Prescient

I am wondering if Prescient is a good add to Sister Mary, especially paired with Olive McBride, it makes it really likely that you pull a token, so it turns Prescient almost into Resourceful.

Aim at Ward of Radiance and you got yourself a good encounter prot against non- treachery cards.

Valentin1331 · 79057
Favor of the Sun guarantees the recursion if you want that combo. Other good targets are probably Radiant Smite/Spectral Razer, Hallow or Tides of Fate to pull off a double Hallow. — suika · 9511
Indeed, good combo here :) — Valentin1331 · 79057
M1918 BAR

Disclaimer: I haven't run any detailed math here and haven't searched all the cards for some uber combos. I just made my thoughts regarding this card, the reviews and my personal game experience so far.

If I were able to give this card a revamp I would change two things to make it (in my view) a compatible big gun beside the others.
I would increase the cost to 6 and change the text to something like this:

Uses (8 ammo.)
Spend 1 ammo: Fight. you get +1 for this attack. This attack deals +1 damage. As an additional cost you may spend up to three additional ammo. You get +1 and deal +1 damage for each additional ammo.

with this, the overall performance would be much closer to the other guns and you have essentially two fire modi:

  1. single fire: for 4 XP you get 8x 2 damage at +1 for 6 ress. This is a 25% discount over the .45 Automatic (my "gold standard" for weapons). This discount comes with all the drawbacks of a big gun: requires two hands at once, one big target for asset hating treacheries.
  2. burst fire: here comes the flexibility (and the justification for XP)! Gain action compression by spending the exact amount of bullets you need for your enemy. Lose a portion of your discount.

Let's see how this compares to the other big guns in our arsenal

  1. Shotgun: spending 4 ammo gives you 2 shots at +4 for 5 dmage. Same burst potential, more reliable damage, less synergy with extra ammo cards. I think the "new BAR" has the advantage here.
  2. Lightning Gun: spending 2 ammo gives 4 shots at +3 for 3 damage. So one action more than the lighting gun, at a lesser to hit chance. Again harder to reload. I think both weapons are roughly on par, depending on the campaign and player needs.
  3. Flamethrower: spending 3 ammo gives 2 shots at +4 for 4 damage and leaving you with to ammo left. Between this two it comes down to flexibility vs. burst. Both weapons are capable of doing max 16 damage, but single shot "new BAR" needs double the amount of actions. Again I think both cover different terrain and would see both their use in game.

Right now, I am no big fan of a big gun guardian. But with the flexibility of the "new" BAR? Yes, could see me using it as a mid campaign upgrade!

PS: I could think of a third "automatic fire" mode with a second action option which could look something like this:
Exhaust M1918 BAR and spend 5 ammo: Fight. You get +2 for this attack. If this attack is successful, instead of its standard damage, you may assign up to 4 damage among enemies engaged with you (any additional damage adds to this total). Enemies damaged by this attack will not attack during the enemy phase.
So you have some suppression mechanic at the cost of damage. I don't know how such a mechanic would balance but flavor wise I think this would be a cool addition.

SgtWinter · 16
My group has used Big Gun guardians as our benchmark Fighters since Dunwhich as they’re no joke. It’s true that most of the good MBAR reload cards are in Rogue, not Guardian, but it is quite reloadable, and Custom Ammunition puts in most of the work to make it feel the way you seem to want it to feel. Your upgrade of +1 cost for +2-8 damage is pretty powerful, even without combo cards. As far as your comparisons, this blows Shotgun out of the water; +4 and you need to succeed by 0 instead of +3 need to succeed by 5. Not particularly surprising as Shotgun was their first attempt at a BBG (big blue gun), and it takes a lot of support to really get value out of it. The Lightning Gun’s +5 is incredible overkill for accuracy for almost anyone who can use it (until recently), dropping to a +3 is negligible and leaves the new MBAR clocking in at +33% boom for -1 xp. Reaching the opposite end of the spectrum, sure. Even the bolstered MBAR seems a bit intimidated by the Flamethrower, but the Flamethrower is nuts. Most guardians were already engaging their enemies and few were actually running Bandolier - the one relevant card it interferes with. It’s undercosted and overtuned - especially coming out in the same cycle as Venturer. Bring the MBAR up to its sheer power while still being a level 4 Card is... — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Oh, and when you account for the card and action costs to play them, it’s at least a 50% discount over the .45 Automatic. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
True, the one saved action over 2x .45 Auto I have totally overlooked. But your main critizism seems to be the low "cost" of 4xp. I have no complaints ramping this up :) Maybe I will try a custom ammo MBAR Leo for the next campaign. — SgtWinter · 16
Well, yes. Any card can exist in the game at the right xp cost. For the modified MBAR, I’d suggest 6. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
I think you're overthinking it. Just keep the BAR exactly the same and give it 2 or 3 more rounds of ammo if you think its underpowered. — suika · 9511
I don't know if 2 or 3 more rounds would really cut it for me. My problem with the BAR is its sheer lack of total damage. You start with 8 rounds wich is 8 damage. Thats less than ANY other guardian firearm (mabye aside from shotgun if you draw unlucky). With my party our main problem most of the time is not take as few actions possible to kill the monster but have enough firepower out to kill everything that comes. And sadly, this doesn't get better with card combos. Extra Ammo & Contraband both work better with lightning gun or flamethrower in terms of total dmg potential. Sure, at the end of a campaign it is more crucial to pump as much of dmg in the shortest time possible into a great old one, and splatter a "mini boss" into pieces in two actions feels great. But grabbing your empty weapon with both hands beeing unable to support your cluer with his nasty spawn ruins this pretty quickly. — SgtWinter · 16
correction, it is less than or equal to the total damage of the firearms. Also the Winshester has the potential to do less. — SgtWinter · 16
Bumping it up to 10 ammo will put already it on par or better with every gun besides the Flamethrower. And part of the balancing factor of the BAR is how difficult it is to reload with the usual tools, which also gives Zoey and Leo something different to do with this gun with Contraband, Act of Desperation/Well Maintained, and Swift Reload. Making it easier to reload compromises the identity of the BAR. — wheelgroup · 1
Lita Chantler

Lita is bonkers with One-Two Punch! Because, it provides two fight actions within one action, you also get her extra damage twice.

I was facing Narôgath, covered with the Mask of Umôrdhoth as Nathaniel Cho in a 2 player game, so he had 12 health.

  • 1st action: Mano a Mano (1) for 2 damage (including Cho's special ability)
  • 2nd and 3rd action: One-Two Punch (0) for 5 damage each

Note, this would not have worked out with the (double) Masked Hunter, because he lacks the Monster-trait and would have had 10 health with the second mask!

Susumu · 381
Nothing Left to Lose

Despite surface similarities (both give cards and resources), Nothing Left to Lose serves a very different purpose from Drawing Thin.

Drawing Thin is sustained economy. It's for a deck that constantly spending resources for expensive events or asset recursion. It takes an install cost and actions to trigger its effects. Track Shoes can make it actionless at times, but there's the install cost of Track shoes to consider as well and you need to find both cards and play them. In exchange for an early tempo loss, you get a steady flow of cards and resources every round to fuel your expensive cards.

Nothing Left to Lose is the premier burst economy card. It's for a deck that needs some money to play out its starting assets, then no longer needs more resources, either because the deck is cheap or the assets will provide enough economy. Dark Horse builds are the archetypal example, but it's by no mean limited to Dark Horse builds. For example a Yorick build recurring Rite of Sanctification once set up no longer needs sustain economy from Drawing Thin. All he needs is the starting economy and cards to set up in the first place. In such decks, Nothing Left to Lose will outperform Drawing Thin in set-up tempo and in deck consistency.

The remove from game effect is actually beneficial, since you should only need to play this once per copy in your deck. If you find yourself cycling your deck and still need to play Nothing Left to Lose, you probably should have taken Drawing Thin instead.

It's also an auto-include when when you get Paranoia or Amnesia or Tower as your random basic weakness. Also as existing reviews point out, there's no need to wait to get full value out of it: gaining 5 resources is already better than Emergency Cache (3) even if you're not drawing any cards, as long as you can put the resources to good use.

suika · 9511
In Patrice's deck, I'd also highlight the importance of a question skill icon. This means that if you get this card but don't need resources (or lack actions), you can commit this card to any test effectively. If you're running grisly totem, as Patrice decks sometimes do, that's two question marks. I've found cards without skill icons to be very risky in a Patrice deck, especially if you're doing a Cornered / Grisly Totem build. For her, this is definitely superior than having an iconless emergency cache (3) cycling. — Achire · 563
Lt. Wilson Stewart

There are obvious synergies here with survivor, with Yorick being the best partner for Lieutenant Wilson (although Wendy can have fun too, getting additional benefits from her events). Patrice digs him because she always has the cards to toss. And Norman Withers will absolutely love him, because you know exactly what you’re going to discard.

There are some edge cases where Wilson Stewart becomes neat, like when you scry your own deck and can put your weakness on top… then discard it. Or combine have with the upgraded seeker scroll of secrets, with the potential to discard one weakness, put another on top of your deck, and then discard it, and drawing a card you might actually like.

Or you have a draw heavy character like a rogue with the lucky cigarette case. Know that the bottom of your deck is mostly dregs? Toss it! Or pair with Yaotl!

MrGoldbee · 1492
How does he work with Wilds? I guess, not at all? Even though, they are not specifically excluded like on the Yaotle-card. — Susumu · 381
"A Wild skill icon on a player card may be used to match any other skill icon for the purposes of both card abilities and counting how many matching icons are committed to a skill test. When using Wild icons for the purpose of resolving a card ability, a player must state which icon the Wild is matching at the time the card is used." Wilds are whatever you want, it seems. — suika · 9511
So toss a Last Chance at this and pick 5 effects of your choice. — suika · 9511
I guess you are right, but "Last Chance" would still loose icons for cards in your hand. — Susumu · 381
That's not true. Last Chance only loses icons if it were committed. Per FAQ on Yaotl: Q: How does Yaotl work in combination with Steadfast, Curiosity, Cunning, Prophesy or Able Bodied, or other skill cards that gain icons while committed to tests? A: The abilities on skill cards are only active while they are being committed to a skill test, unless otherwise specified. In this case the skill cards will only have their printed icons while they are in your discard pile, hand, or any other state other than while they are being committed to a skill test. (This includes an effect that says something like "discard a card from your hand with at least X icons...") — suika · 9511
Ups, you are right. — Susumu · 381