I find it very amusing that the Guardian perhaps most incentivized to go around sticking people up for cash is FBI Agent Roland Banks. With Red Tape and Due Diligence he can make this fast and get +2 to the parley for each enemy engaged with him. Browbeat those Ghoul Minion or Cats from Saturn into assembling a flamethrower for you, then cook them with it. It does take up both of your allowed card plays for the turn, but seems worth it. Just don't autofail.

I think this is essentially an S-tier card, easily worth the 5 XP cost of admission and should be considered for a first campaign purchase/upgrade on most Dark Horse decks. Comparing to the original (most of these points are overlapping, but I think there's distinct points for each):

• It doesn't cost resources. The 3 resource cost of the original is fairly steep for a deck designed around keeping resources at 0. With this you only need to focus on having resource for other assets you want to play, hugely simplifying the design of decks which take this.

• You don't have to play it. Playing a card costs an action, so given Dark Horse decks are lean and tempo-focused saving an action is always nice.

• You don't have to find it. Similar to the above, Dark Horse decks want it in play as early as possible. Dark Horse itself however is not readily tutorable (Mr. "Rook", Eureka!, Captivating Discovery and Friends in Low Places all spring to mind, but can all miss as well either come with their own costs or at a minimum take up deck space) and while the class does have good card draw (Take Heart, Drawing Thin, At a Crossroads, Unrelenting) it's never going to be infallible. Having it there and ready to combo off is the biggest selling point by far.

• The stat boosts activate very early. It's worth saying you can online that +1 all stat boost from your very first turn with just a couple of assets (e.g. Mariner's Compass and Madame Labranche for example). Equally common resources sinks like Fire Axe make getting the universal +1 trivial in your first few turns.

• Permanent protects it from asset discarding treacheries. Everyone has had a moment where Crypt Chill has discarded something useful I'm sure. With this being a permanent card it's safe, which is great given its high XP cost and importance to this archetype of deck.

• EDIT: Good point from the below comments - it saves deck space. Level 0 Dark Horse takes up two cards in your deck, while this takes up none. With the pressures around deck building these days, it's definitely a nice feature.

All of this sets the card up as dramatically better than the original and a huge leap forward for the 0 resource archetype. In addition to Dark Horse staples (things like Mariner's Compass, Fire Axe, Madame Labranche and Schoffner's Catalogue - check out the level 0 Dark Horse page for wider interactions and more possible combos) I would say the addition of 1 resource masks in Hemlock Vale (Sparrow Mask and then off-class Mouse Mask, Fox Mask and Wolf Mask, ignoring Cat Mask because it's niche) and potentially the 1 resource Matchbox depending on your needs are all good ideas. Hemlock Vale also added in the pretty great Fire Axe •• and the pretty medium Mariner's Compass •• to boot.

All in all, I think everyone would love to play an investigator with +1 to all stats, and permanent Dark Horse allows you to do just that - potentially from your very first turn and without any install costs. It's a very, very good card!

Deduction has been a Staple since day 1 for a good reason: clues are what move the game forward, and so more clues mean being more likely to win the game before the doom clocks out, or you are being defeated in the many possible ways.

Chemistry Set is a 0xp card, in a non-competitive slot for that has a printed Deduction on it. So what's the catch?

1. You need to test at a very high value to have a chance to get the additional clue.

   • Higher Education being off the taboo list is your gateway to insane oversuccesses.

   • Kate Winthrop is the thematic and most likely best user because of her built-in capacity to skyrocket her skill value, and Chemistry Set is an enabler for it. Mr. "Rook" your Weakness first, though, if you don't want to be one-shot.

   • are the most likely to want to increase their basic stat, wich card like Magnifying Glass and Dr. Milan Christopher.

2. You need to succeed by exactly 4 to get the clue.

   • You are helped in this task by many cards. The most important one is the one that came with the set: Steady-Handed. When both are on the table, by testing at 5 above the shroud in standard and at 4 above the shroud in Hard, you have approximately a 60% chance of getting an additional clue. What's best is that you still get a card or sometimes 2 resources if you don't get your additional clue.

   • Some reactive cards can also help. There aren't so many, but we can mention Knight of Swords, Daring Maneuver, Ritual Candles, Diabolical Luck. Lab Coat can help you get 2 resources and a clue from a test you'd fail by 1.

   • Some cards can also help by revealing tokens earlier: Scrying Mirror or Premonition.

   • Some cards reveal multiple tokens: Grotesque Statue, Third Time's a Charm, Against All Odds are some examples. Olive McBride (0), on the other hand, will sometimes decrease your chances of getting the token and the score you want. Finally, Analysis is also an option, but I am not sure I would do this one...

3. It exhausts.

   • You can get a second copy on the table with Tinker or Relic Hunter. This way, you have double the uses, which, in my experience, is enough.

   • You can ready it with the newly printed Fine Tuning. It takes 1 more action, costs 1 more resource, and 1 more experience than Tinker, but it only requires you to find 1 copy of Chemistry Set, so it is online faster. This is personally my favourite option because the second copy of Fine Tuning can be placed on Steady-Handed (or on Empirical Hypothesis if you're that greedy).

4. It discards when failing by exactly 2.

   • This can happen by pulling the on a 2 shroud location. If you are dead afraid of this, you can pack some protection, such as Eucatastrophe or Nightmare Bauble. Token of Faith and Live and Learn, and the other hand, won't work.

   • This can happen if you pull the wrong token. Lucky!, Granny Orne, Spring-loaded Pocket Multi Tool can help. As weird as it may seem, Lab Coat is a nonbo and will not help you save your chemistry set.

5. You will only succeed by exactly 4 when there is only 1 clue remaining at your location.

   • Sucks for you. It's like finally landing that trick when no one pays attention anymore. Maybe you can get -1 with Steady-Handed to get a card and heal 1 horror.

Overall, it's a sound card if you build around it, and can be pretty monotonous, so having a mini-game in the game is a lovely gimmick to explore once in a Kate Winthrop deck.

Here's the deck I've used for this review: arkhamdb.com

This card is really good.

• In a build: Staple. No questions asked, it comes in play, and rewards you for what you are already doing: defeating enemies. This will be your core enabler, especially in the early campaign. And what's best is that the payoff increases as the campaign progresses.

• In a non- build:

  • Your Accessory Slot is non-competitive. The main alternative is Hallowed Mirror, but by loading the bag with , you are less likely to take damage/horror during the scenario. Cleaning Kit is the other new one, but you will know when to take it.

  • The Horror soak is fantastic. Back in the day, we would spend the same 3 resources for 1 more Horror soak and a limited ability. This is a million times better.

  • Even in 2 , this will get the bag at 10 by mid-scenario, increasing significantly the chances to pass any test.

  • With 10 in the bag, when testing with the same value as the test (for example with 3 on a Rotting Remains test), you go from 25% to 40% chances of success.

So, is it a Staple? I don't know if I will find space for it in every deck I build, but this card is surely way above the curve in terms of power level, so if I have nothing else, I know I won't regret adding this to any of my decks.

The good -- +6 resources from one card, and they're shareable. Drawn early, it can help everyone set up crucial assets. Drawn later, it can pad out passive big money bonuses, or fuel a deck based on expensive events or consumables without taking up too many card slots, or bail out someone who got resource-screwed by the mythos.

The bad -- If you replace two emergency caches with one bank job, you do free up a deck slot, but also create a "feast or famine" situation where you're more likely to be either flooded or starved. The upfront cost makes matters worse here too. If you went to 0 resources before drawing this, then taking two resource actions before playing it cannot be done in a normal turn.

The ugly -- finding two actions for an event is just really hard, especially an AoO provoking event that does not advance the board state. If you need the money to get some other asset in play this just compounds the problem.

This will be playable for basically everyone with rogue access, but I think it will shine most in decks that have plenty of bonus actions to make the double less problematic, and even more than cards it will shine when you can reliably find it early. Fortunately as an illicit level 0 rogue event, there are lots of enablers and synergies available.

You can tutor for this with Underworld Market, Friends in Low Places, or Finn's Smuggled Goods . It is also a great find during a Black Market setup round; if the group is together then any one investigator who finds time to play it can fund the others to bring out the rest of the revealed cards.

If you use this to raise cash to play Leo De Luca, he'll refund you one action on the back end. "Skids" O'Toole can also refund his action immediately if he doesn't need that much money. The same applies if you need the money to turn on The Black Fan. Bob Jenkins may find the double action tolerable considering that he can cheat out a free item afterwards.

Once you get some XP there are a variety of ways one could shave off an action by playing the event itself as part of something else. You still have to pay the additional action cost, but it's much more tolerable if you can cheat on the basic play action first. Mandy Thompson can run this and with Old Book of Lore (3) can spend two actions (one on the book, one of the job) to play this at 0 resource cost and then throw down another big asset at the same time. Or, with Prompt+Swift Friends in Low Places a mono-green character can snag a pile of resources in one action while loading their hand with other illicit goodies (and maybe other items or tricks) at the same time. Honed Instinct with "muscle memory" is another way to compress your setup time a bit when you are resource rich. And, though I don't expect Trigger Man and [Summoned Servitor] (/card/09080) to see much play, this will feel nicer if you do have an ally cranking out actions for you, too.