For its XP cost, i can consider this a very good card...but not great. And the only reason I downgraded it to very good is because it has no icons. For a 4xp card, i think it should have had two icons in there. I base this on several playthroughs with Rex where in the mid-late game, i am usually swimming with cards.

This is a hard card to review because it's power fluctuates madly from scenario to scenario.

"Text printed on a scenario card" basically means treachery tests, unique location tests, parlay tests and anything printed on an act/agenda. This specifically means you cant use True Understanding while investigating, attacking or evading.

The limitation and the essential nature of the game basically causes this card to most often trigger during defensive tests during treachery draws and thus, the card is drastically more likely to trigger if your ability to pass tests is good to begin with. This, most common, way to get True Understanding to trigger means that you need to be located where clues are when you attempt the test, this by itself can be tough.

Another consideration when evaluating this card: 1 Clue might not actually be useful to you to begin with, Rex Murphy, Mystics and Seekers with Archaic Glyphs tend to pick clues up in bulks of 2 so the single clue wont always be useful to begin with. Thus it's better to use this card in a deck where picking up clues singly is a common occurrence (For example when Daisy Walker or Norman Withers are around).

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Now the flip-side. True Understanding might at this point seem like it needs a pile of things to compile to be worth taking, but when they do the incredibly strong result is most definitely worth the wait, a free, action-less, resource-less, clue tacked onto a successful treachery test or something more scenario unique. You can always try to plan for using True Understanding by ending rounds on clue locations (like many characters do for Evidence! or Scene of the Crime) or by bringing the test to the location via common treacheries like Frozen in Fear.

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TL:Dr. Hard to trigger, extremely useful when it does.

It's hard to see what makes this card cool, so lets highlight a few cool things about this card.

• Unlike other effects that don't fully affect elites this card still helps against them, that can be a huge plus since even just evading a big foe (such as The Masked Hunter can be game-saving.
• Shuffling stuff back into the encounter deck is usually good, shuffling stuff into the encounter deck means that you get to draw them again! A variety of humanoid enemies are WAY nicer to draw then most alternatives in their deck, Acolyte for example.
• You can target aloof enemies since this card doesn't require engagement, this also means you can target stuff engaged with your friends.

Finally, if you are familiar with the campaigns, your current campaign choice will impact the effectiveness of this card. The following phrases will spoil the humanoid amounts in the campaigns so stop reading at this point if you want to avoid that spoiler:

Core set this thing will be helpful in every scenario. Ghouls are Humanoids.

In Dunwick its very bad, useful mostly in the club, there will be targets here and there but in 4 out of 8 scenarios playing this will be hard or impossible.

It's very good in Carcosa, all of the scenarios have humanoid enemies (often in large numbers) or guaranteed valid targets.

Forgotten age isn't over yet but out of 4 scenarios every scenario has been chock-full of humanoids. Considering the particulars of the enemies in the Deluxe pack there won't be a single Forgotten age scenario without a Humanoid target (Snake people are humanoids!).

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Finally, this is a parley action, thus Fine Clothes will go a long way to make these tests outright easy, although perhaps if you're playing Norman Withers or Daisy Walker you wont really have any trouble anyway. Still worth considering, especially in Carcosa.

• Removing up to 3 chaos tokens is very strong when paired with The Chthonian Stone.
  • For example you could remove , and the worst modifier, like -4 on standard. Except for , this guarantees success of your test.
• This card gets better in multiplayer, as everyone benefits but costs do not increase.
• Increases the chance of all other tokens, like and .
• Playing this card comes at a high cost however, occupying 1-2 arcane slots and draining 1-2 ressources each turn. Most mystics shouldn't play this, as they need both slots and many ressources for their spells. Characters who can be built around this:
  • Daisy Walker: If she's focused on seeker cards, she does not need her arcane slots. Can use ressources from Dr. Milan Christopher to mitigate costs.
  • Sefina Rousseau: Similar to daisy, focusing her deck on rogue cards keeps her arcane slots free and gives her access to economy cards like Hot Streak 2, Lone Wolf and "Watch this!". Alternatively, if she plays only one Protective Incantation she can use the other arcane slot for either or . If necessary she can use rogue cards to fill the other roll (Lockpicks or Lupara are strong optoins)
  • Carolyn Fern: Her deck options and economy ability easily qualify for this card. Including Peter Sylvestre and Forbidden Knowledge is very useful to trigger her ability.
  • Jim Culver: As primary mystic, playing two of these should be avoided. But his flex slots and balanced stat line allow him some tricks, like including economy cards from rogue and non-mysthic weapons, like Machete. So he could use his arcane slot for Rite of Seeking and one hand for . Or Shrivelling for and Magnifying Glass + mysthic boosts for investigation (St. Hubert's Key and Alyssa Graham).
  • Lola Hayes: Her flexible deck options easily qualify, but her bigger deck makes it hard to draw even one. Avoid other spells, so you never need to switch to mystic after playing these.

Now that Marksmanship is out, my group did a theoretical calculation of max damage possible in 1 attack, particually to kill this guy in one attack. The following assumes a party of 4 players and using Extra Ammunition, Venturer and Contraband to pump ammo into Shotgun equal to or higher than the amount of chaos tokens.

Thanks Caius and Jd90 for your tips

• 1 base damage
• 1 Lita Chantler
• 1 Zoey Samaras's , so zoey is the one shooting
• 2 from 2x Marksmanship (fast cards can only be played on your turn, so 8x is not possible)
• 4 from 4x Hatchet Man (comited by Zoey Samaras, Leo Anderson)
• 5 Shotgun
• 10 from 5x Vicious Blow 2, assuming all 4 characters have it (other players can only commit 1 card)
• Double or Nothing
• "Eat lead!" to guarantee

Sum: 48 Total Damage!