Certain cards in the city allow you to 'take 1 card from any shop deck for free' (e.g. racketeer). In DE, it shows you all available cards, even the ones that normally in 'random' decks (pets, potions). I have noticed many things in DE that my regular gaming group interpreted slightly different, and lacking any FAQ, Im sure the Nomad guys had to take some liberties. It seems super good to be able to pick any of the pets with one of these cards. But hey, its Talisman! And at this point it pretty much is anything goes.

Anyone have thoughts on that mechanic? My gaming group would 'rule' that even with that wording, you will still select a random card from the pet or potion deck, you dont get to look through the deck. But we have been wrong many, many times lol.

Another thing I noticed messing around with DE is that the Alchemist is ridiculous with the city expansion, particularly playing the Assassins' Guild ending. Truly the ultimate (depending on how played) broken character when playing with the City.

From my recollection in DE whenever I have been allowed to pick a shop card at will, pets and potions were still a random pick option.

It's actually a bug, and should be a random pet draw. This will be fixed in the next update.

We did want to change the Alchemist so that he wasn't so powerful with the City expansion on, but the general feedback was that we shouldn't, so we left it as written.

From City Rulebook, page 10:

Shop Decks
The Armoury, Magic Emporium, Pet, Potion, Stables, Wanted Poster, and Purchase decks are also referred to as shop decks. Cards from shop decks are treated in all respects like Adventure Cards, except that when they are discarded, they are returned to the bottom of their appropriate deck and are available to other characters once more. Should there be no cards left of a particular item, then that item is not available at that time.

If an encounter allows a character to gain or take a card from the Potion, Pet , or Wanted Poster deck for free, he must draw the top card of the deck .

If an encounter allows a character gain or take a card from the Armoury, Magic Emporium, Stables , or Purchase deck for free, he chooses which card to receive .

Seems like no matter how many times I read the rules I miss so much of the particulars lol

A simple Alchemist nerf could be that he only starts with 1 gold when the City is turned on.