Soothing Melody

Regarding Carolyn Ferns ability:

  • Playing this card to heal 1 horror from two different investigators, makes both gain 1 ressource (as with Clarity of Mind).
  • If she plays this card to heal 1 horror from two different assets from the same investigator, does he gain 1 or 2 ressources?
Django · 5155
I believe it's exactly like liquid courage; it heals horror twice, but there's only one effect. Her ability only cares about the number of effects that heal horror, so one effect having multiple instances of healing will still only count as one. — SGPrometheus · 847
Liquid courage says „additional“ so it’s clearly one instance of horror healing. But if melody targets two different assets I think it’s two separate effects, even if they belong to the same investigator. — Django · 5155
Its grey zone, but trying to interpret her ability i would say you only activate her ability once, as there is only one healing effect. But as with chaos tokens when there are multiple token pull her ability can still target multiple assets. Based on this with one investigator 2 assets i would say only 1 resource but 2 different investigators could get 1-1 resource. ("Te healed card's controller gains 1 resource") — vidinufi · 69
Hallowed Mirror

This card should see lots of use, since it is the first level 0 guardian accessory and healing is welcome in many guardian decks. After the first Soothing Melody, you have in effect played an Emergency Aid (but can heal horror!) plus an action to draw a card. Then the second and third melodies give great value! The total healing for all three is 6 damage/horror for 0 cards (each mirror/melody replaces itself), 2 resources and 4 actions. This is incredible value, comparable to the economy of the neutral upgrade armor and the upgraded Clarity of Mind.

Here are comments for each investigator who can use the mirror:

  1. "Ashcan" Pete. Healing is not quite as necessary for Pete so he will probably not take the mirror.
  2. William Yorick. William wouldn’t use the mirror, because when it leaves play he cannot use his power to play the melodies again. He would rather recur his Cherished Keepsake or Police Badge.
  3. Akachi Onyele. (Occult allows her to use it) Probably not worth using over Holy Rosary.
  4. Diana Stanley. A decent choice for her since many versions forgo the mystic accessories. It’s better if she uses Guard Dog.
  5. Jim Culver. Hard to compete with the mystic accessories, but a few versions may choose the mirror.
  6. Marie Lambeau (occult). Her power makes the melodies a free action. But again, hard to compete with the mystic accessories.
  7. Joe Diamond. He should use it since he doesn’t have another accessory and he wants extra healing for damage and horror resulting from his low willpower and agility.
  8. Rex Murphy. He could use it but it doesn’t help his investigate focused plan.
  9. Carolyn Fern. I think she loves the mirror enough to skip her other accessory options. Each melody can be split to activate her power and heal a damage too. She can protect the mirror using Ward of Protection.
  10. Leo Anderson. Big money versions may want Lucky Cigarette Case or Decorated Skull. But some versions may use the mirror.
  11. Mark Harrigan. Auto-include for him! The healing will undoubtably help balance his power sanity and activate his power. Funny to imagine him singing a soothing melody into the mirror while holding his tommy-gun though!
  12. Roland Banks. He likes the healing to balance low sanity, and doesn’t have any accessory clashes at level 0.
  13. Zoey Samaras. Clashes with her Zoey's Cross, so she probably wouldn’t use the mirror.
  14. "Skids" O'Toole. May choose the mirror unless he goes for Lucky Cigarette Case or Decorated Skull.
  15. Jenny Barnes. Probably doesn’t justify 1/5 slots for her, and she likes her cigarettes.
  16. Lola Hayes. You might think she would like this since she’s an actress. But whenever she draws her weakness on guardian she immediately smashes the mirror, so it isn’t good with her.
jmmeye3 · 631
I think solo or 2 player Carolyn will still prefer St. Hubert's Key over Mirror since she really doesn't need that much horror healing in her deck, however I could see her running both in multiplayer if she moves into Relic Hunter and has a backpack. At the very least it beats Logical Reasoning. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
The Hallowed Mirror has the "Blessed" trait so Father Mateo can use it, too! I don't know how effective it is for him to use it, though. — ArkhamInvestigator · 306
I don't know that it necessarily clashes with the other mystic accessories. This isn't a card that you'd want to rush into pay as soon as you draw it. Often you'll go through a scenario without needing too much healing capability, in which case you can just hold onto it in your hand. But in the event that you do need to do some healing then bumping out your rosary is not going to be a problem, esp since the later in the game you play this the greater your chances of drawing into the spells. It's only a 1-of so doesn't cost much deckspace and could be hugely useful at times. I definitely plan to run it in my next Akachi deck. — Sassenach · 180
Good point Sassenach, there is little harm in waiting to play the mirror. — jmmeye3 · 631
Regarding action costs, mirror and 2 melodies need to be drawn somehow, so it "costs" 3 more actions. Compared to other healing options it's also very inconsistent, needing to draw the mirror first. That aside, i've played this card and the flexibility is pretty good, as well as the card draw. Side note for carolyn, if you heal 1 horror on 2 different investigators, each gain 1 ressouce. — Django · 5155
Compared to First Aid 0, it only costs two actions to heal the first 2 (instead of 3). It costs a draw and action for each 2 after that but has a potential total 6 (instead of 3). That said, nobody has accused First Aid 0 of being an impressive card. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Also in terms of favorable comparison to First Aid 0, this also works on allies which is amazing on certain Allies such as the Beat Cop or Dem Agency Boys who use their stats as a resource. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Ursula Downs can also take this. Gives you a little bit more security against Charon's Obol, at least — Zinjanthropus · 230
Alter Fate

Oh my god this card is amazing.

Whenever I draw this card I swear I can hear Samuel L. Jackson somewhere in the background saying "Motherfucker" with an approving tone.

The sheer amount of garbage that may pile up in any given scenario is crazy, literally like an ever growing headache. Alter Fate is the pill that makes the headache go away, or perhaps cures the cancer outright! In many scenarios this is the card you save Resourceful for in particular.

Admittedly, I don't think a solo player draws persistent gunk at a speed fast enough to warrant Alter Fate, it's a liability when you dont need it and your deck probably requires other, important, level upped mechanics. In two player or three player the amount of gunk goes up and the sheer usefulness of making the gunk go away is stupid good. I did a little check and every single scenario from the release up to the conclusion of Path to Carcosa and start of Forgotten age had at least a couple perfectly viable targets. Every scenario!

One of these days, if you haven't already, once you've slotted your first 8 XP worth of important XP upgrades, try spending you next 6 on a couple of these. They are great.

Edit, campaign evaluation:

Dunwich and Circle unbound in particular reward playing with Alter Fate.

Forgotten age it can be clutch, but there are less "GOTCHA!" persistent treacheries in this one.

Carcosa has a few good targets, but also an occasional dud scenario. Definitely lower priority due to the deckslot.

Tsuruki23 · 2577
Well, you don't benefit from discarding Spires of Carcosa, due to its own wordings, so practically there is no valid target in Black Stars Rise. The card is definitely campaign-dependent. I find it great in Dunwich and TCU, ok in TFA, and not very good in Carcosa. — ak45 · 469
This card in The Circle Undone. I don't think I need to say anything more than that. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
I will concede that Carcosa has less targets — Tsuruki23 · 2577
I really liked it in TFA with Patrice, because she can play it quite a few times. It also forces you to play it even on minor annoyances, because if you don't you just have to discard it, which means that you end up not having a lot of persistent treacheries in play at all. I feel like when I've taken it in other investigators I just never play it because I'm waiting for the moment where it'll actually win me the game, or whatever. — Zinjanthropus · 230
Infighting

Baffling card, it's literally so bad that words can barely describe it. It's barely useful even if it were a 0-xp card, much less 3!!

So, what does it do exactly? It:

  • Negates all non-elite attacks during the enemy phase.

For this to be useful, there needs to be an enemy phase where enemies are going to attack you, an unideal circumstance to start with, if there is a non-hunter enemy attacking you that means that you've gone a full round engaged with an enemy, failing to deal with it or ignoring it wholly, or ended your round for some reason with a ready enemy. The other case is if a hunter catches you, this might be more probable but still not ideal or common by any means (Not that hunters are uncommon, but the usual response to a nearby hunter is to go and deal with it, not stick around and wait for it!)

There is another card that harkens to this one, On the Lam, seing how this strength operates and gives you total freedom for a round sorta displays what they were thinking for Infighting, it's just not nearly as useful!

The biggest issue with Infighting is that its a niche card that does nothing but ease the pressure off you a LITTLE, but only when you're completely drowning in trouble. The non elite text is the real dealbreaker here because it's during battle with Elites where this particular effect would be good (or rather, the time where youre most likely to drown in enemies), Infighting is basically a fancy Dodge, in fact I think 3 Xp is just right an amount of XP to turn Dodge into an "AoE" effect, but it isn't, and it's just terrible.

P.S Oh, just to be fair, at least it has pretty great icons. Most of the time it'll be a 3-xp Unexpected courage with some rarely helpful text on it. I quite often use Eucatastrophe for the icons rather then text so i'm not kidding when I say that sometimes an Unexpected Courage with extra text on it is perfectly reasonable. Infighting is not one of those cases.

Tsuruki23 · 2577
To make it worse, it only works on the caster, not other investigators. Engage actions also provoke OAs, so drawing monsters to you without Taunt or similar, is not a viable strategy either. — Django · 5155
I am 100% sure that the text on this card is lacking a tiny clause or element that got changed on judgement day when they were sending it to the printer and when they saw it come out printed Matt was like "wuh.. oh.. crap" — Tsuruki23 · 2577
@Tsuruki23 I bet it was "this round" instead of "this phase" — Nenananas · 268
Guiding Spirit

Wonderful card for certain investigators, namely those with decent investigative power and innate resilience.

Top of the list:

Wendy Adams with her high , and ability.

"Ashcan" Pete with his high and ready made soak from Duke.

Minh Thi Phan with great and high enough to really benefit.

Take note that Guiding Spirit only exiles if defeated, I.E killed. If you play over it's ally slot to discard it (for example: your other copy of Guiding Spirit) or it gets discarded by a mythos card, it will not be exiled. High willpower and secondary soaks (Lieutenant Pawterson and Peter Sylvestre ) will basically make it so that your spirits will never go away.

Tsuruki23 · 2577
It's also non-unique, so you can stack them for a double boost and spread out any horror between them. Minh probably gets the best use out of this card, since she begins with a higher baseline stat and is likely to be doing way more investigating than any of the survivors. — Sassenach · 180
I'm gonna agree that this fits best with Minh. No one else with access to Survivor 1 cards can protect it as well and take advantage of the extra intellect. Pete is a close second. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Good cathc, ill add Minh — Tsuruki23 · 2577
While I do think it probably achieves its greatest potential in Minh or Wendy, I actually liked this a lot as a backup horror sink for Rita (until I could find Peter). That was a solo run, so the +int was actually quite helpful (in combination with Flashlight, and/or to be able to LWIF on slightly higher shroud locations). — Zinjanthropus · 230
[Tommy Muldoon](/card/06001) loves the Spirit too, as he is pointing him to some treasure. +2 net ressources when the spirit dies, a nice effect when he is around and then he keeps coming back because of Tommies ability. Solid ally. — jcdenton · 10
Tommy cannot shuffle Guiding Spirit back into his deck because it would be exiled — suika · 9511