Why are cards called Flare in FFG LCGs always really strong? An event that can tutor, or make a strong attack, that even has a wild symbol for extra gravy, and all for just 1 XP! This will never be a dead card in your deck.

The tutor effect on Flare does indeed seem wonderful on paper, replacing the cost of the ally you search for with the 2 resources paid to play the event, provided you don't whiff. And do try not to whiff into Baron Samedi!

Poaching a fellow investigator's unique ally might seem like a mean thing to do but paying just 2 resources for Leo De Luca is good for the group as a whole no matter who ends up with it. If you are playing as the designated survivor and are teamed with a guardian, then it can also be beneficial to borrow that extra copy of Beat Cop, and the synergy with Teamwork should be obvious.

Speaking of synergy, this is yet another card that is going to work even better with the soon-to-be-released Charisma. We might start to see Aquinnah creeping into some decks alongside Peter in the near future, and this will mean that survivors like Ashcan will actually want to be lead investigator and collect and dig for some of those meaty storyline allies.

There are currently only three investigators that can purchase Flare, each having a different use for it.

Agnes Baker probably actually gets the best of it. The 5 attack for 3 damage will rival her Shrivelling (and Song of the Dead), letting her easily blow up those inconvenient Silver Twilight Acolyte that she otherwise had difficulty against. She can also use Scrying to check an ideal time to use the tutor, either on her own deck or another's, and she sometimes like to run Arcane Initiate or Peter Sylvestre regardless.

Wendy Adams likes events, and she can discard it for a check then play it later using Wendy's Amulet (the exile really isn't a problem because if you're low on cards then you likely don't have allies in your deck to search). However there are better options among the rogue cards for her to use to fight.

"Ashcan" Pete loves allies in general to help soak damage and horror, and also makes impressive use of anything that works as a backup to Duke for the option for a strong third attack in a turn. Between this and Hard Knocks he can fully expect to be able to dish out 7 damage in a nova turn.

So if you find yourself lost in the dark without any friends, go get your 80s disco flares on!

When reviewing a card, one can't help to compare that card to other cards that do similar stuff. The "classic" healing options mostly are assets that use charges and require comming available actions to actually heal you. Compared to earlier in- and out of faction healing options, Emergency Aid offers something new. Well, 2 new things.

First, it let's you heal allies, which is nice . Second, it's an event, which means you commit 1 action to it instead of commiting an action to play it and then use more actions for each point you want to heal. When compared with the classic Guardian healing option First Aid, it becomes clear that Emergency Aid is a more "action efficiënt" way to heal. With Emergency Aid you pay 2 resource and use 1 action to heal you for 2 points, while with First Aid you pay the same amount of resources but have to use 3 actions to acually heal you for 2 points (1 for playing the asset and 1 action for every point of healing.)

Does that make Emergency Aid better? It al depends on your investigator and the deck you're playing. When used with a deck that is very "action heavy" or when you desperatly want to keep an important ally alive, you might like a healing option that is more action-efficiënt and heals allies. But when you're deck is less action heavy or you're playing an investigator with low sanity, you might prefer the ability to both heal physical damage and horror.

I really like these little nuances the designers are making in the different healing options and those make for very interesing deck building choices.

This is, hands down, the best card in the game (currently released, as of 2/23/2017). Identifying the solution is very often the difference between winning and losing, and including 2x in your deck (mandatory in the current meta) can ensure that you identify it twice in a single game, which is just incredible. It seems reasonably costed at 1, though I'm kind of surprised it is level zero. It seems to me that the card is at least level 1, if not 2 or higher.

Still paying the debts off of an enormous hospital bill for his dead mother. A remarkably tragic backstory. Also quite hilarious when, in the middle of fighting a horrifying creature, Skids would get a call from the Hospital to cough up some resources for the bill...

Hospital Debts is a very unique player weakness. It does not actively hurt Skids during the current Scenario (unlike other Weaknesses, such as Agnes's Dark Memory, Daisy's Necronomicon, or Jim Culver's Final Rhapsody), nor does it actively hurt Skids by Trauma, such as Roland's Cover Up, or Jenny's Searching for Izzie. Instead, it causes Skids to lose out on experience which is used to improve his deck. This card effectively slows down Skid's growth and make him less strong towards the end of a campaign. That said, 2 experience is not insignificant. For Skids, that's missing out on upgrading both his Leo De Luca, or recruiting two Cat Burglars. or picking up a Police Badget, or recruiting the much-superior version of the Beat Cop.

Hospital Debts is, perhaps, the only current player weakness with a built-in time restriction (EDIT: Read below regarding how it's not so bad in multiplayer). Due to the fast action having a built in (Limit twice per round), and Skids needing to put 6 resources on the card, it will always take 3 rounds to completely handle the debts. There are currently no cards in the player card pool that can help get around this 3 rounds restriction (aside from trying to avoid drawing it, of course). As per the timing rules, there is no player action window between when the player draws a card during the Upkeep phase, and the start of the next round. As such, the time a player draws it during the Upkeep Phase, Skids will need 3 more rounds (and, consequently, at least 3 more Doom on the agenda) to resolve it. If the game would end in fewer than 3 rounds due to the Agenda advancing, then you know that there is absolutely no way to avoid the penalty of Hospital Debts, and you may as well not commit resources to it, so at least there is that!

However, if Skids is 'fortunate' enough to draw this card during any other part of the round, such as during the Mythos (somehow) or Investigation phase, then, Skids can use that Round as part of the 3 needed rounds to finish it off (thereby needing only 2 more Rounds or 2 more Doom). This interesting interaction makes Skids one of the few players who does not mind actively drawing through his deck (that said, mind your other basic weakness). Skids should be careful not to go crazy and draw through his deck when time is running short...

EDIT: Weakness cards that are placed into your threat area can be interacted with by anyone. Additionally, the "Limit twice per round." applies at a per investigator level. Consequently, if you are playing in multiplayer, other players can trigger the free ability to help Skids pay for his Ma's hospital debts. In a 2 player game, it'll take at least 2 turns to handle it. With 3 or 4 players, it could be done in one turn. Of course, the players need to be in the same location as Skids to interact with his Hospital Debts.

EDIT MK2: Several cycles on and down the line and Skids is still a decent investigator to bring to any campaign. His ability to grab an extra action is quite valuable and encourages Skids to invest a little more heavy into resource gathering cards. The higher difficulty of latter campaigns means that he'll be pressed for time to complete this weakness if it comes out towards the end of a scenario. Expect it to hit more often than not.

There are quite a few people that I have already heard giving this a sub-par rating, but I couldn't disagree more. I think that this card is an auto-include in any rogue deck that can pick up a level-1 upgrade such as "Skids" O'Toole, Wendy Adams or Jenny Barnes.

If you are going to swap out a single card (ever) this has already paid for itself. You can put off paying for it until you are going to want to swap things out, but honestly there should always be considerations of swaps in decks after you start playing it. No one's deck and design comes out perfect. Decks start out with certain themes and elements and should always find tweaks and personal preferences.

As we are playing, new packs come out all the time. With those new packs come other level-0 cards that you will most likely consider. And when you can swap them in for free with your current deck on the fly with those releases and become much easier to get those new shiny toys interacting with the cards you have been building around.

So far, it has already saved me 4 experience. Would all of those been done if they weren't for free; no (perhaps 1 or 2). It lets you be "adaptable" and improve yourself. Challenge your deck after every play through and every pack release. I think this is amazing. And paired with Charisma coming out in the new pack, I will likely use Adaptable again to build some additional allies themed into the deck after this purchase so that I can get a nice array of different characters for my Jenny Barnes deck and build on a nice new style of play. So, while others are seeing this as mediocre, I wanted to put my opinion out there. I think this card is amazing.