Hallowed Mirror

Asset. Accessory

Item. Relic. Occult. Blessed.

Cost: 2.

Guardian

Limit 1 per deck.

Forced - After Hallowed Mirror enter play: Search your bonded cards for 3 copies of Soothing Melody. Add 1 to your hand and shuffle the other 2 into your deck. When Hallowed Mirror leaves play, find each of those copies of Soothing Melody (even if they are out of play) and set them aside, out of play.

John Pacer
Before the Black Throne #313.
Hallowed Mirror

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • NB: ArkhamDB now incorporates errata from the Arkham Horror FAQ in its card text, so the ArkhamDB text and the card image above differ, as the ArkhamDB text has been edited to contain this erratum (updated August 2022): Erratum: The last line of this card's Forced effects should read: "... set them aside, out of play" instead of "remove them from the game." - FAQ, v.2.0, August 2022
Last updated

Reviews

Now unfortunately, as per the rules on Removed from Game, when Hallowed Mirror leaves play, the 3 copies of Soothing Melody are rendered totally inaccessible, since a card removed from game "has no further interaction with the game in any manner for the duration of its removal." However, there's an easy workaround for this.

Just buy 5 extra copies of Before the Black Throne. Each mythos pack comes with 3 extra copies of Soothing Melody, which would give us a total of 15 backup bonded cards. Remember, we don't have to find the 3 specific copies that came with this one specific card, just 3 bonded cards total. This should be more than enough to fuel whatever recursion games we feel like playing with Hallowed Mirror for an entire scenario.

Of course, if any 3 copies of Soothing Melody will do, why not just proxy them? It's definitely cheaper than buying whole mythos packs, and works just as well for filling out our collection with all the copies of Soothing Melody that we could possibly need.

But then, if we're not bothering to get extra copies of Hallowed Mirror, why even bother proxying? We only have 1 copy of Hallowed Mirror, so only 3 copies of Soothing Melody will ever be in use at a time. There's nothing stopping us from just pretending that, once they leave play those 3 copies of Soothing Melody have been replaced by 3 new proxies that happen to have been made with the exact same cards.

Of course, skipping all this, we can always just realize that if a rules discussion can be rendered moot by just buying 5 extra copies of a mythos pack that you then don't even have to bother opening, that maybe "Hallowed Mirror leaving play means you can't get back the 3 copies of Soothing Melody if you play it again" was never how that was intended to work in the first place.

zrayak · 86
You can replay them anyway, so this is a moot point. — Sassenach · 179
Oh I agree, but there's still been a number of people claiming that because the bonded cards are removed from the game, replaying the Hallowed Mirror/Occult Lexicon won't get them back, since removed from game means they can't interact with the game again, and I was getting annoyed. — zrayak · 86
The latest FAQ invalidates this anyway. — ddbrown30 · 3
Where in the FAQ do you come to the conclusion that you can play more soothing melodies of you play hallowed mirror for a second time? — jdk5143 · 98
I think he's saying you can't buy more packs to have access to more Soothing Melodies, because you can only ever have 3 bonded, regardless of how many times you buy the product — Xenas · 7
New faq has refixed things. Melodies are now set aside instead of removed from game, making them reusable once again. — zrayak · 86

Pros:

Amazingly versatile: if all copies of Soothing Melody are drawn, you can heal up to 3 damage and 3 horror or 6 damage/horror from any investigator and/or ally at your location in any combination. This makes Soothing Melody the equivalent of 3 copies of Emergency Aid, or 3 uses of First Aid(3) with added card draw.

Amazingly versatile part 2: with cards such as Moment of Respite and First Aid(3) you can “waste” them by not being able to use the effects fully, for example: only healing 2 horror for Moment of Respite, or only healing 1 horror from your ally and not needing the health heal from First Aid(3). By contrast, Soothing Melody has such a variety of potential targets that it’s effect will never be wasted.

Cons:

Has the common healing card disadvantage of requiring 2 actions to play and then use, although this is mitigated by the added card draw.

Both Hallowed Mirror and Soothing Melody take an action to play, meaning you need to be disengaged from enemies if you don’t want to eat an attack of opportunity to the face.

Hallowed Mirror is extremely weak to “asset hate” cards, such as Corrosion in Path to Carcosa, requiring secondary asset protection (and backup horror mitigation if removed before asset protection in place) to ensure all Soothing Melody cards in the deck can be drawn.

Guardians usually use the accessory slot for sanity protection, Hallowed Mirror denies the slot until removed from play, requiring Relic Hunter (3xp) to gain a second accessory slot.

Hallowed Mirror is only a singleton card: sources of card draw or deck searching are needed to play it reliably, as well as the resulting Soothing Melody cards.

Similar to Emergency Aid, Soothing Melody is drip-feed healing compared to First Aid’s consistency of being able to tap when required once played.

Soothing Melody is outclassed by Moment of Respite(3) on a 1:1 comparison, as well as the combo of First Aid(3) and Emergency Cache(3), although by this point you’ve spent 6xp on two cards to outclass a single level 0 card.

RollanPyro · 91
Where can i find rules about "bonded" cards? Do they count against my deck limit or not? — Django · 5072
Sry just found it, it's in the adventure but on page 2, not 1 where i searched at first. — Django · 5072
I don't know if we've had a ruling yet on whether you get back the bonded cards if you manage to recover this (or Occult Lexicon) from your discard pile and replay it. Since it doesn't explicitly say not then I'm assuming that you would, which makes this really powerful for Marie, who can take both of them since both are Occult traited and who also has access to Scavenging and Arcane Initiate, while also having free actions for spells. Although this is a guardian card it almost feels like it was designed with her in mind. — Sassenach · 179
the cards are removed from the game, when the mirror leaves play, they are not put into your bonded card pile — Adny · 1
I am not so sure. There is no such thing as a "bonded card pile". In fact the host card instructs to find 3 copies. If you replay the card (from discard or after redrawing them after reshuffle) the card becomes a new instance of the card. It is not the same card as before (the same as for example a weapon, with one ammo left that gets bounced to your hand will have full ammo after being replayed because it is not the same instance as before but a new one). The bonded rules always say the host card is "summoning" the bonded cards. I see no reason, why a new instance wouldn't summon new copies of its bonded cards. In the same vein, a new mystic asset in the next expansion will summon a bonded enemy. I don't think that discarding and replaying the asset would keep the enemy from respawning. The "Remove bonded cards from the game" is for clean-up only, as the bonded cards would otherwise stay in the discard and new copies would be added after replaying the host card. — Skeith · 2388
And another thing: If the bonded card are really "killed" on removal of the host card, the card would be dead thereafter. It would make them considerably worse as they don't do anything on there on. Think of all the treacheries that bounce or outright destroy assets. The same with say William Yorrick who can play assets from discards. Let say he discards the mirror from hand and plays it from the discard. I really don't think that this play would work the first time but not thereafter. That would be absolutely inconsistend with how the rest of the game works. — Skeith · 2388
There's a thread on Reddit about this mechanic and a guy there says he asked Matt personally about it and was told that the intention is to be able to replay the bonded cards, so I guess we have our answer. It does seem to make sense. — Sassenach · 179
Agree to fix this card from "Remove from the game" to "Put them to your bonded cards" — AquaDrehz · 200
To match other bonded cards which return, the phrasing should be: "...and set them aside, out of play." — Death by Chocolate · 1447

This card should see lots of use, since it is the first level 0 guardian accessory and healing is welcome in many guardian decks. After the first Soothing Melody, you have in effect played an Emergency Aid (but can heal horror!) plus an action to draw a card. Then the second and third melodies give great value! The total healing for all three is 6 damage/horror for 0 cards (each mirror/melody replaces itself), 2 resources and 4 actions. This is incredible value, comparable to the economy of the neutral upgrade armor and the upgraded Clarity of Mind.

Here are comments for each investigator who can use the mirror:

  1. "Ashcan" Pete. Healing is not quite as necessary for Pete so he will probably not take the mirror.
  2. William Yorick. William wouldn’t use the mirror, because when it leaves play he cannot use his power to play the melodies again. He would rather recur his Cherished Keepsake or Police Badge.
  3. Akachi Onyele. (Occult allows her to use it) Probably not worth using over Holy Rosary.
  4. Diana Stanley. A decent choice for her since many versions forgo the mystic accessories. It’s better if she uses Guard Dog.
  5. Jim Culver. Hard to compete with the mystic accessories, but a few versions may choose the mirror.
  6. Marie Lambeau (occult). Her power makes the melodies a free action. But again, hard to compete with the mystic accessories.
  7. Joe Diamond. He should use it since he doesn’t have another accessory and he wants extra healing for damage and horror resulting from his low willpower and agility.
  8. Rex Murphy. He could use it but it doesn’t help his investigate focused plan.
  9. Carolyn Fern. I think she loves the mirror enough to skip her other accessory options. Each melody can be split to activate her power and heal a damage too. She can protect the mirror using Ward of Protection.
  10. Leo Anderson. Big money versions may want Lucky Cigarette Case or Decorated Skull. But some versions may use the mirror.
  11. Mark Harrigan. Auto-include for him! The healing will undoubtably help balance his power sanity and activate his power. Funny to imagine him singing a soothing melody into the mirror while holding his tommy-gun though!
  12. Roland Banks. He likes the healing to balance low sanity, and doesn’t have any accessory clashes at level 0.
  13. Zoey Samaras. Clashes with her Zoey's Cross, so she probably wouldn’t use the mirror.
  14. "Skids" O'Toole. May choose the mirror unless he goes for Lucky Cigarette Case or Decorated Skull.
  15. Jenny Barnes. Probably doesn’t justify 1/5 slots for her, and she likes her cigarettes.
  16. Lola Hayes. You might think she would like this since she’s an actress. But whenever she draws her weakness on guardian she immediately smashes the mirror, so it isn’t good with her.
jmmeye3 · 625
I think solo or 2 player Carolyn will still prefer St. Hubert's Key over Mirror since she really doesn't need that much horror healing in her deck, however I could see her running both in multiplayer if she moves into Relic Hunter and has a backpack. At the very least it beats Logical Reasoning. — StyxTBeuford · 12987
The Hallowed Mirror has the "Blessed" trait so Father Mateo can use it, too! I don't know how effective it is for him to use it, though. — ArkhamInvestigator · 303
I don't know that it necessarily clashes with the other mystic accessories. This isn't a card that you'd want to rush into pay as soon as you draw it. Often you'll go through a scenario without needing too much healing capability, in which case you can just hold onto it in your hand. But in the event that you do need to do some healing then bumping out your rosary is not going to be a problem, esp since the later in the game you play this the greater your chances of drawing into the spells. It's only a 1-of so doesn't cost much deckspace and could be hugely useful at times. I definitely plan to run it in my next Akachi deck. — Sassenach · 179
Good point Sassenach, there is little harm in waiting to play the mirror. — jmmeye3 · 625
Regarding action costs, mirror and 2 melodies need to be drawn somehow, so it "costs" 3 more actions. Compared to other healing options it's also very inconsistent, needing to draw the mirror first. That aside, i've played this card and the flexibility is pretty good, as well as the card draw. Side note for carolyn, if you heal 1 horror on 2 different investigators, each gain 1 ressouce. — Django · 5072
Compared to First Aid 0, it only costs two actions to heal the first 2 (instead of 3). It costs a draw and action for each 2 after that but has a potential total 6 (instead of 3). That said, nobody has accused First Aid 0 of being an impressive card. — Death by Chocolate · 1447
Also in terms of favorable comparison to First Aid 0, this also works on allies which is amazing on certain Allies such as the Beat Cop or Dem Agency Boys who use their stats as a resource. — Death by Chocolate · 1447
Ursula Downs can also take this. Gives you a little bit more security against Charon's Obol, at least — Zinjanthropus · 227

So if I have a fellow investigator who doesn’t really have any decent accessories in their deck, I think I can Teamwork the mirror to them, but I keep all the Soothing Melody cards?

Or have I missed the something?

Phoenixbadger · 197
I think so. Hallowed mirror says that you remove the Soothing Melodies when it leave play, if it's moved over to a team mate it isn't leaving play. — Zinjanthropus · 227
this made me ask another question — Makaramus · 5
if i card forces it to return to my hand... is that leaves play? — Roakana · 1
Nothing would happen because when you put the mirror into play you search *your* bonded cards and don’t find any soothing melodies. — togetic271 · 4