Strong contender for the very worst card in the game.

is the money faction, but that doesn't mean that you have money to spare.

Cards are a bit better then resources, but even so this card is incredibly expensive for what it does. When you play it you pay: 1 Action to play it, 2 resources and the card itself (The opportunity cost). Replacing this you could have brought Manual Dexterity/Overpower/Perception/Guts and played it on a test as a non-action, netting you the card for no money and no actions that you aren't already taking.

Perhaps by the time you've got the fourth trigger off-of this card you'll be breaking even on the huge commitment, cost and opportunity cost, perhaps, or maybe you could have just saved yourself the trouble and spent two or three actions to draw the cards you needed at a fraction of the cost.

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Note that this doesn't extend to the rather effective 2xp version Pickpocketing, the saved action and overkill bonus combine to ensure that the card pays for itself quickly. The saved action is especially big since now you don't need to spend the resources and action up until the exact moment you know they will count. Oh and the extra icon isn't bad for those moments you decide you can't play it.

For Lola, the effect here allows you remain in Yellow, without the risk of Crisis of Identity forcing you to discard the Mag Glass. (By returning it to you hand and replaying it each turn you need to). This is good for three reasons, firstly Lola likes passive buffs (that still work when you switch colour), which the Mag Glass is - ie, Mag Glass is generally a good card for her. Secondly Higher Education is a great card that Lola can run, and ending the turn in Yellow so that Higher Education is up for the Mythos phase is a good state to be in. Lastly Lola decks are generally better at the clue side of things than the fighting, so you're probably going to want to pick Yellow as one of your colours anyway.

And, sure, it's good for other investigators too. But so is the Level0 version. Lola wants the upgrade.

AndyB's review of Dr. Milan Christopher pretty much holds up. But now that a year has passed, I'd like to take a moment to reexamine this highly-acclaimed card.

I think Dr. Milan Christopher is clearly the strongest multiplayer Seeker ally in the game. I don't think any of the primary-class Seekers (Norman, Minh, Daisy, Rex) can do any better. I strongly recommend him for Carolyn and Finn as well.

What makes Milan so good? Well, first, the +1 Intellect is really important, especially on high levels. On Expert it is incredibly valuable to get to 6 or 7 in your primary stat. Milan's bonus makes a huge difference here.

What is really special, though, is the resource generation. In multiplayer, Seekers can and should spend the vast majority of their actions investigating; this means Milan, who does not exhaust upon activation, will trigger over and over. It's extremely common to get 2 or 3 resources a turn from him. The profits become immense very quickly.

But what are you going to do with the enormous piles of money that Milan produces? Well, there are tons of good options. The world is your oyster. But the simplest and most reliable way to spend them is on the XP permanents--Higher Education (for the Seekers), Keen Eye (for Carolyn), and Streetwise (for Finn). Note how all of these can boost Intellect even further (among other abilities). That means you can spend money to crank up your investigate tests even further, so you have excellent odds even against even the Expert chaos bag, and then have Milan get you your money back!

Obviously, this approach reaches its zenith with Rex Murphy. The combined bonuses of Higher Education and Milan makes triggering his ability pretty easy, even on Expert, and Milan's resource generation means he can investigate at a furious pace over a sustained period of time. He comes pretty close to investigating twice as fast as the other Seekers--and the other Seekers are already going pretty darn fast.

Milan is a weaker pick in solo. There are far fewer clues to be found and hence fewer activations of his ability. Moreover, investing so much (4 resources and the ally slot) in the early game into something that boosts cluefinding is probably not what solo Seekers need to be doing. Something like Dr. William T. Maleson (with the goal of avoiding monsters) might be better.

In multiplayer, though, Milan is just dominant. Now, the other Seeker allies are fun, too, and if you want a change of pace there's nothing wrong with using Horowitz to find some relics or Maleson for some encounter deck manipulation. But if your goal is to be the most effective Seeker you can be, this is the guy to pick.

A card that is as strong as it is simple. Most locations in this game have clues on them, and you will be doing plenty of skill tests on such locations. Inquiring Mind's three wild icons and ability to boost any investigator (unlike, say, Rise to the Occasion) provides a lot of flexibility to the team. Whatever the situation is, as long as there's a clue in the area, Inquiring Mind will be a significant help. It can give almost any investigator at least a half-decent shot at doing most things, even on Expert, and that's pretty nice.

Although it is a virtual certainty that, no matter the scenario, you or your teammates are going to take multiple important tests on locations with clues, this card does occasionally peter out late in scenarios when all the clues are gone. Usually you can tell if this is about to happen, and thus commit Inquiring Mind to a test before it deactivates.

If you draw Inquiring Mind after all the clues are gone, it probably won't be very good. But this is going to be pretty uncommon, and in any case this is true of a large number of excellent Seeker cards. I don't consider this a major strike against it.

I suppose there is some synergy here with the Seeker cards that let you drop a clue on your location (Forewarned, Dr. William T. Maleson), but this is probably not a big factor. You don't need to run these cards for Inquiring Mind to be good.

I think I slightly prefer the upside of Inquiring Mind to the reliability of Unexpected Courage, though I don't feel strongly about this. The difficulty level may be a factor here--the higher the difficulty, the more useful Inquiring Mind's third icon will be. Which card is superior is a bit of an academic question, however, because I often just run both in Seeker decks.

As useful as this card is, +3 to a skill test is not quite so powerful that I would use a splash slot on it. There are many higher-impact choices out there. (For instance, if you're looking for a general utility card to help you pass skill tests, Lucky! will be the stronger pick.) It may find itself on the cutting floor as XP cards come in. (But not in Minh Thi Phan; she will most certainly want to run this all campaign long.)

With a few exceptions, I think this is a little too expensive for most Guardians. Guardians must play a weapon to be effective and certainly want an Ally as well. That means True Grit is a difficult luxury to afford. While a slotless damage soak is nice, and the ability to protect your teammates even nicer, I think the price is going to be a little too rich for most Guardians in most circumstances. Guardians naturally have large health reserves which usually don't require further augmentation. As far as helping out teammates goes, I would prefer Emergency Aid, which is a) cheaper, b) does not have to be played prophylactically, and c) has a wonderful combination with Beat Cop II. Of course, you could run both, but that strikes me as unnecessary; damage is generally less common than horror in this game, and markedly so in the Dunwich and Carcosa campaigns.

But what about those exceptions? Well, the first and most obvious is Mark Harrigan. Mark struggles mightily to fit True Grit into his cost curve (at least before he picks up Ever Vigilant), but for him, it is worth the effort. Because of Sophie Mark really does not want to put any stray damage he might take on himself. Putting any on Beat Cop II, Mark's ally of choice, is even more wasteful. True Grit's triple damage soak is helpful to him personally, and the ability to help out a teammate and draw a card in the process is even stronger.

The second possible exception is Carolyn Fern. Unlike other Guardians, she has low health. She's seldom lacking for money, either, since she probably doesn't want to play expensive weapons and she has some of the best resource generation in the game. So True Grit is workable for her. But it simply isn't a dynamic card for her the way it is for Mark. More often than not, I think she has more powerful options for her money.

The third exception would be the Forgotten Age campaign, because damage is so much more prominent there than in the rest of the game. Seekers and Mystics, with their low Agility, small health pools, and frail allies, really struggle to cope. Even massive Guardian health reserves come under stress. Under these circumstances, True Grit must merit stronger consideration from all Guardians.

A final gameplay note. True Grit encourages the whole team to stick together in one location. For me, this encouragement does not change much, since I was already playing that way. I think it is usually wise to stand together; this allows investigators to boost each other's skill tests and cooperate to efficiently take out enemies. While there are certain exceptions, it's generally true that (as you might expect in a horror-themed game) splitting up to cover more ground is a bad idea.