Laboratory Assistant + Calling in Favors is so strong to get allies into play. Work even better with Art Student and Charisma

In Roland Banks deck Laboratory Assistant and Calling in Favors are used to jumpstart the deck get cards into your hand and allies into play Beat Cop or Guard Dog

What about two of these, two Protective Incantations, and 2 Recall the Futures? That covers a LOT of ground. It seems to me that a setup like that could be very viable for Sefina, who can rely on Rogue for pretty much everything else, including funding the Incantations. It's also extremely cheap -- even in the xp needed to purchase -- and Sefina can get to them pretty quickly. I'm a big fan of Suggestion + Pickpocketing 2, and it ruins that, but with such incredible odds of succeeding at any test in general, and with Sefina at a natural 4 in Agility, it seems to me like the trade off could be very worth it. Heck, I might even still run Pickpocketing 2.

With the release of Heart of the Elders--and specifically the card Live and Learn--Oops!'s stock has definitely gone up. I'd seriously consider running this in a combat-oriented survivor deck over Overpower in a multiplayer setting now if I had to choose between the two. It's still a situational card, but pairing this with Live and Learn on a failed attack lets you damage another enemy at your location, then follow up immediately with a second, action-free attempt with a higher odds of success on your original target. This means you're potentially getting two damage-dealing attacks for one action. That's a serious tempo boost right there. And unlike previously suggested strategies using this card, with Live and Learn you can afford to take a swing at the bigger baddie knowing you're gonna get a second shot at it with a better chance of success if you fail.

Is this kind of combo going to line up every time? No, probably not. But it's a juicy enough proposition to warrant serious thought about running this card if you're building an investigator who'll be looking to knock some heads together.

This is an incredible card. Lets break down why:

It has 3 wild icons. Extreeme value with complete flexibility, whether it's to kill an enemy, evade it or just grab a clue it's great card-to-bonus value.

But there is a downside, two actually, every action taken in a round kills one icon. Thus if you go second the card is effectively blank. This is actually the smaller downside, the other being "Commit only to a skill test you are performing". One of the strengths of skill cards is the fact that you can chuck em at a buddy, this is especially true for Unexpected Courage, a card that occupies the same deckslot this one does.

The first weakness, loosing icons, is largely mitigated by the fact that the card can be played at full value in response to events and cards drawn in the mythos phase. Rotting Remains for example, this in fact is the cards's greatest strength in my opinion.

So. 1 extra icon at the cost of only being playable selfishly. That's not a terrible trade.

This card is good. If you can fit an Overpower or Unexpected Courage then consider this one instead.

A perfect card for those Wendys out there, that are in direct contact with a tough enemy and would like to pick a fancy card by trying to sucker punch him with a "1" fight skill. All those Calvins out there don't even need an enemy. It's enough for them just to be at the beggining of the scenario and trying to get a life. To be honest almost every investigator has a way to forcibly trigger the condition on the maximum possible outcome.

But it's a question whether you actually want that. Whether you have time and need to dig. In my recent runs with this card (normal difficulty) it was not essentially better than a simple 0-level version. I had 4 occasions to use it. 3 of them were just a single card draw, but this one time I was really cherry picking a card that hit the sport perfectly.

Is it worth those 3XPs? On hard/expert it rather is. On easy/normal it's one of those updates you can perform later during the campaign, when chaos bag is getting more and more sick and negative.