With the new 2.4 FAQ, You can attach The Raven Quill to this bad boy and keep it after swapping to Blade of Yoth! (or any other upgrades you might like.)

This adds a ton of potential to one of my favorite support cards in the game by allowing an insanely underestimated weapon to hold a very powerful upgrade. Some benefits include:

• One hand and one spell slot too much for you? Worry no more with Spectral Binding!
• Not quite satisfied with the +2-6 buff? Add another +2 why don't you, using Mystic Vane!
• Need a little extra power but don't want to discard those precious charges? Snag some with Energy Sap!
• Last but not least, ready some other asset for a whole new dimension of shenanigans with Interwoven Ink!

Now keep in mind, this is expensive stuff. We're talking about a level 4 card and an "up-to-level-5" card here. So who can make magic happen? The obvious answer would be Roland but I think my fellow goofballs will enjoy running this on Ursula a lot more. You get access to some wonderful charge generation and can manipulate them as you wish to the places you desire! (Using the aforementioned Energy Sap for example!)

While 6 resources isn't exactly cheap for a weapon that provides no boost without some prep work, it enables a ton of potential that was just barely out of reach before this FAQ. It's not busted, hell it's probably not even that strong if you do get it to work, but it might just be enough to make your fellow players have a laugh or raise an eyebrow when the seeker starts dealing 4 damage per hit! (because they totally couldn't do that before... right...?)

So, this is a card that Alessandra may find useful, since she is the one who will spend Parley actions to feed this.

The thing is... this is underwhelming. Alessandra will always prefer to use her Parley actions in other powerful Parley cards as long as there are enemies in the map, and this is not hard to force in the vast majority of scenarios. You can even look for them with Kicking the Hornet's Nest or ask your Guardian to play On the Hunt.

Let's say you waste your precious Parley extra action and you add three charges. Then you activate the effect and play Blade of Yoth. You can attack 3 times for 6 damage, 2 times for 3 and 2 damage or 1 time for 4 damage. You have to basically wasted 3 extra Parley actions (probably along 3 rounds) that could have been used to win the scenario with cards like Vamp, Fake Credentials's , Grift, Power Word or Beguile's to feed this in order to get this numbers.

This is just so much trouble when you can simply play British Bull Dog and shoot 3 times for 6 damage ignoring Aloof or even not paying because of its . Do you need bigger numbers? Use Dirty Fighting since it also synergizes with Parley tests or the new Fox Mask.

Is this a boss killer? Not by any stretch, you will just perform worse during the whole scenario with Alessandra just for get this thing fed.

Marie Lambeau suffers from the same. Her extra for activating Spell assets' is way better spent in assets like Shrivelling, Rite of Seeking or any spell you want to play.

So, Alessandra and Marie Lambeau have way better options and ways to spend their extra actions, but, this card has another cool effect. When you load this thing using the Parley action, every investigator gets +1 to deal with the parleyed enemy during this round. I find this such a cool support tool for non other than Carson Sinclair. He can use this to ease hard Parley actions (There are some of this in The Forgotten Age if I remember correctly), or to buff any investigator while dealing with an enemy. He can get next to a big boss (or big enemy), use this card's three times and suddenly all investigators will consistently trigger cool effects with card like Switchblade, Mauser C96, Beretta M1918, .41 Derringer, Cheap Shot, Opportunist, Lucky Cigarette Case, etc. Kymani would love to get their numbers bigger by this in order to have an easier time discarding enemies. You can even join the fun if you've added enough charges and swing with a +6 bonus for 4 damage! Not live changing, but good enough for a exclusively support character, allowing Carson to have autonomy against enemies he draws from the Mythos deck as a consequence of perfoming good at his role

Sure, not all the campaigns have such dangerous enemies to get this rolling, but there are some other campaigns with a lot of bosses and beefy enemies (specially in bigger player counts) where other players will gladly take the bonuses and the help.

Is Eyes of Valusia the best option for Carson? I don't know, but it looks fun enough for me. Maybe this card needs to get mutated to be playable. Realisticaly, no Guardian (or Marie Lambeau) will pay 4 exp when you can get Brand of Cthugha for the same slots and bigger damage for less actions and ghost killing if they are a thing in the campaign you are playing. Maybe there is something I'm not seeing. I don't know.

An interesting card for Alessandra. She can use otherwise wasted free parley actions to charge this up before swapping to the Blade of Yoth to kill the big-bad at the end of the scenario. In that way it's action shifting (like Borrowed Time and Bide Your Time) from early turns to end game turns. Outside of Alessandra, and maybe Carson Sinclair, ... seems not good.

Before anything, take a minute to ponder how Eyes of Valusia/Blade of Yoth are one the best illustrations of the game.

Now we can start the review.

First thing to note is that this card is more suited to multiplayer. It requires set up, but in 3+ player you can easily play flex and use the Parley action to support your team, before swapping to the boss-killing weapon in late game.

Yes, it's a boss-killing weapon, among the best possible in the game. 4 damage with +6 to hit (and having a choice in which skill you use) makes it usually unmissable unless , without needing to commit card. And it leaves you one empty hand, so many build possibilities.

Beside the obvious , there are a few other investigators who can use it :

• Marie Lambeau (it's a Spell)
• Alessandra Zorzi (it's a Parley card)
• Monterey Jack (with // back) and Ursula Downs (it's a Relic)
• Lola Hayes (with // back) and Subject 5U-21

Important things to keep in mind :

1. It's really sad, but The Raven Quill (attachable to the Eyes) does not combo. I asked FFG for confirmation, and every attachement (Enchant Weapon, Reliable, etc.) is discarded when you swap Eyes with Blade.

2. Charging the Eyes is costly in actions. Therefore, three possibilities : playing multiplaer (more spare actions), gaining more actions (hello , and also Marie who has an extra action), or directly adding charges, like : – Knowledge is Power (available to Marie, Monterey, Ursula, Roland, Zoey, Carson). Sadly a bit too costly in xp with taboo – Enraptured (especially the xp version). Excellent with Marie, who can also double down with Practice Makes Perfect. – The Red Clock + Eldritch Sophist (Montery and Ursula). Every round, you gain one charge on the blade, and ideally you keep the clock with 2 charges on it at the start of the round : Need to move ? eldricht sophist before the start of your turn, else activate him after for one bonus action.

3. It's impossible to have the weapon in you starting deck (well, you could draw Offer You Cannot Refuse with In the Thick of It, but don't count on it), so the first scenario can be difficult if you don't have other combat solutions (Monterey has his Trusty Bullwhip, but Ursula may have issues). If you are playing multi it's more easy to circumvent, asking other players for more combat solutions in first scenario, but it can be problematic in solo (outside Monterey and Alessandra, you don't have Adaptable to easily change your deck).

So, who do i pick for my Eyes of Valusia/Blade of Yoth deck ?

In my opinion, either Marie or Ursula.

• They have both 1 (so 11 stat vuales elsewhere who will be usefull), and 4 to help hitting.

• Both have access to Dr. Elli Horowitz, wo can fetch the card and ignore it's slots. You can swap card attached to Elli without issue.

• Ursula can easily find this card with draw and fetch, Marie can do the same with Arcane Initiate. It tears me up that Marie cannot have Eldritch Brand (FFG, please... it targets Spells, why can't the dedicated Spell investigator take it ?) and start the game with the eyes in play.

I would prefer Marie because i thing Enraptured+Practice Makes Perfect is the best way to maximise the charging of the blade. Here is a 19xp deck example.

Alessandra is another interesting investigator (many actions, good ), but i think she has better options in and among Parley cards (British Bull Dog, Vamp (3), Stir the Pot...).

([Review to be completed once i have played Lola // with the blade, maybe she can shine with it too)

How does this interact with cards it’s attached to or has attached to it?

If I have it attached to Dr Horowitz or attach the Raven Quill to it and swap it back and forth, would the raven quill stay on? Would it still stay attached to Dr Horowitz? What if I had both. Would the Blade of Yoth simply slide in over the raven’s quill and beneath Dr Horowitz? To that end, would the Raven Quill need to name both “The Eyes of Valusia” and “The Blade of Yoth” or does it only need to have “The Eyes of Valusia” named?

Before anything, take a minute to ponder how Eyes of Valusia/Blade of Yoth are one the best illustrations of the game.

Now we can start the review.

First thing to note is that this card is more suited to multiplayer. It requires set up, but in 3+ player you can easily play flex and use the Parley action to support your team, before swapping to the boss-killing weapon in late game.

Yes, it's a boss-killing weapon, among the best possible in the game. 4 damage with +6 to hit (and having a choice in which skill you use) makes it usually unmissable unless , without needing to commit card. And it leaves you one empty hand, so many build possibilities.

Beside the obvious , there are a few other investigators who can use it :

• Marie Lambeau (it's a Spell)
• Alessandra Zorzi (it's a Parley card)
• Monterey Jack (with // back) and Ursula Downs (it's a Relic)
• Lola Hayes (with // back) and Subject 5U-21

Important things to keep in mind :

1. It's really sad, but The Raven Quill (attachable to the Eyes) does not combo. I asked FFG for confirmation, and every attachement (Enchant Weapon, Reliable, etc.) is discarded when you swap Eyes with Blade.

2. Charging the Eyes is costly in actions. Therefore, three possibilities : playing multiplaer (more spare actions), gaining more actions (hello , and also Marie who has an extra action), or directly adding charges, like :
   – Knowledge is Power (available to Marie, Monterey, Ursula, Roland, Zoey, Carson). Sadly a bit too costly in xp with taboo
   – Enraptured (especially the xp version). Excellent with Marie, who can also double down with Practice Makes Perfect.
   – The Red Clock + Eldritch Sophist (Montery and Ursula). Every round, you gain one charge on the blade, and ideally you keep the clock with 2 charges on it at the start of the round : Need to move ? eldricht sophist before the start of your turn, else activate him after for one bonus action.

3. It's impossible to have the weapon in you starting deck (well, you could draw Offer You Cannot Refuse with In the Thick of It, but don't count on it), so the first scenario can be difficult if you don't have other combat solutions (Monterey has his Trusty Bullwhip, but Ursula may have issues). If you are playing multi it's more easy to circumvent, asking other players for more combat solutions in first scenario, but it can be problematic in solo (outside Monterey and Alessandra, you don't have Adaptable to easily change your deck).

So, who do i pick for my Eyes of Valusia/Blade of Yoth deck ?

In my opinion, either Marie or Ursula.

• They have both 1 (so 11 stat vuales elsewhere who will be usefull), and 4 to help hitting.

• Both have access to Dr. Elli Horowitz, wo can fetch the card and ignore it's slots. You can swap card attached to Elli without issue.

• Ursula can easily find this card with draw and fetch, Marie can do the same with Arcane Initiate. It tears me up that Marie cannot have Eldritch Brand (FFG, please... it targets Spells, why can't the dedicated Spell investigator take it ?) and start the game with the eyes in play.

I would prefer Marie because i thing Enraptured+Practice Makes Perfect is the best way to maximise the charging of the blade. Here is a 19xp deck example.

Alessandra is another interesting investigator (many actions, good ), but i think she has better options in and among Parley cards (British Bull Dog, Vamp (3), Stir the Pot...).

([Review to be completed once i have played Lola // with the blade, maybe she can shine with it too)