Funnily enough, if this guy is in the Theatre and you are in the Balcony, you won’t be able to hear it sing, as the Balcony is not a “connecting location”. (Compare the wording to that of the Abbess from Carnivale of Horrors, for instance.)
I built a Dexter Drake that is a flex fighter, and this card seems invaluable. If you're taking Arcane Research (or two copies of it), In the Thick of It, and maybe even Charon's Obol, Hallowed Chalice looks amazing for survivability (especially if you can tutor 'Charm' with Molly Maxwell). Surprisingly, aside from Sword Cane and upgrading to Cyclopean Hammer late game, Dex's hand slot can be relatively uncontested if you're relying on Arcane slots to do your damage dealing.
Dex is actually the surprise winner of the Scarlet Keys mystic cards suite. Power Word, String of Curses, Uncage Soul (3) all seem pretty powerful with him, and even the Rogue cards such as Kicking the Hornet's Nest, Underworld Market, and Dirty Fighting can find a home with him.
Someone please help me resolve this dilemma of talmudic complexity: Does pocket telescope enable parallel Roland Banks' due diligence directive which says: "During a skill test while investigating, evading, or parleying, exhaust Directive: You get +2 skill value for this test for each enemy engaged with you."
It is officially clarfiied now, that no AOO is happening while investigating another location with the telescope, but the reasoning is unclear about whether you engage the enemies or nut during the action:
"when you attempt to use Pocket Telescope’s “Investigate” action, the “cost” to initiate it is spending one of your player actions, and this is the moment when Attacks of Opportunity occur. Enemies at your current location [emphasis in original email] would perform Attacks of Opportunity against you, and enemies at the connecting location you’re investigating would not, because the trigger for these Attacks has passed."
TLDR: So am I considered engaged to enemies of the connected location while investigating it with pocket telescope or not? (I have searched through the internet for the answer, but nothing... whom should I ask for an official answer, wise people?)
I have to say, to release Lab Coat in the same expansion as Research Notes, Gray's Anatomy, and Grim Memoir is a cruel joke. Clearly Lab Coat is better at serving cards from older expansions, but that's penalizing players getting into Arkham Horror LCG starting at Scarlet Keys.
Anyway, here are the 21 cards that Lab Coat makes a difference on (19 if you don't count the non-recommended options):
Now, the positive effect that Lab Coat has on most of these card amounts to a +1 boost, which given that it affects neither basic actions nor non- cards, is just inferior to a simple +1 boost. The truly unique to Lab Coat benefit is the ability to succeed tests on an draw. However, this requires your test to be difficulty 1 (or less), which at which point that extra protection is mostly for peace of mind; at best your Lab Coat protects you against a 1 in 14 chance.
In conclusion... I don't ever want to consign a card to binder fodder, but man is this card trying it's absolute best to be worthless. It's useless by itself (unless you count soak but once used as soak, it cannot be used for it intended purpose), and when in a combo, either the test is too trivial to warrant its use, or too high to make it anything other that a worse +1 . It should've cost 0. I like that now has a body slot asset, and a flavorful one too, but the card pool does not exist to make taking it worthwhile.
Rule clarification of Play Action. This action is used for putting down Asset or Event type card from your hand paying its cost. But "Cards with the "fast" keyword are not played by using this action."
So you can always "play" fast Event like Lucky! in tests or "play" fast Asset like Switchblade :
(Dissonant Voices is different, it did not say "play action". You can't play Lucky! or Switchblade in that case.)