For everyone's benefit, here is a list of the cards that most obviously synergies with Lucid Dreaming (as of Dream Eaters). Please mention any that I miss out in the comments:

Signature Cards:

• The Painted World
• Improvisation
• Tony's .38 Long Colt

Stack-able Hand Assets:

• Magnifying Glass (and its upgrade)
• Book of Shadows (and its alternative)
• Ritual Candles
• Spirit Athame
• Survival Knife??? (Can you trigger two copies of Survival Knife on the same attack?)
• Sign Magick
• Hawk-Eye Folding Camera

Disposable/Temporary Assets With Persistent Effects:

• Beat Cop (and its upgrade)
• Police Badge
• Baseball Bat
• Knife
• Brother Xavier
• The Red-Gloved Man
• Gravedigger's Shovel (and its upgrade)
• Lantern (and its upgrade)
• Key of Ys (when not playing with the Taboo List)
• Tennessee Sour Mash (and its upgrades, both of them)

Most of the Myriad Cards:

• Segment of Onyx
• Easy Mark
• Open Gate
• Fortuitous Discovery

Cards That Synergies With Themselves:

• Hot Streak (2) (not so for Hot Streak (4))
• Contraband (and its upgrade)
• Expose Weakness (1) (not so for Expose Weakness (3))
• Vantage Point
• Fence

And that should about be it. Of course Lucid Dreaming has additional functionality outside of these cards; drawing the second copy of your 5xp sink or your assets with limited uses is always a good thing. And of course, not all of the cards presented are particularly powerful with Lucid Dreaming (e.g. Knife); this list it just a time saver for everyone who wants to know where Lucid Dreaming goes above and beyond a card draw.

This is very probably the best player card in the Dream Eaters deluxe box. That probably doesn't sound like much since a lot of the cards in this deluxe are kind of narrow and wonky, but this, alongside Pendant of the Queen, really make Dream Eaters, in my opinion, a go to box for anyone who loves the Seeker class. Let's talk about why it's so good, what cards it has synergy with, and who should take it. I apologize ahead of time for all of the math.

First off, why I love this card so much. Let's get past the major downside first: If you draw one of these, it's literally just an for committing to a test. There's nothing else you can do with this card except as a sacrifice to discard effects. So then you might ask what's the chance that I open with one of these in my hand? That will depend entirely on your mulligan strategy.

If you only mulligan away Astounding Revelation (in a standard 33 card deck) and nothing else:

• Chance you open with no copies: 96.9%
• With 1 copy: 3.1%
• With 2 or 3 copies: 0%

This is because if you happen to get no copies in that opening hand, you mulligan nothing, staying at 0; if you get all 3, simply mulligan all 3; if you get 1, mulligan that 1 and there's a 7.41% chance you draw one of the other two; if you get 2, mulligan those 2 and there's also a 7.41% chance you draw the other one. This is the best strategy to mitigate opening with Astounding Revelation in your hand. It's not necessarily your ideal mulliganing strategy concerning other cards you may want to open with, but I wanted to first illustrate how low you can possibly make these odds.

The other concern aside from opening is obviously drawing it midgame, so ideally your deck maximizes searches and minimizes draw. Let's assume for right now you can search roughly 3 cards a turn, meaning you draw 1 card for every 3 you search. Starting with 28 cards to search through on the first turn, you've roughly a 29.8% chance of seeing at least one copy (if you elect to throw all three into your deck). Let's assume for now you miss it in the search but draw a card from it, and then you draw a card at the end of your turn (from a deck of now 27 cards). There is a 11.1% chance you draw one of these. Let's assume you don't draw it and draw something else instead. This next turn if you search 3 there is now a 32% chance you find one of these in the search, and then a 12% chance you draw one (in a deck of 25) if you don't find it in that search. You get the picture- you're at any point in the game about three times more likely to find it in a search than you are to draw it. If you use a really deep search on the other hand, like Mr. "Rook", on the opening turn you'd see at least one of these 70.4% of the time. You can use Research Librarian to search your entire deck and guarantee getting a copy of this out, which if you do on the opening turn and you also grab a book will reduce your draw chance to 7.69%. You get the point I'm making: if you include a few really solid deep searches in your deck (like Rook's repeatable 9 per turn or Research Librarian's entire deck search), you can very quickly reduce your chances of drawing this card while still very consistently hitting copies of it. The deeper your searches, the better your ratio will be of finding these in a search to drawing them. All in all you can see that I feel the risks on this card are relatively tame, especially since at worst an for an important investigate test is not terrible.

Enough about the risks, let's get to the exciting parts of this card. Firstly, if you run enough search in your deck, this card will thin your deck for you. As long as you hit all of your copies through searches, you've thinned your deck by 3 cards. That means you have a much higher chance through searches, and later on through draws (once you've taken most or all of them out), of getting your best cards when you need them. You will, on average, get them sooner and more often. There is no doubt the belief among many that a thinner deck in Arkham Horror: The Card Game is not as valuable as articles from Magic: The Gathering and the mechanics of other card games would have us believe. The fact remains however that you have a much better chance of drawing the exact cards you need when you need them the less extraneous cards there are. We'll get to some specific cards and investigators who can really benefit from a thinner deck, but for now understand that this is almost universally a plus in card games, and I don't think Arkham Horror is an exception.

Secondly, it's an amazing economy card. Emergency Cache costs 0 resources, but it costs you a card (in its place you could've drawn any other card) and an action to play. This gets you 2 resources at no action and no card cost. That's insane. Even Crack the Case still costs a card and at most usually gets you 4 resources. Sure, you have to activate a search to get it going, so arguably you're mostly refunding the cost of your deck searches for the first pull, but that's still great. I'd happily play Mr. "Rook" for 1 resource, or Research Librarian for no resources. What's more, it can instead net you a secret to put on a card. We'll look at some cards that use secrets in the following section.

Here are some cards that work well with Astounding Revelation:

• Mr. "Rook". Not only does he search 9 up to three times for you, he can also have his life extended per copy played (since he uses 1 secret per search). You could elect to take resources and play a second one of him (refunded for the cost of both in the process), or you could choose instead to forgo drawing another Rook with one of your searches and forgo the action needed to play another copy of him, instead taking 3 more searches with the Rook you started with.
• Research Librarian. You will be guaranteed to trigger Astounding Revelation to help pay for that Occult Lexicon or Old Book of Lore.
• Archaic Glyphs. You can either feed the Astounding Revelations you do draw into this thing because of their icon, or you could find one in a search and just skip the secret placing action entirely.
• Pnakotic Manuscripts. A secret on this thing is incredibly valuable, especially on higher difficulties. Now you can test up to 6 times without pulling any tokens with one copy. That's crazy good value.
• Either upgrade of Ancient Stone. Not as nice of an interaction as some others, but testless damage and horror healing are definitely not nothing. Search cards work well with these already.
• Arcane Initiate. Grab spells, then pay for them.
• Calling in Favors, Dr. Elli Horowitz, Flare, Prepared for the Worst, Smuggled Goods. These are all one shot searches of 9. Again, that's around 70% on a turn 1 search with all 3 copies still lying in your deck. Note that Finn's signature card can be used more than once if you find it again.
• Stick to the Plan. This one is really exciting. Already this is a card that heavily increases deck consistency by tutoring 3 useful but usually timing dependent cards. Now you've essentially Another Day, Another Dollar'd yourself into two extra starting resources, and you've thinned your deck by 1 more card.
• Segment of Onyx. Yes, the other myriad Seeker card this cycle. A thinner deck means you can break and reassemble the Pendant of the Queen even faster, as you're shuffling the segments into a smaller deck. The more testless clues, the better. (EDIT: Can only assemble this once a game now, but that's okay! Still good to find them and just have the Pendant ready for when you need it.)

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I do not think it's helpful to list out every card with "secret" or "search" in its text. Obviously any cards that help you search that you would have run without Astounding Revelation, like Eureka! or No Stone Unturned, become just that much better if they accidentally net you 2 resources in the process.

Finally, let's look at some investigators who really love this card:

• Mandy Thompson. Alright, maybe a bit of an obvious pick, but it's an important one. She searches even deeper than anyone else, so her odds are strictly better than everyone else's. (EDIT: A bit trickier now with 50 card Mandy, but come on, you're gonna be searching anyway right?) * Roland Banks. Roland loves this card so much. This with Stick to the Plan gives him one of the strongest openings any Guardian could ask for.
• Carolyn Fern. Slightly more limited Seeker access, but Mr. "Rook" + this card could be a great way to get the rest of your healing engine going.
• Daisy Walker. Really most Seekers can benefit from this card, but I'll single out Daisy as she's likely to want Research Librarian and Old Book of Lore. I'll quickly mention that really only Minh Thi Phan, who runs cheaply and tends to favor lots of card draw, is probably the one Seeker who really does not want this card.

These picks are more left field, but could be cool for the right brew:

• Marie Lambeau. She likes Arcane Initiate and Calling in Favors, so the only big downside for her is the slots it will take up. However, this may be well worth it, as not only will Revelations help pay for all those allies and spells Marie likes to run, but the might actually be put to good use in the worst case, especially if you take Archaic Glyphs.
• Finn Edwards. Like Marie, Finn's slots are limited, so 3 of these is a big ask. Finn after all still wants Track Shoes. If you find a way to reliably dart between Mr. "Rook" and Leo De Luca or Lola Santiago via Calling in Favors, this could lead to some interesting shenanigans. Smuggled Goods works well with this.
• Jenny Barnes. Big money Jenny decks may want these both for deck thinning and for quick resources. Often Jenny runs Mr. "Rook" anyway, so these are a solid choice for her other 3 slots.

I hope I've thoroughly covered what I think are the reasons you should seriously look at this card. I only caution that you use it in a deck that doesn't try to draw too many cards. Perception for example hurts this card. Don't be afraid of Astounding Revelation: take all 3 copies and see how it works for you!

I just wanted to underline an aspect of Mandy Thompson's ability that can easily be overlooked:

What Mandy's ability does is that, once per round, when an investigator at her location searches their deck (or the encounter deck), they can either search for 1 additional card or search 3 cards deeper. The obvious thing here is that Mandy can support other investigators with her ability using her cards for them, but what can easily be missed is that other investigators can activate Mandy's ability using THEIR OWN cards. That can create some interesting interactions between some cards and Mandy's ability and certain cards can become more powerful. This can lead to the creation of some strong builds that work around Mandy's ability and specific cards, which is really interesting.

I'd like to go through a list of cards that when used by other investigators they (usually) become better if Mandy Thompson's ability gets in the mix:

Anna Kaslow: While Anna Kaslow is really bad for Mandy, as putting her into play at the beginning of the game makes it guarranteed that she will hit her weakness, it's rather beneficial for other investigators to have her in their deck, as with Mandy's ability it's pretty much guarranteed that they will hit 2 tarot cards with her. That's pretty strong.

Prepared for the Worst: This card becomes a lot more reliable when combined with Mandy's ability. Going 12 cards deep increases your chances to find a weapon substantially and it can be huge to certain builds, specifically ones that are built around certain weapons (Becky and Flamethrower comes to mind). The option to get 2 weapons is also nice.

Arcane Initiate: Searching 6 cards for a spell makes it far more likely to hit a spell and on spell-heavy decks the option to dig for 2 spells can also be good.

Backpack: This card is perfectly usable by Mandy as well, but the ability for another investigator to go 9 cards deep with it can be huge, making it far more consistent and increasing substantially the chances to get a specific item that they 've built around (like Crystallizer of Dreams or The Skeleton Key).

Calling in Favors: While the interaction between Mandy's ability and this card is very powerful, Mandy herself doesn't quite have the suitable array of allies to put it into good use (I don't mean it's bad, it's just not great). Another investigator however can make great use of this. Putting into play 2 allies from your deck at reduced cost can be huge in certain cases. Just imagine someone like Tommy Muldoon or Leo Anderson using Calling in Favors on something like Brother Xavier and putting into play an Agency Backup and a second Brother Xavier at the cost of 1 action and 3 resources! That's outright broken!

Flare: That's one of the most powerful interactions. Still usable by Mandy, but another investigator can use it as well. Put 2 allies into play from your deck. Enough said.

Rabbit's Foot (3): Becomes a lot better with Mandy's ability. Looking for a specific card? Go 3 cards deeper. Are you already digging deep? Get an additional card. Nice thing.

On the Hunt: Searching for 2 enemies with On the Hunt isn't really the thing you want to be doing unless you 're using Flamethrower, but the ability to go 12 cards deep allows you to dig for specific enemies. This can be useful if you 're looking for VP enemies or if you want certain enemies to get out of the way. Either way, it's an interesting interaction. Not powerful, just interesting.

Smuggled Goods: This was already good, but with Mandy's ability it becomes way better. Searching for 2 illicit cards makes this really nice for Finn Edwards. How about digging out from your deck those Lockpicks and Pickpocketing on turn 1 and still get to use this again later at some point during the scenario, possibly at the same power level? Simply awsome.

Stick to the Plan: This one is a little weird, but if it works it's actually really great. At every scenario, every investigator starts at the same location, so the one using Stick to the Plan can activate Mandy's ability when searching their deck and stick a 4th event under the permanent. If this actually works it's really nice! Understanding whether this works or not probably requires a thorough aknowledgement of the rules (which I don't really have) and/or some clarification from FFG. The reasonable question posed here is whether investigator abilities are active during setup. This question gets a little complicated if you take into account that most investigator abilities have a once-per-round designator. During setup the round hasn't even begun yet, so there could be an argument made that since the round hasn't begun yet they are not active. On the other hand, if investigator abilities are always active, this may mean that they are also active during setup. A rules expert might be able to put some light into this. Anyway, the thing is that, if this actually works, it's really awsome!

Concluding, I 'd like to state that there are cards that get benefit from Mandy's ability that miss they eye and some cards, as you can see, become a lot stronger with her, and when you have Mandy Thompson in your team you can create some builds that would otherwise be suboptimal or less good. Taking into account this stuff, I think Mandy Thompson has great potential and it's always nice to have her as a teammate. I personally love Mandy, as I believe that her ability is very strong. She's my favourite so far.

Now that the janky applications of this card have been officially ruled out (no, he won't let you solo a scenario without ever drawing an encounter card... and no, he won't make your deck weakness free...), it's time to take stock of what remains. So what does this fusty, jittery, bespectacled old bookworm have to offer?

In short, money. Cheddar. Thick wads of cash. Sacks of doubloons splitting at the seams. Once per turn, whenever you draw a card, you can instantly discard it for three resources. How good is that? Think of it this way: Armitage turns every card in your deck into an actionless Emergency Cache. Absorb the magnificence of that: you now have 30 lovely cards in your deck, doing all kinds of lovely things, which can ALSO be played as FAST Emergency Caches... Armitage is the King Midas of allies: whatever he touches turns to gold. Simply put, there is not a card in the game that can match the income-generation of this creaky old Croesus.

Of course, one hardly needs to spell out the uses of an enormous resource flow: every player has their own fantasies. Expensive assets, fodder for your Streetwise, the world's buffest Money Talks, whatever you like!

Oh, and just in case all that wasn't good enough: in a pinch, here's your third copy of Unexpected Courage.

Weird, but useful.

TL:DR, if tanking is your thing, this is now in your deck. Period.

Edit: By tanking in this review I mean the classical term used for roleplaying and videogames, a character who interposes himself between friends and danger and does everything he can to take on as much pressure and pain as he can handle, so that everybody else might do their jobs in peace.

Certain characters are really good at just, taking pain. That's what they do. They'll even do it intentionally for one reason or another. Obviously the characters I speak off are the + combinations Tommy Muldoon and William Yorick. Leo Anderson can do it too but he's not quite so good at it, those other guys don't care if their soaks die, Leo Anderson cares a lot!

Via beefy allies like Guard Dog, Madame Labranche and cheap soaks like Leather Coat and Cherished Keepsake these guys can take twice as much pain as anybody else and keep coming back for more. They can even leverage it into game advantages by taking on the pain for others, with cards like "Let me handle this!" or Heroic Rescue.

Solemn Vow is the new capstone card to this strategy. The key issue with the other cards is that they only apply when the cards are drawn and enemies attack, raw damage and horror however, those are easy as pie to find, and Solemn Vow makes it possible to just funnel all of that bad stuff onto the tanks and their soaks. You might even have a deck totally dedicated to the funneling and management of damage via soaks and healing, using First Aid and/or Painkillers to move the hurt around and make it go away on a choice soak or heal-able target.

It's fast, it's free, you can adjust the number of copies in case this strategy is important, it has 2 icons so the unused copies double as a defense mechanism for the tank himself.

So yes, Tanking, now a far more viable strategy than ever. Even if the "selfless tank" events we've got already didn't exist Solemn Vow single handedly grants viability to this whole strategy.