The text on this card is super weird, but according to the Rules Reference, when you attempt a skill test, you have to draw a random chaos token and reveal it, which activates it's modifiers. So, basically, this card makes it so you don't auto fail or get a bad modifier that could cause you to fail a test.

Really good card that fits the Survivor's "last ditch effort" theme. It lets you have a pretty powerful turn and keep all your actions, so if your stats are high enough, you could automatically kill a monster or fully investigate an area. However, the "last ditch" part comes with the cost to play and the cost to even have.

At 3 experience points, it's very costly and is put up a lot of other handy cards. Then, once it's in your deck, you'll have to pay 4 resources. Even though most Survivor cards are cheap, that's still setting you back at least a turn (Emergency Cache and other such cards notwithstanding), so Will to Survive really has to pack a punch when it's played.

All in all, I love this card. It's fantastic when its used with your back up against a wall, and at worst, it's a safety net to ensure your tests will go smoothly.

Scavenging let's you repeatedly re-use "items" that are in your discard pile.

Some of most obvious cards in the current card pool that work well with Scavenging are items you discard to get benefits (like Knife), items you discarded because they ran out of "charges" (like Flashlight or .41 Derringer) or cards that simply tend to get discarded faster due to forced card abilities (like Baseball Bat.)

When you look closer, bringing items back into play with Scavenging doesn't come cheap. To get an item back from your discard pile into play you:

1) have to use one of your precious actions to investigate;

2) have to investigate succesfully by 2 or more;

3) have to use another action to play that item you just got back into you hand;

4) most likely have to pay recources to play the card.

Looking at these costs, it becomes clear that cards that combo nicely with Scavenging are cards that trigger another beneficial effect when investigating (succesfully.) A great example of such a card is Burglary. Investigate succesfully with Burglary while triggering Scavenging both gives you 3 resources and let's you take back a discarded item (which you can pay for with the resources you just gained.)

It's also beneficial if the items you bring back to your hand have no resource costs. In the current card pool cards like Leather Coat come to mind. With Scavenging Leather Coat becomes a resource-costs-free and re-usable damage sponge.

Cards like Sure Gamble increase your chanches of investigating succesfully by 2 or more, as does Wendy Adams' special ability. Speaking of Wendy, you can fuel her special ability by discarding an item card, which you can bring back later into play with Scavenging.

At the moment I don't think Scavenging is a "great" card. It's not a cornerstone that decks are built around, but examples like the Burglary combo show that it has good potential. In the end, Scavenging is as good as the item it lets you retrieve from your discard pile.

UPDATE 17-1-2017 After the release of The Dunwich Legacy, I took a look at some old reviews I did to see if the new cards had an impact on the reviewed cards. And man have I found a good one. In my initial review on Scavenging I mentioned the nice combo with Burglary That combo has even become better with new investigator Rex Murphy. Normally triggering Burglary's resource gain replaces gaining a clue when investiging succesfully. But when Rex Murphy uses it he still gains a clue due to his special ability.

Can I play with Agnes?

Give me the sense to wonder

To wonder if she’s free

Give me a sense of wonder

If they’ve picked her before me

Give me the strength to hold my hand out

And pick that youthful face

Don't need xp to unlock this deck

Gonna play through it all

Break me into that bad place

[Chorus]

Can I play with Agnes?

She’d look so cool with a crystal ball

Can I play with Agnes?

Her evasion’s rather small

Can I play with Agnes?

The players looked at me and laughed at me (ha ha) they said:

Can I play with Agnes?

Use blinding light, its fine, you`ll seeee

Woah, they said use blinding light you`ll see

I stared hard at the encounters

I said I'll Scry, I'll see whats below

We can prepare for this mischief

For two cards and the next

Oh then I fixed them with a freezing glance

You could see the fear in their eyes

I said you wanna know the truth son?

Well I’ll show you the truth

Its an agility test needing five or higher

[Chorus]

Listen to me, said the players

[Chorus]

Can I play with Agnes?

Roland is a man who works alone,

and when hes searching a dark room,

or walking his dog out in the park,

when the light begins to change,

trying to see can be a pain

its hard to see things when its dark

Light up the dark, Light up the dark

Hes sure there's something useful somewhere fairly near

Light up the dark, Light up the daaa-ark

He uses his flashlight to find out what is over there!

My first experiences with Medical Texts while playing the 1 core set Roland Banks starterdeck were terrible. After I was done, I buried it at the bottom of the game box and vowed never to use it again. At the moment the healing options in the game are very limited though, so I thought it might be worth taking a better look at Medical Texts.

Medical Texts is currently the only card that offers "unlimited" healing, which is a good thing. The problem is that it's a card that doesn't get along with just any investigator, as I found out the hard way.

Put it in the hands of Roland Banks and it's a not so reliabe heal that you can waste a precious action on while getting damaged in the process... Time after time... after time... But if you put it in the hands of a high intellect investigator like Daisy Walker, Daisy becomes a walking one-woman ER unit. With an un-boosted Intellect of 5, Daisy starts all of Medical Texts skill tests with +3, netting you a very good chanche to succeed. And with Medical Texts being a Tome, Daisy's unique skill will let you use it once each round without costing an action. (True story: I once "Burst-healed" 4 health in one turn that way.)

So in short: with Medical Texts it's all about the investigator using it.

With the deck building rules for the Core Set investigators, the only investigator who can use it reliably is Daisy Walker. But with the deckbuilding rules for the investigators in the upcoming "Dunwich Legacy" permitting using up to 5 cards from your "non-primary class sphere" , Medical Texts could become a good healing option for every investigator with a good Intellect skill.