The true backbone of Arkham has arrived, and WOW is she a powerhouse of an ally! Not only is she Unexpected Courage on tap (get it?) but she also gives you second shots at your favorite exhausting friends! Tabooed professors extend your grant money, the cat army gives you more chances for buffs - hell, maybe you can even get a second try on some precarious tests!

Just wondering something about Joey's second ability. It says "Discard an Item asset from play: Gain 2 resources". I'm sure I'm reading it wrong but would that not mean you could discard items in other players play areas? It doesn't say your play area.

This permanent was really fun with Mandy Thompson (30 cards). Every line on the permanent worked to her advantage.

+15 deck size? Great, I can fit in three sets of Myriad cards, Segment of Onyx, A Glimmer of Hope and Astounding Revelation while not feeling like I have a bloated deck. 6 spots leftover for me to fill in with Seeker allies (tons of great options).

Draw 2 cards per upkeep? Great. Procs my Ancient Stones twice as fast with no action required.

Discard 1 of them? Great. Lets me discard allies, survivor cards, item cards.

What to take with Survivor subclass as Mandy? Winging It, Impromptu Barrier, A Glimmer of Hope, A Chance Encounter. Three of these are playable from the Discard Pile, while A Chance Encounter lets you play discarded allies.

Don't forget to take Calling in Favors to be able to put 2 allies into play using Mandy's ability. You can even use it on the "A Chance Encounter" target.

For upgrades, take Charisma/Miskatonic Archaeology Funding to facilitate more allies. Ancient Stone to utilise the Draw 2 effect. Versatile + Scavenging to recur any items used up or discarded during upkeep. Protecting the Anirniq works wonders with Ancient Stone/A Chance Encounter.

Conclusion: Don't take this if you were hoping to be flexible during upkeep and "choose" which cards to keep based on the situation. Don't take this if you care about your opening hand either.

Instead, take it if you're like me and actively WANT half your deck discarded and to proc Ancient Stone. The only things I didn't want to discard were Talents, Skill Cards and the cards that let me do ally shenanigans. Everything else was fair game.

Oh, and who cares if you drew Shocking Discovery during your upkeep phase? You lose the other card which you can probably get back and it's considered a dead draw which doesn't matter for a Big Hand Mandy deck. As Mandy, I almost never draw Shocking Discovery because she has plenty of ways to proc it on her own terms via Search.

As someone immersed in academia, I find the restriction on damaging your Miskatonic allies a hilariously realistic representation of your need to stay in your founder's good graces and demonstrate responsible stewardship of grant resources.

I mean, everyone takes some wear and tear on an expedition, but you are not going to get your grant renewed if your annual report shows you recklessly shoved the funded professors into the front lines of fighting with unholy abominations.

That OTHER intern you have with you, though--they came along on private funding. You can totally send them to investigate that noise.

I'm sure this is obvious to experienced players, but as a pretty new player, I've benefitted from reviews that explain synergies and changes from newer cards, so I thought I'd add a little one here:

The Ally slot math is different since the release of Miskatonic Archaeology Funding, at least for Seekers. The 4xp permanent which lets you slot 2 additional allies with the Miskatonic trait.

That's two XP less than taking double Charisma, and usually doable after the first scenario. Go ahead, put three different level zero allies in your deck. They will only be dead draws during the easiest scenario in your game. Now you can have your cake and eat it, too.

Well, you can eat most of your cake, anyway. Slowly. The Funding restricts you to dealing one damage or horror to a Miskatonic ally per blow you are taking. This reduces his effective soak potential to 3, over three separate hits. Still a bargain! But bring along someone not funded by Miskatonic, or another soak, so that you have somewhere else to spread out the heavy damage hits.