Brother Xavier

One of my most memorable plays with Brother Xavier was at the end of Dunwich Legacy, where I was facing a big 5 health enemy, and had Brother Xavier in play.

I played upgraded Dynamite Blast, which put 3 damage on me (well, on Brother Xavier) and then 3 plus 2 on the enemy. Not that memorable in terms of fluking a lucky draw from the chaos bag, but testless 5 damage in a single action was incredible.

No, what made it memorable was thematically I think we can all work out what Brother Xavier did. What a noble sacrifice.

Phoenixbadger · 199
Costly tho — MrGoldbee · 1486
I feel like Brother X. has a lot of combo potential. Dynamite is one. Blood Eclipse is another. — Zinjanthropus · 230
The Truth Beckons

This might be useful for Luke Robinson on some maps. If you have it at the beginning of the game: play 'The Truth Beckons' and pick an unrevealed location as far away as possible, move there hopefully revealing 3-4 locations on the way. All of those revealed locations are now connected to your 'Dream-Gate' (you can play events from your Dream-Gate to those locations -once per turn- or teleport there when you leave the 'Dream-Gate')!

should have read the card more carefully :(

11zxcvb11 · 3
How are you revealing multiple locations with this card? The effect explicitly ends when you reveal any location. — PowLee · 15
Also tricky for Luke because it specifically says you can only play it while you're not engaged with an enemy, so you can't play it from a location with an enemy based on how Luke's ability works. This is still a really nice card. It's another good insight for Joe, probably better compression than Shortcut in low player counts (though still less versatile and not fast). It's not a reveal tool though, it specifically can only reveal one location. There's also quite a few scenarios where you want to dart across the map quickly, where tech like I'm Outta Here or Track Shoes become really valuable, and this card doesn't help you in the same way in those situations since often you will have an enemy between you and the exit. But again, if you're Joe, that might work fine as you could just blast them to smitheroons. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Makes a nice combo with Ethereal Form as you can ghost-zip past enemies — EnglishLord · 1
Keen Eye

Keen Eye (3) is cost-heavy card and usually suffer leak of resources, so this card is sometimes underestimated. This card has same problem, and moreover it has 2 play cost. I believe most don't chooes this card, and want Physical Training. However, this card is level 0, so off-class investigator can use this. This card has great synergy with ; they have lots of money, and lots of action in one turn.

elkeinkrad · 500
I think very few Guardians play it except maaybe Carolyn or Mary, but Skids and Jenny love it. — SSW · 217
I don't think most Rogues would take this since Streetwise 0 exists, which can naturally upgrade into the Permanent Streetwise and leave behind a flexible card slot. Both Keen Eye and streetwise buff intellect, but rarely do Rogues spend their whole turn investigating, and they often evade instead of fight. I think I most like this card for a lean Joe Diamond deck that relies on skills more than assets or expensive events, and even then I doubt it would make the cut. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
must card to make tommy a wel rounded investigator... 3 lore and 4 fight can increase a little bit thanks to the resource management Tommy had — isuscbrmid · 56
Why does this cost 2 when streetwise 0 cost 0? — fates · 54
because this gives +1 until end of phase vs. streetwise (lvl 0) gives +2 for one skill test... still, this is too expensive, unless one has a way to capitalize on the "until end of the phase". Someone using police badges for mega action turns perhaps — pestis · 33
Decorated Skull

This card is completely broken in War of the Outer Gods, where not only are there Swarming enemies that each add a charge to the skull when they die, but the Warring and Aloof enemies will kill each other on your location without you even having to do anything. It doesn't quite break the scenario on its own, but it is an insanely powerful draw and resource engine as just a single card, without even having to dedicate your deck to fighting,

SSW · 217
Blood Pact

This is an amazing card in Dexter. In fact, you probably never even level it up in him. It boosts Dexter's favourite two stats - as a mystic, and for rogue guns as a backup, or when his weakness is messing with his will score. Combining it with Showmanship you can have a turn of +4 on each test of something you played that turn, and so long as you have an asset in your hand to play the next turn and the doom threshold is high enough, you can cycle it out before it would cause you to lose turns.

In a way, it's even better than items that run out of charges because it combos with pretty much any that you would play in Dexter. You can play it out early, and wait until either a turn you need it, or until the witching hour.

Naturally, its usefulness depends on the threshold of the level, but another benefit to Dexter is that it can simply be replaced for levels it isn't useful in with Adaptable (which is another reason never to upgrade it, too).

Outside of Dexter, I'm less sure. Sadly, it's harder to discard as any other mystic, though cards like Sacrifice certainly help. However, unlike most of the permanent stat-boosters, multiple copies are useful, which applies to both its level 0 version and level 3 version. Whereas your second Higher Education becomes a useless single copy in your deck once you get the permanent (and with the high experience cost, you're less likely to be able to upgrade it into something cheap), Blood Pact 0 does not. You can keep a single copy in deck until you have the experience to buy the second permanent and not lose out on anything, even that minor.

Marie Lambeau is the obvious one to play with doom, and while she gets little from the , her 4 makes boosts occasionally necessary. Jim Culver, Diana Stanley and Akachi Onyele can also make use of the boost, with Jim also suffering from having 4 in his key stat as a mystic. Diana also can have low early, and can make more reliable use of doom effects simply because she can cancel any nasty surprises in the mythos phase that might cause the agenda to advance.

The other benefit for a level 0 version of a level 3 card is that now a lot more people can take it. Of the Dunwich characters, a doomy Zoey Samaras or "Ashcan" Pete might be possible, but I doubt they'd be particularly effective. Rex Murphy is similar, but would much rather be using Alyssa Graham anyway. Daisy Walker doesn't get much from this, but would definitely consider the other doom card added in this set.

Sefina Rousseau might like the boost, but generally prefers events to assets that need to be discarded or otherwise dealt with. Perhaps mimicking Sacrifice or Moonlight Ritual with her paintings would be workable. Patrice Hathaway will always eventually run into either of those events, but they might show up at an inconvenient time and just get discarded. Whether that plays into Patrice well or badly, I couldn't really say.

Finally, Sister Mary benefits a great deal from the stat boosts, and can take all the relevant Mystic doom-synergy or asset-discard cards. Blood Pact can make up for being unable to take high level spells, or can boost her lower level weapons before she can take the higher ones and phase it out for an Extra Ammunition or something else that supports the big guns.

Overall, a card that might have just been printed for Dexter, but is still easily worth a look in several other people.

SSW · 217
You probably *don't* want to upgrade it in Dexter, since you can discard it when it's covered in doom with his :free: ability and clear the doom easily. You can't do that with the Permanent version. — Yenreb · 15