Cheat the System

Many characters can start a game with 2 classes only with their permanents. But if you plan your assets accordingly (for example if you are going rich Unscrupulous Loan will cover ), this card replace way more effectively Hot Streak (even it's upgraded version because it's fast and free, meaning you can play it whenever you want).

I think Rogues could be the best class to go down the Synergy road, because you can Double, Double Call for Backup for maximum efficiency.

Emmental · 128
DD CfB is neat. — MrGoldbee · 1454
Solemn Vow

Great card for a supporter to run when you have Dexter Drake in your team. It essentially grants him a free resource and play action. Additionally you might use it to boost Dexter's main ability by committing this card for the double pips.

PowLee · 20
Jim Culver

Jim Culver is an investigator whose power level varies wildly depending on which difficulty settings you play with, and that's a big reason why Jim tends to vary so much in tier lists.

For most play groups on Easy or Standard difficulty, Jim is a Mystic investigator with a mediocre stat line and strong synergy with card interactions that involve skulls. Outside of Jim's 4 Will, none of his stats are particularly noteworthy, his signature Jim's Trumpet is a mediocre source of sanity healing, and Jim's primary appeal will probably be 5 level 0 cards outside his class. The ability to treat Skulls as "0"s isn't that attractive when the worst modifiers in the token bag usually cap at "-3" or "-4".

For play groups that play frequently at Hard/Expert difficulty, Jim becomes a functional god of the token bag. Skull tokens are relatively mild in most Standard/Easy Scenarios, but Skulls scale upwards at high difficulties until they're functionally auto-fail tokens, so Jim becomes one of the few investigators who can consistently pass skill test by fishing "0" tokens or skulls out of the bag (with cards like Dark Prophecy, Nksoi Mabati, or Grotesque Statue. When the token bag is full of modifiers like -5 or -8 and you have to overcommit by 2-3 cards to guarantee a success, Jim becomes a godsend. Jim doesn't need a great stat line or level 1-2 cards from other classes if he can near-guarantee drawing a "0" modifier on important skill tests.

Telosa · 53
The chance for Dark Prophesy to pull a skull out of the starting Night of the Zealot bag on hard is 35 out of 68 (or 51% for those of you who like percentages). That's pretty good for a desperate bid to pass on a weak skill, especially since there is a small but significant chance to reveal no face tokens at all, but it's not good compared to actually having and testing a strong skill. A 5 Will Mystic with a Holy Rosary and a committed Guts is testing at 5 above a typical difficulty of 3, which beats much of the contents of even a quite hostile chaos bag, usually INCLUDING SKULLS. Because as memorable as hard/expert -10 skulls are, a majority of scenarios don't have uncapped scaling skulls, and those that do normally only push them below -5 for a handful of rounds. — Spritz · 69
By all means play Jim. Build cool taboo-Winchester, Nkosi Mabati decks. Laugh at the chaos bag's failed attempt to kill you with two consecutive Elder Signs while you were fighting with Azure Flame (5). But it seems to me that telling people Jim is a strong investigator for Hard/Expert or that you'll find consistent success on those difficulties by leaning on his ability will ultimately just frustrate them. — Spritz · 69
Or to put this more viscerally, it's not that he gets better on hard/expert. It's that he gets less worse on hard/expert than other people do :-P — NarkasisBroon · 10
Bandages

Did you know that you can use bandages as a filter to reduce the harmful effects of smoking?

It's a good combo ... Effectively, you are paying 3 resources and two actions to heal three horror, which isn't terrible.

But it really shines with Bob, where you are paying zero actions and one resource (if you have Shrewd Dealings in play). Plus you can probably reuse them with Scavenging or even pass them to a friend in need.

Now you might be thinking that Bob has a lot of sanity, and that's true, but if you start building up trauma as a campaign progresses, swap these two in with Adaptable.

kingofyates · 26
Sadly the cigarettes don't discard themselves and they don't have a slot so you can't even override the slot with another card. So if you want to play this combo with Bob better bring along your local trader Joey for sale the used cigarettes. — Tharzax · 1
Pipe doesn't discard itself, but #Joey "The Rat" Vigil (3) does... — Miskatonic_Community_College · 20