This is a very interesting card. You can't talk about this card without talking about this one here The Stars Are Right which gets shuffled into the encounter deck after it is played. Arkham Horror LCG now has various types of cancellation options to choose from within the game. It is almost getting to a point where I would restrict myself to the number of cancellation effects except when playing Diana Stanley. But, I wouldn't classify this as cancellation.

In all technical sense, this card doesn't "cancel" an effect. When it comes down to it though, you are not drawing an encounter card on the turn that this causes you to draw it's counter-point card The Stars Are Right.

Ward of Protection is the standard often referenced when discussions begin with cancellation effects. So, let's see what this does in comparison even though there are many others. By comparing these two cards we can see the differences and benefits of each.

Ward of Protection is actionless, whereas this card will cost you an action. Ward of Protection on the other hand costs you a resource and a sanity (offset often with other cards that protect you or help you with Agnes Baker, but it is still a cost) whereas Stargazing has no resource cost associated with it. In that sense, the action is somewhat offset by wards other costs. You also will get this action back later when you run across The Stars Are Right and gain a resource and card. So, you could argue that it is actually action efficient. It could be another investigator that decides to take these bonuses, so it has some flexibility there as well.

Ward is useful at almost any point in the game though, whereas this card is only useful when there is enough encounter cards left in the deck (you could get lucky of course and put it on top). So, you might draw this and find yourself not able to play it. In smaller player games such as solo, this could be the 10th card down for instance and there are only 9 turns left in the game. So your action would be wasted if you were to play it. In larger player games, if you see this early then great, you will likely see it being fruitful in your game. But in the larger player count, you also dig into the encounter deck and might find it unplayable for a couple turns mid to late game. So there are some dead-opportunities associated with this card in either situation. These cases that could happen are one of the draw-backs of this card.

It's icon is something that is nice to see here but ward also has this going for it.

Some might argue that you don't know what encounter card you would have drawn in its place with The Stars Are Right. This is where using the term 'cancel' associated with this card isn't appropriate. It is basically saying that in the future, you just don't draw an encounter card that phase and you will get your banked action you spent earlier back (or something will since it is targetable).

Ward of protection is there to keep you from that "Oh sheeet" moment. This doesn't protect you from the cards you know are in that deck waiting for you. It at best delays those cards one turn later into the game.

I think that this is a nice support card for mystics to slow the dangers that are ahead of you and I think I feel better about it in multiplayer scenarios rather than the solo play and just relying on lady luck.

This card slow down the threat a lot!

When you got any treachery card, it cost as following

• 0-1 action for average test that may make you discard, lose Health or Sanity
• 1-2 action when you draw the enemy if you can kill it. But cost more if you can't

But put this card provide you the The Stars Are Right it return you

• 1 action - Tie you playing action
• 1 resource - count as 1 action
• 1 card (From drawing) - count as 1 action
• Additionally eliminate action cost from the treachery card count as 0-2 action

In short, this card pay back you around 2-4 action as soon as you found it.

Especially when the treachery card is punishing on late scenario.

Existing reviews for Stargazing understate its power. A comparison to Ward of Protection is in some ways fair, as both are low level Mystic events that mitigate the debilitating effects of the Mythos Phase, but they do so in very different ways, and are ultimately quite different beasts. User Bronze is right to point out that, where Ward protects your party from a particularly nasty treachery, such as Ancient Evils, Stargazing instead reduces the number of encounter cards you draw, replacing one of your next 11 encounter deck draws with The Stars are Right. Ward of Protection is a comparatively costly silver bullet to shut down a punishing treachery, and Stargazing is all-round Mythos Phase protection and fantastic value proposition. I think it is ultimately clear that Stargazing has a place in more decks than Ward.

User AquaDrehz rightly points out that the action economy for Stargazing is exceptionally favourable. You draw one fewer encounter card, which saves you whatever cost you would have spent dealing with that. This is a variable reward, but while some encounter cards can be shrugged off, others (e.g. Frozen in Fear) can eat several actions or outright threaten to defeat a vulnerable investigator (e.g. Rotting Remains). Many enemies you draw will do both! Preventing just a single encounter draw can be a substantial action advantage, but on top of that, The Stars are Right makes Stargazing effective action economy too. You trade an action and a card for an action, a card, and a resource. That might not sound amazing, but the ability to move actions from one turn to another is often useful, and The Stars are Right can grant any investigator the reward. Stargazing is a bit like an Easy Mark in that it replaces itself and grants a meager resource benefit, but it also lowers the threat of the encounter deck and re-gifts the action spent to play it. This is incredible value!

The catch is that the reward comes later, and is only guaranteed while there are enough encounter deck draws left before the end of the scenario. In a 2-player game, you are guaranteed to draw The Stars are Right by the 6th round following your playing Stargazing. That is a while to wait for your reward, and you will also have to beware of effects that shuffle the encounter deck, which could put The Stars are Right completely out of reach. These effects usually come from advancing agendas, and you can play around them in many of the scenarios where they come up. While Stargazing clearly has a larger window with more players and in longer scenarios, most scenarios have plenty of time to Stargaze, and you won't hate missing it in your opening hand as much as the Tarot assets. In short, Stargazing's conditions are not as restrictive as you might have thought. Solo play is really where that condition becomes truly cumbersome as 11 rounds is too long to wait.

While playing through Return to Path to Carcosa, I occasionally found myself playing Stargazing even when the team weren't totally guaranteed to draw The Stars are Right due to the encounter deck shuffling or the scenario ending before we could draw 11 more cards from it. The value you gain from drawing The Stars are Right is so great that it is sometimes even worth gambling on! It also just feels incredibly good to draw something actually positive and helpful from the encounter deck, which usually has you reaching gingerly across the table for whatever punishment the mythos has in store for you. Stargazing is going to be a staple of my Mystic decks for the foreseeable future.. which is kind of fun to say given that its Augury traited!

Your friendly neighborhood Buttermancer here to strongly recommend against running this card in The Circle Undone, given the huge amount of deck milling mechanics in that campaign. You'll whiff right past it at a million miles an hour. Probably twice after the encounter deck shuffles. You might draw it if you have encounter deck peeking shenanigans, but even then not reliably enough to make playing it worth the action.

In campaigns where the encounter deck is not flying off the table out the window, it looks pretty intriguing, probably strongest at 2 players given its unique requirements and effect. To elaborate, for one player, ten cards in the encounter deck is basically guaranteed, but play Stargazing halfway through a scenario and shuffle it into the bottom and you probably won't see it before the scenario is resolved. It does cancel 100% of spooky card bad stuff when it lands.

Two players probably have plenty of cards in the encounter deck and will draw the card within 5 turns, reasonable if it's at all early. It will cancel 50% spooky card draw for the team on the turn it lands. After that, it gets worse. It will be drawn very soon but only cancel a third of the encounter deck, and it will be drawn almost immediately but cancel the effect on 1/4th the team. It's actually a pretty good play on Farsighted (Mandy and Daisy can fit these, and Daisy has big hands potential synergy in Forbidden Tome).

Worth noting this card can have extra value in Return to The Forgotten Age, where the updated explore mechanic means you'll either get to this card faster, or possibly even shuffle it into the Exploration deck for a nice surprise while exploring. If it goes into the Exploration deck, it's also protected from encounter deck shuffling and can be searched using Exploration deck supplies.