With the release of the Nathaniel Cho deck, guardians now have an incredible array of resource generation in-faction at level 0. In the past, I would slot two Emergency Cache into practically every guardian deck I made, but these days that feels greedy. I say greedy because cards like this one give your team more resources, even though you get slightly less (I mean, mathematically you get 33% less resources while generating 33% more resources total). Similarly, Clean Them Out gives you one less resource, but eliminates a threat for your team. Relentless pays you for overkilling enemies, which doesn't really fit into the "less greedy" theme I'm trying to point out here, but it is another in-faction resource generation card introduced by Nathaniel Cho.

My point is that it feels like guardians have better options than E.Cache these days. Though you can rarely do better than "1 action and card: 3 resources," you can often do something else in addition, which could prove more useful than just gaining an extra buck.

Not going to lie, an arcane slot card was the last thing I expected from Nate Cho's deck. That being said, this is a strange card that probably has a better place in non-guardian decks, like maybe Akachi.

My problem with Flesh Ward is that for the same amount of resources, I could have just played Something Worth Fighting For which can not only soak horror in a big chunk, but can also do it for my allies and can soak it from Rotting Remains. Basically the floor on Flesh Ward is me taking a single whack of 3 horror from a non-attack, and either dying from it or assigning one of the horror to flesh ward, killing it without spending any charges.

On the other hand, the ceiling of it feels really unrealistic: I have to take four attacks from monsters that only deal one damage of one type, spread over four turns, and then I can take one of each from anything and kill Flesh Ward, mitigating a total of six damage/horror, which is pretty sick, but not at all realistic.

I think there's probably a use case for Flesh Ward as the thing to keep your sanity up while fighting monsters that do one damage AND one horror with their attacks, which there are plenty of in the game. You'll soak some attacks, and by the time Flesh Ward runs out your sanity and health are about even. Maybe you'll get lucky and completely cancel some attacks, and sometimes you'll eat two or more damage or horror and still get hit, but for 50% or 66% of normal, which is strong damage reduction.

The bottom line here is that if you can afford the investment and the time, Flesh Ward will outperform True Grit/Something Worth Fighting For. However, resources and time are in short supply in Arkham, and unless I'm playing Tommy I generally can't find the space for True Grit/Something Worth Fighting For, making me think the same will be true for Flesh Ward, except that because of how it works even Tommy doesn't want it. Maybe it is strong enough to justify its cost for someone like Roland, but I can't tell just from looking at it. I'm sure someone who can manipulate the cancel or the charges would like it a lot, but it looks pretty underwhelming for everyone else.

Update: played the basic Nathaniel deck and got this down very early. Initially, after taking a 2 horror treachery straight to the face, I was like, "I knew it!" But having it for basically the whole scenario did end up saving me 6 health/sanity. I think I end up liking it slightly more than SWFF or TG, but it is a bit selfish.

The decision to increase this to a 2xp card was a very good one, because it was just too strong At level 0, making all other level 0 weapons poor contenders when the Machete is available. Looking back to before the taboo, the existence of Machete was very frustrating, because it discouraged trying out other weapons. Also, it permanently takes up a hand slot, making it harder to use other tools (like magnifying glass for Roland, etc) and 2-handed weapons.

So how does it stand as a 2 xp weapon? It’s still good, and now fills a nice niche instead of just limiting deckbuilding choices. At the time of this review, your choices at level 2 Guardian include Machete, Survival Knife, .32 Colt, Blackjack and .45 Automatic. Each has its own merits, and among these the Machete is still a top choice for investigators with high combat.

A fairly hefty price tag for a typical survivor deck (and Stella Clark out of the box doesn't have a strong economy engine), but Orne is a solid buy, especially for Miss Clark, whose "fail and go again" strategy benefits from controlling degrees of failure. While Granny's +1 helps you pass many Treachery tests, her ability reduces the effects of Rotting Remains, Grasping Hands, and so on and lets you you pick your poison on cards like Abyssal Reach. More positively, she also helps you trigger Grimm's Fairy Tales, Oops!, Dumb Luck, and "Look what I found!", etc. She's not as useful a Horror soak as Peter Sylvestre, but 3 Sanity is nothing to sneeze at. Granny Orne might find a home in a number of Survivor decks, and her upgrade is even better.

Disclaimer: I haven't gotten to play Harvey yet, so the following is speculative theory.

I am personally VERY skeptical about Harvey's value for biggest-hand seeker. Having 9 or more cards in hand when he draws his signature weakness will hurt a LOT, and if you go all in on draw, you will likely hit it a couple times. Many of his starting cards and upgrades suggest you should be aiming for a 11+, 12+, or even 15+ card hand, and I think they're an absolute trap for him. There are certainly tricks around it, such as using Mr. "Rook" to bait it out when you have 8 or fewer cards, but in general, I believe he has much better and less dangerous uses for his abilities if you still want to lean into his abilities as an unstoppable draw engine. Here I suggest three options:

Farseer Harvey (hand size 6-8) The biggest hand Harvey that I recommend should aim for the sweet spot of hovering around 6-8 cards, for the spicy Seeker ritual, Farsight. There are many general events that you can happily toss out one or two a turn as free actions that you might not be running in another seeker deck because they don't 'give enough value on their own' for their deck slot. Harvey's 5 means that he can get by on raw investigation tests throughout the scenario, and cheep investigate action events such as Burning the Midnight Oil or Seeking Answers, where most of the 'cost' is the action they take, become the workhorse pieces. Economy from Emergency Cache or Cryptic Writings (even if you draw it out of turn) are easy to slip in. Conditional emergency cards such as Occult Invocation, "I've got a plan!", or Logical Reasoning can comfortably sit in your hand until they're needed. Even Guidance seems pretty sweet when you don't have to pay an action for it. Generally you should expect to draw 3 cards per round (1 in the upkeep and 2 in the investigation phase, ideally from triggering Vault of Knowledge and your ability, so you can get it as an incidental to investigating and just keep trucking. An ideal turn looks like - draw to 8 with upkeep, during your turn, Farsight at the start, investigate to draw back and then use the other Farsight. You can be less paranoid once you've passed Thrice-Damned Curiosity, and there is still a lot of flexibility.

Support Harvey (hand size 4-5) Like Minh, both Harvey's ability and his signature can be used on your allies. Unlike Minh, Harvey doesn't actually need that much help himself. With just a Magnifying Glass, or any other bonus, he can gleefully investigate away, succeeding on -3 for Shroud 3 locations. Old Book of Lore is another fantastic support card that also synergizes with his ability and can pair nicely with the grossly overqualified intern or the derby-rocking badass or both! Crack the Case or Charles Ross, Esq. can help them pay for all the cards you give them. You'll be fairly self sufficient, and really give your team-mates some serious boosts (especially with the insane value compression of New Book of Lore all while hovering around an irrelevant but middling number of cards. Keep some options, but only take 1 damage at some point. Whatever.

Harvey Goes Brrr (hand size 0-3) Okay, this one may not be the best. It's almost certainly not. But it's definitely my favorite. Just lean all into the gas. CHURN through your deck. Almost every card in the deck should draw cards and/or is fast so you can tear through again and again, playing cards as quickly as you draw them. The engine itself is Abigail Foreman holding an Old Book of Lore. Yeah, you're spending an action each turn to use the book (except when you don't), but that's giving you two searches, and your bonus. That's 3 cards, plus a Surprising Find and/or Surprised Rabbi you stumble across in your reading. Add that to the card you're drawing in upkeep and another expected off of Vault of Knowledge - because you should be investigating once or twice every turn with this deck. The Cryptic Writings play themselves, and other assets will just jump out of your hands. Between spin-cycling your deck and Practice Makes Perfect, the Deductions will easily make back your actions spent reading. Any build-up of accidentally drawn can be easily vented by pitching to your own or allies' investigation actions, or burned into your foes. Best of all, Thrice-Damned Curiosity will become literally the softest weakness in the game - often dealing 0 damage and discarding itself!