Top 10 Spells That Would Shame Harry Potter

Let’s start this week by immediately alienating myself towards a lot of players by stating that Mystic is my least favorite class. This is not to say that I don’t enjoy Mystics, because I do (from time to time), but my heart belongs to the Rogues. Willpower is my least favorite stat and I’d rather run away from my problems than face them head on. I love money, people describe me as opportunistic and green is my favorite color. These are all different ways of saying that I mostly dislike Mystics, because their dominant skill is willpower. What I do like are traits. I think traits give a lot of flavor and effect to a card. So, this week I thought it might be fun to combine a thing that I like a lot with a thing that I like less. Mystics and their most common trait: Spell-cards.

Luckily for me, all classes have access to Spells. They come in all different shapes and sizes. But they all have one thing in common: they tap into the cerebral, arcane sight of Lovecraftian Horror. If not anything, they provide flexibility and versatility. Offering a wide range of effects, Spells can do just about anything. Do you want money? There is a Spell for that. Do you want to teleport across the board? There is a Spell for that. Just want to set enemies on fire? Sure. But which of all the available Spells are considered the best? A true magician always has a trick up its sleeve, but a sleeve can hold so many tricks, choosing which ones to take with you is crucial. After going through all 108 currently available Spells, let’s take a closer look at the most amazing magical abilities in this week’s list: Top Ten Spells That Would Shame Harry Potter.

Honorable Mention 1: Banish 

Banish is a pretty nifty card. In true mystic-style, this Spell allows you to choose your willpower instead of a different skill. Evading, as we all know, relies on your agility, but Banish begs to differ. Evading a crucial enemy at the right time can mean the difference between life and death. So, what is even better than just evading said enemy? If you could blink it away. Banish let’s you zap away the enemy as if it was nobody’s business. It could be any location, not just revealed. Also in true mystic-style, drawing specific chaos tokens during the step makes the card better/worse. This makes Banish even better. Not only can you blink away the evaded enemy to any location, it also might not ready in the next upkeep phase, based on the revealed token. Shame it only targets non-Elite enemies.

Honorable Mention 2: Spectral Razor, Read the Signs, Ethereal Form

Ah, the “Add willpower to your skill test”-event suite. It’s a working title. These three cards are just great. Not only do they amplify a basic ability by giving you additional bonuses, but they also let you add your willpower to the matching skill. Normally you’d replace your skill with willpower, but these 3 just don’t work that way. There are a lot of similar things that these cards have going on. They all come from The Dream-Eaters, they all cost 2, they all add willpower, etc. Spectral Razor is great for engaging an enemy from your fellow investigators and dealing 3 damage. Any form of non-1 odd damage cards are always great. Read the Signs lets you gain 2 clues and ignore any harmful effects (i.e.: Haunted effects). And Ethereal Form even turns you “ethereal”, which is such a great and useful effect in solo play! It’s just a shame that I don’t like Spells that let you fight, evade or investigate, but better, or these 3 would’ve surely made the actual list.

Number 10: Counterspell

Counterspell might not be the most flashy Spell out there, but I’ll be damned if this card doesn’t add a great number of positive effects! Counterspell allows you to cancel specific chaos tokens on any test at your location. Which is amazing. Elder Thing-tokens can really screw over a player with their additional effect. Cultist-tokens usually force you to draw additional tokens. While Skull-tokens can reach insanely high negative modifiers. Counterspell nopes all of these effects. It even allows you to block the negative effects of cards like Shrivelling. If only this card would allow you to cancel Auto Fail-tokens.

For some reason I also really love the Blessed trait here. All the Blessed cards before The Innsmouth Conspiracy feel very distinct, without needing the obvious bless tokens. Just a quick shoutout to one of my favorite traits.

Number 9: Archaic Glyphs: Markings of Isis

I just love how the level 0 version of Archaic Glyphs transforms from a Occult Tome in your hand-slot to this Spell. In my opinion the Markings of Isis-version is the most unique Archaic Glyphs and thus deserves to be here the most. The Markings of Isis allow you to perform an investigation with a great additional effect. If you succeed by a high enough value, you can put an asset into play for free (based on your modified skill value). So, not only are you getting a clue, you are also getting a free play action with a (potentially huge) discount. Seekers can be stingy on resources, while heavily relying on their assets. The Markings of Isis helps you out with all of these things, all while creating huge tempo! Definitely one of the more unique seeker cards in the game!

Number 8: Blood Eclipse (3)

I know that I stated earlier that I don’t like Spells that allow you to just fight better, but darn it, Blood Eclipse (3) is just great! Creating a physical blade out of your own blood is such a great thematic hit! Guardians usually have ways to negate or otherwise deal with damage they receive. They can either heal it away or direct it to their (expendable) allies. Not only that, but Blood Eclipse (3) is also a Spell, so it gives guardians another way to deal with those annoying Geist–enemies. Even Carolyn, who usually can’t carry a lot of weapons, gets a strong damage card. Or what about || Agnes? She can take 4 damage to pay for this card’s cost and deal a whopping 5 damage for the cost of 0 resources. Sure, it might kill her in the process, but such is life if you’re a blood witch.

Number 7: Sixth Sense (4)

Oh boy, if Sixth Sense (4) isn’t broken, then I don’t know what is. What can I say about this card that convinces you that this card deserves to be here. In true Mystic-style, you use your willpower for an investigation. Not only that, but Sixth Sense even adds 2 to that value. If you draw one of the specified chaos tokens, this card just goes insane. You can investigate in 2 locations and you can even decide what shroud value to use. Mystics have a lot of ways to force out these tokens or make use of this. It might not be a consistent way of getting 2 clues, but that doesn’t matter. This card makes you a seeker. Most mystics can perform investigative actions with a base value of 6 or even 7 now, and that is without any assets they might have or events that force out tokens. This card is a staple in mystics who focus on discovering clues and the reasons why are obvious!

Number 6: Mystifying Song

I didn’t know if I wanted to add Mystifying Song on this list. It is not a card that any investigator can include in their deck, but instead it is Marie Lambeau’s signature card. But, it is just too powerful to not include. This card is truly powerful for the same reason that we all hate Ancient Evils. Mystifying Song ignores the reaching of the doom threshold for a whole phase. That might not seem like much, but in reality it gives you a whole round extra. Now, I don’t know about you, but most of my games end in nail biting climaxes. Usually an extra gained or lost round can make the difference between a positive or negative resolution of a scenario. It might even make the difference of 2 or 3 victory points (and please don’t take away my victory points)! If that all doesn’t convince you, look at it this way: ignoring doom for a whole round gives you 12 extra actions with 4 players. 12! That is absolutely bonkers! It’s even fast, costless and usable every scenario, unlike other doom-cancelling cards. Truly bonkers!

Number 5: The Eye of Truth

This card is so useful, which makes sense, it being a 5xp skill card. But hot diggity, The Eye of Truth does not mess around. Not only are you helping all your fellow investigators by giving them a bonus of 4 to a skill test value when drawing a specific encounter card, but you are also permanently removing it from the game! Are the Crypt Chills hurting your rogues? No problem, The Eye of Truth will guide them! Entombed locking your guardians up? The Eye of Truth reveals the answer. With all that, one might see it’s quite good, but what even is more spectacular: The Eye of Truth is Practiced-traited, which means that Practice Makes Perfect can pull it out for you, in case it is buried deep!

Number 4: Seal of the Seventh Sign

It seals the Auto-Fail.

Okay, it might not be that useful in 4 player games, but when playing with 2 investigators or even solo play, this card can carry your whole game. Not to mention that this card could never run out of charges if you were to run specific cards. Sure, it might not be all-powerful always, but to me, it’s such an amazing card that it is almost an auto-include in my groups if we have one of us running a mystic.

Number 3: Deny Existence (5)

Let’s be real, Deny Existence (0) is already pretty great. Allowing you to negate almost all the negative effects the game might throw at you. Lose cards that you carefully saved? Nope. Lose actions that you desperately need? Nah. Take horror or damage that could defeat you? How about no. Then there is Deny Existence (5). Worthy of its Paradox-trait, this card lets you not only cancel negative effects, but then also makes you gain the opposite positive effect! In-sane. Imagine being on 3 sanity and then auto-failing a Rotting Remains. Oof. But then here is Deny Existence (5) which not only saves you from going insane, but actually calms your resolve to the point of almost topping off your sanity. And that is just with horror and sanity. Imagine not losing, but drawing 4 cards. It is rare for me to not take 2 Arcane Researches in my deck and then quickly upgrade my Deny Existences from level 0 tot 5. Sure, it might be boring, but it is really, really helpful!

Number 2: Alter Fate (3)

This might be a very biased and subjective inclusion, but then again, it is my top 10 list so that is to be expected. I just love Alter Fate (3). Not only for its Blessed-trait, but for everything this card can do. It’s like an “Undo”-button on failing certain encounter cards. It allows you to discard an encounter card from the game. A rogue might be stuck with its Frozen in Fear. You might be exploring the dreamlands, only to find Wondrous Lands. Or even a Locked Door that just won’t unlock no matter how hard you hit it! Alter Fate (3) quickly gets rid of it. That’s an extra plus: quickly. Alter Fate (3) is fast and only costs 1. Making it so that you can almost always play it. There are almost no scenarios where Alter Fate (3) can’t find a target, thus making it a staple in almost all of my survivor decks.

Number 1: Ward of Protection (2)

Ward of Protection (2) is just amazing. Words can’t describe my love for this card. It’s fast and costs 1 resource, meaning you can always play it. It works on other investigators, so it could save someone from losing a key asset or even death. I just gushed about Alter Fate (3) being the undo-button, but Ward of Protection (2) is that on steroids. What Alter Fate (3) can’t stop, Ward of Protection (2) will. Ancient Evils, Straitjackets or even the highly annoying Deep One Invasion. Everything is possible with Ward of Protection (2). The best part is that it costs 2xp, meaning that a lot of subclass Mystics can also take this card! Every mystic should run this card whenever possible, that is how strong this effect can be!

So.

Did you not like the position of the Alter Fate (3)? Where are the Azure Flames? Are you sad that I didn’t include other specific Spells? Probably yes, that’s cool. Let me know which inclusion I missed and why? Which Spell is your personal favorite? Which Spell is here that shouldn’t be here?

Hopefully we will all be back for next week’s list!

PS: This list is based on the current releases and will not be updated to include future Spells. The most recent releases are “A Light In The Fog” and “Parallel Agnes Baker”.

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