Event

Favor.

Cost: 1.

Neutral

Choose an Ally asset you control and return it to your hand. Then, search the top 9 cards of your deck for an Ally asset and play it, reducing its cost by X. X is the cost of the Ally asset returned to your hand. Shuffle your deck.

"Operator, I’m gonna need you to hang up."
Adam Lane
The Unspeakable Oath #158.
Calling in Favors

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: Can you use Calling in Favors on Helpless Passenger or Innocent Reveler? A: You can’t actually return them to your hand since you don’t "own" them. If you try to return them to your hand, they will instead go to their owner’s equivalent out-of-play area (see Ownership & Control: "If a card would enter an out-of-play area that does not belong to the card’s owner, the card is physically placed in its owner’s equivalent out-of-play area instead. The card is considered to have entered its controller’s out-of-play area, and only the physical placement of the card is adjusted.") However, in this case, the owner is the scenario itself, and the scenario has no hand. So it would instead simply be discarded (this would of course trigger the Forced effect on Innocent Revelers, so probably not the best move). But since it still is considered to have returned to your hand, you can still complete the remainder of the effect on Calling in Favors.
Last updated

Reviews

You ALWAYS take this card

IF you have the following allies in your deck

  • Beat Cop, so you can swap your damaged Beat Cop with a fresh and free Beat Cop. And you get the old patched up Beat Cop in your hand. Unbeatable.

  • Guard Dog: same reason as above. You can mix Cops and Dogs for major mayhem. Woofwoof.

  • Brother Xavier: More meatshield. Just trade him for himself. You just saved 4 coins. Prayer answered.

  • David Renfield, so you play him, you ll take some damage on him, take some doom on him. Take some coins off him. And then when doom becomes a probem, you swap him. You can even ditch Moonlight Ritual or Forbidden Knowledge from your deck. Amazing!

  • Aquinnah. Is it true? Can you recycle her just like the old and true Beat Cop? YES! But that's insane. INSANE!


But Fellow Investigator what happens when you got this idea about a deck, with one Ally card, that you need to get in play asap or else it's GG? No probem. Here is Calling in Favors the true Hero of your deck.

Other strong contenders:

  • Cat Burglar You usually want this guy before you see the first Monster popping up right next to you. Meow. Meow.

  • Dario El-Amin Two coins for one action? Yes please. He can even do work with Leo de Luca who is also on this list. Kashing.

  • The Red-Gloved Man Some people have crazy ideas about this card in combination with William Yorick. With calling in favors, you can make sure that Red Glove Dude is ready and waiting in your discard pile. Hello Mystery Man!

Did you just list every single Ally? More or less. Yes. I didn't list Stray Cat. Cats dont do favors. Everybody knows this.


A small excerpt from the interview I did with Doyle Jefferies from the local newspaper about this new appartus: The phone.

But why? Why is this phone such a spectacular invention? My readers deserve to know.

Well Doyle, it offers so much. Lets list it up:

  • Card search for what many consider to be the strongest cards: Allies. 9 Cards! Thats better then No Stone Unturned
  • You can use an Ally with a come into play effect and upgrade him or her to a more permanent Ally or use the come into play effect twice or up to three times.
  • You can heal up old Allies and play them again.
  • You get a discount on the fresh Ally. So you dont need insane economy to play all these allies.

Does this phone and ring apparatus work better when you have many friends? Yes. It starts working when you get 4+ allies in your deck. It gets slightly more reliable when you have more.

Should our friends here in Arkham consider picking up Charisma, the extremely popular parfume everyone keeps raving about.. The phone works even without Charisma, Doyle. But yes. It's delicious. Hell. You can even fit in two copies of Charisma now, for the ultimate well scented experience.


TLDR

THIS CARD IS BONKERS, CULTISTS HATE IT, ALLIES LOVE IT, PUT IT IN YOUR DECK, TWO COPIES, ALWAYS, NO REGRETS.

aramhorror · 690
Please re-edit the font size, so they won't disrupt sake composition on small/mobile devices. — XehutL · 47
Err, page (not sake) composition :) — XehutL · 47
"Cats don't do favors. Everybody knows this." (spits coffee everywhere) — bricklebrite · 460
This review was a joy to read haha. Great card and great explanations :) — Gyara2020 · 1
As a mobile reader, can confirm that don't size doesn't suffer. — Ensign53 · 2
I updated the review and changed the fontsize for all your mobile pleasure. — aramhorror · 690
Thank you. — XehutL · 47
Best card review ever. Thank you for your deep analysis and cat references :) — Trochomancy · 1
Calling in Favors has gotten even better with the introduction of Mr. Rook and Research cards. Three more deck searches and the potential to gain 2 resources on top of that? yes, plz — Zinjanthropus · 223
How about using Mandy to get TWO allies into play for free/cheap? Still waiting for the taboo on this card. — Hylianpuffball · 25

Very strong card...in very specific decks. You are only going to want to include this in your deck if you have either A.) A really strong ally that you want to get as early as possible AKA Leo De Luca or B.) You have disposable allies that you play for a one time effect such as Research Librarian. The strongest disposable ally is The Red-Gloved Man , which you could play to either grab two clues, or fight an enemy twice, and then play Calling in Favors to pick him back up to play again later while replacing him with another ally from your deck.

The problem with this card is that you are really going to want to play at least 5-6 allies in your deck, as you need to have one out first to play it, and then enough left in your deck to have good odds of finding one in the top 9 cards. Some investigators just aren't going to want to play 6 allies in their deck due to which ones are available to them, and the resource costs of those allies. Plus, you'll have to get at least one copy of Charisma to avoid being stuck with allies you can't play in your hand.

On top of that, you are going to run into situations where Calling in Favors is a dead draw, such as when you haven't got an ally out yet, or when you already have your best allies out and don't want to replace them. I'd probably only play a single copy of Calling in Favors most of the time, unless you are trying to abuse The Red-Gloved Man.

menionleah · 77
I would totally agree with menionleah. The only investigator that can utilize this card is Lola Hayes with a spesific ally deck-build. Her low sanity and health makes you either buff her with accesories or protect her with allies. Charisma is essential in this deck otherwise it wont work. — Uncle George the Farmer · 38217
Or Skids. Beat up Beat cop? Swap him with Brother Xavier. Or Leo. Or fail to find... and still pick up your ally to play them fully healed. Or trigger entering play effects. — CecilAlucardX · 10

Looking to use this in a Lola Barns deck, but I am not sure how it interacts with her role restriction.

Question: Can Lola Barns play a non-neutral ally that does not match her current role using Calling in Favors?

Daerthalus · 14
Lola's card restriction prevents her from playing cards that do not match her role. Calling in Favors lets you "search your deck for an Ally and play it". That's a pretty clear interaction to me. — pneuma08 · 26
Any card that says "put into play" works with lola regardless of class (like flare), but cards that say "play" do not. — crayne · 3
Jenny Hayes cant do that. — aramhorror · 690

This is in Response to the FAQ entry: Can you use Calling in Favors on Helpless Passenger or Innocent Reveler?

If you play any Version of A Chance Encounter on an ally from another investigator and later Calling in Favors, the ally will return to it's owners hand, not yours.

Django · 4859
Question: Can Lola Barns play a non-neutral ally that does not match her current role using Calling in Favors? — Daerthalus · 14