Bonds of the Occult

The Occult keyword has been taunting us ever since Carcosa's release. What makes something Occult as opposed to just an ordinary Tome or Relic? Why do two separate investigators have deckbuilding rules for such an obscure trait? With Before the Black Throne's two new Occult cards, we finally have our answer: Occult cards are cards that give their owners access to Spells while not being Spells themselves. With the original Occult card, Archaic Glyphs, that was via the Untranslated branching upgrade mechanic. With BtBT's Hallowed Mirror and Occult Lexicon, it's via the new Bonded keyword.

Mechanics

Both cards work the same way. You have a single Item card (the Mirror and Lexicon), limited to 1 copy per deck, and three 0-cost Spell cards (Soothing Melody and Blood-Rite) bonded to the Item. Playing the Item lets you draw one Spell and shuffle the other two into your deck; losing the Item makes you hunt down those Spells and remove them from the game (though you can reclaim them if you regain the Occult Item).

Note that we're unlikely to see much variance in those ratios. The way they're set up now, FFG can include a full playset of each Bonded Occult grouping with four cards. Any more than that, and each set takes up more than twice as much room in the pack as any normal card. Any less, and they're hardly worth playing. So, what does this give us that we don't get from normal assets?

The Downsides

Let's start with a caveat: If there's a limited-use asset that does what you want the Bonded Occult card to do, you should use that instead. For instance, you're only including the Hallowed Mirror for horror healing, feel free to drop it as soon as you can afford Kerosene. Of course, it's possible that you actually need a truly absurd amount of horror healing (say, in a Carolyn/Agnes teamup, or a Yorick Infinite Aquinnah build) and want to run both cards, but for most decks, the limited-use asset is the better choice for a number of reasons:

• The conventional assets are more reliable. Even with something as restricted as Kerosene, you'll have an easier time meeting the requirements than you will hunting down a couple of events in your deck.
• The Occult cards are singletons only. Without a card that searches your entire deck (such as No Stone Unturned (5) or Research Librarian), you cannot assume you'll find them in time to use them (or even at all).
• The conventional assets often have other cards to give them extra uses. This is especially relevant for Akachi, who can naturally get more uses out of assets with charges and recur them with her signature, but any investigator can get more supplies via E-cache (3), and everyone except pure Survivors can recover at least one other type of use.
• The Bonded Spells take up space in your hand and deck. This isn't as bad as it could be, since both Spells give you extra draw, but you will be lagging behind in terms of progress through your deck until you get the chance to play them.

Of course, you should always keep your own build in mind to see whether these downsides are relevant before writing the cards off altogether. If you need a fifth card to fill out your cross-class slots, you don't actually care about the "Limit 1 per deck" restriction, and while every Rogue can get extra uses from healing items via Contraband, not every Rogue wants to include that card.

The Upsides

All that is to say that you should consider other options before including the Occult cards. However, it's not to say that should only choose those other options. For all their downsides, Occult cards do have their benefits:

• The Bonded Spells are highly flexible. Soothing Melody can heal damage or horror (or both), from any investigator or Ally at your location. Blood-Rite can give you cards or resources or testless damage. They even have three different commit icons apiece, should you need them. They may not be the best at fulfilling a specific need for your build, but they can be the best at helping you adapt to unpredictable situations (and Arkham LCG is, itself, a giant unpredictable situation).
• A thicker deck isn't always a bad thing. Sure, it makes it harder to get your key cards into play, but if you've already got those out, each extra card in your deck makes it harder to draw your weaknesses. It also provides some defense against Beyond the Veil. Don't forget that you choose when the Occult Item enters play; you can always hold on to it while you dig for certain cards.
• The Bonded Spells, being Spell Events, combo with certain other cards:
• Marie is the big one here, since she can play them with her bonus action. Marie often has turns where she can't make use of her ability (especially if she eschews Sixth Sense in favor of her natural intellect), but these Spells are flexible enough that she'll always have a use for them.
• Arcane Initiate can dig for them. More than just mitigating their unreliability, this means the Initiate is more likely to find a Spell with her ability and, thus, gives you more cards over her lifespan.
• Dayana can copy them. They make a great deal, too, since they're free. You can even free her up later by getting rid of the Occult Item (though it's a bit inefficient to do so).
• De Vermis Mysteriis can recur them. It's dangerous to play with De Vermis Mysteriis, of course, but it's one more option available to you.
• The Crystallizer of Dreams (previewed from The Dream-Eaters) can crystallize them, letting you make use of their flexible commit icons.
• Double, Double (also from Before the Black Throne) can double them. They make a great target, too, since twice their cost is still zero. This card is probably the second-biggest enabler of Bonded Occult sets next to Marie, so it's fortunate indeed that you can Adapt them in late in the campaign.

Depending on the deck you're running, the Bonded Occult sets can be quite attractive because of their strange nature, rather than in spite of it.