Ward of Protection

Event

Spell. Spirit.

Cost: 1. XP: 5.

Mystic

Fast. Play when you draw a non-weakness encounter card.

Cancel all of that card's effects and discard it. Then, take 1 horror.

Alexandr Elichev
Lost in Time and Space #307.
Ward of Protection

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Answering the question "Can you use Ward of Protection against act/agenda deck enemies or similar?": "When you flip to the b-side of an act or agenda and it is an encounter cardtype (typically a treachery, enemy or location), you should follow the rules for drawing that encounter card solely for the purposes of figuring out how that card enters play and for resolving any appropriate revelation effects. You should not be able to trigger effects based on having 'drawn' that card, as it was not actually drawn, and it is not clear who is doing the drawing in such an event."
Last updated

Reviews

Now that Arcane Research is a thing, I think this card needs to be reconsidered. I believe it is stronger than Ward of Protection II (which is, no doubt, a great card): while cancelling other investigators' treacheries is very useful, I think cancelling monsters is better. The 5 XP cost used to be prohibitive, given the abundance of other very strong Mystic XP options, but now that you have 1 or 2 free XP per scenario to upgrade spells, the actual XP cost will be much more palatable.

Cancelling enemies is extremely powerful. 3+ health enemies are, by and large, the worst encounter cards you can draw. Compared to treacheries, enemies take more resources, more skill tests, and more actions to dispose of. The number one way to lose in this game is to draw too many enemies in short succession and get overwhelmed. Being able to cancel the likes of Conglomeration of Spheres or Boa Constrictor for zero actions is a huge help. These monsters will otherwise suck up most or all of your turn, use up valuable spell charges, and, if the chaos bag doesn't cooperate, could easily survive into the enemy phase to cause you more grief.

This is particularly great for solo Mystics, but even in multiplayer, I think Arcane Research makes this worth picking up.

Note that this card also cancels Surge (unlike the lower-level Ward of Protections). That will be handy on occasion (particularly against Beyond the Veil), but it's really the monster-cancellation that is the big deal here.

CaiusDrewart · 3119
If you counter an enemy with this card, it's discarded. So you can avoid "vengeance X" but miss out on "victory X", too. — Django · 5070
Correct. In every campaign but Forgotten Age this is a demerit. However, it's not crippling, because a) there are plenty of nasty enemies that aren't worth VP, and b) this is realistically a very late-campaign add, and you might not be too worried about VP in scenarios 7 and especially 8. — CaiusDrewart · 3119
You can even counter elite enemies. Not many cards do that. — Django · 5070
It still very much depend on other factors, how early I would go into level 5. If you are playing with Finn and Zoey, you are likely rather want to protect the former from "Rotting Remains" then deny the later of something to play with. Also, in 3 and 4 player games, letting an "Ancient Evil" wiff is often the best use of the spell. Still, in the late campaign, it should be always worth it. Discarding a "Mindless Dancer" is better than an "Ancient Evil", even though, you have to draw it yourself. Also, if you as the mystic have "Overzealous" as your RBW, this makes level 5 a higher priority upgrade than regular. Because you also cancel the surge of the first card, just gained by the weakness, you basically can cancel (at least) 2 cards for the price of 1. — Susumu · 362

While this card benefits from having the ability to cancel any encounter card YOU draw, it loses out on utility to its level 2 younger brother by not being able to protect your fellow investigators. I'd rather have the ability to help out an investigator or even the whole party on a particularly treacherous drawn encounter than being able to discard an enemy. (which most Mystics shouldn't have a problem dealing with anyway with the right spells)

c-hung · 11
Yeah, the targeting freedom on the level 2 version makes it arguably better than this one, which odds a pretty funny position to be in. Adding to the level 2 card's lustre is the fact that many investigators can take it in addition to mystics. — SGPrometheus · 803
Also worth to notice that this card, besides discarding enemies, can break a Surge chain (Beyond the Veil, Attracting Attention from U&U, total Overzealous counter, many more nasty things). Still does it worth 5xp? — KptMarchewa · 1

So... this card lets you cancel any card drawn from the encounter deck by you. This includes monsters which I guess if you're swarming in baddies or don't have an enemy handler can be helpful, but there are genuinely better ways to handle monsters. What this card doesn't let you do is cancel Ancient Evils drawn by another investigator. This means that this card has at minimum a chance to cause you to lose six actions (since there have to be minimum 2 investigators for this scenario to come into play), two cards and two resources. This only scales upwards the more players in the game.

I cant think of any monster that takes more than 2-3 actions to deal with except boss monsters, and they aren't in the encounter deck. Plus, On The Hunt basically serves the same function by spawning it with your fighter, for 1 resource and skipping the mythos draw for the fighter.

As such, this card is basically a never pick in my view as being unable to cancel Ancient Evils just isn't worth it any other benefit.

drjones87 · 189
there is generally no single card that makes ward 5 worth it but there is one keyword I'd say is worth considering cancelling. "Surge" ward 5 blocks cards that surge, which means it can block an effective two cards by blocking a nasty surge card. Still I'd only consider ward 5 IF I had XP to burn AND I played a character who frequently ran to the opposite side of the map, beyond that yea, ward 0 and 2 are just much more solid options. — Zerogrim · 292
If you play "Return to" campaigns, that replace "Ancient Evils", that's counter your point. Because all replacement to date have been 1) less impactful and 2) peril, so you can't fend them off other players. I agree though, that in most multiplayer situation, WoP (2) is better. But it can shift towards the end of a campaign. A "Mindless Dancer" can be a worthy target. — Susumu · 362
I agree with Zerogrim, that it's a late campaign upgrade, if you have finished your priority upgrade. But it doesn't matter, where on the board you go, because WoP (2) works accross the board on any investigator. — Susumu · 362
It's rather an easy campaign final anyway, but the Dagon's & Hydra's Brood are rather "Ancient Evils" with hitpoints, as long they are slumbering. You can try, to get the doom away, but risking to make things even worse on an auto fail. — Susumu · 362
Also calculating in "a loss of two cards and two resources" is off. You simly loose the whole round, including Mythos and Enemy phase. Yes, you have 1 round of actions less time to archive the goal, but the game doesn't do anything in the meantime as well. So the loss of the upkeep phase is rather pointless. — Susumu · 362
Of course, that's not to say AE is normally not a prime target for any WoP. But there are situations, when fending off an enemy might not be better. In particular, if the board is currently swarmed, because they came in a big batch. — Susumu · 362