I'm writing this review because there is one critical thing that no one else has mentioned:

The Painted World is a Spell. This means you can pull them using Arcane Initiate! If you get a Hot Streak in your opening hand [60% chance if you have 2 of them and no story assets], this means you will often get to play 4 Hot Streaks in a game. This, along with the availability of Uncage the Soul) makes Sefina richer than Jenny Barnes.

With Streetwise and either Moxie or Arcane Studies, this means Sefina can pump any stat except . With a Spirit Athame she can investigate for 2 clues with a skill of 6 using Rite of Seeking once a turn [which is the most you want to do anyway since you should always use Rite of Seeking on your last turn].

Similarly, with a Spirit Athame, she can attack for 2 damage with a skill of 6, but only once per Athame. If you need to take down a big creature, you would dip into your massive resource pool for the second attack.

The fact that she can copy tons of awesome cards (Drawn to the Flame, Ward of Protection) along with Hot Streak makes Sefina the first super-powerful non-seeker in the game!

I've used this card in my sefina deck for 3 games so far and noticed the following:

• Has a ~2/3 chance (depending on chaos bag) to function, so can be like a cheap 3rd or 4th copy of Shrivelling or Rite of Seeking.

  • Don't use it on cards with charges left, as this may kill the card with the charges
• As a spell, Arcane Initiate can "find" it
• It has two icons, so it's nice to commit to most spells
• As event, it can be used with Sefina Rousseau ability
• Grotesque Statue can be used to increase the chance of recharging the spell (but sefina cant play the statue)

Compared to its cousin Charisma, this card doesn't really see much love, despite serving an essentially identical function. With that said, you should watch this space because as more and more must-have accessories are released, this card will only increase in value. I'm willing to bet that a year from now (or even sooner), we will start seeing this card being considered a lot more.

As things currently stand however, there just aren't enough high-powered Accessory cards to merit purchasing Relic Hunter for pretty much every investigator.

The one massive exception is Zoey Samaras. Her signature card, Zoey's Cross is an absolute must-play when you draw it. It's so powerful that you'll probably think twice before purchasing any other accessory cards, as they'll essentially just be used for their icons if the cross hits the table first. This is a huge shame, as not only would Zoey really like to pick up an Elder Sign Amulet at some point, but she is also the only investigator who has access to both Holy Rosary and Police Badge, arguably the two strongest accessories in the game right now.

But with Relic Hunter, Zoey can fill her deck with these accessory cards and get good use out of all of them. If Zoey's Cross is the card you never want to leave your side (e.g., the accessory equivalent of Leo De Luca, Dr. Milan Christopher), the others are all expendable and can be replaced once they've served their purpose (Art Student, Guard Dog, etc..)

This card is a little weird, and it is best compared to another similar card, Mind over Matter.

For 1 resource you drop a foe's combat and evade rating by 2, this is a much stronger effect than increasing your own chances by the same value because: When you attempt a skill test, the result cannot go under 0. I.E, if you encounter foes that have 2 or less evade and fight values, evading or fighting them becomes pretty trivial once you drop those number's to 0. Swarm of Rats become autokill's for example, and so do Ghoul Minion if you just got the two actions.

So why isn't this autotake? I'll tell you, it's not just because of the severe drawback listed in it's play conditions. Against a foe that is harder to hit or Evade than just 2, you Immediately need to start backing up your tests with some actual stats, dropping a foe to 1 fight for example so that you can throw your Str of 2 at isn't that much better on, say, Hard difficulty. You'll need some other way to boost the attempt.

There is another upside to this card. Playing it to buff an actual combat character is a huuuuge play, especially if you're trying to kill some kind of boss, a -2 difficulty on every attack for 2 or 3 attacks is going to stack up a lot of extra hits

.

So, the comparison. Mind over Matter does a similar thing, but it's not limited by Sanity, and it's not team friendly, a fair trade-off because for character's the net benefit is mostly the same, usually a gain of +2 or more or , with Dr. Milan Christopher the gain can be enhanced. Dont forget that a isnt likely to have perennial support cards like Overpower, meanwhile Mind over Matter enables the use of Perception and the like to pump your fight value.

So, IF you do intend to take your brainiac out to punch some fools, this card is probably a bit better than Mind over Matter because of it's team utility and it's enhanced efficiency against low difficulty threats (Which can be an issue for pacifist characters to deal with), but if you actually intend to crunch some heads with your superb intellect then Mind over Matter is more reliably going to help you score hits on harder foes.

Edit: I'm a huge fan of equipping Norman Withers with Knife / Enchanted Blade, this card and Mind over Matter. One of the problems with combo cards like this one is actually finding it early enough to be in your hand when the circumstance arises. Norman speeds through a deck and can assemble all of those pieces faster than anybody else, also Anatomical Diagrams lets him autokill his weakness (barring autofail tokens).

This card feels really underpowered, bordering on unplayable. and is a lot of icons in any given bag. Relics you want to recharge like Grotesque Statue are nearly as likely to vanish on you as they are to come back.

I guess for the moment its an auxiliary purchase once you've splurged on Shrivelling (5) and Rite of Seeking (4) since you can just risk refilling them once they're empty. Still the lack of reliability means I'd probably just rather play around that eventuality than include cards which are just as likely to waste my time. Emergency Cache and even Contraband are better imo for the comparable supply and ammo items.

I think the thing that ticks me off the most is that if Jim Culver's ability was written slightly differently: you may choose to treat as , it would be exactly the buff this under-powered character could use to be both middling strength and really fun to play.