to manage the excess damage taken from using your ability, but this card providing a great soak-to-cost ratio, and allowing you to draw a card every time you play a spell (usually going to be an event), really does cement Parallel Agnes as a solid investigator option for your next game.

In the original Agnes, this card should be considered nothing more than a skill card. A skill card that you can potentially recur with Scavenging.

In parallel Agnes, things are a bit different. The upgraded version of this card is much better for parallel Agnes, but this original version of the Heirloom still has it's uses.

But overall, as identified by reviewers 7 years before me, this remains one of the worst signature cards. Which is particularly brutal when you consider that Agnes also has one of the worst weaknesses in the game too!