Before anything, take a minute to ponder how Eyes of Valusia/Blade of Yoth are one the best illustrations of the game.

Now we can start the review.

First thing to note is that this card is more suited to multiplayer. It requires set up, but in 3+ player you can easily play flex and use the Parley action to support your team, before swapping to the boss-killing weapon in late game.

Yes, it's a boss-killing weapon, among the best possible in the game. 4 damage with +6 to hit (and having a choice in which skill you use) makes it usually unmissable unless , without needing to commit card. And it leaves you one empty hand, so many build possibilities.

Beside the obvious , there are a few other investigators who can use it :

• Marie Lambeau (it's a Spell)
• Alessandra Zorzi (it's a Parley card)
• Monterey Jack (with // back) and Ursula Downs (it's a Relic)
• Lola Hayes (with // back) and Subject 5U-21

Important things to keep in mind :

1. It's really sad, but The Raven Quill (attachable to the Eyes) does not combo. I asked FFG for confirmation, and every attachement (Enchant Weapon, Reliable, etc.) is discarded when you swap Eyes with Blade.

2. Charging the Eyes is costly in actions. Therefore, three possibilities : playing multiplaer (more spare actions), gaining more actions (hello , and also Marie who has an extra action), or directly adding charges, like :
   – Knowledge is Power (available to Marie, Monterey, Ursula, Roland, Zoey, Carson). Sadly a bit too costly in xp with taboo
   – Enraptured (especially the xp version). Excellent with Marie, who can also double down with Practice Makes Perfect.
   – The Red Clock + Eldritch Sophist (Montery and Ursula). Every round, you gain one charge on the blade, and ideally you keep the clock with 2 charges on it at the start of the round : Need to move ? eldricht sophist before the start of your turn, else activate him after for one bonus action.

3. It's impossible to have the weapon in you starting deck (well, you could draw Offer You Cannot Refuse with In the Thick of It, but don't count on it), so the first scenario can be difficult if you don't have other combat solutions (Monterey has his Trusty Bullwhip, but Ursula may have issues). If you are playing multi it's more easy to circumvent, asking other players for more combat solutions in first scenario, but it can be problematic in solo (outside Monterey and Alessandra, you don't have Adaptable to easily change your deck).

So, who do i pick for my Eyes of Valusia/Blade of Yoth deck ?

In my opinion, either Marie or Ursula.

• They have both 1 (so 11 stat vuales elsewhere who will be usefull), and 4 to help hitting.

• Both have access to Dr. Elli Horowitz, wo can fetch the card and ignore it's slots. You can swap card attached to Elli without issue.

• Ursula can easily find this card with draw and fetch, Marie can do the same with Arcane Initiate. It tears me up that Marie cannot have Eldritch Brand (FFG, please... it targets Spells, why can't the dedicated Spell investigator take it ?) and start the game with the eyes in play.

I would prefer Marie because i thing Enraptured+Practice Makes Perfect is the best way to maximise the charging of the blade. Here is a 19xp deck example.

Alessandra is another interesting investigator (many actions, good ), but i think she has better options in and among Parley cards (British Bull Dog, Vamp (3), Stir the Pot...).

([Review to be completed once i have played Lola // with the blade, maybe she can shine with it too)

Chapter 2 review

Favor of Baalshandor is an interesting one. Firstly, it can only be used to discount Spell or Ritual assets and not events. This is quite limiting, as it stands there are only 7 eligible assets for Favor in the Chapter 2 core and Marie starter decks (Dread Curse of Azathoth, and then Second Sight, Cosmic Flame, Shadowmeld or their upgrades). It does also bypass attacks of opportunity but, as most spells can be used without consuming charges in Chapter 2, there's less of a need to play a spell and refuel mid-fight compared to Chapter 1.

It also comes with the cost of damage, which can at least be handled fairly well with Cosmic Guidance and Bloodstone. Lastly, Favor is bereft of icons - so if you don't have an appropriate asset to play it with then it's a dead card in your hand (compare to say Uncage the Soul in Chapter 1, which both icons on it and could be used on events, plus lacked the damage cost).

Favor of Baalshandor is not the only damage-for-resources card introduced in Marie's starter deck. With Offering Bowl you can net 5 resources, and don't need a target asset in hand for it to work, and it has a icon to commit as well. The damage cost for those resources is steeper (3 damage as opposed to 1), but in some ways Marie prefers this to provide easy means to trigger her ability (and if running upgraded Jim Culver, more damage is often better). Regarding Dexter, cards like Out the Door and "Watch this!" mean he doesn't need to run resource economy cards like Favor. So, who's this for?

For me, Favor of Baalshandor is ironically best suited to Mystic-leaning Izzie Barnes. While she has the lowest health of all new Chapter 2 investigators who access the Mystic card pool, she can recur Cosmic Guidance healing with ease (and you will be running other damage soak anyway to better offset Breaking Point). Further, the Survivor card pool has very poor resource generation on the whole (situational cards like Same Old Thing, Hidden Shelter, Pocketknife, and then using Hunter's Instinct to recover Emergency Cache), so any extra source of resources is welcome. While Offering Bowl could be used on Izzie, 3 damage to access its full payout tends to be a bit too much.

Conclusions: Considering the Chapter 2 card pool, Favor of Baalshandor is often outclassed by other less situational resource generators for Marie (Offering Bowl) and Dexter (Out the Door and "Watch this!"), and so may be best suited to Mystic-focused Izzie decks which lack other straightforward resource economy options. The card still remains niche as there are only 7 eligible assets it can target in the Chapter 2 core + starters card pool, with more targets likely to be released as Chapter 2 progresses. Including it in a deck usually is a question of how badly you need any extra source of pseudo-resource economy (for Izzie, the answer is often pretty badly!).

On its surface this card looks like it makes Robes of Endless Night entirely obsolete—a mere 1 XP for a 1 cost card that does essentially the same thing but for rituals too, and a wild icon to boot? So good!

But the pretty space robes aren't entirely done for. Crucially, the effect on RoEN is an optional trigger, whereas Ceremonial Robes is always the first spell or ritual of the round. So if the first spell you need to cast is 0 cost, the effect is wasted. Not to mention the upgraded RoEN that lets you avoid AoO. And you might prefer the 2 damage soak over a split 1/1.

In short, Ceremonial Robes are very good, I would absolutely take them, but there could be cases where you'd still prefer more expensive Robes of Endless Night.

I'm not really sold on Marcus.

At first he seems like a great addition to any big money or big spender deck, since getting extra resource every upkeep is really powerful. With Stylish Coat on your back you would get yet another extra resource at the same time, what's not to like?

The problem is, he's most likely going to snuff it before he has even had time to pay for his cost. Unless you purposefully build your deck to protect your wealthy patron, he's only a two failed treachery card skill rolls away from a trip to the loony bin. The updated version can take a little bit more abuse, but that costs experience.

So in short he seems like a bit of a trap card. He fools you into bying him dinner, but bugs out before the check arrives. That said, I'm probably still going to try to run him on a purpose-built Jenny deck to try and see if I can keep him sane long enough to enjoy that sweet, sweet 4 (or 5 with Lone Wolf) recourses per upkeep. At least Jenny has a not-completely-terrible head of 3 on her shoulders so with a little bit of help from greasy palms she could manage to keep her benefactor from loosing his mind right away.

Chapter 2 review

Paint the Town Red is a resource economy card, and it also allows you to pull out enemies from the encounter deck (e.g. to fish for a victory point enemy). It's a Parley event so you can use it with an enemy engaged without an attack of opportunity (though why you'd want to I don't know). It also has a and icon, so it's somewhat useful to commit.

For me the only use case for this currently in Chapter 2 is Dexter, and only if you're just using the core box with no starter decks, and only if you're looking to target Bat Horror. Dexter's assets tend to be expensive, so extra resources are appreciated, and with the Bat Horror's 4 health you get 4 resources (and then as it's elusive you can shoo it with an attack action). This gives 2 resources per action spent vs. Emergency Cache's 3 (and even then, you need to not care about a Bat Horror running around for the remainder of the scenario...).

For most other 3 health enemies (Hellhound or Mutated Experiment) then you're then at 1.5 resources per action assuming you have Shadowmeld to get away from the enemy or upgraded Cosmic Flame to kill them in one - and even then I'd say keeping charges on these tends to be more valuable than netting 1 resource. Note for Rogue Gangster he will lose you a resource when he engages, so he's not a suitable target for this.

The resource tech in André's starter deck (e.g. Out the Door, "Watch this!"), or even Spiritual Charm from Marie's deck if thinking of Dexter, make this totally and utterly redundant for me.

Conclusions: Aside the very (very) niche use-case I described, this is one of the most binder fodder-worthy cards I've ever seen! Generally new enemies = bad, and you should not be trying to draw them without a stronger incentive (e.g. Stalk Prey is an example of a good incentive). Unless FFG give us more incentives to pull enemies out of the encounter deck in later campaigns then I just don't see a use for this, and even then usually enemies like this come out of the encounter deck sooner or later without help. Easily the worst card in Chapter 2 for me, and it's not even close!