Ace of Rods

Did they forget to make this fast? It might have been worth considering if it was. As it stands, if this card isn't in your opening hand then most of the time you are effectively paying three resources to get +2 in a skill test, the equivalent of Unexpected Courage. Comparing it to the other neutral skill cards like Perception or Overpower is even more unfavorable because those allow you to draw a card if you succeed and are completely free. There are a handful of situations where the Ace of Rods will give you +4 in a test, but even then it is still too pricey to seriously consider.

One positive is that because it gets removed after use, putting two in your deck doesn't result in a dead draw. Preston Fairmont can use it as a means of flexing on other investigators to show how little he cares for efficiency.

While all of what you said is correct, I don't entirely agree with your dismissal of the card. In addition to all of that, it lets you take an action *from* a turn where you have nothing important to do (because you wouldn't play this if you did), and move it *forward* to a turn when you need it (because you likely wouldn't use it unless you need it). Is it a great card? No. But action manipulation could come in handy in certain builds. — cb42 · 38
I agree that it's not a good card, but I feel some of the reason for that might be because it's in a fairly weird design nice. — bee123 · 31
*design niche. Like it's got to work as the neutral tarot card and as a kinda pseudo-story asset for the Circle Undone. So it's got to be balanced as a card in and of itself and as part of a campaign level risk/reward and that seems like a tricky card to get right. Like, it's got to be able to do something in most decks, but not outclass the class-specific tarot cards or end up OP in the specific context of the Circle Undone. Given all that I'm not surprised it ended up a bit too small of an effect. :) But I wonder what a balanced neutral tarot would be? Something like the Red-Gloved Man, maybe? — bee123 · 31
This card consistently under performs. You should be paid 1 XP to take this card. It's honestly almost always a dead draw. — StyxTBeuford · 13050
Eureka!

The other review is underselling this card. At least on standard difficulty I think this is one of the top 5 best level 0 Seeker cards ever printed and a card that I shove into most of the decks that have full access to level 0 seeker cards. Comparing this to No Stone Unturned this card only digs 3 deep instead of 6 but doesn't require an action or 2 resources to use. This card is very easy to just throw onto any test that you're all but guaranteed to pass anyway (such as investigating a low shroud location) and then use it to have Eureka be replaced by whatever's the best card in the top 3 of your deck. The icons it has are fantastic, it's basically the only 3 skills you're likely to ever use so it can be committed to almost every test you take. On top of that, there's a lot of tests you might take where you're +3 above the test for example and passing it is important, but you don't want to spend any of your valuable cards to boost yourself up to +4. Eureka is great in those situations because you can insure that you are protected while also having the card cycle into something you need.

The card is just super versatile and is always useful, It's not necessarily a card that'll win you the game but it'll help you find those cards and is never a bad draw.

Sylvee · 105
I wouldn't go quite that far, there are an awful lot of fantastic lvl 0 seeker cards. I do broadly agree though, this is a card that I usually include in seeker builds. Excellent versatility, great filtered draw capability and there's also the added bonus that you may get a weakness which then gets shuffled back into the deck and will more often than not end up being avoided for much longer than it would have been otherwise. — Sassenach · 180
@sassenach I think you are wrong on that end. Sure, you can shuffle your weakness back into your deck, but you could also shuffle the weakness from the bottom to the top. The Chances to draw a certain card in your deck is always 1/n, where n is the number of cards. You dont draw a weakness with eureka!, sure, but the other draws are not affected propabilitywise. — Zimmt · 1
Hmm.. actually that's a good point. Still though, if you draw the top 3 after Eureka then you already know that a weakness that you pull as a result would definitely have been drawn within the next 3 draws. By shuffling it back it goes from 1 in 3 to 1 in however many cards are left, which in theory ought to improve the odds most of the time. I'm no mathematician though, so I could be wrong. — Sassenach · 180
@Sassenach That May be the case when there is a weakness in the top three, but most of the time there won’t be a weakness in the top three so far more frequently it is going from 0 in 3 to 1 in however many cards are left. I could explain the full calculations, but overall, Eureka doesn’t protect you from weaknesses on future draws - in fact by not drawing a weakness you increase the odds of a weakness draw in the future, but that’s just how drawing cards works. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
I didn't say it protected you from weaknesses, I said that when you do draw a weakness with it then it's a nice bonus, because in that scenario you do significantly improve your chances of not drawing that weakness again any time soon. — Sassenach · 180
The point being it's as much a bonus as it is a penalty since it is a statistical wash. That is, when you do see a weakness it is a nice bonus, but when you don't see a weakness it equally a penalty. So it's probably best not to consider it at all, since it's a considerably neutral aspect of the card. — pneuma08 · 26
Yeah I wouldn't consider the ability to shuffle a weakness away as a boon. Most of the time you don't draw the weakness in those top 3, so you go from a 0% chance of seeing it in 3 turns to a 3/N chance of seeing it in the next 3 turns. When you see it of course you improve your chances of not seeing it by shuffling the deck, but mathematically it all evens out. That wouldn't be the case if you had the CHOICE to shuffle your deck, but because it's forced the math evens out. — StyxTBeuford · 13050
However, if you consider that the alternative to a tutoring draw might be a blind draw it does better your chances of avoiding a weakness! — gustafusus · 1
Jim Culver

I've just recently started a 2 gator playthrough of Cirle Undone with Jim. I'll have a deck list to come soon but at the moment it has gone well using the sealing cards as well as Defiance to mitigate the bag in Jim's favor. Most every test so far as long as I can at least match the test value has gone my way. I feel like sealing mechanic may have jumped up Jim's power level by quite a bit.

How'd it go? — MrGoldbee · 1493
Grisly Totem

The question being: Is Grisly Totem, the missing link with Take Heart and Drawing Thin to the Survivor economy engine? Looks like so, and that's great for Survivors! All you need is now a survivor who's not afraid to fail a check once in a while. The safest checks to fail being investigate check (barring the BS tokens), this combo is very potent for investigators with low like William Yorick, "Ashcan" Pete or Calvin Wright for exemple and reaching the 200 characters threashold.

mogwen · 254
Well. Stella is here now and this is bonkers with her. — Mufasa · 1
Scroll of Secrets

Must say I don't think they got this one right as an upgrade. You're spending 3xp for one additional secret and a willpower pip. The seeker version is vastly superior since it allows you to search three cards at a time and do something to all of them. That's a card that has legitimate utility to a number of investigators. This ? Not so much. I honestly can't see why anybody would ever buy this card. It's only marginally better than the Lvl 0 version. If it was a Lvl 1 card then it might be worth adding to a deck. 1xp for an extra secret seems about right, a small investment for a small bonus. At 3xp it's just prohibitively expensive.

This would have been much better if it was a free action trigger. That way you'd have two different upgrade paths, both of which were valid. Seekers would get the greater range of cards they could influence, mystics would get the much more limited scope but without having to spend any actions to use it. As it is though, I'd be amazed if anybody ever uses this card in their decks.

Sassenach · 180
This also lets you look at the top card of the deck, the unupgraded version only looks at the bottom. — cfmcdonald · 7
Ah yes, so it does. That does make it a little better then. Still not worth 3xp though in my opinion. I could see how a combo with Alyssa Graham or scrying might be effective, but that's going to be finicky to set up. — Sassenach · 180
Really, there is a big difference between the top and bottom because of the four options the card gives you. Putting a card on the bottom or discarding when you took the card from the bottom initially is mostly worthless. Hitting bad cards with this version actually gives you some value. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Sure, but the vast majority of the time you're not going to hit a weakness. There's a big difference between drawing a good card from the bottom than one from the top, which you would have gotten at the end of the round anyway. — Sassenach · 180
I think this would be bad as a level 0 card. — CaiusDrewart · 3198
I think the major redeeming quality of this card is that it synergizes well with Wendy's amulet. So if Wendy is in your group, you can potentially let her reuse the same card 4 times. Imagine Wendy committing "Look what I found" to a skill test and then using that card on a fail to get 2 clues, then it's your turn and Wendy's get the card back in her hand. Repeat 3 more times. — Killbray · 12468
I agree with @Sassenach -- this card is a dud. Manipulating the encounter deck is a cool mechanic, but it's rarely worth it to pay an action to check the top card. Whatever you do with that top card of the encounter deck, you are (essentially) putting another encounter card on top that reads: "Surge; Revelation: lose one action." Just not worth it. — Mordenlordgrandison · 464
Here you have it. Free trigger! — petercheungjr · 1