Asset. Ally
Ally. Assistant.
Cost: 3.
After Dr. Elli Horowitz enters play: Search the top 9 cards of your deck for a Relic asset and attach it to her. Shuffle your deck.
Each Relic asset attached to Dr. Elli Horowitz does not take up any slots (it is still considered to be in play and under your control).
Tutors (i.e. cards that search your deck for a card and draws it) are only as strong as the selection of cards they can draw for you, which for the case for Dr. Horowitz, means she's as good as the relic cards in your deck. This observation, combined with the fact that the good doctor is a lvl 0 card, makes her a bit fiddly at the start of a campaign, where she'd feasibly be included unless you're willing to pay one exp for her later on.
There are, as of Dream-Eaters, six lvl 0 Relic cards, and only one relic, Tooth of Eztli. Of these relics, four occupy the accessory slot, which means extra relics in your deck will not be playable unless the first relic you play leaves your play area for some reason or other. This, coupled with the fact that the available relics don't synergies all that well, leaves Dr. Elli Horowitz rather lacklustre at best...
...Right until the likes of Key of Ys, Timeworn Brand, and Pnakotic Manuscripts start populating your deck, then you'll be praying she ends up in your starting hand. The more expensive the relic's resource cost, xp cost, and number of slots they occupy, the more value Elli will provide by completely ignoring the resource and slot costs, and speeding up the process of getting out your big hitter cards.
This doesn't make her any less fiddly though; once you're committing to including her in your deck, your selection of upgrades shrinks a fair bit. You'll likely be investing into at least one Relic Hunter and one Charisma, the former as insurance in case you draw two or more of your relics before Elli, and the latter because you'll likely want to include other allies in your deck, especially early on in a campaign where her usefulness is lacking. And of course a significant portion of your earned exp will be spent on relics, of which thankfully you get some leeway on where you want to take your deck, either in a combat-focused direction, or a more clue gathering angle, or a whole range of unorthodox functionality.
In conclusion, Dr. Elli Horowitz is the type of card you build an entire deck (and upgrade path) around; you certainly don't use her for her early-campaign power and then replace her once you get some exp. No half-measures; either she is the focus of your deck, or she isn't in your deck at all.
As for which investigators she'll likely be collaborating with often; naturally Ursula Downs has the relic synergy to make full use of Dr. Horowitz, and Mandy Thompson will get extra value from her tutoring effect. But special mention goes to Jim Culver, as the blog Rite Of Seeking made an excellent case for their pairing in their Big Relic Jim article (source:)
To summaries what said over there, Jim is the only investigator that can take Dr. Elli Horowitz and whose signature card is a relic (that doesn't start the game in your play area already), and to whom Enchanted Blade works nicely if it didn't occupy an arcane slot.
Tried the card in our recently finished Dunwich Legacy campaign in a relic-heavy Jim Culver deck with Chthonian Stone, Key of Ys and a few other relics. Sure helped a few times, albeit being rather expensive from three resource. As a side note, have you noticed the woman in the picture looks like Lara Flynn Boyle from 1990s TV show Twin Peaks? :-)
Norman Withers can play stupid games with this lady.
Namely, True Magick takes up neither hand nor arcane slots while under her control. He can place it on top of his deck for guaranteed tutor using his signature. Both his signature and True Magick can be tutored by Research Librarian.
Norman also gets to play dumb games like using Livre d'Eibon to place Enraptured on top of his deck, then Written in the Stars to place a load of charges on something while spending a whole turn investigating 6... something like True Magick.
With Astrological Atlas/Livre d'Eibon in play, you can get away with a serious amount of shenanigans recurring cards like Enraptured and Fearless. Eli holding True Magick, you can also get a giant Clairvoyance or Shriveling once a round only limited by what you've got in your hand, and Norman, being a Seeker, can draw like a beast.
This card is nuts on True Magick, and Norman is a great candidate for reaching both.
What happens to the Relic attached to Dr. Horowitz when she leaves play? I think its discarded.
Anyways there are some nice combinations like:
If its really worth picking up the Ally-Slot + Dr. Horowitz is not allowed to die. I`m not sure.
As I understand here, you attach a relic card when she enters play only? So there is only one attached at a time? The EACH relic bit has thrown me off.
As I understand here, you attach a relic card when she enters play only? So there is only one attached at a time? The EACH relic bit has thrown me off.