Torrent of Power is a tricky card to play well. A single wild icon on a skill is not very good, so you're really looking for ways to reliably turn this thing into 3 or even 5 icons. The problem is most Mystics don't need to be up by all that much, and spell charges tend to be quite expensive to replace. Mystics as a whole have a tendency to rely heavily on assets or events, as skill cards are much less flexible when you rely so heavily on a single stat () to do anything. Events like Spectral Razor and spell assets like Shrivelling for example are often way too good not to include, so skills like Torrent tend to get left behind for other skills that increase consistency. Compare this card to say Guts which draws you back a card and costs nothing to commit for 2 icons, which is pretty much a sweet spot for spell casters, or Fearless which can be used on more certain tests for horror healing, something that Agnes Baker in particular appreciates (but all Mystics can benefit from). Overall, it's a card that understandably sees very limited play in Mystics- Akachi Onyele can benefit from it okay with her better charge economy, and recent addition Twila Katherine Price may make the cost of expending spell charges lower to warrant this card as a more common include.
The reason I'm writing this review, however, is to tell you about one particular use of this card that just has me absolutely floored, and it's one that I've seen almost no one talk about or try yet.
So let's look again at Torrent's biggest problems. 1. It's a skill card that doesn't give a nice utility effect (such as card economy) that Mystics tend to require from including skills over assets/events 2. charges are expensive because it's unlikely you'll be able to replace that Shrivelling or Rite of Seeking fast enough to warrant spending 1 or 2 charges to make Torrent good, and 3. the icons aren't necessarily wanted anyway. What we require then is someone who doesn't care as much about economy cards, for whom tossing charges is a relatively low cost, and for whom the icons- even possibly just for wild icons on non-Willpower tests- are super valuable.
Let me introduce you to Patrice Hathaway.
Patrice draws through her deck quite fast, so spells can be replaced very quickly. The combination of Patrice's Violin and Madame Labranche makes paying for spells surprisingly easy, particularly the already low costed Mists of R'lyeh. She is someone, in my experience, who can fully benefit from torrent even just for icons, spending 2 or 3 charges she no longer needs on any test to put herself up by 3 or 4. In fact, Patrice is so flexible with her event draws and ability to test insanely high that I often find myself not needing to rely on the spells as much, and spells sit around with extra charges. Torrent of Power is, take my word for it, a fantastic Patrice pick. Give it a try!
