So I am coming around on Silas, the same way I did on Mary, and for the same reason: more cards were released in their campaigns, and those cards play to their strengths.

Many new cards, like signum crucis (now 0xp), give you benefits before you commit them. That allows you to add a ton of bless tokens to the bag every round, either for one action or as part of the mythos phase, and with Drawing Thin, the numbers can get substantial. In a bless-heavy strategy, Unrelenting can either majorly increase your chances of success (Most of the tokens that would make you fail, including numerical tokens, out of the bag), or you can put additional blessings on it, draw cards, and let it ride.

Silas can supplement his stats in odd ways with level two Defiance, Steadfast, or advanced Guts/Manual dexterity. Want to spend money as fast as you make it? Use inspiring presence with Madame LeBranche to power either dark horse or the Mariner's compass. There’s even solo potential, with the compass, sharp vision, and Granny Orne, true understanding, or the survivor suite of fail-to-win.

I am playing with Silas and Ursula through TIC currently*, and speed is more important than the ability to dole out violence. Track shoes, quick thinking to grab enemies off of pals during their turn...it's Arkham at a sprint!

I’ve left my previous review below, but consider this one the most accurate.

*We won. [[[[Silas is a signature character for the Innsmouth Conspiracy. For a cycle all about bless tokens, it’s currently hard to pin down if he can do much that’s more effective than William Yorrick.

Obviously, Marsh will have a better time with the frequent dex checks the campaign asks for. But six boxes into the game’s life, survivors have slim pickings in terms of weapons, and if you don’t buy the Stella set, you’re stuck with the old hunting rifle and that’s about it. (Silas could be confident with the bow, running shoes, Peter, and even Dark Horse, but he has no additional action economy to make the bow effective.)

Being able to second-guess skill checks is useful, but it’s extremely hard to build out combat versatility without guardian access. Your ability to boost your attack and to do extra damage is minimal.]]]

If you want to play as Silas, try the Eldritch Horror third edition expansion, where one of his items is a shirt that keeps getting torn off.

Looks like David Renfield has written his memoir ("A Doom of One's Own"?). Like David, this card becomes more powerful the more doom you add to it. Unlike David, it looks devilishly tricky to manage.

The advantages of the card are obvious. Unlike most Mystic attack cards, the Tome neither takes up an arcane slot nor relies on limited charges -- nor is it a one off event. The ability to fight with EITHER or opens the card up to more investigators, and may provide handy flexibility if you happen to be high on both stats (eg Norman Withers). And while the card is all about flirting with doom, you can always use it to plink an enemy for one damage and never add any doom at all -- maybe handy for finishing off an enemy you've softened up with Shrivelling. But of course, that's not what we're here for! We want to load this sucker up with doom and make as many +3 skill value, +3 damage attacks as we can. The problem, obviously, is that your scenario is going to be short-lived indeed if you simply binge-read the Abyssal Tome.

ABUSE IT 'N LOSE IT

The best way to work the Tome is to build it up and then get rid of it before the agenda advances. This can be done by playing another hand asset over it, sucking it back to your hand with Library Docent, discarding it with Dexter Drake's ability, or discarding it with some card like Sacrifice or Act of Desperation. If you want to keep it in play, Moonlight Ritual is there for you. Sounds easy enough: the problem is that it takes several turns to power up the Abyssal Tome. Even in an ideal situation, when you use the tome for the first time right after an agenda has advanced, and then use it the next two turns as well, you'd need the agenda to have a doom clock of at least 5 not to have advanced it early. And again, that's assuming you were able to use it every turn, no other doom appeared on the board, etc. In many if not most situations, you'll be looking to dispose of the tome before you've had a chance to fully charge it. Unless you're good at...

SPEEDREADING

There are two ways I know of to get two doom on the Tome in a single turn. Knowledge is Power lets you trigger the ability for a free action without exhausting the Tome, allowing you to use it for an action later in your turn. That's nice, but the lady who really loves this tome is the Misses of Abysses herself, Abigail Foreman. In this situation, she's as good as a Knowledge is Power every turn. The first turn you use her, you're looking at two attacks for a total of 5 damage -- all for one action! If you use her the next turn as well, that's two Abyssal Missiles for a total of 8 damage. Unfortunately, Knowledge is Power and Abigail Foreman are both cards, and the latter is level 4. Plenty of investigators can take Abyssal Tome and Knowledge is Power: Daisy Walker, Gloria Goldberg, Jim Culver, Luke Robinson, Marie Lambeau, Norman Withers. But only one, Daisy, can take Abyssal Tome and Abigail Foreman.

Many other cards besides the Abyssal Tome itself have been discussed here, and that's kinda the point. It'll take some commitment to make this card work. For best results, you need cards to help you ditch the Tome before it advances the agenda, and other cards to help you pile multiple doom in a single turn. AND, since you've invested all those card spots in doom-management, you probably want to get full value by including other doom-hounds in the deck, like David Renfield, Arcane Initiate, and maybe De Vermis Mysteriis. This is the kind of card that comes close to dictating an entire deck.

Is it all worth it? Especially when you can just, say, use a pair of blessedly simple Shrivellings for your damage dealing needs? I'm inclined to think an elaborate Abyssal build would prove finicky. Finicky, but fun! The best reason to run this card may be that you just like roleplaying a mystic who is tapping into dark forces for extraordinary power, forces that may end up proving difficult to control...

So, if I read this correctly this card does not interact with non-skill cards committed to the test. Makes you think how many skill cards you need to run in a Silas deck to reliably hit for 2 with this.

I'm just gonna say it. Gloria is the strongest solo investigator in the game and it's not even close.

This may seem like a bold statement, but it really, really isn't. Her ability to transform the encounter deck into a toothless husk is just so unbelievably powerful that it makes most scenarios an absolute breeze, even on higher difficulty levels.

Why is this so?

It's generally regarded that enemies are the worst cards to draw from the encounter deck. They are not only significant action sinks when playing solo, but you have to deal with them in some way, since the threat of attacks of opportunity often prevent you from doing the things you need to do in order to advance the scenario, and hunters will hound you mercilessly until you dispatch them. So...it follows that if you could somehow play the game without ever drawing enemies, it would naturally become substantially easier. Of course, treacheries can also be nasty with those pesky willpower tests.

Gosh, wouldn't it be amazing if we had an investigator who could singlehandedly address both of these issues?

Gloria's ability allows you to look at an extra card from the encounter deck and then decide what what to do with one of the cards you've looked at. There are currently only a handful of cards that let you peek at the encounter deck, but there are two standouts that can effectively neutralize the encounter deck right on turn 1 for 0 XP.

Alyssa Graham, when used in combination with Gloria's ability, lets you look at the top two cards of the encounter deck. If one of them is an enemy, you just banish it to the discard pile. And you can do this, actionlessly, every single turn. With only a bit of good luck, you can complete scenarios without ever drawing a single enemy. It's a truly magicial feeling.

Alyssa is the real powerhouse, but If you can't get her out on turn 1, Scroll of Secrets lets you peek at the bottom two cards of the encounter deck and choose one of them to move to the top. Pick one with a low-to-mid difficulty willpower test and breathe a sign of relief knowing that the next mythos phase will be a cakewalk. Granted, you can only do this three times before you run out of secrets, but that gives you a bit of extra time to coax Alyssa out of your deck.

Now of course, nothing is foolproof in Arkham and even the best-laid plans fall through from time to time. At some point, you'll get unlucky and you'll find two enemies in a row on the top of the deck, or the act or agenda will force an enemy upon you. And this would be a real problem if Gloria didn't have access to all of the Mystic class' outstanding contingencies. You'll likely be packing Shrivelling or Azure Flame for boss fights anyway, but strong one-off effects like Spectral Razor and Ethereal Form provide great escape valves for when things don't go your way. I'd be remiss not to mention Sword Cane as well. Heavens to Dagon, that is one handy doodad.

And then there's that statline. As if it weren't enough to perpetually be one step ahead of the mythos, Gloria is only the second investigator so far (besides Norman) to have both a 5 and a 4 in her line. With her 5, she has great defense against all those treacheries you'll be drawing. And of course, as a mystic, she can leverage the stat to do whatever you need it to do on the proactive side. But with a 4 as a backup, you've got a great act-advancing tool right from the get-go, without having to rely on cards like Sixth Sense. Wait a minute, Alyssa also gives you +1 intellect boost? Great sizzling synergies!

Gloria's and are useless, but you'll be forced to test them so rarely, that it almost doesn't even matter.

We don't know what Gloria's signature cards are yet, so let's take a look at her replacements. Ruth Westmacott is a pretty terrible ally for solo, but is decent at higher player counts as Gloria's encounter mitigation shifts away from avoiding treacheries to helping her teammates deal with them more directly. With that said, in order to put Ruth to good use, you have to have her in play AND have placed cards underneath Gloria AND then you need to find a pair of traits to match. This feels like a lot of moving parts to coordinate and honestly I'm not sure it's better than Alyssa, even if only for her intellect boost. In addition, in scenarios with certain treachery cards, you are going to want to keep them buried under Gloria until the end of the scenario, further limiting Ruth's effectiveness.

Liber Omnium Finium is a hilariously mild weakness. If you don't ever place cards beneath Gloria, you can essentially ignore it, although you will keep drawing it over and over again. This can be a bit of an annoyance, as Gloria doesn't have the best card draw, and likes to keep her hand filled with all those mystic panic buttons. Perhaps a better plan is to find a weenie treachery to stash away. This way, you can get rid of Liber Omnium Finium for good, and only need to pass a mid-difficulty skill test. PRO TIP: if this card is still looming, don't place enemies under Gloria!

What about multiplayer? With two players, Gloria's encounter management is still very strong and can still be enough to avoid enemies altogether, especially if you can get both Alyssa and Scroll of Secrets on the board. At the same time, if your partner is someone like Zoey Samaras or Tony Morgan, maybe you don't mind sending a juicy VP enemy their way. At three and four players, Gloria's ability is still helpful, but I think she starts to feel more like a run-of-the-mill flex mystic. But whereas some strong solo investigators really drop in power in large groups, Gloria will never be dead weight on the team.

Finally, we should take a quick look at Gloria's options for her secondary class. The short answer is...it frankly doesn't matter too much, since most of the cards you probably want to pack are already mystic cards. Resource economy is always good with Gloria (and all Mystics, really), so money cards like Crack the Case and "Watch this!" are solid adds. I've found that in solo, Gloria is already so action-efficient that normally great time-savers like Working a Hunch and Shortcut are of speculative value. Gloria also likes extra card draw, so anything that helps on that front is a welcome bonus, although you can get a lot of what you need from the neutral skills. Of the three options, Rogue is probably the worst as so many of the events and skills are - focused. That's not going to stop me from bringing a green Gloria through my next campaign though.

I think that once people discover how astonishingly strong Gloria is for solo, we are going to start hearing the loaded terms "broken!" "cheating!" "taboo!" pop up in conversations surrounding her playstyle. I don't really think this is fair. Gloria's ability is thematically a masterstroke (of course she doesn't run into enemies, she already knows where they all are), and while powerful, doesn't make the game feel un-fun or rote. If solo isn't your thing, she is definitely well-balanced for group play. But if you've been frustrated by the swingy-ness of true solo, give the writer a try. You might find that it's actually not hopeless after all.

So I've only theory-crafted this and have no practical play experience, but...

This seems quite good in a 'four-action' Joe Diamond build that makes sure every card in its hunch deck is fast and can be played for free (or close to it).

He's a seeker that can play it that also has the capability to fight enemies. He can pass the book test for the most part. The free cantrip is great for refilling your 'real' hand and you still can use it for its intended purpose of setting up a huge blowout for an allied investigator before moving on to find clues.

Admittedly, the flaw in this plan is of course 'if you could already pass the book test as a 4, 4 character, why wouldn't you just fight to begin with?'

It is entirely possible that Joe as a Seeker 5/Guardian 2 has better/quantity access to icons, meaning that it is easier to pass the test than the test. In addition, passing the book test means that you have to commit 0 skill icons to the test, as you'll always succeed barring the token. And, minor note, it is possible that fellow investigators have better access to icons to help commit to the test, rather than , but that's just conjecture on my end.

Anyways, interested to hear what other people think about this very niche, very janky, and XP intensive inclusion in Joe.