The more and more I play with Intel Report, the more I love it. Combined with the Crystallizer of Dreams it can mean basically 3 clues guaranteed in two actions (or 2 clues in 3 actions with movement if you're playing solo, which is solid pacing in solo). The testless nature of the card means you can pretty much always snipe a clue from a high shroud or high risk location. You could even combine this testless clue grab with Narrow Escape if you're engaged with an enemy, then follow that up with an evade on said enemy, and with the Crystallizer that lets you evade at +4, and then investigate at +2. Good stuff.

Fun Crystallizer interactions aside, Intel Report is a staple in my eyes. Even for Finn Edwards it is at worst a drawless Perception, and at best it's a way to compress clues from tough locations, or a way to keep up the tempo when Lockpicks just fails (it happens). Sefina paints more of them, Jenny, Preston, and Tony pay for it very easily, and even the relatively strapped "Skids" O'Toole can use it if he's built for enough cash. Off-class Rogues can even use it to great effect. Wendy Adams can replay it with her amulet, and Leo Anderson might want it too if he's trying to flex, especially with Alice Luxley.

The two locations away from you clause is not the real bright side of the card, I must admit. It is added flexibility but rarely is it worth paying 2 resources to save a move action or even two move actions (often you need to uncover locations by moving into them in the first place). It'll be more useful in multiplayer, surely, where other people can help uncover the map. There are certainly other edge cases for it, but I still have never personally used that function of the card. 4 resources for 2 clues is already a good enough deal in my eyes to play this card. Even in solo where it's usually only able to buy 1 clue for 2 resources due to the nature of solo, it's still worth it because that clue is testless. It's perfect insurance for when you can't afford to fail or when failure is likely.

A combat version of Read the Signs, and I must say, I am quite stoked about this card. It's a problem solver. In mystics and other investigators that use their to do their fighting, Shrivelling charges are an important resource and you want to conserve them if at all possible. In those decks, this card is very powerful. It does 3 damage to non-elite enemies, and, as of this writing, this one shots more enemies than it doesn't. Also, the fact that Spectral Razor adds to rather than simply replacing leads to some very high number. Akachi Onyele attacks with a skill value of 8 using this card, and Jim Culver and Agnes Baker both swing in at a 7, and this is before any buffs from things like Holy Rosary or St. Hubert's Key.

The other benefit, that Spectral Razor automatically engages the enemy, is kinda niche, but it can be used to pull a boss monster off of one of your fellow investigators without using an action. At the very least, it makes sure you won't accidentally hit your friend in the face for 3 damage if you happen to pull the .

It is also missing the clause on a lot of mystic cards that makes something bad happen if you pull a special token.

As for its downsides, Spectral Razor is only single use and it costs resources to use. Mystic's economies often have a lot of demands placed on them, so trading one card for one kill might not be a wise investment.

The other investigator I was really hyped about using this card is was Zoey Samaras, because this is everything she wants. With her 4 and 4, Zoey would be attacking at 8 with this card. It does a bunch of damage, which is always good, and the free engage combined with Zoey's passive would give me back one of the resources I used to play this card. The only downside (and it's a big one) is that Zoey only has 5 out-of-class slots, and in faction cards do most of this quite well.

This card might put you in the situation, that you loose a named ally during the resolution of the scenario. This might leave your deck below the maximum deck size. I have got an official statement by the lead designer Mathew Newman over at FFG regarding the change to your deck size.

"We’ll be adding this to the next iteration of the FAQ, but the rule about repurchasing cards when you exile a card and must purchase a new card to maintain your deck size applies here, as well. Essentially, anytime a card effect causes your deck size to be under your investigator’s required deck size, you may purchase new level 0 cards at 0 experience cost to make up for this. This includes both effects that remove cards from your deck (such as when you exile a card), and also effects that increase your deck size."

Mandy is not just a quintessential Seeker, she is the quintessential Seeker squared. She excels in seeking out both clues and cards, which make her one of the most powerful investigators in the game.

A of 3 gives Mandy a decent chance of resisting treacheries from the encounter deck, but with a Hawk-Eye Folding Camera or maybe two, she can easily be up to 5, allowing her to shrug off much of what the encounter deck sends at her.

Her 5 is also something to write home about. Even though Mandy' specializes in fetching cards from investigators' decks, she actually does not need any cards in play before she starts investigating. This allows her to start investigating from Turn 1, giving her a huge head start in tempo. Her ability to pull specific cards from her deck bolsters this already quick tempo, making her a powerhouse Seeker.

1 means she will not be doing anything much in the combat department--not even punching a Swarm of Rats, so you might have to rely on her 3 , which isn't too shabby. It's just enough to evade when you have to, and will make you consider cards like Trench Coat if she is going to need to evade and avoid enemies--especially in true solo.

Mandy's Ability & Card Tutoring

Card Tutoring is a term for searching your deck and retrieving specific cards. Mandy's card tutoring talent makes allies like Mr. "Rook" look delicious. However, as I mentioned earlier, Mandy doesn't actually need any cards out to start investigating...so what cards are you even looking for with her ability?!?

Don't fall into the trap of endlessly spending your actions to search for cards, which help you search for cards, which help you search for cards, etc. You're just wasting actions. You want to search for cards that can make a difference!

Mandy's investigator ability has 2 uses, which can be used by either Mandy or another investigator at her location: when she searches, she can either search deeper (3 additional cards), or more (resolve the effect 1 additional time--so draw 2 cards instead of 1). How do you know which option to choose? That's a good question. See below.

(1) Searching Deeper (Search 3 Additional Cards).

This option simply means that if normally you would search 6 cards, you can now search 9. If normally 9, then 12. Etc. It's a great way to bore into your deck to find the cards you really need.

Choose this option when there is a specific card you want to find. Otherwise, if there's nothing you really need, use option #2 (see below).

Remember: other investigators at Mandy's location can use her ability! Most of the time, their searches (such as with Prepared for the Worst) are more important than yours!

(2) Searching More (Resolve 1 Additional Target).

This option means that instead of choosing 1 card with a search effect, such as with Eureka!, you choose 2. That's pretty good! This gives Mandy (and other investigators at her location) filtered card draw.

Choose this option if (a) hitting Shocking Discovery would be highly inconvenient, or (b) there's nothing in particular you need to search for. This becomes additional card draw with the potential to trigger Astounding Revelation and Occult Evidence.

Generally you will be searching deep at first, then switch to searching more once you have the cards you need.

A Note about Card Draw Card draw--especially in Seekers--is a good thing, right? Right?!? It's less good in Mandy, mainly because it means you might end up drawing Astounding Revelation or Occult Evidence (which personally happens to me all the time). Don't shy away from it, by any means, but Mandy is best served by cards that use search effects to gain cards, rather than plain ol' card draw (like with Preposterous Sketches).

Elder Sign Ability ()

You will never be sad when Mandy's Elder Sign ability crops up. At worst, it's just additional card draw--you can even use her investigator ability to search 3 cards and draw 2! At best it's a lifesaver that allows you to search up to 6 cards (when used in conjunction with her investigator ability) and commit the card you find to the test! Wow! This is really just an innate Eureka!, and another reason to ensure Mandy has plenty of good icon cards in her deck.

Investigator Signature Event: Occult Evidence

Mandy's signature card is singularly unique (pun intended) in that its quantity scales with her deck size. She gets 1x @ 30 cards, 2x @ 40 cards, and 3x @ 50 cards. It's not a fantastic signature card, but it's not bad either. You will know how many copies of Occult Evidence are in your deck at any given time, which allows you to plan to use her search abilities while on a location with a clue. Worst case scenario, if you draw it during upkeep, it's an extra wild icon.

Remember: just because you find a card with a search reaction (such as Occult Evidence and Astounding Revelation) does not mean you have to trigger their reaction ability--that would make it a Forced ability, instead. If you'd rather keep Occult Evidence or Astounding Revelation in your deck, rather than your hand, don't trigger their reaction ability!

Investigator Signature Weakness: Shocking Discovery

As far as signature weaknesses go, this can be pretty rotten when drawn at the worst possible time. But most of the time, it's not all that bad, especially when packing Tooth of Eztlis and Hawk-Eye Folding Cameras, both of which help Mandy shrug off encounter cards. Mystic off-class Mandy has the added boons in the form of Deny Existence and Ward of Protection, which she can use to cancel the worst treacheries drawn by her signature weakness.

IMPORTANT: Cards that search your entire deck literally search your entire deck--the search DOES NOT stop once you find a card you want. This means cards that search your deck (such as Research Librarian and No Stone Unturned) WILL trigger Shocking Discovery if it is in your deck!

Offclasses:

I wanted to take a moment to touch on Mandy's off-classes, since both her and Tony's off-class options can be the most exciting AND daunting aspects about them.

Mystic Off-Class

Playing Mandy in 2 player? Give Mystic off-class a nod. This deck uses Mystic as an off-class, since it gives her the most all-round versatility, especially with Read the Signs, Ward of Protection, and Deny Existence. With a Hawk-Eye Folding Camera or two and a Tooth of Eztli out, she will be facing encounter cards with 4-6 , 5-7 , and 4 . This allows her to shrug off a lot of encounters and makes her a great target for a rogue player to pitch to using "You handle this one!". She can then use 2x copies of Deny Existence and Ward of Protection to ignore the treacheries she cannot pass. In my experience, this allows her to ignore the encounter deck and just concentrate on grabbing clues.

Rogue Off-Class

Playing Mandy solo? You might want to pick Rogue for her off-class. Rogue offers her a lot of enemy avoidance with action compression. Cards like Think on Your Feet and Slip Away let her put a pin in enemies while she zooms around using cards like Shortcut and Elusive (10/10 would recommend) to effortlessly suck up clues. One of your top Rogue picks should always be Quick Thinking. Mandy can commit this to an investigate test and succeed by 2 with ease, allowing her to take an additional action! Also consider the favor cards like Decoy, Small Favor, and Intel Report. The first two allow her to buy her way past enemies, while Intel Report allows her to buy clues from an adjacent location. At worst, each of the favors has 2 icons.

Rogue offers some delectable upgrades for Mandy, such as Easy Mark, Momentum, and possibly even Pay Day.

Survivor Off-Class

Playing Mandy in 4-player? Consider Survivor, which has the highest clue-potential of any other off-class, if you take Fortuitous Discovery x3, Resourceful x2, Winging It x2, "Look what I found!" x2, and Lucky! x1 (though I would personally go with Lucky! x2 and "Look what I found!" x1). Winging It gets shuffled back into her deck, and because of her card-draw, she will see it several times. Don't worry about how to discard it--Mandy often has lots of cards in hand! "Look what I found!" is a little harder to pull off, but not as hard as one might think, especially if she is working at her base 5 . It also has . Lucky! is an all-around great card that can help you with anything. As for Fortuitous Discovery and Resourceful?

Imagine this: you use Mr. "Rook", Eureka!, and maybe even No Stone Unturned to eventually find all 3 copies of Fortuitous Discovery. When you play the 3rd copy, Mandy can nab 3 clues. But if she plays it with Resourceful committed, she can also grab a different copy of Fortuitous Discovery from her discard pile. Meaning, she can play it AGAIN at maximum effectiveness. With 2 copies of Resourceful, this means she can play Fortuitous Discovery at maximum clue potential 3 times!

Deck Size:

The other thing that prospective Mandy players puzzle over is her deck size. As a general rule, fewer cards in your deck is better, since this ensures you are more likely to see your best cards and, if you recycle your deck, enables you to see your best cards up to 4 times in a single scenario. Higher card counts dilute the effectiveness of your best cards, especially since you are limited to a maximum of 2 for most.

30-Card Deck

With Mandy's card draw, you will see and find every card in a 30-card deck likely a few times. Go with this deck size if you want to use and reuse specific cards--such as building specifically for the Pendant of the Queen. With Mandy's card draw ability, a measly 30-card deck lets her use, abuse, and reuse powerful cards with limited uses like Mr. "Rook", Fingerprint Kit, and most notably, Pendant of the Queen.

40-Card Deck

Mandy's search ability and card draw allow her to operate a 40-card deck as easily as another investigator runs a 30-card deck--and better. I personally prefer this deck size, since it gives you the option of including a few more cards than the often-limiting 30-card limit restricts you to. It also gives you the freedom to include a wider range of utility cards than usual. Going with a 40-card deck also gives Mandy 2 copies of Occult Evidence, literally doubling the number of her signature cards in her deck. As a frame of reference, a 40-card Mandy deck will usually draw through her entire deck once in a scenario, and possibly a little more. I mention this because deck size can be an easy way to combat Beyond the Veil. I played this deck in a 4-player Return to Dunwich, and our Guardian player used First Watch to give me ALL of the Beyond the Veils that came up. With a Deny Existence in hand and a sizable deck, it made life much easier for the other investigators.

50-Card Deck

If you want to include ALL the toys and ALL the cards...go with 50. Mandy still does quite well. However, you will find that you have to include a lot of redundancies, which make that additional 10 card bump up from 50 far less effective than you'd think. You do get 3 copies of Occult Evidence, but it's not reason enough on it's own to go the full 50. With 50 cards, Mandy may almost draw through her entire deck in a single scenario, which means it might be an option you want to consider if taking a non-mystic Mandy through Dunwich as Beyond the Veil protection.

Deck Size: How to Choose?

• Choose a 30-Card deck if you want to use, re-use, and abuse a few select cards over and over again, namely Pendant of the Queen, Mr. "Rook", Fingerprint Kit, and Archaic Glyphs. You will cycle through your deck quickly, allowing you to get a second or sometimes even a third pass at your best cards.

• Choose a 40-Card deck if you want a larger toolbox with greater versatility. This gives you some breathing space to include extra cards, such as a the in-game mini-quest cards (Archaic Glyphs, Strange Solution, Ancient Stone, etc), as well as more off-class cards. Mandy can handle a 40-card deck as easily as any investigator handles a 30-card deck--and then some.

• Choose a 50-Card deck if you want to include everything. I personally don't recommend this, since it dilutes the likelihood of you finding your best cards, such as Mr. "Rook", but Mandy being Mandy, she can still do just fine. Just make sure to include plenty of card draw and icons.

This is an excerpt from my Mandy Standard Deck, if you'd like to check it out: arkhamdb.com

Alice Luxley is one of those wonderfully thematic cards that exists in the wrong class of investigators for playability. Guardians as a whole want to kill the enemy standing in front of them instead of investigating to get a clue first. In addition to that there aren't many eligible investigators that even care about the +1.

The ideal investigator for Alice would be a strong evader and cluegetter. This combo doesn't exist within the Guardian class and most of the secondary Guardian classes. There are some combos that can trigger Alice's damage without evasion but they are usually not easy to set up or easy to repeat several times in a scenario.

Mark Harrigan - Zoey Samaras - William Yorick - these Guardians don't care about the boost and aren't active cluegetters typically

Tommy Muldoon and Leo Anderson would be boosted to a 4 which is nice but there are better allies for each of them to choose and gathering clues isn't what they are known for.

Carolyn Fern seems like an obvious choice for Alice Luxley and since Alice Luxley is one of the my favorite cards I played this combo in Carcosa with Akachi. The shortcoming of the combo is that it is hard for Carolyn to trigger Alice's damage since that usually requires taking an Attack of Opportunity. Combo'ing Alice Luxley with Guard Dog and/or Brother Xavier works pretty well though. Carolyn Fern can also play Scene of the Crime or Working a Hunch to trigger it. Overall my thoughts on Alice with Carolyn were decent. There were times that I took an AOO just to trigger Alice's damage because I didn't have any other damage options and I was split up from Akachi.

Joe Diamond is another Guardian (essentially a Guardian) that can definitely benefit from Alice Luxley. I paired Joe up with Rita Young in the hopes of her leaving evaded enemies all over the place but this never really materialized. Rita just killed them with the Ornate Bow or Joe finished them off with his weapons. I ended up triggering Alice's ability <5 times in the entire campaign even though she was frequently in play.

Roland Banks is a better combo than Joe for reasons mentioned in another review but the situations where you have multiple enemies at one location and clues remaining are not that common. Possibly in 3-4p but even then you are talking about situational occurences rather than easy to setup ones.

Diana Stanley - I haven't played her yet or even looked at deckbuilding options. She has a 3 and 3 so it might be possible but I think there are likely better allies and themes for the deck.

Rex Murphy - I guess this a possibilty for Rex since he can't even kill rats but taking attacks of opportunity are an inefficient way to kill things. Don't expect me to play this combo just to see if it is worth it.

The two ideal investigators for Alice Luxley are a pair of Rogues that can easily evade enemies and work best with weaponless decks. Jenny Barnes and "Skids" O'Toole

I played Alice Luxley with Jenny and Alice dominated the final two scenarios after dissappointedly only getting played in one other scenario. Bad luck on the card draw but Jenny/Alice was awesome. Jenny could evade easily with Suggestion(1) and easily pick up clues with Lola Santiago, Lockpicks or Intel Report. Alice did around 5 damage in each scenario and the highlights included singlehandedly taking out the Sacrificial Beast in one scenario and getting in 3 damage on the final monster in Carcosa.

Alice Luxley is a tough card to really make work but she remains one of my favorites and I would definitely play her in a Jenny or Skids deck. Possibly in Carolyn. Most Guardians would just as soon kill an enemy outright rather than try to setup a situation where they can do a point of damage.