Okay so I saw these and here are my thoughts, tell me where I am wrong.

Talents in general. I think in the right deck that needs those items pumped, its a respectable way to spend XP/save resources. That being said, the same for cheaper is a little boring. Its also competing with permanent talents which have a number of advantages over non permanents (no deck space, always in play, 3 xp v 4 xp for two of them, no action to play). I suppose if you are a Seeker and your deck needs to pump Agility and Intellect and have no need to pump Will or Feet Fight, this would be the way to go.

Dynamite 2 - really like what they did here. I didn't see this coming. Its a decent upgrade if you are dynamite user, I generally am not.

Barricade 3 - its definitely better. Not sure I would include it but Seekers do struggle with managing enemies. There are some cards that allow you to investigate from a distance. If the quantity of these cards increase, we could have the beginnings of a Seeker deck that does not move and just grabs clues from a safe space (anti-Ursula).

Hot Streak 2 - I like that the option is there. This is a decent card both as a stepping stone and for characters that can only take l2 rogue cards.

Mind Wipe 3 - uh, I still think I will pass here. 2 more xp for that effect seems to much for to little.

Rabbits Foot 3 - I still think there are better options for accessories. Maybe if I start playing Hard more often. 3xp seems high for this.

In general, I agree across the board.

Mind wipe, while better in Forbidden Age, is still more often than not used to make killing an enemy in a single turn less of a problem. In these cases, it really doesn't matter how much damage or horror they CAN do.

Rabbits Foot is actually pretty solid in my opinion, and that is because it comes in Survivor. There are not a ton of useful accessories for most survivors (although I guess you can argue in favor of Cherished Keepsake, particularly for recursion heavy decks like yorrick). Spell users will always take rosary or key over this, for sure, but being able to search for cards is pretty nice. I think I would prefer to see this as a 2 xp option though.

Dynamite is meh to me, but likely just because I don't use guardians, personally, that often. When I see dynamite used, it seems fin the way it is. I'm not convinced the xp is well-spent there as opposed to other places. It would be a pretty solid choice on Carolyn Fern though with her weapon restriction and high resource income.

I think i like Barricade the best because it seems like the most SOLID improvement on these cards. But it feels like the kind of card you'll need to build around, which I don't like doing so much in this game.

Hot Streak is going to be nice just to have as a stepping stone card. Sefina will love it only a little less than the fully upgraded version, and it will slot nice into some investigators who don't have access to the fully upgraded version.

So I definitely agree when it comes to the five talents, Dynamite Blast, and maybe Barricade. The upgraded talents are going to be useful to a handful of decks but they really aren't all that interesting, and they compete with the Composure cards for design space. I think we safely have enough ways to spend resources for one-time stat boosts now. Dynamite Blast (2) isn't going to go into decks that didn't want the level 0 version, but if you are using it you'll be glad for the upgrade. I look forward to trying it out in a Carolyn deck that relies on testless damage to deal with enemies.

Barricade (3) would maybe work on Minh if she also invests in being able to easily get her unique asset, allowing her to sit in one safe spot and investigate (including In The Know if necessary) while supporting the other players; I'd maybe build that way for fun, as a kind of "mission control" build. The problem is that the issue it tries to address (a way for seekers to survive enemies) has already been solved far better by other cards - between Strange Solution (Acidic Ichor), Anatomical Diagrams, I've Got A Plan!, Mind Over Matter, Disc of Itzamna and I guess even Expose Weakness and now Persuasion, seekers have a lot of ways of dealing with enemies, many of which are far more permanent and useful than just having them hang around waiting for you to leave. I also really don't like the way Barricade discourages you from taking advantage of seekers' incredible mobility, between Pathfinder and Shortcut. I suppose you could play it if multiple investigators are stuck in the same location and things are dicey, to temporarily save everyone from monsters for a mythos phase, but is that niche really worth 3 exp?

With Hot Streak 2, I think it'll be great as a stepping stone while waiting to upgrade to the higher level versions, but I definitely wouldn't take it on investigators who can't later upgrade to the 4 exp versions. The difference between 3 resources and 5 is really huge. Unless you draw it in your opening hand it's going to be sitting around for a while until you scrounge enough resources to play it - and in the meantime you aren't doing anything better, essentially encouraging you to play sub-optimally or have it sitting around as an empty card in hand - and who other than rogues really needs 10 resources after they have gotten set up? Worse, it could encourage you to sit on resources "just in case" you draw the card, and not contribute as effectively in the meantime. On non-rogues (or Finn) I'd much rather take Emergency Cache (3) and get the added flexibility of recharging Supplies and there not being a resource cost to play it, which definitely makes it better than the 1 additional net resource from Hot Streak (2). I guess you could take both, but if you're in a non-rogue deck and you need both Hot Streak (2) and Emergency Cache, you probably need to look into making your deck more efficient instead.

Mind Wipe (3) was the card I dismissed when I first saw it but the more I think about it, the more I like it. Obviously it would never be a priority for upgrading, but if you had the exp lying around (and bear in mind that Arcane Research can reduce or eliminate the upgrade cost, once you've upgraded the more important cards in your deck) I would definitely consider it. If you're engaged with an enemy that doesn't do more than 1 Horror and/or Damage per attack, it essentially lets you ignore opportunity attacks from that enemy for a phase, which is very similar to a guaranteed free evade in terms of utility, letting you run to your guardian and drag the enemy with you, play your combat spells, investigate with impunity, or whatever you want. Still situational, but adding a second useful if situational benefit to a card that already is nothing but useful situational benefit is nice. And if nothing else you can save yourself a point of damage or horror by playing it for the enemy phase, which is definitely a small benefit but better than nothing, for those times you have Mind Wipe but there's nothing that needs its mind wiped in the current scenario.

Rabbit's Foot (3) is really never going to be a priority for upgrading (except maybe Calvin I guess), but it'll be nice to have. I don't see it being useful for Yorick as he probably wants to be recurring Cherished Keepsakes, but I could see it being useful for Pete. The main issue is that for me Rabbit's Foot is a card I mainly have in my deck to have something I can scavenge for, and the upgraded version has the same single icon. If nothing else, searching even a few cards rather than drawing is a great way to avoid weaknesses.

I agree with the skill buff cards, except that if you are looking for skill buffs to pay with money I feel like I would find deck space for both these upgraded versions as well as the composure's.

As for Mind Blank I seem to agree with everyone that it still doesn't necessarily do enough, but as forgotten age goes on I may change my mind.

As for the other 4 cards...Dynamite blast is an excellent upgrade so much so that I may find room for it in some of my guardian decks, never mind that Leo, Skids and Zoey love this card, its now almost an I'll see you in **** that you some of the time won't have to take a trauma for, and compared to lvl 0 it also costs one less resource.

Barricade is an excellent upgrade for any seekers who are not Rex, especially in FA, too keep enemies away from a location is worth it.

Hot streak not alot to say, it was a good card before only difference now is more characters can access it in order of who wants it, in the decks I would build anyway, Finn (he absolutely is thrilled by this card), Leo, Wendy, and lets not forget Lola, this may actually push me to try to build an effective Lola deck I think the cards are now there for her. Also if you say 5 resources is expensive, you are right but this card basically says if you have 5 resources double it. In characters like Finn and Leo who love resource bursts it will be worth it to me every single time.

Then we get to rabbits foot, quite possibly one of the best cards of this pack, the lvl 0 is fantastic, and i basically only don't include it when cherished keepsake is a must and even then I typically include one and plan for relic hunter. This version of Rabbits foot is fantastic especially for the survivors, the plan I have with this card is the same as with lucky cigarette case, just play it and wait till you fail, if you don't great...if you do you at least are in a better spot next time.

One other thing...Just a recommendation to the other players if you haven't done this already...I often build "sub optimal" decks because I have like 7 built at the same time (4 starter lvl 0 decks for teaching new players) so when I build a new deck I tend to not have the cards I want to use, however this has opened my eyes to how good certain cards I had never considered were. So try to build just a single deck and build it as though you only had access to one of your autoincludes and see how your deck turns out...play a campaign with it and you may too be surprised by cards you had previously overlooked.

12 minutes ago, Starbreaker1 said:

One other thing...Just a recommendation to the other players if you haven't done this already...I often build "sub optimal" decks because I have like 7 built at the same time (4 starter lvl 0 decks for teaching new players) so when I build a new deck I tend to not have the cards I want to use, however this has opened my eyes to how good certain cards I had never considered were. So try to build just a single deck and build it as though you only had access to one of your autoincludes and see how your deck turns out...play a campaign with it and you may too be surprised by cards you had previously overlooked. 

I like your post overall, but I like this part the most.

Thanks, just an FYI this led to my new love of Dario, IMO the tied for best ally in the game with peter (not counting Duke of course)

Don't tell us you've found a use for Knuckledusters?

i don't want to be "that guy", but ... did barricade, the new just make Springfield a good weapon?

Marksmanship + Springfield + Barricade...

notice on the card, it even prevents Elite enemies from spawning on you, which means no nasty surprises.. safely shoot from a central location 4 damage... wow I'm doing this

2 hours ago, iGniGhted said:

i don't want to be "that guy", but ... did barricade, the new just make Springfield a good weapon?

Marksmanship + Springfield + Barricade...

notice on the card, it even prevents Elite enemies from spawning on you, which means no nasty surprises.. safely shoot from a central location 4 damage... wow I'm doing this

That's a really cool idea, but it's pretty niche and there are probably only a handful of people that can use it, what with a Barricade being lvl 3 and Springfield is Lvl 4.

On second thought, is anyone actually able to use this combo? Would be fun though. (I thought maybe Lola, but she's restricted to 3's and Springfield is 4.)

??

43 minutes ago, Soakman said:

That's a really cool idea, but it's pretty niche and there are probably only a handful of people that can use it, what with a Barricade being lvl 3 and Springfield is Lvl 4.

On second thought, is anyone actually able to use this combo? Would be fun though. (I thought maybe Lola, but she's restricted to 3's and Springfield is 4.)

I was sure it was level 2.. i guess Roland won't be loading up his rifle after all

No the spring field is pretty bad, for now at least, and yes Knuckle dusters work great in Finn, free evade sock it to em... works decent in Skids as well. There are like 5 cards that I have yet to see them being good more often than not and the only weapon on that list is Kukri, I tried several times to use it and see if it was any better than the others but its not. Springfield is in a weird spot, its drawback is just too extreme for a 4 xp card if it was one or 2 xp I would probably try it with a person set to evade, or even in skids, but as it is it just can't do enough, often enough for 4 xp.

18 hours ago, iGniGhted said:

i don't want to be "that guy", but ... did barricade, the new just make Springfield a good weapon?

Marksmanship + Springfield + Barricade...

notice on the card, it even prevents Elite enemies from spawning on you, which means no nasty surprises.. safely shoot from a central location 4 damage... wow I'm doing this

Marksmanship doesn't really rehabilitate Springfield at all, since it also works with all other guns - ones which are actually worth playing aside from times when that event is in hand. The temptation to think that, I feel, comes from the fact that Marksmanship does what Springfield looks like it was meant to do - but that doesn't mean that they should be used together, rather that Marksmanship is a successful fit for that design space.

Besides that, Barricade (3) isn't as good a fit for this combo as Hiding Spot - make enemies aloof, shoot them with Marksmanship for the extra damage. Also has the benefit of being Fast, 0 exp, the person playing it doesn't have to be in the same location as the person using Marksmanship, and being a better emergency tool for other situations. Playing Barricade so an enemy spawns at an adjacent location so you can shoot them with Marksmanship is cool but essentially pointless - it's a roundabout way of doing things when it's perfectly feasible to have an enemy spawn on your location and kill them normally.

I haven't found a good use for hiding spot, honestly, though I haven't tried it in any of my decks. That's an interesting idea though.

On 6/29/2018 at 10:01 PM, Soakman said:

I haven't found a good use for hiding spot, honestly, though I haven't tried it in any of my decks. That's an interesting idea though.

Real nice in multiplayer, I built a support Mark who chucked hand after hand of cards to make life feasible for his friends. Seeker in trouble? Shortcut->Engage. Friends bunched up? Hiding spot! Problem? Elusive->Shortcut I'm there!

I include Hiding Spot in most of my survivor decks, even combat focused ones. It's a guaranteed evade for 1 resource that can be played anywhere at any time. I usually use it to bail out a friend who has no chance of evading or fighting a monster, or to give our fighter one more turn to put out some damage. It also allows us to focus on the scenario boss and ignore the smaller monsters if just need to grab the win.

In a Wendy deck it can be an absolute beast if you've got her medallion out, so you can re-use it every turn.

49 minutes ago, Ompakim said:

I include Hiding Spot in most of my survivor decks, even combat focused ones. It's a guaranteed evade for 1 resource that can be played anywhere at any time. I usually use it to bail out a friend who has no chance of evading or fighting a monster, or to give our fighter one more turn to put out some damage. It also allows us to focus on the scenario boss and ignore the smaller monsters if just need to grab the win.

In a Wendy deck it can be an absolute beast if you've got her medallion out, so you can re-use it every turn.

Hiding Spot does not work the way you have described, if I am reading your post correctly. Making an enemy Aloof will not cause it to disengage from investigators it has already engaged, so you cannot use it to bail someone out if they are already engaged with an enemy.

The main uses for it to my mind are:

Playing it on a location where investigators are already going to be and need to stay, in case enemies spawn there. This will cause those enemies to come into play aloof and give you an extra turn to continue investigating or leave the location. Note that you cannot play it in response to an enemy being drawn in the Mythos phase, as there are no player windows in the mythos phase until all mythos cards have been drawn and resolved (aside from windows during any resulting skill tests).

Playing it on a location where there is already an unengaged enemy waiting, or where you know enemies will spawn due to spawn directions or scenario effects, so that you have a turn to run through that location or investigate without being engaged or attacked, or can single out one enemy from a location containing multiple enemies.

Playing it after evading an enemy, in order to essentially double the length of time that enemy is neutralised (assuming you need to stay in that location for another turn). This may be particularly handy when you evade an enemy but other people at your location have already spent their actions and can't get away.

Playing it somewhere you know an enemy is going to turn up due to the Hunter keyword, to prevent the free attack that enemies get when they move to you from Hunter (the card will then immediately be discarded and the enemy will engage at the end of the Enemy phase, but you've prevented an attack).

I still think those options are strong and versatile enough to make it a really good card to use, and I recommend people try it out (it also has really good icons).

Thanks for clearing that up. Now that you've pointed it out it seems so obvious that aloof works like that.

2 hours ago, Ompakim said:

In a Wendy deck it can be an absolute beast if you've got her medallion out, so you can re-use it every turn.

If you play a card from your discard pile using Wendy's Amulet then you put that card on the bottom of your deck due to the amulet's Forced effect, so you can't re-use it every turn.

16 minutes ago, Assussanni said:

If you play a card from your discard pile using Wendy's Amulet then you put that card on the bottom of your deck due to the amulet's Forced effect, so you can't re-use it every turn.

That is not applicable in this case; the Forced effect on Wendy's Amulet triggers after the card is played and before it is placed in the discard pile, but Hiding Spot (and similar events such as Lure) is not placed in the discard pile immediately after playing, so the Forced effect does not resolve. The effect does not "wait around" until the card eventually makes its way into the discard pile, as at that time the trigger of the Forced effect is not applicable. So in this case, Ompakim is correct - you can use Wendy's amulet to use Hiding Spot over and over. For confirmation, see https://arkhamdb.com/card/01014 (FAQs section).