I still remember when I saw the card Clean Them Out, and thought it would become the new staple for Guardians, equivalent to Burning the Midnight Oil. Then I found out what basic Fight actions are, and why they aren't good for most Guardians. Guardians ended up with Stand Together 0 instead, which was only really a good card when sharing with a team mate, otherwise it was trading a card and an action for 2 resources.

Hopefully I haven't made the same mistake with this card as I made back then, because this really looks like Crack the Case but for Guardians. This card should become the staple Guardian economy card which they have always wanted and needed.

If you squint, this is 2 resources for a Fast attack at +1 to hit for +1 damage. That's a pretty fair rate. There are a decent number of asterisks on that, though; it's not going to be useful against most stationary boss-type enemies, for instance.

One particularly good use is to clip Hunter enemies that are catching up to you, as this can potentially defeat them after they Hunt into your location but before they hit you.

When it isn't useful, it's still got excellent icons.

Note that this doesn't generally work against Aloof enemies; use the Rope Trap for that.

Odd that no one mentioned the first card I would compare this to: Perseverance. Compared to that one, Talisman of Protection differs in the following ways:

Advantages:

• Does not have to be in your hand when needed
  • Cannot be discarded from your hand (e.g. via Chill from Below)
• Multiplayer applicability
• Item trait (many synergies in the game)
• access

Disadvantages:

• Does have to be in your play area when needed
  • Can be discarded from play (e.g. via Crypt Chill)
• Occupies a(n arcane) slot
• Only cancels 2 damage and/or horror
• Only 1 icon

The obvious stuff aside, often times when playing this card it "just" acts like insurance: It feels cool to have, but unless/until you need it it does NOTHING (aside from maybe soaking a Crypt Chill).

One interaction I found fixes this "problem" is with St. Hubert's Key: That card on the one hand accelerates the time until you get value from the Talisman, and on the other hand the Talisman helps keep the Key in play!

If you thought Rod of Carnamagos was not broken abusable enough read both cards again, carefully.

Yes, the Rod not only negates this weakness (there is a player window right before revealing chaos tokens), Glimpse the Void actually makes it even more potent (letting you reveal 6 tokens instead of 5)!

Haters will point out that the Rod exhausts, but that is only relevant if you do not transfigure into "Ashcan" Pete, hah!

Are you looking for an auto-success combo? Well stray no more, because here it might be!*

You need:

• A solid investigator: Luke Robinson ( access, connecting location bonus for multiplayer), Jacqueline Fine (token skimming), Agatha Crane ( access, cancel synergy), plus a few more mid fits.
• A way to improve the odds of revealing a , , , or token from the chaos bag: Olive McBride and/or Katarina Sojka.
• A means to get more Counterspell casts: Dayana Esperence.
• Resources to fund your repeated casting of Counterspell: Voice of Ra, Prophetic, ...
• Cards for recharging Dayana: Enraptured, Call the Beyond, Correlate All Its Contents, Eldritch Sophist, Truth from Fiction, Ariadne's Twine.
• Bonus symbol token negation: Defiance

Is it broken? Nah, requires some setup. Is it cool? 8-)

*Let's be honest, Katarina Sojka changed the tide here