This is one of the worst designed enemies in the entire game: it's either a nothing burger or impossible to deal with depeding on how late it spawns in the scenario. It also punishes smaller groups harder than bigger ones because it's far more likely for the same Investigator to be carrying a bunch of guest on themeselves.

Normally, enemies that get buffed stats have an upper limit to how strong they can get defined by the game. The Shantak doesn't: it can get a total of 14 Fight and Evade if you have gotten all guests in the location, which is such insanely huge value it's nearly impossible to overcome in a test in normal circumstances, and it's only an uphill battle if you are playing on a higher difficulty. At that point, you can only use testless evasion and damage to take it down, and even then 4 health makes it bulky enough that it will persist for quite a bit too.

Just really shows how quickly Midwinter Gala got shat out.

This card is extremely strong with cards like Eye of the Dreamer or Breath of the Sleeper . When you have Spirit-Speaker and one of those spell cards in your starting hand, you can have 10 ressources (5 ressources net) after two actions. 10 Ressources - 5 Ressources - 2 Actions - 2 Cards = 1 still doesn't sound worth it. Well Spirit-Breaker isn't lost so it will shine when you use it again, no matter if for ressources of for returning an asset.

A lot of other cards transform into optional emergency caches or better, only needing the action when you have to play them first.

There are some cards (especially Rogue cards) that do better, but they are just an instant gain while Spirit-Speaker can be used whenever you need ressources AND it still has another use which some players have as primary use (returning an asset to your hand, especially high XP cards).

Quite often there are those spells you only use situational, like evade spells. When you feel you are better equipped to kill an enemy than to evade it, you can transfer the rest of the charges into ressources, so you have effectively cleared a slot.

Limited charges, limited resources, and limited actions are the challenges that most Mystics need to overcome to be succesful, and this card addresses all of them. Although it can pay for events, I think it is safe to say that this card really shines in asset-based Mystics decks.

Early on, this card defaults to its 0 level version. The added versatility of recursion/reload in the late game is absolutely worth the 3 experience points. I've enjoyed this aspect of it in flex Dexter Drake decks with many diferent type of spells. "Uncage" allows you to get more uses of your spells, adapt on the fly, and freely use his ability to keep cycling your assets.

10xp and using the same slot as your Lucky Cigarette Case is a massive opportunity cost. So what do you get for it?

At the start of the turn, you MAY take all resources, then place one charge. That means you always have access to the 1 charge effect. +4 skill value to the first test you take during your turn is absolutely massive. It boosts tests in your primary stat(s) to nearly auto-succeed levels, and it also boosts tests in your low stats to "has a decent chance to succeed even without commits." The first test you take on your turn is likely to be the most impactful: fighting or evading an enemy. If it's not going to be one of those, you can probably sequence your turn to delay the non-impactful test(s) until later in the turn, such as playing your Pilfer now and doing your basic investigate later. And the flexibility of applying to any kind of test makes you a trump card that can apply to almost any kind of emergency situation that your team might find themselves in.

If you somehow don't take any tests on your turn...that skill bonus doesn't have a time limit on it. It'll float around and protect you from your encounter card, or be there on your next turn if the encounter deck doesn't give you a test.

Honestly, I think +1 resource per turn and +4 to your first skill test every turn is already enough to be worth the costs. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

If you find yourself not needing or wanting the bonus skill value on a given turn, you can go up to the 2 charge level. Even one free move is a nice consolation for not needing the skill boost, but this gives you up to three all at once. Go scout the map so people know where to focus their efforts, gather up a stray enemy or two so your fighter can smash it, teleport to another player or location to help out, there are a lot of options. And if you find yourself not needing the skill boost again on the turn after, you can use the 3 charge effect and just have an extra 2 actions. Nice!

Might be best in type , where they can use the skill bonus to be confident in their attacks or chip in some investigates when there's nothing to fight, or use the moves to fly to the aid of a friend. But it's still really good in any kind of deck.

I probably wouldn't rush this as an early campaign purchase; it is just a single card that could be on the bottom of your deck, so it won't fix an otherwise nonfunctional deck. Use your first couple upgrades to lock in the core functions of your deck. In a Legacy cardpool, you can buy this in installments by starting with The Red Clock. That one is not nearly as good, because of the key difference in the Forced ability (take charges OR place charges, not both). So it can give you the skill bonus at most every other round. Still can be effective if you're working towards the level 5 version anyway.

What if I play Psychology Student and have another copy of PS in my hand, will PS heal 4 horrors in total? And then, if I have PS in play and I play another PS from my hand, will it again heal 4 horrors?