I haven't tried Exile survivor yet, so take my opinion with a grain of salt: I might be full of it and I'll edit this review if I change my mind

This card is hot garbage

Permanents that grant you exp or exp discounts are better bought at the start of a campaign: this usually does not actually come up because most cards that grant you that bonus usually MUST be added at the start (with a price attached to them): In the Thick of It, Arcane Studies, Down the Rabbit Hole. The only excpetions that I can think about is Charon's Obol, which can be bought whenever you have 2 exp to spare and Observed for 4 exp sometimes can grant you free exp; still, to get the most of these cards you must buy them as soon as you complete your first scenario if you can spare the exp

That means, you have to have 5 exp ready after you immediately complete the first level of a campaign to use Déjà Vu: I think it is possible to accumulate enough exp in every starting scenario of any campaign to purchase it, but the price is not cheap, that likely means you will not have enough exp to actually buy anything else but 1 or 2 cards. If you actually do not get enough exp to buy Deja Vu, you either must save what you got until you complete the next scenario (and get NO CARDS beside any story asset you won) or give up and just spend the exp on something else and forget about this permanent

But that's not the only problem Deja Vu has: like the high exp cost already is a deal breaker but it gets worse.

Almost every exile card (which is different from "remove from the game") is above level 0, which means it needs exp to be added to your deck, exp you just burnt buying this bloody cat

That means not only you spend A LOT of exp for something you cannot properly use until you get enough exp to actually buy some damn cards that exile, but it also means it takes forever for Deja Vu to actually pay itself in, because the exp discount does not stack, you cannot reduce the cost in exp of any card above level one further, like A Test of Will, Fire Extinguisher, Fortune or Fate, Stroke of Luck and Unscrupulous Loan (if you are unlucky to lose it). You would need to rebuy up to 3 exile cards between 3 scenarios to finally break even and reap some benefits!

Thankfully the majority of exile cards ARE level 1, so they are relatively cheap, but it does make harder to keep any card above that cost given you may have to also pay an 1 or 2 exp of your own pocket

But we are not done yet ladies and gentleman, because there is one obvious cavet that essentially leaves this card dead in the water.

It only works if a card gets exiled, of course, but sometimes you don't want or need to exile a card:

-You may just not get damage or horrified enough to lose Leather Coat or Cherished Keepsake.

-You may not find an ally with Flare

-You may not need to use Stroke of Luck effect to actually pass a skill check

-You may always pass the test of the level 2 version of A Test of Will to not need to rebuy it (or you may never need to use the level 1 version)

-You may never need to cancel that much damage or horror with Devil's Luck

-You may not take enough horror to lose Guiding Spirit

-You may not need to prevent doom with Fortune or Fate

-You may not need to use Burn After Reading (even though you DEFINETLY should use it if you purchased Deja Vu, because it synergises so well with it giving you another target for the exp discount)

-You may not need to use the exile effect of either Fire Extinguisher

-You may not have failed enough skill checks to justify using Lifeline or don't need the extra actions anyway

-You HOPEFULLY won't lose Unscrupulous Loan

Keep in mind, it's more likely for something to be exiled the more cards you put in your deck that can get exiled, but those cost exp you just spent for this guy who scratched your sofa and pissed in the living room

There is a reason why Charon's Obol is considered a staple for most rogue decks: I do not agree because the unpredictability of the campaign might catch you off guard and cause you to lose all your deck progress in one fell swop, but on a replay, once you know what the game is gonna throw at you, it's without a doubt one of the strongest cards in the game. Just pay itself out in the time frame of one scenario and scales so well. Sure unlike the Obol, you can stack Deja Vu twice, but that would be one of the biggest meme decks I ever seen to spend a total of 10 exp on permanents that do nothing until you get 6 more or so

About the only good thing I can say about this card, is that the visual joke with Stray Cat is actually quite subtle and clever

This card is a Mystic's Rabbit's Foot, except it can also randomly draw cards if you don't get hit by a check, and gives a buff to the one stat that you really care about. It also gains value as the difficulty of the campaign increases, since you will end up eating more random (3)/(4)-difficulty treachery checks on your bad stats - declare that your stat will go to zero, get hit by the usual -3 token, and hey, free card.

Really kind of a shockingly good card for level 0, and if you're trying to play a strong Mystic then I would call this an auto-include. It's powerful synergy with commonly-played cards like Premonition is the icing that it didn't need.

It is an excellent card in unique circumstances. For example, this saved in 'Stick to the Plan' and a Rogue in the party that generates a lot of resources suddenly makes expensive cards not so expensive to use for the entire party. You lose one round coordinating in exchange for bringing the 'big guns' combo of your deck, this can turn over on an elite encounter.

The bad part is that you are limited to a Guardian and a Rogue, and having too many expensive cards (for this to be useful) can be counterproductive early.

This is definitely one of my favorite custom cards from SK. It actually does something that I didn't think would be possible because of the likes of melee weapons. It makes playing firearms not only fun, but effective.

Let me ask, do you guys play with the shotgun(4)?

It's a tough card to play with. It gives you +3, and you have the chance to deal round 5 damage per attack. Which kills bosses quick. But you do have to work for this number, and especially on hard and/or expert. You will find that you may forgo using this weapon because it just is not reliable.

-What if you pulled a -6 but the card says "try again"

-What if this card said "+5" instead of "+3"?

-What if you did at least 3 damage, you actually do 4 instead?

-What if using extra ammunition gives you a Chance at 20 damage instead of 15?

-What if you were fighting a big monster off a friend, and pulled that damn auto fail. You DONT murder your friend?!

That's the power of this card WITH 1 WEAPON!!!! It's insane what combos you can pull off, Tony attaching this to saw-off shotgun(5), with +2 fight and the usually over success mechs makes it more reliable to over succeed 6. Makes small side-arms like colt .32 or .45 pack a real punch with quick silver.makes cards like the Mauser c96 and even the Beretta M1918 more reliable. I made an insane deck with Becky being my main damage dealer and custom mod was a cornerstone in that deck, always stick it to "stick to the plan(3)" to always see it in your opening hand.

The only downside is that,you can't negate the autofail. You MUST play weapons. It does require a ton of resources, not just in playing weapons, but it's attachment as well.

But to be real, in guardian, what else is new?

As others have said this card is not helpful on its own.

So how could it be?

Well, if the "non elite" was removed it certainly would. But then, it would be overpowered.

What if it was fast? Doesn't matter, you're out anyway and getting one extra action out before you blow yourself up probably isn't going to make a difference.

How about cost? It's 0. It can't be any cheaper.

What about if the trauma goes away and you're just defeated? This makes it a little better, but you still probably lose the scenario and those penalties can be worse.

The only thing we are left with then is... what if you aren't defeated? Two ways to do that. Either an upgraded version of this card deals damage to you and everyone at your location to clear then out (wait isn't that just Dynamite Blast), or guardians get an ally that specifically intercepts being defeated (something along the lines of "when you would be defeated, Exile this card. It is defeated instead). This would work, but would also technically screw up encounters as some automatically defeat you when time runs out.

So... there is really no way to make this card useful even with future versions. It's a dead card.