Unearth the Ancients (0) was one of those cards that everyone wanted to try out when it was released in Forgotten Age. Some players here thought it was decent, others thought the card sucked and heated argumentes followed. Three years later, Unearth the Ancient (0) is practically never played, apart from the odd Ursula deck as her free, once-per-round investigation action makes it... less bad.

But now we have an upgraded level 2 version! The difference between the level 0 version and this is ...drumroll... you can now put TWO items into play rather than just one! The skill test is the combined cost of both. Plus, it's free to play now at 0 resources and yeah, they added a single icon and you'll get a clue now if you suceed at the test.

But is it worth it? I don't think so. Yes, the payoff can be great, but there's quite a few pieces you need to line up here. First you need to have the card in hand, along with TWO assets, hopefully relics, that you want to get into play. That's three cards. It should ideally be early-to-mid part of the scenario too, because that's when you usually need to play assets. And the assets really can't be too expensive because you need to be able to pass that skill test. The card gets less reliable on harder difficulties and in scenarios with evil special tokens.

And remember that the intial payoff is resources saved. You spend one card and one action, the reward is two assets put into play for free. Seekers have plenty of good economy cards, such as Crack the Case, so these are the cards we need to compare Unearth the Ancients (2) to. The exception is if the assets are relics, since card draw is always good.

TL;DR: This card is often bad, unless you can count on passing the test and you have a clue you want to find and and at least one of the cards put into play are a relic. Then it's good. It's just that you need a rather specific type of deck and quite a bit of luck to get there. Me, I would rather spend those 4 experience points on something less risky and more generally helpful.

I think this card is strong, and going to be pretty popular (as long as you're playing anything more than a monoseeker deck).

While Seekers do get a number of cards that let them be nippy - Shortcut, Pathfinder, this card has three things that make it worth the cost.

• Firstly, it's a fast. This is great for both action efficiency and as a panic button (cause it doesn't provoke AoO).

• Second, it's move to any revealed location. This is obviously why it has a chunky cost, but by hokey I think it's worth it.

• Third, the cost itself. The XP cost is real low at 1, so it's not a hard card to slice in, and any investigator that can splash low-level seeker can take it (Poor Norman Withers, he's just not that nimble). And the resource cost is almost...a trick? It's real unlikely to cost you 5 because you're damn sure to have at least 1 Seeker card out - the only exception might be very near the start of the game, in which case you're also not likely to have explored many locations so the card isn't real useful. So, a realistic cost of 4. And with the Edge Of The Earth's cardbase encouraging multiclass card splashing with the synergy keyword and a new host of multiclass cards - on top the existing fact that of a lot of decks already have two class cards in. So outside of EotE a likely cost of 3, and in EotE (especially if Bob Jenkins is around) possibly even 2 or 1.

I'll mention that it has a single intellect and agility icon, which is something I guess if you really need them. But you'd never want to throw this into a skill test.

In conclusion, 1xp and 3ish resources for an instant "get me anywhere" card feels like a solid and powerful card. It's not cheap, and you might only pack a single copy. But. It lets you to flash to support any other player, to flash to any player to get support, or the safety to stay in a location to get that final clue. The list goes on. In short, it gives you a lot of options to capitalise on, and big ol' safety net to boot.

Step 1: Play Lola Hayes, focusing on and for enemy management.

Step 2: Play Ikiaq and let your team never worry about weaknesses ever again. Don’t have to worry about Crisis of Identity either!

This is the biggest Lola buff in the game prior to the new synergy cards in the Edge of the Earth expansion!

Something unexpected happened when playing this card with Sister Mary in a 2 investigator team. We had all 10 bless tokens in the chaos token bag/sealed within a few turns of starting the game, thanks in part to a Keep Faith and a few activations of Blessed Blade. Then, with Nephthys down, there were no bless tokens in the token pool for the rest of the game, so I could not activate my Holy Rosary (2) and Sister Mary's end of the round power didn't do anything. I should probably just feel thankful that Nephthys was working full power, but this made me realize that Nephthys is probably even more helpful if you want to "go blessed" with an investigator that doesn't have Mary's built in power, since she (Nephthys) traps the bless tokens forever as long as she is in play, which greatly enables bless-related effects. At the least, I would probably forego most of the cards that add/save bless tokens to the bag if you choose Nephthys, because it can become redundant pretty fast.

Can you win an adventure without taking any move actions? Yes, with safeguard, shortcut or an automobile! Can you do it without getting any clues or evading? Yes, if you’re a guardian.

But can you do it without playing any items? Even in mystic, that’s difficult.

At maximum, Bob revolutionizes cross-class item usage. Sister Mary with a lucky cigarette case for draw power. Lily doing gunkata with a Thompson. Monterey Jack with durable lockpicks that start at +9. And those are just things Bob can slot naturally! With Shrewd Dealings, any non-signature item can go to any investigator in a three-player game.

At minimum, your party gets a free chance every turn to do the action everyone likes to do: fill their tableau with assets. Live a little, make some money, even in Antarctica. Maybe somebody needs a refrigerator.