Is this really a 2 xp for a single wild icon? I mean.. It does make a difference, but I feel that's a bit uninspired and maybe a bit expensive? There's probably a sheet somewhere telling me it's not expensive and I do feel there's definitely use for it, but it definitely feels a bit expensive.

Or am I missing something? I've been staring at the two cards side-by-side for a moment and I can't see anything else.

Rogues are known to be sketchy, but paying yourself?! I guess the potential weirdness of this card is limited by having to give the resources all at once, but as long as you have 5 (which is easily doable as one of the greens) this card is more and less flexible than Deny Existence at the same time:

• (-) You can only choose damage and/or horror.
• (-) You can only cancel 5.
• (+) You can mix damage and horror.
• (+) You can target other investigators.
• (+) You can target investigators at connecting locations.
• (+) Damage/horror can come from player card effects.

I've been thinking for a while that this card may be "the sleeper hit" of The Drowned City Expansion, so I gave it a try this weekend. I started a new campaign with Daisy (and not a high power-level Daisy: no Guiding Stones, no Empirical Hypothesis, etc.) playing with 1x Spectral Shield, 1x Eyes of the Dreamer, and eventually 2x Enraptured (which has other uses than putting chargers on Eyes of the Dreamer).

Based on my initial test in an off-class investigator, I'm overall really impressed with Spectral Shield. It's a combo card (although you could play it for a 1-cost fast on its own to prevent one damage/horror, I guess?), so if you're not using charges as your main engine then you'll need to find both Spectral Shield and something to fuel it.

Right out of the gate on Scenario 1, I started with 2 horror (In the Thick of It), failed an early treachery for 2 horror, and then drew my The Necronomicon weakness which is another 3 horror if I want to clear that. That's 7/9 horror right there. Yikes! My Guardian just randomly discarded Hallowed Mirror! Panic! I have a Logical Reasoning in my deck, but I need to find that... And then instead I found Eyes of the Dreamer + Spectral Shield, and... I'm pretty much fine? Now I don't have to worry about:

• Ward of Protection horror
• Horror from cycling my deck
• Swarming attacks, mostly (most Swarming is 1 damage or 1 horror each)
• "For each... choose..." effects where one of the options is 1 damage or 1 horror (because the "for each/every" rules for decisions is that each is its own effect)
• A 2 horror effect defeating me (now it takes two such effects)

There are so many effects that are trivialized when you get to prevent 9 damage/horror (maybe less, as I did use Eyes of the Dreamer now and then to not autofail a critical investigate with Deduction). (EDIT: Using is forced, not optional, so cannot combo with Deduction and the like. Thank you for the correction; the rest of the review still holds true for me.)

The main downsides of Spectral Shield are:

• You have to find 2 cards (normal combo tax)
• 4 resources is pricey early game for some decks
• You must spend the charge if you can, which can be annoying if (for example) your only charges are on tabooed Pendant of the Queen and you're at risk of removing it from the game
• This combo helps you "not lose" more than it helps you to win, if that makes sense

I'm very curious to play it in a Mystic with high-charge assets (Brand of Cthugha, Eyes of the Dreamer, etc.) rather than low-charge assets (Shrivelling, Rite of Seeking, etc.). I think that Spectral Shield could really open up a number of cards. Don't want to get damaged because of Alchemical Transmutation? Just spend one of its charges! Don't want to take horror from Shrivelling (3)? Just spend a charge from somewhere else! And so on. And with Eldritch Brand, you can start with a 9-charge spell from the outset, so the combo tax is further reduced.

I'm going to continue testing this card out to explore whether this card trivializes the encounter deck with all of the ways investigators can now replenish chargers: Uncage the Soul (3), Ghastly Possession, Enraptured (2), etc. Let me know what your experiences are!

Honestly an amazing card. There are obvious uses like finding the victory point enemies for the xp or just drawing a bunch of cards but I want to cover some other very useful use cases:

•Fishing out difficult enemies just before an act/agenda shuffles the discard back in to avoid drawing them again.

•Certain enemies want to be evaded not fought but this can be awkward if they spawn at a crossroads or location you'll have to backtrack on, by going to a dead-end and playing this you can ensure they stay out of the way.

•Getting the victory point enemy out of the deck when there is downtime so you don't have to deal with them later AND they spawn exhausted giving your team time to deal damage risk free of oppertunity attacks, relatilate or regular attacks.

•Enabling otherwise inconsistent clue getting cards like Scene of the Crime or Evidence! (notably able to find big enemies for Evidence! (2)) for when you really need the clues. Conversely being able to find high stated enemies for a card like Power Word early can allow you to get a lot of value or high health enemies for "Let God sort them out...".

•Certain enemies may have prey traits which are problematic for your team such as preying on your low or teammates to target their weak points, by drawing them yourself early you avoid these issues later for them (especially true for enemies which do things when they engage someone such as unavoidable damage).

A lot of these are minor use cases which aren't always useful, but considering you get all of this on a 0 cost draw card is amazing utility if you know what you're doing and long term will redefine how enemy management rogues go about their jobs and is a massive boon for guardians who get access to this like Zoey Samaras, Leo Anderson or Marion Tavares. Similar cards like Kicking the Hornet's Nest or On the Hunt may perform some of these jobs but "Where's the party?" does all of them and does it best I'd say.

Cosmic Revelation turns a Play Action and a card in your hand into one Draw or Play action for each player at your table. Assuming you value every card in your hand as being worth one action, Cosmic Revelation's value scales proportional to the player count:

• In One-Player: Cosmic Revelation provides no actual benefit.
• In Two-Player: Cosmic Revelation is action neutral.
• In Three-Player: Cosmic Revelation provides a bonus action.
• In Four Player: Cosmic Revelation provides at least two bonus actions.