The theme is "Power Combos" and "Extra Signature Cards".

.45 Thompson (3) - Guardian
Refund for using it? Yes, please.
The combos though make it ridonkulous.
Well-Maintained - 1 xp and you get it back. And it is almost completely paid for.
Act of Desperation - Mark Harrigan only. Get a full refund for playing Super Man Thug with it on top of the refund for using it.
Both of the Above - It is a 3-card combo so I would never rely on it, but if you get it? "Say 'hello' to my little friend!"
Pure Awesome. 5/5, 6/5 for Mark Harrigan, 8/5 with Bandolier (2) added and you pull the 4-card combo.

.45 Thompson (3) - Rogue
Compared to Chicago Typewriter (which is the same object) it is 1 less xp, 1 more ammo, 1 less damage, and instead of getting Fight bonuses for using extra actions you can "double" your damage for 1 ammo if the enemies are swarming.
Skids O'Toole can do the Well-Maintained combo.
Finn Edwards can do the Act of Desperation combo.
Jenny Barnes can try for the triple.
Not as Awesome as the Guardian version, but still solid. 3/5, 4/5 with the combos.

Enchanted Blade (3) - Guardian
Base fight bonus is raised, and the charges now heal horror and draw a card in addition to the damage bonus, AND cannot be wasted.
Overall a definite upgrade, but like the original, when compared to similar cards the main benefits are situational by campaign. If the Relic property is critical, along with the three horror healing charges, then it is going to be worth a lot more.
Of course for 5 Sanity Guardians like Mark Harrigan and Roland Banks, those three charges will mean a lot, and especially for base 5 Fight Mark Harrigan the unempowered version is a perfectly serviceable finishing weapon.
Above average. 3/5, 4/5 for Roland, 5/5 for Mark. (And Mark with this, .45 Thompson (3), Bandolier (2), Well-Maintained, and Act of Desperation is just unfair for monsters - 10/5 for drawing to the inside straight flush.)

Enchanted Blade (3) - Mystic
An extra charge that can be spent for an extra power-up.
Like the other weapons, this works on a per-investigator basis. Agnes Baker, Father Mateo and Marie Lebeau do not have the base Fight to make it worthwhile. Diana Stanley and Jim Culver do, and particularly while Diana powers up it is an excellent weapon. Akechi Onyale is perfect, giving it an extra charge to start and being able to recharge it, but she really should be Shriveling enemies instead.
Variable. 2/5 for the weak Mystics, 4/5 for the strong Mystics.

Grisly Totem (3) - Seeker
The performing investigator draws a card if the test succeeds.
This makes the card fully functional when Minh Thi Phan is in play - you get 2 bonus skill icons and a card draw. It is still not that great without her around.
Depends on the investigator. 2/5 in general, 4/5 with Minh in play, 5/5 for Minh and Silas - see below.

Grisly Totem (3) - Survivor
Get your card back if you fail - a Survivor "standard". And good enough at that.
But let's combo that with Silas Marsh with Minh and the Seeker version. Silas gets 2 bonus icons for a committed card, he gets a card back if he fails, he gets a card draw if he succeeds. Oh, and he can commit two cards and get both back if he pulls the Tentacles and one back plus the draw if he does not.
Depends on the investigator. 2/5 in general, 4/5 for Silas in general, 5/5 for the Minh and Silas combo.

Scroll of Secrets (3) - Seeker
Manipulates 3 cards at a time rather than 1.
Which is nice, but it takes a Seeker hand slot and an action.
Except for Daisy Walker because it is a Tome.
Fair for everyone but Daisy. 2/5 in general, 4/5 for Daisy.

Scroll of Secrets (3) - Mystic
Extends manipulation to the Encounter Deck and the tops of decks.
An improvement over the base card in that respect, but still looking for the something-something. Like . . . Alyssa Graham to get a free look at the top of the Encounter Deck then this to bury it for an Action and a Secret instead of Doom.
The combo makes or breaks it. 2/5 in general, 4/5 in combo with another deck manipulator card.

Tennessee Sour Mash (3) - Rogue
Bumps the Will bonus and adds a Damage bonus for the end use.
Pretty much a custom card for 2 Will "Skids" O'Toole and 1 Will Finn Edwards. They will actually beat Will tests on Treachery cards with this. And they get a solid 2 damage attack when done.
Rating by Investigator. 0/5 for Preston (he cannot take it), 3/5 for Jenny and Sefina (they do not really need the Will bonus but it isn't useless for them), 4/5 for "Skids" and Finn.

Tennessee Sour Mash (3) - Survivor
Cheaper and an extra charge for an Evade against a non-Elite enemy on the combat use.
Not spectacular, but not weak for any Survivor. It provide particular cover for Calvin Wright until he soaks some damage and Silas Marsh with his 2 Will.
Generally good. 3/5, 4/5 for Calvin and Silas.

The Council's Coffer (2) - Neutral
Everyone pile on for a once per campaign super-team power-up.
It is worth 2 xp and 1-4 skill test (5)'s for a free any card once per campaign? IF you draw the coffer soon enough to make the tests in time?
It should win any scenario - but just that scenario. That feels way too swingy for me, but I'd really need to use it half a dozen times to judge it.
Mysterious. ?/?.

I've got my reviews up as well.

I mostly agree with you except on the Scroll of Secrets (I don't think the Mystic version is worth 3 XP even with other scrying effects, and I feel the Seeker version is actually pretty good). I will say that we'll probably see more decks with the Rogue Thompson than the Guardian one, but only because the former has less competition.

And I love the "?/?" rating for Council's Coffer. I love that card just because I know we'll get stories about how it triggered at just the right time to save the campaign, right alongside stories of the party running into bad chaos draws and fiddling with the locks until world crashed down around their heads. I have no idea if it's worth it as an amortized sort of thing, but it's fun and thematic and absolutely perfect for the Lodge-themed pack.

As I've mentioned in the past, I haven't played Mystics much, so I could be wildly off on the Scroll of Secrets for them. I've seen others that love deck manipulation shenanigans, which is why I rated it so well.

After I posted, I thought of all the OTHER Upgrade and Supply cards that synergize with .45 Thompson (3) - Guardian. (Most of which you mention for the Rogue version for "Skids".) Using it pretty much pays to add them, making its value even more boosted and dependent on how many you can throw on it. All of that covers for it being "just" a 2 damage weapon as I see it. I did miss those Rogue combos for "Skids", which make that version a super-weapon for him like the Guardian version is for Mark.

Those are the same kind of stories I expect, and why I went with ?/? for the Council's Coffer.

Soooooo (from the perspective of a Hard difficulty player)...

.45 Thompson (Guardian):

This card is amazing. Right on the face of it, it is strong - if you get the full refund, it costs 1 resource (in the end). Mark Harrigan, Zoey Samaras or Finn Edwards can use Act of Desperation to get the refund and then get a second refund (and of those three, Zoey and Mark can use Well Maintained to get the gun back into hand for a reload). You can use Eat Lead! and spend a whole bunch of ammo and get a whole bunch of resources, which is pretty much an interesting build on its own. Zoey, Finn and Leo Anderson can also use Contraband to double the ammo on the asset (and Leo and Zoey can put the Contraband under Stick to the Plan) and get loads and loads of resources. Warning Shot costs only 1 resource used with this card. Venturer ends up only costing 1 resource once you manage to spend all the ammo it provides, making for cheap soak. Extra Ammunition ends up nearly breaking even (you're down a card, down an action, but up a resource).

The disadvantage is that if you're building around this weapon, it's going to be your main means of killing stuff. And in terms of actually killing things, that can be a problem: +2 to hit and 2 damage per shot is strong early on, but it pales in comparison to Lightning Gun or Flamethrower. If you're using Well Maintained, you can also make very good use of Reliable and Custom Ammunition to help close the gap, but that's more cards and resources so it may end up a false economy.

All in all, it's not the new best 2-handed gun or anything (we don't really need another one of those anyway), but it does have huge combo potential and huge resource potential. Guardians have needed resource economy and combo potential - and this is a huge way of enabling that in a very Guardian way. This is a great weapon for a fighty Finn build, will be a good Leo or Zoey weapon, and will be above all great for Mark since he has the card draw and this gives him the potential to pay for all the cards he draws. Exceptionally cool card design and I love it, and I am totally looking forward to bringing it with Mark or Zoey.

Mechanical flavour is interesting but doesn't make much sense, like how are you actually getting the resources? The only difference in art between this and the level 0 version is that this one has loads more ammo on the table, which is subtle but gave me a grin!

.45 Thompson (Rogue)

This card is meh. Much like Switchblade, it's a combat card that works with the "Succeed by x" Rogue gimmick. The issue is that, as things stand, Rogues kind of suck at boosting their combat ability. The Chicago Typewriter isn't the best gun in the world but it does at least provide a means for rogues to increase their accuracy. There will be times that this card can do some clutch things - I can already imagine a story of pulling the group's fat out of the fire by killing 3 enemies at once with Double or Nothing. But actually succeeding on those tests isn't going to be easy. Certainly, you could play a high resource build, and pump Combat with a talent (like Hard Knocks), and have a Sure Gamble in hand to guarantee it all going off - but in that case it's resources and Sure Gamble doing the heavy lifting, and another build could help out in other ways (possibly avoiding the terrible situation in the first place). In addition, Rogues want their hand slots for Lockpicks, so a 2-handed weapon is often out of the question.

Ultimately I think this is pretty much only for Skids O'Toole right now - he can use a Bandolier to still hold Lockpicks and has Guardian combat boosts to actually get to use it properly. One way of looking at it is as a free action and guaranteed success if you succeed well enough. But even then, it compares poorly to Chicago Typewriter and Lupara - which do more damage and help in a wider range of situations. There's honestly little reason to take this card right now. In particular, it seems like the swarmed by enemies encounters happen early on in campaigns, and 3 exp for a card that falls off in utility later in a campaign is unacceptable. This card won't really do anything in a boss-fight, for instance. Oops (0) is a card that only really does anything if you're swarmed by multiple enemies, and it's rightly not considered to be that good. Additionally, Oops has good icons and doesn't cost exp.

Basically I don't think this gun is worth the exp, or useful to how rogues operate right now. This might change if we see a proper combat rogue like Michael McGlen, but even then I think it's going to be a niche choice at best.

Mechanical flavour at least makes a lot more sense than the Guardian version, riddling the entire room with bullets in the best gangster tradition. The art is less interesting than the Guardian one because the difference is a lot less subtle, though it is at least fitting for the class identity; maybe I really just prefer the art on the Chicago Typewriter.

Enchanted Blade (Guardian)

The second Guardian weapon in the pack is a lot more straightforward. It's a shame that Carolyn Fern can't use it, since the horror healing would be right up her alley. In many ways, this card is similar to Meat Cleaver. The two things going for this card are the bonus for killing something (+1 card and 1 horror healed is a pretty nice boost) and the fact that spending the charge is done after you hit with the weapon. If you compare this to a .45 Automatic, for instance, you have 1 fewer "ammo", but you essentially don't waste charges for missing, and there's that tasty bonus on kill.

However, it pales a little in comparison to the .45 Thompson (3), because that card works really well with lots of other cards - you can combo it with many different cards to create some fresh and interesting builds. The Blade, however, is just a relatively solid 2-damage weapon with card draw. And that's fine, but combined with only having 3 charges, it makes it very underwhelming for 3 exp. It can deal a total of 6 damage before it runs out of charges and becomes no more lethal than a Gravedigger's Shovel. If you are happy with just doing 2 damage per shot, the .45 Automatic is cheaper in exp and has more ammunition and the .45 Thompson (3) has a lot more ammunition, and both can take Custom Ammunition and be reloaded by Venturers and Extra Ammunition, and on the other end of the spectrum, the Timeworn Brand is the gold standard for consistent +2 accuracy/2 damage attacks. The Brand costs more exp and resources, but it has the boss-killer super attack, which can draw you 3 cards (the same amount as the optimal result for the Enchanted Blade (3)).

I just don't see this card having much of a niche, with a couple of exceptions. The first is for Zoey Samaras, who firstly has a really strong thematic draw with her knife-crazy art and her backstory, and who also has lots of resources and can make good use of card draw to capitalise on that (and she can also use Act of Desperation/Well Maintained to "reload" the Blade; I didn't mention Mark Harrigan here since he already has draw for days); it could make a nice secondary weapon if her primary is the Timeworn Brand. The second is Roland Banks, who notoriously has problems with sanity and who often uses one-handed weapons to allow him to make use of Seeker investigation tools in his other hand. There is an interesting third choice in the form of Akachi Onyele; if she can regularly achieve kills with the Blade, it could be a great choice, especially coupled with Blood Pact to get high Combat accuracy in the witching hour, and in particular if she is likely to be taking horror from Shrivelling or has taken a couple of copies of Arcane Research. Her signature asset, Spirit Speaker, can let her reload it, or sacrifice it for resources once she draws a better combat option. I don't personally rate it as a great option for her since base 5 to hit isn't all that impressive (same as Shrivelling 0 with no boosts), but she'll give it extra charges and it might make a nice alternative to Shards of the Void or Wither as a backup non-Shrivelling combat option; however, the other version is probably more up her street.

The art change here is as dull as ditchwater - a miscellaneous glow around the arm and a lighter shade of glove. None of the charm of the other variations in art across the pack. I'd rather it seem to have been physically customised or upgraded, such as if the base art lacked the handguard or crossguard and the Guardian version included them.

Enchanted Blade (Mystic)

Hey, it's a magic M1918 BAR! Sort of! More straightforward still than the Guardian version of the Enchanted Blade, this version will cost you charges even if you miss and doesn't offer any cards or sanity. Instead, however, it gives you more upfront accuracy to help you hit in the first place and can achieve the magic number of 3 damage in one attack. It only has enough charges for 2 full 3-damage attacks, but that's not terrible since this is going to be a backup option after the ubiquitous Shrivelling or the more esoteric Shards of the Void, so it can afford to not have a long service life. With Akachi's extra charge, that's 2x 3-damage attacks and 1x 2-damage attack...which is the same total potential as the M1918 BAR, though without the option for more than 3 damage per attack (but with the potential for attacking for 1 damage to kill Acolytes or Rats without spending charges). For a one-handed weapon that's not bad.

As a Mystic tool it can be used with various other Mystic cards. Obviously, Blood Pact will help as the main mystic-native Combat boost. All the generic mystic probability manipulation, like Premonition, Counterspell, Grotesque Statue, sealing and so forth will help with accuracy. Unlike the Guardian version, it's a valid target for Sacrifice, which will be a nice way to recoup your losses once you've spent its charges; it is, after all, a situational or backup card only, so you can use it for a couple of fights, then Sacrifice it to draw or pay for another combat option. It also happens to be a relic, so it's a valid target for Recharge; since that only gives 3 charges, I'd say it's only worth trying if you either a: have no other option or b: have only 1 charge left (which is far more likely for Akachi), as the card benefits from having an even number of charges.

I think this is probably going to be the backup combat option of choice for at least two Mystics. Akachi Onyele obviously likes it as a backup and it'll probably be my go-to choice for her; more charges, strong synergy with Spirit Speaker, Akachi has a strong base Combat. For Diana Stanley it's even more attractive; not only would it work as a backup if she hasn't drawn Shrivelling, it will work as a backup if she hasn't charged up her willpower yet. It even helps enable strategies where she doesn't care about her willpower at all and focuses on getting out her unique asset ASAP to spam cancellation effects and have unparalleled control, and she has a lot of combat boost options in Guardian; with Well Maintained and Recharge, she can guarantee reloading it; if the Recharge goes off she gets more charges, if she draws a symbol token, it comes back to hand to play again. The other mystics mainly don't have enough base Combat to properly make use of it, though I'm sure it'll be in some builds somewhere.

The biggest weakness of this card is not that it takes up an arcane slot (it would be absurd if it didn't; it's essentially fulfilling the same job as an attack spell, and managing arcane slots is standard procedure for mystics) - it's that it takes up a hand slot. Between Grotesque Statue, Spirit Athame, Cthonian Stone and now Sign Magick, there's strong competition for the hand slot, even without the ubiquitous Flashlight and Diana and Jim's signature assets.

The art is still pretty pedestrian but it at least works thematically - a mystic using the blade super-charges it making the coruscating energy shine brighter.

Grisly Totem (Seeker)

This card is pretty cool. Niche, but cool. I think Minh is going to love it, but I'm not sure it'll necessarily be worth the exp for other seekers. +1 to a stat, once per turn, if you commit a skill card, isn't necessarily going to light the world on fire. It's a bit better in the face of the Taboo list, since taboo-compliant Seekers now occasionally have to think about their stats rather than throwing fat stacks into Higher Education. The difference between this and the level 0 version is card draw, which is certainly nice, but seekers have better ways to spend exp if that's their goal.

The other thing it has going for it is that Seekers have low competition for the Accessory slot. Disc of Itzamna is useful but hardly a staple (outside of solo, maybe), and Tooth of Eztli is at best nice to have. This doesn't apply to Daisy Walker, who can get the Mystic boost accessories, nor really to Ursula Downs, who has a lot more choices with her relic access. But unless you're going for a skill-heavy build, that's a stronger argument for the level 0 version than the level 3 version, as the difference between the two is not really worth 3 exp for low-skill builds unless you have xp lying around, and it's not powerful enough to be worth building around.

The art is pretty cool, I like that the Seeker version is more evil with bloodshot eyes and black feathers, and it has the Cursed keyword. It's a nice little bit of storytelling, really - an academic, looking to restore the old relic, painstakingly recreates the faded runes - and ends up restoring the dark and twisted magic imbued in it by cultists of centuries past.

Grisly Totem (Survivor)

The power of this card is mostly the same as the Seeker version, with two exceptions. Much like the Seeker version, it has its niche - nice for Silas Marsh, to essentially allow him additional uses of his ability each round, and not bad for Dark Horse builds (such as the famous Broke-Ashcan Pete or Yaotl/Desperate builds) that use loads of skills to reduce reliance on resources.

The first exception is that Survivors have much better uses for their Accessory slot. Cherished Keepsake is great, and Lucky Rabbit's Foot is also very useful. Relic Hunter exists, of course, but it does reduce the relative value of the card that it has strong competition.

The second exception is the absurd combo potential with Take Heart. After spending so long doggedly pointing out how Take Heart and Try and Try Again don't combo, it's disheartening to see that they've made a card that apparently does combo with Take Heart. Even leaving aside the game-breaking combo potential with certain other cards, this strikes me as a huge design misstep. However, in terms of the power of Grisly Totem, it certainly makes it a lot more attractive!

Just like Seeker but the opposite direction, the art changes are great. This one is cleaner, with the feathers pure white and all the grime carefully cleaned off. Whereas an educated-but-foolish Seeker restored the cursed relic to its original, Cursed state, a pragmatic Survivor with no regard for the totem's archaological significance took it to an old shaman, or performed an old folk ritual, and cleansed it of its evil taint, leaving it with the Blessed keyword. Such a strong flavour win.

Scroll of Secrets (Seeker)

A Bad Card. OK that's not quite fair. Firstly, it's obviously a lot stronger for Daisy Walker as she can use her free Tome action to use it, and Daisy's Tote Bag to carry it around without taking up a hand. However, there's not much specific benefit to looking at the bottom of any deck as opposed to any other part, really. Certainly, you could look at the bottom of the Encounter deck, see a nasty card and bury it in the discard, further delaying it as it'll need to be shuffled back into the deck after the deck empties. The same applies to decks if you find a weakness. But otherwise, unless you're doing something special, it's not much different to searching through the top of the deck...which you can do an unlimited number of times at 0 exp with Old Book Of Lore. The ability to do a pseudo-scrying and order a couple of cards (if you dug and found 3 really great cards, you could draw 1 now and put the other 2 on top of your deck, or if you scry the bottom of the encounter deck you can put a few on top and decide which investigator will encounter which card next Mythos phase) has merit, and the fact that it hits the bottom of the deck lets you use it without interfering with the top of the deck if someone's recently customised it with Scrying. You could bury a nasty weakness with Alyssa Graham then use Scroll of Secrets to subsequently discard the weakness entirely and further delay it (but you can do the exact same with the level 0 version).

But like...none of that is remotely worth 3 exp, to say nothing of 3 exp, highly limited charges, resource and action to play, additional action to activate, hand slot. The level 0 version is possibly decent for Daisy because it's another tome to let her more consistently exploit her ability from the beginning, but the upgraded version pales in comparison to Encyclopedia or Pnakotic Manuscripts. At 3 exp a card needs to either offer great niche power or decent consistent power. This is just way too inefficient - if you're using it for the encounter deck manipulation it's not much better than Scrying (0), which isn't really a highly-regarded card itself. This really needed to be a free triggered ability to activate or something. Maybe we'll see more of a bottom-of-the-deck archetype in future and this card will shine there (á la Syndicate in the old Call of Cthulhu LCG), but for now, avoid unless you're Daisy and you've run out of anything else to buy with exp. So far all we really have there is Alyssa Graham to bury something - I can't think of a weakness in the game so bad that it's worth playing and paying for Alyssa and potentially sucking up the doom or killing her off afterwards to bury and then 3 exp and more resources and another card and 2 more actions just to put it into discard - surely Alyssa is enough? I guess it's a form of insurance against Doomed if you're still running lots of draw; if you're a draw-hungry seeker with Doomed as your weakness and you'd rather play to mitigate your weakness over winning scenarios quicker because you aren't a gambler then...just use the level 0 version!

The difference in art seems to just be that someone has applied a wax seal to it. How utterly boring.

Scroll of Secrets (Mystic)

An Even Worse Card. Yeah, I think that's fair. Basically everything written above for the Seeker version applies, with 3 differences. The first is that there's no Daisy to mitigate the action inefficiency, so this becomes a criminal waste of your actions and resources. The second is that it doesn't let you properly do a mini-scrying to rearrange multiple cards and assign encounter cards and so forth, which is weird because that feels more like a Mystic thing. The third is that it is much better for the specific use of Alyssa Graham as a means of avoiding a horrible weakness - if you find a weakness or other undesirable card on top of your deck, you can use SoS to target the top card and discard it without needing to go through the rigmarole of putting doom on Alyssa, so that does actually give it a substantial advantage over the level 0 version, albeit in a very limited area. Mystics don't have anywhere near as much draw potential as Seekers so it's less useful in general, but if you're a mystic paranoid about your Doomed, this might be a solid investment. I guess a sort-of 4th difference is that it makes a decent target for Sacrifice once it runs out of Secrets, but that doesn't go very far in redeeming it. If this is really the kind of effect you need, just run Scrying (3).

Again, who knows, one day it might slot into a really cool deck archetype or combo. For now, not worth it at all.

The difference in art seems to be that it's vaguely glowing. That's actually less interesting than the Seeker version.

Tennessee Sour Mash (Rogue)

OK so level 0 Tennessee Sour Mash (hereinafter TSM) sucks, but this is a little better. +3 to the test is a bigger boost than Guts, making it actually worth considering (yes I know the level 0 has 2 charges but because you can't dump both into one test, you're spending an action and 3 resources for 2 separate uses of Guts that don't cantrip, making it catastrophically inferior). Finn Edwards probably doesn't care because he's probably still failing, though it could be handy for all the "for every point you fail by..." effects like Rotting Remains, but someone like Jenny Barnes could make good use of it since she has decent base willpower but few in-class options to boost it. The discard to attack ability on the level 0 version was mainly just a flavour thing since 1 damage is usually very sad, but bumping it up to 2 makes it at least do something, though not enough to be anything you build around (kind of a built-in Act of Desperation without the resource refund). The problem, as far as I'm concerned, it that it's not worth 3 exp. If you're using Charon's Obol you might eventually be able to afford it, but surely you have better things to do.

Ultimately though, I think it compares unfavourably to, of all things, Moxie. Stay with me here. Moxie costs 1 to play and is Fast, making it 2 resources and 1 action cheaper (and at minimum that action can be turned into 1 resource). So if you spend those resources on a boost with Moxie, you get a +3 to a willpower test. Obviously, after that point, the second TSM boost is free whereas Moxie costs more resources, but then rogues can amass lots of resources anyway, and Moxie offers huge flexibility, allowing you to spend any amount on boosts rather than running out after 2 shots, and boost willpower tests on things other than treacheries (mainly spells for Sefina, but also various scenario cards), and agility tests (more relevant with the Taboo to Streetwise). Moxie will be killed if you take horror, but by the same token, it soaks 1 horror for you. TSM can be used for a single attack, but while it's not worthless it's also nothing to write home about. And finally - and crucially - Moxie costs 1 exp whereas TSM costs 3.

I can see using this card, but it's not good by any stretch of the imagination, not when resource boosters for willpower, neutral skills for willpower, +1 (or better) damage attack options and treachery solutions like "You handle this one!" exist. Ready for the true jank, though? Skids O'Toole, who rather infamously has trouble with low willpower and would happily be able to use slotless attack cards; Well Maintained on the TSM; get the TSM back, somehow unscathed and full of whiskey, after you glass someone with it! Tell me that doesn't sound equal parts cool and hilariously daft.

The mechanical flavour is appealing (not sure how one bottle can be more damaging than another, maybe it's in the technique for breaking it?), and I like the subtle difference in art because it has quite a lot of flavour and personality - a gangster or high-class dilettante isn't going to swig from the bottle, they'll do shots because they're classy.

Tennessee Sour Mash (Survivor)

I initially don't rate this as highly as the Rogue TSM, because it's more similar to the level 0 version. So let's say you're a Survivor and you want a bit of a bonus against Willpower treacheries. 3 shots of +2 to the tests for 2 resources and an action, or 1 shot of +2 to the test for no resources and no action, and the card replaces itself if you then pass? Yeah, Guts just seems like the better choice much of the time, though you won't get the cantrip if you're just mitigating the bad stuff from failing an "every point you fail by..." test. Having 3 charges instead of 2 is certainly better, but depending on the encounter deck there's a good chance you simply won't take 3 willpower tests from treacheries, especially if you aren't playing it turn 1. Automatic evasion if you hit is potentially useful, but Survivors tend to have a lot of good options for evading already as well as better agility than combat (at least, Wendy, Ashcan and Rita do), and it's more situational - the majority of the time, if you're attacking something, it's because you want to kill it.

So in a vacuum, not as good as the rogue one. And yet, I think it's useful for at least as many investigators as the Rogue one. It's cheaper, so compares a little less unfavourably to Plucky (the Survivor Composure), leaving aside discussions of how good survivors are at amassing resources and whether they should be. Wendy Adams probably doesn't want it because her abysmal combat score makes the attack option a bit of a dud and she has other ways of dealing with enemies; bumping 4 willpower up to 6 is nice but she's already the most resilient to the Encounter deck in the game. I don't know if "Ashcan" Pete is necessarily the best fit either, though the attack part at least is better than nothing for him - attacking at 5 is better than evading at 3 and it could be a handy 1-2 punch with Duke for a tough enemy, glass them then sic your dog on them. Calvin Wright might want it to block out painful memories, particularly if he's finessing exactly how much horror he takes from treacheries (or if he needs all the boosts he can get because he's down to the wire) and the combat option is potentially handy - his Combat and Agility will always be equal barring other cards, but it's a +3 to hit and sometimes enemies have lower Fight than Evade. But it's William Yorick and Rita Young who really feel the benefit. If Yorick can get the TSM into discard and then play it with his investigator ability, he's saving himself the action to play it, which immediately makes it a lot more efficient and helps it compare better to skill cards. He has other things he can recur for similar protection (e.g. Cherished Keepsake for soaking horror from Rotting Remains) but by the same token, he can easily glass someone and then pick the bottle back up, good as new, for more tanking. Evading by attacking is really handy for Yorick even if just to help out other investigators (a far better way to peel off an enemy engaged with another investigator than using the Engage action), and if he uses a Machete it can be very handy when jumped by 2 enemies - glass one to evade, then get the damage bonus on the second (he can also use Well Maintained but I think it's a lot less useful for him because of his investigator ability). Rita certainly likes the Will boost as she has a respectable 3 base but only 5 base Sanity, and the attack-to-evade is great for her just like Cheap Shot and Stunning Blow, as her ability turns it into 2 damage (making the Rogue version feel inadequate). Finally, Finn can use this instead of the Rogue version...but he shouldn't, because he's great at evading with his stats, all the rogue support, and his ability, and +3 is much better than more uses of +2 given his abysmal starting Willpower.

Again the mechanical flavour is cool (not sure how one bottle can be more concussive than another, maybe it has thicker glass?), and I like the subtle difference in art because it has a lot of flavour and personality - a drifter or manual labourer isn't going to down a full bottle of whiskey and get blackout drunk, they'll be more sparing in how much they drink because they're sensible.

The Council's Coffer

Urgh, I really haven't got much to say here in terms of mechanics. It's a terrible card, not remotely worth the cost, whether in actions, exp or just opportunity, unless and except using it for some way overpowered play like guaranteeing getting a super powerful and expensive card or setting up a game-breaking combo in the last scenario of a campaign, and I personally really dislike the design as it seems both incongruous to the flavour of the game in general and makes little sense in the context of the game's mechanics - Exile on a neutral card? Tutoring on a neutral card? Locks that you can use any skill to open (and not Lockpicks, but then the same applies to the Locked Door treachery)? I think I might actually hate this card, both on its own merit and because it's such a lost opportunity (community engagement, a chance for players to put their stamp on the game, and this is what they came up with?).

And yet, I also know that there will be other people who love it, either because it's weird and janky and could be used in big memorable plays even if it's logically a weak card, or because they play for fun on a low difficulty, or because they like the community aspect and flavour. And you know what, that's OK, and I really hope it does bring other people fun or joy. I don't really hate the card, like I hate Key of Ys. I still never intend to play with it or even really acknowledge its existence, but I do have a bit of a soft spot all the same. Maybe it's because it reminds me a little of the Call of Cthulhu LCG and the custom cards made by tournament champions. I dunno. It kind of raised a smile on my face even as I tore it to shreds in the previous paragraph. Weird, huh?

The art is cool and it does actually correspond closely to the card mechanics (unlike the execrable 13th Vision) - possibly a little too closely, actually, you can see a process that went "we have these locks on the art, so that has to be literally expressed in the game mechanics". I don't know if having the "card council" as a mary sue self-insert that actually exists in-universe is really the direction I'd go but hey, like I said. Somehow, it makes me glad even as it goes straight into the binder.

Hard perspective also:

I'll echo Allonym a lot here, but I do disagree in some places. Let's get started!

.45 Thompson (Guardian): An interesting card. I am luke-warm on it. It's not bad. But I don't think it's good either. It's a perfectly average card. I do appreciate the huge combo potential, and that in itself is fun. At very decent weapon for the early campaign missions and the mid-campaign missions. Late campaign though, enemies just have too many HP for this to cut it, no matter how much of a resource-bargain it is. I worry that if a player spends his XP and deck slots on this and it's other combo pieces, they will find themselves shut down when they have to fight late-campaign Elite level monsters where big damage is critical. Overall.. this just doesn't do enough damage for me. I would rather spend my XP working towards shotgun/lightning gun/flamethrower and those combos rather than this one. 3/5, because damage is more important.

.45 Thompson (Rogue): Probably a little worse. Fighting multiple enemies just doenst come up that often. But as I said in another thread, this could change, and is dependent on the scenario. It is any other enemy at your location, so very handy for sniping Aloof enemies. Right now I feel this is maybe a tad weak, but it can become much stronger if the scenarios start playing to its strengths rather than it's weaknesses. 3/5 This is a card to watch.

Enchanted Blade (Guardian): Pretty much exactly what I said about .45 Thompson (guardian). Might be a niche here for non-guardian characters that can take it, Akachi, Lola. Also reasonable for Roland, specifically if he gets Dr. Eli Horrowitz to hold it for him, allowing Roland to use a 2 hander and finish off weak enemies with the blade. 3/5, because damage is more important.

Enchanted Blade (Mystic): I think I prefer this variant. There are certain mystics this looks good on, particularly Diana, but also Jim and Akachi. Nice with Blood Pact. Mystics are currently still in need of some extra damage options, and this hits pretty hard with some nice combat bonuses. 3.5/5

Grisly Totem (Seeker): I'm going to give this a reasonably favorable write-up but a lot of that is in part due to the fact that there is just so little competition for amulet slot in Seeker. Really, unless you are taking an out-of-faction amulet, you're probably open here. The extra icon is pretty nice, and the extra card is also welcome, allowing you to cycle through your deck a little. Minh loves this, Daisy probably is taking St Hubert's Key instead, Rex might be taking St Huberts Key, but if he does not, this is a nice alternative. Ursula doesnt get a ton out of this but she has practically no competition, so I think it's perfectly reasonable on her too. Same for Joe. 3.5/5.

Grisly Totem (survivor): I'm surprised this doesnt get more credit. A lot of survivors like committing to skill checks, and I particularly like that you can hedge with it. You can commit your Resourceful to a check you may not pass (rather than one you are crushing) knowing that if it works you get to trigger resourceful, and if it doesnt work than you have lost nothing. Obscene with Take Heart. Have Drawing Thin down as well and you're set for resources the rest of the game. This is probably the best card in the pack. 4.5/5 game-changing.

Scroll of Secrets (seeker): The advantage here is the ability to control the encounter deck, or to potentially trash weaknesses. I actually think this is pretty cool and I like it. Especially on Daisy. I dont know if I would play it on others, but it is pretty cheap, so thats always nice. 3.5/5

Scroll of Secrets (Mystic): Seems worse. And worse than scrying (3). A shame. 2/5

Tennessee Sour Mash (Rogue): Ugh. I really despise this card. It's gold version is too expensive for what it does, and this version is too expensive for what it does and also costs 3 xp. Maybe... maybe if you were comboing here with Emergency Cache (3) I could see a place for this, but only then. Otherwise you just dont get enough supplies. 2/5

Tennessee Sour Mash (Survivor): What to say? Oh yeah. I know. It's gold version is too expensive for what it does, and this version is too expensive for what it does and also costs 3xp. 2/5

Council's Coffer: Hm. I think this is ok. Listen, sometimes there is a scenario that your team simply isn't good at. It happens, try as we might to build for all situations, sometimes the scenarios throw you for a loop. Sometimes your team simply isn't well prepared to take on the particular challenges of a given scenario, even if they are very competent in other scenarios. For this situation, we have the Council's Coffer. 2xp to give you a 1-time-only "help us!" card. 4/5.

5 hours ago, Allonym said:

(not sure how one bottle can be more damaging than another, maybe it's in the technique for breaking it?)

(not sure how one bottle can be more concussive than another, maybe it has thicker glass?)

It's in the different sorts of dirty fighting techniques you pick up. Rogues are brutal and opportunistic; they slash you with the broken glass. Survivors are resourceful; they splash the leftover whiskey into your eyes.

The problem with council's offer is when are you going to play it? When you are in a bad spot, you can hardly afford the actions to play and unlock it. When you are in a good spot, do you really want to play it considering it is a exile card? I guess maybe if you just want to have a good story to tell about the time you used it to pull a agency backup or other big guns out. The effect is cool though, I might just buy it on the last scenario of a campaign.

4 hours ago, DarkFate said:

I guess maybe if you just want to have a good story to tell about the time you used it to pull a agency backup or other big guns out.

You pull Agency Backup out of the coffer and you've definitely got a good story to tell, just like the Stubborn Detective suddenly turning up at the edge of the universe. How long have they been in there? How and why did they get there in the first place? Is the coffer bigger on the inside than the outside (I certainly hope so)?

4 hours ago, DarkFate said:

The problem with council's offer is when are you going to play it? When you are in a bad spot, you can hardly afford the actions to play and unlock it. When you are in a good spot, do you really want to play it considering it is a exile card? I guess maybe if you just want to have a good story to tell about the time you used it to pull a agency backup or other big guns out. The effect is cool though, I might just buy it on the last scenario of a campaign.

That is one problem, here's another: How many do you buy? If only one investigator buys only a single copy, then it's a worthless "emergency" option because it's going to be impossible to guarantee that it's available in an emergency (unless you buy it on an investigator who just naturally draws their entire deck really quickly); it's hardly worth using No Stone Unturned (5) for. If you buy more than one copy, especially on more than one investigator, every copy after the first is completely worthless once you use it. In the last scenario of a campaign, maybe one investigator has the exp and can spare a single card slot in their deck, but then you're unlikely to see the card in the first place, but beyond that the opportunity cost is way too high.

Further to the previous analysis, I can confirm that the Guardian upgrade of the .45 Thompson is incredibly fun! Played to the end of currently released content for TCU (my first time playing the scenarios) as Zoey with the .45 Automatic and .45 Thompson as my only weapons and it was great. The resource advantage you can achieve is incredible and the combos are beautiful. I didn't get a chance to use Eat Lead!, but that was next on my list. The fat stacks of resources let you play loads of high-cost assets and use boost talents with impunity once you get rolling. Was nice to have a "theme deck" that also ran like a well-oiled engine and gave consistent combat and tanking ability (plus backup clue-gathering). A refreshing change from the cookie-cutter kill-everything-with-Flamethrower or Timeworn-Brand-and-nothing-else decks, though probably less effective overall than a straightforward kill things with huge guns or stab things with huge swords build.

Anyone else feel that they got the Guardian and Rogue versions of these cards backwards?

Rogues as a role are about getting extra resources. Their gun lets them deal extra damage to additional enemies.

Guardians as a role are about defeating lots of enemies. Their gun lets them get the resources they spent back.

I am not saying the roles didn't have gaps, I am just suggesting that propping up one role with another role's strength might not have been that great an idea.

Not really; I think thematically the Guardian one is about conservation of ammunition and being prepared, whereas the Rogue one is spray and pray, St Valentine's Day Massacre sort of thing. Guardians, Mystics and Survivors all have cards that help deal with multiple enemies at once, it makes sense that Rogues will need one too. Plus, succeed-by-x is a very Rogue mechanic.

Additionally, Guardians are now the class with the worst resource economy in the game by a long margin, so giving them a resource card that fits with their playstyle is nice. Since Guardians have "spend ammo" tricks, turning ammo into money fits well enough.

On 5/3/2019 at 1:00 AM, Allonym said:

The only difference in art between this and the level 0 version is that this one has loads more ammo on the table, which is subtle but gave me a grin! 

You might want to take a look at the stock and the foregrip. Its actually really cool!

22 minutes ago, Raahk said:

You might want to take a look at the stock and the foregrip. Its actually really cool!

No, you're thinking of the Rogue version. There is no difference between the gun itself for the level 0 version and the Guardian level 3 version, the Guardian version just has more bullets and a magazine on the table. As I mention in the rogue version, there's some customisation of the gun itself but I find it pretty bland.

11 hours ago, Jobu said:

Anyone else feel that they got the Guardian and Rogue versions of these cards backwards?

Rogues as a role are about getting extra resources. Their gun lets them deal extra damage to additional enemies.

Guardians as a role are about defeating lots of enemies. Their gun lets them get the resources they spent back.

I am not saying the roles didn't have gaps, I am just suggesting that propping up one role with another role's strength might not have been that great an idea.

Shh! Don't jinx it!

They will errata it and say they got the cards backwards.

Meanwhile, yes, I was sort of confused that Guardians were getting a resource generating weapon while the Rogues were getting a two-for-one killing weapon. Especially since except for Contraband and Act of Desperation all the bonus ammo and the free recursion card are right there in the Guardian card pool waiting to be abused.

Allonym does make some very good points to support the assignment, so I won't "second guess" the designers, especially since I regard the Guardian version as a special gift from Nodens to poor overworked, underpaid Guardians to begin with..