The natural competitor for this card is On the hunt. I think this card is far superior, for several reasons.

-On the hunt can whiff. If that happens you basically wasted a resource and a card slot.

-On the Hunt can succeed and you end up drawing a monster you normally wouldn't have (remember enemies are the worst thing that can be drawn from the encounter deck).

-This card eliminates one of the game's main advantages: randomness. Say your current investigator order has your guardian drawing ancient Evils and your Mystic drawing a Spawn of Hali. This is an awful, random situation. The guardian has no counters for evil and the mystic has nothing up for damage or evasion. The game hence eats a turn, and probably two since you're going to be using this turn to deal with the spawn (guardian pulls it off for an action and then takes two to kill it at least). Play this card though and you simply switch the order to where the guardian draws the spawn and the mystic draws the Evils. Mystic cancels with Ward of Protection and guardian nets an action they wouldn't have otherwise had.

-Guardians tend to be very tanks and have expendable assets. That venturer out of ammo and you drew a grasping hands and Crypt chill? Take both. Lessen the impact of the damage hit with the venturer and discard him with crypt chill. Guardians have many ways to heal (especially heal damage) and funneling those treacheries into their hands keeps other party members protected.

The only time I think On The Hunt wins is in single player, and even then you may be better off filling the spot with other cards.

Overall, very powerful card and almost an auto include in multi-player decks.

Great fun with Bob Jenkins. In play:

• Shrewd Dealings
• Joey „The Rat” Vigil
• Scavanging

Play it fast for 1 ressource using Joey „The Rat” Vigil at no cost because it is an item and you have Shrewd Dealings, gain 2 ressources from the "enters play" effect, sell it for 2 ressources using Joey „The Rat” Vigil. Then scavange it.

I put this into Harvey Walter's to trigger his investigator ability every turn (its fast and unconditional unlike some other cards). I was playing small hand Harvey but it would work just as well in big hand decks.

If you could play Mystifying Song with other investigator, would you? It basically reads "get an extra round" in exchange for 3 resources - and as we know, time can be quite rare in this game (that's why we hate Ancient Evils so much).

But it is only Marie, the enfant terrible of the mystic class, who gets to perform this song - and for good reasons. The problem with Marie is there are just stronger mystics. To compensate your not-that-impressive stats, you are encouraged to practice the high risk high reward/huge fail playstyle, placing doom like crazy, abusing David for infinite money and signing Blood Pact for secure tests. Now the agenda is about to advance prematurely, you just lost 3 whole rounds and it is all your fault, your fellow investigators hate you - but wait! What's that sound?

Mystifying song is the insurance, answer to most what-ifs Marie naturally raises. Having it in hand allows you to play without restraint, at Marie's highest potential. Then Marie Lambeau is actually strong - and fun! The value of the other reward - whole extra round - obviously grows with more players at the table.

As a spell, Mystifying Song can be found by Arcane Initiate or Word of Command. 3 resources can be a problem, but that's why you have David (you also really appreciate the +1 ).

Mulligan or not mulligan away? The instinct says to drop it as the card does literally nothing for your setup. I dare say it's never that simple and you better think twice before voluntarily throwing away your insurance - and enabler.

The are also worth mentioning, because as much as commiting this card may look outrageous, sometimes the most valuable thing to do is to just pass a test.

Do your friends play too slow? Do you have work the next day? Are you missing a 5 letter word in the crossword with the hint “low ranking member of British nobility”?

Baron is your answer. As an ally that comes into play for free and with no action cost, Baron Samedi is king of ally efficiency. Additionally, once he is down you can began the amazing trick of skipping entire rounds (mythos included)! Here’s a hypothetical:

Imagine you are in a 4 player campaign. The scenario features three agendas with a doom threshold of 4 each. Normally, this would mean you have a 12 round game, but this isn’t a normal game, in this game you get the clutch turn 1 Baron. You play him for free and immediately tap him to add one doom.

Mythos phase hits and you go up to 2/4 doom. During the next investigation phase you tap him again. 3/4 doom is on the board and you are now slated to advance the agenda in just two rounds of play.

In total, we have saved 2 rounds and prevented 8 mythos cards from being drawn. Honestly I’m not even sure why they printed Ward of Protection when Baron exists.

But it gets better. When the agenda advances we can remove the doom from Baron and repeat this process. If you consider there are three agendas total we have ended up saving 6 rounds and prevented 24 mythos cards from being drawn. Go ahead and play on hard or expert if you want, the game will be long over before the consequences of your choices catch up with you.

And that’s not all. I said Baron was king for a reason, because his text box includes a cannot be discarded condition, he cannot be discarded by any mythos card. Crypt chill can get a taste of its own medicine while Baron just leaves them on read as the card resolves and fades into the lonely encounter discard pile.

Play Baron. Play speed.