I have a question about using this card effectively. I'm playing as Nathaniel Cho with Bandolier and Boxing Gloves and I think the card is a cool fit. I think the economy is there. I have Emergency Cache on Stick to the Plan and I used Versatile to cheat in a copy of Astounding Revelation to be able to effectively have 10 resources turn 1. Additionally, I'm running Clean Them Out, "I've had worse…", and Stand Together to help keep resources flowing without slowing the game down.

I've considered running Relentless as well since Nathaniel has a tendency to (or at least the ability to) deal overkill damage.

Setup-wise I don't mind waiting until Bandolier comes in. In the absolute worst case scenario this is a 2 will or 2 might commit in an otherwise perfectly functioning deck. In the best case, I kill something and teleport to an aloof an enemy with doom and engage it. Everyone cheers as Nathaniel the Flying Boxer kills a 1 health cultist.

My problem every time I try to run this in a deck, my friends say "I don't want to do the Guardians of the Abyss side quest". What can I do about this?

While this weakness may seem relatively benign, as others have mentioned - 2xp and 0 resources at the start - my recent playthrough as a clue-ver Mystic was completely derailed by this card. It's minimizing to say that you just start with 0 resources - if that was how this card worked it would be a non-issue. The issue is that you can never drop below the required resources if there is a card draw coming. In the second scenario, I once (once!) dropped below 5 resources (to 4) and this was the very next card I drew. Upkeep is "draw a card, gain a resource", so you can't count on the upkeep resource to help. You have to guard against treacheries that lose resources, locations that need resources, etc. Once the second version is in your deck, it's even worse as you don't have enough resources in turn one to avoid an unlucky first upkeep (or to play any "draw" events/items), without a hard mulligan for resource generators. God forbid you get the third one.

As a Mystic, I could not get my set up in place for at least 3 rounds due to needing to hoard resources and play resource generators rather than assets, which essentially locked my player down. All of my early xp had to go to fast (and free!) resource generation instead of upgrading spells, which dramatically changed my build.

As weaknesses go, I feel this is one of the harder hitting, mainly because it requires you to both change your playstyle and change your deck to manage it. Most basic weaknesses slow you down, but few actually require you to build around them like this one does. Best recommendation to manage this one is to get the resources in hand, then lean into card draw effects until it's gone. And if you are a high cost build (like most Mystics), good luck to you.

How is this ally better than Dr. M? While it does not seem fair towards other allies, it is only reasonable to ask this question. So how is Whitton Greene better? Can she, in fact, be better?

Whitton's +1 is conditional, but depending on your deck, the condition doesn't need to be that harsh. Plus she actively works on fulfilling the condition!

While Milan gives you pretty reliably a coin every turn, Whitton does something completely different. She finds your books, she finds your relics, she triggers deck searches, thinning your deck so you can draw other important stuff earlier. All this is very synergical with the cardpool. Milan makes you rich, Whitton makes you stronger and faster.

If you have upgraded the Dream Diary, you want to draw it as soon as you can. Milan doesn't help with that. If you are planning to assemble the Pendant of the Queen, it is Whitton who finds you the pieces. Plus it is reasonable to expect her to trigger an Astounding Revelation or two and give you some money so you don't miss Milan that much.

Whitton's impact only increases with lower player count. But even in larger groups, you can find a way to trigger her enough times to find all the stuff you need.

Picking Milan is rarely a bad choice. But we shouldn't be lazy and do it automatically, because other allies may be just the same help, sometimes even bigger.

Not a review, but yet another rules q:

I'm Wendy with a Deja Vu. I play Black market and reveal my own Burn After Reading. Someone else plays it, exiling it and some card from their hand

Can I use Deja Vu on that copy of Burn? Or no, because I didn't exile it? (I know it's in my Exile , but I technically didn't put it there??)

This isn't exactly the kind of weakness that is going to have Charlie too worried because you have flexibility to decide how to handle the revelation effect.

Let's say you exhaust all your allies during the upkeep phase; the result is you have a subpar next turn where you avoid tests and do some other stuff with your actions (draw, move, resource, etc). Sure, there will be times when there's an enemy or another really critical test that you need to deal with. But you can always take the damage/horror route if there is something important going on, not to mention passive effects on your allies are still going to work.

Just don't get caught with no allies in your hand or in play and only this card in your deck. That would be bad...