This might be an interesting skill for (traditional, not parallel) Agnes Baker, if she uses Jacqueline's set of Spell assets. On expert you would need at least one in the bag to trigger the "draw 2 cards", but otherwise you would just have to seal the tokens, you don't want to pull on these tests anyway.

I don't really like Jackie's "replacement spells" that much, Azure Flame is fine (and for Diana with twice Arcane Research clearly the better card than Shrivelling), but Clairvoyance costs one XP more (though 1 resource less) in the upgrade path than Rite of Seeking and free movement from Mists of R'lyeh is more often useful than extra damage from Ineffable Truth, if you go for evading. It also shares the extra XP cost. But card draw is one of the rare things, aren't really good with, mostly being limited to Arcane Initiate and Guts. For 1 XP that looks like a bargain for Agnes to gain two cards and protect from undesired spillover effects. And that's probably enough to give Clairvoyance and Ineffable Truth the edge, they need for me.

I'll leave my original review down below, but like pointed out by Thatwasademo, the recent FAQ actually proved wrong my understanding of Uses. (And that from the people, who told me, that I should not have action-free translated the Archaic Glyphs with Astounding Revelations, when I played Mandy.) I still think, that 5 secrets are a hard ask for an effect, that does not even trigger before knowing, which card you avoid, and is trounced by the effect from A Watchful Peace from class in the same cycle, at least in multiplayer. Text of the Elder Herald is likely the stronger card of the two, but I'm now actually interested in translating the damn thing. I will update the review, once I have actual played with these cards.

Original Review:

So now Seekers have their way to mitigate the encounter deck just like a Mystic, do they?

Let's compare that to the staple core set Mystic card for that cause, Ward of Protection. It costs 2 resources and an action more to play, and doesn't cost you a horror. And I think, it won't be likely usable more than once, even if you play the card early. There are no "Uses (X secrets)" on the card, so you can't fill it with Astounding Revelations, Eldritch Sophists and the like. You only get secrets on this card, if you (not any player) resolve -token(s) during a skill test. You can't cancel the token(s) drawn either, and likely fail the test or at least gain one clue less than otherwise. So to charge up this grimoire once, you likely loose 2 to 5 actions. (On top of what your fellow investigators might loose, when they draw a .) It won't help, if you draw a on some other occasion, like Daisy playing Voice of Ra. You are paying 3 resources, a card and an action upfront to possibly save yourself an encounter draw and replace your card with a delay. This seems really weak for an unconditioned level 0 card, let alone something that requires 4 XP and a "quest" fulfilled earlier in the campaign. We probably shouldn't tax the 2 to 5 lost actions, because there should be other incentives to put -tokens into the bag than this card. It's OK, that different classes don't excel at all tasks equally. That's part of there theme and diversifies game play. Mystic's Astral Travel ain't a Shortcut, and that's fine. At least, it does not cost 4 XP!

Compared to the other Cryptic Grimoire, the 5 -threshold also looks unfavourable. This one is more to compare with Chuck Fergus, who is more flexible, grants a bigger discount, gives some soak and will likely be activated much more often in any given game. But at least he costs 1 XP more. I think, you still must reliable put at least 6 secrets on that one to get some use of it, which is much easier to archive than 10! (With 4 you only trade 3 resources, an action and a card to 2 resources and 2 actions, so basically buying an action for a resource, a card and some upfront cost.) I'm not really impressed with either version. "Quest cards" should give you something amazing for the extra effort. In particular since this one isn't the easiest to fulfil. I'm not sure, if I would take this path, even in decks heavily investing in to get some extra mileage out of them.

Mary + Olive mcbride + Blessed Blade

Shockingly consistent support fighter who routinely just handles enemies that by all rights she has no business beating, throw in blessing of Isis, Paradox covenant or any other "when you draw an X" card and just watch the fireworks.

And even if that all fails, you are still just flooding the bag with blessing for your team anyway.

Blessing turn Olives weird probability of success into an autowin magnet, outside of Mary's style combining Olive and ancient covenant is a scary combo.

Quick tip: in many scenarios, you may be able to begin the test on this card, but spend your clues on something useful before suffering the effects of a failure. There are two player windows () after a skill test begins but before pulling a chaos token. Usually that's to activate an ability on something like Hyperawareness, but any ability with the symbol can legally be triggered during that window. Some scenarios let you spend clues as a to do scenario specific things (Midnight Masks, Bad Blood and The Vanishing of Elina Harper come to mind). And in most scenarios, spending clues to advance the act can be done during any player window as well (of the top of my head, can't remember if this applies to any scenarios with false lead, though..). If you know False Lead is in the deck, and you have enough clues to do some needful thing, it's good strategy to hold them through the mythos phase. That way, false lead loses surge, but still can't touch you, because you can spend those clues at the last moment! Also, if false lead is in the deck, Hunting Shadow probably is as well, and having clues at least increases your options on that card.

This card DESTROYED us. The fact this is 3 damage AND lose 3 action easily makes it one of the most powerful treacheries in the game. Definately have a mystic carry Ward of Protection or Deny Existence if you play Carcossa.