I don't find myself a fan of this card. Usually when something is dishing out a single point of damage I am looking to take out those pesky 1 cost enemies like a wil o' wisp or a cultist at a location that I can't afford to fail taking out or will slow me down. But, unlike using something like the Lantern which would remove it at any point in your turn, the Coup de Grâce requires (well not quite requires, but you won't want to do so otherwise) you to do it as your last action in the turn. I could wait until the last action to remove the wisp, but then I would be suffering the rest of the turn from stat reductions until then and if I take something out early in the turn I have lost valuable actions in doing so. Of which, I was likely better off evading and just walking away half the time.

There are circumstances that could arise, but I think this will be the card that sits in your hand waiting for those circumstances to arise that never gets played. You end up walking into a room last action and then take something out and draw a card sure, something like that or you fall short in one attempt or two and something needs a finishing blow, or your left something on one hit point left sure. I would often likely find myself holding this in hand and then just throwing it for the icons because those situations don't show up. That's what I feel like the normal use of the card would be as I play.

Funny. Ward of protection and Shrivelling both deal you horror. So in any conventional Mystic deck this thing, intended to empower spells, is guaranteed to get blown up by said spells.

You get to use this thing once. Case closed, thing sucks.

P.S: Unless your spell assets are Rite of Seeking and Mists of Rleth, no Shrivelling in sight, then, eh, sure, it okay I guess, but who would build such a deck!?

This is my favorite Basic Weakness, and I'm writing this review in the hopes that future game designers can take a hint on how to do mechanics like this well.

First of all, while by far my favorite, it is not the card I would chose to put in a deck (not that any of us would pick and choose with a random card selection, right? Riiiiiight?). But when I draw any other random weakness, my thoughts tend to range from "okay, I can deal with this," to "aw, crap. This is gonna be a pain to deal with." The Thing That Follows is the only Basic Weakness that instills an actual emotion in me- a sense of giddy dread.

This card is like a well paced horror movie. It makes every draw an anxious roll of the dice, wondering if this time the unseen Thing is going to crawl out and mess up your day. And while that can be said of pretty much any weakness card, the trick of The Thing That Follows is how it repeats itself. Once you draw the card, the cycle of tension repeats as it moves closer and closer to you across the map. Even if you manage to beat it into submission (not all that unlikely with its stats, but hard enough to mess up some endgame plans), it just returns to your deck, only this time with significantly fewer cards on hand to lower the chances of picking it up again.

It is a masterpiece of the tension/release cycle that is crucial to all forms of horror. Long buildups of dread as you feel it coming, punchy moments of action as it resolves, and repeat. Not scary because it ruins your day, but because no mater how many ways you find to deal with it, it always Follows.

Helping matters is that it's one of the most narratively cohesive Basic Weaknesses out right now. (What, exactly, does Paranoia have to do with resources?) But with the Thing, everything from the name to the art to the quote to the mechanics all serve to instill that key emotion. Not fright, but dread. Consuming, unavoidable dread.

Bravo, Fantasy Flight. You've made a business out of turning Cosmic Horror into game mechanics, and with this one you knocked it out of the park.

Remade review, everything gets clearer with more experience:

Coup de Grâce is a funky card and surprisingly, it's pretty good for what ails combat focused characters.

When you do battle with a "Skids" O'Toole or Jenny Barnes or Finn Edwards one thing will probably strike you, routinely making attacks at +6 or better is a challenge and you often need to go even higher to combat harder foes (or harder difficulties) or guarantee overcommitment success from cards like .41 Derringer or Switchblade. All those attacks probably cost money and cards and precious ammo. One annoyance that fighters struggle with uniquely is the "Hard enemy with 1 hp left", do you blow another shot from Chicago Typewriter on it? No gun to finish what you start with Sneak Attack or Backstab? Without proper bonuses you literally stand no chance at killing the bad guy like a might do with just raw .

This is an innate issue that Coup de Grâce fixes. It's a costly fix but a fix still. On one hand the card mechanic can do it, but also the 2 icons might get you there as well.

Coup de Grâce is the card that finishes what you start, it's a niche and the currect class that is queen of niches is of course, .

This is to Investigation what Improvised Weapon is certainly not to combat.

A -1 on investigate checks is largely equivalent to a +1, and +1's on investigating tend to be regularly useful, moreso then fighting since failed investigate checks rarely have the same repercussions as failed fights.

The kicker is the + 1 clue, this mechanic is so very hard to come by, multi-clue pickup is rare and powerful, and the audience that has access to this card will appreciate it! Wendy Adams can drop the card initially for her ability and just cash in for the clue benefit. The other dudes, despite their lower stats, can still play this card on 1 difficulty locations to trick up clues just as they would with "Look what I found!". Out of faction Minh Thi Phan can play this alongside Deduction to hit impressive clue gathering speed and Finn Edwards might even give it some though.

Wendy Adams and Finn Edwards can even combo Winging It with Double or Nothing to net 4 clues!!

Unlike Improvised Weapon where the first play of the card is rather iffy, there is actually an extra bit of usefulness for this card, you can lower a 3 difficulty location to 2 difficulty, putting it into the "Look what I found!" combo sweetspot like a Flashlight would. This greatly extends a character's ability to gather clues, especially if said character has their hands full with a Baseball Bat, Ornate Bow or the like.

Is this card better then Deduction? Probably not, but it's good for what it's made to do, surprisingly flexible, and a fresh source of multi-clue gathering.