Ladies and Gentlemen: let me introduce you, to the best ally in the game

There are two main ways you lose in Arkham Horror LCG: either the encounter deck defeats you or you run out of time when the doomsday clock hits noon.

You mainly lose by time out because you wasted or did not have enough actions to complete the scenario.

And one of the main actions that consume the lion share of the limited amount you have every scenario is the dreaded concept of moving

That is why Shortcut is considered such an incredible card that is a mainstay in any seeker deck: spending a card (and no action, mind you) moving is considered INCREDIBLY powerful (especially because the level 0 version of shortcut also does not cause attacks of opportunity, allowing you to safely "drag" an enemy away, something that is not true for the level 2 version which, between that and the added cost of 1 resource, is significantly less popular) [Edit: People in the comments pointed out there is a difference between "taking" an action and "performing" an action: you always perform an action when you take it unless it is somehow nullified ot stopped, but you don't always need to take an action to perform it. Shortcut lv2 is an example of that, and Attacks of Opportunity care if you "take" an action, even if you are not spending actual actions to do it. If you perform the action, you do not get attacked, so the upgraded shortcut won't cause you to get smacked. You will STILL lose an action from Frozen in Fear however because it will trigger every time you perform an action at all, while base level Shortcut and Allegria do not make your perform a move action, they move you as an "effect"]

Enter Allegria: who for the admitedly high price of 4 resources (though for an ally it's quite a baseline cost). gives you a soak of 2/2 and the ability to move every round to a connecting location without spending an action, and said movement also does not provoke attacks of opportunity

That is asbsolutely bonkers good and unbelieveably versatile: you have an enemy on you and another one about to punch you in a connecting location with the hunter keyword? Just either move away from the hunter or engage him too if you can defeat both,

Got teleported one the other side of the map? Slowly crawl back there one move per turn as you do other stuff on the way or get immediately there with 4 moves

Need to do one last thing before resigning and only have 1 extra round to spare? That would usually leave you with 2 actions, 1 to move to the location you need to be to do what you need to do (if it is in a connecting location), another action to do it and one to move back and then going through the mythos phase before you can resign (Chuck Fergus shennanigans with "I'm outta here!", other types of free movements and extra actions not withstanding), with Abess? You can actually do that in one round!

That alone would be enough to make Allegria one of the best allies in the game sought by all classes but maybe Seeker who have a decent alternative that is cheaper in resoruces, does not occupy and ally slot but is not as versatile in return, she doesn't need anything else to be fairly broken on its own: and yet she does have another ability that comes up in multiplayer...

She is one of the few allies other investigator can use the ability of, even if they are not at her location (as long as they are in a connecting location.

Specifically Allegria can "push" another investigator out of her location or act as a rope and drag that investigator in the location the one controlling her is, as long as the moving investigator is in a connecting location

That is nothing short of amazing: this nun does not make it harder just for you to lose by running out of time, it also helps others with that. There are only few allies that are as versatile as Allegria in that regard, and most of those I can think of are just meat shields that can tank damage and horror for other investigator beside the one controlling them

I am not joking when I there is not investigator that doesn't want Allegria: Guardians can close the gap faster to reach enemies and lay the smackdown, Seeker can stack Pathfinder and get to place with clues at insane speed, Rogues get to evade an enemy and move away immediately (which is usually as good as killing them if they are not hunters), Mystics can drag themselves away from danger if they are not ready to face a threat and Survivor... Can do what Survivor usually do and get a free actionless move every turn I guess

The way Allegria synergises with every investigator goes from complementing them perfectly (Roland can beat up an enemy on a location with clues after Allegria helps him drag them there, Luke gets esentially a free Elusive that brings him to his Dream-Gate and Monterey Jack can cash out with his signature ability without even spending an action. Keep in mind all these investigator can also take Shortcut and Pathfinder to be able to get from one side of the map to the other in one turn without spending an action easily) to not synergising with them really, but allowing every single one of them to do what they do spending one less action moving every turn

While Allegria support is brilliant in multiplayer, I think where she truly shines is in single: this Nun singlehandely might make it possible for true solo investigator to not just get through the campaign, but actually win most scenarios, especially those with massive maps like in Innsmouth Cospiracy and Edge of the Earth

Althought I do have to admit: I might be a bit biased here. As an Italian man I am very proud to regard an Italian nun be one of the best cards in the game in my experience playing her.

Beata tu sia suora Allegria de Biase: sei veramente la più benedetta!

I haven't tried Exile survivor yet, so take my opinion with a grain of salt: I might be full of it and I'll edit this review if I change my mind

This card is hot garbage

Permanents that grant you exp or exp discounts are better bought at the start of a campaign: this usually does not actually come up because most cards that grant you that bonus usually MUST be added at the start (with a price attached to them): In the Thick of It, Arcane Studies, Down the Rabbit Hole. The only excpetions that I can think about is Charon's Obol, which can be bought whenever you have 2 exp to spare and Observed for 4 exp sometimes can grant you free exp; still, to get the most of these cards you must buy them as soon as you complete your first scenario if you can spare the exp

That means, you have to have 5 exp ready after you immediately complete the first level of a campaign to use Déjà Vu: I think it is possible to accumulate enough exp in every starting scenario of any campaign to purchase it, but the price is not cheap, that likely means you will not have enough exp to actually buy anything else but 1 or 2 cards. If you actually do not get enough exp to buy Deja Vu, you either must save what you got until you complete the next scenario (and get NO CARDS beside any story asset you won) or give up and just spend the exp on something else and forget about this permanent

But that's not the only problem Deja Vu has: like the high exp cost already is a deal breaker but it gets worse.

Almost every exile card (which is different from "remove from the game") is above level 0, which means it needs exp to be added to your deck, exp you just burnt buying this bloody cat

That means not only you spend A LOT of exp for something you cannot properly use until you get enough exp to actually buy some damn cards that exile, but it also means it takes forever for Deja Vu to actually pay itself in, because the exp discount does not stack, you cannot reduce the cost in exp of any card above level one further, like A Test of Will, Fire Extinguisher, Fortune or Fate, Stroke of Luck and Unscrupulous Loan (if you are unlucky to lose it). You would need to rebuy up to 3 exile cards between 3 scenarios to finally break even and reap some benefits!

Thankfully the majority of exile cards ARE level 1, so they are relatively cheap, but it does make harder to keep any card above that cost given you may have to also pay an 1 or 2 exp of your own pocket

But we are not done yet ladies and gentleman, because there is one obvious cavet that essentially leaves this card dead in the water.

It only works if a card gets exiled, of course, but sometimes you don't want or need to exile a card:

-You may just not get damage or horrified enough to lose Leather Coat or Cherished Keepsake.

-You may not find an ally with Flare

-You may not need to use Stroke of Luck effect to actually pass a skill check

-You may always pass the test of the level 3 version of A Test of Will not to need to rebuy it

-You may never need to cancel that much damage or horror with Devil's Luck

-You may not take enough horror to lose Guiding Spirit

-You may not need to prevent doom with Fortune or Fate

-You may not need to use Burn After Reading (even though you DEFINETLY should use it if you purchased Deja Vu, because it synergises so well with it giving you another target for the exp discount)

-You may not need to use the exile effect of either Fire Extinguisher

-You may not have failed enough skill checks to justify using Lifeline or don't need the extra actions anyway

-You HOPEFULLY won't lose Unscrupulous Loan

Keep in mind, it's more likely for something to be exiled the more cards you put in your deck that can get exiled, but those cost exp you just spent for this guy who scratched your sofa and pissed in the living room

There is a reason why Charon's Obol is considered a staple for most rogue decks: I do not agree because the unpredictability of the campaign might catch you off guard and cause you to lose all your deck progress in one fell swop, but on a replay, once you know what the game is gonna throw at you, it's without a doubt one of the strongest cards in the game. Just pay itself out in the time frame of one scenario and scales so well. Sure unlike the Obol, you can stack Deja Vu twice, but that would be one of the biggest meme decks I ever seen to spend a total of 10 exp on permanents that do nothing until you get 6 more or so

About the only good thing I can say about this card, is that the visual joke with Stray Cat is actually quite subtle and clever

This card is a Mystic's Rabbit's Foot, except it can also randomly draw cards if you don't get hit by a check, and gives a buff to the one stat that you really care about. It also gains value as the difficulty of the campaign increases, since you will end up eating more random (3)/(4)-difficulty treachery checks on your bad stats - declare that your stat will go to zero, get hit by the usual -3 token, and hey, free card.

Really kind of a shockingly good card for level 0, and if you're trying to play a strong Mystic then I would call this an auto-include. It's powerful synergy with commonly-played cards like Premonition is the icing that it didn't need.

It is an excellent card in unique circumstances. For example, this saved in 'Stick to the Plan' and a Rogue in the party that generates a lot of resources suddenly makes expensive cards not so expensive to use for the entire party. You lose one round coordinating in exchange for bringing the 'big guns' combo of your deck, this can turn over on an elite encounter.

The bad part is that you are limited to a Guardian and a Rogue, and having too many expensive cards (for this to be useful) can be counterproductive early.

This is definitely one of my favorite custom cards from SK. It actually does something that I didn't think would be possible because of the likes of melee weapons. It makes playing firearms not only fun, but effective.

Let me ask, do you guys play with the shotgun(4)?

It's a tough card to play with. It gives you +3, and you have the chance to deal round 5 damage per attack. Which kills bosses quick. But you do have to work for this number, and especially on hard and/or expert. You will find that you may forgo using this weapon because it just is not reliable.

-What if you pulled a -6 but the card says "try again"

-What if this card said "+5" instead of "+3"?

-What if you did at least 3 damage, you actually do 4 instead?

-What if using extra ammunition gives you a Chance at 20 damage instead of 15?

-What if you were fighting a big monster off a friend, and pulled that damn auto fail. You DONT murder your friend?!

That's the power of this card WITH 1 WEAPON!!!! It's insane what combos you can pull off, Tony attaching this to saw-off shotgun(5), with +2 fight and the usually over success mechs makes it more reliable to over succeed 6. Makes small side-arms like colt .32 or .45 pack a real punch with quick silver.makes cards like the Mauser c96 and even the Beretta M1918 more reliable. I made an insane deck with Becky being my main damage dealer and custom mod was a cornerstone in that deck, always stick it to "stick to the plan(3)" to always see it in your opening hand.

The only downside is that,you can't negate the autofail. You MUST play weapons. It does require a ton of resources, not just in playing weapons, but it's attachment as well.

But to be real, in guardian, what else is new?