Alice Luxley
Not every Guardian wants her, but the ones that do really appreciate her. The dividing line is obvious: How often do you gain clues while an enemy is at your location? For the purest of Guardians, this only happens via cards like Scene of the Crime and Interrogate, making Alice a fairly inconsistent Guard Dog. Her value to such decks is questionable.
Where Alice really shines is in hybrid decks that use both Guardian cards and normal investigation. You'll get great mileage from her intellect boost, plus action compression when an enemy shows up engaged with someone else. The biggest contender here is Carolyn, the rare Guardian who doesn't want to tank all the enemies; if you're building decks together, give her the right of first refusal here. The detectives (fittingly enough) come in tied at second: In high player counts, Roland pulls ahead a bit, since he'll often be able to trigger Alice with his own ability.
She's also a solid choice for a cross-class slot in investigators who care about, well, investigating. Special mentions go to Dark Horse Pete (who has little use for Milan and can combine her with Duke to snipe at enemies in adjacent locations) and investigative Jenny (who, with a bit of experience, can use her with Lola to great effect).
As one last side-note, her value increases greatly in Carcosa and Return to Dunwich. Those campaigns treat intellect as a sort of tertiary defensive stat, making her constant effect much more important.
Well-Maintained
Let's get the obvious caveat out of the way: Bouncing assets is great, but pricey. Sticking Well-Maintained on your Reliable Custom Lightning Gun won't do you much gun unless you're really drowning in resources (which can happen with Zoey or Leo, to be fair). Outside of obscenely wealthy decks, I see it as mainly a good way to protect relatively cheap assets from asset hate or get an extra use out of the more expendable ones.
Of those two scenarios, the latter is clearly better. With Reliable being fast and free, you can save it until right before you discard the asset in question. We're looking for relatively cheap items that can be used up and discarded. The Elder Sign Amulet and Bulletproof Vest are great options if you need the extra resilience. Police Badge is an amazing target if you can afford it. It's a bit more awkward if you're discarding items by using up their slots (since you can't just replay them), but you can bounce a drained Arcane Blade or something if you really need to.
It also combos with a few out-of-class options for certain investigators. With her ability, Carolyn can afford to replay St. Hubert's Key, though she hardly needs the extra mental tankiness. Diana, on the other hand, can play it on the Grotesque Statue, and I don't need to tell you how powerful that is. Lastly, I'd be remiss to overlook the synergy with Act of Desperation, which actually can let you reload your Lightning Gun by smashing it (Yorick has no need for Well-Maintained, but it can be useful for Mark).
Mr. "Rook"
Just look at this cagey bastard. He even has quote marks in his name. That's not denoting an alias or anything; he literally makes little air quotes when he introduces himself. *ahem* Personal feelings aside, Mr. "Rook" is the latest of the expendable Seeker allies, in that he comes with three secrets, each one of which gives you a risky search. His most obvious use is as a reusable NSU (0) that also draws weaknesses, making his overall value questionable... but you may just want to give him a second "Rook."
(Seriously, he says stuff like that all the time. "I'll be 'Rook'ing from the sidelines!" "Let's throw the 'Rook' at them!" and then he just laughs endlessly at himself. Yog, he's insufferable.)
"Rook"s true power is that he lets you engage your weaknesses on your own terms. The biggest downside of a weakness is rarely the weakness itself; it's the fact that the weakness eats your draw and catches you off guard. With Mr. "Rook," you don't have to worry about either. Roland Banks can virtually guarantee an early Cover Up, with plenty of time to clear it at leisure. If you're suffering from Paranoia, "Rook" makes you that much more likely to pull it when you're already low on resources. If you have any of the myriad two-action weaknesses, have "Rook" dig for 9 whenever you've got time to spare.
Obviously, not all weaknesses work with him. There are some weaknesses you'd rather draw late, like Curse of the Rougarou or The Thing That Follows. There are weaknesses that shuffle themselves back into your deck, like Rex's Cure or The Thing That Follows (again). There are weakness that you basically just pray you never draw, like the Doomed sequence. He becomes downright counter-productive if you're controlling your weaknesses with Scrying or Alyssa. If you end up with one of those after including "Rook," consider trading him for some other deck searcher (like NSU (5) or the upcoming Yellow Scroll of Secrets).
Outside of those caveats, however, "Rook" is an excellent source of weakness control combined with a very good combo enabler. Including him in your deck is well worth the cost of putting up with his edgy pseudo-cryptic act.
Hawk-Eye Folding Camera
Looking at a card like this makes you realize just how much you take for granted, doesn't it? Today, everyone has a convenient camera right in their pocket. A hundred years ago, you had to give up an entire hand slot and spend multiple rounds trying to get a camera to work.
The most powerful aspect of the Folding Camera, as far as most Seekers are concerned, is its intellect boost. They can get that far more cheaply and quickly with a Magnifying Glass, which has been a staple in their decks since literally day one. Some Seekers, such as Daisy, really want that willpower boost as well. They can spend one extra resource on St. Hubert's Key instead.
Swift Reflexes
Extra actions are great. You can afford a 2-cost event as a Rogue. This card is pretty much universally handy. The ability to act during other players' turns is situational, but mostly just a nice additional bonus. You can probably replace this with Ace in the Hole later on, barring significant turn shenanigans (see Wither, below).
Henry Wan
Other people have already done the math: Henry Wan is terrible. He rarely outperforms spending an action to buy a resource directly, much less cards like Dario (who's not exactly a staple). Okay, fine, he gets better if you seal a lot of symbols, but you generally don't want to seal a lot of symbols. Sealing is very limited: You only get two copies of Protective Incantation, and they're usually better used on the worst negative number than on a skull.
Wither
It's a spell that effectively renders ordinary attacks obsolete. Unfortunately, ordinary attacks are already obsolete, thanks to weapons. That said, if you're going all-in on attack spells, it can be nice to have a way to bring odd-health enemies back down to even without wasting Shriveling charges (and you save even more Shriveling charges if you manage to weaken the enemy).
Note also that the bonus effect goes off regardless of success or failure. Against an enemy without Retaliate, you could potentially just Wither away with some combination of Olive McBride, Dark Prophecy, and Eldritch Inspiration, all so your Rogue friend can pop in with Swift Reflexes and Double or Nothing for a single massive attack. That's exactly the sort of thing that's cool in theory but impractical in practice, but if the stars align, don't miss your chance!
Sixth Sense
It's a spell that effectively renders ordinary investigations obsolete. Unlike attacks, ordinary investigations are extremely important and useful. Doing 2+ damage in one test is expected; gaining 2+ clues is not. Thus, while Wither can only supplement your other attack options, Sixth Sense can become your primary investigation option.
Notably, it makes high-will, low-int investigators much more viable in true solo. Rite of Seeking is expensive and wasteful; Sixth Sense will get you all the clues you need at no risk. My own Sixth Sense tells me that this card will become a staple in any deck that can use it (barring high-intellect investigators like Daisy and Marie).
Belly of the Beast
Show of hands: Who likes spending one resource for a testless, actionless clue? ...How remarkable. Even though I'm typing this long before any of you will read it, and even though I'll never see most of you in person, and even though you probably only thought about raising your hand instead of literally playing along, I can still see those hands. That's how obviously good this card is.
Anyway, this card is probably best used if you don't need to go out of your way to play it. Just be an evade tank and keep this card in your hand until you happen to overcommit. No muss, no fuss. Just free clues. Of course, if you happen to be playing a very green Wendy already, and you already have a bunch of succeed-by-2 triggers waiting in the wings, then all the better.
Drawing Thin
Now, one thing that has to be kept in mind is that fail-to-win Survivor cards are inherently vulnerable to chaos tokens. Many tokens get worse when you fail, and regularly throwing skill tests means you've got all of them active.
That caveat aside, *INCOHERENT SCREAMING*. This is an incredible card. If you're already trying to activate Rabbit's Foot (3) or Take Heart, this makes those cards so much better. If you're facing down a treachery you can't pass, you might as well get some free economy out of the deal. If you're just naturally far above the difficulty without any commits (eg Yorick attacking a low-fight monster or Minh investigating a low-shroud location), go ahead and gamble a little. If you lose, you can use those resources on LWIF or Oops and win anyway.
Automatic staple card for any Survivor with the slightest hint of fail-to-win, and a decent choice for the others.
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