Madame Labrance is... OK and fits in certain decks, but I probably see a lot more people running her than I should do. Yes, obviously she works with Dark Horse, and if you're going to be running on empty, you can hopefully use her every turn, and she has some nice interaction with Lucky! here. So all that's good. But even then the opportunity cost in playing her is quite large, and you might be better running something else.

Firstly, how often will you play her in time to make a decent profit? Most of the time you will be using her for resources rather than cards; all the decks that build around her tend to do that, so lets focus on that. (We're doing her a tiny injustice here, as a card is slightly better than a resource, but not by much. If you assume x1.2, you need 5 card draws to count as an additional "resource" which almost never happens with her. There is probably a cardless Survivor archetype with this and Last Chance waiting to be discovered, but for now its not well served enough to build around, so resources it is). To be better than Emergency Cache, you have to reliably use her ability 6 times. With the average game lasting around 15 turns, that's not unfeasible, but there will be games where she arrives too late. She delivers her value slowly, and generally we prefer spike value to drip value. She also has a 2 resource hump, so sets you back a moderate amount. None of this is major, but often you can get to the end of the scenario, have used the Madame 5 times and think, "wow, that was great", but it really wasn't - it was poor. You need 10 uses to say "wow!" and that is quite rare. A lot of people love the 2/2 soak for 2, and sure it is quite good, but it's not hugely significant compared to other allies (and Survivors are quite well served for damage soak anyway).

And that brings us to the big problem, the big opportunity cost - the Ally slot. The Ally slot is the strongest slot in the game, and by demanding this slot off you for her drip-feed of loot, she is punishing you quite severely. You're missing Peter Sylvestre(0), Peter Sylvestre(2), Yaotl, Aquinnah(3), and thats before we get into cross-faction allies for Wendy, Yorick, Pete, Minh and others, not to mention the campaign allies in Dunwich/FA (or the to-be-proven On Your Own). Yes, there is Charisma, but now you're paying XP for a moderate drip-economy card when you could be buying Will to Survive instead.

Anyway, I don't want to hate on the Madame. Like I say, she's not bad. But most of the time when I see her, I just wish my friend was playing Peter Sylvestre(0) instead.

The Gold Pocket Watch is amazing, and you're probably not playing it as much as you should.

I think there is a common misconception about the Watch that it is either (a) too expensive - (i'll come back to this) - or (b) a combo card, that needs to be used with things like The Red-Gloved Man, A Chance Encounter, (the newish) Colt Vest Pocket, or anything else that lasts "all round", so you can squeeze 1 round's worth of effects into 2. While it certainly does work well in all these scenarios, it really doesn't need it to be effective, not at all.

Let's briefly look at its effects as they can be a bit confusing. Effect 1 basically says "skip the Mythos phase". This means no doom, no drawing of encounter cards, go straight to player actions. Probably 80% of the time you use the Watch, this is the best play. Effect 2 basically says "replay the Investigation phase". This is similar to skipping the Mythos, but you won't get a repeat of the Enemy and Upkeep phases. In both scenarios you are essentially taking "two rounds in one", with 2 sets of Investigator actions before the scenario can respond with doom and cards. The first effect also rewards you 2 Upkeep phases, so that's an additional resource and card for all investigators, at the cost of an additional Enemy phase. With no enemies in play, this a no-brainer - take the free stuff. Even with 1 or 2 enemies in play, the additional actions to evade or additional damage might be worth the additional Upkeep phase which brings cards and resources for all, which means that Effect 1 is still worth considering. Effect 2 sacrifices the additional Upkeep, but at the benefit of freezing the enemies, and also enabling the "until the end of the round" combo cards we talked about (which don't work with Effect 1, except The Red-Gloved Man as noted). Note that in both cases effects that last until "the end of the turn" (like Will to Survive) will never repeat. Individual investigator turns will always end, they just get a second turn.

At this point you're probably thinking of lots of interesting scenarios where having two sets of actions will be helpful and wondering how often they come up. Here's the thing - it doesn't matter. You don't need to wait for the ideal opportunity. The Watch doesn't need to be like the Phial of Galadriel, saving our heroes in their hour of darkness. You can just simply play it, pop it, and profit. The pocket watch brings so much additional resources to the table in any scenario that simply using it will be rewarding and amazing.

Lets do the Maths.... Assuming Effect 1 (repeat of Investigator phase and Upkeep). In all player counts, the watch costs 1 action, 1 card and 2 resources to play. What do we get back?:

• solo: provides 3 actions, 1 card, 1 resource: total profit = 2 actions for -1 resource. Not good
• 2-player: provides 6 actions, 2 cards, 2 resources: total profit = 5 actions, 1 card, 0 resources. Already this is better than Ace in the Hole
• 3-player: provides 9 actions, 3 cards, 3 resources: total profit = 8 actions, 2 cards, 1 resource.
• 4-player: provides 12 actions, 4 cards, 4 resources: total profit = 11 actions, 3 cards, 2 resources

Just look at those 3 and 4 player stat lines! On 4 players, what other card provides 16 units of profit, immediately (or on any future turn you like)? (Imagine if the watch was free to play, and said "gain 12 actions, 4 cards and 2 resources.". That's pretty much what it's doing in 4-player). And this is just a vanilla pop-and-play, not even considering the opportunity to be heroic, to break the back of bad draws, handle action-compression spots, or do any of the combo-nonsense we mentioned earlier. Only in solo is the Watch a bad play - even on 2 player, its an excellent provider of economy, and at 3 and 4 player, almost unparalleled.

So where does that leave us - with the downsides? Well, aside from the accessory slot, there really is only 1 and that's the fact its 8 XP into a single card. There are two problems with this. The first is saving up for it can put us at a power disadvantage, and most Rogues are probably still going to want Lockpicks and Streetwise first to get their deck rolling. But beyond that 5 XP, there are few cards that will make as much of an impact when they land as the Watch, so even if its not our immediate purchase after Lockpicks, we should certainly consider it soon. (In standalone, where saving-up is not a problem, the Watch should almost always be deployed). The second problem is finding the thing - with 8 XP on one card, its a high variance item. If you draw 2/3 of your deck, you won't see it every 3rd scenario. Ursula Downs (a great lover of the Watch) can get round this with various Seeker tricks (like No Stone Unturned, Cryptic Research Eureka! etc). Rogues have fewer options, eg Backpack, Pickpocketing, Lucky Cigarette Case (also an accessory), but you may not want to build your deck around it, and my central point about the Watch is - you don't need to.. It's not a combo card. Really, its not. It's just a dynamite of power, easily worth 8 XP, squashed onto one card. Buy it, hope you draw it, and go Tick-Tick-Boom!

This seems like the horror-related alternative to Emergency Aid. It's 2 resources, a card, and an action to heal 2 horror instead of 2 damage. Both cards each have one extra use - Emergency Aid has the ability to heal allies and Logical Reasoning is able to remove a Terror. Logical Reasoning does also require a clue to use, but in my experience this has not been a largely prohibitive restriction.

I really like this card.

Part of it might be that I find horror to be more common than damage in the campaigns I have played (Night of the Zealot, The Dunwich Legacy, The Path to Carcosa) but I normally find the horror healing to be quite useful. In general, soaking horror is better than healing, but sometimes things go a little south and get a little crazier than you expected. In those moments, I am glad I have this card around.

A lot of non-Seeker investigators like this card:

• Carolyn Fern naturally wants this to use her special ability. It was practically made for her!
• Roland Banks has such low sanity that he's naturally going to want this card to get him through the more frightening Mythos adventures.
• Finn Edwards would consider this card as one if his only ways to snap out of Frozen in Fear.
• Marie Lambeau and other Mystic investigators might take this card to offset trauma taken from having multiple copies of Arcane Research.

Even if you don't want this card for yourself, take it for one of your friends if you're playing multiplayer! Your Guardian will thank you and will hopefully pay you back by keeping you protected from scary enemies.

Eventually this card is mostly outclassed by Moment of Respite, but that costs 1 more resource and 3 experience points! I usually just like to use this card and save the experience points for other, more powerful things.

As of The Depths of Yoth, I would say that this card is still a logical choice for many investigators!

This card seems like it needs other cards in order to work well. Here's a list of cards that it appears designed to integrate with:

• Sleight of Hand
• Narrow Escape
• "Eat lead!"

This is a weapon you definitely only want to play when you really need it. Narrow Escape is nice, because you can wait until an enemy shows up, play this card, then use Narrow Escape to get +2 to the first attack. Sleight of Hand is nice to make this weapon fast and to make it last for more than 1 turn. Out-of-class, "Eat lead!" is the only way available to use all of that ammunition short of some serious shenanigans.

A lot of cards have anti-synergy with this weapon. It should go without saying that Custom Ammunition, Extra Ammunition, and Venturer shouldn't be used for it. It's just a waste!

The card's nearest in-faction comparison is the .41 Derringer. Do you want a good gun for one turn, or an okay gun that will last you for 3 shots? Overall, I think you might get slightly more mileage out of the .41 Derringer. However, the Colt Vest Pocket does have its uses. It's not a long-term combat solution, and you need cards to support it, but it can do some damage in a pinch.

I haven't had a chance to use this card yet, and generally higher-level events are a smaller priority for me in deckbuilding since I tend to focus experience points on assets.

However, I can see people using this card as "Brother Xavier's Parting Gift" - you can play this card and take 3 damage on Brother Xavier for a potential 6 damage on an enemy. That's a powerful attack.

Still, it's something that requires 4 experience, 6 resources, and a few turns of setup in order to do. Is it worth it? Maybe in some situations, but I think usually experience is better invested elsewhere.