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Q: When parallel Father Mateo plays Guided by Faith, can he use his ability to seal one of the bless tokens that was just added and then resolve that sealed bless token to discover an additional clue? A: Yes; Parallel Father Mateo can play Guided by Faith, use his free triggered ability to seal one of the Bless tokens on himself, then use his reaction triggered ability to resolve the sealed Blessed token. This token is treated as having been “revealed” during the test, so he will discover an additional clue. (Rules Forum Answer, November 2024)
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Q: I have question about ability of investigator parallel Mateo - "...resolve the bless token sealed on them instead. Release that token". In the article is written that this resoved bless token is released back into the bag (not to token pool). I would like to confirm, that this works in that way always, also during the tests, because I think that on the card should be written "put this token to chaos bag instead of token pool" ( because effect of bless token resolved in tests is: "Reveal another token. Instead of returning this token to the chaos bag, return it to the token pool"). A: Parallel Father Mateo’s reaction ability returns the resolved bless token to the chaos bag instead of the supply. The ability stating the token is “released” is intended to clarify that, but we acknowledge that it could have been more explicitly stated. (Rules Forum Answer, November 2024)
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Q: When can I use parallel Father Mateo’s ability? A: When an investigator with a token sealed on them would reveal a chaos token for any reason (either via a skill test or when resolving a card such as Absolution), you may trigger Father Mateo’s ability for that investigator to use the token sealed on them for that skill test or card ability (this counts either as “revealing” or “resolving” the token for the purposes of that ability). This interpretation may also be applied to cards such as Tidal Memento, Eye of the Djinn, and Book of Living Myths. (Official FAQ v2.4, July 2025)
Father Mateo
The Priest
Ermittler
Believer. Warden.
- 4
- 3
- 2
- 3
During your turn: Seal a token on an investigator at your location with no token sealed on them. (Limit once per round.)
When an investigator would reveal a chaos token: Resolve the token sealed on them instead. Release that token.
effect: +1. Resolve Father Mateo's ability, ignoring its limit.
Father Mateo - Back
Deck Size: 30.
Deckbuilding Options: Mystic cards () level 0-3, Blessed cards level 0-5, Neutral cards level 0-5, up to 5 other cards with "seal" level 0-5.
Deckbuilding Requirements (do not count toward deck size): The Codex of Ages, Serpents of Yig, 1 random basic weakness.
Investigator Cards
- The Codex of Ages: finis omnium nunc est (The Forgotten Age #13)
- Serpents of Yig (The Forgotten Age #14)
- The Codex of Ages: finis omnium nunc est (Aura of Faith #82)
- Serpents of Yig (Aura of Faith #83)
Deck Building
Search for cards usable by this investigatorRelated Cards
- Father Mateo: The Priest (The Forgotten Age #4)
FAQs
(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)Reviews
Seems OP to always have Favor of the Sun builded into your investigator and have access to Ancient Covenant and also start with 5xp by keeping the old back. No reason to ever go classic Mateo unless you specifically want to run Blessing of Isis or some full support style. But even then its debatable what's better
Really strong Investigator as it has a built in Favor of the Sun and Premonition for blesses. This makes Mateo really consistent at know exactly what symbol he will pull and what he will succeed by.
This allows him to run cards like Prescient, tabboed Jewel of Aureolus, Crystal Pendulum together with Ancient Covenant to get tons of cards. Or Recall the Future and tabooed Ritual Candles to get skill bonuses.
You can also run Ward of Radiance for encounter protection as you can guarantee the bless.
You can also guarantee success via combos suchs as
- Favor of the Sun + Mateo's ability and Blessing of Isis. Which allows you to put a bless back onto Mateo since the effect bypass the limit.
- The Codex of Ages + Mateo's ability and Blessing of Isis for the same thing.
- Mateo's ability + Ancient Covenant
So if you somehow have 2 Blessing of Isis in play, Favor of the Sun, and The Codex of Ages. You can guarantee 3 tests in a round.
It's also worth noting that Mateo's ability, The Codex of Ages and Blessing of Isis don't return blesses to the supply, so you can keep them running without a lot of bless generation.
Since Mateo is really good at pulling blesses, you can also run Eyes of the Dreamer and Breath of the Sleeper to get 2 blesses to trigger the additional effect. You can also run Spectral Razor, Read the Signs, and Ethereal Form as you can guarantee a symbol to pull them back to your hand.
If you need money, Voice of Ra is solid since you can guarantee at least 1 symbol, so the minimal you get is 3, with potential for more. Since I like to run Eyes of the Dreamer and Breath of the Sleeper, I naturally also run Olive McBride, which usually means Voice of Ra hits 5-7 money per cast. It can also be recurred via Prescient if you need more money. Rite of Sanctification is also okay as you don't actually need to fish for the blesses from the chaos bag, so you can have them sealed while still guarantee your bless pulls.
In terms of weakness management, Since Serpents of Yig will temporarily eat up all your blesses, unfortunately Radiant Smite wouldn't work. Spectral Razor and using Breath of the Sleeper without charge works, but takes two action. I'm not sure if there's a better way to deal with it.
As a bonus, if you want to do meme plays, you can try to fish out 1-2 bless symbol from the chaos bag with Breath of the Sleeper or Eyes of the Dreamer and Olive McBride, then reveal another 3 more blesses with Favor of the Sun, The Codex of Ages and mateo's ability to play Miracle Wish for 4-5 blesses.
If you want even more blesses for some reason, Nkosi Mabati and name bless as your sigil + Katarina Sojka is also an option (Though I think it's overkill and you don't have that much ally slots)
How interact Father Mateo reaction ability with card like blessed blade lvl1? Can i do 2 damage with the blade or it is not count as reveal (and just resolve) of that bless token from Father Mateo...